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

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

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

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

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

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

SEGALL, TY / BLACK TIME split (Telephone Explosion) lp 14.98
We couldn't highlight this awesome split when we listed it a couple weeks ago as we were told it had gone out of print! Well apparently they just pressed some more of them as we were able to get a handful again, yay! So, a re-listing is in order.
It's been raining Ty Segall the last few weeks with a slew of rad vinyl offerings that have flown out the door. This new split LP with Black Time finds Ty at his most raw and rocking! Seven brand new songs including a smoking cover of The Dwarves "Be A Caveman" from back in their total garage punk days. Black Time were new to our ears and they definitely prove that London can get raw and fuzzy with the best of them, as their way lo-fi and in-the-red sound make them a perfect match for Segall. Maybe a bit more punk in sound and aesthetic then TS while still totally tapping into the more damaged and distorted side of primitive garage punk. Such a good time to be a fan of raw and impassioned garage rock cause folks like Ty and Black Time are totally coming correct.

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

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

SEGUNDO, COMPAY Calle Salud (Nonesuch) cd 16.98
The second lovely Nonesuch solo disc for Mr. Segundo, a Buena Vista Social Club veteran. Chalk another one up for all these elderly Cuban fellows now getting their due.

SEGUNDO, COMPAY Lo Mejor de la Vida (Nonesuch/Elektra) cd 16.98
Buena Vista Social Club alumnus Compay Segundo plays the armonico, an instrument of his own creation which combines the guitar and the tres -- the armonica has seven strings but only six tones, which produces its unique sound. An oldtimer who's an alumnus of the legendary Trio Matamoros, Segundo recorded this record in Havana in 1997.

SEHT Antarctica Download Form (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another classic slab of dark dreamy drone from Stephen Clover aka Seht. The title definitely hints at what you'll find on this here disc: a slow moving glacial drone, icy and crystalline, throbbing and reverberating, shifting and swirling, barely there but somehow totally and gorgeously suffocating. Lush layers of sound, piled atop one another, as we watch each layer slowly merge with the one beneath it, sonic tendrils surreptitiously exploring the layers around it, until all the layers are inexorably linked, a slowly squirming intertangled mass, dreamy and hypnotic, but haunting and foreboding as well. The second track threw us for a loop though, when a seemingly out of place shuffling drum beat kicked in, all dubbed out and effected, which at first seemed totally distracting, but quickly drew us in with its propulsive throb, and the whole thing quickly becomes some sort of gorgeously alien krautrock. Really cool.
MPEG Stream: "Phone Order"
MPEG Stream: "Despoiler Pt. 2"

SEHT Communion Longplayer (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another mysterious outfit on Celebrate PSi Phenomenon, who we've come to love, if not know entirely. How could we? Each record is a huge expanse of mysterious sound. A barely there sonic travelogue, a slow motion trip through a foggy and murky underbelly. As if somehow we figured out how to sneak behind all of the records ever made. Hidden behind the grand facades of commercial radio and punk rock rebellion and experimental noodling, is a vast expanse of concrete hallways that seem to go on into infinity, in every direction, even down. Tiny sounds echo through the halls forever, making it impossible to discern when the original was made, ten minutes ago? Ten years? A thousand? A dark and creepy seemingly endless glacial drift, the hum of machinery can be heard, just barely, through the thousands of feet that separate these deserted halls from the surface. The distant chirping of some tiny underground insect sometimes intrudes on the shimmering stillness, but just as soon drifts away, leaving ghostlike traces of sounds, and far away impressions of melodies that once were.
MPEG Stream: "Drinks After Work"
MPEG Stream: "Van Allen's Belt"

SEHT Dead Bees (Pseudo Arcana) cd 13.98
Brand new disc of free drone weirdness from long time aQ fave Seht, aka Stephen Clover, whose discs never disappoint, whether he's crafting long form minimal dronemusic, or kicking up a clattery freerock buzz, Dead Bees is a little of both, two looooong tracks, the first a super minimal dronejam of deep soft shimmers and warm warbly whirs, that begins soft but gradually gains momentum, and along with that momentum, layers of gradually thickening whir, what begins as a barely there whisper quickly transforms into a heaving slab of rumbling static heaviness, eventually introducing some unlikely melody to the mix, the sound suddenly almost orchestral, a layer of horn like drone draped over the undulating lowend backdrop, the grit and buzz and fuzz slowly sloughing off eventually leaving a smooth stretch of soft soft shimmer.
The second track, another long one, is much more active, beginning with some random clatter, and slowly transforming into a weird pulsing circusy abstract pulse, with strange haunting melodies, almost like Chain Reaction via a New Zealand 4-track, soon the playful pulse is enveloped in a cloud of hiss, creating a haunting gauzy throbbing drift that is both mesmerizing and mysteriously unclassifiable. And once again, the hiss dissipates, leaving a warm whirling warble that slowly settles into a dark, dreamlike drift.
MPEG Stream: "One Moment"

SEHT Dronemusic (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We at AQ have long been fans of Campbell Kneale and his project Birchville Cat Motel who along with the Dead C, Omit, Gate and a handful of others have helped to define one of the richest free-rock-noise-drone scenes in the world. For years Kneale has been releasing cds, lps and cassettes (most of them quite limited) of noisy electronic soundscapes and gorgeous organic drones. So when we discovered Kneale also ran a label, we figured it was definitely worth checking out. And how right we were. Not only is all of the music on Celebrate Psi Phenomena amazing, but the packaging is perfectly and stunningly designed as well (quite nice considering this is a cd-r label. See our crappy cd-r packaging rants in the last three or four lists) with each cd in a plastic sleeve nestled between two sheets of old fashioned textured wallpaper, printed, and sealed with a gold star.
Dronemusic indeed. Seht is one Steven Clover, who has released a handful of limited lathe cuts under different names. On 'Dronemusic' Clover crafts deep, rich sonorous drone music, seemingly simple but lush with harmonic overtones. As the record progresses, the drone becomes less and less obvious, from looped guitars and spastic rhythmic guitars to vaccuum cleaner drones and distorted woofer rumble to super austere almost Bernard Gunter-esque minimal dronescapes.
RealAudio clip: "The Dark Room"

SEHT Federacy Boot (Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 12.98
Latest cd-r from NZ sound sculptor Stephen Clover otherwise known as Seht. Three tracks, nearly an hour of soft sonic sweetness, warm beds of barely there glitch and click underpin thick rich billowy clouds of cotton candy like organ drones, airy and slowly shifting and overlapping, melodies ghostlike and nearly transparent. Occasionally the organ drifts off leaving a strange hissing minimal fuzz, dense and rife with subtle rhythm and not quite melodies, like some muted guitar riff pulled apart and spread out into a delicate gauze. Or like an alien insect buzzing out some simple message, expressing itself in subtle shades of grey. The final half hour track begins as soft swell of keening high end trill before dispensing with the subtle shadings altogether, allowing the organ to step forward and offer up huge thick swirls of sound, still peppered with subtle glitches and unlikely hiccups and jumpcuts, this is like some epic Charlemagne Palestine jam, but played through a PA with faulty wiring, a stuttery soundscape of warm organ melody and implied rhythmic interference. So cool.
MPEG Stream: "Old Feet Pt. 1"
MPEG Stream: "Old Feet Pt. 2"

SEHT Goodbye, America & Have A Nice Day (Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is a sort-of-reinterpretation of the amazing 'Dronemusic' cd-r released on a while back on Celebrate Psi Phenomena. This is very minimal with lots of incidental clatter and totally random noise. Sounds a bit like some guy cleaning/re-arranging his kitchen, with lots of thumps and bumps and clicks and even some bird calls(!). After about 10 minutes, the drones finally make their presence known. Joined gradually by warbly guitars and wisos of melodies. But almost as soon as they're there, they diappear again. Then it's back to the ambient clatter, discussions, room sound. A reverby piano or buzzing harpsichord surface occasionally, but it always seems to return to our house cleaning, room tidying protagonist. Very strange...
RealAudio clip: "Goodbye America And Have A Nice Day"

SEHT Guyrz Nz You Are Thus Alienated (Ruralfaune) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest release from NZ free drone sound sculptor Seht, aka Stephen Clover. A single 34 minute track,
a lengthy soundscape of slow burn decay and abstract shimmer. The first 17 minutes are an ultra minimal crawl, through a bleak landscape of barely audible keyboard sputter and amp buzz. Distant grinding gears of some murky machine, drifting strands of simple guitar strum floating to and fro, before everything coalesces into a thick twisting snarl of corrosive drone and reverberating rumble before drifting back into another extended tranquil drift. Haunting and quite gorgeous.
A hand decorated cd-r packaged with a cool textured paper sleeve with iridescent designs on one side, and a full color insert. And as with lots of things like this, it's also unfortunately criminally limited. How limited?
LIMITED TO 86 COPIES!!! We got a handful. Once those are gone, we won't be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: "Guyrz Nz You Are Thus Alienated"

SEHT Sputnik II (Diagnosis...Don't! ) 3"cd-r 6.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
One of three new 3" cd-r releases on the Grey Daturas' Diagnosis ... Don't! label, each super limited, and housed in cool hand made packaging.
Of all the noisemakers from New Zealand and Australia, Seht, aka Stephen Clover, is by far the dreamiest and droniest and -least- noisy. Which might be why he holds such a special place in our hearts. And ears. Every Seht disc is a gloriously blissed out tranquil exploration of some deep dark ambient wonderland. There's nothing harsh or heavy, caustic or corrosive, instead, listening to Seht is like drifting through space, or floating a hundred feet below the surface of some clear blue sea. Everything shimmers and sparkles, flows and swirls, the sounds are soft and delicate, distant and dreamy, ethereal and indistinct. Soft focus and beautifully blurry. And this little three inch is no different. Gorgeous and serene. This disc definitely feels like a dark drift along the ocean floor, due to the haunting sonar-like pulse that permeates the whole track, it's not at all distracting though, just the contrary, very hypnotic and soothing, an organic, super minimal pulse, a barely there framework for the slow shifting liquid drones.
AS ALWAYS, ULTRA SUPER LIMITED!! We only got about 30, and probably won't be able to get more...
Packaged in thick textured paper black mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Sputnik II (excerpt)"

SEHT The Green Morning (Digitalis) cd 12.98
Another amazing sonic document from one of our favorite sound makers, NZ outfit Seht, aka dronelord Stephen Clover. The Green Morning picks up right where the recently reviewed Federacy Boot left off. If anything it's even darker and dreamier, which is quite a task considering how much we dug the last one. Opening the proceedings is a gorgeously lugubrious soundscape of slow subterranean rumbles, a glacial low end shimmer, that gradually begins to allow dreamy song fragments to surface, just barely breaking the surface, before slowly going under again, a droning dreamlike voyage across a thick fuzzy sonic sea. In fact the first three tracks here all sort of follow the same template: a lengthy barely shifting slab of densely layered deep dark drones, while beneath all sorts of random melodic fragments and sonic debris drift and bob. Almost like a thirty minute three part epic. The second to last track is less droney as it is dreamy, the bulk of the song is a murky melody, smeared into a shape so indistinct it almost does become a drone, but somehow hovers just this side, very underwater sounding, almost like a slowed down Oval, with a strange slow motion rhythm picked out by a sporadic glitchy crunch, like footsteps on gravel. The final track is a 20 minute epic, that returns to the sonic theme of the opening trilogy, but manages to go even deeper and slower and more abstract, delivering a delicate drone that barely shifts, just sort of pulses gently, the whole thing wrapped in a barely there layer of sparkling static.
MPEG Stream: "Valles Marineris"
MPEG Stream: "Olympus Mons"

SEHT The Voice Of The Taniwha (Last Visible Dog) cd 9.98
Seht are a modern New Zealand outfit carrying on the tradition of what was once referred to as NZ noise. A good simplified scene summary perhaps, but not all that accurate. In the eighties and nineties, there was an explosion of small labels and loads of bands in New Zealand, all exploring sound in similarly unique ways, but all inhabiting their own unique sonic space. From the clattery free noise of the Dead C and Gate, to the jangle pop of almost every Flying Nun band, to the avant minimalism of groups like Omit and A Handful Of Dust. And the cool thing about the scene, was that the pop bands incorporated occasional swaths of noise and bursts of chaos, and the 'noise' bands were not above introducing a bit of poppiness here and there. Seht fall somewhere in the middle of all those groups, not really crafting songs as much as 'pieces' or maybe more accurately assemblages of sounds, but in doing so, using traditional instruments often guitars, In fact the steel string acoustic guitar is sort of a them running throughout the whole record, picking out simple melodies, while beneath, drones rumble and whir, snippets of conversations surface, as do occasional bursts of static and noise. Collages of found sounds become hypnotic drones, running water becomes a tranquil stretch of dreamy ambience, samples of laughter become a dada-ist sound poem, some strange percussive melody played on a buzzing stringed instrument becomes a lost snippet of unlikely 'world' music, and creaking industrial clatter becomes a strangely tribal exploration of sound and space. NZ noise indeed!
MPEG Stream: "Make The Baby Jesus Cry Some More"
MPEG Stream: "Ac Gtr. #2"
MPEG Stream: "(Middle Eight)"

SEHT & STELZER Exactly What You Lost (Intransitive) cd 12.98
AQ fave Seht (aka Stephen Clover, who is all over this week's list, also appearing as part of The Stumps) teams up with East Coast sound maker Howard Stelzer for an intercontinental drone drift long distance relationship, and the results are absolutely divine. Both are masters of crumbling decayed ambience and slow shifting organic drones, both of which are present and accounted for on Exactly What You Lost. Field recordings, old tape loops, old tape recorders, all contribute to the gorgeously frayed soundscapes. Thick warm swells shimmer and slowly expand, the louder they get, the more they seem to crumble and dissipate, until the tones becomes staticky blasts of garbled sonic interference. Haunting faded melodies drift through dense clouds of abstract whir, all wreathed in a druggy haze, bits of tape manipulated into strange rhythms and textures, all leading up to the nearly half hour long final track, the darkest and heaviest on the record, a slow drift through a blissed out fuzz drenched universe, drifting in a slow orbit around both the Earth and the SUNNO))), floating on thick swells of downtuned thrum, a crumbling mass of glacial guitar, ominous, foreboding, but also strangely pretty, eventually emerging into a more serene soundworld of murky shimmer, oscillating overtones and strange footstep-like percussion. Mysterious, and quite cool!
MPEG Stream: "Two"
MPEG Stream: "Three"

SEIDR For Winter Fire (The Flenser) cd 9.98
Featuring one part Kentucky crusty black metallers Panopticon, and one part Kentucky blacknoise buzzers Wheels Within Wheels, one might not have expected something so melodic, but for all its melody, the debut from Seidr is also a crushingly heavy slab of doooooooooom. Laced liberally with post rock, shoegaze, blackdrone, and really pretty much anything else these guys felt like mixing in. The good news is that somehow, even with all of those disparate elements, the final sound is so much more than its constituent parts.
The tracks are long, and they build slow, the guitars spidery and softly reverby, the drums tribal, eventually exploding into thick swaths of blackened doom, the guitars grinding and chugging, the drums pounding, the vocals a demonic bellow, but even once the heaviness ensues, those spidery guitar melodies keep right on, intertwining with the heavier chug and churn, transforming what would otherwise be more standard doom/sludge into something weirdly washed out and sort of pretty. And yeah, we know you're not supposed to describe stuff this heavy as pretty, but fuck it, we're pretty sure that's what these guys were going for, the perfect balance of extreme heaviness and delicate melody.
The obvious comparisons will be Neurosis, Isis, Pelican, even Asunder and Agalloch, but Seidr's sound is way more black and way more doooooooomy, plus there's definitely plenty of Mogwai and Godspeed and Explosions In The Sky going on as well, which is fine with us. The sound is darkly emotional, heavy as fuck, and super melodic, even at its heaviest, the sound manages to exude emotion and melody, which is rare, especially without losing any of its heft, Seidr definitely seem like the oddball on Flenser, which has so far trafficked pretty much exclusively in black metal, but Seidr's sound is still pretty black, and hell, maybe this is the band that gets Flenser noticed beyond the grim kvlt underground. Although, that said, for all of Seidr's post rockisms, and melody, they're far from being anywhere close to mainstream, this is still some seriously twister, blackened postrock black doom heaviness, and we're digging it big time.
MPEG Stream: "A Vision From Hlidskjalf"
MPEG Stream: "On The Shoulders Of The Gods"

SEIJAKU Mail From FUSHITSUSHA (Doubtmusic) cd 24.00
FUSHITSUSHA! No, that wasn't a sneeze. We're trying to get your attention, if you're into that band, Fushitsusha. Those of us here who are big Keiji Haino fans (and we're talking BIG fans), will readily admit that while we love all of the Tokyo psych shaman-in-shades' multi-instrumental solo outings (including solos for guitar, hurdy gurdy, percussion, and electronics) and various collaborative efforts (with Pan Sonic, KK Null, Boris, Sitaar Tah, Tatsuya Yoshida, Merzbow, etc.), it's really his best-known band, the legendary Fushitsusha, that got us into Keiji in the first place, and that we love the most. Avant-garde, free-rock, garage-psych heaviness taking off from obvious sonic/spiritual '70s inspirations Les Rallizes Denudes into the realms something even more experimental and "outsider", a la the Dead C. Unfortunately for us, Fushitsusha disbanded some years ago. But at long last, we've got these, the simultaneously released TWO debut albums from Haino's new "permanent band", Seijaku. Like Fushitsusha, an improvisational power trio, led by Haino's amped up guitar. He's also on "blues harp" on one of these discs, steel guitar on the other, and of course trademark anguished vocals (or should we borrow the metal term vokills?). Besides Dark Lord Haino, the Seijaku trio consists of Nasuno Mitsuru (Altered States, Korekoyjin, Sanhedolin) on bass, and Ichiraku Yoshimitsu (Acid Mothers Temple, Nishinihon, ISO) on drums.
And yes, the "blues harp" does mean that the idea here is Haino & Co. playing "the blues". Or what the label suggests is a fusion of Delta blues, and Noh theater. But electric, very electric. And, well, Haino sure sounds like he's got the blues, bluer blues than any blues EVER, judging from how his guttural cries sound like each word is being tortuously torn not just from his throat, but from his very soul, as if it's the last thing he's ever going to be able to say, or scream, in this world. A striking contrast to his relatively calm and trad harmonica playing. But quite in keeping with sheets of feedbacky guitar skree, utterly Fushitsusha style, that Haino often unleashes. At other times, his guitar is a chiming, slashing, distorted twang, part of the fractured "blues" vibe, along with the plodding percussion and low end rumble that gives this an apocalyptic atmosphere indeed. Would Robert Johnson recognize this stumbling, staggering, scrabbling music as the blues? Well, he knew about dealing with the devil, right, so the vocals wouldn't faze him, and yeah we think might well appreciate the improvisational and spiritual aspects of the Seijaku sound. But beyond that...
Of the two discs, Mail from FUSHITSUSHA (bless you!) (it really is all caps in the disc's title) is the one that, according the Haino, represents "21st century blues". The title obviously makes the connection clear to Haino's earlier outfit, they're apparently "adhering to the Fushitsusha method", and the back cover credits Haino as the "originator". There's ten tracks, with titles like "Forced To Think You Love" and "Please Send Me A New Heart"... this one has a sheet of lyrics provided, in Japanese though, but we think we might get already have gotten an idea of what Haino is so down about.
Meanwhile, the 2nd of the two discs (by catalog number), You Should Prepare To Survive Through Even Anything Happens, with the whiter/lighter cover, is dedicated to "Albert King, The Doors, and Steppenwolf"! It's meant as Haino's tribute to the SPIRIT (if not exactly the sound) of 20th century blues, and is the one with his occasional harp blowing. It features four (long) tracks, titles include "Keep On Fighting" and "Look Over Here From The Other Side".
While each is a bit different, Mail From... with more short sharp shocks, You Should... stretching out soulfully, rollin' but mostly tumblin' hard, we're pretty certain that if you want one, you'll also want the other! Both come in handsome digipacks, like all Doubtmusic releases, of course.
MPEG Stream: "Forced To Think You Love"
MPEG Stream: "Not Too Bright (#1) "
MPEG Stream: "Humiliation To Be Selected To Come Down From Elsewhere"

SEIJAKU You Should Prepare To Survive Through Even Anything Happens (Doubtmusic) cd 24.00
FUSHITSUSHA! No, that wasn't a sneeze. We're trying to get your attention, if you're into that band, Fushitsusha. Those of us here who are big Keiji Haino fans (and we're talking BIG fans), will readily admit that while we love all of the Tokyo psych shaman-in-shades' multi-instrumental solo outings (including solos for guitar, hurdy gurdy, percussion, and electronics) and various collaborative efforts (with Pan Sonic, KK Null, Boris, Sitaar Tah, Tatsuya Yoshida, Merzbow, etc.), it's really his best-known band, the legendary Fushitsusha, that got us into Keiji in the first place, and that we love the most. Avant-garde, free-rock, garage-psych heaviness taking off from obvious sonic/spiritual '70s inspirations Les Rallizes Denudes into the realms something even more experimental and "outsider", a la the Dead C. Unfortunately for us, Fushitsusha disbanded some years ago. But at long last, we've got these, the simultaneously released TWO debut albums from Haino's new "permanent band", Seijaku. Like Fushitsusha, an improvisational power trio, led by Haino's amped up guitar. He's also on "blues harp" on one of these discs, steel guitar on the other, and of course trademark anguished vocals (or should we borrow the metal term vokills?). Besides Dark Lord Haino, the Seijaku trio consists of Nasuno Mitsuru (Altered States, Korekoyjin, Sanhedolin) on bass, and Ichiraku Yoshimitsu (Acid Mothers Temple, Nishinihon, ISO) on drums.
And yes, the "blues harp" does mean that the idea here is Haino & Co. playing "the blues". Or what the label suggests is a fusion of Delta blues, and Noh theater. But electric, very electric. And, well, Haino sure sounds like he's got the blues, bluer blues than any blues EVER, judging from how his guttural cries sound like each word is being tortuously torn not just from his throat, but from his very soul, as if it's the last thing he's ever going to be able to say, or scream, in this world. A striking contrast to his relatively calm and trad harmonica playing. But quite in keeping with sheets of feedbacky guitar skree, utterly Fushitsusha style, that Haino often unleashes. At other times, his guitar is a chiming, slashing, distorted twang, part of the fractured "blues" vibe, along with the plodding percussion and low end rumble that gives this an apocalyptic atmosphere indeed. Would Robert Johnson recognize this stumbling, staggering, scrabbling music as the blues? Well, he knew about dealing with the devil, right, so the vocals wouldn't faze him, and yeah we think might well appreciate the improvisational and spiritual aspects of the Seijaku sound. But beyond that...
Of the two discs, Mail from FUSHITSUSHA (bless you!) (it really is all caps in the disc's title) is the one that, according the Haino, represents "21st century blues". The title obviously makes the connection clear to Haino's earlier outfit, they're apparently "adhering to the Fushitsusha method", and the back cover credits Haino as the "originator". There's ten tracks, with titles like "Forced To Think You Love" and "Please Send Me A New Heart"... this one has a sheet of lyrics provided, in Japanese though, but we think we might get already have gotten an idea of what Haino is so down about.
Meanwhile, the 2nd of the two discs (by catalog number), You Should Prepare To Survive Through Even Anything Happens, with the whiter/lighter cover, is dedicated to "Albert King, The Doors, and Steppenwolf"! It's meant as Haino's tribute to the SPIRIT (if not exactly the sound) of 20th century blues, and is the one with his occasional harp blowing. It features four (long) tracks, titles include "Keep On Fighting" and "Look Over Here From The Other Side".
While each is a bit different, Mail From... with more short sharp shocks, You Should... stretching out soulfully, rollin' but mostly tumblin' hard, we're pretty certain that if you want one, you'll also want the other! Both come in handsome digipacks, like all Doubtmusic releases, of course.
MPEG Stream: "Want To Head Back"
MPEG Stream: "Keep On Fighting"
MPEG Stream: "Showa Blues"

SEIKAZOKU Live In Japan (Vivo ) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Japanophile AQ-customers may already be familiar with Seikazoku, or at least with work of the three individual musicians that make up this band: Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins, Korekyojin, Koenji-hyakkei, Akaten, etc.), Kawabata Makoto (Acid Mothers Temple this, Acid Mothers Temple that, etc.), and Tsuyama Atsushi (Omoide Hatoba, Akaten, Acid Mothers Temple, Zoffy, etc.)! So you'll expect what you get here, psych-drone-freakout weirdness improvised on a multitude of instruments, live in Japan like it says. Some of the 13 tracks on this disc are drifting, mellow krauty jams with hippie hand-percussion, electronics, and fake throat-singing (courtesy of goofy vocal specialist Tsuyama we think, though we know Yoshida is capable of some fairly over-the-top vocals as well). But then there's also the other side of the Seikazoku coin: spazzy jazzy manic meltdowns at greater volume and velocity. It's all got a bit of an indulgent ADD vibe, and might be an easier listen if they stuck to one mood (if not the other). We'd say the primitive bliss of the mellower tracks would be the way to go. But there is indeed a lot of crazed chaos here, so those of you who share their silly, hairy mania should dig the whole set.
MPEG Stream: "track 2"
MPEG Stream: "track 7"

SEIKAZOKU Outtakes '66-'78 (Fractal) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The title is a bit misleading, as this Japanese psych-prog-improv fest was recorded in '96... Seikazoku consists of Tsuyama Atsushi (Omoide Hatoba, Akaten), Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins, Akaten, Musica Transonic, Mainliner, etc.), and Kawabata Makoto (Musica Transonic, Mainliner, Toho Sara, Acid Mothers Temple).

SEIROM 1973 (Aurora Borealis) 2cd 17.98
We've gone on at great length in past reviews of records by Gnaw Their Tongues and sister band Aderlating, about the sound of those groups being bombastic and strangely soundtracky, each trafficking in a strain of symphonic industrial cinematic blackened doom, the usual downtuned sludge crawl and murky black miasmas of like minded noisemakers, instead wrapped around soaring majestic arrangements, lush melodies, as well as strange bursts of brass, and sprawling atmospheric sonic vistas.
As Seirom, the same man behind both of those outfits, draws back the blackened curtain, revealing the lush sonic wonderland that lies beyond, a soaring, shimmering expanse of blurred soft focus ambience, lush layered drones, processed vocals, smeared into shoegaze streaks of spectral psychedelia, all it will take is the first 5 minutes of the first track to convince you, the sound falling somewhere between the gauzy ambience of Tim Hecker, the lush soundtracky drifts of Stars Of The Lid, the Pop Ambient haze of Gas, but listen close, buried beneath the washed out swirls, some black metal blast beats remain, but they're so indistinct, as to be less rhythmic, and more textural, adding a strange pulsing thrum, which oozes into the rest of the surrounding sounds, moaning melancholic strings, gristly soft focus textures, vocal fragments, all floating on a woozy wash of ethereal ambience. Another one of those cases, where had that one track spread out over both discs, we would have been perfectly happy.
And while some of the record does get heavy, the various strands of prismatic melody, turning black, and blossoming into thick heaving walls of downtuned blurred churn, a la SUNNO))) or Nadja, but way more blissed out and ephemeral, even those tracks finds that heaviness being pulled apart, the blackness fading to more of a dreamlike grey, that grey shimmer revealing all manner of voices and fragmented melodies just below the surface, at its most abstract, it's like the Caretaker, a symphony of slowed down orchestral drifts, and gloriously blissed out dream pop melted down into something much more freeform and amorphous.
The title track adds martial drumming, and the sound becomes a sort of majestic industrial M83, which is just as good as it sounds, while "As Hills" laces its dirgey drift with deep dramatic vocals, elsewhere almost black metal buzz, finds guitars soaring skyward and transformed into something much more epic and dreamlike, and when the blast beats do return, this time much higher in the mix, impossibly they don't make the music sound any more metal, but instead, adds a spectral propulsion to the shoegazy bliss, the sound churning and driving the ether, like black metal stripped down and run through some sort of 4AD/M83 filter.
There's a lot to take in, two discs, ninety minutes, too much to really adequately describe here, and yet it's still not enough, a gloriously immersive sonic experience, that manages to take fulfill all the non-metallic promise of Gnaw Their Tongues, the tracks here fully embodying some otherworldly alchemical inverse, an alternate dimension Gnaw Their Tongues, where a blackened burnished beauty is reflected back from the abyss.
MPEG Stream: "Strands Of Golden Light"
MPEG Stream: "Never So Lost"
MPEG Stream: "As Hills"
MPEG Stream: "1973"
MPEG Stream: "For Black Hearts"

SEISHOKKI 1975-1977 (Siwa) lp 16.98

SEKA GAMBUH PURA DESA ADAT BATUAN Music of the Gambuh Theater (Vital Records) cd 14.98
Gambuh is the oldest surviving dramatic form in Bali (incorporating music, literature and dance), a remnant of the Hindu Javanese courts of 500 years ago, it followed those courts to Bali when the Mahapajit dynasty fell to Islam in the 15th century. With the destruction of the royal courts in Bali by the Dutch in the 20th century, Gambuh has become an orphaned form, rarely heard and even more rarely recorded. In fact, this recording represents the first time ever that the entire drama has been recorded and released in commercial form. Although some of the bronze percussion instruments so commonly associated with the music of Bali are included in gambuh, they serve a more perfunctory role here and their numbers are much smaller than what would be found in most gamelan ensembles. The leading instruments, along with the two hand drums, are several (between 4 and 6) bamboo flutes (suling gambuh), some as long as one meter in length. Combined with the rebab, a two stringed bowed lute which plays almost in unison with the flutes, the resulting sound is quite haunting and beautiful. Though the flutes are playing in unison there's a slight inexact nature to their playing, maybe a certain freedom of interpretation of the melody, that gives their melodic lines an eerie echoing nature. The cd's booklet also comes with 21 impressive pages of very thoroughly researched liner notes that will satiate the appetites of budding ethnomusicologists or sundry other hungry music fiends out there. Highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Batel"
RealAudio clip: "Gadung Melati (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: "Gadung Melati (excerpt 2)"

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

SEKTOR 304 Soul Cleansing (Malignant) cd 10.98
Epic crushing metallic industrial heaviness, the kind of thing we thought they just didn't make anymore, but this is total Swans / Godflesh / Cop Shoot Cop worship, pounding metallic percussion, soundscapes of whirring drills, blown out low slung bass, howled distorted vox, the whole thing so repetitive and mantric, thick slabs of distorted rumble wrapped around tons of damaged electronics, bleating horns buried beneath reverb drenched beats, some songs are full on walls of twisted electronic crunch, others are brooding, droning skeletal sprawls, laid over deep blurred basslines, and tribal rhythms, some are dense whorls of deeeeeep sinister black ambience, all darkly drifting layers, and distant bits of clang and shimmer. For a few moments here and there, the sound gets downright poppy, like some sort of washed out post industrial deathrock, but even then, it's shot through with a seriously menacing sonic undercurrent that seeps into every beat, and every note. Filthy, crusty, heavy, haunting, crushing and brutal, the perfect mix of old school industrial pound, and more modern bleak blackness. Fucking fierce and frightening, grim and punishing, and we're digging it like crazy.
MPEG Stream: "Body Hammer"
MPEG Stream: "Gravity Factor"
MPEG Stream: "Final Transmission"

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

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

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

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

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

SEMIAUTOMATIC s/t (5 Rue Christine) cd 11.98
Rop, ex-Peechees member, has moved to New York where he hones his DJ and turntablist skills as DJ Ropstyle. Semiautomatic features the additional talents of Akiko. Fans of Kid Koala's funny style and ICU/IQU's lo-fi d'n'b will enjoy this.

SEMILANCEATA En Wallmoburen Myhr, Dar Doon Grodha Mellom Bitter Root Ok Frucht (Auris Apothecary) cassette + box + poppy seeds 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's like Christmas around here (we know, it is ACTUALLY like Christmas around here right now), whenever we get a new batch of tapes from Auris Apothecary, not only is it bound to sonically all over the map, without fail the packaging is totally stellar, often high (or low) concept, meticulously hand assembled, often involving organic matter, or broken glass, or sponges, or scrolls, or who knows what else. Needless to say, every AA release is special, and is often as much a work of sonic art, as it is a piece of music.
This one might be the most extravagantly packaged of the new batch, but more on that in a second, first the music. A strange detuned psychedelic folk exploration of opium abuse and the descent into addiction from this mysterious Swede, all spidery steel string guitar buzz and muted lumbering percussion, echoey and buzzy and abstract, darkly hypnotic, a sort of late night creep, very dark and ritualistic, haunting and harrowing, the sound seem to be unravelling before your ears, the notes brittle one second, warm and languid the next, the production reverby and lo-fi, occasionally building to a bit of noisy soft chaos, only to return to woozy lumber, it some ways this reminds us of the late great Reeks And The Wrecks, with it's warped blues stumble, but there also seems to be a weirdly blackened buzz, and a depressive futility to the sounds that hints at some doom / black metal influences, maybe more in mood than in sound, but the result is pretty fantastically dark and dreamily depressive.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! Housed in a super swank black spray-painted intricately folded cardboard box with metallic gold printing. Inside a printed metallic gold sticker, and a ziplock baggy affixed to the inside of the box, with a gold and black sticker, each bag containing poppy seeds, the tapes printed in gold ink. Each box hand-numbered in gold ink.

SEMIMUUMIO Vamos (Lal Lal Lal) cd 16.98
Weird (and Finnish, so of course) album of drum machine beats and quirky samples, sorta dancey, sorta experimental, can't really decide what to make of it!

SEMPER, JONTY Kenotaphion (Charrm) 2cd 18.98
"Kenotaphion" is one of the most unusual collections of archival recordings to pass through the Aquarius doors, as British artist Jonty Semper has culled through the archives at BBC, British Movietone, and ITN Reuters for recordings of the 2 minutes of communal silence. This ritual heralds back to November 11, 1919 to commemorate the Armistice of World War I when all of England literally stopped for two minutes of silence - the trains came to a halt, telephone relays were shut down, schools paused in the middle of lectures, everything except for the media. BBC radio would broadcast these public displays of silence, capturing the mighty bell tolls of Big Ben and a massive multiple gun salute followed by the environmental ambience at that exact moment. BBC didn't just turn off their signal, they captured the sounds around the Houses of Parliament: rain, birds, wind, etc. As various sources had recorded these memorial silences dating back to 1929, the recorded medium becomes apparant on a number of the older recordings, as scratchy surface noise and tape hiss. Thus these silences are not exactly silent.
Semper was not content to simply collect the solemn silences bracketed by the chiming of Big Ben and the crack of the rifles, he interspersed them with snippets of narration uttered by the BBC commentators, often poetic, yet certainly sentimental thoughts spoken in the finest of Queen's English. Disc one features the oldest recordings (1929 - 1965) and ripples with tons of surface noise, yet as the microphone technology improved through the later recordings (1967 - 2000) the quiet din of London trying to be silent makes itself known. A strangely alluring record.
RealAudio clip: "November 12, 1934"
RealAudio clip: "November 14, 1934"
RealAudio clip: "November 9, 1980"
RealAudio clip: "November 14, 1999"

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

SENDER, RAMON Desert Ambulance (Locust) lp 17.98

SENKING 20' to 2000: June (Noton/Raster) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Definitely the 'summer album' for the stellar monthly series of minimalist electronica counting down to the year 2000. Bubbling pulses from banks of little black boxes build sounds that move from pretty drones into dense if rather sedate electronic dub. Senking's twenty minutes share a lot of the same tonalities and structures as Aphex Twin's monumental Selected Ambient Works Volume 2.

SENKING Forge (Raster-Noton) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Continuing his reconstructions of electro found on his previous releases from Raster and Karaoke Kalk, Jens Massel (aka Senking) digitally sanitizes what could easily be vinyl surface noise into elegant post-techno pulsations that are not unlike Pan Sonic's pioneering "Vakio" album. These rhythms with their clusters of pinprick glitchiness relentlessly clatter through out the short 26 minute program, whilst Massel builds feedback tones that shift in density, aggressiveness, and volume. As a whole, the shortened 26 minute program screeches up to a tense crescendo, plunges down to static minimalims, and rebounds through submariner ambience, all the while maintaining a continuous mix of variable rhythms. Quite nice.
Released as a part of the new "Raster-Post" series housed in nice silkscreened, fold-out cardstock folder and bound with an elastic band.

RealAudio clip: "Forge 1"
RealAudio clip: "Forge 2"

SENKING List (Raster-Noton) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A sort of companion piece to Alva Noto's Xerrox, reviewed a few lists back, both in design and presentation, as well as sound and scope. In a past review of an older Senking record, we commented that Senking mainman Jens Massel was restoring our faith in electronic music, and if we had lost faith since then, List would surely do the trick to bring us back into the fold.
Malevolent and dark, from the first few seconds, it's like diving headlong into some black pool, floating through some Argento style horrific tableau, all grinding buzzing synths, and ominous low end swells, the various elements crackling and bathed in hiss, before being joined by a super minimal beat, mostly click and thump, and some haunting disembodied vocals. If we didn't know better we would think this was actually from some film, as it is, it sure as heck should be. Ultra creepy and gorgeously abject. The second track is more of the same, suffocating sonic darkness, this time with a bit more shimmer, and the briefest flares of melody amidst the corrosive rumbling.
A few of the other tracks border on the danceable, some strange skeletal offshoot of IDM, bits of shuffle and skitter, but all stretched way out until the beats sound like pebbles tossed into a still black lake. Even then, the beats are occasionally swallowed up by huge swells of low end, or buzzing swaths of slithering synths.
Cinematic and dark, throbbing and mysterious, creepy as all get out, dance-y too, but only if you have a dancefloor in your secret lab, painted black, watched over by an army of cyborgs whose various creaks and ticks are what is creating this strange alien haunted house minimal techno. So good.
The cd comes packaged in another striking and strange oversized Raster-Noton package, a multiple panel fold out sleeve, with die cuts holding the disc in place.
MPEG Stream: "Common Business"
MPEG Stream: "Pathogenic Agent"
MPEG Stream: "Come In"

SENKING Ping Thaw (Karaoke Kalk) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Senking hails from Cologne, yet has developed an unusual electro-dub technique which is quite the detour from the usual Cologne fair of A-Musik's dadaist humor or Kompakt's techno minimalism. Starting off with rolling bass loops and sleek black ambience, Senking's dub goes so deep as to never really have a bottom, just an enveloping stroboscopic pulsation of bass tones. Jens Massel (aka Senking) has claimed his influences to be both the Aphex Twin's early work and 'Laughing Stock' by Talk Talk, and has left his sound with a spartan abstract way of constructing his pieces. This work culls two vinyl only EPs ("Ping" and "Thaw") on one CD, and predates his amazing "Trial" album for Raster-Noton.

SENKING Pong (Raster-Noton) 2cd 23.00
If the archetypal Raster-Noton style of pixel-point rhythms and clinical data-streams represent "Ping", then Senking's far more sensual approach here to the click-n-groove would indeed be "Pong". It's the deeper, weightier side of the equation, but undeniably linked to that equation. The Cologne based sound engineer Jens Massel is more interested in a thickened low-end with rumbling basslines more indebted to a slowmotion techstep cruise or more of a Demdike Stare / Ghost Box electro-haunt than the post-techno shuffle ingrained in most every Raster-Noton artist's DNA. The Raster sounds of sonar blip echo, small rhythmic points, and slashing post-acid squelches do surface as the skeletal grid of rhythm guiding the throbbing bassbin rattle, yet Massel is not averse to coupling these sounds with moody, almost noirish melodic phrases for piano, Rhodes organ, and even some vibraphone. Pong is quite an evocative downtempo record that effectively comes across as something like a Pole / Bohren & Der Club Of Gore collaboration!
The second disc is a CD-ROM with a re-engineered version of the old-school Atari game Pong as a 3-D game, that looks and feels a lot like another old-school Atari video game Tempest. We haven't played around that much with it, but at least it looks really cool!
MPEG Stream: "Luma"
MPEG Stream: "Painbug In My Eye"
MPEG Stream: "Breathing Trouble"

SENKING Tap (Raster-Noton) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another installment in Raster-Noton's similarly sleeved (simple black and silver diecut digipaks, quite nice) and sonically consistent Raster.Post series. Voulme four is the work of Senking and is another beauty (like the Komet elsewhere on this list), helping restore our faith in modern electronica, a genre that has been getting less and less fascinating with every compilation and same-sounding record. Unlike the warm dreaminess of the Komet, this is a much colder beast altogether, more ghostly and spare, chilly and skeletal, with skittery rhythms, glitching and shuffling across an epic expanse of blackness, and rhythmic pulses and ribcage-rattling swells of bass throb supporting almost-melodies that are barely there. Think a more clinical, more abstract, less dub-obsessed Pole, and you start to get the idea. Hard to say why this is so pleasing, but it really is. Quite possibly my favorite electronica record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Stand"
MPEG Stream: "Settle"

SENKING Trial (Raster-Noton) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Raster's conceptualism of electronic, almost utopian purity has some interesting theoretical leanings, but the cold minimalism of Raster/Noton succeeds more often than not through the novelty of subtle melodies and interesting rhythmic patterns. While most of the critical acclaim for Raster / Noton is deserved, they are undoubtably purveyors of The New; and Senking's "Trial" is no different.
With techno and dub each getting the digital deconstruction in the respective work of Thomas Brinkmann and Pole, Senking's work has been emerging as the reductivist reclamation of electro, sounding much like a clinical atomization of Andrea Parker or Depth Charge. Senking's deep grooves of thudding sub-bass plod boldly through the Raster / Noton signature sound of skittering digital errata. Certainly recommended to the already converted... and definitely a good start for any one interested in such things.