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"

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.
5 - 3/10/2009 - fe
1x - 6 - 2/23/2009 - fe
- 10 - 2/13/2009 - fe
x - 6 - 2/9/2009 - fe
- +10 - 2/3/2009 - fe
- 14 - 2/2/2009 - fe
- 6 - 1/27/2009 - fe

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

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

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

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

NAFTULE'S DREAM Smash/Clap (Tzadik) cd 15.98
Follow-up to their wonderful klezmer jazz debut The Golden Dreydl, produced by Laswell and including additional elements of rock and improv...

NAGELFAR Virus West (Van) cd 17.98
We've been meaning to re-list this for a while now. A reissue of one of our favorite black metal records EVER. Virus West, originally released way back in 2001, was the final step in this German band's progression, from folky Viking black metal to experimental avant black metal to something way more primal and raw, but somehow no less original or avant.
AQ list subscribers who might not have been hip to these guys back in the day, might recognize the name, as some of the Nagelfar folks went on to form big time aQ faves Ruins of Beverast and Kermania as well as the equally brilliant Graupel and Verdunkeln (who we have yet to review/list).
So what is it exactly about this disc that makes it so amazing? It's a bit hard to describe. The sound is very Scandinavian, harkening back to the classic sound of the nineties Norwegian elite. The sound is thick and buzzing, the vocals a chaotic howl, the drumming a crushing pound as often as a thrashing blast, but as with most things like this, much of the magic is mood and atmosphere, and these guys conjure up a truly intense and darkly magical mood, while at the same time, kicking out some of the most classic sounding riffs ever. Much of their time is spent plodding doomily along, buzzing midtempo lurches in the spirit of Darkthrone, but they also offer up some serious thrashing blackness, peppered with long slow crawls, chanted monk like vocals, lots of dynamics, stop start riffing, weird keyboards, little bits of triumphant majesty giving way to brutal growling black metal buzz, field recordings, bits of dark fluttery folk, but again it's the mood that makes this record, the way the band capture a certain essence, the spirit of black metal, managing to be true and grim and classic sounding, but also just fucked up enough to make it special, and part of that is the fact that the songs are all crazy catchy, with a certain amount of groove, hooks everywhere, the riffs stick in your head, the songs, as black and buzzy as they are, linger like pop songs long after the record ends.
The final track, "Meuterei", is the perfect encapsulation of what was so great about Nagelfar. Beginning with some strummed acoustic guitars, some Viking style chanting, the band launch into a cool midtempo mathy metallic old school metal groove, underpinned by furious blast beats, until they switch it up into a triumphant metal march, complete with what sounds like horns playing a regal fanfare. Then we're back in the grimy old school black metal filth, a buzzing snarling midtempo crush, before exploding into some chaotic blackened riffing, various guitar parts all tangled up into a heaving roiling whole, the drums holding it together with their relentless pound, so goddamn good.
Such a shame this marked the end of Nagelfar, but for those who still need more, be sure and check out Ruins Of Beverast, Verdunkeln and all the rest...
MPEG Stream: "Hellebarn"
MPEG Stream: "Sturm Der Katharsis"

NAGISA NI TE Dream Sounds (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98
Long-time followers of the Japanese naive-psych-pop duo known as Nagisa Ni Te may find the contents of this disc oh so slightly familiar, as these four (long) tracks are all re-recordings of Nagisa Ni Te classics taken from previous albums, redone for this collection: "True World", "Anxiety", "Me, On The Beach", and "True Sun". Dream Sounds is of course an apt title, as Nagisa Ni Te's music is certainly dreamlike. A perfect introduction if you haven't yet made their acquaintance (this is their sixth album, some of which have never been released over here, so it'll help catch you up), and a definite treat for fans as well. It's not just a "best of" (that would have to be waaay more than just four songs long!) and these tracks definitely differ from the originals, some of them extended quite a bit. Mellow psych-pop beauty, slow and languid, with delicate vocals and warmly fuzzed guitar solos, so good.
MPEG Stream: "True World"
MPEG Stream: "True Sun"

NAGISA NI TE Feel (Jagjaguwar) cd 13.98
Disappointed with that crappy new Neil Young album? Try this instead! This is the fourth record (and first domestic release!) from the Osaka psychedelic folk duo of Shinji Shibayama and Masako Takeda. Scotland's Geographic label recently issued a great 'best of' Nagisa Ni Te compilation called "Songs For A Simple Moment" that we've sold quite a few of (reviewed on list 127) so maybe you do already know 'em. The material on "Feel" is newer than anything on that comp, though. This album, with its crisp production quality, intensifies the fragility of Takeda's voice and the overall outsider artist naiveté of Nagisa Ni Te. Though it's not a major part of their sound here, you should be aware that this features brief moments of extended electric guitar wank, as with most Japanese artists in the psych vein. Of course, that's one of the things we LIKE about Nagisa Ni Te (and you'll find lots more of that Neil Young-ish guitar stuff on the compilation). But "Feel" generally refrains from cranking up the volume like that.
Beautiful and minimalist atmospherics add depth and a visual element to their lyrically melancholic lullabies of hazy reminiscence and love lost. The beautiful photographs (taken by both Shibayama and Takeda) which accompany "Feel" evoke the spirit of spring and feelings of renewal. The music itself however, also reminds us of its bitter breeze and what has passed. Shinji and Masako are joined on several of "Feel"'s tracks by guests including Seiichi Yamamoto (of Boredoms/Omoide Hatoba/Rovo) and Tim Barnes (Tower Recordings).
RealAudio clip: "The New World"
RealAudio clip: "Speed Of The Fish"

NAGISA NI TE On The Love Beach (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98
Jagjaguar scores major points with us by reissuing here in the USA yet another of the albums by wonderful Japanese outsider-folk-psych duo Nagisa Ni Te. They've previously brought us the band's more recent album "Feel", and now they delve into the past to make 1995's "On The Love Beach" available at a non-import price. Lovely, folky, sunny-yet-melancholic psychedelic pop rock. If you like Ghost, or Neil Young, or Nagisa Ni Te's pals Maher Shalal Hash Baz -- or even the mellower stuff by Acid Mothers Temple -- this band ought to please you greatly. Their songs are works of fragile beauty, with innocent-sounding Japanese vocals, acoustic strumming, and lilting melodies. There's some fuzz bass here, some tuba there, and some shimmering guitar feedback when needed. The liner notes include English translations of Nagisa Ni Te's cryptic love-song lyrics.
If you're not already hip to Nagisa Ni Te, there's also a "best of/rarities" comp out on the Geographic label you should be aware of, called "Songs For A Simple Moment". You can read our review of that disc for more background on the band, and that collection would be a good starting point, although both Jagjaguar reissues are equally fine introductions to the band -- all are certainly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Elegy To Betrayal"
RealAudio clip: "They"

NAGISA NI TE Songs For A Simple Moment (Geographic) cd 17.98
"Songs For A Simple Moment" is an introduction to the musical world of Shinji Shibayama. Since 1992 Nagisa Ni Te has released four records of honest, fragile psychedelic folk. With ties to Maher Shalal Hash Baz, whose members have at one time or another collaborated with Nagisa Ni Te, this collection released via Stephen Pastel's Geographic label comes just in time, as the western world's interest in Japanese psychedelia, from the '60s and beyond, is at an all time high. Formerly of Kansai legends Idiot O'Clock and the Hallelujahs (who have three tracks included here), Shibayama has been a major figure in the Osaka psych underground. His small label Org has released a handsome amount of incredible records by Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Naoki Zushi of Hijokaidan, as well as his own Hallelujahs (reissue on PSF) and the first three Nagisa Ni Te lps (all of which have recently been reissued via P-Vine in Japan).
With a revolving host of guest musicians, the core of Nagisa Ni Te centers on Shibayama and his partner Masako Takeda. Drummer Ikuro Takahashi, most recently of Fushitsusha, had once been a major part of the lineup, but has recently, mysteriously retired from music altogether. But that's another story...
In the Japanese psych underground, there is a strange coexistence of feedback/noise and earnest, heartfelt acoustic folk. Nagisa Ni Te embrace both aspects and combine the two at times. Think a more naive version of Tim Buckley or Neil Young. And if you're at all familiar with the brittle psychedelia of Shizuka, or the primitive guitar feedback freakout of the obscure '70s psych gods Les Rallizes Dénudés, you will definitely want to venture forth. From the fragility and innocence of "Star" and "They" to the shattering, feedback drenched Rallizesesque live rendition of the twenty minute epic "The True Sun", this comes highly recommended as an introduction, and is a great companion to the growing output of Nagisa Ni Te! (Even if you're already a fan and have their Japanese import cds, you'll probably want this for the rare/unreleased/live tracks included.)
RealAudio clip: "They"
RealAudio clip: "The True Sun"

NAGISA NI TE The Same As A Flower (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98
Another lovely outing (their fifth album, if we've counted correctly) by one of our favorite bands from the Japanese indie-psych underground. While the duo of Shinji Shibayama and Masako Takeda have had their moments of Neil Young/Les Rallizes Denudes style slash-and-burn guitar storm in the past, with this album (and their previous disc Feel) they've been concentrating more on the quiet, mellow, melodic side of psychedelia... This is some ever so wistful, slow-moving, "heartfelt folk music" that features the sweet, sad voices of both Shinji and Masako singing their fragile tunes over a backing of strum and shimmer. Various guests augment the core Nagisa Ni Te duo, with sundry instruments employed, including electric and acoustic guitars, bass, mandolin, organ, electric piano, glockenspiel, mellotron, percussion, and such oddities as "backwards cymbal", "uncertain piano" and "electric desert guitar" (that's what it says the liner notes, which also provide English language translations for the band's Japanese lyrics). We said sad voices above, but really much of this expresses hope -- Nagisa Ni Te are a springtime band with memories of winter. So very pretty, lazy Sunday afternoon listening for fans of the softer Pastels, Belle & Sebastian, Ghost, and Maher Shalal Hash Baz sort of thing...
MPEG Stream: "A Light"
MPEG Stream: "Beyond The Grass"

NAGISA NI TE The True World (P-Vine) 2cd 35.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

NAGISA NI TE Yosuga (Jagjaguar) cd 14.98
We've always been big fans of the warm and shimmery sounds of this great Japanese psych-pop outfit but somehow their new album is making us fall in love with them all over again and it's proving to be quite possibly their best outing yet! We love how the band are able to evoke those hard to describe lingering moments on lazy Sunday afternoons, or the feeling of walking along the pier as the sun slightly reflects against the slow moving waves and all your other thoughts just fade away. Tapping into the great tradition of Japanese psych-folk/pop that folks like Melting Glass Box and Happy End first explored in the '70s, and even reminding us at times of that great Milton Nascimento record Clube Da Esquina that we gushed about last list. As always we hear the influence of the dreamy passages of Neil Young records, especially On The Beach, which we've been listening to immediately after this record pretty much every single Sunday since Yosuga came out. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Premonition"
MPEG Stream: "Reaction In G"
MPEG Stream: "Kumao"

NAGISA NI TE Yosuga (Jagjaguar) 2lp 25.00
We've always been big fans of the warm and shimmery sounds of this great Japanese psych-pop outfit but somehow their new album is making us fall in love with them all over again and it's proving to be quite possibly their best outing yet! We love how the band are able to evoke those hard to describe lingering moments on lazy Sunday afternoons, or the feeling of walking along the pier as the sun slightly reflects against the slow moving waves and all your other thoughts just fade away. Tapping into the great tradition of Japanese psych-folk/pop that folks like Melting Glass Box and Happy End first explored in the '70s, and even reminding us at times of that great Milton Nascimento record Clube Da Esquina that we gushed about last list. As always we hear the influence of the dreamy passages of Neil Young records, especially On The Beach, which we've been listening to immediately after this record pretty much every single Sunday since Yosuga came out. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Premonition"
MPEG Stream: "Reaction In G"
MPEG Stream: "Kumao"

NAGOSKI, IAN Effortless Battle (Recorded) cd 12.98
The central element of Ian Nagoski's stately minimalist epic Effortless Battle is the 'wild wave' -- an instrument built by Nagoski's sometime collaborator Daniel Conrad. A system of tone generators that activates the resonant frequencies of an array of metal plates, the 'wild wave' is not as cacophonous as one might think. Rather Nagoski coaxes a pretty amazing set of timbral drones that slowly progress over the two extended pieces on Effortless Battle, music that comprised the soundtrack to a video by Catherine Pancake. Initially, these vibrating metal plates rumble ominously, resembling a electrical motor ceaselessly puttering in the distance; but Nagoski pushes the subtle overtones to steadily make their presence known and eventually replace the lower frequencies with glistening patterns of ever-shifting vibrato. In a lot of ways, Nagoski's use of the 'wild wave' creates an controllable activity that mimics the resonances found in the field recordings of Toshiya Tsunoda, which are often of giant metal plates vibrating from environmental sources.
MPEG Stream: "Ripped Steam Hinterland"

NAGOSKI, IAN Kerflooey (Ehse Records) lp 16.98

NAHUM / FLASKAVSAE split (E.E.E Recordings) cd-r 8.98
Another killer match-up between two different UN-black warriors, and yep, that means Christian black metal, a genre we've become pretty dang obsessed with. This one slipped through the cracks, we've had it for a while, bit for some reason never got around listing it until now.
Flaskavsae is one of our favorite of the UN-black hordes (another Flaskavsae split is reviewed elsewhere on this list, teamed with our other favorite, Light Shall Prevail), and these three tracks definite demonstrate why once again. Three murky blasts furious black buzz, the guitars blurred into heaving droney slabs, the programmed drums relentless and machinelike, with awesome off kilter fills, and the vocals a buried monstrous growl, the melodies are epic, the sound sweeping and majestic, there must be keyboards cuz guitars just don't swell like that, or maybe they do, the EEE folks can do fucked up things with sound, the production always as much a part of the sound as the sound itself.
This is the first we've heard from Nahum though, but their sound is a perfect compliment to Flaskavsae's, a furious relentless droned out buzz, the drums chaotic and frenzied, the cymbals awesomely loud in the mix, but it's the vocals that turn this into something fucked up and amazing, a howled falsetto screech, doused in reverb and delay, which results in the vocals careening all over the place, overlapping and getting all tangled up, very dubbed out, which makes the whole track sound sort of psychedelic. Nahum also offer up some gorgeous washed out keyboard-heavy breakdowns, all woozy and dreamy, and some super squiggly leads, all draped over the super distorted murky UN-blackened chaos below. Awesome stuff.
MPEG Stream: NAHUM "Mighty God"
MPEG Stream: FLASKAVSAE "Playing The Harlot"

NAHVALR s/t (Enemies List) cd 13.98
Black metal by its very nature is fairly isolationist, especially considering that one of the mains strains consists of one man bands holed up in their bedroom / attic / shed / shack / cave, shunning humanity, sunlight, any sort of personal interaction, filtering all of that negative hateful energy into their grim black buzz. Even proper black metal groups, with more than one member, are often quite tribal, kvlt-like you might even say, performing sonic rituals in some dimly lit rehearsal space, channeling all manner of dark energy and creating music both bleak and brutal, evil and cathartic. That sound, created by a group, is still intensely personal and to a certain degree is created more out of a need to create, than a need for adoration or success.
But what if you turned that whole dynamic completely around. Removed all aspects of kvlt-ishness, of individualism, what if you created a black metal horde open to anyone, anyone with an amp and a guitar, or even just a computer, could record tracks, and contribute to what would eventually be woven into the first open source black metal record.
And here it is, masterminded by the guys behind gloomy bliss metal duo Have A Nice Life, Nahvalr is indeed, as far as we know the very first "open source" black metal band. Parts and songs were solicited online, contributed via email, handed off in person, donated anonymously, and eventually the HANL guys took all the various tracks and deftly assembled them into this buzzing black behemoth. And there is in fact, plenty of buzz obviously, layer upon layer of crushing downtuned insectoid buzz, but also loads of creepy ambience, weird warbly doomy bits, super lo-fi blasts of near white noise, insane grinding drum machine stutter, haunting black ambience, deep ominous rumbles and softly glowing shimmers, weird chanted vocals, industrial scrape and pound, blown out blissed out blackened drifts of crumbling soft noise, it's all very schizophrenic, but it doesn't at all sound like a hodge podge, it sounds more like a truly expansive sprawling chunk of demented abstract black metal weirdness. Which is precisely what it is. It just so happens that there's way more than 4 or 5 guys "in the band."
Some songs are so steeped in buzz it sounds like records by Ildjarn, Velvet Cacoon and Wrath Of The Weak all being played simultaneously, other tracks are loosed from their black metal moorings and sound like Skullflower, thick sheets of sound, spaced out noise drenched ur-drones, others are gloomy and darkly melodic, simple guitarlines unfurling over streaks of feedback, howled anguished vocals, and shimmering black drones, while still others are furious dense blasts of raw, noisy black metal, in the red, speaker destroying missives from hell, swirling and roiling and churning maniacally, but often splintering into creepy doomic crawls or fucked up abstract Abruptum like blackened soundscapes.
The record begins with a sample of conspiracy theorist and radio talk show host Art Bell, talking about digging a hole to hell in Siberia, before launching into blown out super saturated black metal blast, but the source material is so varied, that even the parts that sound like black metal on the surface, have so much going on just below, twisted warbly melodies, keening wails, disembodied voices, textures and layers, so immersive and expansive, headphones are like X-ray goggles, revealing a whole other world hidden to the casual listener. The record then swerves from warped slow motion ambient doom, to soundscapes of high end skree and garbled guitarnoise, to grinding blacknoize fury, to downright gorgeous blissy drones and all the other various sonic stops mentioned above. Not at all typical black metal, instead, more of a weird sound experiment, based around black metal tropes, and created with a core of buzzing blackness, but allowed to sprawl WELL past the usual boundaries that define the genre, creating something extraordinary yet still distinctly black in the process.
MPEG Stream: "Chorus Of Blasphemes"
MPEG Stream: "Bloodflood"
MPEG Stream: "Black Elk Speaks, Chokes, And Dies"

NAIMA, TONY & THE BITTERS Dismember (Tosom) cd 15.98
Hard to resist a record with a bloody teddy bear on the cover, its fuzzy arm torn off and laying in a pool of blood, bone and sinew and gristle exposed. The record simply titled Dismember. Even harder to resist when you realize it's actually a country band, covering songs by Swedish death metallers Dismember, and far from being a joke, it sounds amazing, grim and dark, twangy and catchy, the twang and shuffle offset by horns, which add a strange funeral vibe to the proceedings. 
Some of the song titles sound like they could very well actually be country songs, "I Saw Them Die", "In Death's Cold Embrace", "Dreaming In Red", but others maybe not so much so: "Where Ironcrosses Grow", "Let The Napalm Rain"... The record begins with a brief whispery intro, hushed female vocals, crooning all intimate right in your ear, before the band launches into a rollicking campfire stomp, all minor key twang, shuffling percussion, warbly Hammond organ, insistently strummed steel string guitar, and a world weary whiskey soaked drawl, culminating in a soaring epic chorus with the repeated line "I tasted blood, now I want more". Sounds like it could be the Old '97's or Sixteen Horsepower. Even a little Decemberists. Elsewhere the band dip into truckstop honky tonk, old time folk, gorgeous languorous swampy blues, epic over the top super dramatic Godspeed bombast (that inexplicably gives way to a super strange electro country tinged new wave jam), Southern rock and shuffling rockabilly...
Our favorite track has to be the darkly doomy and twangy "In Death's Cold Embrace", with its loping rhythmic slither, it's mournful funereal horns, some seriously Woven Hand like vocals, a killer warbly trombone solo, the whole thing just steeped in gothic grandeur, even the lyrics, what little bits you can catch, add to the track's gorgeous creepiness.
It almost doesn't matter that these are covers, fans of Slim Cessna, Sixteen Horsepower and that sort of muddy woodsy gothic swamp blues will definitely dig, but it's sort of thrilling to realize these are bastardized death metal songs, and to realize that melodically, thematically and especially lyrically, country blues is not all that far removed from death metal...
MPEG Stream: "Of Fire"
MPEG Stream: "In Death's Cold Embrace"

NAKAMURA, GOH Daylight Savings (self-released) cd-r 9.98
This is the debut release for Bay Area troubadour Goh Nakamura. He draws from the no frills, sensitive singer/songwriter inkwell... ultra heartfelt and barebones, much like that of Elliott Smith's early albums. The ache is palpable in each of the eleven songs on Daylight Savings. Impressive.
MPEG Stream: "At Ease"
MPEG Stream: "Highway Flowers"

NAKAMURA, TOSHIMARU No-Input Mixing Board (Zero Gravity) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This Japanese electronic music experimentalist's new solo disc (last AQ-L we reviewed his recent collaboration with Sachiko M) on the always-interesting and handsomely packaged Zero Gravity label. No-Input Mixing Board's title accurately describes Nakamura's musical technique: he connects one channel of his mixing board to another, with no outside sound source, and then mixes and manipulates the resulting feedback, making something out of "nothing". The results range from the difficult abstraction of piercing tones, sine waves, and digital flutter (and what sounds like a croaking frog!) to Oval-esque, quite pleasant moments and quiet drones. Pretty amazing what this guy can do with no input! Maybe not the future of music, but an impressive, even lovely, sound-essay on the infinite within the finite...or something like that.
RealAudio clip: "No-Input Mixing Board #1"
RealAudio clip: "No-Input Mixing Board #3"

NAKAMURA, TOSHIMARU No-Input Mixing Board 2 (A Bruit Secret) cd 15.98
Along with part-time collaborator Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura positions his work in the Japanese movement known as "onkyo" which translates as "the reverberation of sound." Nakamura emphasizes the texture of sound through the manipulation of a restricted palette. "No-Input Mixing Board 2" is just that, a reconstruction of the sounds that originate from the feedback tones of a mixers output looped back into its input. Obviously, Nakamura has taken this sound -- not always the ugly discharge of noise but can be a subtly flanging drone - and filtered it through his laptop (or a really big wall of effects, but it's probably a laptop), thus sort of cheating on the purity of source material. Well, if Aube is allowed to call his work single source material manipulations, I guess Nakamura can too. Anyway, "No-Input Mixing Board 2" is a dramatically diverse album of structural tweaking, at times situating near the off-kilter dronology of Stilluppsteypa with static charged cold atmsopheres, and others with more Chain Reactionist intentions of reduced techno. An interesting album.
RealAudio clip: "NIMB 15"
RealAudio clip: "NIMB 18"

NAKAMURA, TOSHIMARU Vehicle (Cubic Music) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More glitch follies from Japanese electronic composer Toshimaru Nakamura and his now-famous No-Input Mixing Board! Utilizing "internal feedback" from looping the input and output of a mixing board through itself. More active that the near-silence of many other "onkyo" efforts from Nakamura and his contemporaries, each of the nine tracks here are full of abstract throbbing buzzing sounds. Some tumble along, approximating minimalist Chain Reaction style "techno" "beats". Others drone and hiss without any rhythmic structure at all. With these fluttering bleeps and crinkly soundscapes, Nakamura has crafted another compelling, sometimes even pretty, album for those interested in the strange, defective-sounding sounds of "empty" electronic equipment.
MPEG Stream: "nimb#37"
MPEG Stream: "nimb#33"

NAKAMURA, TOSHIMARU / SACHIKO M Do (Erstwhile) cd 15.98
The second release by this duo after a disc on Meme, presents true "sinecore" sounds for fans of barely-there abstract electronics. We're told that these Japanese artists are part of a new experimental electronica subgenre called "onkyo", which means "reverberation of sound" and refers to this sort of textural, improvised soundscaping. Sachiko M, who is a solo artist as well as frequent collaborator of Otomo Yoshihide and others in Ground Zero, ISO, Filament, etc., plays her memory-free "sampler with sine wave", while Toshimaru Nakamura (also a veteran of many collaborations, with the likes of Taku Sugimoto, Keith Rowe, and others) utilizes his "no-input mixing board". Basically, both are using "empty" electronic music devices to create a difficult, sparse, but strangely fascinating sound environment. It's like insects having a lonely conversation via shortwave, or transmissions (and interference) from an alien galaxy. Actually, its more like trying to listen in on something like that, but only getting the background sounds. This sort of high-end whine isn't for everyone, but those with 20' to 2000 series cds in their collections, those who are are partial to sine wave signals and static crackle, will enjoy.

NAKED CITY Black Box: Torture Garden/Leng Tch'e (Tzadik) 2cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Stars John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, Fred Frith, Joey Baron & Yamantaka Eye. For their re-issue, Zorn has packaged these two albums in a black box, presenting all of the original, controversial artwork in the liner notes. Zorn gives a bit of history behind the graphics for Naked City releases. The albums, one fast and furious, the other slow and brutal, are without equal. They demonstate the most aggressive sides of these incredible musicians.

NAKED CITY Complete Studio Recordings (Tzadik) 5cd+book 96.00
Holy crap! That's pretty much the first thing we thought when we saw this gorgeously designed box set. And it seems pretty appropriate considering 'holy crap' is what we inevitably think everytime we hear these guys play. For those of you who are new to Naked City, imagine five middle aged guys, short hair, some bald or balding, wearing dockers, and button down shirts, sitting in chairs, reading sheet music, and playing some of the most extreme, fucked up and chaotic genre splicing jazz / noise / twentieth century / metal / cabaret / whatever you've ever heard. Mix in the Zorn factor, band leader John Zorn, perpetually clad in some metal t-shirt and yellow and black camoflauge pants, and the Eye factor, occasional guest vocalist Yamatsuka Eye of the Boredoms, then also figure in a ridiculous obsession with metal, Japanese bondage, and crime scene photography and you've got Naked City. One of the only bands who can skip from country to grindcore to bebop to twentieth century classical to western swing and back and make it seem like they aren't even trying. And more importantly, make it sound like those disparate sounds belong together. Supposedly, Naked City played two weeks straight, every night, for two hours, and never played the same song twice. These guys are insane. So now we come to this here new box, which collects all of the Naked City records, remastered of course, as well as a new track recorded specifically for this box, a 'vocal' version of the Naked City classic "Grand Guignol" featuring Mike Patton. The box includes the all time classic self titled record, Absinthe, Radio, Heretic, and Grand Guignol as well as a massive book. The box and the book are gorgeously designed, like the Tzadik label aesthetic, only taken to the extreme. A thick white box, housing 5 digipaks and a hardcover book, very twenties looking, with flowing decorative script, all in metallic foil of course, the cds are redesigned in a way that incorporates the new look, but still includes ALL of the images and liner notes from the original releases, while the book is full color, black and white, some pages printed on gauzy vellum, all the album artwork, band photos, sketches, musical notation, drawings, testemonials, the whole thing so -designed- it's almost impossible to read sometimes (remember Raygun magazine?), but that sort of just fits with Naked City and their aesthetic obfuscation and confusional musical misdirection. What an amazing fucking band! And with all the records collected in one place, it's hard to imagine any other band collecting such a flawless and timeless body of work. And even though most Naked City fans already have all these records, Allan and Andee (massive fans) can tell you that you're probably gonna want this anyway! And if you've never heard Naked City, well, why not go all out and right that very tragic wrong. You won't be sorry!
MPEG Stream: "You Will Be Shot"
MPEG Stream: "A Shot In The Dark"
MPEG Stream: "Reanimator"
MPEG Stream: "Igneous Ejaculation"
MPEG Stream: "Saigon Pickup"

NAKED CITY Live At The Knitting Factory 1989 (Tzadik) cd 16.98
At long last, the archive of live documents of the infamous Downtown supergroup Naked City is being unleashed! Starting out in 1989, the hardcore/grind/jazz/soundtracks/noise/etc. inspired outfit led by John Zorn had yet to include harsh vocalisations in their compositions, future contributions from Brutal Truth's Kevin Sharpe and Boredoms' Yamatsuka Eye had not yet come to fruition. This first volume in Tzadik's Archival Series of Naked City recordings presents the group at their modest beginnings, featuring the lineup of Fred Frith, Wayne Horvitz, Joey Baron, Bill Frisell and Zorn himself. The setlist performed here represents some of the earliest, raw blueprints for what was to become the first (and last!) recording for Elektra's Nonesuch imprint, plus some originals and cover versions of compositions by Ennio Morricone, Johnny Mandel and John Patton that never made their way onto proper studio recordings! Beautifully designed, as expected of all Tzadik releases, with Weegee cover art (again) and many rarely seen photographs of the group in action onstage and off.
RealAudio clip: "Demon Sanctuary (Live)"
RealAudio clip: "You Will Be Shot (Live)"

NAKED ON THE VAGUE Blood Pressure Sessions (Dual Plover) cd 16.98

just thinking ... Adult., Pink Industry, Xmal Deutschland, German New Wave, Screamers on meth

NAKED ON THE VAGUE Blood Pressure Sessions (Siltbreeze) lp 13.98

NAKED PREY, THE (OST) (Latitude) cd 14.98
Soundtrack to Cornel Wilde's 1966 film. Shot on location in Africa (Rhodesia, South Africa, Bechuanaland & Mozambique) -- often hundreds of miles from the nearest village -- with a cast composed almost entirely of non-professional actors (most had never acted before in their lives), a minimal budget and a whole lot of blood, sweat & tears (literally), The Naked Prey brought method acting to new levels. The music chosen to be the score for the film is every bit as authentic as the shooting locations, for it is all composed and played by the N'guni clans amongst whom the crew worked and filmed. While Wilde of course selected the tracks from what the N'guni played for him during the filming, the music is just as they performed it. The entire score is merely recordings of drums, chants, strange animal imitations, and the natural ambience of the bush, ie: field recordings. Thank god this preceeded the medling interference of the world beat puveyors Peter Gabriel et. al. And actually, the score in and of itself was a bit of cutting edge concept. As is pointed out in the liner notes, this was released the same year as Nonesuch began their Explorer series and long before any kind of major world music industry. Another fine release from Latitude.
MPEG Stream: "Puberty Song"
MPEG Stream: "Animal Imitations"

NALLE The Siren Wave (Locust) cd 14.98

NAMBAJAZZ The Gun (Doubtmusic) cd 16.98
We just got a few new titles in from Japan's Doubtmusic label, which specializes in the outer margins of "jazz" and other avant garde sounds. This one is perhaps of particular interest to underground Japanese music freeks as it's a duo that features none other than guitarist Yamamoto Seiichi, of Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba, and Rovo fame, among many projects. His partner in crime is percussionist Yoshigaki Yasuhiro (from Ground Zero, Altered States, Rovo, ONJO, and others). These guys are old pros when it comes to making an awesome, interesting racket.
As you'd expect, it's a disc of somewhat splattery skronk - but quite listenable by skronk standards! There's a certain sort of catchy, chaotic logic to this duo's jittery, jumbled improvs, all performed live, the ten tracks here selected from several Nambajazz shows for this hour-long disc. Some subtle and moody, others utter stompers. Frantic this can be, but also foot-tappin'. Those looking for tangled, heavy-duty Takayanagi style blowouts need look no further than track 3 to get their ears peeled back. Amped-up guitar mayhem and octopoidal bashing in full effect! Elsewhere, the duo's music, led by Yamamoto's innovative and invigorating guitar playing (and "misc."), takes lots of other surprising twists and turns... ferinstance, track 9, "Ten-Kwaurou" ("An Air Corridor"), works in a bit more melody, even snatches of some classical pieces, in the midst of a satisfyingly shambolic, mathrock workout. Definitely one for any fan of Yamamoto's out-guitar stylings, as well as Zornophiles, Improvised Music From Japan subscribers, Boredoms nerds, etc... you know who you are....!
MPEG Stream: "Nakan-zuku (Above All)"
MPEG Stream: "Ani-hakaran-ya (To My Disbelief)"
MPEG Stream: "Ten-Kwaurou (An Air Corridor)"

NAMBLARD, MARC Chants Of Frozen Lakes (Kalerne Editions) cd 17.98
We've long been proponents of the idea, that any sound man can make, using technology and engineering and electronics, nature can make too. And it will be just as mysterious and interesting. Made even more so, that those sounds occur, well, naturally. And in most cases, especially in electronic music, many of the sounds we discover and create using synthesizers, mimic sounds already produced in nature.
Countless field recordings have proven this, and this latest disc - a recording of the ice on a lake in France, slowly melting - does so once again!
By now, regular readers of the list, have been exposed to plenty of unique field recordings, drag races, life support machines, frogs, applause, monkeys, cowbells, barking dogs, rutting deer and of course the sound of water and ice. Ice and water seem to be particularly interesting sonically, as they always seem to be in motion, whether at the microscopic level melting and cracking, or on a more physical level, the sound of rushing rivers, pouring rain.
The sounds here, like many of the other field recordings we are so fond of, sound NOTHING like what you would imagine ice would sound like. Apparently, the layer of ice on the lake, acts like the head of a drum, transmitting the various cracks and crackles and vibrations across the expansive sheet of ice, producing strange tones, some very electronic sounding, all of them mysterious.
This record was woven together the sounds of the ice covered lake on a single day. Hours of recordings edited into one hour, but no other work has been done on these sounds, this is the actual sound of the ice. It begins with the sound of birds, the ice producing tiny little streaks of sound, that do sound like synthesizers, strange space-y FX, suspended in an expanse of murky murmur. The intensity and the frequency of those space-y streaks increases as the day warms up and the ice begins to fracture and melt, the barrage of bleeps and bloops begin to sound like a Star Wars laser battle, and sound like it couldn't possibly be the sound of ice. Eventually, the laser like streaks get deeper, and more resonant, as if someone was adding reverb or delay, until it's just a cloud of fuzzy bleeps and warbly tweets, underpinned by the actual staticky crackle of the ice cracking.
It's hard to explain much better than that, try listening to the sound samples, you will be amazed. It truly is a rare glimpse of some impossible and mysterious soundworld. A peek into how nature works, or at the very least, a chance to overhear the magic of nature, the sounds the exist in the wild, even if most of the time we're unable to hear them. Magical.
MPEG Stream: "Chants Of Frozen Lakes (Excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Chants Of Frozen Lakes (Excerpt 2)"

NAMELOSERS Fabulous Sounds From Southern Sweden (Got To Hurry) cd 17.98

NAMIBIA SOUNDSCAPES (ANTHONY WALKER) Namibia Soundscapes (Paysages De Namibie) (Sittelle) cd 16.98

NANA APRIL JUN The Ontology Of Noise (Touch) cd 16.98
It's probably no surprise that we were intrigued when we first heard about this disc, after all the press release claims that it "researches the dark associations of post-black metal". And they go on to recommend it to fans of Burzum's masterpiece Filosofem! However, it must be the ambient aspects of Filosofem they're referencing, as you'll find no true frosty guitar buzz here, instead this is a purely digital, all-electronic album released by the UK's ever reliable, experimental Touch label, home to the likes of Fennesz, Philip Jeck, B.J. Nilsen, Chris Watson, and others. Intriguing, eh?
Of course, if we hadn't read that press release, we might never have related this to anything black metal at all, but we'd still like it. It's a very pleasant and varied dronological document, suggestive of field recordings, even though all these sounds are abstract ones, mostly realized inside a computer. There's passages that seem like buzzing insect swarms ("Process Philosophy"), or lashings of wind and rain ("Space-Time Continuum"), or Tibetan temple bells ("Semantic Shift"), or the gentle swaying of leaves and branches in a breeze ("Sun Wind Darkness Eye"). That particular track goes on to generate a mysterious low, soft hum, eventually accompanied by a beating electronic pulse, like much of the minimal techno we enjoy...
It's all quite evocative and lovely, although now that we think about it, some of these sounds could also be, like, cold winds blowing across frozen fjords, or sinister rumblings heard inside a subterranean crypt... And who knows, perhaps Nana April Jun (aka Christofer Lamgren), who hails from Sweden, wears corpsepaint whilst working with his digital tools. Probably not, though, since the majority of the text we read pertaining to this release was on the academic side of things. And although discussions of subjects like "the ontology of noise" and other psuedointellectual concepts can be a mite pretentious, regardless of that, all the whooshing, hissing, droning here is very good listening indeed.
MPEG Stream: "The One Substance"
MPEG Stream: "Process Philosophy"
MPEG Stream: "Space-Time Continuum"

NANANG TATANG Muki (Tiger Style) cd 14.98
In Nanang Tatang, main members of Ida, Daniel Littleton and Elizabeth Mitchell take their dreamy, soothing sound into the electronic realm. Although Muki starts off with a drifting ambience of the most delicate twinkling chimes and whirring digital vapors, as things progress the acoustic and electronic elements entwine effortlessly with Ida's familiar hushed female and male vocals taking center stage. Twelve songs crafted from a palette of feathery guitar strums, soft repetitive piano lines, warming organ, viola and harmonium drones, and occasional subtle programmed beats make for an altogether intimate, wistful affair. Check out "Oldest News" with its Elvis-Costello-on-a-super-drowsy-downer vocals as well as the dreamily meandering "The Fullness Of Time". Simply lovely. Certainly for fans of Ida, but also those of Julie Doiron, Mum and Low.
MPEG Stream: "Oldest News"
MPEG Stream: "The Fullness Of Time"

NANCARROW, CONLON Lost Works, Last Works (Other Minds) cd 14.98
Like the title says, this cd collects not only some of the late works of avant garde 20th century composer Conlon Nancarrow circa 1990-3 but also a variety of previously unpublished pieces from the '30s and '40s. There's music written for piano, tape, prepared player piano, string quartet, and more. Plus, there's a rare half hour interview with the man himself concluding the disc.

NANCARROW, CONLON Studies for Player Piano Vol. 1-5 (Wergo) 5cd 56.00
"This set brings together all five volumes of Nancarrow's prize-winning player piano recordings in one deluxe, slipcase package. With their dazzling acrobatic complexities, well beyond the technique of any human, Nancarrow's works are both amazingly beautiful and strangely unsettling. Wergo's recordings were made in 1988 at Conlon Nancarrow's Mexico City studio, using the composer's own custom-altered Ampico reproducing piano. The 140-page booklet includes numerous unpublished photographs, an essay by producer Charles Amirkhanian and a probing musical analysis by James Tenney." - Wergo liner notes. Originally this collection was issued in separate editions with Vol. 1 + 2 together, Vol. 3 + 4 togather, and Vol. 5 separate, but all sets have subsequently been deleted by Wergo. This set with the book is the only way now to get these awesome mind numbing recordings.

NANJO, ASAHITO GROUP MUSICA Contemporary Kagura-Metaphysics (Fractal) cd 21.00
In addition to the great Toho Sara album Hourouurin we reviewed here last time, there's been another new Nanjo Asahito (also of High Rise, Mainliner, Musica Transonic...) and Kawabata Makoto (also of Acid Mothers Temple, Mainliner, Musica Transonic...) project recently released on the French Fractal label -- something called Contemporary Kagura-Metaphysics from Nanjo's Group Musica. What's that? Well the notes on the cd's back cover say the following, in part: "Group Musica is an ensemble that pursues the free use of every type of Western and Eastern musical instrument, is propelled by the vibrations of very subtle rhythms, and that has internalized the methodology of minimalism. The concept behind this album is transform Kagura, an ancient form of Japanese music and dance that was performed for the gods, and is to convert the ideas of 'Secret teachings' and ancient Chinese methods of divination (the I-Ching) into a metaphysics of musical vibrations. The concept of Kagura allows Group Musica to create a unique work that is an experimental symphonic composition, which nonetheless has many rich improvisatory elements. In this unique work, the symbolic/philosophical nature of ancient esotericism is incorporated as improvisation, while the I-Ching is related to avant-garde symphonics. These are then fused into a total concept."
OK, got that? We're also told the many musicians involved must remain anonymous for Group Musica is a "total entity". Not sure how that squares with Nanjo's name being emblazoned on the cover, but after all he's the conductor (with help from Kawabata in the structuring and arranging of the music). And what does all this sound like? Well, how 'bout fake 20th century classical improv? With four long tracks of abstract interplay of horns and percussive clatter and woodwinds and so forth, this is kind of like the endless tuning session of a somewhat drunken orchestra... the Taj Mahal Travellers and the Thai Elephants teaming up at the symphony? Sometimes dramatic, often droning, very loose!
MPEG Stream: "Mythical Meditation Of Phantom Genesis And Confused Sphere"
MPEG Stream: "Heaven Ward Gate For Inspiration"

NAPALM DEATH Enemy Of The Music Business (Spitfire) cd 14.98

NAPALM DEATH From Enslavement To Obliteration (Earache) cd 15.98