STONEWALL s/t (Kismet) lp 24.00
Now reissued on vinyl, too!
All right, time to get yr underground proto-metal kicks! Perhaps you're familiar with San Francisco longhairs Dzjenghis Khan, whose live cassette Prehistoric Rock we listed recently? Well THIS is exactly the sort of thing those retro-stoners were going for. Step up for an authentic '70s hard psych experience. Stonewall's rare, awesomely fuzz riffed record was recorded in '69, but not actually released until 1974, and even then without the band's knowledge, due to exploito-label shenanigans. Read the liner notes for more about that. (Actually, other sources claim this was recorded circa '71-'72, and then released in '76, we don't know what to believe, but either set of dates sounds plausible.)
Stonewall pump out stompin', rockin' boogie, durn heavy for '69 (or '71), fronted by an expressively raspy vocalist, gripped by the spirit of rock n' roll at its countercultural best. He also busts out the occasional harmonica wail. But it's generally guitars to the fore, and fuzzed-out. There's some Hendrix and Cream influences of course, maybe Led Zep too depending on when this really was recorded, and we're treated to some total organ jammin' blues rockin' on "Try & See It Through", while "Atlantis" hints at the slightly proggier riffage of Captain Beyond's debut....
Definitely for fans of Sir Lord Baltimore, Dust, Bang, Jerusalem, etc. Also if you remember a much more recent (but very retro) band from the '90s called The Want, who did a disc for Southern Lord, this sounds pretty much just like them. Which is cool 'cause we really digged The Want. Maybe they really digged Stonewall?
Oh, and yes, this IS the same Stonewall album that was previously reissued on cd some years back by the Italian label Akarma, with a different cover and title (Akarma called it Stoner, and the cover had a wall of Marshalls, with blood seeping from several of 'em.) Presumably this is the how the original lp really looked.
MPEG Stream: "Right On"
MPEG Stream: "Solitude"
MPEG Stream: "Outer Spaced"

STOOGES Funhouse (Elektra) cd 12.98

STOOGES s/t (Elektra) cd 12.98

STOOGES, IGGY & THE Double Danger (Bomp!) 2cd 16.98
Two discs of "Raw Power"-era live Stooges, for everybody who can't get enough of "Metallic K.O."'s live chaos. Over a hundred minutes of what had to be 1973's punkest rock shows. Not a boot, this is part of the official Iguana Chronicles series on Bomp! Sound quality is about what you'd expect, but at least Iggy's between-song foul-mouthed banter comes through pretty clearly (as does the piano, which I've always guessed was the latter-day Stooges attempt at adding a Jerry Lee Lewis "Great Balls Of Fire" type of edge to their already dangerous sound). And Iggy's wit and wisdom combined with a noisy, fucked atmosphere is really what you're after, isn't it?

STOOGES, IGGY AND THE Raw Power (Columbia) cd 12.98
The classic record remixed 25 years later by Iggy Pop! Much heavier and cleaner than the original, notoriously not-quite-right David Bowie mix. Hear it again for the first time. Liner notes include a longish interview with Iggy about the remix project. Also many sexy, sexy photos of Iggy and crew.

STOOGES, IGGY AND THE Raw Power (Sundazed) lp 21.00

STOOGES, THE Fun House Deluxe (Elektra / Rhino) 2cd 18.98
Hmm. We really should have gotten these listed a few months ago when they first came out, but we were debating with ourselves about whether we really needed to write a review that explained how awesome the Stooges are or not. I mean, we figure most AQ customers are hip to these punk rock pioneers, right? So basically, our recommendation boils down to this: if you don't have these albums, BUY THEM NOW. If you don't like 'em, we can't help you. But we think you'll like 'em. Some of the most primal yet avant-garde heavy garagey punk metallic rock n' roll ever made. Of the two albums, debate can rage as to which is most essential. We don't need to answer that question here. Get 'em both. "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is on the debut, whereas you get all the crazy saxophone freakouts on Funhouse.
Now what about if you do have these albums? Should you buy 'em again 'cause they're now "deluxe"? Well, yeah. They've got an extra disc apiece of alternate takes and unreleased material. Damn!! For instance, the full version of "Ann" on the second disc of the s/t package is awesomely super sleazy -- we love it. And don't you wish you could buy a "new" Stooges album every week? Take this historic opportunity! With one caveat: if you happen to be a lucky owner of the Rhino Handmade Funhouse Sessions box set, you might not need the deluxe version of that album, as we're pretty sure (though we didn't do any exhaustive research) that all the extra material on the second disc also must have appeared somewhere on the many discs of that amazing (and long out of print) box set.

STOOGES, THE Gimme Some Skin (Get Back) cd 17.98

STOOGES, THE Gimme Some Skin (Get Back) lp 16.98

STOOGES, THE Heavy Liquid (Easy Action) 6cd 82.00
You can't get the Rhino Handmade Funhouse Sessions box set anymore, but here's a box set that ALSO features multiple run-throughs of the same Stooges song over and over. Which, as any proud owner of the Funhouse box can tell you, is a supremely GOOD thing. Can't get enough. So, here's SIX discs of primo live, rehearsal, and studio outtake material recorded circa 1972-1974. From London studio tapes (13 different takes of "I've Got A Right" on that disc!) to Detroit rehearsals to Max's Kansas City and Whisky A Go Go sets, there's plenty of raw power here for the true Stooges fan to bask in... some of it you might have heard before, on bootlegs and so forth, but this box set is approved by the band. Probably a must-have for the dedicated fan, what with the unreleased recordings, rare photos, interviews with Iggy and the Asheton brothers, and other stuff (including a Stooges sticker) included.

STOOGES, THE s/t - Deluxe Edition (Elektra / Rhino) 2cd 18.98
Hmm. We really should have gotten these listed a few months ago when they first came out, but we were debating with ourselves about whether we really needed to write a review that explained how awesome the Stooges are or not. I mean, we figure most AQ customers are hip to these punk rock pioneers, right? So basically, our recommendation boils down to this: if you don't have these albums, BUY THEM NOW. If you don't like 'em, we can't help you. But we think you'll like 'em. Some of the most primal yet avant-garde heavy garagey punk metallic rock n' roll ever made. Of the two albums, debate can rage as to which is most essential. We don't need to answer that question here. Get 'em both. "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is on the debut, whereas you get all the crazy saxophone freakouts on Funhouse.
Now what about if you do have these albums? Should you buy 'em again 'cause they're now "deluxe"? Well, yeah. They've got an extra disc apiece of alternate takes and unreleased material. Damn!! For instance, the full version of "Ann" on the second disc of the s/t package is awesomely super sleazy -- we love it. And don't you wish you could buy a "new" Stooges album every week? Take this historic opportunity! With one caveat: if you happen to be a lucky owner of the Rhino Handmade Funhouse Sessions box set, you might not need the deluxe version of that album, as we're pretty such (though we didn't do any exhaustive research) that all the extra material on the second disc also must have appeared somewhere on the many discs of that amazing (and long out of print) box set.

STOOGES, THE The Weirdness (Virgin) cd 14.98
Sorry. Sorry folks. We're very sorry. In fact, we've been putting this off, so maybe we won't be the first to tell you, that this new, eagerly-awaited Stooges reunion album sucks. That's just the way it is. No songs to speak of. Terrible lyrics ("She Took My Money", "Free & Freaky In The USA"). It's just not good. Iggy's made way better solo albums than this, even in recent years. For a leathery old guy Iggy still has the long hair and rambunctious energy of someone much, much younger, that's true. But that doesn't mean that getting together after thirty some years with the surviving Stooges to do anything other than play their old songs was a good idea. We wish we could tell you different, we were excited before we heard it too. But it's bad and we've yet to talk to anyone who didn't agree. Oh well, we bet they'll still be worth seeing on tour, as long as they don't do too many of these tracks...
MPEG Stream: "Trollin'"
MPEG Stream: "The End Of Christianity"

STOOGES, THE The Weirdness (Virgin) 2lp 22.00
Sorry. Sorry folks. We're very sorry. In fact, we've been putting this off, so maybe we won't be the first to tell you, that this new, eagerly-awaited Stooges reunion album sucks. That's just the way it is. No songs to speak of. Terrible lyrics ("She Took My Money", "Free & Freaky In The USA"). It's just not good. Iggy's made way better solo albums than this, even in recent years. For a leathery old guy Iggy still has the long hair and rambunctious energy of someone much, much younger, that's true. But that doesn't mean that getting together after thirty some years with the surviving Stooges to do anything other than play their old songs was a good idea. We wish we could tell you different, we were excited before we heard it too. But it's bad and we've yet to talk to anyone who didn't agree. Oh well, we bet they'll still be worth seeing on tour, as long as they don't do too many of these tracks...
MPEG Stream: "Trollin'"
MPEG Stream: "The End Of Christianity"

STOOGES, THE Thousand Lights (Easy Action) cd 26.00

STOOGES, THE You Don't Want My Name You Want My Action (Easy Action) 4cd-boxset 70.00

STORM & STRESS Under Thunder and Flourescent Light (Touch & Go) cd 14.98
The teacher calls on an anxious kid in the back of the class who strains his arm reaching so high in the air and thinks he know the answer to the Storm & Stress question. "It's produced by Jim O'Rourke and it's got members of Don Cabiyerro!" The teacher shakes his head, "Yes, that may be true, but does it make it a good record? I'm not sure this piece of annoying would-be avant-jazz-rock warrants comparisons to either O'Rourke or Don Caballero. Work on your pronunciation, by the way."

STORM & STRESS Under Thunder and Flourescent Light (Touch & Go) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The teacher calls on an anxious kid in the back of the class who strains his arm reaching so high in the air and thinks he know the answer to the Storm & Stress question. "It's produced by Jim O'Rourke and it's got members of Don Cabiyerro!" The teacher shakes his head, "Yes, that may be true, but does it make it a good record? I'm not sure this piece of annoying would-be avant-jazz-rock warrants comparisons to either O'Rourke or Don Caballero. Work on your pronunciation, by the way."

STORM & STRESS We Write Threnodies. We Write With Explosions. (Touch & Go) cd 14.98

STORM BUGS Supplementary Benefit (Vinyl On Demand) lp 26.00
The Storm Bugs were the construction of Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball, who were two very active participants in the post-punk explosion of DIY productions in the late '70s and early '80s. Their gritty electronic aesthetic tended toward the industrial reappropriation of found materials and abused consumer electronics that harken back to Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle. Sanderson and Ball had also formed the Snatch Tapes label, which had released a handful of David Jackman cassettes back in the day as well as some compilations of likeminded eccentric malcontents. So far, a handful of collections of Strom Bugs material has surfaced in recent years with Supplementary Benefit being the most recent. This anthologizes two singles released in 1980 and 1981, as well as an overview of their experiments with the VCS3, a unique British synthesizer whose patch bay could be configured into a series of complex feedback loops, which the Storm Bugs used to great effect. Expect abrasive arpeggiations, primitive technotic marches, and unhinged arrangements of broken turntablist damage, oblique dirges, and obliterated textures. Pretty tremendous stuff, and kudos again to Vinyl On Demand for reclaiming another set of recordings that surely would have quietly disappeared into the ether of history.

STORM BUGS Up The Middle Down The Sides (Fusetron) lp 14.98

STORM LEGION The Eye Of The Prophet (Goatowarex) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MPEG Stream: "Destroyer"
MPEG Stream: "Of Sadness And Grim Cyclones"

STORM THE CASTLE! The History Of Doomed Expeditions Vol. 1 (Lightbulb Detective Agency) cd 13.98
We have pretty good reason to assume that the guys in Fayetteville, Arkansas' Storm The Castle! (exclamation point theirs, but wholly appropriate) won't mind us comparing their band to Hammers Of Misfortune, the beloved "operatic" metal act from here in San Francisco, related to the somewhat similar sounding Slough Feg. They'd better not mind, 'cause that's what happens when you play over the top progtastic power metal that's part '80s, part indie-artsy-postrockishness, with clean, dramatic vox and technical instrumental shred, including of course twin guitar harmonies galore! Sure there's differences - no female vocalist, no Hammond organ - and the singer of Storm The Castle! sounds something like (a very theatrical version of) Metallica's James Hetfield, moreso than he does any of Hammer's male singers past or present. But we DO think that Hammers Of Misfortune fans might dig this big time. In fact, Allan was playing it in the office 'round about when the most recent Hammers opus came out and Cup was momentarily convinced that this WAS the new Hammers.
"The Chief Goal Of Alchemy" opens the proceedings with an atmospheric electronic effects + mysterious spoken word sample into, which gives way to gentle acoustic guitars, bursting almost immediately into bombastic, triumphing true metal ass kickery. Later tracks are also crammed with complexities of hectic riffage, heroic melodies, and unexpected interludes. Slough Feg fans will find familiar the (heavy) folky motifs in "Victory, But At What Price", while "Laugh Track" is simply a ripper. This five song, half-hour-plus debut wraps up with its longest epic, grand finale "Here, Be Dragons" (10:54) which again features some very Slough Feggy guitar parts, we must say. It's all very VERY metal and yet paradoxically otherwise, or at least unexpectedly artier, giving us suspicion that this was seemingly conceptualized as a collection of metallic signifiers juxtaposed with the otherwise, to obtain an alloy that transcends such labeling. All in all, this is one that we suggest, nay insist that fans of Hammers check out, as you've already gathered. Same goes for fans of the 'Feg, Blind Guardian, The Fucking Champs, Zebulon Pike... oh and NYC's Under Satan's Sun (a band who get the award for sounding even more like Hammers, however).
MPEG Stream: "Laugh Track"
MPEG Stream: "Fire Breathing Sympathy Machine"

STORM, THE s/t (Wah Wah) cd 21.00
If you picked up the Spanish Trip compilation we reviewed a few months back, you might recall a song by this band from Seville, that we described as an example of "off-the-rails Deep Purplish bludgeon". And by "off-the-rails" we meant that their track, "I Don't Know", was played with a sloppy, wild abandon that made sound almost punk. Pretty cool! Well that song was from this, their only full-length album, originally released in 1974, and finally now reissued on cd in a fairly deluxe package (slipcover, bonus video clip), which features another seven tracks of hard rockin' proto-metal psych with gobs of heavy organ and acid blues guitar soloing...there's even a drum solo on here too. More aggressive than progressive, The Storm did their best to live up to their name, kicking out the jams more energetically than any other band from Spain up to that point in Spanish rock history except maybe Tapiman (whose excellent album with the pink skull on the cover was also recently reviewed by us, you may recall). Yet despite all their "storminess", though, these guys seem to have a sunny side too. Not downer rock by any means. You can kinda hear their '60s Beatles-lovin' pop roots.
Now, we've gotta say, on our last list we reviewed the comparably hard rockin', equally vintage Pax album from Peru, and it didn't get quite the response we were hoping for... we thought there were more of you proto-metal fans out there reading this stuff! Hmm. But if you're there, this is one you might dig (and that Pax too, go back and read about it).
MPEG Stream: "I Am Busy"
MPEG Stream: "I Don't Know"

STORMCROW Wounded Skies (Dwell) cd ep 9.98
We don't know too much about Stormcrow, besides that they're from Italy... beyond that we don't know if this is their first record, or if there are any folks from other bands in the band. Hardly matters really when you get right down to it. It's the music that matters and holy shit is this a serious blast of ultra black buzz. The sticker on the cover mentions Emperor, Dark Funeral and 1349, and while any super fast, super tight black metal band will most likely sound a little bit like one or all off those, Stormcrow somehow have a little bit more groove. It's still super fast and grim and true and blah blah blah, but the riffs sort of swing, and instead of being nothing but a black blur, it sort of lopes and lurches at lightning speed. Some killer blast beats underpinning a serious dose of killer riffing. Definitely worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the above mentioned hordes, with a little something special to set them apart. Don't be mislead though by the 'swing' and the 'groove', this is first and foremost, ultra fast, harsh as fuck, brutal and raw black metal, but there are a bunch of little sonic subtleties, weird composition, subtly strange song structure, and that killer drumming, combined with slightly twisted riffs, that makes us dig this way more than we expected to.
MPEG Stream: "Dark Promises (Are Always Kept By Satan)"
MPEG Stream: "Demons"

STORMCROW / COFFINS Split (20 Buck Spin) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another heavy hitting downtuned blackened blast and dirge matchup, this one between Oakland ultra heavies Stormcrow, and Japan's equally brutal Coffins. Stormcrow start things off with a trudging grim pummel, all sludge and trudge and pound, the vocals a hellish belch, eventually exploding into some thrashing blasting punishment, the band spewing a filthy brew that's equal parts Bolt Thrower and Winter, and over the course of nearly 13 minutes they drift from woozy mournful classic doom, to twisted crusty sort-of speed metal, to sprawling D-beat blasts but always back to crushing lumbering slo-mo sludge.
Coffins definitely exist right there next to Stormcrow in the sonic spectrum, their dirgey downtuned doom laced death metal creep, a grim and harrowing thing, lumbering and monstrous, the sound blow out, the guitars impossibly low, lurching along below some grunted vokills, and some WAY up in the mix drums, the cymbals adding a strange haze of sizzle to the proceedings, and like Stormcrow, Coffins mix it up, slipping from Corrupted style sludge to Hellhammerish primitive death metal and back again, some seriously crusty, crushing, amp destroying, head caving filth for sure. Awesome.

STORMCROW / SANCTUM split (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98
Want some brutal "war crust" to, um, brighten your day? Look no further. Stormcrow (from Oakland, and not to be confused with the Italian black metal band of the same name) team up with likeminded metallers Sanctum (from Seattle) for this split cd on the ever-reliable, heavy as heck 20 Buck Spin label. Dark and wretched, violent and crushing, it's a raw mix of speedy death and moody doom from two bands both of whom love their Bolt Thrower and Amebix, Winter and Doom. The grey-shaded artwork depicting armored foes in medieval combat is quite appropriate, as across this sprawling split, they're either charging forward with berserk fury, or trudging battleweary from the killing fields... (generally Sanctum do the former, Stormcrow the latter). Imagine Asunder with D-beats.
MPEG Stream: STORMCROW "Dead Dreams"
MPEG Stream: SANCTUM "Age Of Ruin"

STORMHAT Klokker Og Guldsmede (Krabbesholm) cd ep 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
**LAST COPIES**
One of our Danish customers, an experimental musician named Peter Bach Nicholaisen, aka Stormhat, sent us this a while back - his first cd after a couple cd-r releases. It kind of got lost in the shuffle but we just discovered we had a little pile of them so here's a review! It's a brief (21 minute) disc consisting of six fairly abstract, textural tracks made from field recordings and glitchy digital manipulations. It's mostly quite gentle, yet active. Sometimes quite pretty, at others maybe even a little bit sinister-sounding. There's sounds of a baby gurgling, tinkling fragments of music-box melodies, falling rain and indistinct voices... various crunchings and rustlings, edits and echoes... The droning hiss and weird noises suggesting a nest of small, fantastical creatures, their mysterious activities being listened-in upon from a safe distance via sensitive microphone equipment. The final, title track is our favorite, as these critters settle in for a long winter with ringing drone and drowsy birdlike twittering, the night drawing in, wind at the window, hush, hush...
This is not unlike something that you might find on Hapna, Helen Scarsdale, or Kning Disk. It's packaged in a gatefold digi-sleeve thing, the cd itself being one of those nifty ones that's like a 3" cd inside a 5" clear plastic disc.
MPEG Stream: "Regndrone"
MPEG Stream: "Klokker Og Guldsmede"

STORSVEIT NIX NOLTES Orkideur Hawai (Bubble Core) cd 13.98
This one's a bit puzzling, innit? The Bubblecore label's dipping their toes into the realm of Bulgarian gypsy music? Somehow it seems less odd when you discover that the band Storsveit Nix Noltes is from Iceland. The case being that unpredictability is certainly a strong point of many an Icelandic artist. Anyways, we'd by no means claim to be Bulgarian music experts, but to our relatively untrained ears this does sound pretty darn respectful and authentic... and pretty darn enjoyable too. Love the lively brass arrangements!
MPEG Stream: "Kreptatka"
MPEG Stream: "Griska Lagid"

STORY OF RATS, A Relinquishment (Flingco Sound) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ultra limited (only 100 copies) cassette release from this lesser known solo project of Garek Druss, who plays in PDX dronedoomsludge combo Tecumseh, and also records as Dull Knife (who split a cd-r a while back with aQ faves and weirdo outsider heavies Inh Halentropy). And it's some hazy, heady, gorgeous stuff. A lush layered landscape of grimy, gristly, crumbling, softly distorted dronemusic, at once warm and melodic, caustic and corrosive. Waves of feedback crash over churning buzz, all blurred and blearily blown out, but within this noisy swirl and squall, is a lovely and serene core, a deep meditative sonic swell, that infuses the noisiness with an impossible loveliness, the whole thing seems washed out and sun dappled, any of the jagged edges are smoothed out, and as the sound builds, in volume, and intensity, the sound remains rooted in melody, and drifts dreamily dragging a contrail of crunch and hiss and swirling overtones in its wake.
The first movement (side) is a much more incendiary affair, building to an almost deafening (but still dreamy) Sunroof-style ur-drone roar, a blazed sprawl of zoner drift and spaced out shimmer, but the second half (side) dials it back a bit, the sound more cavernous and echo drenched, the melodies less abstract, and woven into something almost propulsive, wheezing chordal blur over undulating deep swirling swells, a captivating bit of grey ambience, the sound rich with overtones, and buried melodies, hypnotic and woozy and in its own way strangely tranquil, a gauzy droned out minimalistic drift, total dreamdoomdrone bliss for sure...
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, nice thick printed cardstock sleeves, and cool transparent cassettes...

STORY OF RATS, A Thought Forms (Eiderdown) lp 19.98
Hot on the heels of the recent super limited cassette on Flingco (got a few left, ask if you want one), comes this also limited lp from Gareck Druss, aka A Story Of Rats, who might be more familiar to aQ folks as a member of PDX doomdronedirge outfit Tecumseh. And A Story Of Rats actually seems like a logical extension of the Tecumseh mothership, a more minimal, hushed sound, but definitely the same sort of dirgey drift.
Thought Forms is a single sprawling epic split up into two sidelong movements, the first is as you might expect, a creepy atmospheric dronescape, all distant sounds, reverbed field recordings, warm whirling tones, the sound drifts meditatively, but begins to grow more industrial, as the sounds grow more caustic, bell like chimes, are wreathed in distortion and begin to crumble, vocals buried so they sound like more rumbles and whirs, keening fragmented melodies drift beneath the surface, the sound constantly in motion, but subtly so, shifting from deep somnambulant creep to washed out shimmer and back again. The second side/movement is more looped and hypnotic, woozy and psychedelic, the sounds more hazy and softly swirly, melodies blurred into chordal thrum, it's prettier than the A side, but the darkness seems to grow gradually, a droned out soft noise that builds and builds into a crumbling and ominous black buzz outro. Most definitely for fans of all things slow and low, minimal and droney, dark and drifty.
The packaging is incredible, hand screened jackets, black and metallic gold ink, the vinyl pressed on swirled black and grey vinyl, packaged with a super swank insert, again hand screened in metallic gold ink, on heavy textured paper.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES.
MPEG Stream: "Thought Forms I (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "Thought Forms II (excerpt)"

STORY, THE Arcane Rising (Sunbeam) cd 16.98
One of our favorite "folkpsych" albums of last year was the debut full-length Tale Spin from the English father-son duo known as The Story. Wasn't terribly much of a surprise, really, since the elder half of The Story, Martin Welham, was an integral member of Forest, an amazing (and undeservedly obscure) band from back in the original late sixties/early seventies magical era of British acid folk music, contemporaries of Fairport and Pentangle and the Incredible String Band and Dando Shaft and Comus. The reissues of their two albums have been huge favorite here at Aquarius. But now it's almost forty years later, and we suppose that Martin making music with his son Tom could have been a let-down. But it wasn't, not a bit, no sirree. Martin still had "it". And apparently a musical talent for pastoral prettiness runs in the family too.
And this second album from The Story is also quite something. Again what wows us is just the lovely blend of their gentle voices and sprightly guitar strum, singing songs full of melancholic atmospheres and melodic enchantment... As an acoustic duo, the focus here is on the song writing, the melodies and pagan-tinged lyrics, not psychedelic effects or rock bombast, and the Welhams do wonders with just their guitars and voices, plus some sundry hand-percussion, flutes, and (literal) bells and whistles too. Like Tale Spin, this album is utterly sweet and mellow and hum-able...in terms of mood, it has its dark corners but even then the Martin and Tom's harmony vocals bring warmth and light to the journey, which seems to be along forest paths and over country streams, across both misty moors and sunny meadows. The songs (sixteen of 'em) are ALL quite nice, none of them overly lengthy, mostly just a minute or three apiece, making maximum melodic impact before The Story moves itself along to the next song. Timeless stuff -- we could almost imagine a Welham grandchild eventually joining up and The Story continuing and bridging yet another generation...
PS They also have a track on the excellent new Brit-folk compilation John Barleycorn Reborn, which we'll be reviewing on our next list...
MPEG Stream: "Watch Out"
MPEG Stream: "Flash Across The Sky"

STORY, THE Tale Spin (Sunbeam Records) cd 16.98
Ooooh. The Story is a good one. Imagine if Elliott Smith was fey and British and made hippie music (that's what Pam calls this, and it's a pretty good description). The Story is the handiwork of the father-son duo of Martin and Tom Welham, Tale Spin being the full-length follow up to their side of the split LP they did last year with Santa Cruz psychfolk outfit Whysp. We know Whysp were excited to appear on the same piece of vinyl as these guys, since Welham the elder (Martin) was once an important member of legendary UK psychfolk band Forest, whose two all-too-obscure albums from the early '70s are both firm favorites among us here at Aquarius as well! We LOVE that band. And are very happy to report that Martin and his son Tom have kept the tradition alive and well. The Story's music is full of the same leafy forest glade melody and melancholy that made Martin's old band so amazing. Being a duo, this is more acoustic and less rock than Forest sometimes got, but is otherwise definitely reminiscent in terms of songwriting quality and style. For those of you who haven't heard Forest, we could offer comparisons as well to the Olivia Tremor Control, Yes, and the Hollies... sort of... think of those bands at their most gentle and acoustic and twee. A magical combination of sweet strum, mellow vocal harmonies, and poetic lyrics (one of our favorite lines, from "Winterborn" -- "It takes a lifetime, but in the end / You come to know what the fates intend"). Total hum along music. Recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Down To The Trees"
MPEG Stream: "Winterborn"

STORY, THE & WHYSP The Dawn Is Crowned (Good Village Recordings) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Dawn Is Crowded is an international split LP between West Coasters Whysp and The Story who hail from the U.K. and count as members Martin Welham of '60s psych-folk band Forest and his son Tom! Not unlike waking at the daybreak and stumbling across an earthy psych-folk gathering deep within some distant enchanted forest. On The Story's side, everything is leafy green, glistening with dew and pixie dust with slightly twee male vocals. On the flip side, Whysp invite a few more players into the fold for a more varied and up-tempo group performance. Nice!

STOTT, ANDY Luxury Problems (Modern Love) cd 19.98
Luxury Problems is another stunning progression in the already brilliant catalogue of Andy Stott. The game is fully upped on this one, the dark hues even more melancholic, the fogged hiss and forlorn night drones ever present buried beneath sheets of crumbling percussion and is associated ether-rag induced slo-mo ghost house lamentations. It's a haunted sound for sure, as were his previous two mini albums, Passed Me By and We Stay Together, but it seems the bleak vaporous vibes of this Manchester artist are now fully realized. The addition of Allison Skidmore's beautifully woebegone vocals on most of the tracks provides just enough emotional power to really push Stott's vision forward.
Kicking off with "Numb", beautifully dark chords swell underneath Skidmore's plaintive and gorgeous utterances, sounding like that Julee Cruise/Burial collaboration we've all been dreaming of, recorded on a cassette deck and blasted LOUD from some reverberating corner of an abandoned bus station. Sorrowful and droning, the 4-on-the-floor way slowed down, everything blurred out and disintegrated. "Sleepless" is a standout as well, starting with a hissing Zoviet France like syncopated drone, with dubbed out reverb drenched percussion and off-kilter loopy sheets of unraveling hiss, the rhythm track slowly starting to creep in about halfway through. Hitting those drugged out R&B vibes we've been digging so much, a pitched down vocal loop intermingles with the drums, creating a hypnotically swinging, yet dirge like dirt-house stomper. Everything blasted out and fuzzy, the beat goes on, never peaking but developing into a blissed out trance state, time stretched windchimes cascading from left to right as the cut up vocal samples surface from some deep subterranean sonic cavern. Exquisite. "Hatch The Plan" has a field recorded mechanics vibe, starting and ending with what sounds like a rusted squeaking conveyer belt drenched in 'verb, a totally heavy and corroded sub baseline appears. This is one of the more minimal moments of the record. Essentially a bass line, a kick drum, and some percussion, and plenty of space for Skidmore's vocals, which are multilayered to brilliant effect. Elegiac vocal passages double and triple up over this blackened percussive skitter, subtle elements of noisy details peak through the mix, building towards a break in the drums, the angelic chorus of the vocals given full reign in the mix, haunting and sonorous, before the conveyer belt sound reappears and pitches up and up til being left alone, untreated, to cap off the jam. Drugged out and woozy, layers of dirt and skree undulating, altogether creepy, yet still, somehow sublime.
The vibe of the record remains totally consistent throughout, but what's truly great is how Stott finds understated ways to insert some funk into the proceedings. Stott, after all, has some dance floor cred, gained through his garagey bassy alter ego Andrea (also worth checking out is Millie & Andrea, Stott's collab with Miles Whittaker of Demdike Stare), but this is an Andy Stott record proper, so any dance floor tendencies are going to be handled with a handful of bleak dust. The title cut offers the best example of a clever infusion of dance floor tropes. A flickering breakbeat rolls along, slow and low slug swing, stark vocal harmonies commingle with a downtuned & groovy bass guitar line. Suddenly a 'verbed out to the max disco-y conga loop shows up, WAY high in the mix, giving the whole thing a very handmade, mid nineties NYC hip hop by way of Bristol vibe. Cut up and funky, yet with all the forlorn noise dappled feeling emblematic of Stott's sound.
"Up The Box" though, at least rhythmically speaking, may be the greatest departure on the record. It starts as a grinding and mesmerizing caustic drum drone. Again with some serious Zoviet France vibes, reminding us a little of our favorite Demdike Stare moments, the otherworldly percussive grime looping on and on, swirling hissing textures building until suddenly the whole thing turns into a screwed and chopped breakbeat work out! Although dirty and decimated as hell, just a breakbeat and a handful of effects go toward creating this stark rhythmic roller. Finally, "Leaving" caps Luxury Problems with more of Skidmore's beautifully funerary vocal intonations, multilayered and of course with a healthy dose of cavelike reverb, a gloomy gothy synth bass line combined with all the gauzy heavenly texture in these final moments has our collective hearts about to break. SO FUCKING GOOD!
Luxury Problems is definitely Stott's best work to date, which obviously means this is totally essential. The sonic palette here is definitely consistent with all the various releases under his own name, but the addition of the voice adds an incredible layer of emotional depth. Inhabiting a deep and dark nighttime universe, ghostly and mourning, disintegrating and dreary, the perfect soundtrack to those moments of lonely reflection. So utterly recommended! Beautiful Modern Love sleeve design too. (FYI, the vinyl version we had for a moment, but it's now being repressed, we'll list it when we can!)
MPEG Stream: "Numb"
MPEG Stream: "Sleepless"
MPEG Stream: "Hatch The Plan"
MPEG Stream: "Luxury Problems"

STOTT, ANDY Luxury Problems (Modern Love) 2lp 28.00
NOW ON VINYL!!
Luxury Problems is another stunning progression in the already brilliant catalog of Andy Stott. The game is fully upped on this one, the dark hues even more melancholic, the fogged hiss and forlorn night drones ever present buried beneath sheets of crumbling percussion and is associated ether-rag induced slo-mo ghost house lamentations. It's a haunted sound for sure, as were his previous two mini albums, Passed Me By and We Stay Together, but it seems the bleak vaporous vibes of this Manchester artist are now fully realized. The addition of Allison Skidmore's beautifully woebegone vocals on most of the tracks provides just enough emotional power to really push Stott's vision forward.
Kicking off with "Numb", beautifully dark chords swell underneath Skidmore's plaintive and gorgeous utterances, sounding like that Julee Cruise/Burial collaboration we've all been dreaming of, recorded on a cassette deck and blasted LOUD from some reverberating corner of an abandoned bus station. Sorrowful and droning, the 4-on-the-floor way slowed down, everything blurred out and disintegrated. "Sleepless" is a standout as well, starting with a hissing Zoviet France like syncopated drone, with dubbed out reverb drenched percussion and off-kilter loopy sheets of unraveling hiss, the rhythm track slowly starting to creep in about halfway through. Hitting those drugged out R&B vibes we've been digging so much, a pitched down vocal loop intermingles with the drums, creating a hypnotically swinging, yet dirge like dirt-house stomper. Everything blasted out and fuzzy, the beat goes on, never peaking but developing into a blissed out trance state, time stretched windchimes cascading from left to right as the cut up vocal samples surface from some deep subterranean sonic cavern. Exquisite. "Hatch The Plan" has a field recorded mechanics vibe, starting and ending with what sounds like a rusted squeaking conveyer belt drenched in 'verb, a totally heavy and corroded sub baseline appears. This is one of the more minimal moments of the record. Essentially a bass line, a kick drum, and some percussion, and plenty of space for Skidmore's vocals, which are multilayered to brilliant effect. Elegiac vocal passages double and triple up over this blackened percussive skitter, subtle elements of noisy details peak through the mix, building towards a break in the drums, the angelic chorus of the vocals given full reign in the mix, haunting and sonorous, before the conveyer belt sound reappears and pitches up and up til being left alone, untreated, to cap off the jam. Drugged out and woozy, layers of dirt and skree undulating, altogether creepy, yet still, somehow sublime.
The vibe of the record remains totally consistent throughout, but what's truly great is how Stott finds understated ways to insert some funk into the proceedings. Stott, after all, has some dance floor cred, gained through his garagey bassy alter ego Andrea (also worth checking out is Millie & Andrea, Stott's collab with Miles Whittaker of Demdike Stare), but this is an Andy Stott record proper, so any dance floor tendencies are going to be handled with a handful of bleak dust. The title cut offers the best example of a clever infusion of dance floor tropes. A flickering breakbeat rolls along, slow and low slug swing, stark vocal harmonies commingle with a downtuned & groovy bass guitar line. Suddenly a 'verbed out to the max disco-y conga loop shows up, WAY high in the mix, giving the whole thing a very handmade, mid nineties NYC hip hop by way of Bristol vibe. Cut up and funky, yet with all the forlorn noise dappled feeling emblematic of Stott's sound.
"Up The Box" though, at least rhythmically speaking, may be the greatest departure on the record. It starts as a grinding and mesmerizing caustic drum drone. Again with some serious Zoviet France vibes, reminding us a little of our favorite Demdike Stare moments, the otherworldly percussive grime looping on and on, swirling hissing textures building until suddenly the whole thing turns into a screwed and chopped breakbeat work out! Although dirty and decimated as hell, just a breakbeat and a handful of effects go toward creating this stark rhythmic roller. Finally, "Leaving" caps Luxury Problems with more of Skidmore's beautifully funerary vocal intonations, multilayered and of course with a healthy dose of cavelike reverb, a gloomy gothy synth bass line combined with all the gauzy heavenly texture in these final moments has our collective hearts about to break. SO FUCKING GOOD!
Luxury Problems is definitely Stott's best work to date, which obviously means this is totally essential. The sonic palette here is definitely consistent with all the various releases under his own name, but the addition of the voice adds an incredible layer of emotional depth. Inhabiting a deep and dark nighttime universe, ghostly and mourning, disintegrating and dreary, the perfect soundtrack to those moments of lonely reflection. So utterly recommended! Beautiful Modern Love sleeve design too.
MPEG Stream: "Numb"
MPEG Stream: "Sleepless"
MPEG Stream: "Hatch The Plan"
MPEG Stream: ""

STOTT, ANDY Passed Me By (Modern Love) 2lp 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We missed the vinyl versions of Passed Me By and We Stay Together the first time around, but ended up making the double disc compilation from Andy Stott our Record Of The Week back in December of 2011, now the original lps have been repressed and are available again separately. Here's what we had to say about Stott and Passed Me By:
UK producer Stott seems to have taken the minimal downtempo soul of Burial as a jumping off point, taking that same sound and slowing it down even further, adding more grit and grime, creating a sound now twice removed from the dancefloor, a soporific, somnolent techno that fuses murky dirgey slo-mo soul with abstract house music creep, conjuring up a music that is both haunting and sinister, mesmeric and minimal, an array of looped melodies, melded to skeletal thumps and heartbeat like pulses, fragmented samples woven into the mix mostly to provide texture and melody, but for the most part all of the various elements are recruited to either become rhythms themselves, or to be blurred and smeared into a grim washed out backdrop, over which the rhythms slither and skitter. The dub element is huge, but it's a muted sublimated dub, only really showing itself, when a voice escapes the gravitational pull of Stott's black hole dub, the swirl of effects dragging it right back down into the murk, quickly disappearing into the inky blackness, leaving just the churn and lurch, and it's that balance, a delicate one to be sure, that makes Stott's sound so special. Too much rhythmic murk, and it's monochromatic and dull, too much melody, and sonic filigree and suddenly it's not nearly so dark and mysterious. Stott deftly negotiates the middle ground, dragging the more melodic elements into the dark and repurposing them, using them to infuse his sonic black energy with life.
Released on the same label that gave us all the Demdike Stare records, which should give you an idea that while this might technically be techno, it's some murky dubbed out hauntology that transcends any sort of genre classification. A brand new unanimous store fave!
MPEG Stream: "North To South"
MPEG Stream: "Intermittent"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Details"

STOTT, ANDY Passed Me By (Modern Love) 2lp 26.00
We missed the original vinyl versions of Andy Stott's Passed Me By and We Stay Together the first time around, but ended up making the double disc compilation that bundled those two albums into one set our Record Of The Week back in December of 2011, now the original lps have been repressed once more (for the third time, by our count), and are again available separately, on vinyl! Here's what we had to say about Stott and Passed Me By:
UK producer Stott seems to have taken the minimal downtempo soul of Burial as a jumping off point, taking that same sound and slowing it down even further, adding more grit and grime, creating a sound now twice removed from the dancefloor, a soporific, somnolent techno that fuses murky dirgey slo-mo soul with abstract house music creep, conjuring up a music that is both haunting and sinister, mesmeric and minimal, an array of looped melodies, melded to skeletal thumps and heartbeat like pulses, fragmented samples woven into the mix mostly to provide texture and melody, but for the most part all of the various elements are recruited to either become rhythms themselves, or to be blurred and smeared into a grim washed out backdrop, over which the rhythms slither and skitter. The dub element is huge, but it's a muted sublimated dub, only really showing itself, when a voice escapes the gravitational pull of Stott's black hole dub, the swirl of effects dragging it right back down into the murk, quickly disappearing into the inky blackness, leaving just the churn and lurch, and it's that balance, a delicate one to be sure, that makes Stott's sound so special. Too much rhythmic murk, and it's monochromatic and dull, too much melody, and sonic filigree and suddenly it's not nearly so dark and mysterious. Stott deftly negotiates the middle ground, dragging the more melodic elements into the dark and repurposing them, using them to infuse his sonic black energy with life.
Released on the same label that gave us all the Demdike Stare records, which should give you an idea that while this might technically be techno, it's some murky dubbed out hauntology that transcends any sort of genre classification. A brand new unanimous store fave!
MPEG Stream: "North To South"
MPEG Stream: "Intermittent"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Details"

STOTT, ANDY Passed Me By / We Stay Together (Modern Love) 2cd 24.00
Before we had actually heard Andy Stott, we had a procession of folks come into the store and tell us how incredible his stuff was, and how we should definitely get whatever we could, and yet, with every 12" release, they disappeared before we could get any copies at all, and before we knew it they were gone. We did manage to hear bits and pieces, enough that when we discovered that two of the records were being reissued together as a double cd, we could barely wait, and once it arrived, well, pretty much everyone here has been playing it nonstop. UK producer Stott seems to have taken the minimal downtempo soul of Burial as a jumping off point, taking that same sound and slowing it down even further, adding more grit and grime, creating a sound now twice removed from the dancefloor, a soporific, somnolent techno that fuses murky dirgey slo-mo soul with abstract house music creep, conjuring up a music that is both haunting and sinister, mesmeric and minimal, an array of looped melodies, melded to skeletal thumps and heartbeat like pulses, fragmented samples woven into the mix mostly to provide texture and melody, but for the most part all of the various elements are recruited to either become rhythms themselves, or to be blurred and smeared into a grim washed out backdrop, over which the rhythms slither and skitter. The dub element is huge, but it's a muted sublimated dub, only really showing itself, when a voice escapes the gravitational pull of Stott's black hole dub, the swirl of effects dragging it right back down into the murk, quickly disappearing into the inky blackness, leaving just the churn and lurch, and it's that balance, a delicate one to be sure, that makes Stott's sound so special. Too much rhythmic murk, and it's monochromatic and dull, too much melody, and sonic filigree and suddenly it's not nearly so dark and mysterious. Stott deftly negotiates the middle ground, dragging the more melodic elements into the dark and repurposing them, using them to infuse his sonic black energy with life. The bonus tracks on Passed Me By, are much more active, the pulsing house-y "Stitch House" sounds like Stott covering The Field, still all fuzzy and washed out and Pop Ambient, but much more rhythmic, and less murky, while "Love Nothing" lets the rhythms come front and center, skittering and shuffling over a rubbery low end melody, and swirling synthy chordal swells, not to mention a deep dramatic croon. It almost sounds like a sketch for a future song that would find the various elements dipped in pitch, slowed down and blackened.
The second disc does dial back the murk a bit, instead focusing on the rhythmic component, wrapping everything in a Pop Ambient haze, but letting the beats break free of the whir and thrum, opener "Submission" is all hazy swirls, the only rhythm a sort of echo drenched dubbed out ripple, very dreamlike and abstract, before slipping into "Posers" which at first sounds very much like something off Passed Me By sampled water gurgles beneath a muted techno thump, but soon, fog horn like melodies drift in, and the beat blossoms into something much more active, a shuffling crunch anchored to a house-like pulse, processed vocals drifting over the top, the vibe groovy, but still washed out and druggily abstract. Which is how the first half of We Stay Together plays out, but then about half way through, the sounds begins to veer back toward the murk, "Cherry Eye" being a fantastic bit of muddied minimalism, even at its most propulsive, it's still a muted creep, as is "Cracked", although it does crank the beat a bit, conjuring up a sort of slow motion shimmy, that remains looped and mesmerizingly motorik.
The bonus tracks on We Stay Together, in some ways mirror those on Passed Me By, in that they actually sound more like their opposite, "Work Gate" is super minimal and sketch-like, a little dubby and darkly Portishead-y, while "We Stay Together (Part Two)" begins life as a hushed blur, but gradually blossoms into another Field like chunk of looped techno mesmer.
Released on the same label that gave us all the Demdike Stare records, which should give you an idea that while this might technically be techno, it's some murky dubbed out hauntology that transcends any sort of genre classification. A brand new unanimous store fave, and definite contender for Record Of the Year!
Packed in a super striking oversized gatefold sleeve, with a different cover for each album depending on which way you're holding it, both stunning black and white photos culled from the pages of National Geographic.
MPEG Stream: "North To South"
MPEG Stream: "Intermittent"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Details"
MPEG Stream: "Submission"
MPEG Stream: "Posers"

STOTT, ANDY We Stay Together (Modern Love) 2lp 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We missed the vinyl versions of Passed Me By and We Stay Together the first time around, but ended up making the double disc compilation from Andy Stott our Record Of The Week back in December of 2011, now the original lps have been repressed and are available again separately. Here's what we had to say about Stott and We Stay Together:
UK producer Stott seems to have taken the minimal downtempo soul of Burial as a jumping off point, taking that same sound and slowing it down even further, adding more grit and grime, creating a sound now twice removed from the dancefloor, a soporific, somnolent techno that fuses murky dirgey slo-mo soul with abstract house music creep, conjuring up a music that is both haunting and sinister, mesmeric and minimal, an array of looped melodies, melded to skeletal thumps and heartbeat like pulses, fragmented samples woven into the mix mostly to provide texture and melody, but for the most part all of the various elements are recruited to either become rhythms themselves, or to be blurred and smeared into a grim washed out backdrop, over which the rhythms slither and skitter.
We Stay Together dials back the murk that was all over Passed Me By a bit, instead focusing on the rhythmic component, wrapping everything in a Pop Ambient haze, but letting the beats break free of the whir and thrum, opener "Submission" is all hazy swirls, the only rhythm a sort of echo drenched dubbed out ripple, very dreamlike and abstract, before slipping into "Posers" which at first sounds very much like something off Passed Me By sampled water gurgles beneath a muted techno thump, but soon, fog horn like melodies drift in, and the beat blossoms into something much more active, a shuffling crunch anchored to a house-like pulse, processed vocals drifting over the top, the vibe groovy, but still washed out and druggily abstract. Which is how the first half of We Stay Together plays out, but then about half way through, the sounds begins to veer back toward the murk, "Cherry Eye" being a fantastic bit of muddied minimalism, even at its most propulsive, it's still a muted creep, as is "Cracked", although it does crank the beat a bit, conjuring up a sort of slow motion shimmy, that remains looped and mesmerizingly motorik.
Released on the same label that gave us all the Demdike Stare records, which should give you an idea that while this might technically be techno, it's some murky dubbed out hauntology that transcends any sort of genre classification. A brand new unanimous store fave!
MPEG Stream: "Submission"
MPEG Stream: "Posers"

STOTT, ANDY We Stay Together (Modern Love) 2lp 26.00
We missed the original vinyl versions of Andy Stott's Passed Me By and We Stay Together the first time around, but ended up making the double disc compilation that bundled those two albums into one set our Record Of The Week back in December of 2011, now the original lps have been repressed once more (for the third time, by our count), and are again available separately, on vinyl! Here's what we had to say about Stott and We Stay Together:
UK producer Stott seems to have taken the minimal downtempo soul of Burial as a jumping off point, taking that same sound and slowing it down even further, adding more grit and grime, creating a sound now twice removed from the dancefloor, a soporific, somnolent techno that fuses murky dirgey slo-mo soul with abstract house music creep, conjuring up a music that is both haunting and sinister, mesmeric and minimal, an array of looped melodies, melded to skeletal thumps and heartbeat like pulses, fragmented samples woven into the mix mostly to provide texture and melody, but for the most part all of the various elements are recruited to either become rhythms themselves, or to be blurred and smeared into a grim washed out backdrop, over which the rhythms slither and skitter.
We Stay Together dials back the murk that was all over Passed Me By a bit, instead focusing on the rhythmic component, wrapping everything in a Pop Ambient haze, but letting the beats break free of the whir and thrum, opener "Submission" is all hazy swirls, the only rhythm a sort of echo drenched dubbed out ripple, very dreamlike and abstract, before slipping into "Posers" which at first sounds very much like something off Passed Me By sampled water gurgles beneath a muted techno thump, but soon, fog horn like melodies drift in, and the beat blossoms into something much more active, a shuffling crunch anchored to a house-like pulse, processed vocals drifting over the top, the vibe groovy, but still washed out and druggily abstract. Which is how the first half of We Stay Together plays out, but then about half way through, the sounds begins to veer back toward the murk, "Cherry Eye" being a fantastic bit of muddied minimalism, even at its most propulsive, it's still a muted creep, as is "Cracked", although it does crank the beat a bit, conjuring up a sort of slow motion shimmy, that remains looped and mesmerizingly motorik.
Released on the same label that gave us all the Demdike Stare records, which should give you an idea that while this might technically be techno, it's some murky dubbed out hauntology that transcends any sort of genre classification. A brand new unanimous store fave!
MPEG Stream: "Submission"
MPEG Stream: "Posers"

STOUSY, BRANDON / MATTHEW BARNEY / WOLD Tubal Cain magazine + dvd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

STRAIGHT OUTTA HUNTER'S POINT (ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK) (Mastamind) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the soundtrack from first time director Kevin Epps' documentary about Hunters Point, a San Francisco community and neighborhood that has been struggling for years with gangs, drugs, poverty, pollution, unemployment and gentrification. The film focuses on the hip hop subculture/industry as it examines those bigger issues. The soundtrack was voted one of 2001's top ten records by independent rap magazine Murder Dog, and for good reason. Bristling with energy and anger, 'Straight Outta Hunter's Point' features all rappers and prooducers from the neighborhood, and stands up to any hip hop compilation released recently. The sound is a little bit gangsta, a little Cash Money 'bling bling', a little No Limit dirty South, but with a sound and lyrical content that is all Hunter's Point. Really great. See the film if you can.
RealAudio clip: T-KASH / TOO INCOGNITO "Victim Of Da RAPGAME"
RealAudio clip: HECTIC / BABYFINSTA / BIG T "Thug Shit"
RealAudio clip: HECTIC / FEDDY / BABYFINSTA "Feddy Its Getting Hectic"

STRANGE MEN IN SHEDS WITH SPANNERS s/t (Drag City) lp 15.98
Best band name ever? Definitely a contender. Never really thought that the Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley had anything like this in him, but this album is pretty damn good regardless! Almost living up to the ridiculous moniker! Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners was Shelley's oddball synth-wave project that began even before the Buzzcocks broke up in 1981. Back then, he took up the habit of inviting any number of unmentioned 'guests' over to his studio to jam with anything and everything in the studio; and these Strange Men In Sheds With Spanners recordings came from the many tapes that he had made by these means from 1980-1984. Who those 'guests' in Shelley's studio might have been is anybody's guess. Our guess though? Maybe Eric Random, maybe Francis Cookson, maybe Sally Timms from The Mekons. Regardless, the resultant recordings are an electronic-heavy art-punk with plenty of weirdo synth meanderings, Keith Levene sounding guitar splinterings, dub-inflected basslines, and scatterbrained effects. None of the punk-pop hooks from the Buzzcocks are found here, even when guitars, bass, and drums enter the picture; it's pretty much all about the studio as instrument with lots of effects swarming about the drum machine rhythms and bare-bones post-punk grooves. One could think of The Storm Bugs, Crawling Chaos, The Psyclones, or Jeff & Jane Hudson. Vinyl-only, and sorry, there's no download card with this LP.

STRANGER THAN FICTION OST (Columbia) cd 17.98
Movie soundtrack or not, this cd is probably well worth nabbing because it features a new Spoon song and a stirring instrumental score by Spoon's Britt Daniel and Brian Reitzell! Apart from them, this soundtrack features a typical mixed bag of current hipsters and cred-heavy veterans that you'll find on most of the recent big budget ensemble cast movies (particularly those starring Will Ferrell). Here you also get Maximo Park, Delta 5, Califone, The Jam, The Upsetters, Wreckless Eric, M83 and Vangelis. For their part, Maximo Park rollick and riff on "Going Missing" with a guitar line that could easily have been nicked from Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner". All in all, a pretty decent mix tape!
MPEG Stream: SPOON "The Book I Write"
MPEG Stream: MAXIMO PARK "Going Missing"

STRANGER, THE s/t (Phthalo) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Affiliated with the Manchester electronica terrorist outfit V/VM (Jansky Noise has provided additional production on a few tracks), The Stranger has produced one of the best records to emerge from that school of circuit / brain frying. Released on the outsider West Coast label Phthalo, this cdr release (limited to 250) is an alchemic concoction of boiling and crashing swells of digitized drone and sporadic post-Autechre break-skitter. Recommended!

STRANGLERS Greatest Hits (Epic) cd 10.98

STRANGULATED BEATOFFS Greatest Hits (Behemoth) cd 13.98
The Strangulated Beatoffs are a weird weird band. But then what did you expect from a band called the Strangulated Beatoffs? Or from a band that features members of infamous noise punks Drunks With Guns?
This demented duo sometimes use samplers and loops to make fucked up hypnotic grooves and seriously demented electronic weirdness, but as is evidenced by Greatest Hits, they're also puerile purveyors of sick sludgey noise rock and filthy drunkrock dirges. Greatest Hits is mostly a collection of seven inches, the earliest recordings of the Beatoffs circa 1988-1992 or so and thus are maybe the closest sonically to the late great Drunks With Guns. Some tracks like "Porky The Pig And Bess" and "Heeby Jeeby/Practicing To Be A Doctor" are heavy dirgey space rock drug jams that sound like they could have been yanked from a Butthole Surfers set, while others, like "Lick My Butthole" musically sound like Dutch post metallers Gore, but with the addition of some goofy fucked up lyrics, and some damaged shards of buzz and crunch.
"It's A Vile, Vile, Vile, Vile World" is a super lengthy collage of looped eighties Carpenter-ish soundtracks, that sounds like it could be James Ferraro, but it's from at least a decade before Ferraro delved into lysergic pop music, so the Beatoffs are unsung musical pioneers! Fuck yeah! There's a Troggs cover too, but you'd never know it, a murky field recording that sounds like it was captured in the bar around the corner from the show, there's a dorky acoustic ditty, some strange carnivalesque child molesting weirdness, some Mentors like punk rock, but the finest moments are when the band do their best Butthole Surfers, crafting longform drone dirge drug rock, all swirling spacey effects, gnarled looped guitars, and mesmerizingly motorik beats...
If you're not sold by now, maybe this will sway you: Strangulated Beatoffs are one of Andee's all time favorite bands. EVER. So much so that he contacted them about reissuing all of their records, maybe even a box set, but all they wanted to release on tUMULt was their record of Genesis covers! (And then he never heard from them again.) How rad is that???
MPEG Stream: "Lick My Butthole"
MPEG Stream: "Did Those Dumbfucks Even Name This One?"
MPEG Stream: "Fake Eyeball"
MPEG Stream: "Heeby Jeeby / Practicing To Be A Doctor"
MPEG Stream: "It's A Vile, Vile, VIle, Vile World"

STRANGULATED BEATOFFS Jacking Off With Jacko (Apop Records) 7" 6.98

STRANGULATED BEATOFFS Reverse Child Psychology (Nihilist) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Featuring ex-members of Drunks With Guns and White Suburban Youth although you would never know it from the sound. Besides having the best band name ever, the Beatoffs take simple stolen sounds and loop and distort them until they become incessant and repetetive and super hypnotic rhythms that either entrance or annoy. Often both. Almost dance-y at times, but more often, some sort of punk rock, lofi take on Steve Reich or Charlemagne Palestine. Now if only Steve Reich would play once a decade and spend two thirds of said performance showing a video tape of dancing monkeys! I love this band.

STRAPPING FIELDHANDS Discus (Shangri-La) cd 11.98
We've been waiting for this reissue for 16 years. In fact, we briefly entertained the idea of trying to release it ourselves. It's a record we have been obsessed with since it came out in 1994, a super limited self released lp, a record we taped for everyone we knew, played for everyone we knew, the kind of record that inspired that sort of undying dedication, a totally unsung, indie pop gem from the early nineties, that attained a degree of infamy with a handful of weirdo music obsessives, but remained well removed from the spotlight it so richly deserved. Spin magazine even declared it one of the "Ten Best Records You've Never Heard", which probably sadly still applies, 15+ years later, but maybe not for long. Not if we have anything to say about it.
Those of you who are in your thirties or forties, no doubt remember the era that spawned the Strapping Fieldhands, think Trumans Water, Thinking Fellers, Sun City Girls, Pavement, the Grifters, Guided By Voices... The Strapping Fieldhands would go on to make a bunch more records, but Discus is where it all started, and is STILL the group's masterwork, a chaotic and confusional jumble of nineties indie noise rock and British Invasion pop, and as the liner notes point out, there's also a definite pre-British Invasion skiffle feel to many of the songs, skiffle being the sound that inspired the sound of the Beatles and the Kinks and all the other British bands of the era. The record itself is a hodge podge, a stumbling, glorious ramshackle jumble, slipping from gorgeous perfect pop, to angular free noise drift, to dirgey balladry, to rollicking rocking, to super experimental sound collage, most of those elements and sounds blending and mixing, into a sound, and a collection of songs, that sounded like nothing else then, and nothing since. Folks into Elephant 6 might be surprised to discover there was a band doing something similar, and arguably better already, and everyone who digs the new wave of noise rock / garage pop, a la Sic Alps, Oh Sees, it would be hard to imagine that those guys hadn't heard and dug heavily the Fieldhands.
The opening of "Boo Hoo Hoo" still gives us chills, the jaunty whistle, the woozy jangle, the faux British vocals, the immediately irresistible hook, the chorus with it's cloying melody and random cowbell, still one of the greatest pop songs ever. In fact, the opening three tracks, are another one of those timeless classic opening sonic salvos that remains pretty much untouchable. "Boo Hoo Hoo" is followed by "Sad Lament Of The American Indian", which begins all dirgey and druggy, totally reminiscent of Thinking Fellers / Sun City Girls and Polvo too, the chords warped and off kilter, the drums stumbly and chaotic, before slipping right back into another incredible pop jam, wrapped in streaks of feedback, hooky and jangly, and so catchy, but still so warped and just slightly twisted. "When You Came" rounds out the opening trio, with its dramatic slow build, and heartfelt sort-of-chorus, at which point the record begins its decent into (even more) madness, skipping gleefully from perfect pop to whatthefuck and back again. "Coffin Cello" is all splattery percussion, detuned twang, twisted vocals, moaning and groaning, if anything it sounds a bit like Cromagnon, total caveman psychedelia, which leads right into "Battle Down The Quarter Mile", a total classic pop gem, with strange looped basslines, descending crystalline guitar melodies, distorted vocals, and another KILLER chorus, which again slips back into an organ drenched, ultra lo-fi, droned out bit of weirdo outrock, before returning to poppier climes, "Mysterious Girl" is another impossibly perfect and hooky chunk of jangle pop, this time laced with cello, and other strings, which leads directly into "Luminous Bodies", a weirdo track that starts out almost punk rock, muted and murky, before blossoming into a meandery bit of poppy dirge, laced with synths and crunchy guitars, and those amazing, sort of British vocals, and so it goes. Push and pull, back and forth, tease you with a bit of sonic confection, only to bludgeon you with a flurry of chaotic crunch, and then nurse you back with still more pop prettiness, sometimes the demarcation between the Fieldhands' two distinct sides, not so distinct at all, which is precisely what makes them, and this record in particular so magical.
Imagine the Sun City Girls, but if instead of being obsessed with Southeast Asian music, they were obsessed with the Kinks and the Bee Gees, Discus would have been their Torch Of The Mystics. Guided By Voices' Bee Thousand, another pop classic from the same era, is considered by many to be essential listening a classic of the era, while Discus often slips through the cracks, which is odd when you consider that both groups, and both records, are essentially products of the same sonic obsessions, but Bee Thousand, for all its quirkiness and brevity of song, still goes down a whole lot easier than Discus, which is perhaps one of the main reasons Discus remained an acquired taste, but as we all know, the easiest listening is not necessarily the most satisfying, so if you like a little grit and grime with your jangle, some whatthefuck with your timeless hooks, some noise with your pop, then this will undoubtedly be your new favorite record. And all the kids who have been digging the new wave of home brewed retro lo-fi garage pop, are gonna be in for a shock when they realize their favorite bands are basically doing what the Fieldhands were doing 15 years ago, and if anything Discus is WAY weirder, WAY poppier, and WAY BETTER!
MPEG Stream: "Boo Hoo Hoo"
MPEG Stream: "Sad Lament Of The American Indian"
MPEG Stream: "When You Came"
MPEG Stream: "Battle Down The Quarter Mile"
MPEG Stream: "Mysterious Girl"