BARKER, KEVIN You And Me (Gnomonsong) cd 13.98
Former Currituck Co. frontman Kevin Barker's debut release under his own name marks a slightly different direction for the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter. For the last few years, he's been a phenomenal touring musician for Joanna Newsom (who lends a hand on piano and organ here), Vashti Bunyan and Vetiver. His past releases had more of a raw back porch quality, his vocals more urgent and less refined, but here he takes on a more laidback and expansive approach. The production is more lush and warm and his vocals have more of a soft and sweet quality similar in vibe to Vetiver, MV & EE or Cass McCombs, channeling that seventies West Coast sound. While it's a nice little record, the price of admission comes form the three included bonus tracks, which have more of a deeper epic folk quality than the breeziness of the songs on the album proper.
MPEG Stream: "I Will Fly"
MPEG Stream: "Ten Toes To Sister Sky (Bonus Track)"

BARKER, KEVIN You And Me (Gnomonsong) lp 13.98
Former Currituck Co. frontman Kevin Barker's debut release under his own name marks a slightly different direction for the multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter. For the last few years, he's been a phenomenal touring musician for Joanna Newsom (who lends a hand on piano and organ here), Vashti Bunyan and Vetiver. His past releases had more of a raw back porch quality, his vocals more urgent and less refined, but here he takes on a more laidback and expansive approach. The production is more lush and warm and his vocals have more of a soft and sweet quality similar in vibe to Vetiver, MV & EE or Cass McCombs, channeling that seventies West Coast sound. While it's a nice little record, the price of admission comes form the three included bonus tracks, which have more of a deeper epic folk quality than the breeziness of the songs on the album proper.
MPEG Stream: "I Will Fly"
MPEG Stream: "Ten Toes To Sister Sky"

BARLOW / PETERSEN / WIVINUS The Transparent World (Hand/Eye) cd 14.98

BARLOW, LOU Emoh (Merge) cd 14.98
Aaaaah Mr. Barlow, few songwriters (indie rock or otherwise) can tug a heartstring quite like you! Nobody does the romantic mope with such slouchy bespectacled ease. After years of profuse recording under a mountain of different monikers (heck, we always knew it was dear Lou behind the veils of Sebadoh, Sentridoh, Folk Implosion, etc!), he's finally released an album under just his name. Aptly titled Emoh, it's graced with some of his most achingly pretty songs since the "Brand New Love" and "Soul And Fire" good ol' days -- songs to which you just wanna bundle up in a wooly cardigan and get all cozy. Oh and we can't forget to mention that he's included a sweet rendition of Ratt's hit "Round-n-Round" that made Andee and Allan immediately think of Tenacious D.
MPEG Stream: "Legendary"
MPEG Stream: "Round-n-Round"

BARLOW, LOU Goodnight Unknown (Merge) cd 14.98
On a sticker affixed to the cd's shrinkwrap, Lou B. proclaims this to be "A cross between Folk Implosion and Sebadoh. To my ears, anyway."
And yeah, we guess that is pretty much what this is... although we sorta though it sounded like a someone *trying* to sound like a cross between Folk Implosion and Sebadoh. Not the man himself. A bit strange, yes? And it gets stranger, the third song "Too Much Freedom" sounds like it's constantly on the verge of becoming REM's "Man On The Moon". WTF? We've always had a special place in our hearts for the slouchy heartstring pluckin' goodness of Mr. Barlow, but this album sadly left us cold and wondering if he's been hanging around with fellow indie rock vet, the hot/cold Mr. Pollard. Y'know, when he's 'on', he's in a league all his own, but when he's not, you've just gotta steer clear! For diehards only!
MPEG Stream: "Too Much Freedom"
MPEG Stream: "The Right"

BARLOW, LOU Goodnight Unknown (Merge) lp 16.98
On a sticker affixed to the cd's shrinkwrap, Lou B. proclaims this to be "A cross between Folk Implosion and Sebadoh. To my ears, anyway."
And yeah, we guess that is pretty much what this is... although we sorta though it sounded like a someone *trying* to sound like a cross between Folk Implosion and Sebadoh. Not the man himself. A bit strange, yes? And it gets stranger, the third song "Too Much Freedom" sounds like it's constantly on the verge of becoming REM's "Man On The Moon". WTF? We've always had a special place in our hearts for the slouchy heartstring pluckin' goodness of Mr. Barlow, but this album sadly left us cold and wondering if he's been hanging around with fellow indie rock vet, the hot/cold Mr. Pollard. Y'know, when he's 'on', he's in a league all his own, but when he's not, you've just gotta steer clear! For diehards only!
MPEG Stream: "Too Much Freedom"
MPEG Stream: "The Right"

BARN BURNER Bangers II: Scum Of The Earth (Metal Blade) cd 14.98
Now sure how we missed out on these guys, they're called Barn Burner, their first record as called Bangers, and had an amazingly goofy cover, and song titles like "Holy Smokes", "Beer Today Bong Tomorrow" and "Wizard Island", maybe we figured it would just be some stupid joke metal thing, but then for whatever reason we threw it on and were BLOWN AWAY. Heavy, riffy, hooky as fuck, with REAL singing, killer guitar harmonies, classic rock, meets classic metal, meets Southern rock meets stoner metal, with amazing songs, with crazy catchy choruses, bad ass riffs and shredding leads. As much as we love us some black buzz or dirgey sludge, it's easy to forget how much we love metal that ROCKS. And these guys rock. HARD.
So here we have record number two from Barn Burner (and we can definitely get the first one for you, just ask), appropriately titled Bangers II: Scum Of The Earth, with yet another even more ridiculous cover, more killer song titles, like "Dark Side Of The Barn", "Keg Stand And Deliver", "Quest For The Cube", and "Skid Marks The Spot", and yeah, a whole 'nother batch of shredding, rocking heaviness, killer riffs and wild solos, the sort of shit they just don't make anymore, and yeah, sure it may ultimately be beer drinking party metal, but sonically this stuff KILLS, easily one of our new favorite metal bands, we've been listening to both records nonstop, but this new one, is rapidly becoming a contender for metal record of the year. Hell yeah.
MPEG Stream: "Scum Of The Earth"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Side Of The Barn"
MPEG Stream: "Gate Creeper"

BARN OWL Ancestral Star (Thrill Jockey) cd 15.98
Ancestral Star is the latest batch of brooding, epic, twang flecked darkness from this local duo (now trio with the seemingly permanent addition of a drummer), their first for Thrill Jockey, and easily their most fully realized record yet, and while we were expecting it to maybe be their heaviest, based on the last few releases and the duo's individual solo recordings, it seems the band have dialed back the crunch, opting more for moodiness and atmosphere. The group's development from hushed psychedelic droners to brooding epic soundscapers has been a gradual and natural one, which is most likely what accounts for the seamless melding of whispery psychedelic ambience and lumbering doom-ed country drift.
The record opens up with a wild squall of superdistorted guitar buzz and howling feedback, a slowly unfurling melody, the notes crumbling and blown out, it had us expecting some serious crush right off the bat, but instead, the thick peals of smoldering psychdrone give way to some smokey Morricone-ish drift, haunting and abstract, the drums giving the sound a definite slowcore vibe, vocals hovering way off in the distance, more about adding texture than delivering lyrics.
After a brief twangscape, another spare skeletal bit of haunting countrydoomdrift, the band launch into the 10+ minute title track, a gauzy bit of slow building dronemusic, lushly layered, gradually expanding like a timelapse film of a supernova, a slowly blossoming burst of white hot buzz, expanding in every direction, a massive cloud of roiling distorted sound, that begins to fade almost immediately eventually becoming another stretch of hushed haunting ambience.
The rest of the record is rich with short sonic vignettes, a brief bit of echo drenched Appalachia, a heavily reverbed stretch of lush droney piano, a gorgeous bit of desert-y drift, all brooding twang and sitar like buzz, even some wheezing harmonium and choral like chants, these short form soundscapes separating the record's other two lengthy soundscapes, the first "Flatlands" begins all singing strings, and droned out vocals, lots of layers, and incredible overtones, the sounds constantly shifting, so dark and dramatic rife with some sort of melodic inner glow that infuses the rest of the sounds, the drone eventually fading out, leaving a bit of distorted twang, to gradually unravel to song's end. and then there's the closer, the nearly 7 minute "Light From The Mesa" another sprawling bit of dark dronemusic, washed out and whirring, the band's murky twang buried beneath the muted drift, everything wreathed in an ethereal haze, the drone finally dissipating leaving more spidery western twang, this time with percussion that sound like the clink of spurs on the wooden floor of the saloon, until those spidery guitars blossom into thick warm waves of chordal hum, backed up by soaring falsetto vocals, a gorgeous dirge to lead Barn Owl out of the valley, the record winding down as they disappear into the distance.
Yet another gorgeous collection of darkly epic doomfolk dronedrift dreaminess.
The cd version comes in a 4 panel mini lp style gatefold sleeve, the lp comes in a full color gatefold jacket and includes a download coupon as well.
MPEG Stream: "Visions In Dust"
MPEG Stream: "Ancestral Star"
MPEG Stream: "Light From The Mesa"

BARN OWL Ancestral Star (Thrill Jockey) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Vinyl repressed, and back in stock!!
Ancestral Star is the latest batch of brooding, epic, twang flecked darkness from this local duo (now trio with the seemingly permanent addition of a drummer), their first for Thrill Jockey, and easily their most fully realized record yet, and while we were expecting it to maybe be their heaviest, based on the last few releases and the duo's individual solo recordings, it seems the band have dialed back the crunch, opting more for moodiness and atmosphere. The group's development from hushed psychedelic droners to brooding epic soundscapers has been a gradual and natural one, which is most likely what accounts for the seamless melding of whispery psychedelic ambience and lumbering doom-ed country drift.
The record opens up with a wild squall of superdistorted guitar buzz and howling feedback, a slowly unfurling melody, the notes crumbling and blown out, it had us expecting some serious crush right off the bat, but instead, the thick peals of smoldering psychdrone give way to some smokey Morricone-ish drift, haunting and abstract, the drums giving the sound a definite slowcore vibe, vocals hovering way off in the distance, more about adding texture than delivering lyrics.
After a brief twangscape, another spare skeletal bit of haunting countrydoomdrift, the band launch into the 10+ minute title track, a gauzy bit of slow building dronemusic, lushly layered, gradually expanding like a timelapse film of a supernova, a slowly blossoming burst of white hot buzz, expanding in every direction, a massive cloud of roiling distorted sound, that begins to fade almost immediately eventually becoming another stretch of hushed haunting ambience.
The rest of the record is rich with short sonic vignettes, a brief bit of echo drenched Appalachia, a heavily reverbed stretch of lush droney piano, a gorgeous bit of desert-y drift, all brooding twang and sitar like buzz, even some wheezing harmonium and choral like chants, these short form soundscapes separating the record's other two lengthy soundscapes, the first "Flatlands" begins all singing strings, and droned out vocals, lots of layers, and incredible overtones, the sounds constantly shifting, so dark and dramatic rife with some sort of melodic inner glow that infuses the rest of the sounds, the drone eventually fading out, leaving a bit of distorted twang, to gradually unravel to song's end. and then there's the closer, the nearly 7 minute "Light From The Mesa" another sprawling bit of dark dronemusic, washed out and whirring, the band's murky twang buried beneath the muted drift, everything wreathed in an ethereal haze, the drone finally dissipating leaving more spidery western twang, this time with percussion that sound like the clink of spurs on the wooden floor of the saloon, until those spidery guitars blossom into thick warm waves of chordal hum, backed up by soaring falsetto vocals, a gorgeous dirge to lead Barn Owl out of the valley, the record winding down as they disappear into the distance.
Yet another gorgeous collection of darkly epic doomfolk dronedrift dreaminess.
MPEG Stream: "Visions In Dust"
MPEG Stream: "Ancestral Star"
MPEG Stream: "Light From The Mesa"

BARN OWL From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light (Digitalis) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We sold out of the deluxe version of the new Barn Owl lickety split, so now we have the regular version, much cheaper, the only difference is it doesn't come with the live cassette, same packaging, same two bonus tracks, just tapeless and cheaper!!!!
Here's our review from before:
Finally, From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light, originally released as an lp on Not Not Fun, now long out of print, is available again as a cd. And to make it worth your while, or bum out the folks who already bought the lp, there are indeed TWO extra tracks!!
Not only have Barn Owl become one of our favorite musical projects right here in SF, but they are now serious contenders to the throne of best purveyors of deep and emotional and soul satisfying drone music anywhere in the world. While just about everything they've released up to this point has been way too limited and thus are now all sadly out of print, this record included, we finally have a cd version, that while still limited will at least reach a lot more ears than previous releases. These sounds deserve to be heard by anyone with an appreciation for all things droney, stoney and drifty, all done so totally right.
While drone-folk bands have become a somewhat common entity in the last couple years, it's actually rare to discover one whose music exudes soul and spirited passion. From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light finds Barn Owl striking a perfect balance between sparkling sonics and commanding doom. Imagine Sleep/OM running in the mud with sticks and stones and then meeting up with Windy & Carl, Bardo Pond and Tom Carter. The songs are filled with deep and slowly swirling grooves. We just keep listening to this record over and over and over, every listen revealing something new, layers peeling back, revealing subtle melodies, and hidden textures, each song shifting and transforming before our very ears. There is much reward in patient listening to the music of Barn Owl. Their sound entrances and enthralls, but without letting go the melodies, or forgoing actual songwriting, these are not just chunks of droning sound, these are songs, dark, haunting, lovely mysterious songs.
Beautiful silkscreened cardstock sleeves, the two extra songs more of same, divine and otherworldly twang flecked doom folk drift, And as if we even needed to tell you, absolutely and wholeheartedly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Voice Of The Other"
MPEG Stream: "Lotus Cloud"
MPEG Stream: "The White Mountain Filled With Light"

BARN OWL From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light (Not Not Fun) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
2008 album repressed on vinyl once again, and back in stock, we'll see how long they last this time...
Not only have Barn Owl become one of our favorite musical projects right here in SF, but they are now serious contenders to the throne of best purveyors of deep hitting and soul satisfying drone anywhere in the world. While just about everything they've released up to this point has been way too limited and thus are now all sadly out of print, they finally have a release that while still limited will at least get to reach a lot more ears then anything they've put out so far. These are sounds that deserve to be heard by anyone with an appreciation for all things droney, stoney and drifty, done so totally right.
While drone-folk bands have become a somewhat common entity in the last couple years, it's actually rare when you hear one that you really feel true soul and spirited passion from. From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light finds Barn Owl striking a perfect balance between sparkling sonics and commanding doom. Imagine Sleep/OM running in the mud with sticks and stones and then meeting up with Windy & Carl, Bardo Pond and Tom Carter. The lp format suits the duo so well, as their songs are filled with deep and slowly swirling grooves. We just listened to one side over and over and over before we even moved on to the second side with which we then did the same. There is both patience and payoff in Barn Owl's sound. Music that makes you want to close your eyes because you know you are entranced by artists that know so well what they are doing. While they pressed up way more lps than anything else they've released (and this is the second pressing!), it's all relative, meaning these LP's are still limited and are most likely not going to be around too long
Highly recommended, but act fast!

BARN OWL From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light (Digitalis) cd + cassette 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally, From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light, originally released as an lp on Not Not Fun, now long out of print, is available again as a cd. And to make it worth your while, or bum out the folks who already bought the lp, there are indeed TWO extra tracks!! And as if that weren't enough, while they last (which will NOT be long), we have the super limited version, which comes with a bonus cassette (much like the OF record we reviewed a while back), and that contains a live set recorded earlier this year. We only got about 30 of these, so once these are gone, unless you specifically request otherwise, you'll get the normal cd version (sans tape).
Not only have Barn Owl become one of our favorite musical projects right here in SF, but they are now serious contenders to the throne of best purveyors of deep and emotional and soul satisfying drone music anywhere in the world. While just about everything they've released up to this point has been way too limited and thus are now all sadly out of print, this record included, we finally have a cd version, that while still limited will at least reach a lot more ears than previous releases. These sounds deserve to be heard by anyone with an appreciation for all things droney, stoney and drifty, all done so totally right.
While drone-folk bands have become a somewhat common entity in the last couple years, it's actually rare to discover one whose music exudes soul and spirited passion. From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light finds Barn Owl striking a perfect balance between sparkling sonics and commanding doom. Imagine Sleep/OM running in the mud with sticks and stones and then meeting up with Windy & Carl, Bardo Pond and Tom Carter. The songs are filled with deep and slowly swirling grooves. We just keep listening to this record over and over and over, every listen revealing something new, layers peeling back, revealing subtle melodies, and hidden textures, each song shifting and transforming before our very ears. There is much reward in patient listening to the music of Barn Owl. Their sound entrances and enthralls, but without letting go the melodies, or forgoing actual songwriting, these are not just chunks of droning sound, these are songs, dark, haunting, lovely mysterious songs.
Beautiful silkscreened cardstock sleeves, the two extra songs more of same, divine and otherworldly twang flecked doom folk drift, And as if we even needed to tell you, absolutely and wholeheartedly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Voice Of The Other"
MPEG Stream: "Lotus Cloud"
MPEG Stream: "The White Mountain Filled With Light"

BARN OWL Smoke Loom Ceremony (Blackestrainbow) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Barn Owl have become quite the talk of the psych/drone/folk scene in the last year and for very good reason. The duo have released some great limited edition cd-r's on Digitalis and on their own, and their intense and trance inducing live shows have reeled in many believers, including us! Tapping into ritual drone and spiritual psychedelia this two song cassette recorded at a festival in Echo Park a few months ago is further proof that this is one of the most promising bands roaming the underground at the moment. While there are no shortage of psych drone acts these days, there is something so concrete and real about the sounds Barn Owl conjure up. Kind of like if newer Earth was less spaghetti western and more engaged in exploring LaMonte Young's dreamhouse. There is a patience and subtlety in Barn Owl's music that is way beyond their young years. They use guitars, drums, banjo, harmonium and voice to travel upwards to some magical place filled with dust, dirt and delight. This one is super limited too, so it'll be gone in the blink of an eye.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

BARN OWL The Conjurer (Root Strata) cd 12.98
Back in print! We had thought this one was gone for good, but then Root Strata found a cache of mysteriously mislaid copies. So get 'em (again) while you can...
Barn Owl, the local duo of Jon Porras (aka Elm) and Evan Caminiti (aka Higuma), have always tread a similar path to later era Earth, a sort of blackened twang, Morricone by way of the Melvins, slow motion soundscapes as evocative and slow burning as they are epic and heavy, dark and delicate. With the addition of a drummer, Barn Owl move even closer to their sonic brethren creating a gorgeous songsuite of Western tinged, slow motion psychedelia, dark, dolorous, warm and haunting, heavily reverbed, a sort of dark skeletal doom, rife with warm chordal clusters, gauzy clouds of muted feedback, and epic expanses of effected guitars that sound almost choral.
The mood is both warm and inviting, haunting and tense, emotional and intense. The various bits of steel string guitar are draped over dense swells of roiling downtuned drone, everything wreathed in streaks of high end shimmer, all blurred into a burnished black guitar blur, washed out and hazy, yet surprisingly lush and heavy. The second half of the record gets a bit more Appalachian, with delicate finger picked guitars drifting over deep layered drones, stately melodies unfurling like the black tendrils of smoke from a recently extinguished candle, or the fuzzy fog of late afternoon, painted deep blues and reds by the fading daylight. The record builds to a soaring finale, that revisits that choral sound, and infuses it with an hypnotic ur-drone vibe, like some glorious hybrid of Sunroof! and Arvo Part. Hypnotic and transcendent.
MPEG Stream: "Into The Red Horizon"
MPEG Stream: "Across The Deserts Of Ash"

BARN OWL / TOM CARTER split (Blackest Rainbow) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest release from Bay Area doomfolkdrone duo Barn Owl (featuring our very own Jon Porras) who team up on this limited lp only release with long time fave Tom Carter of Charalambides who for now, seems to have shed his psych folks sound for something far more, well more on that in a second...
Up first, Barn Owl with three new tracks of bleak blackened dark ambience, invoking wide open spaces, moonlight glimmering on frosted fallow fields, of slow moving brackish water, and of ruined buildings and lonely dirt roads. It makes sense that these guys opened for Earth when they were here, as their sound carries the same spiritual weight. But where Earth employ twang and elements of gospel, Barn Owl go somewhere much deeper, and more dangerous, a swirling slow motion world of blacks and greys, of blurred landscapes slipping by through smudged windows, shafts of sunlight, moving glacially across the bare wooden floor, causing the dust motes to drift in little flickering flurries. Once the band build momentum, they create long flowing streams of warm whirring buzz, held together by simple percussive pulses, buried rhythmic throbs, all the while the guitars arc above like solar flares.
Dark swells rise and fall, wreathed in halos of soft focus FX and smeared streaks of subtle distortion, slipping from hushed shimmery whisper, to groaning wheezing metallic buzz, drifting forever slowly around a warm glowing core, and continuously emitting an aura of mournful dark mystery.
Carter approaches his side from a whole different angle, his single 16 minute track takes a slow meandering chunk of dark downtuned blues and transforms it into a coruscating wall of blown out psych buzz, rumbling chug and crunch, wailing noiseguitar freakout, heavy and buzzy and chaotic, but still warm and layered and melodic, like a rural Keiji Haino raised on avant folk and old time blues. A gorgeous ever expanding chunk of blown out heaviness and warm, slowly crumbling deconstructed blues, culminating in a beautiful almost symphonic arrangement of high end skree and warbly buzz, before slipping into a long stretch of languorous unravelling guitar shimmer. So nice.
LIMITED TO 380 COPIES. Plain black jackets with a paste on front cover, printed insert, thick black inner sleeves. We got a bunch direct from the bands, and we might be able to get more from the label when we run out, but you never know. Better to grab one while you can...

BARN OWL AND THE INFINITE STRINGS ENSEMBLE The Headlands (Important) cd 14.98
Originally available on lp (now out of print), this gorgeous collection of extended drones is finally available again, on cd...
Barn Owl are no stranger to the drone. In fact, this Bay Area duo's sound is all about the drone, a deep, brooding, moody, twangy Earth-ish cinematic devotional doomdriftDRONE that we can't get enough of. But on this recent collaboration, the band explore another side of the drone, one less dark, and one more in keeping with the traditions of modern minimal dronemusic, teaming up with The Infinite String Ensemble (consisting of a fellow named The Norman Conquest on acoustic guitar, vocals, and Moog; Theresa Wong on cello; and Ellen Fullman, on the long string instrument), Barn Owl ditching their smokey twang flecked shimmer, and instead laying down lush layers of complimentary long form drones and extended tones.
For those who are unfamiliar with Ellen Fullman, she created the 'Long Stringed Instrument', which is exactly what it sounds like, although the name does not and all prepare you for the power of actually seeing it and hearing it. Essentially, she stretches long strings across large resonant spaces, the strings sometimes 50 feet or longer, and the players proceed to scrape, and bow and vibrate the strings, creating incredible sounds. And how perfect for Barn Owl to join in and add their own drone two cents.
The result is pretty fantastic, but again, well removed from the Barn Owl most folks are used to. In fact it almost would have made more sense to bill this as an Infinite String Ensemble, with special guests Barn Owl. Either way, the players here create four loooooong tracks of shimmery sun dappled dronemusic, long streaks of metallic buzz, lush and layered, lots of shifting textures and subtle overtones, all wrapped in softly burnished reverb, space-y and kosmische and hypnotic and heady, like Taj Mahal Travelers jamming with Organum, the tracks slipping from hushed and minimal, glimmering and crystalline, to smoldering and softly cacophonous, from dreamy hazy drift, to ritualistic ur-drone. Gorgeous.
And obviously absolutely recommended for all the drone fanatics out there, which we're guessing is a whole lot of you.
MPEG Stream: "Levitation"
MPEG Stream: "Light"

BARONESS Red Album (Relapse) cd 15.98
Whoops, here's something we shoulda reviewed already but as you can imagine we get a bit swamped here. Chances are, if you're a fan of this up-and-coming metal band from Georgia (as we certainly are, along with many AQ customers) you already picked up this excellent new album on Relapse when it came out a couple months ago. But if you didn't, or aren't familiar with Baroness to begin with, let's rectify that situation with a brief write-up.
This is actually the very first full-length album from Baroness, who have previously teased us with ep-length or split releases only. Since they're one of the best American underground metal acts going (hence Relapse's interest in 'em), anticipation for the Red Album was high, and it's absolutely no disappointment. Baroness are a state-of-the-art (and we do mean art) band that's both extreme and eclectic, combining (as always) modern metalcore tech, stoner riffage, Southern sludge groove, "true" traditional metal shredding, and post-rock loveliness in one brutal, beautiful package. Press play on track one and you're in for a surprise, as things start off deceptively mellow and pretty. You wouldn't even know they were a metal band at first... but it DOES get a lot heavier though, right quick. Reminding us a bit of another AQ fave, Torche, the Red Album showcases a poppier Baroness for sure, but one that still kicks ass with their usual sinewy, old school axe attack and Maideny dual guitar harmonies. Just imagine the spawn of a hypothetical mating between post-rockers Explosions In The Sky and headbangers Skeletonwitch! Pretty much an essential purchase for fans of the likes of Mastodon, High On Fire, Isis, Pelican... but you know that 'cause you probably already bought one...
MPEG Stream: "Rays On Pinion"
MPEG Stream: "Isak"

BARR Beyond Reinforced Jewel Case (5 Rue Christine) cd 14.98

BARR, MICK Archive 4-5 (aRCHIVE) 2dvd 23.00
Just got these in today, list day, four new aRCHIVE dvd titles (Ai Aso, Mick Barr, Khlyst, and Suishou No Fune). So, we haven't had a chance to watch 'em yet but since they're limited and all we figured you'd rather we just went ahead and listed 'em now rather than waiting 2 weeks. And all four artists are pretty cool after all.
Man, even if we got this last week we're not sure we'd have been able to give it a proper review in time for tonight's list - it's two whole dvds fergoshsakes, and watching even a few minutes of either of 'em is probably likely to induce seizures, seeing as how they document the INSANE guitar playing of our pal Mick Barr, from such techy/mathy/metally acts as Octis, Orthrelm, and Ocrilm. It's billed as "an inclusive look at Mick Barr's estoeric approach to guitar playing", featuring solo stuff, various groups, and footage of an improv meeting with Hella drummer Zach Hill. Essential for any fan of Barr and/or crazy guitar shred.
4 panel foldout cover, tons of vellum everywhere, with scribbly art on the vellum obi by Mick himself. Limited, OF COURSE, to a pressing of just 500 copies.

BARRERACUDAS Nocturnal Missions (Douchemaster) cd 13.98
We talk a lot in reviews about not judging books (or records more specifically) by their covers, but when we do, it's almost always in the context of doing just that, and realizing that by doing that, we had missed out on something cool. Which leads us to this, the latest instance of us judging a book by its cover, or in this case a record by its label, the newest from power poppers the Barreracudas (and yeah, that's the spelling, assuming it's referring to barre chords), whose debut is in fact the first thing we've ever reviewed on the, uh, Douchemaster label. And yeah, judging books by their covers blah blah blah, but c'mon, it's a little tough not to judge that book's cover when the cover says Douchemaster, but that said, these guys kick up a fantastic old school big guitar super hooky power pop racket, beholden to Cheap Trick, the Shoes, the Raspberries, the Dwight Twilley band, all the great seventies and eighties power poppers, and yeah, the guitars may be a bit crunchier, the production a little louder and punkier, but only a little, at their heart these songs are pretty goddamn perfect power pop and definitely sound like they could have been transported directly here from back in the day. In fact they remind us a lot of another modern retro power pop group (which just so happens to feature a member of Cheap Trick), who we raved about a while back, Tinted Windows, just check out "Baby Baby Baby". There's also a serious punk pop vibe, think The Dickies, the Ramones and other punk bands who were always more pop than punk. All the tracks here rule, hooky and heavy, crunchy and jangly, and quickly becoming out new favorite (power) pop record!
MPEG Stream: "Numbers"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Baby Baby"
MPEG Stream: "Feet"

BARRERACUDAS Nocturnal Missions (Douchemaster) lp 13.98
We talk a lot in reviews about not judging books (or records more specifically) by their covers, but when we do, it's almost always in the context of doing just that, and realizing that by doing that, we had missed out on something cool. Which leads us to this, the latest instance of us judging a book by its cover, or in this case a record by its label, the newest from power poppers the Barreracudas (and yeah, that's the spelling, assuming it's referring to barre chords), whose debut is in fact the first thing we've ever reviewed on the, uh, Douchemaster label. And yeah, judging books by their covers blah blah blah, but c'mon, it's a little tough not to judge that book's cover when the cover says Douchemaster, but that said, these guys kick up a fantastic old school big guitar super hooky power pop racket, beholden to Cheap Trick, the Shoes, the Raspberries, the Dwight Twilley band, all the great seventies and eighties power poppers, and yeah, the guitars may be a bit crunchier, the production a little louder and punkier, but only a little, at their heart these songs are pretty goddamn perfect power pop and definitely sound like they could have been transported directly here from back in the day. In fact they remind us a lot of another modern retro power pop group (which just so happens to feature a member of Cheap Trick), who we raved about a while back, Tinted Windows, just check out "Baby Baby Baby". There's also a serious punk pop vibe, think The Dickies, the Ramones and other punk bands who were always more pop than punk. All the tracks here rule, hooky and heavy, crunchy and jangly, and quickly becoming out new favorite (power) pop record!
MPEG Stream: "Numbers"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Baby Baby"
MPEG Stream: "Feet"

BARRETT, SYD Barrett (EMI) cd 14.98

BARRETT, SYD Madcap Laughs (Vinilisssimo) lp 27.00

BARRETT, SYD Opel (EMI) cd 14.98

BARRETT, SYD The Madcap Laughs (EMI) cd 14.98

BARRETT, SYD Under Review (Chrome Dreams) dvd 21.00

BARRETTO, RAY Acid (Fania) lp 14.98

BARRY BLACK Barry Black (Alias) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Archers of Loaf somewhat make my skin crawl but this is a solo outing by one of the people in the band and *it's great*. Sounds like the Thinking Fellers in grade school.

BARRY BLACK Barry Black (Alias) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Archers of Loaf somewhat make my skin crawl but this is a solo outing by one of the people in the band and *it's great*. Sounds like the Thinking Fellers in grade school.

BARWICK, JULIANNA Florine (self-released) cd 7.98
Want to get lost in hazy, shimmering sounds that would sound perfect in the pristine church of 4AD worship? Sounds pretty great right, well, the sounds of Julianna Barwick deliver just that. With her looped ethereal vocals she creates such hypnotizing sounds that really evoke a more tripped out Lisa Gerard (Dead Can Dance) or Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins), a sound that is totally perfect for the crisp and cold days we've been experiencing as of late, each track a gorgeous soundtrack for bundled up evening strolls when you can see your breath in the air. Barwick has been crafting her own multi-layered, hazy and hypnotic sounds for several years now, in fact her self released debut, Sanguine, from over three years ago was a big favorite here in town at our local radio station KUSF and we're happy to have gotten that in as well which we'll most likely be gushing about on a future list. In fact that record came out just shortly after Grouper's wonderful debut Way Their Crept and the two definitely share a swirling and surreal sonic spirit.
MPEG Stream: "Anjos"
MPEG Stream: "Choose"
MPEG Stream: "Sunlight , Heaven"

BARWICK, JULIANNA Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty) cd 14.98
We knew it was only a matter of time before the ethereal magic of Julianna Barwick's music would capture the attention and imagination of the underground music scene. After two utterly gorgeous self released albums, Asthmatic Kitty wisely stepped up to sign her and release this brand new stunning set of songs, which finds Barwick's sound becoming even more pristine and dreamy. Alongside Grouper, Barwick really is doing wonders to channel the ethereal magic of 4AD's sound via Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, and Cocteau Twins. Magic Place wastes no time heading right for the sky, which is where Barwick's songs always reside. Daydream reflections, moon worship hymns, sun cycle observations, close your eyes and let these sounds take you wherever they may. Beyond beautiful!
MPEG Stream: "Envelop"
MPEG Stream: "Prizewinning"
MPEG Stream: "White Flag"

BARWICK, JULIANNA Magic Place (Asthmatic Kitty) lp 14.98
We knew it was only a matter of time before the ethereal magic of Julianna Barwick's music would capture the attention and imagination of the underground music scene. After two utterly gorgeous self released albums, Asthmatic Kitty wisely stepped up to sign her and release this brand new stunning set of songs, which finds Barwick's sound becoming even more pristine and dreamy. Alongside Grouper, Barwick really is doing wonders to channel the ethereal magic of 4AD's sound via Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, and Cocteau Twins. Magic Place wastes no time heading right for the sky, which is where Barwick's songs always reside. Daydream reflections, moon worship hymns, sun cycle observations, close your eyes and let these sounds take you wherever they may. Beyond beautiful!
MPEG Stream: "Envelop"
MPEG Stream: "Prizewinning"
MPEG Stream: "White Flag"

BARWICK, JULIANNA Sanguine (self-released) cd 12.98
Julianna Barwick makes the kind of music that totally transports us into that sort of hazy spaced out daydream we wish would stretch out into infinity. Using just her voice and assorted manipulated loops, Barwick creates an hypnotic environment of sound that conjures up images of standing all alone in a huge cathedral, lit with washed out light filtered through ornate glass windows, reflecting off silver and gold sculptures. There is something so totally otherworldly and church-gone-cosmic to the sounds on Sanguine, like floating in a pristine sky, high on codeine as you swirl amongst fallen angels and mysterious creatures. Self released back in 2006, we are so happy to finally get this in the store as it really is one of the most mesmerizing and beautiful records to come out in the last several years. Because of the lack of its distribution the first time around, Sanguine didn't get the attention it deserved, which is too bad, because it most likely would have enjoyed the same sort of praise and popularity that groups like Grouper have so rightfully received, creating sounds from a similar template. And while the Grouper comparisons are inevitable, there really is something unique and singular about the way Barwick channels the most psychedelic and ethereal 4AD inspiration into a totally DIY hypnotic state of sound. Blissed out to perfection!
MPEG Stream: "Unt5"
MPEG Stream: "Sanguine"
MPEG Stream: "Unt8"

BARWICK, JULIANNA / IKUE MORI Frkwys Volume 6 (RVNG) lp 23.00
Another successful pairing of the older guard and the new wave, one of the latest in the RVNG label Frkwys series puts together experimental vocalist, Julianna Barwick (whose recent aQ instore was beautifully dreamy), and avant percussionist and seventies no wave music scene vet, Ikue Mori (DNA, John Zorn, Death Praxis). Recorded live during a residency at White Columns in New York last year, the two sides are the results of two different performance collaborations. The first side was made while Barwick and Mori were separated from each other in cubicles in the gallery, improvising together through aural suggestion. The second side was made with the artists working face to face. Both sides employ Mori's signature warbling crystalline electronics and sampled percussion triggers with Barwick's swelling gossamer and reverbed vocals in prolonged forays of electro-acoustic atmospherics and ambient abstraction, but each side has a different feel. The collaborative dynamics caused by closeness and distance move from a hushed majestic expansiveness to a more engrossed focused energy that demands your attention. Quite lovely!

BASEBALL ASTROLOGER Famine of the Soul (Holy Mountain) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If anything, it's about baseball of the soul... It's Tycho Brahe channeled through Ken Nordine in possession of an armload of Sandy Koufax fastballs. OK, I don't really know what Holy Mountain guru JW is talking about, but I think the Baseball Astrologer sounds like Godspeed You Black Emperor (a point of contention for sure, as JW vehemently despises Godspeed). Just as those opening deep drones backed the Native American tale of self-annihilation on F#A#oo, the Baseball Astrologer presents the booming existential monologues of Douglas Berman (painter, astrologer, raconteur, chai-maker, and dedicated walker) with the exceptional guitar drones, courtesy of Stephen Lobdell - currently of Faust. Each copy comes with a different 1970s baseball card - sorry the one with Rollie Fingers was already taken. Keep in mind we also still have the stellar solo LP from Lobdell under the name Davis Redford Triad.

BASHO, ROBBIE Bonn Ist Supreme (Bo Weavil ) cd 17.98
Bonn Ist Supreme is a rare glimpse into the live performative side of guitar soli legend Robbie Basho. Recorded in Bonn, Germany six years before his death, Basho was by then in his less interesting Windham Hill phase of his career, but you wouldn't know it by this recording. Containing many pieces from his Takoma-era heyday, Basho's fusion of Celtic, Middle Eastern and medieval influences on his guitar work made him the least blues-based of the Takoma triad of himself, John Fahey, and Leo Kotte. Melding an esoteric spirituality to his playing style, it's easy to get lost in Basho's raga like compositions. Some of the pieces do contain his unique singing which is often a dealbreaker for some (though we dig his vocal stylings), but it doesn't get in the way too much here, and shouldn't keep folks from enjoying his mesmerizingly sublime guitarwork. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Cathedrals et Fleur De Lis"
MPEG Stream: "The Girl and The Lotus"
MPEG Stream: "Pavan India"
MPEG Stream: "California Raga"

BASHO-JUNGHANS, STEFFEN Last Days of the Dragon (Locust) cd 14.98

BASHO-JUNGHANS, STEFFEN Late Summer Morning (Strange Attractors Audio House) cd 14.98

BASSHOLES Broke Chamber Music (Secret Keeper) cd 13.98
Heeey Bassholes fans, time to get off yer (b)asses! 'Cuz there's a new collection of their old singles and unreleased stuff from the early '90s. Broke Chamber Music brings their unmistakable trashy nasty blues rawk right back to your front stoop. Still ripe and ready to chafe many a delicate ear, these are the raw gritty folk songs to play while you're chippin' the crud off your mud-caked boots with a termite-infested twig. Seriously fucked-up, slurred vocals that sound alternately like they're being sung by someone who's had his tongue cut out and sewn back in or some stunted teenager messing with the tape speed on his tape recorder. Very Ween-ish (or maybe it's the other way around). Includes a bang-up cover of Rodd Keith's delightful song-poem "Little Rug Bug"!
MPEG Stream: "Little Rug Bug"
MPEG Stream: "Cockroach Blues"

BASTARD / GROUND ZERO (Pandemonium) 7" 3.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
GZ: One long, live track. Heavy on the sampling mayhem and turntable fuckery.
B: Truly bizarre, repetitive, turntablized hypno-rock.

BASTARD NOISE A Culture Of Monsters (Deep Six) cd 10.98
We first got a glimpse of the newly invigorated, and newly METAL-ized Bastard Noise on the recent split with The Endless Blockade, with BN sounding like the second coming of Man Is The Bastard, all heavy and noisy and bassy, but still rife with noise and electronics, incorporating our favorite elements of Bastard Noise offshoot Geronimo into a dizzying hybrid, that hit the spot like crazy. So with this new full length, Bastard Noise have pushed that sound even further. Opening with a brief spoken word monologue, the band explode in an electronic flecked bass heavy crush, the bass and drums locked tight, a lumbering lurching dirge, proggy and intricate, and weirdly melodic, with some of the SICKEST vocals ever, alternating death metal growls and throat shredding shrieks, and all over the place, thick shards of damaged electronics and fractured effects, careening wildly until finally locking into a groove that just won't quit, chaotic drumming, low slung bass buzz, the heaviest, most bad ass thing we've heard in ages. "Me And Hitler" is another blast of Man Is The Bastard style bass driven powerviolence, but with the addition of those shrieked almost black metal vocals, and still more caveman electronics... and when the band again get all proggy and intricate and heavy and groovy, they almost sound like Nomeansno, if NmN were WAY meaner and brutal and caustic, which is in NO way a bad thing.
The whole record is a crushing downtuned post-punk avant prog powerviolence electronic kraut-dirge motherfucker, the songs lurch and swing and grind and blast and pound and pummel, bursts of double kick underpin shards of crackling electronic glitchery and analog skree, there are some really strange stretches of almost jazzy drift, crooned reverbed ambience, operatic abstraction, spaced out dronemusic and moody instrumental skitter, but those brief moments only serve to balance the otherwise insanely and genius-ly brutal heaviness. Fuck, this totally rules!
MPEG Stream: "Pincers' Movement"
MPEG Stream: "Me And Hitler"
MPEG Stream: "Interior War"

BASTARD NOISE A Culture Of Monsters (Deep Six) lp 12.98
We first got a glimpse of the newly invigorated, and newly METAL-ized Bastard Noise on the recent split with The Endless Blockade, with BN sounding like the second coming of Man Is The Bastard, all heavy and noisy and bassy, but still rife with noise and electronics, incorporating our favorite elements of Bastard Noise offshoot Geronimo into a dizzying hybrid, that hit the spot like crazy. So with this new full length, Bastard Noise have pushed that sound even further. Opening with a brief spoken word monologue, the band explode in an electronic flecked bass heavy crush, the bass and drums locked tight, a lumbering lurching dirge, proggy and intricate, and weirdly melodic, with some of the SICKEST vocals ever, alternating death metal growls and throat shredding shrieks, and all over the place, thick shards of damaged electronics and fractured effects, careening wildly until finally locking into a groove that just won't quit, chaotic drumming, low slung bass buzz, the heaviest, most bad ass thing we've heard in ages. "Me And Hitler" is another blast of Man Is The Bastard style bass driven powerviolence, but with the addition of those shrieked almost black metal vocals, and still more caveman electronics... and when the band again get all proggy and intricate and heavy and groovy, they almost sound like Nomeansno, if NmN were WAY meaner and brutal and caustic, which is in NO way a bad thing.
The whole record is a crushing downtuned post-punk avant prog powerviolence electronic kraut-dirge motherfucker, the songs lurch and swing and grind and blast and pound and pummel, bursts of double kick underpin shards of crackling electronic glitchery and analog skree, there are some really strange stretches of almost jazzy drift, crooned reverbed ambience, operatic abstraction, spaced out dronemusic and moody instrumental skitter, but those brief moments only serve to balance the otherwise insanely and genius-ly brutal heaviness. Fuck, this totally rules!
MPEG Stream: "Pincers' Movement"
MPEG Stream: "Me And Hitler"
MPEG Stream: "Interior War"

BASTARD NOISE Skulldozer (Deep Six) cd 8.98
The return of long running Man Is The Bastard offshoot Bastard Noise, who now have a body of work that dwarfs their previous group's comparatively tiny catalog, but who took a long time to win us over. Not sure if it was the disappointment of no more MITB or that suddenly Bastard Noise seemed to release a million records, or that our heart belonged to Amps For Christ. Whatever the reason, it took a few years, but we learned to love BN, even more so lately as they've seemed to have become a real band, a real HEAVY band. Gone are the days of harsh noisescapes and power electronics, the band are now a serious sonic forces to be reckoned with, in BAND form, and on their latest, they continue on the path set forth on A Culture Of Monsters, melding tripped out psychedelic ambience, to lurching lumbering doom, the rhythm section as tight as MITB ever was, the shrieked vox seriously harrowing, a good foil for the monstrous guttural growls, and as we mentioned in our Record Of The Week review of A Culture Of Monsters, the bass tone, and the overall bass driven heaviness, had us not only thinking of the legendary Nomeansno, but also another MITB offshoot, former Record Of The Week-ers Geronimo, whose krautrock like rhythmic mesmer seems to have found its way into BN's new sound.
The opening title track might be the most epic thing BN has ever recorded, a creeping ambient drone/dirge, that finds the band churning and chugging, howling and pounding over a hazy shimmery smear, their metallic crush augmented by some hushed ethereal flutter, the sound almost Native American, it's a strange combo, but it works, weirdly, the track easing up partway through its 13+ minutes, the band unfurling a kosmische sci-fi shimmerscape, before lurching and lumbering back into action, and pounding out the last couple minutes.
Much of Skulldozer actually seems to have the band channeling their former group, with short bursts of jagged punkish power violence, but then the band slip right into their other incarnation, the other side of the band we love, their abstract psychedelic space drift ambience, last heard in full bloom on their awesome Rogue Astronaut record, and so goes the rest of Skulldozer, lurching from churning powerviolence crush, to glitched out abstract sci-fi drift, to experimental ambience, to blackened metallic pound and back again. Totally ruling, and most definitely a new favorite!
MPEG Stream: "Skulldozer"
MPEG Stream: "50 Million Light Years From..."
MPEG Stream: "Demise By Radiation"

BASTARD NOISE Skulldozer (Deep Six) lp 13.98
The return of long running Man Is The Bastard offshoot Bastard Noise, who now have a body of work that dwarfs their previous group's comparatively tiny catalog, but who took a long time to win us over. Not sure if it was the disappointment of no more MITB or that suddenly Bastard Noise seemed to release a million records, or that our heart belonged to Amps For Christ. Whatever the reason, it took a few years, but we learned to love BN, even more so lately as they've seemed to have become a real band, a real HEAVY band. Gone are the days of harsh noisescapes and power electronics, the band are now a serious sonic forces to be reckoned with, in BAND form, and on their latest, they continue on the path set forth on A Culture Of Monsters, melding tripped out psychedelic ambience, to lurching lumbering doom, the rhythm section as tight as MITB ever was, the shrieked vox seriously harrowing, a good foil for the monstrous guttural growls, and as we mentioned in our Record Of The Week review of A Culture Of Monsters, the bass tone, and the overall bass driven heaviness, had us not only thinking of the legendary Nomeansno, but also another MITB offshoot, former Record Of The Week-ers Geronimo, whose krautrock like rhythmic mesmer seems to have found its way into BN's new sound.
The opening title track might be the most epic thing BN has ever recorded, a creeping ambient drone/dirge, that finds the band churning and chugging, howling and pounding over a hazy shimmery smear, their metallic crush augmented by some hushed ethereal flutter, the sound almost Native American, it's a strange combo, but it works, weirdly, the track easing up partway through its 13+ minutes, the band unfurling a kosmische sci-fi shimmerscape, before lurching and lumbering back into action, and pounding out the last couple minutes.
Much of Skulldozer actually seems to have the band channeling their former group, with short bursts of jagged punkish power violence, but then the band slip right into their other incarnation, the other side of the band we love, their abstract psychedelic space drift ambience, last heard in full bloom on their awesome Rogue Astronaut record, and so goes the rest of Skulldozer, lurching from churning powerviolence crush, to glitched out abstract sci-fi drift, to experimental ambience, to blackened metallic pound and back again. Totally ruling, and most definitely a new favorite!
MPEG Stream: "Skulldozer"
MPEG Stream: "50 Million Light Years From..."
MPEG Stream: "Demise By Radiation"

BASTARD NOISE Throne Is Melting (Helicopter) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sixty-two more minutes of wonderfully harsh, grinding noise from John Wiese and Eric Wood of Man Is The Bastard. Features two long ass tracks previously available, one on a really limited Japanese tour 3" cd-r, the other on a one sided 12" that we've had before. And it says Man Is The Bastard as well as Bastard Noise on the cover, which is confusing 'cause while there's members of MITB on here, it's really a Bastard Noise album, not a split release or anything like that... Those jokers Byram and Jeff say they are going to open a bakery in Berkeley called "Man Is The Batard". Food Not Bombs! Ha ha.
RealAudio clip: "Denied Psychotic Human Pt. 2"

BASTARD NOISE, THE Rogue Astronaut (Gravity) cd 14.98
We love Man Is The Bastard. Always have. So we wanted to love Bastard Noise as well. And we did, once in a while, but we might as well fess up, the thing that kept us from truly embracing Bastard Noise, was in fact, the NOISE. Allan may be into his speaker shredding Japanoise, and Jim definitely loves his minimal grind and glitch, but for the most part, noise music has generally left us a bit cold. That's not to say there haven't been exceptions, there most definitely have, and those exceptions tend to be when the noise is less 'noisy' and more drone-y or textural or dynamic or all three. Our favorite Merzbow records tend to be the ones where Masami Akita isn't just spewing a face full of hot white noise. Our favorite noise records to tend toward the dronier more ambient side of the noise spectrum. So there have definitely been some Bastard Noise jams that have totally hit the spot, Descent To Mimas was one, released on Ground Fault, and Rogue Astronaut is definitely another, just out on Gravity. Rogue Astronaut seems to be sonically and thematically a sort of continuation of Descent To Mimas. Another noise opera of sorts, a tale of post apocalyptic space travel, of dead satellites and a withered Earth, of floating alone through space, of the endless expanse and the soul shearing loneliness of the Rogue Astronaut.
Much like Mimas, and our favorite noise records, the sounds on Rogue Astronaut are less harsh and heavy, and more atmospheric and textural, the ten minute opener, even features haunting falsetto vocals set amidst an expansive drift of analog buzz and electronic squelch, layered drone, and a symphony of upper register tones, the sounds are noticeably Bastard like, raw and corrosive and analog and lo-fi, but deftly arranged into epic sweeping dronescapes and noisescapes, slipping from minimal buzz and glitch to full on fuzzed out malfunctioning electronic roar.
Track two, "Ryobi Party" sounds a bit like another post Bastard project, Geronimo, only with the drums stripped away, and the addition of gurgling demonic vokills. The twenty minute title track is gorgeous and space-y, the tones and sounds and textures allowed to sprawl and spread out, set amidst a lush backdrop of reverbed black shimmer, and deep ominous drones, the squelches and glitches like lost radio broadcasts, drifting aimlessly through the inky blackness of space. Sheets of feedback are muted into layered high end whirs, the 'noise' is allowed to hover and float and change shapes and transform, the track is almost like some strange beast made out of sound, captured so we can observe it in captivity, watching as it morphs before our very eyes, a sonic representation of what lies beyond. The track is less about noise, and more about ambience, and mood, and it does create an intense and ominous and super evocative cinematic soundworld.
The last three tracks cycle through the various shades of noise and space, highlighted by the darkly delicate "Moonpool Team", which begins as a hushed ultra minimal drift, before it transforms into a groovy, moody, reverby almost Eastern sounding bit of abstract soundtrack music, like it could have come from some crazy lost sixties space epic, gorgeous soaring vocals, the grinding electronics muted and smeared into almost melodies, peppered with the occasional violent squall, but for the most part, a gorgeous languid landscape of deep bell like tones and swirling space-y noise flecked shimmer.
Gorgeous packaging too. Metal foil stamped booklet that folds out into a poster, with full color inserts/cards as well as a sticker.
MPEG Stream: "Tyranny Beyond Earth"
MPEG Stream: "Ryobi Party"
MPEG Stream: "Radioactive Sunrise"

BASTARD WING, THE Crystal Thicket (Free Porcupine Society) cd 14.98
Bastard Wing is the duo of Christina Carter from Charalambides and Andrew MacGregor who records as Gown. A while back we reviewed a cd-r collaboration between MacGregor and Carter, which was a strange and creepy affair, but also a fairly caustic and atonal one, with plenty of anguished Jandekian wailing and Keiji Haino like frenzied howling, cacophonous and bizarre, but beautiful in it's own damaged way. The Bastard Wing finds the two in a much more contemplative mood, spreading out warm thick blankets of psychedelic strum, swirling fuzzy ambience, over which breathy ethereal vocals drift and shimmer, gorgeous foggy soundscapes of distant blown out psych guitar, haunting disembodied vocals, crackling crunchy distortion, swooping vocals that seem to creep up right to the microphone before fading into the murky background, everything bathed in thick reverb, tons of delay and clouds of swirling outer space FX. Some tracks sound like deconstructed Mazzy Star, with any semblance of 'rock' taken out, so the ghostly remnants are allowed to drift incorporeally heavenward, while others are frenzied otherworldly rituals, dense with thick vocal swirl and damaged guitar histrionics, although even at their most manic, everything is muted and smeared into an indistinct haze. Creepy and lovely. Definitely for fans of Grouper, Lichens and of course Charalambides.
Like all Free Porcupine Society releases, nicely packaged, this time in a cool simple white cardstock folder, printed with metallic silver ink, spare and striking.
MPEG Stream: "Watch The Sun Rise"
MPEG Stream: "Reaching, Reaching"

BASTIEN, PIERRE Les Premieres Machines: 1968-1988 (Gazul Records) cd 21.00
So cool. We've been wanting to list this for a while, finally got a bunch of copies so we can. It's a disc collecting early pieces by one of our favorite idiosyncratic music makers and sonic visionaries, Pierre Bastien. For those who have yet to discover the joys of Bastien, imagine strange haunting lullabies, played BY ROBOTS. Real Robots! Well sort of. Bastien would take apart old turntables, use bits of random electronics, stuff laying around the garage, sometimes adding multiple tone arms to record players, sometimes using bits of metal and electronics to create little machines that would pluck strings, or make little rhythms, and he would play along usually on trumpet. It sounds strange, but the music he created was magical, mysterious, childlike, but strangely mechanical (obviously) and haunting. Like a super DIY bedroom Philip Jeck but with a band of homemade robots! Sold? We figured you'd have to be. We've been pretty obsessed with Bastien and his music ever since we first heard his Musiques Paralloidres album almost 10 years ago.
This compilation collects a bunch of early tracks, a handful never before released, all from well before his first proper album, mostly culled from the eighties although one track is from WAY back in 1968, an untitled track for prepared guitar and Metronome!
Soon, rather than utilizing a mundane metronome, he was indeed building his own mechanical music-making helpers, the "Meccano". Each one custom-designed to accompany Bastien on plucked strings, skipping record, scraped metal, automated percussion, whatever Bastien imagined as accompaniment for a specific song. The results are divine, tick-tocking, clicking and clacking, wavering and warbling, dark plucked melodies, dizzying fragmented loops, squiggle and scrapes, alternatingly mesmeric and gentle, chaotic and clattery, a sound like a ramshackle music box, gives way to a sweet child-like melody, the sound of a toybox coming to life once the children are asleep, a mini toy orchestra performed in the still of night, with only the moon and the stars looking on. Many of the tracks feature much more actual playing than later Bastien discs, but the robots are still out in full force, playing along, his own little mechanical band.
All of Bastien's records are fabulous, super creative, innovative, baffling, fun and funny, playful and sometimes silly, but just as often dark and beautifully brooding. Mecanoid, Pop, the recently reviewed Visions Of Doing, all of them deserve to be in the collection of any adventurous music lover, and Les Premieres Machines 1968-1988 most certainly does too!
The booklet features a few photos, liner notes in French only (unfortunately), and an extensive discography!
MPEG Stream: "Orphean Veranda"
MPEG Stream: "Talou VII"
MPEG Stream: "Alpinic Railway"
MPEG Stream: "Caravan"

BASTIEN, PIERRE Pop (Rephlex) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We sure are suckers for unconventional music making. Be it accidental (ice melting, applause, junkyards, metal rusting, fire burning) or environmental (elephants, sled dogs, cats purring, FROGS!, bats) and most especially the mysterious or unexplained (the sounds of the dead, breaking through the radio waves, haunting shortwave spy transmissions). Then there is a whole other realm of unconventional music making: the mad scientist. Why form a band, when you can construct robots and machines to play all the instruments? Why actually play the piano, or the guitar, or the drums, when you can construct an elaborate set of pulleys and levers and gears and axles that will play them for you? Why be happy with a turntable that plays records with only one stylus when you can make music with a turntable equipped with multiple needles? We can only assume Pierre Bastien asked these same questions, and the answer he came up with is Pop. Forty five minutes of simple, repetitive, hypnotic and mesmerizing machine driven minimal krautrock. That's right, krautrock is what this sounds like.
In lesser hands a room full of self playing instruments would most likely result in a sterile series of sound events, but Bastien has a deft hand and a keen ear, and breathes life into his automatons, delicate contraptions that each contribute a unique element to a song, not just spitting out sounds -- strange gadgets that play simple chords on a keyboard, an apparatus to beat out simple insistent rhythms, all manner of haunting minor key plinkety plonk, crisp windup toy clickety clacks and disgruntled grinding large machinery groans and whines, some strange warped turntablizations, wearily wheezing woodwinds, all woven into spare stretches of minimally propulsive ambience. Sounds a bit like an army of tiny wind up toys assembled in an automated sonic ballet, an inhuman menagerie making music more human that it seems possible. The vibe is very fuzzy and washed out, droney and dolorous, smeary and sepia-toned, definite shades of Philip Jeck and Tim Hecker, with plenty of creak and crackle surrounding the minimal melodies and subtle rhythmic pulses within each song. It's easy to become obsessed with the method behind the music, and the amount of obviously painstaking preparation that went into creating these machines. And why not?! It's absolutely mind boggling to be sure, but even beyond the mere construction of these music making mechanisms, imagine figuring out how to get these 'things' to make these sounds, and THEN somehow to compose music this lovely and captivating. Seems impossible. Surely, Pop is too perfect to be accidental, too beautiful to be pure luck, too musical to be anything other than the work of a brilliant mad sonic scientist. Or better yet, and possibly more likely, imagine Bastien is nothing if not lucky, a man who somehow stumbled upon a secret world of machines, in some mysterious forgotten warehouse, in some dark overlooked part of town, an insulated little world populated by these devices, not a living breathing creature in sight, just shelves full of strange little contraptions, all running endlessly and self controlled, creating this beautiful music as if that's what they were designed to do, and he was just the first to stumble upon this place, these things, and was able to capture these mysterious sounds before one night, that building and those things were nowhere to be found. Sounds farfetched, maybe a little silly, but it's the sort of romantic story that befits music this warm and beautiful and mysterious, whether it was ultimately the work of a man, or the just the serendipitous sounds of a room full of machines.
MPEG Stream: "Eye"
MPEG Stream: "Noon"
MPEG Stream: "Deed"

BASTRO Antlers (Drag City) cd 14.98
Here's a band that far outshone most of their contempories but somehow managed to slip through the cracks and become more known as a footnote of the bands that came after than the rock legends they truly were. Ever wonder where David Grubbs spent his time after Squirrelbait and before Gastr Del Sol? Ever wonder what Bundy Brown did before Tortoise? Ever wonder what John McEntire did before he was in Tortoise and the Sea & Cake and started producing Stereolab Records? Did you ever wonder what band featured members who would go on to play in bands like Slint, Evergreen, King Kong, The For Carnation and more? Well, if you did, the answer is a resounding BASTRO!
This live release was supposed to coincide with the two proper Bastro lps finally released together on a single cd, but there seems to be some weird legal hang up, presumably with Bastro's old label Homestead, but for now we have this glorious live record, from one of the most amazing bands of the late eighties / early nineties.
If you're already a fan, this record is Holy Grail type shit, all songs that were never recorded, caaptured live right before the band broke up. Some of these songs morphed into Gastr Del Sol songs, but a whole new record of never-before-heard Bastro songs should have your jaw around your ankles. And for those of you new to the whole Bastro experience, these songs will definitely whet your appetite for more.
Bastro are really hard to descibe, which could be why maybe they ended up going over a lot of people's heads. They incorporated lots of elements of other post hardcore / college rock bands but in perfectly obtuse, totally unlikely ways. You can hear bits and pieces of Jesus Lizard, Big Black, Rapeman, Scratch Acid, Drive Like Jehu and Don Caballero. They started out as a sort-of-industrial-noise rock band a la Big Black, turned into a pumelling noise rock combo, and eventually morphed into a dense, complex avant-math-rock outfit, which is where this live recording catches them, live in 1991, in Chicago and Germany. Super serpentine guitar lines, extended convoluted song structures, impossibly mathy drumming (resident AQ drummer Andee spent ages learning and then playing along to Bastro songs, and considered McEntire one of his favorite drummers back then) all in a dense tangle of fragmented pop, mathy post rock and obtuse musical chaos. So incredible. As much as we love the bands that came after, Bastro still hold a special place in our heart, their music somehow transcending the music of almost all of their contemporaries, melodic, heavy, bizarre, beautiful. We're dying for the reissue of the albums proper, but for now we'll just listen to Antlers, over and over and over and over and over.....
Also includes two live Quicktime videos of Bastro live in Germany and Holland!!!
MPEG Stream: "Antlers"
MPEG Stream: "Educated Fool"