KEUHKOT Laskeutumisalusastia (Ektro) cd 14.98
As much as we think sometimes we have a real way with words, there's always somebody who totally puts us to shame, which is exactly why we're gonna start our review of this, the sixth and latest record from Finnish underground outsider rock weirdo one man band Keuhkot ('lungs' in Finnish), with a description written by Jussi of Circle, whose label Ektro released it:
"The sixth struggle album of Kake Puhuu. The combat noise and insect world music downpreaching book. Rawer than its precursors, this album strips it down to marrow and squeezes juice out of it. Keuhkot batters mindless attributes of humanity from insects' point of view by means of reverse pop music. The aim is towards backwoods motorism, meritocamping, real men, moose hunt madness and established global upstarts. The most bearded feminist of Finland, Keuhkot, kicks the real man's groin. Keuhkot makes its own ethnic fusion gadding from rhythmic highways to distorted sidepaths in a refreshed guitar oriented soundscape. You may call it freaky but according to Kake, pop music (including metal, of course) is a freaky industrialized illness that needs a vaccination Ð which is Keuhkot."
We definitely couldn't have said it better ourselves, but heck, why not give it a try? Longtime readers of the aQ list might remember Andee's harrowing and ultra personal private Keuhkot performance in an abandoned schoolhouse in the wilds of rural Finland (you can read more about it elsewhere on the aQ site, in one of the other Keuhkot reviews), and are quite possibly already fans of Kake Puhuu's twisted sonic world of primitive programmed drums, twisted percussion, weird samples, layered loops, warped and woozy synths, detuned guitars and warbled guttural vox, and how could you not be, Puhuu is like the underground electro minimal abstract noise rock Jandek of Finland, record after record of totally idiosyncratic, ultra personal, musical weirdness, that sonically is all over the map, be it twang flecked almost Western sounding folk, woozy crooned torch songs, junkyard percussion driven lo-fi dirge rock, stumbling hypno-prog, who knows how the heck to classify any of this, easiest to just say this is some sort of utterly singular, surreal Finnish psychedelia, equal parts the Residents, Tom Waits, Birthday Party, Cop Shoot Cop, and who knows what else, all filtered through that totally cracked Finnish sensibility that informs so much of the Finnish music we love. A little bit circusy, a LOT whatthefuck, droney, fuzzy, distorted, stumbly, we want to say this is the best Keuhkot yet, but we sort of love them all, cuz they're all great. We'd say it's the weirdest, but they're all pretty goddamn weird too. We will say the opening track "Kuuluisia Alkemisteja Vol 1", is one of the coolest jams we've heard in ages, all super blown out synth buzz, pulsing and undulating, laced with haunting disembodied vocals, but the sort of droned out abstract psych trip out we could listen to forever. Just check out the samples, and prepare yourself to be baffled and confused and totally transported to some seriously demented sonic otherworld, and Jussi did in fact say it best: Keuhkot kicks the real man's groin!
MPEG Stream: "Kuuluisia Alkemisteja Vol 2"
MPEG Stream: "Puhumatta Paras"
MPEG Stream: "Pinkki & Ruskee"
MPEG Stream: "Aikakauden Loppu"

JEALOUSY Viles (Moniker) lp 12.98
This stunning slab of outsider electro krautpsych coldwave gloom pop came out of nowhere (well, San Francisco actually!), but is quickly becoming a new obsession around here. Dark and mechanoid, dense and noisy, skeletal and mesmerizing, shoegazey and totally warped in equal measure. While there's been no shortage of weirdo/outsider pop in the last couple years, it's starting to become a way too crowded field for sure, and more and more it feels like lots of these weirdo pop groups aren't truly weird. That seems like a strange distinction, but think about the Shaggs, truly inspired, creating music within limited means, out of a pure desire to be creative, the results totally bafflingly brilliant. Now think about all the bands who cite the Shaggs as an influence, how many of those bands just simply suck, but for some reason consider sucking somehow analogous to the naivete and primitivism of the Shaggs. Such seems to be the case with 'weirdness' these days, it's not as if any pedestrian boring group can just slop on effects, or record their record poorly, or sing in a crazzzeee voice, and suddenly it's art. That stuff, the real thing at least, true outsider sonic art, is absolutely inspired, it comes from the heart, and the soul, you can fake weirdness, but you can't fake genius. Which brings us back to Jealousy, who are most definitely weird. In the most wonderfully and organic way, and who are totally brilliant, pushing all of our buttons, sounding alternatingly like an even more cracked lo-fi Suicide, or a more industrial cold wave Moon Duo, the vibe paranoid and druggy, the music warped and woozy, mesmerizing and motorik. After a wild squall of echo drenched reverbed garbled vox, the record kicks into gear, all low slung, frigid basslines, shimmery echoey guitars, creepy sung/spoken vocals, lots of space, very spare and skeletal, the krautrock vibe is huge, but only surfaces here and there, in between jealousy offer up bursts of chaotic softly noisy murk, heavy drifts of distorted shoegaze, abstract arrhythmic grooves, from weirdo coldwave pop, to clinical industrial creep, to tripped out krautpsych mesmer, our favorite jam might be the super spare spacekraut workout of "Night Stalking", which takes up most of the B side, sounding like a seriously stripped down Moon Duo, mixed with some This Heat, and a little Throbbing Gristle, spidery and psychedelic, one of those tracks you wish would go on forever, totally tranced out rhythmic bliss. The record closes with another favorite, the evocatively titled "Drug Sores", which wraps weirdly distorted speaking-in-tongues Buttholes-like vocals over Spacemen 3 style droney heavily effected space psych guitars, creating something both darkly mesmerizing, and ominously disturbing, which pretty much captures the vibe of the whole record. TOTALLY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Night Stalking"
MPEG Stream: "We Are Having Your Children"
MPEG Stream: "Playing With The Rings"
MPEG Stream: "Drug Sores"
MPEG Stream: "I Would Do That For Him"

RHYTON s/t (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98
So, sure, "experimental/improv/psych" bands based outta Brooklyn are probably a dime a dozen these days, so what makes the debut from this new Thrill Jockey signing worthy of glorious Record Of The Week status here at aQ? Well, for one thing, Thrill Jockey have had a pretty good track record in that area lately, with aQ fave bands like White Hills and Barn Owl, and fans of either ought to check out Rhyton. At least, we had to give it a listen, and when we did, WOW! Totally tripped out and hypnotic, stonery psych explorations embraced our ears - and we think gently tingled any mystic sixth or seventh senses we may possess. Their jamming has a fuzzed-out edge, and a definite exotic, Eastern vibe, buzzing with electric saz for one thing... as if they're not from Brooklyn, they're from Brooklynistan!
The mesmeric music of Rhyton is a mind-melting mind-meld involving three well-matched musicians, a supergroop of sorts, the trio consisting of D. Charles Speer from the No Neck Blues Band, Jimmy SeiTang of Psychic Ills, and Spencer Herbst from some bands we confess we've not heard of before. Speer is on the strings, playing electric saz, electric mandolin, and baritone guitar. SeiTang is on bass and tape delay. Herbst is on drums and percussion (and videocassettes, we read somewhere?). A good set up for playing something that's rock, but not.
Over the course of the five, mostly long, mainly instrumental tracks here, Rhyton easily convinced us to make this Record Of The Week, or maybe hypnotized us into doing so! We just couldn't say no to their repetitive, reverby bath of shuddering soundwaves, sub-bass pulsations, meandering raga-like "split stereo, dual amped" leads, and loads of oscillators, loops, n' effects.
Relatively mellow opening track "Stone Colored" eases us in, giving us a sense of, if not where Rhyton is going, at least how they're gonna get there. And, as the cliche says, the journey is the destination. That's before the 12+ minute "Pontian Grave" heavies things up even more, and the raw side of Rhyton's experimentation is revealed. And so it goes, Rhyton getting into outre modes of instrumental psychedelic possession, centerpiece "Teke" being the perhaps the most druggily dubbed-out of the album's varied transmissions...and then, on the fantastic final cut, "Shank Raids", we REALLY hear the Middle Eastern influence come to the fore. It's not just the electric saz they've been making use of, on this one the rhythms n' melodies sound straight out of the Turkish psych songbook, stately and spacey, but also gnarly, warped and distortion-damaged, almost what it would be like to Greg Ginn's Gone, or Black Flag circa The Process Of Weeding Out, attempting a Mogollar or 3 Hur-el cover, yeah! There's a whiff of Sun City Girls to this as well.
Eastern aspects aside (or not), Rhyton's unique vibrations are on roughly the same wavelength as those of such outfits as Carlton Melton, Davis Redford Triad, White Hills, Titan, Bardo Pond, etc., and thus this should appeal to quite a few of you. So we say, get it! And get it quick, as the compact disc edition, packaged in a slim handmade sleeve (abstract art glued on front, hand-stamped text on back), is ultra limited to only 200 hand-numbered copies!! We got a bunch, but that bunch is probably all we'll get. Meanwhile, the similarly-appointed vinyl version is just a bit less limited, 500 copies made, and it comes with a postcard insert and free download code.
MPEG Stream: "Pontian Grave"
MPEG Stream: "Teke"
MPEG Stream: "Shank Raids"

RHYTON s/t (Thrill Jockey) lp 15.98
So, sure, "experimental/improv/psych" bands based outta Brooklyn are probably a dime a dozen these days, so what makes the debut from this new Thrill Jockey signing worthy of glorious Record Of The Week status here at aQ? Well, for one thing, Thrill Jockey have had a pretty good track record in that area lately, with aQ fave bands like White Hills and Barn Owl, and fans of either ought to check out Rhyton. At least, we had to give it a listen, and when we did, WOW! Totally tripped out and hypnotic, stonery psych explorations embraced our ears - and we think gently tingled any mystic sixth or seventh senses we may possess. Their jamming has a fuzzed-out edge, and a definite exotic, Eastern vibe, buzzing with electric saz for one thing... as if they're not from Brooklyn, they're from Brooklynistan!
The mesmeric music of Rhyton is a mind-melting mind-meld involving three well-matched musicians, a supergroop of sorts, the trio consisting of D. Charles Speer from the No Neck Blues Band, Jimmy SeiTang of Psychic Ills, and Spencer Herbst from some bands we confess we've not heard of before. Speer is on the strings, playing electric saz, electric mandolin, and baritone guitar. SeiTang is on bass and tape delay. Herbst is on drums and percussion (and videocassettes, we read somewhere?). A good set up for playing something that's rock, but not.
Over the course of the five, mostly long, mainly instrumental tracks here, Rhyton easily convinced us to make this Record Of The Week, or maybe hypnotized us into doing so! We just couldn't say no to their repetitive, reverby bath of shuddering soundwaves, sub-bass pulsations, meandering raga-like "split stereo, dual amped" leads, and loads of oscillators, loops, n' effects.
Relatively mellow opening track "Stone Colored" eases us in, giving us a sense of, if not where Rhyton is going, at least how they're gonna get there. And, as the cliche says, the journey is the destination. That's before the 12+ minute "Pontian Grave" heavies things up even more, and the raw side of Rhyton's experimentation is revealed. And so it goes, Rhyton getting into outre modes of instrumental psychedelic possession, centerpiece "Teke" being the perhaps the most druggily dubbed-out of the album's varied transmissions...and then, on the fantastic final cut, "Shank Raids", we REALLY hear the Middle Eastern influence come to the fore. It's not just the electric saz they've been making use of, on this one the rhythms n' melodies sound straight out of the Turkish psych songbook, stately and spacey, but also gnarly, warped and distortion-damaged, almost what it would be like to Greg Ginn's Gone, or Black Flag circa The Process Of Weeding Out, attempting a Mogollar or 3 Hur-el cover, yeah! There's a whiff of Sun City Girls to this as well.
Eastern aspects aside (or not), Rhyton's unique vibrations are on roughly the same wavelength as those of such outfits as Carlton Melton, Davis Redford Triad, White Hills, Titan, Bardo Pond, etc., and thus this should appeal to quite a few of you. So we say, get it! And get it quick, as the compact disc edition, packaged in a slim handmade sleeve (abstract art glued on front, hand-stamped text on back), is ultra limited to only 200 hand-numbered copies!! We got a bunch, but that bunch is probably all we'll get. Meanwhile, the similarly-appointed vinyl version is just a bit less limited, 500 copies made, and it comes with a postcard insert and free download code.
MPEG Stream: "Pontian Grave"
MPEG Stream: "Teke"
MPEG Stream: "Shank Raids"

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AELTER Follow You Beloved (Wolveserpent) lp 15.98
We recently listed a double cd reissue from this blackened experimental soundscaper, which compiled two supposedly out of print lps, but good news for you vinyl fiends, after we posted that review, the band got in touch with us to let us know they had a stash of the Follow You Beloved half of that reissue, on vinyl, which we had never had before, so we got a handful of copies for the store...
It's getting a little bit hard to keep track of their various permutations, but in a nutshell, first there was Pussygutt, a male/female duo from Idaho who trafficked in sprawling blackened folk flecked dronescapes. That band transformed into Wolvserpent, with the sound remaining essentially the same, weaving blackened drones, fluttery folk, and corrosive doomic dirges into something heavy and psychedelic, cinematic and atmospheric. And now we have Aelter, which just so happens to be the solo project of Blake Green, one half of Wolvserpent / Pussygutt, who takes the sound of WS/PG as a starting point, crafting something much more melodic and soundtracky, eschewing much of the metallic crush of the former in favor of shimmery deserty twang, swirling strings, lush layered drones, choral vocals.
The label mentions that some of this sounds more like something you'd find on 4AD, and we can definitely hear that, it's a delicate almost shoegazey dreamfolk blackdrone drift, which is less heavy than it is mesmerizing and hypnotic, for folks who were looking for more Wolvserpent, this might be a bit of a let down, cuz this is something else entirely, a sort of soundtracky post rock, or atmospheric black ambient soundscape, on Follow You Beloved, it's all hushed shimmer, melancholy melodies and distant drones, and drums too, which don't normally play a big part in Aelter's sound, that rhythmic component adding a bit of a slowcore doom vibe, but even then, it's more darkly ominous than doomy, more haunting than heavy, but as a gorgeous lab of abstract ambience and cinematic soundscaping, it's pretty tough to beat. Fans of the current crop of Goblin / Carpenter worshippers who are after something a bit darker and a lot less synth heavy, might find this is just what they were looking for.
Gorgeous red on black packaging, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each one hand numbered...
MPEG Stream: "Beloved"

AHMED, ILYAS With Endless Fire (Immune) lp 22.00
Latest record from psych folk troubadour Ilyas Ahmed, his first since 2009's Goner, and much like Goner, his sound continues to move away from the super delicate folky drift of his past records. In fact, we remarked in our review of Goner, that there was a marked shift toward a sound more distorted and blown out, and while that record seemed to simply bury all of the delicate sounds under buzzing guitars and pounding drums, on With Endless Fire there seems to be a more of an organic hybridization of the two. The sound here is less prettiness-wreathed-in-heaviness, and more prettiness recorded in a way that it actually BECOMES heavy, the sound super hot, and in-the-red, so much so that lots of the music sounds super saturated, but it only makes it sound that much more urgent and intense. Even the moodiest broodiest bits, seethe with energy, a smoldering emotional intensity that oozes from every note.
The record opens with "Now Sleeps", a lush layered raga, all buzzing tones, that build and build to an almost Sunroof! ur-drone level, softened by Ahmed's ethereal vox, the raga sloughing off high end until it becomes a dense drone, which is soon joined by acoustic guitar, and simple shuffling drums, strangely recorded, the result a sort of blackened sun baked psych folk dirge, again with Ahmed's voice changing the tenor, all wistful and weary, but distorted and thus intense and emotional, and when the leads come in, super blown out and fiercely psychedelic, convulsing over that warm brooding rhythm beneath. "Skin In Circles" is more folk pop, softly rhythmic and propulsive, the seemingly minimal guitars, imbued with an energy and intensity that transforms a delicate bit of folkiness into something darker and more brooding. That same vibe oozes into "Stained Sky", which almost has a classic rock vibe, but again, the sounds are so blown out and druggy, that it becomes a sort of blackened psych ballad, gorgeous and harrowing.
After a brief bit of steel string balladry, a lovely mid record bit of hushed dreamfolk, the sound shifts right back into that smoldering drone, with another expanse of layered twang flecked heaviness, laced with spidery tendrils of dense buzzing melody, wrapped around a more delicate bit of psychedelic drift, which leads right into the sprawling "My Mirage", another deserty folky drift fused to some thick super distorted psychedelic guitar, the perfect balance for Ahmed's vox and the shimmery steel string strum, the second half of the song blossoming into a gorgeous dreamily blown out psychedelic dream dirge, that eventually fades onto record closer, "By The Light", which ditches all the distortion for something much more hushed and lovely, a hazy, reverby stretch of warm washed out dream folk, a darkly sweet lullaby and perfect way to wind down, and drift off.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. Pressed on high quality virgin vinyl and housed in a super heavy Stoughton tip-on style jacket. Also includes a download coupon. Cassette version coming soon, btw.
MPEG Stream: "Now Sleeps"
MPEG Stream: "Skin In Circles"
MPEG Stream: "Stained Sky"

ALTAR OF PERVERSION / MORDAEHOTH / DER BLUTHARSCH Tributo A Der Blutharsch (New Era Productions) cd 13.98
When you imagine a tribute to Austrian apocalyptic industrial / militaristic folk legends Der Blutharsch, you might not imagine it being black metal by way of Italy and the Netherlands, but that's precisely what transpired way back in 2005, when Italian black metallers Altar of Perversion and Dutch BM horde Mordaehoth each offered up their own sonic homage to DB, each taking up a side of the record with their own twisted take on DB's already twisted blackened sounds. While that slab of vinyl disappeared before we could manage to get a single copy, it's now been released on cd, with the original tracks from the 10", but with the added bonus of SEVEN Der Blutharsch tracks, over thirty minutes of grim grey sonics, the sounds which ostensibly inspired these blackened reworkings.
Altar of Perversion are up first, with a sprawling 11 plus minute epic, that blurs the line between lurching doomic creep, and frenzied black blast, the sound raw and lo-fi, the guitars murky and droney, the track a lumbering dirge for the first little bit, melancholic and depressive, the sounds seem to bleed and ooze, sometimes slipping into killer droned out stretches of blurred buzz, before slipping back into that doomy trudge. It's not really until maybe half way through that things get really black and buzzy, but even then, the production is so warped, brittle and weirdly spare, that it retains that doomy energy of the first half, while wedding it to blasting beats and soaring fast picked majestic melodies. Eventually the sound does explode into a more standard blasting blackness, still, the sound retains a sort of seasick lurch that lurks just below the surface. Hard to say if it's a cover, or just a song dedicated to the mighty DB, but either way, it definitely exudes the same sort of black energy.
Mordaehoth take up three tracks, starting off with what sounds like some wartime radio recordings, only to launch right into it, weaving pagan flute like melodies into an almost punky sounding crush, clean vocals add to the pagan vibe, lulling us into thinking there won't be much blackness until the song darkens considerable, the vocals transformed into a sinister demonic croak, the music following suit, blasting and buzzing, only to return to that opening lilting shuffling blackened folk. The second track is a bit more dirgey, and simultaneously more majestic, soaring melodies, over crumbling distorted riffage, buried lo-fi drumming, but it's the third track where the Der Blutharsch homage becomes way less subtle, after starting out with a blast of growled buzzing blackness, the song slips into a more folky buzzy sort of cadence, which is soon joined by a distorted voice, sounding like some sort of militaristic sloganeering, over loudspeakers, before the band explodes into some serious churning black buzz, still accompanied by those voices, transforming the black metal into an almost military sounding march, and then the metal is peeled away leaving, some old scratchy military propaganda record spinning, then what sounds like some super dramatic footage from a war film, all ominous horns and more mysterious voices. Pretty goddamn great. easy to imagine this is what DB might sound like if they were black metal.
But then come the DB tracks, worth it for the price of admission alone even if you're not into black metal, unclear if these tracks are exclusive, but they are fantastic, brooding and dramatic, haunting and cinematic, deep spoken vocals, all manner of samples, martial snares, woozy ominous strings, warped swirling black ambience, wheezing industrial crunch, blurred blackened melodies, darkly rhythmic apocalyptic folk, Caretaker-like fuzzy, faded atmospheric drift, mysteriously cinematic soundscapes, raga like drones, and of course plenty of military marches, snippets of propaganda films, all woven into DB's gorgeous, barren, blackened soundworld.
Gorgeous packaging too, all black on black and extremely subtle. LIMITED TO 999 COPIES.
MPEG Stream: ALTAR OF PERVERSION "Untitled"
MPEG Stream: MORDAEHOTH "Untitled"
MPEG Stream: DER BLUTHARSCH "Untitled"
MPEG Stream: DER BLUTHARSCH "Untitled"

ANATOMY OF HABIT s/t (self-released) lp 15.98
There was a zine produced by power electronic antagonist Mark Solotroff, back in the mid-'90s, called Rape Of The Angels. In one issue, he wrote rather poignantly about two new projects which then were mostly unknown - Brainbombs and Bodychoke, describing them as two sides of the same abject-rock coin with one side aligned with the bacchanalia of the Stooges and the other the melancholy of Joy Division. At the time, Solotroff's principal outlet for his power electronics was Intrinsic Action, which was shameless in appropriating Whitehouse's ultra-violent posturing and searing noise. But since, Solotroff has ventured into a whole host of projects with various aesthetic differences, but all of which maintain an axis of grime, sleaze, transgression, and violence. Anatomy Of Habit is Solotroff's first venture into an outright 'rock' context, after the punishing electronics of Bloodyminded and the bleak coldwave of A Vague Disquiet; and here, it all comes back around to Brainbombs and Bodychoke (although more Bodychoke than Brainbombs) with Anatomy Of Habit. Formed around Solotroff, drummer Dylan Posa (Brise-Glase, Cheer Accident), Greg Ratjczak (Winters In Osaka), Kenny Rasmusen, and Blake Edwards (Vertonen), the band is a steamroller of huge Swans / Neurosis riffs chugging out of crawling rhythms, and lots of bad vibes. Both sides of the wax are sprawling numbers that hypnotically build out of interlocking guitar and bass that steadily builds towards a distorted, crushing climax with dextrous turns toward powerdrone sludge. Solotroff, with his years of barking like William Bennett, has turned into quite a deft vocalist with his baritone in perpetual motion amidst the roiling noise-rock, coming across more like a cross between Jaz Coleman and Michael Gira. Well worth checking out.

ATOMIC FOREST Obsession (Now-Again) cd 21.00
Talk about obsession! That's what produced this, a super deluxe collection of the fuzzed-out greatness that is Atomic Forest, the premier hard rock/psych act from India in the '70s (and the only one to make an album - in fact, they made two).
Some of you may already be aware of Atomic Forest from their track on an international fuzz-psych comp called Obsession that came and went a while back (yep, that comp took both its title and its cover artwork from the Atomic Forest's debut lp, Obsession '77). More likely, you've heard the brilliant Deep Purple cover "Mary Long" that they contributed to the Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga! compilation of vintage sub-continental grooviness, seeing as we made that particular item a Record Of The Week and sold a ton of 'em.
Really, their name alone is almost reason enough to be obsessed with Atomic Forest. Also that their music is just so much fuzz-filled fun. So we're stoked that the Now-Again label, blessings be upon them, decided that it'd be cool to do a full-on Atomic Forest archival reissue, collecting ALL their extant recordings, from both their Obsession '77 album (recorded circa 1977, natch, but released in 1981) and their other one, Hit Movie Themes, recorded at the same time and also released in '81, under the name of bandleader/bassist Keith Kanga. Plus six previously unreleased bonus tracks (including an intense 7 minute live version of Hendrix's "Foxy Lady"), amounting to 17 tracks in total.
Of those 17, there's lots of covers - a weird wide variety of 'em in fact, ranging from tracks by the disparate likes of The Beatles, Osibisa, the aforementioned Deep Purple, to such "hit movie themes" indeed as the "Theme From The Godfather" and "Windmills Of Your Mind"! And that's no surprise, 'cause like so many bands of the era, Atomic Forest earned their bread - and their rep - on the live circuit, where you had to play the hits... As well as playing gigs at hotel discotheques, the Atomic Rooster guys also honed their chops in an Indian production of Jesus Christ Superstar, by the way. So they were versatile, to say the least. And thus the material here ranges from the heavy (Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath", Atomic Forest's own "Obsession '77" in either fast or slow versions) to somewhat softer stuff - like, well, "Windmills Of Your Mind"! But ALL of it is super groovy, and dosed with killer fuzz guitar and distorted tabla beats, and sometimes wild theremin-like electronics. That it's all by the same band at first seems a bit unlikely but then it all begins to come together, Atomic Forest (a bit like Indonesia's badass AKA) as fluent at playing moody jazz-funk as they are kicking out heavy rock jams, and no slouches at catchy pop psych either. And while this collection consists of mostly covers, their originals fit right in alongside these better known tunes, including two takes of a track called "Butterfly" that's a bit of a riff on the riff from "Freddie's Dead" by Curtis Mayfield, but infused with freaky synth.
This package represents the fruits of Now-Again head honcho Egon's obsessed quest to find out more about - and hear more of - Atomic Forest. And the packaging is deluxe, all right. Much like Now-Again's equally elaborate collection of Indonesian psych rarities, Those Shocking Shaking Days, where we first heard AKA, this comes slipcased, containing a thick, miniature-lp style sleeve holding the cd, tucked in there alongside a super thick, square bound 44 page booklet, its bright orange pages full of vintage newspaper clippings, rare photographs, and other ephemera - along with lengthy, extensively researched liner notes, discussing the history of the band and its members, the result of much diligent work tracking down the musicians and their relatives to share their stories. So this is really like getting a cd AND a book. The double vinyl version, likewise, is fancy, packaged with a similarly huge booklet in a sturdy sleeve. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Obsession '77 (Slow)"
MPEG Stream: "Locomotive Breath"
MPEG Stream: "Theme From The Godfather"

ATOMIC FOREST Obsession (Now-Again) 2lp 27.00
Talk about obsession! That's what produced this, a super deluxe collection of the fuzzed-out greatness that is Atomic Forest, the premier hard rock/psych act from India in the '70s (and the only one to make an album - in fact, they made two).
Some of you may already be aware of Atomic Forest from their track on an international fuzz-psych comp called Obsession that came and went a while back (yep, that comp took both its title and its cover artwork from the Atomic Forest's debut lp, Obsession '77). More likely, you've heard the brilliant Deep Purple cover "Mary Long" that they contributed to the Psych Funk Sa-Re-Ga! compilation of vintage sub-continental grooviness, seeing as we made that particular item a Record Of The Week and sold a ton of 'em.
Really, their name alone is almost reason enough to be obsessed with Atomic Forest. Also that their music is just so much fuzz-filled fun. So we're stoked that the Now-Again label, blessings be upon them, decided that it'd be cool to do a full-on Atomic Forest archival reissue, collecting ALL their extant recordings, from both their Obsession '77 album (recorded circa 1977, natch, but released in 1981) and their other one, Hit Movie Themes, recorded at the same time and also released in '81, under the name of bandleader/bassist Keith Kanga. Plus six previously unreleased bonus tracks (including an intense 7 minute live version of Hendrix's "Foxy Lady"), amounting to 17 tracks in total.
Of those 17, there's lots of covers - a weird wide variety of 'em in fact, ranging from tracks by the disparate likes of The Beatles, Osibisa, the aforementioned Deep Purple, to such "hit movie themes" indeed as the "Theme From The Godfather" and "Windmills Of Your Mind"! And that's no surprise, 'cause like so many bands of the era, Atomic Forest earned their bread - and their rep - on the live circuit, where you had to play the hits... As well as playing gigs at hotel discotheques, the Atomic Rooster guys also honed their chops in an Indian production of Jesus Christ Superstar, by the way. So they were versatile, to say the least. And thus the material here ranges from the heavy (Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath", Atomic Forest's own "Obsession '77" in either fast or slow versions) to somewhat softer stuff - like, well, "Windmills Of Your Mind"! But ALL of it is super groovy, and dosed with killer fuzz guitar and distorted tabla beats, and sometimes wild theremin-like electronics. That it's all by the same band at first seems a bit unlikely but then it all begins to come together, Atomic Forest (a bit like Indonesia's badass AKA) as fluent at playing moody jazz-funk as they are kicking out heavy rock jams, and no slouches at catchy pop psych either. And while this collection consists of mostly covers, their originals fit right in alongside these better known tunes, including two takes of a track called "Butterfly" that's a bit of a riff on the riff from "Freddie's Dead" by Curtis Mayfield, but infused with freaky synth.
This package represents the fruits of Now-Again head honcho Egon's obsessed quest to find out more about - and hear more of - Atomic Forest. And the packaging is deluxe, all right. Much like Now-Again's equally elaborate collection of Indonesian psych rarities, Those Shocking Shaking Days, where we first heard AKA, this comes slipcased, containing a thick, miniature-lp style sleeve holding the cd, tucked in there alongside a super thick, square bound 44 page booklet, its bright orange pages full of vintage newspaper clippings, rare photographs, and other ephemera - along with lengthy, extensively researched liner notes, discussing the history of the band and its members, the result of much diligent work tracking down the musicians and their relatives to share their stories. So this is really like getting a cd AND a book. The double vinyl version, likewise, is fancy, packaged with a similarly huge booklet in a sturdy sleeve. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Obsession '77 (Slow)"
MPEG Stream: "Locomotive Breath"
MPEG Stream: "Theme From The Godfather"

BARDO POND + TOM CARTER 4/23/03 (Three Lobed Recordings) 2lp 28.00
Originally released in 2004 on cd and long out of print, this killer collaboration between Charalambides guitarist Tom Carter and Philly psychedelic space rockers Bardo Pond finally gets the deluxe vinyl reissue treatment, which includes a bonus track not on the original cd version. And, as well, it now comes with a bonus cd containing a live set recorded just days after this record was recorded.
The sound here is about as epic and awesome as you might expect, but what you might not expect is there are no psychedelic freakouts, each sidelong track is not a slow build to a heavy super rocking climax, instead, Carter and Bardo Pond explore a sound much more dirgey and bluesy and droney, smoldering and darkly propulsive, the music organic and alive, constantly shifting, and definitely dynamic, but more meditative and hypnotic. The first track sets the mood the multiple guitars all piling on tangles and spidery melodies, deftly woven into something much more raga-like, droney and mesmerizing, a sort of slow burn late nigh jam session vibe which suits both parties perfectly.
The B side is even more murky and minimal, abstract and atmospheric, super spacey and dreamily psychedelic, lush layered drones shift and shimmer, the band drifting druggily through space, which leads right into side C, also muted and minimal, but this time laced with some awesome processed psych guitar filigree, little swoops and shards, all beneath hazy ethereal vocals (their first appearance) and fluttering flute, the sound here the most Bardo Pond-like of the bunch, with Carter sounding right at home (so much so that it's hard to tell which guitar player is which). The final side is the most hushed and laid back of the bunch, meditative and tranquil, a sort of drifty dark folk, skeletal and softly reverbed, the song just shimmers contemplatively, total late night, come down psych drone bliss for sure.
The packaging is gorgeous, fancy two color silkscreened heavy jackets, included is a download coupon, and the live cd in its own sleeve with its own cover. LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!

BATS, THE Daddy's Highway (Flying Nun) cd 13.98
We just reviewed (and sold a bunch of) the recent vinyl reissue of this New Zealand jangle pop classic, so figured we oughta list the cd version as well...
Daddy's Highway just might be one of the greatest indie pop records ever, this classic slab of eighties bittersweet jangle pop from legendary New Zealand pop combo the Bats, still sounds as good as it ever did, originally released on Flying Nun in 1987, Daddy's Highway was the group's debut after handful of eps, and found the band effortlessly creating a template for pretty much all of the Kiwi pop music to follow. Robert Scott, one of the best (and perhaps most unsung) pop songsmiths of the last 3+ decades, delivers these heartfelt tunes in a gorgeous clear croon, his guitar playing understated and so sublime, the traditional rock band arrangement augmented by long time aQ fave Alastair Galbraith on violin, giving the songs a dark gravitas, and an even more melancholic vibe, some of the songs bouncy and bubbly, but many of them moody and brooding, laced with subtle drones, sounding at times like a janglier Velvet Underground, while at other times hinting at the more new wave sounding pop going on around the same time, but more often occupying some pure pop space, every song here, rife with warm jangle, sweet melody and dreamy hooks, all wreathed in lush instrumentation, and presented heart on sleeve. So great!
MPEG Stream: "Treason"
MPEG Stream: "North By North"
MPEG Stream: "Tragedy"

BIOSPHERE N-Plants (Touch) 2lp 36.00
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!!
Overt rhythms had seemingly disappeared from Biosphere's work over the past decade, as he had been building his lush ambient electronica from orchestral loops and samples. Dropesonde may have broken into an electronic jazz shuffle for a moment or two, but all of his signature ambient-techno structures seemed to be something of the distant past (especially from his 1994 album Patasknik). That is until the 2011 release of N-Plants, which is the first album from Biosphere to feature the drum machine with any regularity since maybe Cirque in 2000. Gier Jenssen hasn't lost his touch, that's for sure, as a clean, mechanical breakbeat punches through the slow-as-molasses basslines and heavenly ambient swooshes on "Shika-1." Blooping melodies march alongside the clockwork rhythms of "Joyo" and "Ikata-1," and "Genkai-1" could be some missing Boards Of Canada track from Music Has The Right To Children with its off-kilter sub-melody locked in step with a warmly cybernetic tumble of algorithmic notes and a gliding hip-hop breakbeat.
This is all well and good as simply a great Biosphere record, but Jenssen actually finished this album in early 2011 as a study on the architectural designs of the Japanese nuclear power plants built during the reconstruction period in the middle of the 20th century. On completion of N-Plants, he saw this as a soundtrack to those plants, their relationship to the turbulent landscape, and the potential damage caused by radiation contamination if something were to happen. Little did Jenssen know that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant would succumb to the damage from an earthquake and subsequent tsunami. While his precognition is downright spooky, the album is not. It's quite lovely and lilting even in its mechanical design. Limited to 1000 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Shika-1"
MPEG Stream: "Ikata-1"
MPEG Stream: "Genkai-1"

BIOSPHERE Substrata (Biophon / Touch) 2lp 36.00
Substrata is often heralded as the grand statement of Biosphere, and gets lumped alongside Boards Of Canada's Music Has The Right To Children and Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. II as one of the best electronica records from the '90s. There's little to argue with such claims, even with a half-dozen or so of stellar records that followed this album. Originally released back in 1997 on All Saints Records and repackaged as a double-disc with Biosphere's soundtrack to the Russian silent film Man With A Movie Camera in 2001, now the album gets released on vinyl for the very first time, alongside the vinyl of Biosphere's latest, N-Plants.
Like all great ambient records, Substrata works because of its subtlety, balancing soft-focus melodies that never assert themselves too much, but never fade so far into the background to become irrelevant. Given that his previous records smoothed out contemporary techno for the chill-out crowd, Substrata is a logical extension of Biosphere's sound for billowing synth-pad sequences and time-suspending ambience that never has to give over to the release of a big 909 backbeat. "Chukhung" cycles through muted arpeggios with layered chiming strings that gently rasps against the pastoral ambience to give the piece a crescendo of drama and softened tension. "The Things I Tell You" refines the tremolo / delay ambience that Pete Namlook was churning out into a quintessential Biosphere number rippling in time with an arctic wind pushing flecks of snow across a landscape lit by the midnight sun. Vocal snippets swimming in echo, aqueous passages, reverberant acoustic guitar plucks, and looped field recordings dot the album's resonant ambient hum, providing small signposts more to mark the passage of time than to assign any particular allusion. Biosphere rounds out the vinyl edition with a 14 minute bonus track entitled "Laika", although it's unclear as to when this track was produced. This album offers up beautiful music for lucid dreams.
MPEG Stream: "The Things I Tell You"
MPEG Stream: "Hyperborea"
MPEG Stream: "Antennaria"

BLACK PYRAMID II (MeteorCity) cd 11.98
As you can guess from the title, this is the second album by Massachusetts psychedelic sludge doomsters Black Pyramid, sequel to their self-titled full-length from 2009, also on the MeteorCity label. We somehow missed that one, much like we did with the first Elder, another MeteorCity act from the Bay State that we recently highlighted the 2nd album by... and boy are these bands kinda similar in other ways, yep both stoner sludge trios, both kicking out the double digit length jams, both (like a lot of MeteorCity bands) worshipping at the altar of Sleep and the like, and worshipping 'em well. If you like Elder and WhiteBuzz, you oughtta check out BP!
The disc starts off with the very metal "Endless Agony", one of those galloping, triumphant, leading-beserker-troops-into-bloody-battle sort of songs. And that's the vibe on a lot of this record, storming stuff that fans of Sleep's aggro offshoot High On Fire should cotton to. Certainly the first couple of tracks take no prisoners... then they get REALLY Sleep-y (but not sleepy), on "Night Queen" which has that swinging Sleep-like lope, a la "Dragonaut". (And a la Black Sabbath too of course.) That then leads into the disc's first true epic, the 12-minute plus "Dreams Of The Dead", which interweaves Black Pyramid's crushing riffage with introspective psych explorations and milder melodic moments. They follow that with a brief, beautiful instrumental acoustic number, "Tanelorn", as if to serve as an intermission of sorts, a quick, quiet break before the rest of "side two", the second half of the album mirroring the first, containing both raging metal ("Sons Of Chaos") and lumbering doom ("The Hidden Kingdom"), culminating in another double digit epic, "Into The Dawn", complete with classic riffing, gruff but glorious clean vocals, Melvins-y grind, delicate guitar bits, and spacey synth drone over the course of its nearly 16 minutes. All kinds of awesome there. BP could be likened to a sludgier Saviours, in fact, when we're not hammering on the Sleep comparisons. Again if you liked the recently-reviewed Elder on the same label, you should give Black Pyramid a go!
MPEG Stream: "Endless Agony"
MPEG Stream: "Mercy's Bane"
MPEG Stream: "Night Queen"

BOMBINO Agadez (Cumbancha) cd 14.98
Sublime Frequencies followers will remember the great Group Bombino record from a few years back in their Guitars From Agadez series. Since then it seems that Oumara Almoctar, aka Bombino, has ditched his 'group', yet thankfully his tranced out Agadez desert sound, is still as hypnotizing and entrancing as ever.
Following in the footsteps of Ali Farka Toure, Bombino has that special ability to create songs that transcend language and place. Much like Tinariwen, Bombino's song have such a fluidity, and even a tranquil strength that makes listening to this record such a cleansing and empowering experience. The incredible hypnotic, guitar playing creates an awesome feeling of a locked groove that you never want to end. We can definitely imagine lots of modern psych groups like Carlton Melton, Brightblack Morning Light, and The Drift being so into this sound, and in fact incorporating it into their own. So great!
MPEG Stream: "Ahoulaguine Akaline (I Greet My Country)"
MPEG Stream: "Tar Hani (My Love)"
MPEG Stream: "Adounia (Life)"

BOMBINO Agadez (Cumbancha) 2lp 30.00
Sublime Frequencies followers will remember the great Group Bombino record from a few years back in their Guitars From Agadez series. Since then it seems that Oumara Almoctar, aka Bombino, has ditched his 'group', yet thankfully his tranced out Agadez desert sound, is still as hypnotizing and entrancing as ever.
Following in the footsteps of Ali Farka Toure, Bombino has that special ability to create songs that transcend language and place. Much like Tinariwen, Bombino's song have such a fluidity, and even a tranquil strength that makes listening to this record such a cleansing and empowering experience. The incredible hypnotic, guitar playing creates an awesome feeling of a locked groove that you never want to end. We can definitely imagine lots of modern psych groups like Carlton Melton, Brightblack Morning Light, and The Drift being so into this sound, and in fact incorporating it into their own. So great!
MPEG Stream: "Ahoulaguine Akaline (I Greet My Country)"
MPEG Stream: "Tar Hani (My Love)"
MPEG Stream: "Adounia (Life)"

BOOK OF SAND The Face Of The Waters (Antithetic) cd 9.98
We've long been obsessed with this Midwestern one man black metal band, their twisted combination of bedroom black metal buzz and more abstract sonic experimentation, be it clean guitar drift, or violin, is exactly what we wanted to hear, there is no shortage of blasting and buzzing, and as much as we love that stuff, we also love hearing black metal pushed in new directions, and BoS definitely blazed, and continue to blaze, their own unique sonic path, so much so, that it's often been a struggle to get their records released. We were pretty thrilled when UK label Paradigms released the last Book Of Sand, and were in some way were not all that surprised to see it receive a zero percent rating on Metal Archives, cuz the music of BoS is not the sort of grim kvlt black metal that most metalheads want to hear, or would even understand if they did, and hell, this new one's not gonna further that cause at ALL.
Which of course means we LOVE it. While some more familiar tropes of black metal are present, some buzzing guitars, and some shrieking vocals, in every other way, this is barely black metal, in fact, if we had to boil it down to just a few words, we might describe it as some sort of slo-mo blackened doom-jazz. Yep. There are strings, and horns, and what drums there are tend toward more of a shuffle and skitter, and while there are some furious buzzing guitars, they're pushed WAY toward the background, transforming any identifiable black metal riffage into something more like a droning atmospheric backdrop, while in the foreground, clean guitars unfurl woozy abstract melodies, wreathed in deep buzzing strings, and a hazy cloud of Jandekian reverby shimmer. The pace is glacial, the mood is melancholy, the vibe is haunting and otherworldly, and occasionally, when the vocals drop out, and you can hear those distant guitars, there's a distinctly black metal vibe, but it strangely muted, those fast picked guitars blurred and wedded to that slo-mo jazzy shuffle, bleating horns, it's pretty strange, but fantastic too, it's definitely unlike anything you've heard, (black) metal or otherwise, moody and mysterious and definitely way too whatthefuck for most metalheads, but if you're after something twisted and dark, buzzy and abstract, a little bit jazzy and atmospheric, but still in its own way dark and sinister and blackened, then you might just end up digging this as much as we do.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! And yeah, they're real cds, not cd-r's!
MPEG Stream: "The Face Of The Waters"
MPEG Stream: "The Waters Above And The Waters Below"
MPEG Stream: "Falling Through The Firmament"

BUSH, KATE 50 Words For Snow (Anti) cd 16.98
At this point in her career, any new release by Kate Bush is an event. When the release in question is a record of the caliber of 50 Words For Snow, one can only marvel at the artistry and career of one of the world's greatest living pop artists. After all, she's never toured (aside from a short one in 1979 for The Kick Inside), and, Director's Cut notwithstanding, has only released 2 albums of new material in the last 18 years. In the '80s, Bush's penchant for making awesomely strange videos and MTV actually playing those videos helped sell records. Since the (televised) music video's demise, however, someone who does not play live has to rely on the strength of the LP itself. This is where Kate Bush has always shined, not only in the quality of the songs, but in the quality of the recordings themselves.
Like the B-side of Hounds of Love (also called The Ninth Wave), 50 Words For Snow is thematic and purposeful, a "concept" record if you will. Slow, sparse and deliberately paced, the seven songs carry the listener for over 65 minutes with strings, drifts of piano, and sparse, jazzy drums. Whereas The Ninth Wave, told the story of one person's journey through death into ghostly haunting and, finally, redemption and forgiveness, 50 Words For Snow is more a series of icy vignettes. They paint pictures of a woman first creating, then making love with a snowman, a wraith watching her dog watch her corpse, a hunt for a yeti. Although sometimes thematically humorous, it's tragic comedy that interests Bush: a kind of sad, beautiful quirkiness that is somehow universally human and uniquely Kate Bush.
From her work with Peter Gabriel in the '80s to Prince's guitar playing on The Red Shoes, collaborations have been an important part of Kate Bush's work. 50 Words finds her working with longtime compatriot Del Palmer as engineer and occasional bass player, Sir Elton John in the duet "Snowed In At Wheeler Street," and the British actor Stephen Fry.
When Director's Cut was released in early 2011, some noise was made over Kate's "huskier" voice, the slight change in its timbre. Really? There's not a moment on 50 Words that could have been done better, vocally. If Kate knows anything, she knows how to change, and how to create characters. If people expect artists with careers spanning 30+ years to remain static, well, that's why records are made, right? To capture a moment that can always be revisited. Very few artists have the longevity and integrity of Kate Bush, and that's something that should not go unrecognized or unappreciated.
The cd version comes in a hardback-book style package with the booklet glued to the inside cover. The gatefold double lp comes with a large, full-color lyric booklet and a cd version of the entire record.
MPEG Stream: "Snowflake"
MPEG Stream: "Misty"
RealAudio clip: "Among Angels"

BUSH, KATE 50 Words For Snow (Anti) 2lp 28.00
At this point in her career, any new release by Kate Bush is an event. When the release in question is a record of the caliber of 50 Words For Snow, one can only marvel at the artistry and career of one of the world's greatest living pop artists. After all, she's never toured (aside from a short one in 1979 for The Kick Inside), and, Director's Cut notwithstanding, has only released 2 albums of new material in the last 18 years. In the '80s, Bush's penchant for making awesomely strange videos and MTV actually playing those videos helped sell records. Since the (televised) music video's demise, however, someone who does not play live has to rely on the strength of the LP itself. This is where Kate Bush has always shined, not only in the quality of the songs, but in the quality of the recordings themselves.
Like the B-side of Hounds of Love (also called The Ninth Wave), 50 Words For Snow is thematic and purposeful, a "concept" record if you will. Slow, sparse and deliberately paced, the seven songs carry the listener for over 65 minutes with strings, drifts of piano, and sparse, jazzy drums. Whereas The Ninth Wave, told the story of one person's journey through death into ghostly haunting and, finally, redemption and forgiveness, 50 Words For Snow is more a series of icy vignettes. They paint pictures of a woman first creating, then making love with a snowman, a wraith watching her dog watch her corpse, a hunt for a yeti. Although sometimes thematically humorous, it's tragic comedy that interests Bush: a kind of sad, beautiful quirkiness that is somehow universally human and uniquely Kate Bush.
From her work with Peter Gabriel in the '80s to Prince's guitar playing on The Red Shoes, collaborations have been an important part of Kate Bush's work. 50 Words finds her working with longtime compatriot Del Palmer as engineer and occasional bass player, Sir Elton John in the duet "Snowed In At Wheeler Street," and the British actor Stephen Fry.
When Director's Cut was released in early 2011, some noise was made over Kate's "huskier" voice, the slight change in its timbre. Really? There's not a moment on 50 Words that could have been done better, vocally. If Kate knows anything, she knows how to change, and how to create characters. If people expect artists with careers spanning 30+ years to remain static, well, that's why records are made, right? To capture a moment that can always be revisited. Very few artists have the longevity and integrity of Kate Bush, and that's something that should not go unrecognized or unappreciated.
The cd version comes in a hardback-book style package with the booklet glued to the inside cover. The gatefold double lp comes with a large, full-color lyric booklet and a cd version of the entire record.
MPEG Stream: "Snowflake"
MPEG Stream: "Misty"
RealAudio clip: "Among Angels"

CHAOS DEI Arising From Chaos (Total Rust) cd 12.98
While Israeli label Total Rust may specialize in all things slow and sludgey, doomy and dirgey (see reviews of Tort and Lurk elsewhere on this week's list), they have been known to dabble in sounds buzzier and blacker as well. Which was most definitely the case with French black metal horde Hyadningar, whose The Weak Creation was a big favorite around here, which at the time we described as "a serious storm of grim, technical, melodic black metal, a strange mix of Deathspell-ish complexity, epic soaring melodicism, dour depressive miserablism, and even a hint of Viking metal here and there." And the reason we mention that, is the fact that Chaos Dei, is a new project featuring both the drummer and the guitar player of Hyadningar, and while it might not be as all over the place, Chaos Dei's Arising From Chaos, is a super varied, and super ruling chunk of grim noisy blackness. And not noisy in the sense of noise music, but more noise ROCK, the band seeming to have infused their black buzz with some classic noise rock tropes, whether it's the more mathy arrangements, or the vocals, which sound less black metal shriek and more noise rock yowl, the music too, slip easily from blazing buzzing fury, to mathy chugging churn, as well as some almost post rock sounding melodic stretches. The production too is strange, brittle and bright, which gives the music a distinctly different vibe than a lot of black metal, but when these guys do get all grim and spit out a blast of blurred blackness, it's fierce as fuck, and seriously black and brutal. C'mon, they're French, you know how we feel about French BM, and odds are you do too. So imagine that French blackness with some noise rock influence, and a distinctly twisted sense of melody and arrangement, and you'll get an idea of what's going on here. The sound is raw and furious, but at the same time atmospheric and experimental, it's grim and troo enough for the least discerning black metalhead, but fucked up and original and just twisted enough for the rest of us who are after something weirder, hell they even dedicate a RIFF from one of their songs to Simon Boswell for his soundtrack to Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre!
MPEG Stream: "Deepless"
MPEG Stream: "Saint Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Metallic Heat"

CRONIN, MIKAL Tide (Goner) 7" 6.50
We made Mikal Cronin's debut album our Record Of The Week a while back, and still it remains one of the most listened to records in the shop. And a testament to that record's rulingness is the fact that none of us are sick of hearing it yet. That said, it doesn't mean we're not hankering for new stuff. Which is where this brand new single comes in, two new blasts of psychedelic pop bliss, the first, "Tide" is fuzzy and almost Elephant Six sounding, lush vocal harmonies, and a weird super catchy chorus that manages to stick in your head like crazy, but sound totally twisted. And there's a wicked wild psychedelic guitar solo, the production too, much like the full length, manages to be lush and expansive, but also raw and lo-fi, with some super strange choices in terms of balance and volume, in this case, that guitar solo nearly leaps out of the speaker, but somehow it still sounds perfect.
The B side is much more pure pop sounding, all fuzzy and dreamy and Beatles-esque, a killer hook, an impossible to resist melody, wild and loose, a little ramshackle, but so catchy and great. And another weird psychedelic solo that is about twice as loud as the rest of the song, but again, once you hear it, you can't imagine it any other way. How this guy remained a secret for so long we'll never know, but we're psyched the world is finally catching on. And we're psyched that we have two more MC songs to spin again and again and again...
MPEG Stream: "Tide"

DALTON, KAREN 1966 (Delmore Recording Society) cd 16.98
No laments here about diminishing returns on archival releases, this new KD collection is a keeper! Delmore digs up another round of wonderful home recordings from one of our favorite folk singers and interpreters. Like a companion piece to their last great Karen Dalton collection, Green Rocky Road, 1966 feels more warm and intimate, focusing more on present day songs mostly from friends and then-contemporaries, Tim Hardin and Fred Neil with some jazz and traditional standards thrown in there too. While Green Rocky Road felt intimate in a sort of ghostly way, as the songs were largely British folk standards and sung with a haunting air that was beautiful yet slightly chilling in an out-of-time way. The recordings on 1966 feel more at ease, the kind that are easy to sing along with, especially Tim Hardin's songs, "Don't Make Promises" and "Reason To Believe". Not that those songs aren't without their melancholy, but perhaps it's the accompanying vocal and instrumental presence of Dalton's then partner, Richard Tucker on some of the tracks that give this set recorded by Carl Baron on his reel to reel recorder, such a naturally relaxed quality. There are also early versions of "Katie Cruel" and Neil's "Little Bit of Rain" plus a version of "God Bless The Child", that is sung like a true lullaby. Quite lovely indeed and highly recommended!
The cd comes with a booklet containing rare photos and an essay written by Ben Edmonds of Mojo. The lp comes with a 4 page heavy insert, an exclusive color portrait and a download card.
MPEG Stream: "Reason To Believe"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Make Promises"
MPEG Stream: "While You're On Your Way"
MPEG Stream: "Shiloh Town"

DALTON, KAREN 1966 (Delmore Recording Society) lp 21.00
No laments here about diminishing returns on archival releases, this new KD collection is a keeper! Delmore digs up another round of wonderful home recordings from one of our favorite folk singers and interpreters. Like a companion piece to their last great Karen Dalton collection, Green Rocky Road, 1966 feels more warm and intimate, focusing more on present day songs mostly from friends and then-contemporaries, Tim Hardin and Fred Neil with some jazz and traditional standards thrown in there too. While Green Rocky Road felt intimate in a sort of ghostly way, as the songs were largely British folk standards and sung with a haunting air that was beautiful yet slightly chilling in an out-of-time way. The recordings on 1966 feel more at ease, the kind that are easy to sing along with, especially Tim Hardin's songs, "Don't Make Promises" and "Reason To Believe". Not that those songs aren't without their melancholy, but perhaps it's the accompanying vocal and instrumental presence of Dalton's then partner, Richard Tucker on some of the tracks that give this set recorded by Carl Baron on his reel to reel recorder, such a naturally relaxed quality. There are also early versions of "Katie Cruel" and Neil's "Little Bit of Rain" plus a version of "God Bless The Child", that is sung like a true lullaby. Quite lovely indeed and highly recommended!
The cd comes with a booklet containing rare photos and an essay written by Ben Edmonds of Mojo. The lp comes with a 4 page heavy insert, an exclusive color portrait and a download card.
MPEG Stream: "Reason To Believe"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Make Promises"
MPEG Stream: "While You're On Your Way"
MPEG Stream: "Shiloh Town"

DEMDIKE STARE Elemental 3: Rose (Modern Love) 12" 19.98
Rose is the third volume in Demdike Stare's latest sprawling multipart sonic hauntological tetraptych, the first two volumes of which were released together as a double 12" a little while back, and housed in a massive quadruple gatefold sleeve, designed to hold all four volumes, so obviously if you were one of the many folks who got the first two, you're gonna need this one as well, it does come in a fancy Andy Votel designed sleeve, but that sleeve fits right into the third pocket in above mentioned gatefold jacket. And sonically, it fits perfectly alongside those first two as well, beginning with a churning industrial chug, grinding through a woozy washed out haze, wreathed in a distant ethereal vocal drift, looped and mesmerizing, the sound is most definitely epic and cinematic, the sound laced with bits of clatter and crunch, and than BAM, the track is transformed into a gorgeous stretch of Middle Eastern string laden groove, all wrapped around that opening industrial rhythm, sounding like a more dense, more psychedelic Muslimgauze! The second track is more murky and dubbed out and spacey, anchored by a muted slo-mo house beat, buried in the murk, the beats wreathed in soft metallic billows, the surrounding sounds swirling dreamily, hazy melodic streaks and blurred background shimmers, clouds of tripped out drift, through which that industrial flecked rhythm soldiers druggily on.
The side-long third track begins as a gauzy, ethereal thrum, that seems to hover wraithlike, before suddenly in drops an impossibly dense and heavy ribcage rattling bass pulse, accompanied by cool spare tabla like rhythms, that Muslimgauze vibe is definitely huge here too, a keening high end sine wave tone flutters over fragmented chunks of dubstep bass wobble, all drifting in the sonic ether. And while like many 12"s, this sounds great at 45rpm, it sounds WAY better at 33, so much darker and woozier and druggier and more drowsily divine!
If you're after the whole set, might be a good idea to preorder the final volume, which should be coming soon, and as we mentioned in the review of the first two volumes, there WILL be a double cd version available sometime this year as well, according to the label, but apparently the music will be (somehow?) different, with altered versions of all the songs...

DENVER'S NECK, NATE Swan Lake (Rock Is Hell) 10" 11.98
We love Nate Denver. Not only is he just about the nicest guy we've ever met, he's also utterly batshit crazy, musically at least, the stuff he comes up with is totally baffling and brilliant, often goofy and puerile, but always hilarious and impossibly catchy, or punishingly heavy. He was the frontman in the short lived weirdo metal band Dig That Body Up It's Alive (which also featured John Dwyer from Thee Oh Sees), and he played with SF noise punks Total Shutdown, he's done hip hop, folk, he's obsessed with metal, and he's a paramedic. He's also a writer, and has published at least one book, which was hilarious and touching in equal measure.
So here we have the latest musical missive from Nate Denver and his musical Neck, and it's a doozy. We figured the elaborately photoshopped cover art was a put on, it looks like an old taped up and beat up thrift store lp of Swan Lake, the ballet music, but it says Nate Denver in the same font, and Rock is Hell too, it's gorgeous, but like we said, we figured it was a goof, we flipped it over, and there's the story of Swan Lake, told in Denver's bizarre and ridiculous style, so we still weren't really sure what the music would be like. And then whattayaknow? It's Denver, and an acoustic guitar, singing the story of Swan Lake, a single repeated chord progression for the whole of the side, with Denver's delicate croon, spinning the tale of Swan Lake. And weirdly it's a fantastic listen, mesmerizing, and crazy catchy, we couldn't stop, and even now we have little turns of phrase and bits of melody sticking in our head, but after all it is Nate Denver, so when it comes time for the ultimate battle between the protagonist and Boris Smith his archenemy, Boris' lines are delivered by a full on death metal band, grinding guitars, blasting drums and guttural gurgled vox, Denver easily flitting between the two, and we won't tell you how it ends, but you can probably figure it out.
The flipside, as far as we can tell, contains the ACTUAL ballet music from Swan Lake, presumably the music that was on the original record that came with the original cover, and it's of course beautiful, and bombastic, and bears pretty much no relation to Denver's version of the events.
So totally recommended, as is pretty much everything Denver plays or writes. Comes with an insert featuring some Nate Denver artwork, and is pressed on orange vinyl and is LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!

DEVIL'S BLOOD, THE The Thousandfold Epicentre (Metal Blade) cd 15.98
Ah, scenes, waves, movements, trends, genres, we all know rock critics love 'em. We gotta admit we do too, if only 'cause it makes writing our reviews a bit easier sometimes, when you can stick something in a category. To wit, take this thing happening now with all these "female fronted, occult-oriented, rock/metal" bands, one of the most popular examples of such, being Dutch outfit The Devil's Blood. While some of these bands are super sludgey and doomed-out (Wooden Stake, The Wounded Kings) and others hark back to the '70s proto-metal psych scene (Blood Ceremony, Jex Thoth), and still others are straight up NWOBHM steel (Christian Mistress), this one, The Devil's Blood, while displaying elements of all the styles just mentioned, is by far the most "classic rock", with almost a '60s vibe, reminding us especially of Heart! Huh, well that's cool 'cause we heart Heart.
One of our friends theorizes that as modern metal has gotten more and more extreme, it's reached a point where, with bands like The Devil's Blood and Ghost, it's gotta go full circle back to completely classic, melodic roots. That's the new extreme! That's his theory, anyway.
And scenes and theories aside, we are digging this new Devil's Blood for sure. Eleven new tracks of their swirling, retro rockin', sweetly Satanic sounds, laced with great guitarwork and graced by THAT VOICE, which will be the deciding factor for most listeners, the soaring singing of "F. The Mouth Of Satan" (yep that's what she calls herself!) being an un-ignorable element, the crucial crux of this band, and either you'll fall under her spell or you won't. If you do, the rest of their witchy wall o' sound will fall in line, the dramatic organ, the urgent rhythms, the powerful production, the catchy choruses...
Heck, but chances are you already have found yourself smitten, as we sold plenty of this album's predecessor The Time Of No Time Evermore, and before that, their debut ep Come, Reap. If you liked those, you'll like this, as The Thousandfold Epicentre builds on their strengths, maybe generating more of a mystic mood than the last one. Their talents are especially on display during this album's tour-de-force finale, the 15 minute ritual of "Feverdance". There the band's balance of melody and menace tips to way outside of pop territory by virtue of sheer eerie epicness alone.
Another friend of ours, who runs a local label that puts out a lot of vinyl reissues (mostly '80s era new wave / electronic / coldwave stuff), was in the store the other day when we were playing this new album by The Devil's Blood. He thought it sounded like a band from the sixties, the vocals anyway, reminding him of acts like The United States Of America, Ultimate Spinach, and probably Jefferson Airplane, stuff like that. And he was quite taken with it, funny 'cause he's a guy who would normally not have been checking out a band with the evil/metal look and name The Devil's Blood has! They're not only for metalheads, that's all we're saying. Even though The Devil's Blood is happily (la-la-la!) serving Satan all the while.
MPEG Stream: "devilsblooddiethe.mp3"
MPEG Stream: "devilsbloodshe.mp3"
MPEG Stream: "devilsbloodfireburning.mp3"

EREBUS ENTHRONED Night's Black Angel (Seance) cd 14.98
We had never heard these guys before, but we've been digging this a LOT, another black metal band from Australia (released on the same label as the new Pestilential Shadows, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), their sound definitely beholden to the classic Scandinavian sound, certainly hints of Emperor and Mayhem abound, as well as Marduk and Dark Funeral, that sort of classic black metal, that few bands can pull off, and even fewer with this sort of power and grim black energy, the band spending much of their time chugging and churning instead of blasting, those more midtempo stretches super intense and moody, the riffs gnarled and twisted and a little bit Deathspell-y for sure, but when the band do explode into a blast, it's dense and furious and heavy as fuck, the guitars an insectoid buzz, the drums furious and impossibly fast, the band careening wildly, the sound dissonant and sinister, the balance between blasting raging fury and moody melodic crush near perfect, with hints of classic metal, lots of cool droned out heaviness, but all woven into what is essentially a modern slab of classic black metal. And most definitely a new favorite with the metalheads around here...
MPEG Stream: "Enthroning The Harbinger Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Pillar Of Fallen Flesh"
MPEG Stream: "Night's Black Angel"

EXPO 70 Journey Through Astral Projection (Immune) cd 14.98
It's been harder and harder to know what to write about Expo 70 records lately. Besides being uber prolific, we've pretty much exhausted out psychedelic stoner space rock thesaurus. Thankfully, this new one changes things up enough to give us something new to work with. Mostly the addition of rhythm, which the band have employed in the past, but never to such an extent. Sure they remain spacey, and psychedelic, and new age-y, and drifty and dreamy, and druggy, and washed out, hazy and gauzy and cosmic and kosmiche, and we could go on, but here, they open up their latest record with what might be their most chaotic and sonically dense jam yet. Starting off all stumbly and abstract, with skittery programmed beats, and loosely strummed guitars, some amp buzz and bits of glitch and random crunch, but then those sounds gradually begin to coalesce, the guitars super reverbed, the rhythms looped and mesmeric, the guitars getting more intense, and more driving, multiple loops and melodies layered, eventually some proper riffs entering the equation, churning beneath clouds of those looped melodies, all the while, that rhythm skitters away, the song getting louder and louder, more intense, easily on of the heaviest things we've heard from these guys in a while, bordering on White Hills / Heads territory there for a minute, before fading back into something much more tranced out and meditative.
And while the rest of the record isn't quite so dense or heavy, the songs definitely display both a cool sort of jammy looseness, as well a penchant for something darker and more dense than usual. "Seven Serpents" minus some spidery guitars is a lush undulating expanse of layered synths, and warm whirling dronemusic, definitely cosmic, and spaced out, minimal, and super mesmerizing. "Growing Mushrooms Of Potency" starts off with a sky full of BBC Radiophonic Workshop / sci-fi bleeps and bloops, before another lo-fi skittery rhythm comes in, and then finally some low slung bass, and some shimmery organ, and we're in full on intergalactic drift mode, dodging stray FX and clouds of celestial glimmer, and then at the very end, the sound shifts, and becomes intensely dark and ominous, like some sort of soundtracky Umberto style creepdrone, which fades out WAY to soon. And then finally, "Heartfelt Moon Tripper" finishes things off with what begins as a hazy big of new age-y shimmer, all glistening crystalline clouds and warm whirring chordal drifts, until about half way through, a dark heartbeat like pulse surfaces, and dense little guitar tangles begin to loop and layer, until the hazy opening layers are shed completely, and replaced with a deep ominous thrum, wound around that sinister pulse, all surrounded by streaks of jagged melody and howling echo drenched sheets of guitar swirl, until a brief bit of Zombi / Goblin like cinematic synthscapery ushers the song to its more ethereal conclusion.
Cassette version coming soon too, btw.
MPEG Stream: "Trajectory Rhythms"
MPEG Stream: "Heartfelt Moon Tripper"

FARSOT Insects (Lupus Lounge / Prophecy) cd 13.98
We never reviewed the debut from German black metal outfit Farsot, though we should have, and this new one is kicking our asses big time (in retalitation?). From the beginning of the first track, these guys unfurl something that manages to be furious and fierce, but also pretty weird and tripped out. Some classic riffing, super aggressive and intense, combined with some woozy wandering basslines, some deep crooned vox and some bizarre samples, eventually some more 'proper' black metal vokills come in, but somehow it doesn't make the sound any more black, instead the music shifts too, and the sound becomes way more melodic, rife with cool guitar licks and layered chant-like vocals, the song shifting from propulsive pound, to churning slow build chug, to epic cinematic soar, it's a weird combination for sure, and one that's pretty difficult to describe, but we're loving it. The sound is incredible, the production massive, the band sound huge, and fucking intense, and that's just the first song. The second track starts out all doomy and proggy, lurching start/stop arrangement and weird angular melodies, and even when the song kicks in proper, the guitars are weirdly droney and blurred into tranced out mesmer, creating a sound that's somewhere between grim blackness, and some sort of post black metal. There's also some clean guitar, and an ambient interlude, lots of melody, some cool slow burn psychedelia, all of which is why these guys get pegged as post black metal, which they most definitely are, but the connotations of that classification might obscure the fact of just how heavy and weird and still pretty black metal these guys really are. The more we listen to this, the more we're reminded of a WAY heavier and way more black metal Ved Buens Ende, if that makes any sense, the same sort of twisted take on BM, definitely cut from the same sonic cloth, but with their own unique modern twist on black metal, which just so happens to include plenty of classic metal riffing, all sorts of different clean vocals, lots of atmosphere, and mathy repetition, some loping meandering post rock rhythms, a bit of clean guitar jangle, some awesome abstract guitar drone drift, but ultimately, all woven into some seriously dense and dark metal. We dig A LOT.
MPEG Stream: "Like Flakes Of Rust"
MPEG Stream: "Empyrean"
MPEG Stream: "Perdition"

FOURTH WORLD MAGAZINE The Spectacle Of Light Abductions (Pacific City Sound Visions) lp 17.98
Latest release from former Skater Spencer Clark, whose partner in the Skaters, James Ferraro, was recently awarded record of the year honors by UK music mag The Wire, but as much as we dig Ferraro's stuff, we have to say, we often find ourselves more partial to Clark's outings, especially his project Monopoly Child Star Searchers, especially those early cd-r's, twisted murky soundscapes woven from woozy looped rhythms and blurred samples, dense and dizzying and druggy and dreamy, so we're always excited when we discover a new record from Clark. Fourth World Magazine is in fact Clark's new project, and in some ways it finds his sound drifting toward that of his former bandmate, this high concept record based on something called the Spectacle Of Light, which happens in Salt Lake City and concerns UFO's, as does most of Clark's recordings we seem to remember, hard to tell if it's a put on, or if all this spiritual stuff is real (or at least real to Clark), but ultimately it hardly matters, cuz musically it's real, and whatever the twisted concept, it gets woven into Clark's sonic flights of fancy, this one in particular opening up with swirling new agey synths, what sound remarkably like the music from one of those late night star chart segments on cable access, and thus like much of Ferraro's recent work, but from there on out, Clark definitely mixes it up, beginning with garbled voices, weird tape manipulation, and more hazy synth shimmer, peppered with weird bird call like squawks, before transitioning into a collage of warped looped melodies, playful and sunshiney, almost like a snipped of fifties film music as envisioned (or reworked) by the Caretaker. Soon those new agey synths return, but now with murky muted rhythms, which somehow transform the sound into something more raga like, then adding more of the garbled vocals until we finally reach the final track, and epic nearly sidelong jam, that might be our favorite stuff here, definitely harkening back to the aforementioned Monopoly Child Star Searchers cd-r's, all lo-fi Casio melodies, chaotic looped rhythms, skittery tangles over woozy collaged layers, everything muddy and smeared and gloriously washed out, a fantastic chunk of outsider psychedelic rhythmic drift.
This is the first release on Clark's Pacific City Sound Visions label, and comes in a full color 12 page 12" x 12" jacket/book, with fuzzy photos, and plenty of text explaining (sort of) the Spectacle Of Light, of which this music is dedicated to.

GAYE, MARVIN Trouble Man OST (Motown) cd 5.98
This is not only one of our favorite blaxploitation soundtracks, it may also be one our favorite Marvin Gaye Record too (though I Want You may be a close second). While the movie itself might be rather unremarkable, the soundtrack stands apart from its more well known contemporaries, like SuperFly and Shaft by focusing less on a hard hitting urban funk grit and more on a cool detached noir vibe that somehow feels more menacing. Mostly everything is performed and arranged by Gaye, with Moog synths, piano and saxophone being the main instruments. There is of course some wah wah-ed guitar in the theme, but its low-key laid back swing seems to illustrate a more plausible reality for the title character, one of reserved violence as opposed to say, Isaac Hayes' uptempo go-get-'em macho swagger for Shaft. Still, there is plenty of urban grit. The tense set-ups of "'T' Stands for Trouble" and "The Break In", the pensive ambiance of "Deep-In-It", the love themes tinged with sadness, and the troubled vocal harmonies of "Cleo's Apartment" and "Life Is A Gamble". But the topper of them all is "'T' Plays It Cool", a stone cold groove that is deadly as it is funky. All killer, No filler! So happy it's now been reissued on vinyl - and we got the bargain-priced cd version in stock as well.
MPEG Stream: "Trouble Man"
MPEG Stream: "'T' Plays It Cool"
MPEG Stream: "'T' Stands For Trouble"
MPEG Stream: "The Break In (Police Shoot Big)"

GAYE, MARVIN Trouble Man OST (Motown) lp 12.98
This is not only one of our favorite blaxploitation soundtracks, it may also be one our favorite Marvin Gaye Record too (though I Want You may be a close second). While the movie itself might be rather unremarkable, the soundtrack stands apart from its more well known contemporaries, like SuperFly and Shaft by focusing less on a hard hitting urban funk grit and more on a cool detached noir vibe that somehow feels more menacing. Mostly everything is performed and arranged by Gaye, with Moog synths, piano and saxophone being the main instruments. There is of course some wah wah-ed guitar in the theme, but its low-key laid back swing seems to illustrate a more plausible reality for the title character, one of reserved violence as opposed to say, Isaac Hayes' uptempo go-get-'em macho swagger for Shaft. Still, there is plenty of urban grit. The tense set-ups of "'T' Stands for Trouble" and "The Break In", the pensive ambiance of "Deep-In-It", the love themes tinged with sadness, and the troubled vocal harmonies of "Cleo's Apartment" and "Life Is A Gamble". But the topper of them all is "'T' Plays It Cool", a stone cold groove that is deadly as it is funky. All killer, No filler! So happy it's now been reissued on vinyl - and we got the bargain-priced cd version in stock as well.
MPEG Stream: "Trouble Man"
MPEG Stream: "'T' Plays It Cool"
MPEG Stream: "'T' Stands For Trouble"
MPEG Stream: "The Break In (Police Shoot Big)"

HAUSCHKA & HILDUR GUDNADOTTIR Pan Tone (Sonic Pieces) cd 19.98
Time to get swept away by some deep dreamy Icelandic beauty, as our favorite experimental cellist Hildur Gudnadottir teams up with composer and pianist Hauschka for a stunning collaboration. We already deeply smitten with the meditative music Gudnadottir has made on her own as well as in collaboration with Angel, BJ Nilsen, Mum, et cetera. But we hadn't spent much time with the music of Hauschka, but this pairing definitely has us wanting to hear more of his stuff. Together they create music that sounds like a solemn soundtrack for ghost towns, abandoned buildings, and isolated existence.
With elements in sound, composition and an overall feeling that reminds us of some of our favorite works by Gavin Bryars, Charlamagne Palestine, Harold Budd, Sylvain Chauveau, and The Rachels, this is one of those records we love playing early on a crisp winter morning or as it turns dark on a Sunday night and it's time to clear our heads of the distractions of the world, and start taking deep breaths and immersing ourselves in thoughtful introspection. Utterly beautiful and stirring.
MPEG Stream: "#283"
MPEG Stream: "Cool Gray 1"
MPEG Stream: "#304"

HEAVENLY BEAT Faithless (Captured Tracks) 7" 6.98
Single number two from this Beach Fossils side project, and it definitely takes up where the first one left off, jangly, handclappy, eighties dreampop, still reminding us of the Style Council, acoustic guitars, soaring strings, hazy twee vox, low slung new wave bassline, all echoey and softly reverbed, with a cool production and some interesting production tricks this time around, mostly some subtle dubbing out of the vocals. The flipside offers up more of the same, super stripped down minimal pop, but here the strings are allowed to soar, while the verses are even more hushed and subdued, lovely and lush, summery sunshiney eighties retro pop, that we're finding surprisingly addictive!
MPEG Stream: "Presence"

HILLS Master Sleeps (Transubstans) cd 17.98
We imagine the master sleeps soundly, if THIS is the music loudly vibrating in his dreams! He may never wish to wake up. Here's the 2nd album from (to be sibilantly alliterative) this spacey Swedish psych band, the first we've listed - though if this proves as popular as we think it really should, we'll try to get more of their self-titled 2009 debut to review as well. Plain old Hills are not to be confused with WHITE Hills, though they almost could be - their brand of mantric, mesmeric, FX laden, krautrocking groove is definitely in the same druggy realm as White Hills, and that of other AQ faves like Circle, Salvatore, and especially Wooden Shjips. No doubt they all share many of the same influences, from Can and other krautrock to Hawkwind to Spacemen 3. So if that sort of stuff is your bag, Hills comes highly recommended!
While mainly instrumental, there's more singing here than on the debut, but the echo-effected vocals are just another part of the throbbing wash of sound, riding waves of heavily phased guitar, motorik drums, and insistent organ (that specifically reminds us a bit of Circle relatives Itavayla). While we KNOW we're always saying stuff is repetitively hypnotic, Hills really do it to perfection, locking into to inescapable, all-encompassing grooves you never want to end. They also delve into instrumental electric, folky passages with melodies that perhaps draw upon their native Nordic traditional tunes, a la Kebnekajse back in the '70s, though they can sound somewhat Eastern-inflected as well. And final track "Death Shall Come" is a spaced out droning ritual, getting into OM territory there...
We'd love to see these guys (and gal) play live, do a US tour soon please please please! In the meantime, this disc will be in heavy rotation 'round here, and should be required listening for anyone into SF's Wooden Shjips for sure...
MPEG Stream: "Rise Again"
MPEG Stream: "Bring Me Sand "
MPEG Stream: "Master Sleeps"

HOOR-PAAR-KRAAT Chorea (Black Horizons) cassette 8.98
It's been a while since we've listed anything from Hoor-Paar-Kraat, aka Anthony Mangicapra, but over the years, we've been enthralled and a little obsessed with Mangicapra's gorgeous surreal soundscaping. This new one is another fantastic collection of manipulated field recording, strange melodic flights of fancy, and stumbling abstract rhythms, a super personal project, the title refers to a type of nervous system disorder, one that claimed a family member, and this record is a tribute to him, and in it's strange herky jerky composition, reflects the symptoms of those nervous disorders, the rhythm seemingly provided by a typewriter, while the air around those clicks and clips is filled with scapes and clanks, super distorted chiming melodies, thrums and whirs, buzz and rumble, it's not so much noisy as there is much going on, the result is quite dreamy in it's own softly cacophonous way. The flipside is much more minimal, with what sounds like some of the A side sound flipped and played back in reverse, all wreathed in a keening sine wave high end, and again surrounded by bits of flutter and buzz, hum and drone. Haunting and quite lovely.
And as with all Black Horizons releases, the packaging is over the top, a silver ink printed slipcover, around a silver printed black J-card, as well as eight silver printed black cardstock inserts, and a small black envelope, signed and fingerprinted in gold ink, which contains a razor blade. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!

ICARUS LINE, THE Bad Bloods (Agitated Records) 7" 9.98
Brand new on Agitated, the label that has brought us jams from Bardo Pond, Carlton Melton, Moon Duo, Mugstar, the Scientists and the Heads, comes the latest from L.A. psych rockers The Icarus Line, who we had never heard before, which is weird, cuz they have tons of records out, but who we have to say are thoroughly kicking our asses. The A side is a bluesy creep, all dark and skeletal, a brooding sonic monster laced with wild squalls of psych guitar and delivered in a swaggery drawl, a slow build that eventually explodes into a serious psych-dirge blowout, the vocals following suit, soaring and wailing, a wild slab of bluesy psych that we've probably listened to 20 times since this came in.
The flipside is a cover of the the Flamin' Groovies "Slow Death", which is pretty faithful to the original, just sort of cranking it up a bit, the guitars wild and slippery, swooping all over the place, distorted and in-the-red, a wild garage rock stomp that sound like it could be an Icarus Line original, with the way these guys own it. Total garage psych bliss for sure.
Way recommended, obviously, and we're gonna head out and track down all the Icarus Line records we can, as should you...
LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!!

LANTLOS Agape (Lupus Lounge / Prophecy) cd 13.98
Record number three from these German post black metallers, the first we've reviewed on the aQ list, although they did merit mentions in our reviews of records by Alcest and Amesoeurs, which makes sense since that's usually who they get lumped in with (along with Farsot, whose new record is reviewed elsewhere on this weeks list), which to a certain degree makes sense, like those groups, Lantlos have more in common with the new strains of black metal, but unlike the sort of shimmery ethereal pop of those groups, Lantlos is simultaneously much heavier, and even LESS black metal. To our ears, Lantlos at this point sounds like a post rock band, albeit a very heavy one, and one with a distinctly black metal pedigree, but there are very few instances of blasting or buzzing, the vocals are definitely one the vokills side of the spectrum, but the music, is quite removed from black metal, slipping easily from abstract doomy plod, to dreamy, droney drift, from Neurosisy churn to soaring Godspeed like majesty, from moody, melodic almost Katatonia like doom pop, to skittery almost jazziness and back again. There's also the fact, that many of those sounds coexist in the same song, the lengthy tracks shifting constantly. And while here and there a bit of blasting buzz does pop up, in most cases it's in conjunction with some other sound that is distinctly NOT black metal, which if anything only makes it that much cooler.
These guys definitely get pegged as 'post black metal' but it might be more accurate to describe them as blackened post rock, or simple post metal, cuz they definitely sound like the sort of band that would find themselves sonically more at home alongside groups like Angel Eyes, the Ocean, Snowblood, Baroness, and all the other brooding slow build epic heavy post metal combos we dig so much. And hell, mixing in a little vokill rasp and some extra buzz, maybe a little bit of blast, can't hurt either.
MPEG Stream: "Intrauterin"
MPEG Stream: "Eribo - I Collect The Stars"

LURK s/t (Total Rust) cd 12.98
This is the debut release from these Finnish heavies, and is a crushing slab of gloriously abject doomsludge infused with plenty of old school slo-mo death metal crush, the label mentions bands like Coffins, Autopsy, Winter and Celtic Frost, and we're definitely feeling all of those, but we're also hearing plenty of Melvins (especially in the vocals) even some diSEMBOWELMENT, not to mention all those other modern death metal outfits like Disma, Vasaeleth, Vastum, Encoffination and the like. Lurk mix long stretches of droned out ambience, layered guitar buzz and effects drenched thrum, with bursts of churning chugging heaviness, pounding doomic sludge, the drums massive and pummeling, the vocals slipping from a growling guttural howl to a surprisingly melodic bellow (hence the Melvins comparison), there are some surprising melodies too, even some hooks, but they're less noticeable once they've been stretched way out and slowed way down. The songs often fracture into lurching lumbering stop/start workouts, or disappear in squalls of white noise, slipping into near-grooves, before splintering into something much more abstract and dirgey. The closer is the fastest of the bunch, but even then it's still basically a crawl, but when the drums and the riffs fall just right, and the band lock into a serious chunk of blackened chugging sludge, these guys become fucking monstrous, and that sort of sonic power and black hole metallic fury, should have all those other modern death metal outfits looking over their shoulders, and running for their lives.
MPEG Stream: "Soar"
MPEG Stream: "Unfinished"
MPEG Stream: "Deliverance"

MAGNETIC FIELDS Andrew In Drag (Merge) 7" 5.98
Last list we got to rave about one of our favorite old Magnetic Fields records, Holiday, from the early '90s, which was just reissued on vinyl. This time we get to rave about a NEW slab of wax from Stephin Merritt and his crew. With a new album coming out in March this awesome 7" gives us a sneak peak at what the style/set-up will be this time out and from the sound of these two tracks we're pretty excited. The title track is not only one of the wittiest songs Merritt has penned (and damn he's made a living out of crafting witty songs) but it also brings back synths to the Magnetic Fields sound, something we've been missing so much in recent outings. The B side "You Ain't No Picasso" is classic Merritt, bittersweet and sardonic, it's also an exclusive track which won't be on the upcoming full length. This is a no-brainer for Magnetic Fields fans.

MAKI, CARMEN & BLUES CREATION s/t (Phoenix) cd 17.98
Protometalheads, psychfreaks, Japanophiles - listen up.
Imagine, what if Janis Joplin sang for Black Sabbath? And further imagine, what if both Janis and Sabbath were in fact Japanese?
Well, you almost don't have to imagine. 'Cause Carmen Maki and Blues Creation's album together has just been reissued, on both cd and vinyl!
It dates from the magic year of 1971, originally released 'round about the same time as Blues Creation's all-time proto-metal classic Demon & Eleven Children, which we've gone on and on about before, one of the heaviest albums of the era, from a band who were basically the Japanese answer to Black Sabbath. And Japan had some heavy bands back then, like Flower Travellin' Band, Flied Egg, Ranmadou, and Speed Glue & Shinki. But of all those, the most Sabbathy one was probably Blues Creation (though of course FTB comes close, having actually covered the song "Black Sabbath" on their debut).
The lovely Carmen Maki, for her part, was already a popular Japanese singer, definitely of the Janis Joplin blues belting school. Though she's also been likened to Grace Slick, and even to a female Robert Plant. Made sense for her to team up with this particular shit-hot blues rock outfit, both live and on this record.
Bands back then tended to do a lot of covers, but instead of being obvious and covering a Janis Joplin song, the opening track here is a bit more obscure, though it might sound somehow familiar anyway, it's a version of "Understand" by a lady often compared to Janis, Lydia Miller of the American band Fantasy. They do a few other standards on this album, "Motherless Child" and "St. James Infirmary", but all the other tracks were written by Blues Creation guitarist Kazuo Takeda.
And to be clear, this record isn't nearly so heavy as Demon & Eleven Children, not all the time, a lot of it's in fact fairly mellow, and all of it is, naturally, quite bluesy. But, even when they're not in the midst of a rollicking full-tilt Mean Old Boogie, the gentler "soft rock" stuff is pretty nice; and each track usually builds into a fine frenzy of wild wailing blues licks and distorted riffery. Those solo sections are really when the Blues Creation guys get to let loose, though Cream is probably the much bigger influence here that Sabbath.
Maki later fronted a band called Oz (no not the Swedish '80s metallers), who were pretty heavy too, and proggy; we'd love it if that stuff got reissued too someday...
MPEG Stream: "Understand"
MPEG Stream: "Lord, I Can't Be Going No More"
MPEG Stream: "Motherless Child"

MAKI, CARMEN & BLUES CREATION s/t (Phoenix) lp 24.00
Protometalheads, psychfreaks, Japanophiles - listen up.
Imagine, what if Janis Joplin sang for Black Sabbath? And further imagine, what if both Janis and Sabbath were in fact Japanese?
Well, you almost don't have to imagine. 'Cause Carmen Maki and Blues Creation's album together has just been reissued, on both cd and vinyl!
It dates from the magic year of 1971, originally released 'round about the same time as Blues Creation's all-time proto-metal classic Demon & Eleven Children, which we've gone on and on about before, one of the heaviest albums of the era, from a band who were basically the Japanese answer to Black Sabbath. And Japan had some heavy bands back then, like Flower Travellin' Band, Flied Egg, Ranmadou, and Speed Glue & Shinki. But of all those, the most Sabbathy one was probably Blues Creation (though of course FTB comes close, having actually covered the song "Black Sabbath" on their debut).
The lovely Carmen Maki, for her part, was already a popular Japanese singer, definitely of the Janis Joplin blues belting school. Though she's also been likened to Grace Slick, and even to a female Robert Plant. Made sense for her to team up with this particular shit-hot blues rock outfit, both live and on this record.
Bands back then tended to do a lot of covers, but instead of being obvious and covering a Janis Joplin song, the opening track here is a bit more obscure, though it might sound somehow familiar anyway, it's a version of "Understand" by a lady often compared to Janis, Lydia Miller of the American band Fantasy. They do a few other standards on this album, "Motherless Child" and "St. James Infirmary", but all the other tracks were written by Blues Creation guitarist Kazuo Takeda.
And to be clear, this record isn't nearly so heavy as Demon & Eleven Children, not all the time, a lot of it's in fact fairly mellow, and all of it is, naturally, quite bluesy. But, even when they're not in the midst of a rollicking full-tilt Mean Old Boogie, the gentler "soft rock" stuff is pretty nice; and each track usually builds into a fine frenzy of wild wailing blues licks and distorted riffery. Those solo sections are really when the Blues Creation guys get to let loose, though Cream is probably the much bigger influence here that Sabbath.
Maki later fronted a band called Oz (no not the Swedish '80s metallers), who were pretty heavy too, and proggy; we'd love it if that stuff got reissued too someday...
MPEG Stream: "Understand"
MPEG Stream: "Lord, I Can't Be Going No More"
MPEG Stream: "Motherless Child"

MB (BIANCHI, MAURIZIO) Nervo / Hydra (Kubitsuri Tapes) cd 15.98
Italian industrial pioneer Maurizio Bianchi released Nervo / Hydra as a private edition cassette back in 1981; and the tape was subsequently bootlegged a number of times always with the incorrect title "NH/HN." With Vinyl On Demand's thorough exhumation of Bianchi's impossible to find cassettes spanning a couple of 5lp boxsets, the material from Nervo / Hydra did get an official reissue and an impressive remastering job as well. As with most everything on Vinyl On Demand, however, those two MB boxsets went out of print, necessitating yet another reissue of Bianchi's work.
In 1981, Bianchi unleashed his first major work through Sterile Records in Symphony For A Genocide; and Nervo / Hydra churns through the trademarked MB carcinogenic electronics minus the death-march drum machine of that aforementioned album. Fibrillations of grimy electronics and electro-shock dronings crawl ominously through endlessly cycling variations, punctuated with frigid divebomb squeals and slabs of flickering melodies erupting from Bianchi's abused Korg synth. Expect deadly, corrosive atmospheres on this impressive album!
We must point out that the material on this cd was taken straight from the LP of one of those Vinyl On Demand boxsets, as the album pops and hisses with a few choice bits of vinyl crackle. It certainly sounds *way* better than the crappy bootlegs from the original cassette, and we always like a little crackle and hiss on our records anyway, but in case that sort of thing concerns you... Also, we have limited stock on this item.
MPEG Stream: "Nervo"

MEDROXY PROGESTERONE ACETATE I Am An Empty House, Longing To Be Haunted (Black Horizons) 2 x cassette 11.98
We first heard from the oddly titled Medroxy Progesteron Acetate on a split 7" with Warmth a while back, but this is the first we've heard since, a sprawling double cassette epic, of burnt out psychedelic drift and drone out black synth shimmer, rife with strange voices and sampled vocals, buried melodies and constantly shifting textures and tones. Dense stretched out drone music, lush layered abstract psych-synth minimalism, slow-motion muted industrial creep, squalls of grinding sci-fi noise, or thick bleary buzz, this is heavy, deep, dark listening, paranoid, sinister, ominous, otherworldly, haunting, harrowing, but at the same time, strangely blissed out, mesmerizing, dense and dark and in its own bleak and black way surprisingly dreamy. Muted rhythmic drift fused to ethereal shimmer, and softly roiling sonic murk, the voices constantly in the distance, occasionally moving to the fore, intoning some mysterious passage only to be swallowed up and covered in layer after layer of hum and thrum and rumble. Fans of Pulse Emitter, Grasslung, and other synth-drone alchemists will definitely dig, but the constant flow of samples and strange voices and mysterious broadcasts, gives this the vibe of some fucked up soundtrack, or some purloined surveillance tape set to music, which is what makes this so cool. And so trippy, fucked up and frightening.
Like all Black Horizons releases, crazy deluxe packaging, two tapes housed in one of those cool double tape cases, with two full color printed J-cards, on metallic paper, each with an insert with all the 'lyrics' and liner notes, and each either silver or gold, matching whichever tape it accompanies.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!

MELCHIOR, DAN Red Nylon Valance (SDZ) 7" 10.98
We dug Melchior's most recent full length, Assemblage Blues, like crazy. It was a wild collection of garage pop, and really our first proper exposure to his noisy chaotic outsider songstyle. We played that record to death, so were super psyched to get in this new single, and it's a doozy, much darker and lower key than that record. The A side offers up moody brooding verses driven by a woozy low slung bassline, which explodes into a dizzying psychedelic organ driven chorus, the song super catchy, and maybe one of our favorite Melchior jams yet. The B side is another brooder, that sounds a little bit like a more fractured lo-fi Cardinal if that makes any sense, the same sort of stately pop vibe, but here it's all lush darkly dreamy vocal harmonies over dizzyingly looped guitar figures and has us reassessing what we said about the A side, cuz the B side is also one of our favorite Melchior jams yet. Guess that means this is most definitely recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Red Nylon Valance"

MIDNIGHT CHASER Rough And Tough (Heavy Artillery) cd 14.98
Braggadocious San Francisco metallers Midnight Chaser unleash their album debut, brought to us by the same label that put out the Vektor album we highlighted last list. But while Vektor blew minds with their advanced thrash tech, Midnight Chaser are much more retro and rockin' than that. They play sleazy hard rock steeped in the sounds of the late '70s/early '80s New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, a la Diamond Head, Blitzkrieg, Chateaux, and Tank. And we know they know their stuff, they covered Tank on the limited edition ep that preceded this, and are named after a song by obscure NWOBHMers White Spirit (the band that Iron Maiden third wheel Janick Gers got his start in). Combine that with their native Californian good time rock n' roll roots and you've got a party... in fact, the lead off track here, entitled "Awesome Party" (actually Midnight Chaser's original name before wiser heads prevailed) tells you pretty much all you need to know. Super catchy chugging riffiness, in support of the singer's spirited contention that he's "got nothing to lose", "really need(s) to cut loose" and is "looking for an awesome party tonight". And it would be an awesome party, if Midnight Chaser were playing...
The whole rest of the record is similarly rockin' and fun, including their cover of "Dynamite" from Blackout by the Scorpions. Other things to like about 'em: the singer has short hair, wears aviator shades, and thus kinda has a Graham Bonnet thing going. The disc's cartoonish cover is pretty rad/ridiculous, depicting a sexy woman of indeterminate age (possibly the protagonist of track 5, "Cougar'd") riding a mechanical amplifier beast with electric guitars for legs, galloping across a hot pink landscape. Yeah they're not very grim and kvlt, are they? But take a break from the black metal and rock out for once! Seems we've got a little New Wave Of San Francisco Old School Awesome Partying Heavy Metal happening here, with the likes of Space Vacation, Hot Fog, and now these guys! Cool.
MPEG Stream: "Awesome Party"
MPEG Stream: "Rough And Tough"
MPEG Stream: "Hotshot"

MOHAVE TRIANGLES Eternal Light Of The Desert Plateaus (Hooker Vision) cassette 8.98
Altered state exploration and bedroom mysticism is on tap from North Carolina's Robert Thompson, who's taken up the moniker Mohave Triangles. Thompson has crafted the standard fair torrent of cassette releases, now offering his wares through the shambolic cottage industry label Hooker Vision out of rural Georgia. This tape opens with a spoken word segment from a Native American shaman explaining a recurrent prophecy about a messenger arriving at the end of a cycle of time. With accompanying ambience, the piece closely resembles the beginning of Godspeed! You Black Emperor's F#A# lp. But instead of orchestrated rock crescendo, Thompson zones out a very hypnotic piece of murky ambience, one that would harken back to classic Zoviet France or perhaps Basinski's shortwave compositions, through the hazy mirage of slowly repeating, constantly shimmering sounds. Elsewhere, he picks up the guitar, dialed into plenty of looping patterns, delays, and effects, skewing the Mark McGuire sound towards a freeform approach to avant-trance dronescaping. Limited to 100 copies!

NADA SURF The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy (Barsuk) cd 14.98
We might as well just start out with the obvious. Pop record of the year. Hands down. We knew it would be. And yeah, even in January, it's pretty much already been decided. In fact the minute we found out there was a new Nada Surf record on the horizon, we began to count the days, and wonder if it would be one of those slow growers, or if we'd be immediately obsessed (it was the latter, btw). And really, one of the only reasons it's not Record Of The Week, is because it just so happened to come out when we already had an embarrassment of ROTW's picked, but rest assured, for some of us, this is most definitely Record Of The Week, and most likely record of the year too.
Most people are probably super excited to extol the virtues of their favorite band, or that record they've been anxiously awaiting, and we are too obviously, but for us it comes with the added pressure of 'what the hell do we say about this', especially when it's a band whose records we've gushed about extensively in the past, two of those records past Records Of The Week in fact, we've said it before, but this is one of those records where we just want the whole review to be "Just buy it! it's so great! We love it and can't stop listening to it! We've been driving the not-so-pop-obsessed around here CRAZY with repeated listens, sometimes just setting the cd player on repeat!" And heck, for some of you that will be enough, if you dug the last few Nada Surf records, which loads of you did, you'll love this one too. We want to say it's the best one yet, but we say that every time. We can say, it's maybe the most rocking one yet. With a lot few slower songs, and some of their heaviest tunes, but without sacrificing any of the lush hookiness or irresistible jangle. We'd say just listen to the samples, cuz we really can't imagine anyone being able to resist, but on the off chance that you do need more...
Nada Surf have moved well beyond potential one hit wonder status, after the ubiquitous MTV airplay of a certain song called "Popular" back in the nineties (YouTube it), and ever since, they've continued to hone a sound rooted in classic power pop and nineties indie rock, a sound that quickly became all their own, lush and melodic and jangly, with Matthew Caws' super distinctive vox, and a melodic flair and impeccable songwriting that eventually became just as distinctive, their lyrics clever and smart, literate and carefully constructed, harmonies lush and lovely, songs that rock as much as they drift and shimmer, every record packed with potential hits, not a bit of filler, and this new one is no different. Opener "Clear Eye, Clouded Mind" starts things off with a bang, thick crunchy guitars, big pounding drums, and some impossibly catchy melodies, and like many of their tracks, the verse and bridge are just as catchy as the chorus, if not more so. "Waiting For Something" is another killer, all chiming and sunshiney, crunchy and fuzzy, big guitars, and even bigger vocals, all woven into a super dynamic arrangement that manages to be both intricate and hooky as hell. "When I Was Young" starts off all folky and balladic, just steel string guitar and gorgeous vox, eventually blossoming into a big crunchy jangly second half, "Jules And Jim" is another great one, the band taking unlikely melodies and complex arrangements and impossibly transforming them into pure perfect pop. We could go song by song, cuz every song here KILLS, everyone with a chorus most other bands would kill for, and most likely a verse that other bands would make into a chorus, but odds are we'd just end up repeating ourselves. But we can say, which we've mentioned before, is that as much as we obsess over grim black metal and noisy chaotic heaviness and weird dronemusic and all that sort of far out freaky stuff, we find ourselves always coming back to this, and NOT just because it's poppy and catchy, but because it's poppy and catchy in a way that so much other 'catchy pop' is NOT. Sure these guys are a pop band, but what they do with that pop is utterly magical.
It's at this point that we DO say, just listen to the sound samples, this is the sort of visceral emotional music that will connect right away, and if you're anything like us, once you hear it, you won't want to stop hearing it, and you'll want to hear more and more!
While they last, the first handful of copies will come bundled with a bonus disc of studio recorded acoustic versions of some of the tracks from the new record!
MPEG Stream: "Clear Eye Clouded Mind"
MPEG Stream: "Waiting For Something"
MPEG Stream: "When I Was Young"
MPEG Stream: "Teenage Dreams"

NEW KEEPERS OF THE WATER TOWERS The Calydonian Hunt (MeteorCity) cd 11.98
Here's another new one from the ever-reliable stoner rock label MeteorCity. This interesting, oddly named Swedish outfit is a HEAVY juggernaut indeed, but also nuanced, combining chugging guitar crush with graceful twin harmonies, and switching up from shouty aggro vox to more tuneful, croon-ful melodic singing. According to the Encyclopedia Metallum, The New Keepers Of The Water Towers' typical lyrical themes pertain to "Dwelling Beasts" - whatever that means. Perhaps those beasts are the quarry of "The Calydonian Hunt". There's certainly something mythic and fabled about their songtitles ("Mankind's Fall", "Arise, The Serpent", "The Sword In The Stone"...) and the music follows suit, their surging Swedish sludge being both bombastic and more complex than you might expect. Primal prog perhaps? Mystic metal? Certainly recommended to fans of such folks as High On Fire, Mastodon, Grand Magus, The Sword, and others of that equally heavy and probably bearded ilk.
MPEG Stream: "Abyssal Lord"
MPEG Stream: "The Calydonian Hunt"
MPEG Stream: "Crystal Lake"

NIGHT SUN Mournin (Second Battle) lp 33.00
KILLER RARE PROTO-METAL DOOM KRAUTROCK ALERT!!!!
We haven't been able to get the cd version of this in years, but we were stoked to discover that a new 2010 vinyl version had been released... which also took us quite a while to get a hold of. But now we've got 'em, at least a few, though when they're gone we don't know when we'll be able to get more. So if proto-metal is your thing, especially on vinyl like it was originally, then act fast!
Here's more or less what we said about it back when we had the compact disc reish:
Yet another amazing discovery in the realms of unheralded heaviness from the '70s. Krautrockers Night Sun released this, their only album, back in 1972, and probably the only heavier sounds produced on earth that year were produced by Black Sabbath (and, hopefully, some other as-yet-unknowns). Seriously. If anything is "proto-metal", this sure is. Deep Purple (the keyboards and high-pitched vox) meets Sabbath style DOOM guitars. These guys must have been gobbling both amphetamines and downers 'cause the disc goes to both extremes of doom-paced creepy crawls *and* manic prog-spazz riff, uh, mania. Produced by Conny Plank, with plenty of psychedelic phased-out atmosphere to go with the jarring riffage and crazy vox. '70s proto-metal to file alongside Jerusalem, Buffalo, Toad, Leafhound, Captain Beyond, Blues Creation, and early Pentagram. Definitely a crucial artifact of the "early heavy". Why Night Sun aren't huge cult heroes we don't know...
MPEG Stream: "Got A Bone Of My Own"
MPEG Stream: "Living With The Dying"
MPEG Stream: "Plastic Shotgun"

NO UFO'S Soft Coast (Spectrum Spools) lp 22.00
Yup, that is a nod to Model 500's classic "NO UFO's" - one of the few techno trax from the mid '80s that can legitimately qualify as being timeless. The project that has taken this name is authored by Vancouver's electronica wunderkind Konrad Jandavs, who's caught in not one, but two parallel timewarps - one fixated on the kraut / motorik oscillations of Harmonia, Neu!, and Conrad Schnitzler and the other on a lo-fi adaptation of the avant-electronica circa 1993 especially Autechre and Main. All of which are great sonic signposts on their own; but thrust together in a mottled collage, the results are kaleidoscopically discombobulating. The cheap drum machine marching beneath an expository synthdrone noodle akin to J.D. Emmanuel on "Evidence / Century Park" leads into the acid reflux of "Vertigo (K. Alexi)" seeking the same influences that spawned Aphex and Autechre. The hypno-riff from Jandavs' guitar on "00/00/2010" with scrabbled electronic drone and oscillation is structurally identical to what Robert Hampson was going for on his awesome Main album Hydra-Calm (now, there's an album in need of a reissue!). For all of its genre-hopping bricolage, Soft Coast is a very self-assured album and one that fits rather nicely amidst the retro-garde agenda promoted by John Elliott's Spectrum Spools imprint.

NOCTUM The Seance (reissue w/ bonus tracks) (Transubstans) cd 17.98
We've listed Noctum's The Seance previously, when it came out domestically on the Stormspell label, in 2010. Subsequently, the band put out a vinyl-only 12" ep on the High Roller label called The Fiddler, with two new songs and a Pentagram cover.
Unfortunately, we never were able to pick up any of those eps, but now the Swedish psych/prog label Transubstans has put out an import edition of The Seance that includes 2 of the 3 tracks from The Fiddler as a bonus! (They left off the Pentagram song.) So, if you missed this before, here's a bigger better version, and if you're a big fan, now's your chance to upgrade to this expanded edition...
What we said about the original limited edition Stormspell pressing:
Woah. Witchcraft fans, listen up!! There's gotta be something supernatural in the water over there in Sweden, 'cause they've somehow conjured up ANOTHER band that channels the swinging riffage and occultic vibe of early '70s Sabbath (and Pentagram) so perfectly, a la Witchcraft. We had thought that Burning Saviours (RIP) were Witchcraft's closest doppelgangers, but these young guys do a damn good job of it too. Other bands in this vein include Graveyard, Horisont, Troubled Horse (well they're mostly all Witchcraft members, that one), and Dead Man... now add Noctum to that list and put 'em at the top! Not what we were expecting, with its cover art and logo, this looks a bit more like black metal, but these Swedes are definitely practicing an earlier form of witchcraft for this seance of theirs... Quite a nice surprise, if something that sounds so familiar can be called a surprise.
Probably if the singer didn't have that particular Swedish-accented lilt to his voice (all songs but one, "Den Onda Trollpackan", are sung in English), and did more of an overt Ozzy, we'd be calling 'em Sabbath clones (first 3 albums!) rather than Witchcraft ones, but the combination of Pentagram/Sabbath stylings and the emotive, melodic, sincere-sounding vocals definitely spell Witchcraft. (Though "Lucifer's Way" also reminds us of a song by heavy progressive krautrockers Dies Irae!).
We thought of trying to review this without playing up the Witchcraft-iness of it, but really, if you like Witchcraft (and who doesn't?) you'll find this a pleasure - and if you aren't yet into Witchcraft, you should probably start with one of their own albums anyway. Though this would do in a pinch! Sabbath fans, too, queue up. Noctum possess a very Iommi-ish guitar tone for sure. Goes great with their undeniably catchy, and heavy, riffs. Throw in crashing cymbals, bellbottomed lope, and urgent-sounding songwriting infused with portents of doom, and you've got something that's more authentically 1971 proto-metal than most things from 1971!
...So, pretty awesome, and now even better, with bonus tracks "The Fiddler" and "The Serpent Bride" both pretty groovy, bringing the cowbell and sounding like Led Zep was as much an influence as Sabbath.
MPEG Stream: "Fortune Teller"
MPEG Stream: "Mistress"
MPEG Stream: "Lucifers Way"

NOVA SCOTIAN ARMS Cult Spectrum (Digitalis) lp 19.98
Nova Scotian Arms is the solo project of Grant Evans, who runs the psychoactively inclined Hooker Vision label with his wife Rachel Evans, better known as Motion Sickness of Time Travel. Her ephemeral electronica laced with moonshine hallucinations and rural psychedelia made quite an impression in these parts with her first two albums on Digitalis; and there's definitely some overlap with Grant's debut lp Cult Spectrum as they appear to be sharing the same synths, set to druggy swoosh and sodden ambient amorphousness. But where Rachel crafts narcoleptic vocal melodies amidst her hypnotic, post-Kosmische synth patterns, Grant follows more the organic, accretive processes that aren't that far from Emeralds' early dronecentric work and the polyglot explorations of Brian Pyle (e.g. Starving Weirdos, Ensemble Economique, and especially RV Paintings). Amidst the Popul Vuh style elongated ambient phrasing of "Overcast Strumming (1st Delay)," Grant conjures hissing whispers and distantly tapped percussion hung with thick coats of reverb and echo, creating a somber elegance of faded memories furthering their decay through layers of dust and cobwebs. On the sixteen minute long "Emulsion," spooky wisps of synthesized smoke spiral into a darkly shimmering ambient wash undercut by the sound of Grant rasping his knuckles against an acoustic guitar, whose forceful riffs ooze out of the decomposing mass of decade-long growth from kudzu and Spanish moss. In all this spectral ambient decay, Nova Scotian Arms comes across not too far from the Twinsistermoon / Natural Snow Buildings camp or like a thoroughly deconstructed Steven R. Smith album. Druggy bliss-out dronemuzik, for sure!

OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD Limbless Soldiers Flight (Don't Fuck With Magic) cd-r 15.98
Latest sonic missive from Mr. Campbell Kneale, he formerly of Birchville Cat Motel, now of the much wordier Our Love Will Destroy The World. Released on Kneale's own Don't Fuck With Magic label, Limbless Soldiers Flight offers up another epic half hour plus of Kneale's dizzying kitchen sink composition, assuming Kneale's kitchen sink comes equipped with electric sitars, and malfunctioning distortion pedals, and twisted tape loops, and various mixers and soundmakers and well, you get the picture. We've seen OLWDTW and not only do we have no idea how he makes this stuff, we have no idea what that stuff is he uses to make it. It hardly matter, cuz like all the best sounds, their provenance, while entertaining, and often baffling, are trumped by the pure physical (and spiritual) pleasure of the sounds themselves, letting the music wash over you, and carry you off. And Kneale has proven himself most adept at conjuring up those sorts of sounds, which he does again here, although much of Limbless Soldiers Flight is surprisingly subdued, percussive and rhythmic, almost like the track was constructed from a malfunctioning cd player spinning cracked Muslimgauze discs, that same sort of almost-ethnic sounding rhythmic base, tribal and skittery, looped and hypnotic, those rhythmic tangles are then doused in long streaks of high end skree and percolating sci-fi FX, the whole first ten minutes is super meditative and while certainly a wee bit noisy, more a soft noise. But soon enough the surrounding sounds are cranked up, and the percussion becomes more chaotic, the sound dense and chaotic and noisy, and if we're not mistaken, some fractured metal riffing seems to surface here and there, albeit heavily effected and quickly all twisted up, the sound seems to gradually fracture and blur, the various sounds bleeding into one another, and an underpinning rhythmic stutter / electronic skitter, battling for control, eventually taking over completely with a few minutes remaining, transformed into a strange droned out symphony of cicada like buzz, blown out synth thrum, keening distant high end, and buried percussive skitter, the last minute or two a fantastic and fantastically thick electronic synth drone/dirge/buzz that could/should have gone on for another half hour.
Awesome stuff as always. And as always, super limited, we're the only place in the US selling these, and while we got a BUNCH, if past OLWDTW's are any indication, they won't be around for long.
MPEG Stream: "Limbless Soldiers Flight (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Limbless Soldiers Flight (excerpt 2)"

PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS Depths (Seance) cd 14.98
Depths is the latest blast of grim melodic blackness from this Aussie black metal horde, and the first we've reviewed on the list. This came highly recommended by weirdo black metaller the Botanist, and for fans of dense blasting buzz infused with plenty of moodiness and melody, you'd be hard pressed to do better than these guys. Just check out the opening track, pretty much everything we love about black metal, the sound is dense and murky, the guitars are thick and buzzy, the drums pounding and furious, the vocals an anguished how buried in the mix, the arrangement constantly shifting, from the opening salvo, a face melting black blast, to the more midtempo majesty of the middle stretch, replete with soaring epic guitar melodies, to an abstract, clean guitar spacey interlude, an back again, PS infuse their furious blackness with a surprising amount of emotion, giving the impression that with the drums and guitars stripped away, this might sound like Godspeed or Explosions In The Sky, that same sort of brooding, slow building intensity, which sound even cooler here, wedded to thick black guitars, and churning buzzing heaviness.
The band do introduce some cool twists, surprising almost clean vocals, draped over some ultra melodic almost Katatonia sounding riffage at one point, and chugging pop flecked almost Khold style grooves here and there, but those elements are definitely not the focal point, there guys are all about blast and buzz, howl and crush, the sound is epic and massive and heavy and BLACK, a glancing listen, and you might think this was just a wall of furious buzz, but closer listening reveals all sorts of texture and melody, but without taking away from the power or ferocity, it's almost as if all that melody, and all that sonic moodiness, was unintended, a natural byproduct of this sort of buzz and blast, but it's too well crafted, and too much an integral part of PS's sound, which manages to totally transcend the typical grim buzz of most black metal, offering up something much more epic and melodic, and ultimately way more sonically rewarding.
MPEG Stream: "Lost Geists Of The Sunlight Sphere"
MPEG Stream: "Tribulations Of Man"
MPEG Stream: "Depths"

POP. 1280 The Horror (Sacred Bones) cd 14.98
Not sure what it is about these NY noise rockers, but the album name is pretty right on, cuz this is some awesomely horrifying, paranoid, synth soaked, rhythmic, heavy, dark weirdness. Record opener "Burn The Worm" starts with the line "Two dogs fucking" and it's ON from there on out. The vibe is dark and swaggery, grungy and crusty, swampy and bluesy, psychedelic and post punky, you can totally imagine these guys being on AmRep or being from Australia, there are hints of Cop Shoot Cop, and Lubricated Goat, even Pussy Galore, but these guys take those influences and jam them into something brand new, low slung and fuzz drenched, a little bit gothy and gloomy, a little bit angular and new wave, but loose and chaotic and fucked up, rife with surprising hooks, and killer melodies, industrial junkyard percussion, thick slithery bass, and huge bursts of white noise crunch. At times these guys sound like they could be one of those third string Sub Pop bands we were totally obsessed with, that sort of druggy, almost glammy, swampy blues sound, but with hints of new wave, fused to a lurching lumbering noise rock and all tangled up with some sweaty bloody garage punk pound. All that and songs too. Not hard to imagine these guys born from the same fertile sonic soil that gave us past Record Of The Weekers The Men, similarly noisy and heavy, but infinitely more twisted and gloriously fucked up.
MPEG Stream: "Burn The Worm"
MPEG Stream: "New Electronic"
MPEG Stream: "Nature Boy"

POP. 1280 The Horror (Sacred Bones) lp 19.98
Not sure what it is about these NY noise rockers, but the album name is pretty right on, cuz this is some awesomely horrifying, paranoid, synth soaked, rhythmic, heavy, dark weirdness. Record opener "Burn The Worm" starts with the line "Two dogs fucking" and it's ON from there on out. The vibe is dark and swaggery, grungy and crusty, swampy and bluesy, psychedelic and post punky, you can totally imagine these guys being on AmRep or being from Australia, there are hints of Cop Shoot Cop, and Lubricated Goat, even Pussy Galore, but these guys take those influences and jam them into something brand new, low slung and fuzz drenched, a little bit gothy and gloomy, a little bit angular and new wave, but loose and chaotic and fucked up, rife with surprising hooks, and killer melodies, industrial junkyard percussion, thick slithery bass, and huge bursts of white noise crunch. At times these guys sound like they could be one of those third string Sub Pop bands we were totally obsessed with, that sort of druggy, almost glammy, swampy blues sound, but with hints of new wave, fused to a lurching lumbering noise rock and all tangled up with some sweaty bloody garage punk pound. All that and songs too. Not hard to imagine these guys born from the same fertile sonic soil that gave us past Record Of The Weekers The Men, similarly noisy and heavy, but infinitely more twisted and gloriously fucked up.
MPEG Stream: "Burn The Worm"
MPEG Stream: "New Electronic"
MPEG Stream: "Nature Boy"

PORTER RICKS Biokinetics (Type) 2lp 27.00
Techno is a genre of self-quotation and unrepentant appropriation, always looking in the rearview mirror at what just happened to predict what will be the hot-shit trend on the dancefloor tomorrow. So to be able to trace an entire strain within techno's taxonomy to a specific record is quite rare. The 1996 album Biokinetics by Porter Ricks is one such record, setting the stage for pretty much every electronic artist who would flock to the banner of Chain Reaction through a stylized hypnotic, narcotizing techno haunted with deep atmospherics, dub murkiness, and subaquatic allusions. Porter Ricks was the duo of Andy Mellwig and Thomas Koner, who pursued "techno as a nautical sound experience." By the time the first Porter Ricks single emerged in '96, Koner had already developed his signature isolationist approach to slow-motion sound-design blustering with arctic metaphors through the dronemuzik classics of Nunatak Gongamur (1990) and Permafrost (1993). So when Koner began exploring techno with Mellwig, the approach to techno was less about 64-bar measures and more about constructing an evolving atmosphere girded to quintessentially German techno engineering that could be taken for a sonic portrait of tidal flows, map coordinates, sonar blips, and the vastness of the deep blue sea.
Biokinetics opens with the magnificent "Port Gentil" whose steady techno pulse coalesces through overlapping patterns from muffled pulsations of white noise and distant locomotive rhythms, later topped by a radiant metallic drone. The somatic oscillations of "Biokinetics 1" hardly makes for a techno track at all despite the insistent rhythms, but the eerie heartpulse dub of "Biokinetics 2" takes an isolationist reproach to everything adding its own desolate pulse and some subterranean reverb. Granulated hiss and slippery drone shimmer blossom through the final tracks "Nautical Nuba" and "Nautical Zone" that look forward to what Wolfgang Voigt would produce on his seminal Gas albums Zauberberg and Konigsforst. It sounded awesome in 1996, and it sounds awesome today.
The vinyl is limited to 700 copies!
MPEG Stream: "Port Gentil"
MPEG Stream: "Biokinetics 2"
MPEG Stream: "Nautical Zone"

PSYCHIC TEENS Tape (Video Horror Show) VHS + download 14.98
While the rest of the world has been reveling in the resurgence of the cassette tape, some folks have been taking it a step further, and going full VHS! Video Horror Show is a label who releases VHS tapes, which feature not only music, but also appropriately enough accompanying psychedelic visuals. Past releases have included the electro goth witch house of Masacara, and the droned out abstract psychedelic black metal of Suffer The Shards Of The Lost Cult Of Silence, which was in fact members of Woe and Absu, and now comes Psychic Teens, which weirdly enough might sonically fall right in between. Described by the band as "the time you saw your creepy metalhead brother at 80's night" which isn't really that far off. Imagine a sound that was equal parts dirgey psychedelic metal, and broody deep vocal-ed goth, and you'd have the Psychic Teens, and we have to say, it's a pretty bad ass sound. Especially if you're tired of all the wimpy twee eighties throwbacks, this is more like a metalized Sisters Of Mercy or Kommunity FK or Fields Of The Nephilim, with some thick squalls of blown out shoegaze psychedelia mixed in for good measure. The sound is dark and gloomy, a little poppy, a lot heavy, the guitars thick and crunchy, the vocals deep and dramatic and wreathed in echo, this is the sort of eighties throwback we can get behind for sure. And these three songs have definitely whetted our appetite big time!
The accompanying video is appropriately VHS looking, mostly live footage of the band, but super grainy and gristly, with plenty of old school interference, the pic flickering and flipping, as if it was being viewed on an old TV with a busted horizontal hold, a playback of an old videotape that had been in a box under the stairs for the last twenty years. Awesome.
Nicely packaged in a cool old school style VHS case, with printed grey on white covers, and recorded onto a white VHS tape, includes a download coupon as well!
LIMITED TO 75 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Rose"
MPEG Stream: "Arm"

PYRAMIDS / HORSEBACK A Throne Without A King (Hydra Head) cd 15.98
Now available on the more affordable, less limited cd format!
A Throne Without A King was another record that was slated for release on Black Friday "Record Store Day" and was delayed... A sprawling collaboration, originally released on four sides of vinyl (it was originally an lp+7" package) between black metal / guitardrone soundscapers Horseback, and abstract sort-of black metal ambient alchemists Pyramids (whose mainman also runs the Handmade Birds label btw), a sprawling epic, which finds each band offering up their own little thing, and then putting their heads together for the bulk of the release.
The tracks from the 7" open up cd version and features Pyramids first, who after a chaotic stuttery programmed drum into, slip into a dreamy blissed out stretch of cinematic ambience, all softly swirling effects and hazy melodic drift. Horseback are up next and counter with a blast of black metal, a frantic blast beat beneath buzzing guitars that almost sounds more like blackened gypsy folk than black metal proper, until the vokills come in, and the demonic shriek clears that all up, before changing gears half way through and transitioning into a gorgeously decayed crumbling distorted dronescape.
Up next are the tracks from the lp, the collaboration between the two groups, and so of course we were imagining some sort of black metal / drone hybrid, or something similar, instead, the epic 4 part album length A Throne Without A King, plays out more like some lost Nurse With Wound album, heavy on the abstract soundscapery and mysterious collaged atmospheres, the processed garbled vocals, and truncated melodies, lots of drones and textures, and strange industrial filigree, it's haunting and hypnotic and very abstractly cinematic for sure, and finds a mysterious middle ground where neither band's influence is obvious.
Woozy industrial thrum drift beneath sine wave tones and fluttering high end melodies, all over fields of crackle and whir, mysterious voices doused in effects intone some ominous warning, as the listener is slowly pulled under, swallowed whole by deep drones and ethereal melodic drifts, wild squalls of white noise and grinding machinelike textures, the track most often settling into long stretches of UNsettling ambience, sounding not unlike Philip Jeck or The Caretaker, ominous and sinister, cinematic and haunting, the various textures constantly subtly shifting and transforming, as much a part of the sound as the melodies, everything floating in some epic expanse of nothingness, tethered to one another by thread like slivers of fuzz and buzz and thrum.
MPEG Stream: "Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Part 4"

ROSE, FRANKIE Know Me (Slumberland) 7" 5.50
Fans of modern reverb girl group garage rock no doubt no the name Frankie Rose, having drummed for the Vivian Girls, the Dum Dum Girls AND Crystal Stilts. We dug her debut solo record from a while back, which was exactly what you might have expected with that pedigree, but here on this new single we get a taste of Rose's new sound and it's actually pretty different. Still fuzzy and dreamy and a little bit girl group sounding, but it's way more polished and produced, a lot more eighties, plenty of jangle, and a distinctly new wave vibe for sure, but it definitely suits her, and the song is a gem, hooky and and catchy like crazy. Definitely has us excited to hear the new full length. The flipside is a remix, and recasts the song as an eighties dancefloor groover, with a soaring lush and layered M83 sounding chorus, which somehow suits the song almost as well as the regular arrangement!
MPEG Stream: "Know Me"

SERVILE SECT Realms Of The Queen (King Of The Monsters) lp 25.00
NOW ON VINYL!!!
Finally, another dark missive from this 'alien black metal duo', long time aQ faves Servile Sect, whose ritualist spacepsych dronescapes crackle with black energy, occasionally erupting into full on metallic blackness, but just as often slowly drifting and expanding into sprawling stretches of blurred low end mesmer, laced with chant like vocals and buried bits of melody, mutant otherworldly landscapes of hushed ominous drift and muted psychedelic black ragas.
On past records, the black metal element seemed almost like an afterthought, the records way heavier on the drone and drift, but on Realms Of The Queen, right out of the gate, a blasting lo-fi drum machine rhythm sets the scene, while thick sheets of coruscating guitars and harsh shrieked vokills are laid over the top, but even then, the sound is not so much fierce and grim and sort of hazy and blackly psychedelic, like a black metal blurred into some sort of trancelike black raga, the guitars lush and layered, everything cloaked in a gauze of murky muted swirl.
But soon after, the band dial back the buzz, leaving just the black, a crunchy, distorted almost Wolf Eyesian industrial dirgescape, all mechanical creaks and staticky hiss, but underneath, a mournful piano picks out a barely there lament, a swell of black buzz rises up from the murk, sheets of hiss, like super distorted vocals drift in, the result a haunting funereal industrial doom, that again is not so much heavy and crushing, and moody and atmospheric.
The rest of the record follows a similar pattern, creating lush ritualistic landscapes of distant buzzing drones, SUNNO)))-like avalanches of crumbling distortion, hazy crystalline streaks of almost new age sounding drift, synthy soundtracky tranceouts that sound a little like Zombi or Majeure being played at 16rpm and being broadcast from speakers submerged in brackish water at the bottom of some giant cavern, there are even occasional vocals, deep dramatic croons, way down in the mix, adding a gorgeous dark pop element to certain tracks.
Thick corrosive dins collide with shoegaze-y fuzz, murky avant blackness drifts into hushed minimal shimmer, gnarled black riffage gets tangled up into epic swirling blacknoise squalls, Sunroof!-like ur-drones settle into droned out blackness, culminating in the epic closer, "Universe And Self, Sender And Receiver", which sounds like a prettier fuzzier Wold, noisy and dense and black as pitch, but shot through with subtle melody, with rich layered textures, shifting constantly, a blurred murk that finally explodes into a surprisingly lush and lustrous dreampsych shoegaze softblack blowout that sounds almost like some sort of black metal dreampop, fuzzy and washed out, but still frenetic and fierce. So fucking incredible.
MPEG Stream: "Only The Sky Is Gentle"
MPEG Stream: "Stabbing Through"
MPEG Stream: "Burning Season"
MPEG Stream: "Universe And Self, Sender And Receiver"

SHEPPARD, AARON Leverage (Psychic Arts) cd-r 7.98
So many cd-r's come our way on what seems like a daily basis, but it isn't often that one of them immediately stops us in our tracks on first listen. These seven tracks by Aaron Sheppard have done just that. Haunting psychedelic solo guitar that manages to be both meditative, spacey, and focused all at the same time. We had no idea who Sheppard was when this first showed up, but his playing won us over immediately. Like Roy Montgomery and James Blackshaw conjuring up a soundtrack for a dazed afternoon, Leverage also has moments that make us think of vintage Robert Fripp, the beauty of Heldon's second album Allez Teia, as well as the recent mind blowing output of Matt Baldwin that we've raved about in the last year. Alternating between more grounded finger-picking tracks to more melting and stretched out sounds, this is by far one of the most engaging and rewarding solo guitar records we've heard in so long.
We actually want to go and on about how much this record has been moving us, but the cd-r is limited to 50 copies, so we should probably stop talking now and give you the chance to grab one of these before they are gone for good...
MPEG Stream: "Flight Path"
MPEG Stream: "The Recidivistic Stowaway"

SMOKESTACK, DJ Shitala 2 (Giving Tree) cd 8.98
Hot of the heels of our Bollywood Bloodbath Record Of The Week from last list, we're happy to have another blast of banging Bollywood greatness for you.ÊArjuna Sayyed (aka DJ Smokestack) has proven to be not only one of the most knowledgable and deep digging DJ's in the Bay Area, but pretty much anywhere in the world as far as we're concerned. Some of us were lucky to snag the first volume in his Shitala series so we already knew how damn good his mixes were. Filled with some of the most insane '70s & '80s Bollywood jams, and mixed with such a flawless touch, this mix highlights all those amazing sitar freakouts, tabla jams, dynamic vocals, funk filled beats and everything that make this era of Bollywood music so endlessly enthralling...
Clocking in at about an hour, Shitala 2 is a testament to the greatness and forward thinking musical minds that were at the helm of the sounds of Bollywood during this classic era. Call it Indian funk, or disco, or whacked out pop, whatever it is, we call it killer! Smokestack's mix has crazy broad appeal, sure hardcore Bollywood heads will flip, but also hip-hop lovers, funk diggers, dance floor DJ's, and probably YOU. DJ Smokestack not only honors the legacy of Bollywood, but uses his knowledge and talent to infuse new life and energy and share the results with so many who may otherwise mightÊnever encounter and engage with the originals. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 3"

SMOKEY EMERY Lives (Kiamesha Drive) cd-r 5.98
Originally made as a tour only cd-r in 2011, the four tracks on Lives document the live sound of one of our favorite tape-drone artists as of late, Smokey Emery. Recorded on cassette and digital camera in warehouse spaces in San Francisco and Austin between 2006 and 2010, these long-form tracks take pieces made with multiple tape recorders plus the abundant room ambiance and filter them through a murky drift of concrete industrial drones, machinic whirs, woozy snippets of orchestrated music and murmured vocals. Subtle gauzy shifts in tones hint at underlying ghostly melodies, giving a glowing aura to the chill. Like a more shoe-gazing Indignant Senility, these live tracks tantalize in their blissfully gloomy gloam. Limited!
MPEG Stream: "08.06.10"
MPEG Stream: "08.05.10"

SOFT CELL The Bedsit Tapes (Some Bizarre) cd 23.00
We managed to miss this one when it was released a while back in 2005, but we figured we weren't the only ones to let this import cd slip through the cracks. The Bedsit Tapes is the officially released collection of the early demos, escapades, and excursions from the megawatt new wave pop stars Soft Cell. These DIY recordings date back to 1978 when David Ball was attending Leeds Polytechnic, where he made full use of a makeshift recording studio consisting of a couple of reel-to-reel tape decks and a mixing board. Upon wiring up a Korg synth and primitive drum machine, Ball started to make "weird little tunes," one of which caught the ear of fellow student Marc Almond who asked if he could use one of those songs for his performance art shows. The two began refining those electronic blorps and bleeps into arty synth-pop numbers, snarling with contemporary punk energy and technological primitivism. Almond already had developed a charismatic persona, which he jubilantly expressed upon the wide vistas of grandiose theatricality, from the crooning balladeering of "L.O.V.E. Feeling" to the switchblade slashes on the uber-ironic "Bleak Is My Favorite Cliche" to the ominous bark of "Occupational Hazard" and onto the fucked-up delirium of their frenzied cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid." Yeah, you heard us right: Soft Cell covered Sabbath!
Given the stripped down arrangements and trial-by-fire approach to the technology at hand, Soft Cell certainly benefited from Almond's larger than life persona. Such is what gave the 'pop' elements of Throbbing Gristle and Reproduction era Human League their iconic status, and it certainly set the stage for the anthemic '80s hits that Soft Cell would produce later on. While many ordinary Soft Cell fans might be put off by the roughness of these tracks, it's precisely that fucked atonality, that avant-punk electricity, that giddy nervousness, those warbled, sci-fi effects and those ominous drones which make us totally dig this collection. Anyone into the whole "Messthetics" scene, and/or the current revival of retro new wave electronica old and new, should also dig.
MPEG Stream: "L.O.V.E. Feelings"
MPEG Stream: "Science Fiction Stories"
MPEG Stream: "Paranoid"

SOUND, THE Jeopardy (1972) cd 14.98
The story goes that The Sound *should* have been huge - as big as any number of successful post-punk outfits like The Cure or The Fall or Echo & The Bunnymen - but for reasons seem to baffle most everybody, they didn't find that success. Frontman Adrian Borland cut his teeth in the 1976 punk frenzy in a project called the Outsiders; but grew dissatisfied with the amphetamine trad-rock that punk was becoming. The Sound formed around Borland's increasingly complicated songwriting, following a similar art-punk route that Howard DeVoto took after leaving The Buzzcocks to start the equally adventurous Magazine. Jeopardy was the first album for The Sound, whose complex pop-punk was built around Borland's nervously chiming guitars and engaging hooks that paralleled those from The Cure's mod-pop debut Three Imaginary Boys, the theatrical bellowings of Juilan Cope's The Teardrop Explodes, and of course Magazine. This album was recorded roughly, supposedly for less than 800 British pounds; and the urgency (or panic) of getting everything to tape quickly works well with these songs. The Sound embellish a number of their new wave / punk tunes with glammy synthesizer melodies that harken back to Roxy Music and an occasional sax blurt for good measure; but it's Borland who passionately drives this band, one that should have been heard back then... and right now.
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Escape Myself"
MPEG Stream: "Heartland"
MPEG Stream: "Hour Of Need"

SOUND, THE From The Lions Mouth (1972) cd 14.98
The story goes that The Sound *should* have been huge - as big as any number of successful post-punk outfits like The Cure or The Fall or Echo & The Bunnymen - but for reasons seem to baffle most everybody, they didn't find that success. Frontman Adrian Borland cut his teeth in the 1976 punk frenzy in a project called the Outsiders; but grew dissatisfied with the amphetamine trad-rock that punk was becoming. The Sound formed around Borland's increasingly complicated songwriting, following a similar art-punk route that Howard DeVoto took after leaving The Buzzcocks to start the equally adventurous Magazine.
From The Lions Mouth was The Sound's second album, released originally in 1981; and it displays a big leap toward a more theatrical atmosphere and away from the jittery two-step punk-pop of their debut. By this record, frontman Adrian Borland developed a voice that falls somewhere between a couple of Ians - Ian McCulloch's Scott Walker croon in Echo & The Bunnymen and Ian Astbury's snakebit yelp then of Southern Death Cult. From The Lions Mouth also benefits from the lush, layered production of Hugh Jones. The Sound maps out much longer, tracks that soar, billow, and collapse with more aplomb than The Chameleons, Comsat Angels, or Cripsy Ambulance, exemplified by the album's final number "New Dark Age." It makes for an epic, sprawling album that does raise a lot of questions as to why The Sound didn't propel themselves onto MTV and beyond like so many of their contemporaries.
MPEG Stream: "Winning"
MPEG Stream: "Sense Of Purpose"
MPEG Stream: "Contact The Fact"

SPLIT CRANIUM Sceptres To Rust (Hydra Head) 7" 8.98
ATTENTION CIRCLE OBSESSIVES! And Finnish underground rock freaks, heck we might as well include Hydra Head nerds and Isis nuts, this one is for all of you. Well, seventeen of you at least. That's as many copies as we could get of the debut single from this new band featuring Jussi from Finnish hypnorockers Circle (among others) as well as Aaron Turner from Isis / Hydra Head Records, as well as one of the guys from Steel Mammoth. And considering that pedigree it sounds pretty much like you'd imagine. Or at least how you wished it would sound. Cranium splitting heaviness for sure. Pounding drums, kick ass riffs, massive HEAVY production, some seriously crusty punk blowouts woven into more metallic chug and crunch, peppered with wild squiggly metal shred freakouts, and bizarre echo drenched vocals, that make this sound very Circle-like indeed. Epic and melodic, a little like Turbonegro gone NWOFHM (that's New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal btw). A killer teaser for the upcoming full length.
The flipside finds the A side reworked by none other than noise maestro Daniel Menche, who takes all the punk and metal and blurs it and stretches it into smeared gristly walls of pulsing drone-noise, the various elements still present, but looped and layered and all tangled up into thick undulating sheets of white noise drenched rhythmic chaos, droned out and mesmerizing, the vocals in particular transformed into a haunting keening high end tone, woven into a hazy grey soft focus blurpunk drift. Super rad! And again SUPER LIMITED, not sure how many were pressed, but we got SEVENTEEN of them, and that's all we'll ever get, so get yourself one before they're gone!

SPYRALS, THE s/t (Inside The Moon) cd-r 11.98
Finally! After a tape and a couple 7"s, comes the much anticipated debut full length from this new crew of SF psych rockers, who by now should be quite familiar to fans of other Bay Area psychedelic space rock and garage rock, cuz if you dig Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo, Sleepy Sun, Carlton Melton and all the rest, as well as Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, Thee Oh Sees and the like these guys should be right there in your space/psych pantheon. And while the spacier of those other bands tend toward the more droned out and krautrocky, these guys are much more classically rocking, melding a love of Spacemen 3 and other dronier drug rock with the classics, the Velvets, the Doors, even the Stooges, their songs simple and trancelike, plenty of jangle and simpler stripped down drum stomp, the vocals wreathed in reverb, and nestled in the mix, the guitars alternately chugging and crunchy, chiming and melodic, transforming simple pop songs into something more mesmerizingly hypnotic. Even album opener, Lonely Eye on the surface is simple and spare, but over the course of its nearly 5 minutes, it gets to the point where it could go on forever, and we'd sit there glassy eyed and blissed out.
Some of the other tracks are more garagey, like "Disguise", which should totally have Oh Sees fans flipping their lids, although the sound here hews much closer to old garage classics like the Fuzztones or the Lyres, which is most definitely not a bad thing. In fact if anything, much of this new record definitely leans toward that more stripped down garage rock sound, with fuzzy guitar, wandering basslines and fuzzy organs, but here and there, like on "Calling Out Your Name" the band unleash a riff that KILLS, in the case of "COYN", it's a dead ringer for the Stooges, one that the band could have ridden hard, but instead of getting all swaggery, the band sort of blisses out, applying multiple layers of guitars and upping the psych quotient considerably, not to mention some cool rhythmic weirdness, which lurks throughout the record, and reveals itself on repeated and closer listens.
And so it goes, the whole record, a killer collection of super hooky, spaced out psychedelic garage pop gems, the sort of sound we can't get enough of, and the sort of sound that should definitely position these guys alongside other garage/space/psych rock luminaries, and again if you dig Crystal Stilts, Thee Oh Sees, Wooden Shjips, or any of the other above mentioned bands, and have not checked these guys out, do yourself a favor...
For now, only on cd-r, but with possible vinyl version to come.
MPEG Stream: "Lonely Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Long Road Out"
MPEG Stream: "Radiator"
MPEG Stream: "Evil Kind"

SYDNEY DUCKS Esprit De Corps (Pirates Press) 7" 5.98
We're not really all that clued in to the modern Oi / mod / punk scene, and we really wouldn't know about these guys at all if it weren't for the fact, that an ex member of crust metal crushers and aQ faves Acephalix was one of the guitar players in this local hard-mod / Oi combo, named for the wave of immigrants in the 1800's, coming from Australia to SF, who were blamed for all sorts of trouble, including a fire in 1849 that destroyed much of the city, as well as much of the street crime in general.
What we do know, is we're digging both of these new 7"s a bunch, total classic old school seventies/eighties style power pop / mod / punk rock, crunchy, jangly guitars, thick sinewy basslines (that sometimes get super distorted and crazy melodic), gruff belted vocals, and ultra catchy songs, that stick in your head like crazy, songs that beside being hooky, just ooze blood and sweat and energy and emotion, it's not hard to imagine folks going nuts and jumping around like crazy, their live shows must be insane, and while the stuff we've seen written about these guys make all sorts of super obscure punk rock references, we're thinking if you're like us, and dig stuff like Sham 69, Stiff Little Fingers, 999, the Adverts, even the Jam, this stuff will most definitely hit the spot! We weren't gonna go into too much detail about all the songs on both of these singles, cuz we were figuring that if you dug either (or both) of the sound samples, you'd probably want both, but we will say the B side of the Esprit De Corps single is pretty goddamn great, all sung in Spanish, with some seriously kickass bass that pretty much drives the whole song, and "Stray Dogs" sounds like a punk rock classic transported from the past, but then so does "Espirit Des Corps", and hell, the B side of the Stray Dogs single is pretty classic sounding too, with a main riff/hook that kills and some seriously anthemic vox... Screw it, just buy em both, you won't be sorry...
MPEG Stream: "Esprit De Corps"

SYDNEY DUCKS Stray Dogs (Sydney Town) 7" 4.98
We're not really all that clued in to the modern Oi / mod / punk scene, and we really wouldn't know about these guys at all if it weren't for the fact, that an ex member of crust metal crushers and aQ faves Acephalix was one of the guitar players in this local hard-mod / Oi combo, named for the wave of immigrants in the 1800's, coming from Australia to SF, who were blamed for all sorts of trouble, including a fire in 1849 that destroyed much of the city, as well as much of the street crime in general.
What we do know, is we're digging both of these new 7"s a bunch, total classic old school seventies/eighties style power pop / mod / punk rock, crunchy, jangly guitars, thick sinewy basslines (that sometimes get super distorted and crazy melodic), gruff belted vocals, and ultra catchy songs, that stick in your head like crazy, songs that beside being hooky, just ooze blood and sweat and energy and emotion, it's not hard to imagine folks going nuts and jumping around like crazy, their live shows must be insane, and while the stuff we've seen written about these guys make all sorts of super obscure punk rock references, we're thinking if you're like us, and dig stuff like Sham 69, Stiff Little Fingers, 999, the Adverts, even the Jam, this stuff will most definitely hit the spot! We weren't gonna go into too much detail about all the songs on both of these singles, cuz we were figuring that if you dug either (or both) of the sound samples, you'd probably want both, but we will say the B side of the Esprit De Corps single is pretty goddamn great, all sung in Spanish, with some seriously kickass bass that pretty much drives the whole song, and "Stray Dogs" sounds like a punk rock classic transported from the past, but then so does "Espirit Des Corps", and hell, the B side of the Stray Dogs single is pretty classic sounding too, with a main riff/hook that kills and some seriously anthemic vox... Screw it, just buy em both, you won't be sorry...
MPEG Stream: "Stray Dogs"

SZABO, GABOR The Sorcerer / More Sorcery (Impulse) cd 17.98
Two electrifying live sets from 1967 by the great Hungarian born jazz guitarist mark this latest "two-fer" reissue from Impulse. Mostly taken from a live set at Boston's Jazz Workshop plus three tracks from that year's Monterey Jazz Festival, this is a great introduction to the spellbinding work of one of the finest guitarists in jazz. Often weaving intricate gypsy-folk inspired guitar lines within Western and Latin pop standards and exotic originals, Gabor Szabo brought a mystical and sometimes psychedelic feel to modern jazz. His band during this time was also top notch, featuring guitarist Jimmy Stewart, bassist Louis Kabok, either Marty Morrell or Bill Goodwin on drums and percussionist Hal Gordon. While the pop standards ("The Beat Goes On", "People", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, plus the Brazilian tunes, "Little Boat" and "Corcovado") are still pretty good, the real strength of the material is in the originals, especially the ambient "Space", the 12 minute work out, "Los Matodoros" and one of our favorite tracks ever, the beguiling and mysterious "Mizrab". Szabo recorded several amazing albums in the sixties and seventies for Impulse, Blue Thumb, CTi and Skye, including the great Jazz Raga, that we reviewed recently, having been reissued by Light In The Attic. This latest in Impulse's reissue series, which has also included lesser known records by Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, and Alice Coltrane, stands out among our favorites for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Mizrab"
MPEG Stream: "Los Matodoros"
MPEG Stream: "Space"
MPEG Stream: "Spellbinder"

TACO LEG Printed Gold (Richie Records) 7" 8.98
They had us at Taco Leg. These Aussie garage rockers lay down a sort of swaggery low slung garage punk, that's super simple, skeletal and stripped down, there's some serious Stooges worship going on, but it sounds like the guitar player is not playing ANY chords, just single notes, which gives the sound a really weird vibe, but we dig it, that combined with the caveman drum plod makes this another one of those records we would have expected to discover via Brian Turner's show on WFMU. Total outsider garage punk thudrock that kills.
Apparently at some point on their most recent US tour, someone told the band they sounded like punk rockers Fang, so after figuring out who the Fuck fang was, they decided to cover a Fang song, and deliver a pretty kick ass version of Fang's "The Money Will Roll Right In", all dirgey and blown out, and it sounds like maybe the guitarist decided to play chords, or at the very least, stomped on a distortion pedal, it's dirgey and swampy and punky and is pretty much a perfect Taco Leg cover.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!

TORT s/t (Total Rust) cd 12.98
One of three new releases from Jerusalem based Total Rust label, who specialize in the slow and heavy, the sludgey and dirgey, so it makes sense that these Spaniards would find a home there, even more so when you consider that Tort features members of another Total Rust band, the late great Lords Of Bukkake. Like LoB before them, Tort kick out some seriously crusty, filthy jams, a sort of dirgey sludgey stoner doom? The Sleep vibe is huge, the massive riffing, the sort of slowed down Sabbathy groove, but there's also a serious old school crusty metal vibe a la Hellhammer, and guess what, the label agrees, but goes even further describing these guys as "Hellhammer meets Sleep meets Godflesh meets Black Sabbath meets Voivod meets Saint Vitus meets Bolt Thrower meets Eyehategod", which as far as descriptions goes is pretty high praise, and definitely a tall order, and while no band could possibly live up to that, these guys definitely come close. Ther perfect mix of stoner swing and downtuned dirge, the guitars insanely thick and caustic, the bass a blown out rumble, the drums crushing, the vocals might be the best part, super harsh and intense, a fierce and inhuman demonic rasp that transforms the sound into something way more sick and sinister. These guys also traffic in some serious tranced out heaviness, locking into grooves that could go on endlessly and we would be totally in their thrall, churning, roiling epic heaviness, that slips easily from lumbering crush to thrashing blast and back again. This is one of those records that we find ourselves listening to WAY more often than we thought we would, and with every listen, we dig it more and more, and find ourselves with some of these riffs, seriously lodged in our head which is most definitely a rare occurrence.
Definitely recommended for metalheads who like their metal slow and low, sludgey and sick, primitive and atmospheric, dirgey and HEAVY.
MPEG Stream: "Vallaha"
MPEG Stream: "Cannibals Of Ma'Arrat"

UMBERTO Final Exit (Black Moss) one-sided silk-screened 12" 16.98
The latest chunk of seventies/eighties faux giallo soundtrack John Carpenter / Goblin worship from longtime aQ faves Umberto comes in the form of this EXTREMELY limited one-sided silk-screened 12". Umberto, aka Matt Hill, who is one half of psychedelic spacekraut explorers Expo 70, offers up another glorious slab of brooding cinematic ambience, this one a lot more ambient that past outings. More on that in a second. Final Exit is packaged in a super striking fold over sleeve, which features the image of one unlucky man's final exit, laying on a bed, suffocated with a plastic bag over his head, the sleeve also bears the legend: "This record is intended to accompany the last moments of your suffering." It also features a seal, adorned with a flower, and the words "good life / good death". The record itself is one sided, the flipside featuring another image of that same man, this time eyes opened and bulging! Morbid for sure. And the music follows suit. Sort of. In some ways it almost sounds more like a slightly more sinister and soundtracky Expo 70, with warm swoonsome synth swirls, a sort of darkly new age-y drift, moody and broody, with lush swells that sound almost choral, the vibe is definitely majestic and cinematic, but is also minimal and restrained. A few minutes in, percolating synth melodies surface amidst the dark swirls, and then a simple heartbeat like pulse, motorik and minimally propulsive, near the end the sound changes tone and timbre becoming much more gristly and distorted the hum and thrum transformed into a crumbling buzz, ominous and sinister, the whole sound hazy and gauzy, and gradually fading to black.
The record sounds great at both 33 and 45rpm, but we tend to like things slower, so at 33 it definitely sounds much creepier and gloomier.
LIMITED TO JUST 150 COPIES!!! Each one is hand numbered. When we run out, we will NOT be able to get more, so if you want one, act fast.
Word of warning: These come in those super brittle plastic picture disc sleeves that, to be blunt, kinda suck, so every single one of the sleeves is slightly damaged, whether it's cracked on the corner, or with a seam split, it's the nature of those sleeves, and of having them shipped from overseas too (which also resulted in some some bent corners and so forth), so if you're super anal, or a nit picky collector, you have been warned, everyone else, you should be fine, they're all housed in a second polybag anyway, and the records themselves are in perfect condition (and look amazing!), so grab one before they're gone!

V/A Last Time Around (Mississippi) lp 14.98
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Yep, Mississippi Records strikes again with another perfectly assembled compilation. Or more appropriately, they strike with a perfect cherry picked compilation of yet ANOTHER perfectly assembled compilation, as the eleven songs here represent highlights taken from Tompkins Square's massive 3cd set Fire In My Bones released back in 2007. So, in the event that you own that album already, you might not need this too, unless the vinyl format compells... But everyone else is advised to jump on board and embrace the gospel. Particularily if you'd rather have the 4 hours of that Fire In My Bones comp distilled down to two essential sides of vinyl.
The tracks here are of the variety that will make non-believers feel like they are missing out. It is important to note that Fire In My Bones was subtitled "Raw + Rare + Other-Worldly African-American Gospel". Raw and other-worldly being perhaps the best descriptions for the sounds within. Naturally, the enormity of Fire In My Bones might be too much for some folks to handle, so Last Time Around gets a warm welcome here at aQuarius. These songs cover pretty wide sonic ground. You have tracks like opener "Get Back Satan" by Rev. Roger L. Worthy & His Sister Bonnie, where the siblings accompany each other vocally with a beautiful tremeloed electric guitar, reminding us of some of the material on Sonic Boom's recent Spacelines compilation. Isaiah Owens' "You Without Sin Cast The First Stone" offers up a nice contrast with slashing electric guitar that sounds slightly (not too much) and awesomely out of tune, while the vocals go from Son House styled growls to a wailing falsetto. Elsewhere we have Bishop McDaniel, whose "Rock Daniels" is a stomping rocker with a sound that manages to outsleaze many of today's garage rock hopefuls. The gang gospel vocals, of course, take things to levels of heavenly bliss that you just can't reach unless you BELIEVE. Awesome. Kicking off side B, Isaac Haney & The Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir's "At A Time Like This (Part One) is a slow organ led number that serves a beautiful comedown to Bishop Daniel's fire and brimstone. The legendary Precious Bryant makes an appearance here with "The Saints", her amazing clear vocals and cool country strummed guitar making this a standout among the standouts. The album closes with Theotis Taylor's rendition of "Swing Low", where plinky pianos and awesome crooned vocals appear to overpower and distort the microphones for that in-the-red sound that we all LOVE.
Mississippi-heads have no doubt already hit the "add to cart" button, and while this pristine collection is great for anyone even slightly interested in gospel music, the performances here are so passionate, energetic, and cool that they will likely win over people who had no idea what real gospel music sounds like. As always, this one gets our highest recommendation.

V/A Pop Ambient 2012 (Kompakt) cd 16.98
It's that time again, Kompakt's yearly installment in their Pop Ambient series, a release we ALWAYS look forward to and one that typically immediately becomes out new favorite sleeping / chillout / late night listen, and this one looks to be no different. In that respect at least. One way it IS different this time around is the opening track. More on that in a second. For folks new to Pop Ambience, it's basically like minimal electronica with the beats stripped way, leaving just lush expanses of whoosh and shimmer, blurred melodies and abstract ambience. It's also become a sort of go to descriptor for that sound we love so much, the sort of hazy, gauzy, washed out soundscaping of folks like Tim Hecker and the Caretaker and the like, with these comps offering up new tracks by old faves, and every time at least one or two new discoveries. The big discovery this time around for us, and the one responsible for the above mentioned opening track, goes by the name of Mohn, and delivers what might be the darkest, heaviest Pop Ambient track yet, a thick hazy landscape of blurred, crumbling greys and blacks, lots of space, abstractly rhythmic, almost doomy, dense gristly swells, that remain warmly melodic, but still hauntingly ominous. It's a gorgeous cinematic creep, super dynamic, and darkly moody, growing more spare and skeletal near the end, we've been listening to just this track over and over, and while it's the first we've really heard from Mohn, we're definitely dying to hear more.
The comp returns to more familiar ground with some more familiar names after that, Superpitcher, Wolfgang Voigt, Triola, Marsen Jules, Simon Scott, and while the rest of the tracks here are much prettier, and way less dark, and more traditionally pop ambient, they still retain a bit of that ominous undercurrent, usually in the form of more melancholic melodies, with lush shimmers drifting amidst sonic shadows, repeated motifs adding just a teeny bit of cinematic tension. Superpitcher's lush and lovely "Jackson" might be one of the most gorgeous things we've heard from him, all processed voices and looped pianos, repetitive and cyclical and totally mesmerizing. Another new name Morek offers up a bit of dark and gristly buzz, wreathed of course in lustrous swirls of haze and shimmer, while Triola weaves a dreamlike expanse of swoonsome drift, and almost post rock sounding brood. Voigt's track here sounds like a lost soundtrack for some acid drenched Tim Burton film, like the tape is warping and undulating before your very ears, transforming beauty into something a bit darker and shadowy, while Jules adds what might be the only actual beats here, but in the form of reverbed and blurred skitters, the whole thing super dense, dubbed out and dreamy. Simon Scott weaves a sprawling bit of string laden soundtracky drift, evoking images of rainswept streets and dark mysterious cities, until the new-to-us Loops Of Your Heart finishes things off with a wistful bit of gauzy guitarscaping, all sweetly tangled melodies, and subtly processed atmospheres, everything wreathed in a streaks of sonic gristle and some soft focus cosmic swirl. So lovely.
MPEG Stream: MOHN "Manifesto"
MPEG Stream: SUPERPITCHER "Jackson"
MPEG Stream: TRIOLA "Richmodis"
MPEG Stream: MARSEN JULES "Swans Reflecting Elephants"

V/A Pop Ambient 2012 (Kompakt) lp 19.98
It's that time again, Kompakt's yearly installment in their Pop Ambient series, a release we ALWAYS look forward to and one that typically immediately becomes out new favorite sleeping / chillout / late night listen, and this one looks to be no different. In that respect at least. One way it IS different this time around is the opening track. More on that in a second. For folks new to Pop Ambience, it's basically like minimal electronica with the beats stripped way, leaving just lush expanses of whoosh and shimmer, blurred melodies and abstract ambience. It's also become a sort of go to descriptor for that sound we love so much, the sort of hazy, gauzy, washed out soundscaping of folks like Tim Hecker and the Caretaker and the like, with these comps offering up new tracks by old faves, and every time at least one or two new discoveries. The big discovery this time around for us, and the one responsible for the above mentioned opening track, goes by the name of Mohn, and delivers what might be the darkest, heaviest Pop Ambient track yet, a thick hazy landscape of blurred, crumbling greys and blacks, lots of space, abstractly rhythmic, almost doomy, dense gristly swells, that remain warmly melodic, but still hauntingly ominous. It's a gorgeous cinematic creep, super dynamic, and darkly moody, growing more spare and skeletal near the end, we've been listening to just this track over and over, and while it's the first we've really heard from Mohn, we're definitely dying to hear more.
The comp returns to more familiar ground with some more familiar names after that, Superpitcher, Wolfgang Voigt, Triola, Marsen Jules, Simon Scott, and while the rest of the tracks here are much prettier, and way less dark, and more traditionally pop ambient, they still retain a bit of that ominous undercurrent, usually in the form of more melancholic melodies, with lush shimmers drifting amidst sonic shadows, repeated motifs adding just a teeny bit of cinematic tension. Superpitcher's lush and lovely "Jackson" might be one of the most gorgeous things we've heard from him, all processed voices and looped pianos, repetitive and cyclical and totally mesmerizing. Another new name Morek offers up a bit of dark and gristly buzz, wreathed of course in lustrous swirls of haze and shimmer, while Triola weaves a dreamlike expanse of swoonsome drift, and almost post rock sounding brood. Voigt's track here sounds like a lost soundtrack for some acid drenched Tim Burton film, like the tape is warping and undulating before your very ears, transforming beauty into something a bit darker and shadowy, while Jules adds what might be the only actual beats here, but in the form of reverbed and blurred skitters, the whole thing super dense, dubbed out and dreamy. Simon Scott weaves a sprawling bit of string laden soundtracky drift, evoking images of rainswept streets and dark mysterious cities, until the new-to-us Loops Of Your Heart finishes things off with a wistful bit of gauzy guitarscaping, all sweetly tangled melodies, and subtly processed atmospheres, everything wreathed in a streaks of sonic gristle and some soft focus cosmic swirl. So lovely.
MPEG Stream: MOHN "Manifesto"
MPEG Stream: SUPERPITCHER "Jackson"
MPEG Stream: TRIOLA "Richmodis"
MPEG Stream: MARSEN JULES "Swans Reflecting Elephants"

V/A Tally Ho! Flying Nun's Greatest Hits (Flying Nun) 2cd 14.98
This new compilation from legendary New Zealand label Flying Nun, their first proper greatest hits collection, has been getting played like crazy in the store, and it makes sense, just check out the line up, a dizzying collection of some of the greatest jangle pop and noise rock and everything in between that New Zealand has had to offer over the last THIRTY years: tracks from The Clean, The Verlaines, The Chills, The Bats, Straightjacket Fits, Chris Knox, The Dead C, The Gordons, Bailter Space, The Pin Group, Tall Dwarfs, Snapper, the 3Ds, and so many more. From the early days of the label, to now, the label having recently been re-activated/re-invigorated. Nothing here is super rare, no lost B sides or unreleased gems, so folks well versed in NZ rock, with a record collection to prove it, might not have a need for this, UNLESS you were after pretty much the ultimate kick ass NZ underground rock Flying Nun mixtape, cuz then outside of compiling your own, you'd be hard pressed to do better than this. And for folks who might have missed out on Flying Nun the first time around, this collection is overflowing with new discoveries, and so many potential new favorite bands. All sides of the label is represented, most notably, that distinctive jangle pop side, which went on ti influence pretty much every indie rock outfit since. Whether it's The Clean's impossibly catchy keyboard driven lo-fi classic "Tally Ho!" (from which this comp takes its name), or the dreamy jangle of the Chills' "Heavenly Pop Hit", which couldn't have been more appropriately titled. There's the jangly bass driven sweet harmonied girl pop of Look Blue Go Purple, that sounds like it could easily be a new retro pop 7" on Slumberland, the dreamy strum and jangle of the Bats, the quirkly lo-fi home brewed weirdo pop of The Tall Dwarfs, and then there's "Outer Space" by the 3D's which sounds like the best song the Pixies never recorded, but then there's the other side of the label, the darker, heavier more experimental side, represented here by the Dead C (of course) with a sub 2 minute blast of murky, tape manipulated, noise drenched weirdness, and the Gordons, with their dirgey, almost doomy swagger, and seriously fierce guitar crunch, Bailter Space, arguable one of the loudest bands ever, their track here dreamy and darkly shoegazey, there's the scuzzy garage rock blues of Solid Gold Hell, the Joy Division-y new wave of The Pin Group, and let's not forget about Snapper, who are like some weird sci-fi space rock, garage pop hybrid, with hooks galore, and that's totally just a taste. Like all the best comps, Tally Ho! is perfect as it is, a killer mixtape, but also, a launching of point for avid listeners to track down records by all these bands and become as obsessed now with this stuff as some of us have been for years!
MPEG Stream: THE CLEAN "Tally Ho!"
MPEG Stream: THE VERLAINES "Death And The Maiden"
MPEG Stream: ABLE TASMANS "Fault In The Frog"
MPEG Stream: THE PIN GROUP "Ambivalence"
MPEG Stream: THE GORDONS "Machine Song"
MPEG Stream: SNAPPER "Buddy"

VULCANUS 68 Contours And Colours (Gigante Sound) cd-r 6.98
Opening the latest Vulcanus 68 release is the haunting "Monochrome Canon I" which possesses a lost in space sense of lonely melancholia. This tone resurfaces in the second and third passages of the canon which are evenly spaced amidst the seven other tracks. Evoking the indistinguishable shift from dream to nightmare, these are the kind of beautiful and foreboding soundtracks you'd expect to hear in some 1970s post apocalyptic near future sci-fi movie in which insect communities slowly amass to engulf a human civilization (a la 1974's "Phase IV"). Putting their characteristically woozy pitch/speed manipulated samples, analog synth buzzing drones and shimmering resonance to fine use, these Bay Area audio sculptors transport your ears through zones of claustrophobia and expanse, imbuing each of their soundscapes with rich dynamics, texture, subtle movement... and yes, plenty of contour and colour. A terrific addition to your Gigante Sound library!
MPEG Stream: "The Monochrome Canon I"
MPEG Stream: "Silent Spring"

YETI Issue #12 magazine + 7" 14.98
Latest issue of this long running aQ beloved music mag, and you'll definitely notice some differences this time around, the first thing obviously, is the format, the old more typically magazine sized format has now been transformed into a perfect 8" by 8" square sized mag, all the more perfect for change #2, replacing the cd compilation that accompanied past issues with a 7" vinyl single! The first Yeti single especially of note cuz it includes a brand new, exclusive Grouper track! And we now how Grouper fans are, so no need to read any further if you're just here for the single. But in addition to the Grouper track (a Dead Moon cover!!!), there's also unheard songs from Mississippi Fred McDowell (two unreleased 1959 Alan Lomax recordings as well as a track from the Tiki Men (a Duane Eddy cover!), and also included is a 100 minute free downloadable mix, more in line with the old Yeti comps, and loaded with cool stuff (including the tracks from the 7"). And heck we haven't even gotten to the magazine itself yet!
Inside you'll find the usual eclectic mix of music, art and photography, including photos from the Alan Lomax Archives from his 1959 'Southern Journey', memories of the eighties New York hardcore scene from poet Margarita Shalina, Jamaican gospel 7" labels, an essay on surf rockers the Tiki Men, African sign painter Thiam Bellou, an interview with author Susan Bernofsky, photos of abandoned forts in Russia by Nina Dudoladova, a collection of Neal Cassady ephemera (!), along with tons of other cool stuff including drawings, short stories, and the usual selection of ads all crammed together in the back, for other cool stuff you're probably also gonna want!

YONKERS, MICHAEL WITH THE BLIND SHAKE Period (S-S) cd 14.98
AQ fave, garage rock outsider singer/guitarist Michael Yonkers is baaaaack, with another whomping, stomping blast of his uniquely eccentric heavy duty distortodelic grunge, again in the company of relative youngsters, The Blind Shake, a quite suitable backing band for Yonkers at his most electric and energetic. Yonkers himself, as you probably know, is, like, in his 60s. And his magnum opus, Microminiature Love (so recommended!!! plz read our review if you haven't) dates from over 40 years ago. But you'd think it was just yesterday, the way the man kicks out the jams here. No surprise, he's wowed us on several other records in recent years, with The Blind Shake and Plastic Crimewave and GR and solo. So now, wow again. With his homemade geetar howl landing square on your skull, and his elder Iggyish yodel singing strong o'er it all, Yonkers RULES and so does this record, raw and direct, the Blind Shake shakin' it up with gusto behind him, the whole thing a throbbing good time, catchy and noisy and gnarly and blown out, with pounding drums and whooshing wind tunnel guitars n' effects... these songs n' sonics are the stuff that freeks for such bands as The Heads, High Rise, White Hills, and The Stooges should dig. Best punk-psych outing on our list this week fer sure, and would probably qualify as such almost any other week as well!
Includes a killer, updated take on their signature tune, the title track from a few albums back, "Carbohydrate Hydrocarbons", here called "Carbo Hydro".
MPEG Stream: "Carbo Hydro"
MPEG Stream: "Hey Hey What"
MPEG Stream: "Period"

YONKERS, MICHAEL WITH THE BLIND SHAKE Period (S-S) lp 16.98
AQ fave, garage rock outsider singer/guitarist Michael Yonkers is baaaaack, with another whomping, stomping blast of his uniquely eccentric heavy duty distortodelic grunge, again in the company of relative youngsters, The Blind Shake, a quite suitable backing band for Yonkers at his most electric and energetic. Yonkers himself, as you probably know, is, like, in his 60s. And his magnum opus, Microminiature Love (so recommended!!! plz read our review if you haven't) dates from over 40 years ago. But you'd think it was just yesterday, the way the man kicks out the jams here. No surprise, he's wowed us on several other records in recent years, with The Blind Shake and Plastic Crimewave and GR and solo. So now, wow again. With his homemade geetar howl landing square on your skull, and his elder Iggyish yodel singing strong o'er it all, Yonkers RULES and so does this record, raw and direct, the Blind Shake shakin' it up with gusto behind him, the whole thing a throbbing good time, catchy and noisy and gnarly and blown out, with pounding drums and whooshing wind tunnel guitars n' effects... these songs n' sonics are the stuff that freeks for such bands as The Heads, High Rise, White Hills, and The Stooges should dig. Best punk-psych outing on our list this week fer sure, and would probably qualify as such almost any other week as well!
Includes a killer, updated take on their signature tune, the title track from a few albums back, "Carbohydrate Hydrocarbons", here called "Carbo Hydro".
MPEG Stream: "Carbo Hydro"
MPEG Stream: "Hey Hey What"
MPEG Stream: "Period"

ZOMES Improvisations (Thrill Jockey) lp 15.98
Originally released as a super limited cassette, this collection of abstract kosmische improvs from aQ faves Zomes, aka Asa Osborne, he of the mighty Lungfish, and later, the stripped down but equally mighty Pupils, has now been reissued on vinyl, taking the original two improvisations from the tape, and adding a third, and pushing the sound of Zomes even further into the abstract ether. On other 'proper' Zomes records, the sound was an immediately entrancing fragmented loop music, single melodic figures, repeated and layered into trancelike shortform miniature ragas, shamanistic and subdued, which is most definitely still the case on these three extended sonic explorations, which find Osborne continuing on that same sonic path, but expanding that sound significantly, or rather the scope of his sound, the source is still minimal, warm layered synths, but here, those layers are stretched into slowly undulating sidelong swells, like Riley or Reich, or like more modern synthscapers like Expo 70, Osborne, unfurls lush melodies, letting them drift and shimmer, melodies surfacing and then fading out, before a new set of melodies take their place, dreamlike and softly psychedelic, sun dappled and gorgeously gauzy, this is total krautdrone new age bliss, utterly lovely and serene and tranquil and divine.
The two tracks here from the tape are transcendent and transport the listener to some hazy otherworld, everything blurred and muted and washed out and soft focus. As is the extra track here, but it weds that same sort of ethereal shimmer to something grittier and buzzier, creating a sort of washed out raga buzz that combines the more low fidelity audio alchemy of the other Zomes records with a more abstract improvised heart-of-the-sun cosmic/celestial soulgazing/soundscaping. Fans of the current crop of krautsynth new age drifters will be in heaven, just imagine a prettier, dronier, more ethereal and minimal Expo 70, and you'll get an idea of what sort of spaced out cosmic drift these improvisations offer. So totally lovely.
MPEG Stream: "No. 1"
MPEG Stream: "No. 3"

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BEACH BOYS, THE Smile Sessions (2lp Version) (Capitol) 2lp 29.00
Finally, In Stock On Double Vinyl!
The newly released, highly anticipated Smile Sessions are finally here and it's been an occasion for all sorts of debate and nerd-ery among us. First off, some of us have been obsessed with the record for years, having acquired various bootlegs, the recent Brian Wilson re-do, as well as tracing the seeds of the Smile sessions throughout the trajectory of the later Beach Boys records (which are some of our favorites). While our bootleg versions always had the main song cycle separated from the various shorter interludes and segues that connected them, the Brian Wilson re-do saw the potential of what could have been, yet it still felt like a cover version of what was supposed to be the real thing.
Now what the Smile Sessions tries to do, and for the most part succeeds in doing, is taking the blueprint Wilson made with the re-do and marrying the songs and interludes into a solid dazzling whole. On the vinyl version, the flow of what is understood as the proper album has never sounded better with the rich harmonic vocals, symphonic arrangements and beautifully antiquarian lyricism provided by Van Dyke Parks combined in elaborately layered arrays of epiphanal pop orchestration over the first three sides. The last side is a handful of selected stereo mixes and session excerpts, a really small taste of bonus material compared to the whole extra cd of the 2cd version and the 4 extra cds of the deluxe box set.
For the most part, the main album is put together quite faithfully to Wilson's vision and it sounds amazing!. We're used to the sometimes slightly abrupt transitions that have long become a part of the record's charm and the result is still quite incredible and kaleidoscopic. No matter our particular desires of how we would try to put this together (For instance, why isn't "Cool, Cool Water" included in the main song cycle like it was in the bootlegs, and in Brian Wilson's version, there renamed and rewritten as "Blue Hawaii"? Instead it's relegated to the bonus material on the cd versions!) , it's still quite a remarkable feat. We still wonder if Wilson finished and released this as it was meant to be in 1967, would we still care so much about it? Allan doesn't understand the "lost record" appeal of it all. "What was wrong with Smiley Smile?" Oh, Allan.
We're sure plenty of folks will be having their own geeky debates. Still for those obsessed as we are or even for the newly curious, this comes Highly Recommended!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Cabin Essence"
MPEG Stream: "Surf's Up"
MPEG Stream: "Child Is The Father of The Man"
MPEG Stream: "The Elements: Fire (Mrs O'Leary's Cow)"
MPEG Stream: "Look (Song For Children)"

CRAFT Void (Southern Lord) lp 17.98
NOW ON VINYL!
Finally! The return of Swedish black metal horde Craft, six years after their crushing Fuck The Universe record, purported to be their last at the time, but it was well worth the wait, and we're happy to report very little has changed in whatever negative grim underworld these guys call home, in fact, if anything, Void sound even more misanthropically miserable, the sound seriously cranked, a killer production that doesn't take away from the sound's raw immediacy or caustic filth at all, just makes it that much more powerful. As always, these guys weave dizzying blackened riffs into plodding doomic trudges, creating a strange dichotomous sound that find the guitars riffing furiously, while the rest of the band lumbers ominously, their debt to Mayhem and Darkthrone more than paid, as they take the classic sound of vintage Scandinavian blackness and make it all their own, peppering their dirgey miserablism with cool little melodic trills, processed backwards guitars, weird effects, all employed judiciously, and subtly, letting the core black buzz and demonic pound speak for itself, the vocals even more harsh than before, and so blown out and high in the mix that occasionally you can almost hear the needles in the studio peg, but for all the lumbering midtempo dirgery, it's not just all doomy blackness, and while the band rarely go full bore frenzied blast, they do crank up the tempo here and there, although they do tend to slip right back into some gnarled and churning dirge before too long. There's also plenty of classic metal mixed into their black buzz too, which makes these songs surprisingly catchy, but again, without at all sacrificing the band's grizzled hellish blackness.
MPEG Stream: "Serpent Soul"
MPEG Stream: "Come Resonance Of Doom"
MPEG Stream: "The Ground Surrenders"

GIRLS Lawrence (True Panther) 7" 12.98
With Valentine's Day just a couple weeks away, this fancy one-sided heart shaped single from Girls will be the perfect way to tell that special someone you dig them a lot, or more appropriately in the spirit of Girls, you should get it for yourself and lament the love that you have lost or you wish for but can never have.
"Lawrence" is dedicated to Lawrence Hayard, the frontman of Felt, and what an awesome dedication and tribute it is as this song has the same kind of languid and hazy daydream glow of so many of our favorite Felt songs. It's not a cover, but instead a way for Christopher Owens to show his gratitude and love to someone who has played such a big influence on his music making.
Quite possibly the most beautiful Girls song to date. We've been spinning this heart over and over since we got it in, and don't expect to stop any time soon...

KIM JUNG MI Now (Lion Productions) lp 21.00
Yay! Now reissued on nice thick vinyl too! Here's more or less what we said about this when the cd reish came out some weeks back...
All of you who loved Light In The Attic's career-spanning collection of music by Korean psych guitar maestro Shin Joong Hyun, that we recently made Record Of The Week, should be happy about this. It's an brand new official reissue, the first in a series, of Shin Joong Hyun related albums. As you perhaps recall, soothing psych-pop-folk singer Kim Jung Mi, backed by Shin Joong Hyun and his group The Men, appeared on that Beautiful Rivers And Mountains anthology with a song called "The Sun", which we said reminded us of Galaxie 500!
This 1973 full-length from Kim Jung Mi, as masterminded by Shin Joong Hyun, is also quite special. "The Sun" is just but one of the ten dreamily melodic tracks found here, including a four minute version of the song "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains" itself, a signature Shin Joong Hyun tune. Other titles include "Wind", "Blow Spring Breeze", "It's Raining", and "Lonely Heart", and although the lyrics are all in Korean, we get the idea that love and nature form much of the subject matter here. In the extensive liner notes, Shin Joong Hyun is quoted as having said: "There is no person who can sing Psychedelic music as well as Kim Joong Mi".
Kim Jung Mi's lovely voice will go straight to your heart, and the emotive music accompanying her is moodily lush, majestically melancholic... it's not really about hard-edged fuzz guitars, though they surface occasionally, as more often do propulsive psych "beat" grooves, but for the most part this album seems to hover on a higher, more heavenly pop plane of psychedelia than that suggests... The groovier stuff, though, reminds us of Serge Gainsbourg's Historie De Melody Nelson at times (on "Your Dream" especially). And it's no stretch that the liner notes call Kim Jung Mi the "Francoise Hardy of Korea". Recommended to any fan of the Forge Your Own Chains comp, in addition to those who already heard her on that Shin Joong Hyun collection. Gorgeous!
Comes nicely packaged, with obi, and large full-color 4-page insert with photos and those aforementioned liner notes.
MPEG Stream: "Wind"
MPEG Stream: "Your Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Beautiful Rivers And Mountains"

MY SOLID GROUND s/t (Second Battle) 2lp 53.00
Achtung! Now finally back in stock on vinyl!
We've been fans of this krautrock record for years, ever since we first encountered Second Battle's original cd reissue, but that's been out of print for ages, we thought Second Battle had gone out of business, but no, they're back, with a gatefold double vinyl version (definitely expensive, but fancy, and an import of course).
We envy those of you as yet uninitiated into the krautrock awesomeness of My Solid Ground. How awesome is that awesomeness? Well, the very first track is called "Dirty Yellow Mist" and is over 13 minutes long, featuring a relentlessly repeating distorted guitar riff ceremonially intoning over and over and over as wordless female vocals, droning organ and tribal percussion build up around it. If you're like, "cool!" then this record is for you, it's as good as that sounds. This 1971 (aha, 1971! says Allan) album exemplifies druggy, downer spaced-out psych, being very reminiscent of Pink Floyd circa Meddle (another awesome album that we really should properly review some day!) and Amon Duul II - along with other krautrockers like Siloah, Necronomicon, Agitation Free and early Guru Guru. And the Floyd feel isn't just 'cause of the cartoon pigs that adorn the cover art either. But there's also a side to the band that's more along the lines of garagey hard rock, with several Kinks-riffed attacks to shake your shack. As primitive heaviness goes, this is a classic. Hazy and weighty and often ominous (check out the mumbling vocals on "The Executioner"). Includes seven bonus tracks, including the original 24 minute version of "Flash"!
MPEG Stream: "Dirty Yellow Mist"
MPEG Stream: "Flash Part IV"

ORCHESTRA PETER THOMAS Orion 2000 (Roundtable / The Omni Recording Corporation) lp 27.00
Now on vinyl, following Omni's cd version highlighted here a few months back!
Groovy, baby! Are you a filmmaker making a movie about sex kittens on the moon? A crime drama with rocket ships and ray guns? A documentary about swinging space aliens building the pyramids? Or just daydreaming about such subjects? Well, have we (and Omni) got the totally fab, pre-fab soundtrack for you!! Swank futuric funky jazz loungey freakbeat electronic grooves perfect for any kitschy exploito-flick you could imagine, pounded out by a band led by composer Peter Thomas, whom perhaps you know already as the man responsible for scoring Raumpatrouille (Space Patrol), a classic German '60s sci-fi TV show. His "in-kraut" stylings on many, many other soundtracks have earned him a cult following.
This exuberant album consists of prime Peter Thomas stuff, material recorded in 1970, released as an obscure library music lp in 1975, and out of circulation until now! Remastered, from the original master tapes (but without the 4 bonus tracks of the cd version), this features 12 tracks in total, most about 2-3 minutes in length, each categorized variously as either "Beat", "Electric Beat", "Strong Beat", "Rock Beat", or "Fast Beat", for what it's worth. They've ALL got bombastic beats, along with brassy horns, sizzling synths, fluttering flutes, and occasional wordless vocals... Any TV commercial or film project that was wild enough to made use of this library music would sound pretty hip, considering that the players in the Orchestra Peter Thomas included close associates and/or members of krautrockers Amon Duul II and Brainticket... Oh, and on lead guitar, Vampyros Lesbos co-composer Siggi Schwab!
Definitely another awesome Omni find. Packaged with informative liner notes, where you can read about PT's one of a kind "Tho-Wi-Phon" synthesizer, among other interesting things.
MPEG Stream: "Mars Close Up"
MPEG Stream: "Power Boost"
MPEG Stream: "Flash Point"
MPEG Stream: "Rockin' Computer"

PEACHES The Teaches Of Peaches (XL / Kitty-Yo) lp 34.00
Reissued on hella expensive vinyl. What we said 'bout it some years ago, originally, and we doubt anyone's opinions have changed much over the years...
You are hereby forewarned that five AQ staffers totally hate this record, while two others like it a lot. AQ fistfight!
We'd heard a lot from various customers recently about this female rapper with a disc on German indie-electronica label Kitty-Yo, so we finally had to order some in, and it's proved to be very controversial indeed.
Here's what the thumbs-downers have to say:
Yuck! Someone take that groovebox away from her, and wash her pottymouth out with soap. This is... really stupid and bad. Sheer aural annoyance. I could go on, but don't want to waste the space. File under: Chicks On Speed (no, actually it's worse than that).
And here's the other side of the coin:
Sure, Peaches is shallow ear candy, but we all need sugar sometime. With songtitles like "Fuck the Pain Away" and "Lovertits," Peaches far surpasses Li'l Kim in raunchiness, and her cool vocal delivery is equal parts coked-out ice-queen, white girl trying out hip hop a la Debbie Harry, and fierce punk yowler on the level of PJ Harvey and Kathleen Hanna. The music is super simple freeze-dried disco / wannabe electro / digital hardcore complete with stark drum programming and disembodied armies of handclaps. The whole package is slightly tongue in cheek - Peaches has got the Sandra Bernhard-style parody / pathetic reality thing down cold. Those who would spend their money on Chicks on Speed should really check this out instead. Peaches delivers.

SHE'S, THE Then It Starts To Feel Like Summer (self-released) lp 15.98
NOW ON LP!
We'd been hearing about this new San Francisco band The She's for a while now, friends who have seen them live have been totally raving to us about 'em. We can see why now, as this is full on bright colored, punchy pop bliss!
While we are in the crisp and cold time of winter right now, these songs are bringing us the hope of warmth and sunshine that springtime and summer will surely bring. Such an awesome feeling when the first time you ever hear a band you immediately feel the same way you did when you heard bands that have become all-time favorites. Think of some awesome version of Best Coast stripping away the lo-fi vibes and going on a road trip in a red convertible with the first Weezer album and The Breeders' Last Splash, and you start to get an idea of what kind of pop perfection The She's have created with this debut.
While lots of other new bands have been great at tapping into a sound or era with their aesthetic, The She's are a refreshing reminder of how great it is to hear a new band that believes in SONGS. Pretty much every song on here is filled with such inciting hooks and melodies. We have a strong feeling that The She's could be the next San Francisco band who could make it kinda big, this is awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Running"
MPEG Stream: "Then It Starts To Feel Like Summer"
MPEG Stream: "Put It All Together"

WIRE, THE #336 February 2012 magazine 9.98
Pictured on the cover of this month's Wire, as if rising out of the Bay, is hip hop eccentric Lil B, aka the Based God! Also this ish: This Heat's Charles Hayward (taking the Invisible Jukebox test), Ital, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Indian wedding brass bands, and much much more, including the usual massive chunk o' reviews.

YOUNG, NATE Stay Asleep (Regression V.2) (NNA ) lp 17.98
Founding member of Wolf Eyes, Nate Young, offers a stark, acid flashback of the bleakest moments of industrial cassette culture circa 1985 on Stay Asleep. His nightmarish, atonal melodies have been stripped bare of brutalist, rabid noise; but the primitive approach to structure is right out of the Wolf Eyes playbook with the woozy melodies and rhythms always hitting on the first beat of the lethargic pace. Young's engineering is one that takes Cabaret Voltaire's desiccation of sound to a zombified extreme. So much so, it seems that Young might be going for clubtrax for zombies. Step one, lurch two. "Brains!" Step one, lurch two. For all of the creepy-crawly plodding of this album, there are occasionally weird moments where the clunked atonality of it all is just plain goofy. Not exactly what's been expected from Nate Young, but a pretty compelling record nonetheless. Oh yeah, it's cut at 45 RPM; so if you want to this really fucking slow, make sure to drop it down to 33, where it takes on the funereal crawl of a ridiculously Spartan electro-doom number, if such a thing exists.




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----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed :
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If you want to order one of these, just click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart!


ABYSMAL DARKENING "No Light Behind" (Total Rust) cd 12.98
ACTRESS "Meets Shangaan" (Honest Jon's) 12" 13.98
AMBARCHI, OREN "Audience Of One" (Touch) cd 15.98
ANIMA MORTE "The Nightmare Becomes Reality" (Transubstans) cd 21.00
ANIOL, ADRIAN "It All Falls Apart" (Utech) cassette 4.98
ART ZOYD "Symphonie Pour Le Jour Ou Bruleront Les Cites" (Sub Rosa) cd/lp 16.98/16.98
BATS, THE "Free All The Monster" (Flying Nun) lp 15.98
BIG PINK, THE "Future This" (4AD) cd/lp 14.98/16.98
BLACK COBRA "Invernal" (Southern Lord) lp 17.98
BLOPS "s/t" (Alba Records) lp 24.00
CACCIAPAGLIA, ROBERTO "The Ann Steel Album" (Half Machine) lp 25.00
CANDY "OST" (Reel Time) cd 17.98
CAROL OF HARVEST "s/t" (Guerssen) lp 32.00
CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (ERNST REIJSEGER) "OST" (Winter & Winter) cd 16.98
CERRONE "3: Supernature" (BBR) cd 21.00
CHAPTER 24 "Spindle / 4454" (Odd Box) 7" 6.98
CLAUDIO ROCCHI "Suoni Di Frontiera" (Die Schachtel) cd 17.98
CLEARED "Breaking Day" (Immune) lp 22.00
CORTEX "The Whole Story" (Plinkity Plonk) 2cd 17.98
DAVE MIHALY'S SHIMMERING LEAVES ENSEMBLE "Eastern Accents In the Far West" (PFR / Porter) cd 13.98
DEATHPROD "Imaginary Songs From Tristan Da Cunha" (Rune Arkiv) cd 17.98
DEATHPROD "Treetop" (Rune Arkiv) cd 17.98
DOOZER, THE "Keep It Together" (Woodsist) lp 15.98
EL POLEN "Cholo (OST)" (Lion Productions) cd 16.98
ELVES, THE "And Before Elf... There Were Elves" (Niji Entertainment) cd 14.98
FERRARO, JAMES "Rapture Adrenaline" (Hundebiss) dvd 25.00
FINGERBOBS (OST) (Trunk) cd 16.98
GONJASUFI "Mu.zz.le" (Warp) cd 15.98
GRUPPO D'IMPROVVISAZIONE NUOVA CONSONANZA "Niente" (Roundtable / The Omni Recording Corporation) lp 27.00
GUYER'S CONNECTION "S/t" (Medical) lp 19.98
HARD STUFF "Bolex Dementia" (Red Fox) cd 25.00
HARMONIOUS THELONIOUS "Drums Of Steel EP" (Asafa) 12" 16.98
HAYWARD, CHARLES "One Big Atom" (Continuity Records) cd 21.00
HEADBOGGLE "Dualmono Satantango" (Greedmink) cassette 6.98
HELDON "Agenta Nilsson" (Wah-Wah Records) lp 30.00
HIGUCHI, HISATO / ZELIENOPLE "Tsuki No Seika Volume Four" (Root Strata) 7" 8.98
HOKUM BOYS, THE "You Can't Get Enough Of That Stuff" (Yazoo) lp 17.98
IMBOGODOM "And They Turned Not When They Went" (Thrill Jockey) lp 15.98
IMPERIAL DOGS, THE "Live! In Long Beach (October 30, 1974)" (ID Music) dvd 22.00
IN TRANCE 95 "Cities Of Neon And Steel" (Minimal Wave) lp 26.00
JACKS "2nd Live Show" (Orange Doubledome) lp 23.00
JELLYFISH "Bellybutton" (Omnivore) lp 19.98
JELLYFISH "Spilt Milk" (Omnivore) lp 19.98
JEREBINE, DOUG "Doug Jerebine Is Jesse Harper" (Drag City) lp 17.98
JOKER "The Vision" (4AD) cd/2lp 14.98/19.98
JUDD, F.C. "Electronics Without Tears" (Public Information) cd 19.98
KANG, EYVIND "Visible Breath" (Editions Mego) lp 22.00
KASHMERE STAGE BAND "Texas Thunder Soul: 1968-1975" (Now-Again) 2cd 19.98
KEYS, CALVIN "Shawn-Neeq" (Black Jazz Records) lp 25.00
KOSS / HENRIKSSON / MULLAERT "The Mollan Sessions" (Mule Electronic) 2cd 22.00
LAUREL HALO "Antenna" (NNA Tapes) cassette 6.98
LOW "I Could Live In Hope" (Plain) lp 22.00
MACCHI, EGISTO "I Futuribili" (Roundtable / The Omni Recording Corporation) lp 27.00
MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE "Twilight Of The Kali Yuga Tours" (Important) lp 21.00
MASTER MUSICIANS OF JAJOUKA "The Primal Energy That Is The Music And Ritual Oh Jajouka, Morocco" (Sol Re Sol) lp 19.98
METALIAN "Rock Solid" (Heavy Artillery) cd ep 6.98
MIGHTY SPARROW "Sparrowmania!" (Strut) 2cd/2lp 19.98/27.00
MORE "Warhead" (Rock Candy) cd 14.98
MORKOBOT "Morbo" (Supernatural) cd 17.98
MULLEN, GEOFF "Accidental Guitars" (Rel) lp 19.98
MURRAY, MICKEY "People Are Together" (Secret Stash) lp 17.98
PEAKING LIGHTS "936 Remixed" (100% Silk / Not Not Fun) 12" 14.98
PINA: DANCE, DANCE OTHERWISE WE ARE LOST "OST" (Wenders Music / Rough Trade) cd/lp 16.98/17.98
POEME ELECTRONIQUE "The Echoes Fade" (Anna Logue) cd 17.98
PRETERITE "Pillar Of Winds" (Handmade Birds) cd 14.98
PRURIENT "Wrapped In The Flame Of Illusion, Masked In The Clay Of Behavior" (Dais) 2x7" 16.98
RASHOMON "Ashcan Copy - Film Music Vol. 3" (Paradigms) cd 11.98
SACHIKO & FUKUOAKA RINJI "AtomoE" (Musik Atlach) cd 16.98
SCHREIFELS, WALTER "An Open Letter To The Scene" (Academy Fight Song) cd/lp 13.98/16.98
SHEPP, ARCHIE "Live At The Donaueschingen Music Festival" (Universal Music Enterprises) lp 17.98
SHEPP, ARCHIE "The Magic Of Ju-Ju" (Impulse) lp 17.98
SHIDE & ACORN "Under The Tree" (Acme Deluxe Stereo) lp 24.00
SHINDIG! "Quarterly No.4" magazine 11.98
SHIPTON, DOUG "Dedicated Swallower Of Fashion" (B-Music / Fat City Recordings) cd 16.98
SHIZUKA "Owari No Nai Yune" (PSF) dvd 27.00
SIC ALPS "How Does Vedley Gather?" (Drag City) 7" 6.50
SIGN OF THE JACKAL "The Beyond" (Heavy Artillery) cd 9.98
SIMONE, NINA "Lamentations" (Versatile) lp 12.98
SPACE CHILDREN, THE / THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK (VAN CLEAVE) "OST" (Film Score Monthly) cd 17.98
SPENCE, SAM "Sounds" (B-Music / Finders Keepers) lp 24.00
STARVING WEIRDOS "Land Lines" (Amish) cd/lp 14.98/21.00
SURPLUS 1980 "Relapse In Response" (Delphine Knormal Musik) cd/lp 9.98/13.98
TAPE OP "Issue No. 87" magazine 4.95
TEAGARDEN, WARREN & THE GOOD GRIEF "s/t" (Meaningless Words) cd/lp 12.98/16.98
TROPHIES "Become Objects Of Daily Use" (Monotype) cd 14.98
V/A "Beat Frauleins: Female Pop In Germany 1964-1968" (Grosse Freiheit) cd 17.98
V/A "Classic Blues Artwork From The 1920's 2012 Calendar" (Blues Images) calendar + cd 17.98
V/A "Eccentric Soul: The Nickel & Penny Labels" (Numero Group) cd/2lp 16.98/21.00
V/A "Fac.Dance: Factory Records 12" Mixes And Rarities 1980-1987" (Strut) 2cd/2lp 16.98/28.00
V/A "Istanbul 70: Psych, Disco, Folk Classics" (Nublu Records) cd 14.98
V/A "Life In The Future: Swedish Post-Punk & Synth Wave 79-87" lp 23.00
V/A "Michigan Mixture Volumes 1 + 2" (Particles) 2cd 25.00
V/A "Mississippi Blues 1927-1941" (Yazoo) lp 17.98
V/A "Please Warm My Weiner: Old Time Hokum Blues" (Yazoo) lp 17.98
V/A "Traveling Through The Jungle: Negro Fife And Drum Band Music From The Deep South" (Sutro Park) lp 16.98
VICTORY & ASSOCIATES "These Things Are Facts" (Seismic Wave) lp 19.98
YELLOW DRESS, THE "Humblebees" (self-released) cd-r 7.98
YESYESYES "Issue #2" magazine 9.98
YOUNGS, RICHARD "Core To The Brave" (Root Strata) lp 15.98
ZAPP "s/t" (Get On Down) cd 16.98
ZWISCHENWELT "Paranormale" (Rephlex) cd 16.98

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Please place your order via our website.

[1] We will contact you to verify your order and let you know when it will be shipped. Please note that occasionally it may take a day or two for us to reply. We are not a faceless bunch of computers replying to your order -- we are human beings!

[2] If we are out of some of your items and we think we will get them within the same week, we can wait to ship. Or... If it's going to be more than a few days to complete your order, we will ship what we have and then will contact you as the remainders arrive.

[ note ] Due to the everchanging nature of the independent record business, we are not responsible for listed price changes (due to supplier price changes) and often cannot update our site fast enough to reflect these changes, but we will always try to let you know of any differences.


NEW DOMESTIC SHIPPING RATES :
--------------------------------
STANDARD (DEFAULT):

1 CD (or cassette or DVD or 7") : $2.95 USPS First Class

1-3 CD (or cassette or DVD, but not 7"s) : $5.00 USPS Priority Mail via flat rate box

4+ CD,ÊorÊany package with LPs in it (also books & box sets), any number of items: $9.95 UPS Ground

Also, please note that UPS will not ship to PO Boxes, so those packages that would have gone UPS will be sent USPS Priority for $9.95, or you may select USPS Media Mail instead, see below.

UPS shipments are automatically trackable and include insurance up to $100.
USPS shipments (First Class, Priority, and Media Mail) are all automatically trackable.

OR, you can choose instead to have your order shipped by MEDIA MAIL:

1-3 items (i.e. w/ LPs) : $5.95 USPS Media Mail

4+ items : $7.95 USPS Media Mail


Special shipping needs (e.g. UPS Next Day) are also doable, just ask for a quote.
Also, if you are just getting 1 item that would therefore ship USPS First Class, and for some reason you would rather have it sent Priority, then you could say so in the comments field. (Note: however, 7"s are too big for the Priority flat rate boxes.)

NOTE: UPS permits their drivers to determine if there is a secure location at the shipping address to leave the package if no one is there to receive it (unfortunately some are less cautious than others!). If you'd prefer that they not do this or if you have specific instructions for the driver, please include a note in the comments section of your weborder form.

PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK SHIPPING ADDRESSES BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR ORDER. Aquarius is not responsible for orders delayed or returnedÊdue to incorrect or undeliverable addresses provided by the customer. Returned packages will be reshipped at the customer's expense.

Shipping rates are charged per shipment.


INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING :
-------------------------------- For foreign customers we ship via US AIRMAIL ("First Class International"). Your price is based on the actual cost of shipping plus $1. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package" category and see the price for "First Class International". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)

We highly recommend insurance for your international package, but it is very expensive! You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package" category and see the price for "Priority Mail International". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound. 1 lp is usually a little over 1.5 pounds.)


INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE :
-------------------------------- You are hereby forewarned that Aquarius is not responsible if your international package gets lost in the mail. Insurance is your only recourse if your records never show up. Since the terrible events of 9/11, mail service has been slow and undependable... and while we haven't experienced any *confirmed* permanently lost mail, insurance might provide some additional piece of mind in this time of upheaval. We strongly recommend it. But yes, it is very expensive. It's your choice. Again: Aquarius is not responsible for lost mail, so if you aren't willing to take a (slight but real) risk, please buy the insurance.

International insurance is very expensive! In fact often the insurance costs more than the value of your package, in which case it obviously does not make sense to insure it. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package" category and see the price for "Priority Mail International", which is the way insured packages are sent. 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound. 1 lp is usually a little over 1.5 pounds.)

For example: for a one-pound package worth $18 going to England, shipping without insurance is about $11.00. But with insurance, the shipping / insurance total is over $26.00!

It is your reponsibility to check the international rate calculator in order to determine whether or not you want international insurance. If you tell us you want international insurance, we will add it to your order no matter how much it costs!


PAYMENT :
-------------------------------- We accept the following credit cards: Visa, MC, Discover, and Amex. We will not charge your credit card until your order is ready to ship.

Money orders are accepted, but only in $USD. International customers please note that they must beÊinternational postal money orders purchased at a post office. Additional processing fees may apply.Ê

If you wish to pay by money order, you must confirm the order with us through email or phone BEFORE you send any payment. It's best to just use the secure order form on the website, and when checking out mark money order as your payment choice. We will then process your order and respond with all the crucial payment info.

We also accept payment by Paypal. If you opt for this payment method, we will send you a paypal total and payment instructions as soon as we've confirmed your order with you. Please do not send payment until you have received human contact from our mailorder department.

Unfortunately, we cannot take personal checks for mailorder, sorry!


QUESTION?
-------------------------------- Email the mailorder department: mailorder@aquariusrecords.org
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SOME SELECTED UPCOMING RELEASES

----} on the way to us now
Soror Dolorosa "Blind Scences" cd/lp
Shit & Shine "Le Grand Larance Prix" 3lp on Rock Is Hell
Nite Jewel "She's Always Watching You" 7" on Love Letters Ink

----} January 31st or thereabouts
Alcest "Les Voyages De L'ame" cd on Lupus Lounge
Miles Davis "Agharta" 2lp reissue on Four Men With Beards
Miles Davis "Pangaea" 2lp reissue on Four Men With Beards
Aufgehoben "Fragments Of The Marble Plan" lp on Holy Mountain
Golden Calves "Collection: Money Band + Century" 2lp on Woodsist
Prinzhorn Dance School "Clay Class" cd on DFA
Tomb "Uag" cd on Crucial Blast
Susumu Yokota "Dreamer" cd on Lo Recordings
Damon & Naomi with Ghost "s/t" cd/lp+7" on Drag City
House Of Low Culture "Poisoned Soil" lp+12" on Taiga
Black Bananas (RTX) "Rad Times Xpress IV" cd/lp on Drag City
Cardinal "Hymns" cd/lp on Fire
Lana Del Ray "Born To Die" cd

----} February 7th
Die Antwoord "Ten$ion" cd
Lindstrom "Six Cups Of Rebel" cd/2lp on Smalltown Supersound
Mark Lanegan Band "Blues Funeral" cd/2lp on 4AD
Of Montreal "Paralytic Stalks" cd/2lp on Polyvinyl
Fucked Up "Year Of The Tiger" 12" on Matador
Unthanks "The Songs Of Robert Wyatt & Antony & The Johnsons" cd on Rough Trade
Wymond Miles "Earth Has Doors" 12" ep on Sacred Bones

----} February 14th
Neung Phak "2" lp on Abduction
Van Der Graaf Generator "Pawn Hearts" lp reissue on Four Men With Beards
Van Der Graaf Generator "Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" lp reissue on Four Men With Beards
Van Der Graaf Generator "H To He Who Am The Only One" lp reissue on Four Men With Beards

----} February 21st
Wooden Shjips "Remixes" 12" ep on Thrill Jockey
Pallbearer "Sorrow And Extinction" cd on Profound Lore
Witch Mountain "South Of Salem" cd version on Profound Lore
Dustin Wong "Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads" cd/2lp on Thrill Jockey
Ital "Hive Mind" cd/2x12" on Planet Mu
Mount Carmel "Real Women" cd/lp on Siltbreeze
Prinzhorn Dance School "Clay Class" lp version on DFA
Roommates "Winnifred" 7" on Slumberland
Frankie Rose "Interstellar" cd/lp on Slumberland
Sutcliffe Jugend "Blue Rabbit" cd on Crucial Blast
Terry Malts "Killing Time" cd/lp on Slumberland
War "At War For Youth" 7" on Sacred Bones

----} February 28th
Christian Mistress "Possession" cd/lp on Relapse
Corrosion Of Conformity "s/t" cd on Candlelight
Disappears "Pre Language" cd/lp on Kranky

----} March 6th
The Men "Open Your Heart" cd/lp on Sacred Bones
Howlin Rain "Russian Wilds" 2lp on Birdman
Locrian & Mamiffer "Bless Them That Curse You" cd on Profound Lore
v/a "Time To Go - The Southern" cd/2lp on Flying Nun
v/a "Busy Doing Nothing!" lp on Mint

----} March 13th
Sigh "In Somniphobia" cd on Candlelight
Spawn Of Possession "Incurso" cd on Relapse

----} March 20th
Zola Jesus "In Your Nature" 7" on Sacred Bones

----} April 10th
Sleepy Sun "Spine Hits" on The End Records

----} April 21st (Record Store Day)
Circle "Manner" cd/lp on Hydrahead

----} and more stuff that's upcoming too, sooner or later, we think
Great Society Mind Destroyers "Spirit Smoke" cd version on Slow Knife
Darkthrone "Sempiternal Past"
Iron Fire "Voyage Of The Damned"
Ulver live dvd
Blind Guardian "Memories Of A Time To Come" 2cd
Golden Dawn "Return To Provenance"
Circle "Serpent" live cd on Ektro
Pharaoh Overlord "Lunar Jetman" 2lp on Sige / cd on Ektro
Speedwolf "s/t" vinyl version
Lord Vicar "Signs of Osiris" cd on The Church Within
J.D. Emmanuel live cassette from '82, on Sonic Mediations
Max Planck "Kill The Pain" cd reissue on Stormspell
Midnight Priest "s/t" cd on Stormspell
John Gallow (Blizaro) "Violet Dreams" cd on Blind Men And Occult Forces
Yob "Live At Roadburn 2010" cd/dvd on Roadburn
Panopticon "Social Disservices" 2lp version on Flenser
Bong "Live At Roadburn 2010" lp version on Roadburn
Bong "Beyond Ancient Space" lp version w/ bonus track on Ritual Productions
High Spirits "Another Night" lp version on High Roller
Bee Mask / Envenomist "Bee Mask v. Envenomist" lp on A Soundesign Recording
Tecumseh "Return to Everything" cd on Beta-Lactam Ring
Marijata "This Is Marijata" cd on Academy
Marijata "Pat Thomas Presents Marijata" cd/lp on Academy
Nurse With Wound "Skrag" cd on United Dairies
Jonathan Coleclough "Flutter" 2cd-r on October
Boduf Songs "Strait Gait" cd/lp on Latitudes
Anton Batagov "Passionate Desire To Be An Angel" cd on Long Arms Records

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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanIrwinScottNickJonandAndrew