NEPTUNE s/t (Golden Lab) lp 21.00

NEPTUNES, THE Clones (Star Trak) cd + dvd 16.98

NERELL, LOREN Indonesian Soundscapes (Soleilmoon) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Armed with a DAT and sights on a Masters in Ethnomusicology Loren Nerell had every intention of documenting temple ceremonial music, but found himself captivated by the daily ambient / environmental sounds of bamboo forests, bus depots, and muslim calls to worship. All are collected here as well as sounds of a Gamelan maker's showroom, frogs, excerpts of wayang kulit (Javanese shadow puppet plays), plus everyone's favorite, the lovable Kecak monkey chant of Bali and much more. Excellent.

NERELL, LOREN Lilin Dewa (Side Effects) cd 14.98
Loren Nerell is the ethnomusicologist who compiled the exceptional field recording album "Indonesian Soundscapes" for Soleilmoon. "Lilin Dewa" is his outstanding studio production based on archaic Javanese and Balinese gamelan styles infused with dronologist electronics to add a dark mystery to the delicate percussive processions. It makes perfect sense that Brian Lustmord released this on his Side Effects label.

NERELL, LOREN Taksu (Soleilmoon) cd 14.98

NERFBAU Error Swarms (Resipiscent) cd 14.98
Latest from these noisy Oakland oddballs, who at the outset, sound a bit like a way more fucked up, way more musical Negativland or Tape Beatles, at least over the first few songs (and the last few), the same sort of cut-up recontextualism, but way less linear, and way more warped, the samples less the focus, and more just another element, and while it is noisy, it's also lush and textural, glitched out and electronic, droney and industrial, the various voices and found sounds eventually disappearing almost entirely for the bulk of the record, beneath heaving swells of crumbling distortion and sheets of hissing shortwave interference, warm whirling melodies drifting over dense rumbling reverberations, occasionally things lock into subtle rhythms, throbbing like some buried subterranean pulse, other times the songs seem to expand, sprawling into blackened noisescapes, abstract and amorphous, each one a mysterious hazy stretch of garbled muted haze, an undulating surfacesound, barely obscuring all the action right underneath, chittering percussive skitter, roiling bass heavy thrum, squalls of blown out synth buzz, bursts of superdistorted in-the-red crunch, weird abstract drones wrapped around conflagrations of blurred bleary noise that begin to sound almost like beats, flecked with all manner of hum and whir, the whole thing growing gradually prettier and more melodic as it goes, the noise elements definitely restrained, more textural than caustic and the end result for the most part is less of a noise record, and more of a super varied, abstract avant drone record. That said, the band do occasionally fuck shit up, with super intense bursts of howled blacknoise, or shards of grinding metallic buzz, but for every one of those moments, there's another of dark brooding dronescapery, or haunting cinematic drift to balance it out. Cool stuff.
Packaged in an oversized full color sleeve, partially covered by a grey fabric hood, and wrapped up tight with copper wire.
MPEG Stream: "Cochlear Phantasmagoria"
MPEG Stream: "Mechanical Camel Toe (Smell It My DNA)"
MPEG Stream: "Error Swarms"
MPEG Stream: "Malleus Hybrid"

NERO The Dune Concept Album (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 13.98
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"This CD contains one of the strangest ideas I've run across lately... an insane, angular, aggressive soundtrack for David Lynch's failed sci-fi beast of a movie, Dune. Trust me, though - as goofy as this sounds - this is a fantastic album. It takes more than human guts to dish out the beating that Louisville, KY's Nero gives the senses with the nearly 18-minute long improvisational album-closer, Kwizzach Haderach. Within this track, dialogue samples from Dune are alternately buried and brought to the surface, while Nero relentlessly tweaks and hacks away at building a colossal, disturbing drone. It's absolutely maniacal - which is the best way to describe Nero. With guitars, bass, drums and vocals all armed with razors and needles, and a really scary stab at an oddball 'concept album,' Nero has designed an inspired piece of unforgettable mayhem." -pillowfight.com

NERO ORDER The Tower (self-released) cd-r 11.98
Long in the works debut full length from these SF heavies, four songs, 54 minutes, a sprawling collection of lurching lumbering, trudging post metal apocalyptic, swampy emo dirgery. And we don't mean emo in the mall punk sense, no we're talking, earnest and intense, epic and EMOTIONAL, the vocals specifically, a wild, nearly unhinged caterwaul, dramatic and occasionally over the top, sounding a bit like a harsher Daniel Higgs (and when it does, the band almost sounds like a metal Lungfish!), or a more metal David Yow, a little like the guy from NoMeansNo oddly enough, or even a more manic Michael Gira, with an intense, snarling delivery, actually sung too, not of that gurgle and shriek, and those real vocals add pathos and intensity to the already swaggery, slithery doomy crush underneath.
Equal parts math metal, post metal and doom metal, these guys unfurl epic sun baked expanses of totally epic doom blues brutality, churning heaviness that slips from gnarled Birthday Party like scumrock to soaring slow building Neurosis style pummel, the guitars drifting from jangle to roar, from shimmer do droned out and blackened, often in the same song. Long stretches of hypnotic cyclical riffing give way to bursts of chaotic metal psych jams, give way to swampy noise rock strut, eventually returning to the lumbering downtuned heaviness that seems to be the band's core, but those vocals soar above it all, tortured and patently UNmetal, helping transform this post metal avant doom into something truly unique. Features guest vocals from Eugene Robinson of Oxbow!
LIMITED to 100 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Signs Of Five"
MPEG Stream: "Every Pillar And It's Crumbling"

NERVE CITY I Fucked Death (Kill Shaman) 10" 12.98

NERVE NET NOISE Dark Garden (Intransitive) cd 14.98

NERVE NET NOISE Meteor Circuit (Intransitive Recordings) cd 14.98
Japanese duo Nerve Net Noise, with previous releases on Meme, Zero Gravity, and Hronir, make the sort of experimental electronic "music" that really separates the men from the boys (or, shall we say, the insane noise geeks from everyone else). But while Tsuyoshi "Tagomago" Nakamaru (who handles the mix and effects) and Hiroshi Kumakiri (who builds NNN's unique synthesizers) are from Japan, this *isn't* howling vacuum cleaner grinding shrieking death noise in the tradition of Merzbow/Hijokaidan/Masonna/etc. Rather, it's closer in style to the clicks n' cuts of Ryoki Ikeda and the "empty" sine wave pulses of Sachiko M.
Some call it "onkyo" music. How about we call it squeaky toy, modem on the fritz, annoying buzzer going off music? Yep, it's still room-clearing stuff, y'know. Indeed, it was hard to review, 'cause my co-workers kept yelling at me to turn it off!! But to NNN's ears, this is beautiful music. From Kumakiri's liner notes:
"At first, Nerve Net Noise enjoyed pure sound. These days, we try to think about music. We aspire to create music that is between played and not-played, between controlled and uncontrolled. We feel that consciously performed music can have too much evidence of human planning. But we also dislike random music that displays no evidence of human planning at all. We try to find a satisfying middle area with our albums."
Well, that's an uncommon idea of "music", now isn't it!? But it explains a lot about how this album sounds. Basically, Kumakiri's array of homemade synths are switched on and allowed to make the noises they want to make, while the NNN duo tweak the volume and so forth, affecting the sounds and rhythms. When they're happy with what they're hearing, they record the results. It's kind of a Metal Machine Music concept. Imagine a nest of robotic birds, mechanically, repetitively chirping at one another, slowly building into patterns and rhythms that will drill themselves into your brain, causing either the euphoria of a trepanation (if you're into it) or simply the pain of such. But it's clear that the former is the intention. These guys aren't trying to make assaultive music for masochists -- they just hear things differently from most folks. For instance, we suspect they'd hear the beauty inherent in a malfunctioning car alarm. If you want to open *yourself* up to this realm of sound-appreciation, then "Meteor Circuit" wouldn't be a bad place to start -- just don't expect your co-workers, housemates, family, etc. to enjoy it! (Is it perverse to like this stuff? 'Cause some of us here have more than one NNN cd in our collections...)
RealAudio clip: "#1"
RealAudio clip: "#4"

NERVE NET NOISE Various Amusements (Hronir / Staalplaat ) cd 14.98
"Various Amusements" by the Japanese glitch / onkyo / minimalist ensemble Nerve Net Noise was billed to us as an electronic meditation on the common activities of teenage girl's afternoon, such as shopping, talking on the phone, putting on make up, taking a nap, cooking, etc. With such an unusually literal intentionality applied to the pure tones, ear-piercing vibrations, and minimalist noises found within, it's impossible not to qualify "Make Up" as a track sounding as if the fictional girl were applying her make up with a belt sander! The only track that had any resemblance between the activity explained in the title and the sonic quality of the music itself was "Cooking," which at a stretch could the digitalization of eggs frying in a pan of hot oil. It's difficult to imagine what Nerve Net Noise (who are two grown Japanese men) really wants to convey through such an absurdist exercise. Chalk it up to being "conceptual."
RealAudio clip: "Afternoon Nap"
RealAudio clip: "Make Up"

NERVEBOX Drawn (Nervous Noise) cd 11.98
On their debut album -- a fully fleshed out rock production -- SF band Nervebox reveal many facets of their musical personality including a flair for the somber and the dramatic. Oddly enough on initial in-store play, Drawn swiftly drew comparisons to such diverse artists such as Arcadia (remember that project by Duran Duran's Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes? check out "Out Of Line" which also hinted at shades of Portishead's pace and mood), early REM (on "All For The Best") or David Sylvian back in Japan days. And Nervebox certainly do traverse the vast rock terrain freely and confidently although they do tend to keep returning to the deep emotiveness of Japan/David Sylvian. Synths swoop and howl like menacing ravens on one song, decisively-picked guitar drives another, then suddenly you're immersed in a eerie carnivalesque rock number ("Monkey"). Nervebox keeps you on your toes.
MPEG Stream: "Out Of Line"
MPEG Stream: "Monkey"

NERVEBREAKERS We Want Everything! (Get Hip) cd 14.98
Long overdue archival release from this '70s Texas punk rock combo, and like many seventies punk rock bands, their sound is a lot more pop than much of the punk rock that would follow in the eighties. The band made a name for themselves in the mid seventies, releasing a handful of eps, even opening for the Sex Pistols in 1978 (one of the only bands EVER to have opened for the Pistols), this here was meant to be their debut album, and was recorded in 1980 but never released until now - about time!! They start things off with a killer cover of Morricone's "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly", before launching into their 'hit', "My Girlfriend Is A Rock", with its crunchy fuzzy power pop riffage and absurdist lyrics, and from there on out it's all swaggery, buzzy, caffeinated, punked out power pop, a little bit psychedelic, heavy on the hooks, and while "My Girlfriend Is A Rock" was an actual hit, it's hard to believe most of the tracks here didn't follow suit. Totally hooky punk pop that should most definitely appeal equally to punk rockers and power poppers. We've been listening to this like crazy!
MPEG Stream: "The Good The Bad & The Ugly"
MPEG Stream: "My Girlfriend Is A Rock"
MPEG Stream: "Girls Girls Girls Girls Girls"

NERVOUS COP s/t (5RC) cd 14.98
Drummer extraordinare Greg Saunier of Deerhoof and drummer supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Zach Hill of Hella kick up some noisy noise noise here. As you'd expect, there's lotsa drums in with their noise, plus...classical harp played by Joanna Newsom (of The Pleased, and solo fame)? Yep!
It's a hectic thirty minute wonderland of bipping bapping drumbeats and electronic fuckery, with some moments of mysterious beauty, strangely enough -- often courtesy of Newsom's harp pluckery. Like a lot of things Deerhoof-related, odd but good. And it's definitely got a great cover pic, we think.
MPEG Stream: "Franks No Frank"

NES Castlevania (Auris Apothecary) cassette 5.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

NES Contra (Auris Apothecary) cassette 5.50
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NES Gun.Smoke (Auris Apothecary) cassette 5.50
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NES Mega Man (Auris Apothecary) cassette 4.98
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NES MEGAPACK (Castlevania / Contra / The Legend Of Zelda / Ninja Gaiden / Gun.Smoke / Mega Man / Tetris) (Auris Apothecary) 7 x cassette 30.00
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save a couple bucks

NES Ninja Gaiden (Auris Apothecary) cassette 5.50
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NES Tetris (Auris Apothecary) cassette 4.98
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NES The Legend Of Zelda (Auris Apothecary) cassette 4.98
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NEST / MHFS s/t (Gest) 3"cd-r 4.98
We have long been huge fans of New Zealand noisemaker Nigel Wright ever since we first heard him on a cd-r way back in 2005. Since then we've tried to carry everything we could get our hands on, but unlike his overproductive countrymen, it hasn't been much. We flipped over the recent Tapir 3"cd-r and only just recently got a handful of this disc.
Nest is a duo, featuring Wright and LA based sound maker Andrew Scott, and for this little 3" the two have teamed up with Mark Sadgrove (of MHFS and Infintesimal) and together these three kick up quite a din, huge distorted washes of sound that shift and pulse and twist and throb like something alive. Burning white hot and blown out, it's a glistening wall of supernova guitars, wreathed in a hazy cloud of dense distortion and buzzy reverb. Like a single shard of My Bloody Valentine psychrock blowout, looped and run through a busted up old distortion pedal. A gloriously crumbling, coruscating blast of face melting psychedelic free noise bliss.
Already out of print. We have about 25 copies, but these will probably go quick...
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"

NEST / TIM COSTER s/t (Gest) cd-r 9.98
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Last year we reviewed a cd-r by the duo Nest, guitarist Andrew Scott and NZ noisemaker Nigel Wright, where they teamed up with fellow kiwi MHFS, but for this latest outing, the duo has teamed up with yet another New Zealander, Tim Coster, and the results are again sublime. But in a much different way than the last collaboration. Where that one was distorted and heavy and buzzy, this new one is much darker and more introspective, guitars and laptops blurred into warm whirring blurs, soft distorted pulses smoother out into soft swells, a dreamy dark tranquil drift, that continues that way for much of the track's 25 minutes, but right around the 17 minute mark, the guitars grow a bit restless, the sound a bit more corrosive, over the continuous low end flow, soars streaks of coruscating high end, shards of feedback, eventually shedding the low end completely, leaving the sharper guitar to riff weightlessly and slowly transform into a fuzzed out chunk of slow swirling murk, that unfurls until the track's end. Good stuff. Fans of the usual abstract free drone stuff will dig this heavily!
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

NET SHAKER Church On Time (self-released) cd-r 9.98
Another mysterious disc that just showed up in the mail one day, and totally knocked our socks off. So we ordered a bunch cuz we wanted to share them with all of you, but then we realized we had to describe it, and damn if this isn't a tough one to figure out.
Dark and somber, rhythmic and minimal, a muddy, murky, sort of krautdrone drift. The rhythms are pulses, that drift in and out, the guitars moan and keen, electronics warble and rumble, lots of twisted bits of low end, changing speed and tone, super abstract and drifty and otherworldly, the band occasionally coalesce into a sort-of-groove, but even then, it's a sort of convoluted lumber, vocals, wrapped in reverb and echo, draped over the stuttering anti-funk, the melody carried by deep slow shifting swells, all around fragments of sounds tangle and untangle, their overtones creating strange minimal melodies.
When the vocals do come in, it almost sounds like some sort of avant coldwave, imagine a cold wave Starfuckers maybe, a little bit cold and clinical and machinelike, but Net Shaker are less concerned with song, and groove, and being new wave or cold wave or whatever. They definitely exist in their own fucked up and fractured world.
The sound may be hard to pin down, but it's definitely mesmerizing, hypnotic, cyclical, a woozy, warped, murky assemblage of cold Teutonic pop, layered drones, motorik krautrock, spaced out post industrial ambience, not to mention some fractured druggy sonic collage. Noise rock, post punk, avant pop, dirge wave, cold core, krautwave, not sure what to call it, or if it even needs a name, what we do know is this is one of the most original sounding records we've heard in ages, and we find ourselves listening to this cd-r all the time. Which pretty much says it all...
MPEG Stream: "Descenda"
MPEG Stream: "Silhouetta"
MPEG Stream: "Church On"
MPEG Stream: "Iss"
MPEG Stream: "Ticlake"

NETHER The Wholeness of Nothingness (NOTHingness REcords) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Got just TWO copies of this, found tucked away in the closet here, originally released in 2003, looooong out of print, the label too is now defunct, this is some seriously epic, black hole, bottomless low end deepdarkdronemusic. Bleak and hushed, ambient minimal shimmer, cold and barren, cinematic and utterly ominous, shot through with streaks of crumbling distortion, the whole thing so gorgeously haunting and harrowing. Definitely for fans of Thomas Koner, and other masters of the grim black drone.
Packaged in an oversized dvd case, full color printed cover, and as mentioned above, out of print, last two copies EVER.
MPEG Stream: "The Wholeness of Nothingness"

NETHER DAWN, THE Outer Dark (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 16.98
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It's that time again. That mysterious time, which only occurs a few times each year. Like an equinox or a solstice. When strange shimmering sonic clouds drift lazily across the sea and land gently in our earholes. That's right, it's time for some new sounds from one of our favorite labels in the world, Celebrate Psi Phenomenon. This instalmment comes from the mysterious Nether Dawn, which is the work of Mr. Antony Milton, who just so happens to run another one of our favorite labels, PseudoArcana. Milton has spent much of his time lately making big noises, and causing much sonic destruction performing his own brand of free-drone-metal as Mrtyu, but here returns to his drone-drfit roots. Outer Dark is a gorgeously pastoral spacescape, fuzzy and washed out, huge drifts of shimmer and wide expanses of sun baked ambience. Delicate and crystalline, melodies lurk innocently beneath thick swaths of sweet buzz or dash furtively and barely noticed through deep swells of rich rumbling sound. Notes soaked in reverb float lazily through twilit skies, like listening to the most beautiful music with your ears crossed, so everything is just a little bit fuzzy, a little bit smeared, notes become tinly little shooting stars, their tonal colors turned into little musical trails drifting into the ether, while guitars are stretched into soft gauzy sheets, everything warm and wonderfully dreamlike. Beautiful!
MPEG Stream: "GreetĘThe Evening With A Kapai"
MPEG Stream: "Southern Cross"

NETHER DAWN, THE Whiskey Mute-Down (Last Visible Dog) cd 11.98
Nether Dawn is the alter ego of Mr. Antony Milton, who really needs no more alter egos, but what the heck, with each alter ego comes another chunk of gorgeous sound, so we're not complaining. This is not really new, it's just been sitting here waiting to get reviewed, and we've finally gotten around to it, and as is often the case, from the second we threw this on, we were wondering why the heck we waited so long.
Whisky Mute-Down begins as a gorgeous crumbling wall of rumbles and drones, of buried melodies and streaks of high end feedback. Noisy, but soft noise, it totally had us wishing it was the only track here and would continue on in the same vein for another hour. But thankfully, the rest of the record has other sonic treasures to offer. A spare guitar drifts above buzz and crackle, of amp buzz and the sound of bad connections and old cords, warm soft whirs spread out in thick waves, sounding a bit like field recordings, far beneath the call of some alien creature rings out, a clattery clanging guitarscape rings out over an almost techno pulse, the beat and the pulsing guitar swaying woozily back and forth, while a second guitar unfurls delicate little high end melodies, a long slow burning distant grinding guitar shimmers beneath glimmering high end, and above bellowing low end, the various layers blurring together like oil and water, offering up various colors and tones, and finally, another minimal dronescape, a doomy riff, wreathed in crackle and stripped to the bone, occasionally rearing up to chug and crunch, but otherwise laying prone, and the buzz and hiss pile up, the whole thing a smoldering sea of distorted drones, decaying before our ears. Worth it for the first track alone, but even more worth it for the rest...
MPEG Stream: "Evensong Pt. One"
MPEG Stream: "Routes Through Grey Lands"

NETHER DAWN, THE / 1/3 OCTAVE BAND Live At Sound & Fury (Sound & Fury) cd-r 12.98
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BACK IN STOCK!! FINAL COPIES!!
Another killer (and super limited, argh) release from Sound & Fury, a killer record store / label in Australia, who recently decided to close down the shop, but will continue to book tours, have shows and release records, lucky for us! This disc is a live to minidisc recording from a massive New Zealand freenoise show featuring a who's who of AQ faves and kick ass NZ underground legends: Birchville Cat Motel, 6Majik9, James Kirk from Sandoz Lab Technicians, and of course the Nether Dawn and 1/3 Octave band.
The Nether Dawn are Antony Milton (PseudoArcana, Mrtyu, etc.) and AQ pal Jon Dale, who teamed up for this 15+ minute set of soaring drone and dense thick hum and shimmer. Big low pulses of sound tangled up with sparkling high end, glistening melodies and mumbled heavily affected vocals. A blast of cosmic space out along the same lines as Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof! and the like but with a softer, more dreamlike focus. Nice.
1/3 Octave Band follow up with their own lengthy jam, a near 17 minute slab of chiming metal, clanging percussion, super reverbed pipefight, little swirls of high end feedback, reverberating chimes, and a soft shimmery skree, that about halfway sort of slow down and stretch out, into a languid, sunbaked guitar/electronics free jam drift. A shimmering cascading flow of warm reverberant chords, flickering feedback, and subtle but distinct minor key melancholia. So nice.
Packaged in really nice brown paper, sealed with a black stamped wax seal, each copy hand numbered with a printed inner sleeve and a unique full color, actual photo.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

NETMEN s/t (Folding) cassette 8.98
Yet another limited edition release from Mike Donovan's Folding cassette-only label. This one's considerably longer in running time than any of the recent batch, and it features early improvised recordings by John Dwyer (guitar) and Brian Gibson (drums) aka The Netmen. Noisy and rhythmic and weird and pretty wonderful. Just what you'd expect from the mad musical minds of Gibson and Dwyer.
Super limited!

NETO, JULIEN Le Fumeur de Ciel (Type) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Julien Neto creates velvety and gorgeous drone music that twitches with static-like prickles. Each track of Le Fumeur de Ciel envelopes the listener with an aching heaviness, the kind that originates from deep within your chest. Quite moving and very film score-ish. If you enjoyed Port-Royal's Flares album that we highlighted last list, you might also find Julien Neto's music ticklin' your fancy.
MPEG Stream: "VI (featuring Keith Kenniff)"
MPEG Stream: "Questionable Things"

NETTLE Build A Fort, Set That On Fire (The Agriculture) cd 12.98
First full length from Nettle (a duo that just happens to feature AQ fave DJ/ Rupture!!). This disc is mostly made up of previously released 12"s, but adds some extra tracks to make the whole package worthwhile, even if you have the wax. The sound here is pretty far removed from the plunderphonic dancehall turntable mashups of the two Rupture releases (though some Nettle tracks can be found on those discs). Nettle is more like a hyper-glitched, super distorted Muslimgauze. Middle Eastern melodies are buried under bumping beats, downtempo rhythms and lots of glitched out bursts of hyper distortion and BZZZZZZZTTT. Dreamy melodies weave in and out of the mix as do brief hip hop snippets and found sounds. While this doesn't have the sort of novelty factor of Rupture's DJ mixes, this is still some seriously great stuff.
RealAudio clip: "Minesweeper Dub"
RealAudio clip: "Ballad Of Jimmy Hollin"

NETTLE Firecamp Stories Remixes (The Agriculture) cd 14.98

NETTLE (DJ /RUPTURE) El Resplandor: The Shining In Dubai (Sub Rosa) cd 16.98
Been a while (8 years?) since we've heard from Nettle, or DJ /Rupture for that matter. Nettle is the live band project of DJ /Rupture, the amazing mix master (and self-described "border-crossing bass visionary") responsible for, as we put it, "plunderphonic dancehall turntable mashups" on his various rad mixes (2001's Gold Teeth Thief being THE classic). We know he's got a show on WFMU, still does music and mixes, but we didn't know that his band Nettle was still active, or rather that it had been reactivated. So this new Nettle album is unexpected, but nevertheless awesome.
El Resplandor is a concept album, the quite cool concept pretty much revealed in its subtitle: The Shining In Dubai. Yes, we're in imaginary soundtrack territory here - what if, Stephen King's The Shining were set in an abandoned luxury hotel in the Arabian emirate of Dubai, on the Persian Gulf? Musically, this turns out to be an excellent idea... you keep the spooky psychological horror stuff (family moves into isolated empty hotel, things get weird, dad loses his shit, etc.) and add an ethnic Middle Eastern music element as well.
DJ /Rupture, credited with "electricity, mudd", works with an ensemble of musicians, including guitarist Andy from The Ex. So there's guitar, cello (x2), violin, and guembri (an African 3-stringed skin-covered lute) - along with lovely, wordless female vocals, something that's always perfectly suspense soundtrack worthy!
While in the past, this outfit sounded something like a beat-heavy, uber-distorted Muslimgauze, with hiphop elements even, El Resplandor is more restrained, atmospheric, and eerily evocative, in keeping with the concept. There's much somber shimmer and string pluck, and of course tape manipulation and electronic glitchery, with DJ /Rupture applying his mixing/editing skills to what may have been improvised solos from the various instrumentalists - we're not sure of the compositional method, but it certainly involves some measure of computer processing. The eleven varied tracks all individually contribute to the haunted, alienated, edge-of-the-desert vibe of The Shining in Dubai idea... From the stately exotic dance of "Espina" to the buzz, crackle and chaos of "Simoom (Wasp Wind)", this is a beautiful and dramatic disc. One that makes for a good late night listen, excepting the presence of that "Simoom" track, where thing get a bit... disturbed... that might wake you up from your reveries!
The digipack packaging features scene-setting liner notes by none other than imaginative architectural essayist Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG fame (great blog, check it out if you haven't before) and equally appropriate photographs by Lamya Gargash. Quite recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Radio Flower"
MPEG Stream: "Empty Quarters"
MPEG Stream: "El Resplandor: In The Marsh"

NEU! Neu! ( Gronland ) cd 15.98
A few years back, we were ecstatic 'cause seminal krautrockers Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger had at long last (after an uncomfortable decade-plus of legal wrangling) patched up whatever their differences were, in order to allow their three classic '70s albums to be officially released on cd for the first time! Hallelujah! Unfortunately, those reissues on Astralwerks then went out of print, again. Argh. How are we supposed to do our job, recommending essential stuff like Neu!, when the record labels can't keep these albums available?? We've got Harmonia and Cluster but it's a shame not to have Neu!... Well thankfully, there's been a new Neu! reissue program on the Gronland label. And Neu!, Neu! 2, and Neu! 75 are back in print and back in stock, for a new generation (and those who missed out before) to enjoy.
For those of you not already Neu!-savvy, these are the guys responsible (along with Kraftwerk, with whom guitarist Rother and drummer Dinger once played - that's how they met, before splitting to form Neu!) for the "motorik" beat, the propulsive, autobahn-friendly, proto-punk electronics hybrid that has influenced countless bands. From big fans Bowie and Eno back in the seventies to the hundreds of postrock/electronica acts that namecheck them now, Neu! are gods. Negativland not only got their name from a Neu! song off the first album, but even the name of their label, Seeland, comes from a track off of 75. Indeed, some bands have built their entire careers on, uh, paying homage to Neu! (Michael Rother, quoted in Mojo magazine: "I went to a Stereolab concert once. Suddenly I had the impression I was listening to myself -- very strange!")
Neu! 1 (1971) is a stunning work of art, drifting back and forth between the stripped down minimal kraut-pop that they're most commonly associated with, to long, spacey and psychedelic forays with lapses into musique concrete like moments with lapping water, children and jackhammers. Their sound could be most closely compared to early Kraftwerk or Cluster. In fact, the track "Im Gluck" sounds an awful lot like both Kraftwerk's "Radioland" and, believe it or don't, the beginning preamble to Rush's "Xanadu." Whether these two had Neu! in mind when they worked these songs out remains to be proven, but it's nice to think of such dissimilar groups drawing from the same well.
MPEG Stream: "Im Gluck"
MPEG Stream: "Weissensee"
MPEG Stream: "Negativland"

NEU! Neu! (Astralwerks) lp 16.98
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!!! Here's what we had to say about the cd reissue in AQL#114:
Seminal krautrockers Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger have at long last (after an uncomfortable decade-plus of legal wrangling) patched up whatever their differences were in order to allow their three classic '70s albums to be offical released on cd for the first time! Hallelujah! Now you can trade in your treasured Germanofon bootlegs (as we believe everyone is required to do by the unwritten law of responsible bootleg-purchasing) and pick up these babies, so that Rother and Dinger will finally get some of the $$$ they deserve for their pioneering music-making. (They'd better, since these are *more* expensive than the boots were! Too bad you won't get much in trade now for the boots...)
For those of you not already Neu!-savvy, these are the guys responsible (along with Kraftwerk, with whom guitarist Rother and drummer Dinger once played -- that's how they met, before splitting to form Neu!) for the "motorik" beat, the propulsive, autobahn-friendly, proto-punk electronics hybrid that has influenced countless bands. From big fans Bowie and Eno back in the seventies to the hundreds of postrock/electronica acts that namecheck them now, Neu! are gods. Negativland not only got their name from a Neu! song off the first album, but even the name of their label, Seeland, comes from a track off of 75. Indeed, some bands have built their entire careers on, uh, paying homage to Neu! (Michael Rother, quoted in the most recent issue of MOJO: "I went to a Stereolab concert once. Suddenly I had the impression I was listening to myself -- very strange!")
Astralwerks has done a nice job with these reissues. No, there's no bonus tracks or extensive liner notes or anything "extra", but all the original artwork is included (not that we have an original Neu! lp handy to compare with, but anyway they look nice). We could have done without the stickers on the front with blurbs from famous fans, but that's discarded once you unwrap the cd so no big deal. We'd guess that Neu!'s first album will sell the most copies, as it's graced with the endorsement of Thom Yorke, whereas we hope that Neu! 75 won't suffer from the moronic blurb from John Frusciante.
In keeping with the generally fucked up saga of these records/reissues, we're already having trouble getting enough of these in stock (our suppliers getting one title, but not the others; very small quanities, that sort of bs), so act fast. Sorry for the high price, it *might* come down as the supply situation changes, but for right now it reflects what we have to pay for these. Argh. And the vinyl versions (YES! they're doing LP reissues) have been inexplicably delayed until the end of July! Double argh.
Neu! 1 (1971) is a stunning work of art, drifting back and forth between the stripped down minimal kraut-pop that they're most commonly associated with, to long, spacey and psychedelic forays with lapses into musique concrete like moments with lapping water, children and jackhammers. Their sound could be most closely compared to early Kraftwerk or Cluster. In fact, the track "Im Gluck" sounds an awful lot like both Kraftwerk's "Radioland" and, believe it or don't, the beginning preamble to Rush's "Xanadu." Whether these two had Neu! in mind when they worked these songs out remains to be proven, but it's nice to think of such dissimilar groups drawing from the same well.

NEU! Neu! 2 (Gronland) cd 16.98
Neu! 2 could possibly be considered the world's first "remix" album, as a good portion of it features "varispeed" versions of previously released Neu! material. They ran out of studio time/money, so the story goes, and after recording two songs for a single ended up making alternate versions by playing the record itself at 16 rpm and 78 rpm - you can even hear the needle drop and the record player bumped into - and doing similar remixes of tracks off of the first album with a cheap tape player. 2 wasn't considered the best Neu! album back in the day, but it actually stands test of time quite well (even better than 75) and boasts the acclaim of having had a track used on the soundtrack for the English dubbed version of "The Master Of The Flying Guillotine" (those who spent countless hours of their childhood watching Kung Fu Theater will know well the One Armed Boxer and his travails.)
MPEG Stream: "Fur Immer"
MPEG Stream: "Lila Engel "
MPEG Stream: "Super 16"

NEU! Neu! 2 (Astralwerks) lp 16.98
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!!! Here's what we had to say about the cd reissue in AQL#114:
Neu! 2 could possibly be considered the world's first "remix" album, as a good portion of it features "varispeed" versions of previously released Neu! material. They ran out of studio time/money, so the story goes, and after recording two songs for a single ended up making alternate versions by playing the record itself at 16 rpm and 78 rpm -- you can even hear the needle drop and the record player bumped into -- and doing similar remixes of tracks off of the first album with a cheap tape player. 2 wasn't considered the best Neu! album back in the day, but it actually stands the test of time quite well (certainly better than 75) and boasts the acclaim of having had a track used on the soundtrack for the English dubbed version of "The Master Of The Flying Guillotine" (those who spent countless hours of their childhood watching Kung Fu Theater will know well the One Armed Boxer and his travails.)

NEU! Neu! 75 (Gronland) cd 16.98
The critical status quo qualifies Neu! 75 as the best of their three albums, simply because it is the most musically adept and possesses the most studio polish. While we here at Aquarius are not going to deny that Neu! 75 isn't a great and pretty much required album, we disagree that this is their best work.
The two previous albums were infused with a bold spirit of experimentations that led to the mutable pace of the motorik grooves on "Negativland" (from Neu! 1), and the idiosyncratic "remixes" from Neu! 2. While Klaus Dinger's percussion remains unchanged from the first two releases, Michael Rother moves away from the risk-taking agendas from the first two albums, to a more commonplace rock schtick. Rother's guitars hold a greater range of dynamics with beautifully soaring Pink Floyd-esque harmonics to gritty aggro / glam rock power chords, but his insistance on singing much more maybe isn't a great idea... As previously mentioned, Neu! was a profound influence on David Bowie; thus, it is not a coincidence that Neu!'s "Hero" (from Neu! 75) predates Bowie's "Heroes" by a good two years!
MPEG Stream: "Hero"
MPEG Stream: "Emusik"

NEU! Neu! 75 (Astralwerks) lp 16.98
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!!! Here's what we had to say about the cd reissue in AQL#114:
The critical status quo qualifies Neu! 75 as the best of three albums, simply because it is the most musically adept and holds the most studio polish. While we here at Aquarius are not going to deny that Neu! 75 isn't a great and possibly required album, we disagree that this is their best work.
The two previous albums were infused with a bold spirit of experimentations that led to the mutable pace of the motorik grooves on "Negativland" (from Neu! 1), and the idiosyncratic "remixes" from Neu! 2. While Klaus Dinger's percussion remains unchanged from the first two releases, Michael Rother moves away from the risk-taking agendas from the first two albums, to a more commonplace rock schtick. Rother's guitars hold a greater range of dynamics with beautifully soaring Pink Floyd-esque harmonics to gritty aggro / glam rock power chords, but his insistance on singing much more isn't a great idea. As previously mentioned, Neu! was a profound influence for David Bowie; thus, it is not a coincidence that Neu!'s "Hero" (from Neu! 75) predates Bowie's "Heroes" by a good two years.

NEUHAUS, MAX Electronics & Percussion - Five Realizations By (Sony Japan) cd 29.00

NEUHAUS, MAX Fontana Mix-Feed 1965/1968 (Alga Marghen) cd 16.98
This is one of three separate shards of electronic music history (Ashley, Neuhaus, and Palestine) recently unearthed by Italian audio archaeologists Alga Marghen.
Max Neuhaus' "Fontana Mix-Feed" features six "realizations" of an indeterminate John Cage score, in Neuhaus' hands an electro-acoustic feedback concerto created with timpani, contact microphones, amplifiers, and a mixer. Shrill, high-end death drone, different at each performance. This is common stuff nowadays, but back in 1965 before such genres as "power violence" and "no-input mixing board" music, it must have fascinated and/or severely disturbed the listeners (generally in some posh academic setting -- the booklet is full of great photos and flyers for Neuhaus' performances). Like the Ashley's "Wolfman", this Neuhaus disc is cool when you consider that context: as depicted on the cover, a nerdish young Neuhaus in suit and tie, on stage at Carnegie Hall causing audience discomfort and pain with his knob twisting! Definitely of historic import, at the very least.
MPEG Stream: "Chicago, April 1965"

NEUHAUS, MAX Four Realizations Of Stockhausen's Zyklus (Alga Marghen) cd 17.98

NEUHAUS, MAX The New York School. Nine Realizations Of Cage, Feldman, Brown (Alga Marghen) cd 17.98

NEUNG PHAK Fucking USA (Abduction) 7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If Dengue Fever is an homage to the sort of band you might see in a clean well lit Cambodian bar, classy and melodic, with sweet pop vocals, then Neung Phak is a tribute to the sort of band you'd go to see around the corner from the nice clubs, down the alley, enter through the back, sitting in the gloom, in a cracked vinyl booth, letting the wild Southeast Asian pop rock wash your cares away. Neung Phak, aka Oakland's Monopause, have become masters of whatever SE Asian musics they decide to tackle be it Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, or Cambodian, made possible by the band's adept interpretations, but more importantly the band's vocalists Diana Hayes and Joi Po Dee, who are Thai and Laotian.
Side A is the title track, "Fucking USA", a vintage pop rock tune, big band arrangements, horns, fuzzy psychedelic guitars, with the only bit of vocals in English, being the shouted "Fucking USA!!" Catchy and fun, and so genuine sounding it sounds like it came straight off one of those Sublime Frequencies discs. We can imagine this will be a hit... overseas anyway.
The B side features two tracks recorded live for the radio, the first was immediately familiar, due in no small part to its frequent instore play, as it's a track from Neung Phak's full length, "Tui Tui Tui" with it's super catchy, totally recognizable chorus over a lush big band arrangement, with warm horns, understated guitars and shuffling drums. Originally performed by Yim Yamsupan, and quite possibly one of our favorite Southeast Asian pop songs EVER. The second track is a slowed down version of the title track, with the title changed to "Far King USA" for radio play, the whole thing a lugubrious, moody croon, with mournful piano, haunting vocals, somber and minor key.
Pressed on super thick vinyl and packaged in a thick full color sleeve, with hilarious (and perhaps problematic) cover art!
Limited to 300 copies.

NEUNG PHAK (MONO PAUSE) s/t (Abduction) cd 14.98
Of course the first thing that will unfortunately happen for Neung Phak (a.k.a. Mono Pause) are the inevitable comparisons to Dengue Fever. And to come to their defence (and we're devout fans of Dengue Fever as well) Neung Phak have not only began working on these tracks prior to Dengue Fever's inception, but the music of the two bands are apples and oranges. Neung Phak (literal Thai translation of Mono Pause) is a new line-up and musical direction for the East Bay experimental music veterans Mono Pause. Featuring Diana Hayes and Joi Po Dee on vocals (Thai and Lao respectively) and some cameo appearances from Sun City Girl Alan Bishop, Neung Phak have done their homework when it comes to pop music of SE Asia. Less a fusion of styles, as seems to be the general trend with occidental ethno-pop bands, than a thoroughly researched compilation of SE Asian pop music genres, with each individual track being an excellently re-created execution of a particular idiom; be it Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Cambodian or Khmer. The album kicks off with "Hired By The King" an excellent toe-tapping mo lam like track (a Neung Phak original) with superb kaen (the ubiquitous mouth organ of the region) playing by Erik Gergis and accompanied by electric bass, electric guitar (picked like a mandolin or oud would be) and percussion (a track later on in the disc "Fired By The King" is similar, though featuring an out of tune bass line that's apparently popular in many of the originals). In stark contrast what follows is a cover of a Thai country pop tune from 1998, an adorably cute up-beat number featuring percussive nasal vocals ("Tui, Tui, Tui") by Diana Hayes. Still keeping the pace going, the group continues with a couple Cambodian Rocks-esque numbers that are probably as close to Dengue Fever as you'll hear Neung Phak get; the first track being a Khmer hit from the 80's and the second a Cambodian ballad featuring Alan Bishop on she-male vocals. In addition to these songs, the group has actually recreated portions of radio dramas from Vietnam and Laotian theatrical mo lam, the latter is an absolute noise freak out and not over-embellished at all according to sources. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Hired By the King"
MPEG Stream: "Low Tide"
MPEG Stream: "Morlam Pee Bah"

NEURAXIS Truth Beyond... (Willowtip) cd 14.98

NEUROSIS A Sun That Never Sets (Relapse) cd 16.98
The new, eagerly awaited full-length from the Bay Area's biggest metal band -- whoops, are they really a metal band anymore? They really haven't embraced that tag for a while now, if ever, being more artsy and tribal and droney and avantgarde than what most folks think "metal" is anyway (although we know there ARE lots of metal bands just as weird and innovative). Regardless of the terminology, Neurosis has also always been wayyy heavy. This new disc doesn't exactly lack heaviness, but also seems heavily influenced by some of the acts that Neurosis will be sharing the stage with at their Beyond The Pale festival this weekend: Michael (Swans) Gira, Zoviet France, Tarentel, Amber Asylum... It's a kinder, gentler Neurosis. There's less screaming (and more Gira/Tom Wait-ish singing), more quiet post-rock moments, less of the out-and-out metallic pummel to overload your senses than found on classics like "Enemy of the Sun". But it's still dark and plodding...
RealAudio clip: "The Tide"
RealAudio clip: "Watchfire"

NEUROSIS A Sun That Never Sets (Relapse) dvd 19.98
Live visuals from everyone's favorite Bay Area art-punk-metal legends.