ROYAL TRUX s/t (Drag City) lp 16.98

ROYAL TRUX Twin Infinites (Drag City) cd 14.98

ROYAL TRUX Twin Infinitives (Drag City) 2lp 21.00

ROYKSOPP The Understanding (Astralwerks) cd 17.98
Here's the sophomore release from this Norwegian duo! Whereas their debut Melody A.M. was a relatively downtempo groovy affair, this one immediately comes across as much more pumped and primed for the dancefloor -- but we should add, not at all jarringly so. One dozen ultra sleek Euro-dance productions that mirror all the good looking folks posing with their cocktails. Want some?
MPEG Stream: "49 Percent"
MPEG Stream: "Only This Moment"

RROLAND Reflections On A Past Life As Played On The Roland Synthesizer (American Patchwork) cd 8.98
Local artist Rroland creates videogame soundtrack worthy synth-scapes with Reflections On A Past Life. These fifteen compositions proffer whimsical prog transmitted through some pretty lo-fi production. The single instrument used throughout is indeed a Roland synth. He seems to have a bit of an infatuation with Momus as per some hints on his website, but we won't hold that against him. Bring us more, Rroland!
MPEG Stream: "Frozen River"
MPEG Stream: "The Shame Village"

RST Axes (Last Visible Dog) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More mysterious six string sonic explorations from New Zealand guitar alchemist Andrew Moon, but unlike the last release (the triple cd-r Other Machines) a grinding thick heavy smear of SUNNO))) like low end rumble and Fear Falls Burning-ish smoldering amplified intensity, the sounds on Axes is pretty much exactly the opposite of what you might expect a record called Axes to sound like. Dark, dreamy, tranquil and contemplative. Where other RST releases tended toward the minimal, the static Niblockian drone, the guitar against the amp rumble, Axes features fluttering melodies, chiming harmonics, bits of simple strum. All appropriately nestled amidst distant whirs and soft shimmers.
There are some heavier moments, the ultra brief "The Gate Of The Sun" is a minute plus of corrosive distorted crawl, and "Adrift" is an extended throbbing dirge of amp buzz and guitar distortion, melodies carved out of grinding buzz, beneath a sky filled with streaks of feedback, gorgeous for sure, but also heavy and dark. The rest of the record though, while peppered with bits of guitardrone and crumbling distortion, does definitely tend toward the dreamy, and while we love us some glacial heaviness, we're pretty into the softer side of RST: long drawn out swirls of druggy sound, sounding a bit like a more abstract Spacemen 3 at points, while at others, the sound is delicate and mysterious, a barely there hum, glistening cricket like high end, all wound into tense cinematic ambience. Some tracks explore insectoid ragas, muted buzzing woven into expansive slow shifting soundscapes, others fall in more with the modern free folk, abstract soundscape movement, like the opener, the appropriately titled "Crystalline", a slowed down lullaby of chiming guitars and distant blurred whirs.
All of Axes is gorgeous, even at it's heaviest, the sounds are still imbued with some mysterious beauty, some otherworldly magic...
MPEG Stream: "Crystalline"
MPEG Stream: "Lords Of Space"
MPEG Stream: "L.A.S.E.R."

RST Other Machines (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) 3cd-r 34.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The welcome return of New Zealand minimal drone guitar wrangler Andrew Moon, the man who is RST. We recently managed to get a handful of his amazing Corpus Hermeticum release Warm Planes (sorry, all gone now) direct from the man himself, after years of being out of print, and it reminded us how much we loved and missed his dark abstract guitarscapes.
And what do you know, hot on the heels of that reminder, BAM. A new record. And not just a new record, a new TRIPLE cd-r, which if anything, is essential for the sorts of sounds Moon creates, his expansive worlds of glacial guitar need all the space they can get, the beauty lies in the sounds of the journey, the sound of the guitar unfurling its sonic mysteries. We would have been just as happy with 6 discs, or 12, but we'll make do with three.
Other Machines is three discs, three tracks, each 45 minutes plus, titled "Worlds", "Ages" and "Earth", titles that certainly sound epic and timeless, but which perfectly suit the sounds within. Each track is one looooooong piece. Ultra minimal. A single guitar, allowed to slowly uncoil, to sprawl like some planet swallowing black cloud, the guitar loosing a single note, or maybe a single chord, either way, that sound drifts from the speaker like it could go on forever. And it feels like it does. Or it should. But this is no static drone, no, the guitar is always changing, pulsing and throbbing, shifting and shimmering, floating from downtuned thrum to metallic hum to drifting high end whir and back again. Always muted and minimal, not heavy so much as intense and dense. A strangely cyclic and mesmerizing expanse of never ending guitar buzz.
We could listen to this stuff nonstop (and some of us do!). You like SUNNO))), Fear Falls Burning, Phill Niblock, Vulture Club, you definitely need to hear RST. Epic, intense, super minimal, strangely melodic, and so totally gorgeous....
MPEG Stream: "Worlds"
MPEG Stream: "Ages"

RST R136a (Ecstatic Peace) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sitting in a pooly ventilated barn behind his house outside of Auckland, New Zealand during one particularly hot winter, Andrew Moon struggled with his guitar to produce these humid noise drones layered with peculiar chord based structures. One of the best albums to come out of 'free noise' school of New Zealand in years!

RST Tomorrow's Void (Utech) cd 16.98
Latest disc of dronemusic from aQ customer and master dronelord Andrew Moon, his first for Utech, and definitely one of his heaviest.
From the opening few seconds, this is some seriously distorter metallic static heaviness, a massive crumbling wall of slow moving fuzz guitar, gorgeously layered so it's not just some guitar-against-the-amp bullshit, no, this is some serious minimal dronemusic, just instead of tones, or sinewaves, Moon has opted for BIG amps and slow glacial chords. The sound pulses and throbs like it was alive, and it sort of is really, with all manner of metallic buzz and grinding shards of feedback drifting beneath and within the humid cloud of warm whirring thickness. Moon is a master of maximizing minimalism, and this track is the perfect example, both understated and pretty, but thick and corrosive and heavy enough that some dronedirgedoom obsessive could get really into it. And it's the sort of sound we can never get enough of, and one that could have stretched the length of the cd and we would have been perfectly pleased.
But there's more to Moon and Tomorrow's Void than just heavy buzz, the second track is much murkier affair, moaning deep tones gradually spread out and grow more and more melodic, even as feedback adds another layer to the proceedings. But 10 minutes later and the guitars come growling back, unfurling an avalanche of crumbling fuzz and blown out minimal anti-metal.
There are 3 or 4 tracks over the remainder of the record that dip into much more muted minimal dronescaping, some offering streaks of high end with their rumbling whirring drift, but the majority of the record is spent with distortion pedals on, filling rooms and speakers and headphones with billowing clouds of warm buzz and ever expanding slow motion guitadrones, each one in its own way powerful and dark, but to our ears trancelike and dreamy, the exact sort of heaviness that has us entranced and drifting off to the other side.
MPEG Stream: "Radiant"
MPEG Stream: "Constellation Drive"
MPEG Stream: "Eternal City Ruins"

RST Warm Planes (Corpus Hermeticum) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not long ago, we discovered that one of our loyal AQ customers just so happened to be the man behind one of our favorite groups, RST, and who released two mind blowing discs, R136a which came out on Ecstatic Peace! and this one, Warm Planes, released on Corpus Hermeticum. After discussing a mutual love of all things Skullflower and Terminal Cheesecake, Mr. RST informed us that he had some new actions planned for the near future and just so happened to have a stash of this WAY out of print disc, which he want to be available again, in anticipation of some upcoming new material. We obviously jumped at the chance and grabbed a whole mess of these, just in case some of you somehow missed out on this the first time around. Whereas the Ecstatic Peace! disc was a dense assemblage of claustrophobic humid distortion, Warm Planes is much more of a drone based disc, downright dreamy at times, an amazing collection of dynamic tectonic guitar-drone rumble, very prescient considering the current love of all things doomdronedirge. And holy shit does this stuff hold up. Dense and thick and viscous, these tracks move at a crawl, slowly and completely engulfing everything it their path, filling your ears with a murky black buzz. Some of the tracks dial back the grrrrr a bit, offering up soft ripples of muted feedback, and shimmering swells of amp buzz, while others are expansive sheets of crystalline shimmer, but the majority, are thick and snarling beasts, steel strings reverberating through big black speakers, and wrapping us up in thick tendrils of guitar growl.
A doomdirgedrone classic, before there even was such a thing. Fans of SUNNO))), Fear Falls Burning, Vulture Club, Earth, you got some catching up to do. Start here...
MPEG Stream: "Black Sand"
MPEG Stream: "Transform"
MPEG Stream: "The Brothers"

RSUNDIN Sleepwalk (Ground Fault) cd 11.98

RTX Transmaniacon (Drag City) cd 14.98
Following her former Royal Trux partner Neil Hagerty's solo path, Jennifer Herrema has fired up the scuzz-rock engines with her new band RTX. Transmaniacon (named after the Blue Oyster Cult song?) is filled with Herrema's distinct ultra distorted, raunchy bad girl goodness. A bit poppier that the Trux were, and it's all pretty rad until she gets her hands on Cher's autotune vocal processor for the sixth song "PB+J". Ugh! Truly the album's low point. Fortunately the novelty of that piece of recording gear has worn off by the next song, and we're back to the RTX slurred rawk party. That is until the very cool and Interpol-y second to last song "Is Red" with her new bandmate Nadav Eisenmann taking over vocal duties, and the final song, the totally fucked-up "Resurrect" that only gets more and more fucked up as it nears its end.
MPEG Stream: "Heavy Gator"
MPEG Stream: "Is Red"

RTX Transmaniacon (Drag City) lp 13.98
Following her former Royal Trux partner Neil Hagerty's solo path, Jennifer Herrema has fired up the scuzz-rock engines with her new band RTX. Transmaniacon (named after the Blue Oyster Cult song?) is filled with Herrema's distinct ultra distorted, raunchy bad girl goodness. A bit poppier that the Trux were, and it's all pretty rad until she gets her hands on Cher's autotune vocal processor for the sixth song "PB+J". Ugh! Truly the album's low point. Fortunately the novelty of that piece of recording gear has worn off by the next song, and we're back to the RTX slurred rawk party. That is until the very cool and Interpol-y second to last song "Is Red" with her new bandmate Nadav Eisenmann taking over vocal duties, and the final song, the totally fucked-up "Resurrect" that only gets more and more fucked up as it nears its end.
MPEG Stream: "Heavy Gator"
MPEG Stream: "Is Red"

RTX Western Xterminator (Drag City) cd 14.98
YES! The follow up to the RTX's totally sick first record, Transmaniacon!!!! This record is the next step in RTX's path to hair metal scuzzy party excellence. The opening track, "Western Exterminator" which is a sort of dusty old Mexican cantina acoustic number, with sweet backwards guitar shreds and flute solos... might be a little unexpected, but by the second track we know what's up. The good time Shreddy Van Halen "Balls To Pass" harkens back to the debut. Filled to the brim with hot lixxxx and killer song writing. Jennifer Herrema's voice is sounding as fucked up as ever, adding a really cool noisy element to all the songs. The lyrics are also perfect. In the third track, "Black Bananas" she sings something about being the Garbage Collector...!!! Fuck yeah. Basically, if you like the first one, and also if you like the Accelerator side of Royal Trux, you're gonna love this record. Its a little bit more metal, especially on the track "Wo-Wo Din"...weird heavy. Uhhh, don't know what else to say...the whole record is killer and we're probably gonna be partying and BBQing to it all summer...poppy, heavy, party, noisy, kinda weird, and PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Balls To Pass"
MPEG Stream: "Wo-Wo Din"

RUBBER O CEMENT High Speed Electronic Cardboard (Toyo / Lincaster) cd + comic 5.98
Following their compilation release with Pink & Brown, The Lowdown and Lozenge (also on Toyo), SF's cardboard and tin foil superheroes Rubber O Cement are back with twenty-three more tracks of comical lo-fi power electronic action. Rumors (which are true, by the way) of a Caroliner member's involvement have been denied, yet the aesthetics in sound as well as artwork prove otherwise. Comes in an oversized screenprinted cardboard package, each with its own random superhero comic enclosed.
RealAudio clip: "Raman Effect On Nucleon Electroscope"

RUBBER O CEMENT Osmolytes (Dolor Del Estamago) cd-r 4.50

RUBE WADDELL Bound For The Gates Of Hell (self-released) cd 11.98
Eccentric Bay Area band Rube Waddell have gone back and remastered their albums so now a whole new bunch of folks can dig these guys' fun and oddball approach to music making! The beloved local trio make great use of the usual rock instruments, but also include more oddball sound making devices such as sousa horn, jaw harp, mahogany and koa wood ukuleles, accordion, glass harmonica, marimba, autoharp, and much more. Rube Waddell's sound is a little bit acousticky punk, a little bit Tom Waitsian drunken carousing, a touch of twangy silliness, and a pinch of gravely blues rowdiness. An SF institution!
MPEG Stream: "Assoi"
MPEG Stream: "Nadie Va Al Cielo"

RUBE WADDELL Greatest Hits (self-released) cd 14.98
The madcap post-modern musical quartet from SF have returned! They bring with them their trademark bulging grab bag of homespun instruments and styles such as zydeco, vaudeville, exotica, swing jazz, Appalachian folk, swamp blues... the list is endless. Musically they're often quite reminiscent of the eccentric'n'eclectic Captain Beefheart, Ween and Frank Zappa. Vocally, they possess the disgruntled yet endearing gruffness commonly associated with the likes of Tom Waits. The big picture is usually quite loosey goosey in mood, razor-sharp irreverently witty lyric-wise, but always expertly and imaginatively performed. Really, who can resist a song about one of the Mission District's icons -- the late night saviour of three-sheets-to-the-wind growling bellies, the Tamale Lady!! Note: Greatest Hits is actually an album of all brand new songs, not a best of per se... 'though we guess time will tell if the album's title rings true. Nonetheless, always a wacky good time!
MPEG Stream: "Tamale Lady"
MPEG Stream: "Here's To You"

RUBE WADDELL Hobo Train (Vaccination) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Local darlings who had the balls to play their idiosyncratic brand of jump blues punk twang outside Leeds shoe store on Mission Street. Reissue of their first album with 6 extra tracks (two are previously unreleased!)

RUBE WADDELL Hobo Train (Vaccination) 12" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Rube Waddell's wonderful sound combines Captain Beefheart, later Tom Waits, and Doo Rag. These local boys're playing an instore here this coming Saturday at 4pm. Remember -- they're the band that regularly played outside Leeds shoe store on Mission Street cos there is an electrical outlet available and cos then they could say they played Live At Leeds! From the label that brought you that cool Residents tribute.

RUBIES FEATURING FEIST I Feel Electric (Italians Do It Better) 12" 9.98
It doesn't get much more breezy and subtly seductive then this one sided 12" by Rubies, with their pal Feist lending her sultry voice to the cause. We've been really anxious to hear Rubies, fronted by Simone Rubi who we always loved in her old band Call & Response. Much like her Call & Response cohort Daniel Judd who is now making some of the smartest and most satisfying electronic music around as Sorcerer, Rubies seems to also have a nice dreamy dance vibe going on. A little more subdued and mellow then the rest of the Italians Do It Better camp, this still fits perfectly on this label that's been doing an amazing job of creating a new legion of disco inspired sounds for this generation. While we wish there was another track on the 'b' side, the almost nine minutes of "I Feel Electric" as remixed by TieDye has been hitting the spot for summertime dancin' with glasses overflowing with bubbly, and fresh strawberries in hand. So sweet and flowing.

RUBINHO E MAURO ASSUMPCAO Perfeitamente, Justamente Quando Cheguei (Discos Mariposa) cd 17.98
Discos Mariposa is quickly becoming one of our new favorite reissue labels alongside Japan's EM Records. Last list we told you about the Alceu Valenca & Geraldo Azevedo record we had fallen in love with and this time out there are two more that we can't seem to keep our ears off of. Paulo E Bagunca A Tropa Maldita (reviewed elsewhere on this list) and this record from Rubinho & Maura Assumpcao. Recorded in 1972 and until now a pretty impossible to find rarity, this Rio De Janeiro duo play totally seductive & dreamy bossa-samba-psychedelic pop. With a nod toward California dreamy west-coast introspection and that irresistible laid back sound that folks in Brazil always got so right. The cover picture of the two of them naked peeking out from within the branches of a tree in some enchanted forest gives you a pretty good indication of the sensual sounds contained within. You might remember their song from the Brazilian edition of the Love Peace & Poetry series, but unlike lots of rediscovered lost 'classics' with one or two good songs, this is an album that's perfect from start to finish.
MPEG Stream: "Sozinho Nao Estou"
MPEG Stream: "A Montanha"

RUBY SUNS, THE Sea Lion (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
Before summer starts to fade away we wanted to make sure to list this colorful, breezy, and tastefully eclectic pop album from New Zealand's The Ruby Suns. Packed with songs that are perfect for those long drives on a summer night, they tap into that carefree classy spirit that bands like The Aislers Set used to capture so perfectly. There's also plenty of Beach Boys harmonic glory and hints of soft psychedelia that on many songs finds the 'Suns sounding like the super sweet and cuddly version of Panda Bear.
MPEG Stream: "Oh, Mojave"
MPEG Stream: "There Are Birds"

RUBY THROAT s/t (Sleep Like Wolves) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Swan And The Minotaur (Troubled Man)"
MPEG Stream: "Naked Ruby"
MPEG Stream: "Ventriloquist"

RUBY, JACK Hi Fi (Auralux) cd 17.98

RUCKER, RICCI Fuga (Alpha Pup) cd 12.98
When we first heard this record, we were so blown away, and before we had a chance to dig WAY in, we took to describing it to other folks as the 'free jazz Endtroducing'. Like DJ Shadow's legendary hip hop classic, but here constructed from jazz records instead of funk and soul and psych. But closer listening and a glance at the liner notes revealed that Fuga is so much more, as the process of creating it is almost as interesting as the music itself. The basic framework was constructed by sampling bits and pieces from records, just how you would imagine, but then that framework was presented to musicians who then played the main chords and melodies, improvising and adding and interpreting. Live drums were added, the whole thing tweaked with and arranged, then those sounds were pressed onto vinyl, and the resulting vinyl records are what was finally used to arrange, sequence, scratch and put together the final product (similar to the way Portishead would record themselves, and press vinyl so they could 'scratch' their songs live). The result is a warm, abstract, fuzzy avant garde free jazz record. Or something. While the presence of vinyl and scratching and referencing DJ Shadow would lead you to think this was some sort of hip hop record, it's really not. Maybe in the way it was constructed, but Fuga tends to flip back and forth between scrabbbly, drone-y, dense assemblages of jazzy sound and chaotic plunderphonic free-jazz. The first two tracks pretty much lay the framework for the whole record. The opening track is an abstract ambient soundscape, warm swells of sound underpin clattery percussion, rumbling drones, buzzing synths, all very muted and minimal, an expansive stretch of darkness, peppered with tribal percussion, way-in-the-background fretless bass, eventually the whole thing morphs into a funky jazzy workout, but only briefly, before it fades into a manic percussive shuffle, which perfectly slips into the second track "Harder Than Hard, Softer Than Soft", the first half a seamless collage of drums and nothing but drums. It definitely sounds like a live drummer tearing it up, hard to detect how it was assembled via various slabs of vinyl, eventually it warps into a strangely funky, fuzzy synth workout which again finally slips back into just drums. The rest of the record is a bit like a freaked out version of Don Cherry's Orient, but all chopped up and layered and twisted and smeared into drones, stretched into strange shapes, funky horns, shuffling tribal percussion, chant like vocals, warm washes of organ, groovy vibes, scrabbly guitar, mournful strings and fluttery flutes, all woven deftly into a gorgeously dense and abstract sort of jazz. Wow.
MPEG Stream: "Tension And Release (The Journey To Fuga)"
MPEG Stream: "Harder Than Hard, Softer Than Soft (The Line Between Yin And Yang)"
MPEG Stream: "Too Fresh For Words"

RUDD, ROSWELL Blown Bone (Emanem) cd 19.98

MPEG Stream: "It's Happening"
MPEG Stream: "You Blew It"

RUDD, ROSWELL Roswell Rudd (America) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. For some reason these are incredibly limited, so they've been a bit tough to get, so we're going to list a few at a time as we can get them.
Ahhh, the trombone, not the most common of jazz instruments, but one of the most versatile and powerful, "the voice of God" according to one 19th century composer, and to our ears one of the strangest and coolest. Roswell Rudd may very well be one of the better known masters of the jazz trombone, as well as one of the few white players in the sixties free jazz scene. Having done time with a handful of big jazz names (including Cecil Taylor) this is a reissue of Rudd's first record as a band leader. Featuring Rudd on trombone, John Tchicai on Alto Saxophone, Finn Von Eyben on double bass and Louis Moholo on drums, these five tracks smolder and smoke, it's free, but not chaotic and skronky, instead, the sounds here sort of drift and intertwine, these pieces smolder, dark and brooding, murky and subterranean sounding, the drums are a constant skitter, a dense tangle of impossibly free rhythms, the bass wrapped around the drums like a warm blanket, Rudd's trombone and Tchicai's sax are slippery slithering snakes one moment, then wisps of smoke the next, occasionally turning sharp and jagged, but usually slipping back into the shadows. A dark dreamy blend of marching band music, traditional African music, New Orleans jazz, and random avant free drone clatter and shuffle, with long stretches sounding like they came straight off some lost Avarus or No Neck record. So mysterious and beautiful. HIGHLY recommended. 
Comes in a gorgeous diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet with the original album sleeve notes, new liner notes in french and english as well as a bunch of cool photos. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "Old Stuff"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Smells"

RUDE KID Are U Ready? (No Hats No Hoods) 12" 13.98

RUDIMENTARY PENI Archaic EP (Outer Himalayan Records) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I had this friend in high school named Davey. He was one of my first weird 'punk' friends. He eventually got expelled for distributing a very funny anti-faculty newsletter, and eventually drifted off and disappeared. But one of the first things he did after we met was to was make me a tape, with Red Lorry Yellow Lorry on one side, and Rudimentary Peni on the other. At the time, I remember being a bit underwhelemed since at the time my taste was still definitely safely in the top 40. But eventually Rudimentary Peni would become a favorite (especially after discovering the manaically precise artwork of head Peni Nick Blinko that graced all of their album covers) and open me up to all sorts of metal and punk and crust. So here we are 20 years later, and Rudimentary Peni are still plugging away, as dark and crusty as ever, and maybe even a bit heavier to boot. This 12 track EP is a creepy, claustrophobic missive of fuzzy guitar, hypnotic and repetitive riffing, gloomy atmosphere, pounding rhythms, cryptic and ultra personal lyrics, and of course Blinko's immediately recognizable artwork. Always worth the several years wait between albums. Probably takes Blinko that long to just draw the covers!
MPEG Stream: "One And All"
MPEG Stream: "Suffer"
MPEG Stream: "In Crematorium Flame"

RUDIMENTARY PENI No More Pain (Southern) cd ep 12.98
Let's just start by saying WE LOVE RUDIMENTARY PENI. Easily one of our favorite punk rock groups EVER. Murky and muddy and furious and freaked out. If you somehow don't already own Death Church or Cacophony, you must go try to track them down immediately. Those two records are as near flawless as something fucked up and punk rock and gloomy and demented can actually get without ceasing to be all those things.
Much has been written about Peni frontman Nick Blinko, who has spent most of his adult life in and out of asylums, and who is responsible for the band's super striking album covers, super intricate pen and ink drawings, which must take forever, and could only have been drawn by someone either truly inspired, truly demented or both. And somehow, those drawings perfectly and impossibly reflect the music on the inside. Where the drawings are incredibly detailed and complex to the point of mania, the music is stripped down and repetitive, often with just one or two parts, the vocals often just a few lines repeated over and over.
Listening to No More Pain, the first RP record in almost 4 years, we were struck by how much all of the super raw and stripped down primitive black metal sounds like Rudimentary Peni. Akitsa, Bone Awl, Ancestors, Ildjarn, plenty of D-beat stuff, slow it down to a more garagey punk rock pound and it's uncanny. In fact, the mind boggles at a black metal Peni, imagining these tracks sped up and blackened, wow.
Anyway, this is classic Peni, 10 songs, less than 20 minutes, simple, stomping riff heavy crusty punk, the drums pounding away, the riffs repetitive and mesmerizing, the vocals growled and howled and crooned, the lyrics mantra-like, the songs weirdly catchy too, almost poppy, but just 'off' enough to remain dark and mysterious and intense.
The only true weirdness is a very unexpected cover of Pachelbel's Canon, which to be honest, sounds pretty good, the guitars all warped and twisted, but it almost sounds too happy, but everything is slightly off enough, and just a little bit cracked that is manages to sound just a bit demented, which we can only suppose is the point.
MPEG Stream: "No More Pain"
MPEG Stream: "Eyes Of The Dead"
MPEG Stream: "Prayer For The Unborn"

RUDIMENTARY PENI No More Pain (Southern) 12" 14.98
Let's just start by saying WE LOVE RUDIMENTARY PENI. Easily one of our favorite punk rock groups EVER. Murky and muddy and furious and freaked out. If you somehow don't already own Death Church or Cacophony, you must go try to track them down immediately. Those two records are as near flawless as something fucked up and punk rock and gloomy and demented can actually get without ceasing to be all those things.
Much has been written about Peni frontman Nick Blinko, who has spent most of his adult life in and out of asylums, and who is responsible for the band's super striking album covers, super intricate pen and ink drawings, which must take forever, and could only have been drawn by someone either truly inspired, truly demented or both. And somehow, those drawings perfectly and impossibly reflect the music on the inside. Where the drawings are incredibly detailed and complex to the point of mania, the music is stripped down and repetitive, often with just one or two parts, the vocals often just a few lines repeated over and over.
Listening to No More Pain, the first RP record in almost 4 years, we were struck by how much all of the super raw and stripped down primitive black metal sounds like Rudimentary Peni. Akitsa, Bone Awl, Ancestors, Ildjarn, plenty of D-beat stuff, slow it down to a more garagey punk rock pound and it's uncanny. In fact, the mind boggles at a black metal Peni, imagining these tracks sped up and blackened, wow.
Anyway, this is classic Peni, 10 songs, less than 20 minutes, simple, stomping riff heavy crusty punk, the drums pounding away, the riffs repetitive and mesmerizing, the vocals growled and howled and crooned, the lyrics mantra-like, the songs weirdly catchy too, almost poppy, but just 'off' enough to remain dark and mysterious and intense.
The only true weirdness is a very unexpected cover of Pachelbel's Canon, which to be honest, sounds pretty good, the guitars all warped and twisted, but it almost sounds too happy, but everything is slightly off enough, and just a little bit cracked that is manages to sound just a bit demented, which we can only suppose is the point.
MPEG Stream: "No More Pain"
MPEG Stream: "Eyes Of The Dead"
MPEG Stream: "Prayer For The Unborn"

RUFF RYDERS Ryde Or Die Vol. 3, In The 'R' We Trust (Interscope) cd 17.98
People have been giving me an enormous amount of grief about my love of top 40 MTV hip hop and my disdain for most underground shit (read: most, not ALL), but I could care less. Until all those playas can spit out stuff this good, beats this sick, rhymes this funny and smooth, then I'll stick with my DMX's and Jay-Z's. This is big beat, MTV, bumpin' ride, dirty south (sort of), hands in the air, boomin' system, top 40, anthemic hip hop. Fuck the underground. Catchy and funky and funny and totally great. The Ruff Ryders third time around are DMX, Eve, Bubba Sparxx, Petey Pablo, Judakiss, Drag-on, Fiend, the L.O.X., Ludacris, Timbaland and more!
RealAudio clip: "They Ain't Ready"
RealAudio clip: "Dirrty"
RealAudio clip: "U, Me + She"

RUFUS ZUPHALL Phallobst (Long Hair) cd 21.00

RUFUS ZUPHALL Weiss Der... (Long Hair) cd 22.00

RUHR HUNTER Moss & Memory (Glass Throat) cd 12.98
This is the latest disc of dark ritualistic drone music from Ruhr Hunter, aka Chet Scott, the man who runs the Glass Throat label, who in the past have brought us amazing music from Beneath The Lake And Elemental Chrysalis as well as his own Ruhr Hunter. A handful of copies of this disc (made for friends of the band only) came packaged in a box filled with ocean stones, dirt, pebbles, crow feathers, mink bones & teeth, insects, branches & White Birch bark collected from the forests of Maine, a box of death, and earth, sky and water, transition and rebirth, symbols for the musical world of Ruhr Hunter. Sounds born of nature. A true forest folk music, dark ritualistic soundscapes, primal, tribal, shamanic. Lovely and dreamlike. The sound of wind in leaves, the sound of rain falling through trees, rendered in swirls of acoustic guitar, distant shimmering drones, hushed whispered vocals, as well as actual sounds of the wild, animals, and nature, woven into Ruhr Hunter's dense sonic tapestry. A moody and melancholy missive from the heart of a dark forest, a mysterious figure cloaked in a constantly shifting swirl of low end rumble, sits before a black cauldron suspended above a crackling fire, shadows dance wildly on the canopy above, into the pot the figure places a Jewelled Antler, a Dead Raven, blades of grass, a handful of Lichens, a pine cone and a Wooden Wand, a glorious sound drifts from the murky brew, like tendrils of smoke, drifting heavenward, tangled up in the branches overhead, shifting amongst the shadows, filling our ears with a soft warm otherworldly fire.
As with everything on Glass Throat, breathtaking packaging. An oversized brown textured six panel sleeve with the text and imagery embossed in a darker brown, the cover, the instantly recognizable Ruhr Hunter raven talon logo. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "Antlers In The Fog, To Will The Spirit Of Transit"
MPEG Stream: "An Owl's Gift"

RUHR HUNTER Torn of This (Glass Throat Recordings) cd 11.98
Chet Scott's dark ambient project Ruhr Hunter takes its name from the case studies of a German serial killer from the 1950s named Joachim Kroll who had been dubbed the "Ruhr Hunter" by the local authorities due to a concentration of his crimes taking place along the Ruhr River. Such fascinations with transgressive themes and Scott's calls for human cleansing (even if it may be metaphoric) lend themselves for placing Ruhr Hunter in the true-crime pulp elements of industrial culture as well as a giving him the obvious crossover appeal with black metal mythology. Yet, this does little to embody the rich instrumentation that Scott puts into Ruhr Hunter, as those gaping Lustmordian drones so common within the dark ambient oeuvre are matched with smatterings of extended song fragments with acoustic guitars, ghostly harmonicas, tubular bells, delicate piano melodies, and a number of handcrafted stringed instruments. As good if not better than the atavistic, pseudo-pagan ambient works of Tribes of Neurot.
RealAudio clip: "Wounded By My Own Blade"
RealAudio clip: "The Sower and The Sown"

RUIN Songs Of Reverie And Ruin (Black Hole) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This came out about a year ago but chances are you never saw it--we only managed to get some recently. Ruin (not to be confused with Japan's Ruins, plural) were a Philadelphia hardcore band from the eighties, and this is basically their entire output, on one cd (from master tapes miraculously salvaged from a sidewalk sale!). Way ahead of their time, Ruin mixed the hc mosh parts up with psychedelic rock (they do an amazing cover of "White Rabbit") and eastern mysticism (they all were Buddhists). In addition to Jefferson Airplane, the disc also includes covers of the Rolling Stones, and a couple Leonard Cohen tunes, along with classic Ruin originals "Alter", "Proof", and many others. Highly recommended.

RUIN, JULIE s/t (Kill Rock Stars) cd 14.98
Kathleen Hanna, former member of now defunct Bikini Kill breaks out with her own solo album, wherein she makes all the music and vocals. New to her sound is an emphasis on loops and manufactured beats.

RUINS 1986-1992 (Skin Graft) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Aquarius customers probably know this band already, the famed hardcore progrock bass/drum duo from Tokyo led by drummer extraordinare Tatsuya Yoshida. They're big favorites of several AQ-staffers, being one of Allan and Jeff's favorite bands ever! Super tight, technical playing, bass-heavy riffing, weird, nonsense vocals, impossibly complex *and* catchy songwriting... They are inspired by '70s prog bands, Magma especially, but take things to a much more intense, energetic, insane level than any band back then.
This new Skin Graft cd collects (as its title suggests) tracks from the first six years of the Ruins career, which, as great as the Ruins still are today, may have been their best era. There's the happy, hectic (Hella-like, to reference another two-piece we've recently raved about) really early stuff from when Hideki Kawamoto was the Ruins' bassist, and then more massive, majestic material from later on with bassist Kazuyoshi Kimoto and then Ryuichi Masuda (yep, Yoshida is currently playing with bassist number four). About half of these tracks are from long-out-of-print Japanese releases, while (the second) half of the disc pulls from the Ruins' two Shimmy Disc albums, which are also more-or-less out of print as well (the reason we say 'more-or-less' is kinda complicated, ask Allan if you care). And the tracks selected (by Yoshida, who also remixed and remastered 'em) do make for a good "best of" -- we'd have picked many of the same tracks ourselves. (Though Yoshida should have included "Power Shift" from "Burning Stone"! oh well).
Ok, this part of the review is for fellow Ruins fanatics: basically, you don't need this ONLY if you already have the "Burning Stone", "Stonehenge" (the original Shimmy version with the bonus tracks that is), "Ruins III" (aka "Infect"), and "Ruins II & 19 Numbers" cds. Otherwise you definitely need this!! Not to mention, these tracks are remastered, and you probably don't have the track "Cambodia" from the "NG II" comp... And if you've got the rare "Early Works" Ruins cd, don't worry, none of those recordings are on here.
Everybody else -- this is a great collection that we'd highly recommend as a starting place for your Ruins experience, although you'll eventually want to hunt down their out of print cds too, to hear the entire albums. Essentially, essential.
RealAudio clip: "Sanctuary"
RealAudio clip: "Human Being"
RealAudio clip: "Dadaism"
RealAudio clip: "Grubandgo"

RUINS Ales Stenar (Manufactured cR) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The single's title comes from some actual ruins, one of them "stone ships" the Vikings built, so appopriately it's a Swedish 7" import release by AQ-fave Japanese prog-core duo Ruins. Six songs, recorded in '97 and '99 in Tokyo. These are studio recordings, not live. Here's the track listing: Snare, Laiptchig, Dagad, Korromda Deimm, Nivaftopoftz, Jallamjikko. It's all the sort of crazy stuff you'd expect from these guys. Further description is probably unnecessary as this is limited to just 300 copies -- we got a dozen, and that's probably it, so act fast, Ruins fans!

RUINS Baptized In Hell (Negative-Existence) cd 11.98
Not to be confused with Japanese prog duo Ruins, these guys are from Germany, and traffic in classic old school thrashing blackness, channeling the greats like Bathory and Sodom and even Darkthrone. On first listen, we just took Ruins for another bunch of retro thrashers, which technically they are, but we left the record playing, and the more it played, the deeper we got into it, the more obsessed we became. We're not always that into old school thrash, our tastes run more to the black and droney, or the fucked up and frenzied, but there's something about these guys that has all the metalheads around here in a bit of a froth.
The riffs of course destroy, buzzy and crushing, the production massive and in-the-red, the vocals are insane, a glass gargling bile spewing demonic rasp that pretty much seals the deal. Tons of distortion and reverb, the songs simple and stripped down, raw and relentless, it takes all our self control to reign in fits of spontaneous head banging when this disc is playing.
The crazy thing is Ruins is a one man band. We're used to one man bedroom black metal, but listening to this we envision three long haired guys all holding up chains and upside down crosses, scowling at the camera, bullet belts massive spikes, leather jackets, in a graveyard or some forest or something, pretty insane that something this furious and blown out and thrashy is just one guy, but hell, kudos to him.
Not sure what else to say, this rules, total punked up greasy, filthy thrashy blackened metal genius, give the sound samples a few listens, once you're hooked, you'll be hard pressed to pry this thing out of your cd player.
Includes Ruins' first two demos, from 2006 and 2007, as well as a bunch of previously unreleased bonus tracks.
METAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Bloodstorms Of Hell"
MPEG Stream: "Blasphemy Reigns"
MPEG Stream: "Castle Of Nocturnal Evil"
MPEG Stream: "Total Perversion"

RUINS Burning Stone (Shimmy Disc) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Allan's favorite album ever? Yes, also this one.

RUINS Hydromastgroningem (Tzadik) cd only 16.98
Japanese duo on John Zorn's domestic label.

RUINS Live In Guang Zhou - China (Noise Asia / Sonic Factory) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yo, all fans of spazzed-out mathrock madness! Here's drummer/vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida and bassist/vocalist Sasaki Hisashi (joined by local guest vocalist Wong Lei on the one final improvisational track) captured live in full, frantic action on August 13th, 2000, and released on Hong Kong label Noise Asia which has also recently graced us with discs by Otomo Yoshihide and the Keiji Haino/Tatsuya Yoshida duo. The 19 tracks here mostly draw from Ruins' most recent albums, with nine songs from "Pallaschtom" and two from "Vrresto". Plus, there's a few new and/or impromptu tunes (with titles like "I Ate Yu Bing This Morning" and "Eating 7 Kinds Of Chang Fen Was Too Much") as well as some old favorites like "Hyderomastogroningem" and "Del Fanci Kant". Oh, and of course this also features their now obligatory insane progressive rock and classical music medleys (which are fun, but I always wonder if it's pandering for a band with Ruins' accomplishments to resort to what is basically gimmickery...what the hell though, such jaw-dropping entertainment can't be argued with). Nicely recorded, "Live In Guang Zhou - China" is a fine addition to the vast Ruins discography. We can't say it's essential (being their second -- or third, if you count the Enterruption cassette -- live record within less than two years) but it's darn good, and both fans and novices alike will find it suitably mind-boggling. If you ARE a novice, look elsewhere on our website for more info about Ruins, Japan's drum/bass heavy progcore dervishes.
RealAudio clip: "Shi Zai Guang Zhou"
RealAudio clip: "Gharaviss Perrdoh"

RUINS Mandala 2000: Live At Kichijoji Mandala II (Tzadik) cd 16.98
If you've never been fortunate enough to see these marvels of Japanese musical technology perform in person, you'll be extra blown away by this new live document. The Ruins are a super heavy and hyperkinetic bass and drums duo from Tokyo, who over the past fifteen plus years have taken Prog Rock (especially that of their heroes Magma) and twisted it into diamond-hard forms never before imagined, even by the insane. This disc on big Ruins-fan John Zorn's Tzadik label (the Ruins played a role in the genesis of Zorn's seminal Naked City project, by the way) demonstrates their absolutely inhuman ability and power. Concentrating mostly on material from their recent albums ("Pallaschtom" and "Vrresto", with some stuff from "Hyderomastgroningem" as well) with the current lineup of Ruins mainstay Tatsuya Yoshida (drums) and Hisashi Sasaki (bass), they really go for it on the 23 tracks here, recorded live, and excellently, in Tokyo, July 2000. Of note: several encore tracks with special guest Yuji Katsui (of Rovo, Bondage Fruit, Tairikuotoko vs. Sanmyakuonna, etc.) on violin! These include several improvs, and a run-through of Ruins' famed "Hardrock Medley" (nearly 30 classic riffs in 2 and a half minutes!). Ruins also do their "Classical Music Medley" as well, earlier in the set. Mindbogglingly incredible.
RealAudio clip: "Fflihizabmn"
RealAudio clip: "Impro 5"
RealAudio clip: "Quetzalcoatl"
RealAudio clip: "Hardrock Medley"

RUINS Mar - Oct 1997 (Enterruption) cassette only 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A collection of tracks culled from live shows in Japan in 1997. This cassette-only release is 46 minutes long, limited to 100 handnumbered copies, and comes w/a button and one of 6 color postcards featuring photos taken by Ruins dude Tatsuya Yoshida himself. First come, first served.

RUINS March - October 1997 (Enterruption) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ruins fans! Here's a vinyl version of the now out of print cassette previously released by SF label Enterruption. The dynamic drums/bass duo of Tatsuya Yoshida and Sasaki Hisashi kick out the jams live in Japan and France, back in fall 1997. Selected and mixed by Yoshida, there are sixteen cuts, including "Hyderomasgroningem", "Plexus", "Snare", "Pontemcorary Music #1", and their much-loved progressive rock medley. Limited to 500 (there were only 100 of the cassettes).

RUINS Pallaschtom (Sonore) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally available in the States via French label Sonore, is the Ruins record we've been waiting for since last October! For those who don't know, the Ruins are a Japanese duo on bass and drums who since 1985 or so have played a pretty unique form of hyper-kinetic hardcore prog rock with schizoid changes, influenced by weird French progsters Magma -- and themselves influencing stuff like John Zorn's Naked City. Mastermind Tatsuya Yoshida (drums) and his current sidekick Hishashi Sasaki (6-string bass, MIDI) kick out the jams yet again on this, the Ruins' upteenth (15th?) cd. Beware their percussive frenzies, sizzling bass guitar acrobatics, and bizarre vocals (with lyrics in their own improvised language, that seems to mean something to them, even though they don't). With "Pallaschtom" the Ruins have really settled into a tight, mind-bogglingly complex compositional style, that's perhaps not as catchy as some of their past classics, but is still definitely insane and amazing, and incorporates some new, what you might call "post-rock" influences (i.e. there's moments on here that sound more like a Storm & Stress record than your usual Ruins stuff). And, it's also true that they are further in danger of garnering official "novelty act" status, especially with their newfound penchant for cover-song medleys: for instance, this disc ends with a track of 26 classical music themes (well-known tunes by Beethoven, Satie, Musorgsky, Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Vivaldi, etc.) run through in a little over one minute! Exhausting, and entertaining! Novelty act or not, they're still one of our favorite bands.
RealAudio clip: "Guamallapish"
RealAudio clip: "Blimmguass"

RUINS Pallaschtom (Skin Graft) cd 14.98
At last, back in print! This Ruins album from 2000 had been unavailable for a while, but Skin Graft, recognizing the severity of the situation, has stepped in to address that problem. For those who don't know, the Ruins are a Japanese duo on bass and drums who since 1985 or so have played a pretty unique form of hyper-kinetic hardcore prog rock with schizoid changes, influenced by weird French progsters Magma -- and themselves influencing stuff like John Zorn's Naked City. Here's our original review of this, with a few additional notes tacked on at the end:
Mastermind Tatsuya Yoshida (drums) and his current sidekick Hishashi Sasaki (6-string bass, MIDI) kick out the jams yet again on this, the Ruins' upteenth (15th?) cd. Beware their percussive frenzies, sizzling bass guitar acrobatics, and bizarre vocals (with lyrics in their own improvised language, that seems to mean something to them, even though they don't). With "Pallaschtom" the Ruins have really settled into a tight, mind-bogglingly complex compositional style, that's perhaps not as catchy as some of their past classics, but is still definitely insane and amazing, and incorporates some new, what you might call "post-rock" influences (i.e. there's moments on here that sound more like a Storm & Stress record than your usual Ruins stuff). And, it's also true that they are further in danger of garnering official "novelty act" status, especially with their newfound penchant for cover-song medleys: for instance, this disc ends with a track of 26 classical music themes (well-known tunes by Beethoven, Satie, Musorgsky, Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Vivaldi, etc.) run through in a little over one minute! Exhausting, and entertaining! Novelty act or not, they're still one of our favorite bands.
Since then, there's been a few live Ruins albums released and one newer, more multi-dimensional studio disc (Tzomborgha) that we thought was superior to Pallaschtom, though that's not to say that any self respecting Ruins fan should be able to live without Pallaschtom in their collection! Also, Sasaki isn't in the band anymore, either. A further note: this Skin Graft reish adds two more medleys (Hard Rock and Prog Rock) as bonus tracks.
MPEG Stream: "Guamallapish"
MPEG Stream: "Blimmguass"