SAMARTZIS, PHILIP / SACHIKO M Artefact (Dorobo) cd 14.98
Philip Samartzis is an Australian electro-acoustic composer, who had gone on a tour across Japan a few years ago and through his travels developed some interesting relationships with a number of likeminded composers in Japan. After working with onkyo minimalist Kozo Inada, Samartzis has joined up with the incredibly prolific Sachiko M for this limited release through Dorobo. Sachiko M offers her signature high end sinewaves and closed-circuit squeals from a sampler with an empty memory bank feeding back upon itself, yet Samartzis breaks up her unwavering tones with jarring slabs of static and bursts of low end noise, sounding much like recent output from Zbigniew Karkowski. Quite good!
RealAudio clip: "Interference"
RealAudio clip: "Corruption"

SAMHAIN Box Set (Evilive) cd 63.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally available again, but for now only in box set form.
Everyone knows Samhain were cool, and that at least the first 3 records are essential (and they are of course included here) so we will focus on the other stuff. The box also includes the "Final Descent" cd as well as an unreleased double live cd. Also included is a pretty cool live video and the Samhain comic book (although it seems more like a comic pamphlet, being all of 8 pages). So far, if you don't have these records, it all seems like a pretty sweet deal. Except...all of the cds are packaged in simple cardboard, promo-style sleeves. No jewel cases or booklets. Kind of shoddy. And for some reason, this all comes packaged in a HUGE box, most of which is taken up by some sort of plastic 'space-taker-upper' and not actual stuff, which means it takes up extra, valuable space in our cramped apartments. Suitable for Danzig's ego, not our shelves. So aside from the lame packaging, if you do not have these records already, we say, go for it.

SAMHAIN III November Coming Fire (Evillive) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Reissue of Danzig's post-Misfits pagan goth-punk classic. Unfortunately, there are no liner notes, no lyric sheet, no bonus tracks, no extra photos. Gotta get the box set for all that extra stuff. Originally released in 1986, features the classics "In My Grip", "To Walk the Night", and the haunting reworking of the Misfit's anthem "Halloween II".

SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA Klossa Knapitatet (Silence) cd 17.98

SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA Maltid (Silence) cd 17.98

SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA s/t (Silence) cd 17.98
The very first album by Swedish prog-rock gurus Samla Mammas Manna finally reissued by Silence. Originally released in 1971 and recorded at their home studio (as were all of their albums come to think of it) the Chickenhouse. Founded and led by multi-instrumentalist Lars Hollmer, the group was at the fore front of a creative explosion of music in Sweden -- along with AQ faves Trad, Gras Och Stenar -- that was unfettered by meddlesome music industry hands and the aesthetic expectations that dictated the actions of much of their European contemporaries to the South West. The complex yet accessible Swedish prog-rock of Samla was as much informed by the traditional folk music surrounding them and even jazz as it was mainstream rock. Though some regard this album as "crude", not being quite as slick as the later "Klossa Knapitatet" for instance, there's more of a charm to the rough hewn edges here (if you can even call them rough.) Personally I find some of the later Samla recordings often border on the Grateful Dead side of things in their solo happy forays. The first exciting thing to note about this album, speaking of Grateful Dead, is that there's NO guitar. Huzzah! Just bass, drums, percussion, occaisional vocals and loads of (what we now call vintage) electric piano. The whole seems a bit like a Swedish interpretation of soul filtered through the theme to Cheers; off kilter, but not obtuse. As a bonus to this reissue Silence has added two extra tracks from the original recording session that didn't make it onto the original album.
RealAudio clip: "Slade Till Santori"
RealAudio clip: "Flickan I Skogen"

SAN AGUSTIN Triangulation (Hoof and Mouth Blues) (Table Of The Elements) 12" 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Part one in the Table Of The Elements' label series of super limited one sided 12"s, comes from the relatively unknown Georgia ensemble San Agustin, a three piece free-rock-minimalist-noise-improv outfit that takes the propulsive rhythms of post rock, deconstructs them and wraps them in dense clouds of shifting drone, with occasional NNCK tribalism and Dead C-ish clatter. Really beautiful. They also have a 3 cd set on TOTE if this 12" strikes your fancy. Gorgeous woodcut image silkscreened in glow-in-the-dark ink on clear vinyl in a clear sleeve. So nice. And SO LIMITED!

SAN UL LIM 2 (World Psychedelia) cd 16.98
Number 2 from this fab Korean '70s psych-pop outfit, circa 1978.

SAN UL LIM s/t (World Psychedelia Ltd) cd 17.98
First album from 1977 by this South Korean group of three brothers who began to play together while attending their university. Apparently the three, completely disconnected from the greater Korean rock scene, were most inspired by the likes of Australian rockers AC/DC, but lacking the right equipment or technical know-how couldn't replicate their sound. Whether this is factual or not the music of San Ul Lim, it must be said, sounds absolutely nothing like AC/DC; rather, they sound a lot more like Turkish psych faves Erkin Koray, Haramiler, Mogollar, et al. In fact, the second track on this album shared a space next to some of those very Turks on the Love, Peace & Poetry: Asia collection and despite the fact that their tune had been recorded as much as ten years later than some of the others, they sound as if they could have been cut in the late 60's. San Ul Lim, while ostensibly a trio -- with the eldest brother on guitar, the youngest on drums and the middle playing bass -- either did some over-dubbing work or had another un-named member playing keyboards. Small oversight maybe, but the keyboardist has as big a role as the eldest bro when it comes to carrying the solos for the group using a broad array of synths -- a harpsichord farfisa patch being popular -- and electric pianos. On many of the groups songs it seems like they just gave the keyboardist cart blanche to just solo through the entire tune. The bass playing of the middle brother is equally spirited. Not content to merely playing his role in the rhythm section and keeping harmony going, he has a tendency to keep busy with fast moving scale fragments and melodies. It's all almost too much for the youngest on drums to keep up with at times! Definitely something that anyone who dug the HE 6 reissue reviewed recently (or the Shin Jung Hyun disc reviewed on this list) and wants to further explore the Korean '70s psych scene ought to check out for sure. Likewise if you haven't yet delved into these sounds from SK but like the other international psych sensations we've brought you before...
MPEG Stream: "Track 2"
MPEG Stream: "Track 7"
MPEG Stream: "Track 8"

SANCTUM Of the Horizon (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98
Following up their recent split with Oakland's Stormcrow, this warlike Seattle-based crew of crusties drop their full-length for 20 Buck Spin. And it's the sound of a whole lotta new ones being torn! Angry, crushing metallic mayhem. Guttural vox over churning, deathly guitars n' battery. Inspired by the likes of Bolt Thrower, Unleashed, Extreme Noise Terror and Amebix, they do their influences proud, carrying the banner of "War Crust" high, following their own marching orders into the meatgrinding artillery barrage and resulting bloody red mist that their music creates.
Packaged in a nice cardboard mini-LP-style gatefold sleeve, adorned with black and grey grim graphics. We count AT LEAST twenty-three obvious skulls and/or severed heads on stakes in the artwork. The disc also includes seven bonus tracks taken from two earlier vinyl ep releases.
MPEG Stream: "In The Shadow Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Last Breath"

SAND The Dalston Shroud (Soul Jazz) cd 21.00
Wow, were we completely surprised by this record! We all remember not really being that into the UK's Sand when we first heard them a few years ago. But then it seems like maybe they underwent some sort of serious sonic transformation. Gone are almost all traces of their dance-y path. Sure some of the rhythms on the Dalston Shroud could still fill up the dancefloor, but their whole electronic / techno / dance / funk vibe has been transformed into some sort of fuzzed out industrial garage rock stomp.
Their past is littered with remixes and performances for dance troupes and providing alternate soundtracks for films and performing with a who's who of techno heavyweights, but we have to say this new direction is seriously kicking our ass.
The opener is a groovy fuzzy punk rock jam, all angular guitar and HUGE throbbing basslines, moaning horns, buzzing synths and pounding drums. It almost sounds like Interpol doing space rock. Maybe Hawkwind if they formed in NYC in the last several years. Fuzzed out and spacey, but pulsing and relentlessly groove. The second track is a buzzing industrial garage funk electro work out, with FAT fuzz bass and weird sung/spoken vocals and a throbbing beat. The rest of the record manages to meld the two sides of the band, their groovy side, and their freaked out psych rock side, resulting in a sound like some impossible cross between Spacemen 3, Jesus And Mary Chain, old Ministry, Loop, Swans, Hawkwind and with maybe just a little of that Manchester sound swirled in.
Occasionally the band dips back into their electronic bag of tricks resulting in weird free jazz funky breakdowns, or blissed out Shadow style downtempo grooves, but they always return to the riff, and said riff is usually wrapped in thick swirls of delay and echo and all sorts of other FX. Sand are like a gas masked, camouflaged krautrock krew piloting some space rock dancefloor, drifting through the galaxy, directly into the sun.
MPEG Stream: "Kenodki"
MPEG Stream: "Doctor Crop"
MPEG Stream: "The Dalston Shorud"

SANDBERG, SARA Fairlane (Double Ears) book 5.98
The first book from world wanderin' gal Sara Sandberg! Prior to this 95-page fictional work, she's penned a number of zines including The American Girl and Double Ears. An SF punk-pop girl at heart, Sara writes of "the history of one car". That's right, the life and times of one Ford Fairlane! Four decades riddled with encounters involving punks, car thieves, farmers, and much much more. And I can't and won't tell you any more 'cause I'm actually right in the middle of it (page 45 to be exact).

SANDBOX TRIO / BETH CUSTER Nocturnalis (self-released) cd 13.98

SANDERS, KARL Saurian Meditation (Release) cd 14.98
Solo record from the guitarist of death metal geniuses Nile. Not what you might be expecting. Think all the 'Asian/Eastern' interludes from Nile records, all new agey with some very questionable vocals/lyrics. Ugh. A bit cheesy. Not sure what Sanders (and Release/Relapse) was thinking. Definitely worth checking out for it's WTF value, but even diehard Nile obsessives will be hard pressed to find a reason for having this in their collection.
MPEG Stream: "Awaiting The Vultures"
MPEG Stream: "Luring The Doom Serpent"

SANDERS, PHARAOH Live At the East (Universal (Japan)) cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SANDERS, PHAROAH Deaf Dumb Blind (Impulse) cd 16.98

SANDERS, PHAROAH Elevation (Impulse) cd 12.98
First time on cd outside of Japan for this early '70s album from Coltrane contemporary and torch-bearer Sanders, a free jazz saxphone legend in his own right. As you might expect, it's a disc both meditative and groovy, with a strong spiritual vibe and definite African/Nigerian influences, as on the uplifting "Ore-Se-Rere" which features lots of rhythmic percussion and vocal chant, or the 14 minute "The Gathering". The title track is also quite a lengthy number, 18 minutes long, of which quite a few are occupied by spurts of hard-blowing outside improv skronk, which you'll also find in "The Gathering" expressively wailing to a downright scary extreme. This was one of Sanders' last albums for the Impulse label, issued in 1974, and has much to recommend it to fans of his other Impulse sides. Herewith the recording details, like we're the DJ on a jazz radio station...
Personnel: Pharoah Sanders (vocals, soprano, tenor saxophone, shaker, percussion, bells); Joe Bonner (vocals, wooden flute, cow horn, piano, harmonium, percussion); Calvin Hill (vocals, bass guitar, tambora); Lawrence Killian (vocals, congas, percussion, bells); John Blue (vocals, percussion); Sedatrius Brown (vocals); Michael White (violin); Michael Carvin (drums, percussion); Kenneth Nash, Jimmy Hopps (percussion). Recording information: The Ash Grove, Los Angeles, California (09/1973); Wally Heider Studio, San Francisco, California (09/13/1973).
MPEG Stream: "Elevation"

SANDERS, PHAROAH Izipho Zam (Sunspots) cd 16.98

SANDERS, PHAROAH Jewels Of Thought (Impulse) cd 15.98

SANDERS, PHAROAH Tauhid (Impulse) cd 12.98

SANDERS, PHAROAH Thembi (Impulse) cd 15.98

SANDERSON, PHILIP Reprint (Anomalous) cd 14.98
A wonderful piece of history precedes the reissue of this recording by the British pioneer of DIY electronics and cassette culture, Philip Sanderson. Having manufactured a number of cassette-only releases from 1978 - 1981 through his label Snatch Tapes, Sanderson devised the rather cynical ploy of recording under the moniker Claire Thomas and Susan Vezey to see if labels like Rough Trade, Cherry Red, or Fast Product might take the bait of women artists producing abstract electronic music. It's the same dodgy yet brilliant ploy recently used by San Francisco's Ziegenbock Kopf to market themselves as gay leatherboys. Unlike ZK, Sanderson got so far as to get a Claire Thomas and Susan Vezey track on the intriguing Cherry Red compilation entitled "Perspectives and Distortions" alongside The Virgin Prunes, Eyeless In Gaza, The Lemon Kittens, and Robert Fripp. The charade was up when Cherry Red made an offer to Claire and Susan to release an album and wanted to meet the two. Upon learning of the ruse, Cherry Red decide to pull out of the deal instead of continuing the masquerade. It's a shame that it had to come to that as Sanderson had produced a really amazing record of low-tech Cluster-inspired electronic bubblings, although Cherry Red's reaction is an understandable one. Regardless, Sanderson shrugged it off, issued the recordings as "Reprint" through Snatch in 1980, and thankfully 23 years later re-released it on CD through Anomalous Records.
The album begins convincingly enough in regards to the Claire and Susan mythology as Sanderson has employed the vocal talents of a woman simply identified as Nancy in an ethereal collage of her voice cycling through a mantra of tape delay effects. Yet that is the only reference to anything distinctly feminine on the record, as Sanderson completes the record with variations and repetitions of clattering electronics corroding into grimy noise and smeary tape hiss, not unlike Chris Carter's productions for Throbbing Gristle and less structured than Sanderson's work as the Storm Bugs. Sanderson's liner notes describe the record as "academic rigour married to an inverted pop art aesthetic. For whereas pop art incorporated the cheap intoxications of consumer culture into the supposed lofty rooms of high art, here was an attempt to incorporate the form of high art into the low brutality of DIY electronics." Well stated! It's probably not for everybody, but with the proliferation of CD-R labels doing the exact same thing 20 years later, "Reprint" is a historical gem.
MPEG Stream: "Bright Waves"
MPEG Stream: "Under Press of Sail"

SANDERSON, PHILIP Seal Pool Sounds (Seal Pool) cd 16.98
It's been a very, very long time that Philip Sanderson has released anything new. Up until Seal Pool Sounds, the last recordings for Sanderson date back to 1982! During the late '70s and early '80s, Sanderson had been very active in the Britian's DIY cassette culture, producing music as the Storm Bugs (with Steven Ball) and as Susan Thomas & Clare Vesay (whose fictional femininity caused a minor bout of controversy between Sanderson and Cherry Red records). He also collaborated frequently with David Jackman who at that time had yet to form his seminal drone-scrape project Organum. Many of these recordings emerged on Sanderson's own Snatch Tapes; and some of those original cassettes have slowly been reissued in recent years. In the mid-'80s, Sanderson made a stylistic jump to film and installation, offering an explanation as to his whereabouts during all those years.
Within the murk, hiss, and Frankensteinian electric constructions of his early work on Snatch, there was a peculiar and perverse sense of humor in Sanderson's work. On Seal Pool Sounds, he allows the playful aspects of that sense of humor to occasionally emerge with these much cleaner squiggles, jolts, and drones of electronic sounds. Alternately, a plaintive melancholia hangs upon other abstracted tones and broken rhythms, ending up sounding like more primitive constructions from Mika Vainio's solo work, those Microstoria albums, and even Manhatten Research era Raymond Scott.
MPEG Stream: "Pilot Light"
MPEG Stream: "Flume"
MPEG Stream: "Left Them Down"

SANDOVAL, HOPE, & THE WARM INVENTIONS At the Doorway Again (Rough Trade) cd ep 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hope Sandoval, she of the velvet vocal chords put to great use in Mazzy Star, releases her first new material in years. "At the Doorway Again" is four songs recorded with Colm O'Ciosoig, drummer for My Bloody Valentine. Quiet, sad, restrained melancholy with added cello and piano. It's pretty good, but without the brilliant guitarwork of David Roback (her partner in Mazzy Star), Sandoval's doped-out singing style isn't balanced with any songwriting ability, so it's pretty but ultimately sort of unsatisfying (for me). Legendary British folk guitarist Bert Jansch guests on one track.
RealAudio clip: "Around My Smile"

SANDOVAL, HOPE, & THE WARM INVENTIONS At the Doorway Again (Rough Trade) 12" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hope Sandoval, she of the velvet vocal chords put to great use in Mazzy Star, releases her first new material in years. "At the Doorway Again" is four songs recorded with Colm O'Ciosoig, drummer for My Bloody Valentine. Quiet, sad, restrained melancholy with added cello and piano. It's pretty good, but without the brilliant guitarwork of David Roback (her partner in Mazzy Star), Sandoval's doped-out singing style isn't balanced with any songwriting ability, so it's pretty but ultimately sort of unsatisfying (for me). Legendary British folk guitarist Bert Jansch guests on one track.

SANDOVAL, HOPE, & THE WARM INVENTIONS Bavarian Fruit Bread (Rough Trade) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
So much better than the EP from late last year which seemed somewhat lacking, this full length is a far more satisfying listen although truthfully it still falls short of the heights of her former group Mazzy Star. As would be expected, her rich, languid vocal stylings are in full bloom with instrumentation mostly kept to a minimum -- primarily guitar, harmonica and some strings -- to allow space for her velvety words to linger. "Bavarian Fruit Bread" will surely not disappoint fans of Hope Sandoval or Mazzy Star. Note: two of the four songs from the EP make a reappearance here.
RealAudio clip: "Suzanne"

SANDOZ Life In The Earth: Sandoz In Dub Chapter Two (Soul Jazz) cd 21.00
While he hasn't really had any projects quite as popular as his original group Cabaret Voltaire, Richard H. Kirk has been quite busy and surprisingly prolific, most often indulging his electronic side. Sandoz is his dub project inspired by the heavy dub grooves of King Tubby but with a very '90s/modern electronic feel to it. And while modern dub as the potential to be cheesy, this is actually quite good. Deep and dark and dubby, almost sounds like it could be some lost Wordsound joint. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "I and I Meditation"
MPEG Stream: "Monopolize and Destroy"

SANDOZ Life In The Earth: Sandoz In Dub Chapter Two (Soul Jazz) 2lp 24.00
While he hasn't really had any projects quite as popular as his original group Cabaret Voltaire, Richard H. Kirk has been quite busy and surprisingly prolific, most often indulging his electronic side. Sandoz is his dub project inspired by the heavy dub grooves of King Tubby but with a very '90s/modern electronic feel to it. And while modern dub as the potential to be cheesy, this is actually quite good. Deep and dark and dubby, almost sounds like it could be some lost Wordsound joint. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "I and I Meditation"
MPEG Stream: "Monopolize and Destroy"

SANDOZ LAB TECHNICIANS Synaptic Acres (Metonymic) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Their label Metonymic qualifies Sandoz Lab Technician's "Synaptic Acres" as "fluent jazzish exotica, with undercurrents of 50's noir films that never were, to minutely detailed moments of stillness and beauty." I don't know what the fuck they're talking about. The Sandoz Lab Technicians emerge as one of the more mind-expanding outfits from the fertile New Zealand free noise community, which has also spawned The Dead C, RST, Flies Inside The Sun, Surface Of The Earth, etc. With freeranging sonic investigations with guitars, feedback, drums, sax, melodica, and bells (just to name a few of the many sounds uttered on this album), "Synaptic Acres" is a playful if gritty album akin to playing in the mud as a kid.

SANDOZ LAB TECHNICIANS The Western Lands (Last Visible Dog) cd 14.98
Sandoz Lab Technicians may be the most fucked-up and most freeform out of all of the mind-expanding, free noise New Zealanders that we have championed in the past (i.e. Birchville Cat Motel, Dead C, Omit, Anthony Milton, etc.). That said, Sandoz Lab Technicians haven't been terribly prolific (unlike pretty much everybody else we just mentioned), but they have been consistently way out there when they have managed to record their ramshackle improvisations. The Western Lands is as loose and freeform as you can get, with absolutely nothing resembling a song, a structure, or even the hint of a melody getting in the way of their sonic escapades. Random scrapes and scratches across both guitar and violin aimlessly drift behind a plinky-plonk keyboard smeared with the delay emitting semi-tonal clusters of notes that resemble jazz vibes at their most cosmic or most terminally stoned. Then, inexplicably one of the Technicians sloshes a glass of water around just below the microphone. Weird. SLT work better, however, when eschewing such Fluxus strategies and gravitating towards long-form, heavy amplifier drones dappled with gong crashes. Still, way more obtuse than anything you'll hear from any of those other NZ folks...
MPEG Stream: "Nebulous"
MPEG Stream: "The Western Lands"

SANGRAAL Unearthly Night (Goatowarex) cd 14.98
Another fucked and demented and mysterious metal record, this one from the East Coast of the United States via Australian label Goatowarex. We weren't able to find out too much about these guys, other than the description: "Pure fucking depraved death metal lacking political goals or other such human bullshit." All right then. This may be 'death metal' although it definitely sounds to us, at different points, more like black metal and doom metal than death metal, and in fact it's some sort of confusional blend of the three. Some tracks are blazing fast, a roaring murky buzz, others are a lurching slow motion dirge, they even open with their own version of Mayhem's "Voice Of A Tortured Skull". The sound is super cavernous and lo-fi, with tons of natural reverb drenching the thrashing blackness in a thick cloak of ambient buzz, like it was recorded in some musty murky cave. That opening cover is a creepy Abruptum-ish ambient drone, with thick buzzing guitars and creepy anguished voices, and all sorts of weird sounds, which gives way to a super blackthrash freakout with buzzing riffs and blown out drums, the whole thing so in the red that it almost sounds like some sort of Merzbow-metal. The rest of the record shifts back and forth between totally fried black thrash and creepy ambient midtempo plod, and it's the doomier stuff that is the weirdest, with strangely obtuse riffs, lots of space, and fucked up arrangements. Halfway through there's another haunting ambient track, all organs and buzzy guitars, almost like Devil Doll or some Satanic wedding march or something, before lurching back into some killer Darkthrone style blackness.
MPEG Stream: "Voice Of A Torturred Skull"
MPEG Stream: "Autumn 1440"
MPEG Stream: "Eve Of Chaos"

SANGRE AMADO Inane (Catastrophic) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Local black/death metallers Sangre Amado finally release a (non-demo) cd, and it's wicked and dark and really good. Obviously influenced by the blackest of Norwegian metal technology, with nasty rasping (female!) vokills and epic riffing. Atypical of their Nordic heroes, however, Sangre Amado utilizes lots of scary cinematic sampling (Gummo perhaps?) in-between songs. Lastly, the raging drumming is courtesy of Li'l Sunshine, last heard on the amazing Weakling album!

SANHEDOLIN Manjoicchi Wa Muko (PSF) cd 21.00
Sanhedolin is the new name for the project that brought together two of the most exciting artists in the Tokyo underground prog-psych scene, AQ faves progcore duo Ruins and dark psych shaman Keiji Haino!! They did a cd on PSF under the name Knead three years ago (and also an LP on the French Fractal label). Now they've teamed up again, but because the Ruins have a new bass player, they've changed the name of this unit to Sanhedolin (though, the Ruins didn't change their name, so go figure). Anyway, this what you get when guitarist/vocalist Haino has the hyper-excitable rhythm section that is the Ruins backing him up. Incendiary improv action! Heavy-duty guitar/bass/drums interplay. And... flute?
Yep, oddly enough (but much to our approval) this album opens up with the lovely sound of the flute! Haino is not credited with playing flute on the sleeve, but it's got to be him. It's not until a track or so later that Haino unleashes his trademark searing electric guitar devastation. He also screams out some very anguished vocals, more soul-wrenching than those from any black metal throat. Haino's presence is key here (and like we said in our review of the Knead cd, although you can hear both the Ruins and Haino doing their respective, distinctive "things", the combination maybe makes it more of Haino's album than the Ruins -- it's like a really fierce Fushitsusha recording with an uncowed, caffinated rhythm section). And really, we like this better than a lot of other Ruins improv projects 'cause it's not just about the spazz-out bass/drums, the iron first of Haino's guitar playing is so STRONG that it keeps the Ruins in line, it's more purposeful I guess. Fans of either and/or both Ruins or Haino though should like this. And by the the way, new Ruins bass player Mitsuru Nasuno is just as nimble as any who've played with Ruins drummer/mastermind Yoshida Tatsuya before, as he'd better be!
MPEG Stream: "track 3"
MPEG Stream: "track 7"

SANJA Musen / Izu (PSF) cd 22.00
Sanja is an underground Japanese improv supergroup of sorts: Kan Mikami on vocals and guitar, Toshi Ishizuka on drums and percussion, and Masayoshi Urabe on alto saxophone, harmonica, bass blockfloten (?), accordion, piccolo and chains. Yes, chains, you can hear 'em. And we've gotta say: woah, not the most relaxing sounds we've ever heard! For non-Japanese speakers, even more difficult, because you won't be able to decipher the vocals of Kan Mikami, whose dramatic delivery comes across as a bit Muppet-like here to us Westerners. And Urabe's saxophone shrieks don't help matters. Nope, not always an easy listen. But that's not what they're going for, or what you're here for either, right? You're looking for some stark, intense improv a bit out of the ordinary. Well here you go. Free jazz for the wide-open spaces, avant-garde Japanese hobos camped around a fire trading hard knock life stories via vocals, drums, and sax. Even when relatively quiet, it's roiling.
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 3"

SANKT OTTEN Wir koennen Ja Freunde Bleiben (Hidden Shoal) cd-r 11.98
Before we get into the story behind this disc, let us just start by saying, that not only is this one of our new favorite records, a gorgeous slithery, smokey cross between Bohren And Der Club Of Gore and Portishead, but that it took a whole lot of work to get it into the store and available for sale...
So this has actually happened to us a few times, which either speaks to our naivete, or as we prefer to think a dogged belief in the record album as object, to be held, listened to and loved, and an inability to understand any thoughts to the contrary. Australia's Hidden Shoal Records got in touch with us and was hoping we would check out some of their bands, we did, and got all excited about carrying them at AQ. Until, after we emailed and tried to order some, we were regretfully informed that Hidden Shoal was in fact a digital only label, no lps, no cds, no cassettes, just MP3's. Too bad we thought, as far as we were concerned, though of course we know there are those perfectly happy to download some MP3's. But over the course of many months, and lots of emails back and forth, the label admitted to being interested in actually pressing up cds. We of course encouraged them, because we wanted all our customers to be able to buy and hear this music, but also, because, there's something about the object, the cd or the lp or the 7", the liner notes, looking through the booklet while listening to the music, the feel, even the smell. And sure, it IS all about the music, but that other stuff is part of it too, no matter how much iTunes wants us to think otherwise. Obviously most of you don't need to be told that, otherwise you'd probably not be reading this.
Well, the upshot is, two of our favorite recordings on Hidden Shoal are now finally available on cd, well, cd-r actually. But they are professionally pressed, with full color artwork, printed artwork on the disc, and heck, we'll take cd-r's over MP3s any day. And lots of you seem to prefer cd-r's anyway...
This disc is the latest from German combo Sankt Otten, often considered to be the Portishead of Germany, and sonically, that's not all that far off the mark. Although when we first heard it, we heard a lot of Bohren as well, late period Talk Talk, and maybe a little Tricky and Massive Attack. It all adds up exactly how you might imagine. Slow burning instrumentals, humid and sultry, Morricone-ish guitars drifting in a sea of rumble and shimmer, the bass a slithery serpent of sound, smooth and sexy sometimes, distorted and fuzz drenched at others.
But as with music like this, it's all about two things, the drums, and the atmosphere. And the drums here are perfect. And heck, so is the ambience. The rhythms almost always begin a jazzy skitter, the cymbals sizzling, the snare brushed, occasionally lurching into a more propulsive funk flecked rhythm. A dark lugubrious pulse, dangerous and dimly lit. The drums demarcate a darkened path through back alleys and smoky clubs, everything cloaked in a thick, ominous ambience. Dense sonic swells wrapped around sparse arrangements and moody minor key melodies. More of a jazz vibe than any of the above mentioned bands... but the jazziness oozes into all sorts of gorgeous variations, with the various chunks of dreamy doomy shuffle separated by stretches of Circle like hypnorock or looped Necks style static jazz, or the haunting Sigur Ros like vocals on "Fallen Und Fangen (Johannes Der Laeufer)" draped over soaring super dramatic strings, or even the album closer, "Maerchenwald", which almost sounds like it could be on Kompakt, a grey hued shoegazey drift, with sweeping synths rainy day piano, and a strange techno pulse buried in the mix. Some tracks sound so much like Portishead, they could be lost B-sides or instrumental outtakes, but Sankt Otten manage to imbue even those tracks too with their own stamp, be it an unlikely melody, some Western twang, some strange distorted bass line, spidery atonal synth or an unexpected abstract breakdown. Or as is the case on "Zum Schweigen Verdammt" its flurries of cinematic strings, and super distorted percussive crashes.
It's all just so intensely moody and melancholy, jazzy and dramatic, and so so gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "Fremdenzimmer"
MPEG Stream: "Happiness (Woanders Als Hier)"
MPEG Stream: "Zum Schweigen Verdammt"
MPEG Stream: "Hoehenrausch"

SANTA MARIA s/t (Slottet) cd 15.98
Just what we've been hankering for, some perfectly breezy and colorful pop done just right. And lucky for us Santa Maria has got a perfect batch of the good stuff for us to enjoy. Leave it to the Swedes to make some of the most infectious and smart pop we've heard in ages. Best known as the guitarist in The Concretes, Maria Eriksson, aka Santa Maria steps into the spotlight with fantastic results. Joined throughout the record by some of Sweden's best and brightest, including members of Sagor & Swing, Tape, and Laakso, this is the kind of pop music we never ever ever get tired of. Equal parts peppy and bittersweet. Proving once again that pop doesn't have to be dumb or simple to be catchy and infectious. While her former Concretes bandmate, vocalist Victoria Bergsman stole the show with her contributions to the latest Peter Bjorn & John album, we're pretty sure that Maria Eriksson deserves the ears of all those who appreciate smart pop as well. With a sound similar to the great Concretes debut, Peter Bjorn & John, Camera Obscura, and The Aislers Set, this is one of the best pop records we've heard so far this year!
MPEG Stream: "Dogs"
MPEG Stream: "Face Blank"
MPEG Stream: "Icestorm"

SANTA POD s/t (Ash International R.I.P.) cd 15.98
'Get ready for drag-racing MAYHEM... Mayhem... mayhem... ummm do we really have to keep badgering them like this?' - Smithers OK, do not dismiss this as just a field recording of drag races (even though that is what it is). While the blasts of drag racing noise tear bi-aurally across this CD of field recordings from the Santa Pod Raceway in Podington, England on the site of an old American airbase, it is the constant ridiculous banter of the announcer whose barely audible / poorly-transmitted-through-a-crappy-speaker rants have captured the essence of the drag-racing. Certainly in the tradition of the 'Sounds of North American Frogs', 'The Conet Project', 'The Ghost Orchid', and 'One of One', this is brilliant.

SANTOGOLD Creator / L.E.S. Artistes (Downtown) 12" 10.98
Wow, "Creator" is quickly becoming our favorite single of the year. Santogold has been getting lots of attention and winning high profile fans like Bjork, Spank Rock and Lily Allen. "Creator" for sure makes us think of her friend M.I.A. in both the vocal delivery and the splatter-of-color production by Switch (who worked on most of M.I.A.'s latest). The 'b' side finds Santogold in more of a new wave territory sounding kind of like Karen O singing lead on the first Cars album. While both the aQ faithful as well as her famous fans wait for her debut full length, we'll be laying the needle on "Creator" again and again and again.

SANTOGOLD s/t (Downtown) cd 14.98
Santogold's eponymous debut came with a tall stack of expectations that nearly any artist would have a hard time fulfilling. The number of industry glossies that tagged her the next MIA, or even went so far as to whisper the hallowed name of one Lady Sovereign, had everyone abuzz, ready to witness the next vital permutation of global hip hop whatever pitchfork is calling it these days. So, that said, the record didn't quite pack the punch some of us were hoping for. Or perhaps rather, it just wasn't what we expected, taking many more forays into what can only call a kind of mid-'90s slick indie-rock, that's probably best left for the occasional late-night YouTube session. Even so, Santogold should be credited for her efforts to break genre-constraints, and ultimately the record is stronger for it, if not a bit schizophrenic.
Over the last month most of us have uncovered a few new favorites, and certainly agree this record is no dog. Those in need of a handful of great summer jams from a fresh and promising voice working in the vein of the aforementioned trendsetters will certainly find what they are looking for. Of note, of course, is the fabulous lead single, "Creator," which features Santogold's more fierce vocal delivery, and a killer combination of hooks and rhythms. Also, another standout "Lights Out," shows Santogold making good in her efforts to reach toward new wave and even her punk past for a subtly inventive take on pop music. It's certainly a far cry from the global hip-hop/dancehall designation that "Creator" had her billed as, but even so its seriously infectious, and a few of the songs even sort of kick ass. If you've got a few holes to fill on a mix-tape or just feel like some P-O-P, do it.
MPEG Stream: "Creator"
MPEG Stream: "Lights Out"

SANTOMIERI, DEAN Boy Beneath the Sea (The Foundry) cd 12.98
Released on the local ambient label The Foundry, Dean Santomieri's "Boy Beneath The Sea" starts off pleasantly enough with slowly strummed Godspeed / Tarentel guitar riffs complemented by vaguely New Age-ish chimes and polished digital sheen. But Santomieri marrs the atmosphere with an extended monologue about "wonder, fear, guilt, impotence, love, anguish and freedom as uttered from the perspective of the boy in his new world as well as that of his parents and sister in their loss." Since the spoken word / ambient combination is one of my least favourite genres, I'll admit to turning this off rather quickly, never to return to it again.

SANTOS, RUSTY The Heavens (UUAR) cd 13.98
A close associate of Animal Collective and very well submerged in the New York new-avant art/music scene stratus, Rusty Santos envelopes us with minimal electronic singer-songwriter type lovelies on The Heavens, his third release. With considerable amounts of recorded-in-the-practice-space-room-sound here, Santos' musical creations are artful soundscapes that often give way to some lyrical urgency and are hard to pinpoint where it's all coming from per se. But somewhere in a big bowl of sound steeped with Syd Barrett, Brian Eno, Neil Young, Violent Femmes and OMD, we loudly slurp up The Heavens. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "This Direction"
MPEG Stream: "Alms"

SAPERA Snake Charmers of North India (Bona-Fi) cd 14.98
Got some of this old favorite back in stock, thought we'd list it again in case you'd missed it. Previously we wrote: The image of a pungi player hypnotically swaying the end of his instrument in front of a cobra portrayed in Western books and films is a fairly accurate one" says this disc's notes, and while that may justify this one Western preconception, it does nothing to prepare for how weird and wonderful the music from snake charmers really is. The three different instruments used by snake charmers (the oboe-like pungi and the rhythmic instruments premtal and kanyeri) provide not so much of a sexy sway as one might think, but a herky-jerky set of bobbing rhythms and an odd stop-start style of reed playing. Andee has likened it to the hard disc editing of Oval, Pita, and Jim O'Rourke but played live! Perhaps the snakes are Mego fans... This is a pretty spectacular collection of mysterious and stirring sound. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Theka Talin"
MPEG Stream: "Melody From The Film Phagun"

SAPPINGTON s/t ep (n/a) cd 5.98
Four quietly dreamy numbers from this young San Francisco trio. Two voices slowly weave their way around the often-subdued guitar, sampled dialogue and twinkling space sounds. For fans of For Stars or Tarentel.

SAPPINGTON Summer (Dreams By Degrees) 10" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Local laidback rockers Sappington sure take their own sweet time. Their first cdep came out in late 2000 and we've not heard a recorded peep from them since. They do play out occasionally though which reassured us that they were still making music. To refresh your memory, this trio makes lovely, drowsy, starry sky tunes. In the time since that first release, it appears they've grown quite a bit. Their sound is much more confident, developed and detailed. The male and female vocals are much more robust and front and center than I recall. The latter are very reminiscent of Carly Simon or Rebecca Gates, and they're warmly effective in contrast to the fuzzy washes of electronics in their "Airtight" remix which closes the second side of the 10". So dreamy and mellow, this entry fits well in the Dreams By Degrees seasonal series which also includes fellow mellows Colophon (Jef from Tarentel), Loquat, and Coastal.

SAPTHURAN The Beast In The Cave (God Is Myth) 3" cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Probably most well known around these parts for sharing a split with SF black metal overlord Leviathan a while back, Sapthuran pretty much held their own, which in that sort of company is saying something for sure. Their most recent full length was pretty great as well, a gloriously buzzed out slab of Burzumic brutality, as blissed out and hypnotic as grim and fuzzy. And a logical choice to be a part of God Is Myth's ongoing series of 3" cd-r's paying tribute to the writer H.P. Lovecraft, who has probably had more of an affect on metal music than almost any other writer (minus J.R.R. Tolkien obviously).
This is volume four in the series. The first came courtesy of UK experimental black metal outfit Caina, the second from Appalachian heathen metal horde Harvist, the third from the strangely monickered LVTHN, pronounced Leviathan, but not to be confused with our own Leviathan and number four comes from this Kentuckian black horde. 
Three songs, a little under twenty minutes, thematically Lovecraftian, but sonically, much like the last Sapthuran full length. The guitars are a drone-y buzz, loping and looping, fuzzed out and hypnotic, very Burzumy for sure, the vocals a strangled demony growl, the drums a chaotic black blast, the whole thing swirled into a relentlessly mesmerizing, pounding black buzz that wraps it's spiky tendrils around you and pulls you into the bleak and black emptiness below.  
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We only got 20 and it's already out of print from the label so once these are gone we will not be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Into The Mouth Of The Earth"
MPEG Stream: "The Watcher"

SAPTHURAN To The Edge Of Land (God Is Myth) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Being on a split record with another band can be rough. If the other band sucks, your band gets dragged right down with them. If the other band is great, they can make the listener completely forget that your half of the split even exists. So imagine being a black metal band, a pretty darn good black metal band, and doing a split with the current king of USBM Leviathan. You can't pass it up. It's fucking Leviathan man! But talk about pressure. But heck, it's gotta say something that Sapthuran shared a split with Leviathan a while back, and not only did we not ignore them, but we actually dug their half of the split quite a bit. So much so that when we learned they had a new full length, we got a bunch for the store.
Not nearly as weird as Leviathan, Sapthuran traffic in a more sort of trance like Burzumy buzz, single riffs are repeated and looped into a mesmerizing black metal hypnorock. Vocals howl and shriek, drums pound and blast, but it's all about the riffs, dense and fuzzy, a thick blanket of buzz laid over everything. Almost like a black metal Circle or Gore. Not a whole lot of parts, in fact, often just one or two, but the riffs are so good, and they are recorded so hot and blown out. It's like dipping your head in a furnace of black flames. Probably the weirdest thing about Sapthuran is all the acoustic guitars. It seems like almost half the record is not metal at all, instead a sort of lilting dark folk, fingerpicked minor key melodies, simple strumming, often placed in dark soundscapes of ambient drone, or distant black buzz, or crackling campfires, or the sound of howling wind, or burbling streams and chirping birds. Pastoral and tranquil, but still dark and ominous, the perfect sonic counterpoint to the hypnotic buzzing blackness surrounding that fragile serenity on all sides and perpetually threatening to swallow it whole.
MPEG Stream: "Three"
MPEG Stream: "Four"
MPEG Stream: "Six"

SARAH'S CHARITY On The Edge Of Black Sinus Desert (Heavy Blossom) 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 new, mysterious missive from Heavy Blosssom, the cd-r label run by Marcia Bassett of the Double Leopards and Hototogisu and Matthew Bower of Skullflower, Hototogisu, Sunroof!, Total, etc. Did lots of digging but couldn't figure out a damn thing about this Sarah's Charity outfit. There are guitars. LOTS of 'em. And we're talking the sort of guitars that sound like they are playing themselves, lit on fire, squealing and squirming, snapping at you every time you reach toward the amp and try to turn it down. Sharp and prickly, thick coruscating walls of white hot, buzzing snarling guitars. This is definitely a 'noise' record. But it's also somehow a psychedelic guitar record. By the sound of it, this could be either Bassett or Bower, just sort of going apeshit with a guitar, and about a million watts of amplification and the biggest distortion pedal in the universe. After a few minutes the distinct guitar-ness of the sound begins to blur and distort and all sorts of strange melodies and alien textures begin to emerge. For being very LOUD, and very heavy, and quite harsh, it's also strangely soothing and droney. An amazing, massive acid fried psychedelic free noise outerspace freakout. Released on Hototogisu's Heavy Blossom label. As always, SUPER LIMITED. We only got a handful. Packaged in a hand painted fold over cardstock sleeve. Be careful though when you put this in your player. The cool hand painted disc seems to dry and flake, so before you throw this in, give it a good blow or brush, and then hang on...
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

SARGE The Glass Intact (Mud/Parasol) cd 12.98
Great hook-filled indie rock, tight and charming, with female harmonies... If you think indie rock is at a standstill, try this. For fans of Tiger Trap and Team Dresch.

SARGE The Glass Intact (Mud/Parasol) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Great hook-filled indie rock, tight and charming, with female harmonies... If you think indie rock is at a standstill, try this. For fans of Tiger Trap and Team Dresch.

SARGEIST Disciple Of The Heinous Path (Moribund) cd 13.98