SWORD, THE Age Of Winter (Kemado) cd 13.98
Not to be confused with the sludgier Sword from Virginia or the '80s Sword from Canada, or indie rockers The Swords Project or Idyll Swords or any of the umpteen other bands metal and otherwise called Sword or something like Sword... THIS Sword hails from Austin TX, and is mightily hyped as the next big thing in the indie/metal crossover world, a la The Fucking Champs or Pelican. They're at the very least the next Early Man. And sound a bit like that Brooklyn retro-metal outfit (with the Ozzyish vox). They're also touring with 'em, playing here in San Francisco around the corner from Aquarius at 12 Galaxies next week, Tuesday the 21st of February. I (Allan) am for sure gonna go... 'cause this band (and Early Man too) have the potential to slay live, judging from the studio recorded evidence. Actually I've been curious about The Sword for a while, heard some good things about these guys first when our pals in Slough Feg (or was it Hammers Of Misfortune?) played with 'em in Texas. Then I guess they also got some good press at SXSW. So, here's their debut full length on the Kemado label (home also to Diamond Nights, Tarantula A.D. and Dungen among others). And, put briefly, it rocks.
Their pounding, uber-heavy, swords (duh) and sorcery stoner metal reminds us a bit of Zebulon Pike, and A LOT of High On Fire (and also, thus, Sleep). Those aforementioned vocals especially. Their lyrics and graphic imagery are all seemingly inspired by Norse mythology and the music, rather than being a black metal blur, is suitably heroic as well -- charging, triumphant, and almost wearying in its relentless bombast... which is why the mellow respite at the beginning of speedster "Iron Swan" is welcome, and the hills and valleys of the album's longest, proggiest, most epic tune "Lament For The Aurochs" give it staying power. The Sword sure sound serious, taking the weightiness of stoner/doom metal and putting it to old school, dual guitar, fantasy metal use. We imagine many fans of The Fucking Champs and Mastodon and some of the other bands mentioned above will indeed like this.
MPEG Stream: "Freya"
MPEG Stream: "Lament Of The Aurochs"

SWORD, THE Age Of Winter (Kemado Records) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now on vinyl, as it should be! (This is the gatefold regular vinyl, not the been-and-gone picture disc version). Not to be confused with the sludgier Sword from Virginia or the '80s Sword from Canada, or indie rockers The Swords Project or Idyll Swords or any of the umpteen other bands metal and otherwise called Sword or something like Sword... THIS Sword hails from Austin TX, and is mightily hyped as the next big thing in the indie/metal crossover world, a la The Fucking Champs or Pelican. They're at the very least the next Early Man. And sound a bit like that Brooklyn retro-metal outfit (with the Ozzyish vox). They're also touring with 'em, playing here in San Francisco around the corner from Aquarius at 12 Galaxies next week, Tuesday the 21st of February. I (Allan) am for sure gonna go... 'cause this band (and Early Man too) have the potential to slay live, judging from the studio recorded evidence. Actually I've been curious about The Sword for a while, heard some good things about these guys first when our pals in Slough Feg (or was it Hammers Of Misfortune?) played with 'em in Texas. Then I guess they also got some good press at SXSW. So, here's their debut full length on the Kemado label (home also to Diamond Nights, Tarantula A.D. and Dungen among others). And, put briefly, it rocks.
Their pounding, uber-heavy, swords (duh) and sorcery stoner metal reminds us a bit of Zebulon Pike, and A LOT of High On Fire (and also, thus, Sleep). Those aforementioned vocals especially. Their lyrics and graphic imagery are all seemingly inspired by Norse mythology and the music, rather than being a black metal blur, is suitably heroic as well -- charging, triumphant, and almost wearying in its relentless bombast... which is why the mellow respite at the beginning of speedster "Iron Swan" is welcome, and the hills and valleys of the album's longest, proggiest, most epic tune "Lament For The Aurochs" give it staying power. The Sword sure sound serious, taking the weightiness of stoner/doom metal and putting it to old school, dual guitar, fantasy metal use. We imagine many fans of The Fucking Champs and Mastodon and some of the other bands mentioned above will indeed like this.
MPEG Stream: "Freya"
MPEG Stream: "Lament Of The Aurochs"

SWORD, THE Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians (Kemado) 10" picture disc 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
See nearby for our review of this band's new album Gods Of The Earth, for which this limited edition 2-song picture disc vinyl 10" was a teaser. We've just got a handful. It's got album track "Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians" on side A, with the non-album cut "Codex Corvidae" on side B.
The artwork features the band's logo superimposed over a skeletal horse rising from an erupting pool of glowing magma, a typical scene in ancient Hyperzephria.

SWORD, THE Gods Of The Earth (Kemado Records) cd 13.98
If you're gonna call your metal band The Sword (not just Sword, of which there have been a few, but THE Sword) you've got a lot to live up to. So maybe it's not such a surprise that lots of folks in the scene have been hatin' on this band 'cause somehow they're not "true" enough. And/or they got just too darn popular. Ironic hipster metal they get called. We've probably said it ourselves. But of course what's ironic is how 'cause a band gets big, suddenly they're not cool anymore. Now, it does seem that Austin's The Sword live charmed lives, young undoubtedly hipster dudes bringing the heavy to a maybe not entirely metal audience, getting all kinds of hype with only one album (well, now two) to back it up. That there's OTHER bands out there equally worthy who don't get on MTV or Guitar Hero, we won't deny! Better bands, even. Heck, the world ain't fair. But that doesn't mean that The Sword aren't good fist in the air fun. C'mon, their High On Fire meets The Fucking Champs brand of HEAVY, guitar harmony laden, stoner/doom rumble, replete with swords & sorcery fantasy metal '80s influences, might not be the most original or imaginative thing ever but sounds pretty good to us, even if they're certainly no Slough Feg.
And this sophomore effort, Gods Of The Earth (oooh, full of themselves, are they?), is probably up a songwriting notch or two from their Age Of Winters debut two years ago, though following the same general template, so if you liked that one you'll like this too. There's a couple melodic acoustic guitar intros and interludes, but mostly massive amps to 11 guitar crush and drum pummel the rest of the time. The Sword's seriously stentorian riffage rules, conjuring images of conquering armies sweeping savagely across ancient bloody battlefields. Kings and wizards, rogues and rangers populate their lyrics, and they even do a song about an axe. It's all very D&D, straight faced no joking (which should be a point in their favor). If The Sword's songs were airbrush artwork they'd go great on the side of your van.
'Tis true, sometimes their rather relentless (or shall we say epic?) chugga-chuggery and lackadaisical singing/shouting (Sleep style, as is much else of their sound) can eventually sound a bit been there done that. But not when you're fully engorged with headbanging lust, which you as a redblooded metalhead ought to be! That is, as long as you're not being a scene policeman too worried about what's metal and what's poseur to have a good time. What do you want to be, high school hall monitor or sword-swinging barbarian berserker?? The Sword offer you the choice of either role we suppose.
MPEG Stream: "Lords"
MPEG Stream: "The Black River"

SWORD, THE Gods Of The Earth (Kemado Records) lp 16.98
NOW ON VINYL! If you're gonna call your metal band The Sword (not just Sword, of which there have been a few, but THE Sword) you've got a lot to live up to. So maybe it's not such a surprise that lots of folks in the scene have been hatin' on this band 'cause somehow they're not "true" enough. And/or they got just too darn popular. Ironic hipster metal they get called. We've probably said it ourselves. But of course what's ironic is how 'cause a band gets big, suddenly they're not cool anymore. Now, it does seem that Austin's The Sword live charmed lives, young undoubtedly hipster dudes bringing the heavy to a maybe not entirely metal audience, getting all kinds of hype with only one album (well, now two) to back it up. That there's OTHER bands out there equally worthy who don't get on MTV or Guitar Hero, we won't deny! Better bands, even. Heck, the world ain't fair. But that doesn't mean that The Sword aren't good fist in the air fun. C'mon, their High On Fire meets The Fucking Champs brand of HEAVY, guitar harmony laden, stoner/doom rumble, replete with swords & sorcery fantasy metal '80s influences, might not be the most original or imaginative thing ever but sounds pretty good to us, even if they're certainly no Slough Feg.
And this sophomore effort, Gods Of The Earth (oooh, full of themselves, are they?), is probably up a songwriting notch or two from their Age Of Winters debut two years ago, though following the same general template, so if you liked that one you'll like this too. There's a couple melodic acoustic guitar intros and interludes, but mostly massive amps to 11 guitar crush and drum pummel the rest of the time. The Sword's seriously stentorian riffage rules, conjuring images of conquering armies sweeping savagely across ancient bloody battlefields. Kings and wizards, rogues and rangers populate their lyrics, and they even do a song about an axe. It's all very D&D, straight faced no joking (which should be a point in their favor). If The Sword's songs were airbrush artwork they'd go great on the side of your van.
'Tis true, sometimes their rather relentless (or shall we say epic?) chugga-chuggery and lackadaisical singing/shouting (Sleep style, as is much else of their sound) can eventually sound a bit been there done that. But not when you're fully engorged with headbanging lust, which you as a redblooded metalhead ought to be! That is, as long as you're not being a scene policeman too worried about what's metal and what's poseur to have a good time. What do you want to be, high school hall monitor or sword-swinging barbarian berserker?? The Sword offer you the choice of either role we suppose.
MPEG Stream: "Lords"
MPEG Stream: "The Black River"

SWORD, THE Warp Riders (Kemado) cd 13.98
It's The Sword....in SPAAAAAAAAACE! Well, that is, the popular stoner doom quartet that so many "troo metallers" love to hate have released their third long-player, and this time trade their lyrical fixation on Norse mythology for more of a science fiction theme. Or cover art, anyway. And, really they don't sound too much different as a result. Still super heavy and riffy and kinda catchy despite the vocalist's limitations, and just as worthy of Guitar Hero inclusion as they ever were. What we are noticing, though, is maybe their Texas roots coming more to the fore, The Sword's typically Sleep-like sound now infused with some serious '70s boogie! The single "Tres Brujas", for instance, has a Southern Rock feel for sure, same with "Lawless Lands". Meanwhile, the cowbell-rockin' "Night City" and others like closer "(The Night The Sky Cried) Tears Of Fire" reveal The Sword's debt to another '70s influence: Thin Lizzy.
Delving into this disc, though, we do discover that the sci-fi (or rather, science fantasy) deal is for real: this is in fact a full-on concept album, with a cryptic nerdy narrative running though such heavy tracks as "Acheron/Unearthing The Orb", "The Chronomancer I: Hubris", and "The Chronomancer II: Nemesis". Hmm, we almost suspect that their brief two weeks of touring two years ago with San Francisco's Slough Feg somehow rubbed off on 'em. There's even Space Pirates in the story!
So, If you like The Sword (and we do, even if sometimes we get a bit bored if we hear too many of their songs in a row) and don't mind 'em doing something just a bit different, you'll likely like Warp Riders; to possibly damn with faint praise it's their least boring album yet!! No, seriously, we're digging it. Not as doomy as they once were, but more hard rockin' is what we're sayin'.
And if you don't like The Sword (or don't think you do), c'mon and give this one a chance anyway, as they're definitely trying out some new (old) stuff here and doing it well. And maybe the haters can give 'em a break now, as they're 3 albums in, and that counts as paying some dues, right?
MPEG Stream: "Arrows In The Dark"
MPEG Stream: "Lawless Lands"
MPEG Stream: "Night City"

SWORD, THE Warp Riders (Kemado) 2lp 30.00
It's The Sword...in SPAAAAAAAAACE! Well, that is, the popular stoner doom quartet that so many "troo metallers" love to hate have released their third long-player, and this time trade their lyrical fixation on Norse mythology for more of a science fiction theme. Or cover art, anyway. And, really they don't sound too much different as a result. Still super heavy and riffy and kinda catchy despite the vocalist's limitations, and just as worthy of Guitar Hero inclusion as they ever were. What we are noticing, though, is maybe their Texas roots coming more to the fore, The Sword's typically Sleep-like sound now infused with some serious '70s boogie! The single "Tres Brujas", for instance, has a Southern Rock feel for sure, same with "Lawless Lands". Meanwhile, the cowbell-rockin' "Night City" and others like closer "(The Night The Sky Cried) Tears Of Fire" reveal The Sword's debt to another '70s influence: Thin Lizzy.
Delving into this disc, though, we do discover that the sci-fi (or rather, science fantasy) deal is for real: this is in fact a full-on concept album, with a cryptic nerdy narrative running though such heavy tracks as "Acheron/Unearthing The Orb", "The Chronomancer I: Hubris", and "The Chronomancer II: Nemesis". Hmm, we almost suspect that their brief two weeks of touring two years ago with San Francisco's Slough Feg somehow rubbed off on 'em. There's even Space Pirates in the story!
So, If you like The Sword (and we do, even if sometimes we get a bit bored if we hear too many of their songs in a row) and don't mind 'em doing something just a bit different, you'll likely like Warp Riders; to possibly damn with faint praise it's their least boring album yet!! No, seriously, we're digging it. Not as doomy as they once were, but more hard rockin' is what we're sayin'.
And if you don't like The Sword (or don't think you do), c'mon and give this one a chance anyway, as they're definitely trying out some new (old) stuff here and doing it well. And maybe the haters can give 'em a break now, as they're 3 albums in, and that counts as paying some dues, right?
MPEG Stream: "Arrows In The Dark"
MPEG Stream: "Lawless Lands"
MPEG Stream: "Night City"

SWORD, THE / WITCHCRAFT split (Kemado / Rise Above) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We just had a big "Witchcraft weekend" 'round these parts... The incredible Swedish doom/prog rockers played two shows in the vicinity -- a packed one at Slim's in SF and also a much more intimate one at a place down in the woods near Santa Cruz (which was thus even more amazing). Several of the AQ staff made it to both shows, and are still recovering. Witchcraft are such cool guys, very down to earth and friendly despite all the ego-stroking rock star adulation that they've begun to receive... and totally deserve, 'cause they ROCK like nobody since about 1972. Their new album The Alchemist is still in heavy rotation here at the store, and MORE new Witchcraft is, geeze, icing on the cake.
The Sword from Texas are another young band of fairly retro doomsters we like who got pretty darn big pretty darn fast... makes sense the two bands would team up for something, in this case a limited edition 12" vinyl only split ep!
On Side Sword, you get a brand new composition from them called "Sea Of Spears" and also a cover version of Led Zep's "The Immigrant Song"! Witchcraft fill the flip with three tracks, the first of which, "You Bury Your Head", was originally released in 2002 as the b-side to their debut single (this is that recording, not the re-recording of it found on their first album). Then there's "Queen Of Bees" and "Sorrow Evoker", newly recorded versions of songs found on Witchcraft's Firewood album. FYI this record is already SOLD OUT at the label, so...

SWORDS Metropolis (Arena Rock Recording Company) cd 14.98
It's odd that Swords have made what is perhaps their most straightforward pop album to date on the Arena Rock label (home to Creeper Lagoon, Calla, Solex and more) -- very much along the lines of Death Cab For Cutie and Pinback, but maybe with Michael Stipe stepping in to sing a few tunes -- as opposed to their former label home, the very Pinback-smart-pop-minded Absolutely Kosher. Indeed it's remarkable how much of a stylistic transformation they've gone through, shedding nearly every proggish, boundary pushing element that used to punctuate and characterize their music. Nevertheless, they wear this new dreamy style with panache.
MPEG Stream: "The Product Of Harm"
MPEG Stream: "Greyovernight"

SWORDS & SANDALS / VHOLTZ / WOMAN'S WORTH / ETTRICK s/t (self-released) cassette 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SWORDS PROJECT Entertainment Is Over If You Want It (Arena Rock) cd 12.98
New full length recording from this Portland (Oregon) seven + piece, and yet another (successful thankfully) wedding of indie rock and electronica. The album begins gradually -- emerging from crackling granular noises, tones, beats -- before exploding into what sounds at first almost like Death Cab For Cutie. It's mostly Corey Ficken's vocals that strike an amazing resemblence to Ben Gibbard's. Aside from that, the closest the Swords Project gets to Death Cab For Cutie would be hearing the latter under a heavy dosage of laudanum. The vocals of the Swords Project play only a minute part, weaving intermittently in and out of their spacey, meandering song structures. If anything they're closer to the realms of the more recent efforts of the Appleseed Cast. While the Rhodes piano adds a nice touch to their sound it's the violin that really earns them a firm handshake. We're impressed by their ability to absorb violin into an "indie" rock ensemble without sounding like a dour and pretentious chamber rock outfit. Very nice!
MPEG Stream: "MD11"
MPEG Stream: "Immigration"

SWORDS PROJECT s/t (Absolutely Kosher) cd 11.98
The Swords Project is a seven piece ensemble from Portland, who play epic and complex post rock. Like a less orchestral Godspeed, or a more orchestral Slint. Dreamy and spacey and really quite good. Features most of former AQ favorites the Land of The Wee Beasties.

SWR Acid Mothers Temple SWR (Very Friendly) cd 14.98
Or, title SWR, band name Acid Mothers Temple SWR? It could be the other way around, hard to tell, does it matter? Either way, this is the debut disc of jamming from a rather warped power trio formed by members of Japan's Acid Mothers Temple -- specifically guitarist Kawabata Makoto (him again!), bassist/vocalist Atsushi Tsuyama, and sometime AMT drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, whom you should also know from Ruins! SWR stands for Stone Woman Record, three things these guys like a lot. Yoshida is especially well-known for his interest in stones, Kawabata's album covers tend to emphasize his appreciation of feminine beauty, and records, well, AMT wouldn't exist if vinyl hadn't been invented eh? So, song titles include "Do You Know Where The Second Hand Record Shop Is?" and "More Stones, More Women, and More Records" -- along with other, more puzzling titles like "There Is Nothing To Make You Happy In This Box!", "Eat A Pebble" (an ELP reference?), and "Gustavo Hendi".
The records that SWR specifically might be spinning in their practice pad could include krautrockers Guru Guru (is the cover alluding to this?) and the free form freakouts of Hawkwind... There's lotsa weird vocals and effects. The sleeve just lists the instrumentation as bass/guitar/drums with only Tsuyama getting vocal credit, but we're pretty sure we can hear Yoshida's warble as well, along with some violin and perhaps flute. Very trippy and silly and psychedelic. It's more of the '70s psych fantasy that these guys have made themselves masters.
Fans of the incestuous Japanese psych/prog scene to which AMT and Ruins belong may be able to get a sense of SWR if we tell you to imagine a cross between Nishinihon and Musica Transonic. That is almost what this is, in terms of who is in the band. Yoshida and Kawabata are both in Muscia Transonic, Kawabata and Tsuyama both in Nishinihon. And for that matter, Tsuyama and Yoshida are both in Akaten, and we could go on and on naming other bands with some shared membership: Zoffy, Mainliner, Seikazoku... oh, actually SWR has *exactly* the same lineup as Seikazoku. But this, while equally as weird as that band, is more aligned with the surreal heavy rock spoofing of Nishinihon... Don't expect anything too easily-digestible here, this ain't gonna convince your pal for whom Queens of the Stone Age is as weird-as-it-gets. SWR's equal parts riff rock and indulgent insanity, with the chaos/groove balance teetering wildly, will make him/her run for cover.
Lastly, we've said it before and we'll say it again. How do they find the time?? I mean, sleeping and eating and other necessary bodily functions somehow must all take place when these guys aren't playing (and likely, recording) music. When the heck that is, we don't know. But we hope they never stop.
MPEG Stream: "Do You Know Where The Secondhand Record Shop Is?"
MPEG Stream: "Bad Buddha"
MPEG Stream: "Stone Woman & Record"

SWUNG Voice And Key 1996-2006 (Pseudo Arcana) 3" cd-r 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Swung is New Zealand musician Zoe Drayton, and as the title would suggest, these five tracks are pieces for voice and piano recorded over the last twn years. Super sweet and incredibly intimate. The first track is solo piano, dark and dreamy, the chords ringing out, a sweetly melancholy lullaby. Track two is just the between song utterances, breaths, lip smacks, all woven into a strange soundscape, that leads into a simple piano piece recorded in a big empty room. The third track is super lo-fi, a dreamy vocal line and a barely audible pump organ, a fragmented lowercase pop song. Track 4 is a warm rich organ drone over some sort of creaking machinery, really haunting and lovely. The final track is soundscape created from chopped and manipulated song parts, mostly backwards vocals, recontextualized into a beautiful but alien little ditty.
We'd never heard of Drayton or Swung, but this lil' disc definitely has us hankering for more!
Packaged in a cool little full color 3" sleeve with a printed insert.
MPEG Stream: "Dudi"
MPEG Stream: "Shuf"

SYBARITE musicforafilm (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 13.98
Extremely evocative soundtrack material that sounds intensely warm and melodic and brings to mind visual images of fear, peace, love--all that good archetypal stuff that soundtracks have to do well. Plaintively plucked guitar over shimmering electronic chimes; synth drones and melodic interludes that always make in-store customers ask what we're playing. Can be favorably compared to AQ staff favorites such as Boards of Canada, Seefeel, the Aphex Twin when he was still "ambient", Kid Loco, and maybe even the mellower moments of Kruder and Dorfmeister. If you like any of those groups, this'll do it for ya.
By the way, Sybarite is Xian Hawkins, who may have come to your attention as one of the folks who collaborated with Simeon in the 1990s version of the Silver Apples.
RealAudio clip: "Serena"

SYBARITE Placement Issues (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 13.98
Meditative electronica made by one Xian Hawkins who's released a couple records as Sybarite and was also the part of the reformed Silver Apples a few years ago. Groovy and jazzy while at the same time displaying most of the qualities that makes people love the stunning Scottish duo Boards of Canada, like off-kilter breakbeats, lots of melancholy atmospherics, a sense of angst and sadness. Fans of To Rococo Rot, Fridge, Skylab, etc may like this, but I have to say I found it a bit more conventional and somewhat hamfisted, less evocative and subtle than the abovementioned groups. Listen to the soundclips.
RealAudio clip: "Identity #2"
RealAudio clip: "Without Nothing I'm You"

SYBARITE / SONNA / LILIENTHAL Make Shift Carousel (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd ep 7.98
A Temporary Residence tour de force. Four songs that I think originated as Sonna tracks, which were then lovingly messed with by the fine folks in Sybarite and Lilienthal. Not simply a remix ep, mind you but a real back and forth collaboration of sorts. Anyway, the results are lovely, as any fan of the three bands already knows. Sonna's interweaving dual guitars are subsumed under a light cloud of electronic effects, with all efforts turned towards making the results pretty with a capital P. Quiet burbly electronica with enough organic sounds (those guitars) to keep it grounded. If you're new to the Temporary Residence label's sound, this is a good a place as any to sample the talents of three of its strongest acts.
RealAudio clip: "Carousel"
RealAudio clip: "Make Shift"

SYDNEY DUCKS Esprit De Corps (Pirates Press) 7" 5.98
We're not really all that clued in to the modern Oi / mod / punk scene, and we really wouldn't know about these guys at all if it weren't for the fact, that an ex member of crust metal crushers and aQ faves Acephalix was one of the guitar players in this local hard-mod / Oi combo, named for the wave of immigrants in the 1800's, coming from Australia to SF, who were blamed for all sorts of trouble, including a fire in 1849 that destroyed much of the city, as well as much of the street crime in general.
What we do know, is we're digging both of these new 7"s a bunch, total classic old school seventies/eighties style power pop / mod / punk rock, crunchy, jangly guitars, thick sinewy basslines (that sometimes get super distorted and crazy melodic), gruff belted vocals, and ultra catchy songs, that stick in your head like crazy, songs that beside being hooky, just ooze blood and sweat and energy and emotion, it's not hard to imagine folks going nuts and jumping around like crazy, their live shows must be insane, and while the stuff we've seen written about these guys make all sorts of super obscure punk rock references, we're thinking if you're like us, and dig stuff like Sham 69, Stiff Little Fingers, 999, the Adverts, even the Jam, this stuff will most definitely hit the spot! We weren't gonna go into too much detail about all the songs on both of these singles, cuz we were figuring that if you dug either (or both) of the sound samples, you'd probably want both, but we will say the B side of the Esprit De Corps single is pretty goddamn great, all sung in Spanish, with some seriously kickass bass that pretty much drives the whole song, and "Stray Dogs" sounds like a punk rock classic transported from the past, but then so does "Espirit Des Corps", and hell, the B side of the Stray Dogs single is pretty classic sounding too, with a main riff/hook that kills and some seriously anthemic vox... Screw it, just buy em both, you won't be sorry...
MPEG Stream: "Esprit De Corps"

SYDNEY DUCKS Stray Dogs (Sydney Town) 7" 4.98
We're not really all that clued in to the modern Oi / mod / punk scene, and we really wouldn't know about these guys at all if it weren't for the fact, that an ex member of crust metal crushers and aQ faves Acephalix was one of the guitar players in this local hard-mod / Oi combo, named for the wave of immigrants in the 1800's, coming from Australia to SF, who were blamed for all sorts of trouble, including a fire in 1849 that destroyed much of the city, as well as much of the street crime in general.
What we do know, is we're digging both of these new 7"s a bunch, total classic old school seventies/eighties style power pop / mod / punk rock, crunchy, jangly guitars, thick sinewy basslines (that sometimes get super distorted and crazy melodic), gruff belted vocals, and ultra catchy songs, that stick in your head like crazy, songs that beside being hooky, just ooze blood and sweat and energy and emotion, it's not hard to imagine folks going nuts and jumping around like crazy, their live shows must be insane, and while the stuff we've seen written about these guys make all sorts of super obscure punk rock references, we're thinking if you're like us, and dig stuff like Sham 69, Stiff Little Fingers, 999, the Adverts, even the Jam, this stuff will most definitely hit the spot! We weren't gonna go into too much detail about all the songs on both of these singles, cuz we were figuring that if you dug either (or both) of the sound samples, you'd probably want both, but we will say the B side of the Esprit De Corps single is pretty goddamn great, all sung in Spanish, with some seriously kickass bass that pretty much drives the whole song, and "Stray Dogs" sounds like a punk rock classic transported from the past, but then so does "Espirit Des Corps", and hell, the B side of the Stray Dogs single is pretty classic sounding too, with a main riff/hook that kills and some seriously anthemic vox... Screw it, just buy em both, you won't be sorry...
MPEG Stream: "Stray Dogs"

SYKDOM Intet Lib (Cybertzara) cd 14.98

SYKES, JESSE & THE SWEET HEREAFTER Like, Love, Lust & The Open Halls Of The Soul (Barsuk) cd 13.98
Jesse Sykes' been making music for some time now, but most recently she's garnered additional attention for her striking vocal turn on the track "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)" from Boris and SUNNO)))'s Altar album! 'Twas a wonderfully timed appearance to coincide with the release of Like, Love, Lust & The Open Halls Of The Soul, her third album. Sykes' voice is soft yet potent with a subtle rasp roughened by cigarette smoke. She's joined by guests Wayne Horvitz, Eyvind Kang and Nicolai Dunger. Painted in shades that suggest bruises and red wine, her rustic melancholia is so bleak and despairing that it begs to be enshrouded in the night. Best listened to after dusk.
MPEG Stream: "Eisenhower Moon"
MPEG Stream: "How Will We Know?"

SYLVESTER & THE HOT BAND Blue Thumb Collection (Geffen) cd 17.98
Oh how we love Sylvester! Nobody really represented the true San Francisco spirit better. After moving to SF from Los Angeles in the late '60s he found true liberation in the gender bending thriving queer arts community here in the city, becoming a member of the legendary Cockettes, singing backup for an early and awesome incarnation of the Pointer Sisters as well as putting out two records with his Hot Band several years before he would become the disco diva most of us remember.
Blue Thumb Collection compiles Sylvester's earliest two releases. His self titled album with his Hot Band (also known as Scratch & Sniff, as the original lp had a scratch and sniff sticker on it) and then Bazaar, both of which came out on Blue Thumb, a '70s imprint that put out records by Captain Beefheart, T Rex, Robbie Basho, Jimmy Smith, Dave Mason, etc.
Sylvester's Hot Band were complete opposites to Sylvester, all straight white rocker dudes with long hair, which must have made the spectacle of Sylvester fronting that band even more amazing and confusing. During this era they were often put on really bizarre bills including an opening slot for Lynyrd Skynrd whose fans had no idea what to make of Sylvester (we would have paid to see their confused faces!).
The music Sylvester & The Hot Band made was very much based in rock and roll and classic rhythm and blues. The albums were packed with covers of songs by everyone from Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, James Taylor, Otis Redding, Grahm Parsons, Neil Young, etc. It's the cover of Neil Young's "Southern Man" that truly steals the show, sounding as poignant and impassioned as ever, yet taking on even greater meaning with a queer black man making the song his own. The two bonus tracks include one of our favorite Sylvester songs ever, a track he wrote called "Why Was I Born" which had been quite impossible to track down unless you were able to find a copy of the obscure compilation called Lights Out San Francisco that Blue Thumb put out in the early '70s. It's a song that really showcases the depth and range of emotion that Sylvester could reach in his music, and it's hard not to think of it as the blueprint for Antony & The Johnsons. These records were very much of their time, and it's not all great and with Sylvester consistency was never his strong suit, but it was all about those moments when he shined so bright that made the not so hot moments totally ok and worth it. Essential for Sylvester fans, we're really happy these records have been reissued, now it's time for someone to reissue our favorite Sylvester album, Stars!
MPEG Stream: "Southern Man"
MPEG Stream: "Friendship"
MPEG Stream: "On Your Way Down"

SYLVESTER ANFANG II Commune Cassetten (Blackest Rainbow) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Repressed and back in stock!
Latest collection of gorgeous drugged out free folk rituals from these Belgian freaks, and as always, it's a fantastically weird and tranced out affair. Sonic ceremonies of shambling free percussion, layered guitar buzz, shimmery melody, and warped warbly drones, all woven into gorgeous occult psychedelia.
The record opens with a dark and mysterious bit of ambience, swirling blackness, muted effects, ghostly melodies, tinkling chimes, spidery guitars, but gives way to a full on seventies kraut psych jam that almost sounds like Comus, all hand drums, and strummed steel string guitars, fluttery flutes (?), it wouldn't be difficult to imagine stumbling onto some sonic coven in a dark forest, gathered around a fire, creating this dreamy din.
And that seventies psychedelic acid folk vibe continues right into the next track (and the rest of the record really), another hippy jam, all flanged guitar, motorik rhythms and swirly melodic buzz.
The second side begins with a druggy laid back meander, all wheezing organs, shuffling drums, detuned guitars, and mumbled chantlike vox, a shambolic minimal dronefolk that seems to be gradually melting right before our ears.
The next track is a full on chunk of seventies style psychedelic buzz, a squall of buzzing psych guitar, pounding tribal drummage, druggy and dirgey and divine. And finally, the record finishes off with part two of that krautrock jam from side one, this time way stripped down, a minimal kraut groove, laced with warped bits of melody, clattery spare percussion, crunchy riffs, drone-y buzz, all wrapped in a vintage lo-fi production haze, that makes this sound like it could be some lost kraut rarity a la German Oak. KILLER.
Pressed on CRAZY thick vinyl, with eye popping full color cover art.

SYLVESTER ANFANG II Perzische Tapijten (The Great Pop Supplement) lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another fantastic collection of tranced out shamanistic kraut-psych from these aQ faves, the first pressing sold out in a heartbeat, and disappeared before we managed to get even a single copy. This is the second pressing, limited to just 250 copies, and while we did get a bunch, odds are we're gonna sell out quick...
Like the Latitudes record that we listed recently, Perzische Tapijten again finds these Flemish psychedelic alchemists unfurling lush expanses of raga-like shimmer, and darkly propulsive krautrock infused droney druggy mesmer, this time with a bit more of an Eastern influence. The tracks smolder and drift, the opener sends snake charmer melodies slithering through clouds of swirling effects, the vibe sun dappled and dreamy, which darkens considerably in the following track, which churns ominously, the riffage dark and minor key, the drums more plodding and menacing, some serious German Oak dirgery going on, a grim chunk of wah wah-ed bunker psych that is WAY too brief at less than 4 minutes. The rest of the record unwinds drowsily slipping between the two, droning ominously, chugging and churning, then blossoming into warm swirling swells of heady psychedelic shimmer, and drifting back again. Some of the tracks veer into even stranger territory, like "Assassijn", which anchors its sound on what sounds like one of those cheesy Casio keyboard presets, the band burying the looped skitter beneath moaning horns, fluttering synths, swirling FX, and mesmerizingly minimal drumming, but then it's right back into it with "Etherik" a gorgeous slab of Eastern psychedelic raga, busy rhythms float atop low slung sinewy basslines, while a sitar-like guitar buzzes hypnotically above. Finally, the record finishes with a darkly drone bit of softly chaotic psychedelia, sounding like something you might hear on a Sublime Frequencies comp, the sound lo-fi and a bit murky, the guitars blurring into lush smears of chordal thrum, the drums shuffling beneath, totally tranced out, and utter drone-psych bliss. Obviously totally recommended. And also recommended, that you snap one of these up before they're gone for good...
MPEG Stream: "Buikdans"
MPEG Stream: "Episch"
MPEG Stream: "Geschudde Kaarten Liegen Niet"

SYLVESTER ANFANG II s/t (Aurora Borealis) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Brand new album of electronic flecked tribal spaced out druggy free folk krautrocky weirdness from the Belgian "Funeral Folk"collective known as Sylvester Anfang (now spelled with a 'Y' instead of an 'I' for some mysterious reason) who have continued to evolve with every record.
The now out of print Satanische Vrede lp introduced us to these guys, with a garish lp sleeve featuring the band shirtless, wearing white hoods, holding goats on leashes, an image that somehow reflected the music inside disturbingly accurately. A primitive, ritualistic, orgy of abstract percussion, tripped out psychedelia, wandering free folk, some serious space rock, and a hint of something blacker and much more sinister.
This is only technically the second proper full length, but things have somehow gotten even more space-y, more druggy, more krautrocky, and thus more ROCKING. The record does start off with a strange sonic ritual, all mysterious spoken word, squiggly electronics, chaotic noise guitar backdrop, tons of effects, streaks of feedback, long swirling tendrils of whirring shimmer, but then BANG, the record launches right into "Na Regen Komt Sondvlred" mid-jam, as if someone just walked in on the band and pushed record without the band even noticing, locked as they were in full on transcendental space psych jam mode, relentless motorik skeletal beat, warm warbly low end pulse, and guitar, LOTS of guitar, distorted and wah wah'd the fuck out, flitting from moaning croonsome melodies to dense tangles of freaked out chaos, the whole sound and vibe so druggy and trippy and divine. The first band we thought of was German Oak, as this also sounds like it could have been recorded in some massive underground stone bunker, then Hawkwind, then some mix of the two, a seemingly endless mind expanding, speaker melting ur-jam, and we're only two songs in!
The two part "The Devil Always Shits In The Same Graves" is a massive twenty minute songsuite, that seriously smolders, the guitars twangy and Morricone-esque, the vocals a distorted scowly growl, the guitars spidery and sitar like, buzzing lazily, the melodies Eastern sounding, the drums laid waaaaay back, like listening to the Wooden Shjips at 16 rpm, but turned way down, for some late night bliss out. The second half is almost like a mirror of the first, but doused (dosed?) in noise and delay and distortion, a blurred lysergic Hawkwind outro rendered in effulgent streaks of buzz and fuzz, even more abstract and drone-y and space-y than the first part.
The four tracks in between cover a lot of ground, although never straying too far from that psychedelic buzz drenched krautrock that forms their core, from warm languid muted dronescapes, a thick smear of undulating effects laden warble over what sounds like a buried pop song, to still more white hot (outer) space rock dirge-ery, thick ropy basslines supporting swirling garage fuzz organs and tangles of psychguitar as well as dense clouds of malfunctioning electronics and haywire effects, to dense swells of super intense spacekrautdronegroove that could/should go on forever, to long stretches of glistening high end guitar shimmer and moaned sorrowful vocals, all wrapped in soft billows of dreamlike delay, to woozy garage kraut dirges, all detuned riffage, and pounding machinelike pulse, blurred buzz and otherworldly effects.
The whole record seems to melt together into one oozing organic meta-sound, a glorious extended space jam with a trajectory set somewhere in the distant future, a dizzying journey through innerspace, a slow burning series of sounds, fragments of the whole, sent spinning into the ether, streaked with starlight and glimmering reflectively in the muted glow of distant suns, a glorious bit of space rock, beamed to earth, into a clearing, in the middle of a forest, lit by firelight, channeled through the figures gathered there, surrounded by a stone circle that on closer inspection is revealed to be a haphazard assemblage of amplifiers, the cords running along the dirt of the clearing like black vines, the various figures hunched over, each wielding some sort of implement, their movements downright demonic in the firelight, and the sounds that come drifting out of the clearing even moreso....
Try as we might (and see above, we are obviously trying!), words hardly do these sounds justice. One of the best records of the year so far for sure...
MPEG Stream: "Satan Like Mijn Hielen"
MPEG Stream: "Na Regen Komt Sondvlred"
MPEG Stream: "The Devil Always Shits In The Same Graves Pt1"

SYLVESTER ANFANG II s/t (Aurora Borealis) 2lp 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Brand new album of electronic flecked tribal spaced out druggy free folk krautrock weirdness from the Belgian Funeral folk collective known as Sylvester Anfang (now spelled with a 'Y' instead of an 'I') who have continued to evolve with every record.
The now out of print Satanische Vrede lp introduced us to these guys, with a garish lp sleeve featuring the band shirtless, wearing white hoods, holding goats on leashes, an image that somehow reflected the music inside disturbingly accurately. A primitive, ritualistic, orgy of abstract percussion, tripped out psychedelia, wandery free folk, some serious space rock,and a hint of something blacker and much more sinister.
This is only technically the second proper full length, but things have somehow gotten even more space-y, more druggy, more krautrocky, and thus more ROCKING. The record does start off with a strange sonic ritual, all mysterious spoken word, squiggly electronics, chaotic noise guitar backdrop, tons of effects, streaks of feedback, long swirling tendrils of whirring shimmer, but then BANG, the record launches right into "Na Regen Komt Sondvlred" mid jam, as if someone just walked in on the band and pushed record without the band even noticing, locked as they were in full on transcendental space psych jam mode, relentless motorik skeletal beat, warm warbly low end pulse, and guitar, LOTS of guitar, distorted and wah wah'd the fuck out, flitting from moaning croonsome melodies to dense tangles of freaked out chaos, the whole sound and vibe so druggy and trippy and divine. The first band we thought of was German Oak, as this also sounds like it could have been recorded in some massive underground stone bunker, then Hawkwind, then some mix of the two, a seemingly endless mind expanding, speaker melting ur-jam, and we're only two songs in!
The two part "The Devil Always Shits In The Same Graves" is a massive twenty minute songsuite, that seriously smolders, the guitars twangy and Morricone-esque, the vocals a distorted scowly growl, the guitars spidery and sitar like, buzzing lazily, the melodies Eastern sounding, the drums laid waaaaay back, like listening to the Wooden Shjips at 16rpm, but turned way down, for some late night bliss out. The second half is almost like a mirror of the first, but doused in noise and delay and distortion, a blurred lysergic Hawkwind outro rendered in effulgent streaks of buzz and fuzz, even more abstract and drone-y and space-y than the first part.
The four tracks in between cover a lot of ground, although never straying too far from that psychedelic buzz drenched krautrock that forms their core, from warm languid muted dronescapes, a thick smear of undulating effects laden warble over what sounds like a buried pop song, to still more white hot (outer) space rock dirgery, thick ropy basslines supporting swirling garage fuzz organs and tangles of psychguitar as well as dense clouds of malfunctioing electronics and haywire effects, to dense swells of super intense spacekrautdronegroove that could/should go on forever, to long stretches of glistening high end guitar shimmer and moaned sorrowful vocals, all wrapped in soft billows of dreamlike delay, to woozy garage kraut dirges, all detuned riffage, and pounding machinelike pulse, blurred buzz and otherworldly effects.
The whole record seems to melt together into one oozing organic meta-sound, a glorious extended space jam with a trajectory set somewhere in the distant future, a dizzying journey through innerspace, a slow burning series of sounds, fragments of the whole, sent spinning into the ether, streaked with starlight and glimmering reflectively in the muted glow of distant suns, a glorious bit of space rock, beamed to earth, into a clearing, in the middle of a forest, lit by firelight, channeled through the figures gathered there, surrounded by a stone circle that on closer inspection is revelaed to be a haphazard assemblage of amplifiers, the cords running along the dirt of the clearing like black vines, the various figures hunched over, each wielding some sort of implement, their movements downright demonic in the firelight, and the sounds that come drifting out of the clearing even moreso....
Try as we might (and see above, we are obviously trying!), words hardly do these sounds justice. One of the best records of the year so far for sure...
MPEG Stream: "Satan Like Mijn Hielen"
MPEG Stream: "Na Regen Komt Sondvlred"
MPEG Stream: "The Devil Always Shits In The Same Graves Pt1"

SYLVESTER ANFANG II Untitled (Latitudes) cd 14.98
It's been more than 2 years since we last heard from this Flemish free-noise post-kraut avant-psych collective, and strangely, this Latitudes session was recorded back in 2010, so while it's technically a new releases, the actual status of this drone-psych outfit is definitely in limbo. But regardless of their present state, circa 2010, Sylvester Anfang II (an homage to Amon Dull II we assume) were in fine form, culling these 35 minutes from nearly 3 hours of continuous jamming, during which the band zoned out and unfurled some gorgeous sprawling psychedelic krautrock flecked jams, jams that seemed to gradually evolve into hazy drugged out ragas, all woozy bass lines, simple motorik drumming, wheezing organs, spidery guitars, and soft hazy clouds of effects, everything blurred and smeared into gauzy expanses of minimal ritualistic drift. But the magic of SAII is that for all of their abstract drug rock exploration, they're also masters of freaked out psychedelic space rock blissout, and the tracks here are the perfect blend of both.
The opener is a loping drug-psych dirge, all tangled up in tendrils of sitar like guitar buzz and anchored by a mesmerizingly hypnotic bass groove, while the second track slows things down to a murky woozy crawl, haunting and abstract, the drumming lose and almost jazzy, the various instruments floating weightless in wide open stretches of bass thrum and echoey shimmer. the third track (all the tracks are titled "Jam 1", "Jam 2", etc.), is minimal but darkly propulsive, the tightest we've heard these guys sound, still jammy, a little bit dubby too, but dense and driving and totally hypnotic. The fourth jam, cranks up the buzz and the murk, channeling Hawkwind through some swirling King Tubby like percussion, and wrapping everything in some strange space-y synths, underneath which a buzzy garage riff churns away, the drums again loose and free, the whole song seeming to drift heavenward, and finally, the closing jam is a total space-garage stomp, sounding like some lost sixties Nuggets artifact dipped in LSD and sent spiraling into the ether, super rocking and mesmerizing, this track especially has us thinking that everyone into Carlton Melton, Wooden Shjips, White Hills, Gnod, Burnt Hills, 3 Leafs, and the like, who somehow missed out on these guys until now, will definitely find themselves adding Sylvester Anfang II to their space / kraut / psych rock pantheon.
As with all Latitudes releases, the packaging is exquisite, the cd in that immediately recognizable white on brown origami style sleeve, each one hand number, with a full color insert, the vinyl featuring the same design with an intricate die cut letterpressed jacket, both formats LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Jam 1"
MPEG Stream: "Jam 2"

SYLVESTER ANFANG II Untitled (Latitudes) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's been more than 2 years since we last heard from this Flemish free-noise post-kraut avant-psych collective, and strangely, this Latitudes session was recorded back in 2010, so while it's technically a new releases, the actual status of this drone-psych outfit is definitely in limbo. But regardless of their present state, circa 2010, Sylvester Anfang II (an homage to Amon Dull II we assume) were in fine form, culling these 35 minutes from nearly 3 hours of continuous jamming, during which the band zoned out and unfurled some gorgeous sprawling psychedelic krautrock flecked jams, jams that seemed to gradually evolve into hazy drugged out ragas, all woozy bass lines, simple motorik drumming, wheezing organs, spidery guitars, and soft hazy clouds of effects, everything blurred and smeared into gauzy expanses of minimal ritualistic drift. But the magic of SAII is that for all of their abstract drug rock exploration, they're also masters of freaked out psychedelic space rock blissout, and the tracks here are the perfect blend of both.
The opener is a loping drug-psych dirge, all tangled up in tendrils of sitar like guitar buzz and anchored by a mesmerizingly hypnotic bass groove, while the second track slows things down to a murky woozy crawl, haunting and abstract, the drumming lose and almost jazzy, the various instruments floating weightless in wide open stretches of bass thrum and echoey shimmer. the third track (all the tracks are titled "Jam 1", "Jam 2", etc.), is minimal but darkly propulsive, the tightest we've heard these guys sound, still jammy, a little bit dubby too, but dense and driving and totally hypnotic. The fourth jam, cranks up the buzz and the murk, channeling Hawkwind through some swirling King Tubby like percussion, and wrapping everything in some strange space-y synths, underneath which a buzzy garage riff churns away, the drums again loose and free, the whole song seeming to drift heavenward, and finally, the closing jam is a total space-garage stomp, sounding like some lost sixties Nuggets artifact dipped in LSD and sent spiraling into the ether, super rocking and mesmerizing, this track especially has us thinking that everyone into Carlton Melton, Wooden Shjips, White Hills, Gnod, Burnt Hills, 3 Leafs, and the like, who somehow missed out on these guys until now, will definitely find themselves adding Sylvester Anfang II to their space / kraut / psych rock pantheon.
As with all Latitudes releases, the packaging is exquisite, the cd in that immediately recognizable white on brown origami style sleeve, each one hand number, with a full color insert, the vinyl featuring the same design with an intricate die cut letterpressed jacket, both formats LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Jam 1"
MPEG Stream: "Jam 2"

SYLVIAN, DAVID Approaching Silence (Shakti) cd 16.98

SYLVIAN, DAVID Blemish (Samadhi Sound) cd 21.00
On his latest solo album, the distinguished gent David Sylvian is joined by guests guitarist Derek Bailey and Christian Fennesz for an elegant and understated, hazy and mesmeric, minimal masterpiece. Never that much of a Japan fan, and to be quite honest, not all that excited by any of Sylvian's previous solo albums, I (Andee) have to say this record blows me away! It's so slow and dark, and gorgeously ephemeral. The songs are barely there, just these luciously hazy expanses of dark and shimmery sound, quivering echoes of reverbed guitars, and smeary wisps of warm harmony, with the vocals lazily draped atop the rich sonic tapestry, melodies unfurling at their own, slow motion pace. The overall sound and structure are very reminiscent of Mark Hollis' brilliant and barely-there solo record from a few years back, but the vocals remind me quite a bit of Mark Eitzel, in timbre and in delivery, but much more slurry and world weary (if that were possible), and fronting Stars Of The Lid or Oval instead of American Music Club. And while Fennesz is only on one track here, you wouldn't be faulted for thinking he was all over this record, as there's plenty of glitchy lushness and processed warble that bears quite a resemblance to his laptoped guitarscapes. My only complaint, and I'm sure I'll get a ton of grief for this, is Bailey's guitar playing. It still sounds to me like a third grader picking up a guitar for the first time. And it comes dangerously close to disrupting the late night lovliness and effortless fluidity of the record. Luckily, Bailey's 'purposely' retarded plucking gets absorbed into the swampy, swoony lushness that surrounds it. For a record I hadn't even planned on listening to, this is turning out to be one of my new favorite late night listens! Highly recommended.
Released on Sylvian's own label Samadhi Sound.
MPEG Stream: "Late Night Shopping"
MPEG Stream: "A Fire In The Forest "

SYLVIAN, DAVID Blemish (Samadhi Sound) lp 26.00
Finally available on (expensive) vinyl!
On his latest solo album, the distinguished gent David Sylvian is joined by guests guitarist Derek Bailey and Christian Fennesz for an elegant and understated, hazy and mesmeric, minimal masterpiece. Never that much of a Japan fan, and to be quite honest, not all that excited by any of Sylvian's previous solo albums, I (Andee) have to say this record blows me away! It's so slow and dark, and gorgeously ephemeral. The songs are barely there, just these lusciously hazy expanses of dark and shimmery sound, quivering echoes of reverbed guitars, and smeary wisps of warm harmony, with the vocals lazily draped atop the rich sonic tapestry, melodies unfurling at their own, slow motion pace. The overall sound and structure are very reminiscent of Mark Hollis' brilliant and barely-there solo record from a few years back, but the vocals remind me quite a bit of Mark Eitzel, in timbre and in delivery, but much more slurry and world weary (if that were possible), and fronting Stars Of The Lid or Oval instead of American Music Club. And while Fennesz is only on one track here, you wouldn't be faulted for thinking he was all over this record, as there's plenty of glitchy lushness and processed warble that bears quite a resemblance to his laptoped guitarscapes. My only complaint, and I'm sure I'll get a ton of grief for this, is Bailey's guitar playing. It still sounds to me like a third grader picking up a guitar for the first time. And it comes dangerously close to disrupting the late night loveliness and effortless fluidity of the record. Luckily, Bailey's 'purposely' retarded plucking gets absorbed into the swampy, swoony lushness that surrounds it. For a record I hadn't even planned on listening to, this is turning out to be one of my new favorite late night listens! Highly recommended.
Released on Sylvian's own label Samadhi Sound.
MPEG Stream: "Late Night Shopping"
MPEG Stream: "A Fire In The Forest "

SYLVIAN, DAVID Dead Bees on a Cake (Virgin) cd 15.98
Long awaited. Dark, beautiful and moody pop songs in line with his earlier records. A really unique voice and style sitting somewhere between Nick Drake and late Talk Talk. Epic guest performances by Talvin Singh, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Marc Ribot, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Chavez and a host of others.

SYLVIAN, DAVID Died In The Wool (Samadhisound) 2cd 15.98

SYLVIAN, DAVID Manafon (Samadhisound) cd 15.98

SYLVIAN, DAVID The Good Son Vs The Only Daughter - The Blemish Remixes (Samadhisound) cd 17.98
Such a fantastic complement (and compliment) to David Sylvian's last album Blemish (which you may or may not know was a particular fave of Andee's)! You almost wouldn't think it possible, but on many of the remixes on The Only Daughter, Sylvian's chosen remixers have stripped down the tracks to an even more stark and austere state than that of the originals -- at times giving the impression that Sylvian has gone beat poet or is having intimate tete-a-tetes with a petulant piano or lonely horn. One of the best moments on this remix collection is Readymade FC's work on "A Fire In The Forest" with its gentle crunch-crackle-chime of an old neglected musicbox. Beautiful. The impressive list of participants also includes Ryoji Ikeda, Burnt Friedman, Yoshihiro Hanno, Tatsuhiko Asano, Jan Bang, Erik Honore, Sweet Billy Pilgrim, and Akira Rabelais -- all of whom have treated Sylvian's material with the utmost respect and furthered the haunting moods and atmospheres of Blemish in a most fitting manner.
MPEG Stream: "A Fire In The Forest - Readymade FC Remix"
MPEG Stream: "Blemish - Akira Rabelais Remix"

SYMBYOSIS Crisis (Listenable) cd 16.98
Ultra technical and weirdly melodic death metal with lots of changes and super harsh distorted vocals. Sounds pretty mean, until the ridiculous keyboards kick in. Then it just gets weird. It's still heavy and fierce, switching back and forth between pounding blast beats and mid-tempo eighties-style metal, but the metal is generously sprinkled with wanky keyboard solos (ala Children of Bodom) and insane squiggly Morbid Angel leads. Awesome and bizarre.
RealAudio clip: "Opening Act"

SYNB / HSDOM s/t (Phaserprone) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's one of those mysteriously dark, mysteriously packaged, and mysteriously produced records that we love here at aQ. It's hard to say really who is doing what on this album, which may be considered a collaboration, may be a split, may be a set of remixes, or somewhere in between. SYNB is the work of Matt Brinkmann who had a couple of releases on Load a while back as Mr. Brinkmann, of fuzzed clunk and bass, but more recently has acquired notoriety as a member of the Paper Rad comic 'n' video collective. HSDOM is the work of Jochen Hartmann, half of the mighty (if under-appreciated) UW Owl, whose deadtech rhythms and blackened noise conjure the best that SPK or Factrix had managed in their most feral and brutal period. Phaserprone states that this release features SYNB reworking HSDOM materials and HSDOM reworking SYNB's recording Black/Gold Chip, although there is very little to indicate which tracks are done by or to whom. No matter how you look at it, this album seems to follow more of the UW Owl monstrousness, and it fucking rules!
After a grim introduction of close-looped feedback pushed through subharmonic distortion pedals for a thicket of skinscraping noise, convulsive rhythms tread through a perpetually exploding minefield of analog synths and circuit bent chaos. Ash, soot, toxic rain, nuclear fallout, brimstone, and any other suitably apocalyptic residue seems to hang on every blast of electricity, whether that be the abject white noise turned black or the jacked-up beats overdriven with distortion and hotwired fuzz. Within these entirely instrumental tracks, SYNB and HSDOM offer an alternative course for where Wolf Eyes could have dramatically improved their strategies of making hellish robotic electronica.
Nicely packaged in a letterpressed cover in an edition of 200 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 4"
MPEG Stream: "Track 5"

SYSTEM LILIPUTT Harpa (Dark Entries) lp 15.98
Another obscure reissue from Dark Entries! How obscure might you ask? Well, System Liliputt was a one-man band of the Norwegian Geir Vassang, who released only one cassette in 1984 in an edition of 150 copies. There were some blogs which got a hold of crappy rips of the cassette in recent years; but for the most part, this is a project that nobody has really heard. The Norwegian new wave tunes that Vassang produced oscillated between motorik, disco arrangements and standard verse-chorus pop arrangements on his polyphonic synths, drum machines, guitar, and an occasional bass. Some of the sequencing that Vassang gets has a hollowed plasticity heard in some of the tracks by Cabaret Voltaire or Casssandra Complex with a brittle jangliness to his guitar playing cribbed from The Cure's Seventeen Seconds. The pop-song side of Vassang's production can be quite fragile in its construction, which lend itself to the subjects of loneliness and death through these bittersweet tunes alternately sung in English and Norwegian.
We mentioned The Cure earlier, and we got to say this really does hit the magic mark of our favorite era of The Cure. So many of the songs on here are leaving a lasting impression with us, especially "Gatelangs" which should be put on every mix tape this winter. One of those records so perfect for the onslaught of rain we've had the last few days. You just want to sit locked in your bedroom while flipping this over and over and sulking in such great sounding misery!
MPEG Stream: "Gatelangs"
MPEG Stream: "Harpa"
MPEG Stream: "The Letter"
MPEG Stream: "Sandkorn"

SYSTEM OF A DOWN Mezmerize (American) cd 16.98

SYSTEMS OFFICER s/t (Ace Fu) cd ep 10.98
Well we've had quite a few solo contributions from the Rob Crow half of Pinback to grace our shelves for some time, but nary a peep from Armistead Burwell Smith IV (a.k.a Zac) until now. And while it's been fun to trace the Pinback sound backwards to Three Mile Pilot and Heavy Vegetable et al., we've been curious to hear what Zac's side of the story -- so to speak -- has been since the first Pinback release. Can't say that we were surprized, which is by way of saying "yes, this is as great as any Pinback release". Seems these two have practically been doing a Vulcan mind meld since they hooked up years ago. The main difference between Zac's solo work and Rob's is that Zac tends to keep a little more on the straight and narrow. You know how on Rob's last solo album, he takes those little faux-Prince and quasi-metal side streets? Zac doesn't do that, but keeps to the Pinback program. Most noticable, besides his voice, is his bass playing: that wonderful melodic, fingerpicked bass sound. It's also got all that beautiful songwriting like his work with Pinback. You think you love a song from the first few bars, and then half way through there's this genius of a bridge that sends your heart into your throat -- and it's all done with the utmost in simplicity. Our only regret with this release is its short (5 songs) length.
MPEG Stream: "Forever This Cyanide"
MPEG Stream: "Signature Red"

SYZYGYS Eyes On Green (Tzadik) cd 16.98
New from Zorn's Tzadik label, a 1988 live recording from this Japanese "avant" pop girl duo. They sing, one plays violin, the other a Harry Partch style 43 tone organ. Thus, the obi says: "Microtonal pop for the 21st century!" By "microtonal" do they mean shitty '80s jazz fusiony crap? Well, some of this is quite pretty, and a few parts are wheezy and weird, but cute and fluffy and cheesy also apply. Though the concept of Syzygys seemed intriguing, the results, however "nice", are unfortunately rather mundane. Your toddler might like this.

SZABO, GABOR Jazz Raga (Light In The Attic) cd 14.98
We're so happy that Light in The Attic reissued this, a stellar, newly remastered entry from 1967 in the amazing back catalog of one of our all-time favorite jazz guitarists from the sixties and seventies, Gabor Szabo. As a matter of fact, he was the first true guitar hero for Scott here at AQ, the reason Scott started playing guitar - thus Szabo is indirectly responsible for The Alps!
Releasing an amazing string of albums on Impulse, Skye, Blue Thumb and CTI, Szabo's masterful blending of eastern raga, gypsy and flamenco influences from his native Hungary with western jazz, mod, pop and rock influences created some of the most psych-inflected jazz grooves of the sixties. We suppose if you were only to get one of his records, Jazz Raga is arguably the best albeit strangest of the bunch. Featuring eight originals and three covers (including a version of the Rolling Stones "Paint It Black"), Szabo recorded the whole album with a group, including the funkiest of session drummers, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, then overdubbed sitar on all but two of the tracks. Of course by this time, the sitar was becoming THE instrument of choice in western popular music to channel a mystical spellbinding sound, but the manner in which Szabo employs it in the overall compositions of the tracks here is at times, lyrical, dizzying and truly wacked out. For one thing, the sitar is never quite in tune with the actual songs, making some of the melodies seem a bit warped in a way which is difficult to pinpoint. It's not an off-putting effect, quite the opposite. The slightly off interweaving of tonal shades and melody lines actually enhances the otherwordly mystical vibe on what might otherwise be perceived as a psychsploitative gimmick. Of course Szabo's meticulously intricate but seemingly simple guitar phrasings don't need much help from the sitar (he wasn't called The Spellbinder for nothing!). The sitar just provides an elemental coloring allowing a deeper immersion into whatever Szabo is seeking out, whether it be a quiet call to focus ("Walking on Nails"), a monster mod groover ("Sophisticated Wheels"), or the introduction of one of his signature tunes ("Mizrab"), a driving mantra-like tune of tablas and hypnotic droning open-tuned guitars that never tires. It's a song he would return to a few more times in his relatively short career (he died in 1982). Hopefully, more of his great records will be reissued as lovingly as this. Includes a 40 page booklet with lots of notes and pictures. Highest Recommendation!
MPEG Stream: "Walking On Nails"
MPEG Stream: "Mizrab"
MPEG Stream: "Sophisticated Wheels"
MPEG Stream: "Caravan"

SZABO, GABOR Jazz Raga (Light In The Attic) lp 19.98
Also now reissued on vinyl!
We're so happy that Light in The Attic reissued this, a stellar, newly remastered entry from 1967 in the amazing back catalog of one of our all-time favorite jazz guitarists from the sixties and seventies, Gabor Szabo. As a matter of fact, he was the first true guitar hero for Scott here at AQ, the reason Scott started playing guitar - thus Szabo is indirectly responsible for The Alps!
Releasing an amazing string of albums on Impulse, Skye, Blue Thumb and CTI, Szabo's masterful blending of eastern raga, gypsy and flamenco influences from his native Hungary with western jazz, mod, pop and rock influences created some of the most psych-inflected jazz grooves of the sixties. We suppose if you were only to get one of his records, Jazz Raga is arguably the best albeit strangest of the bunch. Featuring eight originals and three covers (including a version of the Rolling Stones "Paint It Black"), Szabo recorded the whole album with a group, including the funkiest of session drummers, Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, then overdubbed sitar on all but two of the tracks. Of course by this time, the sitar was becoming THE instrument of choice in western popular music to channel a mystical spellbinding sound, but the manner in which Szabo employs it in the overall compositions of the tracks here is at times, lyrical, dizzying and truly wacked out. For one thing, the sitar is never quite in tune with the actual songs, making some of the melodies seem a bit warped in a way which is difficult to pinpoint. It's not an off-putting effect, quite the opposite. The slightly off interweaving of tonal shades and melody lines actually enhances the otherwordly mystical vibe on what might otherwise be perceived as a psychsploitative gimmick. Of course Szabo's meticulously intricate but seemingly simple guitar phrasings don't need much help from the sitar (he wasn't called The Spellbinder for nothing!). The sitar just provides an elemental coloring allowing a deeper immersion into whatever Szabo is seeking out, whether it be a quiet call to focus ("Walking on Nails"), a monster mod groover ("Sophisticated Wheels"), or the introduction of one of his signature tunes ("Mizrab"), a driving mantra-like tune of tablas and hypnotic droning open-tuned guitars that never tires. It's a song he would return to a few more times in his relatively short career (he died in 1982). Highest Recommendation!
MPEG Stream: "Walking On Nails"
MPEG Stream: "Mizrab"
MPEG Stream: "Sophisticated Wheels"
MPEG Stream: "Caravan"

SZABO, GABOR The Sorcerer / More Sorcery (Impulse) cd 17.98
Two electrifying live sets from 1967 by the great Hungarian born jazz guitarist mark this latest "two-fer" reissue from Impulse. Mostly taken from a live set at Boston's Jazz Workshop plus three tracks from that year's Monterey Jazz Festival, this is a great introduction to the spellbinding work of one of the finest guitarists in jazz. Often weaving intricate gypsy-folk inspired guitar lines within Western and Latin pop standards and exotic originals, Gabor Szabo brought a mystical and sometimes psychedelic feel to modern jazz. His band during this time was also top notch, featuring guitarist Jimmy Stewart, bassist Louis Kabok, either Marty Morrell or Bill Goodwin on drums and percussionist Hal Gordon. While the pop standards ("The Beat Goes On", "People", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, plus the Brazilian tunes, "Little Boat" and "Corcovado") are still pretty good, the real strength of the material is in the originals, especially the ambient "Space", the 12 minute work out, "Los Matodoros" and one of our favorite tracks ever, the beguiling and mysterious "Mizrab". Szabo recorded several amazing albums in the sixties and seventies for Impulse, Blue Thumb, CTi and Skye, including the great Jazz Raga, that we reviewed recently, having been reissued by Light In The Attic. This latest in Impulse's reissue series, which has also included lesser known records by Pharoah Sanders, Albert Ayler, and Alice Coltrane, stands out among our favorites for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Mizrab"
MPEG Stream: "Los Matodoros"
MPEG Stream: "Space"
MPEG Stream: "Spellbinder"

SZAJNER, BERNARD Some Deaths Take Forever (LTM) cd 17.98
Conceived as a soundtrack for a 1980 Amnesty International short film against the Death Penalty, French electronic music maverick, Bernard Szajner (pronounced Shy-nerr) came up with one of the most geniusly bizarre concept records ever made. Imagine if Suicide, David Bowie, Conrad Schnitzler, Bruce Haack, Giorgio Moroder, and Magma made a record together about the de-humanizing extremes of an existentialist Death Row, it might sound something as cold and freaky as this! A minimal wave Magma is definitely not that far off the mark, as Szajner was the lighting and visual effects designer for Magma's live shows in the seventies, and Klaus Blasquiz and Bernard Paganotti of Magma guest here.
The opening track, "Welcome To Death Row" was featured on the awesome compilation of French coldwave, "So Young But So Cold" and Detroit techno producer, Carl Craig has claimed this to be his favorite album of all time! It's definitely got the slow disco vibe down, even though it's hardly a dance record. Add some crooning David Bowie in his Low period moments, but it's way weirder with creepy synth elements, robotic vocals, radio collages, electronic pop and tight, proggy guitar solos added in to highlight a more distasteful side to what Szajner felt to be the all too pleasant quality of synthesized sounds coming out of Germany at the time. That might mean for some, on a first superficial listen, parts of the songs may go to questionable places you may not wish them to go (it was made in 1980, after all!), but it's a much more satisfying listen to follow the songs down all the rabbit holes they go with an open mind. It's definitely one of those eccentric missing link records that crosses through many genres but doesn't sit easily in any one of them.
Bernard Szajner made five records of avant-garde electronic music in the late seventies and early eighties before sadly abandoning music for good, but none of them are quite like this! (His 1981 follow-up Superficial Music has also been reissued and we'll hopefully review it in a future list.) But for all those into such sundry bands as Daft Punk, Droids, Cold Cave, Air, Kraftwerk, Heldon, Arthur Russell, Lindstrom, Gina X, Jonas Reinhardt, the weirder sides of Serge Gainsbourg or any of the bands or artists mentioned above, you need to check this out now!! Oh, and this new, nicer reissue (than the previous one on Spalax) also includes three bonus tracks, previously unreleased!
MPEG Stream: "Welcome To Death Row"
MPEG Stream: "Ritual"
MPEG Stream: "Ressurector"
MPEG Stream: "A Kind of Freedom"

SZAJNER, BERNARD Superficial Music (LTM) cd 19.98
Bernard Szajner is one of the more eccentric pioneers of French post-prog electronic music. Released in 1981, Superficial Music, was the follow-up to his bizarre avant-electro-rock concept record against the evils of capital punishment, Some Deaths Take Forever. Superficial Music is less high concept (or more depending upon how you look at it) than Some Deaths, as it uses Marcel Duchamp's ideas of the readymade coupled with Eno's Oblique Strategies to make a compelling work of tape manipulation synthesis. It's definitely not as rock-oriented as Some Deaths. Reworking tapes from his first release, Visions of Dune, and processing them backwards and at half speed, Superficial Music is both strangely atonal and oddly enticing, full of dark pulsations and brooding oceanic turbulence, following in the footsteps of other cosmic tape music such as Fripp and Eno's No Pussyfooting, and Eliane Radigue's Vice Versa while sounding akin to the heavier cavernous analog explorations of Klaus Schulze and Kluster. The second half of the record is Szajner's three part suite, Oswiecim (Polish for Auschwitz) and obviously it doesn't get much lighter in tone. Ghostly and hushed, with unnerving spectral drones, this suite addresses Szajner's family roots with the Holocaust and though it's not as brutally heavy-handed as it could be, it's more often disquieting in its cold and near silent detachment. This reissue also includes two previously unreleased bonus tracks from the period that complement the work nicely. Fans of that Musique Electronique En France compilation we raved about a while back, as well as modern day doomdrone, should definitely check this out!
MPEG Stream: "Superficial Music 3"
MPEG Stream: "De-Termination"
MPEG Stream: "Inverted Area"

SZARLEM Night Of Blood (Nykta) cd 13.98
We've all been a bit obsessed with Varghkoghargasmal since we first got our hands on the Call Of The Raven cassette, a stumbling confusional chunk of what the band calls 'wooden metal', one of us was so obsessed, that he released a full length Varghkoghargasmal record on his label (Andee, we're talking to you!), which took that wooden metal sound even further, creating a gorgeously evocative foresty black metal assembled from wavery warbly keyboards, off kilter drumming, and strummed clean guitars. But we never stopped to wonder what that wooden metal would sound like in a more traditional black metal setting, blacker and more distorted, more frostbitten more grim, well, now we don't have to wonder, as Varghkoghargasmal mainman (and only man really) Avenger, has unleashed this dark opus, the latest from his -other- one man band Szarlem, ominously titled Night Of Blood, and you know what? It sounds exactly how we would have expected, exactly how we had hoped. The same sort of Viking tinged stumbling bizarre loping black metal, that in its wooden form played out like some sort of fractured krautrock, but here, imbued with fire and frost and black buzz, it becomes an awesomely fucked up collection of midtempo black metal weirdness.
The guitars are thick and crusty and distorted, churning and chugging, the vocals a WAY up in the mix maniacal growl, and the drums, just like in Varghkoghargasmal, wander and stumble, adding a whole other element to Szarlem's sound, giving the proceedings a sort of black metal Shaggs vibe. But rather than sound fucked up and demented (well, it still does actually), it flows perfectly with the rest of the sounds, with the music, the whole thing a woozy warbly, off kilter, blackened stumbling lope, sometimes locking into an almost punkish groove, other times unfurling slow burning Burzumic sprawls, some of the tracks laced with haunting keyboards, fluttering little Casio melodies draped over the lurching blackness below, the best moments are when those keyboards lock in with the guitars and conjure up haunting harmonies, creating creepy almost Goblin like black metal buzz, but those moments are fleeting, as the tracks usually slip back into some thrashing blackness or meandering buzzing drift.
Lo-fi, raw and demented, dark and emotional and weirdly epic, this is some truly inspired, truly unique outsider black metal. And is thus WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Storm Of Darkness And Evil"
MPEG Stream: "Black Winter Rituals"

SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS Astilbe Rubra (Small Doses) cd-r 7.98
Found a small stash of these in the closet, already out of print, these are likely the last copies we'll ever see...
Another killer release from sound artist Nicholas Szczepanik, this one on Small Doses, another micro-label whose releases we just can't get enough of, every one lovingly and extravagantly packaged, which is surprising considering how limited the releases are. This one is no different, only 104 copies, housed in a gorgeous screen printed diecut fold over sleeve, with a printed insert, liner notes, and each one is hand numbered.
Szczepanik offers this release as a work in process, each track an unfinished idea, meant to be pursued and fleshed out later, but to our ears, these tracks sound perfect as they are. Deep, rich, lustrous sprawls of drone and whir and ambient shimmer. Heck there's even a track called "Shimmer", although it doesn't shimmer so much as crumble and grind and rumble. The opening track begins with a wall of soft white noise, that unfolds gradually, eventually revealing a warm chordal whir within, that stretches out into a long, dreamlike crawl. Lots of the tracks experiment with glitch and hiss and buzz, recording inconsistencies, meshed with abstract field recordings, some tracks are seriously intense, brittle, sharp and jagged, while others are murky and minimal, muted and introspective. Hard to believe these are just works in progress, but if they are, we sure can't wait to hear them when they're finished.
MPEG Stream: "Tire"
MPEG Stream: "Merci Manu & Sophie"
MPEG Stream: "Shimmer"

SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS Dear Dad (Basses Frequences / Goat Eater) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest release from one of our favorite dronescapers, this one super minimal and shimmery, a gorgeously hushed piece of abstract ultra personal drone music, a sort of sonic letter to Szczepanik's father, the result of a request by his father that his son write him a letter, a request that a younger Szczepanik didn't really understand and thus ignored at the time, only attempting to write that letter, in sound, recently, the result is Dear Dad, one of those rare records where minimal instrumental music manages to convey a surprising amount of emotion, no small feat, transforming childhood emotions, kept in check until adulthood, into sound, gorgeous lush droning sound, a hazy, gauzy brooding slow building buzz, that begins in complete silence, before becoming a whisper, and over the course of the next 20 minutes eventually a howl, a dense, ragged, blown out, noise drenched blast of crumbling corrosive crunch, still infused with buried melodies, but so intense, cathartic, a gorgeous sonic release, culminating in a strange bit of tangled melody, still in-the-red and blown out, but hauntingly lovely and lilting, wrapped in a constantly swirling squall of grinding buzz and glimmering caustic shimmer.
The second, shorter track is much more tranquil and serene, as if the catharsis of the first track purged any negativity, replaced regret with hope, the title "Forgive To Forget" seems to suggest as much, as does the music, a warm softly pulsing whir, all washed out, the soft focus edges eventually coming in to focus as the track progresses, the shapeless forms and indistinct streaks, becoming sweet melodies, the hushed whirs almost like soaring strings, a lush drone glowing with an inner warmth, that permeates all of the surrounding sounds, transforming sound into feeling, music into energy, notes and chords, textures and timbres into emotion. Not sure if it was the kind of letter Szczepanik's father was expecting, but it seems to be more than he could have hoped for.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. This is a replicated disc (not a cd-r)! Gorgeously packaged in a thick dark brown matte finish sleeve, with a printed cardstock insert, and all wrapped in a Japanese style cardstock printed obi, each with an actual stamp, every one unique.
MPEG Stream: "When I'm No Longer Afraid Of You"
MPEG Stream: "Forgive To Forget"

SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS Dull In Color (200mg) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two new releases from sound artist Nicholas Szczepanik, a long time aQ customer, whose releases have some how so far eluded us, until now. After a handful of super limited cd-r releases, this is in fact the first time we managed to get enough to review and list.
This one comes from 200mg, the same label that brought us the amazing Man Is The Bastard No Skull Left Unturned collection, as well as a handful of other strange dark musics. Szczepanik's disc fits pretty much perfectly, a single long track, expansive and dense, shifting from soft breathless whispery drones, to throbbing crumbling distorted dirgescapes and back again.
Utilizing contact mics, field recordings, found sounds, keyboards, samples, shortwave radio and manipulated vinyl (in particular, according to the liner notes, Neil Young's Harvest!) Szczepanik manages to transform those various elements into a singular new sound, a buzzing, glowing streak of constantly shifting shimmer. Over the course of the track, the sound dips into melodic shoe gazey blur, growling industrial whir, delicate crystalline glimmer, haunting distorted chiming, and washed out soft focus hiss, each sound, every part, melting seamlessly into the next. Super nice.
Packaged in a cool oversized silkscreened cardstock booklet with a pasted on front image, inside a simple stark printed black and white booklet packed with abstract photos of trees and foliage.
MPEG Stream: "Dull In Color"