SEGALL, TY Singles: 2007 - 2010 (Goner) 2lp 23.00
NOW ON VINYL!! Deluxe double lp pressed on 150 gram wax, includes MP3 downloads of the whole comp as well...
Even though we reviewed a lot of em, we had no idea Segall had been cranking out singles at such a crazy clip, nearly 20 tracks from 2007-2010, and that's not even counting the full lengths. And if you're a faithful reader of the aQ list, you probably already know we're a huge fan of Segall's fuzzed out jangle and crunchy garage rock stomp, and it's kind of great to have em all gathered up in one place, especially considering that we somehow missed a whole bunch of these.
Just check out the opening salvo, "Where We Go", 90 seconds of fuzzy, murky jangle and pound, all murky and fuzzy, with some weird percussion and some reverby sing along vox... then there's "It", which is also pretty far out, super lo-fi, and way dynamic, with a strange stop start arrangement, and a KILLER chorus. And then "Sweets" which is of a classic garage groover, but if those three songs don't knock your socks off, well, there must be something wrong with you.
We could go track by track, but pretty much everything here kills, some highlights include "Caesar", which, starts out all strummy and jangly, with some seriously fuzzy bass, the vocals a reverbed croon, shifting into a falsetto here and there, at one point getting all tangled up in effects in a twisted distorted psychedelic freakout. There's even a super rocking PIANO SOLO! But all that stuff is just icing, on what is a killer hook, and a crazy catchy jam. And the B side from that 7", "Bullet Proof Nothing", which is a Simply Saucer cover, is a little more grimy and buzzy than "Caesar", sounding almost like the Stooges "Search And Destroy" slowed down to a garagey dirge, but again, Segall wraps that jangle and crunch around a hook most bands would kill for. There's also Segall's cover of Thee Oh Sees' "Maria Stacks", a song which might just be Andee's favorite Oh Sees jam, not just cuz it's hooky and catchy, but it also immortalizes AQ pal and amazing artist/zine-maker Maria Forde. Ty finds a way to make the song a bit more lo-fi and fucked up sounding while still holding on to the great melody that makes the original stick like it does. We also dig "Cents", which still ranks as one of our favorite Segall jams ever, but there's also "Booksmarts", which we had never heard before, but is definitely now also in the running for best Segall jam, in fact, the more we listen to this, the more contenders there seem to be. Lots of the A sides from various singles did end up on the full lengths, but some of these versions are pretty dramatically different. Segall also does a pretty killer version of the Gories' "I Think I've Had It", with some chiming jangly guitars, lo-fi drum pound, and some crazily distorted vox.
In addition to the singles, there are also a handful of demo tracks, which are gloriously low fidelity, the yelped reverbed vox super reminiscent of Thee Oh Sees, which makes sense as Segall and Thee Oh Sees have shared numerous stages and records, and all except one have never popped up anywhere before, and even in their raw form, sound as good as anything else here.
Obviously if you dig Thee Oh Sees and Mikal Cronin and Bare Wires and the rest of that Bay Area garage rock crew, you probably already own most of Segall's records proper, and need this too (trust us), but if you somehow don't, this is as good a place to start as any!
MPEG Stream: "Where We Go"
MPEG Stream: "It"
MPEG Stream: "Sweets"
MPEG Stream: "Son Of Sam (Chain Gang)"
MPEG Stream: "Bullet Proof Nothing (Simply Saucer)"

SEGALL, TY Spiders (Drag City) 7" 5.98
Ty Segall's Goodbye Bread record has been in constant rotation since it came out, so we were super psyched for this brand new single, but we were totally unprepared for what at first blush sounds like some crazy heavy noisy freakout, the title track opening with SUPER distorted guitar, all crunchy and in the red, which proved to be just a false start, but then the main riff comes in, and it too is totally heavy and sludgey, and we were convinced it was playing at the wrong speed, but no, this is just a dense slab of psychedelic garage pop heaviness, all murky and dirgey and almost doomy sounding, distorted echoey vox over that churning blown out riffage as well as some rad psychedelic guitar. The second track also has a bit of a false start, and while a bit more traditionally psychedelic and garage poppy, it too is petty noisy and distorted, lots of feedback, still a killer pop song, like the first one, just slathered in noisy distortion, and it sort of suits him.
The flipside is way more groovy and sixties garage rock sounding, fuzzy and poppy with a killer chorus that definitely reminds us of the recent Mikal Cronin Record Of The Week. This is definitely our new favorite single, and might even trump Goodbye Bread in terms of our favorite Ty Segall release. WAY recommended.

SEGALL, TY The Hill / Mother Lemonade (S & F) 7" 6.50
Two song teaser for the forthcoming full length, the A side already has us freaking out, a killer slab of glammy, proggy, garage pop, that might just be the best thing we've heard from Segall yet. A cool female vocal intro explodes into some seriously fuzzed out glam rock garage stomp, no lo-fi production here, it sounds incredible, massive and lush, and totally heavy, the boy/girl harmonies on the chorus KILL, the vibe swaggery and seriously glammed out, with some blasts of wild psychedelic shredding. The flipside is a bit more subdued, but also quite glammy, with a total Bowie vibe going on, hooky and heavy, fuzzy and jangly, further proof that the new full length is gonna be a mind blower!

SEGALL, TY Twins (Drag City) cd 14.98
When we reviewed the teaser 7" released a few weeks back to whet appetites for this, Ty Segall's new full length, we described the jam "The Hill" thusly: "a killer slab of glammy, proggy, garage pop, that might just be the best thing we've heard from Segall yet. A cool female vocal intro explodes into some seriously fuzzed out glam rock garage stomp, no lo-fi production here, it sounds incredible, massive and lush, and totally heavy, the boy/girl harmonies on the chorus KILL, the vibe swaggery and seriously glammed out, with some blasts of wild psychedelic shredding." And while that single and that sound is not really all that far removed with Segall's sound in general, the glamminess is cranked big time here, as is the hookiness. Just check out album opener "Thank God For Sinners", the perfect mash up of classic Beatles style melody and swaggery, slithery T-Rex fuzzed out groove. Which leads right into "You're The Doctor", adding some seriously driving psychedelic garage rock stomp, a wild blast of heady heavy psych rock that will have Oh Sees freeks losing their shit.
But as with every Segall record, the sound veers all over the place, slipping easily from sound to sound, vibe to vibe, and speaking of vibes, The Beatles vibe is huge throughout, but is deftly applied to Segall's already hook heavy sound, "Inside Your Heart" adds some brooding minor key melody as well as a killer catchy main guitar part, not to mention a wild squall of psychedelic freakout and a woozy, warped drag of an ending that makes it sound like the tape is slowly melting. "Would You Be My Love" is a dead ringer for classic Redd Kross, a supercharged sixties pop, while "Ghost" is a fuzz drenched, but still darkly melodic, almost metallic dirge, rife with gorgeous vocal harmonies, and a wicked main hook.
And so it goes. The rest of the record brimming with classic fuzzy pop and psychedelic garage gems, groovy and jangly one second, blown out and chaotic the next, but every track here stone cold killer. And while we do feel kinda foolish, going on and on about each successive Segall record as being the best yet, and our new favorite (and even making this one Record Of The Week only a few lists after Segall's Slaughterhouse record received the same honors), that's exactly what happens every time. And Segall really does just keep getting better and better, not just the songs, but the arrangements, the production, the vocals, everything. Have a look at past reviews on the aQ site, and you'll see just how much we love past records of his, which should tell you something when we once again, proclaim this the best one yet!
MPEG Stream: "Thank God For Sinners"
MPEG Stream: "You're the Doctor"
MPEG Stream: "Inside Your Heart"
MPEG Stream: "The Hill"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost"

SEGALL, TY Twins (Drag City) lp 19.98
When we reviewed the teaser 7" released a few weeks back to whet appetites for this, Ty Segall's new full length, we described the jam "The Hill" thusly: "a killer slab of glammy, proggy, garage pop, that might just be the best thing we've heard from Segall yet. A cool female vocal intro explodes into some seriously fuzzed out glam rock garage stomp, no lo-fi production here, it sounds incredible, massive and lush, and totally heavy, the boy/girl harmonies on the chorus KILL, the vibe swaggery and seriously glammed out, with some blasts of wild psychedelic shredding." And while that single and that sound is not really all that far removed with Segall's sound in general, the glamminess is cranked big time here, as is the hookiness. Just check out album opener "Thank God For Sinners", the perfect mash up of classic Beatles style melody and swaggery, slithery T-Rex fuzzed out groove. Which leads right into "You're The Doctor", adding some seriously driving psychedelic garage rock stomp, a wild blast of heady heavy psych rock that will have Oh Sees freeks losing their shit.
But as with every Segall record, the sound veers all over the place, slipping easily from sound to sound, vibe to vibe, and speaking of vibes, The Beatles vibe is huge throughout, but is deftly applied to Segall's already hook heavy sound, "Inside Your Heart" adds some brooding minor key melody as well as a killer catchy main guitar part, not to mention a wild squall of psychedelic freakout and a woozy, warped drag of an ending that makes it sound like the tape is slowly melting. "Would You Be My Love" is a dead ringer for classic Redd Kross, a supercharged sixties pop, while "Ghost" is a fuzz drenched, but still darkly melodic, almost metallic dirge, rife with gorgeous vocal harmonies, and a wicked main hook.
And so it goes. The rest of the record brimming with classic fuzzy pop and psychedelic garage gems, groovy and jangly one second, blown out and chaotic the next, but every track here stone cold killer. And while we do feel kinda foolish, going on and on about each successive Segall record as being the best yet, and our new favorite (and even making this one Record Of The Week only a few lists after Segall's Slaughterhouse record received the same honors), that's exactly what happens every time. And Segall really does just keep getting better and better, not just the songs, but the arrangements, the production, the vocals, everything. Have a look at past reviews on the aQ site, and you'll see just how much we love past records of his, which should tell you something when we once again, proclaim this the best one yet!
MPEG Stream: "Thank God For Sinners"
MPEG Stream: "You're the Doctor"
MPEG Stream: "Inside Your Heart"
MPEG Stream: "The Hill"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost"

SEGALL, TY Twins (Drag City) cassette 9.98
Also on tape!!!!
When we reviewed the teaser 7" released a few weeks back to whet appetites for this, Ty Segall's new full length, we described the jam "The Hill" thusly: "a killer slab of glammy, proggy, garage pop, that might just be the best thing we've heard from Segall yet. A cool female vocal intro explodes into some seriously fuzzed out glam rock garage stomp, no lo-fi production here, it sounds incredible, massive and lush, and totally heavy, the boy/girl harmonies on the chorus KILL, the vibe swaggery and seriously glammed out, with some blasts of wild psychedelic shredding." And while that single and that sound is not really all that far removed with Segall's sound in general, the glamminess is cranked big time here, as is the hookiness. Just check out album opener "Thank God For Sinners", the perfect mash up of classic Beatles style melody and swaggery, slithery T-Rex fuzzed out groove. Which leads right into "You're The Doctor", adding some seriously driving psychedelic garage rock stomp, a wild blast of heady heavy psych rock that will have Oh Sees freeks losing their shit.
But as with every Segall record, the sound veers all over the place, slipping easily from sound to sound, vibe to vibe, and speaking of vibes, The Beatles vibe is huge throughout, but is deftly applied to Segall's already hook heavy sound, "Inside Your Heart" adds some brooding minor key melody as well as a killer catchy main guitar part, not to mention a wild squall of psychedelic freakout and a woozy, warped drag of an ending that makes it sound like the tape is slowly melting. "Would You Be My Love" is a dead ringer for classic Redd Kross, a supercharged sixties pop, while "Ghost" is a fuzz drenched, but still darkly melodic, almost metallic dirge, rife with gorgeous vocal harmonies, and a wicked main hook.
And so it goes. The rest of the record brimming with classic fuzzy pop and psychedelic garage gems, groovy and jangly one second, blown out and chaotic the next, but every track here stone cold killer. And while we do feel kinda foolish, going on and on about each successive Segall record as being the best yet, and our new favorite (and even making this one Record Of The Week only a few lists after Segall's Slaughterhouse record received the same honors), that's exactly what happens every time. And Segall really does just keep getting better and better, not just the songs, but the arrangements, the production, the vocals, everything. Have a look at past reviews on the aQ site, and you'll see just how much we love past records of his, which should tell you something when we once again, proclaim this the best one yet!
MPEG Stream: "Thank God For Sinners"
MPEG Stream: "You're the Doctor"
MPEG Stream: "Inside Your Heart"
MPEG Stream: "The Hill"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost"

SEGALL, TY Universal Momma b/w 86'D (True Panther Sounds) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Good time to love the damaged and super charged garage prowess of Ty Segall as he's got great songs just gushing forth with a whole slew of new releases, most of which are of course crazy limited. There's his split with Thee Oh Sees, two new 7"s of his own, a split 12" with Black Time and a brand new full length coming soon on Goner. We were slow on the draw on the last round of TS 7"s which are sadly already out of print, so we're happy we were able to grab some of these before they disappeared too.
"Universal Momma" finds Ty exploring a more slowed down and drugged out vibe with a Roky Erikson sound heavy in its grooves and the title isn't just some rock talk, his mama Cherrie Segal actually co-wrote the song with him. The flip side "86'd" is also a bit more on the midtempo side proving Segall's far from a one trick pony, instead he's a seriously immediate and satisfying garage rock songwriter and is one of the folks helping the current scene sound so vibrant and alive. Limited to 500 of which we only have a handful.

SEGALL, TY Would You Be My Love (Drag City) 7" 6.50
One of our favorite tracks from recent Record Of The Week, Twins, from local garage pop kingpin Ty Segall, and listening to this track, we forgot to mention how much the main riff sounds like classic Nirvana! Which is most definitely a good thing, but Segall transforms it into something even poppier. In our review of Twins, we describe it as being a dead ringer for classic Redd Kross, which is also sorta true, a supercharged sort of sixties pop. The flipside, exclusive to this single is another slab of sixties pop, but much more stripped down and acoustic, some dreamy hippy psych pop, all dreamy harmony vocals, steel string strum, and even some whistling at the end. Not hard to imagine this song distorted and supercharged, and fitting perfectly on Twins, but in it's acoustic form, it's pretty much the perfect B side, and well worth the price of the 7"!

SEGALL, TY & MIKAL CRONIN Reverse Shark Attack (In The Red) cd 13.98
Originally released on vinyl only, way back in 2009, this killer collaboration is finally available again, reissued on cd as well as vinyl again. Here's what we had to say about the record the first time around...
No doubt about it, Ty Segall is really one of our favorite garage rockers around. We're lucky enough to get to see him play all the time and the incredible sweat and energy of his live shows manages to seep its way into his recordings as pretty much every slab of wax he's released has delivered way raw fucked up garage rock at its absolute best!
Teamed up with his pal Mikal Cronin, the two take things to even more of a blasted and fractured state of garage rock mayhem with Reverse Shark Attack, tons of moments that remind us of the amazing thrashing garage pop scorch of the great Japanese band Acid Eater or some dream universe where Syd Barrett jams out Brainbombs covers. In fact, they do an amazing cover of the Barrett era Pink Floyd gem "Take Up The Stethoscope And Walk" - it was so rad when we played this in the store for the first time and an enthusiastic customer screamed out "Who is doing some serious fucking justice to the spirit of Syd Barrett right now!?" and we totally understand where that impassioned and immediate reaction comes from! Segall continues to tap into the kind of music making that truly grabs a hold of your body to give you a totally enthralling pure and raw physical experience. And it seems that Cronin really encourages Segall to go more into the outer limits of sound than on his own, and we have to say we really love it! And really, we pretty much love any and all of what Segall does whether it's the amazing pop hooks he's capable of creating in his great songs on his proper solo albums or when he totally just goes way free and enters a total garage freak-out altered state that goes way beyond fuzz, like the tracks on Reverse Shark Attack. So rad!
MPEG Stream: "I Wear Black"
MPEG Stream: "Drop Dead Baby"
MPEG Stream: "High School"
MPEG Stream: "Reverse Shark Attack"

SEGALL, TY & MIKAL CRONIN Reverse Shark Attack (Kill Shaman) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
No doubt about it, Ty Segall is really one of our favorite garage rockers around. We're lucky enough to get to see him play all the time and the incredible sweat and energy of his live shows manages to seep its way into his recordings as pretty much every slab of wax he's released has delivered way raw fucked up garage rock at its absolute best!
Teamed up with his pal Mikal Cronin, the two take things to even more of a blasted and fractured state of garage mayhem with Reverse Shark Attack, tons of moments that remind us of the amazing thrashing garage pop scorch of the great Japanese band Acid Eater or some dream universe where Syd Barrett got to jam out Brainbombs covers. In fact they do an amazing cover of the Barrett era Pink Floyd gem "Take Up The Stethoscope And Walk" - it was so rad when we played this in the store for the first time and an enthusiastic customer screamed out "Who is doing some serious fucking justice to the spirit of Syd Barrett right now!?" and we totally understand where that impassioned and immediate reaction comes from! Segall continues to tap into the kind of music making that truly grabs a hold of your body to give you a totally enthralling pure and raw physical experience. We had heard an awesome 7" these two did together earlier in the year that sadly we weren't able to get our hands on, and it seems that Cronin really encourages Segall to go more into the outer limits of sound than on his own and we have to say we really love it! And we pretty much love any and all of what Ty does whether it's the amazing pop hooks he's capable of creating in his great songs on his proper solo albums or when he totally just goes way free and enters a total garage freak-out state that goes way beyond fuzz, like the tracks on Reverse Shark Attack. So rad!

SEGALL, TY & MIKAL CRONIN Reverse Shark Attack (In The Red) lp 15.98
Originally released on vinyl only, way back in 2009, this killer collaboration is finally available again, reissued on cd as well as vinyl again. Here's what we had to say about the record the first time around...
No doubt about it, Ty Segall is really one of our favorite garage rockers around. We're lucky enough to get to see him play all the time and the incredible sweat and energy of his live shows manages to seep its way into his recordings as pretty much every slab of wax he's released has delivered way raw fucked up garage rock at its absolute best!
Teamed up with his pal Mikal Cronin, the two take things to even more of a blasted and fractured state of garage rock mayhem with Reverse Shark Attack, tons of moments that remind us of the amazing thrashing garage pop scorch of the great Japanese band Acid Eater or some dream universe where Syd Barrett jams out Brainbombs covers. In fact, they do an amazing cover of the Barrett era Pink Floyd gem "Take Up The Stethoscope And Walk" - it was so rad when we played this in the store for the first time and an enthusiastic customer screamed out "Who is doing some serious fucking justice to the spirit of Syd Barrett right now!?" and we totally understand where that impassioned and immediate reaction comes from! Segall continues to tap into the kind of music making that truly grabs a hold of your body to give you a totally enthralling pure and raw physical experience. And it seems that Cronin really encourages Segall to go more into the outer limits of sound than on his own, and we have to say we really love it! And really, we pretty much love any and all of what Segall does whether it's the amazing pop hooks he's capable of creating in his great songs on his proper solo albums or when he totally just goes way free and enters a total garage freak-out altered state that goes way beyond fuzz, like the tracks on Reverse Shark Attack. So rad!
MPEG Stream: "I Wear Black"
MPEG Stream: "Drop Dead Baby"
MPEG Stream: "High School"
MPEG Stream: "Reverse Shark Attack"

SEGALL, TY & WHITE FENCE Hair (Drag City) cd 14.98
Sort of seemed inevitable that these guys would get together, two local lo-fi garage pop masters, both of whom have gotten much love from aQ, and both of whom have surprisingly similar styles, collaborating on a set of songs, that ultimately manage to sound like they could have been proper records from either. No distinct separation between tracks, no huge stylistic shifts, instead, a meeting of the minds that manages to be both impossibly hooky and fuzzy and catchy, but also as weird and twisted as anything either of them have done on their own. Lots of kick ass axework, wild psychedelic leads and dense squalls of tangled freakout, over all manner of jangle and crunch, the vocals doused in reverb and appropriately washed out and yelpy, the drums simple and spare, the songs slipping easily from druggy psychedelic jangle pop to crunchy noisy garage punk raveups, to full on skiffle-y sixties psych-pop to twisted echo drenched garage rock dirges and some head spinningly experimental garage rock space jams, like "Scissor People", which might be THEE jam here, beginning with a little bit of birdsong, before launching into some jangly crunch, another blast of garage-y poppiness, until things go totally crazy about halfway through, the song suddenly a patchwork of alternate takes and different productions, as if multiple versions of the song were playing simultaneously, and someone began to flip between the various channels, the sounds dramatically different, even the tempos, and then coming out of it into a sort of motorik psych-kraut groove, wreathed in killer leads, and thick swaths of guitarnoise, it's the sort of jam most bands would have stretched out for ages, but these guys cram into a succinct 3:31.
We have to admit, that on first listen, mostly heard in the shop in little chunks, didn't fully sell us, but once we strapped on some headphones, this collab definitely revealed itself as being something sort of next level, and blossomed into a pretty fantastic(al) psychedelic garage pop trip out that we've had on pretty heavy rotation ever since.
MPEG Stream: "Time"
MPEG Stream: "I Am Not A Game"
MPEG Stream: "Scissor People"

SEGALL, TY & WHITE FENCE Hair (Drag City) lp 17.98
NOW HERE ON VINYL!
Sort of seemed inevitable that these guys would get together, two local lo-fi garage pop masters, both of whom have gotten much love from aQ, and both of whom have surprisingly similar styles, collaborating on a set of songs, that ultimately manage to sound like they could have been proper records from either. No distinct separation between tracks, no huge stylistic shifts, instead, a meeting of the minds that manages to be both impossibly hooky and fuzzy and catchy, but also as weird and twisted as anything either of them have done on their own. Lots of kick ass axework, wild psychedelic leads and dense squalls of tangled freakout, over all manner of jangle and crunch, the vocals doused in reverb and appropriately washed out and yelpy, the drums simple and spare, the songs slipping easily from druggy psychedelic jangle pop to crunchy noisy garage punk raveups, to full on skiffle-y sixties psych-pop to twisted echo drenched garage rock dirges and some head spinningly experimental garage rock space jams, like "Scissor People", which might be THEE jam here, beginning with a little bit of birdsong, before launching into some jangly crunch, another blast of garage-y poppiness, until things go totally crazy about halfway through, the song suddenly a patchwork of alternate takes and different productions, as if multiple versions of the song were playing simultaneously, and someone began to flip between the various channels, the sounds dramatically different, even the tempos, and then coming out of it into a sort of motorik psych-kraut groove, wreathed in killer leads, and thick swaths of guitarnoise, it's the sort of jam most bands would have stretched out for ages, but these guys cram into a succinct 3:31.
We have to admit, that on first listen, mostly heard in the shop in little chunks, didn't fully sell us, but once we strapped on some headphones, this collab definitely revealed itself as being something sort of next level, and blossomed into a pretty fantastic(al) psychedelic garage pop trip out that we've had on pretty heavy rotation ever since.
MPEG Stream: "Time"
MPEG Stream: "I Am Not A Game"
MPEG Stream: "Scissor People"

SEGALL, TY BAND Slaughterhouse (In The Red) cd 12.98
Rumor was that this was gonna be Segall's 'metal' record. The title did nothing to dissuade that notion, 'Slaughterhouse', and the garish black and white howling monster/medusa artwork definitely seemed to support that theory as well. And while we remained skeptical, album opener "Death" (good metal title btw) briefly gave us pause, with its wild opening, a churning squall of super distorted guitars and squealing feedback, but soon the record proper kicks in and all is well, fear not, Ty Segall has not gone metal (as much as we think that would be amazing!) however, this is most definitely his heaviest record yet. His first recording with his live band, which of course includes longtime collaborator Mikal Cronin, find the sound cranked to eleven, the guitars blown out and distorted, the riffs heavy and crunchy, the songs are still garage pop, but with some serious heft, the vocals occasionally slipping into raspy howls, the guitars exploding into full on shredding leads, the group sounding all Stooges-y, raw and feral and seriously fierce. And it totally suits them. And even the tracks that are all jangly and poppy, are weirdly produced, with the guitars crumbling and in the red, beautiful harmony vocals, all oooh's and aaah's laid over grinding near metallic riffs, pounding drums, this is most definitely the first Segall record we'd describe as 'headbangable', but the key here, is that the songs are still impossibly catchy, just check out "I Bought My Eyes", which is so catchy we were convinced it was a cover, sounding like some sixties or seventies classic rock jam supercharged and dirtied up. The title track is a 90 second blast of churning garage punk riffage, with glass gargling vox, before they slip right into "The Tongue", with its Oh Sees-like opener, and sixties jangle rock verse, only to explode into some full on psychedelic noise freakout.
Beyond the sonic shift though, these are definitely some of the best songs we've heard from Segall, the heaviness and dirge-y rockingness only making them that much more intense, and in addition to the originals, Cronin contributes one track, another 90 second blast of super blown out Stooges-y swagger, that as you might imagine is shot through with some irresistible poppiness, and there's a couple of covers, they manage to transform Fred Neil's "The Bag I'm In", into a super dynamic tangle of low slung bass, and dense walls of psychnoise crunch, pounding garage rock pummel doused in wild guitars and sheets of blown out psychedelic guitar, and the take Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy" and rough it up a bit, adding some guitar crunch, and messing with the lyrics, before stumbling to chaotic premature halt. And let's not neglect to mention the 10 minute closer "Fuzz War", which sounds like it could be some lost Fushitsusha basement tape, or some lost seventies private press underground psych jam, a sprawling landscape of drone and buzz, noxious clouds of grinding guitars, super abstract drum splatter, the sound slipping from dark and droney to wildly chaotic, to a weird almost industrial clatter, and finally to a sort of freejazz drum heavy noiserock coda. So cool. And as you might have surmised, definitely one of our favorite Segall records yet!
MPEG Stream: "Death"
MPEG Stream: "I Bought My Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "The Tongue"
MPEG Stream: "Fuzz War"

SEGALL, TY BAND Slaughterhouse (In The Red) 2x10" 17.98
Rumor was that this was gonna be Segall's 'metal' record. The title did nothing to dissuade that notion, 'Slaughterhouse', and the garish black and white howling monster/medusa artwork definitely seemed to support that theory as well. And while we remained skeptical, album opener "Death" (good metal title btw) briefly gave us pause, with its wild opening, a churning squall of super distorted guitars and squealing feedback, but soon the record proper kicks in and all is well, fear not, Ty Segall has not gone metal (as much as we think that would be amazing!) however, this is most definitely his heaviest record yet. His first recording with his live band, which of course includes longtime collaborator Mikal Cronin, find the sound cranked to eleven, the guitars blown out and distorted, the riffs heavy and crunchy, the songs are still garage pop, but with some serious heft, the vocals occasionally slipping into raspy howls, the guitars exploding into full on shredding leads, the group sounding all Stooges-y, raw and feral and seriously fierce. And it totally suits them. And even the tracks that are all jangly and poppy, are weirdly produced, with the guitars crumbling and in the red, beautiful harmony vocals, all oooh's and aaah's laid over grinding near metallic riffs, pounding drums, this is most definitely the first Segall record we'd describe as 'headbangable', but the key here, is that the songs are still impossibly catchy, just check out "I Bought My Eyes", which is so catchy we were convinced it was a cover, sounding like some sixties or seventies classic rock jam supercharged and dirtied up. The title track is a 90 second blast of churning garage punk riffage, with glass gargling vox, before they slip right into "The Tongue", with its Oh Sees-like opener, and sixties jangle rock verse, only to explode into some full on psychedelic noise freakout.
Beyond the sonic shift though, these are definitely some of the best songs we've heard from Segall, the heaviness and dirge-y rockingness only making them that much more intense, and in addition to the originals, Cronin contributes one track, another 90 second blast of super blown out Stooges-y swagger, that as you might imagine is shot through with some irresistible poppiness, and there's a couple of covers, they manage to transform Fred Neil's "The Bag I'm In", into a super dynamic tangle of low slung bass, and dense walls of psychnoise crunch, pounding garage rock pummel doused in wild guitars and sheets of blown out psychedelic guitar, and the take Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy" and rough it up a bit, adding some guitar crunch, and messing with the lyrics, before stumbling to chaotic premature halt. And let's not neglect to mention the 10 minute closer "Fuzz War", which sounds like it could be some lost Fushitsusha basement tape, or some lost seventies private press underground psych jam, a sprawling landscape of drone and buzz, noxious clouds of grinding guitars, super abstract drum splatter, the sound slipping from dark and droney to wildly chaotic, to a weird almost industrial clatter, and finally to a sort of freejazz drum heavy noiserock coda. So cool. And as you might have surmised, definitely one of our favorite Segall records yet!
MPEG Stream: "Death"
MPEG Stream: "I Bought My Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "The Tongue"
MPEG Stream: "Fuzz War"

SEKKUTSU JEAN s/t (Magaibutsu) cd 13.98
There's been an onslaught of Ruins-related releases on Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida's Magaibutsu label this week, folks!! Here's one from a brand-new band formation we'd never heard of before, Sekkutsu Jean, an improvising duo featuring Yoshida on drums, keyboard and vocals, and Sato Kenji on bass, cello, and voice. The results are most often SUPER distorted and heavy and fierce. Some of this reminds us a bit of some real old Ruins stuff, when they went for the ultra-dirty fuzz bass sound on such albums as Infect and Stonehenge. Total blurting bass bludgeon. Other parts are more "jazz", or even "classical" oriented, with droning sawing strings battling Yoshida's drum battery, or accompanying his keyboard lines. And then there's things that we can't even begin to classify, like track six, "Wihytcujmo", which is based around a drum machine beat and vicious cello bowing. Overall, this is some seriously mean stuff, without the strain of goofiness that oftentimes shows up in other Yoshida-related improv projects. There's 19 slices of killer improv weirdness here, with easy-to-remember titles like "Ghijuhnkkumn" and "Qyxoichdbihm" and "Bysjiahvoskkn"!! Over the course of all these tracks, there's a lot of creativity and intensity. Recommended.
And as with all of this new batch of Magaibutsu discs, this comes packaged in a handsome tri-fold full-color cardboard cd sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Ftohkmofhtt"
MPEG Stream: "Wihytcujmo"

SELDA s/t (B-Music / Finders Keepers) cd 15.98
Oh Selda! We are soooooooo in love with your voice! We first heard you on the amazing Love Peace and Poetry compilation of Turkish psychedelic music and ever since then, we just wanted more more more! Last year we got our Selda fix with a collection of vinyl transfers released by World Psychedelia, and now finally we get another full serving of Selda that we've so desperately been craving! No surprise that the fine folks with impeccable taste at B-Music/Finders Keepers are responsible for this amazing collection of Selda at her best! With a singular voice that demands and grabs your attention with such utter flare, seduction and style, Selda is truly a musical treasure who we're sure will win the ears and hearts of just about anyone who listens. Every song has a rich musical backdrop, perfectly cradling her lovely vocals, with a sound that has no easy genre lines to point to, but that so few have touched on with such perfection. It's psych-rock and glorious pop, it's folk and funk, it's fun and dramatic, its whatever it wants to be, and it's a collection of songs with absolutely no misses! There is a playfulness in the performances that totally imbue the songs with a rich full color fever that just can't be denied. While some reissues exist more for history's sake or for just a couple cool tracks, this is one of those records that requires repeated listening, and lord knows we have listened to this over and over and over. In some ways we even think of Selda like a Turkish version of Asha Bhosle, with that sort of amazing voice that turns everything it touches into musical magic.
Way beyond recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Ince Ince"
MPEG Stream: "Yaylalar"
MPEG Stream: "Karaoglan"

SELDA s/t (Finders Keepers) lp 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON (expensive, import) VINYL!
Oh Selda! We are soooooooo in love with your voice! We first heard you on the amazing Love Peace and Poetry compilation of Turkish psychedelic music and ever since then, we just wanted more more more! Last year we got our Selda fix with a collection of vinyl transfers released by World Psychedelia, and now finally we get another full serving of Selda that we've so desperately been craving! No surprise that the fine folks with impeccable taste at B-Music/Finders Keepers are responsible for this amazing collection of Selda at her best! With a singular voice that demands and grabs your attention with such utter flare, seduction and style, Selda is truly a musical treasure who we're sure will win the ears and hearts of just about anyone who listens. Every song has a rich musical backdrop, perfectly cradling her lovely vocals, with a sound that has no easy genre lines to point to, but that so few have touched on with such perfection. It's psych-rock and glorious pop, it's folk and funk, it's fun and dramatic, its whatever it wants to be, and it's a collection of songs with absolutely no misses! There is a playfulness in the performances that totally imbue the songs with a rich full color fever that just can't be denied. While some reissues exist more for history's sake or for just a couple cool tracks, this is one of those records that requires repeated listening, and lord knows we have listened to this over and over and over. In some ways we even think of Selda like a Turkish version of Asha Bhosle, with that sort of amazing voice that turns everything it touches into musical magic.
Way beyond recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Ince Ince"
MPEG Stream: "Yaylalar"
MPEG Stream: "Karaoglan"

SELDA s/t (Finders Keepers) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL... AND AT A NICER PRICE TOO!
Oh Selda! We are soooooooo in love with your voice! We first heard you on the amazing Love Peace and Poetry compilation of Turkish psychedelic music and ever since then, we just wanted more more more! Last year we got our Selda fix with a collection of vinyl transfers released by World Psychedelia, and now finally we get another full serving of Selda that we've so desperately been craving! No surprise that the fine folks with impeccable taste at B-Music/Finders Keepers are responsible for this amazing collection of Selda at her best! With a singular voice that demands and grabs your attention with such utter flare, seduction and style, Selda is truly a musical treasure who we're sure will win the ears and hearts of just about anyone who listens. Every song has a rich musical backdrop, perfectly cradling her lovely vocals, with a sound that has no easy genre lines to point to, but that so few have touched on with such perfection. It's psych-rock and glorious pop, it's folk and funk, it's fun and dramatic, its whatever it wants to be, and it's a collection of songs with absolutely no misses! There is a playfulness in the performances that totally imbue the songs with a rich full color fever that just can't be denied. While some reissues exist more for history's sake or for just a couple cool tracks, this is one of those records that requires repeated listening, and lord knows we have listened to this over and over and over. In some ways we even think of Selda like a Turkish version of Asha Bhosle, with that sort of amazing voice that turns everything it touches into musical magic.
Way beyond recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Ince Ince"
MPEG Stream: "Yaylalar"
MPEG Stream: "Karaoglan"

SELDA Vurulduk Ey Halkim Unutma Bizi (World Psychedelia) cd 17.98
Surface crackle, yes! And the record from which this cd was transferred sounds maybe a little warped. But no matter, we like all that!! Makes it all the more psychedelic, eh? This is a reissue of some potent Turkish protest pop from the '70s, featuring folky strumming, irresistible Anatolian grooves, and Selda Bagcan's beautiful, often urgent-sounding voice. Sounds like something that should immediately be of interest to any AQ customers into radical East meets West psych-folk from Turkey (of which we know there are plenty, nowadays!) particularily those who've already heard Selda via the inclusion of her songs "Bundan Sonra" and "Ince Ince Bir Kar Yagar" on the recent and quite recommended Turkish installment of the Love Peace and Poetry series ("Bundan Sonra" shows up here, too).
As alluded to above, this certainly isn't digitally remastered from the pristine master tapes, but at least folks that put out this cd deserve kudos not only for digging it up for us but also providing lyrics and liner notes in the cd booklet -- although the lyrics are given only in the original Turkish, with no English translations, which would have gone a long way to making Selda's message more understandable to us today, outside of Turkey. Ah well. At least the liner notes, which are in English, provide some context. It's a little unclear, but it seems that Selda was considered a subversive figure by the repressive Turkish government at the time. This record may in fact have been banned -- at the very least we're told that original copies were (and are) hard to find due to government disapproval. And Selda was banned from foreign travel at least until 1987.
The first 12 tracks on this cd are from a 1976 album entitled Selda Vol. 2 (aka Vurulduk Ey Halkim Unutma Bizi, it seems), and then there's also eight additional, bonus tracks taken from Selda singles released in 1971 and '73, songs that are slightly less-rock, more-folk than the Vol. 2 material (which are already pretty folky). However, electric guitar, whining and fuzzed, figures into a few of this disc's tracks, while a lot of the rest is much more in a traditional (if electric) folk vein, with lush arrangements and a great emphasis on Selda's powerful, emotional voice.
To be filed with your reissues of 3 Hur-el and Mogollar (members of which are apparently are in Selda's backup band for some of this)...
MPEG Stream: "Utan, Utan"
MPEG Stream: "Askerin Turkusu"
MPEG Stream: "Bundan Sonra"

SEMIAUTOMATIC Resident Genius (5rc) cd 14.98
Here is another dancey / tough / all over the place gem from the prolific duo of Akiko and Rop (from The Peechees and The Lefties and Rice, to name a few). On this record, like their previous releases, Semiautomatic fuse electronica, new wave, punk, and political girl growliness for a unique and diverse listening experience. At times you can't believe the songs are all from the same band because can sound mean and snarly then ethereal and akin to Liz Frazier. Fresh off the 5rc Jamboree tour, Semiautomatic have their hard working fingers in many pies, with split 7" 's coming out all over the place and tracks on numerous compilations. If you have appreciated the hard work and killer cd's that 5rc has been releasing this year (Hella, Xiu Xiu) you should check this one out, sez Sadie
RealAudio clip: "Tight Pants"
RealAudio clip: "Resident Genius"
RealAudio clip: "The Birds of Weather"

SEND FOR HELP s/t (Right Arm Rekords) cd 5.98
Here's a lilting fuzzy pop debut from the young SF band who go by the moniker Send For Help. Despite their name, none is really needed here. They're doin' just dandy on their own. The foursome's crunch 'n' jangle guitars and soft emotive male vocals suggest that they're drawing ample influences from the likes of Pinback, Modest Mouse Built To Spill and Sonic Youth. Fits right in with the recent No Midnight album from another Bay Area band Birdmonster. Indie rock lives on right here in SF!
MPEG Stream: "Long Distance Goodbye"
MPEG Stream: "Living In The Past"

SENOR COCONUT El Baile Aleman (Multicolor) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Few artists' music can guarantee to brighten your days and nights the way Atom Heart (and his numerous aliases) can. Any new release from this fella is received with a huge aQ grin! If you dug the recent Yellow Magic Fever tribute from the always deliriously delightful Senor Coconut and Los Negritos' Speed-Merengue Mega-Mix, you know what we're talking about and you definitely won't wanna miss these freshly reissued earlier Senor Coconut releases including this, his awesome Kraftwerk tribute! Even if you got 'em the first time around, heck, we're sure you know somebody who'd benefit from this festive treat!
Back in 2000, we had this to say about El Baile Aleman: Senor Coconut is actually the guy better known as techno/electronica artist Atom Heart. He's moved to Chile and gone all Latin and groovy on us. However, all the songs on this (high-) concept album are Kraftwerk covers! So this joins a long line of weird and wonderful tributes to Kraftwerk. Soon we'll be able to have a whole bin at Aquarius dedicated to such endeavors: the Balenescu Quartet one, the Terre Thaemlitz one, the one with all the Slovenian acts, the Japanese import one, the Miami Bass one, etc. etc. Anyways, so incredibly executed down to the tiniest detail, this one will sit at the top of the heap! Super duper fun.
MPEG Stream: "The Robots (Cha-Cha-Cha)"
MPEG Stream: "Neon Lights (Cha-Cha-Cha)"

SENSATIONS' FIX Music Is Painting In The Air (RVNG) 2cd 16.98
Hurrah! We've long been waiting for the opportunity to list something by Italy's Sensations' Fix. A long time ago, we encountered their debut album Fragments Of Light (1974) and were immediately smitten (it also was a great "secret weapon" to use whenever we were called upon to DJ a set of vintage psych/prog music or what have you). But reissues of anything by this spacey synth-based '70s trio have been seemingly impossible to find. We were excited, however, not too long ago when the Emeralds-approved Spectrum Spools label added a vinyl reissue of the 1975 solo album by Sensations' Fix leader Franco Falsini to their catalog of amazing unearthed cosmic electronic artifacts. That record, Cold Nose, or Naso Fredo, we described (well, raved about) as a gorgeously cinematic longform take on psychedelic new age music, a spiralling composition of EMS and Moog washes and floating guitar lines that reminds us of krautrock legends Michael Rother and Manuel Gottsching, with stratospheric guitar leads over organically pulsating synth treatments, constantly shifting and shimmering. Sounds good right?
That brings us to this very welcome archival double cd (or triple lp) set released on the obscure electronics oriented RVNG label, featuring 30 tracks taken from Falsini's tape vaults, including several alternate mixes of material from Cold Nose, alongside alternate versions of songs that appeared on all five albums released by his band Sensations' Fix circa 1974-77. Plus a number of previously unreleased tracks from those recording sessions as well. Sensations' Fix and Falsini recorded everything in a home studio, on a TEAC 3340 4-track machine, so fortunately Falsini still has access to all these productions and was able to personally select and mix the tracks for this RVNG anthology release. Especially fortunate considering that apparent record label business BS has thus far prevented the individual, original Sensations' Fix albums themselves from coming out again under Falsini's guidance, though we can still hope for full reissues someday. Regardless, this is a wonderful and extensive sonic glimpse into the spacey output of Sensations' Fix, if occasionally therefore somewhat lo-fi.
The blissfulness of Cold Nose is too part of the Sensations' Fix sound, but also there's some krauty rock grooves (some sampled by DJ Shadow, we learned from the liner notes) alongside the electronic-based driftworks. And they have a quite lovely "pop" side to 'em too - while mostly instrumental, some tracks do have gentle, Robert Wyatt-ish singing to go with the hazy, meandering, meditative atmospheres. It's definitely not the usual sort of quasi-operatic, over-the-top, classically influenced Italian prog that we're used to (and love), from bands like Il Balletto Di Bronzo, Le Orme, or Osanna, no. Also fairly far from the sinister soundtrack funk of Goblin. Rather, Sensations' Fix have more in common with the kosmiche krautrock electronics of the era, and also may have indeed been influenced by the Canterbury sound of bands like the Soft Machine, so one Italian prog act we could compare them to would be Picchio Dal Pozzo. We could also compare 'em to a kinder, gentler version of Richard Pinhas & Heldon, from France, with a similar futuristic co-mingling of synth (MiniMoog) and effected guitar, for sure.
Music Is Painting In The Air is handsomely packaged, with a booklet full of those aforementioned liner notes presented in both English and Italian, written by RVNG's Joshua da Costa (who like us was also smitten by Fragments Of Light when he first heard it) and Franco Falsini himself. These notes, while not removing all the mystery of Sensations' Fix, reveal much interesting information... like that prior to SF, Falsini was in a "space-blues" band called Flying with Dave Anderson of Hawkwind & Amon Duul. Or that their debut Fragments Of Light actually consisted of basement demos recorded not in Florence Italy, but Alexandria, Virginia, where Falsini had temporarily moved with his wife, who was American. Which is where Falsini found SF's drummer, also an American, and also the guy who turned him on to LSD...
MPEG Stream: "Fragments Of Light"
MPEG Stream: "Cold Nose Part 3, Movement 5"
MPEG Stream: "Moving Particles"
MPEG Stream: "Crossing Berlin"

SENSATIONS' FIX Music Is Painting In The Air (RVNG) 2lp 33.00
Hurrah! We've long been waiting for the opportunity to list something by Italy's Sensations' Fix. A long time ago, we encountered their debut album Fragments Of Light (1974) and were immediately smitten (it also was a great "secret weapon" to use whenever we were called upon to DJ a set of vintage psych/prog music or what have you). But reissues of anything by this spacey synth-based '70s trio have been seemingly impossible to find. We were excited, however, not too long ago when the Emeralds-approved Spectrum Spools label added a vinyl reissue of the 1975 solo album by Sensations' Fix leader Franco Falsini to their catalog of amazing unearthed cosmic electronic artifacts. That record, Cold Nose, or Naso Fredo, we described (well, raved about) as a gorgeously cinematic longform take on psychedelic new age music, a spiralling composition of EMS and Moog washes and floating guitar lines that reminds us of krautrock legends Michael Rother and Manuel Gottsching, with stratospheric guitar leads over organically pulsating synth treatments, constantly shifting and shimmering. Sounds good right?
That brings us to this very welcome archival double cd (or triple lp) set released on the obscure electronics oriented RVNG label, featuring 30 tracks taken from Falsini's tape vaults, including several alternate mixes of material from Cold Nose, alongside alternate versions of songs that appeared on all five albums released by his band Sensations' Fix circa 1974-77. Plus a number of previously unreleased tracks from those recording sessions as well. Sensations' Fix and Falsini recorded everything in a home studio, on a TEAC 3340 4-track machine, so fortunately Falsini still has access to all these productions and was able to personally select and mix the tracks for this RVNG anthology release. Especially fortunate considering that apparent record label business BS has thus far prevented the individual, original Sensations' Fix albums themselves from coming out again under Falsini's guidance, though we can still hope for full reissues someday. Regardless, this is a wonderful and extensive sonic glimpse into the spacey output of Sensations' Fix, if occasionally therefore somewhat lo-fi.
The blissfulness of Cold Nose is too part of the Sensations' Fix sound, but also there's some krauty rock grooves (some sampled by DJ Shadow, we learned from the liner notes) alongside the electronic-based driftworks. And they have a quite lovely "pop" side to 'em too - while mostly instrumental, some tracks do have gentle, Robert Wyatt-ish singing to go with the hazy, meandering, meditative atmospheres. It's definitely not the usual sort of quasi-operatic, over-the-top, classically influenced Italian prog that we're used to (and love), from bands like Il Balletto Di Bronzo, Le Orme, or Osanna, no. Also fairly far from the sinister soundtrack funk of Goblin. Rather, Sensations' Fix have more in common with the kosmiche krautrock electronics of the era, and also may have indeed been influenced by the Canterbury sound of bands like the Soft Machine, so one Italian prog act we could compare them to would be Picchio Dal Pozzo. We could also compare 'em to a kinder, gentler version of Richard Pinhas & Heldon, from France, with a similar futuristic co-mingling of synth (MiniMoog) and effected guitar, for sure.
Music Is Painting In The Air is handsomely packaged, with a booklet full of those aforementioned liner notes presented in both English and Italian, written by RVNG's Joshua da Costa (who like us was also smitten by Fragments Of Light when he first heard it) and Franco Falsini himself. These notes, while not removing all the mystery of Sensations' Fix, reveal much interesting information... like that prior to SF, Falsini was in a "space-blues" band called Flying with Dave Anderson of Hawkwind & Amon Duul. Or that their debut Fragments Of Light actually consisted of basement demos recorded not in Florence Italy, but Alexandria, Virginia, where Falsini had temporarily moved with his wife, who was American. Which is where Falsini found SF's drummer, also an American, and also the guy who turned him on to LSD...
MPEG Stream: "Fragments Of Light"
MPEG Stream: "Cold Nose Part 3, Movement 5"
MPEG Stream: "Moving Particles"
MPEG Stream: "Crossing Berlin"

SENSES FAIL Let It Enfold You (Vagrant) cd 14.98

SENSSURROUND ORCHESTRA Meltdown of Control (Staalplaat) cd 15.98
Collaboration spearheaded by Zbigniew Karkowski and compiled from performances in Tokyo, London and Berlin. It featuring performances by KK Null, Tetsuo Furudate and 17 other musicians edited into one intense track that builds with caustic fury into a wall of sumptuous noise.

SENTRIDOH Free Sentridoh Songs From Loobiecore (Loobiecore) cd 17.98
After the unlikely commercial success of Folk Implosion from the Kids soundtrack and the lackluster last Sebadoh album, it's good to know that Lou Barlow still spends some of his time getting bummed out and documenting his thoughts on a four track with just a guitar and his voice. Sentridoh has always been the outlet for these kind of Barlow-in-the-bedroom recordings, capturing the charming pathos of a grown man still wallowing in teen angst. Musically, "Loobiecore" is the familiar Barlow array of songs: some are sweetly sensitive and romantic, some a bit ramshackle hillbilly folkish, some rambunctious and cacaphonous. "Loobiecore" may not have that odd magic which makes Sentridoh's "Winning Losers" so amazing, but this album is easily Barlow's best effort in years.
RealAudio clip: "Mountain On The Hill"
RealAudio clip: "Songfull / Rehole"

SENTRIDOH Losing losers (Shrimper) cd 13.98
Okay, we finally figured out what these are. It's the entirety of the Shrimper cassettes Some Of The Best & Most Of The Worst and Losers, plus selected new, previously unreleased stuff. So the only Shrimper cassette not on cd at the time this is being written is Wasted Pieces.

SENTRIDOH Losing losers (Shrimper) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Okay, we finally figured out what these are. It's the entirety of the Shrimper cassettes Some Of The Best & Most Of The Worst and Losers, plus selected new, previously unreleased stuff. So the only Shrimper cassette not on cd at the time this is being written is Wasted Pieces.

SENTRIDOH Wasted Pieces '87 -'93 (Shrimper) cd 13.98
The last of the Sentridoh cassettes to find its way onto compact disc is "Wasted Pieces" and accordingly has been reissued with a bunch of extra tracks, all culled from another cassette called "Most Of The Worst And Some Of The Best." Sentridoh has been the outlet for Lou Barlow of Sebadoh and Folk Implosion, taking those two projects' lo-fi, home-taping ethos even further into the bedroom, as Sentridoh was pretty much always just Lou, his guitar, his four-track, and his miserable life exposed for our entertainment, voyeurism, and / or sympathy. Occasionally, Barlow produces gratingly amateurish collages of radio static, tv chatter, children's records, oversaturated tape hiss, and sporadic vocalizations uttered in between bong hits. However, the majority of the Sentridoh "Wasted Pieces" is super gritty, acoustic tunes of varying quality, both in terms of sound quality and songwriting quality, making Sebadoh sound downright crisp and clean. That said, lots of these self-deprecating confessionals could have easily found their way onto an early Sebadoh record.

SEOMPI AWOL (Gear Fab) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now on cd, the archival reissue of stuff by this heavy psychedelic rock outfit. From Texas, circa 1970, and heavier than fellow Texans Josephus, man. And, it seems, one of the members is soon to be released from prison (!), so this is timed just right.

SERENA-MANEESH D.I.W.S.W.T.T.D (4AD) 12" 9.98

SERENA-MANEESH S-M Backwards (Smalltown Supersound) 2cd 28.00

SERENA-MANEESH S-M2: Abyss In B Minor (4AD) cd 13.98
Druggy droney space rock doesn't get any cooler than this. Yeah, there's Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo and Black Angels, Heads, White Hills, Eternal Tapestry and Sleepy Sun, but there's just something special about Serena Maneesh. Drawing from the same murky well of effects-drenched Hawkwind heart-of-the-sun space rock psychedelia, motorik tranced out krautrock, and woozy abstract stoner rock, SM infuse their particular brand of dronerock with plenty of My Bloody Valentine shoegaze shimmer, Sonic Youth noise rock and a serious heaping of POP. It's a weird combo, and it could be precisely what keeps SM from blowing up, but it's also what makes their records so awesomely twisted, weirdly catchy, and gloriously druggy and hypnotic.
The opening track here "Ayisha Abyss" might be the murky droned out space rock jam of the year, all hazy streaks of low end, skittery skeletal rhythms, whirling clouds of blurred effects and streaked chordal hum, little splatters of drum machine, mumbled weary vox, and a super far out ending, a little burst of new wave squelch, some manipulated tapemusic, some piano, then a final burst of super fuzzed out cold wave. WEIRD. And awesome. But then it's straight into "I Just Want To See Your Face" which sounds like a perfect Sonic Youth / Swirlies mashup, a hooky noise pop jam, wrapped in wah guitars and strange processed effects, hooky and jangly and noisy but way way poppy. The following track takes the same elements but twists them all up and dubs them out, all super blown out incendiary guitars and swirling backwards effects, pounding processed drums, and a thick cloud of psychguitar freakout.
"Melody For Jaana" is total washed out drone doom balladry, like a female fronted Nadja, slow and lugubrious and syrupy, like My Bloody Valentine at 16 rpm. The awesomely titled "Blow Yr Brains In The Mourning Rain" is a wild squall of jagged guitars, buried vox, chaotic drumming, a gorgeous chunk of super in-the-red noisepop, more nods to Sonic Youth for sure, but much more soft focus.
The final three tracks ditch the sort of spacey heaviness in exchange for some ethereal jangle pop, "D.I.W.S.W.T.T.D" is total lysergic psychpop, that grows more and more tripped out as it progresses, and finally, the record closes with the tropical tinged Beatles-esque jangle pop of "Magdalena (Symphony #8)" complete with flutes and hazy summertime melodies.
Okay so it's not strictly a 'space rock' record, or a 'drone rock' record, it's more like a strange space-y drone-y POP record, but it's got enough sonic weirdness, blown out heaviness, and hypnotic riffery, to balance the pop hooks and sunshiney jangle, and make this one of our new favorites for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Ayisha Abyss"
MPEG Stream: "Blow Yr Brains In The Mourning Rain"
MPEG Stream: "Magdalena (Symphony #8)"

SERENA-MANEESH S-M2: Abyss In B Minor (4AD) lp 14.98
Druggy droney space rock doesn't get any cooler than this. Yeah, there's Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo and Black Angels, Heads, White Hills, Eternal Tapestry and Sleepy Sun, but there's just something special about Serena Maneesh. Drawing from the same murky well of effects-drenched Hawkwind heart-of-the-sun space rock psychedelia, motorik tranced out krautrock, and woozy abstract stoner rock, SM infuse their particular brand of dronerock with plenty of My Bloody Valentine shoegaze shimmer, Sonic Youth noise rock and a serious heaping of POP. It's a weird combo, and it could be precisely what keeps SM from blowing up, but it's also what makes their records so awesomely twisted, weirdly catchy, and gloriously druggy and hypnotic.
The opening track here "Ayisha Abyss" might be the murky droned out space rock jam of the year, all hazy streaks of low end, skittery skeletal rhythms, whirling clouds of blurred effects and streaked chordal hum, little splatters of drum machine, mumbled weary vox, and a super far out ending, a little burst of new wave squelch, some manipulated tapemusic, some piano, then a final burst of super fuzzed out cold wave. WEIRD. And awesome. But then it's straight into "I Just Want To See Your Face" which sounds like a perfect Sonic Youth / Swirlies mashup, a hooky noise pop jam, wrapped in wah guitars and strange processed effects, hooky and jangly and noisy but way way poppy. The following track takes the same elements but twists them all up and dubs them out, all super blown out incendiary guitars and swirling backwards effects, pounding processed drums, and a thick cloud of psychguitar freakout.
"Melody For Jaana" is total washed out drone doom balladry, like a female fronted Nadja, slow and lugubrious and syrupy, like My Bloody Valentine at 16 rpm. The awesomely titled "Blow Yr Brains In The Mourning Rain" is a wild squall of jagged guitars, buried vox, chaotic drumming, a gorgeous chunk of super in-the-red noisepop, more nods to Sonic Youth for sure, but much more soft focus.
The final three tracks ditch the sort of spacey heaviness in exchange for some ethereal jangle pop, "D.I.W.S.W.T.T.D" is total lysergic psychpop, that grows more and more tripped out as it progresses, and finally, the record closes with the tropical tinged Beatles-esque jangle pop of "Magdalena (Symphony #8)" complete with flutes and hazy summertime melodies.
Okay so it's not strictly a 'space rock' record, or a 'drone rock' record, it's more like a strange space-y drone-y POP record, but it's got enough sonic weirdness, blown out heaviness, and hypnotic riffery, to balance the pop hooks and sunshiney jangle, and make this one of our new favorites for sure.
MPEG Stream: "Ayisha Abyss"
MPEG Stream: "Blow Yr Brains In The Mourning Rain"
MPEG Stream: "Magdalena (Symphony #8)"

SERENA-MANEESH s/t (Honeymilk) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Everybody's been flipping out about the Black Angels and their take on druggy drone-y space rock. But if you ask us, Norwegian blissrockers Serena-Maneesh is the band people should be freaking out about. If the Black Angels are channeling Spacemen 3 via the Velvet Underground, Serena-Maneesh take their Spacemen 3 obsession and drag it kicking and screaming through the detuned murk of classic Sonic Youth, the psychedelic freakout of Hawkwind and the slow build cinematic roar of Mogwai and Godspeed. This is spaced out psychedelic drug rock of the highest order for sure, but Serena-Maneesh add their own special slant to the proceedings, twisting these tracks into all sorts of dronier and dreamier shapes, cool boy / girl harmonies, hushed whispery sadboy vocals backed up by delicate dreamy female coo's and ooh's, both woven together into still more layers of sweet warm gauze, BIG guitars, not wispy or delicate, okay maybe once in a while, but mostly thick, crunchy and HEAVY riffs that just churn and grind, and then there's the hypnotic drone aspect, when Serena-Maneesh eventually build to a frenzied climax, they keep it going, endlessly, the riffs loop and loop, mesmerizing and completely spellbinding, effects swirl, guitar FX explode and careen wildly, wah wah's everywhere, warm washes of distorted swoooosh, the ambient sounds grow more and more dense, but the riffs plow forward, like there's no end in sight, our heads crack open spilling blinding light into the sky, as we drift and shimmer and are lifted into some blissed out drone rock nirvana like we haven't experienced since the heyday of bands like the Telescopes, Sundial, Loop, and of course Hawkwind and Spacement 3. So awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Drain Cosmetics"
MPEG Stream: "Selina's Melodie Fountain"

SERENA-MANEESH s/t (Play Louder) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Everybody's been flipping out about the Black Angels and their take on druggy drone-y space rock. But if you ask us, Norwegian blissrockers Serena-Maneesh is the band people should be freaking out about. If the Black Angels are channeling Spacemen 3 via the Velvet Underground, Serena-Maneesh take their Spacemen 3 obsession and drag it kicking and screaming through the detuned murk of classic Sonic Youth, the psychedelic freakout of Hawkwind and the slow build cinematic roar of Mogwai and Godspeed. This is spaced out psychedelic drug rock of the highest order for sure, but Serena-Maneesh add their own special slant to the proceedings, twisting these tracks into all sorts of dronier and dreamier shapes, cool boy / girl harmonies, hushed whispery sadboy vocals backed up by delicate dreamy female coo's and ooh's, both woven together into still more layers of sweet warm gauze, BIG guitars, not wispy or delicate, okay maybe once in a while, but mostly thick, crunchy and HEAVY riffs that just churn and grind, and then there's the hypnotic drone aspect, when Serena-Maneesh eventually build to a frenzied climax, they keep it going, endlessly, the riffs loop and loop, mesmerizing and completely spellbinding, effects swirl, guitar FX explode and careen wildly, wah wah's everywhere, warm washes of distorted swoooosh, the ambient sounds grow more and more dense, but the riffs plow forward, like there's no end in sight, our heads crack open spilling blinding light into the sky, as we drift and shimmer and are lifted into some blissed out drone rock nirvana like we haven't experienced since the heyday of bands like the Telescopes, Sundial, Loop, and of course Hawkwind and Spacement 3. So awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Drain Cosmetics"
MPEG Stream: "Selina's Melodie Fountain"

SERENE LAKES s/t (self-released) cd 3.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A six-song debut EP from this SF trio. Gently swaying postrock that bring to mind the fine college rock bands from the '90s like Seam, Ida and Versus. Swells of quiet/loud/quiet electric guitars, hushed vocals and washy cymbals build atop the solid bass and drums. Very pretty and wistful.
MPEG Stream: "Tall Beam & Coke"
MPEG Stream: "Timeless"

SERVANTS, THE Youth Club Disco (Captured Tracks) lp 16.98
The Servants were an eighties UK guitar pop band, whose sound was fantastically jangly and polished, super melodic and well produced, bucking the trend at the time to produce lo-fi ramshackle pop (although the group did appear on the C86 comp that pretty much defined that ramshackle pop movement), they even counted members of the Housemartins and the Auteurs among their ranks at one point, and their music was beloved by Belle And Sebastien frontman Stuart Murdoch, who before B&S had tried to form a band with Servants frontman David Westlake. This should all give you an idea of the sound, a little twee, a little precious, earnest and heartfelt, the sort of sound that would most definitely appeal to fans of B&S and the classic sound of groups like The Smiths and nineties NZ pop (The Clean, the Chills, etc.). Cherry Red Records released a compilation called Reserved, which went out of print, and now goes for CRAZY money on eBay, but thankfully, Captured Tracks cherry picked some of the past tracks to put together their own vinyl only collection called Youth Club Disco, and it's a perfect introduction to this band that really didn't get the love or attention they deserved. ALl the tracks here are lilting and melancholy, pure classic indie pop, jangly and dreamy and definitely not for anyone after buzz and crunch, but for folks who like smart, heartfelt pop music, this stuff is pure pop gold.
MPEG Stream: "The Sun, A Small Star"
MPEG Stream: "Loggerheads"
MPEG Stream: "Meredith"
MPEG Stream: "You'd Do Me Good"

SET FIRE TO FLAMES Sings Reign Rebuilders (Alien8 Recordings) cd 14.98
Halfspeed! You Grey Bureaucrat. Something like 6 members of this 13 piece ensemble are part of Godspeed! You Black Emperor, and Set Fire To Flames does little to hide their connection to that band, producing the same theatrical crescendos for glide guitars and string quartets, and found spoken word elements backed by dark drones. While this is obviously nothing new, Set Fire To Flames have produced an album that is way better than the last Godspeed album, "Raise Your Skinny Fists..." Definitely for fans who can't get enough of GSYBE!, A Silver Mt. Zion, etc.
RealAudio clip: "track 3"

SET FIRE TO FLAMES Sings Reign Rebuilders (Alien8 Recordings) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Halfspeed! You Grey Bureaucrat. Something like 6 members of this 13 piece ensemble are part of Godspeed! You Black Emperor, and Set Fire To Flames does little to hide their connection to Godspeed, with the same theatrical crescendos for glide guitars and string quartets, and found spoken word elements backed by dark drones. While this is obviously nothing new, Set Fire To Flames have produced an album that is way better than the last Godspeed album, "Raise Your Skinny Fists..."

SET FIRE TO FLAMES Telegraphs In Negative / Mouths Trapped In Static (Alien8 Recordings) 2cd 17.98
Cut from the same collectivist French-Canadian cloth as Godspeed You Black Emperor, the thirteen members of Set Fire To Flames take a slightly more experimental approach to creaTING INSTRUMENTALS THAT MAY at times approach the epic scale of GYBE in track length, but occupy a much less theatrical and grandiose territory in scope. "Telegraphs in Negative..." was recorded almost entirely in a collapsing barn, with instrumentation including cello, bass clarinet, guitar, saw, french horn, marimba, glockenspiel, music box, gutted two-track motors, tapes, contact mics and faulty electronics. The barn itself heavily inflects these recordings, as bits of field recordings as well as in the way the recording process captures not just the sounds of the instruments but also their interaction with space and architecture. It makes for a record that's very intimate not neccesarily in an emotional sense, but in the way it involves the listener with a very specific mood, location and group process. Opting for tangents into extended drones, collages and improvisation rather than reaching for epic melodic climaxes, the sound is sparse, crumbling and dark, but not entirely melancholy. Spread over two discs (edited and reconstructed from hours of recordings), it's also a little long to be constantly engaging. But still pretty cool.
MPEG Stream: "And The Birds Are About To Bust Their "
MPEG Stream: "Holy Throat Hiss Tracks To The Sedative Hypnotic"
MPEG Stream: "When Sorrow Shoots Her Darts"

SET FIRE TO FLAMES Telegraphs In Negative/ Mouths Trapped In Static (Alien8 Recordings) 2lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now On Vinyl!
Cut from the same collectivist French-Canadian cloth as Godspeed You Black Emperor, the thirteen members of Set Fire To Flames take a slightly more experimental approach to creaTING INSTRUMENTALS THAT MAY at times approach the epic scale of GYBE in track length, but occupy a much less theatrical and grandiose territory in scope. "Telegraphs in Negative..." was recorded almost entirely in a collapsing barn, with instrumentation including cello, bass clarinet, guitar, saw, french horn, marimba, glockenspiel, music box, gutted two-track motors, tapes, contact mics and faulty electronics. The barn itself heavily inflects these recordings, as bits of field recordings as well as in the way the recording process captures not just the sounds of the instruments but also their interaction with space and architecture. It makes for a record that's very intimate not neccesarily in an emotional sense, but in the way it involves the listener with a very specific mood, location and group process. Opting for tangents into extended drones, collages and improvisation rather than reaching for epic melodic climaxes, the sound is sparse, crumbling and dark, but not entirely melancholy. Spread over two discs (edited and reconstructed from hours of recordings), it's also a little long to be constantly engaging. But still pretty cool.

SEVEN MILE JOURNEY The Metamorphorsis Project (Pumpkin Seeds In The Sand) cd 11.98
Ambient post rock bands are a dime a dozen these days, and bands who sound more like Godspeed that Godspeed ever did at this point probably outweigh the legions of Neur-Isis clones. But every once in a while, bands manage to remind us just why we fell in love with that sound in the first place. Danish quartet Seven Mile Journey definitely take that sound to whole 'nother level, brooding, epic, cinematic, like post rock without the rock, a sort of abstract filmic chamber music constructed from rock instrumentation.
Slow building, slow burning, so tense and intense, moody and mysterious. The drums are kept to a minimum much of the time, more for propulsion and flourish than actual beat making, but when the drums do come in, they come in hard and then drive the song, while the other instruments weave lush tapestries of sound, minor key swells, lilting overcast melodies, buzzing strings, simple piano parts draped over keening moaning minimal soundscapes, jangly guitars drifting amidst warm whirring lowercase drones, in some cases the songs build to incredible climaxes, like staring into the sun, everything blinding and chaotic and exploding like some sonic supernova, others just smolder, glowing from within, never quite easing up on the built up tension.
Fans of the usual post rock culprits - Godspeed, Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky - will have very likely just found their new favorite bands, although for us, the band are at their best when they mix it up, removing the drums, spreading out the sound into impossibly emotional and moving imaginary soundtracks, ratcheting up the tension, building and building and building. Epic, transcendent and beautifully cathartic.
MPEG Stream: "Theme For The Elthenbury Massacre"
MPEG Stream: "The Catharsis Session"

SEVEN THAT SPELLS Black OM Rising (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 26.00

SEVENTEEN EVERGREEN Life Embarasses Me On Planet Earth (Pacific Radio Fire) cd 12.98

SEVENTEEN EVERGREEN Life Embarasses Me On Planet Earth (Pacific Radio Fire) lp 14.98

SEVENTH SONS Raga (4 A.M. at Frank's) (ESP-Disk) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SEVERIN, STEVEN Codex Astra: Circles Of Silver (Erototox Decodings) cd ep 13.98
Circles Of Silver opens Steven Severin's four-part limited edition Codex Astra cd series based on quotations by the infamous Aleister Crowley. On the inside of the digipak is inscribed, "I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on awakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning." Although a familiarity with the occult figure and his writings may offer the listener some insight into the former Banshee's inspirations for these recordings, it does not appear to be a prerequisite to be able to listen to (and enjoy) these instrumental compositions. A penchant for well-crafted drone music might be just as handy!
Creeping clouds of smotherous tones fill every crevice while vaporous hisses drift over top. A somber, beautiful 17-minute aural shroud that's sure to pique the interest of dronescape lovers far and wide.
FYI: The second volume of Codex Astra titled Hours Of Gold, the third Idols Of Glass, and the fourth Wand Of Flame will follow shortly. Each volume will be a limited cd pressing of 777. So be sure to get them while you can!
Note to those who prefer records to cds: the four volumes will eventually be compiled and re-released on vinyl as Codex Astra: ABRAHADABRA (release date tba).
MPEG Stream: "Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Part 2"