REDMAN Red Gone Wild (Island Def Jam) cd 14.98

REDROT Deviant (Bloodlust!) 7" 11.98
Oh man, does this hit the spot. Total old school, abject, cold and clinical, noise drenched industrial, a symphony of rusty old machines, the cranks and levers operated by rotting corpses, this crumbling sound factory situated upon a blackened expanse of charred remains and ruined cities, the voice a reverb drenched howl, a totally hypnotic rhythmic clatter creates the skeletal framework, while all around, clouds of hiss and buzz are woven into slow shifting almost-riffs, lumbering, stumbling, dark and dour, shot through with barely there streaks of melody, a brief bit of cinematic apocalyptica, the flip side, features another lurching steam punked Skinny Puppied rhythm track, this time pelted by bits of glitch and fuzzed out sine waves, a female voice speaks over the top, telling tales of violence and mayhem, in a calm measured tone, a strange contrast to the looped decaying sprawl of Redrot's harrowing soundscapery. Deep processed vocals are morphed into thick undulating tones, fragmented electronics wrapped around a frizzled underwater pulse, a swirling backdrop of creak and crunch and whir, the motorik lo-fi robotic beat in lockstep with a growling alien commentary. Awesome stuff for sure. So awesome in fact, that we just listened to this like 3 times in a row, and we're only really stopping now because we have other reviews to write...
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!!

REED, LES Girl On A Motorcycle (OST) (RPM) cd 16.98
Hot stuff! The liner notes for this soundtrack suggest that the movie, which paired the ultra sexy Marianne Faithfull with the equally irresistible Alain Delon, fell "somewhere between fetish and fantasy" and we'd venture to say that this soundtrack does too. Sooo perfectly '60s - bringing together the grand orchestra and the rock band! There's the expressive horns that frolic, chuckle, taunt and weep... the glorious strings and woodwinds that sweep you around a dancefloor or along an open road... oh and let's not forget the funky noodly electric guitars and keyboards. Now, punctuated the proceedings with some thunderous timpani drums, some enchanting Cleo Laine and Mireille Mathieu vocals and yes, some ambient sounds from the film itself like the roar of a motorcycle! Super sexy and stylin'. If you dig hip '60s flicks, this soundtrack and the movie is totally for you. To boot, the insert is a cool six-panel foldout of the movie's original poster!
MPEG Stream: "Surrender To A Stranger"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Souvenirs"

REED, LES Girl On A Motorcycle (OST) (Get Back) lp 15.98
Newly Reissued on Vinyl!
Hot stuff! The liner notes for this soundtrack suggest that the movie, which paired the ultra sexy Marianne Faithfull with the equally irresistible Alain Delon, fell "somewhere between fetish and fantasy" and we'd venture to say that this soundtrack does too. Sooo perfectly '60s - bringing together the grand orchestra and the rock band! There's the expressive horns that frolic, chuckle, taunt and weep... the glorious strings and woodwinds that sweep you around a dancefloor or along an open road... oh and let's not forget the funky noodly electric guitars and keyboards. Now, punctuated the proceedings with some thunderous timpani drums, some enchanting Cleo Laine and Mireille Mathieu vocals and yes, some ambient sounds from the film itself like the roar of a motorcycle! Super sexy and stylin'. If you dig hip '60s flicks, this soundtrack and the movie is totally for you.
MPEG Stream: "Surrender To A Stranger"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Souvenirs"

REED, LOU Animal Serenade (Reprise) 2cd 19.98
Live in LA 2003, a double disc set of songs spanning ol' Lou's career from his days in the Velvets to more recent endeavors.
MPEG Stream: "All Tomorrow's Parties"

REED, LOU Hudson River Wind Meditations (Sounds True) cd 16.98
We had to remember one of the most important rules we learned as kids when it came to this record. Don't judge a book by its cover. Man, was it hard not to. When we first heard that Lou Reed made a record for meditation that was mostly being sold and marketed at new age stores it got lots of eyes rolling and lots of jokes flying around here. But then we tried to listen without prejudice, per the above mentioned rule, and guess what? Truth be told, this is really pretty damn good! Once you get past the packaging and non-musical baggage that comes with this disc of "New Age" music, you remember that if anyone has the right to make a record of drones it's someone who was in the goddamn Velvet Underground, as they were one of the first bands to really introduce the drone into (semi)mainstream rock and pop. Originally recorded by Reed for his own meditation and Tai Chi practice, many of his friends heard it and asked him to make copies for them. Much like David Bowie's instrumental work in the '70s mostly given to friends, it's easy to hear that these are sounds coming from a place that has nothing to do with wanting to make a hit record, but instead come from a deeper place. And that's a very good thing considering he hasn't made much music in recent years that we've been too excited about. If this record came to us as a mysterious cd-r with stark packaging and a cultish name (like many AQ favorites do!) we probably would have been lauding its meditative drones and intense ambience. This could be something you could almost imagine coming out on Yarn Lazer or Root Strata or Faraway Press. Even when the music seems peaceful there is still sonic tension underneath, which really does set this apart from most meditation music. In the end it's just a really good record filled with deep drones that allow the listener to close their eyes and ignore the outside world and go to a different state. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "Move Your Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Find Your Note"
MPEG Stream: "Wind Coda"

REED, LOU Metal Machine Music (RCA) cd 9.98
Once again this reissue has fallen into our hands. Recorded in 1975, Lou Reed created some of the most brutal, blistering guitar noise and feedback ever heard. A four track sonic, subversive assault. The best and/or worst record in the history of rock & roll. Of course it depends on who you ask... we find it rather beautiful. Then again, several of us also own Merzboxes. And this probably *inspired* Merzbow. As well as pissing off legions of Reed/VU fans.
MPEG Stream: "Metal Machine Music, Part I"
MPEG Stream: "Metal Machine Music, Part IV"

REED, LOU & METALLICA Lulu (Warner Bros.) 2cd 18.98
We know you've all be waiting for us to weigh in on one of the burning issues of our time: just how terrible IS the Lou Reed / Metallica album? Is it terrible terrible, or maybe so bad it's good (but still terrible)? Or, perhaps, like The Wire, would we be all contrary and proclaim it to actually be brilliant, not terrible? Well... let's just say that actually writing a review of Lulu is difficult 'cause simply sitting through Lulu is difficult! Imagine a random rock band (Metallica) jamming on some generic stoner riffs they wrote in like 5 minutes, while Grandpa Simpson (Lou Reed) speak-sings disturbing/cryptic/asinine lyrics from the POV of an underage girl prostitute and whatnot over the top... and it's TWO freaking discs long!
Well, even opinion here at AQ is divided... just like when Morbid Angel's Illud Divinum Insanus came out. We DO like stuff that's "fucked up" after all, and certainly this is. And there's ways in which the "transgressiveness" of this might appeal to Oxbow fans, for sure (and we're Oxbow fans). But if you're a Metallica fan... well you're a glutton for punishment already anyway at this point, and this IS better than St. Anger (what isn't)? Is it possible that Lulu is Lou Reed's laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank joke on a clueless, desperate-to-be-artistic Metallica?
Maybe we should just cop out and say that Lulu stands outside of any conventional good/bad judgment. It's just...ludicrous. And not 'cause it's Lou Reed and Metallica, as a concept, per se. Actually, when we first heard about Lou Reed teaming up with Metallica, some of us thought it had potential. On paper. After all, Lou Reed had written songs for KISS before (on 1981's Music From The Elder) and look how that turned out. No, seriously, we dig that KISS album. And if Lou was good enough to write songs for KISS, he should be good enough to write songs for Metallica, heck they should have brought him in sooner. Or, another possibility, was that they would do a full-on noise album together, conducted by Reed: Metallica Machine Music, perhaps?! That could have been cool. Instead, we got this arty absurdity. Which, to be fair, does have its (unintentionally HILARIOUS) moments. For instance, "I Am The Table" (not the name of the song, but it should be, it's actually called "The View", after the TV talk show) is almost worth the price of admission, it's already a classic. Or, check out the very next song, "Pumping Blood", sample lyric from Reed: "Waggle my ass like a dark prostitute coagulating heart pumpin' blood... c'mon, James!"
Yes, he really says/sings that. Wow.
And if Reed's half-assed spoken word style, way-too-high-in-the-mix vox weren't ruinous enough, James Hetfield then sings backup throughout, in his usual heartfelt, gruff, rock dude croon. Singing stuff like the aforementioned, "I am the table!". The juxtaposition is, again, just so ridiculous. As is the entire album. We're not sure what's worse, when they try to do "songs" (like "Iced Honey") or when it's just Lars on the drums providing random backup for Reed's beat poetry.
Ok, it's not all laffs. Ferinstance, in the finale of the set, the whole second half of the epic 20 minute "Junior Dad" is just droning somber strings, and that's quite pretty, although that part doesn't appear to involve either the members of Metallica OR Lou Reed...
So, our "verdict": you should definitely hear this, a least a bit of it, for a laugh. But buy the thing? Well, we've got one copy, and expect to have it for a while. But please go ahead, buy it. We dare you. And when you're listening to it, try not to imagine this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRPzElP_eSI
MPEG Stream: "Brandenberg Gate"
MPEG Stream: "The View"
MPEG Stream: "Cheat On Me"

REED, LOU / ZEITKRATZER Metal Machine Music (Asphodel) cd+dvd 17.98

REED, LOU, JOHN CALE & NICO Le Bataclan '72 (Dynamic) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
1972... Le Bataclan, Paris... Reed, Cale & Nico... Together one more time to give a very stoney, distant and dark performance. Until now, this was only available on crappy bootlegs. Now, finally fully released for you VU enthusiasts and completists out there. This is a no-brainer must-have.
MPEG Stream: "Waiting For The Man"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost Story"

REED, RICK Celestial Mudpie (self-released) 3cd-r 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Rick Reed isn't really doing himself any favors by calling this anthology of his electronic compositions 'Celestial Mudpie', but if you have the opportunity to sit down with the man for a drink (and you really should!), the title suits his personality perfectly. A Texas gentleman with a bawdy side to match his ever charming demeanor, Rick Reed does not exude the bookish reclusiveness one might attribute to an avid consumer and composer of delirious if occasionally claustrophobic smears of analogue electronics fashioned after the likes of Klaus Schulze, Arcane Device, and Conrad Schnitzler. It's a little strange that Reed has been off the radar here at Aquarius for all these years, as he's released a handful of recordings through Ecstatic Peace, Elevator Bath, and Beta-Lactam Ring. He's also developed a close working relationship with the avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs, having scored several soundtracks. As relative newcomers to his work, we were flabbergasted at how good Reed has been over the years thanks to this fantastic compendium of works that date back from the past 2 decades. His primary instruments are Moog, sine-wave generator, and shortwave radio which must go through innumerable analogue treatments and filters before entering the domain of the digital workstation. Rarified atmospherics and spectral transmissions dominate his compositions which can start as hypnotizing electronic meditations on the music of the spheres before accelerating to a dramatic crescendo of blistered vibration, gaping drones, and some Broken Flag teeth gnashing menace found on the earlier works. He's included both tracks from a recent picture disc LP released on Elevator Bath (for those not inclined to vinyl), as well as several of those excerpted soundtracks for Ken Jacobs, plus some works dating back as far as 1986. Each of the three discs come with a hand-painted piece of artwork of densely sprayed paint, that somehow does not reek of petrochemicals. Kudos to Reed for not stinking up the joint. And kudos to Reed for such impressive work.
MPEG Stream: "Dreamz"
MPEG Stream: "Hidden Voices Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Vermillion"

REED, RICK Dark Skies At Noon (Elevator Bath) cd 14.98
Somehow, we missed this one when it came out a few years back; but with Rick Reed's recent self-release from his archives dating back some 25 years, we figured you might also be as intrigued as we are in some of the other work that didn't make it onto Reed's massive and brilliant compendium Celestial Mudpie reviewed here a couple lists back. Reed hails from Texas, where he has been tinkering around with Moogs, shortwave radio, tone generators, and field recordings to construct his weighty drones. The title track on Dark Skies At Noon is an alternate version to a soundtrack that Reed composed for Ken Jacobs' film Seeing Is Believing. Jacobs, who has worked with Reed on numerous occasions over the past decade, had also used this same score for his Mountaineer Spinning film as well. The piece itself is grounded upon an industrial strength hum, the kind you would expect to hear in a nuclear power plant or some giant particle accelerator. Pierced tones, scabrous noises, and pure frequencies that have set up some unsettling standing waves here in the weirdo architecture of Aquarius all elegantly wax and wane across the surface of Reed's droning subtrata. Seeming infinite in slow-boiling currents of electricity and strangely psychedelic at times, somewhat like a cross between Emeralds and Troum. The second piece is a collaboration with former AMM member Keith Rowe, dialing in his shortwave to gather bits of static and garbled transmissions set against Reed's crawling set of analogue electronic drones. For all of Rowe's dynamic interplay of texture and noise, this is clearly a piece driven by Reed's sensibility. The finale to the album is the aptly named "Ghosts Of Energy" with its tone-bending vibrations, eerie wails of Forbidden Planet-esque electronics, and moire-patterns of sound grafted from dissonant frequencies. Altogether, this makes for an excellent collection! Elevator Bath tells us this is limited to just a hair over 300 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Dark Skies At Noon"
MPEG Stream: "Ceremony"
MPEG Stream: "Ghosts Of Energy"

REED, RICK Dreamz / Blue Polz (Elevator Bath) picture disc 17.98
In recent weeks, we've ballyhooed the career of Rick Reed, the Austin based composer of grimly psychedelic electronics; and now we've gotten a hold of a few copies of the picture disc he produced for Elevator Bath. Both of these track appeared on Reed's Celestial Mudpie anthology, just so you don't end up buying the same two great pieces of lazer-tone emissions... unless of course, you want to. As we've mentioned before, primary instruments are Moog, sine-wave generator, and shortwave radio which must go through innumerable analogue treatments and filters before entering the domain of the digital workstation. Rarified atmospherics and spectral transmissions dominate his compositions which can start as hypnotizing electronic meditations on the music of the spheres before accelerating to a dramatic crescendo of blistered vibration and gasping drones. Both "Dreamz" and "Blue Polz" find Reed at his best, somewhere between Emeralds steamrollered into a tectonic rumble, that Omit / K-Group collaboration of rasping analogue synths achieving LaMonte Young mantra status, and the classic ambient psyche-drone smear of Conrad Schnitzler and Cluster. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Dreamz"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Polz"

REED, RICK The Way Things Go (Elevator Bath) 2lp 25.00
BACK IN STOCK!!!
The Way Things Go is a very impressive electro-static drone anthology documenting a bunch of barely released material from the Texas gear junkie Rick Reed. This is a man who's been tinkering with vintage synths, shortwave radio, and sinewave generators for well over 25 years, work from the classic progressive electronic sound of the likes of Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler, through the nihilism of the post-industrialists (e.g. MB, Arcane Device, John Duncan, etc.), and into post-noise constructs of liquid psychedelia from Emeralds and all of their satellite projects. In so many ways, this could have found a nice home on John Elliott's Spectrum Spools imprint, but Reed stays with the ever impressive Elevator Bath.
There is some overlap between this collection and the self-published Celestial Mudpie album that Reed issued a couple years back. In particular, there's Reed's very evocative and chilling soundtrack to the Ken Jacobs film Capitalism: Child Labor that is an intense piece of tonal vibration, slipping from Andromeda Strain styled pulses upon rotating layers of a atonal hums, arching drones, and nervous lines of analogue static. Another high profile soundtrack is "Hidden Voices Pt 1." which was composed for the Hermann Nitsch gallery exhibit "The Orgies Mysteries Theater" in Houston back in 2005. This track contains the bloodcurdling atonality that Nitsch composes for his own aktions, but Reed twists the stratified dissonance with deep space blorp, shards of Birchville-esque distortion, and shortwave SSB detunings. The whole album follows suit with muffed static cracklings amidst radioactive clouds of analogue fired tone float, sulking at times into a melancholy atmosphere but always immensely complex. Very highly recommended stuff, and yes this does come with a download card. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Capitalism : Child Labor"
MPEG Stream: "Hidden Voices Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "In A Hazy Field Of Green & Grey"

REEDBEDS Swells On High (Hooker Vision) cassette 8.98
A really lovely tape from the anonymous Reedbeds who seems to be a one-person pastoral ambient project for guitar, synth, and looping pedals. It's pretty easy to confuse some of these tracks with those from Mark McGuire's earlier cassettes and albums, in the delicate interplay of drone-strum and repeating melancholy melodies that gradually evolves over the long arcing passages cast in hues of sodden blues and damp greens. Through the four tracks on this 44 minute cassette, Reedbeds maintains an unhurried and understated pace to their work with plenty of space for the repeating patterns to wrap their tendrils around other loops, keeping true to minor-key ambience and glum romanticism of these mesmerizing blissout guitar jams. Just 100 copies from the Hooker Vision imprint run by Rachel and Grant Evans of Motion Sickness of Time Travel and Nova Scotia Arms separately, or Quiet Evenings collectively.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

REEKS AND THE WRECKS Knife Hits (tUMULt) cd 11.98
An old drum kit. Homemade amps. A dented old trombone. A bucket and a handful of firecrackers. The Reeks make a sound that is otherworldly. Dark and stumbling, folk-flecked basement blues. A mix of woozy slide guitar, swampy trombone, sparse and erratic percussion, tape hiss, amp buzz, shortwave interference and dark doomy brilliance. Like a ghostly, indie rock New Orleans funeral jazz band or Roland S. Howard fronting the Dead C. Haunting, mesmerizing, gorgeously raucous, dreamily creepy and absolutely unlike anything you have ever heard.
For years the Reeks played all up and down the West Coast, in basements, back porches, living rooms, pizza parlours, with only a 12" record and a battered old suitcase full of hand dubbed cassettes to their name, spreading their warm cloak of pulsing, droning creepy crawly throb over anyone lucky enough to be packed into the same sweaty space. At once jubilant and danceable, but at the same time, dark and lugubrious, ominous and somnabulent. Lovers of weird music couldn't get enough, but eventually, even dyed in the wool indie rockers began to embrace the Reeks, having perhaps found something that still smacked of their beloved indie rock, but was a little darker and a whole lot weirder than they were used to. But by then it was too late.
The release of Knife Hits is truly bittersweet. After years of recording and re-recording, mixing and remixing, when Knife Hits was finally ready to be released, and the rest of the world would finally get to hear the Reeks' amazing off kilter avant indie funeral folk, tragedy struck. Orion Satushek, Reeks mainman, guitar player, instrument builder and one of the nicest guys ever, was hit and killed by a drunk driver. The personal loss, is indescribable, a deep sting everytime we think about him, his band, his music, his friendship. And the loss to music, to the music community, is immeasurable. Years of playing, and practicing and rocking and sweating in tiny cramped basements and doing with a crappy old drum kit and a couple of homemade amps what most bands can't do with all the equipment in the world is somehow all crammed onto this single disc. These ten songs. The passion, the playfulness, the dark moodiness, the spaced out droniness, the wild sweaty chaos, the sheer joy of making an unholy racket. This record is not only a totally unique chunk of damaged outsider rock brilliance, but it's also a fitting tribute to the loss of a very special friend.
We miss you, Orion.
MPEG Stream: "Blue Ballroom"
MPEG Stream: "Mosquito Cash Diamond Gun"
MPEG Stream: "Maui Wow Wow"

REEKS AND THE WRECKS s/t (Red Alert Works) lp 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Dark and stumbling, folk-flecked basement blues. Like Roland S. Howard fronting a band on Siltbreeze. A mix of slide guitar, trombone, sparse and erratic percussion, tape hiss, buzz, shortwave interference, and recording inconsistancy. Absolutely amazing.

REEKS AND THE WRECKS s/t (Red Alert Works) lp 23.00
Longtime readers of the aQ list and fans of Andee's tUMULt label are no doubt familiar with the late great Bellingham Washington band Reeks And The Wrecks, their Knife Hits record on tUMULt still amazes and confounds, but will forever be tainted by a tinge of sadness, as Reeks guitarist Orion Satushek was killed by a drunk driver right before the record was released. Knife Hits stands as an amazing tribute to the man and his talent, and few bands have managed since to create something as wholly original.
Recently PRND were in town, which just so happens to feature another former Reeks member, and in addition to their amazing cd-r (which we have reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), he had copies of the 'lost' first Reeks lp, so we took a whole bunch cuz odds are most folks even big fans have not heard this, and it's a doozy, chronicling the band at a very early stage when they were equal parts dark stumbling funereal folk blues and wild chaotic math rock, a strange combination, that sounds as good now as it ever did.
Our description of Knife Hits pretty much applies to these recordings too: "An old drum kit. Homemade amps. A dented old trombone. A bucket and a handful of firecrackers. The Reeks make a sound that is otherworldly. Dark and stumbling, folk-flecked basement blues. A mix of woozy slide guitar, swampy trombone, sparse and erratic percussion, tape hiss, amp buzz, shortwave interference and dark doomy brilliance. Like a ghostly, indie rock New Orleans funeral jazz band or Roland S. Howard fronting the Dead C. Haunting, mesmerizing, gorgeously raucous, dreamily creepy and absolutely unlike anything you have ever heard." Hard to resist, huh? Well, don't. You won't be sorry. The sound is gorgeous and chaotic and mournful and weirdly full of life and energy. And those sounds are balanced on this lp by the other side of the band that seemed to fade as the band moved forward, loose chaotic post/math rock blow outs, angular crunchy guitars, wild octopoidal drumming, the moody funereal side definitely dominated, but when the band exploded into those heavier parts, it only made them sound that much heavier.
Also, the pressing of this lp is a weird old one, the records themselves are a bit weird, so it's SUPER noisy, not sure how much of it is the pressing, and how much is the awesomely ramshackle lo-fi recording, but whatever it is, it suits them, with the sound erupting into weird squalls of surface noise, lots of hiss and buzz, the band were total DIY, they even had a song that included setting off firecrackers in a bucket, which means, embrace the noise and the low fidelity, and uptight vinyl nerds KEEP AWAY.
One of the greatest bands EVER!!! And this record RULES.
R.I.P. Orion.
Comes in a super swank silkscreened red ink on brown cardstock sleeve.

REFAT, MAHMOUD Miramar (100Copies) cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We like a label that is totally upfront about their intentions, no beating around the bush, a label like 100 Copies, who are simply and succinctly letting us know, that this is in fact, a drastically limited release, and once we run out, we will not be able to get more. So be warned, we tried to order a ton of these, and ended up with a little more than a dozen. So why should you care? Well for the 12 or 13 of you who are quickest on the BUY IT NOW button, the work of Mahmoud Refat is a series of soundscapes crafted from the sounds of daily life in Egypt, conversations, calls to prayer, street musicians, portable power stations, the sounds of children playing, the bustling market, all woven into fuzzy glitchy dronescapes, some dark and lugubrious and barely moving, others skittering and looped sounding, while still others are funky jazzy Autechre-ish jams. Chopped up voices, sampled instruments, soft indistinct drifts of ambient sound, ultra minimal abstract glitch and rumbling cavernous whirs all woven into a gorgeously mesmerizing whole, from the distinct sonic threads of people's lives, halfway around the world.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES (duh) and we have less than ten...
MPEG Stream: "Wrong Information 1"
MPEG Stream: "Mirimar"

REFLECTOR Flugangst (Rock Is Hell) lp 14.98
We knew pretty much nothing about this band, other than Rock Is Hell put it out. So of course we were sort of expecting some wild, angular skronky psychedelic damaged art rock, but nothing could be further from the truth. And truth be told we're far from disappointed. In fact, this record has been kicking our asses big time.
Another guitar and drums duo, but instead of Lightning Bolt style freakout or Godheadsilo pummel, these guys spit out an incredible, dense and tangled and ultra heavy 18 minute math rock epic. What sounds like 5 or 6 songs sewn together, the band kicks out the jams like we wish more bands would, channeling the spirit of nineties math rock through a more modern metal perspective. Heavy, groovy, hypnotic, complex, we hear lots of Dutch instrumetallers Gore, as well as long time aQ faves Fuehler, the drums are incredible, relentless, and precise, but with just enough wild abandon to keep things on edge, the guitar is crunchy and thick, the riffs hooky enough that vocals are not at all necessary, going from tangled and thrashy to sludgey and doomy, the band lurching and grooving and pounding and grinding out some of the most bad ass heavy metal instrumental math rock madness we've heard in ages.
The packaging is pretty stellar too, a thick folded over sleeve, revealing most of the record itself, the lp pressed on thick clear vinyl, one sided, with a striking image of an angelic woman silkscreened on the flipside. Nice!

REFLECTOR Pass (Rock Is Hell) lp 21.00
Record number two from this mysterious metallic math rock band. Reflector's first record Flugangst was a surprise hit around here, a crunching math metal juggernaut, perpetrated by the now ubiquitous guitar/drums/no bass lineup, but Reflector certainly didn't suffer for it. Heavy and complex and brooding and massive, with plenty of doomy slow core bits and shimmery drone-y drifts.
If anything, Pass takes everything we liked about Flugangst and cranks it up, the sound is incredible, lush and thick and expansive, REALLY hard to believe they're a bass-less two piece here, the guitars are hard and dense and chuggy, the drums crushing, the two locked into killer grooves, Neurosis like lumbering plod one second, super tangled post rock weirdness the next, even some slow motion Slayer riffing here and there.
It's criminal these guys aren't huge, they should be touring with Mastodon and Baroness and all those low slung bearded sludgelords, but this ain't sludge (although they are perfectly capable of getting plenty sludge-y!), this is almost some sort of pop infused downtuned metal, shot through with plenty of post rock mathisms, strange textures, catchy melodies, and riffs that KILL.
We don't have a whole lot of these, so if we run out be patient, we have to get more from overseas, but hell, anyone into slow and low heaviness, or the new breed of post / math / metal / gaze / whatever, these guys could very well be your new favorite band.

REFRACTORS, THE Eight Years Sleep - Folio Series (Dynamophone) cd-r 11.98
Here's a new-to-us volume of the Dynamophone Folio series! We've known that this Bay Area label features some of the prettiest drone music around, both of the experimental and more pop leaning kind. The Refractors are a fine addition to the fold. So soothing and mesmerizing. An angelic female voice surfaces on the second song, and whispery murmurs materialize at later points in the proceedings. The tracks with the added vocal dimension are definitely our faves of the release, although the rest of the dozen tracks are mighty lovely too! This cd compiles eight recordings circa 2001-2008, as well as reissues four numbers from the label's now out of print 2009 Parcel 3" cdr series.
MPEG Stream: "Lull"
MPEG Stream: "Swept Away"

REFRIGERATOR Anchors of Bleed (Communion) cd 12.98

REFRIGERATOR Anchors of Bleed (Communion) lp 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

REFRIGERATOR Comedy Minus One (Shrimper) cd 13.98
I've loved Refrigerator for so long that hearing a new album from them is like replacing one warm blanket with another. This lonesome downer rock quartet fronted by LA's Callaci brothers is back with one of their most upbeat albums yet... but don't let that make you think they're happy. They're still despondent, introspective, slow to laugh, but when you're down and out, Refrigerator will keep you company. Somewhere between Bob Dylan and Smog lies Refrigerator.
RealAudio clip: "Open Fan Mail"
RealAudio clip: "Never Nowhere"

REFRIGERATOR Dangerous (Shrimper) cd 13.98
Refrigerator is woefully under represented on the aQ site, with 5 records listed (of the 20 or so full lengths, singles, eps and cassettes they've released in the last 20+ years) most without reviews, and the ones that do have a review only get a sentence or two. Which is strange, cuz we've always been fans, and we've always felt a definite kinship between Shrimper and aQuarius. Amps For Christ, Franklin Bruno, Nothing Painted Blue, Dump, Mountain Goats, Sebadoh, Wckr Spgt, Soul Junk, Bugskull, John Davis, Pork Queen, Simon Joyner, Good Horsey, Herman Dune, Woods and of course Shrimper flagship band Refrigerator.
And we always considered Refrigerator vocalist Allen Callaci one of the most underappreciated vocalists in the underground, his voice so soulful and emotive and passionate, on the verge of cracking, always sounding like it's about to slip into a falsetto, but instead, it's simply high and clear, pure and plaintive, and so perfectly matched to the group's gorgeous, melancholy downer lo-fi pop.
Dangerous is an odd first Refrigerator record to finally get the aQ love it deserves, as it's not a proper new full length, instead, it's a collection of demos, intended to be expanded into a proper electric full band record, but after a band member's injury and gradual recovery, by the time they went back to work on new music, the band were itching to work on new songs, but it was decided the demos were to good to just let slip through the cracks, so they became Dangerous, and even in stripped down demo form, this is some seriously gorgeous, moving, emotional music. Just check out the first track, "Be Positive", which just might be the sweetest, saddest, most heart wrenchingly lovely song we've heard in ages. Allen Callaci's vocals impossibly gorgeous, the melodies so perfect, the whole song only benefiting from the minimal instrumentation. And from there on out, it's just another classic, practically perfect Refrigerator record, lovely, soft souled song after darkly intimate song, all minimal strum, subtle percussion, more about the arrangements and melodies and those vocals, a gorgeous collection of lo-fi folk pop that few can pull off the way these guys can. We've been listening to this non stop, and that first song is definitely one of our favorite tracks of the year so far. With more joining that one the more we listen!
All the songs were recorded live too, with no overdubs (they were demos after all) which only adds to the immediate/intimate vibe. Also includes guest spots from Nothing Painted Blue's Franklin Bruno (who wrote one song, and sings on two), as well as a couple songs written by Refrigerator drummer Chris Jones. Includes a booklet with liner notes and lyrics too.
MPEG Stream: "Be Positive"
MPEG Stream: "The Worthless Rearview"
MPEG Stream: "Amaze Me"

REFRIGERATOR Glitter Jazz (Shrimper) cd 12.98
Southern California trio's BEST, most cohesive album yet, full of tender, shuffling, exceedingly lo-fi pop. Allen Callaci's voice and delivery are heartbreakingly poignant. Plus special guest, Franklin Bruno!

REFRIGERATOR s/t (Shrimper) cd 12.98
Newest album from Upland, CA, trio.

REFRIGERATOR s/t (Shrimper) lp 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Newest album from Upland, CA, trio.

REFRIGERATOR Somehow (Shrimper) cdep 7.98
Upland's sweet lo-fi stars Refrigerator take a stylistic step in the right direction (as usual) with this new ep of more fuzzed-out material than you're used to. Very nice.

REFUSED Songs To Fan The Flames Of Discontent (Epitaph / Burning Heart) cd 12.98
Originally released back in 1996, the remastered reissue of The Refused's definitive album Songs To Fan The Flames Of Discontent (easily as good as their breakthrough / final release The Shape Of Punk To Come) confirms this Swedish band's music to be just as vital and potent today as it was eight years ago, and so much more so than the majority of bands calling themselves 'punk' and 'hardcore' these days. Theirs is far more concentrated, cerebral and challenging than flaccid fist-pumpin' 3-chord punk rawkTM. The Refused was a truly compelling, caustic force levelling all in its path. Ready to get your ass kicked?
MPEG Stream: "Return To The Closet"
MPEG Stream: "Life Support Addiction"

REFUSED The E.P. Comp (Epitaph / Burning Heart) cd 12.98
The reissue of this great singles collection from the sadly defunct Swedish band The Refused reminds us: a) just how fierce and awesome this band really was, b) just how varied and wide a musical scope they had, c) they just don't make 'em like they used to! Blazing and heavy, weird and wild, catchy as fuck but so intense and supercharged. Their classic final release The Shape Of Punk To Come will soon be re-issued, but until then this singles comp and the also-just-just-rereleased Songs To Fan The Flames Of Discontent should be plenty to keep your blood boiling, fists pumping and head banging until then!

REFUSED, THE The Refused Are Fucking Dead (Burning Hearts) dvd 13.98

REGGAEE, THE Balthar (Tipped Bowler Tapes) cassette 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest analog blast of abstract hypno skree from this French one man band and it's a beaut. Looped high end shimmer, distant industrial grind and creak and a creepy whispered mantra are smeared into a gorgeously woozy blur, eventually joined by some random woodpecker percussion. Strange but really quite beautiful and mesmerizing. The flipside is another mantra-like loop based drone, lots of tape hiss, and lo fi rumble, tape warble and stuttering fragments of hiss all drifting on a swirling sea of crumbling low end, and peppered with bits of crackle and crunch. Weird and wonderful.
Amazingly packaged, a green and yellow hand painted tape, in a full color sleeve, inside a full color insert and a folded up short story printed on super nice textured paper. LIMITED TO 68 COPIES!!!

REGGAEE, THE / SAWAADYJA / VALERIO COSI Birth Of A New Rural Europe (Ruralfaune) 3cd 40.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A super limited and insanely packaged triple cd-r, highlighting, well, just like the title says, the Birth Of A New Rural Europe, a sonic world of free noise, free folk and abstract ambience. Three full length discs, one from each band, the Reggaee, Sawaadyja and Valerio Cosi.
French free rock outfit The Reggaee offer up 52 minutes of clattery, rambling, drift, harmonicas wheeze, nestled in a soundscape of field recordings and distant percussion like the chirping of crickets, doomy folk with detuned guitars and ghostly vocals, reverb drenched tribal freakouts, dreamy dreary mumbly ambience, buzzing steel string serenades and every stop in between.
Sawaadyja, aka Danish sound maker Mikkel Andersen, contributes a similarly varied disc, starting off with huge thick washes of distorted guitars and buried psychedelic melodies, like a more lo-fi Sunroof!, and quickly drifting into gentle forest folk, with simple childlike melodies over spare tribal drumming, dreamy Appalachian style steel string fingerpicking, a bit of raga like buzz with snake charmer melodies and some spacious abstract shimmer.
The final installment comes from Italian sound artist Valerio Cosi, whose disc is maybe the droniest and dreamiest of the bunch. The opening and closing tracks are lengthy slow moving near static shimmers, bookending track two, a nearly half hour long festive percussive free form sonic ritual. Fluttering flutes, clattering pots and pans percussion, buzzing kazoo melodies, thick reverb, like being lost in some bazaar in the center of some foreign city. Cool.
LIMITED TO 35 COPIES!!! WE GOT 12 OF THOSE!!!
Each copy is super elaborately packaged, each disc, hand painted, in its own sleeve with a printed insert, all three discs held shut with wire and affixed to the inside of an oversized, wire and bamboo sleeve, like someone dismantled a tiki hut and cut the walls into squares to make cd sleeves. Also inside is an insert that is hand numbered! Weird but cool.
MPEG Stream: THE REGGAEE "Language Legend"
MPEG Stream: THE REGGAEE "Baalerinaa"
MPEG Stream: SAWAADYJA "Dancing Zealot"
MPEG Stream: VALERIO COSI "Eclipse"

REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT Greatest Hits '84-'87 (Vagrant) cd 14.98

REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT Last Stop: Crappy Town (Vagrant) cd 13.98

MPEG Stream: "G"
MPEG Stream: "Smith & 9th"
MPEG Stream: "F"

REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT Promotional Copy (Vagrant) cd 13.98
Depending on how you look at it, this record is either the best, or the funniest record we've heard in a while. A pretty successful pastiche of the highly illogical musical tastes of adolescence; post-Hardcore grind, shiny-faced emo pop, and gangsta rap (brilliantly exploited, with a Ween-like irreverance; the opening 'skit' makes Reggie the victim of a driveby shooting). Plus bizarre but totally appealing '80s new wave love songs, faux-Crass faux-Euro polito-punk songs (the hilarious 'Dwarf Invasion'), and pure disco grooves MC'ed by a hillbilly calling for some weird linedance that could only have origins in Fresno. Totally absurd but, man, it works. I'm the first one around here to immediately dismiss a joke record, but this is no joke. The pop songs are first rate, hooks and kick ass melodies. The metal is metal! Grinding and pounding, thanks in no small part to members of Coalesce being the core of Reggie. But some of the disc's best moments come with the effortless mix of the two, crunching brutality mixed up with Weezer-worthy radio fare. God knows how it works but it does. Humor + honest to gosh pop hooks + crazy surprises may be the formula. Yup, a unanimous AQ staff favourite.
RealAudio clip: "From Me 2 U"
RealAudio clip: "Gloves"
RealAudio clip: "Dwarf Invasion"

REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT Songs Not To Get Married To (Vagrant) cd 14.98
Every time we start a review with a phrase like "we don't really like techno all that much" or "we've never been huge fans of pop punk" we end up getting people writing in defending the genre in question. But truth be told, we -do- like techno and we -do- like pop punk, and we do like all kinds of music, it's sort of the point of this store. It's just that we generally tend to dig the weirder, more far out, more creative risk-taking fringes of all those genres, which is -also- the point of this store. But that said, we don't actually like pop punk all that much, at least not the strain of cookie cutter made-for-MTV dreck that one typically thinks of as pop punk. But we do love pop. Do we ever!!! And we do love punk! And unlike the bad math that results from adding metal and hip hop (oh how we desperately wish someone could make that work!), pop and punk fit pretty comfortably together, add some good songs, and maybe even some metal riffage, and we're in business. Thus we have Reggie And The Full Effect, originally a joke side project for a handful of emo / pop punk luminaries (Coalesce anyone?), now a band that's as good as if not better than all of the serious bands that spawned it. They are the ultimate emo band. Of course you have the huge kick ass production, great catchy songs, sensitive whiny boy vocals and big distorted guitars. BUT THEN, you've got some chugging metal guitars and howling throat shredding vocals, fuzzy synths, goofy lyrics, and an ultra dumb / totally brilliant sense of humour. And as if that weren't enough, every third or fourth song is a total eighties synthpop workout, straight up New Order mockery / worship (one of which is a dead ringer for track two on the recent Killers record! Now who's laughing?!). Goofy and silly, but actually really good and fun and catchy. And finally, you've got RATFE's hardcore alter ego, the fictitious Finnish electro punk outfit Common Denominator, who have contributed one track to each Reggie record, always with Common Denominator's lead vocalist introducing the band, in a thick inexplicably German accent: "HELLO AMERICANS, THIS IS KLAUS FROM COMMON DENOMINATOR. WE ARE THE BAND YOU THAT YOU ARE LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW WE ARE FROM FINLAND AND THIS IS THE THIRD SONG OFF OUR DEBUT ALBUM IN AMERICA, THIS SONG IS CALLED DEATHNOTRONIC AND IT GOES LIKE THIS!!! And what follow is what can only be described as Ministry meets Rammstein meets that song that ALWAYS seems to play during cheerleader competitions (Y'all Ready For This!) as well as some awesome noodly guitar leads.
Even with the presence of Common Denominator, and the occasional synthpop workout, this is Reggie's least 'jokey' record to date, which is probably what makes it their best. Even the lyrics aren't as straight up goofy, in fact if anything, unless this is all a REALLY subtle joke, the lyrics tend toward straight up emo territory, love and loss and boys and girls and all that stuff. Pretty heartfelt stuff actually, and if there's one thing we're a sucker for it's emo! In fact the final song, a brooding piano driven emo ballad to end all emo ballads, is SO sincere, it seems like it MUST be a joke coming from these guys. But it's not. At least we don't think so. At first we were a little disappointed by the lack of skits and random stupidity, but as much as we love those old Reggie records, this one definitely has the potential for most repeated listens. There's just something about Reggie's combination of crunchy metallic guitars, weird Cars / Tupac synth melodies, perfect pop and goofy eighties high school ballads that we can't seem to get enough of!
MPEG Stream: "What The Hell Is Contempt"
MPEG Stream: "Get Well Soon"
MPEG Stream: "Deathnotronic (Common Denominator)"

REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT Under the Tray... (Vagrant) cd 14.98
Yeah! A new Reggie And The Full Effect! Everybody here at AQ *loved* their last album "Promotional Copy" for its tongue-in-cheek emocore silliness, rampant absurdity, and seriously melodic and metallic might. One of the best joke bands ever, 'cause they kinda make you ask, is this a joke? And the music is awesome, no joke. "Under The Tray..." doesn't top "Promotional Copy" but it's pretty great too, even featuring another appearance by their parodic Euro political punk persona, Common Denominator. By the way, there's a reason why this is called "Under The Tray..." but we'll leave that for you to discover when you get a copy.
Now let's turn this review over to our Professor Jim for his weighty thoughts on Reggie's latest opus:
While most emo bands render heartbreak with fervor and intensity, Reggie & The Full Effect is the only one to map out a broad cross section of the hormonally dysfunctional emotions that emerge as the illogical displays of teen angst, giddiness, impossible desires, and raw mania. Pretty much the solo project of James DeWees (keyboardist for the emo-punk band The Get Up Kids and drummer for metalcore legends Coalesce), Reggie & The Full Effect previously succeeded on the "Promotional Copy" album by applying a metalcore chug to emo's earnest sentiment and bracketing this in silly (but strikingly accurate) renditions of new wave theatricality.
"Under The Tray..." picks up exactly where "Promotional Copy" left off, with the wholesale appropriation of musical signifiers geared to console teen angst including the current run of earnest power pop bands tinged with pop (i.e. Get Up Kids, Weezer, etc.), morose, black-lipstick staples (i.e. Depeche Mode and the "Pretty In Pink" soundtrack), and adolescent male aggression (i.e. Andrew W.K. and crusty skate-punk). Instead of mocking these stereotypes, Reggie adopts them as a legitimate language; and I don't even think Reggie's albums can be qualified as irony, considering how 'authentic' most of this sounds. But "Under The Tray..." doesn't concern itself with any of art school crap about irony, mimesis, or post-modernity; after all, this band knows its audience very well, and succeeds as a great, corn-ball pop record.
RealAudio clip: "Happy V-Day"
RealAudio clip: "Image Is Nothing, Lobsters Are Everything"
RealAudio clip: "Congratulations Smack & Katy"

REGGIE AND THE FULL EFFECT / KOUFAX (Heroes & Villains) split 7" 3.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A brand new song by Reggie and the Full Effect, otherwise known as the mysterious side project of a couple of the Get Up Kids and a couple of members of Coalesce. You may have already heard Reggie's brilliant previous full length "Promotional Copy", and if so, then you already know the sweet-sour kick-ass grindpop they do so well. This single contains one more song of similar stellar quality. Backed by Koufax, a pleasant indie rock mouthful too. On the Get Up Kids' label Heroes & Villains. Recommended.

REGINA, ELIS The Voice Of Brazil (El / Cherry Red) cd 17.98
Two late sixties records collected from the beloved Brazilian singer, Elis Regina. Elis Como e Porque (1968) and Elis Regina in London (1969), display the full range of her stellar vocal abilities singing many of Antonio Carlos Jobim's best known songs such as "Wave" and "How Insensitive". Not as well known in the states, probably due to Astrud Gilberto's fluke hit "Girl From Ipanema" which jump started the soft-samba wave abroad, an antithesis to Regina's tempestuous moodiness and dynamic vocal delivery (She was nicknamed "little pepper").
Although these records are not quite as exquisitely breathtaking as the 1974 lp she recorded with Antonio Carlos Jobim, they nicely showcase this vital musical figure whose untimely death at the age of 36 has made her a near saint in Brazil. No soft samba here, she's as bright as the sunniest day in Rio!
MPEG Stream: "Vera Cruz"
MPEG Stream: "Memorias De Marta Sare"
MPEG Stream: "Wave"

REGNUM s/t (Total Holocaust) cd 14.98

REGURGITATE Sickening Bliss (Relapse) cd 12.98

REHBERG & BAUER Passt (Touch) cd 15.98
Peter "Pita" Rehberg and Ramon Bauer betray all of Mego's artsy mythologies of being a completely serious project, by opening this album with a lame speedfreak MC introducing Rehberg and Bauer at some festival in Australia, with the nonsensical outburst: "Oh yeah, it's so good! We got Levi's! We got Mego. We got quansonsong (?!!???) We got all those fuckin' indonesian riots. We'll forget that, ladies and gentleman..." After a brief interlude of total gibberish and primeval screams which could be the result of ecstatic ejaculation or painful dismemberment, this idiot continues "Rehberg and Bauer! Back me up, back me up, Pita you cunt!" While this MC is certainly not as ignorant as the rappers for Funkstrorung (who told everybody at Sonar to "give it up to the REAL experimental shit" instead of Stockhausen's "Hymnen"), he's still a fucking moron.
Considering that Rehberg and Bauer follow this act of puerile behaviour with a stoicly quiet piece for muffled cable hums and pops, this introduction, at best, is irony through contradiction; at worst, is self-congratulatory arrogance. The rest of the album picks up considerably with their trademarked dense layers of digital grit, harsh noise, and occasional motorcyclical melodies.
Brilliantly packaged by Jon Wozencroft, after all it's on Touch.
RealAudio clip: "Passt 5"
RealAudio clip: "Passt 12"
RealAudio clip: "Passt 1"

REHBERG, PETER Work For GV 2004-2008 (Editions Mego) cd 17.98

REHBERG, PETER / ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI Pop: Album (Tochnit Aleph) lp 14.98
Upon first glance, the album cover with its airbrushed chiaroscuro art featuring two beshrouded figures leaning over their cauldrons with slanted fire red eyes and no doubt nefarious intent, looks very much like a black metal record. Yet upon closer investigation, those aren't cauldrons; they're Powerbooks! Those aren't black metallers, they are Peter Rehberg (aka Pita from Mego Records) and Zbigniew Karkowski (from, well, everywhere). While the media may have shifted from a Wagnerian application of Metal to a Faustian approach to disfigured electronics, "Pop: Album" is no smile-y happy piece of electronics. At one time, Jim O'Rourke offered the comparison between Pita and Merzbow; at least, here in working with Karkowski, O'Rourke certainly speaks the truth! Taken from various worldwide live performances, this album is a brutal affair of digitized cacophony, with multiple layers of distorted pulsations, piercing electric squiggles, overblown cable buzz, 60 cycle hums, and other sampled malfunctions. Vinyl only.

REHTAF RUO Boiled In Goat Blood (Demonolatry) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A customer recommended we check out Rehtaf Ruo (Our Father backwards, how very evil!) describing them as more insane and out there sounding than Benighted Leams. Well, we could hardly resist after that! Happy to report that Boiled In Goat Blood is indeed quite possibly (one of) the weirdest, most fucked up black metal records we have ever heard. And that's assuming you could even classify this as black metal. It's so bizarre it's a bit hard to describe. We were a little cautious throwing this on, the first track was a haunting and creepy slow motion drone, obviously an introduction, but black and ominous enough. Then the record proper started and we were floored, blown away by the sheer musical perversity on display, so damaged and abstract, and so goddamn scary sounding, it really couldn't be more black. The riffs are so lo-fi and so murky, they don't even sound like guitars, more like fuzzy drones, not like Burzum fuzzy, but completely indistinct smears of sound, and the drums are right down there with the guitars, barely audible, except for the occasional REALLY LOUD burst of impossibly fast double kick drum that sounds like a jackhammer or a woodpecker, very static and industrial. But it's the vocals that define Rehtaf Ruo, from a harsh hoarse growl, to a super affected hellish gargle, to a burping grunt, the vocals are SO FUCKING FRIGHTENING. Way more evil than most BM frontmen, it helps that the vocals are WAY louder than the music, their only competition those bursts of spastic double kick, or the occasional very evil Rigor Sardonicous style trash can lid cymbal crash. There are some intensely bizarre moments of abstraction, a track that sounds like a more black metal Jacula, some murky martial percussion beneath raspy invocations, super sudden fade outs, chiming church bells, some creepy ambient soundscapes made from guitars so distorted they crumble into what sounds like radio static, strange looped freakouts that sound like a more fucked up Jeck or Basinski, or even recent AQ faves WOLD, grizzled guitar clang and the sounds of chains against stone, and of course some ridiculously anguished vocal torture. The final track is a massive ten plus minute horrorscape, of super processed drums, wild hysterical vocalizing, clattery dungeon percussion, moaning minor key melodies, but to get there, you'll have to crawl on your hands and knees, bloodied and blackened, through a field of fire and broken glass, corpses and barbed wire and some of the weirdest black metal EVER.
MPEG Stream: "Churchburner"
MPEG Stream: "Cold Black Occultism"

REICH, STEVE Four Organs & Phase Patterns (New Tone) cd 21.00
It was a happy day at AQ when we saw that two of our favorite Steve Reich pieces of all time were now finally available again. Both recorded in 1970, one at the Guggenheim in NY and the other at the University Museum in Berkeley. This is electric organ overdrive! Four Organs not surprisingly is a piece played on four electric organs (with Reich playing one as well as his good friend Philip Glass... we hope that someday we can get a cd issue of Glass' "Music in 12 Parts" which is maybe his best ever and has a very similar feel to these two great Reich pieces), while beneath the organs is the repetitious shaking of maracas. The short pulsations of the organ gradually stretch out, lasting longer and longer, creating a totally dynamic tension that evokes standing in a massive and grand church that's empty except for the mesmerizing sounds of the organs lulling you into some sort of a trance. Phase Patterns manages to increase the tension with the four players using identical organs and playing to a precise strategy that Reich has calculated. These pieces predate and predict so much of the minimalist electronic and experimental music to come over the next three decades, and are well worth checking out again!
MPEG Stream: "Four Organs"
MPEG Stream: "Phase Patterns"

REICH, STEVE Music For 18 Musicians (ECM) cd 16.98