RUSTED SHUT Rehab (Emperor Jones) cd 13.98
Only in Texas. Any state that can produce the Butthole Surfers, Stickmen With Rayguns, Scratch Acid, and of course George W. Bush, must have something weird going on. The heat? The drugs? Whatever it is, we wouldn't trade it for the world (well except maybe for the Bush part). How Rusted Shut managed to remain so obscure is a mystery for the ages. The horrible grinding noise these guys can muster up out of a plain old rock band is mind boggling. It's downright harrowing listening to this disc. They've been around since 1986 (and part of this disc was released as a cd-r in 2003), but this is their first official release. A massive, pulverizing crush of simple, plodding, gritty, grimy, filthy, scuzzy, dirge-y sludge that is just obscenely heavy and the grinding buzz that permeates and suffocates every second of this disc has to be THE most distorted guitar sound ever. Sounds like the riffs are crumbling to jagged little pieces the second they emerge from the speakers, a Marshall stack and a suitcase full of distortion pedals run through a meat grinder and then flung at you like white hot shards of jagged metal. Like the sickest most doped up, deliriously deviant noise punk free-rock outfit, but all wrapped up in a fuzzy, sick black cloak of grim black metal buzz. Sometimes this sounds like the Buttholes meets the Brainbombs, sometimes like Celtic Frost meets Today Is The Day fronted by Cronos from Venom, sometimes like the Lightning Bolt dipped in hot tar with a heavy metal Captain Beefheart on vocals. So whether Rusted Shut sound to you like black metal, or dirge punk, or sludgecore, or all out noise, pretty sure after getting an earful of this you won't be able to hear much of anything else. At least until the ringing stops and the bleeding lets up a little.
MPEG Stream: "Jesus Christ Inca"
MPEG Stream: "End Is Near (Veranda)"

RUSTED SHUT s/t (Fleece Records) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

RUSTIE Jagz the Smack (Stuff Records) 12" 14.98

RUSTIE Sunburst (Warp) 12" 11.98

RUTH Polaroid / Roman / Photo (Fractal) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another excellent reissue of the work of French experimental / pop musician Thierry MŸller (who we know from the reissues of his pre-Ruth albums under the Ilitch moniker, one of which we recently reviewed). Fast becoming a unanimous staff favorite, Ruth's "Polaroid / Roman / Photo" album was originally released in 1985. Ruth is like the avant garde stepsister of Kraftwerk or Gary Numan, in the form of a ten piece band with horns, violin and spoken female vocals. It's very appropriate that a reissue like this should come along when the '80s electro / art punk revival (Adult., The Faint, Fischerspooner, Erase Errata, etc.) is in full swing, as this captures the essence of dark, subversive dancefloor artiness. The title track is worth the price of admission alone -- a styley synth lead, male and female vocalisations that reek of eroticism and attitude, short staccato horn blasts, a repetitive but groovy-as-fuck rhythm. Another highlight is the inclusion of a gorgeously warped cover of Can's "She Brings The Rain"! In short, this album is very, very good; the music is so solid, perfectly realized, and kick-ass that it sounds immediately "classic" (in that good way where the music is so timeless and instantly appealing you can't tell when it was made but you feel like maybe you heard it before, y'know?)
Remastered with three lengthy bonus cuts from 1982 and 1984 that teeter on more experimental ground, like MŸller's celebrated work as Ilitch, which was more of a dark, droney, experimental prog guitar / synth project.
RealAudio clip: "Polaroid / Roman / Photo"
RealAudio clip: "Polaroid/Roman/Photo (Instrumental First Mix, 1982)"
RealAudio clip: "She Brings The Rain"

RUTH Polaroid / Roman / Photo (Angular ) lp 32.00
This is hands down, one of our most favorite Cold/No/Minimal/Whatever-Wave records ever!!!! And it's received the special 25th Anniversary Deluxe Special Edition lp treatment with transparent red vinyl in a gatefold sleeve that includes a large booklet and download card for the album plus six exclusive bonus tracks of demos and alternate versions. Here is what we said about the long out of print cd reissue:
Another excellent reissue of the work of French experimental / pop musician Thierry MŸller (who we know from the reissues of his pre-Ruth albums under the Ilitch moniker). Fast becoming a unanimous staff favorite, Ruth's "Polaroid / Roman / Photo" album was originally released in 1985. Ruth is like the avant garde stepsister of Kraftwerk or Gary Numan, in the form of a ten piece band with horns, violin and spoken female vocals. It's very appropriate that a reissue like this should come along when the '80s electro / art punk revival (Adult., The Faint, Fischerspooner, Erase Errata, etc. and even more recently Cold Cave, Xero & Oaklander, and Crystal Castles) is in full swing, as this captures the essence of dark, subversive dancefloor artiness. The title track is worth the price of admission alone - a styley synth lead, male and female vocalisations that reek of eroticism and attitude, short staccato horn blasts, a repetitive but groovy-as-fuck rhythm. Another highlight is the inclusion of a gorgeously warped cover of Can's "She Brings The Rain"! In short, this album is very, very good; the music is so solid, perfectly realized, and kick-ass that it sounds immediately "classic" (in that good way where the music is so timeless and instantly appealing you can't tell when it was made but you feel like maybe you heard it before, y'know?). There is not a dud track on this album. Highest Recommendation!!!!

RUTH VELN KISS I Was 21 Yrs Old Now No More (Sometimes / Handwriting) cd 15.98
From the same label that brought is the amazing Starfuckers collection Ordine, and the My Violent Ego ep collection of blissed out shoegaze, comes this strange collection of home recorded 4 track artpunk gloompop noiserock from Paolo Miceli, a one time member of abovementioned shoegazers My Violent Ego, but as the title of this collection makes clear, this stuff was recorded back when he was 21 (circa 1998-2000), channeling the spirit of, as the label suggests, "Distorted Pony, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Christian Death, Unsane and The Cure", which is indeed a motley lot, but does definitely hint at the nineties vibe and twenty something sonic angst on display here. More modern references would most definitely be Total Control, Night Control, Pink Noise, and if RVK were around today, there's a good chance they'd end up on Sacred Bones or Captured Tracks.
The guitars are buzzy and blurry, chugging and churning, sometime warm and washed out, other times super sharp and jagged, the basslines are woozy and wandery, a definitely gloomy Joy Division vibe, the drum machine is buried way down in the mix, more a pulse and pound than a proper rhythm, and the vocals, they're pretty down in the mix as well, a sort of nineties sad boy croon, the songs themselves, slipping easily from crunchy propulsive rockers to more midtempo almost dirges, the production gloriously blown out and in the red, the first few tracks are ultra lo-fi and murky, but somewhere around track 5, something happens, and the guitars get HUGE, the sound is essentially the same, a sort of shoegazey post punk gloom rock, but the guitars are thick slashes of fuzz and buzz, almost Dinosaur Jr style, but more minor key and blurry.
The record drifts all over the place, occasionally slipping into drugged out slo-mo psychedelic drift, or locking into some seriously propulsive chugging hypnorock, or some epic metallic guitarscapery, or even some murky buzzy tangled guitar dirge. But as the record progresses, chronologically we're guessing, the sound seems to shift from angry punky gothy to something more blissed out and poppy, maybe foreshadowing his eventual tenure in My Violent Ego, and as the sound gets glossier, his home studio skills improve markedly, so alongside these hazy dream pop jams, are plenty of twisted sonic experiments, drones and drifts and glimmery guitarscapes, this fuzzy blissed out second half perfectly balancing the low slung dirgey gloomy first half.
30 songs in 58 minutes, a collection of fleeting super short brief blasts of gloomy fuzzpop shoegaze postpunk noiserock, and within all these bursts of buzz and jangle and crunch, lurk plenty of hooks, and loads of melody, RVK displaying a surprisingly sweet pop sensibility, that informs even the least poppy jams here.
Killer stuff, and totally recommended for anyone into loner psych, bedroom post punk or fuzz drenched shoegaze gloom pop...
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Upsidedown Visions"
MPEG Stream: "Shadow Of The Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Dimensions"
MPEG Stream: "I Couldn't See It"
MPEG Stream: "Like A Star"
MPEG Stream: "I Want A Stone"

RUTHERFORD, PAUL / PHILIPP WACHSMANN / BARRY GUY Chapter Two (Emanem) 3cd 40.00

RUTMAN, ROBERT Zuuhh!! Muttie Mum!! (Die Stadt) cd 15.98
In the 70s, Robert Rutman began tinkering around with steel stringed instruments and founded the Steel Cello Ensemble, which specialized in lengthy sonorous drones not far from the bowed metal work of Organum or the delicate sound sculptures of Harry Bertoia. "Zuuhh!! Muttie Mum!!" is a collection of 1998 recordings that featured Rutman, Rudi Mose (of Einsturzende Neubauten and Die Haut), Matthias Bauer, and Carsten Tiedemann. Rutman's steel instruments have a surprising dynamism that can achieve spindly gossamer textures as well as earth moving bass resonances. Excellent stuff.

RUTS DC MEETS MAD PROFESSOR Rhythm Collision Vol. 1 (Echo Beach) cd 10.98

RUTS DC VS. MAD PROFESSOR VS. ZION TRAIN Rhythm Collision Volume 1 & Remix Versions (Select Cuts) 2cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's one that may appeal to those interested in the recent post punk reissues such as The Pop Group, A Certain Ratio, the In The Beginning compilation, etc. From the same label that put out the 'Select Cuts From Blood & Fire' compilations comes a reissue of London's Ruts DC. Originally known as Ruts, the group added the additional initials after losing their front man Malcolm Owen to a heroin overdose. The remaining members of the group restructured their sound, modelling it much closer to the reggae and dub that had informed their rock foundation. After the unsuccessful 1981 release 'Animal Now', the group hooked up with Mad Professor at his newly constructed Ariwa Studio the following year and hammered out the 8 tracks for 'Rhythm Collision'. Although they couldn't claim to be the first of the "second wave" of punk groups to cite dub as an influence, they certainly took reggae music to heart and the overall sound of 'Rhythm Collision' is perhaps the most identifiably "reggae" of any to come out of the London scene. Combined with Mad Professor's technical wizardry the album was impressive in its ability to absorb the aesthetics of dub while avoiding being merely Jamaican imitators. Depending on one's prior familiarity with the album the indelible eighties production stamp on these tracks can be an obstacle, as can the occasional harmonica solos and cheesy vocals. But thank the heavens their bassist avoids the funky / slap bass urge on all but one track. It's really not as bad as all that, sounding at times a lot like what Tones On Tail did years later. As a bonus to the original tracks from 'Rhythm Collision' are five bonus remixes courtesy of Mad Professor. AND, on top of the original album and the Mad Professor remixes, there's an additional disc of remixes by Zion Train which were executed at Ariwa in 1998 on Mad Professor's now antique, or classic, gear.
RealAudio clip: "Militant"
RealAudio clip: "Weak Heart Dub"

RUTS DC VS. MAD PROFESSOR VS. ZION TRAIN Rhythm Collision Volume 1 & Remix Versions (Select Cuts) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's one that may appeal to those interested in the recent post punk reissues such as The Pop Group, A Certain Ratio, the In The Beginning compilation, etc. From the same label that put out the 'Select Cuts From Blood & Fire' compilations comes a reissue of London's Ruts DC. Originally known as Ruts, the group added the additional initials after losing their front man Malcolm Owen to a heroin overdose. The remaining members of the group restructured their sound, modelling it much closer to the reggae and dub that had informed their rock foundation. After the unsuccessful 1981 release 'Animal Now', the group hooked up with Mad Professor at his newly constructed Ariwa Studio the following year and hammered out the 8 tracks for 'Rhythm Collision'. Although they couldn't claim to be the first of the "second wave" of punk groups to cite dub as an influence, they certainly took reggae music to heart and the overall sound of 'Rhythm Collision' is perhaps the most identifiably "reggae" of any to come out of the London scene. Combined with Mad Professor's technical wizardry the album was impressive in its ability to absorb the aesthetics of dub while avoiding being merely Jamaican imitators. Depending on one's prior familiarity with the album the indelible eighties production stamp on these tracks can be an obstacle, as can the occasional harmonica solos and cheesy vocals. But thank the heavens their bassist avoids the funky / slap bass urge on all but one track. It's really not as bad as all that, sounding at times a lot like what Tones On Tail did years later. As a bonus to the original tracks from 'Rhythm Collision' are five bonus remixes courtesy of Mad Professor. AND, on top of the original album and the Mad Professor remixes, there's an additional disc of remixes by Zion Train which were executed at Ariwa in 1998 on Mad Professor's now antique, or classic, gear. NOTE: LP version lacks the Mad Professor bonus mixes.

RUTTMANN, WALTER Weekend Remixed (Intermedia / Strunz) cd 15.98
Thankfully, the original version of Walter Ruttmann's "Weekend" is presented here in its entirety, or else there would be relatively little context for the remixes from DJ Spooky, Mick Harris, Ernst Horn, John Oswald, To Rococo Rot, and Klaus Buhlert. "Weekend" was released a few years back on musique concrete label Metamkine's "Cinema For The Ear" series (which also included work from Luc Ferrari, Ralf Wehowski, Bernhard Gunter). Ruttmann's fractured cut 'n' paste collage of street sounds, rhythmic tappings, musical scales, and political speeches were years ahead of the musique concrete techniques of Pierre Schaeffer/Pierre Henry. Composed on an optical sound film using the so-called tri-ergon technique, "Weekend" was presented as a radically innovative radio piece, but was only broadcast once. This definitely remains one of those historical artifacts that is still fascinating to listen to.
And with the exception of the Mick Harris remix (which illogically includes his usual drum machine plod), the remainder of the disc presents some downright decent reinterpretations of the Ruttmann piece.

RV PAINTINGS Samoa Highway (The Helen Scarsdale Agency) lp 15.98
Two brothers from Humboldt County are RV Paintings - one is Brian Pyle, whose name should probably strike a chord as one of the principals in Starving Weirdos and recently has been generating some impressive work under his solo Ensemble Economique moniker; the other is Jon Pyle, who occasionally makes a guest appearance in the Weirdos but also operates in Nudge with Honey Owens, Paul Dickow, and Brian Foote. For all of the method acting from the brothers Pyle in getting stoned and jamming, they have been remarkably consistent and consistently good in all of their ruminations, with RV Paintings probably the best that they've mustered. The RV Paintings debut on Root Strata is three years out but is still a timeless, gorgeous dronesmear of bowed metals and elongated guitar; this was followed by a well-suited split with Taiga Remains on Blackest Rainbow, and now, they've got this stunner on Helen Scarsdale.
RV Paintings speak about, to, and from their own immediate surroundings: the moss, mushrooms, and mycelium of the awe-inspiring redwood forests, the heavy fog that hangs at the coast and from their bongs, and the weightiness of the Pacific Ocean just off to the west. The title Samoa Highway gives the impression that the two brothers were on their own trip during a cold, wintery day, gazing off to the southwest and pondering the warmer climate of American Samoa. But no, the Samoa Highway is located in Humboldt County, connecting Eureka with the small community of Samoa on the other side of the bay which was thought to resemble that of Pago Pago in the mid-19th Century. It's also the bridge that would get you to the Arcata/Eureka Airport.
So, the album begins with field recordings of airplanes lifting off on the jawdropping track "Millions," as sitar-like harmonics and ghostly, levitating drones emanate from the distance. It's a perfectly narcotized smear of echo and drift, hanging in space as the remnants of a particularly lucid dream or the foggy headspace from an afternoon of smoking pot and staring at the sun. This is a track that could spiral onward forever. So nice! Samoa Highway continues with "Mirrors" driven by melancholy looped melody from a cello that dissolves into a flurry of shimmered guitar fuzz, whose shoegazed mantra has been submerged under centuries of felled trees and lichens. Cyclical patterns of samples from dark yet pastoral orchestral passages rounds out the album. If it weren't for the delicate freeform clamor of the drumkit, tracks such as this wouldn't be that far removed from the 'pop ambient' cuts by Gas. Citations of Taj Mahal Travellers, Organum, Grouper, Barn Owl, and The Caretaker certainly hit the mark. Music for airports? More like Music for California airports! Fuck yeah!
And a download coupon is tucked within the sleeve as well!
MPEG Stream: "Millions"
MPEG Stream: "Mirrors"
MPEG Stream: "As Far As We Could See"

RV PAINTINGS Trinity Rivers (Root Strata) cd 12.98
The legend beneath the liner notes inside this disc from Starving Weirdos offshoot RV Paintings reads "Jam Nature!!!" Not sure whether it's a command or a description of their process, but just like the music they make, those words could just as easily come from the twisted musical minds of the Jewelled Antler Collective. Which is not all that surprising really. When we first heard the Starving Weirdos, what struck us was their deft blend of abstract found sounds, and improvised noisemaking. Anyone can sit on the floor with a bunch of instruments and fuck around, but only a handful can make magic.
This trio does just that on Trinity Rivers, utilizing the usual array of sound making devices, but incorporating some less likely devices as well, including most notable glasses and "fog-like layers". And it's those two elements that go the farthest in defining the unique sound of Trinity Rivers. The singing sounds of rubbed glass, make everything glisten and sparkle, a breathtakingly delicate shimmer that spreads out over the proceedings like the morning sun peaking over the tops of the trees. Beneath it, plenty of drones and whirs float and drift, as well as dense little flurries of rhythmic tangle. But no matter where the 'Paintings take their sound, it always seems to return to the tranquil drift and shimmer of the glass. The second track begins with a bang, a huge dense cloud of insect like buzz and intertwined with dizzying loops and hiccuping pulses, a swirling sonic chaos with a soft melodic center, barely audible through the buzz and fuzz, but by the end it's drifted back to the glassy glimmer of the first track.
The final track also starts out intense, with strange rhythmic guitar and deep droning swells, before fading into a bleary eyed foggy ambience, the sounds of gulls and lapping waves, hovering beneath wispy clouds of chimes and peals of high end skree, before gradually devolving into a slow fading stretch of hypnotic hand drums.
Released on Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's (of Tarentel) Root Strata label, packaged in a gorgeous black and silver metallic cardstock sleeve with a printed insert.
MPEG Stream: "South Fork Trinity"
MPEG Stream: "Mad River"

RWAKE If You Walk Before You Crawl (At A Loss) cd 12.98

RWAKE Rest (Relapse) cd 15.98
For some strange reason, we've never reviewed or listed any records by Arkansas sludge/doom outfit Rwake, which is crazy, cuz the heavy music obsessives around aQ have loved these guys for ages, this is after all their FIFTH full length! And like many of their metallic brethren, their sound has changed quite a bit in the last decade plus, but unlike many of those same bands, these guys didn't just decide to add some 'post' to their metal cuz everyone else was doing it, even way back when, Rwake were augmenting their metallic crush with weird samples and lots of sonic experimentation, and musically, they made no secret of their love of prog and bluegrass and classic metal, elements of those genres finding their way into most of the group's records, including this new one, which sonically is a logical continuation of their Relapse debut, 2007's Voices Of Omens, and in those 4 years, if anything, the band have crafted what has to be one of the most ambitious and progressive post metal records we've heard.
The record opens with what sounds like some sort of homage to Comus, all witchy acid folk, dreamy female vocals and fluttery flutes over sinister steel string guitar, swooping backwards effects and swirling low end drones, which leads right into the record's first epic, the nearly 12 minute long "It Was Beautiful But Now It's Sour", which opens all Neur-Isis-y, doomy and dirgey, but topped with some classic metal leads, and some bizarre vocals, which took us a while to realize they were actually backwards, flipping forward suddenly, the band locking into some classic metal riffage, before exploding into a pounding epic post metal blow out, the vocals anguished and howled but still melodic, seemingly having ditched the dueling high / low vocals from past records for the most part, which makes a big difference in the musicality of the sound. Suddenly the heavy churning guitars are joined by some cool sitar like buzz, giving the song an Eastern vibe, before lurching into a wild mathy bit of progged out heaviness, only to slip right back into it, eventually working their way to a meandering bit of acid fried psychedelia fused with a more melodic classic doom, which slips back and forth between that churning crush, and woozy minor key, tribal drum heavy psych metal. And that's just the first song, there are 3 more long ones, the shortest 8:45, the longest 16:07, the sound so heavy and psychedelic and completely catchy, the sort of metal that is rarely this hooky and anthemic, classic metal bits all tangled up with modern post metal weirdness, some serious poppiness tempering some unbelievable heaviness. Metal record of the year contender for sure. And we're guessing anyone into epic post metal heaviness (a la Minsk, Conifer, Isis, Tides, Pelican, Mouth Of the Architect, Rosetta, Indian, Angel Eyes, etc.) will agree.
MPEG Stream: "It Was Beautiful But Now It's Sour"
MPEG Stream: "An Invisible Thread"
MPEG Stream: "The Culling"

RWAKE Voices Of Omens (Relapse) cd 12.98

MPEG Stream: "Crooked Rivers"
MPEG Stream: "Fire And Flight"
MPEG Stream: "The Finality"

RXRY Alpha (Sweat Lodge) lp 21.00
We really didn't know what to expect from these guys (this guy), just what we read on various music blogs. This was one of those records that was getting hyped to high heaven, which definitely has us wanting to not like it. But damn if if this isn't some seriously gorgeous darkened psychedelic IDM. Yeah, it's dance music, but not the sort of music you'd hear on any proper dancefloor, this is the sort of mysterious electronica that is made to be the soundtracks for mysterious late night drives, strange encounters, dimly lit dives at the top of stainless steel skyscrapers, the sort of dark skitter that leaks from the headphones of darkened figures as they move through the shadows, the sounds at once lush and lovely, but raw and lo-fi, the low end buzzy and glitchy, the beats stuttery and gristly, the sound slipping from almost droned out mesmer, to near ambient shimmer and back again, never fully erupting into full on beat heavy crunch, but there is plenty of crunch nonetheless, the beats sounding like decaying tapes of chirping crickets one second, some sort of rumbling engine the next, while those beats are surrounded by swirls of sci-fi FX flutter and creaking post industrial thrum, the sound blurry and bleary and fantastically tripped out, the sort of electronica they don't really make anymore, and actually come to think of it, never really did.
Fans of the various mutant strains of electronic music would do well to check this out, but even the beat-phobic and dancefloor averse might find much to love in RxRy's twisted electronic underworld.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "3"

RYAN, COLLIE The Hour Is Now (Sebastian Speaks / Yoga) lp 13.98
One of our favorite tracks from The Numero Group's excellent Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies From The Canyon compilation was "Cricket" by Collie Ryan. A hippie devotee of Theosophy, Ryan recorded three lovely private press records in the early seventies that featured her stunning artwork and songs that subtly touched on mystical and Native American themes. Her high-pitch bird-like vocals, sheathed in reverb, and complex guitar arrangements fall heavier on the Linda Perhacs side of the Joni Mitchell coin than say, someone like Judee Sill, who also dealt with mystical themes but was more tied to a commercially viable singer-songwriter scene. The Hour is Now is a vinyl-only "best of" of sorts that combines tracks from all three records (yet mysteriously no "Cricket"...) and will save the less diehard fans from shelling out a couple of hundred dollars for the originals. The analog mastering was even supervised by none other than by J. D. Emmanuel! Beautiful stuff!!!
MPEG Stream: "Cricket"

RYAN, COLLIE The Rainbow Records (Bella Terra / Yoga) 3cd 34.00
It seems with early seventies metaphysical songstress, Collie Ryan, you either get a little or a lot. We first heard her amazing track, "Cricket" on the Numero Group's great Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies of The Canyon compilation. Then at the beginning of the year, we were treated to a vinyl only best of compilation called The Hour Is Now. But now we have the completists dream come true of all three of her self-released records from 1973 (Indian Harvest, The Giving Tree, and Taking Your Turn 'Round The Corner Of Your Day) available on a 3cd set released on compact disc for the first time. 41 songs, phew!!!
Ryan recorded these songs (as well as making the paintings that grace her albums) as a means to further her spiritual investigations as a student of Theosophy. With just her voice, her unique guitar style and some cushioning reverb, Ryan's songbird voice soars through the heavens singing about mystical connections to nature, cycles of change, and thresholds of light. She only recorded these three records before going off the grid and painting hubcaps in the desert for a living. Though she can be compared to Joan Baez, Linda Perhacs and Elyse, Collie Ryan was really out doing her own thing unfettered by musical trends of the time. Three cds may be a lot to take in all at once, but such visionary singers come around so rarely that it's a truly a transcendent experience to be completely absorbed in her blissful cosmology.
MPEG Stream: "Cricket"
MPEG Stream: "High Gulls Flying"
MPEG Stream: "Summer Cat"
MPEG Stream: "Lark Flies"

RYE COALITION Heesawdhuhkaet (Gern Blandsten) cd 10.98
Long awaited full-length of crazy, noisy, quiet, mathy, spazzy...dare I say...emo.

RYE COALITION Heesawdhuhkaet (Gern Blandsten) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Long awaited full-length of crazy, noisy, quiet, mathy, spazzy...dare I say...emo.

RYE COALITION Jersey Girls (Tiger Style) cd ep 12.98
This is high energy 70's, ironic, arena rock, heavily influenced by Kiss, Grandfunk Railroad, MC5, Cheap Trick and especially AC/DC. They have toured with The Fucking Champs and Drunk Horse, which is so appropriete given the tight muscianship, crazy riffin', silly irony, and love of all things 70's rock. Some songs vary from the formentioned style sounding remarkably like the Jesus Lizard, which I didn't like nearly as much, but all in all an energetic and tight lil' record.
RealAudio clip: "Communication Breakdance"
RealAudio clip: "Snow Job"

RYE COALITION On Top (Tiger Style) cd 15.98
It's good to see/hear that Rye Coalition continue to succeed where the seemingly likeminded And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead have recently fallen flat. That is, this NY outfit maintain a consistent level of intensity in their aggressive angry boy rockin'. And they do so increasingly well with solid, heavy drumming, sneering guitar riffing and oh yes, a few "mama"s and "yeah yeah"s thrown in for good measure. Produced by Steve Albini.
RealAudio clip: "Stairway To The Free Bird On The Way..."

RYE/KARP (Troubleman Unlimited) split cd 12.98
This cd contains the Rye debut 7", the Karp/Rye split 12" and an entire live radio performance by Karp.

RYKARDA PARASOL / MISTER LOVELESS split (Round Music) 7" 5.00

RYKARDA PARASOL / MISTER LOVELESS split (Round Music) 7" 5.00

RYOKUCHI Shinsho (S.M.D.) cd ep 14.98
We'd had a couple cd-r releases from Australian math doom trio Fire Witch, so we were super psyched to discover they had an actual cd that came out on a label in Japan, when we finally got the cd, we discovered it was a split with a band we had never heard called Ryokuchi. All it took was one listen to convince us that we loved 'em and needed to hear more!!! So while this is not a full length proper, it is a brand new record from this Japanese bass and drums duo, one thirty minute track, dense with all manner of low end riffing, blown out distortion and convoluted arrangements, mathy breakdowns, melodic drift and dark ambient shimmer. Ryokuchi call what they doÊ"Experimental doom tribal hard core" and that's pretty much what it sounds like.
The track begins as an atmospheric post rock jam, with blooping reverbed bass, and mathy percussion, sounding not unlike a more drum heavy Three Mile Pilot,Ê but a few minutes in, the distortion pedals kick in and the band lurches into a crazed doomic plod, heavy and chugging, loping and swaying, gradually slowing down to an almost full stop, before bursting back into action, with a bit of complex mathy Ruins-y prog. For the next 10+ minutes these guys wildly careen from dense proggy rhythmic tangles, to huge slabs of slow shifting doom, to blissy stretches of moody slowcore, occasionally peppered with super distorted vocals buried in the mix, everything recorded super hot and in the red, before finally, with about ten minutes to go, the band pulls back, revealing an ominous dronescape behind the curtain, cymbals sizzle and shimmer, low end rumbles sway back and forth, muted melodies drift intermittently amidst the strange bass heavy landscape, when suddenly and dramatically, the band crash back in, and we're off, a pummeling slow motion downtuned doom drenched sludge, plowing along endlessly, interrupted by brief spurts of splattery spastic prog, before terminating in a huge squall of wild drumming and explosive bass feedback.Ê
Phew. So intense and so amazing. Think the Ruins covering Corrupted, or a doom metal Three Mile Pilot. Or just drums and bass and distortion and doom raining from the sky like some lesser known plague...
Packaged in a cool cd-sized DVD-style plastic case, with a full color, two sided cover, and a little mini full color booklet inside that folds out into a mini-poster and hides a sticker inside.
MPEG Stream: "Shinsho (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Shinsho (excerpt 2)"

RYOKUCHI & FIRE WITCH split (S.M.D.) cd 16.98
Aussie noise rockers the Grey Daturas had been telling us forever about some killer band called Fire Witch, who they played with all the time. It took forever, but we finally managed to get a bunch of copies of their Critter / Kritta 3" cd-r, which of course sold like crazy and was gone before we knew it. We stayed in touch with the band, but had been unable to get anything else until now. The strange thing is we had to go all the way to Japan to get this, a split with Japanese duo Ryokuchi...
It was well worth the wait though. Fire Witch are another band who traffic in the slooooooooow and heavy, but they definitely give it their own twist. Not sludgy like SUNNO))) or their legions of followers, and not really noisy like many of their countrymen. Instead they're some sort of strange downtuned slowcore mathrock. Massive basses (that's right. no guitars!) churn and throb, the drums a crushing pound, over the top, drawn out wailing 'leads', all the makings of a proper rock band, but instead they fuck it all up, gloriously, lurching forward only to pause briefly, allowing the silence and bits of room sound to seep in, before launching back into downtuned action. And they go on like that for ages, never attaining any momentum, instead engaging is some crowd baiting bit of stop start torture, and we love it. A slow motion wall of psych bass thrum and slow shuffling drums.
Here and there, the band reels it in, allowing the drummer to just wander, while the basses squiggle and oscillate, a dizzying warbly soundscape of tangled melodies and sea sick shimmer. They finish off with the brilliantly titled "I Spilled A Lot Of Blood To Get This Meal", a lengthy chunk of abstract soundscaping, reverberating metal, soft swells of feedback, lazy basslines, drifting harmonics, shuffling rhythms, eventually bursting into a dense doomy plod, but laced with all sorts of killer melodies, making it sound like a doomed version of June Of 44 or Engine Kid.
Fire Witch are teamed up here with Ryokuchi, a Japanese duo (what is it with Japan and duos?), also just bass and percussion, who offer up an ultra dense, and relentless onslaught of mathy grinding doom-drenched metallized noise rock. Beginning with strange percussion and fuzzy minimal drones, the band suddenly launches into a massive wall of sludgy pummel, like a more hyper kinetic Eyehategod, or a doom metal Ruins. Relentless and hypnotic, the drums pounding away, the bass a swirling wash of blackened buzz, amidst the chaos duel vocalists howl and shriek. Fuck! And that's just the first track, their second number is way more spread out and sprawling, offering up some stretches of relative tranquility with affected bass and tribal percussion, sounding a bit like a more metal Three Mile Pilot, but the majority of the nearly seventeen minutes is spent furious and chaotic, grinding and crushing, a Tasmanian Devil of sound, going from wild thrashing to slow motion plod and back again in a matter of second. Dense and complex and convoluted and so fucking great!
MPEG Stream: RYOKUCHI "Henjokongo"
MPEG Stream: FIRE WITCH "Villain"

RZA Afro Samurai (OST) (Koch) cd 17.98

MPEG Stream: "Afro Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Afro Instro"
MPEG Stream: "Certified Samurai"
MPEG Stream: "Afro Samurai Theme (First Movement)"

RZA As Bobby Digital In Stereo (Gee Street) cd 17.98
Wu-time! 21 tracks of RZA, exploring his even-larger than life alter ego Bobby Digital. This'll be everywhere, so enough said.

RZA Birth Of A Prince (Sanctuary) cd 16.98

RZA The World According To RZA (Instrumentals) (Think Differently) cd 15.98

RZA AS BOBBY DIGITAL Digital Bullet (Koch) cd 16.98
A few years ago, RZA and the rest of Wu-Tang made a guest appearance on the Upright Citizen's Brigade (the sadly missed show of comic absurdity recently cancelled by Comedy Central in favor of BattleBots... bad move, Comedy Central), lambasting Trotter - the cyborg who always denied being a cyborg - for being too analogue. While RZA's amusing wordplay certainly fit into a strange UCB running joke about the plausibility of Trotter's claim of not being a cyborg, it is just another instance of his personal vernacular of 'digital' trumping 'analogue' and 'old skool' as the arena of superiority in the megalomaniacal world of hip hop. Digital technology - and not the jazz / soul / funk 70s revivalism - is of course the method of production for RZA. But his sound has never been terribly progressive, especially in light of Timbaland or electronica's digital fuckers Kid 606 and Lesser. Instead, RZA's production sounds a lot more like the stripped down skeletal funk of Sensational (just a mechanical breakbeat, a supple bassline, and the barest of melody). RZA's vocal delivery is a constant ramble that doesn't really break into rhyme or verse or harmony, it just rambles on and on... yet somehow there is a strange sadness to the whole conconction. The verdict is still out on this one.
RealAudio clip: "Show u Love"

RZA AS BOBBY DIGITAL Digital Bullet (Koch) 2lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A few years ago, RZA and the rest of Wu-Tang made a guest appearance on the Upright Citizen's Brigade (the sadly missed show of comic absurdity recently cancelled by Comedy Central in favor of BattleBots... bad move, Comedy Central), lambasting Trotter - the cyborg who always denied being a cyborg - for being too analogue. While RZA's amusing wordplay certainly fit into a strange UCB running joke about the plausibility of Trotter's claim of not being a cyborg, it is just another instance of his personal vernacular of 'digital' trumping 'analogue' and 'old skool' as the arena of superiority in the megalomaniacal world of hip hop. Digital technology - and not the jazz / soul / funk 70s revivalism - is of course the method of production for RZA. But his sound has never been terribly progressive, especially in light of Timbaland or electronica's digital fuckers Kid 606 and Lesser. Instead, RZA's production sounds a lot more like the stripped down skeletal funk of Sensational (just a mechanical breakbeat, a supple bassline, and the barest of melody). RZA's vocal delivery is a constant ramble that doesn't really break into rhyme or verse or harmony, it just rambles on and on... yet somehow there is a strange sadness to the whole conconction. The verdict is still out on this one.

RZA AS BOBBY DIGITAL Rhumba (Koch) 12" 6.98

RZA, THE Music From The Motion Picture Ghost Dog (Victor Japan) cd 31.00
So we know a bunch of you bought the Ghost Dog soundtrack, threw it on, and realised you were listening to a completely mediocre rap compilation that had very little to do with the movie, and thought 'What the fuck?' Well, there is an explantion. If you were like us, you were expecting the -score-, all that moody, creepy instrumental RZA incidental music that did so much to set the mood of the movie. But Andee discovered a copy in a soundtrack specialty store in New York (for $40!) and we tried desperately to track down copies. For some reason the score was only released in Japan and has been incredibly difficult to get. But this is it. Dark and meandering beats, swelling strings, and moody atmospheres. Mixed up with clips from the movie. So good. If they had released this instead of the crappy 'soundtrack' they would have sold so many more. But again Hollywood underestimates our tastes and panders to the lowest common denominator taste wise. We've had copies on and off for the last couple of months but never enough to list it. Now, we finally managed to get a few more copies, but VERY few, so this is on a strictly first come, first served basis. If you don't manage to snag one, we can put you down for one, but there is no guarantee we'll ever be able to get more. You have been warned.