EX-COCAINE Keep America Mellow (Killertree) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

EX-COCAINE / YELLOW SWANS split (Not Not Fun) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Is it even necessary to point out that Noise nerds and Free Jazz freaks tend to keep the sort of the same company? Probably not, but if it were, then we would just play you this record and say goodnight. Those of you who don't like jazz, don't get scared off! The sensibility coloring this record with that spirit is really just one of genuinely free improvisation, so don't expect Coltrane or anything like that, this is still largely a Noise affair. Ex-Cocaine starts off with a loose instrumental guitar piece, accompanied by various drum sounds. The second track follows a similar trajectory, with the addition of vocals. If Aztec Camera were a lo-fi art rock band, this is what it might sound like. Side two features none other than the prolific -- and soon to be extinct -- Yellow Swans. Yes, it's true, after 7 years or so of trying to destroy both your ears and your speakers, Gabriel Saloman and Pete Swanson are calling it quits. They're not exactly going to disappear though, just saying goodbye to the Swans and starting some new things. If you saw our last list, then you probably noticed Mr. Saloman's collaborative effort with Aja Rose of In Flux. As for Pete Swanson, he's got a new label called Freedom to Spend -- check our review of it's first release, the album "Light Ships" by Axolotl off-shoot Bulbs. Okay, you're all caught up, now: the second side of the record. From mindfuck analog meltdown to blissful psych incantations, YS have certainly changed over the years, and, perhaps for the best, their final days have drifted into a more melodic, psychedelic direction. This track could not possibly better demonstrate that trend. In fact, if you didn't know who this actually was, it would be pretty dang impressive if you could guess. Meandering guitars, buried vocals, and a final showdown that dissolves into beautiful sheets of noise. Recommended!

EX-CULT s/t (Goner) cd 13.98
Even though Ex-Cult (formerly Sex Cult) hail from Memphis, the sound of their debut owes the Bay Area big time. Not only is it produced by SF garage pop wunderkind and repeat aQ Record Of The Weeker Ty Segall, sonically, it definitely sounds like these guys were born from the same fertile fields that gave us lots of favorites, Thee Oh Sees, Blasted Canyons, Bare Wires, The Mallard, Mikal Cronin. Sure the sound is a bit more raw and urgent, and a bit punkier, but then these guys did actually start out as a proper punk band. But with a clutch of new songs, and Segall behind the mixing board, their sound has transformed into something distinctly garagey poppy, urgent and swaggery, definitely Stooges-y (but then really what garage rock isn't), but without losing any punk energy. Close listening reveals lots of stuff that will sound familiar to the SF scene, and Segall in particular, check out the back up vox on "Don't Feel Anything" for instance, but Ex-Cult definitely channel classic punk into their garage pop sound, we hear lots of old SST, even some Orange County HC, but deftly woven into some crazy catchy jams, that have been sticking in our heads like crazy, and getting tons of play around aQ.
MPEG Stream: "Knives On Both Sides"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Feel Anything"
MPEG Stream: "M.P.D."
MPEG Stream: "Day To Day"

EX-CULT s/t (Goner) lp 14.98
Now on vinyl too!
Even though Ex-Cult (formerly Sex Cult) hail from Memphis, the sound of their debut owes the Bay Area big time. Not only is it produced by SF garage pop wunderkind and repeat aQ Record Of The Weeker Ty Segall, sonically, it definitely sounds like these guys were born from the same fertile fields that gave us lots of favorites, Thee Oh Sees, Blasted Canyons, Bare Wires, The Mallard, Mikal Cronin. Sure the sound is a bit more raw and urgent, and a bit punkier, but then these guys did actually start out as a proper punk band. But with a clutch of new songs, and Segall behind the mixing board, their sound has transformed into something distinctly garagey poppy, urgent and swaggery, definitely Stooges-y (but then really what garage rock isn't), but without losing any punk energy. Close listening reveals lots of stuff that will sound familiar to the SF scene, and Segall in particular, check out the back up vox on "Don't Feel Anything" for instance, but Ex-Cult definitely channel classic punk into their garage pop sound, we hear lots of old SST, even some Orange County HC, but deftly woven into some crazy catchy jams, that have been sticking in our heads like crazy, and getting tons of play around aQ.
MPEG Stream: "Knives On Both Sides"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Feel Anything"
MPEG Stream: "M.P.D."
MPEG Stream: "Day To Day"

EXCEPTER Alternation (5RC) cd 14.98
For the last several years Excepter have been creating super fucked up, seriously pleasurable waves on outsider dancefloors everywhere, with an onslaught of ep's, 12"s, split releases and full lengths. Alternation is full length number three, and as always these guys do not disappoint! A dizzying slab of herky-jerky rhythms, beat up electronics, drugged out rumblings, late night salvation. The first half has some almost catchy pop moments (this is all relative of course) including quite possibly their most infectious song to date "Rock Stepper", while the second half of the album features longer tracks that melt and burst with the unique flavor we've come to love from these guys. They seem to be taking some of the more melodic moments of Throbbing Gristle's legacy (a friend even suggested one might throw one of these songs on a mix right next to TG's "Hot On The Heels Of Love!") Excepter makes sounds that are the perfect conglomeration of the now and hip with a eyes toward the future and a knowing nod to the past. And while their music sounds nothing like Ariel Pink, we can totally imagine the sort of craziness that might result if those wonderfully warped melody makers got together. Since they both approach music making from a damaged and drugged out, Technicolor drenched angle unlike almost any other bands we've heard. Until then, we'll just be content to soak up this super kick ass full length.
MPEG Stream: "The "Rock" Stepper"
MPEG Stream: "Op Pop"

EXCEPTER Debt Dept. (Paw Tracks) cd 14.98
Haunted and humorous, Excepter's Debt Dept. opens with a Sabbath like riff, looped and fuzzed to create the platform for the vocals of not 1, nor 2, but 3 vocalists' unhinged ramblings.
Excepter's cast flood the track with faithless and caustically delivered lyrics, half sung, half spoken. The effect is oddly chilling, considering the tone is ultimately that of Excepter's tried and true mix of futurist-dub, narcotic fuzz and drone, and mellow yet schizophrenic vocals; a pastiche sometimes too dynamic, ridiculous, or slapdash to take "seriously." Nonetheless, on Debt Dept., Excepter's sardonic wit and notedly more focused approach gives them a winning hand. Their most recent efforts have been less oriented towards vocals and lyrics, but the addition of two new vocalists, Clare Amory and Lala Harrison, has changed that. The vocals by committee approach is made a dominant fixture through the diverse array of effects their digressions are filtered through. The rhythmic collision course is more spacious than previous efforts giving time for grooves to develop, and even a few hooks to set in. Beyond the half-sung/postpunk/almost-rap like vocal delivery, there are also spectral vocal interludes, resulting in blanketed and billowing textures that soften the harsh and incisive beats and guttural, expulsive, and erotic moaning.
Those who love Excepter will find themselves well satisfied with Dept Debt., as it embellishes and improves upon their developing style of droney, dubby eclecticism. On this, their full length Paw Tracks debut, the band offers a near staggering swirl of most of the styles and sounds the label already offers, with heavy ladle-fulls of Black Dice, Rings, and Ariel Pink added to the already potent brew. Lest this hint at a lack originality, it must be stressed that the way in which the band incorporates and stirs these qualities is wholly original. Rhythmically, the album is a little tighter and more committed than previous efforts, with a greater apprenticeship to hip hop and dub, and some wacked notion of post-industrial dance. It could work well as the soundtrack to some alchemists in a satellite factory processing dark matter into... well... dark pop. Or perhaps like watching a disco ball shatter in slow motion, its shards reflecting a disparate collection of cultural references as they fly past you. Whichever the more operative metaphor, the band has invited you lovingly to their fucked-up, post-everything party, and if we were you, we'd be joining them in the festivities.
MPEG Stream: "Kill People"
MPEG Stream: "Sunrise"

EXCEPTER FRKWYS Vol.2 (RVNG International) 12" 16.98
Really? Carter Tutti and Foetus remixing Excepter? Yup, that's what you'll get on this 12" from the newly birthed Frkwys imprint (read Freakways as a play on Folkways). Carter Tutti (the re-named duo for Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, then and now of Throbbing Gristle fame) have tightened up the jammy industrial wanderings of Excepter's "Shors Ring" (from the Debt Dept. album) within their own rhythmicist precision that recalls some of the best work they've ever produced over the past 30 years (e.g. Heartbeat, Synaesthesia, The Space Between, etc.). Mr. Foetus twists Excepter's "Stretch" (also from Debt Dept.) into one of his manic marches of bombastic drum corps rhythms and huge melodic crescendos certainly not dissimilar from his twisted anthems of old. It's hard to hear much of the Excepter sounds within either track, but the productions from both remixing agents are so strong that it really doesn't matter.

EXCEPTER Ka (Fusetron) cd 14.98
Both Excepter 12"s finally on cd. Excepter is yet another No Neck Blues Band offshoot, this time spearheaded by ex-NNBB yokel John Fell Ryan, and this time, gone are those clattery, free-folk hippy drum circle jams, and in their place is some bizarre reverb drenched space dub, complete with throbbing, gothic soundscapes, sequenced drones, muted pulsing grooves, dubbed out drums, noisy programmed beats under fuzzed out static and bleeping synths, dreamy ethereal atmospheres and ghostly moaning vocals. Sort of like Can jamming at the bottom of an abandoned swimming pool recorded onto beat up cassettes that have been in the glovebox of your car for years, or maybe King Tubby manning the desk for a VERY STONED Sunburned Hand jam session. This is a gorgeously muddy, beautifully murky head on collision between krautrock propulsion, druggy dream dub, and damaged experimetal weirdness. Pretty fucking great.
MPEG Stream: "Vacation"
MPEG Stream: "Be Beyond Me"

EXCEPTER KA (Fusetron) lp 14.98
Another No Neck Blues Band offshoot, this time spearheaded by ex-NNBB yokel John Fell Ryan, and this time, gone are those clattery, free-folk hippy drum circle jams, and in their place, throbbing, haunting, gothic soundscapes of sequenced drones and haunting vocals, muted pulsing grooves, like Can jamming at the bottom of a pool, noisy programmed beats under fuzzed out static and bleeping synths, and dreamy ethereal soundscapes. Unexpected and really nice!

EXCEPTER Late (Woodsist) 12" 14.98
More tripped out explorations from Excepter.

EXCEPTER Presidence (Paw Tracks) 2cd 14.98

EXCEPTER Self Destruction (Fusetron) lp 13.98
According to the band, "this is a house record". If it is, then raves must be way more scary and fucked up than I ever imagined. We've been digging Excepter's freeform avant space dub weirdness for a while now, and as much as the band would like to claim that this is a dance record, it's just as damaged and out there sounding as their last two full lengths. Throbbing synths, haunting reverbed vocals, warm warbly bass lines, creepy ghostly ambience, squiggly synths and all manner of bleeps and bloops. Muted mumbling vocalisations drift through pusling dronescapes until toward the end of the record, skittery drum machines spew spastic rhythms, pushing Self Destruction about as far dance-ward as it's gonna get, and even then, it's way to druggy and psychedelic to be dance music for anything but a wasted and stumbling, blood soaked, moonlit, satanic sacrifice, pagan ritual dance party. Which when you put it that way...
MPEG Stream: "Shoot Me First"
MPEG Stream: "In The Rain"

EXCEPTER Self-Destruction (Fusetron) cd 13.98
According to the band, "this is a house record". If it is, then raves must be way more scary and fucked up than I ever imagined. We've been digging Excepter's freeform avant space dub weirdness for a while now, and as much as the band would like to claim that this is a dance record, it's just as damaged and out there sounding as their last two full lengths. Throbbing synths, haunting reverbed vocals, warm warbly bass lines, creepy ghostly ambience, squiggly synths and all manner of bleeps and bloops. Muted mumbling vocalisations drift through pusling dronescapes until toward the end of the record, skittery drum machines spew spastic rhythms, pushing Self Destruction about as far dance-ward as it's gonna get, and even then, it's way to druggy and psychedelic to be dance music for anything but a wasted and stumbling, blood soaked, moonlit, satanic sacrifice, pagan ritual dance party. Which when you put it that way...
MPEG Stream: "Shoot Me First"
MPEG Stream: "In The Rain"

EXCEPTER Streams 01 (Fusetron) 2cd 15.98
Streams 01 -- a newish double disc release from Excepter -- proves once again that New York has a near monopoly on almost-danceable, not-danceable dance music. Think Gang Gang Dance and Black Dice, too. While Streams isn't a radical departure from previous work, it does a great job of showcasing Excepter's free-something Kraut ramblings, drenched in dub and distortion. The reason that it literally is not a departure is that the two discs constitute a fractional archive of the group's work over a four-year period. Some live performances, some jams, and some other stuff. The world need bands and releases like this, ones that make psychedelic drugs seem almost obsolete, as time and space collide into a beautiful trainwreck clusterfuck of beeps, bleeps, yelps, and crunches. We're reminded of the title of a book put together by AQ employee Scott, "Good Times, Bad Trips."
MPEG Stream: "Silence (Except Her)"
MPEG Stream: "I Just Wanna Love Yeah"

EXCEPTER Sunbomber (5RC) cd 9.98
Apparently recorded in one hour on a hot summer's day this new Excepter ep finds them with a slightly different lineup and in fine fucked up form. Sun soaked and dripping with melting casios, warped vocals and all sorts of effects they got hidden up their tricky sleeves. The last ep found them channeling the ghost of Third Eye Foundation while this time out it's a little less twisted dark dub and a little more twisted kaleidoscope of sounds. There's the inclusion of vocals on a few tracks that we're not sure how we feel about, but when the vocals fade away on tracks like "Dawn Patrol" it's fucked up and blissed out electronic tinged noise at its best. Excepter have this way of walking a fine line between half assed and totally off the cuff (they say they recorded this in one hour) and totally brilliant but when they hit their mark they hit is soooo hard that we keep coming back for more and more.
MPEG Stream: "One More Try"
MPEG Stream: "Dawn Patrol"

EXCEPTER Sunbomber (5RC) 12" 9.98
Apparently recorded in one hour on a hot summer's day this new Excepter ep finds them with a slightly different lineup and in fine fucked up form. Sun soaked and dripping with melting casios, warped vocals and all sorts of effects they got hidden up their tricky sleeves. The last ep found them channeling the ghost of Third Eye Foundation while this time out it's a little less twisted dark dub and a little more twisted kaleidoscope of sounds. There's the inclusion of vocals on a few tracks that we're not sure how we feel about, but when the vocals fade away on tracks like "Dawn Patrol" it's fucked up and blissed out electronic tinged noise at its best. Excepter have this way of walking a fine line between half assed and totally off the cuff (they say they recorded this in one hour) and totally brilliant but when they hit their mark they hit is soooo hard that we keep coming back for more and more.
MPEG Stream: "One More Try"
MPEG Stream: "Dawn Patrol"

EXCEPTER Throne (Load) cd 14.98
Second full length from these NY abstract free-rock, free-folk, free-whatever weirdos. Featuring ex No Neck Blues Bander John Fell Ryan, Excepter take the abstractions of the NNBB even further out. Way more abstract, way more blissed out, way more dreamy and ethereal. No clattery drum circle rhythms or pagan ritual folk, no this is drifting and deliriously unmoored. Female vocals hover ghost like over slowly rolling waves of electronic sound. Drones that pulse and weave and slither but mostly just drift. Outer space swooshes and simple percussive splashes demarcate the wide open expanses of each song. Like Hawkwind's space rock with all the rock removed, and in its place, even MORE space, as well as hushed and whispered vocals, shuffling electronic skitters, woozy distant melodies and lots of rumbling weirdness and whooshing swirl. Like the spirit of Can or Faust, a ghostly shimmer of krautrock, rhythmic and propulsive but with all the flesh pulled off, so the sounds are gauzy and barely there, a flicker of rhythmic urgency, now just a gorgeously ghostly amble.
MPEG Stream: "Jrone (Three)"
MPEG Stream: "The Heart Beat"

EXCEPTER Vacation / Forget Me (Fusetron) 12" 12.98

EXCEPTER / LEB-LAZE split (Hoss) lp 11.98

EXCEPTER / PANDA BEAR split (Paw Tracks) 12" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.No offense to Excepter but man oh man Panda Bear steals the show on this split 12"! Best known as one of the members of the Animal Collective and one half of Jane we got to say we think we are most in love with Noah Lennox in his Panda Bear existence. Acid soaked Beach Boys harmonies tweaked to utter perfection! If his side of this split is any indication of how great his new album is gonna be then wow we are excited! Excepter's side is more of their really good take on murky analog electronics gone no-wave.

EXCUSE 17 (Chainsaw) cd 12.98
Pre-Sleater-Kinney band.

EXCUSES FOR SKIPPING . Out Of Work Early (self-released) cd 11.98
Some terrific pop from right here in SF! Featuring members formally of Blue Gum Art and Aerosal Species, Excuses For Skipping hit the ground running on their debut album Out Of Work Early. Their tunes balance an energetic punchiness and a breezy wistfulness. Their emotive vocals are sweet but not sugary. Actually they remind us quite a bit of some old faves Velocity Girl, Hazel, Metric, and the early poppiness of the Bay Area's Tartufi too (as opposed to their more proggy leanings). We also sense some of the soft, dreamy inspiration of Stereolab and Sarah Records. Really infectiously good!
MPEG Stream: "Gravity"
MPEG Stream: "Decision To Be Normal"

EXHAUST Enregistreur (Constellation) cd 14.98
Only the second album from this Godspeed You Black Emperor side project who've been around in some shape or form since the mid-'90s. Perhaps darker and more morosely droning than their self-titled debut. Layers of bass drones slowly shift, swell and dissipate. Occasional sparse rhythms flutter in and out along with strange electronic squidge'n'sputter that at times quite resembles ominous voices. No flippancy intended, but I really thought this would make a great haunted house soundtrack - oh so very sinister and gloomful.
RealAudio clip: "Voiceboxed"
RealAudio clip: "Behind The Paint Factory"
RealAudio clip: "Silence Sur Le Plateau"

EXHAUST Enregistreur (Constellation) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Only the second album from this Godspeed You Black Emperor side project who've been around in some shape or form since the mid-'90s. Perhaps darker and more morosely droning than their self-titled debut. Layers of bass drones slowly shift, swell and dissipate. Occasional sparse rhythms flutter in and out along with strange electronic squidge'n'sputter that at times quite resembles ominous voices. No flippancy intended, but I really thought this would make a great haunted house soundtrack - oh so very sinister and gloomful.

EXHAUST s/t (Constellation) cd 14.98
Previously a vinyl-only release, now on cd. The side project of one of the drummers of Montreal post-rock/hippie sensations Godspeed You Black Emperor! Exhaust excels at surrounding the sparse yet propulsive cracks of their live breakbeats with thick brooding atmospheres. Another worthy addition to the constellation of, um, Constellation label stars (GSYBE, Do Make Say Think, A Silver Mt. Zion, Fly Pan Am).

EXILES 1 (Megaphone) cd 15.98
The skronk-improv trio of Jon Rose (violin), Peril's Tony Buck (drums), and Joe Williamson (electric and acoustic bass).

EXIT-13 High Life (Relapse) 2cd 16.98
It's frustrating sometimes that lots of our all time favorite records came out well before the aQuarius list was established. We occasionally pick old favorites, like Rein Sanction, Archers Of Loaf, Hardship Post, Green River, stuff that's still available, and review them on the list. Cuz as far as we're concerned, released dates and the concept of 'new music' are pretty much useless. All records are new and exciting to someone who has never heard them. But often times those old favorites are long gone and out of print. So when one of those records does finally get reissued, we jump at the chance to be able celebrate and share that amazing music via the list. Which brings us to this double disc reissue from weirdo eco-radical doom drug grinders Exit-13.
A band we have loved for EVER (so much so, Allan even interviewed them for the first issue of his old fanzine, years and years ago), Exit-13 were only loosely a grind band, sure they were fast and furious, guitars buzzed, songs were short and complex, the vocals a monstrous gurgle, the lyrics way political, all about the environment, vegetarianism, etc.É But for a grind band, they sure spent a lot of time spewing huge gory gouts of buzzing doomic plod, as well as incorporating convoluted jazz weirdness, freaked out psychedelic leads, thrashing punk rock, bizarre interludes with croony vocals, skittery rhythms, and noodly guitar jams, bits of angular retard-funk, Black Flag-ish gnarled riffing as well as confusional cut ups, dizzying collages of chopped and recontextualized vocals, Jello Biafra, bits of Jeopardy music, the theme from Underdog, Led Zep pastiche and whatever else they felt like tossing in there.
The best way we can describe it is John Zorn meets diSEMBOWELMENT meets Brutal Truth.
The original discs came with stickers that summed up the Exit-13 sound pretty succinctly:
"Mind warping philosophically contemplative environmental brain food from Pennsylvania's unique smoking grind rock extremists" (from Don't Spare The Green Love) and "An 80 minute head explosion of absolutely unique sonic intelligence from Pennsylvania's environmental grind rock hedonists. This band smokes, bud!" (from Ethos Musick)
Hard to argue with thatÉ
So, High Life collects almost everything the band has ever recorded (minus the ep of '20s and '30s cover songs, all about reefer, sung by the Pain Teens' Bliss Blood): their one proper full length, as well as all of their various singles, eps and splits (previously released as Don't Spare The Green Love). And by now, you've probably realized these guys were all about the pot. The songs buzz by in dense clouds of bong smoke, lots of samples about marijuana, lyrics about legalizing hemp and pot. The back of the booklet even features a huge pot leaf and the "Stop the madness - Legalize Marijuana" legend. But that's only one of their causes, a quick look through the lyrics, reveals a seriously 'green' agenda, environmentalism, vegetarianism, there's even a whole track that's just a snippet of the Phil Donahue show, on which he interviews members of Earth First!
But none of that would mean anything if this band didn't completely slay. And thankfully they do. Heavy and fucked, weird, but weirdly catchy, buzzing and blasting, then pounding and chugging. Furious blasts of blown out lightning fast grind are butted up against lurching doom sludge, peppered with super fucked up free jazz breakdowns. Guitars are serpentine, jagged and angular, the drums go from pound to blast beat and back
the vocals harsh and gurgly, there are bits of weirdly classic rock sounding jams, over sound samples, electronics and Goblin-like keyboards...
"Anthropocentric Ecocidal Conundrum" begins with an insistent folky strum over chirping birds and burbling brook, until the guttural death metal vocals kick in and the drums, then it's some sort of metallic death metal folk freakout, finally morphing into some gnarled convoluted math grind jam. Elsewhere, cool creepy acoustic guitars drift over moaning synths, and splattery drums, super cinematic and haunting on "Only Protest Gives A Hope Of Life". There is plenty of weirdness. Damaged is a descriptor that constantly springs to mind, as does demented, and most certainly fucked. Silly too. But at it's core, this is heavy, heady stuff. Brutal but musical, fierce and fractured, forward thinking and seriously far out.
The second disc is the older stuff, and is at once more furious and thrashing, much more grind, but also has lots more sound samples, songs dotted with all sorts of film snippets, voices, bits of dialogue all tangled up with the growling harsh vocals. "Spare The Wrench Surrender The Earth" is half funeral doom, before launching into a more grinding blast of punk rock. The stuff from the first 7" is almost like old school goregrind, with impossible gurgling loooooow vocals, the guitars a furious blur, the drums a furious splatter. Then there's "Fingernails" hinting at the weirdness to come, with its fake horns, and frog-like croaking super effected vocals, and that classic funeral march melody mixed into the chaotic rrroooaaar.
Any fan of heavy music, be it black, thrash, grind, doom, or sludge should be able to get into these guys. And they're just weird enough to maybe also appeal to the less metal inclined looking for something freaked out and heavy.
An interesting note: like any self-respecting grind band, Exit-13 made a regular practice of releasing records with different versions of the same songs, so the song "Disemboweling Party" appears three different times, while seven other tracks appear twice. But in most cases, the various versions, while not totally different, are varied enough to keep it interesting, even if it's just that one is super hot and in the red, and one is super muddy and lo-fi, or even just that different samples were used.
Our only complaint, is that this is only sort of the complete Exit-13, 'cause they left off the extended, potentially-speaker-damaging noisedrone jams that closed out both their records, the 28 minute "An Electronic Fugue For The Imminent Demise of Planet Earth" from Ethos Musick and the 21 minute "Snakes And Alligators" from the Just A Few More Hits ep. Most of us wouldn't have minded paying a few extra bucks for a third disc, and ruined speakers, but what can you do?
Killer packaging, all the original photos, images, lyrics, quotes and propaganda reproduced in a huge booklet.
MPEG Stream: "Societally Provoked Genocidal Contemplation"
MPEG Stream: "Ethos Musick"
MPEG Stream: "Facilitate The Emancipation Of Your Mummified Mentality"
MPEG Stream: "Legalize Hemp Now!"
MPEG Stream: "Oral Fixation"

EXMAGMA 3 (Daily Records) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in stock, now way cheaper than before!
Previously unreleased 3rd (double) album from cult krautrock trio Exmagma (no relation to French prog masters Magma). Recorded in 1975 at Conny Plank's studio, this excellently-produced opus somehow eluded release for over thirty years. Now finally here it is, with vintage artwork, informative liner notes, and most importantly, 17 tracks, 69 minutes of quirkily wacky krautrock that had lain dormant for far too long. If you've heard either of their first two albums (the self-titled from '73 or Goldball from '74, both of which are available together on a single cd reissue) then you know they're a freaky band, a bit like Guru Guru but with more jazz-fusion stuff going on. This is still pretty jazzy but more rock than before - with more singing too. Definitely betrays the influence of Captain Beefheart (with the track "Torpedo Tits" perhaps coming uncomfortably close to Frank Zappa lyrical territory) but also that of Miles Davis as well. A lost krautrock effort that we'd wager doesn't sound like too much else in your cd collection, with hard, angular grooves, druggy concepts, zany rock, confusional hippie humor, and journeyman jazz chops - for a gonzo Frankenstein of an album only Exmagma would dare design and build.
MPEG Stream: "Box 25"
MPEG Stream: "The Pope"
MPEG Stream: "Stoned Chicken"

EXMAGMA Exmagma & Goldball (Daily Records) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in stock, now way cheaper than before!
Ok, let's get the first question everybody has about this band out of the way: they've got nothing to do with our favorite Seventies proggers, Magma from France. The trio Exmagma was also from the '70s, but from Germany (featuring an expatriate African-American drummer though) and are known as Exmagma simply because they had originally called themselves Magma, until they found out about the French group and changed the name! Some understandable confusion resulted, we're told, because Exmagma's second record Goldball was only released on a French label...and the "real" Magma kinda sound more German than French what with their Wagner influence. Anyway, THIS band was more of an acid rock meets (free) jazz fusion kind of thing. Freaky, wild, and groovy. Laid back weirdness, some sax, lots of electric organ and piano, doublenecked bass/guitar...Mostly instrumental, with only some very rare Faust-like vocal parts. This disc contains their two albums, both recorded by Krautrock production maestro Conny Plank, with the first self-titled one from '73 being perhaps the more far-out and abstract, while 1974's Goldball more solidly grooved. Maybe. However, both LPs are "drug jazz" classics. Also, on the cover to Goldball (reproduced in miniature here) the band sports the craziest bellbottoms we've ever seen...they're on stilts under them I guess!
MPEG Stream: "The First Tune"
MPEG Stream: "Adventures With Long S. Tea"

EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH Death of a Robot/Automatic Music (Ochre) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Death of a Robot... is a surprisingly good E.A.R. record not nearly as tinny as some of his other records. Here Sonic Boom and E.A.R. make two long tracks in the drone tradition of early electronic composers like Ussachevsky or Xenakis.

EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH Speak and Spell (Space Age) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
And thus spake Sonic Boom on Speak & Spell, "The sound collages on this disc were created using 8 human voice synthesizing toys originally marketed by Texas Instruments as the 'Speak & Spell' range during the 1970's. These instruments have been customized with added switches, buttons, knobs, & wiring to give phoneme looping, random phase generation, various modulation, pitch shifting, & other non-standard effects."

EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH The Koner Experiment (Space Age/Revolver) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sonic Boom's E.A.R. (featuring members of AMM, God, and My Bloody Valentine) team up with European electronic composer Thomas Koner to try to prove some lovely hypothesis about ambient drone music.

EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH Worn To A Shadow (Lumberton Trading Company) cd 14.98

EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL SCHOOL 2 1/2 Creatures (dLTD) cd 13.98
Oakland's Experimental Dental School come crashing in with their latest twisted concoction. They've done split releases with Japan's Limited Express in the past, and that entirely makes sense as they're very much of the same imaginative art-rock ilk. Their music also brings to mind the rollercoaster-y quirks of Melt Banana and Deerhoof -- actually the latter band's Greg Saunier makes a guest appearance on a few songs. Drawing influence from both the carnivalesque multi-personalities of Mr. Bungle and the dissonant angst of Sonic Youth, 2 1/2 Creatures confirms that E.D.S. are more than capable of making themselves equally at home in indie post-rock and no wave basements, jazz joints and circus tents. The first song sprints out of the gate with some very frantic organ playing that sounds like a disjointed "Flight of the Bumblebee". Their effected high trebly vocals, pinchy electric guitars and keyboards balance precariously atop the loosely strung bass and thick synth lines. Very cool!
MPEG Stream: "Our Blood Is Laughing"
MPEG Stream: "A Little Bird Told Me"

EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL SCHOOL Hideous Dance Attack!!! (The Company With The Golden Arm) cd 8.98

EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL SCHOOL Hideous Dance Attack!!! (The Company With The Golden Arm) lp 9.98

EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL SCHOOL / LIMITED EXPRESS (HAS GONE?) Experimental Express Explorer (Memory Lab) cd ep 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two tracks each from SF's own Experimental Dental School and Limited Express (Has Gone?) from Kyoto, Japan, whose Tzadik release from last year we likened to Melt Banana and Deerhoof. It's like an exchange program for avant-rock zaniness. Limited stock.
MPEG Stream: LIMITED EXPRESS (HAS GONE?) "Mophin' Fellet"
MPEG Stream: EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL SCHOOL "Poison Reverb"

EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL SCHOOL / LIMITED EXPRESS (HAS GONE?) Experimental Express Explorer (Memory Lab) 7" 5.98
Found we also had a few of these on 7", that we never listed for some reason - and the cd ep version is out of print. Both came out in 2004, this is what we said then:
Two tracks each from SF's own Experimental Dental School and Limited Express (Has Gone?) from Kyoto, Japan, whose Tzadik release from last year we likened to Melt Banana and Deerhoof. It's like an exchange program for avant-rock zaniness. Limited stock.
MPEG Stream: LIMITED EXPRESS (HAS GONE?) "Mophin' Fellet"
MPEG Stream: EXPERIMENTAL DENTAL SCHOOL "Poison Reverb"

EXPLODING HEARTS, THE Shattered (Dirt Nap) cd 14.98
Shattered is the posthumous release by this young punky power pop four piece, three of whom were killed in a highway accident driving home to Seattle after a show at the Bottom Of The Hill here in SF on July 17, 2003. This 16-song cd compiles a bunch of unreleased tracks and alternate versions. Really really good retro power pop with lots of guitars and sweet boy gang vocals. Seemingly inspired by the likes of The Buzzcocks, early Elvis Costello and Superchunk, The Exploding Hearts overflowed with raw youthful energetic fun.
Needless to say, listening to this is both utterly heartbreaking and uplifting, but making it even more so is the addition of live video footage of the band performing at the Bottom only hours before the tragic accident. Includes a terrific cover of Paul Collins & The Breakaways' "Walking Out On Love".
MPEG Stream: "Shattered (You Left Me) "
MPEG Stream: "Walking Out On Love"

EXPLORERS Bermuda Telepaths (Not Not Fun) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What hath the Skaters wrought? In the wake of that group's ever expanding body of work, both as a duo and each member solo, has risen a whole movement of musicians channeling similar sounds and melding many of the same influences into that ethereal collaged anti-pop that the Skaters if not invented, popularized. A symptom of today's MySpace world, where the minute one group, or one sound, gets hyped, a million bedroom 4-trackers take it upon themselves to do something similar. See the recent lo-fi garage pop explosion for example. But heck, stealing from the bands you love is a tried and true rock and roll tradition, the key being stealing from bands YOU LOVE, not from bands that are suddenly popular and you want to be popular too. That shit is transparent. That's why in an avalanche of wannabe's there are always a few who shine, whose creativity had seemingly lain dormant just waiting for a trigger. Sometimes hearing a sound, makes you realize that someone else hears the same sort of sounds you've been hearing in your head.
This could all be bullshit, but the second we first threw on this Explorers records, we couldn't help but think of the Skaters. But like any good band, taking influence from another, it's not the sounds you steal or the ideas you borrow, it's what you do with them that counts, and the Explorers definitely do their own sort of fractured soundscapery as good as, if not even better than their forebears. Layered tangles of tones and squiggly melodies, wheezing textures and buried stumbling drumloops, a swirling soft chaos of blurred sounds smeared into streaked landscapes of broken tape deck new age, deep dense outer space buzz and washed out dream drone, the sift from sound to sound is sudden and sharp, like flipping the channel or changing the station. Imagine the sound of sound remote research station, all the machines left running, whirring in the darkness, pointed heavenward, as they sample and intercept transmissions and broadcasts from alien worlds and alternate dimensions. Gloriously tripped out and deliriously druggy. For fans of the Skaters for sure, but also anyone into weird and wonderful, freaked out and far flung sonic explorations (they don't call them Explorers for nothing apparently).
LIMITED TO 330 COPIES.

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone (Temporary Residence Ltd.) 2cd 14.98
We've always been fans of Explosions In The Sky. One of the post Mogwai, post Godspeed outfits so adept at crafting super epic and emotional instrumental soundscapes -- post rock, math rock, jangly pop, chamber music, all sort of whipped into grandiose cinematic swells. But past records, while sounding amazing, with the right balance of mood and metal, hush and heaviness, still stuck a little too close to the template of their forbears. EITS were like the perfect mix of Godspeed and old more bombastic Mogwai. And not much more. Nothing wrong with that really, it just never totally blew us away.
But All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone is different. And it does blow us away. In a big way. It still sounds like EITS, and thus still sounds a bit like Godspeed and Mogwai, but like any great band in the last 20 years, it's not who you steal from, or what you steal, it's how you make what you steal your own. And EITS have made epic instrumental post rock all their own. The opener is everything this sort of music could and should be. Super dense and dramatic, spacious and emotional, opening with keening high end melodies over big jangly guitar strum and huge percussive For Those About To Rock blasts, the guitars slowly intertwining and drifting off, fading to a moody minor key post rock drift, underpinned by layer after layer of fuzzy blissy guitar and a motorik rhythmic shuffle before the completely perfect bridge, a spaced out melody, all dynamic and epic, that will definitely give you goosebumps, before launching into a full on heavy math rock groove, incorporating that same hair raising melody, with some killer drumming and a veritable orchestra of guitars.
The rest of the record plays out in similar, albeit slightly less bombastic fashion. Each track perfectly leading into the next, an expansive post rock epic, separated into movements, chiming guitars, thick riffs, each track gloriously tangled and emotional, with long stretches of cinematic ambience, some shimmering strings, glistening melodies, lush harmonies, bits of piano, and some amazingly expressive drumming.
All Of A Sudden also includes a bonus disc, an entire remix of the album, each track reworked by a different artist. Jesu turns the epic opener into a fuzzier, blissier, and toward the end a MUCH heavier beast. Adem's remix is all low key and abstract, acoustic guitars, simple percussion and glistening chimes, a whispery shadow of the original. The Paper Chase wraps the original track in a glorious swirl of murky ambience, adding a stuttery drum machine rhythm and all sorts of strange sonic filigree. Mountains gives their track a serious Pop Ambient makeover, stretched out and languorous, swirling and shimmery, ending with a long expanse of solo piano. Four Tet's reimagination is the most dramatic, a blissed out shuffling electronic workout, all processed drums, shuffling and skittering, with the original track nestled beneath layers of synth fuzz and strange subtle FX. Finally, labelmates Eluvium transform the album closer into a fuzzy smear of pixelated ambience, that builds and builds, much like the original, but in this version, into a blown out, super distorted fuzzy dreamscape.
Two versions of the same record, both stunning! So recommended.
MPEG Stream: "The Birth And Death Of The Day"
MPEG Stream: "Welcome, Ghosts"
MPEG Stream: "The Birth And Death Of A Day (Jesu Mix)"

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY All Of The Sudden I Miss Everyone (Temporary Residence Ltd.) 2lp+cd 17.98
Now available on vinyl! And the lp version also includes the bonus remix cd...
We've always been fans of Explosions In The Sky. One of the post Mogwai, post Godspeed outfits so adept at crafting super epic and emotional instrumental soundscapes -- post rock, math rock, jangly pop, chamber music, all sort of whipped into grandiose cinematic swells. But past records, while sounding amazing, with the right balance of mood and metal, hush and heaviness, still stuck a little too close to the template of their forbears. EITS were like the perfect mix of Godspeed and old more bombastic Mogwai. And not much more. Nothing wrong with that really, it just never totally blew us away.
But All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone is different. And it does blow us away. In a big way. It still sounds like EITS, and thus still sounds a bit like Godspeed and Mogwai, but like any great band in the last 20 years, it's not who you steal from, or what you steal, it's how you make what you steal your own. And EITS have made epic instrumental post rock all their own. The opener is everything this sort of music could and should be. Super dense and dramatic, spacious and emotional, opening with keening high end melodies over big jangly guitar strum and huge percussive For Those About To Rock blasts, the guitars slowly intertwining and drifting off, fading to a moody minor key post rock drift, underpinned by layer after layer of fuzzy blissy guitar and a motorik rhythmic shuffle before the completely perfect bridge, a spaced out melody, all dynamic and epic, that will definitely give you goosebumps, before launching into a full on heavy math rock groove, incorporating that same hair raising melody, with some killer drumming and a veritable orchestra of guitars.
The rest of the record plays out in similar, albeit slightly less bombastic fashion. Each track perfectly leading into the next, an expansive post rock epic, separated into movements, chiming guitars, thick riffs, each track gloriously tangled and emotional, with long stretches of cinematic ambience, some shimmering strings, glistening melodies, lush harmonies, bits of piano, and some amazingly expressive drumming.
The All Of A Sudden lp also includes a cd, which contains an entire remix of the album, each track reworked by a different artist. Jesu turns the epic opener into a fuzzier, blissier, and toward the end a MUCH heavier beast. Adem's remix is all low key and abstract, acoustic guitars, simple percussion and glistening chimes, a whispery shadow of the original. The Paper Chase wraps the original track in a glorious swirl of murky ambience, adding a stuttery drum machine rhythm and all sorts of strange sonic filigree. Mountains gives their track a serious Pop Ambient makeover, stretched out and languorous, swirling and shimmery, ending with a long expanse of solo piano. Four Tet's reimagination is the most dramatic, a blissed out shuffling electronic workout, all processed drums, shuffling and skittering, with the original track nestled beneath layers of synth fuzz and strange subtle FX. Finally, labelmates Eluvium transform the album closer into a fuzzy smear of pixelated ambience, that builds and builds, much like the original, but in this version, into a blown out, super distorted fuzzy dreamscape.
Two versions of the same record, both stunning! So recommended.
MPEG Stream: "The Birth And Death Of The Day"
MPEG Stream: "Welcome, Ghosts"
MPEG Stream: "The Birth And Death Of A Day (Jesu Mix)"

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY How Strange Innocence (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 11.98
You might already be a big fan of Explosions In The Sky, or you might already unknowingly be familiar with the swelling post-rock sounds of this Austin, TX band via the telly... Either way you'll surely welcome How Strange Innocence. Now a few albums under their belt, E.I.T.S.'s debut full length gets a warm (remastered, repackaged and reissued) 'welcome back' by those fine folks at Temporary Residence Ltd. We've said it before with regards to the band's later releases and we'll say it again about this one, if you dig epic, atmospheric instrumentals a la those of sprawlingly expansive Scots Mogwai, E.I.T.S. very adeptly fills the bill as their American counterpart. An impressive feat to accomplish on a debut.
MPEG Stream: "A Song For Our Fathers"
MPEG Stream: "Snow And Lights"

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 14.98
It's hard to know what to say about these guys. Every record of theirs is great, moody, emotional, lush and layered, smoldering one second, explosive the next, and while instrumental post rock bands may be a dime a dozen, few can match the depth and emotion of EITS (or Mogwai, or Godspeed for that matter). It says something that even though there are a million bands doing something similar, it only takes a few seconds to recognize Explosions. Not sure if it's the sound, the arrangements, the production, or all of those, but they have a sound that is so distinctly their own, all they have to do is play, and we're whisked away.
The opening track here is actually quite a weird one by EITS standards, beginning with some strange samples, a looped rhythm, before the drums come in, some stately piano, and some soaring high end guitar, within seconds the vibe is stirring and intense, a chiming reverbed melody drifts in, and we're gone, this is the sound of warm Summer days, of walking through the woods with friends, it's the musical version of Super8 films of small towns, and late nights, the sound so evocative and expressive, shimmering chords all hazy and washed out, the rhythm oddly loping, everything fading out leaving just fingerpicked acoustic guitar, a weird hiccuping rhythm, distant whirs, some softly tangled melodies, and then when the song picks up again, it's crystalline and sun dappled and so gorgeous, the sound growing more and more lush and layered, not necessarily loud or bombastic, before finally fading out.
The rest of the record plays out exactly how you might expect/hope, warm languid chords drift over hazy dreamy expanses of blissy ambience, big drums pound over lush soaring chords and woozy melodies, post rockisms abound, those sort of loping rhythms, and that distinctive guitar/drum interplay, but EITS add all sorts of subtle (and not so subtle) colorations, little bits of electronic flutter, lush liquid horn like melodies, thick chordal swells, tribal tom fills, layer after layer of guitars crating strangely haunting harmonies, a few bursts of almost explosive heaviness, the final track maybe our favorite of the bunch, with weirdly processed voices, blurred into an atmospheric haze, the drums subtle and skittery, the guitars almost jazzy, soft piano chords, very softly psychedelic, sort of droned out and dreamy, and the track does have a few crescendos, crunchy and heavy and soaring, but those moments are brief, with most of the track spent drifting and brooding. A gorgeous sonic denouement, hushed and haunting, and so so good.
Some of the most amazing packaging EVER. Both the cd and the lp sleeves fold out into a little house, the artwork on the outside of the house, all wood and stone, ivy, a chimney, the wooden door, a mailbox full of letters, some old bikes leaned against the house, inside a fireplace, some old frames leaning against the wall, hardwood floors, an old telephone, with the receiver off the hook, the window and the door open revealing storm clouds and a tornado in the distance. Even the underneath is printed with the framing under the floor of the house. And there's a poster of the land the house sits on, right down to the empty foundation and the surrounding land on one side, the dirt and roots on the other. WOW.
MPEG Stream: "Last Known Surroundings"
MPEG Stream: "Let Me Back In"

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (Temporary Residence Ltd.) 2lp 36.00
It's hard to know what to say about these guys. Every record of theirs is great, moody, emotional, lush and layered, smoldering one second, explosive the next, and while instrumental post rock bands may be a dime a dozen, few can match the depth and emotion of EITS (or Mogwai, or Godspeed for that matter). It says something that even though there are a million bands doing something similar, it only takes a few seconds to recognize Explosions. Not sure if it's the sound, the arrangements, the production, or all of those, but they have a sound that is so distinctly their own, all they have to do is play, and we're whisked away.
The opening track here is actually quite a weird one by EITS standards, beginning with some strange samples, a looped rhythm, before the drums come in, some stately piano, and some soaring high end guitar, within seconds the vibe is stirring and intense, a chiming reverbed melody drifts in, and we're gone, this is the sound of warm Summer days, of walking through the woods with friends, it's the musical version of Super8 films of small towns, and late nights, the sound so evocative and expressive, shimmering chords all hazy and washed out, the rhythm oddly loping, everything fading out leaving just fingerpicked acoustic guitar, a weird hiccuping rhythm, distant whirs, some softly tangled melodies, and then when the song picks up again, it's crystalline and sun dappled and so gorgeous, the sound growing more and more lush and layered, not necessarily loud or bombastic, before finally fading out.
The rest of the record plays out exactly how you might expect/hope, warm languid chords drift over hazy dreamy expanses of blissy ambience, big drums pound over lush soaring chords and woozy melodies, post rockisms abound, those sort of loping rhythms, and that distinctive guitar/drum interplay, but EITS add all sorts of subtle (and not so subtle) colorations, little bits of electronic flutter, lush liquid horn like melodies, thick chordal swells, tribal tom fills, layer after layer of guitars crating strangely haunting harmonies, a few bursts of almost explosive heaviness, the final track maybe our favorite of the bunch, with weirdly processed voices, blurred into an atmospheric haze, the drums subtle and skittery, the guitars almost jazzy, soft piano chords, very softly psychedelic, sort of droned out and dreamy, and the track does have a few crescendos, crunchy and heavy and soaring, but those moments are brief, with most of the track spent drifting and brooding. A gorgeous sonic denouement, hushed and haunting, and so so good.
Some of the most amazing packaging EVER. Both the cd and the lp sleeves fold out into a little house, the artwork on the outside of the house, all wood and stone, ivy, a chimney, the wooden door, a mailbox full of letters, some old bikes leaned against the house, inside a fireplace, some old frames leaning against the wall, hardwood floors, an old telephone, with the receiver off the hook, the window and the door open revealing storm clouds and a tornado in the distance. Even the underneath is printed with the framing under the floor of the house. And there's a poster of the land the house sits on, right down to the empty foundation and the surrounding land on one side, the dirt and roots on the other. WOW.
MPEG Stream: "Last Known Surroundings"
MPEG Stream: "Let Me Back In"

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 14.98
The second full length from these Austin, Texas post-rockers is quite simply gorgeous. Five ultra dreamy and dynamic and lengthy instrumentals that are totally steeped in hopefulness and longing. They introduce The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place with a delicate lonely guitar line which is gradually joined by the rest of the band, building the heartrending tension for nearly six minutes at which time things give way leaving only the bass guitar with the original solitary guitar. Further into the proceedings that same prettily picked guitar climbs the other mighty effected guitars like ivy on the formidable walls of an old British Manor. Pretty darn great!
MPEG Stream: "First Breath After Coma"
MPEG Stream: "The Only Moment We Were Alone"

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die ( Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 14.98
So o.k., there's nothing new about post rock. There's a million bands that sound like Mogwai. There's a million bands that sound like Godspeed You Black Emperor. Every other band we see has q-u-i-e-t parts...and...then...LOUD CRASHING parts. You know the sound by now. But as with any other phenomenon, some people -do- do it better than others. And boy, do Austin's popular Explosions In The Sky do it well. The 'it' in this case being able to sound really really fantastic, but at the same time wholly unoriginal. I mean there's nothing wrong with being influenced by bands you love, but aping their sound to the point where the listener couldn't possibly tell them apart in a side by side comparison is too much. Now, that said, Explosions in the Sky do make a glorious racket, and fill the void left when Mogwai abandoned their perfect crashing ultra dynamic post rock to pursue noodly indie rock. The loud parts are huge. Waves of splintering chords and ringing harmonics rain down like the burning wreckage of a satellite crashing to earth. The quiet parts are barely there. Whispering and scuttling, humming and mumbling. The production is superb, crystal clear and enormous. It's just that you feel like maybe you've heard all this before. Don't expect to be blown away, like you were the first time you heard Mogwai or Tortoise or whoever, but if you've just been yearning for 'Young Team II' this might just do the trick.
RealAudio clip: "Greet Death"
RealAudio clip: "Yasmin The Light"

EXPO '70 Exquisite Lust (Kill Shaman) cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We were sent a whole batch of cd-r's from this mysterious group Expo '70, and all the various cd-r covers were designed to look like old seventies krautrock or free jazz records. Which definitely grabbed our attention. Plus they're called Expo '70, so while we weren't exactly sure what to expect, we were definitely thinking it was bound to be good. And boy were we right. This is good. Great in fact. But that wasn't all, the faux vintage covers and the band name ended up being seriously indicative of the sounds within. Gorgeous drifting ethereal krautrocky ambience is what Expo '70 is all about, and eyes closed, you'd be hard pressed to not think this was some Ash Ra Tempel disc or some long lost A.R. and The Machines lp. Crafted entirely from guitars, sitar and Moog, each track here is some sort of lengthy, mesmerizingingly blissed out minimal drone jam. Guitar figures are looped into hypnotic cycles, over shimmery whirls of fuzzy sound and distant drones, the looped riffs slowly shifting and gently changing shape. It's almost like some sort of new age space rock Steve Reich. Swirling FX surround warm deep guitar tones floating weightless in a glistening expanse of muted color and twinkling sonic sparkles. So completely blissful and dreamlike and captivating. One of our favorite new discoveries.
Fans of far out krautrock, deep dark drone, and outerspace guitar exploration will be in absolute heaven, or at the very least in some darkened room, in a trance, drifting off to some druggy dreamy other dimension...
MPEG Stream: "Hitherto"
MPEG Stream: "Motorik"

EXPO '70 Illusive Landscaping (Diagnosis... Don't!) 3" cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've sort of been inundated with dreamy new sounds from this one man drugblissdrone krautrock revivalist outfit. We're definitely not complaining though. We absolutely can NOT get enough of Expo 70's drawn out guitarscapes, extended spaced out kraut raga drones, churning and pulsing and throbbing, spacey synths and thick rumbling guitars all tangled into haunting sonic transmissions. We're just sort of scrambling to get them all reviewed. So we figured we'd start with this one, the latest, a two track missive that is so dense and layered it might as well be two HUNDRED tracks. Especially since we find ourselves setting the cd player to repeat and just drifting off...
The two tracks here are further examples of Expo 70's washed out space rock SUNNO))) sound, both tracks begin as soft swirls of synth and FX, tripped out and abstract, keening high end, rumbling low end, guitars wiggle and squiggle, all very chaotic but still drone-y and meditative, the first track doesn't deviate too much, the guitars are warm throbs, underpinned by a thick wash of buzzing synth, eventually sloughing off all the FX, leaving just a gorgeous Niblock like minimal drone. But the second track, is quickly subsumed by huge walls of crumbling fuzzed out slow motion riffage, super processed though, so instead of sounding downtuned or even heavy, it just sounds even MORE spacey, and thick and warm and druggy, a single riff, pulled apart and looped over and over and over, super mesmerizing, droning and drifting along through a field of distant fuzz and buzz and warm swaths of subtle synth, eventually fading out leaving nothing but tolling bells... So great.
Packaged in thick textured blue paper mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi.
And as always, these are of course SUPER LIMITED -- just a mere 100 copies, of which we got a majority share! -- and will most likely fly out of here...
MPEG Stream: "Chrome Cobras"
MPEG Stream: "Blissful Morning"

EXPO '70 July 18, 2004 Live At Infrasonic Sound Studio (Kill Shaman) cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another gorgeous slab of spaced out krautrocky ambience from Expo' 70, this one a live, completely improvised performance back in 2004, with the band expanded to a trio. And if folks' reaction to the first three Expo 70's releases is anything to go by, then these will be flying out of here in no time as well.
For those yet to discover the sublime joys of Expo '70, these guys (usually just one guy, Justin Wright) traffic in glistening dreamlike kosmiche drift. A krautrock that is less about propulsion and rhythm and more about texture and ambience, think Ash Ra Tempel, AR & The Machines, Tangerine Dream, Eno, Popol Vuh. Guitars aren't strummed and picked, they are sort of allowed to unwind, long glistening strands of reverberating buzz unfurl and float into the hazy ether. Synthesizers unleash a similarly disembodied sonic vibe, soft clouds of fuzzy whir and distant chordal warmth. Very much the sonic equivalent to drifting down a warm summer stream, on your back, watching the clouds drift by, the trees on the shore shimmer and sway. Or maybe more accurately, floating in the vacuum of space, everything weightless, untethered and drifting lazily through the inky blackness. The light of stars and suns bends and twists, slowly cycling through the visible spectrum, disobeying all laws of physics, wrapping you in a thick swirl of sonic brilliance. This music has to be the work of some immortal group of dronelords, sitting in their multidimensional fortress, atop some mysterious lost mountain, who in their infinite wisdom, allow their dreamlike drones and angelic ambience to fall from the sky and settle over us like a light dusting of snow...
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"