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!!

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

SEVERIN, STEVEN Codex Astra: Hours Of Gold (Erototox Decodings) cd 13.98
Steven Severin's Codex Astra odyssey continues with Hours Of Gold. The compositions were inspired by the words of Aleister Crowley. On the inside of this release is inscribed "Ordinary mortality is only for ordinary people." The all too fleeting 18-minute ep features two tracks of sumptuous dronescape. The first offers some light, glistening with an echoey underwater feel. The second stand in marked contrast as it closes in like a creeping, fog-drenched shadowy form. A lingering ghostly roar. Beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Part 2"

SEWER GODDESS Disciples Of Shit (Black Plague) cd 9.98
Sadly, rock has always been a bit of a boy's club. Sure most things are, but rock especially. And it only gets worse as you move toward the heavier and darker side of the sonic spectrum, metal, industrial, noise, women are few and far between. That's not to say there aren't woman making serious noise in those realms, there most definitely are, maybe none more fearsome than Sewer Goddess, aka Kristen Rose who traffics in some of the darkest, heaviest, filthiest sludge, blackened doom and abstract industrial we've heard, and whose particular brand of abject blackened noise is on full display here, a collection of various live performances over the years 2009-2010, and finds Rose, backed up by a full band, and engaging in some seriously harrowing soundmaking.
The opening track begins all thick bass buzz and keening feedback, soon industrial percussion emerges, and Rose's echo drenched wail, the bass buzz coalescing into sludgey dirgey riffage, while all around it guitars and samplers and effects fill the blackened sky with all manner of blackly psychedelic noise, the sound lumbers and lurches, before shifting gears in a flurry of horror movie shrieks, becoming more of a blackdrone, all layered hiss and skree and rumble, chaotic but weirdly hypnotic. The second track, the relatively brief "We Ate Their Eyes", introduces more of a groove, albeit just barely, more like a monstrous dirge, rhythmic and grimly propulsive, buried beneath an avalanche of shrieked vox and caustic low end crumble, before giving way to "Mother Agony" that channels Laibach and Throbbing Gristle and Einsturzende Neubauten into a Swans like creep, all hazy and washed out, the sound laced with streaks of high end, of sonar like pings, of gristly crunch and super distorted buzz, there's a definite Wolf Eyes vibe too, and then the vocals swoop back in, hysterical and terrifying, curdled with effects, it manages to be the most mesmerizingly hypnotic track here, while still retaining an unhinged mania.
The epic "Chained To The Cage Of Existence / A Lifeless Dreaming" seems to be the centerpiece here clocking in at 16+ minutes, and again begins as a blackened rumble, all buzz and blur, peppered with strange industrial clanks and clunks, before erupting into another grinding dirge, Rose's haunting deathlike vox adding a serious creep factor, the song a droned out rift, that seems like it might go on like that forever, until it splinters suddenly into a full on drum driven chunk of blackened noise metal crush, lurching, lumbering, shrieks and atonal riffage nestled amidst swells of black buzz and pounding rhythms and lots of feedback, before slipping right back into a sonic death march that continues until the end of the track, loping and minimal, laced with some cool metallic melodies, again slathered in feedback, and Rose's vox, that here remind us of the hysterical shrieks of black metal horde Bethlehem. And then finally, "Slavepiece" finishes things off, the most metal of the bunch, but sounding like it was recorded on a wax cylinder, the sound brittle and blown out, the band locked into a super in-the-red, feedback drenched riff heavy dirge, that sounds like an even more unhinged take on Brainbombs / No Balls. Fucking awesome, but most definitely only for the iron eared.
Fans of other blackened filth like Gnaw Their Tongues, Aderlating, Demonologists, Gorgontongue, and Hallowed Butchery as well as classic industrial / noise / blacknoise weirdness will be in heaven...
MPEG Stream: "Condemned Is The Unborn One"
MPEG Stream: "We Ate Their Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Slavepiece"

SEWER GODDESS Verdigris (Baseborn) 7" 8.98
Elsewhere on this week's list (in fact, probably right above this review) you'll find the Disciples Of Shit cd, a collection of live recordings from blackened industrial noisescaper Sewer Goddess, aka Kristen Rose, a seriously brutal, but blackly beautiful collection of caustic live performances. Now that you know what Rose is capable of on stage, here's a glimpse of what she can do in the studio, and as you might expect, it's not to far removed, if anything, it's darker, heavier and LOUDER. But otherwise the same sort of droned out industrial crush, a bleak cinematic blackness that definitely reminds us of Gnaw Their Tongues, lots of industrial clank and clatter, a keening distant high end tone that seems to drift atop monstrous hissed vokills and streaks of blackened sound, the long stretches of buzz and crush infused with mysterious melodies.
The flipside is more riffy and dirgey, with some seriously creepy (and weirdly sexy) whispered vox, the buzz thick and corrosive, all tethered to a lurching mechanical rhythm, all within thick clouds of hiss and hum and whir, the vibe moody and murky and very soundtracky, but still bleak and menacing and seriously harrowing, shades of Wolf Eyes too, but the more we here from Sewer Goddess, the more we're beginning to think she really sounds like nobody else.
SUPER LIMITED, comes in a cool silkscreened jacket with a printed fold out insert.

SEX CHURCH Growing Over (Load) cd 16.98
When we first heard about a band called Sex Church on Load Records, we were pretty much expecting a wild costumed troupe spitting out gouts of speaker shredding cacophony and grinding metallic noise, and while there is a certain amount of noise and cacophony going on here, these guys traffic in something wholly different, a gloomy post punky sort of downer pop (much like Daily Life, who also had a record on Load), all clanging minor key chords, pounding dirgey rhythms and buzzing swirling synths, the opening track sounds like a slightly noisier take on some lost Joy Division live jam, or some classic goth group revved up and supercharged. And then when the vocals finally kick in, all deep and dramatic, wreathed in echo and delay, the mood grows dark and doomy, the drums pounding out a tribal rhythm, the bass lurching and lumbering in throbs and thrums, the sound building to explosive psychedelic crescendos before slipping back into slithery deathrock grooves or loping postpunk crunch. Fans of outfits like Naked On The Vague, Crystal Stilts, Total Control, Soft Moon and the like should go apeshit for these guys, and while they definitely borrow heavily from the gloom/goth classics, think Kommunity FK, the Mission UK, Birthday Party, Sisters Of Mercy, Wipers, Scientists, Bauhaus, Fields Of The Nephilim, once those sounds are filtered through a more noise rock / post punk aesthetic, it ends up pretty heavy, hooky, noisy, darkly poppy and sorta irresistible.
MPEG Stream: "Put Away"
MPEG Stream: "Waking Up"
MPEG Stream: "Dull Light"
MPEG Stream: "Bleed Me"

SEX CHURCH Growing Over (Load) lp 16.98
When we first heard about a band called Sex Church on Load Records, we were pretty much expecting a wild costumed troupe spitting out gouts of speaker shredding cacophony and grinding metallic noise, and while there is a certain amount of noise and cacophony going on here, these guys traffic in something wholly different, a gloomy post punky sort of downer pop (much like Daily Life, who also had a record on Load), all clanging minor key chords, pounding dirgey rhythms and buzzing swirling synths, the opening track sounds like a slightly noisier take on some lost Joy Division live jam, or some classic goth group revved up and supercharged. And then when the vocals finally kick in, all deep and dramatic, wreathed in echo and delay, the mood grows dark and doomy, the drums pounding out a tribal rhythm, the bass lurching and lumbering in throbs and thrums, the sound building to explosive psychedelic crescendos before slipping back into slithery deathrock grooves or loping postpunk crunch. Fans of outfits like Naked On The Vague, Crystal Stilts, Total Control, Soft Moon and the like should go apeshit for these guys, and while they definitely borrow heavily from the gloom/goth classics, think Kommunity FK, the Mission UK, Birthday Party, Sisters Of Mercy, Wipers, Scientists, Bauhaus, Fields Of The Nephilim, once those sounds are filtered through a more noise rock / post punk aesthetic, it ends up pretty heavy, hooky, noisy, darkly poppy and sorta irresistible.
MPEG Stream: "Put Away"
MPEG Stream: "Waking Up"
MPEG Stream: "Dull Light"
MPEG Stream: "Bleed Me"

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"

SEX WORKER The Labor Of Love (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98

SEX WORKER Waving Goodbye (Not Not Fun) lp 14.98
The best way we can think of to describe Sex Worker, the solo project of Daniel from Mi Ami, is like a lo-fi, lysergic pop Prince, the music is minimal and electronic, slipping from James Ferraro like warped tropical loopscapes, to super minimal dubbed out house, to eighties disco by way of Ariel Pink, to lo-fi 4-track electro, the perfect back up tracks for Daniel's sexy crooned falsetto vox, but there's more to Sex Worker than faux soul, shit gets pretty fucked up throughout.
Sure, much of the record is spent slithery sexily through dimly lit neon soaked eighties nightclubs, crooning in dark basement underground discos, and speeding along empty roads with tinted windows and the top down, but the sound definitely gets weirder than all that, brooding and ominous and almost sci-fi here and there, super distorted and blown out elsewhere, the vocals an anguished howl over buried beats and warped looped melodies, loopy squelchy playful electronic skitter butted up against, skittery, stuttering almost skipping sounding soundscapes of warped FX drenched buzz and warbly glitched out crunch, before finally settling back down for the final 10 minute workout, "Honeymoon Babylon", haunting and electronic and minimal, the beats crumbling and distorted, laced with ghost like melodies, and all sorts of creepy effects and twisted production, and after a brief bit of falsetto crooning, the song devolves into an awesomely fractured futuristic electro jam, all droney and woozy and seriously druggy and psychedelic.
MPEG Stream: "Tough Love"
MPEG Stream: "Rhythm Of The Night"

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 ALMANAC Daily Organizer & Reference Guide 2012 daily planner + cd 11.98
A cool and totally DIY daily planner/calendar for 2012 that's also filled with tons of awesome tips for life in San Francisco, covering everything from knowing your rights as a worker to free nights at theaters, fish to avoid, taxi cab numbers, 24 hour diners, weekly food cart meet-ups, farmers markets, knitting patterns, needle exchange places and more... all done with a total lo-fi punk rock aesthetic, plus there are loads of listings for cool events happening during the year. Rad for people who live here to have as a resource and functioning calendar/daily planner, as well as any of you out of towners who think you might be coming to SF at any point in 2012, or hell anyone who just wants a bad ass daily planner.
It also comes with a cd compilation of San Francisco bands including Full Moon Partisans, The Dont's, The Abi Yo-Yo's, and more.

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.

SHABAZZ PALACES Black Up (Sub Pop) cd 14.98
We had been hearing about these guys for a while, super hyped underground hip hop from Seattle, the first hip hop release on Sub Pop, word was Shabazz palaces' sound was seriously fractured and fucked up, hip hop deconstructed into all new shapes, and when we finally got a listen, that proved to be actually pretty true, warped loops, shuffling abstract beats, bizarre production, thick and polished one second. murky and muddy the next, swirling effects, horns, soulful vox, sci-fi synths, all blurred into tangled smears of avant hip hop abstraction.
And the main rapper's flow was definitely recognizable, a voice we had heard before for sure, but it took someone else telling us to make the connection - it's the guy from Digable Planets! Never would have guessed, on first listen, SP couldn't be further removed from the jazz-hop of Digable Planets, but the more you get into Black Up, he more subtle jazziness reveals itself, but that jazziness is set amidst all manner of lurching lumbering, jagged stutter and abstract skitter, the sound futuristic and psychedelic, but rooted in classic hip hop, we hear hints of Sensational, Company Flow, Antipop Consortium, Cannibal Ox, this record would definitely sound right at home on Def Jux or WordSound, but for as weird as this is, there are definitely some serious hooks, and might even have the potential (however slim) to actually crossover, but for now, kick back, and let these woozy warped sounds wash over you, and luxuriate in what is probably the best hip hop record of the year...
The cd version comes in a super swank gold flecked black velvet sleeve, while the lp is in a cool black on black jacket and includes digital downloads of all the tracks.
MPEG Stream: "Free Press And Curl"
MPEG Stream: "An Echo From The Hosts That Profess Infinitum"
MPEG Stream: "Are You... Can You... Were You... (Felt)"
MPEG Stream: "A Treatease Dedicated To The Avian Airess From North East Nubis (1000 Questions, 1 Answer)"

SHABAZZ PALACES Black Up (Sub Pop) lp 16.98
We had been hearing about these guys for a while, super hyped underground hip hop from Seattle, the first hip hop release on Sub Pop, word was Shabazz palaces' sound was seriously fractured and fucked up, hip hop deconstructed into all new shapes, and when we finally got a listen, that proved to be actually pretty true, warped loops, shuffling abstract beats, bizarre production, thick and polished one second. murky and muddy the next, swirling effects, horns, soulful vox, sci-fi synths, all blurred into tangled smears of avant hip hop abstraction.
And the main rapper's flow was definitely recognizable, a voice we had heard before for sure, but it took someone else telling us to make the connection - it's the guy from Digable Planets! Never would have guessed, on first listen, SP couldn't be further removed from the jazz-hop of Digable Planets, but the more you get into Black Up, he more subtle jazziness reveals itself, but that jazziness is set amidst all manner of lurching lumbering, jagged stutter and abstract skitter, the sound futuristic and psychedelic, but rooted in classic hip hop, we hear hints of Sensational, Company Flow, Antipop Consortium, Cannibal Ox, this record would definitely sound right at home on Def Jux or WordSound, but for as weird as this is, there are definitely some serious hooks, and might even have the potential (however slim) to actually crossover, but for now, kick back, and let these woozy warped sounds wash over you, and luxuriate in what is probably the best hip hop record of the year...
The cd version comes in a super swank gold flecked black velvet sleeve, while the lp is in a cool black on black jacket and includes digital downloads of all the tracks.
MPEG Stream: "Free Press And Curl"
MPEG Stream: "An Echo From The Hosts That Profess Infinitum"
MPEG Stream: "Are You... Can You... Were You... (Felt)"
MPEG Stream: "A Treatease Dedicated To The Avian Airess From North East Nubis (1000 Questions, 1 Answer)"

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 Deadman (Honest Jon's Records) 12" 12.98

SHACKLETON Deadman (Honest Jon's Records) 12" 12.98

SHACKLETON Fabric 55 (Fabric) cd 17.98
We've been dying for this. Shackleton's live set for Fabric, a collection of unreleased tracks, exclusives, and even a handful of older classics (reworked into wholly new and never heard before versions), all woven into a sprawling, claustrophobic avant dubstep soundscape, that manages to be groovy, and creepy, haunting and abstract, rhythmic and skeletal, super minimal and strangely funky, almost like some hauntological take on dubstep. Ritualistic, occultic, with plenty of looped, super minimal rhythms, strange disembodied voices, mysterious samples, reverb drenched soulful croons drifting through fields of hazy shimmer and dubbed out ambience, occasional cinematic strings, lurching lumbering low end, lots of haze and gauze and blurred atmospheres, all looped and layered and stretched out into ethereal streaks of spectral sound, but unlike a lot of dubstep, Shackleton is more about the beats, and the surrounding ambience is super subtle, sometimes so much so, that it sounds like the beats are just skittering through empty space, but it's all a deft arrangement of tension and release, it's precisely how Shackleton weaves this moody, intense, and darkly claustrophobic soundworld.
Oddly enough (or maybe not), much of the sound here reminds us of African Head Charge, the same sort of abstract spiritual dub vibe, but stripped WAY WAY down and spaced WAY WAY out. Druggy and psychedelic, as much as rhythmic and hypnotic. So great. Even though it's a comp / DJ mix, and not a proper album per se, it might just be the best Shackleton release yet!
Like all Fabric mixes, comes in a cool metal box, with a printed inner sleeve, and a heavy printed cardstock slipcover.
MPEG Stream: "Hypno Angel"
MPEG Stream: "Interlude: Blood Rhythm With Wishy Drones"
MPEG Stream: "Deadman"
MPEG Stream: "Man On A String (Part 1)"

SHACKLETON Fireworks (Honest Jon's Records) 2x12" 22.00

SHACKLETON Fireworks (Honest Jon's Records) 2x12" 22.00

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
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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 Less You Know, The Better (Island) cd 14.98
Not our favorite outing by DJ Shadow. Though we do suspect there's a Magma sample in there somewhere, so that's cool! But also, maybe, Rage Against The Machine??