KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Alkuharka (Fonal) cd 17.98
Although this came out just last year, we've been lacking this in our racks for some time now 'cause the label had sold through 'em all and needed to do a re-press. Well, now, thankfully for the legions of lovers of all this fabulous Finnish free-folk stuff, Fonal has put this gem back into circulation! So queue up if you missed it before. Here's the review we wrote on list #191 when it first came out:
The 18 tracks found here are a riotous festival of Finnish folk-psych. A pagan parade in a forest glade. Abstract, druggy, dark, delightful... We're always entranced by Kemialliset Ystavat's damaged improv folk mystery, and Alkuharka is yet another reason for us to keep saving our pennies in order to afford a trip to Finland (lucky Andee's been there once already). Anyone into anything along the lines of Tower Recordings, Thuja, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Six Organs Of Admittance, the whole Broken Face 'zine scene (to whom Kemialliset mainman Jan Anderzen used to contribute much art) will want/need this. Horns flutes guitars drones bells tapes voices feedback. Weezing buzzing bliss. With contributions from honorary Finns Dylan Nyoukis (Prick Decay) and Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel), Jan and company are the true underground krautrock heirs, making music so long haired that it's furrier than any Animal Collective. Music from the soundtrack to The Wickermoomin, perhaps?
MPEG Stream: "track 2"
MPEG Stream: "track 4"
MPEG Stream: "track 9"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Alkuharka (Beta-Lactam Ring) lp 24.00
One of our favorite slabs of freaky Finnish forest folk, now available on lp!! Pressed on thick vinyl in a deluxe jacket with a printed inner sleeve and all new artwork!
The 18 tracks found here are a riotous festival of Finnish folk-psych. A pagan parade in a forest glade. Abstract, druggy, dark, delightful... We're always entranced by Kemialliset Ystavat's damaged improv folk mystery, and Alkuharka is yet another reason for us to keep saving our pennies in order to afford a trip to Finland (lucky Andee's been there once already). Anyone into anything along the lines of Tower Recordings, Thuja, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Six Organs Of Admittance, the whole Broken Face 'zine scene (to whom Kemialliset mainman Jan Anderzen used to contribute much art) will want/need this. Horns flutes guitars drones bells tapes voices feedback. Wheezing buzzing bliss. With contributions from honorary Finns Dylan Nyoukis (Prick Decay) and Campbell Kneale (Birchville Cat Motel), Jan and company are the true underground krautrock heirs, making music so long haired that it's furrier than any Animal Collective. Music from the soundtrack to The Wickermoomin, perhaps?
MPEG Stream: "track 2"
MPEG Stream: "track 4"
MPEG Stream: "track 9"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Kellari Juniversumi (Fonal) 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 PRINT! This long out of print AQ fave from these foresty free folk weirdos finally comes back into print on cd. Here's how much we love this disc, what we wrote back when it first floored us in 2002:
Hallelujah! More droning, buzzing, flickering folk-psych from Finland's mysterious Kemialliset Ystavat collective. Sure, we know who's in the band -- Broken Face 'zine artist/contributor Jan Anderzen, Fonal label head Sami Sanpakkila (Es, Kiila), and a host of other Finns -- but they still SOUND mysterious. The damaged four-track folk sound of NYC's Tower Recordings filtered through the forest ambience of AQ-fave improv-psych outfit Thuja might, MIGHT be an approximation of Kemialliset's sonic space. They inhabit that territory previously explored by the likes of Amon Duul, Ghost, Kalacakra, Toho Sara, Parson Sound, International Harvester, Amps For Christ, Six Organs Of Admittance, Algarnas Tradgard, etc. If any of these names bring a warm sensation to your frontal lobes, then you're likely already a Kemialliset fan even if you haven't yet heard 'em. Each track (there's 17 of 'em, spread over 47 minutes) is a psychedelic miniature constructed of drifting, chanting vocals, gentle melodies, and primitive rhythms, contrasting distorted electric guitar wash with pretty, chiming percussion, strings and woodwinds. Freaky and far-out yet mostly mellow and warm and cosy. Fucking lovely. Ah, Finland.
This repress comes with a new, colorfully illustrated 24 page booklet that you didn't get if you bought it before. Nice for the newcomers, a bit of a drag for those of us who already have the cd. But booklets are one thing, the music is another. If you've got this music, that alone should make you happy. And then there's this option: buy one for a friend, but keep the new booklet for yourself. A win-win scenario there.
MPEG Stream: "Kellari Juniversumi"
MPEG Stream: "Uruaurat"
MPEG Stream: "Kuuma Tomu"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Latvasta Laho (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Lucky for us there's not a whole lot to do in Finland other than drink, smoke and make records. It means that we will never have to worry about running out of weird and wonderful Finnish foresty psych rock jams. And by now, we're quite comfortable in admitting that we can never get enough. EVER. Circle, Avarus, Uton, Islaja, Es, Kiila, Anaksimandros, Tivol and of course Kemialliset Ystavat. They've all tapped into something special and mysterious, some gorgeously primal world of drones and simple rhythms, minimal psychedelic freakouts, deliriously primitive drumming and outer space melodies. A sort of Krautrock meets seventies pagan folk meets minimal drone meets free rock meets everything else. No wonder it all sounds so good. It's little purloined scraps of everything we love, woven haphazardly together into gorgeous rambling and meandering sonic explorations. Banjos accompany wavering falsetto vocals, shuffling seasick rhythms underpin wild songbird like melodies and fluttery flutes, buzzing distorted guitars rumble beneath full on harmony pop vocals, warped and warbly organs and woodwinds nestle up against the clattery clang of kitchen sink percussion. It all sounds so perfectly imperfect together. Dreamy and melancholy, stumbly and goofy, dark and brooding, woozy and hypnotic, innocent and playful, exuberant and festive, creepy and bizarre, pretty and darn near perfect.
MPEG Stream: "Verta Hiuksissa"
MPEG Stream: "Black Holes M.I."
MPEG Stream: "Haisee Kissojen Taivaalta"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Lumottu Karkkipurkki (Vapaa Systeemi) (Fonal) cd 17.98
People have been going crazy for the Kemialliset stuff lately, so we thought we'd better relist this! What we said when we first got it:
And if a repress of the beloved Kellari Juniversumi wasn't enough (no it's not, and might we suggest their Suurempi Pieni Palatsi album get reissued sometime too?) there's also this "new" cd from Finland's foresty freak folksters Kemialliset Ystavat. Actually, this has been released twice before in other formats: first as a cassette on Finland's Huutomerkki label (hmm, missed that) and then again as a lathe cut double vinyl 8" on New Zealand's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label (dang, didn't get one of those either!). So thankfully Fonal has now put it out on cd for those of us who somehow inexplicably failed to get either of those previous versions when they were "available". Yay! And what of the music?
Well, imagine sitting somewhere deep in the forest... not alone with nature though. No, you're hanging out with a bunch of elves and trolls, drinking or smoking pot or something delinquent like that. Actually this isn't even that foresty really... maybe you've invited your little friends back to the city and you're hanging out in your apartment listening to weird '80s industrial experimental music and electronic krautrock records. And maybe you've got a few of these records going on several turntables at once, at 16 rpm, the volume turned down low, and some of the trolls are joining in (faintly) on vocals, and one of them's got a flute, and another one's got a broken music box, and some bells, and a shortwave radio. But the music you're hearing/making is still amazingly nice and mellow and organic 'cause you're with a bunch of elves after all. The sun's going down and the light is fading and you feel all warm and toasty and kinda sleepy-drunk.
Ok, stop imagining. You'll have your own (better) mental images to go along with this music when you hear it. But we'll say that right from the get-go this is immediately some of the rawest, most primitively-electronic Kemialliset Ystavat stuff we've heard. There's what what sounds like layers of loops, tape machine fuckery, all kinds of pleasingly distorted textures folded into a mysterious and still somewhat (abstractly) melodic sound-world, with haunting eerie vocals and tribal clink-clank. And yet, among the 15 tracks here you'll find some of the simplest and prettiest of the Kemialliset canon too. Loose, lovely and loveable stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Metsa"
MPEG Stream: "Systeemi 4"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Ullakkopalo (Fonal) cd 17.98
The last week or two of our so-called "summer" here in San Francisco, has been pretty darn gray. Cold, overcast, gray, a bummer. But, getting the long-awaited new album from Finland's Kemialliset Ystavat (aka Jan Anderzen and friends) has made a big difference! You know how we love love love all things Finland, and Fonal. That magic hasn't abated. Lively, lovely, colorful; woozy and wonderful, this Kemialliset is just what the doctor ordered. Have you heard 'em before? Kemialliset, and their fellow Fonal artists, have been referred to by us (and others) as "Finnish Forest Folk". Fairly accurate... as long as you're ok with folk music made using computers. From a forest that's full of brightly colored trees and plants whose pharmacological uses are probably entirely recreational and specifically hallucinatory. Populated by strange creatures like gibbering gnomes and tittering trolls. And of course, they ARE from Finland. Of course of course.
Carefully constructed by Jan in his forest laboratory, a collage of contributions from folks like Roope Eronen (Avarus, Maniacs Dream, Pylon), Kevin Regan (Fricara Pacchu, Anaksimandros, Avarus), Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord), C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core), Neil Campbell (Astral Social Club), Markus Maki (Anaksimandros, Avarus, Kiila), Pekko Kappi (Kiila), Hitoshi Kojo (Juppala Kaapio, Spiracle), Joshua Stevenson (Jackie-O Motherfucker) and others, this is, as you might expect, a delirious and dense tapestry of seamlessly flowing, ever-changing, psychedelic soundz. 14 tracks total to delight the ear with such teeter-tottering elements as lilting layered female vox, bleepy glitchy background electronix (track six sounds like they've wandered into an '80s video arcade to record), wheezing harmonium drones, rattling ritual percussion, cartoon SFX, snippets of synth melody seemingly snatched from a '70s Bo Hansson record, and much much more, from krauty rhythmics to lullaby babble, and hybrids thereof. It's part Incredible String Band, part Raymond Scott or Bruce Haack. Or imagine a completely dosed and demented Black Moth Super Rainbow making a cd-r for Jewelled Antler, maybe.
Truly a phantasmagorical tour-de-force, utterly what we needed to brighten these grey days and/or make 'em cosier. The compact disc version is packaged in a tri-fold digi with a thick booklet packed with beautiful full-color photographs and some very interesting text in both Finnish and English, and the vinyl is nice too.
MPEG Stream: "Kivikasan Rauhassa"
MPEG Stream: "Maksaruohoja"
MPEG Stream: "Ystavalliset Miekat"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Ullakkopalo (Fonal) lp 17.98
The last week or two of our so-called "summer" here in San Francisco, has been pretty darn gray. Cold, overcast, gray, a bummer. But, getting the long-awaited new album from Finland's Kemialliset Ystavat (aka Jan Anderzen and friends) has made a big difference! You know how we love love love all things Finland, and Fonal. That magic hasn't abated. Lively, lovely, colorful; woozy and wonderful, this Kemialliset is just what the doctor ordered. Have you heard 'em before? Kemialliset, and their fellow Fonal artists, have been referred to by us (and others) as "Finnish Forest Folk". Fairly accurate... as long as you're ok with folk music made using computers. From a forest that's full of brightly colored trees and plants whose pharmacological uses are probably entirely recreational and specifically hallucinatory. Populated by strange creatures like gibbering gnomes and tittering trolls. And of course, they ARE from Finland. Of course of course.
Carefully constructed by Jan in his forest laboratory, a collage of contributions from folks like Roope Eronen (Avarus, Maniacs Dream, Pylon), Kevin Regan (Fricara Pacchu, Anaksimandros, Avarus), Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle, Pharaoh Overlord), C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core), Neil Campbell (Astral Social Club), Markus Maki (Anaksimandros, Avarus, Kiila), Pekko Kappi (Kiila), Hitoshi Kojo (Juppala Kaapio, Spiracle), Joshua Stevenson (Jackie-O Motherfucker) and others, this is, as you might expect, a delirious and dense tapestry of seamlessly flowing, ever-changing, psychedelic soundz. 14 tracks total to delight the ear with such teeter-tottering elements as lilting layered female vox, bleepy glitchy background electronix (track six sounds like they've wandered into an '80s video arcade to record), wheezing harmonium drones, rattling ritual percussion, cartoon SFX, snippets of synth melody seemingly snatched from a '70s Bo Hansson record, and much much more, from krauty rhythmics to lullaby babble, and hybrids thereof. It's part Incredible String Band, part Raymond Scott or Bruce Haack. Or imagine a completely dosed and demented Black Moth Super Rainbow making a cd-r for Jewelled Antler, maybe.
Truly a phantasmagorical tour-de-force, utterly what we needed to brighten these grey days and/or make 'em cosier. The compact disc version is packaged in a tri-fold digi with a thick booklet packed with beautiful full-color photographs and some very interesting text in both Finnish and English, and the vinyl is nice too.
MPEG Stream: "Kivikasan Rauhassa"
MPEG Stream: "Maksaruohoja"
MPEG Stream: "Ystavalliset Miekat"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Untitled (Fonal) cd 17.98
Finland's Kemialliset Ystavat (and Avarus, and Anaksimandros, and Uton, and Lau Nau, and Doktor Kettu, etc.) are often referred to as "forest-folk", implying some sort of quiet, gentle rustling mystery amidst the trees, and sometimes that's quite the case. But the first few tracks here, on Kemialliset's latest, would certainly scare off any friendly small animals -and- wake up the sleeping forest trolls. It's woozy woodsy cacophony unleashed. This be outsider "folk" at its most abstract and noisy and "free". But, by track four or five things have calmed down a bit, the sounds have gotten more organized. Some charismatic, long-haired, bearded guru has obviously taken charge of the previously wild music-makers, their pagan energy now channelled down paths previously trod unshod by the likes of Parson Sound and Amon Duul... more mellow and musical, still druggy and damaged. Track six, "Superhimmeli", comes off like something by cult '60s ESP tribe Cromagnon!! (Perhaps due to having the same keening horn cry as heard in Cromagnon's "Caledonia".) There's a hippy chant drone density to a lot of this that's VERY satisfying. It's like an ancient celebration underway, wooden space rock rituals, accompanied by electronic squiggles or birds atwitter, burbling and gurgling sounds in the margins... sunshiney yet strange, very strange. Fonal thinks this is one of their best yet and we wouldn't argue.
NB. There IS vinyl of this, but unfortunately the copies we got were damaged -- we're expecting replacements from Finland soon, though.
MPEG Stream: "Tulinen Kiihdytys"
MPEG Stream: "Superhimmeli"
MPEG Stream: "Himmeli Kutsuu Minua"

KEMIALLISET YSTAVAT Varisevien Tanssi / Silmujen Marssi (Kevyt Nostalgia) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Awesome vinyl reissue of these two long out of print 3" cd-r's from one of our favorite Finnish outfits Kemialliset Ystavat, one originally released on UK noise-experimental label Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers, the other released by Finnish underground folk label Lal Lal Lal and originally packaged in a velvet sleeve designed to be used as a petting glove! Everything we love about KY is present here, gorgeously primitive / innocent / timeless Ur-folk, simple strummed guitars, outdoorsy lo fi recording, chant-like vocals, simple clattery percussion, dreamy hazy ritualistic soundscapes, delicate melancholy melodies, deliberate rhythmic stumble, subtle tape malfunction and home recorded production fuckery, loping late afternoon, staring at the sun rhythms, and occasional swirling swooping electronics. Fans of Kemialliset and all things Finnish (you know who you are) definitely need to pick this up. And all you folks who have been digging the Jewelled Antler stuff (Blithe Suns, Thuja, Ivytree, Child Readers, etc.) will find a whole new world of sonic forests and audio landscapes to explore and get lost in.

KENNELMUS Folkstone Prism (Sundazed) cd 16.98
Another fine reissue from fine reissue label Sundazed (who put this out in '99 -- so we're slow, sorry) of late sixties era psych rock. Kennelmus were from the Arizona desert and played a sunbaked style of almost surfy psychedelia, as documented on this, their sole LP release from 1971. Influenced by the Beach Boys, early Alice Cooper, and we'd have to assume some mind-expanding drugs, this is gorgeous stuff that's also weirdly unhinged as you'll discover as the album progresses. 'Indonesian instrumental '60s guitar pop band The Steps doing Morricone Western soundtrack music' (cool!) is the first thing we thought after hearing the initial three or four songs, but then as the tracks advance, more and more songs feature vocals, often silly, nasal ones...partially because of this, at times this reminds us of another strange band originally from Arizona, the Sun City Girls!
Kennelmus have their own, unique vibe, but you never know what to expect: there's the song "Mother Of My Children" with vocals that sound exactly like Lee Hazlewood, lotsa studio trickery and effects (backwards guitars galore), and then album-closer "The Raven" (yes, the famous Edgar Allen Poe poem set to music). Which explains the bird silhouette on the disc's fantastic purple cover. If you liked Sundazed more recent reissue of the Gandalf album we reviewed last list, this is way weirder but similarily lovely and obscure.
RealAudio clip: "I Don't Know"
RealAudio clip: "Dancing Doris"
RealAudio clip: "Black Sunshine"
RealAudio clip: "Think For Yourself"

KENNY PROCESS TEAM 94 - 97 (Bingo) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Released on Sasha Frere-Jones' (Ui) label, this album from the Kenny Process Team collects a bunch of work from 94 - 97 including an out-of-print Hemiola album. Whimisical post-rock for guitar, bass, and drums tries to replicate a Capt. Beefheart Trout Mask with punkish Firehose-esque complex stumbles.

KESEY, KEN The Acid Test (Acadia) cd 13.98
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Recordings from/for one of Kesey's infamous Acid Tests.

KEUHKOT Laskeutumisalusastia (Ektro) cd 14.98
As much as we think sometimes we have a real way with words, there's always somebody who totally puts us to shame, which is exactly why we're gonna start our review of this, the sixth and latest record from Finnish underground outsider rock weirdo one man band Keuhkot ('lungs' in Finnish), with a description written by Jussi of Circle, whose label Ektro released it:
"The sixth struggle album of Kake Puhuu. The combat noise and insect world music downpreaching book. Rawer than its precursors, this album strips it down to marrow and squeezes juice out of it. Keuhkot batters mindless attributes of humanity from insects' point of view by means of reverse pop music. The aim is towards backwoods motorism, meritocamping, real men, moose hunt madness and established global upstarts. The most bearded feminist of Finland, Keuhkot, kicks the real man's groin. Keuhkot makes its own ethnic fusion gadding from rhythmic highways to distorted sidepaths in a refreshed guitar oriented soundscape. You may call it freaky but according to Kake, pop music (including metal, of course) is a freaky industrialized illness that needs a vaccination Ð which is Keuhkot."
We definitely couldn't have said it better ourselves, but heck, why not give it a try? Longtime readers of the aQ list might remember Andee's harrowing and ultra personal private Keuhkot performance in an abandoned schoolhouse in the wilds of rural Finland (you can read more about it elsewhere on the aQ site, in one of the other Keuhkot reviews), and are quite possibly already fans of Kake Puhuu's twisted sonic world of primitive programmed drums, twisted percussion, weird samples, layered loops, warped and woozy synths, detuned guitars and warbled guttural vox, and how could you not be, Puhuu is like the underground electro minimal abstract noise rock Jandek of Finland, record after record of totally idiosyncratic, ultra personal, musical weirdness, that sonically is all over the map, be it twang flecked almost Western sounding folk, woozy crooned torch songs, junkyard percussion driven lo-fi dirge rock, stumbling hypno-prog, who knows how the heck to classify any of this, easiest to just say this is some sort of utterly singular, surreal Finnish psychedelia, equal parts the Residents, Tom Waits, Birthday Party, Cop Shoot Cop, and who knows what else, all filtered through that totally cracked Finnish sensibility that informs so much of the Finnish music we love. A little bit circusy, a LOT whatthefuck, droney, fuzzy, distorted, stumbly, we want to say this is the best Keuhkot yet, but we sort of love them all, cuz they're all great. We'd say it's the weirdest, but they're all pretty goddamn weird too. We will say the opening track "Kuuluisia Alkemisteja Vol 1", is one of the coolest jams we've heard in ages, all super blown out synth buzz, pulsing and undulating, laced with haunting disembodied vocals, but the sort of droned out abstract psych trip out we could listen to forever. Just check out the samples, and prepare yourself to be baffled and confused and totally transported to some seriously demented sonic otherworld, and Jussi did in fact say it best: Keuhkot kicks the real man's groin!
MPEG Stream: "Kuuluisia Alkemisteja Vol 2"
MPEG Stream: "Puhumatta Paras"
MPEG Stream: "Pinkki & Ruskee"
MPEG Stream: "Aikakauden Loppu"

KEUHKOT Minun Kay Saaliksi Bilharzialoista (Bad Vugum) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another notable export from the weird wide world of the Finnish underground. And again, courtesy of the mighty Bad Vugum.
If you were at the AQ 30th Anniversary party you may have seen Circle mainman Jussi spporting a Keuhkot shirt, as hey/they are huge fans. Kehkot is a maniacal one man band, that leaps stylistically all over the map from record to record.
'Minun...' starts out sounding like woodblock electronica, Autechre played on sticks and logs. But with ominous Darth Vader exhalations in the background. Eventually this mutates into some sort of psychotic calypso, sounding a bit like bizarre soundtrack music, albeit laced with strange Finnish mutterings. Really weird, and really great.

KEUHKOT Mita Otat Mukaan Muistoksi Sivistyksesta (Bad Vugum) cd 15.98
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KEUHKOT Mita Otat Mukaan Muistoksi Sivistyksesta (Bad Vugum) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

KEUHKOT Peruskivi Francon Betonia (Ektro) cd 14.98
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Keuhkot (lungs in Finnish) is Kake Puhuu. A one man band /art installation / travelling circus / raving lunatic. Kake plays everything: basses, drums, flutes, kimbara, ud-luth (?), samples, sequences, recordings and vocals. As well as appearing multiple times in his videos and photos (which consist of wastelands and wild sculptural gardens inhabited by 4, 5 sometimes even 10 Kake Puhuus!) This is the first Keuhkot record on Jussi from Circle's Ektro label and it is pretty amazing. Some kind of wild junkyard gypsy music, equal parts Birthday Party, Pussy Galore, Cop Shoot Cop, The Three Tenors, Devo, Finnish folk, circus music, looped/sampled electronica, all with Kake's distinctive Tom Waits-ish growl over the top. Wild percussion, hypnotic rhythms, sinister bass loops, growled spoken word passages, crashing waves, rattling spray paint cans, calliope-like melodies, chanted vocals, and groovy almost-exotica, all taken in directions you would never expect. Weird and wonderful, bizarre and beautiful. Is there no end to the musical bounty Finland has to offer? We're beginning to think not.
RealAudio clip: "Pois Zagorasta"
RealAudio clip: "Syksyn Kirjasatoa"
RealAudio clip: "MaanKaytto (a. Suunittelu b. Toteutus)"

KEUHKOT Ruskea Aikakirja (Bad Vugum) cd 15.98
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KEUHKOT Toiminatatapoja Olioille (Ektro) cd 14.98
Probably the best way to describe the mad genius that is Keuhkot (Finnish for lungs) is to describe my bizarre, up close and personal encounter with Kake Puhuu aka Keuhkot, when I was visiting Finland a couple years ago. I was picked up by Jussi from Circle and Peltsi (formerly of Circle, now in Stalwart and Lee Miller) and we proceeded to drive for nearly an hour into the woods. An hour in the car is not ideal after 10 hours on a plane, but I put myself at the mercy of my Finnish hosts. We finally pulled up to a huge red schoolhouse in the middle of nowhere, surrounded on all sides by dense dark forest. We rang the doorbell and waited outside until a madly barking dog leapt out of the just opened door, being barely restrained by a small quiet Finnish man. We were hustled inside, into a large gymnasium, complete with wooden benches and chalkboards on the walls. We sat for quite a while, not entirely sure what was going on, when suddenly that same small man with the dog that we met at the front door, walked into the gymnasium with no shirt on. He proceeded to crawl around on the ground, turning on all sorts of switches, plugging in lots of strange looking devices, all manner of buzzing and hums began to emanate from these various devices. The man proceeded to then strap on this huge apparatus, covered in lights and microphones all on the ends of strange metal tentacles, he stood up, behind a huge wooden podium, grabbed a giant hammer and suddenly lurched into a blasting tribal pummel, shouted Finnish vocals, crazed percussion and freakout guitar. I suddenly realized that I was in fact witnessing a personal Keuhkot performance and proceeded to sit there dumbfounded, totally blown away, not only by the ridiculous spectacle, but the totally mesmerizing music as well. After about a half hour, he dropped everything and walked out. Maybe twenty minutes later, he returned with tea and biscuits, and we all sat having tea and desperately fending off the wildly barking and biscuit crazed hound we had experienced earlier. Woah. That definitely says a lot about Finland, and for sure gives you a glimpse into the brilliantly warped mind of Keuhkot. So while this new Keuhkot record might not be quite as visceral as a harrowing personal encounter, it's most definitely still a bit harrowing, and most certainly, completely and bizarrely brilliant. Much more subdued than his previous releases, Toimin... is a dark and dizzying expanse of alien synth melodies, simple industrial percussion, mumbled insistent vocals, fuzzy far off guitars, simple rock riffs re-imagined as some muted David Lynchian garage rock, a lo-fi horror movie Krautrock with simple hypnotically repeated motifs, beneath subtle shuffling percussion, and growled Finnish spoken word. The whole record is a slowly shifting moonlit world of fairy tales gone bad, demented nursery rhymes, sweet music slightly soured, haunting and ominous, but strangely playful and mysterious. Like a late night stroll on the moon, if the moon was a Finnish Raymond Chandler novel, with strange alien creatures packing heat, lurking in doorways, looking shifty and rootless, looking for whatever trouble they can find on the seedy side of the moon. Keuhkot is exactly what that would sound like.
MPEG Stream: "Presentaatio Raumanjuovassa"
MPEG Stream: "Ilmastonmuutos"
MPEG Stream: "Peshawar-Kandahar-Espoo-Kobenhavn"

KEYHOLE 12 July 2000 (Eclipse) lp 13.98
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Very late one night in the summer of 2000, Kentuckian sound artist Keenan Lawler, metallurgist Eric Clark, and three members of the psychedelic-drone ensemble Pelt (Patrick Best, Mike Gangloff, and Jack Rose) ventured into a stone silo at a Franciscan monastery just north of Louisville. Bringing within them an arsenal of cymbals, gongs, bells, Tibetan singing bowls, bronze didgeridoos, Japanese flutes, and a lone banjo, these five musicians proceeded to improvise an extended drone that billows, swells, and recedes within the intrinsic reverberation of the silo's space. The result recalls similar acoustically based drones from Organum, Mirror, and the later work from AMM. Of course, it is stated that no electronics were used in this album's construction. The one minor drawback is that the mastering level on this vinyl only release is rather low, as if they were trying to mask out the competing cicada chorus. Just crank it up, and enjoy a fine drone album.

KG The Greatest Hits (Gooom) cd 15.98
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KG, THE Nature Morte (Fortune 4) cd 14.98
Kicking Giant may be long gone but its leader certainly isn't. Tae Wu is back musically under the moniker The KG. In recent years, you may be more familiar with his graphics than his sonic output, designing several striking album sleeves, posters, etc. Here he is assisted by many of his Olympia, WA co-horts (including Kento from IQU). Spartan and raw recordings not veering far from the dissonant Kicking Giant scope but with more blips and bleeps.

KHAN Space Shanty (Esoteric Recordings) cd 21.00
Not sea shanty, but space shanty. Great title for a space rock record, right? And this 1972 album, newly reissued on cd with two bonus tracks, is definitely space rock - there's even a crazy looking space ship on the cover. But how come it's not called Space Shanties? There's eight tracks here after all, including the bonus ones. Anyway this is a classic, classic prog record, the first and only album from the UK's Khan, a band formed by guitarist Steve Hillage, just prior to his stint with those self-proclaimed "pot-head pixies" of the planet Gong. While Hillage is probably best known for playing in Gong after Khan passed on, he also had a successful post-Gong solo career as a prog rock guitar hero, and later found favor with the trance/techno/ambient crowd in the '80s and '90s. But you don't have to be down with The Orb or The Ozrics to enjoy this album! And actually, Aquarius customers just as likely might know Hillage from his appearance in an even earlier, college-daze outfit, the obscure but beloved heavy psych act Arzachel. Khan, while more polished and "pro", isn't that far off from Arzachel, really, at least in terms of the amount of psychedelic guitar action and organ jamming going on. Also, another ex-member of Arzachel appears in Khan, keyboardist Dave Stewart (not the Eurythmics fellow, but the guy who founded mathy proggers Egg, and later on played in Hatfield and the North).
So... in brief, Khan's a mixture of gentle, Pink Floydian atmospheres, Canterbury style organ burble, and hard rockish guitar power, with song titles like "Stranded (Effervescent Psychonovelty No.5)", "Mixed Up Man Of The Mountains", and "Stargazers". Being prog, the instrumental parts are paramount, but also look out for cool spacey lyrics like "Starstruck moonman looks so blind/You're still a slave within your mind". It's very of its era, that's for sure! Excessively prog, but in the best way. The songs are all longer than your typical pop single of course, though none break into the double digits minutes-wise. And, importantly, it's all very melodic, the singing expressing much majestic emotion, as does Hillage's searing acid rock guitar leads and the driving organ grooves of Stewart. At times we're reminded of Atomic Rooster, at others Van Der Graaf Generator, and at still others of Caravan... so a definite AQ prog recommendation, all right.
MPEG Stream: "Space Shanty (incl. The Cobalt Sequence and March Of The Sine Squadrons)"
MPEG Stream: "Driving To Amsterdam"

KHAZAD DOOM Cherry Town (Hallucination) cd 14.98

KHAZAD DOOM Level 6 1/2 (LPL) lp 16.98

KHI DARAG s/t (Zorastor) cd ep 10.98
Awesome new group from the Bay Area who channel international psych of years past to create some totally engaging and undeniably fun sounds. We're lucky to have so many amazing bands and musicians in San Francisco and we're even luckier that many of them are customers of ours. So it's always cool to see what lots of our favorite music makers in town are listening to and checking out when they swing by the store. And not that we've been spying but every time Max Balaoin (one of the master minds of Khi Darag) has come into the store over the last couple years it was hard not to notice how fast he'd make a beeline to the '70s Turkish Psychedelia section, as well as always seemingly after left of center sounds from across the globe circa late '60s and '70s.
With a band that features folks from groups like Rube Wadell, Rupa & The April Fishes, Charming Hostess, Lord Loves A Working Man and even the SF Mime Troupe, these extremely talented musicians have taken those international psych sounds from years past and brought in their own elements of surf rock, klezmer, and soundtracks to create music that is pretty impossible not to move to.
Much like Dengue Fever they use their influences from the past with total respect and love and it comes out in the sounds that they create. They also have a bit of a suspenseful undertone to their aesthetic which makes us think this is exactly the kind of band Mike Patton or John Zorn would want playing at their wedding with a dancefloor of weirdos having the time of their life. So fun!
MPEG Stream: "Mastom Mastom"
MPEG Stream: "Nostalgia"
MPEG Stream: "The Silk Road"

KHLYST Chaos Is My Name (Hydra Head) cd 13.98
For those mourning the recent passing of creeping doom sludge lords Khanate, we've got the next best thing. In fact in some ways, it might almost be the next -better- thing. Khanate low-end technician James Plotkin suddenly jumped ship only to start up this dour little duo with Runhild Gammelsaeter, the Nordic goddess you might remember as the vocalist for bleak black/doom metal outfit Thorr's Hammer.
On first listen, Khlyst sounds remarkably like Khanate, huge sluggish low end doom, a thick glacial sludgey plod, while over the top a shrieking, impossibly guttural mewling howl, like a demon clearing her throat or a hysterical cheerleader possessed by the devil and spewing impossible foulness. But even at their most Khanate, Khlyst ends up sounding just a whole lot weirder. Instead of downtuned riffage, the guitars are twisted and processed into strange slippery licks, drenched in chorus and phaser, like some sort of alien guitar synth, sputtering and stumbling, a jagged series of noodly little six string blasts, fragmented metallic chunks, over ultra dense tangles of free jazz drum splatter, everything thick with buzzy guitars and ominous ambience. A super freaked out, utterly demented psychedelic doom sludge stretched and twisted into a sputtering spastic black buzz, pelted with bits of prog and wrapped in thick layers of damaged drone.
Elsewhere, the duo, stretch out into hauntingly blissful soundscapes constructed from processed vocals, swirling billows of reverb, echoey guitar shimmer, almost like a creepier Grouper. Drifty and hauntingly lovely. And sometimes the rhythmic furor builds into a vortex of impossibly dense drumming, over thick swaths of low end drone, with growling panting Diamanda-like vocalisations struggle breathlessly over the top. Like some sort of demonic sludge jazz drum solo torture session.
Imagine weirdo black metallers Rehtaf Ruo crossed with UK doomlords Moss, featuring Buddy Rich and Rashied Ali on dueling drums, and a vocalist one part Bathtub Shitter, one part Kevin Sharp from Brutal Truth and one part Dani Filth from Cradle Of Filth, the whole thing recorded by Lustmord.
Bleak and blackened, squirming and slithery, shivering and stumbling. An epic and deranged slab of ultra-ambient-doom-prog-drone-sludge splendor.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"
MPEG Stream: "V"

KHONNOR Handwriting (Type) cd 16.98
Hot on the heels of all those Morr Music label releases that have arrived in the last few weeks, comes some more pretty electronica. This time it's from UK label Type Records.
Okay, first things first, our initial beef with this cd was the record label's decision to plaster not the shrinkwrap, but the digipak itself (!) with stickers of ten unreasonably pants-shitting review excerpts. It not only makes the cd look like a promotional copy, but also may elevate your expectations of an album that can't possibly stand up to those over the top superlatives. For example, Grooves sez, "No one, anywhere, has melded indie rock and electronics as perfectly as this... The most jaw-dropping debut since Music Has The Right To Children". What the?! Gimme a fuckin' break!!! No, more simply stated, Khonnor (aka teenager Connor Kirby-Long) would fit quite well on the Morr Music label alongside the likes of Styrofoam, LaliPuna and Ms. John Soda (all of whom do this kind of music as well if not better that Khonnor). It's nice and dreamy and pleasant, especially the tracks without vocals. That said, Khonnor might not be as successful as the aforementioned label's artists in fusing the pop with the electronic -- he's much stronger at crafting layers of dreamy textures than pop hooks -- but if you're seeking an album to wrap yourself in fuzzy blankets of digital shimmer with fleeting glimpses of pop melodies, this could be the one for you.
MPEG Stream: "Man From The Anthill"
MPEG Stream: "Phone Calls From You"

KID BEYOND Amplivate (self-released) cd 8.98
Took a while for these to materialize from the man and his peeps, but better late than never we s'pose! Bay Area lone mouthpiece Kid Beyond takes his moniker seriously taking the art of beatboxing beyond the hip hop common place. And though he definitely isn't a youngster (when we saw him perfom live a while ago he resembled a life size Barney Rubble!), he keeps energies and spirits youthfully high and welcoming as he loops and layers his oral utterances and sputterances into a catchy grooviness. Who'd think a beatboxer would cover Portishead? Seems like an unlikely choice, but KB does it style and it totally works!
MPEG Stream: "Wandering Star"
MPEG Stream: "Mothership (Mutaytor Dublab Remix)"

KIDS OF WIDNEY HIGH Let's Get Busy (Ipecac) cd 17.98
Second album from these amazing kids, students at unique program at L.A.'s Widney High School where disabled students are taught about music and helped to write and sing their own songs. The results are sometimes funny, sometimes really sad and sometimes just completely bizarre. On Mike Patton's Ipecac label.

KIDS ON A CRIME SPREE We Love You So Bad (Slumberland) cd ep 8.98
Another new release from Slumberland, who have been cranking out release after release since they resurfaced after a bit of a break, thankfully all these new Slumberland jams kill, and this latest one is no different. Featuring a bunch of folks from psych pop combo From Bubblegum To Sky (who are pretty dang great, even though we've never managed to review anything, yet!), this is a modern homage to Phil Spector and the old Brill Building songsmiths, and yeah, we know, everyone and their mother have a reverby garage rock band that is trying to do that whole Phil Spector wall of sound thing, and there are plenty of Something-Girls or Girls-Something bands, Dum Dum, Vivian, At Dawn and the rest, who are doing it quite well thank you.
But fuck it, there's always room for another fuzzy, dreamy retro sixties style pop band, especially if the songs are great, and the sound is warm and wonderful, and Kids On A Crime Spree nail it on both counts, using old equipment and vintage recording techniques to capture that classic sound, these guys pull it off songwise too, with warm crunchy softly fuzzy guitars, plenty of jangle, hooks galore, and an awesome second guitar, all warm and woozy, clean and clear, playing the melody over the top of the fuzzy jangle, we LOVE that. Just check out "I Don't Want To Call You Baby, Baby", shades of the Raveonettes for sure, the same sort of washed out dreaminess, but there's just something about KOACS that make these songs sound special. "Trumpets Of Death" has those super echoey vocals, but adds some fat fuzzy bass, and a bizarre chorus that seems to have nothing to do with the titular trumpets of death.
All the songs here are awesome, warm and fuzzy, sunshiney and handclappy, hazey and dreamily druggy, softly psychedelic, mixing the classic pop sound that they're paying tribute to, but adding little subtle modern sonic bits that help make this stuff sound special, with some tracks erupting into crunchy fuzzy almost punky blasters, while others getting all warped and blurred and laid back, finally finishing with the piano pounding fuzz bass buzzing "Jean-Paul Sartre 2", which adds a glistening super melodic chorus to the otherwise fuzzed out feedback drenched verses, as well as a cool dynamic stop/start post chorus bridge, and some soaring, super melodic vocals, a strangely tweaked and twisted take on classic popsmithery, that definitely has us hoping that the next record will head more in that direction.
MPEG Stream: " I Don't Want To Call You Baby, Baby"
MPEG Stream: "It's In My Blood"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Tooth"

KIDS ON A CRIME SPREE We Love You So Bad (Slumberland) 12" 10.98
Another new release from Slumberland, who have been cranking out release after release since they resurfaced after a bit of a break, thankfully all these new Slumberland jams kill, and this latest one is no different. Featuring a bunch of folks from psych pop combo From Bubblegum To Sky (who are pretty dang great, even though we've never managed to review anything, yet!), this is a modern homage to Phil Spector and the old Brill Building songsmiths, and yeah, we know, everyone and their mother have a reverby garage rock band that is trying to do that whole Phil Spector wall of sound thing, and there are plenty of Something-Girls or Girls-Something bands, Dum Dum, Vivian, At Dawn and the rest, who are doing it quite well thank you.
But fuck it, there's always room for another fuzzy, dreamy retro sixties style pop band, especially if the songs are great, and the sound is warm and wonderful, and Kids On A Crime Spree nail it on both counts, using old equipment and vintage recording techniques to capture that classic sound, these guys pull it off songwise too, with warm crunchy softly fuzzy guitars, plenty of jangle, hooks galore, and an awesome second guitar, all warm and woozy, clean and clear, playing the melody over the top of the fuzzy jangle, we LOVE that. Just check out "I Don't Want To Call You Baby, Baby", shades of the Raveonettes for sure, the same sort of washed out dreaminess, but there's just something about KOACS that make these songs sound special. "Trumpets Of Death" has those super echoey vocals, but adds some fat fuzzy bass, and a bizarre chorus that seems to have nothing to do with the titular trumpets of death.
All the songs here are awesome, warm and fuzzy, sunshiney and handclappy, hazey and dreamily druggy, softly psychedelic, mixing the classic pop sound that they're paying tribute to, but adding little subtle modern sonic bits that help make this stuff sound special, with some tracks erupting into crunchy fuzzy almost punky blasters, while others getting all warped and blurred and laid back, finally finishing with the piano pounding fuzz bass buzzing "Jean-Paul Sartre 2", which adds a glistening super melodic chorus to the otherwise fuzzed out feedback drenched verses, as well as a cool dynamic stop/start post chorus bridge, and some soaring, super melodic vocals, a strangely tweaked and twisted take on classic popsmithery, that definitely has us hoping that the next record will head more in that direction.
MPEG Stream: " I Don't Want To Call You Baby, Baby"
MPEG Stream: "It's In My Blood"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Tooth"

KIILA Heartcore (Fonal) cd 17.98
Finland's Kiila play, for want of a better description, experimental indie-rock. They share with other Finnish bands like Circle a predeliction for the effective use of repetition, utilizing loops like band member Sami "Es" Sanpakkila's solo A Love Cycle record. Kiila specialize in going off on adventurous, but mostly low-key explorations, from moments of happy pop to dark strum to noisier beats and drones. They take many approaches to music making, but as the extensive liner notes/essay state, their art is rooted in their listening, both to others music and to their own material, which is thoroughly crafted but never "complete". I'm not so much a fan of Kiila's occasional English-language vocals (Finnish is so much better, guys!) but those vocals are indie-rock standard and anyway much of this is instrumental. A very nice discovery -- and even if this record wasn't as good as it is, it would be worth it for the fucked-up but gorgeous, stumbling final track "Heartflowers".
RealAudio clip: "Contemporaries"
RealAudio clip: "Crystal Fields"
RealAudio clip: "Heatflowers"

KIILA Silmat Sulkaset (Fonal) cd 17.98
Some of you will remember Kiila from their 2001 album Heartcore, a lovely disc of low-key indie rock and Circle-like loopage from a couple friends of ours in Finland. In the intervening years, Kiila has morphed a bit. Their new disc Silmat Sulkaset is quite as nice as Heartcore, even better we think as the band has both expanded into a seven-piece ensemble and simultaneous seemingly retreated into the Finnish forest where they now play achingly beautiful psychedelic folk rock, not unlike the more traditionally-influenced efforts of '70s Swedes like Arbete Och Fritid and Trad Gras Och Stenar, venturing into the improv territory of fellow Finnish forest-dwellers Kemialliset Ystavat as well. Male and female voices sing sweetly (in Finnish only -- taking our advice?) over sundry acoustic guitars, electric drones, wavering flutes, and hand percussion. Magical, melodic, mysterious. Krautrock ghosts smile on them. The USA might offer comparisons like Black Forest/Black Sea, Skygreen Leopards, Golden Hotel and Espers, but the Finnish folk element here is irreplaceable... Really really nice. Nice Fonal packaging too!
MPEG Stream: "Kelmeja"
MPEG Stream: "Kateet Linnut"
MPEG Stream: "Tapanima Aukesi Vuori"

KIILA Tuota Tuota (Fonal) cd 17.98
Of all the Finnish bands we love, and all the bands on Finnish label Fonal, Kiila might just be the most traditionally indie rock. But then that's really relative, since we're talking about Finland, and the fact that Kiila is made up of members of other, much more far out bands like Es, Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Anaksimadros. So you can figure that even though Kiila traffic in indie rock, it's unlike most indie rock you know.
Right off the bat the first track reminds us of a much more blissed out folkier Animal Collective, chiming guitars, delicate fingerpicking, softly tangled harmonies, reverbed abstract vocals, sunshine-y and dreamy, really quite lovely. The rest of the record is not so blissed out though, the second track is a fiddle laced bit of indie rocking, jangly guitars, propulsive drumming, lots of swirling drone-y organs, and much more traditional sounding vocals, in fact it almost reminds us a little of Wilco, albeit filtered through the cracked Finnish pop sensibility. The rest of the record continues in a simialr direction, channeling much of what we love about indie rock, but infusing it with plenty of twang, Finnish forest folkiness, and plenty of off kilter weirdness, whether it's thick sheets of undulating buzz, fluries of birdsong, streaks of tripped out effects or thick swells of rumbling low end crunch, those various elements are deftly woven into more traditional pop smithery.
A few tracks revisit the dreamy folkiness of the record opener, stripped down to just acoustic guitar, fiddle and voice, while others are almost entirely vocal harmony drive, and at least one is a gorgeous droned out synthscape, and another is a ramshackle horn flecked, chaotically percussive tripped out free jam.
The sounds are lush and beautiful, jangly and poppy, and just a little bit twisted and fractured, they may be the most 'traditional' sounding of all our Finnish faves, but that still means this is weirder and more awesomely abstract thatn 90 percent of music out there.
Gorgeous Fonal packaging as always, the cd in a full color 6 panel cardboard gatefold jacket, with a printed inner sleeve which includes liner notes and lyrics and cool printed Japanese style obi, the vinyl in a normal but quite colorful sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Viisi Hirvasta"
MPEG Stream: "Kevatlaulu"
MPEG Stream: "Portaissa"

KIILA Tuota Tuota (Fonal) lp 17.98
Of all the Finnish bands we love, and all the bands on Finnish label Fonal, Kiila might just be the most traditionally indie rock. But then that's really relative, since we're talking about Finland, and the fact that Kiila is made up of members of other, much more far out bands like Es, Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Anaksimadros. So you can figure that even though Kiila traffic in indie rock, it's unlike most indie rock you know.
Right off the bat the first track reminds us of a much more blissed out folkier Animal Collective, chiming guitars, delicate fingerpicking, softly tangled harmonies, reverbed abstract vocals, sunshine-y and dreamy, really quite lovely. The rest of the record is not so blissed out though, the second track is a fiddle laced bit of indie rocking, jangly guitars, propulsive drumming, lots of swirling drone-y organs, and much more traditional sounding vocals, in fact it almost reminds us a little of Wilco, albeit filtered through the cracked Finnish pop sensibility. The rest of the record continues in a simialr direction, channeling much of what we love about indie rock, but infusing it with plenty of twang, Finnish forest folkiness, and plenty of off kilter weirdness, whether it's thick sheets of undulating buzz, fluries of birdsong, streaks of tripped out effects or thick swells of rumbling low end crunch, those various elements are deftly woven into more traditional pop smithery.
A few tracks revisit the dreamy folkiness of the record opener, stripped down to just acoustic guitar, fiddle and voice, while others are almost entirely vocal harmony drive, and at least one is a gorgeous droned out synthscape, and another is a ramshackle horn flecked, chaotically percussive tripped out free jam.
The sounds are lush and beautiful, jangly and poppy, and just a little bit twisted and fractured, they may be the most 'traditional' sounding of all our Finnish faves, but that still means this is weirder and more awesomely abstract thatn 90 percent of music out there.
Gorgeous Fonal packaging as always, the cd in a full color 6 panel cardboard gatefold jacket, with a printed inner sleeve which includes liner notes and lyrics and cool printed Japanese style obi, the vinyl in a normal but quite colorful sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Viisi Hirvasta"
MPEG Stream: "Kevatlaulu"
MPEG Stream: "Portaissa"

KILARA / HELLCHILD Righteousness Is Immortal (Rhetoric) cd 11.98
A split release between Kilara (heavy, slugde rock from Virginia sorta like Eyehategod, but with an unhealthy hillbilly country obsession) and Hellchild (Japanese strangled hardcore who were previously on Howling Bull and here covers Venom).

KILGOUR, DAVID A Feather in the Engine (Merge) cd 14.98
David Kilgour's name will be familiar to anyone who was into the New Zealand indie rock scene of the '80s and early '90s -- he was a founding member of The Clean and Great Unwashed, etc. His solo album Here Come the Cars (1991) is one of my very favorite records of that time, and this new one doesn't beat it, but it comes close. Kilgour's solo style is hushed and somber (although not as melancholy as fellow Kiwi Roy Montgomery), yet at times upbeat and pretty, filled with crystalline picked guitars and softly enunciated vocals. Like an Arctic Sea -- chilled and so still, yet with oceans of emotion going on underneath, if you care enough to listen for the subtleties (and if you can stand my cliched descriptions!) Not a major album but decent.
RealAudio clip: "Today is Gonna Be Mine"
RealAudio clip: "Sept. 98"

KILGOUR, DAVID First Steps and False Alarms (Ajax) 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 best of the worst -- demos of demos. 20 songs, intakes and outtakes, "ideas i've used". From New Zealand so you can be pretty sure it's great (though this rule does *not* apply to some recent Flying Nun output).

KILGOUR, DAVID First Steps and False Alarms (Ajax) 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 best of the worst -- demos of demos. 20 songs, intakes and outtakes, "ideas i've used". From New Zealand so you can be pretty sure it's great (though this rule does *not* apply to some recent Flying Nun output).

KILGOUR, DAVID Frozen Orange (Merge) cd 14.98
The latest shimmering album from New Zealand's pop fave David Kilgour can only and justly be described through the following haiku:
frozen orange pop
from sea-shanty, autumn comes
to green ocean wash
MPEG Stream: "Living In Space"
MPEG Stream: "Frozen Orange"

KILGOUR, DAVID The Far Now (Merge) cd 13.98
So good to hear New Zealand's David Kilgour continuing to keep things nice 'n' simple. His sixth full length The Far Now contains more of his high calibre, straightforward singer/songwriter pop tunes in league with The Go-Betweens, Mountain Goats and Robyn Hitchcock. Y'know, that cardigan sweater and argyle sock wearin' intellectual pop songs filled with jangly guitars, wide-eyed innocence and poetic sweetheart hooks that get you... right... there! Ever so gently nails your heartstrings every time.
MPEG Stream: "Sun Of God"
MPEG Stream: "I Cut My Heart Out Once"

KILL ALL REDNECK PRICKS - A DOCUMENTARY FILM ABOUT A BAND CALLED KARP (Molasses Manifesto) dvd 19.98
We loved Karp. So much. One of THEE most awesome live bands ever. Energetic, catchy as hell, hilarious, totally rocking, insanely heavy, punk as fuck. Their between song banter about as funny and entertaining as any band we've ever seen. Folks who have recently discovered the Melvins, in their new four piece incarnation, might not even realize that bass player Jared Warren was the front man for the late great Karp, cuz if they did, they'd be losing their shit over Karp, who essentially followed in the footsteps of the Melvins, at first simply aping the sound of their idols, but quickly transforming that Melvins beholden sound into their own twisted metalpunk radness.
The movie is as much about Karp as the scene they helped spawn (or that helped spawn them). Beyond tons of rad rare footage of Karp, there's incredible footage of SUPER early Melvins, Unwound, Beat Happening and more, as well as interviews with Calvin Johnson, Joe Preston, Kathleen Hanna, Justin from Unwound, Kimya Dawson, Maggie Vail from the Bangs, Mikey from Fitz Of Depression and a bunch more. The movie covers spends a lot of time on the early years, and is an awesome snapshot of one of our favorite eras of underground music. But over the years there was plenty of drama and tragedy, drummer Scott Jernigan would die in a boating accident, guitarist Chris Smith would struggle with drugs and eventually attempt suicide, and go to jail, that part of the movie is super intense, and really sad, but speaks to the sort of movie this is, and the sort of band Karp were, as much friend as bandmates, if not more so, which definitely had a lot to do with why people, like us, loved Karp so much, they exuded that sort of energy, that sort of rare camaraderie, that made their music, no matter how furious and heavy, really fucking fun.
The movie ends on a bittersweet note, with Jared lamenting the loss of his two best friends, one to death, one to drugs, but that's balanced by Big Business (Jared and his bandmate Coady) joining the Melvins, the final few minutes of the movie some kick ass footage of the new Melvins, featuring Jared, covering an old Karp klassik, which is a pretty heartwarming way for everything to come full circle.
A killer rock doc for sure, and one that should either remind you to listen to more Karp, or introduce you to one of the raddest bands EVER.
Includes some cool extras, including Karp's full set at Yo Yo A Go go in 1994 (with Jared dressed as Elvis), Karp's full set at Yo Yo A Go Go in 1997, and some crazy psychedelic cable access action called Beef TV, with the band unleashing a seriously kick ass super blown out lo-fi basement set!

KILL CREEK The Will To Strike (Second Nature) 2cd 15.98

KILL ME TOMORROW I Require Chocolate / Rats For Sale (Gold Standard Laboratories) 7" 4.98
2 blasts of no-wave/new-wave from these 3 San Diego transplants who are an instrumental part of the whole San Diego new/no wave scene. Really arty and heartrenching. Kind of similar to Xiu Xiu (see AQ lists #133 and #145), who they play with often. Live they have this circular bench full of effect pedals and drum machines that has one band member hunched over like a mad scientist as he tweaks and contorts the sound. This record had Andee running around the store singing (in his best Nick Cave/Peter Murphy voice) "I've got rats for sale!! I'VE GOT RATS FOR SALE!!!!"

KILL ME TOMORROW The Garbageman and The Prostitute (GSL) cd 14.98
Kill Me Tomorrow really tear things up in strange and wonderful ways on their new album. Dissonant art punk in a similar vein to that of Xiu Xiu and Frog Eyes, but more likely to draw blood -- much more aggressive and unhinged. KMT's angular no-wave propulsions also conjures images of a bastard offspring of Sonic Youth and The Residents. Not to mention, their cover of Captain Beefheart's "Hot Head" only adds to the madness. Super cool and totally hectic!
MPEG Stream: "The Best Siren Is A Flesh Siren"
MPEG Stream: "Age Of Shrug"

KILL THE CLIENT Escalation Of Hostility (Willowtip) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Defend"
MPEG Stream: "Worker Ant Syndrome"
MPEG Stream: "In God You Thrust"

KILL THE CLIENT Wage Slave (Counter) cd 10.98
This is it, far as I'm concerned. The only record I think tops the mighty Pig Destroyer's masterpiece "Terrifyer" this year. This is absolute technical grind perfection, and one of the fastest and most intense 15 minutes of music ever committed to tape. No song on here breaks the hundred-second mark and yet you feel utterly beaten by disc's end -- the pace is relentless, the riffs ever-changing and the intensity exhausting as this Texas quartet blaze through 11 tracks of politically-charged grind. Imagine a cross between the manic controlled chaos of classic Brutal Truth and the technical off-time wizardry of Cryptopsy and then speed everything up tenfold and you're beginning to approach the full-on assault that this band delivers.
Individual playing is just stunning here -- the singer is positively monstrous, sounding like a dead ringer for Brutal Truth's Kevin Sharp and espousing refreshingly thoughtful and original political lyrics on such topics as the Russian mafia, economics, JFK conspiracy theories and even food dyes. The guitars are razor-sharp -- it makes sense that Jody of criminally-underrated tech-metal juggernauts Kalibas was in the band for a while -- both bands demand a proficiency from their players that belie the simplicity usually associated with genre. And then there's the drumming! You knew this was comingÉthis guy is fucking insane! Some of the fastest playing ever. On some songs, the blast beat is the SLOW part, I shit you not. For anyone even remotely interested in metal and grind, I simply can not recommend this record enough. Once you allow the wash of noise to bury you into submission, there's a good amount of complexity and memorable moments to wrap your head around. But really the music presented here far surpasses the constraints of the usual metal and grind conventions and summates to a sublime aural ferocity that pushes the very limits of human playing abilities. Yes, it's that good.
MPEG Stream: "Suka Voina"
MPEG Stream: "America...Sold!"

KILL THE VULTURES s/t (JIB) cd 14.98

KILLERS, THE Day & Age (Island) cd 15.98