RESIDENTS, THE Demons Dance Alone (East Side Digital) cd 16.98
Lyrically The Residents have always had a darker side, a subversive voice from the underground. This is their post-9/11 album, a procession of tales of bleakness, despair and questioning set against garish black-lit neon hues and unsettling wit. Needless to say, considerably more sobering and subdued, direct and intimate than most other Residents releases, but no less wryly tweaked.

RESIDENTS, THE Eskimo (Cryptic / Euro Ralph) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If there's one Residents record that is the one Residents record that people who aren't necessarily Residents fans own it is Eskimo (their sixth release, from 1979). There's good reason for this album being in so many libraries, if for no other reason than that it's one hell of a concept album. And if there's one thing the Residents do well it's concept albums. For Eskimo the Residents partially impersonate a Folkways ethnomusicological document from the 60's and a Firesign Theater record. The album is presented as a recreation of "not only the Eskimo ceremonial music, but also a living context for its existence". And so included is a booklet of stories illustrating the daily life and ceremonies of the Eskimo with which you can read and follow along with the music. The music is a combination of likely, but miscellaneous percussion instruments (Chris Cutler of Pere Ubu, Art Bears, Henry Cow fame is credited for his "precision drumming" here), analog synths, and chanted vocals. It's all about as convincing as genuine Eskimo music as you can imagine coming from the eyeballed wonders, and that's definitely part of its charm. The vocals themselves you can take as non-sensical made up words, or listen closely and you might be able to hear some familiar phrases here and there: "Coca Cola adds life" and "we want Coke, oh yeah!" are definitely in here. How much other subliminal marketing the Residents slipped in here is up for debate. Some people hear more than others. This handsome digipack edition comes with the original cover art; a classic image of the Residents on wearing tuxes, tails and eyeballs on a deco stage setup out of the 40's.
MPEG Stream: " The Walrus Hunt"
MPEG Stream: "The Angry Angkok"

RESIDENTS, THE Eskimo (Cryptic / Euro Ralph) dvd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now expanded in 5.1 surround! If there's one Residents record that is the one Residents record that people who aren't necessarily Residents fans own it is Eskimo (their sixth release, from 1979). There's good reason for this album being in so many libraries, if for no other reason than that it's one hell of a concept album. And if there's one thing the Residents do well it's concept albums. For Eskimo the Residents partially impersonate a Folkways ethnomusicological document from the 60's and a Firesign Theater record. The album is presented as a re-creation of "not only the Eskimo ceremonial music, but also a living context for its existence". And so included is a booklet of stories illustrating the daily life and ceremonies of the Eskimo with which you can read and follow along with the music. The Eskimo DVD has a psychedelic slide show of the events which unfold in the course of the album. The images, mostly in black & white are grainy, dare I say snowy and pixelated photos and drawings of the Eskimos doing the things described in the notes. The images are constantly shimmering and dissolve from one to another in an effect that must be truly enjoyable under the influence of certain illegal substances. The music is a combination of likely, but miscellaneous percussion instruments (Chris Cutler of Pere Ubu, Art Bears, Henry Cow fame is credited for his "precision drumming" here), analog synths, and chanted vocals. It's all about as convincing as genuine Eskimo music as you can imagine coming from the eyeballed wonders, and that's definitely part of its charm. The vocals themselves you can take as non-sensical made up words, or listen closely and you might be able to hear some familiar phrases here and there: "Coca Cola adds life" and "we want Coke, oh yeah!". The DVD version removes all doubt about what the eyeballed wonders are chanting in this final track: Along with an image of the Golden Arches in the background and a bag of McDonalds fries which floats by in the final minutes, a polar bear holding a bottle of Coke (remember those annoying commercials from a year or two ago?) floats out of nowhere to drive the line home. In addition to the entire album remixed in 5.1 surround, this disc comes with several "easter eggs" containing 25 minutes of additional material. For those outside the US the following information might be helpful: the DVD is encoded NTSC all regions.

RESIDENTS, THE God In Three Persons (Cryptic / Euro Ralph) 2cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of a string of concept albums by Bay Area mysterious geniuses The Residents! God In Three Persons was originally released back in 1988, but still drops jaws today. Steeped with themes of religion, morals and sexuality, the drama centers around a pair of siamese twins who possess healing powers and is narrated in first person by the main character Mr. X with support from a female chorus. The deceptively spartan yet weighted electronic compositions offer the spoken-sung narration and near-operatic interjections ample berth. Oh and the opening credits are sung too! Yes, like an old tyme circus freak show, this is ever so strangely fascinating.

RESIDENTS, THE Meet The Residents (Cryptic / Euro Ralph) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Meet The Residents, a truly fucked up psychedelic masterpiece if ever there was one, was originally released in 1974. As a recording, half of it sounds like it was taken from cassettes that had been baking in a thrift store window display for several years before being dubbed to multi-track with overdubbed toy pianos. The deranged arrangements are impossible to decrypt. There's obviously some good players involved here, but there's a great deal of clumsy, high school band dropout playing as well -- and that's what really makes this album intriguing. The album kicks off with a quite intentionally terrible version of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Were Made For Walking" with the previously mentioned "high school band" playing accompaniment, but we're fortunately left off the hook from receiving an abused cover and instead the song loops over the final phrase of the chorus before degenerating altogether. The balance of the album is a reflection of this degeneration, with songs knit together by shifting from one small repeated element into entirely new pieces. Meet The Residents is noisy, rough and brutal. Full of fucked up tangos, jerky rumbas and twisted waltzes. This is very much not the same band that produced God In Three Persons some 13 years later. These Residents had never even heard of a synthesizer, let alone a sequencer; every instrument on here is painfully detuned by hand. This is garbage psychedelia at its best and an absolutely essential album for anyone who walks that crooked line between fucked up experiemental noise and pop music!
MPEG Stream: "Numb Erone / Guylum Bardot / Breath And Length "
MPEG Stream: "Rest Aria"
MPEG Stream: "Seasoned Greetings"

RESIDENTS, THE Not Available (Ralph Records) lp 15.98

RESIDENTS, THE Not Available (Ralph Records) lp 15.98

RESIDENTS, THE Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Huddled Masses (Euro Ralph/Cryptic) 4cd 60.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Comes in handsome full-color hardcover box with 32-page color booklet. Anthology spans 25 years of ear bending from the anonymous 3 eyeballs and a skull. Includes exclusive tracks unavailable elsewhere.

RESIDENTS, THE WB: RMX (Cryptic) cd 15.98
Legend has it that way back in their infancy, these infamous southerners transplanted to San Francisco sent a demo tape to Warner Brothers for consideration. Needless to say, the Bros. passed on the project and shipped the tape back to the address from which it had come, addressed to "The Residents" -- as no names had been included with the cassette. And so the band earned their moniker. Apparently these earliest recordings were not what eventually became the album Meet The Residents, and have never been heard outside of the Warner Brothers' offices (if they even bothered to put the tape on at all). So now I bet you're all slathering at the mouth to hear these recordings. Well so are we... still. Unfortunately, what you get with WB: RMX is a remix of those original recordings which basically amounts to a lot of bad factory preset rock / hip hop drum programming and some sampled elements of the original tapes. Listen really carefully and you might be able to dissemble the original recordings from the mix. While true Residents fans will be forced to purchase this out of obligation, we can't recommend this as a starting point for anyone else. Sigh... Maybe this is a prelude to a release of the original demo tape.
MPEG Stream: "The Mad Sawmill Of Copenhagen, Germany"

RESIDUAL ECHOES California (Holy Mountain) lp 15.98
In addition to being the home to a lot of the "music industry", the (so-called) sunny state of California has provided plenty of songwriting inspiration for artists over the years. Uh, from the Mamas and the Papas to the Dead Kennedys to LL Cool J to the Skygreen Leopards. But this new vinyl-only, gatefold album from damaged Santa Cruz (now relocated to LA, we're told) psychmongers Residual Echoes might be the last word, certainly the most freaked out one, in musical California tribute. It's got lyrics referencing earthquakes, the SST label, and elephant seal mating rituals among other Cali-centric concepts. Actually it's just side B that's RE's 'California suite', but the two songs on side A are just as wild and heavy, which is how we like it here in California, right???
Dunno when/if this will ever come out on cd, so for now it's only the turntable enabled amongst you who can enjoy this platter of psychedelic excess.

RESIDUAL ECHOES Firsts E.P. (Elevation) cd 8.98
WTF? Guitarist Adam Payne of Santa Cruz destroyed psych heavies Residual Echoes just made the move (back) down to the LA area... and this 20 minute, 5 song ep is the first recording we've heard from his new SoCal based RE lineup. And... suddenly they've got (more of) an SST punk thing going on? Raucous first track "Dosed Clothes" might make you think so, and track two too, but then you get to "Wipe It Up", their Blake Babies cover (!) and it seems RE has gone the extra step into jangly '80s /early '90s college radio indie rock. The sunshiney "Fresh Eyes", track 4, being their own take on that sorta thing.
Well, uh, if you thought they were weird before, well in a way this punky, poppy RE is even weirder. Even though it's much more tuneful and tightly rockin'. Yet their usual '70s psych and krautrock influences haven't been discarded... Payne wrangles plenty of feedback n' distortion from his Stratocaster throughout. In fact the final cut here, the nearly ten-minute "Strawberrytea" is (in part) a heavy duty, raw psych guitar blow out in the typical 'Echoes tradition.
Not entirely what we were expecting, but pretty cool nonetheless.
MPEG Stream: "Fresh Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Strawberrytea"

RESIDUAL ECHOES Mfi-Gbsp (Rocket Recordings / Invada) cd 14.98
Shambolic Santa Cruz psychsters Residual Echoes follow up last year's Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean with this new album, a UK import on cd and/or colored vinyl, as you please. The tracks are few (four) but the lengths are long (averaging upwards of nine minutes each). Things start off in krautrocky acoustic strum mode, building to adrenalized, electronics/effects enhanced ceremonial drone worship, but it's not really until the third track ("Headache Transverse") that the band busts out the loud electric guitar distortion that made Phoenician Flu almost a stoner metal album. Said heaviness kicks in, feedback action too, and then they're off! The relatively peaceable and mellow vibes of the first two trancey, folky tracks are displaced somewhat in favor of dealing out damage in the amped up style of fellow travellers Comets On Fire. The fourth and final cut does so likewise... so half-and-half rockin' here pretty much, and we like both halves, 'specially when they come together (they do) and the Amon Duul meets Pelt style trance-throb blends with the Crazy Horse/Comets/Dinosaur guitar freakouts... Yessir, Residual Echoes have certainly earned their place alongside bros Comets On Fire and Six Organs Of Admittance as NorCal psych heroes, with 'em around we hardly need Japanese imports like AMT, Up-Tight and LSD-march...not that we'd not want those, the more the merrier! Anyway Mfi-Gbsp (what's that again?) is a good one for anyone who digs druggy drone jams that let loose in the guitar dep't too... Fans of the aforementioned acts, or East Coasters like Bardo Pond and Dead Meadow fer instance, should get hip to Residual Echoes if you aren't already.
MPEG Stream: "Elu Of The Nine"
MPEG Stream: "Headache Transverse"

RESIDUAL ECHOES Mfi-Gbsp (Rocket) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Shambolic Santa Cruz psychsters Residual Echoes follow up last year's Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean with this new album, a UK import on cd and/or colored vinyl, as you please. The tracks are few (four) but the lengths are long (averaging upwards of nine minutes each). Things start off in krautrocky acoustic strum mode, building to adrenalized, electronics/effects enhanced ceremonial drone worship, but it's not really until the third track ("Headache Transverse") that the band busts out the loud electric guitar distortion that made Phoenician Flu almost a stoner metal album. Said heaviness kicks in, feedback action too, and then they're off! The relatively peaceable and mellow vibes of the first two trancey, folky tracks are displaced somewhat in favor of dealing out damage in the amped up style of fellow travellers Comets On Fire. The fourth and final cut does so likewise... so half-and-half rockin' here pretty much, and we like both halves, 'specially when they come together (they do) and the Amon Duul meets Pelt style trance-throb blends with the Crazy Horse/Comets/Dinosaur guitar freakouts... Yessir, Residual Echoes have certainly earned their place alongside bros Comets On Fire and Six Organs Of Admittance as NorCal psych heroes, with 'em around we hardly need Japanese imports like AMT, Up-Tight and LSD-march...not that we'd not want those, the more the merrier! Anyway Mfi-Gbsp (what's that again?) is a good one for anyone who digs druggy drone jams that let loose in the guitar dep't too... Fans of the aforementioned acts, or East Coasters like Bardo Pond and Dead Meadow fer instance, should get hip to Residual Echoes if you aren't already.
MPEG Stream: "Elu Of The Nine"
MPEG Stream: "Headache Transverse"

RESIDUAL ECHOES Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98
We're still hearing the "residual echoes" of this Santa Cruz based band's self-titled debut record from earlier this year ringing in our ears...and now, here's their follow-up release already. No complaints about that though, we love these guys!!
Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean offers up all the druggy, damaged psych-rock fans of the band could hope for. Blasting off with the deleriously lo-fi, Sabbath-on-SST stomp of "Death Comes For The Archbishop" its evident right away that this record is gonna be a heavy one, indeed this track gets totally ripping metal (in a Seventies way) in spots. But then, you'll also find some rather folky stuff on here as well (borrowings from Nick Drake and the Carter Family are both credited in the liner notes). It's a blend that anyone into Residual Echoes' pals Comets Of Fire will already dig, though if anything, the Echoes are even more shambolic than the most fucked up Comets stuff! This record is a wrestling match of the boogie vs. the drone and it doesn't much matter which one wins.
Yes indeedy, Holy Mountain has put out some great releases. But we'd say that an adventurous listener scaling the Holy Mountain's heights would probably find Residual Echoes rockin' out at one of the toppermost peaks! Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Death Comes For The Archbishop"
MPEG Stream: "Lorelei"
MPEG Stream: "Greetings Ancient Ocean"

RESIDUAL ECHOES Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean (Holy Mountain) lp 14.98
Now available on vinyl! Here's our review from when we listed the cd a while back:
We're still hearing the "residual echoes" of this Santa Cruz based band's self-titled debut record from earlier this year ringing in our ears...and now, here's their follow-up release already. No complaints about that though, we love these guys!!
We're still hearing the "residual echoes" of this Santa Cruz based band's self-titled debut record from earlier this year ringing in our ears...and now, here's their follow-up release already. No complaints about that though, we love these guys!!
Phoenician Flu and Ancient Ocean offers up all the druggy, damaged psych-rock fans of the band could hope for. Blasting off with the deleriously lo-fi, Sabbath-on-SST stomp of "Death Comes For The Archbishop" its evident right away that this record is gonna be a heavy one, indeed this track gets totally ripping metal (in a Seventies way) in spots. But then, you'll also find some rather folky stuff on here as well (borrowings from Nick Drake and the Carter Family are both credited in the liner notes). It's a blend that anyone into Residual Echoes' pals Comets Of Fire will already dig, though if anything, the Echoes are even more shambolic than the most fucked up Comets stuff! This record is a wrestling match of the boogie vs. the drone and it doesn't much matter which one wins.
Yes indeedy, Holy Mountain has put out some great releases. But we'd say that an adventurous listener scaling the Holy Mountain's heights would probably find Residual Echoes rockin' out at one of the toppermost peaks! Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Death Comes For The Archbishop"
MPEG Stream: "Lorelei"
MPEG Stream: "Greetings Ancient Ocean"

RESIDUAL ECHOES s/t (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98
If you ever thought Comets On Fire sounded chaotic and possibly drug-addled (which they do), and liked that and wanted even more chaos and drugs in the mix, then you've got to check out these seriously fucked Santa Cruz cousins of theirs, a band called Residual Echoes -- actually the brainchild, it seems, of one Adam Payne, recording mostly solo (though there's a live band now). His friends help out on the record -- Adam and Co. variously credited with "unseasoned drumming", "shirtless drumming", "manhands", "air", "flutophone", "shitty bass", "fuzz", "computer din", "broken alto" and other instruments (or not).
Blending krautrock, '80s SST style experimentation, and the wiggiest of the Japanese destructo-psych underground into one potent pot-brownie of a record, this is fucked up and will fuck you up too if you let it. First released in a limited vinyl edition, but this cd sounds better though. And you need all the help you can get.
Lotsa squawking squonk, but always with drive, goin' someplace good. Long songs, many moods, hard to grasp in it's entirety, entirely. We seriously dug it though. Again, it's easiest to describe this for/sell this to Comets fans -- just imagine Comets at their craziest and go from there. Heavy psych action with few if any boundaries and lots of arty energy. Oh yeah, remember that Leaf Yard cd-r? If so, that means you want this too.
FYI, it's a Record of the Month on Julian Cope's Head Heritage website at www.headheritage.co.uk (which we recommend you check out for the music reviews!), who also recently bestowed similar honors on another recent Holy Mountain release, Om's Variations On A Theme. And we know Holy Mountain ain't payin' payola to Mr. Cope... nor to us for that matter though we wouldn't be opposed...
MPEG Stream: "Slant"
MPEG Stream: "A STARDT 3 & 3 1/2"

RESOE The Black Void Of Space (Echocord) cd 16.98
Another fantastic release from Echocord, and another excursion into deeeeeep dark spaced out dub, Resoe, a long time techno producer, explores all the various facets and permutations of dub, from buzzing dubstep, to shimmering ambient dub, to pulsing techno, even a little house, but the building blocks of this modern minimal abstract digidub, those sounds we love and can't seem to ever get enough of are all here, in full effect, think Echospace, Rod Modell, Variant, Quantec, Deepchord, Pole, etc, skittery skeletal rhythms, swirling atmospherics, abstract pulsations, muted murky loops, reverbed ripples drifting out into the ether, and then of course bass, rumbling Teutonic low end, washed out thrums, the sound warm and enveloping, the bass a swirling organic sound pulls you under and carries you off.
Opener "Lakeviews" is the perfect introduction, all spare and sparse, layered sounds gently swirling, unfurling, tangling and untangling, but blurred and smeared into soft streaks of whir and echo and throb, the beat, sort of dubsteppy, but way stripped down, drives the track, the bass a dark spectre just below the surface, while all around thick synth swells drift in and out. The sort of thing we could listen to forever.
And from there on out, it's some sort of spaced out bass excursion, propulsive clubby house music, gives way to hazy, skittery minimal 4 on the floor pulse, glitched out robotic space dub transforms into abstract Eastern tinged, almost African Headcharge sounding reggae flecked dub, grimy dubby echo drenched creep, crawls right into some crunchy stuttery alien dubstep, finally giving way to a long stretch of warm, whirling, gristly, pulsating dreamy dub drift...
MPEG Stream: "Lakeviews"
MPEG Stream: "Demoon"
MPEG Stream: "Radikal Alterations"

RESONANCE volume 7, number 2 magazine+cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
'Taking the pulse of the world's musics' is this issue's theme, and there are some fascinating articles about cultural responsibility (sadly in very short supply) along with articles about Marta Sebestyen/Muzsikas, Robin Williamson, and Reg Hall. Also, writings by Tim Hodgkinson, John Zorn, Evan Parker, David Toop, Steve Beresford, etc.

RESONATOR Lost Language (Human Identity Recordings) cd 14.98
WAREHOUSE FIND! Found a tiny stash of these tucked away, first reviewed WAY back in 2006...
The first few seconds of Lost Language, a blast of fuzzy crumbling distortion will have you expecting the latest slab of monster sludge, or a blast of pummeling downtuned brutality. And the bands pedigree might have you expecting something similar, guitarist Larry Dolan produced the debut full length from metallic post rockers Tides and drummer Mikey Lemieux used to bash the skin for metalcore heavyweights Drowningman. But what you get instead is some killer, super propulsive, slightly mathy, but very moody, instrumental rock, that harkens back to bands like Pell Mell. There's all sorts of definite reference points, Pell Mell is the most obvious, a simultaneously laid back and caffeinated burst of super energetic mathy groove. But can hear lots of nineties indie rock, plenty of SST, a bit of Tortoise, some Minutemen for sure. Surf rock guitars are wound tight beneath thick splashy swirls of open high-hat and frenetic almost funky drumming, the bass is sometimes slithery and dark, sometimes rubbery and almost dub like. Some tracks stretch into languid epics, others fly by, a manic expulsion of chaotic energy. Once in a while they sound a little like a less Joy Division obsessed Interpol, but again with that nineties instrumental rock vibe. The final track is the show stopper, a near half an hour epic, that almost sounds like the band took the first seven tracks and rearranged, reshaped, and reimagined them into one lengthy jam, keening angular riffs, wildly chaotic drumming, a hypnotic neverending epic, with cool backwards guitars, some My Bloody Valentine swoosh, the whole thing constantly shifting from full blown overdrive, to laid back lope, and back again, until the whole thing fades to a haunting soundscape of minimal guitar drone. Finally, a simple tribal rhythm emerges, and the track unwinds, a slowly decelerating coda, all muted rhythmic rumble and barely there melody. So cool.
MPEG Stream: "Bombed On The Reeperbahn"
MPEG Stream: "Evidence Of Dreams"
MPEG Stream: "Passenger Pigeons"

RESTGERAEUSCH Vol.2 2x30min.30sec. (Mille Plateaux) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Dark drone w/ hidden hip-hop beats experimentation, maybe not quite as good as their first (Vol. 1 1hr.1min.) but still excellent and not like anything else...the first half hour thirty seconds has the buried beats under the noise, the second half goes fully ambient.

RESTGERAEUSCH Vol.2 2x30min.30sec. (Mille Plateaux) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Dark drone w/ hidden hip-hop beats experimentation, maybe not quite as good as their first (Vol. 1 1hr.1min.) but still excellent and not like anything else...the first half hour thirty seconds has the buried beats under the noise, the second half goes fully ambient.

RESTIFORM BODIES s/t (Anticon / Pointless) cd 15.98
More good stuff from the Anticon crew. Fucked up, malfunctioning hip hop weirdness, with whiny tongue twisting white boy flows, bizarre samples and off kilter loops, and truly demented stream of conciousness lyrics. Fans of Them, Aesop Rock, Dose One and Cannibal Ox will love this.
RealAudio clip: "Teleprompter"

RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR 2 (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
Record number 2 (hence the title) from Allan Sparhawk of Low's Retribution Gospel Choir, a way more rocking foil to Low's less rocking slowcore. And a pretty bad ass chunk of riff heavy rock for sure. Thankfully, much of the songwriting that defined and still defines Low has of course followed Sparhawk to the Choir, so in some cases, many of these songs are easily imagined stripped down and slowed down into Low jams, but on their own they function as some classic sounding, sometimes heavy, sometimes jangly sounding indie rock. Sparhawk's vocals powerful, the arrangements lush, plenty of hooks, some not so obvious, while others nail you right out of the gate.
Our favorite moments are when RGC get heavy, like on "Your Bird", the main riff is a monster, the indie vocals balancing the almost metallic tenor of the guitars, but the song twists and turns and does get pretty dang metal here and there. But even then, there are plenty of 'ooooohs' or something else to ground it far from actual metal.
The band also space out here and there, letting songs sprawl and smolder slowly, "Poor Man's Daughter" starts out like that, peppered with bursts of guitar chug and drum crash, but allowing for lots of drift and shimmer, until the last few minutes when things get super heavy, churning guitars, almost Jesu-like, blown out and in-the-red, but it's Allan Sparhawk, so the last few minutes returns to some lilting almost folkiness, which sounds divine on the heels of something so caustic.
It took us a while to warm up to this record. Not sure exactly what it was, but now we find ourselves returning to this a lot, and getting these songs stuck in our head like crazy...
MPEG Stream: "Hide It Away"
MPEG Stream: "Your Bird"
MPEG Stream: "Electric Guitar"

RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR 2 (Sub Pop) lp 15.98
Record number 2 (hence the title) from Allan Sparhawk of Low's Retribution Gospel Choir, a way more rocking foil to Low's less rocking slowcore. And a pretty bad ass chunk of riff heavy rock for sure. Thankfully, much of the songwriting that defined and still defines Low has of course followed Sparhawk to the Choir, so in some cases, many of these songs are easily imagined stripped down and slowed down into Low jams, but on their own they function as some classic sounding, sometimes heavy, sometimes jangly sounding indie rock. Sparhawk's vocals powerful, the arrangements lush, plenty of hooks, some not so obvious, while others nail you right out of the gate.
Our favorite moments are when RGC get heavy, like on "Your Bird", the main riff is a monster, the indie vocals balancing the almost metallic tenor of the guitars, but the song twists and turns and does get pretty dang metal here and there. But even then, there are plenty of 'ooooohs' or something else to ground it far from actual metal.
The band also space out here and there, letting songs sprawl and smolder slowly, "Poor Man's Daughter" starts out like that, peppered with bursts of guitar chug and drum crash, but allowing for lots of drift and shimmer, until the last few minutes when things get super heavy, churning guitars, almost Jesu-like, blown out and in-the-red, but it's Allan Sparhawk, so the last few minutes returns to some lilting almost folkiness, which sounds divine on the heels of something so caustic.
It took us a while to warm up to this record. Not sure exactly what it was, but now we find ourselves returning to this a lot, and getting these songs stuck in our head like crazy...
MPEG Stream: "Hide It Away"
MPEG Stream: "Your Bird"
MPEG Stream: "Electric Guitar"

RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR s/t (Caldo Verde) cd 13.98
For most folks involved in rock music the usual trajectory is that they start out loud and rocking, full of piss and vinegar and then as they get older they mellow out and explore their more sensitive and mature sides. But if you're Allan Sparhawk, you did just the opposite and started out as quiet and slow as can be, so it kind of makes perfect sense that he's now moonlighting, using his -other- non-Low project to explore his more full on rock cravings. While there have been some hints of Sparhawk's desire to rock on a few Low albums (especially on Low's Sub-Pop debut, The Great Destroyer) it hasn't been until now that we've actually heard a record from him that is all about the rock, from start to finish. Produced by Mark Kozelek, we can imagine it was really refreshing for both Allan and Mark to let loose in the studio and let out some good old fashion testosterone, where both usually have to hold back so much in all of their other endeavors. Of course Sparhawk's trademark voice and guitar playing are instantly recognizable. Just because he's rocking don't expect this to be some fluffy fun rock band, because the same intensity, tension and conflict that has made Low's music so important to so many of us is still embedded in what he's doing with Retribution Gospel Choir. The record sounds like someone working out their demons and battling a possible musical mid-life crisis in a really cathartic and moving way. This isn't really a departure as much as it is someone letting off some much deserved steam, sweating in the garage and showing that just as he helped invent and perfect slowcore, he's just as capable at rocking, with the same glorious results.
MPEG Stream: "They Knew You Well"
MPEG Stream: "Somebody's Someone"

RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR s/t (Caldo Verde) lp 17.98
Now on vinyl!
For most folks involved in rock music the usual trajectory is that they start out loud and rocking, full of piss and vinegar and then as they get older they mellow out and explore their more sensitive and mature sides. But if you're Allan Sparhawk, you did just the opposite and started out as quiet and slow as can be, so it kind of makes perfect sense that he's now moonlighting, using his -other- non-Low project to explore his more full on rock cravings. While there have been some hints of Sparhawk's desire to rock on a few Low albums (especially on Low's Sub-Pop debut, The Great Destroyer) it hasn't been until now that we've actually heard a record from him that is all about the rock, from start to finish. Produced by Mark Kozelek, we can imagine it was really refreshing for both Allan and Mark to let loose in the studio and let out some good old fashion testosterone, where both usually have to hold back so much in all of their other endeavors. Of course Sparhawk's trademark voice and guitar playing are instantly recognizable. Just because he's rocking don't expect this to be some fluffy fun rock band, because the same intensity, tension and conflict that has made Low's music so important to so many of us is still embedded in what he's doing with Retribution Gospel Choir. The record sounds like someone working out their demons and battling a possible musical mid-life crisis in a really cathartic and moving way. This isn't really a departure as much as it is someone letting off some much deserved steam, sweating in the garage and showing that just as he helped invent and perfect slowcore, he's just as capable at rocking, with the same glorious results.
MPEG Stream: "They Knew You Well"
MPEG Stream: "Somebody's Someone"

RETRO-A.K.A. Synaethesia (Staalplaat) cd 14.98
Volume 017 in the "Korm Plastics Introductory Paperback" series of previously unknown artists discovered by the acclaimed Staalplaat label. Not surprisingly, there is not much background information provided on Retro A.K.A., though one guess is that this outfit hails from Iceland as Heimer from Stilluppsteypa contributes some production work on one of the tracks. Or Retro-A.K.A. perhaps is Dutch, 'cause the Stilluppsteypa folk live in Holland now. Some of the sterile laptop glitchiness characteristic of the Raster and Ritornelle labels appears, but Retro A.K.A.'s cavernous, windswept drones really resemble the haunted loops of Omit, resulting in organic noise overlaid with digitized blast and skitter. Cool.

RETSEPTI 1987-92 (Supreme Echo) cd 14.98
The sticker on the front of this archival collection by the band Retsepti, from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, states that it's "dark punk / wave". But we had been lead to believe it was more of a garagey metal thing. And the distributor we got our copies from, happens to be those noted purveyors of soul and funk, Numero Group! So what's Retsepti (which means "Recipe" or "Prescription") actually all about? Well, some kind of darkwave post-punk is about right, with gritty guitars that can riff it up in rollicking fashion but take a backseat to nervy new wavy keyboards at other times. The vocals are coarse but dramatically expressive, melodic and emotional in a raw, rough hewn way, just like the music (though things get smoother as the disc progresses, even incorporating saxophone on one song near the end). And the vibe is definitely what you might expect, dark, desperate yet defiant, from folks making art under trying circumstances (civil war for one thing). So while they didn't turn out to be the Iron Curtain Iron Maiden we'd been mistakenly hoping for, Retsepti are still worthy of attention.
This disc contains their entire recorded output, carefully restored and remastered from their original cassette tape releases and other obscure sources. The cd's handstamped gatefold sleeve contains a 16 page booklet, with liner notes detailing the band's fascinating history, along with lyrics and vintage photos.
MPEG Stream: "Hunger"
MPEG Stream: "Give Me The Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Lie To Me"

RETSIN Cabin In the Woods (Carrot Top) cd 14.98
Our pals at Revolver distro said it best in their description:
"Take a load off, sit back, and let Tara Jane O'Neil (Sonora Pine, Rodan) and Cynthia Nelson (Naysayer, Ruby Falls) do the driving for a while. The latest in the duo's ongoing love affair with quirky and emotion-fueled pop comes floating with a somber and beautiful blend of banjo, flute, accordion, violin, and English ballad sounds, designed to intrigue, relax, and bewitch. Lovely on all fronts."
RealAudio clip: "The Good Lady Obstacle"
RealAudio clip: "Carnival"

REUBER Kintopp (Staubgold) cd 15.98
Record number three from electronic/krautrock/spacedrone/experimental soundscaper Reuber, aka Timo Reuber, whose fifth and most recent record was an aQ Record Of The Week a while back, and whose second record we reviewed just last list, and now as we work our way through his catalog, we've got his 3rd record, and it's just as great and all over the map as the two previous ones.
Kintopp is German for cinema, and on Kintopp, Reuber creates mini soundtracks, twisted little electronic vignettes that range from playful to brooding, noisy to minimal, dark and haunting to twisted and abstract, and more often than not some dizzying combination of all of the above. A quick sampling would reveal: a strange bit of cabaret, rubbery basslines, looped mechanical rhythms, and a strange high end melody that sounds like it's being played by releasing air from a balloon, pulsing almost techno style throbs buried beneath a dubbed out expanse of melodic shimmer, a looped bit of bassy riffage, like some sort of spy theme, laced with backwards sonic swoops, and little flecks of melody and shards of glitched out electronics, that same sort of spy theme bass riff is wrapped around deep mysterious Tuvan style throat singing, hushed melancholy strings, soar over a deep expanse of rumble and thrum, a kaleidoscopic avalanche of pizzicato notes tumble like a hazy glimmering sonic waterfall, swirls of pop ambience spread out in clouds of gauzy blurred soft focus haze, a pounding almost industrial groove that sounds like a techno-fied themes song to some Miami Vice knockoff, the whole thing peppered with strange percussion, and wreathed in sweeping streaks of warm whirling sound, a weirdly looped collage of chopped and looped African folk music, wrapped in reverb and delay, a tinkling bit of piano driven cinematic ambience, like a more woozy, washed out Chariots Of Fire, all dramatic and epic and majestic, but slightly warped and warbly, and on and on and on.
A fantastically varied collection of beautiful but brief electronic soundscapes, woven together into a strangely cohesive whole. Oh and did we mention the cover photo, of Reuber (we presume), wearing a leather jacket, a cowboy hat, American flag pants, with his foot up on some sort of sports car, with a personalized REUBER license plate, holding a spear gun, standing next to a stuffed elephant, that has been speared, and appears to be bleeding spaghetti in tomato sauce. Woah.
MPEG Stream: "Stadtflucht"
MPEG Stream: "Uberlandweg"
MPEG Stream: "In Fernen Landern"
MPEG Stream: "Walzende Wirrnis"
MPEG Stream: "Schlusskuss"

REUBER Kintopp (Staubgold) lp 14.98
Record number three from electronic/krautrock/spacedrone/experimental soundscaper Reuber, aka Timo Reuber, whose fifth and most recent record was an aQ Record Of The Week a while back, and whose second record we reviewed just last list, and now as we work our way through his catalog, we've got his 3rd record, and it's just as great and all over the map as the two previous ones.
Kintopp is German for cinema, and on Kintopp, Reuber creates mini soundtracks, twisted little electronic vignettes that range from playful to brooding, noisy to minimal, dark and haunting to twisted and abstract, and more often than not some dizzying combination of all of the above. A quick sampling would reveal: a strange bit of cabaret, rubbery basslines, looped mechanical rhythms, and a strange high end melody that sounds like it's being played by releasing air from a balloon, pulsing almost techno style throbs buried beneath a dubbed out expanse of melodic shimmer, a looped bit of bassy riffage, like some sort of spy theme, laced with backwards sonic swoops, and little flecks of melody and shards of glitched out electronics, that same sort of spy theme bass riff is wrapped around deep mysterious Tuvan style throat singing, hushed melancholy strings, soar over a deep expanse of rumble and thrum, a kaleidoscopic avalanche of pizzicato notes tumble like a hazy glimmering sonic waterfall, swirls of pop ambience spread out in clouds of gauzy blurred soft focus haze, a pounding almost industrial groove that sounds like a techno-fied themes song to some Miami Vice knockoff, the whole thing peppered with strange percussion, and wreathed in sweeping streaks of warm whirling sound, a weirdly looped collage of chopped and looped African folk music, wrapped in reverb and delay, a tinkling bit of piano driven cinematic ambience, like a more woozy, washed out Chariots Of Fire, all dramatic and epic and majestic, but slightly warped and warbly, and on and on and on.
A fantastically varied collection of beautiful but brief electronic soundscapes, woven together into a strangely cohesive whole. Oh and did we mention the cover photo, of Reuber (we presume), wearing a leather jacket, a cowboy hat, American flag pants, with his foot up on some sort of sports car, with a personalized REUBER license plate, holding a spear gun, standing next to a stuffed elephant, that has been speared, and appears to be bleeding spaghetti in tomato sauce. Woah.
MPEG Stream: "Stadtflucht"
MPEG Stream: "Uberlandweg"
MPEG Stream: "In Fernen Landern"
MPEG Stream: "Walzende Wirrnis"
MPEG Stream: "Schlusskuss"

REUBER Ring (Staubgold) cd 17.98
Even though this is record number FIVE from Reuber (aka Timo Reuber), who is also a member of electronic duo Klangwart, Ring is the very first thing we've heard from him, and it immediately became one of our new favorite records, a dizzying assemblage of loops and samples and textures and effects woven into a series of super varied soundscapes, from hypnotic kosmische krautdrone, to hazy murky pulsing techno flecked electronica, to super frantic spaced out new wave, to murky electronic drone dirge psych rock to woozy minimal sci-fi techno, all of it rhythmic and hypnotic, lush and layered.
Self described as Reuber's "motorbike album", Ring finds Reuber trying to evoke a 'Reuber Principle' using a selection of sounds designed to sound different during each performance, depending on the venue, the audience and of course Reuber himself. All but one of the tracks are created using just two synthesizers, experimenting with rhythm and texture, creating constantly shifting collages of sound, all 'Ring' variations, the first "Ring Ring", the most blissed out of the bunch, a minimal electronic pulse, a slowly shifting melody, a deep buzzing vocal that sounds like Tuvan throat singing, a haunting bit of cinematic kosmische drift that ends way too soon. The upside being that it leads directly into the 17 minute "Ring", which takes the sound of the first track and explodes it into something much more celestial and cosmic, a supernova of sound, all blurred and washed out, hazy and shimmery, underneath which various bits of percussion pulse and pound, a buried rhythm that gradually moves to the fore, and the song transforms into a gorgeously hypnotic tribal psychedelic workout that sounds almost like modern day Boredoms. This tribal churn is laced with strange melodic bits, twisted effects, a roiling swirl of sound, that soon returns to the washed out cosmic shimmer of the song's beginning, only to again explode into some heaving crumbling rhythmic crush, and then slip right back into a hazy dreamlike outro.
"Ringer" offers up a swirl of looped repetitive synth, mesmerizing and cyclical, cinematic and sci-fi, gradually growing more and more distorted and intense, until some of the sounds coalesce into beats, and the track becomes a supercharged synth heavy sci-fi blowout that wouldn't sound out of place on a Zombi record, although with a bit more of a techno twist. "Ring Frei" counters the previous track with some low slung synthbass, some skittery skeletal rhythms, streaks of feedback and squealing electronic glitchery, and most importantly some seriously fat fuzzy, murky melodies, a crunchy, buzzy muddy krautjam, propulsive and motorik, almost like some far out Kraftwerk / Suicide / Electronicat hybrid. And finally "Ringfest" finishes things off with some Kompakt style throb and pulse, starting out sleek and late night and minimal, before blossoming into something buzzier and more twisted, with shards of rave-y synth, more of those buzzing throat singing style vox and some squiggly spacey Theremin like melodies. Wow. We really can't stop listening to this, so mesmerizing and psychedelic and hypnotic and tripped out and most definitely a new unanimous aQ fave!
MPEG Stream: "Ring Ring"
MPEG Stream: "Ring"
MPEG Stream: "Ringer"

REUBER Ring (Staubgold) lp 24.00
Even though this is record number FIVE from Reuber (aka Timo Reuber), who is also a member of electronic duo Klangwart, Ring is the very first thing we've heard from him, and it immediately became one of our new favorite records, a dizzying assemblage of loops and samples and textures and effects woven into a series of super varied soundscapes, from hypnotic kosmische krautdrone, to hazy murky pulsing techno flecked electronica, to super frantic spaced out new wave, to murky electronic drone dirge psych rock to woozy minimal sci-fi techno, all of it rhythmic and hypnotic, lush and layered.
Self described as Reuber's "motorbike album", Ring finds Reuber trying to evoke a 'Reuber Principle' using a selection of sounds designed to sound different during each performance, depending on the venue, the audience and of course Reuber himself. All but one of the tracks are created using just two synthesizers, experimenting with rhythm and texture, creating constantly shifting collages of sound, all 'Ring' variations, the first "Ring Ring", the most blissed out of the bunch, a minimal electronic pulse, a slowly shifting melody, a deep buzzing vocal that sounds like Tuvan throat singing, a haunting bit of cinematic kosmische drift that ends way too soon. The upside being that it leads directly into the 17 minute "Ring", which takes the sound of the first track and explodes it into something much more celestial and cosmic, a supernova of sound, all blurred and washed out, hazy and shimmery, underneath which various bits of percussion pulse and pound, a buried rhythm that gradually moves to the fore, and the song transforms into a gorgeously hypnotic tribal psychedelic workout that sounds almost like modern day Boredoms. This tribal churn is laced with strange melodic bits, twisted effects, a roiling swirl of sound, that soon returns to the washed out cosmic shimmer of the song's beginning, only to again explode into some heaving crumbling rhythmic crush, and then slip right back into a hazy dreamlike outro.
"Ringer" offers up a swirl of looped repetitive synth, mesmerizing and cyclical, cinematic and sci-fi, gradually growing more and more distorted and intense, until some of the sounds coalesce into beats, and the track becomes a supercharged synth heavy sci-fi blowout that wouldn't sound out of place on a Zombi record, although with a bit more of a techno twist. "Ring Frei" counters the previous track with some low slung synthbass, some skittery skeletal rhythms, streaks of feedback and squealing electronic glitchery, and most importantly some seriously fat fuzzy, murky melodies, a crunchy, buzzy muddy krautjam, propulsive and motorik, almost like some far out Kraftwerk / Suicide / Electronicat hybrid. And finally "Ringfest" finishes things off with some Kompakt style throb and pulse, starting out sleek and late night and minimal, before blossoming into something buzzier and more twisted, with shards of rave-y synth, more of those buzzing throat singing style vox and some squiggly spacey Theremin like melodies. Wow. We really can't stop listening to this, so mesmerizing and psychedelic and hypnotic and tripped out and most definitely a new unanimous aQ fave!
MPEG Stream: "Ring Ring"
MPEG Stream: "Ring"
MPEG Stream: "Ringer"

REUBER Ruhig Blut (Staubgold) cd 15.98
We made Reuber's Ring a Record Of The Week a little while back, the latest solo record from Timo Reuber, who is one half of the electronic duo Klangwart. Ring was fantastic, super varied, slipping from kosmische dronemusic to pulsing psychedelic techno to spacey new wave. We loved it so much, that many of us got a little obsessed, and decided to dig deeper and check out some of Reuber's other releases. Thus we have this, Reuber's second solo release, from 2001, the title translating to "Stay Cool", the bulk of which is made up of the two part title track, each part about 22 minutes. The first part, definitely in keeping with the album title, is an extended electronic dronescape, shimmery and crystalline, lush yet delicate, warm tones drifting from speaker to speaker, bathed in a hazy glow, meditative and dreamlike, new agey and a little bit krautrocky, soft flurries of notes dissipate into gauzy streaks, bits of electronic glitch and spacey effects surface here and there, like the score for some educational film about interplanetary travel. The sounds eventually coalesce into an almost rhythm, pulsing warmly, wreathed in strange atonal melodies, before quickly blissing out again, and spreading out into a barely there cloud of glistening, tinkling blur.
The second part of the title track is pretty much the opposite, a pulsing metallic buzz like rhythm, skeletal and mechanical, skitters and shuffles, the sounds growing more and more thick and buzzy, distorted and intense, eventually becoming almost Merzbowian, thick and corrosive, yet still somehow warm and melodic, a wildly buzzing chunk of hypnotic spaced out rhythm, the timbre constantly shifting too, from dense and layered, to brittle and tinny, finally to fully blown out and in-the-red. All the while managing to sound kosmische and psychedelic, under that coating of crunch and thrum and buzz and glitch.
Finally, the record finishes off with another bit of 'cool'ness, a relatively brief (7+ minutes), of hazy high end shimmer, a warm whirling drift of subtle overtones, slow shifting layers, of blurred melodies and glowing near static thrum, a perfect bit of tranquil mesmer to finish with.
Fantastic stuff, anyone who dug Ring will like this too, and anyone into kosmische drift, and spacey new age kraut drone, who is not averse to a little bit of crunch and buzz, this will definitely hit the spot.
MPEG Stream: "Ruhig Blut A"
MPEG Stream: "Ruhig Blut B"

REUBER Ruhig Blut (Staubgold) lp 14.98
Now on vinyl!!
We made Reuber's Ring a Record Of The Week a little while back, the latest solo record from Timo Reuber, who is one half of the electronic duo Klangwart. Ring was fantastic, super varied, slipping from kosmische dronemusic to pulsing psychedelic techno to spacey new wave. We loved it so much, that many of us got a little obsessed, and decided to dig deeper and check out some of Reuber's other releases. Thus we have this, Reuber's second solo release, from 2001, the title translating to "Stay Cool", the bulk of which is made up of the two part title track, each part about 22 minutes. The first part, definitely in keeping with the album title, is an extended electronic dronescape, shimmery and crystalline, lush yet delicate, warm tones drifting from speaker to speaker, bathed in a hazy glow, meditative and dreamlike, new agey and a little bit krautrocky, soft flurries of notes dissipate into gauzy streaks, bits of electronic glitch and spacey effects surface here and there, like the score for some educational film about interplanetary travel. The sounds eventually coalesce into an almost rhythm, pulsing warmly, wreathed in strange atonal melodies, before quickly blissing out again, and spreading out into a barely there cloud of glistening, tinkling blur.
The second part of the title track is pretty much the opposite, a pulsing metallic buzz like rhythm, skeletal and mechanical, skitters and shuffles, the sounds growing more and more thick and buzzy, distorted and intense, eventually becoming almost Merzbowian, thick and corrosive, yet still somehow warm and melodic, a wildly buzzing chunk of hypnotic spaced out rhythm, the timbre constantly shifting too, from dense and layered, to brittle and tinny, finally to fully blown out and in-the-red. All the while managing to sound kosmische and psychedelic, under that coating of crunch and thrum and buzz and glitch.
Finally, the record finishes off with another bit of 'cool'ness, a relatively brief (7+ minutes), of hazy high end shimmer, a warm whirling drift of subtle overtones, slow shifting layers, of blurred melodies and glowing near static thrum, a perfect bit of tranquil mesmer to finish with.
Fantastic stuff, anyone who dug Ring will like this too, and anyone into kosmische drift, and spacey new age kraut drone, who is not averse to a little bit of crunch and buzz, this will definitely hit the spot.
MPEG Stream: "Ruhig Blut A"
MPEG Stream: "Ruhig Blut B"

REUBER Sudpol (Staubgold) cd 15.98
And we continue to dig deeper into the catalog of Reuber, aka Timo Reuber, whose most recent, fifth record Ring we made our Record Of The Week not too long ago, and whose other records we've been reviewing one at a time ever since. All different, but all pretty fantastic. This one is record number 4, following Kintopp which we reviewed last list.
Sudpol translates as "South Pole", not entirely sure if there's any meaning, or if there's some South Pole theme running through the record, but like Kintopp, Sudpol seems to simply be a super varied, and totally hypnotic collection of sonic experiments, ranging from propulsive electro krautrock workouts, to droned out fields of glitch and pulse, hazy pop ambient shimmer to super distorted industrial flecked skitter, groovy almost post rock sounding loopage to fuzzy playfully melodic techno-pop, Kraftwerky robotic electronic funk to blissed out sun dappled soundtracky synth wave, culminating in the epic 12 minute dronescape "Steppengraskrieger", with its billows of distant buzz and haunting almost operatic barely there vocals, buried electro beats, sounding as if they're being blasted on the stereo in the apartment next door, lush gauzy streaks of hazy whir and thrum, those buried beats constantly surfacing amidst the swirl and shimmer, until finally, the track transforms completely into a softly slow swirling tangle of looped and warped melodies, strange metallic buzz and soft focus flurries of glimmering tones and muted streaks of smeared sound. So nice. Another winner for sure, and and yet another record that has us wondering why Reuber is not way more of a big dealÉ
MPEG Stream: "Altweiber"
MPEG Stream: "Amundsen"
MPEG Stream: "Dominique-B"

REUBER Sudpol (Staubgold) lp 24.00
And we continue to dig deeper into the catalog of Reuber, aka Timo Reuber, whose most recent, fifth record Ring we made our Record Of The Week not too long ago, and whose other records we've been reviewing one at a time ever since. All different, but all pretty fantastic. This one is record number 4, following Kintopp which we reviewed last list.
Sudpol translates as "South Pole", not entirely sure if there's any meaning, or if there's some South Pole theme running through the record, but like Kintopp, Sudpol seems to simply be a super varied, and totally hypnotic collection of sonic experiments, ranging from propulsive electro krautrock workouts, to droned out fields of glitch and pulse, hazy pop ambient shimmer to super distorted industrial flecked skitter, groovy almost post rock sounding loopage to fuzzy playfully melodic techno-pop, Kraftwerky robotic electronic funk to blissed out sun dappled soundtracky synth wave, culminating in the epic 12 minute dronescape "Steppengraskrieger", with its billows of distant buzz and haunting almost operatic barely there vocals, buried electro beats, sounding as if they're being blasted on the stereo in the apartment next door, lush gauzy streaks of hazy whir and thrum, those buried beats constantly surfacing amidst the swirl and shimmer, until finally, the track transforms completely into a softly slow swirling tangle of looped and warped melodies, strange metallic buzz and soft focus flurries of glimmering tones and muted streaks of smeared sound. So nice. Another winner for sure, and and yet another record that has us wondering why Reuber is not way more of a big dealÉ
MPEG Stream: "Altweiber"
MPEG Stream: "Amundsen"
MPEG Stream: "Dominique-B"

REV, MARTIN s/t (Superior Viaduct) lp 15.98
Martin Rev without Alan Vega (the artist's other half in the mid-'70s minimal electronic punk duo, Suicide) seems like Oates without Hall, maybe even Donny sans Marie. But members of duos often make solo "me" time to try stuff they might not otherwise with their sonic partners, and synthesist Rev has been releasing solo records for most of his tenure with/since Suicide. In fact, we were really impressed with his 2009 Stigmata album. While Vega typically donned a rockabilly hat for most of his solo releases, Rev has tried on more than a few musical caps. This new vinyl reissue of his first solo venture from 1980 is one of his more minimalist efforts - think early Human League experiments like "Being Boiled".
"Baby Oh Baby" is the only one of the lp's six tracks that isn't an instrumental - and even there, the lyrics don't extend beyond what you see right there in the song title. The melody on the opening track, "Mari", carries an optimism you wouldn't associate with the dark and eerie downtown duo, and demonstrates Rev's exploration of other moods. It's so upbeat, you might expect Stephin Merritt's low croon to swoop in any second. The rest of the short album is filled with the synth washes and oscillations Rev basically patented as the vocabulary of the synth wave to come. Any fan in search of synth pop's origins will want to include this classic piece of cold electronic minimalism in their collection.
MPEG Stream: "Mari"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Oh Baby"

REV, MARTIN Stigmata (Blast First Petite) cd 17.98
Somehow this is nothing like what we expected, not sure what we actually expected but this definitely was not at all it. Rev has spent most of his musical life in the seminal group Suicide, creating the iconic musical backdrops for his partner Alan Vega, he's also released tons of solo records over the years, from pop to new wave, we've heard a handful of them, but none of them prepared us for this.
Stigmata is basically soundtrack music, all strings and synths and Rev's dreamy almost Antony like vocals, most of the tracks are short, and establish a musical theme, and then work around it, creating tension, establishing the mood, pizzicato string plucks, soaring stringed melodies, some ominous and haunting, others playful, and still others majestic and epic, all moody and dramatic, while Rev croons and coos, not singing so much as offering up almost falsetto sounding 'whooo's, it sounds strange, but in fact, it's pretty compelling, and moving, and intense. The music sounds classical, or operatic, while the vocals are weirdly distorted and way up in the mix, mostly wordless, as far as we can tell, almost like karaoke opera, which is a lot cooler than it sounds, check out the sound samples, not sure what it is, but we just can't seem to stop listening to this. Be cool to see what Rev could do with an actual score, seems like it might be pretty interesting...
MPEG Stream: "Laudamus"
MPEG Stream: "Te Deum"
MPEG Stream: "Jubilate"
MPEG Stream: "Dona Nobis Pacem"

REV. KRISS HADES The Wind Of Orion (Modern Invasion Music) cd 14.98
This is not really new, but it's one of our favorite freaked out black metal records, and it was reissued last year (originally released in 2002) although we only now managed to get in touch with the label (they also released the Vorak, reviewed elsewhere on this list) but now finally we can list and review, this amazing slab of bizarre blackness.
Those familiar with the Rev. Kriss Hades, probably know him as the guitar player for Aussie black death metallers Sadistik Exekution, who while weird in their own right, are pretty much furious grinding blacknoise, a sort of sloppy psychedelic black mess, awesome by the way, but more simple and fast than freaked out and fucked up. Which is why this first album from Sadistik guitarist Hades is such a mind blower. This is super abstract, noisy, buzzy, outsider experimental black metal, peppered with stretches of black ambience, industrial soundscapes and plenty of whatthefuck heaviness. This record has been described as a mix of Einsturzende Neubauten, Beherit and Pink Floyd, and while the sound here is probably much closer to Beherit than the other two, their are definite moments of tripped out psychedelia and industrial grind and whir.
But from the first song, it's easy to tell this is some freaky mind blowing stuff. Beginning with haunting acoustic guitar, weaving mournful melodies amidst whipping winds, when the band kicks in, instead of launching into blasting blackness, it's more a sort of murky blown out buzz, the guitars super washed out, the riffing just a blackened smear, underpinned by epic swells of super dramatic keyboards, the drums a buried blast, WAY down in the mix, while over the top the vocals are a confusional pile up of grunts and growls, of shrieks and howls, mumbling and singing in tongues, the whole thing smeared and seasick, buzzing abstractly, almost more experimental black ambience than metal, but there are riffs, and drums blasting away, reminiscent of Wold and Velvet Cacoon in some ways. The first track finishes off with more acoustic guitar, this time though draped delicately over muted black riffing.
And the weird thing is, that's about as metal as the record gets, that first track, from then on it gets more and more unhinged, more psychedelic, less riffy and definitely less 'metal', but no less heavy. The next two tracks are reinterpreted Sadistik Exekution tracks, and while we're not that familiar with the originals, these versions definitely twist the originals into new shapes. The first is a blazing black blast of buzz, but beginning with a tripped out psychedelic assemblage of backwards guitars and processed vocals, then the song itself is super convoluted, riffs slipping and sliding everywhere, squiggly leads, a total damaged black psych freakout, while the other is a sort of blissed out ambient Godflesh / Pitchshifter thing, all industrial rhythms, the riffs, way down in the mix and doused in FX, haunting vocals and all manner of swirling shimmer and crumbling drones...
Right after that is the super brief "Luciferion", a super distorted, ultra fuzzed out shred fest, just guitar, buzzing riffs and wild leads, the whole thing blown out and in the red, followed by "Meditation Of The Midnight Candle Practice" an extended soundscape of warped distorted guitars, strangled effects, huge washes of glacial guitardrone, super affected leads, glitched out minimal rhythms buried way down in the mix, drifting lo-fi ambience and super tweaked studio sounds, all woven into a seriously cracked world of black sound. The record finishes off with a creepy haunted house horror movie church organ jam that morphs right at the end into a super thick corrosive deathdronedirge...
A seriously demented slab of damaged psychedelic black buzz. Which obviously means WAY recommended.
The reissue includes a thick booklet with lyrics, photos, an excerpt from an interview with Hades, and lots of Hades' super intense artwork...
MPEG Stream: "Winds Over Orion / Pyramids Of War And The Destruction Of Enemies"
MPEG Stream: "Black Mass Murder (Satanic Version)"
MPEG Stream: "Final Execution (Ouija Version)"

REVELATION ...Yet So Far (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98

REVELATION For The Sake Of No One (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98

REVELATION Frozen Masque (The Miskatonic Foundation) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
UK label Miskatonic, supporters of true underground doom metal, bring us this disc by the semi-legendary Revelation from Maryland (of doom). Featuring Revelation's 'new' line-up, this disc consists of eight demo cuts plus two live tracks circa their 1995 European tour supporting Saint Vitus and Solitude Aeturnus. It comes as a prelude to a brand new fourth album on which this long dormant band is now, at last, at work. To certain doom fanatics, these 'demos' are going to be more thrilling than many proper albums from other bands, such is the regard in which this band is held. If you've never heard Revelation before, expect doom metal (or, alternatively, depressive stoner rock) along the lines of The Obsessed and Place Of Skulls -- heavy, slow, Ozzified.
MPEG Stream: "Within The Answer Lies"

REVELATION Release (Shadow Kingdom) cd 16.98

REVELONS, THE Anthology (Sepia Tone) cd 13.98

REVENANT Topolo (Prele) cd 14.98
Field recordings and the sounds of activated environments (e.g. the crunching of leaves, the tactility of sand, the resonance of an abandoned warehouse, etc.) are the building blocks for the compositions of many a musician championed here at aQuarius. You could look no further than the Jewelled Antler bunch, who marched out in the woods to craft much of their rustic psychedelia crowned with lichen, twigs, birdsong, and rocks. This Revenant project may share the spirited tromps out in the forest and even the revolving door approach found in Jewelled Antler; the but the results end up being quite different. The members of Revenant for this recording were Patrick McGinley (aka Murmer), John Grzinich, Hitoshi Kojo (aka Spiracle), Yannich Dauby, and Olivier Fernaud, all gathered together on the Slovenia-Italy border surrounded by an old growth forest and a few confounded birds. The idea behind Revenant is site-specific acoustic actions, or activated environments with each action being a document of a specific moment in time in a specific location. The five brought minimal equipment, just a few violin bows and a couple of digital recorders, and scrounged around the woods for the rest of their soundmaking devices: leaves, blades of grass, seedpods, heavy stones, etc. The violin bows were employed to atonal use on the first track as these five each took up a particular branch on a particular tree to scrape rasping tones that would even give Tony Conrad the shivers. The following explorations of tactile abrasions, weird gurgles, and gentle swoops enjoy a deliberate pacing; and the concluding track features what must be Hitoshi Kojo chanting in Japanese amidst a chorus of mouth organ drones, which ends up more like an Akio Suzuki meditation.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"
MPEG Stream: "Track 6"

REVENGE Infiltration. Downfall. Death. (Red Stream) cd 12.98

REVENGE Victory.Intolerance.Mastery (Osmose / Red Stream) cd 14.98
There's actually a goodly number of black and/or death metal releases on this week's list, and they wouldn't be here if we didn't like 'em. But if what you're looking for is something that's *really* evil-sounding, shredded, distorted, blackened, and fucked up, well, like they say: dude, Revenge is sweet. (Forget about the best served cold part, though.) Seriously, Canada's Revenge sure as heck here have made one of the noisiest, nastiest black metal records we've heard in a long time. Their second full-length, Victory.Intolerance.Mastery (how's that for an album title?) is, uh, extremely extreme. Utterly so. Roaring, rumbling, raw. Not for those concerned with such sophisticated niceties as polished production, or melody, or even, well, music. Nope, this is purely over-the-top hellish thrashing mayhem. Clattering drums, belching vocals, screaming guitars, all recorded past-the-point-of-pain. Really, we thought that Aufgehoben No Process was the Anaal Nathrakh of noise-rock...but now we think that Revenge are the Aufgehoben No Process of black metal...does that make sense? Truly cult stuff. What else to say? Well, this blasting brutality boasts the, ah, talents of bass warrior Pete Helmcamp (Angelcorpse, Order From Chaos), whom along with the other guy in the band (one J. Read on "bloodhammers" and "actrocity commands") is one of the reasons that our pal Drew from Matmos just came in and bought this disc -- he thinks these guys are cute! Bet that's the only time someone purchases this cd for the cuteness factor. Another selling point: Revenge have such a nice, spikey, negative-space logo.
MPEG Stream: "Destiny Mastery"
MPEG Stream: "Blood Annihilation"

REVEREND BIZARRE Dark World / Deceiver (Primitive Reaction) 7" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We always talk about how something is super limited and sold out and out of print so we won't go into too much detail, but then we invariably do, but not this time. We have less than 10 copies, originally limited to 500, sold out and out of print. Once these are gone it's off to eBay with you.
Two covers, one recorded in 2001, one recorded last year, Saint Vitus' "Dark World" and Judas Priest's "Deceiver", both given a Reverend Bizarre makeover. With vocalist Albert doing his best "Vocal Impersonation" according to the liner notes. His Rob Halford is wildly over the top and pretty amazing. And he already sounded a lot like St. Vitus's Scott Reagers to begin with, as that band such a huge influence on Rev. B.! As always, heavy and doomy, the songs obviously classics, too bad we got so few of these.

REVEREND BIZARRE Death Is Glory... Now (Spikefarm) 2cd 16.98
Along with the post-Reverend Bizarre project we just got in and made our Record Of The Week (Sami "Sir Albert Witchfinder" Hynninen's ultra-doomy The Puritan, you already read about it above, right?), we also were finally able to get some copies of this, a MUST HAVE for all fans of these now defunct Finnish true doom metal legends. In fact, it's so good we would not hesitate to recommend it to any curious persons who have yet to hear ANY Reverend Bizarre. It's not an official "best of", actually this posthumous collection consists of uber rarities from various vinyl split ep's and other obscure sources, but it does still have some of their best stuff on it. And, since Rev. B. had fashioned themselves into one of the best "traditional" doom metal bands around (in part by not being TOO traditional) that means this is one of the best double discs of doom we've heard since, well, the LAST Reverend Bizarre album, the 2cd swansong that was III: So Long Suckers.
There's 15 tracks here, leading off with "Demons Annoying Me" from a long vanished split 12" with Orodruin, which happens to be a NON-boring nearly 18 minute epic, a true masterwork of heedless heaviness, built from raging riffs, distorted noise, and cathartic screams, one of the tracks that transcends this band's obvious influences and definitely deserves pride of place as the first track on this altogether awesome double disc. Other standouts abound, from the anthemic "Blood On Satan's Claw" (boasting some King Diamond-y falsetto in the vocal dep't.), to the brief and bludgeoning "Odinn's Men", to the seemingly Current 93 influenced "Apocalyptic Riders", to the also pretty darn epic eleven and a half minute "From The Void II", complete with slo-mo drum solo...
Then there's all the killer cover songs included here, including two from a long out of print 7" we once stocked: Judas Priest's "Deceiver" and Saint Vitus' "Dark World". As the liner notes put it, it's as if Saint Vitus wrote that song for RB to cover. And while Albert's vocals are quite impressive throughout this entire collection, it's really amazing how well his wildly over the top "impersonation" of Rob Halford comes off on "Deciever", and with Vitus such a huge influence on RB to begin with, it's no surprise that Albert channels Scott Reagers perfectly on "Dark World" (heck he channels Reagers perfectly all the time, check out the track "The Tree Of Suffering" for another very good example). Wow.
RB's music can get pretty trancey, doing a dirgey drone at a creepy crawl, with the likes of the gloomy "Bend" (an unlikely "cover" of a track by Finnish electro artist Mr. Velcro Fastener, by the way, from a split they did!) and a bunch of others bringing in hints of black metal grimnity. But also some tracks are fairly uptempo and succinct, like the '70s Sabbatheque rockin' of "Broken Vows", which any Witchcraft fan is gonna love (it's a Pentagram cover). And if you get at all bothered the Devil in your music (why are you reading this then?), beware the backwards shit going down on "The Gate Of Nanna" (a Beherit cover!) at the end of disc 2, that's Satan worship if we've ever heard it. So cool.
The cd booklet deserves mention as well, they didn't neglect the liner notes that's for sure. There's many pages of text in tiny tiny type discussing the what/when/where/why of each track in great depth.
R.I.P. Reverend Bizarre... and doom on brothers, Doom On!!
MPEG Stream: "Demons Annoying Me"
MPEG Stream: "Dark World"
MPEG Stream: "Broken Vows"