NADJA Guilted By The Sun (Roadburn) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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 Recordings) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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 Radiance Of Shadows (Conspiracy) 2lp 37.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on vinyl from the fine folks at Conspiracy Records. Super limited (we only have about 15 copies, not sure if we can get more), super expensive, but so worth it. Incredible new artwork, an embossed, diecut jacket, printed thick full color inner sleeves, visible through the diecut, photos by Seldon Hunt, the vinyl thick as well, weights a ton and sounds amazing. Limited to only 750 copies, and there's a killer etching on the fourth side too!! Here's what we said about the record when it came out on cd:
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 Ruins Of Morning (Substantia Innominata / Drone Records) 10" 15.98
HERE ARE THE LAST COPIES of this 10" on the Substantia Innominata label, an offshoot of the Drone Records label run by Stefan Knappe of Maeror Tri and Troum, which comes from uber prolific aQ faves, doomdrift duo Nadja, whose contribution is a sprawling 40 minute single track, split into two movements and two sides, the first half, beginning with barely there skeletal guitars, hushed vox, a creepy ethereal drift, a sort of doomic slowcore, abstract and dark, the programmed drums come in, but the track continues to creep, and crawl, more melody drifting in, the sound very reminiscent of Codeine, but even slower and lethargic, quite gorgeous and haunting. It's not until the flipside that the doom drops, and instead of being crushing or heavy, it's gauzey and washed out, very My Bloody Valentine, but WAY murkier, the drums remain skeletal, the vocals still hushed, just everything is now wrapped in a heaving halo of effulgent buzz, shot through with soaring melancholic melodies, epic and majestic, doom for sure, but soft shoegazey dreamdoom, and the doom begins to fade about 7 or 8 minutes in, before winding back down to the same slowcore crawl that started things off, growing ever more hushed and soft focus, until the last few minutes, a blurred layered outro of muted backwards guitars, and looped layered melodies, all washed out and whispery, but even near the end laced with haunting, slightly ominous low end melodies, before finally fading out completely. As always, gorgeous and minimal, haunting and heavy.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, pressed on thick metallic gold vinyl, and housed in a super swank full color jacket with some seriously stunning artwork.

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 Sky Burial (Latitudes) cd 14.98
Yet another new Nadja, this one part of Southern's Latitudes series, where bands are given some time in Southern Studios to write, rehearse and record a new and exclusive, often improvised set of songs. The duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff, aka Nadja, whipped up two sprawling epics, both near 20 minutes long, and by now fans of Nadja pretty much know what they're getting into, it's gorgeously ambient, droney, blissed out and heavy, these two are after all probably the preeminent purveyors of dreamdronedoomdrift or metalgaze or whatever you want to call it, and the tracks here are as good as anything else they've done. And anyway, Nadja fans also tend to be a bit obsessive, and will probably not even read this far, but be warned, these are quite limited, and we got WAY fewer copies than we ordered, especially of the cds, so if you want one of these, you're gonna have to act fast.
For those new to the world of Nadja, or just want to know how these two jams stack up. The first, "Jaguar", is a slow smoldering ambient soundscape, all crackle and rumble and creak and groan, laced with static, and tolling bells, mysterious voices, soft chordal swells, and of course a thick swirl of crumbling distorted guitar, that takes more than half of the song to full surface, and when it does, it doesn't launch into crushing doom, instead it roils and churns, a thick undulating expanse of effects drenched guitar dronebliss, abstract and ambient, but still dark and heavy and blissfully buzz.
The title track begins with keening streaks of high end over a swirl of rumble and whir, some spare programmed drumming, all beneath thick clouds distorted guitar chords, left to ring out and fade away slowly, streaked with feedback, this track too forgoes the usual bombastic onslaught, and instead, offers a gradual build, and a less obvious climax, a swirling tangle of melodies and effects, the guitar and bass droned out and thick, an epic squall of murky and muddied psychedelia, all still anchored to that machine like rhythm, fantastically space-y and spaced out.
Like we've said in the past, you can fault Nadja for having an un-keep-up-with-able release schedule, but you sure as heck can't accuse them of releasing anything but gold, and these two tracks definitely rank up there with the rest of the highlights in their highlight heavy catalog.
As with all Latitudes, LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, cd and lp, the covers are the immediately recognizable brown and white origami style Latitudes sleeves (the lp sleeves are black and white, and not so origami), the Nadja one with a hand rubber stamped cover (on the cd), and a full color insert inside. And we didn't get as many as we ordered of this one, so act fast...
MPEG Stream: "Sky Burial"

NADJA Sky Burial (Latitudes) lp 16.98
Yet another new Nadja, this one part of Southern's Latitudes series, where bands are given some time in Southern Studios to write, rehearse and record a new and exclusive, often improvised set of songs. The duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff, aka Nadja, whipped up two sprawling epics, both near 20 minutes long, and by now fans of Nadja pretty much know what they're getting into, it's gorgeously ambient, droney, blissed out and heavy, these two are after all probably the preeminent purveyors of dreamdronedoomdrift or metalgaze or whatever you want to call it, and the tracks here are as good as anything else they've done. And anyway, Nadja fans also tend to be a bit obsessive, and will probably not even read this far, but be warned, these are quite limited, and we got WAY fewer copies than we ordered, especially of the cds, so if you want one of these, you're gonna have to act fast.
For those new to the world of Nadja, or just want to know how these two jams stack up. The first, "Jaguar", is a slow smoldering ambient soundscape, all crackle and rumble and creak and groan, laced with static, and tolling bells, mysterious voices, soft chordal swells, and of course a thick swirl of crumbling distorted guitar, that takes more than half of the song to full surface, and when it does, it doesn't launch into crushing doom, instead it roils and churns, a thick undulating expanse of effects drenched guitar dronebliss, abstract and ambient, but still dark and heavy and blissfully buzz.
The title track begins with keening streaks of high end over a swirl of rumble and whir, some spare programmed drumming, all beneath thick clouds distorted guitar chords, left to ring out and fade away slowly, streaked with feedback, this track too forgoes the usual bombastic onslaught, and instead, offers a gradual build, and a less obvious climax, a swirling tangle of melodies and effects, the guitar and bass droned out and thick, an epic squall of murky and muddied psychedelia, all still anchored to that machine like rhythm, fantastically space-y and spaced out.
Like we've said in the past, you can fault Nadja for having an un-keep-up-with-able release schedule, but you sure as heck can't accuse them of releasing anything but gold, and these two tracks definitely rank up there with the rest of the highlights in their highlight heavy catalog.
As with all Latitudes, LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, cd and lp, the covers are the immediately recognizable brown and white origami style Latitudes sleeves (the lp sleeves are black and white, and not so origami), the Nadja one with a hand rubber stamped cover (on the cd), and a full color insert inside. And we didn't get as many as we ordered of this one, so act fast...
MPEG Stream: "Sky Burial"

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 CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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 Thaumogenesis (Broken Spine) cd 17.98
Originally released in 2007 on the now defunct aRCHIVE label, this gorgeous slab of blown out metal gaze bliss from aQ beloved dronedoomdirge duo Nadja, is available again on cd, housed in a nice silkscreened, textured paper sleeve. Here's what we had to say about Thaumogenesis the first time around...
One single 62 minute long track, bass, guitar and drum machine, all woven into a slowly undulating soundscape of blissy drone and monstrous pummel, beginning 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 (Important) 2lp+cd 27.00
Super deluxe gatefold vinyl reissue of this long out of print cd (originally on aRCHIVE) from doomdronedirgegaze duo Nadja, which includes TONS of extra material. Besides the original hour long track, spread out over 3 sides, the reissue tacks on an exclusive D-side, featuring an epic James Plotkin remix. AND the vinyl comes with a cd featuring an exclusive Nadja live performance (recorded in an outdoor garden!). Swank packaging to boot...
Thaumogenesis is one single 62 minute long track, bass, guitar and drum machine, all woven into a slowly undulating soundscape of blissy drone and monstrous pummel, beginning 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 its 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
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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 The Bungled And The Botched (ConSOULing Sounds) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Every time there's a new Nadja or Aidan Baker release, which is EVERY TIME we do a list, we constantly vow to finally just say fuck it. New Nadja. Buy it. That's it. But every record is a little bit different, and there is a chance that this will be someone's first exposure to a band we actually really do dig quite a bit, so seems unfair to penalize them for catching on later than some other folks. However, we will be a bit less wordy as our drone metal thesaurus has been just about exhausted. But for those of you who might be reading your very first Nadja review: blissed out, blown out, crushing, shoegazey, pummeling, shimmering, sludgey. All words that perfectly describe Nadja's slow motion doomdronedirge.
This two track release begins with the 30 minute title track, a slow burning, jazzy meander, thick warbly bass, washed out drums, simple strummed guitar, almost Slint-y, and fluttery flute. Like the last Baker disc we reviewed, this one too has some Necks style jazzy drift, but all wrapped around a loping post rock, some gorgeous gauzy slowcore, that builds and builds until it blossoms into a churning blurred downtuned dirge. The cool thing about this track, is the flute remains, floating just above the roiling heaviness beneath it, giving it a strange otherworldly prog vibe. The heavy breakdown goes on and on but as with most Nadja tracks, you sort of never want it to end, but eventually it must, and here the distortion fades leaving a barely there whispered hum to finish off.
The second track, another half hour long epic, explodes right out of the gate, a burst of crushing feedback drenched heaviness, a super spare abstract doom, one hit, that then slowly decays over the course of minutes, the original crash ringing out into infinity, a sea of swirling streaks of high end, of rumbling distorted low end, an unbelievable amount of sustain, sounding like it could, and maybe should ring out forever. When in fact it's only really 10 minutes! The track then shifts gears, and becomes a piano driven minimal doomfolk, stuttery drums, swooping backwards effects, a dark lugubrious, almost jazzy crawl, that slowly builds its way back to another supernova blowout of blissed out blinding heaviness.
So there you go. Another Nadja record. It's awesome. You should buy it.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Already nearly sold out at the label. We have a bunch, but they won't last long (and we did get a tiny handful of the special edition, which comes with a bonus cd-r. They are identical in every other way, they're mixed in randomly with the regular copies, so a very few of you just might get lucky).
MPEG Stream: "The Bungled And The Botched"

NADJA The Bungled And The Botched (Recording Club) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL!!!
Every time there's a new Nadja or Aidan Baker release, which is EVERY TIME we do a list, we constantly vow to finally just say fuck it. New Nadja. Buy it. That's it. But every record is a little bit different, and there is a chance that this will be someone's first exposure to a band we actually really do dig quite a bit, so seems unfair to penalize them for catching on later than some other folks. However, we will be a bit less wordy as our drone metal thesaurus has been just about exhausted. But for those of you who might be reading your very first Nadja review: blissed out, blown out, crushing, shoegazey, pummeling, shimmering, sludgey. All words that perfectly describe Nadja's slow motion doomdronedirge.
This two track release begins with the 30 minute title track, a slow burning, jazzy meander, thick warbly bass, washed out drums, simple strummed guitar, almost Slint-y, and fluttery flute. Like the last Baker disc we reviewed, this one too has some Necks style jazzy drift, but all wrapped around a loping post rock, some gorgeous gauzy slowcore, that builds and builds until it blossoms into a churning blurred downtuned dirge. The cool thing about this track, is the flute remains, floating just above the roiling heaviness beneath it, giving it a strange otherworldly prog vibe. The heavy breakdown goes on and on but as with most Nadja tracks, you sort of never want it to end, but eventually it must, and here the distortion fades leaving a barely there whispered hum to finish off.
The second track, another half hour long epic, explodes right out of the gate, a burst of crushing feedback drenched heaviness, a super spare abstract doom, one hit, that then slowly decays over the course of minutes, the original crash ringing out into infinity, a sea of swirling streaks of high end, of rumbling distorted low end, an unbelievable amount of sustain, sounding like it could, and maybe should ring out forever. When in fact it's only really 10 minutes! The track then shifts gears, and becomes a piano driven minimal doomfolk, stuttery drums, swooping backwards effects, a dark lugubrious, almost jazzy crawl, that slowly builds its way back to another supernova blowout of blissed out blinding heaviness.
So there you go. Another Nadja record. It's awesome. You should buy it.
MPEG Stream: "The Bungled And The Botched"

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 Touched (Conspiracy) lp 33.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on vinyl from our pals at Conspiracy. Super limited (we only have 8 copies, not sure if we can get more), super expensive, but so worth it. Incredible new artwork, an embossed, diecut jacket, printed thick full color inner sleeves, visible through the diecut, photos by Seldon Hunt, the vinyl thick as well, weights a ton and sounds amazing. Here's what we said about the record when it came out on cd:
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 16.98
This long out of print Nadja finally gets a super deluxe reissue, as a real cd, remastered sound, new art, and most importantly, extra tracks!!!
Originally released as a cd-r in a limited run of 200 copies Trembled was a crushingly kaleidoscopic sonic demonstration of why we love Nadja so much: 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. What we forgot to mention first time around was that track two is in fact a Swans cover, and its crushing pummel is easily transformed into what definitely sounds like a Nadja original. This reissue features two bonus tracks, a new unreleased song, and an alternate version of the (almost) title track, both recorded live earlier this year.
The packaging is cool too, designed by aQ pal and customer Justin Bartlett, whose art you've definitely seen around, and who designed the first in the about to launch series of artist designed aQ shirt! Still limited, but to 900 copies this time...
As always, WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

NADJA Trembled (Utech) cd-r 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 Truth Becomes Death (Conspiracy) lp 37.00
BACK IN STOCK!!!
Latest in Conspiracy's series of super deluxe vinyl Nadja reissues, this latest one the lp of a former Record Of The Week, our very first Nadja and still one of our top faves. The music is fantastic of course (keep reading), but like the other Nadja vinyl reissues, the packaging is spectacular. Housed in an embossed, diecut jacket, with printed thick full color inner sleeves, visible through the diecut, photos by Seldon Hunt, the vinyl thick as well, weights a ton and sounds amazing. Limited to only 750 copies, and there's an amazing forestscape etching on the fourth side too!! Super limited of course, so not sure if we can get more when we run out), and super expensive, but so worth it.
Here's what we said about the record when it was ROTW back on list 226:
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 Under The Jaguar Sun (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2cd 16.98
Brand new double disc from prolific drone doom duo Nadja, each disc a whole record unto itself one crushing and heavy, the other blissed out and shimmery, but both discs meant to be played together simultaneously, Zaireeka style, if you're so inclined (and equipped).
Both discs sound a bit clearer on their own, the doomier disc is spacious and spaced out, bass driven with simple programmed drums, hushed vocals, lots more tripped out effects than usual, a dizzying cloud of glimmers and chimes, swoops and bleeps, all wrapped around simple lumbering crush and heaving swells of lush heaviness, very Godfleshy sounding actually, pretty stripped down, long stretches of low end rumble and drum pound. One track is all ambient, washed out and hushed, some woozy slowcore drift, that gives way to a final track that is gorgeously caustic, blown and and sun baked, heavy heavy heavy, the weird thing is that without the second disc, it definitely sounds less lush, more murky, which for Nadja is not actually a bad thing. Probably most folks don't have a way of listening to both discs simultaneously, so know that the first disc is a killer blast of sludgy Nadja doomdrone that sounds great as it is.
The second disc is a much more abstract affair, obviously as it's meant to add texture and depth to the original, but it actually sounds pretty amazing on its own, all looped and hazy and gauzy, very Philip Jeck sounding in places, and in fact, this second disc has becomes a great late night drifting off record, with only one track that gets loud, and even then it's a soft cacophony of tones and blurred melodies, like a timestretched gamelan broadcast through a kaleidoscope.
So together, it's a little difficult to get the balance right, but when you do, it sounds pretty neat, the slower prettier numbers seem to work better, as the two tranquil drones have an easier time blending, the heavier jams get pretty chaotic, but listening to the final super heavy track, with both discs blasting, it is pretty transcendent, if there was some way to run both these through headphones at the same time, it might just send you spinning into some other dimension, certainly it'll probably invoke some sort of spontaneous hallucinations. Heavy, and pretty, and together, way dense and psychedelic!
And the packaging, wow! A huge hardcover book-like digipak with full color fold out panels, inside two printed inner sleeves (the only bummer being that their are no pockets, so the sleeves just sort of fall out when you open it), super striking for sure, and super limited too we're pretty sure.
MPEG Stream: "SUN1jaguar"
MPEG Stream: "SUN2windstorm"
MPEG Stream: "Ocelotonatiuh"
MPEG Stream: "Ehecatonatiuh"

NADJA Under The Jaguar Sun (Beta-Lactum Ring ) 2lp 33.00
Now on vinyl, the recent double album from prolific drone doom duo Nadja, each disc a whole record unto itself one crushing and heavy, the other blissed out and shimmery, but both records meant to be played together simultaneously, Zaireeka style, if you're so inclined (and equipped).
Both lps sound a bit clearer on their own, the doomier record is spacious and spaced out, bass driven with simple programmed drums, hushed vocals, lots more tripped out effects than usual, a dizzying cloud of glimmers and chimes, swoops and bleeps, all wrapped around simple lumbering crush and heaving swells of lush heaviness, very Godfleshy sounding actually, pretty stripped down, long stretches of low end rumble and drum pound. One track is all ambient, washed out and hushed, some woozy slowcore drift, that gives way to a final track that is gorgeously caustic, blown and and sun baked, heavy heavy heavy, the weird thing is that without the second disc, it definitely sounds less lush, more murky, which for Nadja is not actually a bad thing. Probably most folks don't have a way of listening to both records simultaneously, so know that the first lp is a killer blast of sludgy Nadja doomdrone that sounds great as it is.
The second lp is a much more abstract affair, obviously as it's meant to add texture and depth to the original, but it actually sounds pretty amazing on its own, all looped and hazy and gauzy, very Philip Jeck sounding in places, and in fact, this second disc has becomes a great late night drifting off record, with only one track that gets loud, and even then it's a soft cacophony of tones and blurred melodies, like a timestretched gamelan broadcast through a kaleidoscope.
So together, it's a little difficult to get the balance right, but when you do, it sounds pretty neat, the slower prettier numbers seem to work better, as the two tranquil drones have an easier time blending, the heavier jams get pretty chaotic, but listening to the final super heavy track, with both lps blasting, it is pretty transcendent, if there was some way to run both these through headphones at the same time, it might just send you spinning into some other dimension, certainly it'll probably invoke some sort of spontaneous hallucinations. Heavy, and pretty, and together, way dense and psychedelic!
And the packaging, wow! A huge hardcover book-like gatefold lp sleeve, super striking for sure, and like the cd version, probably super limited too!
MPEG Stream: "SUN1jaguar"
MPEG Stream: "SUN2windstorm"
MPEG Stream: "Ocelotonatiuh"
MPEG Stream: "Ehecatonatiuh"

NADJA When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV (The End) cd 14.98
Covers records can definitely be a cop out. They're easy, and fun, and who doesn't want to just jam out to their favorite tunes. But some covers records do transcend, whether it's song choice, theme, or those particular versions and interpretation, the right covers, played the right way, can be as good if not better than a band's records proper. Which makes sense as you're typically covering songs that are, at least to you, if not everyone, 'classics.'
Which brings us to When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV, which is in fact, a collection of covers, many of which might seem like super obvious choices. Which is okay, it's as if Nadja wanted to acknowledge their influences loudly and proudly in the face of folks who accuse them of ripping off some of these very same bands. And at least half of these tracks are actually by bands that we've compared Nadja to in past reviews. So we were sort of psyched to see how instead of infusing their own music with the influences of other bands, they might approach it the other way around, taking these songs and bands they love, and filtering them through their own sound. Alongside those obvious choices though are some totally out of left field choices, that on the surface seem to make no sense, but in the context of this collection fit perfectly, and when heard all buzzy and blissy and Nadja'd up, sometimes sound better than the originals.
The album opens with My Bloody Valentine's "Only Shallow", and Nadja make it their own, which is no small feat considering how iconic that main riff is, but heck, in the past we'v talked about how everything sounds better slower, well imagine that jam, slowed way down, and beefed WAY up, so what was already THEE shoegaze anthem of all time, is transformed into a lurching, heaving, crumbling mass of glorious blurred and blown out soft focus heaviness. Then comes Codeine's "Pea", another obvious Nadja influence, we would have gone for "Cave In", some doom band needs to cover that one, but "Pea" suits them, they don't even rock it out that much, it's a bit heavier, but not much slower, and Aidan Baker's soft tentative croon is a dead ringer for Codeine's Stephen Immerwahr. The band also tackle the Swans, and the Cure, the latter's "Faith" stretched out to almost 13 minutes, and expansive glorious woozy gloomy sprawl.
But it's the unlikely choices that seal the deal. A-Ha? It's the track that gives this comp its title, and although we're not familiar with the original (well, actually Cup is!), the Nadja version is gorgeous, heavy and poppy and gloriously blown out.
Then there's the Slayer cover, "Dead Skin Mask" from Seasons In The Abyss, not as obvious a choice as "Raining Blood" or "Angel Of Death", but for Nadja a much more suitable choice, that main riff, sounds soooooo good, all sludgey and washed out, that main melody even more seasick and woozy sounding, the new version somehow even creepier than the original. However our favorite two tracks here are definitely the least likely, one you may have heard, one you most likely haven't.
First, Elliott Smith's "Needle In The Hay", which of course is a fantastic song, but in Nadja's capable hands, it becomes even more harrowing, much more minor key, the vocals worn and weary, the drums a trudging death march, all beneath a thick layer of droning buzz and keening keyboards, and then that main hook, so epic and mysterious and sorrowful. You can almost imagine this is what Smith was imagining when he wrote it. And as much as we love this whole disc, this is the one we keep returning to.
And then there's "Long Dark Twenties", which was previously releases as a super limited 7", and which just happens to be a cover of a song from the Kids In The Hall movie, and yeah, that makes no sense at all, but as far as we're concerned it's become a Nadja song, we actually reviewed that song in depth when we had the 7", so let's revisit that briefly:
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...
So yeah, for folks who missed out on that single, or who just want to have it on cd instead of vinyl, well, it's worth the price of admission for just that jam. But thankfully, every song on here is a crushing doom drenched, pop infused, slow motion chunk of dreamy blissed out, ultra catchy heaviness. And even though it's not technically a proper Nadja record, it just may well be our favorite Nadja record yet.
MPEG Stream: "Only Shallow (My Bloody Valentine)"
MPEG Stream: "Pea (Codeine)"
MPEG Stream: "Needle In The Hay (Elliott Smith)"
MPEG Stream: "Long Dark Twenties (Kids In The Hall)"

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 + OVO The Life And Death Of A Wasp (Bar La Muerte / Broken Spine) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ever wonder what it would sound like if Yoko Ono joined doomdrone duo Nadja? No? Well, we're guessing it would sound a little like this collaboration between Canadian doomgaze two piece Nadja and Italian chaotic weirdo avant punk duo OvO. The overall sound here seems to fall more toward the Nadja end of the sonic spectrum, but OvO definitely add their own twisted vibe, the result something dark, and creepy, and abstract, and occasionally very heavy and very fucked up and awesome. Separated into four movements and based on some strange concept about killing a wasp in a cup of coffee, the record begins with some loping heavy slowcore, big drums, lush clean guitar chords, and all sorts of swirling weirdness, detuned melodies, harmonics, strange FX, long stretches of ambience, buried guttural vocals, streaks of feedback, it's not until nearly the end when OvO vocalist Stefania lets loose, with her childlike Ono-ish trill, operatic and creepy as hell, sometimes slipping into a monstrous gurgle, but just as often wailing like a banshee, while the music churns underneath. Can't help but be reminded of Bloody Panda too, the same sort of weird vocal / heaviness hybrid.
The second and third movements are shorter, and continue on in the same vein as the opener, with loping post rock rhythms, swirling blackened ambience, haunting chiming melodies, thick guitar thrum, more FX, Stefania's vocals never quite getting to the maniacal shriek stage, instead, slipping from hushed whisper, to almost black metal rasp, to cookie monster gurgle, the vibe almost Goblin-ish, heavy and dark, but cinematic and really creepy, the third movement the heaviest so far, a lurching doom, trudging grimly beneath wild drumming, and even wilder vocals, until finally, the 13 minute denouement, the final movement, which begins like some horror movie soundtrack, all fragmented melancholy melody, and deep heaving low end, droney and so ominous, gradually building to a strange industrial style drone-plod, which eventually explodes into something primal and tribal, pounding drums, those trilled super dramatic vox, an intense cathartic climax, which eases back into that ominous drift, this time with the vocals in full effect, the result, dark, bizarre, intense and fantastically out there!
MPEG Stream: "Movement 1: A Wasp Flying Around The Sugar Jar"
MPEG Stream: "Movement 4: Drowned In Coffee"

NADJA + OVO The Life And Death Of A Wasp (Vendetta) lp 15.00
Now on vinyl (and the cd version went out of print already).
Ever wonder what it would sound like if Yoko Ono joined doomdrone duo Nadja? No? Well, we're guessing it would sound a little like this collaboration between Canadian doomgaze two piece Nadja and Italian chaotic weirdo avant punk duo OvO. The overall sound here seems to fall more toward the Nadja end of the sonic spectrum, but OvO definitely add their own twisted vibe, the result something dark, and creepy, and abstract, and occasionally very heavy and very fucked up and awesome. Separated into four movements and based on some strange concept about killing a wasp in a cup of coffee, the record begins with some loping heavy slowcore, big drums, lush clean guitar chords, and all sorts of swirling weirdness, detuned melodies, harmonics, strange FX, long stretches of ambience, buried guttural vocals, streaks of feedback, it's not until nearly the end when OvO vocalist Stefania lets loose, with her childlike Ono-ish trill, operatic and creepy as hell, sometimes slipping into a monstrous gurgle, but just as often wailing like a banshee, while the music churns underneath. Can't help but be reminded of Bloody Panda too, the same sort of weird vocal / heaviness hybrid.
The second and third movements are shorter, and continue on in the same vein as the opener, with loping post rock rhythms, swirling blackened ambience, haunting chiming melodies, thick guitar thrum, more FX, Stefania's vocals never quite getting to the maniacal shriek stage, instead, slipping from hushed whisper, to almost black metal rasp, to cookie monster gurgle, the vibe almost Goblin-ish, heavy and dark, but cinematic and really creepy, the third movement the heaviest so far, a lurching doom, trudging grimly beneath wild drumming, and even wilder vocals, until finally, the 13 minute denouement, the final movement, which begins like some horror movie soundtrack, all fragmented melancholy melody, and deep heaving low end, droney and so ominous, gradually building to a strange industrial style drone-plod, which eventually explodes into something primal and tribal, pounding drums, those trilled super dramatic vox, an intense cathartic climax, which eases back into that ominous drift, this time with the vocals in full effect, the result, dark, bizarre, intense and fantastically out there!
MPEG Stream: "Movement 1: A Wasp Flying Around The Sugar Jar"
MPEG Stream: "Movement 4: Drowned In Coffee"

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"

NADJA / AIDAN BAKER White Nights / Drone Fields (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2dvd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It used to be a list wouldn't pass with something new from Aidan Baker or his doomdrone duo Nadja, we were beginning to worry since it had been a little while now, but as if to make up for it, we now present you with this sprawling double dvd featuring SIX HOURS of music from both Nadja and Baker solo, recorded live in 2003 and 2007, accompanied by experimental visuals by more than FIFTEEN filmmakers. All housed in a gorgeous book like digpak sleeve, and accompanied by an extensive set of liner notes, with details of the performances, and the various films and filmmakers.
This is most likely not for the uninitiated, for those of you new to Baker and Nadja, who are looking to dip your toes, 6 hours of live video might not be ideal, and there are no shortage of choices, have a look elsewhere on the aQ site, so many fantastic releases from both Nadja and Baker solo, but for fans, most of whom tend toward the obsessive, this double dvd set is a mindblower. The sounds of course are incredible, the Nadja disc slips from hushed dense drone music to barely there shimmer to full bore doomic shoegaze crush, the Baker disc is much more minimal and shimmery, dark drifting dronemusic, that occasionally erupts into something noisier, but spends more of it's time hovering and glimmering, the visuals designed to match, gauzy indistinct shapes and colors, cool black and white images of undersea life, blurred landscapes and softly psychedelic collages, while the Nadja films are more varied, weird shots of colored fire, tripped out psychedelic lights, grainy super 8 footage of mysterious signs and streets, blurred black and white, super saturated lysergic shapes, occasionally intercut with footage of the band on stage hunkered over their instruments in front of the films.
The label describes this disc as "the ultimate video aquarium for the acid-minded", and that's not far off, throw this up on your big screen TV, strap on some headphones, and TRIP OUT, or just toss this in your dvd player, sans TV, and you've got a brand new 6 hour album of blissed out drone-y psychedelic shoegaze heaviness. Can't argue with that.
Region free!

NADJA / ARMCHAIR MIGRAINE JOURNEY Transmit Acoustique Abstraction (Beta-Lactam Ring) lp 37.00
You think by now, that after a million or so releases, we'd be sick of Nadja, and could nor possibly need/want another record to add to our already overflowing Nadja collection, but somehow, we just never get sick of it, and love pretty much everything we hear, and still get excited when we hear about a new record, and every one seems to sound better than the last, what's not to love? Heavy, spacey, doomy, droney, shoegazey...
This latest sonic missive is another gem, a sidelong epic of hazy, druggy, rhythmic, almost krautrocky minimal post rock doom drift, but the thing is, it never gets loud, or heavy, whereas most Nadja jams eventually explode into a roiling crushing blissed out wall of heaviness, this one refrains, instead, loping, and drifting, and shimmering, and pulsing hypnotically, while all around the main riff and the simple motorik rhythm, backwards sounds swoop and swirl, guitar drones are layered and blurred, the bass sticks close to the drum machine, a solid anchor for the various other sounds to hover and float, the whole thing an endlessly mesmerizing chunk of softly shoegazey krautdrone slowcore. So good.
Nadja get teamed up here with someone called Armchair Migraine Journey, who counter Nadja's sidelong epic with one of their own, a field of glimmering, chiming, shimmering guitars, melodies and chords and notes swirl and shift and merge and tangle, all over a bed of low end hum, peppered with occasional echo drenched, deep and dramatic vocals, giving the sound a bit of a cold wave / gothic vibe, but only briefly, as the vocals drift off, and the tangle of guitars take over again. The side finishes off with a coda of minimal metallic buzz and haunting music box melodies. Pretty great stuff, and a good match for the Nadja track, which definitely ranks among their best.
And the packaging, WOW. A super fancy, super heavy black sleeve, printed in metallic silver, with a printed insert and pressed on thick thick vinyl. LIMITED TO 200 COPIES, each one hand numbered.

NADJA / ATAVIST / SATORI Infernal Procession... And Then Everything Dies (Cold Spring) 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 record was pretty much custom made for most of you. A three way split of extreme heavy bliss out dream doom, featuring the WAY too prolific Nadja, who continue to get a pass, because we STILL can't get enough of -that- sound, the not nearly prolific enough Atavist, and a new name to add to the list of bands to obsess over, Satori, a duo featuring the head honcho of the always awesome Cold Spring label who made this disc happen.
Not sure if there was a reason for this three way split, a tour or something, or maybe it's just cuz the three bands fit pretty nicely together, whatever the reason for this happening, we're glad it did.
Starting with Nadja, who again offer up a gorgeously gauzy sprawl of Jesu meets M83, all super distorted crumbling melodies, lurching buried in the mix drum machine, weary ethereal vocals, melancholy minor key melodies, wrapped into an awesome chunk of doomed metallic slowcore, lots of dynamics and texture, a loooooong slow build a la Godspeed, with an epic and triumphant climax. So good. One of the best Nadja track yet maybe.
Atavist do their own sort of doom thing, this time a skeletal mathy post rock, clean guitars spread out over spare drumming, very Slint-ish, all spidery and delicate, until a minute or so in, when the hammer falls, shrieked blackened vox, super distorted crumbling guitars, pounding percussion, a strange flurry of off kilter jagged mathiness, before it's back to the moody Slinty sprawl. Eventually, the track becomes blown out and so in-the-red all the instruments seem to melt together, until the band unfurl a blackened post metal jam that might sound more at home on a Deathspell Omega record, culminating in a gorgeous almost symphonic sounding high end coda.
Finally, Satori, who have a lot to prove in such esteemed company, take an entirely different tack, with processed garbled vocals, over distant whirring drones, a creepy hellish machinelike soundscape of post industrial hiss and grind, deep rumbling swells, thick hissing walls of muted buzz, buried melodies, disembodied voices and buried melodies, all very grim and apocalyptic, think MZ412, Lustmord or Wolf Eyes, some seriously haunting and harrowing black ambience.
Packaged in a multi paneled black and white jacked and housed in a plastic sleeve. LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES.
MPEG Stream: NADJA "Time Is Our Disease"
MPEG Stream: ATAVIST "Certitude"

NADJA / BLACK BONED ANGEL s/t (20 Buck Spin) cd 10.98
A match made in dreamdrone heaven, one that has now spawned a second collaboration, between two of the most prolific in their field. Swapping files back and forth to create a devastatingly potent sonic brew, Nadja and Black Boned Angel have delivered two crushing epics, heavy and blackened, a sonic representation of their combined might.
Unlike the surprisingly poppiness of their first match up, this is a much grimmer beast. Starting with an almost Xasthur-esque opening, rife with slightly sour funereal guitars, a creeping wave of distortion slowly moves in like a persistent rainstorm. After about 6 minutes, the drums kick in like the beginning of a forced march towards a very bleak end. Soon a cloak of industrial strength feedback takes over everything else with occasional pounds of a drum popping up here and there. The results are somewhat like Skullflower's recent work with pulverizing feedback and a harsh grinding feel. Eventually, the blankets of distortion subside and the song ends with a low rumbling sound and a sustained burst of high pitched skree. The second number here opens with a low hum that constantly turns on itself before a sloooooooooooow dirgey beat comes in, taking the on its strange circular path. Some heavy subsonic riffs enter the picture at the 13 minute mark, merging with the rest of the fuzzed out drones, and the song becomes so heavy that it seems like at any moment it might collapse on itself due to the sheer density of it all. Still, a discernible melody cuts through to bring the piece to its SUNNO)))-styled conclusion, 26 minutes later. Whew.
Perfect listening for anyone looking to get lost in the epic sonic sludge of these two masters.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

NADJA / BLACK BONED ANGEL s/t (20 Buck Spin) lp 15.98
NOW ON VINYL! And comes with an MP3 download as well...
A match made in dreamdrone heaven, one that has now spawned a second collaboration, between two of the most prolific in their field. Swapping files back and forth to create a devastatingly potent sonic brew, Nadja and Black Boned Angel have delivered two crushing epics, heavy and blackened, a sonic representation of their combined might.
Unlike the surprisingly poppiness of their first match up, this is a much grimmer beast. Starting with an almost Xasthur-esque opening, rife with slightly sour funereal guitars, a creeping wave of distortion slowly moves in like a persistent rainstorm. After about 6 minutes, the drums kick in like the beginning of a forced march towards a very bleak end. Soon a cloak of industrial strength feedback takes over everything else with occasional pounds of a drum popping up here and there. The results are somewhat like Skullflower's recent work with pulverizing feedback and a harsh grinding feel. Eventually, the blankets of distortion subside and the song ends with a low rumbling sound and a sustained burst of high pitched skree. The second number here opens with a low hum that constantly turns on itself before a sloooooooooooow dirgey beat comes in, taking the on its strange circular path. Some heavy subsonic riffs enter the picture at the 13 minute mark, merging with the rest of the fuzzed out drones, and the song becomes so heavy that it seems like at any moment it might collapse on itself due to the sheer density of it all. Still, a discernible melody cuts through to bring the piece to its SUNNO)))-styled conclusion, 26 minutes later. Whew.
Perfect listening for anyone looking to get lost in the epic sonic sludge of these two masters.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

NADJA / TROUM Dominium Visurgis (Transgredient) cd 16.98
It's tough to argue with this pairing, Canadian doomdrone driftduo Nadja, and German dronescapers Troum! While each group definitely has their own distinctive sonic trajectory, there is definitely a lot of overlap, and you'll hear the two groups explore and expand these commonalities live in the studio, with three extended tracks of smoldering slow motion dronemusic that as one might imagine touches on barely there hushed ambience, lumbering glacial downtuned crush, and dreamy drifting shimmer.
The first track is a slow building subterranean creep, creaking, and groaning, the sounds muted and muddied, laced with bits of brilliant melody, and underpinned by constantly shifting layers of low end, but soon those buried melodies become the focal point, drifting to the fore, creating a haunting ghostlike expanse, ominous and cinematic, building to a somewhat harrowing climax before fading back to a dolorous drift.
The second track comes out swinging, big distorted drums, weirdly processed and dubbed out, stuttery and lumbering, the sounds around the rhythm growing ever more intense until they're matching the doomic plod with their heaving swells of blurred riffage, intense and epic, the muted heaviness augmented by mysterious minor key melodies swelling and swooping, the while track in constant flux, as if the drum machine was misfiring, and the band were following right along. Finally, the record finishes with a 25+ minute dronescape, that floats spectrally from warm blackened whirs, to tripped out psychedelic swirl, to hushed almost choral sounding shimmer, to majestic Godspeed like epic...
Packaged in a super beautiful gorgeously designed 8 panel matte finish digipak.
MPEG Stream: "Part 1 (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "Part 2 (excerpt)"

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
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.THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

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 Ballads Of The Living And Dying (Mexican Summer / Kemado) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now reissued again on vinyl, this former AQ Record Of The Week from back in 2004. This time, instead of Eclipse, it's on Kemado's vinyl-only imprint Mexican Summer (which is named after a Nadler song?), and they've added a bonus 7" of unreleased songs. It's limited to 1000 copies. Here's what we said about it before:
This is a dark and languorous 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 mesmerizing 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 Little Hells (Kemado) cd 13.98
The fourth record from Boston's most enchanting female songstress has left us breathless and almost at a loss for words! Ms Nadler really hits the nail on the head with this effortless marriage of hauntingly rich vocal cascades and captivating song writing. Quite the magnificent album, Little Hells features Nadler joined by a full band whose rhythmic weight anchors each song as her reverb-shrouded vocals drift into the dawning sky. If you've a penchant for lonely country charm with a gothic twist, and melancholic hymns possessed by a familiar nostalgia, this is soooo for you! Conjures visions of Victorian churches on golden plains at midnight, flickering shadows in hallways of rickety old barns. As far as production goes, we've never heard Nadler sound so dense and layered with such an array of instrumentation embracing the core slide guitar, bass and drums. And yet for all the gothic folk elements at the heart of this record, Little Hells is perhaps Nadler's poppiest release to date. Stunning!
MPEG Stream: "Loner"
MPEG Stream: "The Hole Is Wide"
MPEG Stream: "River of Dirt"

NADLER, MARISSA Little Hells (Kemado) 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 fourth record from Boston's most enchanting female songstress has left us breathless and almost at a loss for words! Ms Nadler really hits the nail on the head with this effortless marriage of hauntingly rich vocal cascades and captivating song writing. Quite the magnificent album, Little Hells features Nadler joined by a full band whose rhythmic weight anchors each song as her reverb-shrouded vocals drift into the dawning sky. If you've a penchant for lonely country charm with a gothic twist, and melancholic hymns possessed by a familiar nostalgia, this is soooo for you! Conjures visions of Victorian churches on golden plains at midnight, flickering shadows in hallways of rickety old barns. As far as production goes, we've never heard Nadler sound so dense and layered with such an array of instrumentation embracing the core slide guitar, bass and drums. And yet for all the gothic folk elements at the heart of this record, Little Hells is perhaps Nadler's poppiest release to date. Stunning!
MPEG Stream: "Loner"
MPEG Stream: "The Hole Is Wide"
MPEG Stream: "River of Dirt"

NADLER, MARISSA s/t (Box of Cedar) cd 15.98
Marissa Nadler's latest (and Kickstarter funded, on her own label) self-titled collection of dreamy folk-pop might be her best yet. Her voice is light and clear, carrying the listener through the narratives and characters she creates. Fingerpicked acoustic guitar provides the ubiquitous background around which pedal steel, vibes, a few synths and washy percussion float. Her vocals seems almost effortless in their breathy melancholic beauty. As on Little Hells, Nadler utilizes a full band for much of the record, though a lot of what the band does is minimal, allowing the layered vocals to drive the songs. When the band does really kick in, however, it's fucking magical, as on "Baby I Will Leave You In the Morning" and "Puppet Master". Nadler, who has been previously much compared to Cat Power and Mazzy Star, deserves the compliments those comparisons bring, but should not be seen as derivative or secondary to those artists. Yes, there's a healthy dose of Americana (the pedal steel, the banjo) and yes the vocals are drenched in reveb (though not to disguise any lack of talent), but there's no mistaking that Marissa Nadler's got IT, whatever that singular quality is that marks truly exceptional performers. A je ne sais quoi that trancends comparison.
After the wonderful opener "In Your Lair, Bear" which hints at the fullness of the instrumentation to come later in the record, Nadler gives us the minimal "Alabaster Queen". The hard-edged coldness created by the stately vocal narrative contrasts nicely with the slow-strummed warmth of the acoustic guitar and bell-like Rhodes piano. "The Sun Always Reminds Me of You" might be the song that sounds the most like Mazzy Star in one of their less drug-hazed moments. "Mr. John Lee Revisited" takes a step back and feels more akin to Nadler's earlier work. "Wedding" stands out in that it features no guitar at all, just synths, percussion and vocals that build and build and build. "Little King" serves as a nice comedown after "Wedding"'s drama, a return to fingerpicked guitar minimalism alongside a banjo that glides in and out of the vocal melody.
These are songs that make you stop and listen, whatever else is going on in your life. Songs where you can just close your eyes and drift away to wherever the music takes you. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "In Your Lair, Bear"
MPEG Stream: "Baby I Will Leave You In The Morning"
MPEG Stream: "Wedding"

NADLER, MARISSA s/t (Box of Cedar) lp 16.98
Marissa Nadler's latest (and Kickstarter funded, on her own label) self-titled collection of dreamy folk-pop might be her best yet. Her voice is light and clear, carrying the listener through the narratives and characters she creates. Fingerpicked acoustic guitar provides the ubiquitous background around which pedal steel, vibes, a few synths and washy percussion float. Her vocals seems almost effortless in their breathy melancholic beauty. As on Little Hells, Nadler utilizes a full band for much of the record, though a lot of what the band does is minimal, allowing the layered vocals to drive the songs. When the band does really kick in, however, it's fucking magical, as on "Baby I Will Leave You In the Morning" and "Puppet Master". Nadler, who has been previously much compared to Cat Power and Mazzy Star, deserves the compliments those comparisons bring, but should not be seen as derivative or secondary to those artists. Yes, there's a healthy dose of Americana (the pedal steel, the banjo) and yes the vocals are drenched in reveb (though not to disguise any lack of talent), but there's no mistaking that Marissa Nadler's got IT, whatever that singular quality is that marks truly exceptional performers. A je ne sais quoi that trancends comparison.
After the wonderful opener "In Your Lair, Bear" which hints at the fullness of the instrumentation to come later in the record, Nadler gives us the minimal "Alabaster Queen". The hard-edged coldness created by the stately vocal narrative contrasts nicely with the slow-strummed warmth of the acoustic guitar and bell-like Rhodes piano. "The Sun Always Reminds Me of You" might be the song that sounds the most like Mazzy Star in one of their less drug-hazed moments. "Mr. John Lee Revisited" takes a step back and feels more akin to Nadler's earlier work. "Wedding" stands out in that it features no guitar at all, just synths, percussion and vocals that build and build and build. "Little King" serves as a nice comedown after "Wedding"'s drama, a return to fingerpicked guitar minimalism alongside a banjo that glides in and out of the vocal melody.
These are songs that make you stop and listen, whatever else is going on in your life. Songs where you can just close your eyes and drift away to wherever the music takes you. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "In Your Lair, Bear"
MPEG Stream: "Baby I Will Leave You In The Morning"
MPEG Stream: "Wedding"

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
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"

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"

NADLER, MARISSA The Sister (Box Of Cedar) cd 14.98
Also in stock on cd...
The Sister, Marissa Nadler's second self-released lp, is a vehicle for her amazing voice. The instrumentation and melodies are kept quite minimal, at least on the surface. Sometimes on songs like "Christine", once the chorus has time to build, the song crescendoes into soft layers of swirling synths and swelling cymbal washes. These always take second chair to Nadler's effortless vocal melodies, the fingerpicked guitar her primary companion throughout the record. The Sister has a subdued quality to it, never rising too high or sinking too low, and although these are beautiful songs executed with skill, there's not a stand-out number that especially stands apart from the rest. Her last, self-titled record had the synth-driven "Wedding" and the poppy Mazzy Star-esque "The Sun Always Reminds Me of You" which made that really good record great. The Sister is a record that longtime fans of Marissa Nadler's magic will enjoy, but newcomers might find Little Hells or her previous self-titled record more memorable. Still, this is an excellent record for sleepy Sunday mornings and dreamy summer nights.
MPEG Stream: "The Wrecking Ball"
MPEG Stream: "In A Little Town"
MPEG Stream: "Constantine"

NADLER, MARISSA The Sister (Box Of Cedar) lp 15.98
The Sister, Marissa Nadler's second self-released lp, is a vehicle for her amazing voice. The instrumentation and melodies are kept quite minimal, at least on the surface. Sometimes on songs like "Christine", once the chorus has time to build, the song crescendoes into soft layers of swirling synths and swelling cymbal washes. These always take second chair to Nadler's effortless vocal melodies, the fingerpicked guitar her primary companion throughout the record. The Sister has a subdued quality to it, never rising too high or sinking too low, and although these are beautiful songs executed with skill, there's not a stand-out number that especially stands apart from the rest. Her last, self-titled record had the synth-driven "Wedding" and the poppy Mazzy Star-esque "The Sun Always Reminds Me of You" which made that really good record great. The Sister is a record that longtime fans of Marissa Nadler's magic will enjoy, but newcomers might find Little Hells or her previous self-titled record more memorable. Still, this is an excellent record for sleepy Sunday mornings and dreamy summer nights.
MPEG Stream: "The Wrecking Ball"
MPEG Stream: "In A Little Town"
MPEG Stream: "Constantine"

NAFTULE'S DREAM Job (Tzadik) cd 15.98
This dynamic twenty-first century klezmer ensemble incorporates jazz improv, guitar-hero mannerisms and heavy-ass textual references into the rich klezmer tradition. It's kinda Frankenstein, but successful nevertheless. These are live performances from a couple 2001 shows, and the attendant live-energy animate and enliven the arrangements. Part of John Zorn's Radical Jewish Culture series.
RealAudio clip: "job"
RealAudio clip: "industrial bulgar"

NAFTULE'S DREAM Search for the Golden Dreydl (Tzadik) cd 15.98
(from the obi:)
"Weaving fiery improvisation into complex arrangements in a style reminiscent of Mingus at his best, Boston-based Naftule's Dream [their name a tribute to klezmer pioneer Naftule Brandwein] has created instrumental music of passion and intensity. From adventurous originals to surprising re-interpretations of traditional Jewish classics, this provocative Jazz/Klezmer hybrid is so good you could PLOTZ."