GANG OF FOUR Return The Gift (V2) cd 15.98
There's no real clear answer to why this album was recorded or even released. It's not that it's bad; actually these recently recorded versions of a bunch of Gang of Four classics are pretty darn good. "Damaged Goods," "Anthrax," "To Hell With Poverty," and "At Home He's A Tourist" are just as aggressive, punchy, and groovy as the originals. Especially since Gang of Four just reissued their masterpiece Entertainment, there's not much justification for the album. But if you need to hear Entertainment and a whole bunch of the later singles redone with the benefit of a pristine digital recording, look no further!
MPEG Stream: "I Love A Man In A Uniform"
MPEG Stream: "To Hell With Poverty"

GANG OF FOUR Solid Gold & Another Day / Another Dollar (EMI) cd 14.98

GANG WIZARD Byzantine Headache (Load) cd 14.98
Noisy, experimental rock band Gang Wizard hadn't ever really interested us much before, but we gave this new album a listen nonetheless and to our surprise, for the first eight minutes, we were captivated... rhythmic, spare, lo-fi shambling weirdness that was remarkably listenable! But, from then on the going gets a bit rougher... it's clear they used the word "headache" in the title for a reason. Intrigued, though, ended up enjoying this varied disc's more cacophonous parts as well. Heck we like throbbing distorto-jams, screamy noise, and bits that sound like beginner guitarist Allan practicing (he'll try to perfect "Soft Crust From 00" before his next guitar lesson) just as much as the next record store. Ok, maybe there's a tad too much screaming ("The Pretty Ape" is just a little taxing). So although the way the singer howls it out on "When The Song Begins" reminds us of Eugene from Oxbow, we'd have to say that the vocals aren't our favorite element of Gang Wizard, we're more into their prettier, abstract Starfuckers-ish soundscaping, and give this the thumbs up for that. Load lovin' noise rock fans ought to be pleased. As will be people who desire cd artwork which appears to be a famous Vietnam war photo melded with a notorious National Lampoon magazine cover...
MPEG Stream: "Another Misplayed Endgame"
MPEG Stream: "When The Song Begins"

GANG WIZARD El Cortez Buy Y' A Drink (Black Bean & Placenta) cd 11.98

GANG WIZARD Jeckyll Loves Hyde (Ecstatic Peace) lp 13.98

GANG WIZARD Lemonade Folly (DNT) 7" 4.50

GANG WIZARD & FRIENDS FOREVER split (Deathbombarc) cd 13.98

GANGER Canopy (Merge) cdep 9.98
Scottish group who recently toured with Mogwai but sound VERY MUCH like Tortoise, only less arty and more accessible. Good!

GANGER Hammock Style (Merge) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Neo Kraut, bass heavy grooves from this British emsemble that sound like a propulsive, non adult-contemporary version of Tortoise.

GANGLIANS Blood on the Sand (Captured) 7" 7.98
Once again, Captured Tracks demonstrates why they are quickly turning into one of the only labels that matters, a practically perfect record of kick ass punk and pop and new wave, and every possible permutation in between. Just over the last few months they've given us records by Grass Widow, The Beets, Blank Dogs, Gary War, Roman Soldiers, Teenage Panzercorps, Woods and now this, latest chunk of summery surfy gloom pop from the Ganglians.
Taking up right where their most recent full length left off, these two tracks offer up more of that slightly new wave-y, very Beach Boys influenced, reverby fuzz pop, the A side lays down some wild wipeout drumming, those Wilson brothers style vocal harmonies, plenty of fuzz and buzz, a irresistible sing along chorus, and just a tinge of gothic brood, which adds just a tinge of darkness, somehow without taking away from the song's summer afternoon haze.
The B side is just more of the same, some serious garage goth surf pop, with even more of a Beach Boys vibe, lots of falsetto vox, and like the first track, the whole thing all warm and washed out and dreamy and summery.

GANGLIANS Monster Head Room (Woodsist) cd 13.98
Though it's been surprisingly cold here in San Francisco as of late, things are starting to warm up nicely, and if we needed any reminder that summertime is IN EFFECT, Ganglians' Monster Head Room does just the trick. This Sacramento group's lo-fi but somewhat orchestral approach to making bouncy, feel good pop is perfect for this weather, with a playful experimental side (check out the cool sound collage of "The Void" and the field recordings used in "To June") and breezy Beach Boys-esque harmonies blending expertly into the mix almost like another instrument altogether. Even at their more "out there" moments, Ganglians' songs are firmly in the pop realm and will no doubt appeal to fans of Animal Collective, good old '90s indie rock, and even the current crop of Shitgazers. There are plenty of mellow folky moments, but the band is not afraid to rock out either, like on the pounding, white hot "100 Years". Throughout it all, Ganglians have created a shimmering set of densely layered pop gems that we can't get enough of. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Lost Words"
MPEG Stream: "The Void"
MPEG Stream: "100 Years"

GANGLIANS Monster Head Room (Weird Forest) lp+7" 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now also in stock on vinyl, with a bonus 7" too! Though it's been surprisingly cold here in San Francisco as of late, things are starting to warm up nicely, and if we needed any reminder that summertime is IN EFFECT, Ganglians' Monster Head Room does just the trick. This Sacramento group's lo-fi but somewhat orchestral approach to making bouncy, feel good pop is perfect for this weather, with a playful experimental side (check out the cool sound collage of "The Void" and the field recordings used in "To June") and breezy Beach Boys-esque harmonies blending expertly into the mix almost like another instrument altogether. Even at their more "out there" moments, Ganglians' songs are firmly in the pop realm and will no doubt appeal to fans of Animal Collective, good old 90s indie rock, and even the current crop of Shitgazers. There are plenty of mellow folky moments, but the band is not afraid to rock out either, like on the pounding, white hot "100 Years". Throughout it all, Ganglians have created a shimmering set of densely layered pop gems that we can't get enough of. Recommended!
While they last, the lp version comes with an Eat Skull 7", yep, NOT a Ganglians 7", an EAT SKULL 7"!
MPEG Stream: "Lost Words"
MPEG Stream: "The Void"
MPEG Stream: "100 Years"

GANGLIANS Still Living (Lefse) cd 13.98
It's been almost two years since we last heard from these Sacramento fuzz poppers, and we're happy to report that very little has changed. The last record, Monster Head Room, arrived right at the beginning of summer '09, and we reveled in its Beach Boys harmonies, surf rock jangle, and psychedelic garage hooks, but we also pointed out their tendency for experimentation, and their occasional hints of gothic brood. But this time around it's all pop all the time, their sound even more sunshiney and summery, we're hearing way more of groups like the Drums and Soft Pack that the usual garage rock fuzz poppers we compared them to before.
As we've seen pointed out in other reviews, the sound definitely touches on classic NZ Flying Nun pop, and that classic nineties shoegaze slowcore, but where past records felt ramshackle and a little home brewed, this time around, they sound like a real band, with real songs, poised for something bigger than just playing the local dive every Friday night. And while some folks will find that disappointing, we can't help but love the new songs, and the new more polished sound, we actually hear a lot of Fresh & Onlys, that same sort of classic pop songsmithery, songs like "California Cousins" are total sunshine summer beach jams, right down to the chiming melodies and VERY Beach Boys arrangements, while tracks like "Faster" are snarly and swaggery, with fuzzed out guitars and pounding drums, with a nod to the Ganglians of old, but most of the songs here fall somewhere right in between. Which as far as we're concerned is perfect. Hooky, and fuzzy, dreamy and jangly, poppy and pretty dang perfect, maybe their best yet, and quickly becoming our new favorite summer record, even in these waning days of the season.
MPEG Stream: "Drop The Act"
MPEG Stream: "That's What I Want"
MPEG Stream: "Evil Weave"
MPEG Stream: "Sleep"

GANGLIANS Still Living (Lefse) lp 16.98
Now here on vinyl too!!
It's been almost two years since we last heard from these Sacramento fuzz poppers, and we're happy to report that very little has changed. The last record, Monster Head Room, arrived right at the beginning of summer '09, and we reveled in its Beach Boys harmonies, surf rock jangle, and psychedelic garage hooks, but we also pointed out their tendency for experimentation, and their occasional hints of gothic brood. But this time around it's all pop all the time, their sound even more sunshiney and summery, we're hearing way more of groups like the Drums and Soft Pack that the usual garage rock fuzz poppers we compared them to before.
As we've seen pointed out in other reviews, the sound definitely touches on classic NZ Flying Nun pop, and that classic nineties shoegaze slowcore, but where past records felt ramshackle and a little home brewed, this time around, they sound like a real band, with real songs, poised for something bigger than just playing the local dive every Friday night. And while some folks will find that disappointing, we can't help but love the new songs, and the new more polished sound, we actually hear a lot of Fresh & Onlys, that same sort of classic pop songsmithery, songs like "California Cousins" are total sunshine summer beach jams, right down to the chiming melodies and VERY Beach Boys arrangements, while tracks like "Faster" are snarly and swaggery, with fuzzed out guitars and pounding drums, with a nod to the Ganglians of old, but most of the songs here fall somewhere right in between. Which as far as we're concerned is perfect. Hooky, and fuzzy, dreamy and jangly, poppy and pretty dang perfect, maybe their best yet, and quickly becoming our new favorite summer record, even in these waning days of the season.
MPEG Stream: "Drop The Act"
MPEG Stream: "That's What I Want"
MPEG Stream: "Evil Weave"
MPEG Stream: "Sleep"

GARBAGE & THE FLOWERS, THE Eyes Rind As If Beggars (Fire Records / Bo' Weavil) 2cd 16.98
This is a long overdue reissue of the classic 1997 debut (and really, only proper full length) from this legendary NZ noise pop outfit, who remain a functioning unit to this day, but who over the last 15+ years have recorded precious little material and who most folks have probably heard of, but not actually heard.
Their sound is tough to pin down, sometimes lo-fi and dreamy, almost lullaby like, but at others, noisy and abrasive, the band deftly combining lilting loveliness with walls of crumbling sound, or atonal folk with minimal drones. Eyes Rind As If Beggars starts off with "Love Comes Slowly Now" which is a sweet little slab of bedroom folk, all simple percussion, hushed acoustic guitars, softly crooned vox, but as if to balance the sonic scales, "Nothing Going Down" begins sort of melodically, before splintering into a cloud of wild tangled guitar drones, the original recording is damaged too, so the speed fluctuates giving it a seriously twisted psychedelic vibe, the guitars spitting out drones and raga like buzz, sounding almost like bagpipes at one point, a chaotic sprawl of NZ noise that could be some lost Dead C jam really, but then they slip right back into "Carousel" a slow burn Velvets style ballad, druggy and woozy, laced with moaning fiddle, and detuned guitar warble.
That detuned warble is present throughout, it's what drives "Sweet Pea", which starts out quite druggy and dreamy, before getting noisier and noisier, before finally settling into a warped unfunky groove. "Rosicrucinn Lovers" returns to the band to noise drenched shoegaze territory, a heady, heavy stretch of blissed out guitarnoise, draped over simple caveman drumming, and warbly vox, the whole thing wreathed in wild distorted psych-shred guitar. Which bleeds right over into "Marshall Sign", sounding like some modern psych rock band going apeshit, but with some weird sort of gravitas that keeps it from sounding wanky, and instead makes it droney and trancey and mesmerizing. The rest of the record proper offers up variation of the previous songs, strummed psych folk drones, chaotic, stumbling free-form noise rock, minimal garage pop, angular Sonic Youth like dirge-rock, classic lo-fi NZ noise, fuzzy psychedelic jangle, and dense, swirling shoegaze dreampop, all of those sounds blurred and smeared into constantly shifting variations, the overall vibe, one of fantastically inventive, yet somehow still sort of naive, home brewed free form psychedelic noise pop, that really sounds like it could be some contemporary combo, which certainly speaks to both The Garbage & The Flowers sonic prescience, as well as the heavy influence they had (perhaps unknowingly) on the current crop of noiseniks.
The reissue tacks on a bonus disc/lp, featuring a ton of singles, compilation tracks, demos, rehearsals, alternate versions and previously unreleased rarities, all of which sound as good as the record proper. Includes a big booklet of liner notes and rare photos.
MPEG Stream: "Love Comes Slowly Now"
MPEG Stream: "Nothing Going Down"
MPEG Stream: "Carousel"
MPEG Stream: "Rosicrucinn Lovers"
MPEG Stream: "Marshall Signs"

GARBAGE & THE FLOWERS, THE Eyes Rind As If Beggars (Fire Records / Bo' Weavil) 2lp 29.00
This is a long overdue reissue of the classic 1997 debut (and really, only proper full length) from this legendary NZ noise pop outfit, who remain a functioning unit to this day, but who over the last 15+ years have recorded precious little material and who most folks have probably heard of, but not actually heard.
Their sound is tough to pin down, sometimes lo-fi and dreamy, almost lullaby like, but at others, noisy and abrasive, the band deftly combining lilting loveliness with walls of crumbling sound, or atonal folk with minimal drones. Eyes Rind As If Beggars starts off with "Love Comes Slowly Now" which is a sweet little slab of bedroom folk, all simple percussion, hushed acoustic guitars, softly crooned vox, but as if to balance the sonic scales, "Nothing Going Down" begins sort of melodically, before splintering into a cloud of wild tangled guitar drones, the original recording is damaged too, so the speed fluctuates giving it a seriously twisted psychedelic vibe, the guitars spitting out drones and raga like buzz, sounding almost like bagpipes at one point, a chaotic sprawl of NZ noise that could be some lost Dead C jam really, but then they slip right back into "Carousel" a slow burn Velvets style ballad, druggy and woozy, laced with moaning fiddle, and detuned guitar warble.
That detuned warble is present throughout, it's what drives "Sweet Pea", which starts out quite druggy and dreamy, before getting noisier and noisier, before finally settling into a warped unfunky groove. "Rosicrucinn Lovers" returns to the band to noise drenched shoegaze territory, a heady, heavy stretch of blissed out guitarnoise, draped over simple caveman drumming, and warbly vox, the whole thing wreathed in wild distorted psych-shred guitar. Which bleeds right over into "Marshall Sign", sounding like some modern psych rock band going apeshit, but with some weird sort of gravitas that keeps it from sounding wanky, and instead makes it droney and trancey and mesmerizing. The rest of the record proper offers up variation of the previous songs, strummed psych folk drones, chaotic, stumbling free-form noise rock, minimal garage pop, angular Sonic Youth like dirge-rock, classic lo-fi NZ noise, fuzzy psychedelic jangle, and dense, swirling shoegaze dreampop, all of those sounds blurred and smeared into constantly shifting variations, the overall vibe, one of fantastically inventive, yet somehow still sort of naive, home brewed free form psychedelic noise pop, that really sounds like it could be some contemporary combo, which certainly speaks to both The Garbage & The Flowers sonic prescience, as well as the heavy influence they had (perhaps unknowingly) on the current crop of noiseniks.
The reissue tacks on a bonus disc/lp, featuring a ton of singles, compilation tracks, demos, rehearsals, alternate versions and previously unreleased rarities, all of which sound as good as the record proper. Includes a big booklet of liner notes and rare photos.
MPEG Stream: "Love Comes Slowly Now"
MPEG Stream: "Nothing Going Down"
MPEG Stream: "Carousel"
MPEG Stream: "Rosicrucinn Lovers"
MPEG Stream: "Marshall Signs"

GARDEN SOUND Black Summit (Digitalis) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What do you get when you mix two parts Barn Owl and two parts Eternal Tapestry? Pretty much just what you'd expect, which is this here lp, 4 looooong tracks from a group called Garden Sound (not to be confused with, uh, Soundgarden), which is in fact equal parts Barn Owl and Eternal Tapestry and offer up a sound that balances right between the brooding twang flecked post rock drift of the former, and the blown out psychedelia of the latter.
The first song sounds almost like Barn Owl solo, a dark dronescape, all desert and twangy, moody EARTH-y shimmer, spidery melodies, almost like one of those slow building epics, but instead of building it just sort of drifts and hovers, there's some minimal percussion, and some extra psychedelic swirl that hints at E-Tap's involvement, but it's not until the second song, that the partnership equals out, with a massive, thunderous superdistorted doomdronedirge, big crashing drums, blurred guitars smeared into black streaks, buried barely there vocals, peppered with occasional squalls of full on psychedelic freakout.
The flipside starts out like the A side, a smoldering minimal raga, buzzing guitars, simple tribal rhythms, hazy and dreamy and definitely mesmerizing. And like the A side, the second track finds the two groups going all out, but this time, it's something way more spare and abstract, still heavy, and doomy, but the drum crashes are spread way out, less a rhythm, than a sort of textural punctuation, the guitars peal and rumble and buzz, streaks of feedback everywhere, a plodding, spaced out stretch of minimal dronedoom drift.
SUPER LIMITED!! We have less than 20 copies, and once those are gone, then this will be gone for good...

GARFIELD STEEL Darkness Freedom (Karkia Mistika / Super Metsa /Tosi Raju) cd 14.98
Here in America, the name Garfield makes us think of an assassinated 19th century President, and a cartoon cat - and not necessarily in that order. Some might also recall that Garfield is Henry Rollins' real last name. But fans of the tongue-in-cheek musical genre from Finland known as the "New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal", spawned by several Circle side-projects, should know another Garfield - Garfield Steel, the distinctive, drawling lead singer of NWOFHM standard bearers Steel Mammoth. And now here we have Garfield Steel's solo debut! Like his work in Steel Mammoth, this both is and isn't exactly metal; a (parodic?) sort-of-metal is part of it for sure but there's a lot more going on. Weird, synth-laden indie pop boogie would also describe it, a bit.
Several "synthesizerists" are listed in this album's credits, and boy do they synthesizerize. Also quite often the electronic drums and/or drum machines are locked in overdrive - the track "Memory Rhythm" gets almost Digital Hardcore with its noisy, speedy distortion/destruction. But this onslaught of eccentric electro-metal & lo-fi synth punk is very poppy too, head noddingly so, mellowing out at times as well. Along with all the electronics, Garfield Steel's hoarse melodic crooning is of course also a big part of the sound, delivering (just as he does in Steel Mammoth) some truly ridiculous lyrics to go with great, silly song titles such as "Nuclear Retard" and "Skullfist Emperor".
Fans of Steel Mammoth's over the top absurdity and catchy riffing and occasional detours into dreaminess will be right at home here, in other words, even if the sonic palette of GS's solo effort is a little bit different. And it becomes evident that the NWOFHM 'thing' is as much Garfield's doing, as it is Circle's...
Oh, and fyi, NWOFHM fans, Jussi from Circle also has a new, VERY metal band called Arkhamin Kirjasto. Their debut cd Torches Ablaze just came out on his Ektro label, we have just a few in stock right now...
MPEG Stream: "Boogie Eclipse"
MPEG Stream: "Memory Rhythm"
MPEG Stream: "Second Sign Of The Shark"

GARNEAU, CHRIS Music For Tourists (Absolutely Kosher) cd 13.98
Another unassuming, slightly off-kilter singer/songwriter joins the strong stable of artists at the Absolutely Kosher camp. Chris Garneau is his name and Music For Tourists is his debut album -- a baker's dozen folk pop tunes played out mostly on piano and guitar augmented by strings. Sweet and hushed, Garneau's boyish vocals seem to pursue the sensitive intimacy of the late Elliott Smith. The album as a whole has an underlying bedroom recorded feel, but with a fully fleshed out lush production afforded these days via the now easily accessible, user friendly recording technology. Pleasant lo-fi pop recorded with hi-fi capabilities.
MPEG Stream: "Relief"
MPEG Stream: "So Far"

GARNER, SUE Shadyside (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98
Sue Garner possesses one of those lovely voices that flows along so warm and smooth, but with a tendency to suddenly swoop up all high'n'lilting or slink down low to a dry, almost spoken delivery. With the varied tempos and styles of her third solo album Shadyside, her music brings to mind a melding of Joni Mitchell, Sally Timms and Ani Difranco - full of heart and presence. The lyrics of four of these songs are actually previously existing poems written by Fay Hart (who also penned a song for one of Garner's former bands The Shams). She invited a number of her talented musician friends to help flesh out the songs - namely husband Rick Brown (with whom she recorded as Run On), Marc Ribot, Jim O'Rourke, and Yo La Tengo's James McNew. The result is a dramatic, diverse musical backdrop with bass clarinet, bass harmonica, kalimba, organ, accordion, electric piano and an array of percussion joining the assembled guitars, bass and drums.
RealAudio clip: "Don't Still The Flicker"
RealAudio clip: "Handful Of Grapes"

GARRIE, NICK The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislaus (Rev-ola) cd 16.98
Another day, another rare sixties pop-psych reissue with quite a bit of collector cachet... that is also pretty darn great! First time on cd for this Eddie Vartan-produced 1969 LP, wonderfully dreamy and baroque and folky and orchestrated. Lots of languid, lazy-day la, la, la's here!
Talented, curly-haired singer-songwriter Nick Garrie was youthful, peripatetic, and quite cosmopolitan (you can tell from his lyrics, referencing all corners of Europe). He had a Scottish mother, a Russian father, and was raised in both France and England, calling Paris his home at the time this record came out. Though nowadays it gets compared to the work of Nick Drake, Billy Nichols, Peter Sarstedt, Bill Fay, and others of note, due to music biz circumstances beyond Nick's control, it immediately sank into obscurity upon initial release. But now thanks to Rev-ola it's been reissued, complete with extensive liner notes, track-by-track commentary by Nick himself, and seven bonus tracks including his fantastic and even harder to find than the LP 1968 single "Queen Of Spades" b/w "Close Your Eyes" (the B-side of which you may have already heard on the Nightmares at Toby's Shop compilation we listed last year). Great stuff for fans of UK popsike like Kaleidoscope.
MPEG Stream: "The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislaus"
MPEG Stream: "Bungles Tours"
MPEG Stream: "Queen Of Spades"

GARY WAR Galactic Citizens (Captured Tracks) lp 14.98
The attack of the killer outsider jams continues! One thing the recent crop of left of center damaged pop deconstructionists have in common is their rapid fire release schedule. Seems like everytime we come up for air there's a new slab of wax from Blank Dogs, Ariel Pink, Kurt Vile and now Gary War. But we ain't complaining one bit cause we've loving it. And so far, everything we've heard from Gary War has KILLED, and these six brand new tracks are no exception. While Ariel Pink has made clear his love of and inspiration from R. Stevie Moore, it seems that for Gary War his true influence is Joe Meek, as evidenced by GW's tripped out production and bubbling/collapsing electronics.
Those elements are fused with some seriously strange skewed pop and has us imagining what it might have sounded like if Meek lived long enough to have produced fucked up new wave albums. Of all the current warped pop peddlers Gary War really does feel in sound and spirit closest to John Maus, as they both use really primitive electronics to help achieve their otherworldly approach to pop gone wrong, so damn right!
FYI the copies we got (and all the ones at our distributor too) are all just a tiny little bit dinged on the corners, sorry, them's the breaks.

GARY WAR Horribles Parade (Sacred Bones) lp 16.98
Gary War definitely found a perfect home for his tweaked and twisted pop, right next to the best of recent outsider pop deconstructionists like Ariel Pink, Kurt Vile, John Maus, Blank Dogs, etc. With his latest lp he carefully stretches his already compelling sound into even more tripped out directions, some gorgeously bizarre, warped catchy, electronics melded with ultra fucked up pop that sound like they really belong on some sort of amazing Ariel Pink/John Maus collaboration. While his last records oozed with residues of '70s psychedelia, Horribles Parade almost sounds like an amazing deconstruction of new-wave gone way weird. Like if someone got a hold of old master tapes from Devo, the Units and Gary Numan and doused them mysterious liquids, messed with the speed a bit, and played it all back on an old analog reel to reel through shitty speakers in the room next door. Deliciously delirious.

GARY WAR Horribles Parade / Galactic Citizens (Sacred Bones) cd 13.98
Finally, now on cd!!! With hella bonus tracks...
Gary War definitely found a perfect home for his tweaked and twisted pop, right next to the best of recent outsider pop deconstructionists like Ariel Pink, Kurt Vile, John Maus, Blank Dogs, etc. With his latest lp he carefully stretches his already compelling sound into even more tripped out directions, some gorgeously bizarre, warped catchy, electronics melded with ultra fucked up pop that sound like they really belong on some sort of amazing Ariel Pink/John Maus collaboration. While his last records oozed with residues of '70s psychedelia, Horribles Parade almost sounds like an amazing deconstruction of new-wave gone way weird. Like if someone got a hold of old master tapes from Devo, the Units and Gary Numan and doused them mysterious liquids, messed with the speed a bit, and played it all back on an old analog reel to reel through shitty speakers in the room next door. Deliciously delirious.
There's been seven bonus tracks added to this cd version, including "Anhedonic Man," previously released as a one-sided single, as well as the entire Galactic Citizens 12" ep, about which we wrote the following:
The attack of the killer outsider jams continues! One thing the recent crop of left of center damaged pop deconstructionists have in common is their rapid fire release schedule. Seems like everytime we come up for air there's a new slab of wax from Blank Dogs, Ariel Pink, Kurt Vile and now Gary War. But we ain't complaining one bit cause we've loving it. And so far, everything we've heard from Gary War has KILLED, and these six brand new tracks are no exception. While Ariel Pink has made clear his love of and inspiration from R. Stevie Moore, it seems that for Gary War his true influence is Joe Meek, as evidenced by GW's tripped out production and bubbling/collapsing electronics.
Those elements are fused with some seriously strange skewed pop and has us imagining what it might have sounded like if Meek lived long enough to have produced fucked up new wave albums. Of all the current warped pop peddlers Gary War really does feel in sound and spirit closest to John Maus, as they both use really primitive electronics to help achieve their otherworldly approach to pop gone wrong, so damn right!
MPEG Stream: "Highspeed Drift"
MPEG Stream: "Sold Out"
MPEG Stream: "Everynight"

GARY WAR Jared's Lot (Spectrum Spools) cd 16.98
We've long been fans of these outsider noise pop weirdos, they even played our very first AQ/WFMU showcase at South By Southwest, but wow has their sound changed since then. Our pal Anthony described this new record WAY more succinctly and accurately than we ever could:
"Expertly performed, extremely difficult clash between pop inclinations and punk ideals sent through a completely synthetic, inhuman aesthetic. If you sent the Wipers early albums through the most intuitive state-of-the-art midi processor you might end up with something like this, simultaneously baroque and sterile, and very catchy at times. When the option is to zig or zag Gary War will always zap!"
And while to our ears, at times Gary War sounds like a whole different band, there are definitely plenty of moments that harken to the GW of old, but right from the outset, Jared's Lot seems to establish a new sonic era with record opener "Thousand Yard Star" unfurling a spaced out psychedelic synthscape that seems to owe more to John Carpenter and Goblin, or more recently Umberto and the like, than Ariel Pink or John Maus, who were so obviously GW's sonic brethren in the past. But this new sound definitely suits them, "Thousand Yard Star" playing out like the soundtrack to some ridiculous, low budget seventies sci-fi epic, all pulsing sequenced synth throb and shuffling Autobahn rhythms, with wild swirling effects and seriously tweaked vox. "Advancements In Disguise" takes that psychedelic synth sound and weds it to some fractured outsider pop, everything doused in space age shimmer, and driven by those percolating synth pulses, the vocals effected and pitch shifted, layered and warped into a dizzying alien chorus, the song driving and propulsive one second, tripped out and almost kosmische the next. It's like some sort of synth heavy outsider garagekraut cold wave, slipping easily from twisted lo-fi pop to prismatic electro bliss out, everything wreathed in swoops of bloops and bleeps and clouds of shimmery outer space psychedelic synth swirl, the best moments are tracks like "Pleading For Annihilation", where the band actually rock, all pounding drums and distorted electric guitars, woven into GW's tripped out galactic synth pop, crunchy buzz butted up against dizzying blasts of arpeggiated synth melodies, those two disparate elements gradually merging into some of the most kick ass kosmische whatthefuck tripped out electronic space pop EVER.
MPEG Stream: "Thousand Yard Stare"
MPEG Stream: "Advancements In Disgust"
MPEG Stream: "Superlifter"
MPEG Stream: "Pleading For Anihilation"

GARY WAR Jared's Lot (Spectrum Spools) lp 22.00
We've long been fans of these outsider noise pop weirdos, they even played our very first AQ/WFMU showcase at South By Southwest, but wow has their sound changed since then. Our pal Anthony described this new record WAY more succinctly and accurately than we ever could:
"Expertly performed, extremely difficult clash between pop inclinations and punk ideals sent through a completely synthetic, inhuman aesthetic. If you sent the Wipers early albums through the most intuitive state-of-the-art midi processor you might end up with something like this, simultaneously baroque and sterile, and very catchy at times. When the option is to zig or zag Gary War will always zap!"
And while to our ears, at times Gary War sounds like a whole different band, there are definitely plenty of moments that harken to the GW of old, but right from the outset, Jared's Lot seems to establish a new sonic era with record opener "Thousand Yard Star" unfurling a spaced out psychedelic synthscape that seems to owe more to John Carpenter and Goblin, or more recently Umberto and the like, than Ariel Pink or John Maus, who were so obviously GW's sonic brethren in the past. But this new sound definitely suits them, "Thousand Yard Star" playing out like the soundtrack to some ridiculous, low budget seventies sci-fi epic, all pulsing sequenced synth throb and shuffling Autobahn rhythms, with wild swirling effects and seriously tweaked vox. "Advancements In Disguise" takes that psychedelic synth sound and weds it to some fractured outsider pop, everything doused in space age shimmer, and driven by those percolating synth pulses, the vocals effected and pitch shifted, layered and warped into a dizzying alien chorus, the song driving and propulsive one second, tripped out and almost kosmische the next. It's like some sort of synth heavy outsider garagekraut cold wave, slipping easily from twisted lo-fi pop to prismatic electro bliss out, everything wreathed in swoops of bloops and bleeps and clouds of shimmery outer space psychedelic synth swirl, the best moments are tracks like "Pleading For Annihilation", where the band actually rock, all pounding drums and distorted electric guitars, woven into GW's tripped out galactic synth pop, crunchy buzz butted up against dizzying blasts of arpeggiated synth melodies, those two disparate elements gradually merging into some of the most kick ass kosmische whatthefuck tripped out electronic space pop EVER.
MPEG Stream: "Thousand Yard Stare"
MPEG Stream: "Advancements In Disgust"
MPEG Stream: "Superlifter"
MPEG Stream: "Pleading For Anihilation"

GARY WAR New Raytheonport (Shdwply / Disaro) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The last couple years have been pretty great when it comes to outsider, DIY pop delights. John Maus, Ariel Pink and Night Control have made brilliant records as fucked up as they are catchy and hooky. You can add Gary War to the list of those twisted popsmiths and eccentric songwriters. This lp is filled with haunting and mysterious pop songs that are as melty and tripped out and fucked up as they are catchy and hummable. There's some serious Syd Barrett worship going on too all over New Raytheonport, but wow is it channeled so totally right on. Pop songs drenched in cough syrup that take you on a blurry and hallucinogenic voyage, the fractured sound become the perfect soundtrack for warped daydreams and drifting off into a million different dimensions. But while others groups that are influenced by folks like Syd Barret and Roky Erickson end up sounding like nostalgia acts wishing they were born decades earlier, Gary War's sound is quite timeless, and weirdly futuristic sometimes. Ariel Pink actually gets a mastering credit on the record and for sure much of the sonic scope of the album would sound right at home on any of the Haunted Graffiti albums, but there is also something so rainbow hued and prismatic and kaleidoscopically damaged about these songs that gives Gary War a unique and far out sound of his own. And it was just a matter of time before someone gave the Alan Parsons Project track "Eye In The Sky" a good outsider facelift!
We heard that Gary War is going to collaborate with Blank Dogs on a new project called Roman Soldiers and we're pretty much already signed up to join the Roman Soldiers fanclub, without even hearing a note! And we might as well proclaim ourselves charter members of the Gary War fanclub too now, can't wait to see the band rock our SXSW showcase next week! Highly recommended!

GARY WAR Police Water (Sacred Bones) cd ep 10.98
Latest from these damaged art pop deconstructionists, a brief blast of retro new wave garage pop weirdness, beginning with the very Ariel Pink-ish "Born Of Light" , which begins with a smear of ambient whirs and random clatter before the pulsing synths and swirling sci-fi effects swoop in, supporting some weirdly processed vox and an old school eighties electro drum machine beat. Which definitely sets the scene for Police Water, the whole thing sounding like an experimental eighties science fiction straight to video soundtrack, composed by Joe Meek, but performed by some forgotten new wave band, recorded on an old boombox, and played back through a busted Leslie speaker, long stretches of swirling effects give way to trippy synthscapes and woozy electro pop, the sound muted and hazy and washed out, as if it was dubbed straight off the VHS tape, groovy and a little dance-y, like a fractured lo-fi pop version of that recent Majeure record, where that record was sleek and polished, evoking futuristic landscapes, Police Water evokes an alternate future, one much more bizarre and broken down, via this crumbling ramshackle off kilter future-retro pop score. As always, so awesome, and so confusionally genius. Definitely on the weirder side of the current crop of Carpenter style synthscapery, and just a twisted weirdo popwave record in its own right.
The cd includes two bonus mixes!!
MPEG Stream: "Born Of Light"
MPEG Stream: "On Its Head"
MPEG Stream: "Grounds For Termination"

GARY WAR Reality Protest (Sacred Bones) 7" 5.50
Another awesome slab of lo-fi intergalactic warped pop from Gary War. Seems like each of his releases keeps getting more damaged, drugged out, and space-y. This new single is brimming with hissing tape, changing speeds, acid drenched keyboards, and GW's distorted and enchanting vocals. Both songs sound like being trapped in some long gone 80's arcade game with all the wires and sockets disconnected creating all these weird glitches, pitch shifts, crumbling loops, electronic buzz, but somehow all wrapped around some insanely warped and catchy garage pop. While it might be frustrating for GW to always be lumped in with his pals Ariel Pink and John Maus, those comparisons are inevitable. But with Ariel Pink about to make his big 4AD debut with much higher production value, it might be up to Gary Way to carry the flame for totally fractured and fried outsider pop.

GARY WAR Zontag / Don't Go Out Tonight (Sacred Bones ) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've been hearing all sorts of great things about the mysterious Gary War. We always hear him mentioned in the same breath as Ariel Pink and John Maus, who just so happened to produce the Gary War full length. And for sure those brilliant outsiders are a good reference point for the kind of warped bedroom pop that Gary War conjures up. Lo-fi and warbly, these songs almost sound like several great bizarre pop songs playing at once. If you've been digging folks like the aforementioned Ariel Pink, John Maus and Night Control then we're pretty sure Gary War will be your next favorite. This 7" is the perfect taster for the also kick ass full length reviewed elsewhere on this list. You definitely need BOTH!

GARY WAR Zontag / Don't Go Out Tonight (Care In The Community Recordings) 7" 12.98
One of the first records we ever heard from this warped pop weirdo, back in print and available again!! Here's what we had to say as we discovered Gary War for the first time way back in 2009...
We've been hearing all sorts of great things about the mysterious Gary War. We always hear him mentioned in the same breath as Ariel Pink and John Maus, who just so happened to produce the Gary War full length. And for sure those brilliant outsiders are a good reference point for the kind of warped bedroom pop that Gary War conjures up. Lo-fi and warbly, these songs almost sound like several great bizarre pop songs playing at once. If you've been digging folks like the aforementioned Ariel Pink, John Maus and Night Control then we're pretty sure Gary War will be your next favorite!

GAS Compressed Gas (Siltbreeze) 7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Awesome archival release from this rad New Zealand garage psych combo, recorded in the late nineties, this is THE SHIT. Super lo-fi recording, trash can drums, tangled guitar buzz, cool squiggly melodies, scowly drawled vox, dirgey, jangly, filthy, doomy, a bit gothic, super dramatic, weird synth squiggles on one of the tracks, sonically, some of this reminds us of the Celibate Rifles, and you can definitely hear some Pere Ubu, and plenty of classic Nuggets style jangle and fuzz, but with a sound that manages to be murky, moody and weirdly (and subtly) noisy. Killer stuff. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES.

GASENETA Sooner Or Later (PSF) cd 17.98
Not remotely new (the catalog number for this is PSF-17, it was released some years ago) but something that we thought we'd get a few of and list 'cause we were doing an order with the PSF label in Tokyo and hadn't ever reviewed this cult classic before. Anyone into the speedfreak psychedelic acid punk of flagship PSF band High Rise (or Mainliner, or Musica Transonic, etc.) ought to check out Gaseneta, a Japanese combo from the late '70s who helped pioneer that sound (and were later covered by High Rise). This disc contains archival recordings mostly from 1978, all of 'em ultra distorted, in-the-red recordings of a band simply destroying, sonically wrecking the place. We mean, if you thought Boris kicked out the noisy jams on Pink... well this is a whole 'nother kettle of raw fish of course, way punker than Pink, but of potential interest to Boris fans wanting to check out their antecedents. There's eleven energetic tracks on Sooner Or Later, bursting with skronky guitar solos (Black Flag style) and the spittle of guttural vox, backed by urgent bashing rhythms. Four of 'em are live recordings, which are especially lo-fi but since you should be playing this LOUD anyway that just adds to the effect. Way cool.
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 3"

GASTR DEL SOL Camofleur (Drag City) cd 12.98
Why do I keep thinking Terry Gross is going to do a special on these guys soon? Very very appealing fragmented post rock post everything that wears influences on sleeve (Fahey, bluegrass etc). It doesn't hold together all that well but then again that's always kind of been the point with Gastr del Sol. Recommended!

GASTR DEL SOL Camofleur (Drag City) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Why do I keep thinking Terry Gross is going to do a special on these guys soon? Very very appealing fragmented post rock post everything that wears influences on sleeve (Fahey, bluegrass etc). It doesn't hold together all that well but then again that's always kind of been the point with Gastr del Sol. Recommended!

GASTR DEL SOL Crookt, Crakt, Or Fly (Drag City) cd 14.98

GASTR DEL SOL Mirror Repair (Drag City) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

GASTR DEL SOL The Harp Factory on Lake Street (Table of the Elements) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

GASTR DEL SOL The Serpentine Similar (Dexter's Cigar) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The first, long-out-of-print Gastr album, pre-Jim O'Rourke, reissued! the most Bastro-ish and brilliant.

GASTR DEL SOL The Serpentine Similar (Dexter's Cigar) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The first, long-out-of-print Gastr album, pre-Jim O'Rourke, reissued! the most Bastro-ish and brilliant.

GASTR DEL SOL Twenty Songs Less (Minority) 7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's a band we haven't heard from in ages, and to be honest, one we honestly thought we might not ever hear from again. O'Rourke is in Sonic Youth, Grubbs has his own stuff going on, but back in the day, Gastr Del Sol were a post rock beast. Born of the mighty Bastro, they took that muscled math rock and twisted it all up into something much artier and more avant garde, and we LOVED it. Heck, we still do. So it's awesome to hear this blast from the past. Not actually a new record, this is a fancy new reissue of a long out of print 7", and boy it sounds as good as ever.
Beginning with a blast of old skool post rock, strummed angular acoustic guitar and complex drumming, before giving way to a mellow mathy folk, which quickly crumbles into strange melodic fragments, almost sounding like a Gastr Del Sol track proper, chopped up and put together in some random order. Nice.
The flipside starts off again, with a blast of post rock fury, aggressive acoustic guitar riffing and some seriously chaotic math rock drum freak out, before blissing out into a droney drift, complete with strange field recordings of children laughing and playing before fading out into a slow shimmer, all muted electronics and reverbed piano. So nice.
Packaged in a thick vinyl sleeve with a full color sleeve, pressed on clear vinyl with a full color center label. Simple, stark and striking.

GASTR DEL SOL Upgrade & Afterlife (Drag City) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

GATE A Republic Of Sadness (Ba Da Bing) lp 14.98
The first new Gate music in over a decade! Michael Morely aka Gate, may be more well known for his work in legendary New Zealand noiserockers the Dead C, but he's been making Gate records just as long, and they've all been pretty much stone cold classics, The Dew Line is one of THE most unsung, underappreciated weirdo outsider pop records EVER, Golden is ostensibly a noise record, but manages to harness noise into something much more beautiful and listenable and lovely. And now we have A Republic Of Sadness, that like all Gate records, is tough to describe, but impossible to resist. A strange swirling assemblage of lush guitar textures, of Jeckian turntable loops, of crooned lo-fi bedroom pop, of skittery IDM style beats, all woven into dark, woozy, abstract electronic drone pop, or minimal dreamfolk electronica.
The opener "Forever" is totally gorgeous, built atop a scratchy turntable loop, that Basinski like backdrop repeats endlessly, drifting in its cloud of crackle and pop, while all around it other loops sway and swell, a simple stripped down beat, shuffles and skitters, and Morely unfurls a distorted dreamy croon, it's like Gas meets Jeck meets Basinski meets The Caretaker meets Sentridoh. When the vocals drop out, and the loop just repeats endlessly, it's utterly trancelike and mesmerizing. "All" starts out with soft swaths of synth, before a weird clattery lo-fi distorted beat lurches into action, thick rumbling bass underpins the sound, and in come Morely's creepy distorted mumbled vocals, a bit like a Strotter Inst / Gas remix fronted by Jandek, mysterious, mournful, intimate, part way through, a strange lumbering low end wheeze adds a strange counterpoint, and like the track before, the non essentials are jettisoned, and the layered loopscape plays out hypnotically.
The rest of the record constructs similarly twisted bits of lo-fi electronica, woven into skittery dreamscapes, and muted minimal grooves, slipping from the almost funky wah wah guitars and low slung depressive basslines of "Desert", sounding like some home brewed DIY Interpol, to the almost M83 bliss out of "Wilderness" with its fuzzy shoegaze guitardrone, and creaking almost industrial sounding rhythms, all beneath some sun dappled buzzy synths and twisted mush mouthed crooning, to the deconstructed trip hop of "Freak", a stuttery effects drenched rhythm shuffles beneath some super distorted looped guitar crunch, and finally to the nearly 10 minute closer "Trees", with its blown out metalgaze guitar smolder, its booming skeletal big beat rhythm, more moaning vox, a throbbing synth bassline, a sort of lo-fi bedroom brewed cold wave, until about halfway through, when the drums drop out, and all that's left is a gorgeous pulsing synthscape, that will have fans of Oneohtrix and Emeralds and other outer spacesynth krautdrone explorers frothing for sure.
Includes a download card.

GATE Damned Revolutions (Ultramarine) lp 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

GATE s/t (Poon Village) cd 12.98
Michael Morley, Zeena Parkins, Lee Ranaldo. Live in Boston. Features Poon Village's always-breathtaking packaging.

GATE The Dew Line (Table Of The Elements) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Originally released way back in 1994, and reissued again a few years back, Gate's The Dew Line always seemed to disappear before we could get enough copies to list. Which was a shame as it still ranks as one of our favorite discs. A mesmerizing noise-pop-drone jem from the Dead C's Michael Morley, an improbable mix of NZ noise whir and skree, minimal drifting drone and lilting indie pop. Think the Dead C at their very poppiest, crossed with Sentridoh at its most minimal and rawÉ
Gate's Golden record was one of our favorite 'noise' records ever, and we do hear a lot of that Golden noise in this chunk of damaged deconstructed pop. Long drawn out expanses of crumbling guitars, buried-in-the-mix sad boy vocals, all very raw and lo-fi, but strangely lush and heavy in that way only blownout bedroom recordings seem to sound. It's a little like Lou Barlow if he was raised on Throbbing Gristle and Suicide instead of indie rock. Guitar jangles transformed into thick sprawling atonal riffage, verse chorus verse transformed into verse verse verse, and the vocals adding a strange sweet sadness.
Dense clouds of electronic glitch and amp buzz, the riffs more textural than melodic, long stretches of whirring lo-fi organ, mournful and almost funereal, strange haunting minimal percussion, drifting alien FX, disembodied guitars unfurling crunchy textures and barely there melodies. Many of the tracks are vocal-less haunting guitarscapes, riffs and layers, looped and repetitive, extended into grinding washed out mantras. Cyclical and gorgeously hypnotic. Which makes the tracks with vocals sound all the more poppy. Especially "Have Not", which is essentially a single, super catchy, languid distorted guitar riff, looped and cyclical, minor key, sounding a bit like a slowed down drum-less Rein Sanction, with drawled Neil Young / Dinosaur Jr. style double tracked vocals, laid back, emotive, and hauntingly monotone. Nearly 13 minutes long, a single riff, a subtly changing vocal line, but it's just so mysterious, sad and perfect, the whole record could easily have been a 70 minute version of this track only and we would have been just as happyÉ
But then we would have missed out on the melancholy minimalism of "Needed All Words", a lonely vocal line, drifting above a glacial sea of organ drone and fractured effects, or the looped stuttering industrial buzzscape of the title track, or the divine washed out crumbling grind of "Triphammer", the final song, which manages to turn 3 minutes of abstract distorted riffage, into a dense chunk of dark moodiness.
Way recommended. This disc is old enough that for many of you, we're probably already preaching to the converted, but if you missed out on this, here's one more chance to sink deep into Morley's mysterious musical miserablsim.
And be warned, while we finally managed to get a bunch of these, it took forever, so if or when we do run out, please be prepared to be patient, since it could take a while to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Millions"
MPEG Stream: "Needed All Words"
MPEG Stream: "Have Not"

GATE The Dew Line (MIE) 2lp 34.00
A long while back we listed this on cd, easily one of our favorite noise-rock / noise-pop records ever, a mesmerizing noise-pop-drone gem from the Dead C's Michael Morley, an improbable mix of NZ noise whir and skree, minimal drifting drone and lilting indie pop. Think the Dead C at their very poppiest, crossed with Sentridoh at its most minimal and raw, a slab of lush, sculpted melody-infused indie rock rendered as something much more abstract and avant, but with a core that's pure pop genius. Originally released way back in 1994, and reissued again on cd a few years ago, we're not sure this has ever been on vinyl before, at least until now. And this new version, besides being remastered and packaged in a swank heavy gatefold jacket, also tacks on FIVE bonus tracks, all of which sound like they could have been included with the original version, and make this well worth buying again, even for those of us who already own an extremely well worn digital version. And if you've never heard the Dew Line before, you are in for a serious, perhaps life altering, sonic treatÉ
Gate's Golden record, a singles collection, was one of our favorite 'noise' records ever, and we do hear a lot of that Golden 'noise' in this chunk of damaged deconstructed pop. Long drawn out expanses of crumbling guitars, buried-in-the-mix sad boy vocals, all very raw and lo-fi, but strangely lush and heavy in that way only blown out bedroom recordings seem to sound. It's a little like Lou Barlow if he was raised on Throbbing Gristle and Suicide instead of indie rock. Guitar jangles transformed into thick sprawling atonal riffage, verse chorus verse transformed into verse verse verse, and the vocals adding a strange sweet sadness.
Dense clouds of electronic glitch and amp buzz seem to surround everything on The Dew Line, the riffs more textural than melodic, long stretches of whirring lo-fi organ, mournful and almost funereal, strange haunting minimal percussion, drifting alien FX, disembodied guitars unfurling crunchy textures and barely there melodies. Many of the tracks are vocal-less haunting guitarscapes, riffs and layers, looped and repetitive, extended into grinding washed out mantras. Cyclical and gorgeously hypnotic. Which makes the tracks with vocals sound all the more poppy.
Especially "Have Not", which is essentially a single, super catchy, languid distorted guitar riff, looped and cyclical, minor key, sounding a bit like a slowed down drum-less Rein Sanction, with drawled Neil Young / Dinosaur Jr. style double tracked vocals, laid back, emotive, and hauntingly monotone. Nearly 13 minutes long, a single riff, a subtly changing vocal line, but it's just so mysterious, sad and perfect, the whole record could easily have been a 70 minute version of this track only and we would have been just as happyÉ
But then we would have missed out on the melancholy minimalism of "Needed All Words", a lonely vocal line, drifting above a glacial sea of organ drone and fractured effects, or the looped stuttering industrial buzzscape of the title track, or the divine washed out crumbling grind of "Triphammer", the final song, which manages to turn 3 minutes of abstract distorted riffage, into a dense chunk of dark moodiness.
And even sans the newly added bonus tracks, this would still be absolutely required listening and a shoe-in for Record Of The Week, but the nearly twenty minutes of extra stuff only seals the deal. There's "Sunshine", a crunchy, distorted chunk of detuned dirgery, the vocals plaintive, and way up in the mix, the drums stumbling, the guitars thick and corrosive, the whole thing sounding like some live Sonic Youth B-side, while "Ives" is a sprawling expanse of churning rhythmic murk, laced with streaks of electronics, wild squalls of psych-noise guitar, all dragged along by a seriously 'rawk' riff, although that riff is buried beneath an avalanche of noise and skree. "Sadness Sings" is another one of those impossibly noise drenched guitar heavy indie rock/noise pop dirge, like a looser more abstract take on the above mentioned "Have Not", the same sort of sad boy bedroom broodiness, which is pushed even further on "Bitcher", which slows it waaaaay down, adds a little Jandek-y outsider detuned warble, but Morley delivers some sweetly crooned vox, which balance the surrounding sounds, which seem to be melting, a warped drone-pop dirge, heavy on the flanger, and the crumbling dying-battery distortion, and then finally, the awesomely titled "Tuba Is Funny", a brief bit of effects drenched field recorded acoustic guitar driven balladry, that would have sounded out of place on some old Sentridoh record.
Obviously, WAY recommended. This record is old enough that for many of you, we're probably already preaching to the converted, but those extra tracks are some serious music nerd buried treasure, and the record sounds incredible, and again, if you're one of those people who somehow managed to miss out on this entirely, here's one more chance to sink deep into Morley's mysterious musical miserablsim.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES! Housed in a super swank heavy gatefold jacket!
MPEG Stream: "Millions"
MPEG Stream: "Needed All Words"
MPEG Stream: "Have Not"
MPEG Stream: "Sadness Sings [Bonus]"
MPEG Stream: "Bitcher [Bonus]"

GATE The Lavender Head (Hell's Half Halo) 2lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Mistakenly labelled Gate's 'techno record' by an unnamed party, this is Dead C guitarist Michael Morley's first computer generated album. While most computer programmers are trapped within the crystal purity of digital sounds, Morley's penchant for a fidelity below the standards of lo-fi has saved his 'techno record' from sounding like one. Lazy looping soundtracks for dirgy guitars and sloppy synths. Only about 1/2 of it has got 'beats', and they are pleasant.

GATE The Mono Lake (Table Of The Elements) cd 16.98
Michael Morley of NZ's Dead C's newest solo, in a similar style. Ends with a fine noisy cover of "Jennifer" from Faust IV.

GATEKEEPER Giza (Merok) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another band trafficking in creepy electronic Carpenter / Goblin / Zombi style Euro-horror retro futuristic soundtrackery, and like those others, Gatekeeper definitely have their own spin on it, with a sound way more danceable, and with loads more samples, adding to the whole cinematic vibe, the opening track alone pretty much sums it up, the revving of a motorcycle engine, pulsing electronics, symphonic stabs, samples of a terrorized woman, from some seventies horror flick most likely, the sound a driving propulsive fusion of old school techno, and electronic krautrock, laced with cheesy electronic drums, swirling spaced out effects, fuzzy bass, and buzzing synths, deep creepy vox add to the drama and tension, it's pretty impossible not to envision some futuristic chase scene or some occultic ritual gone wrong and the resulting pursuit through the forest. Total techno electro-kraut futurist kosmische sci-fi new wave.
The rest of the tracks follow suit, with big pulsing slabs of buzzing synth, fuzzy eighties basslines, programmed drums, new agey ambience, loads of samples, strange voices and sound effects, but unlike the others, the sound of Gatekeeper seems to be more dramatic, more intense, with the songs often building to seriously epic and freaked out climaxes, but just as often locking into mesmerizing minimal electro grooves, but always slightly ominous, haunting, otherworldly and seriously dramatic and cinematic. Think Majeure, Innercity, Oneohtrix, Nightsatan, Umberto but somehow more over the top. Which of course means WAY recommended.