RAINBOWS ARE FREE Believers In Medicine (Guestroom Records) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Rainbows Are Free? Did they really name their METAL band that? Really? Well, they are on the psychedelic/stonery side of things, so that sort of thing kinda makes sense, just like the local band called Glitter Wizard, but still. You gotta really kick ass to pull off having a name like that. And, they do! Bottom heavy, fuzzed out, swinging riffage explodes out of the gate on opener "Slow Train". They don't really let ever let up, with wild, even more fuzz-filled soloing and a vocal style that surprises by morphing from a stoner drawl into what sounds more like a frothing rabid Rob Halford from Judas Priest! Really, on the second track the singer busts out a gruff, staccato style that's more metal than thou, over the top like Halford singing "The Ripper" with a frog in his throat, not at all what we were expecting but pretty damn awesome. That's actually when we knew we really liked this band, that they were willing to roam outside the standard stoner rawk template, the singer especially, screaming and/or crooning as the mood strikes, while the band RIPS right along. As a result, there's moments here that remind us of everything in the stoner/psych/doom/grunge realm from Kyuss to Reverend Bizarre to Skin Yard (or Gruntruck) to Goatsnake to Danava ... From their name on down, it's hard to peg these guys, but we like 'em and their chunky grooves and freaky ways. They get particularly far-out and bad-trippy on "Sinking Ship", and the singer's yowl on "Are You Dead?" even conjures up the shade of Saint Vitus' Scott Reagers.
Recommended to anyone into all the killer stoner stuff we've been giving the thumbs up to lately from the MeteorCity and Small Stone labels, for instance the Solace we listed last week. And, everyone who dug Freedom Hawk oughta dig the heck outta this too!!
MPEG Stream: "Freedumb"
MPEG Stream: "Last Supper"
MPEG Stream: "The Battle Of Procreation"

RAINBOWS ARE FREE Believers In Medicine (Guestroom Records) lp 13.98
Now on vinyl, smoked purple vinyl at that, and of course with a download coupon as well...
Rainbows Are Free? Did they really name their METAL band that? Really? Well, they are on the psychedelic/stonery side of things, so that sort of thing kinda makes sense, just like the local band called Glitter Wizard, but still. You gotta really kick ass to pull off having a name like that. And, they do! Bottom heavy, fuzzed out, swinging riffage explodes out of the gate on opener "Slow Train". They don't really let ever let up, with wild, even more fuzz-filled soloing and a vocal style that surprises by morphing from a stoner drawl into what sounds more like a frothing rabid Rob Halford from Judas Priest! Really, on the second track the singer busts out a gruff, staccato style that's more metal than thou, over the top like Halford singing "The Ripper" with a frog in his throat, not at all what we were expecting but pretty damn awesome. That's actually when we knew we really liked this band, that they were willing to roam outside the standard stoner rawk template, the singer especially, screaming and/or crooning as the mood strikes, while the band RIPS right along. As a result, there's moments here that remind us of everything in the stoner/psych/doom/grunge realm from Kyuss to Reverend Bizarre to Skin Yard (or Gruntruck) to Goatsnake to Danava ... From their name on down, it's hard to peg these guys, but we like 'em and their chunky grooves and freaky ways. They get particularly far-out and bad-trippy on "Sinking Ship", and the singer's yowl on "Are You Dead?" even conjures up the shade of Saint Vitus' Scott Reagers.
Recommended to anyone into all the killer stoner stuff we've been giving the thumbs up to lately from the MeteorCity and Small Stone labels. And, everyone who dug Freedom Hawk oughta dig the heck outta this too!!
MPEG Stream: "Freedumb"
MPEG Stream: "Last Supper"
MPEG Stream: "The Battle Of Procreation"

RAINCOATS Looking in the Shadows (DGC) cd 11.98
This is SO GOOD, the Raincoats have not lost it at all, as you owners of their 1995 Smells Like EP already know. The gorgeous screechy violin is gone, but excellent synthesizer/moog flourishes more than make up for it, & there's a new version of "Don't Be Mean." Heartthrob ex-Tiger Trap drummer Heather is (was) the newest member of the Raincoats.

RAINCOATS Odyshape (We Three) cd 21.00

RAINCOATS, THE s/t (Kill Rock Stars) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Essential 1980 debut record from this seminal DIY all-female post-punk quartet from England. Big influence on Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, who reissued their entire catalog in the early nineties. Fans of the Slits, Kleenex, The Shop Assistants, Girls At Their Best and Marine Girls, this is required listening! Comes with a download card for mp3's. Huzzah!

RAINER MARIA A Better Version Of Me (Polyvinyl) cd 11.98
Rainer Maria's earliest recordings expressed what could be so right about emo. What was lacking in musicianship could be more than made up with raw emotion. Gosh darn it, you could just tell that Rainer Maria really meant it! But with each technical improvement (like learning how to sing or how to properly tune a bass), the band lost an inkling of that original raw feeling which made what they were doing so vital. After three or four years of steady musical improvement only to sound something like Cat Power playing Sleater Kinney, it hard to say whether it was worth it. Maybe they're trying to distance themselves from the 'emo scene' but emo was the one thing they had in spades. Not bad, but like the last few recordings not great either.

RAINER MARIA Anyone In Love With You (Already Knows) (Polyvinyl) cd+dvd 15.98
Here's a jam-packed audio/visual double treat for all of you Rainer Maria fans! Anyone In Love With You (Already Knows) features one live dvd (of a RM show at Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC plus bonus stuff like a video for their song "Ears Ring" and a photo gallery) and one full length compilation cd of live recordings selected by the emo-rock band themselves. Sure to keep y'all busy for a while!
MPEG Stream: "Tinfoil"
MPEG Stream: "Artificial Light"

RAINER MARIA Ears Ring (Polyvinyl) cd ep 7.98
Let's face it. Emo has become a commodity, as the music industry has recognized a vast market for selling earnestness through punk individualism and time-tested formulas of romance. The Wisconsin Emo trio Rainer Maria may have recognized the fate of their beloved aesthetic, and have made several swerving detours from the Emo template of boy / girl vocals screaming to the point of tears with melodic, minor chords of punk-pop. Their "A Better Version Of Me" album veered much closer to the Sleater Kinney camps; but "Ears Ring" takes an even bigger leap towards the sound of 80's female 'hard-rock' artists like Pat Benatar or even Patti Smyth of Scandal. Strangely prescient of the '80s obsessiveness within the 'electroclash' fetishism of New Wave.
RealAudio clip: "Ears Ring"

RAINER MARIA Long Knives Drawn (Polyvinyl ) cd 13.98
A perpetual nostalgia runs through the work of Ranier Maria, whose first couple of recordings remain very strong albums in the history of Emo. In looking back not only to the embarassments and lost loves from adolescence (still the reigning subject matter for Emo), Rainer Maria have moved from loud / soft explosions to confessional power ballads to their current sound of '80s retro stylization of hard rock injected with emo, that comes across sort of like the corn ball stunt / party rock found on the "Fubar" soundtrack but done in all seriousness and earnestness without slighting on the theatrics. Smarter than the majority of MTV sponsored Emo though.
RealAudio clip: "Ears Ring"
RealAudio clip: "The Imperitives"

RAINER MARIA Long Knives Drawn (Polyvinyl ) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A perpetual nostalgia runs through the work of Ranier Maria, whose first couple of recordings remain very strong albums in the history of Emo. In looking back not only to the embarassments and lost loves from adolescence (still the reigning subject matter for Emo), Rainer Maria have moved from loud / soft explosions to confessional power ballads to their current sound of '80s retro stylization of hard rock injected with emo, that comes across sort of like the corn ball stunt / party rock found on the "Fubar" soundtrack but done in all seriousness and earnestness without slighting on the theatrics. Smarter than the majority of MTV sponsored Emo though.

RAINMAN s/t (Fallout) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Never seen this before, maybe it's the first time it's been reissued... a 1970 solo album from Frank Nuyens, who had been the lead guitar player with one of Holland's top '60s beat/blues/psych rock groups, Q65. We've never listed anything by them, but would if we could, they were a fantastic band, we'll keep an eye out for any available reissues. But we're certainly glad to have this Nuyens solo album, it's great too. Super melancholic and melodic, with gentle vocals and a rustic, folkish psychedelic vibe, but also flashes of psych guitar glory. There's snappy drum shuffle and lovely flutey parts too. We hear definite hints of the Beatles, also the Zombies and the Kinks, at their moodiest. We're also reminded of Roy Harper, maybe it's Nuyens' voice and guitar playing and the whole folky-proggy singer-songwriter thing. Check out the track "Vicious Circle" for evidence of that. Another song on here makes us think of Neil Young. And although Nuyens might not be as well known as any of those artists outside of his native Holland, he and Q65 definitely belong in such company. There's been a lot of great '60s/'70s psych/pop/prog reissues lately, and this is one of 'em!! So many good songs here. A really recommended reissue indeed - and it includes a bonus track, a song from a single that didn't originally appear on the LP proper.
MPEG Stream: "Rainman"
MPEG Stream: "Vicious Circle"
MPEG Stream: "Natural Man"

RAINMAN s/t (Pseudonym) lp 27.00
Sweet! A vinyl reissue of this early '70s Dutch psychfolkpop treat. We had a cd reissue a while back, that we loved, that's gone out of print, so this is an especially welcome of a now-on-vinyl (again) item, remastered from the original master tapes unlike that previous cd version!
Rainman is the 1970 solo album from Frank Nuyens, who had been the lead guitar player with one of Holland's top '60s beat/blues/psych rock groups, Q65. A fantastic band, maybe you've seen our review of their collection on Rev-Ola, at least. And Nuyens' solo album is great too. Super melancholic and melodic, with gentle vocals and a rustic, folkish psychedelic vibe, but also flashes of psych guitar glory. There's snappy drum shuffle and lovely flutey parts too. We hear definite hints of the Beatles, also the Zombies and the Kinks, at their moodiest. We're also reminded of Roy Harper, maybe it's Nuyens' voice and guitar playing and the whole folky-proggy singer-songwriter thing. Check out the track "Vicious Circle" for evidence of that. Another song on here makes us think of Neil Young. And although Nuyens might not be as well known as any of those artists outside of his native Holland, he and Q65 definitely belong in such company. There's been a lot of great '60s/'70s psych/pop/prog reissues lately, and this is one of 'em!! So many good songs here. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Rainman"
MPEG Stream: "Vicious Circle"
MPEG Stream: "Natural Man"

RAISON D'ETRE Empty Hollow Unfolds (Cold Meat Industries) cd 16.98
Having recorded a handful of albums for continously grim Cold Meat Industries label in Sweden, Raison D'Etre's sound is darkwave / industrial score for bleak artic netherlands with grievous keyboard bleakness, desolate noises from churning factories, and chants from Catholic masses.

RAKETKANON RKTKN #1 (Zeal) cd 13.98
We definitely weren't expecting this from the Zeal label, who in the past have brought us the dark country of Timesbold, the folky pop of Isbells, and of course multiple records from apocalyptic folk one man band Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat. While we were expecting something dark, maybe folky, what we got from these Belgians was a wild slab of sludgey, mathy, experimental noise rock, that KILLS. They had us by the first track, which sorta sounds like Refused's "New Noise" recorded onto a shitty old cassette tape, and played back at 16rpm, the riff is similar, and the shrieked vocals, not to mention the mathy main riff, but here it's all dirgey, and detuned, a lumbering noise rock doomsludge churn, laced with all sorts of weird sounds and effects that give it a sort of avant element. And that Refused comparison definitely surfaces throughout, the band perfectly capable of whipping up that sort of frenzied post punk, but more often than not, choosing to twist it all up into something much more fucked and confusional.
It's a relentless barrage of twisted noisiness, from the driving, distorted groove of "Louis" (all the songs bear people's proper names), with its tense synths, and jumbled, progged out breakdowns, to the drum heavy psychedelic bombast of "Judith", which flits from Melvins-like downtuned heaviness, to little melodic flutters and back again. "Henri" is a killer too, all crumbling distortion, and fierce heavy crunch, not to mention some rad progged out melodies, super swaggery and intense, but then part way through the song collapses into a series of warped audio experiments, rife with sound effects and weird voices, sounding a bit like classic Butthole Surfers, fused to something much more rocking and heavy. "Eva" also fuses tribal drumming and warbly synths to grinding mathed out noise rock and lumbering downtuned doomsludge weirdness. The vocals are shrieky and unhinged one second, murky and processed and garbled the next, occasionally bellowed monstrously, sometimes mewled disturbingly. The songs are dense with multiple parts, ever shifting sounds, the mood consistently dark, but the vibe in constant flux, harrowingly heavy one second, droned out and hauntingly hushed the next, with most tracks a wild schizophrenic sonic chaos, all held together by some warped ineffable logic, known only to the band, which makes for some unnerving, and fantastically unsettling listening. Check out the closer, which sounds like some long lost Tool track slowed way down, and transformed into some sort of psychotic psychedelic drone ballad, that eventually erupts into a final stretch of whatthefuck heaviness.
Holy shit is this amazing. Our new favorite warped, weirdo, heavy rock / noise rock / outsider metal jam for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Herman"
MPEG Stream: "Judith"
MPEG Stream: "Lena"
MPEG Stream: "Henri"
MPEG Stream: "Eva"

RAKETKANON RKTKN #1 (Zeal) lp 16.98
We definitely weren't expecting this from the Zeal label, who in the past have brought us the dark country of Timesbold, the folky pop of Isbells, and of course multiple records from apocalyptic folk one man band Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat. While we were expecting something dark, maybe folky, what we got from these Belgians was a wild slab of sludgey, mathy, experimental noise rock, that KILLS. They had us by the first track, which sorta sounds like Refused's "New Noise" recorded onto a shitty old cassette tape, and played back at 16rpm, the riff is similar, and the shrieked vocals, not to mention the mathy main riff, but here it's all dirgey, and detuned, a lumbering noise rock doomsludge churn, laced with all sorts of weird sounds and effects that give it a sort of avant element. And that Refused comparison definitely surfaces throughout, the band perfectly capable of whipping up that sort of frenzied post punk, but more often than not, choosing to twist it all up into something much more fucked and confusional.
It's a relentless barrage of twisted noisiness, from the driving, distorted groove of "Louis" (all the songs bear people's proper names), with its tense synths, and jumbled, progged out breakdowns, to the drum heavy psychedelic bombast of "Judith", which flits from Melvins-like downtuned heaviness, to little melodic flutters and back again. "Henri" is a killer too, all crumbling distortion, and fierce heavy crunch, not to mention some rad progged out melodies, super swaggery and intense, but then part way through the song collapses into a series of warped audio experiments, rife with sound effects and weird voices, sounding a bit like classic Butthole Surfers, fused to something much more rocking and heavy. "Eva" also fuses tribal drumming and warbly synths to grinding mathed out noise rock and lumbering downtuned doomsludge weirdness. The vocals are shrieky and unhinged one second, murky and processed and garbled the next, occasionally bellowed monstrously, sometimes mewled disturbingly. The songs are dense with multiple parts, ever shifting sounds, the mood consistently dark, but the vibe in constant flux, harrowingly heavy one second, droned out and hauntingly hushed the next, with most tracks a wild schizophrenic sonic chaos, all held together by some warped ineffable logic, known only to the band, which makes for some unnerving, and fantastically unsettling listening. Check out the closer, which sounds like some long lost Tool track slowed way down, and transformed into some sort of psychotic psychedelic drone ballad, that eventually erupts into a final stretch of whatthefuck heaviness.
Holy shit is this amazing. Our new favorite warped, weirdo, heavy rock / noise rock / outsider metal jam for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Herman"
MPEG Stream: "Judith"
MPEG Stream: "Lena"
MPEG Stream: "Henri"
MPEG Stream: "Eva"

RAKHIM s/t (Qbico) lp 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
ATTENTION CIRCLE OBSESSIVES AND FINNISH MUSIC FREAKS. THIS IS A KILLER CIRCLE SIDE PROJECT, IT'S LP ONLY, AND IS VERY VERY LIMITED. WE LISTED IT A WHILE BACK, SOLD TONS, AND ONLY JUST NOW MANAGED TO GET A HANDFUL MORE. WE DON'T HAVE VERY MANY LEFT SO ACT FAST!!
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, let's dig in. Circle freaks are obviously gonna want this no matter what, it's a single sided half hour jam from Jussi and Janne of Finnish drone rockers Circle. But don't expect this to sound anything like Circle. Well, okay, it sounds a little like that live Circle record Mountain, droney and dark and minimal. What it really sounds like to us is like Circle side project Dr. Kettu with all the bones removed, leaving some sort of dark and tribal ambient krautrock. Rakhim is a super stripped down primal tribal duo, just drums and vocals and tons and tons of effects, which the duo employ to effortlessly kick up quite a dense druggy fug. Swirling clouds and sonic squalls, a murky dronescape lo-fi and dubbed out, strange guttural grunts, freaky whispers, drums-down-the-stairs clatter, dubby FX, wordless vocal melodies, all doused with reverb and distortion, and tangled up with some abstract percussive tribalism. Some sort of Finnish space aged pagan ritual. Vast expanses of whoooosh and whiiiir and swooooosh over chaotic free jazz drum splatter and subtle shuffling skitter. Very tripped out, druggy, super muddy, mega freaked out sososo psychedelic. Could almost be some long lost, recently discovered Faust jam caught surreptitiously on tape way back in the day. Awesome.
One sided heavy marbled white vinyl, packaged in a cool, very Dead C looking black and white sleeve.

RAL PARTHA VOGELBACHER Shrill Falcons (Monotreme Records Ltd.) cd 14.98
SF's Ral Partha Vogelbacher unleash their boyish indie rock charms right from the get go on this their third album. Mainman Chad Bidwell sings his deeply personal lyrics in the drollest fashion that reminded us of cross between AQ faves Casiotone For The Painfully Alone's Owen Ashworth and Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields. The musical backdrop (provided by local pals Thee More Shallows and a guest appearance from Odd Nosdam on the track "New Happy Fawn") though is unlike that of either of those artists. As far as we can tell despite the album's title Shrill Falcons, neither piercing sounds nor feathered friends can be found anywhere. What it is filled with is very slouchy yet perky distorted jangly guitars, hazy droning keyboards and infectious hummable melodies. Another reason to get that fuzzy well-worn cardigan out of storage!
Psst, the band enlisted the fine seamstress skills of AQ's very own Pam to stitch a flag version of the album's cover art.
MPEG Stream: "Three Gorges"
MPEG Stream: "New Happy Fawn"

RAM Where? (In Conclusion) (Akarma) cd 16.98

RAM JAM Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Ram (Rock Candy) cd 17.98
We've been geeking out on, I mean rockin' out to, a bunch of the '70s and '80s hard rock/heavy metal reissues coming out on the UK's Rock Candy label... Plasmatics, Armored Saint, Billy Squier, Ted Nugent, Riot, a whole bunch of old favorites, done up all deluxe with nice packaging and copious liner notes. We've reviewed a few already. Here's another we like a lot.
First-time-on-cd for this 1978 album, the second and last from one-hit wonders Ram Jam. That one hit was their high octane cover of Leadbelly's "Black Betty" from their first album (do yourself a favor and look up the video on Youtube!!). So what has Portrait Of An Artist As A Young Ram got to offer? Well, though it didn't produce any hits, it's the better of their two records by far. With a revamped line-up, Ram Jam's hybrid bubblegum / biker blues roots are a thing of the past, the band now a lean, mean, polished, hard n' heavy rock outfit that fans of other, more popular commercial late '70s American rockers like Aerosmith, KISS, Foreigner, and Starz should dig... though at the time they apparently didn't, this record sales-wise spelling the end of Ram Jam's career. Dunno why, people must just not have heard it, as it's quite the party platter, full of kick ass lead guitar, powerful vocals, and energetic, catchy tuneage that would sound great blasting from your souped-up Camaro or custom-painted van...
But now here's a chance to hear this again (for the first time, if you're like us!) and give Ram Jam's swansong its due! Recommended to all rockers.
MPEG Stream: "Please, Please, Please (Please Me)"
MPEG Stream: "Hurricane Ride"

RAMASES Space Hymns (Vertigo / Repertoire) cd 19.98
A few weeks back we made Andy Votel's amazing mix of prog/funk/jazz/acid rock from the Vertigo vaults our Record Of The Week. Now we're reviewing this, a recently-reissued-on-cd Vertigo album from, ta-da, 1971 that (we don't think) made it onto Votel's disc, thereby demonstrating that even by cramming dozens of little snippets of songs into a mix, he certainly couldn't fully encompass everything awesome that was ever released on Vertigo! This one's not heavy rock, nor is it freaky jazz fusion. Rather, Ramases was a unique one-album-only obscurity playing a kind of mystical pop-prog. I guess it reminds us just a little bit of Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come albums. But it's definitely its own thing, as you might expect from a mysterious psychedelic visionary from South Africa who (perhaps) believed himself to be the reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh, who performed these Space Hymns together with his wife Sel, and the assistance of others, including production and guitar licks (and sitar and Moog) courtesy of 10cc's Godley and Creme. The results are really rather catchy and quite strange. Maybe what the second Comus album would have sounded like, if it was a lot better than it was!
This new reish in Repertoire's Vertigo series (we hope to bring you some other titles soon) is nicely deluxe, packaged in a gatefold digipack cd jacket, adorned with Roger Dean's great church steeple/rocketship cover art. It boasts four bonus tracks as well (alternate mixes and b-sides). Recommended if you want to check out some unclassifiable cult tuneage, weird and folkish and electronically Eno-arty, with sci-fi hippy themes perhaps worth puzzling over.
MPEG Stream: "Life Child"
MPEG Stream: "Balloon"

RAMASES Space Hymns (Mexican Summer) lp 27.00
This AQ favorite is now finally available as a limited, numbered vinyl reissue, thanks to Mexican Summer!
A while back we made DJ Andy Votel's amazing (and now sadly out of print) mix of prog/funk/jazz/acid rock from the Vertigo label vaults our Record Of The Week. Not long after, we reviewed a cd reissue of this Vertigo album from, ta-da, 1971 that (we don't think) made it onto Votel's disc, thereby demonstrating that even by cramming dozens of little snippets of songs into a mix, he certainly couldn't fully encompass everything awesome that was ever released on Vertigo! This one's not heavy rock, nor is it freaky jazz fusion. Rather, Ramases was a unique one-album-only obscurity playing a kind of mystical pop-prog. We guess it reminds us just a little bit of Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come albums. But it's definitely its own thing, as you might expect from a mysterious psychedelic visionary from South Africa who (perhaps) believed himself to be the reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh, who performed these Space Hymns together with his wife Sel, and the assistance of others, including production and guitar licks (and sitar and Moog) courtesy of 10cc's Godley and Creme. The results are really rather catchy and quite strange. Maybe what the second Comus album would have sounded like, if it was a lot better than it was!
Mexican Summer, when not stirring up hype on the latest buzz band via limited vinyl releases, also likes to dig into the past for some rad psych and folk reissues (like the Linda Perhacs also on this week's list). Sort of a surprise they'd pick Rameses, but we're certainly glad! This looks amazing, they've done it as a six-panel foldout sleeve adorned with Roger Dean's great church steeple/rocketship cover art. Recommended if you want to check out some unclassifiable cult tuneage, weird and folkish and electronically Eno-arty, with sci-fi hippy themes perhaps worth puzzling over.
MPEG Stream: "Life Child"
MPEG Stream: "Balloon"

RAMEL, MIKAEL Exra Vagansa cd 21.00

RAMEL, MIKAEL Till Dej (Sonet / Universal) cd 21.00
The son of one of Sweden's most beloved musicians, Ramel meticulously recorded this psych folk rock album almost completely on his own, dumping mixed tracks onto one track, adding another track, dumping those down, etc.
Oddly, Ramel at times shares some of the exuberance and playful unpredictability of Brazil's similarly psychedelic Tropicalia sound (Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso). Cool!

RAMESES III Basilica (Important Records) 2cd 14.98
More pastoral beauty from this UK outfit, two discs this time, one of originals, record live and in rehearsal, the other discs, remixes and reinterpretations by Robert Horton, Keith Berry, Gregg Kowalsky and Neil Campbell.
The originals disc is maybe the breeziest and airiest to date, guitars are wreathed in reverb, releasing glimmering notes like blowing the white fluff off dandelions, the notes swirling and drifting, hovering over smooth glassy landscapes of warm whir, smeared synth buzz, minimal muted melodies, warm fuzzy pop ambient style drifts, like some free folk band covering The Orb, lilting free folk, the musical equivalent of dewy grass, autumn leaves falling through from a grey sky, sun dappled hillsides, soft slow shifting clouds, the day's first light, the sun making the moist grass sparkle like diamonds, viewing everything through a frosty pane of glass, rendering everything blurred and dreamily indistinct.
Well worth the price of admission for that disc alone, but there's a whole 'nother record, four long tracks, each of the above mentioned artists re-envisioning the originals. Robert Horton begins with a sprinkle of angelic high end, before bringing in the lows, a series of warm overlapping tones, barely shifting, all intertwined, into one slow organic swell, a near static melody unwinding in slow motion, over the course of nearly 8 minutes. Keith Berry's take is much more gritty, a gentle whirl of fuzzy streaks, muted into dreamlike murmurs, floating within a delicate landscape of glacial lowend and buried melody. Gregg Kowalsky turns his Rameses III source material into something jubilant and majestic, a sort of softened Sunroof!, all bells and chimes and bell-like tones, a glorious cacophony transformed into something less noisy and chaotic and more dense and layered, almost like the sound of a thousand orchestras tuning up stretched into some strange sunlit raga. And finally, Astral Social Clubber Neil Campbell stretches out Rameses III into some blissed out spacedrone, rife with distorted guitars, long drones, high end squalls of feedback, druggy effects, all slithering and squirming just below the surface, a surface which is a seemingly endless Niblock-like drone, the notes and layers beating against one another creating all sorts of subtle rhythms and strange harmonies, simultaneously static and in motion, a roiling writhing inner space ritual.
MPEG Stream: "Basilica (Keith Berry Remix)"
MPEG Stream: "Tigers In The Snake Pit (Neil Campbell Remix)"

RAMESES III Honey Rose (Important) cd 9.98
Such pastoral bliss is on display within the cozy confines of this ep by the UK's Rameses III. One of the prettier discs we've heard all year, these mostly instrumental tracks (there is some hushed vocals on a couple songs) glisten with glimmering guitar ambiance that had us thinking of a slightly twangier Robin Guthrie or Durruti Column or even the wonderful instrumental guitar albums of Tom Verlaine. Timeless and mellow like a late summer sunrise. Makes so much sense that this was music recorded for a film, as it's so easy to close your eyes and visualize wide open landscapes of long winding roads, huge blue skies and fields of shimmering wet green grass. So so nice...
MPEG Stream: "Theme 1"
MPEG Stream: "Theme 2"
MPEG Stream: "Theme 3"

RAMESES III I Could Not Love You More (Type) cd 15.98
South London's daydreaming guitar trio are back with a brand new offering of gorgeous electric guitar wash and hazy ambient epiphany, this time on everyone's favorite big time of the small time label, Type. I Could Not Love You More finds Rameses III perfecting their regal, monolithic sound, and we couldn't be more thrilled! Majestic chords and metallic shimmer rise from the blurring horizon, heart-wrenching melody and cinematic richness pour into the sky with a radiant ooze. Pastoral soundtracks stretched out and slowed down into time-lapsed images of rising tides and exploding stars, blissfully huge and epic while always grasping on to a forward moving narrative, through quiet grasslands of fingerpicked, Takoma style acoustic guitar to swelling waves of glistening tones that grow and radiate on the verge of feedback.
While even some of our favorite modern ambient music relies on layers and layers of digital processing, Rameses III maintains a certain acoustic integrity by layering strictly live instruments. Electric guitars, electric pianos, and mellotrons produce a warm, ethereal wash that brings an otherworldly depth to their sound, a depth that digital processing could never recreate.
Ghostly and melodic, mysterious and heavy, ambient and thoughtful, I Could Not Love You More is no doubt the trio's finest work and a perfect addition to the Type catalogue, highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "We Shall Never Sing of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "No Water, No Moon"
MPEG Stream: "I Could Not Love You More"

RAMESES III I Could Not Love You More (Type) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
South London's daydreaming guitar trio are back with a brand new offering of gorgeous electric guitar wash and hazy ambient epiphany, this time on everyone's favorite big time of the small time label, Type. I Could Not Love You More finds Rameses III perfecting their regal, monolithic sound, and we couldn't be more thrilled! Majestic chords and metallic shimmer rise from the blurring horizon, heart-wrenching melody and cinematic richness pour into the sky with a radiant ooze. Pastoral soundtracks stretched out and slowed down into time-lapsed images of rising tides and exploding stars, blissfully huge and epic while always grasping on to a forward moving narrative, through quiet grasslands of fingerpicked, Takoma style acoustic guitar to swelling waves of glistening tones that grow and radiate on the verge of feedback.
While even some of our favorite modern ambient music relies on layers and layers of digital processing, Rameses III maintains a certain acoustic integrity by layering strictly live instruments. Electric guitars, electric pianos, and mellotrons produce a warm, ethereal wash that brings an otherworldly depth to their sound, a depth that digital processing could never recreate.
Ghostly and melodic, mysterious and heavy, ambient and thoughtful, I Could Not Love You More is no doubt the trio's finest work and a perfect addition to the Type catalogue, highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "We Shall Never Sing of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "No Water, No Moon"
MPEG Stream: "I Could Not Love You More"

RAMLEH Hole In The Heart (Dirter) 2cd 23.00
Most folks probably know Ramleh mostly for their connection to sonic contemporaries and brothers in noise Skullflower, both having emerged from the same scene and both having released records on the infamous Broken Flag label (run by Gary Mundy, the main man of Ramleh). But Ramleh was always its own unique beast, a constantly evolving sonic terror, beginning life as a power electronics combo, before blossoming into something more in line with what might be called noise rock. But the line that marked that shift was never clearly delineated, with elements of pre- and post- bleeding both ways, infusing the group's sound with strange elements that definitely made Ramleh stand out amongst their noisy contemporaries.
Hole In The Heart was originally released on Broken Flag as a super limited cassette, in 1987, and is here fleshed out with extra sounds culled from a cassette release called Nerve released the same year, and listening to this again now, we're reminded how ridiculously prescient the sound of Ramleh was, predicting sounds that are all the rage now, from glacial downtuned dirgery a la SUNNO))), to tripped out druggy ambient free noise (about a million floorcore bands), strange post industrial dirgescapes (Wolf Eyes?), to blown out industrial metallic crunch (about a million more bands), it's a sound that is definitely of its time, but also sounds like it could be some super limited microlabel cd-r release of today.
Opener "Bite The Bolster", is all slow smoldering drones, distant shimmer, processed ghostly vocals, lo-fi for sure but lush and strangely dramatic and lovely, leading straight into "Do Not Come Near" that does SUNNO))) better than SUNNO))) themselves twenty-odd years earlier, a heaving, grinding crumbling mass of gnarled buzz, laced with streaks of feedback, buried melodies, muted pulses, fractured almost-rhythms, some of it sounds downright dubby, albeit blown out and noise drenched, hypnotic and washed out and crushing.
Which is then followed by the epic 25 minute, 6 part "Redcap", a sprawling multi movement noise jam, which begins with a weird bleated doomic plod, only to explode into a squall of swirling whirling hiss and buzz, distorted vox, and wild tangled feedback, not that far removed from Our Love Will Destroy The World or Birchville Cat Motel. Loops, and haunting melodies, the track lurches and lumbers, slipping from all out assault, to dark stuttery drift and back again. Part three is a massive slowed down metallic dirge, processed vocals stretched out into a grinding drone, while the (surprisingly catchy) main riff pulses in the background, eventually splintering into angular loops, topped by a soaring super distorted psych guitar wail. The next part falls somewhere between Godflesh and Wolf Eyes, a crushing synth flecked distortion drenched plod, with billows of echoey vox, a motorik pulse at its core, doomy, but also sort of blissed out. A brief burst of twisted tweaked riffage and what wounds like pipe fights and broken glass, opens up into the final part, beginning with a churning muted loop, and shards of effected feedback, sounding a bit like an industrial WOLD, this muddy musicbox sort of looped melody happening way down in the mix, while a soft cacophony of high end and swooping distorted vox careen and collide in the space above, at first it sounds like a sort of abstract free noise freakout, but the vocals get more and more melodic, and the song takes a new shape a twisted bit of depressive noise pop, a bit like the Dead C, before blinking out.
"Spear Flowers" begins as a gnarled tangle of super distorted riffs, again weirdly melodic, swirling and collapsing inward, eventually transforming into a looped hypnotic drug jam, repeated mantra like vocals, crunching grinding electronics, buzz all over the place, loads of feedback, totally mesmerizing, and again, sounding like it could be from today.
"Hole In The Heart" is total in-the-red ramshackle pop infused noise rock, like a heavier, more lush Dead C, the main melody sweet and catchy, but slowed down and buried in hiss and buzz, lilting and dreamy for all its abject aggression. "Product Of Fear" is a gorgeous guitarscape, layered buzz, washed out glimmering warmth, humid and haunting, and really really pretty, which leads you softly into "Grazing On Fear 2" which is also pretty, in its own way", but is also a cacophonous blow out, twisted atonal organ, and churning distorted white noise, eventually lurching into a cool skipping, stuttery outro. And finally, the nearly 25 minute "True Religion", an expansive soundscape of processed guitars that again is strangely pretty, very much in the vein of Jesu or Nadja, the guitars blown way out, but the melody is lilting and melancholy, a sort of soft doom, but wrapped in muted crunch and crumbling buzz, before slipping into a strange fractured interlude, before emerging on the other side some sort of slow motion noise pop dirge, epic and triumphant, finishing off in an explosion of grinding white hot / black hole skree.
Absolutely essential for pretty much everybody, but specifically, folks into Nadja and Jesu and SUNNO))) and Wolf Eyes and Skullflower, and anybody who likes super heavy droned out noise, pop infused shoegaze industrial metal bliss out, and crushing power electronic dreamdronedirge. Reissue of the year so far, hands down.
MPEG Stream: "Bite The Bolster"
MPEG Stream: "Do Not Come Near"
MPEG Stream: "Redcap Part II"

RAMLEH Too Many Miles (Dirter Promotions) 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!!!
Much has been written here about the recent work of Matthew Bower and his beautiful improv skree in Sunroof (paralleling the massive proliferation of likeminded acts Vibracathedral Orchestra and Birchville Cat Motel); but people often overlook the fact that he began making music in the early '80s as a part of the Broken Flag camp - a loose collective of British power electronics technicians and noise rockers, that recorded under the monikers Skullflower, Total, and Ramleh. While Bower was principally the 'figurehead' of the first two and fellow Broken Flag waver Gary Mundy took hold of Ramleh, most of the recording was done with a revolving door membership. Between Skullflower and Ramleh, the Broken Flag camp had produced a noxious arsenal of sludgy noise rock with grim guitar pyrotechnics, crashing upon pummelling rhythm sections, village-idiot basslines and thuggish percussive blasts. These days, the awe-inspiring Skullflower albums Form Destroyer and Birthdeath are virtually extinct (even, the cd compendium Ruins is impossible to find); but fortunately, the old Ramleh stuff is finally available again via this collection of singles. Hopefully this will help keep Broken Flag from dissappearing in the dustbins of musical history.
The formulas for Ramleh (and Skullflower for that matter) were incredibly simple: hammer out a basic rhythm as heavy and as loud as possible, then layer on the angriest and most dissonant blasts of post-Blue Cheer psychedelic freaks outs. Throughout the '80s, Ramleh and Skullflower were pigeonholed as a part of Industrial Culture - due to their power electronics side projects and associations with Whitehouse; yet as Too Many Miles now indicates, this work has much more parallels with the explosive dirges of Neurosis or the incendiary stoner rock of Boris. Really fantastic stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Eightball Corner Pocket"
MPEG Stream: "Welcome"
MPEG Stream: "Black Moby Dick"

RAMMER / S.T.R.E.E.T.S. split (Global Symphonic) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another candidate for best band name ever: S.T.R.E.E.T.S. which in case you didn't know, stands for Skating Totally Rules Everything Else Totally Sucks! Man. And then team those guys up with the also suitably named Rammer, and you've got a pretty decent all-Canadian skate rock vs. cock rock tag team battle! In a cool, nicely designed lime green sleeve.

RAMMSTEIN Mutter (Republic) cd 15.98
No we're not kidding -- we love Rammstein! Here's the new album from these scary German industrial/metal dudes. Fire! Fire! It's surprising that they're as popular in this country as they are, considering that they sing in German. But I guess their theatrics and heavier-than-nu-metal are a universal language... Ridiculous but great.
RealAudio clip: "Feuer Frei!"

RAMMSTEIN Reise, Reise (Universal) cd 15.98
How can you not love Rammstein? Huge metallic riffs. Pounding thunderous Teutonic rhythms. Uber-grandiose fist pumping anthems. Crystal clear perfect production. And let's not forget the live spectacle of flames and explosions and fireworks (and of course the infamous flame-throwing codpiece). They are the perfect blend of orchestral black metal bombast a la Cradle Of Filth / Dimmu Borgir and Laibach style Wagnerian industrial pomp. Plus when they lock into a groove, they sound strangely like Finnish hypno-rockers Circle. Which is ALWAYS a good thing. This is probably the best Rammstein record yet. The songs are heavy and catchy and weird and really really good. All of the above sonic elements are in full effect, with lots of that Circle-ish mesmer we can't get enough of, as well as a couple standout tracks, a really biting anti-America song that is sung in English, with lyrics that reference the Wonderbra (!) and Coca-Cola and explain that "This is not a love song, I don't sing my mother tongue", a track sung partially in Russian, as well as a really amazing track with killer female vocal counterpoint. Plus strings, a choir, a full orchestra, and of course vocalist Till Lindemann's instantly recognizable, totally menacing, low low low growl. So good. Another band who if you can get beyond the endless 'hype' and media bullshit, will totally and completely kick your ass.
MPEG Stream: "Reise, Reise"
MPEG Stream: "Los"

RAMONE, JOEY Don't Worry About Me (Sanctuary) cd 17.98
We're all very sad that Joey Ramone died. But we're also sort of sad that this is the record that was left for us to remember him by. This whole package pulls shamelessly on the ol' heartstrings, the title "Don't Worry About Me", and the timing -- released while our wounds are still fresh -- and then to add insult to injury the record just kind of sucks. It's so clean sounding, you just can't compare it to the Ramones cuz it's on a whole different planet. It's poppy and goofy, but without the charm that made the Ramones special. A lot of people seem to like it, the reviews so far have all been positive, but I think maybe people are a bit hesitant to slam the record all things considered. Do yourself a favor and throw on your old beat up copy of 'Rocket To Russia' and toast to Joey and make up your own appropriate tribute.
RealAudio clip: "Don't Worry About Me"
RealAudio clip: "Mr. Punchy"
RealAudio clip: "What A Wonderful World "

RAMONES End Of The Century, The Story Of The Ramones (Rhino) dvd 23.00
Tommy, Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, and Marky. They lived to see themselves reach iconic status. Yet, through intense inter-personal strife impacted by the eclipsing success of the musical acts that followed in their footsteps, these guys seem to have barely enjoyed anything at all. This incredibly well-made rockumentary tells the story of four kids from Forest Hills, Queens who bonded over a mutual admiration of The Stooges and found a way out of their shitty home and school-life by playing music together. It follows their early career in the 70's as The Ramones, playing gnarly Bowery-bum ridden CBGB's alongside other new acts like Television, Talking Heads and Blondie to touring through Europe and Latin America with huge sold-out gigs. Success seemed to shine on them overseas solely, while in small shitty clubs across the US, they were boo'd, jeered, laughed at or the subject of thrown bottles and cans. Simultaneously, their record sales refused to escalate as they had hoped.
The Ramones were a musical force, however. Their songs were brutal, consice and earnest. Their sound was fast, fierce and fucking impenetrable - in the vein of garagey Americana pop punk. But God dammit, you already knew that! Well, you've probably forgotten how fucking GOOD they were. You'll see some pretty amazing live footage inside this over-two-hour film. Early live shows and incredibly endearing interviews with bandmembers (save Johnny) will regenerate anyone's adoration for these boys. Their story also emphasizes the emotions involved in being a Ramone. This is a tragic but important part of who they were. For instance, of the band's original personnel, Tommy (the only one to quit pretty early on), is the only one still alive.
Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy created an inspirational legacy and this documentation does its absolute best to communicate to us their lives' work. It will award you with an awesome fight on stage, a re-telling of their experience with producer Phil Spector, priceless moments of Dee Dee's "other musical exploration", and... aw, c'mon, did you really think I'd tell you any more? I will tell you this and none more: extra features include bonus interview footage and among other things, the Marky Ramone Drum Technique! All you drummers out there will appreciate that little nugget.
By far, End Of The Century, The Story of The Ramones is not only an important addition to any rock collection, it's absolutely informative and inspirational to any musician and/or music-lover. But hey ho this baby's Region 1.

RAMONES Road To Ruin (Sire) lp 14.98
While the debut Ramones album, gets much of the punk rock history glory, (as it should, cuz it really one of the greatest albums of all time!) we could still make a strong argument for Road To Ruin being our favorite Ramones album. Their fourth album, released in 1978, Road To Ruin is pretty much as good as pop music gets! Filled with classic Ramones blitzkrieg fast punk pop, as well as showing another side of themselves on their awesome cover of the Sonny & Cher classic "Needles & Pins". All we really have to say is that this is the album that inspired the Bad Brains to become a band, as they got their moniker from the song "Bad Brain". We love this record so much because besides the well known Ramones songs on here like "I Wanna Be Sedated", "I Wanted Everything", and "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do" there are so many awesome songs that somehow never end up on any of the many different Ramones best-of collections. While they really are a band who have been immortalized on so many of those collections, all their records deserve individual attention. They really just didn't slip up that much, or ever actually. Not one throwaway song on Road To Ruin, it all rules!

RAMONES s/t (Warner Archives) cd 12.98
Awesome! Reissued in 2001, this cd features eight bonus tracks which include a bunch of demo versions for songs such as "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Judy Is A Punk", "I Don't Care" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"!

RAMONES Weird Tales Of The Ramones (Warner Bros. / Rhino) book+dvd+cd 73.00

RANALDO, LEE Amarillo Ramp (Starlight Furniture Co.) cd 12.98
Sonic Youth guitarist's solo tribute to earthworks artist Robert Smithson. Here's what El Bobo at Revolver Distro has to say about it: "Sonic Youth's left-minded, and soft-spoken lead guitarist continues to wield a big stick with a new solo outing of the highest sonic magnitude. First off is the title track, a 34-minute live recording from 1994 with after-the-fact wave-shaping and spectral improvement by Rafael Toral, followed by an instrumental 'Anagrama' type frolic with bandmates Steve Shelley and Thurston Moore. Also included are a couple of soundtrack excerpts, one from Notebook, and the other from one of Leah Singer's mind-smudging flicks (originally on '91's Guitarrorists comp.), and a John Lennon cover featuring the late Epic Soundtracks. As always it's a brilliant ride."

RANALDO, LEE Between The Times & The Tides (Matador) cd 14.98

RANALDO, LEE Between The Times & The Tides (Matador) lp 15.98

RANALDO, LEE Countless Centuries Fled Into The Distance... (Table Of The Elements) 12" 17.98
Another in Table Of The Elements' new series of one sided etched 12"s. A series focusing on the electric guitar. Last time we had Oren Ambarchi, this time we have Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, who starts out his 12" sounding quite a bit like Sonic Youth in fact. Noisy crashing chords, chaotic and off kilter, over a super high pitched sonar like beep, weirdly hypnotic until it explodes into a full on psychedelic skreekout.
The second track begins with an amazing tripped out, warbly warped guitar groove, which gives way to a weird high end drone doused in fucked up effects, so woozy it almost makes you dizzy just listening, and reminds us a bit of a fucked up set of bagpipes.
The final track begins with an echo-y almost-industrial space-y surfy riff, that shifts suddenly in pitch, creating mysterious melodies, super haunting and hypnotic, but this track too soon gives way to a massive amp blowing, speaker melting chunk of freaked out Japanese style noise-psych. Whew.
Pressed on opaque swirled turquoise vinyl. One sided, the other side with a super bad ass etching by Savage Pencil, housed in a thick vinyl sleeve, and of course, as always LIMITED!

RANALDO, LEE Windows (Barooni) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hypnogogic and stratospheric guitar noise/drones from Sonic Youth's guitarist who generates some pretty outstanding sounds similar to the ending tracks on "Daydream Nation" and recites his dystopic pseudo-Beat poetry over top. Lee employs such luminaries as Thurston Moore, Michael Morley (Dead C, Gate), and Epic Soundtracks.

RANDALL OF NAZARETH s/t (Drag City) cd 14.98
Acoustic folky stuff from one of the dudes from Pearls And Brass.

RANDALL OF NAZARETH s/t (Drag City) lp 15.98
Acoustic folky stuff from one of the dudes from Pearls And Brass.

RANGDA False Flag (Drag City) cd 14.98
Some "supergroups" ARE indeed super... some not so. (Zwan? The Firm?) But lately there's been some good ones. (Twilight, Shrinebuilder!) Here's another, Rangda, named after a Balinese child-eating deity... and with these guys, we weren't too worried about 'em not living up to expectations. Probably just telling you who they are will be enough for a lot of you to wanna pick this up (and we say, do it!): "Sir" Richard Bishop of the Sun City Girls, Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance, and Chris Corsano of heck lots of things. Geez, we'd probably be interested even if this turned out to be a recording of the three of them having conversation over lunch, or playing Rock Band together, or something equally ridiculous. But, even better, this instrumental guitar/guitar/drums trio does pretty much exactly what we'd want 'em to do on this recording, mixing far out free improv with gorgeous psychedelic daydream meanderings, making for a satisfying variety of moods (melodic, mayhemic, mesmerizing) across this disc's six tracks...
It opens with "Waldorf Hysteria", an all guns blazing, room-clearing furore, but that's just a 2 minute warm-up, and not what you get for the whole disc, never fear (though some would be happy with that, and they do return to these levels of "Hysteria" at times later on the album, though there's no more bad puns attached). Track two, "Bull Lore" shows some more restraint, it's a noirish, jazzish, ominously cinematic rumble, with martial drumming underpinning the unleashing of an electric guitar solo that's equal parts beauty and terror, worth the price of admission alone if you're into this sort of outward bound six-string wrangling (which you should be, if you're interested in this group at all, this definitely for fans of the likes of Sonny Sharrock and Nels Cline). Not quite sure if that's Bishop or Chasny or a tag-team approach, both men are quite capable of sublime soling, and reality-ripping distorted skree as well, we know. And, when the two of 'em want to amp it up and bash it out, drummer Corsano is right there with them. The sheer monomaniacal intensity of the very next noisy track, "First Family", attests to this. It sounds like Yoshi Wada sitting in on one of Masayuki Takayanagi's Mass Projections! But then that's followed by the wistful loveliness of "Sarcophagi", which itself is quite different from what comes next, the aptly titled "Serrated Edges", gettin' stop-start hectic and tangled like something Mick Barr might dig his talons into. And then, False Flag's finale "Plain Of Jars" brings things down again, for a 15 minute, slow-building epic of gentleness, with Bishop trinkling into the track some delicious piano plinkings... Leaving us wanting more, we hope Rangda is one of those supergroups that's a real group, and keeps on goin'. The way these three seemingly embrace spirituality and chaos together, sound-wise, seems like it must be a good thing for them as well as us. Definitely, their debut gets our recommendation, combining as it does so potently the SCGs' unfettered exoticism and the most Freely Agitated krauty bliss ever conjured by Six Organs, not to mention summoning storms as strong as any previously navigated by Corsano's drumkit.
MPEG Stream: "Bull Lore"
MPEG Stream: "First Family"
MPEG Stream: "Plain Of Jars"

RANGDA False Flag (Drag City) lp 15.98
Some "supergroups" ARE indeed super... some not so. (Zwan? The Firm?) But lately there's been some good ones. (Twilight, Shrinebuilder!) Here's another, Rangda, named after a Balinese child-eating deity... and with these guys, we weren't too worried about 'em not living up to expectations. Probably just telling you who they are will be enough for a lot of you to wanna pick this up (and we say, do it!): "Sir" Richard Bishop of the Sun City Girls, Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance, and Chris Corsano of heck lots of things. Geez, we'd probably be interested even if this turned out to be a recording of the three of them having conversation over lunch, or playing Rock Band together, or something equally ridiculous. But, even better, this instrumental guitar/guitar/drums trio does pretty much exactly what we'd want 'em to do on this recording, mixing far out free improv with gorgeous psychedelic daydream meanderings, making for a satisfying variety of moods (melodic, mayhemic, mesmerizing) across this disc's six tracks...
It opens with "Waldorf Hysteria", an all guns blazing, room-clearing furore, but that's just a 2 minute warm-up, and not what you get for the whole disc, never fear (though some would be happy with that, and they do return to these levels of "Hysteria" at times later on the album, though there's no more bad puns attached). Track two, "Bull Lore" shows some more restraint, it's a noirish, jazzish, ominously cinematic rumble, with martial drumming underpinning the unleashing of an electric guitar solo that's equal parts beauty and terror, worth the price of admission alone if you're into this sort of outward bound six-string wrangling (which you should be, if you're interested in this group at all, this definitely for fans of the likes of Sonny Sharrock and Nels Cline). Not quite sure if that's Bishop or Chasny or a tag-team approach, both men are quite capable of sublime soling, and reality-ripping distorted skree as well, we know. And, when the two of 'em want to amp it up and bash it out, drummer Corsano is right there with them. The sheer monomaniacal intensity of the very next noisy track, "First Family", attests to this. It sounds like Yoshi Wada sitting in on one of Masayuki Takayanagi's Mass Projections! But then that's followed by the wistful loveliness of "Sarcophagi", which itself is quite different from what comes next, the aptly titled "Serrated Edges", gettin' stop-start hectic and tangled like something Mick Barr might dig his talons into. And then, False Flag's finale "Plain Of Jars" brings things down again, for a 15 minute, slow-building epic of gentleness, with Bishop trinkling into the track some delicious piano plinkings... Leaving us wanting more, we hope Rangda is one of those supergroups that's a real group, and keeps on goin'. The way these three seemingly embrace spirituality and chaos together, sound-wise, seems like it must be a good thing for them as well as us. Definitely, their debut gets our recommendation, combining as it does so potently the SCGs' unfettered exoticism and the most Freely Agitated krauty bliss ever conjured by Six Organs, not to mention summoning storms as strong as any previously navigated by Corsano's drumkit.
MPEG Stream: "Bull Lore"
MPEG Stream: "First Family"
MPEG Stream: "Plain Of Jars"

RANGDA Formerly Extinct (Drag City) cd 14.98
Record number two from this psychedelic super group, and like we mentioned in our review of their debut, just knowing the players will get most people to flip out and buy it, sounds unheard. Those players being Sir Richard Bishop of the late great Sun City Girls, Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance and drummer extraordinaire Chris Corsano. And like that first one, this is another fantastic batch of instrumental improv psychedelia. The opening track has a main guitar part that immediately pushed all our Sun City Girls buttons, a little bit Eastern, a little exotic, the dueling guitars (no bass) unfurling intricate tangled melodies, while Corsano plays the most straight forwardly 'rock' on anything we've heard yet, but it sounds perfect, the song erupting into a wild squall of psychedelic freakout before slipping right back into it. Odds are most folks will only need to hear a minute or two of that first track and will be sold. But if for some crazy reason, that's not the case, there's seven more reasons to grab this. "The Vault" lets Corsano slip back into wild free jazz splatter, which Chansy and Bishop mirror perfectly with sweet melodic billows of soaring textural buzz, which only makes it that much more powerful, when the band slip into a softly psychedelic deserty lope, sounding like Earth or Barn Owl if they ROCKED.
"Silver Nile" is the centerpiece here, at nearly 12 minutes, which spends its first few minutes drifting through an abstract field of spare notes and subtle percussion, the sounds droned out and almost raga like, the players gradually coalescing into another twang flecked meander, with an almost Morricone vibe, and they make it to almost nine minutes without deviating from their dark dolorous sonic brood, only finish off with a strangely Middle Eastern sounding coda, still droney and a little bit raga-y but much more jaunty and upbeat.
From there on out, it's looped and loping minimal hypnorock (sounding a bit like Circle) laced with some seriously shredding wah guitar freakouts, on more Middle Eastern style Sun City Girls sounding jams, peppered with blasts of droned out psychedelic free jazz freakouts, one bluesy hoedown, one killer stretch of math rock mesmer, and finally, a blast of churning, chugging, mathy, spaced out psychrock radness that ends WAY too soon after only three minutes. Whatever you think of these guys on their own, together, that have a seriously special chemistry, and while the label jokingly boasts that will be 'the instrumental album of the year', we'd have to say, they're probably not that far off!
MPEG Stream: "Idol's Eye"
MPEG Stream: "The Vault"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Nile"

RANGDA Formerly Extinct (Drag City) lp 15.98
Record number two from this psychedelic super group, and like we mentioned in our review of their debut, just knowing the players will get most people to flip out and buy it, sounds unheard. Those players being Sir Richard Bishop of the late great Sun City Girls, Ben Chasny of Six Organs Of Admittance and drummer extraordinaire Chris Corsano. And like that first one, this is another fantastic batch of instrumental improv psychedelia. The opening track has a main guitar part that immediately pushed all our Sun City Girls buttons, a little bit Eastern, a little exotic, the dueling guitars (no bass) unfurling intricate tangled melodies, while Corsano plays the most straight forwardly 'rock' on anything we've heard yet, but it sounds perfect, the song erupting into a wild squall of psychedelic freakout before slipping right back into it. Odds are most folks will only need to hear a minute or two of that first track and will be sold. But if for some crazy reason, that's not the case, there's seven more reasons to grab this. "The Vault" lets Corsano slip back into wild free jazz splatter, which Chansy and Bishop mirror perfectly with sweet melodic billows of soaring textural buzz, which only makes it that much more powerful, when the band slip into a softly psychedelic deserty lope, sounding like Earth or Barn Owl if they ROCKED.
"Silver Nile" is the centerpiece here, at nearly 12 minutes, which spends its first few minutes drifting through an abstract field of spare notes and subtle percussion, the sounds droned out and almost raga like, the players gradually coalescing into another twang flecked meander, with an almost Morricone vibe, and they make it to almost nine minutes without deviating from their dark dolorous sonic brood, only finish off with a strangely Middle Eastern sounding coda, still droney and a little bit raga-y but much more jaunty and upbeat.
From there on out, it's looped and loping minimal hypnorock (sounding a bit like Circle) laced with some seriously shredding wah guitar freakouts, on more Middle Eastern style Sun City Girls sounding jams, peppered with blasts of droned out psychedelic free jazz freakouts, one bluesy hoedown, one killer stretch of math rock mesmer, and finally, a blast of churning, chugging, mathy, spaced out psychrock radness that ends WAY too soon after only three minutes. Whatever you think of these guys on their own, together, that have a seriously special chemistry, and while the label jokingly boasts that will be 'the instrumental album of the year', we'd have to say, they're probably not that far off!
MPEG Stream: "Idol's Eye"
MPEG Stream: "The Vault"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Nile"

RANGE RATS s/t (Mississippi) lp 14.98
**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT**
Yet another pre-Dead Moon band featuring Fred and Toody Cole, thanks to the kind folks at Mississippi. While the Range Rats shares some of its name with another Fred and Toody combo, The Rats, the sound is WAY different. Recorded in 1985, The Range Rats is the Cole's country band, or more accurately cowpunk. Very reminiscent of eighties LA groups like X or Tex And The Horseheads, The Range Rats had that punky twang, dueling boy girl vocals, galloping rhythms, rambunctious and punk rock, but plenty country and catchy.
Some tracks get all reverby and ballad-y like some lost sixties girl group, others are full on punk bluegrass raveups, and still others get all slithery and bluesy, but throughout it all, the twang is ever present, and the vocal interplay and harmonies are awesome, with some cool crunchy distorted guitars thrown into the mix, as well as some surprisingly sensitive, almost power pop sounding classic popsmithery. Never before released at all until now, and Mississippi did it up right, nice thick vinyl, super heavy deluxe jackets, the front adorned with all sorts of dimestore Western novels. Cool!

RANGERS Pan Am Stories (Not Not Fun) cd 13.98
As many of the various lysergic pop weirdos and lo-fi audio alchemists move toward poppier and less fucked up sonic climes, it's nice to know we can count on Rangers, aka Joe Knight, to keep the warped alternate dimension FM radio druggy eighties retro pop whathefuck fire burning bright, this latest record another collection of glammy lo-fi pop that in some other world would/could/should have been all over classic rock radio in the future. The opener, in different hands, could very well have been a dreamy bit of blissy pop, if say Big Troubles in their current incarnation had a god, we can picture it all shimmery and crystalline, but here, it's raw, and fuzzy, murky and lo-fi, the sounds careening from speaker to speaker, the effects in-the-red, the sound crumbling and distorted, swaths of swirly synth drifting alongside the buried reverby croon, but all the noise and damaged 4-track malfunctioning can't disguises that Knight definitely knows his way around a pop song. But just so you don't get too comfortable, he follows it up with the 13 minute long ADD short attention span "Zeke's Dream", which does start out all James Ferraro style drug pop weirdness, but then it keeps getting weirder, swirling distorted vocals, the guitars getting crunchier, and then it's almost like someone switched the channel on the radio, the song transforming into more of a slow jam, this one peppered with strange sci-fi streaks, and blown out echoey vox, and then it happens again, and becomes a gloomy dirgey ballad, that sounds like it's melting inside the speakers, or Knight has 6 different people gradually detuning each string on his guitar, and then it happens again, the song becomes a John Carpenter synthscape, that morphs into a bit of krautrock style kosmische musik, but there are voices and electronic squiggles everywhere, but it's not over yet, some police sirens signal the shift to the final movement (?), a warped lounge-y bit of fuzzy groove, that ends in a gorgeous bit of psychedelic tangle. And we're only two songs into the record. But that gives you an idea of what's to come, more twisted druggy pop, more warped home brewed psychedelia, and whatever it is that is born of merging the two.
Most definitely recommended for fans of James Ferraro, Ariel Pink, John Maus, and all the other similarly warped lysergic pop alchemists out there...
MPEG Stream: "Zombies (Day)"
MPEG Stream: "Zeke's Dream"
MPEG Stream: "Sacred Cows"
MPEG Stream: "John Is The Last Of A Dying Breed"