PEE Now, More Charm & More Tender (March) cd 12.98
Full-length from one of San Francisco's best-loved but now defunct bands, Pee, the pop punk quartet who do the dueling-boy-girl vocal thing so well, and whose drummer you may have seen behind our counter. That's peripatetic Andee, full o' charm, good vibes, and impeccable taste. The vinyl is perfectly clear.

PEE Now, More Charm & More Tender (March) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Full-length from one of San Francisco's best-loved bands, Pee, the pop punk quartet who do the dueling-boy-girl vocal thing so well, and whose drummer you may have seen behind the counter. That's peripatetic Andee, full o' charm, good vibes, and impeccable taste. The vinyl is perfectly clear.

PEE The Roaring Mechanism (Absolutely Kosher) cd 11.98
Peversely educational epithet? Peculiar entertaining emissions? Particularily egregious error? Puritianical ecstatic episode? Painful enlarged egg? Our own coworker Andee's band has released its second album of fragmented pop. AQ-friend Doug Orleans puts it best when he likens it to all the bridges (not the choruses, not the verses, the BRIDGES) from all your favorite pop songs strung together into a seamless whole. Excellent!

PEE The Roaring Mechanism (Absolutely Kosher) lp 8.98
Peversely educational epithet? Peculiar entertaining emissions? Particularily egregious error? Puritianical ecstatic episode? Painful enlarged egg? Our own coworker Andee's band has released its second album of fragmented pop. AQ-friend Doug Orleans puts it best when he likens it to all the bridges (not the choruses, not the verses, the BRIDGES) from all your favorite pop songs strung together into a seamless whole. Excellent!

PEEBLES, ANN I Can't Stand the Rain (Hi) cd 14.98

PEECHEES Do the Math (Kill Rock Stars) cd 13.98

PEECHEES Do the Math (Kill Rock Stars) lp 10.98

PEEESSEYE (PSI) Artificially Retarded Soul Care Operators (Evolving Ear) cd 13.98
We actually bought one of these when we were in a shop in NYC, based entirely on the cool cover art. What is surprising is that the art is courtesy of one Mr. Stephen O'Malley. It's not surprising because it's cool, just that is looks so unlike the rest of his immediately recognizable work. A sort of angular, geometric, psychedelic Pippi Longstocking. Fucked up for sure, but totally appropriate to be adroning this latest record from PeeEssEye, or PSI or whatever (part of the reasoon it looks so different is it's actually a collaboration between O'Malley and PSI vocalist Fritz Welch). We initially expected some sort of metal, maybe something sludgy or doomy, but it's really not metallic at all. it's more of an abstract, sound collage noise record. Lots of sineaves, and swoops of white noise and fuzzed out static. There is metal present, but in the form of clanking clattery percussion. Or in the shape of some weird live performance, where the band seems to be spewing metallic shrapnel through a blown speaker. Super distorted and totally fucking bizarre. The rest of the record is a series of abstract soundscapes, from twinkling shimmer, to full on harsh noise. Definitely falls sonically somewhere between the Yellow Swans, the Skaters, Wolf Eyes and the like. Fans of any of that sort of brass knuckle to the skull goodness will dig this as will strong stomached iron eared dronesters. Comes in a cool mini gatefold style sleeve with badass O'Malley artwork!
MPEG Stream: "Bholier"
MPEG Stream: "Whiplash"

PEEESSEYE (PSI) Commuting Between The Surface & The Underworld (Evolving Ear) cd 11.98
We discovered the confusionally monickered Peeesseye or PSI or whatever, on one of our many record shopping trips, bought entirely because of the crazy cover art. And while it wasn't what we expected, it was pretty fucking weird and cool. So we got a bunch of the store and everybody seriously dug PSI's druggy abstract what-the-fuck free rock weirdness. So we were super psyched to discover a brand new record. But they managed to throw us for a loop again with Commuting Between The Surface & The Underworld, on which the band take a whole new direction, less noisy and purposefully obtuse and more folky and dreamy and sort of pretty. And while we really liked the last record, we're beginning to LOVE this one.
The opening is the first sign of PSI's strange new direction. A killer sort of folky Dead C buzz and strum, with damaged FX doused vocals, thick drones all over the place, distant moans and scrapes, but at the center of it all, a simple steel string strum and a warm wheezing wash of fuzzy shimmer. Like a clattery clangy Wicker Man style forest ritual, tribal and primitive, but run through some tweaked and damaged primitive effects box. No Neck and Sunburned Hand are definite reference points, but PSI is less clattery and rhythmic and more blissed out focused on a murky buzz drenched folk. Which is a huge turn around from their old, significantly noisier incarnation.
The whole record seems to follow a similar template. Some sort of minimal steel string guitar, strummed, picked, lazy and meandering, soft melancholy melodies unfurling sleepily, while all around these stretches of folk dreaminess swirl thick washes of grimey gritty distortion, fuzzed out psych rock guitar, dense swaths of rumble and whir,
as well as drifting clouds of percussive tinkle and shimmery shuffle. Definitely for all you fans of the current crop of abstract cd-r free folk troubadours.
The last track, a massive 20+ minutes of barely there ambience, and what sounds like a straight field recording, lets the band dip back into their obtuse bag of tricks with an endless stretch of street noise, random clatter, footsteps, what sounds like either a bawling child or a billy goat, bird song, and an electric razor. Like some surreptitiously captured day-in-the-life. Strangely hypnotic in it's own way, but a suitably random coda to the rest of the record's beautiful buzz.
MPEG Stream: "Oo-Ee-Oo"
MPEG Stream: "Ballad Of Fine Decay"

PEEESSEYE (PSI) Oo-Ee-Oo (Burnt Offering) (Evolving Ear) cd-r 8.98

MPEG Stream: "Oo-Ee-Oo (Burnt Offering)"

PEEESSEYE, THE Mayhem In The Mansion, Shivers In The Shack (Evolving Ear) cd 11.98
Fucked up far out sonic explorers Peeesseye (or PSI) return with a brand new disc that finds them sounding as weird and wacked as ever, and continuing to drift in the same direction as their last disc, Commuting Between The Surface & The Underworld. The first time we heard these guys, they were a much noisier proposition, spewing a caustic and fractured noise rock, that we liked quite a bit, but by record number two, they seemed to be exploring songs and melody more than noise and texture, their sound markedly prettier and folkier. On Mayhem In The Mansion, the band continue to drift through some strange folky forest, but being PSI, it's all glimpsed through some cracked funhouse mirror. A strummed acoustic guitar seems to root most of these songs, but that guitar is strewn upon skipping stuttering electronics, strangled yelps, random clatter and chaos, growled vocals, dense clouds of cymbal shimmer, stumbling tribal percussion, random bits of thump and rattle, distant moans and creaks, shimmering electric guitar melodies, furious squalls of static drenched psychnoise and lots and lots of effects.
It's definitely pretty and folky, but so completely out there. The prettiest parts somehow manage to get all tangled up with the obtuse angular bits, folky strum is smothered in buzz or bleep or both, but it works, it becomes some impossible artpop weirdness. A lot of this sounds like Avarus or No Neck, but more than anything it sounds sort of like Animal Collective, but with most of the hooks removed. Or better yet, like Animal Collective's deformed mutant twin brother. The one they keep locked in the basement. With just a busted up acoustic guitar, some effects with dying batteries and a 4track.
And shit, if that doesn't sound amazing, well, then we give up...
MPEG Stream: "Moon Vegetables"
MPEG Stream: "Plastic Grass"

PEEPING TOM s/t (Ipecac) cd 17.98
Several years in the making and the ever so prolific Mike Patton has finally finished his Peeping Tom project. A record inspired by the 60's cult thriller of the same name, complete with really cool packaging. Patton sent tracks to a bunch of big name collaborators like Kool Keith, Bebel Gilberto, Amon Tobin, and Massive Attack. As well as enlisting folks like Dan The Automater, Dale Crover from Melvins, Kid Koala, Rahzel, Odd Nosdam, Jel, and even Norah Jones. The result is some of Patton's most accessible sounding songs in quite a while. We haven't heard his acrobatic voice sound like this since back in the 90's (you know back in his Faith No More days) and much of this record carry's that early 90's funk-electronic-hip-hop-rock hybrid. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "Five Seconds"
MPEG Stream: "Mojo"

PEEPING TOM s/t (Anticon) lp 14.98
Now on vinyl! Several years in the making and the ever so prolific Mike Patton has finally finished his Peeping Tom project. A record inspired by the 60's cult thriller of the same name, complete with really cool packaging. Patton sent tracks to a bunch of big name collaborators like Kool Keith, Bebel Gilberto, Amon Tobin, and Massive Attack. As well as enlisting folks like Dan The Automater, Dale Crover from Melvins, Kid Koala, Rahzel, Odd Nosdam, Jel, and even Norah Jones. The result is some of Patton's most accessible sounding songs in quite a while. We haven't heard his acrobatic voice sound like this since back in the 90's (you know back in his Faith No More days) and much of this record carry's that early 90's funk-electronic-hip-hop-rock hybrid. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "Five Seconds"
MPEG Stream: "Mojo"

PEGATAUR Eternal Flight (For Once Records) cd 13.98
Drummer Aaron Levin and guitarist Eric Murray, both formerly of tongue-in-cheek (but over-the-top awesome) glam rockers Boyjazz, have banded together as a duo since that band's unfortunate dissolution to create another outlet for their "bow down, we're not worthy" level instrumental talents. Pegataur is the result (the name referring to a Pegasus + Centaur hybrid, a winged man-horse, of course). Their debut cd, Eternal Flight, is quite a treat for anyone who digs rippin', all-instrumental heavy metal. Technical and melodic and riffy - basically, imagine The Fucking Champs as a two-piece. If you like the Champs, you'll like this, maybe that's all we need to say!!
Any of you out there who perhaps found Boyjazz too jokey (you shoulda given them a chance anyway, what an entertaining band they were!), should have less of an issue with this, in fact, Pegataur not only shut up and play but really go off the deep end in terms of seriousness if you delve into their, um, mythology. The packaging, a large circular poster that folds up to hold the cd, inside a plastic sleeve, bears mysterious illustrations of supposed significance within the occult sciences, relating to their own research. We've gotta quote what their press release says about it: "Orbiting around the Pegataur seal are 11 sigils for the tracks and a 12th king sigil to bind and rule the album as a whole. Utilizing techniques employed by such famed Renaissance occultists as Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim and Dr. John Dee, each song title and corresponding sigil were generated by custom software (written by guitarist Eric Murray) that correlates the musical structure of each track with the many esoteric traditions in which Pegataur is initiated. It is suggested that the neophyte concentrate on each sigil as the song plays while holding the song title firmly in their mind to further their studies." (Hmm, they don't say how you're supposed to do that whilst headbanging.) So, maybe their joking has just gotten even more nerdy and obscure. Or maybe there's something to all of this. Certainly this duo seriously seem to be channeling an unnatural abundance of heavy metal chops and catchiness through each one of these 11 rockin' songs, as if they've got some direct psychic link to a dimension of metallic wonderment and the devil's music just effortlessly, endlessly flows through the Pegataur boys and their instruments like magic.
Pegataur probably could have scored bagfuls of gold pieces (or weed) from The Sword or High On Fire in exchange for some of the best of these riffs and still had plenty of good ones left over. Likewise, their hella tricky metallic mathrock moments would likely garner applause from folks like Electro Quarterstaff and Girth. We've already compared 'em to the Champs, but you could also try to imagine Zebulon Pike, stripped down to one guitar and forced to condense their usual 20+ minute epics into the 3-minute pop song format.
From the pinch harmonic frenzies and chugging changes of "Lesser Bow Of The Herdsman" and "The Weeping Quiver" to the grinding distorted stoner riffage of "Lord Solomon's Eyes" and "Human Appetite" (among the 11, we could mention 'em all) this kicks ass utterly, with no vocals to get in the way, just tons of guitar shred in an indie Van Halen mode that might make Thee Speaking Canaries jealous. No joke!
MPEG Stream: "The Dual Becoming"
MPEG Stream: "Lesser Bow Of The Herdsman"
MPEG Stream: "Terror Arrow"

PEKLER, ANDREW Cue (Kranky) cd 14.98
While Andrew Pekler has previously recorded albums for Scape and Staugbold don't be expecting any minimal glitch here. Cue is his homage to the great tradition of library music. When records were made with almost anonymous authorship filled with tracks perfect for different moods and moments that could be used to score films and television programs. What Pekler has done is to use library music as his springboard, each track is given a short descriptive summary ("ambiguous western atmosphere resolving into children's tune, swirling cymbals added") yet the sounds he makes come out sounding anything but clinical and calculating. Instead he gets to the heart of the sounds filling this record with so much mindfulness and rich warmth. Musically it reminds us a bit of our favorite era of Mouse on Mars (Iaora Tahiti, Instrumentals, etc) as well as the first few To Rococo Rot outings. But what also makes Cue sound so great is that you never really think of it as an electronic album. It is mood music filled with building and evolving tones, and moments of guitars, percussion and piano. There is a timeless quality to the sounds on Cue that we could see someone coming across fifty years from now and putting in a film just as easily as we could have believed this was a long lost record of late 60's/early 70's forward thinking experimentalism in the BBC Workshop tradition. It's dreamy without being too light, moody without being heavy handed and totally engaging throughout!
MPEG Stream: "On"
MPEG Stream: "Vertical Gardens"
MPEG Stream: "Dust Mite"

PEKOS / YORO DIALLO s/t (Yaala Yaala) cd 14.98
First release from Drag City sublabel Yaala Yaala, a new Sublime Frequencies style series of West African musics culled from field recordings, found sounds and tapes purchased at flea markets. And much like Sublime Frequencies, these mostly low fidelity recordings are allowed to remain mysterious, no liner notes, very little information about the artists, just a brief bit of text, mostly about the discovery of the music itself, and one can only assume, no system in place for providing the artists with royalties. A sticky situation for sure, one we can only hope the label will eventually address and make right. In the meantime though, these recordings are so fantastic. Raw and intense, gritty and gorgeous. 
Yoro Diallo is from Mali and is a well known singer and here is paired up with Pekos, who plays a guitar-like lute, an instrument whose sound is absolutely mindblowing, a fierce buzzing rhythmic riffing, crunchy and heavy, warm and resonant and so so powerful. Strummed and struck, picked and rubbed, weaving a totally hypnotic groove, on the first track it takes the form of a raw blues jam, the melody looped and repeated mantra like while Diallo, wails over the top, his voice deep and intense, as powerful and raw as the music beneath it. The two trade verses, Pekos offering up a never ending patter, almost scatting, while Diallo swoops in every few measures and destroys, his delivery a super intense almost toasting. The first track has been stuck in the cd player on repeat since we first got this in. All the intensity and emotion of Konono No.1 and the same sort of festive vibe, as well as the same song structure, a looped cyclical jam that could go on forever and ever and oh how we wish it would. The second track is like a slowed down back porch version of the first. The strings weaving a loping laid back backdrop, with simple percussion, and the same vocal interplay, Pekos more subdued, Diallo a gorgeous intense roar. 
Besides the first track, the other highlight is probably the track, a sprawling midtempo jam, way in the background, simple metallic rhythms and softly strummed guitars, while over the top, another guitar is pounded in and out of tune, warbling drunkenly, intertwined with the vocals, eventually dropping most of the melody and becoming another percussion instrument, emitting occasional squalls of tangled melody before returning to its motorik pulse, until eventually evolving into an almost James Brown like detuned funk jam, with the crowd watching going wild. So intense and emotional. One of our favorite 'new' recordings, we can hardly wait for the rest of the series...
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 1"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 3"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 4"

PELICAN After The Ceiling Cracked (Hydra Head) dvd + 3" cd 17.98
For an instrumental metallic post rock combo, made up of pretty ordinary looking dudes, Pelican seem, at least compared to their peers, to spend a lot of time being filmed for dvds. Okay that may be a bit of an exaggeration, this is probably dvd number three, but three feels like a lot. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but visually, 4 dudes in jeans is not necessarily fodder for riveting visuals. With Pelican, and most bands, it has much to do with the energy of being there, the sweat and the blood, the physicality of the sound, the deafening volume. Seeing it on the screen isn't always the same. That said, we find ourselves digging Pelican live on dvd. A lot. Much of it has to do with the music, and Pelican just keep getting better, more expansive, more epic, and way less metal. Which in this case is a very good thing. Their vibe continues to draw heavily from nineties mathrock, the soaring melodies, the churning riffage, the complex arrangements, they're like Godspeed, if they released records on Touch And Go. And while their sound references much of what came before, it helps them standout from the way too crowded field of Neur-Isis clones.
So what you have here is a live set from London in 2005, as well as various performances from various locations over the last 3 or 4 years as well as various interview segments and a 'music video'. The London show looks and sounds the best, obviously it was meant to be recorded, and it's a scorcher, the sound thick and heavy, the band rocking out wildly, limbs flailing, head banging, the crowd bouncing and weaving, The songs sound as good as ever. And again, they sound less like a band that spends its time playing metal fests, and more like a band you'd see in some packed sweaty little rock club, who already sound like they should be playing somewhere bigger. They do plenty of favorites, but it's good to see them played live, given new life, and it's interesting to see the songs actually played. A whole different vibe than on headphones.
The other live stuff is good, but the sound varies wildly, as does the lighting, but it's all pretty cool. And the interview footage will convince you of what we already know from numerous Pelican visits to aQ, that besides being a pretty bad ass band, they're some of the nicest guys ever.
Also included is the video for "Autumn Into Summer", the song itself, dreamy and mathy and post rocky, only really getting slightly metal near the middle with some soaring guitar harmonies and double kick, but the video is awesome, animated, and haunting, intercut with home movies, and strange super 8 footage. In addition to that stuff, there's also a photo gallery with tons of photos from various shows and tours.
But even if you're not one for dvds, there's still a reason to pick this up. Included with the dvd is a 3" cd that contains both tracks from the recent super limited Pink Mammoth 10". The first is the title track, epic and majestic and major key, the guitars thick, a throaty roar, the drums simple and massive, heavy but pretty, a definite Jesu vibe for sure, the track occasionally blissing out into stretches of mathy nineties style indie rock, albeit way heavier and way radder. At moments things also veer into Fucking Champs territory, but for the most part we hear some gloriously bastardized and metallized version of Polvo or Pitchblende. The track ends with a super shimmery outro/coda, all swoopy and soft focus, super spare drumming, spacy FX and weird far away production... yet another argument for these guys being one of the finest purveyors of metallic post rock going. The second is a reworked and remixed blend of another couple old Pelican songs, courtesy of Mr. Prefuse 73. A fuzzy expanse of glitchy acoustic guitars, sounding like Oval mixing some super minimal folky prog track, a laid back dreamy electronic folk, that eventually builds until an almost funky rhythm kicks in, simple handclaps laid over glistening harmonics and lilting minor key guitars, more and more fuzzed out as it progresses, a blown out sheen not unlike everything was dipped in a pixelated Fennesz style gritty guitar wash.
The third track though is brand new, or at least previously unreleased as far as we know. It's another version of "Pink Mammoth", but this time Pelican is joined by the band These Arms Are Snakes, and while this version is quite similar to the original, it's much heavier, double drums, double everything, but also more blissy and washed out, with soaring vocals buried way down in the mix, the rhythm more loping, the sound way more blown out and in the red, but just as epic and dreamlike, if not more so.
As with all Hydra Head stuff, the packaging is amazing. Full color sleeve in a dvd case, thick matte paper full color oversized booklet, double disc holders, 3"cd mounted on top of the dvd, the whole thing housed in a matte slipcover, adorned with super complex blue on black amoeboid designs. Nice!

PELICAN Australasia (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
Chicago instru-metallers Pelican are back, with the full-length follow up to their brilliant "Untitled" debut ep. Like that disc, this is almost the perfect blend of heaviness (METAL heaviness, to be precise) and post-rock. There's prettiness and precision, darkness and dynamics. From slow and powerful downer grooves to mellow melodic interludes to rapidly riffing, sheer super heavy metal, could Pelican do it any better? There's even one track where they've got a guy playing the singing saw. It's freakin' beautiful. Influenced by epic black metal, academic minimalist throb, psychedelic Floydian rock, and the post-rock of their hometown (among much else) these guys have shaped their band into contenders for the avant-stoner throne, positioning themselves somewhere between Mogwai and Melvins, with some flashes of Morbid Angel. Or, imagine the Growing's The Sky's Run Into the Sea album (AQ Record of the Week back in September you'll recall) as performed by The Fucking Champs! It has the oceanic warmth of Growing's droning heaviness lashed to some more mathy, metallic constructions. Our customers who love all things heavy (Isis, Boris, Gore, 5ive, Tarantula Hawk, Dead Meadow, etc.) and who have a soft spot for spacier, sleepier stuff too should dig these six tracks for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Drought"
MPEG Stream: "(no title)"

PELICAN Australasia (Hydra Head) 2lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now at last on (gatefold, double, limited edition) vinyl! Chicago instru-metallers Pelican are back, with the full-length follow up to their brilliant "Untitled" debut ep. Like that disc, this is almost the perfect blend of heaviness (METAL heaviness, to be precise) and post-rock. There's prettiness and precision, darkness and dynamics. From slow and powerful downer grooves to mellow melodic interludes to rapidly riffing, sheer super heavy metal, could Pelican do it any better? There's even one track where they've got a guy playing the singing saw. It's freakin' beautiful. Influenced by epic black metal, academic minimalist throb, psychedelic Floydian rock, and the post-rock of their hometown (among much else) these guys have shaped their band into contenders for the avant-stoner throne, positioning themselves somewhere between Mogwai and Melvins, with some flashes of Morbid Angel. Or, imagine the Growing's The Sky's Run Into the Sea album (AQ Record of the Week back in September 2003 you'll recall) as performed by The Fucking Champs! It has the oceanic warmth of Growing's droning heaviness lashed to some more mathy, metallic constructions. Our customers who love all things heavy (Isis, Boris, Gore, 5ive, Tarantula Hawk, Dead Meadow, etc.) and who have a soft spot for spacier, sleepier stuff too should dig these six tracks for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Drought"
MPEG Stream: "(no title)"

PELICAN Australasia (Interloper / Hydra Head) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now (again) on vinyl...while it lasts! Here's our review of this, the 2003 release from big and getting bigger indie-metal heroes Pelican:
Chicago instru-metallers Pelican are back, with the full-length follow up to their brilliant "Untitled" debut ep. Like that disc, this is almost the perfect blend of heaviness (METAL heaviness, to be precise) and post-rock. There's prettiness and precision, darkness and dynamics. From slow and powerful downer grooves to mellow melodic interludes to rapidly riffing, sheer super heavy metal, could Pelican do it any better? There's even one track where they've got a guy playing the singing saw. It's freakin' beautiful. Influenced by epic black metal, academic minimalist throb, psychedelic Floydian rock, and the post-rock of their hometown (among much else) these guys have shaped their band into contenders for the avant-stoner throne, positioning themselves somewhere between Mogwai and Melvins, with some flashes of Morbid Angel. Or, imagine the Growing's The Sky's Run Into the Sea album (AQ Record of the Week back in September 2003 you'll recall) as performed by The Fucking Champs! It has the oceanic warmth of Growing's droning heaviness lashed to some more mathy, metallic constructions. Our customers who love all things heavy (Isis, Boris, Gore, 5ive, Tarantula Hawk, Dead Meadow, etc.) and who have a soft spot for spacier, sleepier stuff too should dig these six tracks for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Drought"
MPEG Stream: "(no title)"

PELICAN City Of Echoes (Hydra Head) lp 17.98
Now available on lp! Beautifully packaged and pressed on nice thick (colored) vinyl. And as always, super limited.
In the overcrowded world of metallic post rock, or post metal, or whatever the heck you want to call it, there seem to be two forces constantly battling it out, Pelican and Isis. But it's hardly a battle, as both bands are friends, share a label, and share a sound too. And the interesting thing is they both seem to be developing in a similar fashion. Each band, in their own way, and at their own pace, seems to be phasing metal out of their sound. Not completely. But where Isis once sounded a LOT like Neurosis, they now sound much more like a post rock band with metal bits here and there. Expansive and epic and only heavy to balance their ultra melodic side. And while Pelican seemed to be on a serious metal bender there for a while, this new record, while indeed rife with metallic moments, finds them at their post rockiest, and we have to say it suits them.
From the opening track, with its loping minor key math rock intro, to it's downtuned metal chug middle, to a killer harmony guitar / double kick bridge, the band never go all out metal, even if it might sound like it on the surface. Sure, we're loving the occasional flurry of maniacal kick drum, and the occasional Fucking Champs like Carcass riffery, but it never completely transforms the sound into pure metal. Metal plated maybe, but regardless, it sounds amazing!
Pelican nowadays sound like the very heaviest band you loved in the nineties, come back to life, supercharged and metallized. We hear lots of Slint, Bastro, Polvo, Shellac, Don Caballero, June Of 44 and bands like that, in the riffs, the arrangements, the melodies, which is fine with us. In fact, a lot of City Of Echoes sounds like a heavier Explosions In The Sky, who obviously owe a great debt to the loud-quiet-loud math rockers of days gone by. Sure it's metal enough to hit the spot for that sensitive metalhead in need of a melodic instru-metal fix, and yeah it may be heavy, and it may be metallic, but c'mon, this is still indie rock, a kick ass, heavy as fuck indie rock maybe, but still...
MPEG Stream: "Bliss In Concrete"
MPEG Stream: "City Of Echoes"

PELICAN City Of Echoes (Daymare) cd + dvd 32.00
In the overcrowded world of metallic post rock, or post metal, or whatever the heck you want to call it, there seem to be two forces constantly battling it out, Pelican and Isis. But it's hardly a battle, as both bands are friends, share a label, and share a sound too. And the interesting thing is they both seem to be developing in a similar fashion. Each band, in their own way, and at their own pace, seems to be phasing metal out of their sound. Not completely. But where Isis once sounded a LOT like Neurosis, they now sound much more like a post rock band with metal bits here and there. Expansive and epic and only heavy to balance their ultra melodic side. And while Pelican seemed to be on a serious metal bender there for a while, this new record, while indeed rife with metallic moments, finds them at their post rockiest, and we have to say it suits them.
From the opening track, with its loping minor key math rock intro, to it's downtuned metal chug middle, to a killer harmony guitar / double kick bridge, the band never go all out metal, even if it might sound like it on the surface. Sure, we're loving the occasional flurry of maniacal kick drum, and the occasional Fucking Champs like Carcass riffery, but it never completely transforms the sound into pure metal. Metal plated maybe, but regardless, it sounds amazing!
Pelican nowadays sound like the very heaviest band you loved in the nineties, come back to life, supercharged and metallized. We hear lots of Slint, Bastro, Polvo, Shellac, Don Caballero, June Of 44 and bands like that, in the riffs, the arrangements, the melodies, which is fine with us. In fact, a lot of City Of Echoes sounds like a heavier Explosions In The Sky, who obviously owe a great debt to the loud-quiet-loud math rockers of days gone by. Sure it's metal enough to hit the spot for that sensitive metalhead in need of a melodic instru-metal fix, and yeah it may be heavy, and it may be metallic, but c'mon, this is indie rock, a kick ass, heavy as fuck indie rock maybe, but still...
While they last, we have the limited Japanese import Daymare double disc version of City Of Echoes, much like the fancy version of Jesu's Conqueror we carry instead of the domestic Hydra Head version. Ultra deluxe packaging, gorgeous design, thick 6 panel digipak, spot varnish gloss on matte finish, Japanese obi, Japanese liner notes, but most importantly, a bonus dvd of the band performing live at the Knitting Factory in L.A., playing mostly new songs but a few Pelican classics like "March To The Sea". The dvd looks great, sounds great, and unlike some past performances we've seen, the band are on fire -- they've always sounded great, but they didn't always move that much, but here the band are super active on stage, jumping around, swaying, head banging, which makes it way more intense and fun to watch. And it's cool to see the new songs played live too...
MPEG Stream: "Bliss In Concrete"
MPEG Stream: "City Of Echoes"

PELICAN Ephemeral (Southern Lord) 12" 15.98
Ephemeral is the first new music from instrumental post rockers Pelican since they switched from Hydrahead to Southern Lord. Definitely an interesting development, as Pelican was definitely one of the bands that defined the Hydra Head sound. But heck, listening to these three tracks it's obvious they sound right at home on SL.
The side long first track is immediately recognizably Pelican, if anything the sound is a bit heavier, a little meaner sounding, there's definitely a Champs vibe, with lots of guitar trills and plenty of low slung chug, the weird thing is that unlike past Pelican efforts, this one in particular really does seem to scream out for some vocals. Any minute we expect some voice to just start howling or bellowing. We're imagining Wino, but there is that feel, a weird bit of tension, which works instrumentally for sure, but still had us hankering. But it's a killer jam, the drums especially, dense and wild, some intricate of kilter double kick action, plenty of mathy pound, and when the band lock into that main groove, it's like a massive black bulldozer made out of drums and amps and guitars.
The title track on the flipside is anything BUT ephemeral, sounding like an extension of the A side, but with even MORE chug, and a distinctly doomy vibe, even a bit of grunge. We could totally picture Mark Arm swooping in to sing a verse. And the record finishes off with a bad ass Earth cover, the band joined by Earth mainman Dylan Carlson, and while not too far removed from the original, it's definitely heavier, and darker, a little noisier, with seriously beefed up guitars, and a much more muscled rhythm, but retaining the same gorgeous, and ominous windswept vibe conjured up by Earth on the original.
Super thick sleeves, fancy Stephen O'Malley cover art. And probably wicked limited.

PELICAN Live In Chicago 6/11/03 (Hydra Head) dvd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SUPER LIMITED!!! Pelican fans snap to attention! Fans of sludgy downtuned dirge do not dawdle. We got a small batch of these limited edition Pelican live DVD's and we will most likely not be able to get more ever again. Four epic tracks of Pelican's gorgeously massive instrumental pummel, videotaped live in 2003 in Chicago, shot from the crowd, a bit dark (dark enough that you barely see the drummer) but it sounds soooo good and if you've never seen Pelican before, it's cool to watch four regular looking dudes conjure up a seriously massive slab of metallic post-rock brutality. It's almost like being right there in the sweaty crowd, ears ringing, head banging! Packaged in a slimline jewelcase with new artwork from Seldon Hunt.

PELICAN March Into The Sea (Hydra Head) cd ep 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Oh man, if this record was only a full length, and not an EP, it would have been record of the week for sure! Even so, it's a pretty hefty EP clocking in at 33 minutes, especially when you consider it's only two songs! And not only is it quite possibly the best Pelican song so far, with a completely unforgettable, loping seasick main riff, relentless double kick drumming, totally heavy and MASSIVE, occasionally slipping into indie rock, with deliriously jangle-and-chime drenched melodies that eventually becomes a dreamy acoustic coda complete with flute, but the second track is a JK Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu) remix that ends up sounding like the best Jesu track yet, all My Bloody Valentine blissed out with fuzzy backward melodies, industrial machinellike rhythms and epic alien arrangements.
MPEG Stream: "March Into The Sea"
MPEG Stream: "Angel Tears (JK Broadrick Remix)"

PELICAN Pink Mammoth (Hydra Head) 10" 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
People have been asking for this slab of beautiful heaviness forever, and for the longest time, we were beginning to think that its existence was just a hipster vinyl collector nerd urban legend, but whaddaya know, at least a year after we first heard about this two song vinyl only ep, it shows up, and of course as is par for the course with Pelican, knocks our fuckin' socks off.
Two tracks, both apparently reworked versions of older Pelican numbers, the A side is a killer, the title track, epic and majestic and major key, the guitars thick, a throaty roar, the drums simple and massive, heavy but pretty, a definite Jesu vibe for sure, the track occasionally blissing out into stretches of mathy nineties style indie rock, albeit way heavier and way radder. At moments things also veer into Fucking Champs territory, but for the most part we hear some gloriously bastardized and metallized version of Polvo or Pitchblende. The track ends with a super shimmery outro/coda, all swoopy and soft focus, super spare drumming, spacy FX and weird far away production... yet another argument for these guys being one of the finest purveyors of metallic post rock going.
The other side is a reworked and remixed blend of another couple old Pelican songs, courtesy of Mr. Prefuse 73. A fuzzy expanse of glitchy acoustic guitars, sounding like Oval mixing some super minimal folky prog track, a laid back dreamy electronic folk, that eventually builds until an almost funky rhythm kicks in, simple handclaps laid over glistening harmonics and lilting minor key guitars, more and more fuzzed out as it progresses, a blown out sheen not unlike everything was dipped in a pixelated Fennesz style gritty guitar wash...
Gorgeously packaged as always, thick sleeve, printed inner sleeve, heavy vinyl, in a variety of swirled colors... And yeah LIMITED like crazy...

PELICAN The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
This album prompted a discussion here about how there's the post rock bands that throw in some heavy, riffy metal bits to make things weirder and more interesting (and maybe so they don't seem quite so wimpy). And there's also the metal bands that write some pretty, quiet post rock parts also to be weird and interesting (and so as not to seem like total Neanderthals). In both cases, when things work out well, the results are a band that sounds not like, uh, wimpy Neanderthals but rather like intelligent and sensitive types who also possess crushing might. Pretty much every boy's ideal, eh? And Chicago instrumental heavies (and big AQ faves) Pelican are a great example of this, even though -- especially with this new album -- we can't quite decide if they're a metal band first post rock band second or the other way around. The very first track on The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw, "Last Day Of Winter", is seemingly more on the post rock side, all simmering moodiness and storm-yet-to-be-unleashed power. It IS big and loud but not really metal. Eventually the album offers up some truly uber metal moments, though, yes. Pelican's vaunted heaviness remains. But things are overall at least equally dreamy...dreamy and layered and melodically mathy, with post rock dynamics that dip into quiet, relaxed territory as much as they charge into heavy rock battle. Track four, for instance, is ALL gentle acoustic string-strum, with hints also of glitchy electronic crackle. We were prepared for this by their warm-up ep March Into The Sea (the title track of which is reprised here in edited form) wherein those acoustic guitars were added to Pelican's sonic palette. Pelican's vast, riff-ravaged landscape now has little lovely flowers growing, and expands to even further horizons. Funnily enough, "March Into The Sea" itself also offers some of the most metal (fast, furious) passages on here. Whatever you call it, the music of Pelican is (and always has been) totally mesmerizing and epic. Even if this album makes us think that it's almost like Pelican are turning into Kinski. Who aren't metal even though they are sometimes quite heavy. And who we also like a lot after all.
Ok, enough about all this post rock vs. metal stuff (though we will say that the presence of an extensive "thanks" list argues for Pelican indeed being a metal band at heart). What's important is that anyone into massive sonics of riff-shifting symphonic complexity OR blissful simplicity, should bow down to the juggernaut genius of Pelican's lastest opus...now that sounds fairly metal, don't it? Mention should also be made of the really quite lovely cd packaging here -- the cd booklet's got a translucent vellum cover and some cool interior artwork. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Last Day Of Winter"
MPEG Stream: "Autumn Into Summer"

PELICAN Untitled (Hydra Head) cd ep 8.98
Four massive tracks of instrumental heaviness here, folks. Chicago's Pelican debut with this untitled document of dirge (actually this Hydra Head version is a reissue of their self-released debut from last year). Teetering on the cusp betwixt being a melodically melancholic and rhythmically clever post-rock band and being a punishing doom metal behemoth, Pelican don't let down either side. This is HEAVY. Epic, intense, and always interesting. Slow, trancey sludge riffs and chugging rhythms are interlaced with kinda pretty melodies and sudden tempo shifts. The result is a LOUD, almost psychedelic listen that should be very satisfying to fans of similarly droney and heavy outfits like 5ive, Tarantula Hawk, Boris, Pharoah Overlord... Gore and the Melvins and Harvey Milk too.
Pelican are the kind of band that plays shows with Isis and High On Fire, and reference La Monte Young and Ash Ra Temple in interviews...i.e. our kinda band! Kudos to Hydra Head for picking 'em up, and we look forward to their upcoming full-length on that label.
MPEG Stream: "Pulse"
MPEG Stream: "Forecast For Today"

PELICAN Untitled (Cock of the Rock / Hydra Head) 12" 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The limited edition vinyl version of Pelican's untitled debut that we listed a few years back disappeared in no time flat, never thought we'd see those again, but lucky us, it's available once again, for a limited time, so here's one more chance for you too slow suckas, don't blow it again!
Four massive tracks of instrumental heaviness here, folks. Chicago's Pelican, now 'the next big thing' it seems, debuted with this untitled document of dirge years back. Teetering on the cusp betwixt being a melodically melancholic and rhythmically clever post-rock band and being a punishing doom metal behemoth, Pelican don't let down either side. This is HEAVY. Epic, intense, and always interesting. Slow, trancey sludge riffs and chugging rhythms are interlaced with kinda pretty melodies and sudden tempo shifts. The result is a LOUD, almost psychedelic listen that should be very satisfying to fans of similarly droney and heavy outfits like 5ive, Tarantula Hawk, Boris, Pharoah Overlord... Gore and the Melvins and Harvey Milk too. Pelican are the kind of band that plays shows with Isis and High On Fire, and reference La Monte Young and Ash Ra Temple in interviews...i.e. our kinda band!
MPEG Stream: "Pulse"
MPEG Stream: "Forecast For Today"

PELICAN / THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES PLCN / TAAS (Hydra Head) cd 11.98
It's been a little while since we've heard from the boys in Pelican, due in no small part to a seemingly endless world tour. They show up in the shop so much, we sometimes think they must have relocated to SF. And this is not exactly a 'new' record, in fact, it's a different version of a song that has already surfaced once a while back on a now out of print 10", "Pink Mammoth", Pelican's 'hit', or about as close as a heavy metallic instrumental post rock band will ever come to a hit, but it's a killer song, and here it gets redone a little with help from Pelican pals These Arms Are Snakes.
It's hard to tell just how different it is without doing a side by side comparison, but on first listen it does sound a bit more washed out and droney, the sound a tad thicker, and more guitar-y, which is obviously because of the various extra players. But it hardly matters, if you haven't heard this song before, you must, and if you have, you probably already dig it and definitely won't mind hearing a slightly different version. Soaring, epic, heavy without actually being metal, the guitars crunchy but clean, the drums busy but restrained, and then there's the hook, that pops up a few minutes in, and seals the deal. There seem to be plenty of extra guitars, getting all tangled up into warm swirls of layered harmonies, and every time that hook resurfaces it's fucking magic!
The flip side finds These Arms Are Snakes redoing one of their songs with the various members of Pelican along for the ride. Loping and mathy, chiming guitar harmonics over a crumbling distorted main riff, the vocals going from weary indie drawl to snarling growly wail, all over a churning motorik rhythm. The vocal harmonies and stripped down rhythmic lope, lock into these dark grooves that totally remind us of late great San Diego trio Three Mile Pilot. Cool stuff for sure.
The vinyl packaging, as with all Hydra Head stuff, is over the top. A blue on blue printed 10" gatefold, incredibly thick, with a third layer of reflective clear ink over the top, and the text in white on top of that. Pressed on thick black vinyl. And probably limited too. The cd packaging ain't so shabby either, blue and pink and clear inks on a brown cardstock, screen printed fold over origami style sleeve, also most likely very limited...
MPEG Stream: PELICAN "Pink Mammoth"
MPEG Stream: THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES "Gold Diggers"

PELICAN / THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES PLCN / TAAS (Hydra Head) 10" 14.98
It's been a little while since we've heard from the boys in Pelican, due in no small part to a seemingly endless world tour. They show up in the shop so much, we sometimes think they must have relocated to SF. And this is not exactly a 'new' record, in fact, it's a different version of a song that has already surfaced once a while back on a now out of print 10", "Pink Mammoth", Pelican's 'hit', or about as close as a heavy metallic instrumental post rock band will ever come to a hit, but it's a killer song, and here it gets redone a little with help from Pelican pals These Arms Are Snakes.
It's hard to tell just how different it is without doing a side by side comparison, but on first listen it does sound a bit more washed out and droney, the sound a tad thicker, and more guitar-y, which is obviously because of the various extra players. But it hardly matters, if you haven't heard this song before, you must, and if you have, you probably already dig it and definitely won't mind hearing a slightly different version. Soaring, epic, heavy without actually being metal, the guitars crunchy but clean, the drums busy but restrained, and then there's the hook, that pops up a few minutes in, and seals the deal. There seem to be plenty of extra guitars, getting all tangled up into warm swirls of layered harmonies, and every time that hook resurfaces it's fucking magic!
The flip side finds These Arms Are Snakes redoing one of their songs with the various members of Pelican along for the ride. Loping and mathy, chiming guitar harmonics over a crumbling distorted main riff, the vocals going from weary indie drawl to snarling growly wail, all over a churning motorik rhythm. The vocal harmonies and stripped down rhythmic lope, lock into these dark grooves that totally remind us of late great San Diego trio Three Mile Pilot. Cool stuff for sure.
The vinyl packaging, as with all Hydra Head stuff, is over the top. A blue on blue printed 10" gatefold, incredibly thick, with a third layer of reflective clear ink over the top, and the text in white on top of that. Pressed on thick black vinyl. And probably limited too. The cd packaging ain't so shabby either, blue and pink and clear inks on a brown cardstock, screen printed fold over origami style sleeve, also most likely very limited...
MPEG Stream: PELICAN "Pink Mammoth"
MPEG Stream: THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES "Gold Diggers"

PELL MELL (1982) It Was A Live Cassette (Starlight Furniture Co.) cd 13.98
Pell Mell was an instrumental combo formed in Portland in 1980, and their early incarnation respresented here was far more ferociously angular punk than the smooth groove version of Pell Mell that developed when Greg Freeman and Steve Fisk joined the band years later. Although this previously-cassette-only release came out *after* their wonderful debut album "Rhyming Guitars", it's even rawer than that album. It's good! Limited to 500 copies, so buy now or cry later.
RealAudio clip: "Spanner"
RealAudio clip: "Shirts & Skins"

PELL MELL Flow (SST) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

PELL MELL Interstate (Flying Nun) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

PELL MELL Star City (Matador) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Geffen's loss is definitely Matador's gain. Not surf, not prog, not jazz, these guys (Steve Fisk and co.) invented their own brand of smooth guitar-based instrumentals.

PELL MELL Star City (Matador) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Geffen's loss is definitely Matador's gain. Not surf, not prog, not jazz, these guys (Steve Fisk and co.) invented their own brand of smooth guitar-based instrumentals.

PELLARIN Gundso (Statler & Waldorf) cd 17.98
'Tis the third album from Denmark's Lars Pellarin, but the first we've heard, and is a nice introduction to his austere yet hypnotic world of minimalistic, muted beats, simple melodies and pleasing drone. Pellarin makes calm, crackly (we love crackle!) electronic music in a dubby, Chain Reaction vein, that fans of Pole and Vladislav Delay and recent Dopplereffekt should certainly check out. In fact, Gundso is such relaxed, gorgeous, atmospheric stuff, that we really hope it finds an audience outside of the utterly techno-centric who are most likely to encounter it.
It's mostly instrumental, but there's some hushed, whispery singing on track 2, "Whistle Like You're 56", giving it more of a Tarwatery feel... and again on the song "Iran" there's some vocals, this time suggestive of Middle Eastern or African chant, to go along with that track's more ethnic infected beats. A bit Muslimgauzey, that one. It's also the longest piece on the album, at 13:42, and by the end builds into something almost psychedelically krautrocky, yet techno. Elsewhere, Gundso is mostly much more minimal.
This cd also includes a Quicktime video, a slowly-shifting computer graphics animation based on the track "Over Faellenden" that compliments the music perfectly, a fly-over of a ghostly, virtual landscape / seascape in shades of grey, black and white, the "camera" smoothly gliding ever forward, past icebergs and over mountain crags and curving freeways, towards some continuously receding vanishing point.
MPEG Stream: "Over Faellenden"
MPEG Stream: "Iran"
MPEG Stream: "Bolund"

PELOQUIN Sauvageau (Mucho Gusto) cd 16.98

PELOTON s/t EP (self-released) cd ep 4.98
Peloton are a new Bay Area band who make fuzzy dreamy pop that cozies right in between bands such as Yo La Tengo and The Sundays. Their self titled debut ep is a perfectly autumnal lil' treat. Check it out!
MPEG Stream: "Birds"
MPEG Stream: "For Anyone Who'll Listen"

PELT Ayahuasca (VHF) 2cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I'm beginning to think that Pelt are the real heirs to the "drone throne(tm)" formerly kept warm by Tony Conrad, LaMonte Young and John Cale. Middle Eastern flecked skree-scapes of slowly bowed strings and rich overtones that beat against each other to produce microscopic, subtly shifting pulses and rhythms. The difference with Pelt is their penchant for Appalachian folk, which surfaces here and there as a sort of Fahey-esque deconstructed back porch crawl of plucked banjos and strummed acoustic guitars over a wash of violins and sitars and bowed metal. And even some actual singing! 'Ayahuasca' finsishes up with a two part raga that lies somewhere between Skullflower's roaring/screeching soundscapes and the pseudo-industrial drones of Organum or Lustmord. So gorgeous and completely amazing. One of the best drone records in recent memory.
RealAudio clip: "True Vine"
RealAudio clip: "Raga Called John Part 1"

PELT Brown Cyclopedia (PELT) lp 9.98

PELT Dauphin Elegies (VHF) cd 13.98
We've definitely mentioned it before, in other reviews, but with every release it does seem more and more that Pelt are perhaps the only group of minimal dronelords truly occupying the dark mysterious sonic space vacated by the long lost legends. Tony Conrad, LaMonte Young, John Cale, Taj Mahal Travellers, Pelt sonically fall somewhere in that list, often leaning more toward one position than another. Sometimes unfurling whispered shimmers and deep crystalline metallic whirs, other times spewing thick sheets of upper register skree, or spreading thick layers of reverberating buzz over Eastern style ragas. Whatever they're doing, and however the hell they do it, the result is truly diving. Especially for the drone obsessed among us.
And here, on their latest, within four long tracks they dabble in all of the above, the opener is all gongs bowls and bells, deep murky metallic sprawls, ringing out, tones drifting into the ether, but with a strange propulsion, not usually found in Pelt tracks, that makes it almost sound like the Necks, if all three of the Necks were playing cymbals and bowls. Dark and languorous and gorgeous. The second track is all scraping fiddles and moaning cellos, bowed and rubbed and sawed feverishly a la Henry Flynt, pizzicato melodies, distant melodies, LOTS of space, dense squalls of malfunctioning string quartet drones, bits of percussion and tinkling chimes, very abstract and obtuse but still quite hypnotic. Up next is the record's centerpiece, 31 minutes of deep multi-timbral drones, thick swirls of harmonium, and according to the liner notes, the only track that utilizes electricity, to power something called the New Jupiter Machine. No idea what that is, but we like it. Fiddles and cellos join the fray, until there are so many layers your ears a gloriously overwhelmed, all the various notes and tones vibrating, beating, interwoven, offering up all sorts of incidental melodies and mysterious sounds that only reveal themselves gradually. So transcendental. Worth it for this track alone. In fact we often say this, but we would have been just as happy if they stretched it out for another 30 minutes, or 60, or 90, well, you know.
The disc finishes off with a brief coda of glistening high end. Sounding a bit like an analog Ryoji Ikeda, all super high harmonics, bells and chimes, all glimmering in the impossibly high upper registers, like listening to ice crystals, or the sounds of stars sparkling, or a recording of sunlight reflecting of the water, or the sounds of dew on morning grass. Delicate, crystalline, and fantastic.
MPEG Stream: "Waning Crescent"
MPEG Stream: "Fire Signs Along The Field"

PELT Empty Bell Ringing In The Sky (VHF) cd 12.98
Four stunning live recordings of droning psychedelia that falls much closer to the hazy feedback improvisiations from Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Total, Sunroof) or the bowed cymbal/"pipe fights" of Organum. One of the tracks included is from their amazing show they did for the Terrastock festival in 1998.

PELT Empty Bell Ringing In The Sky (VHF) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Four stunning live recordings of droning psychedelia that falls much closer to the hazy feedback improvisiations from Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Total, Sunroof) or the bowed cymbal/"pipe fights" of Organum. One of the tracks included is from their amazing show they did for the Terrastock festival in 1998.

PELT Heraldic Beasts (Eclipse) 2lp 24.00
If there was ever a band suited to the double lp format it would be Pelt. Their massive drone raga epics can fill a cd in a blink of an eye. Theirs is the sort of transcendental inner space music that you want to drift on for ever and ever. So four side long slabs of glacial buzz and dreamlike drift is just about perfect. Each side a slow shifting swirl of buzz and whir, thick layers of shimmering swaying creakling crumbling colossal sound. Epic expanses of grinding bombinating active ambience. On Heraldic Beasts maybe more than any other Pelt record, the band get seriously fierce, kicking up super caustic walls of gritty guitar and harsh feedback, huge Total like dins that often (but not always) settle down into more familiar moody murkiness. Neo Appalachian guitar hero Jack Rose is in there somewhere, as Pelt is his musical day job, but he's not channeling Fahey here, instead, he's possessed by the spirit of Haino, spitting out huge surges of molten guitar skree which the band then twists into dronelike shapes. Most of this disc occupies the dreamlike raga space we've come to associate with Pelt, but there is most definitely plenty of supercharged blown out psychedelic freakout scrabble and skree, that fans of SUNN, Skullflower, Fushitsusha and the like will find well worth checking out.
Packaged in an ultra deluxe full color gatefold and pressed on super thick vinyl!

PELT Max Meadows (VHF) cd 12.98
"The third album of down flowing, long on trip drone out and free-form out jams from Virginia's leading explorers of gravitational let-go. Seven tracks of multi-multi instrumental out of body frozen bliss removal. Most excellent." --handy description from the fine folks at Revolver.

PELT Pearls From The River (VHF) cd 13.98
Pelt, those Terrastock-levitatin', coolie-hat wearin' boys from Virginia have a new disc (along with Sunroof! and Vibracathedral Orchestra, one of three new VHF goodies). We've been lookin' forward to more from Pelt ever since their fine 2001 double cd Ayahuasca, and Jack Rose (1/3 of Pelt)'s contribution to that great Wooden Guitar compilation also whet our appetite for more. And more we get, the Pearls From The River being three long tracks of instrumental acoustic pseudo-ethnic drone-folk psych raga. Repetitive, mantric, stone-zoned.
Are Pelt ISB wanna-bes? Sure. Why not? Are they white guys inspired by the musics of other cultures, from India to Appalachia? Sure. Of course. More power to 'em. Tune in, or turn on your own drone makin' mojo. We can't say Pelt are a better listen than some Indian classical music, or your old Incredible String Band LPs, or whatever -- and they wouldn't either. But you'd have to be super uptight not to enjoy their bowed, bassed, and banjoed journeys into both darkness and light. And I also dig Byron Coley's parody of radical '60s drug-speak styled liner notes. They're a joke right? I mean, "Fuck Death"? I dunno how this music exactly expresses resistance to the regime of George W. Bush & Co., as Coley suggests, although it's true that somehow it doesn't seem like it could have been made by Republicans!
MPEG Stream: "Pearls From The River"

PELT Skullfuck / Bestio Tergum Degero (VHF) cd 13.98
Jack Rose may be the new John Fahey, the modern master of neo-Appalachia, his steel string skills unsurpassed, but he still calls Pelt home. Rose, lets his bandmates in Pelt, Patrick Best, Mikel Dimmick and Mike Gangloff take him away from his pick and twang and together they explore a slow motion soundscape of ghostlike ragas and endless drones. Dark dense landscapes of chiming bells, buzzing strings, and warm whispery whirs. The first track here is actually a Jack Rose song, and it sounds like it. Lilting mournful steel string guitar, with the other guys in Pelt swirling and swooshing, in, under, around and over Rose's guitar with an assortment of exotic instruments, harmonium, sruti box and singing bowls as well as gongs and flutes and fiddles. The rest of the disc is made up of the lengthy 3 part "Bestio Tergum Degero", a cavernous wash of rich overtones and metallic reverberations, huge swells of sound like metal waves on an iron sea, microscopic vibrations traveling lazily the length of a soft metal soundscape. Lush and hauntingly alien, a dark dreamy, slightly ominous drone drenched drift. As always, so nice!
MPEG Stream: "Calais To Dover"
MPEG Stream: "Bestio Tergum Degero Pt. 1"

PELT Untitled (VHF) cd 13.98
Folks around these parts (including us) have been freaking out over the gorgeous post-Fahey, neo-Appalachian guitar playing of Jack Rose, whose last few records have been massive AQ faves and whose dark and droning, delicate fingerpicked guitar work had us completely mesmerized from the first time we heard it. Makes it easy to forget sometimes that Rose has been making music for years with his equally talented bandmates as Pelt, a group that conjures up extended instrumental ragas, expansive pulsing suites of drone and shimmer, from all manner of bowed strings, bowed metal, hurdy gurdy, sundry Eastern instruments, and simple percussion as well as more traditional instruments like guitar and cello albeit utilized in highly unconventional ways. Makes sense in a way, as Rose's solo guitar is definitely informed by his years exploring the extended drone in Pelt. This new Pelt record, featuring a slightly expanded lineup, continues their quest to discover the heart of the drone, nirvana attained by never ending sound, sonic ripples that pulse and reverberate into infinity, a lovely and mind blowing musical head trip. The first track is a static shimmer, a swirling keening drone, that unlike much drone music, is not at all simple, instead it is a lush and multi layered wash of minor key melodies, stretched and smeared into a slightly ominous, almost cinematic extended dirge, intense and gorgeously imbued with all sorts of feeling and emotion, not often found in experimental minimalist musicks. The second track features Rose's immediately recognizable steel string guitar, which is soon disrupted by creaking streaks of sound and eventually overtaken by a thick fog of moaning cellos, morphing from an Eastern-tinged raga, to a throbbing fuzzed out drone, and eventually settling into a spare ramshackle soundscape of creaks and clatter. Track three is classic Ur-drone, not all that dissimilar to Sunroof! or Total or Vibracathedral orchestra, a cloud of keening high end skree cobbled together from percussive overtones, bowed metal, and ringing harmonics. The final track is a brief splatter of madly sawed cellos, creaking and squeaking strings and random splattery percussion, almost a musical version of 'shaking it off', sort of decompressing after nearly an hour of intense spiritual musicality. All you cd-r hounds / drone-heads that slobber all over everything Sunroof!, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Celebrate Psi and the like should definitely explore the magical mystical world of Pelt.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 1"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 3"

PELTOLA, MARKKU Buster Keatonin Ratsutilalla (Ektro) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's always exciting when we get a new release on Jussi from Circle's Ektro label. Will it be South American stoner rock? Will it be an unearthed Finnish psych/folk rarity? Will it be an L.A. sort-of-glam band Andee was obsessed with when he was a freshman in high school? We never know. This latest release is from a man named Markku Peltola and there's very little information to be gleaned about him from the Ektro website other than he is a famous Finnish actor and played in the semi-legendary Finnish underground band Motelli Skronkle. But no background is really neccessary to enjoy this beautiful gem. Dreamy, almost chamber ensemble-ish pieces, with strings and acoustic guitar and occasional electronic embellishments. The first band that leapt to mind was the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and it's the comparison that seems to make the most sense. Light and breezy instrumentals with melancholy strings soaring over bubbly, bouncy rhythms. With the very lo-fi casio beats cropping up occasionally. Sometimes lounge-y, sometimes soundtracky, sometimes a little like a wedding reception. It may sound very pastoral and tame, but there are moments where there's some sort of weird creepiness hovering just below the surface with droney horns and the occsional garbled vocals. Although for the most part this is pretty and simple and quite nice.
MPEG Stream: "Sahkosatula"
MPEG Stream: "Ou-Ou-Ah?"
MPEG Stream: "Notskilla"