V/A Well Hung: 20 Funk-Rock Eruptions From Beneath Communist Hungary - Vol.1 (B-Music / Finders Keepers) cd 16.98
Back in stock, new lower price, now released domestically!
One of the most kick ass comps we've heard in a while! And there's been some good ones lately, of Nigerian '70s disco funk and French '80s electro punk, among others. But how can you beat funked up, progged out psych rock from Communist Hungary?? This comp resoundingly answers that question: you can't.
While this disc's title might be in poor taste this comp's curators exhibit EXCELLENT taste in groovy Hungarian psych/prog rarities from the sixties and seventies!!! Which is as you might expect, since these are the djs/diggers also responsible for such top notch sets as Welsh Rare Beat, Vertigo Mixed, and Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word. If you like those, you'll like this. (And, like us, will be eagerly anticipating volume 2, to be titled Hung Over, of course).
A couple of the bands here we know, only really 'cause of another B-Music related release, the disc by swingin' Hungarian sex symbol Sarolta Zalatnay, which featured her work with bands such as Locomotiv GT and Skorpios, both of which appear here along with a track by Zalatnay. In fact, the Hungarian scene was highly intertwined, as diagrammed by the handy "Well Hung Family Tree" that compiler Andy Votel has provided in the cd booklet... a cd booklet that by the way is super thick, packed with all the detailed liner notes from the knowledgeable Votel you could desire, color photos of the artists, album and singles covers, and a forward by none other than "Cini" herself, Sarolta Zalatnay! All the tracks are licensed from the source, Hungaroton Records, the whole thing sounds and looks great, it's an obvious labor of love. And what's not to love, 'cause all 20 tracks here are awesome. Tons of FUZZ guitar, swirling organ jamming, flutes going off, crazy instrumental breaks, wailing vocals, dancefloor filling beats galore. High energy stuff, man. Makes it seem like living under the heel of the Soviet boot of oppression wasn't all bad, at least these folks found the freedom of getting funky and freaky...
So, here's who's on here: Anna Adamis & Gabor Presser (the latter of whom has a big presence in many of these groups), Omega Redstar, Omega (2 cuts), Metro, Hungaria, Kati Kovacs (who sounds like Janis Joplin fronting Hard Stuff!), Katie Kovacs and Gemini, Corvina, Neoton, Tamas Somlo & Omega, Meteor & Demjen Ferenc, Illes (2 cuts from them too), Sarolta Zalatnay, Locomotiv GT, Nemenyi Bela and Atlantis, Piramis, Skorpio, and Bergendy.
From the fuzzy Bo Diddley shake of Omega Redstar, to the badass organ excess of Locomotiv GT, to the frantic funky synth sizzle of Illes (a band whom we recall from Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word as well)... well it's hard to pick highlights, they're all mega. Maybe Omega (sans Redstar) gets the nod for their epic 8 minute groover "Kergeskeziu Favagok", a full 3 minutes of which at least is occupied by a killer drum solo laced with field recordings of bird twitter! They also contribute a fuzzed out stomper a little later in the disc.
Ah, but it's all so good, Well Hung bringing together an amazing Eastern European melange of hard edged acid rock funk freakbeat that's part Chains And Black Exhaust, part wah wah '70s cop show kitsch, part Iron Curtain exotica... fun times in other words! Recommended.
MPEG Stream: CORVINA "A Tuz"
MPEG Stream: OMEGA "Kergeskeziu Favagok"
MPEG Stream: KATI KOVACS "Add Mar Uram Az Esot!"

V/A Welsh Rare Beat (Finders Keepers) cd 21.00
Compilations of long-lost '60s and '70s psych/pop/rock gems dug up from the far corners of the world by dedicated crate-digging record collectors are always considered a good thing here at AQ. We can just point to the Hava Narghile, Cambodian Rocks, Love Peace & Poetry and Thai Beat comps for some easy examples. But while we've been stoked on all sorts of stuff from Turkey, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, South Africa, and elsewhere, there's always room for more, and for new unexplored territories to freak out about. For instance, what about Welsh psych/prog/folk??? Aha, that's what Welsh Rare Beat is devoted to, as you've already surmised. The 25 tracks here, all of 'em pretty fantastic, were selected from the vaults of the home-grown Welsh indie record label Sain, which could easily be (as this comp argues) the coolest record label you've never heard of before. As the liner notes put it: "You like prog-rock with blueprint trip-hop beats? So did Sain. You like ethereal girl groups with mystical acid folk overtones? So did Sain. You like psychedelic rock operas based on druidism and witchcraft? So did Sain..." And they're not kidding. Psyche-Celtic hoe-downs, dreamy folk singing, Cymru pride protest rock, and incredible grooves abound. These songs are all sung in Welsh (a pleasing tongue we trust you'll find), and due to the language barrier (and doubtless related cultural/political issues) these artists are pretty much unknown outside their own land, despite being just as good as a lot of better known folks from elsewhere in the UK. Really, looking at the names here, we'd only ever heard of Meic Stevens before. Never Bran, Heather Jones, Endaf Emlyn, Y Tebot Piws, or Yr Atgyfodiad, let alone Y Dyniadon Ynfyd Hirfelyn Tesog! But that's what's so great about discs like this, getting turned on to the denizens of a whole new realm of record-collector fantasy. The cd booklet helps mightily in that department, featuring a great deal of text -- there's very detailed track-by-track info plus a lengthy essay that treats this music scene in a political/historical context. VERY thorough indeed. And it even includes an annotated map of Wales. This really well put-together labor of love was compiled by Andy Votel (so recently responsible for the fab Vertigo Mixed comp), Dom Thomas, and Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals who of course hail from Wales, and is released on the same label, Finders Keepers, that also brought us those equally obscure and awesome Jean Claude Vannier and Yamasuki discs.
MPEG Stream: BRAN "Y Gwylwyr"
MPEG Stream: HEATHER JONES "Nos Ddu"
MPEG Stream: ELERI LLWYD "O Gymru"

V/A Welsh Rare Beat (Finders Keepers) lp 27.00
Now in stock on vinyl! Compilations of long-lost '60s and '70s psych/pop/rock gems dug up from the far corners of the world by dedicated crate-digging record collectors are always considered a good thing here at AQ. We can just point to the Hava Narghile, Cambodian Rocks, Love Peace & Poetry and Thai Beat comps for some easy examples. But while we've been stoked on all sorts of stuff from Turkey, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, South Africa, and elsewhere, there's always room for more, and for new unexplored territories to freak out about. For instance, what about Welsh psych/prog/folk??? Aha, that's what Welsh Rare Beat is devoted to, as you've already surmised. The 25 tracks here, all of 'em pretty fantastic, were selected from the vaults of the home-grown Welsh indie record label Sain, which could easily be (as this comp argues) the coolest record label you've never heard of before. As the liner notes put it: "You like prog-rock with blueprint trip-hop beats? So did Sain. You like ethereal girl groups with mystical acid folk overtones? So did Sain. You like psychedelic rock operas based on druidism and witchcraft? So did Sain..." And they're not kidding. Psyche-Celtic hoe-downs, dreamy folk singing, Cymru pride protest rock, and incredible grooves abound. These songs are all sung in Welsh (a pleasing tongue we trust you'll find), and due to the language barrier (and doubtless related cultural/political issues) these artists are pretty much unknown outside their own land, despite being just as good as a lot of better known folks from elsewhere in the UK. Really, looking at the names here, we'd only ever heard of Meic Stevens before. Never Bran, Heather Jones, Endaf Emlyn, Y Tebot Piws, or Yr Atgyfodiad, let alone Y Dyniadon Ynfyd Hirfelyn Tesog! But that's what's so great about discs like this, getting turned on to the denizens of a whole new realm of record-collector fantasy. The cd booklet helps mightily in that department, featuring a great deal of text -- there's very detailed track-by-track info plus a lengthy essay that treats this music scene in a political/historical context. VERY thorough indeed. And it even includes an annotated map of Wales. This really well put-together labor of love was compiled by Andy Votel (so recently responsible for the fab Vertigo Mixed comp), Dom Thomas, and Gruff Rhys of the Super Furry Animals who of course hail from Wales, and is released on the same label, Finders Keepers, that also brought us those equally obscure and awesome Jean Claude Vannier and Yamasuki discs.
MPEG Stream: BRAN "Y Gwylwyr"
MPEG Stream: HEATHER JONES "Nos Ddu"
MPEG Stream: ELERI LLWYD "O Gymru"

V/A Welsh Rare Beat 2 (Finders Keepers) cd 23.00
That the Welsh well of groovy folk and psych rarities from the '60s and '70s hasn't run dry, is plentifully proven by this album. Finders Keepers presents a second volume of Welsh Rare Beat, again compiled by DJ Andy Votel and two of the guys from Super Furry Animals. Lots of w's and y's in the artist and track names here, there's tunes from the the likes of Galwad Y Mynydd (also the subject of a separate reissue on Finders Keepers), Y Gwenwyn, YNhw, Y Tebot Piws, Chwys, Meic Stevens, Bran, Sidan, Morus Elfryn, Heather Jones, Edward H. Dafis, AD 73, Bara Menyn, Hergest, and more. No, we haven't heard of most of 'em either -- and the ones we do know, we probably heard first on the original Welsh Rare Beat. And while we'd rate that volume a little higher, there's treats galore here, from rustic acid folk to glammy rock to disco prog! Even a kids TV show character takes a stab at rock n' roll. All with a unique Cymaru bent, often with glorious traditional melodies woven through, and gentle voices singing in the slightly phlegmy and certainly indecipherable (to us) Welsh tongue. Informative liner notes are provided, though, to clue us to who these artists were and what they were on about.
MPEG Stream: ELERI LLWYD "Cariad Cyntaf"
MPEG Stream: SIDAN "Ar Goll"
MPEG Stream: CHWYS "Gwr Bonheddig"

V/A Welsh Rare Beat 2 (Finders Keepers) lp 30.00
That the Welsh well of groovy folk and psych rarities from the '60s and '70s hasn't run dry, is plentifully proven by this album. Finders Keepers presents a second volume of Welsh Rare Beat, again compiled by DJ Andy Votel and two of the guys from Super Furry Animals. Lots of w's and y's in the artist and track names here, there's tunes from the the likes of Galwad Y Mynydd (also the subject of a separate reissue on Finders Keepers), Y Gwenwyn, YNhw, Y Tebot Piws, Chwys, Meic Stevens, Bran, Sidan, Morus Elfryn, Heather Jones, Edward H. Dafis, AD 73, Bara Menyn, Hergest, and more. No, we haven't heard of most of 'em either -- and the ones we do know, we probably heard first on the original Welsh Rare Beat. And while we'd rate that volume a little higher, there's treats galore here, from rustic acid folk to glammy rock to disco prog! Even a kids TV show character takes a stab at rock n' roll. All with a unique Cymaru bent, often with glorious traditional melodies woven through, and gentle voices singing in the slightly phlegmy and certainly indecipherable (to us) Welsh tongue. Informative liner notes are provided, though, to clue us to who these artists were and what they were on about.
MPEG Stream: ELERI LLWYD "Cariad Cyntaf"
MPEG Stream: SIDAN "Ar Goll"
MPEG Stream: CHWYS "Gwr Bonheddig"

V/A West Indies Funk Vol. 2 (Trans Air) lp 19.98

V/A What's The Rush, Time Machine Man? (Rev-Ola) cd 17.98

V/A What's Up Matador (Matador) 2cd 8.98
Twenty previously-unreleased songs from ALL your favorite Matador artists such as Pavement (doing "Killing Moon"), Jon Spencer Blues Atrocity, Silkworm, Yo La Tengo, Barbara Manning, Cat Power, Pizzicato 5, Bardo Pond, and GBV. CD version (only) comes with bonus disc with twenty tracks comprising someone's (very tasteful) idea of Matador's greatest hits. Priced to move!

V/A What's Up Matador (Matador) 2lp 10.98
Twenty previously-unreleased songs from ALL your favorite Matador artists such as Pavement (doing "Killing Moon"), Jon Spencer Blues Atrocity, Silkworm, Yo La Tengo, Barbara Manning, Cat Power, Pizzicato 5, Bardo Pond, and GBV. CD version (only) comes with bonus disc with twenty tracks comprising someone's (very tasteful) idea of Matador's greatest hits. Priced to move!

V/A What's Your Function? A Tribute To Franco Battiato (Sillyboy) cd 16.98
Even if this wasn't a Battiato tribute, it'd have a lot to recommend it in the line-up department, featuring as it does songs by Circle, Acid Mothers Temple, Hrvatski, Cul De Sac, Volcano the Bear, Kinski, Los Natas, Oneida and others! In fact, since most people probably haven't ever heard of the Italian songwriter Franco Battiato, the formidable array of modern-day psychedelic and avant-garde artists found here is the probably the main selling point. But if you don't know Battiato (but do know all those acts) presumably you're wondering about him. Basically, in the early '70s at the outset of his career, the Sicilian-born Battiato made experimental psych/prog records that some would consider as way-out and wonderful as anything achieved by a lot of the krautrock bands, like Faust, who are so much better known over here. From sound collage to repetitive minimalism, his albums were crammed with weirdness but also quite pleasant and melodic. Later on he apparently got a lot more commerical sounding and his popularity increased, so much so that many Italians might not really be aware of his early experiments. Our friend Loren Chasse, a Battiato fan, tells of how when he was in Italy this past summer playing some solo shows, he asked several Italians he met about Battiato and to his surprise was told that no-one much liked him, he wasn't considered cool at all, to them he was just a cheesy '80s pop star. However, as if to prove that there are Italians who appreciate Battiato (at least, his early works) comes this comp, put together by an Italian label and featuring both Jennifer Gentle and Zu from Italy alongside the aforementioned international cast of fans. And it of course features only songs from his prime, '70s period, with two or three tracks covered from each of his first four classic albums: Fetus, Pollution, Sulle Corde Di Aries and Clic. Weird, hard-to-grok stuff, but mellow and pretty nonetheless, plenty of good material for each of the bands here to take off from and make their own (some even pick the same songs, which is kind of interesting). So, no need to already be a Battiato fan to enjoy this, though you might become one as a result...
MPEG Stream: CUL DE SAC "Fenomenologia/Energia"
MPEG Stream: CIRCLE "No U Turn"
MPEG Stream: HRVATSKI "Plancton"

V/A When I'm Hungry I Eat (Gourmandizer) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A tasty pop collection. The menu features 31 entrees, such as Land of the Loops, Wrong, the Coctails, Low, Wham-O and other fine flavors.

V/A Where In The World Is Wendy Broccoli? - A Collection Of Out Of Print Flying Nun Singles 1981-1996 (Flying Nun) cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For a while, back in the nineties, AQ was THE place to get your underground New Zealand rock fix. Maybe one of the only stores in the US consistently singing the praises and slinging discs by the Tall Dwarves, the Cakekitchen, the Terminals, Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos, The Dead C, Bailter Space, Nigel Bunn, David Kilgour, The Clean, King Loser, The Great Unwashed, The Bats, Roy Montgomery, The Chills... and actually come to think of it, AQ is still that place, it's just that the landscape of the NZ underground has changed a bit, folks like Birchville Cat Motel, Omit, Pumice, The Dead C (still!), Peter Wright, Antony Milton, Brothers Of The Occult Sisterhood, Armpit, Black Boned Angel, Dean Roberts, The Futurians and loads more are now the ones making waves all over the world. The names may be different, and the sounds too, but the current crop owe a huge debt to those that came before, and the sound and energy of those legendary NZ bands most definitely live on through this new blood.
Every time we'd get a new disc from one of those modern NZ outfits, some part of us would begin hankering to hear some of the old shit, but it's been practically impossible to track any of it down, Flying Nun, THE New Zealand label, was still around and releasing records, but seemed to only exist within the confines of NZ itself. But finally after months and months of emailing we managed to find someone who would and could sell us Flying Nun stuff. Our box of NZ goodies finally showed up and we were transported right back to that NZ indie rock heyday, we've been blasting the Chills and Bailter Space, Chris Knox and Toy Love, The Gordons and David Kilgour... but most exciting of all, we were able to get two compilations we'd been hearing about but had been unable to get until now. One is the 25th anniversary Flying Nun 4cd box set, super expensive, but well worth it, we'll try to list it some day, although we do have a few (at the time of writing this review) if you're interested, the other is Where In The World Is Wendy Broccoli, a completely kick ass and mind blowing collection of long out of print 7" singles, released between 1981 and 1996, when Flying Nun were releasing all sorts of crazy cool weirdness on vinyl...
Not sure who Wendy Broccoli is, judging from the liner notes, it seems like maybe she was a Flying Nun A+R person, but it hardly matters, the important thing is, this collection is a knockout. A great overview of the label and the scene, from indie pop jangle to murky grungy free rock and pretty much every stop in between. Like most scenes, there were a handful of key players, NZ was no different, lots of names you would probably recognize: Roy Montgomery, Peter Stapleton, Robert Scott, David Mitchell, Peter Jefferies, David Kilgour, Denise Roughan, Chris Knox, Shayne Carter, Chris Heazlewood and a handful of others, who beyond recording in their own bands and under their own names, would often pair up or group together for one off recordings, single albums or even just a 7" single, that sort of freedom, and the ability to record a track or two and see it actually released, resulted in one of the most vibrant and varied scenes EVER. And the proof is right here...
The mopey, slowcore jangle of Rik Starrr, the cinematic countrified twang of the Renderers, the bass heavy new wave-y gloom of Pin Group, the murky Spacemen 3 like jams of Sssf, the glimmering indie K Records style soft indie pop of The Magick Heads, the minor key melodic pop dirge of Queen Meanie Puss, the gothy dreamy downer murk of The Children's Hour (sounding quite a bit like Joy Division or Interpol), the tripped out space rock of Celia Mancini, the fuzzed out female surf rock of 25 Cents (covering a Sonics classic), that unmistakable Chris Knox lo-fi perfect pop, and that's just a handful of the twenty tracks here.
Definitely one of our favorite 'new' comps of the last little while (it actually came out in 2005), and it's done exactly what great compilations are meant to, acting not only as the perfect mix, but also getting us all riled up to hear some of our old NZ faves (most of which sound just as good today as they did back in the day!!). SO RECOMMENDED!
MPEG Stream: PIN GROUP "Ambivalence"
MPEG Stream: SSSF "Catface"
MPEG Stream: DIMMER "Dawn's Coming In"
MPEG Stream: CHRIS KNOX "Under The Influence"

V/A White Lace & Strange: It's All Gone Heavy Over There (Psychic Circle) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Damn. Bevis Frond fan or not, you've gotta be impressed with Bevis's Nick Saloman's new career as the curator of kick-ass comps for the Psychic Circle label. We've already highlighted one of 'em recently, the On The Brink collection of instrumental swingin' psych groovers. Also reviewed this list: the fine British popsike comp Fairytales Can Come True. But this one might just be our favorite so far, seeing as how we're all into the early proto-metal HEAVINESS thing. "Heavy Psych And Power Fuzz From The USA 68-72" is the mouth-watering subtitle here. Sounds right up our alley, and it is.
Saloman must have a heckuva record collection. Taking a look at this disc's track list, we only recognized a few of the twenty bands/songs: Thunder & Roses, The Power Of Zeus, Banchee, Road, Fields... that's about it. And we figured if the unknown others were half as good as we knew those to be, we were in for a treat. Well such is the case, for the most part!! Saloman has dug up some beauts, plenty of ultra-rare, fuzzed-out examples of greasy garage muscle, freaky hairy funk, and Purple Hazey proto-metal riff rockin' from all over the US of A that are making our day in a big way. It starts off strong (and stays that way) with the wailing acid rock guitar and equally wailing vocals of "Penetration" by Detroit outfit Third Power. Next up, this comp takes its name from the contribution by Philly's Thunder & Roses, a very Cream-y track that was later covered by Nirvana (whose punked-out version was a worthy tribute). We also hear from Detroit's The Power Of Zeus, with their stone classic "It Couldn't Be Me" that hiphop headz might recognize as having been sampled on an Obie Trice track. LA's Road, featuring former Hendrix bassist Noel Redding, sound very Captain Beyond on their "Spaceship Earth". And then there's the Zeppish "Steel Dog Man" by a Boston outfit saddled with the unfortunate name Brother Fox And The Tar Baby (can't see 'em hitting the stadiums with that handle). In fact, names might be what held a bunch of these bands back, like The Lemonade Charade and The Yellow Payges, ferinstance. Hardly indicative of the long haired biker badassitude and Hendrix/Steppenwolf/Yardbirds worship found here in abundance. This comp also proves that said badassitude can coexist with some groovy horns on occasion, no problem.
For the record, here's the names of the other bands appearing here that we don't have room to discuss individually: The Hook, Blue Mountain Eagle, Genesis, The Illinois Speed Press, Eden's Children, T.I.M.E., Underbeat, The Uniques, and The Fort Mudge Memorial Dump! And yes, the cd booklet includes notes from NS on each track. Oh and for those heavy psych devotees keeping up / keeping score, you might want to know, is this as good as that excellent Psychedelic Minds Vol. 1 comp from last year on World In Sound? Yes, yes indeed.
MPEG Stream: THE POWER OF ZEUS "It Couldn't Be Me"
MPEG Stream: GENESIS "Angeline"
MPEG Stream: LINCOLN STREET EXIT "Time Has Come, Gonna Die"

V/A Who Is Dr. Who (RPM) cd 16.98

V/A Who Needs Tomorrow? (Psychic Circle) cd 16.98
Psychic Circle is rapidly becoming our favorite compilations label for '60s psych (and related genres). Can't go too wrong with any of the discs we've stocked so far -- On The Brink, White Lace And Strange, A Visit To The Space Ship Factory, Fairytales Can Come True -- and this one's a winner too. Compiled by Nick Saloman of Bevis Frond fame, a bloke whose record collection is probably more impressive than yours (certainly beats any of us!) as far as '60s rarities goes, there's 20 "nuggets" here from almost no one we'd ever heard of before. The theme this time is American (and Canadian) sixties garage bands and that covers a broad scope of song stylin's -- flowery psych to folky pop to frat house stompers -- so it's a varied comp as regards the music, but not in terms of quality, which is uniformly right on. We'd say what really ties all this together, is that when you hear these tracks, you'll wonder why you'd never heard 'em before, 'cause many should be minor classics. And we guess they are, forgotten classics we can thank Mr. Saloman for turning us all on to. And you really probably have never heard them, 'cause when Saloman sez they're "previously uncomped" we're pretty sure he knows what he's talking about. Our favorite among these would have to be the stark drama of Simon T. Stokes' "Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction" but that's not the only gem to be found here, from The Love Society's fairly heavy version of "Tobacco Road" to Kinetic Energy's moody "Margaret Ann" to the groovy "Cloud 76" by Peck's Bad Boys, among selections from other artists including: Randy Johnson, The Love Society, The Liberty Bells, The Great Train Robbery, The Will-O-Bees, The Yankee Dollar, The Lords Of T.O.N.K., Merrell Fankhauser & HMS Bounty, The 13th Precinct, The Countdown Five, The British Walkers, The Moanin' Glories, Cast Of Thousands, Kin Vassy, The Good Feeling, and The Blue Things.
Oh and of course, the cd booklet is full of text, graphics, and photos to help these tracks to be a little bit less obscure than they otherwise would...
MPEG Stream: SIMON T. STOKES "Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction"
MPEG Stream: THE SILVER BYKE "Who Needs Tomorrow"
MPEG Stream: THE YANKEE DOLLAR "City Sidewalks"

V/A Who Will Buy (These Wonderful Evils) (Dolores / Virgin Sweden) 2cd 28.00
One disc old Swedish bands (like Charlie and Esdor), one disc new (like Dungen). Cool!!

V/A Who Will Buy (These Wonderful Evils) Vol. III (Dolores / Virgin Sweden) cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Psychedelic Swedish obscurity n' awesomeness from the late '60s and early-to-mid '70s, yeah!! 18 rare tracks from 18 long-forgotten (but oh-so-good) bands are compiled on this, the third volume in a series that has yet to peak. Basically if you like fuzz groovers and wild freakbeat rockers, you've come to the right place. Likewise, from bluesy stomp to folky harmonies, vol. III has it covered. Melancholic psych-pop too -- check out the underground 1969 sounds of "Love Love Love" by a band appropriately named Drugs! Some of the '70s tracks verge on proto-metal, especially Bjorn Famne's "Vampire" (1975) which the liner notes rightly suggest sound like "the missing link between Led Zeppelin and the Jesus And Mary Chain", and Zane's garage-punk Sabbathy "Step Aside" (1976). Others tend towards manic progginess (the Ga Runt Show's big production "Bara Skrot" from '67 for instance). And all are pretty great! Here's the full list of bands, besides the ones mentioned above, for what it's worth: Scorpion, Uppat Vaggarna, Match, Red White & Blues, Fruit, Candle, Harambee, East-West, New Creation, Atlantic Ocean, The Junk's And the Angels, After Life, and Contact.
With interesting liner notes on each track, and cool, old-school collage-style psychedelic graphics incorporating original 45 sleeve artwork, we can only applaud the packaging job that the Dolores label has done on this comp (and previous volumes). Likewise we applaud the selection of music, it's like having an insane Swedish '60s record collector DJ'ing his most valued, mind-blowing, impossible-to-find psych treasures for you for a full hour...which is basically what this is, actually!
MPEG Stream: SCORPION "Sagitarius"
MPEG Stream: BJORN FAMNE "Vampire"
MPEG Stream: DRUGS "Love Love Love"

V/A Who Will Buy (These Wonderful Evils)? Vol II (Dolores / Virgin Sweden) cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Great title, great comp! 21 tracks from 18 Swedish (and some invading British) '60s garage/beat/psych acts you've probably never heard of before, but who all pretty much ruled... Volume I of this (a double disc set featuring both '60s bands and their modern day emulators) was so expensive we never listed it, but Volume II is maybe cheap enough for us to stock a few...even though it really ain't cheap. Then again, try trying to track down the original 7" vinyl versions of all this tuneage! Anyway, this is one of those rare comps without a duff track really, for those into those '60s sounds. If you've got a Nuggets box set ('specially the second, internationally-oriented one) then you are a likely candidate to enjoy this. Bands include: Cheers, The Stringtones, Evil Eyes, Kings, Mascots, Iveys (not the pre-Badfinger Iveys), Vat 66, Les Fleurs, The Best, Bella And Me, The Mixers, Attractions, 14, Darling, Zoom, Ackes, Members Blues Band, and the Flying Dutchmen. Groovily graphically presented, with liner notes by expert Stefan Kery of the Subliminal Sounds label, whose own retro garage band in the '80s -- The Stomachmouths -- were certainly influenced by the some of the bands found here. If this sells, maybe we'll see about getting Vol. I back in stock... Warning for iPod'ers, cd burners and filesharers: this cd is supposedly equipped with some kind of sucky copy control technology thanks to the corporate powers that be at Virgin Sweden. That better mean all these bands are getting paid for this, eh?!
MPEG Stream: THE STRINGTONES "Don't Run And Hide"
MPEG Stream: 14 "Drizzle"

V/A Wierd Compilation Volume Two (Wierd Records) 4lp 39.00
Two NYC labels - Minimal Wave and Wierd Records - have been at the forefront in energizing a resurgence in minimally sculpted synth pop that harkens back to the late '70s and early '80s of synthpunk, darkwave, and industrial sensibilities. Where Minimal Wave's focus has been on digging up the lost gems from that seminal time period, Wierd actively supports those working in the field today, with a weekly club in New York and with well-curated albums including recent releases from Xeno & Oaklander and Led Er Est. Back in 2006, Wierd released a massive 3lp set, showcasing some of the best and brightest who had passed through their doors. That first set was a magnificent find, filled with misanthropes in black leather making dirge-crusted ambience, grinding dark-disco anthems, and sexy goth electronics sporting uncanny melodies. Unfortunately that set is currently out of print, although we're hoping to secure some copies anyway.
This, the second set, was completed at the end of 2008 and took a slightly different approach than the first, as the curatorial direction was clearly to dovetail Wierd's tastemaking aesthetic of coldwave synth pop with the perpetually moving US underground of noise-induced powerdroning. In many ways, what Wierd was doing in this compilation parallels what Carlos Giffoni has been doing with his No Fun Festivals, but from the other end of the spectrum.
So what you get here is a beautifully packaged collection that brackets a darkly propulsive synth-pop number with an abrasive noise-drone piece, with the linking factor being that all of the sounds have been made on analogue synths. Xeno & Oaklander, Martial Canterel, Three To Forgotten, Tobias Bernstrup, and Epee Du Bois belong to the former camp; and Demons (featuring Nate Young of Wolf Eyes fame), Envenomist, Cadaver In Drag, and even the aforementioned Mr. Giffoni represent the latter. Sleep Museum, Charlie Draheim, and Wave Tank seem to be the artists that do their part to marry the two, especially Draheim's piercing synth Leather Nun-ish anti-tune "Guts On The Dancefloor." Oh yeah, all the tracks here are exclusive to the compilation. Great. Great. Great.
MPEG Stream: ENVENOMIST "A Vague Disquiet"
MPEG Stream: DEMONS "Sick By Water"
MPEG Stream: VENDOME "Lightwave Emissions"
MPEG Stream: MARTIAL CANTEREL "Pathway Splits Apart"
MPEG Stream: TOBIAS BERNSTRUP "Enemies Of The Earth"

V/A Wig In A Box (Off Records) cd 14.98
Gonna just quote the press-sheet here: "Off Records and the two creators of Hedwig and the Angry Inch rounded up an ... all-star cast including Yoko Ono with Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinney with Fred Schneider, Jonathan Richman, Robyn Hitchcock, Rufus Wainwright, The Breeders and many others, to participate in a Hedwig-themed charity album for the Harvey Milk School in NYC."

V/A Wild Dub (Select Cuts) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Subtitled "Dread Meets Punk Rocker Downtown" this is a brilliant collection of dubbed out and reggaefied punk and new wave b-sides circa '77-'81, demonstrating the Jamaican dub influence on the youth culture of music and rebellion in England and elsewhere, back in the day. The underground dancefloor avantgardists of today can cop these styles, but this is the real deal, with tracks from well-known acts like The Pop Group, Killing Joke, The Slits, PIL, The Clash, Grace Jones and Stiff Little Fingers, plus some more obscure bands as well, like Red Beat, 4 Be 2, and Basement 5. Some cuts are actual echoey dubs, others are more about the Jamaican influence, and the dub concept of studio as instrument. All are pretty cool.
The Ruts' "Jah War" starts things off in deceptively ordinary fashion, pretty much straight up reggae (not a dub), though it does succesfully demonstrate this comp's thesis regarding the influence of reggae on punk (with The Ruts eventually becoming Ruts DC, subject of an anthology on Select Cuts we recommended a while back)... That's followed by Mikey Dread's dub version of The Clash's "Bank Robber" which of course sounds pretty much like The Clash, but dubbier. It's with track three, "Wild Dub" from Generation X, purportedly the first punk dub ever cut, that the punk-dub collision starts to get really interesting. And if Billy Idol's old band's dub attempt is cool, you can only imagine what more some of the more out-there groups came up with. For instance, dig the bizarre sounds of The Slits, whose disjointed dub of "Typical Girls" comes off like Italian 'rock concrete' deconstructionists Starfuckers by way of Jamaica, all cut-up and sparse and loopy. Definitely a highlight. Meanwhile, you've got The Pop Group setting an example for current acts like Out Hud/!!! to emulate, 4 Be 2's weird Irish hoedown skank, the throbbing "Turn To Red" by Killing Joke (from a super-rare 9" record), and Grace Jones' 1980 Chrissie Hynde penned dance classic "Private Life" with bass and drums from Sly & Robbie. And more... Former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten is a ubiquitous presence, in addition to PIL's quintessential "Death Disco", there's a bunch of other John Lydon productions on here, including a great track from Vivien Goldman ("Private Armies") dubbed up by Lydon and Adrian Sherwood. Goldman, former singer with the Flying Lizards and reggae writer for the punk weekly Sounds, contributes the disc's liner notes, with an enthusiastic, informed, she-was-there-then-and-cares-deeply-about-it-now perspective. So, totally, recommended -- everyone who loved those great Disco Not Disco and/or In The Beginning There Was Rhythm compilations will want to check this out for sure!
MPEG Stream: KILLING JOKE "Turn to Red"
MPEG Stream: THE SLITS "Typical Girls (Brink Style Dub)"
MPEG Stream: VIVIEN GOLDMAN "Private Agents (dub)"
MPEG Stream: GRACE JONES "Private Life (Dub)"

V/A Wild Dub (Select Cuts) 2lp 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Subtitled "Dread Meets Punk Rocker Downtown" this is a brilliant collection of dubbed out and reggaefied punk and new wave b-sides circa '77-'81, demonstrating the Jamaican dub influence on the youth culture of music and rebellion in England and elsewhere, back in the day. The underground dancefloor avantgardists of today can cop these styles, but this is the real deal, with tracks from well-known acts like The Pop Group, Killing Joke, The Slits, PIL, The Clash, Grace Jones and Stiff Little Fingers, plus some more obscure bands as well, like Red Beat, 4 Be 2, and Basement 5. Some cuts are actual echoey dubs, others are more about the Jamaican influence, and the dub concept of studio as instrument. All are pretty cool.
The Ruts' "Jah War" starts things off in deceptively ordinary fashion, pretty much straight up reggae (not a dub), though it does succesfully demonstrate this comp's thesis about the regarding the influence of reggae on punk (with The Ruts eventually becoming Ruts DC, subject of an anthology on Select Cuts we recommended a while back)... That's followed by Mikey Dread's dub version of The Clash's "Bank Robber" which of course sounds pretty much like The Clash, but dubbier. It's with track three, "Wild Dub" from Generation X, purportedly the first punk dub ever cut, that the punk-dub collision starts to get really interesting. And if Billy Idol's old band's dub attempt is cool, you can only imagine what more some of the more out-there groups came up with. For instance, dig the bizarre sounds of The Slits, whose disjointed dub of "Typical Girls" comes off like Italian 'rock concrete' deconstructionists Starfuckers by way of Jamaica, all cut-up and sparse and loopy. Definitely a highlight. Meanwhile, you've got The Pop Group setting an example for current acts like Out Hud/!!! to emulate, 4 Be 2's weird Irish hoedown skank, the throbbing "Turn To Red" by Killing Joke (from a super-rare 9" record), and Grace Jones' 1980 Chrissie Hynde penned dance classic "Private Life" with bass and drums from Sly & Robbie. And more... Former Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten is a ubiquitous presence, in addition to PIL's "Death Disco", there's a bunch of other John Lydon productions on here, including a great track from Vivien Goldman ("Private Armies") dubbed up by Lydon and Adrian Sherwood. Goldman, former singer with the Flying Lizards and reggae writer for the punk weekly Sounds, contributes the disc's liner notes, with an enthusiastic, informed, she-was-there-then-and-cares-deeply-about-it-now perspective. So, totally, recommended -- everyone who loved those great Disco Not Disco and/or In The Beginning There Was Rhythm compilations will want to check this out for sure!

V/A Willow Songs (Finders Keepers) cd 17.98
The original Wicker Man movie has got to be one of our all time favorite films as well as pretty much one of our all time favorite soundtracks. The movie falls into an elusive subgenre of psych-folk films like The Ballad of Tam-Lin, or Herzog's Heart of Glass, that mix pre-Christian folkloric musical elements and themes with a modern or counter-cultural revivalism often with darkly beautiful and sometimes terrifying results. There is no doubt that the Wicker Man as both a film and soundtrack was a key touchstone in the recent freak-folk movement. That the songs featured on that soundtrack with all their barely concealed bawdyness and lyrical waxing of the cycles of nature, sexuality and death were actually based on traditional British folk music is at this point no surprise either. Finder's Keepers does a lovely job here collecting much of the traditional material that formed the basis for the songs performed in the Wicker Man movie. Although the most remembered song from that movie, "Willow's Song" was not traditionally based, it's the song that let us into the perverse mysticism of the movie's characters and made us pay attention to the duplicitous meanings found in the traditional material. Here, that song is represented by a beautiful instrumental version taken from the original soundtrack recordings but not featured on the actual soundtrack release. The cd also features traditional versions of "Corn Rigs", based on a Robert Burns poem, "Gently, Johnny", the Maypole song "Rattlin' Bog", and "Highland Lament", as well as children's songs and instrumental jigs.
MPEG Stream: "Highland Lament"
MPEG Stream: "Gently Johnny, My Jingalo"
MPEG Stream: "Willow's Song (Instrumental)"
MPEG Stream: "Willy O'Winsbury"

V/A Willow Songs (Finders Keepers) 2lp 27.00
NOW ON (IMPORT) VINYL!
The original Wicker Man movie has got to be one of our all time favorite films as well as pretty much one of our all time favorite soundtracks. The movie falls into an elusive subgenre of psych-folk films like The Ballad of Tam-Lin, or Herzog's Heart of Glass, that mix pre-Christian folkloric musical elements and themes with a modern or counter-cultural revivalism often with darkly beautiful and sometimes terrifying results. There is no doubt that the Wicker Man as both a film and soundtrack was a key touchstone in the recent freak-folk movement. That the songs featured on that soundtrack with all their barely concealed bawdyness and lyrical waxing of the cycles of nature, sexuality and death were actually based on traditional British folk music is at this point no surprise either. Finder's Keepers does a lovely job here collecting much of the traditional material that formed the basis for the songs performed in the Wicker Man movie. Although the most remembered song from that movie, "Willow's Song" was not traditionally based, it's the song that let us into the perverse mysticism of the movie's characters and made us pay attention to the duplicitous meanings found in the traditional material. Here, that song is represented by a beautiful instrumental version taken from the original soundtrack recordings but not featured on the actual soundtrack release. The cd also features traditional versions of "Corn Rigs", based on a Robert Burns poem, "Gently, Johnny", the Maypole song "Rattlin' Bog", and "Highland Lament", as well as children's songs and instrumental jigs.
MPEG Stream: "Highland Lament"
MPEG Stream: "Gently Johnny, My Jingalo"
MPEG Stream: "Willow's Song (Instrumental)"
MPEG Stream: "Willy O'Winsbury"

V/A Windswept Trees And Houses (Jewelled Antler) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Essentially, "Windswept Trees And Houses" is a Jewelled Antler Collective primer. The Jewelled Antler Collective (Loren Chasse, Glenn Donaldson, Jason Honea, Steven R. Smith and Rob Reger) rotate through a number of wholly unique manifestations of psychedelic improv in Thuja, Blithe Sons, Child Readers, Knit Separates, and The Skygreen Leopards. With all of those outfits present, this album encapsulates the Jewelled Antler ethos in parallel with a handful of like minded artists who share their host's metaphysical glee and earnest investigations into the mysterious. Amongst the guests on "Windswept Trees And Houses" include the amazing film / installation collaboration Silt who has recently been awarded with a showcase at the 2002 Whitney Biennial, offering a very nice piece of ephemeral vocal incantations swathed in Zoviet France delay tricks. There's also New Zealand's Entlang (featuring members of Dress and Garbage From The Flowers) presenting a disjointed track of avant-hillbilly strum. But the highlight of the compilation is The Billy Crosby's whose stunning cover of Current 93's "The Signs Of Emptiness" sublimely matches a warbling Appalachian finger picking with a rough-hewn male / female vocal duet.
While most compilations suffer from poor throw-away tracks, "Windswept Trees And Houses" is a great listen throughout, and certainly gets a strong recommendation as with the rest of the Jewelled Antler releases.
RealAudio clip: THUJA "Pity Drain The Sea"
RealAudio clip: ROB EUGENE REGER "Intruder"
RealAudio clip: THE BILLY CROSBY'S "The Signs Of Emptiness"
RealAudio clip: SILT "Sail Reticulum"

V/A Wiretap Music Presents: Covers (Wiretap) 2cd 12.98
San Francisco comp featuring lots of cool melodic indie rock. One disc is bands doing originals while the other disc has them all covering each other. Features folks like French Miama, The Lovely Public, 60 Watt Kid, Tartufi, Little Teeth, Pidgeon, Excuses For Skipping, and lots more.
MPEG Stream: FRENCH MIAMI "Mr. Moment"
MPEG Stream: THE LOVELY PUBLIC "Delicious Surprise Kisses"
MPEG Stream: 60 WATT KID "Mr. Moment"

V/A With A Bow - A Benefit For Disaster Relief In Japan (Kitten Charmer) cd 9.98

V/A With The Sun In My Eyes: 20 Psychedelic Spins (Psychic Circle) cd 16.98

V/A Wizzz! (Musiques Hybrides) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This peppy French compilation is so good. So stylistic and classy, people in the store took notice immediatley when I put it on. The songs are fast and a bit psychedelic. There're silly backup vocals and sexy girl voices throughout. The years span 1966-1971, which were rumoured to be musically uninspired years in France. This is a handful of the the best France had to offer, which I find lovely. Total cocktail party music, but in a good way, not all lounge nation.
RealAudio clip: CHARLOTTE LESLIE "Les Filles C'est Fait"
RealAudio clip: LES FLEURS DE PAVOT "A Degager"

V/A World Of The Zombies, The (Popllama) cd 13.98
A fabulous tribute compilation to one of the all-time great pop bands! Released back in '94, it features some of the Pacific Northwest's finest (yet many sadly now disbanded) popsters in prime form: Young Fresh Fellows, Zumpano, Fastbacks, Sneetches, Flop, Model Rockets, and Posies.
Sooo gooood!

V/A World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's A Real Thing - The Sounds Of West Africa (Stones Throw / Luaka Bop) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on vinyl!! Minus two of the 12 tracks on the cd (they didn't have space for Manu Dibango and Gasper Lawai, unfortunately)...
What we said about the cd, a recent Record Of The Week: It's hard to argue with this one. Indeed, we're gonna do quite the opposite and make it a Record Of The Week! This collection, the third in the World Psychedelic Classics series on Luaka Bop (David Byrne's "world music" label), after an Os Mutantes collection and that incredible Shuggie Otis album, is further subtitled: "The Funky, Fuzzy Sounds Of West Africa". Stress on the funk we thinks. Yup, authentic '70s West African funk with a 'delic bent. Really really hard stuff not to like.
The dozen tracks here have got it all: Afro-centric chants, polyrhythmic percussion, James Brown style raspy yelps, wicked organ workouts, and even hard wah-wah acid fuzz jams (Ofo & The Black Company's bad-ass "Allah Wakbarr" is about the last word in that department, though we'd like to hear more). Though some come closer to the compilers' stated concept than others, all the tracks are winners, from the moody, marimba-based soundtrack theme of Manu Dibango's "Ceddo End Title" to the Cuban stylings of No. 1 de No. 1's "Guajira Van" to the percolating political space-funk of William Onyeabor's "Better Change Your Mind". And Alison simply says that "Ifa" by Tunji Oyelana and the Benders is her favorite. Probably because it sets itself apart from the other tracks by utilizing a more scrappy electronic sound to back its stripped-down politically-bent Afro-pop-style lyricism.
All the tracks come from the decade of the '70s, and the bands that recorded them hail from the West African countries of Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Gambia, Benin, and Nigeria (but only two tracks overlap with the now-out-of-print 3cd Nigeria 70 compilation). And we think the compliers did a damn fine job, though it seems any survey of West African psych shoulda included a track by Blo, the closest thing to Cream the continent produced as far as we know. Ah well... we can hope for a second volume someday perhaps. Meanwhile, anyone who digs James Brown, Fela, Funkadelic, Orchestra Baobab, or more recent AQ reviewees Konono No. 1 and Black Merda, for instance, will certainly find that love IS a real thing when it comes to how you're gonna feel about this compilation!!
The liner notes go on about the psychedelic aspect of these bands, and while this stuff is definitely far out and groovy it's way more James Brown than brown acid. Mention of Haight-Ashbury seems a stretch, and the music of these bands has got as much or more to do with their motherland than, say, the generally more Western-derived psych we've heard from Thailand, Cambodia, or Turkey on various other comps we've carried. Then again, when you look at rock music influencing African music, you've got a full-circle phenomenon to examine. And when we reviewed the (currently unavailable) Love Peace & Poetry: African Psychedelic Music compiliation some months back, the stuff on this new comp is exactly what we felt was missing and should have been included.
In any case, proper psych or not, and with or without much fuzz, this is definitely FUNKY.
MPEG Stream: SUPER EAGLES "Love's A Real Thing"
MPEG Stream: OFO & THE BLACK COMPANY "Allah Wakbarr"
MPEG Stream: ""

V/A Woronzow: Like It? It's Yours (Woronzow) cd 9.98
Budget-priced full length comp from the Bevis Frond's label, with contributions from Bevis, Green Pajamas, TOm Rapp, Country Joe McDonald and more.

V/A Xmas Marks the Spot (Rykodisc) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Well, we usually don't stock up on Christmas music very much but every year we highlight one album we especially like (that's not counting the classics: Ella, Fahey, Esquivel, and Charlie Brown). Earlier this year Ryko released an especially appealing compilation of unexpected, but all consistently lovely, versions of holiday classics: Arthur Lyman, eccentric Bahamanian folk singer (and AQ-fave) Joseph Spence, Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses, Marta Sebestyen, and Big Star (doing "Jesus Christ"). Very highly recommended.

V/A Yellow Pills: Prefill (Numero Group) 2cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Although we're currently havin' a nice warm, sunny spell here in SF this week, let's not fool ourselves... summer's still months away! But before we bemoan that fact, let's give ourselves a dose of Yellow Pills. It's a pair of cds potent enough to trigger their own summer spell or at least give the gloomy grey days a hearty kick in the pants. This is as 'feel good' as music can get! An over-the-top mix of bubblegum and power pop (with some glam rock thrown in there for good measure) circa '78-'82, deeply influenced by the Beach Boys, the Shoes, the Rasberries, the Beatles, E.L.O., Badfinger, the Nazz, Sweet and all of those other seminal practitioners of power pop. This is totally for you if you dig Redd Kross and Silver Sun or if you just love your pop powerful, and your punk poppy. Released on that cool label Numero Group who recently gave us those two brilliant Eccentric Soul compilations. Liner notes by power pop afficianado Jordan Oakes who published the pop fanzine Yellow Pills where this comp got its name (he also chose the bands!!). A totally brilliant collection of perfect power pop, which is definitely saying something as no one here had heard of a single one of these bands!
MPEG Stream: LUXURY "Green Hearts"
MPEG Stream: TWEEDS "I Need That Record"
MPEG Stream: COLORS "All I Want"

V/A You Can Never Go Fast Enough (Plain) cd 14.98
Now here's a nice idea for a tribute, and so lovingly executed to boot. Berkeley resident Filippo Salvadori so loved the cult film Two Lane Blacktop that he had always searched out the soundtrack to this "definitive road movie", only to find one had never been released. So this man of gumption put together his own, commissioning brand new songs from Sonic Youth (gorgeous, echoey soundscape), Will Oldham & Alan Licht, Calexico, Alvarius B, Steffan Basho Junghans, Mark Eitzel & Marc Capelle (doing a totally outta left field throbbing electronic thing), Giant Sand, Charalambides, Roy Montgomery (avec drum machine!) and more. He also got busy licensing previously released tracks from classic solo guitarist Sandy Bull, Village Voice crit faves Wilco, high lonesome Roscoe Holcomb, Leadbelly, and Cat Power (doing "I Can't Get No Satisfaction").
The only low point is the Oldham / Licht track which is weighed down with a sadly unevocative spoken narrative. But the rest of this comp is quite good -- ranging from dusty instrumentals to walls of gentle noise.
RealAudio clip: SANDY BULL "Little Maggie"
RealAudio clip: GIANT SAND "Vanishing Point"

V/A You Can Never Go Fast Enough (Plain) 2lp 15.98
Now here's a nice idea for a tribute, and so lovingly executed to boot. Berkeley resident Filippo Salvadori so loved the cult film Two Lane Blacktop that he had always searched out the soundtrack to this "definitive road movie", only to find one had never been released. So this man of gumption put together his own, commissioning brand new songs from Sonic Youth (gorgeous, echoey soundscape), Will Oldham & Alan Licht, Calexico, Alvarius B, Steffan Basho Junghans, Mark Eitzel & Marc Capelle (doing a totally outta left field throbbing electronic thing), Giant Sand, Charalambides, Roy Montgomery (avec drum machine!) and more. He also got busy licensing previously released tracks from classic solo guitarist Sandy Bull, Village Voice crit faves Wilco, high lonesome Roscoe Holcomb, Leadbelly, and Cat Power (doing "I Can't Get No Satisfaction").
The only low point is the Oldham / Licht track which is weighed down with a sadly unevocative spoken narrative. But the rest of this comp is quite good -- ranging from dusty instrumentals to walls of gentle noise.

V/A You Can't Always Listen To Hausmusik, But... (Hausmusik) 2lp+book 36.00
This is a super elaborate tribute to one of our favorite labels, Germany's Hausmusik label. Just have a quick gander at some of the records they've released: Village Of Savoonga, Cakekitchen, Notwist, Lali Puna, Fred Is Dead, Alles We Gross, Calexico, Smog, Palace, and loads more, as well as one of our favorite compilations EVER: The Day My Favorite Insect Died. Always mysterious and amazing. Often in some deluxe sort of packaging. And thus we have "You Can't Always Listen To Hausmusik, But...", a 2lp collection of some of Hausmusik's brightest and best, loveliest and strangest. But there's more to it than that. The massive book includes fourteen writers paired up together to write short stories, each starting with the same sentence, each story started by one writer and finished by another, exquisite corpse style. The music was approcahed the same way, with one band supplying raw material, with another band crafting the material into a song. Pairings include Calexico / Notwist, Console / Loopspool, Sodastream / Ms. John Soda, Villaage Of Savoonga / Jersey, Fonoda / Deaf Center, Squares On Both Sides / Village Of Savoonga, Fred Is Dead / Couch, A Million Mercies / Calexico and a bunch more. Packaged in a thick, gorgeously printed book-like gatefold sleeve, with a huge build in pocket to hold the book, eighty pages, perfect bound, tons of art, some of it full color, unfortunately all the text and stories is in German, but it hardly matters. An amazing tribute to an amazing label.

V/A You Can't Always Listen To Hausmusik, But... (Hausmusik) cd+book 36.00
This is a super elaborate tribute to one of our favorite labels, Germany's Hausmusik label. Just have a quick gander at some of the records they've released: Village Of Savoonga, Cakekitchen, Notwist, Lali Puna, Fred Is Dead, Alles We Gross, Calexico, Smog, Palace, and loads more, as well as one of our favorite compilations EVER: The Day My Favorite Insect Died. Always mysterious and amazing. Often in some deluxe sort of packaging. And thus we have "You Can't Always Listen To Hausmusik, But...", a 2lp collection of some of Hausmusik's brightest and best, loveliest and strangest. But there's more to it than that. The massive book includes fourteen writers paired up together to write short stories, each starting with the same sentence, each story started by one writer and finished by another, exquisite corpse style. The music was approached the same way, with one band supplying raw material, with another band crafting the material into a song. Pairings include Calexico / Notwist, Console / Loopspool, Sodastream / Ms. John Soda, Village Of Savoonga / Jersey, Fonoda / Deaf Center, Squares On Both Sides / Village Of Savoonga, Fred Is Dead / Couch, A Million Mercies / Calexico and a bunch more. The cds come packaged in a thick, gorgeously printed book, eighty pages, perfect bound, tons of art, some of it full color, unfortunately all the text and stories is in German, but it hardly matters. An amazing tribute to an amazing label.
MPEG Stream: DEAF CENTER /CARLO FASHION "The Norwegians Gave Me A F#"
MPEG Stream: CALEXICO / THE NOTWIST "Careless"
MPEG Stream: SQUARES ON BOTH SIDES / VILLAGE OF SAVOONGA "Chromatographer"

V/A You Don't Need Darkness To Do What You Think Is Right (Geographic) cd 13.98
Do you like the sweet, drowsy pop sounds of groups such as The Pastels? If your answer is an emphatically murmurred "yes", boy, have we got THE compilation for you! Released on Stephen Pastel's own label, it consists completely of very like-minded, like-sounding artists, most of whom have full lengths already available on Geographic. Although we kinda grimaced at the Bill Wells Octet song - due to our mild aversion to the very "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" whistling and la la la's - the rest of the songs here are delightfully light and dreamy. Some strummy acoustic, some sparkling electronic. Includes The Pastels' cover of Sly & The Family Stone's "Everybody Is A Star" as well as tracks by fellow Scots Appendix Out, Future Pilot AKA, and International Airport (featuring members of The Pastels and Appendix Out), the Japanese folk-psych of Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Nagisa Ni Te, and My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields plus the debut of Sister Vanilla (Ms Linda Reid and her brothers Jim and William... that's right, the Jesus & Mary Chain boys).
P.S. Buyer beware: You might be tempted to get this only for the Kevin Shields track, his first in umpteen years, but unfrotunately it's not impressive at all, and it's also short. The reason to get this is for all the other artists on this great label.
RealAudio clip: PASTELS "Everybody Is A Star"
RealAudio clip: SISTER VANILLA "Pastel Blue "

V/A You Gotta Get More Alive - A 555 Recordings Compilation (555) cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A pretty outstanding collection of unreleased material showcasing the talents at 555 - included are Third Eye Foundation, Hood (whose previous work did nothing for me, but here have presented a free-floating spaced-out song as good as Crescent or Movietone), The Remote Viewer (delicate IDM melodies and skittering digital beats), Empress (lush beautiful slow-core like Low or Codeine), and more!

V/A You're Soaking In It ... The Sounds and Smells of Load Records (Load) 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 very affordable introduction to bands on and related to Load records. The 21 cut compilation features AQ favorites like Brainbombs, Men's Recovery Project and Olneyville Sound System.

V/A You've Got Your Orders - Volume 1 (Chrome Peeler) cd 11.98
Kind of a weird concept for a compilation. Track titles were sent out to a handful of artists who then wrote songs based on or influenced by those titles. One quibble though. A lot of the song titles are really kind of dumb and joke-y: "Tickle Party #2", "Gameshow Contestant Flip-Out", "Not Enough Crayons For Everyone", "Sign Language Tourettes", "Hot Licks For Shredders", etc. Definitely the result of an evening of "You know what would make a funny song title?" and perhaps some serious drinking. That said, there are some pretty cool tracks on here. House Of Low Culture contribute a freaked out drone-y dirge, Mark Arm gives us an ultra lo-fi drum machine metal guitar organ dirge sounding like a teenage Mudhoney practicing in your basement, Godstomper thrash through their 30 second track with a bass that sounds like a washing machine and carboard box drums, and Hella do their hyper spastic cartoon metal blur. The bands that are instrumental fare way better than the rest, since they aren't forced to come up with lyrics for "Dance Of The Drunken Siberian" or "Smut Merchant Of Venice", which in a way is kind of a drag as I think we would have been way more intrigued by artists forced to actually come up with intense serious songs based on concepts not their own, instead of just coming up with noisy funny craziness. But maybe that's for a different compilation. Also features Nels Cline, Bluebird, Twink, Weasel Walter, Bliss Blood, Beehive And The Barracudas and more!
MPEG Stream: HOUSE OF LOW CULTURE "Showtime At The Apollo 9"
MPEG Stream: MARK ARM "Coke Limo"
MPEG Stream: HELLA "Dance Of The Drunken Siberian"

V/A Ze 30: Records Story 1979-2009 (Strut) cd 15.98
The seminal New York label at the forefront of the collision between disco and punk turns 30 this year, and the Strut label has compiled a great compilation to celebrate. Strut has already dipped into the vast Ze records catalog for their Disco Not Disco series of compilations and with the Ze reissues of the Mutant Disco and N.Y. No Wave comps, Strut can be forgiven for not making a "Best of" collection. Instead Strut focusses on some of the labels not so well known gems. Tracks by label underdogs Michael Dracula, Casino Music, Garcons and Sympho State are mixed with obscurities by label mainstays, Christina, Lizzie Mercier Descloux, Kid Creole, Suicide, and James Chance and The Contortions (not doing "Contort Yourself" for a change!) among others. A fine compilation for freaky left-field disco connoisseurs! Happy Birthday Ze!!!
MPEG Stream: WAS (NOT WAS) "Tell Me What I'm Dreaming"
MPEG Stream: CHRISTINA "Things Fall Apart"
MPEG Stream: LIZZIE MERCIER DESCLOUX "Hard-Boiled Babe"
MPEG Stream: SUICIDE "Dream Baby Dream (Long Version)"

V/A Zigzag (RPM) cd 16.98
Allan's been wanting to review this for while, it's not new or anything (it came out in 2003 and the music on it is much older than that) but he got a copy a few months ago and just fell in love with it... Rather surprising to him, really, since this is a compilation of soft rock tunes! "20 Junkshop Soft Rock Singles from 1970-1974" to be precise. In the same series with the ever-popular Velvet Tinmine glam rock comp, this disc takes a look at a different aspect of the UK '70s pop scene. The realm of the sensitive singer-songwriter. If you're not British (and of a certain age?) chances are you've probably never heard any of these singles before. Some were one hit wonders, some from folks with lengthy careers... but none of 'em probably got much play, if any at all, this side of the pond. Though, they maybe could've. I mean, the twenty tracks collected here kinda *sound* like '70s hits by the likes of Elton John, CSNY, or Billy Joel in his piano man days, without actually being songs that you've heard 1000 times already.
You've heard of Tim Rose and Leo Sayer, perhaps. And Neil MacArthur turns out to be an commercially ill-advised alias for Colin Blunstone from the Zombies. But Laurie Styvers? Ewan Stephens? Ray Fenwick? The Startedt Brothers? Curtiss Maldoon? Clifford T. Ward? Not ringing a lot of bells. Maybe if we read more Mojo mag. But all of 'em, one-offs or not, are making me nostaglic for an UK radio childhood I never had. Loads of lush mini-epics arranged for strings and piano and voices both gentle and strong... melancholic and nostalgic themselves. From the haunting, majestic "El Doomo" by obscure Roger Daltrey produced classic rockers Ellis to the very Don Maclean -esque "Chinese Restaurant" by the Startedt Brothers to the Bob Dylan stylings of Ewan Stephens, everything on here is pretty darn enjoyable if you're in the mood -- and mood is what this certainly sets. Thoroughly annnotated, and nicely presented with a '70s graphic flair inspired by a UK pop magzine of the era called Zigzag -- hence the title as well!
MPEG Stream: BRIAN PROTHEROE "Pinball"
MPEG Stream: ELLIS "El Doomo"
MPEG Stream: LURIE STYVERS "Beat The Reaper"

V/A Zulu Stomp!! South African Garage Beats!! (Nosmoke) cd 25.00
There was a time when the idea of a record like this would blow our minds. "There was crazy psychedelic garage rock in South Africa in the fifties and sixties?" But by now, we're sort of spoiled, by the hundreds of world music reissue labels, not to mention the thousands of lost gems and rare records of all stripes from all over the world. So yeah, the fact that this record exists is not hugely surprising, but we are pretty thrilled that it's so good. That all these bands in white South Africa, still under Apartheid, emulating groups like The Beatles and Bill Hailey And The Comets, could come up with stuff this buzzy and psychedelic and super rocking. The root of the music on display here is definitely the early rock and roll we're so familiar with, but the bands here are fierce, the guitars buzz, the drums pound, even the simplest songs are transformed into barnstormers, almost uniformly these groups are characterized by super blown out, ultra distorted guitars, fuzzed out organs, and super intense yowled vocals.
Freedom's Children's cover of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" is the perfect example. Covered probably thousands of times, it's barely recognizable here, until the vocals kick in, starting with a super distorted stop start intro, then some fuzzy psych leads over a dense groove, the verses are clipped and strangely arranged, with almost a new melody, played by a jagged guitar, the chorus too is drenched in distorted guitar, so goddamn good we almost forget that we're sick of that song. And the originals hold up just as well, the A-Cads, The Upsetters, John E. Sharpe & The Squires, The Bats, Finders Keepers, killer grooves, wild and rocking, loose and groovy and freaked out and frenzied, catchy as all hell and completely as good as if not better than the bands they were trying to sound like. Very few bands we'd ever heard of, but all of them kicking or asses. Maybe one of our favorite international garage rock reissues yet. Includes extensive liner notes, on the songs, the bands, and the political and social climate in South Africa at the time, and what part rebellious revolutionary music played.
MPEG Stream: A-CADS "Watch Yourself"
MPEG Stream: UPSETTERS "Daddy Rolling Stone"
MPEG Stream: FREEDOM'S CHILDREN "Satisfaction"
MPEG Stream: JOHN E. SHARPE & THE SQUIRES "LSD"
MPEG Stream: RONNIE SINGER "I Want You"

V/A Zulu Stomp!! South African Garage Beats!! (Nosmoke) lp 32.00
There was a time when the idea of a record like this would blow our minds. "There was crazy psychedelic garage rock in South Africa in the fifties and sixties?" But by now, we're sort of spoiled, by the hundreds of world music reissue labels, not to mention the thousands of lost gems and rare records of all stripes from all over the world. So yeah, the fact that this record exists is not hugely surprising, but we are pretty thrilled that it's so good. That all these bands in white South Africa, still under Apartheid, emulating groups like The Beatles and Bill Hailey And The Comets, could come up with stuff this buzzy and psychedelic and super rocking. The root of the music on display here is definitely the early rock and roll we're so familiar with, but the bands here are fierce, the guitars buzz, the drums pound, even the simplest songs are transformed into barnstormers, almost uniformly these groups are characterized by super blown out, ultra distorted guitars, fuzzed out organs, and super intense yowled vocals.
Freedom's Children's cover of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" is the perfect example. Covered probably thousands of times, it's barely recognizable here, until the vocals kick in, starting with a super distorted stop start intro, then some fuzzy psych leads over a dense groove, the verses are clipped and strangely arranged, with almost a new melody, played by a jagged guitar, the chorus too is drenched in distorted guitar, so goddamn good we almost forget that we're sick of that song. And the originals hold up just as well, the A-Cads, The Upsetters, John E. Sharpe & The Squires, The Bats, Finders Keepers, killer grooves, wild and rocking, loose and groovy and freaked out and frenzied, catchy as all hell and completely as good as if not better than the bands they were trying to sound like. Very few bands we'd ever heard of, but all of them kicking or asses. Maybe one of our favorite international garage rock reissues yet. Includes extensive liner notes, on the songs, the bands, and the political and social climate in South Africa at the time, and what part rebellious revolutionary music played.
MPEG Stream: A-CADS "Watch Yourself"
MPEG Stream: UPSETTERS "Daddy Rolling Stone"
MPEG Stream: FREEDOM'S CHILDREN "Satisfaction"
MPEG Stream: JOHN E. SHARPE & THE SQUIRES "LSD"
MPEG Stream: RONNIE SINGER "I Want You"

V/A Zum #10 magazine+cd 10.98
George and Yvonne Chen's first issue with a cd! Features interviews with Built to Spill, DEVO, Joan of Arc and Snuff, as well as reviews, comics, video game emulation and Asian cult restaurants. The CD's got exclusive unreleased tracks by Boyracer, Bunnygrunt, Cars Get Crushed, Cole, Danger G20, The Great Brain, June of 44, Kublai Khan, Lullaby for the Working Class, Lustre King, Raymond Brake, Retriever, Strictly Ballroom, Sweep the Leg Johnny, Transitional, Tullycraft and Vehicle Flips.

V/A Zum Audio Volume Three (Zum) cd 11.98
The latest cd release from this stalwart Bay Area indie label and webzine features much more blistering and caustic music than their last compilation did back in 1998. The focus in the first half is squarely on noisy dissonance. Lots of experimental blasts and occasional propulsive no wave-iness from the likes of Channel 3 And 4, Beak Full Of Rubies, Coughs, Child Abuse, John Weise, Silver Daggers and Lakes. Then at the eighth track the sonic storm suddenly eases to a considerably more subdued drizzle with TG's gently plucked "La Nuit Version" and Hut's droney pulse and percussion track "Camp Along Young Oxen". Antifamily brings the energy level back up with their angular "Rome Is Not A City", and from there the comp is mixed (albeit like-minded) bag that includes more familiar faces Deerhoof, KIT, Stefan Udell, Yellow Swans and Axolotl. 23 track total.
MPEG Stream: HUTS "Camp Along Young Oxen"
MPEG Stream: WE QUIT "Bones"
MPEG Stream: AXOLOTL "Legs, Shouts"

V/A (ALUK TODOLO / NIGHTBRINGER / NIHIL NOCTURNE / SATURNALIA TEMPLE) On The Powers Of The Sphinx (Ajna) cd 9.98
FINALLY AVAILABLE ON CD!! Thanks Ajna! Here's what we said about the long out of print vinyl version when it came out back in 2010...
We'd been hearing about this record for a while, a very unlikely gathering of four black metal or tangentially black metal outfits, including two of our favorites, alchemical post rockers Aluk Todolo, and spaced out psychedelic black metal outronauts Nightbringer, along with Nihil Nocturne and Saturnalia Temple. And while all four bands explore dramatically different sonic territories, the disparate sounds and philosophies seem to merge into one mysterious and abstract whole.
Saturnalia Temple start things off in a decidedly UN black metal fashion, thick lugubrious riffs, spacey and druggy and woozy and sprawling, laced with soft psychedelic leads. Very early Earth sounding, until the riffs begin to gather momentum and take shape, and then suddenly it sounds like Kyuss at 16 rpm, some sort of sun baked desert rock, slooowed waaaaaay doooooown, lysergic and hazy, a sort of blackened and metalized slow blues, that just crawls and creeps until the drums finally kick in, and then it's some stoner doom, but with the groove dialed way down, a trancelike churn, peppered with bits of minor key melody and deep chanted monklike vocals.
Nightbringer step up, and explode in frenzy of whirling spaced out blackness, soaring frantic riffs, blasting black beats, the sound more astral and celestial than grim and frosty, the track constantly shifting, from lightning speed blast to warped midtempo moodiness, wild leads tangled up everywhere, haunting chanted vox, totally majestic and epic, even at its doomiest, the sound transcends, the guitars stratospheric, the arrangements lush and sprawling, a total heart of the black sun blast of galactic black bliss.
Nihil Nocturne offer up yet another black facet, theirs a midtempo blackness, dirgey and Burzumy, with just a little groove, giving their track a very Khold like vibe, a sort of modern Moonfog band feel, but with a surprising twist, the track shifting abruptly, into something much more abstract and un-metal, with glimmering clean guitars, electronic rhythms, the stereo super panned, the sounds swooping from ear to ear, speaker to speaker, major key melodies, until a super creepy processed voice begins to intone ominously, and the track begins again, a black metal Godspeed slow build epic, finally finishing off with a frenzied chaotic climax.
And finally the mighty Aluk Todolo, who do their own thing, and manage to evoke as much mood and mystery as any of the other bands, even working with a WAY more stripped down and minimal sound, that sort of post noise dark rock kraut drone they seem to have conjured in some strange ritual, and the sounds is indeed ritualistic, but also utterly hypnotic, and mesmerizing, all motorik rhythms, simple serpentine basslines, clouds of keening feedback, and abstract guitar crunch, swirls of effects, drifting fragmented melodies, but the drums driving everything, holding it all together, loose and tight at the same time, locked in, but drifting occasionally. Can, Faust, This Heat, German Oak, not black metal, not even remotely, maybe it's the vibe, or the mood, or the band pedigree, but it hardly matters, this is blackened and heavy totally enthralling dark and mysterious minimal hypno rock and it RULES.
MPEG Stream: SATURNALIA TEMPLE "To Know"
MPEG Stream: NIGHTBRINGER "To Will"
MPEG Stream: ALUK TODOLO "To Keep Silent"

V/A (ALUK TODOLO / NIGHTBRINGER / NIHIL NOCTURNE / SATURNALIA TEMPLE) On The Powers Of The Sphinx (Ajna) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We'd been hearing about this lp for a while, a very unlikely gathering of four black metal or tangentially black metal outfits, including two of our favorites, alchemical post rockers Aluk Todolo, and spaced out psychedelic black metal outronauts Nightbringer, along with Nihil Nocturne and Saturnalia Temple. And while all four bands explore dramatically different sonic territories, the disparate sounds and philosophies seem to merge into one mysterious and abstract whole.
Saturnalia Temple start things off in a decidedly UN black metal fashion, thick lugubrious riffs, spacey and druggy and woozy and sprawling, laced with soft psychedelic leads. Very early Earth sounding, until the riffs begin to gather momentum and take shape, and then suddenly it sounds like Kyuss at 16 rpm, some sort of sun baked desert rock, slooowed waaaaaay doooooown, lysergic and hazy, a sort of blackened and metalized slow blues, that just crawls and creeps until the drums finally kick in, and then it's some stoner doom, but with the groove dialed way down, a trancelike churn, peppered with bits of minor key melody and deep chanted monklike vocals.
Nightbringer step up, and explode in frenzy of whirling spaced out blackness, soaring frantic riffs, blasting black beats, the sound more astral and celestial than grim and frosty, the track constantly shifting, from lightning speed blast to warped midtempo moodiness, wild leads tangled up everywhere, haunting chanted vox, totally majestic and epic, even at its doomiest, the sound transcends, the guitars stratospheric, the arrangements lush and sprawling, a total heart of the black sun blast of galactic black bliss.
Nihil Nocturne offer up yet another black facet, theirs a midtempo blackness, digey and Burzumy, with just a little groove, giving their track a very Khold like vibe, a sort of modern Moonfog band feel, but with a surprising twist, the track shifting abruptly, into something much more abstract and un-metal, with glimmering clean guitars, electronic rhythms, the stereo super panned, the sounds swooping from ear to ear, speaker to speaker, major key melodies, until a super creepy processed voice begins to intone ominously, and the track begins again, a black metal Godspeed slow build epic, finally finishing off with a frenzied chaotic climax.
And finally the mighty Aluk Todolo, who do their own thing, and manage to evoke as much mood and mystery as any of the other bands, even working with a WAY more stripped down and minimal sound, that sort of post noise dark rock kraut drone they seem to have conjured in some strange ritual, and the sounds is indeed ritualistic, but also utterly hypnotic, and mesmerizing, all motorik rhythms, simple serpentine basslines, clouds of keening feedback, and abstract guitar crunch, swirls of effects, drifting fragmented melodies, but the drums driving everything, holding it all together, loose and tight at the same time, locked in, but drifting occasionally. Can, Faust, This Heat, German Oak, not black metal, not even remotely, maybe it's the vibe, or the mood, or the band pedigree, but it hardly matters, this is blackened and heavy totally enthralling dark and mysterious minimal hypno rock and it RULES.
Gorgeous packaging, super striking artwork and a massive 12 page 12" x 12" booklet, and yeah, SUPER LIMITED.