SETE, BOLA Ocean Memories (Samba Moon) 2cd 18.98
"Long overdue CD reissue of one of the seminal solo guitar albums -- in any genre -- ever recorded. Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete (Djalma de Andrade) settled on the West Coast in 1959. Throughout the '60s he toured widely with various jazz artists and recorded for such labels as Verve, ABC-Paramount, Fantasy and Columbia. In 1972 he recorded Ocean, a departure so far afield from anything else he'd ever done that Fantasy declined to issue it. In 1975 Fahey purchased the tapes and issued the album on his Takoma label. A second volume drawn from the same sessions was planned but it never materialized. Ocean Memories (issued by Bola's widow, Anne Sete) restores to print the complete Takoma album (CD 1) and the eight previously unissued songs that would have comprised Ocean II (CD 2). I could listen to this music forever -- it's deathless, perfect, ecstatic. It's interesting to compare how different Bola is from Baden Powell and some of his more technically accomplished Brazilian brothers: he's more of a sensualist, a fantasist, and he's looser -- more rock 'n' roll." -- Glenn Jones. The following is a quote from an article John Fahey wrote about Bola Sete in 1976: ""Few living people have had such an enormous influence on my life, my music, my soul, my religion -- you name it -- as has Bola Sete. I first saw him playing -- solo -- in early 1972 at David Allen's Boarding House in San Francisco. That night, I was high on drugs as I had been for several years, and -- as also had been the case for years -- I felt that I was one isolated example of an experimental species that God had forgotten about (I was wrong here). I felt I had been -- and was still -- walking and talking among shadows: 'People' who had no depth, who were not related to themselves, did not know anything about themselves -- endless, phony, shadow-people. And I was one of them. Bola played for about 45 minutes and grimaced and grunted through the whole set. Something was wrong. He couldn't 'get it out.' I knew how he felt, and I understood. Something was wrong. I was intrigued by his obvious frustration having felt that way myself almost all my life. The performance had been mediocre so far. However, the audience gave him a long ovation, and he reluctantly got up and started to play an encore, still looking frustrated, impotent, mad, seething. I knew that feeling well. But then suddenly he got hot. He got so cooking, he played song after song for another 45 minutes, forgetting (or not caring) that he was doing an encore, playing many of the same songs he had just played. My first impression that night, as I told a friend at the time, was this: Here is a man who has lived through hell and somehow miraculously got out of it. I went back to the Boarding House several times that week. I found that Bola's sets have an interesting 'plot.' They all begin and end with songs whose emotional contour is pretty, happy, light, peaceful, or ecstatic. But after the first two or three songs, the terrain gets rougher and darker, heavier and weirder. By the middle of his set, Bola is giving you pictures of hell, memories of perdition, demonic music. But then Bola gradually lightens up the spectrum of feeling and leads you out of the cave and into the sunlight, and life is paradise. Only now, one is so changed that one is temporarily aware that life really is paradise after all, the world is an ocean, etc. It is like a breath from the 19th Century or before; a breeze from times when people had passion and significance and were not mere shadows. It is as though something has finally changed. I talked to Bola's wife (I was too shaken to speak to him at the time). 'How does he keep from going crazy,' I asked her, 'when he has so much energy and tension? You can hear it in his music -- a lot of passion and tension. How did he get out of hell?' ('How can I get out of hell?' That's what I really wanted to know.) His music is so good it's eerie -- eerie because it comes from a different time, a different place, when men felt different things that we can no longer love or experience except as an echo or phantom in the best of art works. Most of Bola's music is eclectic and nongeneric. Take a song like 'Black Mommy.' Now, if you didn't know anything about Bola . . . what musical tradition, period, or era would you guess this song came from? Tasmania? Easter Island? Next door? It comes from everywhere and nowhere. The subconscious really is universal. Bola Sete's music is the best reminder of this that I have ever heard. He is a man of great spirit and great depth. Bola plays percussively, vertically, with a very heavy and insistent thumb. His playing is very masculine (the word is an anachronisism). He plays erratically and restlessly like Boll Weavil Jackson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, or Bill Monroe. But he also has inner peace and breadth . . . rhythm and dynamics are constantly changing. Bola's playing gives the impression (and like my playing it is a false impression) of being very improvisatory. His songs, on the other hand, tend to be very short and terse (unlike mine), without undue repetition. But like me, he tries to recreate each song each time he plays it, which is in effect to destroy it. . . . The only elements of a song, which change from one performance to the next, are the number of repetitions of each idea. The order of the ideas stays pretty much the same. But the speed and intensity at which they are played may vary; if Bola doesn't like the room he is playing in, or the people he is playing for, he tends to play lousy. I do the same. We both play the way we feel, but within a rigid structure. We play that way because we have to -- we can't do anything else. God help us." -- John Fahey, from the article "Bola Sete, The Nature of Infinity, And John Fahey," Guitar Player, Febuary 1976.

SETE, BOLA Shambhala Moon (Samba Moon) cd 14.98
Reissue of a 1985 recording by Brazilian new age / jazz guitarist Bola Sete. Pleasant soft fingerpicking. Plays well at those little tourist shops in sleepy beach communities. Produced by George Winston.
RealAudio clip: "The Sun Pours Through The Darkness Gently, Gently"

SETH Divine X (Osmose Productions) cd 14.98
I think French people have a different idea of what is scary. Take for example the French black metal band Seth. Makes you wonder if there are other French black metal bands called Todd, or Josh, or Erik, or Simon. Who knows? How about these song titles: 'Addicted To Psychotropic Angeldust' or 'Into The Spheres Of Spirtuality' or 'The Sons Of Seth'. Not so scary. But Seth do play some mean and -very- scary black metal. Fast and furious, with a really strange production (almost industrial at times) and some really weird playing/parts that make Seth stand out from their black metal contemporaries. Definitely fits comfortably next to your Immortal, Emperor, and Marduk records.
RealAudio clip: "Evil-X"
RealAudio clip: "The Sons Of Seth"

SETHERIAL Death Triumphant (Candlelight) cd 12.98

MPEG Stream: "The Limbo Of Insanity"
MPEG Stream: "Death Triumphant"

SETHERIAL Endtime Divine (Regain) cd 12.98

MPEG Stream: "Crimson Manifestation"
MPEG Stream: "The Underworld"

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) cd 26.00

SEVEN THAT SPELLS + KAWABATA MAKOTO Cosmoerotic Dialogue With Lucifer (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 17.98

SEVEN THAT SPELLS + MAKOTO KAWABATA The Men from Dystopia (Beta-Lactam Ring) cd 16.98
*Acid Mothers Temple Alert*
Seven That Spells is a psych rock outfit from Croatia. But they sound a heckuva lot like Japanese kraut-channellers Acid Mothers Temple. And guess what? They've got AMT guitar guru Makoto Kawabata on hand as a special guest! He obviously feels right at home jamming with these Croatian freaks, together stirring up billowing smoke-clouds of droning space rock, the babbled and chanted vocals giving this the feel of some sort of medieval folk ritual, zapped with swirling electronic FX. And when it comes time for the guitar solo (and that time comes often) Kawabata and co. hold nothin' back. Spaced OUUUUUUT maaaaaan.
Packaging is sorta swank: the cd rests on a foam numb affixed to the inside of a heavy-duty gatefold kind of sleeve, adorned with busty, naked hippie ladies (again, in the Acid Mothers Temple tradition!).
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 3"

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.

SEVERED HEADS Adenoids 1977-1985 (Vinyl On Demand) 5lp 149.00
Anyone familiar with the Vinyl On Demand label is probably well aware of how utterly amazing their releases are, how well researched, gorgeously packaged, and of course how limited and difficult to track down. We managed to get three titles, all of them amazing, we only have one copy of each, and wanted to give some of our mailorder folks a shot and snagging one of these. So a brief description follows, and we only have a single copy so first come first served.
Another collection of rarities unearthed by VoD, all of the earliest recorded material from the legendary Severed Heads, recorded between 1977 and 1981, as well as some unreleased bonus material from 83-85. Five lps, housed in printed hand numbered sleeves, pressed on thick vinyl, all in a gorgeous printed embossed box.
WE HAVE ONLY ONE COPY!!

SEX PISTOLS Never Mind The Filthy Lucre, Here's The... (Suck My Filthy Dot Com...) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"We Don't Care" The Sex Pistols in San Francisco Jan 14, 1978 a one hour special with highlights from the winterland concert (their final date) plus the KSAN Radio interview.
RealAudio clip: "Radio Interview"
RealAudio clip: "Pretty Vacant"

SEXSMITH, RON Blue Boy (Interscope / spinART) cd 15.98
If you have a particular penchant for balladry that has the power to move you to tears, please do yourself a favor and check out the wonderful Canadian singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith! Highly lauded by critics and notable fellow songwriters - Elvis Costello, John Hiatt and Paul McCartney to name a few - but criminally underappreciated on this side of the border. Often sounding as though he's on the brink of being crushed under the weight of his melancholia, he's reached his fifth finely crafted album of brooding sincerity. This time around, he's got Steve Earle in the producer's seat. Now, don't get me wrong, this music isn't a complete downer. No, not so! Tempo-wise, he does perk things up a bit from time to time - heck, some of the melodies are positively bouyant - but his low, plaintive vocals remain an anchor to the wistful woes. Mr. Sexsmith's composing pen has also been busy co-writing songs with the likes of Neko Case and Glenn Tilbrook (of Squeeze), performing duets with Ms Case and Jules Shear, and he's even had a song covered by... Rod Stewart! As we've mentioned before, definitely for fans of quality songwriting particularly that of Nick Drake, Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Buckley and maybe even a tad of Roy Orbison and Chet Baker.
RealAudio clip: "Foolproof"
RealAudio clip: "Thumbelina Farewell"

SEXSMITH, RON s/t (Interscope) cd 12.98
Canadian loner Ron Sexsmith is a master of the melancholic. Beautiful, subdued songs that'll leave you with a lingering cloud of woe. You may already know his voice from the songs he co-wrote and sang with Neko Case on her 'Furnace Room Lullaby' album. Definitely for extra-downer fans of Rufus Wainwright, Nick Drake or Jeff Buckley.

SEXTETO ELECTRONICA MODERNO Sounds From the Elegant World (Vampi Soul) cd 16.98
No, it's not a new Atom Heart release of drill & bass mambo-core, Sexteto Electronica Moderno were a Uruguayan group which recorded four albums between 1968 and 1972. The "Electronica" in their name most likely refers to the fact that they used heaping amounts of Hammond organ, electric guitars & bass and other electric instruments in their otherwise typically acoustic jazz instrument line up. All but the final number on this collection (a vocal number with lyrics sung in Spanish) are cool tropical jazz instrumentals and their sound fits snuggly betwixt the likes of Herb Alpert, Cal Tjader and Ethiopian groovemaster Mulatu Astatke with a dash of Les Paul-esque guitar (not Paul's double speed over-dubs mind you). This is an excellent pot-of-gold at the end of the rainbow for any seekers of rare exotica and 60's bachelor pad music. This collection is a best of, featuring tracks from the four albums the group produced in its career. Along with several originals are some great renditions of such classic numbers as Burt Bacharach's "The Look Of Love" and "I Say A Little Prayer", as well as Serge Gainsbourg's "Je T'aime, Moi Non Plus".
MPEG Stream: "Soul Nuevo"
MPEG Stream: "Simplemente Agradable"
MPEG Stream: "I Say A Little Prayer"

SF SEALS Truth Walks in Sleepy Shadows (Matador) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
New songs from Miss Barbara Manning and band. Features a Pretty Things and a Faust cover, plus Aquarius' own Cathy blowing bubbles on "Ladies of the Sea."

SF SEALS Truth Walks in Sleepy Shadows (Matador) lp 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
New songs from Miss Barbara Manning and band. Features a Pretty Things and a Faust cover, plus Aquarius' own Cathy blowing bubbles on "Ladies of the Sea."

SFERIC EXPERIMENT Eight Miles (Drunken Fish) cd 13.98
Bruce Russell says: "What ought to bother you is that on the evidence of the microscopic pits in this piece of metal foil you all damn near missed out on a Free jiz/pus extravaganza of earth beating proportions. The Sferics didn't rock, they were rock... Theirs was a tenuous balance of incompatible elements and unworkable ingredients that for a brief time in the year of our lord 1989 teetered its way into a few ears and onto some dodgy old cassettes in some battered shoeboxes." Kiwi chaos lovingly reisuued by fellow chainsmoker Darren at Drunken Fish.

SHABOTINSKI (b)ypass (k)ill (Plag Dich Nicht / Charhiszma) cd 16.98
Shabotinski is the oddball Viennese electronica work from Christoph Kurzmann (from Orchestra 33 1/3) and Dafeldecker. Oval like digital skittering produce subtle melodic episodes linking irony laden jazz-electronica-pop medleys ususally found on Cheap Records. The song fragments sound remarkably similar to the electronic facets of Six Finger Satellite, if they had a sultry trumpet player meandering over the post Kraftwerk / Section 25 drum machines.

SHABOTINSKI Stenimals (Plag Dich Nicht) cd 16.98
Working from a similar blueprint as Tortoise, Shabotinski uses the studio as an instrument to warp and mutate the basic rock/jazz structure. Yet, the dissonant grinding tones so familiar to Mego's brand of electronica saves this from sounding like Tortoise, their offshoots or their disciples.

SHACKAMAXON s/t (Hp Cycle) lp 15.98
Repressed and available again for a limited time!!
Okay 'new weird America' obsessives, drone nerds and limited vinyl fetishists... on your mark, get set, go! Vinyl only. Limited of course. We only have a handful, you know the drill. Features members of the Double Leopards and the Magic Markers. And to top it all off, it's actually also pretty darn great. Slowly drifting, warm murky ambience, the drone-y haze barely obscuring the moaning of distant feeding back guitars, simple atonal strumming, machine like creaks and simple muted percussion. All smeared into one fuzzy indistinct whole. Blurry guitars stretch into vast expanses of ambience and found sounds, eventually getting more active, scraping and squeaking, never enough to disrupt the droning dreaminess, while the original guitar seems to thicken and distort into a pulsing and throbbing slab of super thick drone. Nice!

SHACKLETON Three EPs (Perlon) cd 17.98
For the dubstep obsessed among us, especially those of us who aren't scouring DJ shops for white labels and limited 12"s, this collection is a godsend. Gathering up, as the title suggests, 3 eps from one of our favorite dubsteppers, Shackleton, who faithful aQ-ers probably remember from the Skull Disco collections, the Steppas' Delight comps and the recent split with Mordant Music. The music of Shackleton is not just your regular old dubstep, it's super lush and expansive, skittery and groovy, dark and haunting, and these jams are no different.
Spare and skeletal, yet impossibly full and dense, minimal on the melodies as well as the beats, these eps are super stripped down, even by Shackleton standards, these tracks are not as bass heavy as you might imagine, more light and ethereal, not light in spirit, but in sound, the vibe is still dark and mysterious.
The strange vocal snippets in "(No More) Negative Thoughts", the twisted woozy melodies and stuttery hand claps on "It's Time For Love", the cool tabla laced drift of "Mountains Of Ashes", the super dark and noisy droniness of "There's A Slow Train Coming", which is about as sinister as it gets here, the record is jam packed with cool stark beats, and all sorts of moody melody and bleak ambience, culminating in the closer "Something Has Got To Give", with it's chopped up vox, creepy processed laughter, koto style strings, shimmering minor key drones and the brittle barely there beat, it's almost like a dubstep soundtrack for a lost giallo, malevolent and cinematic and seriously sinister!
MPEG Stream: "(No More) Negative Thoughts"
MPEG Stream: "Mountains Of Ashes"
MPEG Stream: "Asha In The Tabernacle"

SHACKLETON / HEADHUNTERS / T++ The Unofficial Mixes Of Moderat Pt #1 (50 Weapons) 12" 14.98

SHADES OF BROWN S.O.B. (Dusty Groove) cd 13.98

RealAudio clip: "Lite Y'all Up"

SHADES OF JOY Music Of El Topo (Dagored) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another amazing artifact unearthed by Dagored, this time a lost classic from Shades of Joy, which on first glance appears to be the soundtrack to Alexander Jodorowsky's brilliant film El Topo, but is in fact music inspired by the film, and is meant to not only compliment the film but also Jodorowsky's larger artistic vision. Shades Of Joy is a massive 15 piece group who specialise in exactly what you would expect from a huge seventies psychedelic rock group: organ driven acid rock, with Santana like wah guitars and epic drug addled jams. As this is a sort-of-soundtrack, the sound shifts quite a bit, from the aforementioned acid rock, to schmaltzy easy listening to full on freaked out free-jazz fusion work outs to dark and dangerous funk, to the opener, a Morricone inspired mini-epic, all spanish guitars, flutes and trumpets. Really cool.

SHADOW HUNTAZ Valley Of The Shadows / Corrupt Data - Instrumentals (Skam) 2cd 19.98
One of our favorite modern electronic hip hop outfits offer up a super limited double disc instrumental version of both their previous albums.
Shadow Huntaz are the ultimate crazy crew of brain melting tongue twisting outer space hip hop visionaries. Disconnected rhymes, sputtering, glitched out beats, total mind melting confusional free funk freakouts. For a while there, Antipop Consortium were pushing the envelope, Anticon definitely had their own avant angle. But we had been hankering for someone like Kool Keith. Paging Dr. Octagon. We wanted some damaged stuttery beats, warped warbly synths and fuzzy glitched out grzzzzt. Most importantly, some maddening slurred, drug drenched, space age, conspiracy theory WHATTHEFUCK flows. Maybe that's why we've been leaning toward Grime so much lately. It just feels so much more dangerous and fucked up and unconcerned with hip hop convention. But now we've got the Shadowhuntaz. A rogue band of futuristic hip hop explorers, who mix the perplexing sci fi / high as fuck mush mouthed ramblings of Dr. Octagon with the glitched out hip hopped electronic squelch and thud, skitter and skid, slowed down IDM beatscapes of Antipop (they are on Skam after all) into a fucking killer trip hop skittery groove. On this double disc instrumental collection, the vocal tracks are stripped away allowing us to focus on the truly visionary sounds and HOLY FUCK, we didn't think we could dig this stuff any more but we do!!! The beats, hiccup and slither, bounce and bump, the music is a claustrophobic swirl of haunting loops, weird industrial clatter, moaning drones, and all sorts of production fuckery, effects swirl and shift, little vocal snippets are chopped and looped, skipping samples, warm washes of ambient whir. Phew! Plus there's some totally fucked up scratching, little snatches of DJ freakout, but those scratchfests are run through the Shadowhuntaz supercomputer and spit out the other side a careening chaotic crush of chopped up, impossibly complex textural collages of scratch detritus, like they dropped 3 or 4 DJ's, wildly scratching and tearing shit up, into a huge blender, and then sprayed the resulting funk flecked gore funk all over these tracks.
Funky, fucked up, freaked out, cool and creepy and quite possibly contender for INSTRUMENTAL hip hop record of the year!
Packaged Skam style in a clear jewel case with no artwork and a Braille sticker along the spine!
MPEG Stream: "2020 (Instrumental)"
MPEG Stream: "Massive (Instrumental)"

SHADOW DRIFTER Ol White (PlusTapes) cassette 5.50
For the latest PlusTapes release, the mysteriously monikered Shadow Drifter (aka James Probiega, aka Little Howlin' Wolf) offers three versions of this long form slomo folk-blues epic , "Ol White" recorded at various times between 1968 and 2002. The longest version clocks in at 17 minutes while the shortest hovers around 12. Recorded with just guitar and harmonica and the Drifter's deep slow free associating drawl, he draws upon Greek myths, life on the fringes and other odd bits of tall tale and surreal wordplay. Also included are two versions of "Wooly of The Wild" recorded at different times and one other beautifully haunting track titled "Rose of Silence". Weirdo Americana indeed!
LIMITED AS ALWAYS TO 100 COPIES!!

SHADOW HUNTAZ Corrupt Data (Skam) cd 15.98
Not sure what it is about the Shadow Huntaz that made them a likely addition to the Skam roster, who have been known pretty much exclusively for techno and IDM, but here we have their first proper hip hop record, and it's actually pretty fucking great. It's maybe not the IDM/hip hop hybrid you might expect, no drum and bass or ambient glitch or any of that business, just fierce dark classic hip hop. They do have a super high teck sheen, a paranoid vibe that definitely references their Skam labelmates, but overall this is just crunchy, gritty wicked hip hop, with occasional electronic flourishes and a whiny flow somewhere between Anticon whine and Cannibal Ox growl.
MPEG Stream: "CDC"
MPEG Stream: "Figure Of Speech"

SHADOW RING Hold Onto Ld. (Siltbreeze) 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 scatological display of detuned guitar, broken piano, and arrhythmic percussion. To call this an acoustic Nurse With Wound may not do it justice, but sheds some light on the psychosis of these Brits. Recommended for the abject!

SHADOW RING I'm Some Songs lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SHADOW RING Lighthouse (Swill Radio) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As with each Shadow Ring record, the sound (it's questionable to call them songs) presents itself with a smug difficulty. Piercing feedback, detuned guitars, and sputtering percussive elements strive to meet their free noise counterparts of the Dead C or Skullflower, but are drawn b

SHADOW RING Lindus (Anti Naturals) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SHADOW RING Wax-Work Echoes (Corpus Hermeticum) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
New Zealand import of this strange, delicate, noisy English band's debut cd.

SHADOW RING, THE Life Review (1993-2003) (KYE) 2cd 29.00
The Shadow Ring were a deliberately odd British trio, beginning in 1993, releasing a handful of improbably compelling records for Corpus Hermeticum, Siltbreeze, Swill Radio and their own Dry Leaf Discs, and then terminating the project a decade later for reasons unknown. So much of what The Shadow Ring offer just should not work: comedically sloppy lullabies played on toy instruments, atonal squeals from cheap electronics, and rhythms banged on tin cans and xylophones. Yet, their persistence at methodically fucking up the simplest of melodies not only became an instant signature sound, it also became a metaphor for a dour, anti-social discomfort which also featured heavily in the lyrics from alternating vocalists Graham Lambkin and Darren Harris. Lambkin's voice is somewhat musical in nature, wrapping around the tinny stringed melodies as a counterpoint; but Harris, on the other hand, employs a commanding bellow which he wields with the urgent rhetorical flourish of a BBC announcer reading off obituaries, but with a snide delivery as if he loathed each person who had died. While Lambkin may have been more of the musical anti-genius of the two, Harris has the voice that reaches out to grab you by the ears. Lyrically, the Shadow Ring coupled the abject and the mundane, with rats, bottom-feeding shrimp, lice, and wasps all playing heavily into the convoluted poetics of their very English dourness. Life Review is a retrospective culled from their eight albums, handful of singles, and archive of unreleased material, including one mighty odd re-interpretation of Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive." Revisting The Shadow Ring has been a very worthwhile experience for all of us here at Aquarius, conjuring thoughts of Jandek and The Shaggs working together through the Current 93 back catalogue. Brilliantly fucked up.
MPEG Stream: "Tiny Creatures"
MPEG Stream: "Horse Meat Cakes"
MPEG Stream: "Prawnography"
MPEG Stream: "Stella Drive (Live)"

SHADOW, DJ Best Of Mo' Wax 12's: The DJ Shadow Collection (Mo Wax) cd 17.98
A nice reminder of why we love DJ Shadow comes in the form of this best of Mo' Wax Singles compilation that culls together all of his groundbreaking early sides and remixes that put the London-based label on the map. Spanning the years 1993-2000, some of the tracks are alternative versions of material from Endtroducing, and Pre-emptive Strike but also included are the Dark Days Soundtrack single and a handful of remixes, among them Depeche Mode, Folk Implosion, Massive Attack, and Blackalicious. It's cool to have all these tracks compiled together, sort of like a beloved old friend we haven't seen in ages.
MPEG Stream: "High Noon"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Days"
MPEG Stream: "Natural One (Folk Implosion Remix)"

SHADOW, DJ Dark Days (MCA) 7" 2.99
THIS 7" FORMAT IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Short (and cheap) single with two versions of a piece composed for the documentary Dark Days (about subway dwellers in NYC). Shadow wisely keeps turntablist showboating out of it, as this is, after all, soundtrack music. Downbeat and mellow with lazy blues guitar. Quietly impressive scratching, and on the second track is some vocal snippets presumably from one of the homeless subjects of the film. Nice, if brief!

SHADOW, DJ Dark Days (MCA) cdsingle 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Short (and cheap) single with two versions of a piece composed for the documentary Dark Days (about subway dwellers in NYC). Shadow wisely keeps turntablist showboating out of it, as this is, after all, soundtrack music. Downbeat and mellow with lazy blues guitar. Quietly impressive scratching, and on the second track are some vocal snippets presumably from one of the homeless subjects of the film. Nice, if brief!
RealAudio clip: "Dark Days"

SHADOW, DJ Diminishing Returns 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
ATTENTION SHADOW FANS! You know you need this! Two massive mixes (2+ hours) and a brand new track! Not sure how long we'll have these so act fast. Disc one is a massive 80 minute mix that was originally aired on BBC Radio-1 on March 29th 2003 and is a seamless, fun and funky mix of obscure old school (and old school sounding) hip hop. So good. Summer-time-top-down-booming-system mix of the year! Disc two has a 40 minute mix that is more sort of soul and R+B and croon-y weirdness, and features the brand new Shadow track 'War Is Hell', that sounds like an Endtroducing outtake, but with chugging metal riffs!!! Like we said, not sure how long these will be available so first come first serve.
MPEG Stream: "Mix Two (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Mix Two (excerpt 2)"
MPEG Stream: "War Is Hell"

SHADOW, DJ Endtroducing (MoWax) cd 14.98
Amazing.

SHADOW, DJ Endtroducing - Deluxe Edition (Universal) 2cd 30.00
Believe it or not, one of our fave albums and all-time best sellers, Josh "DJ Shadow" Davis' seminal Endtroducing debut, currently only has a one-word review on our website. Certainly it deserves more than that. Although, at least the word we chose is "amazing". The album's original release on MoWax in 1996 (almost ten years ago!!) more or less predated our obsessive reviewing schedule, so like quite a few other classics it never got its multi-paragraph due on our new arrivals list. And chances are, we figured that listing it our our site with the simple "amazing" recommendation was enough, 'cause it's hard to imagine that everyone hadn't heard of/heard/bought a copy by now. But since, after all, we still sell it steadily, clearly there must be those as yet to discover it. Now, with the release of a double disc digipack "deluxe" edition in a plastic slipcase (a treatment afforded by the same label to the likes of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, by the way, making this something of an honor for DJ Shadow!), we have the perfect excuse to basically take a few hundred words to say "amazing" again! Shadow's masterpiece (disc one, "The Album") is a brillant example of hip hop DJ-as-composer, sample-based songwriting, a mostly instrumental suite of songs built entirely from sounds, hooks and grooves sourced from the depths of Shadow's extensive record collection. He didn't invent the idea, of course, but he did do it better than almost anyone before (or after!) him, garnering for himself worldwide fame and heaps of deserved critical praise.
And even if you scratch (heh) your head when we talk about turntablists and sampling, rest assured that, process aside, this is a great album that transcends genre tags and easy categorization. It's dark, dramatic, bright, hip-hop, soul, and jazz. It is very accessible. Shadow picked cool samples (like the Pugh Rogefeldt bit that helped us sell a ton of reissued cds by that particular Swedish '60s psych-folkster so recently) AND also turned these samples utterly into his own, new music. Music that's groovy and moody and challenging, never all that easy to figure out, and not at all about turntablist hi-jinx or trickery, just about careful listening and the love of all kinds of old LPs!! Cut Chemist, in the liner notes, is quoted as calling DJ Shadow "The King Of Digging" and vinyl collecting/crate digging for sure is celebrated by Endtroducing, from the famous cover shot of the racks in the vast Sacramento shop simply called Records to the grooves reborn within. As Shadow himself put it: "this album reflects a lifetime of vinyl culture". He never topped it (opinions here were mixed about his many-years-later follow-up The Private Press in 2002) and probably never will. Not that anyone else has either! So if you don't have it already, what the heck are you waiting for? And to further underscore the point that this a great and important album, we're told that there's a book in the 33 1/3 Series coming out about it soon too!
Then there's disc two, what (aside from the packaging, which includes a booket of photos, essays, and track notes from Shadow himself) makes this a "deluxe" reissue. Disc two, entitled "Excessive Ephemera", features a slew of Endtroducing-era cuts -- alternate takes, demos, remixes, and a live radio performance. In addition to a few tracks that made it out on now-out-of-print MoWax singles, a bunch of these are unheard-before, work-in-progress versions of tracks from the album, so as bonus material this is more about providing insight into the creation of Endtroducing and less about any long-lost tracks that shoulda been on the album. It is kind of a way to listen to Endtroducing again with new ears. And it's nice to have the "extended overhaul" of the all-too-brief album track "Organ Donor", a mix that Shadow created expressly for James Lavelle's DJ use. So, a lot of added value for all Shadow fans who want to pick this up again and re-enter the world of Entroducing.
Amazing.
MPEG Stream: "Mutual Slump"
MPEG Stream: "Midnight In A Perfect World"

SHADOW, DJ In Tune And On Time (Geffen) dvd + cd 30.00
Isn't it astounding that DJ Shadow is still milking the accolades of his stellar, career-highpoint debut from six years ago? And we don't mean to belabour the subject but... how's this for obnoxious? On the introduction to this new live cd/dvd, DJ Shadow gives a thorough 'shout-out' NOT to his fans and homies, but instead to all of his releases... including eps and comp tracks! Ack, unbelievable! Aah, 'tis such a love/hate relationship!
Alright, now that we've got that out of our system... In Tune And On Time is comprised of a 20-track cd documenting his 2002 performance at the London Brixton Academy and a dvd with that very same performance (expanded to include a couple extra tracks) as well as an additional invigorating performance in L.A. (which also stars his pals Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark of Jurassic 5), an interview and other candid footage. Good stuff. It always is. But how many times do you really need to hear the same old songs, especially live? They're not ever all that different, after all he's not a band, he's a DJ, playing records. But if you want more Shadow, this will have to suffice, at least until he gets around to making another record as good as Endtroducing.
MPEG Stream: "In/Flux"
MPEG Stream: "Lonely Soul"

SHADOW, DJ Midnight in a Perfect World/The Number Song (MoWax/ffrr) cdsingle 6.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
5 pieces, 3 of which are non-album. "The Number Song" is given a kickass remix by the Bay Area's own turntablist maestro the Cut Chemist. And if "Midnight in a Perfect World" is one of your favorite songs from the record, you'll want to hear the version here which includes more of Baraka's rousing sermon...

SHADOW, DJ Pre-Emptive Strike (MoWax/ffrr) cd 14.98
Collects Shadow's old singles (the great "What Does Your Soul Look Like" included) plus his recent import-only "High Noon" track.

SHADOW, DJ The Outsider (Universal) cd 15.98
Not sure if the title of DJ Shadow's new production refers to himself or the listener, but there's no doubt there is something schizophrenically off-kilter here, and the jury is still out on whether this is a successful quality or merely a string of increasingly bad ideas. Chock full of guest appearances (mostly guest rappers-never a good sign!) including
local hyphy hip hop stars, Keak da Sneak and Turf Talk, Christina Carter from Charalambides and Chris James from Stateless doing his most earnest Chris Martin/Bono/Thom Yorke imitations. While the consensus from most of us here is that The Outsider as a whole is better than Shadow's last outing, The Private Press, what's missing here is that killer single track that makes the whole worthwhile. That said, we'll give Josh Davis the benefit of the doubt that The Outsider is definitely a grower with patient listeners reaping the most rewards from his erratic multiple personae.
MPEG Stream: "3 Freaks"
MPEG Stream: "Artifact"
MPEG Stream: "Erase You"

SHADOW, DJ The Private Press (MCA) cd 17.98
DJ Shadow's second full length is finally here, and I do believe I (Windy) am the only AQ-er who likes it. Well, Jim thinks it's ok, but the general consensus 'twixt my colleagues is that the rest of the field has caught up to him, and he hasn't hitched up his britches to keep ahead of the herd. Hmm. I disagree. Certainly The Private Press is no Endtroducing (his acclaimed debut full length), but neither should it be. It's a lot more accessible and crowdpleasing than the debut, the layers aren't as impenetrably mysterious, and yeah, it requires less work to like it (i.e. not as challenging). But there's nuthin' wrong with that. He's keeping it interesting for himself. The Private Press is a likable, listenable (might we even say, at times lighthearted?) trip. It's got everything from the moody arpeggiated piano lines that're DJ Shadow's signature, soul divas, sad minor key laments, funny Cut Chemist / Kid Koala-style spoken bits, super epic percussive climaxes, and an all over hip hop flavor. And the heartbreakingly sincere audio letters that bracket the album are incredibly well chosen, framing the songs as an emotional musical narrative. *Very* well done.
We have to wonder, though, why he used that old "pure energy" sample. Why don't ya just throw in "I got the power!" too? Not to mention the overused tired, sad android voice (y'know just like the one Radiohead used).
Cup sez: We had a DJ Shadow 12" here a little while ago, and I thought one of its tracks sounded as if he'd just plugged in his Playstation 2 system and recorded the sounds of someone playing the game REZ. If you're at all familiar with the game you'll undoubtedly find the Shadow track ringing familiar too. REZ is basically a shooter game, but with an astounding combination of rave-ready sounds and gorgeously trippy visuals - both of which are manipulated by your performance. Oh yeah, and the level bosses are pretty spectacular. Stunningly beautiful and deluxe fun! Really, you could just project the game action on a wall, pump the sounds through a bad-ass sound system, and *POOF!* instant party. Anyways, that track is included here too. And it sticks out like a sore thumb which makes the REZ theory all the more plausible!
RealAudio clip: "Fixed Income"
RealAudio clip: "Monosylabik"
RealAudio clip: "Giving Up The Ghost"
RealAudio clip: "Blood On The Motorway"

SHADOW, DJ The Private Press (MCA) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We finally got some copies of the vinyl version of the new Shadow album. Here's what Windy wrote about the cd a month ago:
DJ Shadow's second full length is finally here, and I do believe I (Windy) am the only AQ-er who likes it. Well, Jim thinks it's ok, but the general consensus 'twixt my colleagues is that the rest of the field has caught up to him, and he hasn't hitched up his britches to keep ahead of the herd. Hmm. I disagree. Certainly The Private Press is no Endtroducing (his acclaimed debut full length), but neither should it be. It's a lot more accessible and crowdpleasing than the debut, the layers aren't as impenetrably mysterious, and yeah, it requires less work to like it (i.e. not as challenging). But there's nuthin' wrong with that. He's keeping it interesting for himself. The Private Press is a likable, listenable (might we even say, at times lighthearted?) trip. It's got everything from the moody arpeggiated piano lines that're DJ Shadow's signature, soul divas, sad minor key laments, funny Cut Chemist / Kid Koala-style spoken bits, super epic percussive climaxes, and an all over hip hop flavor. And the heartbreakingly sincere audio letters that bracket the album are incredibly well chosen, framing the songs as an emotional musical narrative. *Very* well done.
And now for my co-workers to have their say:
We have to wonder, though, why he used that old "pure energy" sample. Why don't ya just throw in "I got the power!" too? Not to mention the overused tired, sad android voice (y'know just like the one Radiohead used).
RealAudio clip: "Fixed Income"
RealAudio clip: "Monosylabik"
RealAudio clip: "Giving Up The Ghost"
RealAudio clip: "Blood On The Motorway"

SHADOW, DJ / CUT CHEMIST Freeze (Pirateria Fonografica) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
By now you may be familiar with the all-45's sets performed worldwide by famed DJs Cut Chemist (Ozomatli) and DJ Shadow and their accompanying cd recordings (when we have them, which isn't often as they are quasi-legal!). Here's another installment of their funk-fueled, sweet soul hipswayin', rare groove-y, hip hop spirited sessions. While the first three tracks are underwhelming yet but welcome opening sets by NuMark (doing his cute "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" bit) and rockwrangler Z-Trip, on the body of the disc is where Shadow and Cut Chemist really shine. Consists of 6 practice tidbits and 10 lengthy live performance clips. Lots of happy "oh shit!"'s and frenzied speedracer scratching showstoppers. High energy and a ton (80 minutes!) of nonstop fun. If you've already got all the other Brainfreeze discs, you could *maybe* skip this one, but then again one always needs another play-it-all-night party disc...
RealAudio clip: "Live I (excerpt 1)"

SHADOW, DJ & CUT CHEMIST Freeze dvd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not sure how much needs to be said about this. An awesome live film of Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow performing their legendary all-45 Brainfreeze set. Really fun and crazy and just a total blast. Also included are excerpts of the opening sets by Marvski, Dante, Nu-Mark and a really funny, amazingly dexterous set from Z-Trip. Extras include rehearsals, photo galleries and discographies. Not sure how long we're gonna have these so act fast! And for our international customers, it's all region!