THUNDERBOLT Apocalyptic Doom (Agonia) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "The Omen / Apocalyptic Doom"
MPEG Stream: "Spadnie Smiertelny Cios..."

THUNDERBOLT Inhuman Ritual Massmurder (Mercenary Musik) cd 14.98

THUNDERBOLT The Burning Deed Of Deceit (ISO666) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another blackened recommendation direct from the unholy oracle, otherwise known as AQ comrade in evil, Wrest of black metal horde Leviathan:
When asked to review a couple of discs for Aquarius, I was psyched to find they were among my favorite cds of '03. "The Burning Deed of Deceit" is this Polish artist's third official release and it is definitely Satanic Blackened Metal at its sharpest. Thunderbolt is created almost solely by Paimon, with a session drummer and keyboardist. Paimon, definitely from the school of Snorre Ruch (mastermind behind Thorns and father of the Norse guitar attack), writes hymns with ferocity not felt since early Immortal or old Satyricon. Noteworthy also is the fantastic drum playing and natural drum sound. Levitating blasts, odd time signitures and abrupt tempo changes make up this six song epic. Highlights include "Die With Your Religion" for its hauntingly dischordant keyboard and "The One Who Sleeps", which trudges through the fields of the righteous, the spell broken only by a melancholy acoustic interlude. The soundtrack to a blood-ritual in the name of the one with horns. Hail Satan!!!
MPEG Stream: "Die With Your Religion"
MPEG Stream: "Lord Of Creation"

THUNDERHEIST s/t (Big Dada) cd 14.98
This is all about dirty, sassy, and sweaty fun! This duo from Toronto excels in banging club jammers that exist in the same charged booty shakin' atmosphere as folks like Peaches, CSS, L' Trim, Bonde De Role, Yo Majesty, etc. But there is something about front-woman Isis's commanding presence and sizzling charisma that really makes this one stick out amongst the electro club pack. It's exactly the kind of record you would want blasting from a dance club's stereo, and it would sound just as good coming on after Justice as it would Missy Elliott. With summer around the corner we are searching for our summer party jams to fill the void that records from folks like Yelle provided last year, and after several listens we're pretty convinced that Thunderheist is going to be our soundtrack to shakin' it, for quite a while!
MPEG Stream: "Sweet 16"
MPEG Stream: "Little Booty Girl (LBG)"
MPEG Stream: "Cruise Low"

THUNDERHEIST s/t (Big Dada) 2lp 17.98
Now on Double Vinyl!!!
This is all about dirty, sassy, and sweaty fun! This duo from Toronto excels in banging club jammers that exist in the same charged booty shakin' atmosphere as folks like Peaches, CSS, L' Trim, Bonde De Role, Yo Majesty, etc. But there is something about front-woman Isis's commanding presence and sizzling charisma that really makes this one stick out amongst the electro club pack. It's exactly the kind of record you would want blasting from a dance club's stereo, and it would sound just as good coming on after Justice as it would Missy Elliott. With summer around the corner we are searching for our summer party jams to fill the void that records from folks like Yelle provided last year, and after several listens we're pretty convinced that Thunderheist is going to be our soundtrack to shakin' it, for quite a while!
MPEG Stream: "Sweet 16"
MPEG Stream: "Little Booty Girl (LBG)"
MPEG Stream: "Cruise Low"

THUNDERINAS In Blower (Zhark ) cd 11.98
Rachael Kozak (aka Hecate) presents her own version of the Digital Hardcore girl-groups, in particular the super stupid Cobra Killer project from Gina of EC8OR and Annika from Shizuo. For the Thunderinas, Kozak assumes the sexually explicit, grease covered pseudonym Bloody Knuckles alongside her equally antagonist partners Carolina Fastburner and Audrey Anaconda for a sloppy album of hot-rod samples, groovy DHR breaks, and bombastic jump-up, scream 'n' shout, punk-as-fuck vocals, though this is not nearly as noisy as their DHR sisters.
RealAudio clip: "Full Speed"

THURSAR Journey To Jotunheim (Hekaloth) cd 17.98
For any one who's been keeping track, this is record number four from the mad genius behind the damaged brilliance of Xynfonica, Shevalreq and Gluttony. The master of the most important modern musical instrument, THE GUITAR SYNTH. Whose records are either twisted inspiration, or fractured insanity, most likely both. Music to some folks ears, utter garbage to others'. You know where we stand. And if you don't, read on...
The concept behind not just this record, but everything this guy does, is to take a guitar synth and jam out, with the sound of the guitar synth all weirdly atonal and creepy. Then wrap those creepy atonal jams around some high falutin' concept, Vikings, the Roman Empire or something like that, and then the piece de resistance, add some intense growling metal vocals over the top. Sounds insane, and it IS insane, but it's so twisted that we just can't get enough. And we can't be alone since the mysterious man behind the guitar synth keeps churning them out!
Xynfonica was meant to be orchestral, Shevalreq was 'world music', and Gluttony was 'jazz', this time the sound is based on Asian and Eastern instruments, not the real instruments obviously, but the settings on the guitar synth, so stuff like kotos and sitars, but synthesized! The lyrical concept this time around is based on the travels of a group of Danes, as they brave the Arctic Ocean to reach the kingdom of Jotunheim. There are plenty of lyrics, and liner notes so you can understand what's going on, as well as pictures of the synthesized instruments, a guitar, a sitar, lutes. The cover is pretty fantastic too, a giant gold statue, and some Viking archers, squaring off atop big Indian drums! Yep. We're not sure we get it either, but we love it.
So what does it sound like? Well actually, it sounds almost exactly like the other discs. Which is not a bad thing at all. More more more, we always want more. If anything it's even more insane and twisted sounding. The chords warble, the notes are uneven, the tempos shift and stutter, crunchy distorted electric guitars collide with synthesized sitars, long stretches of warped wah wah, the vocals raspy and demonic, the sound often morphing mid phrase into some murky orchestral sprawl, or some tangled freaked out synthpsychdrone weirdness.
Way recommended, essential for keepers of the first three keys (Xynfonica, Shevelreq, Gluttony) obviously, but equally essential for lovers of the weird and the obscure, the freaky and the fucked.
MPEG Stream: "Escape From The Doomed City"
MPEG Stream: "Thorkel's Arrival"
MPEG Stream: "Catalogue Of Heroes"

THUUNDERBOY s/t (Table Of The Elements) cd 15.98
We could think up better ways to market this record that what Table Of The Elements came up with. They *could* have shrouded this album in mystery, saying: "Truly hypnotic, vangarde turntablism and cut-up audio collage by unknown sound artist Ted Conrad, circa 1973- '74 -- predating Christian Marclay and Boyd Rice!" Or they could have said what is probably the truth: "Legendary minimalist Tony Conrad smoked a lot of pot in the early '70s while stuck in Ohio. Instead of making films or composing abrasive minimalist music, he made recordings of his young son playing around his toy Fisher-Price record player. Indeed, he probably was playing with the turntable himself."
But Table Of The Elements chose instead to present this album with such hyperbole as: "Is it fair to argue that a precocious Ted [Conrad -- Tony's at the time infant son], the once and future Thuunderboy, anticipated in these excursions of the early '70s everything from the rise of turntablism and hip-hop to the creative strategies of such disparate entertainers and / or conceptualists as Fatboy Slim, Christian Marclay, and that erstwhile Savior of Pop (circa 1997), Beck? Or, rather does it affirm some unerringly democratic quality inherent in the very act of scratching and spinning, that a toddler could create hypnotic loops and decontruct pop banalities into perversely humorous after-the-fact commentaries on the star-making machinery?"
Arghhhh. So lame. Rant aside, the Thuunderboy recordings -- regardless of whether it was Tony Conrad or the toddler Ted Conrad making these sounds -- is a pretty amazing album of locked grooves worn into Donny Osmond 45s, played back at the wrong speed. If anything, it should be appreciated for what it is, a humble peek into the lives of Tony Conrad -- the minimalist trying his hand at fatherhood -- and young Ted Conrad -- the two year old kid who put up with a dad who kept playing with all of his toys.
RealAudio clip: "At Last"
RealAudio clip: "Let My"
RealAudio clip: "No Wait A Second"

THX 1138 (LALO SCHIFRIN) OST (Film Score Monthly) cd 17.98
BACK IN STOCK!
Finally here! We have been waitin' for this reissue to arrive for eons (well, at least Cup has!), and it's so well worth the wait. This is the original soundtrack to George Lucas' 1971 feature length debut THX-1138, a chilling, near-future dystopic cult fave shot right here in SF. Although Lucas decided to handle this film's restoration for the dvd release in much the same unfortunate way that he did for Star Wars - namely, by adding numerous quite significant (often intrusive and questionably necessary) CGI 'enhancements' and revisions - Lalo Schifrin's soundtrack has aged quite gracefully, and this release even includes some numbers he composed for the film that did not make the final cut. We love Schifrin's work, and this is no exception. It is considerably different from his many other sountracks (Bullitt, Dirty Harry, Enter The Dragon), but then again this film is considerably different. Imaginative, haunting and incredibly effective, his score perfectly complements Walter Murch's innovative ahead-of-the-curve sound design (it would be great to have a cd of that!), and together they play a vital role in each scene and in the film's overall impact. Starkly contrasted with the film's predominantly icily sterile visuals, it's an ever-shifting aural kaleidoscope of grand symphonic strings, menacing drones, blats of brass, imposing choral assemblies, bursts of Latin jazz, early synthesizers and electronic explorations, solitary woodwinds, percussive African rhythms, and avant garde sound collage... topped with a deliriously giddy "Be Happy" sing-song jingle cherry on top. Richly atmospheric, melodious and dissonant, and deceptively unsettling. Highly recommended... and not just for film score buffs! Limited pressing of 3000, but it has been out for a while, so get it while you can!
MPEG Stream: "Main Title / What's Wrong?"
MPEG Stream: "Be Happy Again (Jingle Of The Future)"
MPEG Stream: "Torture Sequence / Prison Talk Sequence"

THY GRIEF ETERNAL Swathed In Black / On Blackened Wings / Outro (Rise Above) 12" 16.98
Originally recorded in 1991 and never actually released, Thy Grief Eternal is the band that would later become Eternal and then of course later still, the mighty stoner sludge behemoth Electric Wizard. But back in '91, Jus Osborn and his merry band of metalheads soundee completely different, as it was 1991, and in the UK, Thy Grief Eternal sounds like they would have been right at home on Earache, alongside Carcass, Napalm Death, Godflesh and the like. Pounding industrial sludge doom, with grunted gutteral death metal style vocals, pounding relentless drumming and BIG RIFFS, very sludgy and crusty, much more akin to the ultra slow, monochromatic dirge of funeral doom, as they had yet to discover the groove that would play such a crucial part in their later sound.
Two lengthy tracks. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

THY SERPENT Death (Spinefarm) cd 14.98

TIA CARRERA Cosmic Priestess (Small Stone) cd 15.98

TIA CARRERA The November Session (Australian Cattle God) cd 13.98
This record is impossible to figure out. When we first threw it on we thought 'oh great, another slow sludgy doom sort of band' but then almost as quickly as we thought that, we stopped, because suddenly it sounded nothing like that, it totally blossomed, opening up into this completey abstract chunk of big booming drum, downtuned fuzz guitar free jazz post rock psychedelic groove doom. Or something. One minute they'll be splattering random drum figures and the guitars will be scraping and squirming and freaking out, then suddenly the drums will just click, and a MASSIVE sixties psych groove will unfold as the guitar goes total Hendrix apeshit and spins wild-man-blues/notes-bending-all-over-the-place/druggy and deliriously buzzy and blown out LEADS into dizzying webs of searing white hot fuzz. Which of course results in glorious full on Hawkwind meets Comets On Fire meets LSD-march, postrock krautrock psychrock freerock Ur-jams. Endlessy throbbing and pulsing and completely mesmerizing. Some tracks twist and wriggle and writhe into sweat soaked, blood drenched full on rock blow outs, while others settle into impossibly static exercises in tension and drone, almost like a much free-er version of Dutch hypno-metal gods Gore.
Underneath it all the bass wanders and burbles sounding fretless or underwater, as if it was some sentient creature that just happened to be in the same room as the guitar and drums, and every once in a while just happens to fall in along side whatever crazed groove is being flung wildly about. The drums are as much the focus as the guitar, they sound huge, like the band is set up in an airplane hangar, sloppy and all over the place but tight and ferocious too. The whole while cascading sheets of distorted guitars swoon and sway and hug the chaotic drumming before once again exploding into some fuzzed out Hendrixian speaker blowing meltdown.
And for those of you who don't know who Tia Carrera is (ummm... Wayne's World?), do yourself a favor and next time you stay home sick from work, discover the oh so guilty pleasure that is the TV show Relic Hunter!
MPEG Stream: "Scenic Oversight"
MPEG Stream: "Doom"

TIA CARRERA The Quintessential (Small Stone) cd 14.98
Hopefully you already are familiar with this Texas heavy psych band with the not-so-heavy name. We've reviewed a couple of their releases before - most recently, a way-cool 7" of all Lungfish covers, and previously, their massive November Session (we still have a handful of that cd in stock, so go read our review of it and snatch one up!).
THIS new disc comes to us via the Small Stone label, who've been getting much props from us lately (for the likes of Obiat, Iota, Sons Of Otis, and Los Natas) though we already knew the Tia Carrera was gonna be good. And it is. Freeform jammin' blown out psychedelic wahwah'd guitar wailin' freakdom here that we wouldn't hesitate to recommend to fans of Boris and Earthless and Pearls & Brass. And ol' Jimi Hendrix for that matter. Of course, if you're already into TC, we need only say that this new disc is another slab of dizzy distorted genius from them.
Oh yeah, if you're partial to Earthless in particular, by the time you're in the middle of the 22 minute "Unnamed Wholeness", the second track of The Quintessential, you'll have a new favorite band. Those into Tokyo Flashbacking acts like LSD-march and Up-Tight might think so too.
But then, surprise! While most of the album is all electric and instrumental, the fifth and final track is a strummed acoustic number, melodic and gentle, with stoned effected vocals and pretty guitar pickin', like Led Zep in the sunshine on the backporch getting baked. Really nice!
MPEG Stream: "Unnamed Wholeness"
MPEG Stream: "Gypsies"
MPEG Stream: "Hazy Winter"

TIA CARRERA You Are The War (Arclight Records) 7" 9.98
Latest chunk of heaviness from the band, not the actress. This time the Texans tackle a classic tune by Lungfish, letting it sprawl across both sides of a seven inch, fading out halfway through, and fading back in on the flipside, a la "Freebird". TC were wise to not emulate the sound of Lungfish, instead choosing to transform the song into their own, turning a stripped down repetitive dronejam into a blown out stoner metal Southern rock groove, crunchy riffs, thick swells of Deep Purple style organ, wild squalls of wah guitar, super distorted and heavy, with leads all over the place. The A side is all instrumental, the guitar kicking up some serious shit, the band definitely expanding on the Lungfish original.
The flip side fades in and finally the vocals kick in, and again, good idea to not shoot for the moon, as it would be a tall order to try for Daniel Higgs feral yowl, so instead, it's more of a groovy rock wail that goes from smooth and melodic to raw and raspy, well in keeping with the music underneath. The band work it pretty hard, rocking out, but never losing sight of that original looped Lungfish arrangement, until finally slipping into a tripped out mellow outro. Nice!
Pressed on thick white vinyl. Housed in a super deluxe hand screened thick black cardstock sleeve.

TIAGO SOUSA Walden Pond's Monk (Immune) lp 16.98

TIBET, DAVID / STAPLETON, STEVEN Octopus (Durtro / World Serpent) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
While these two have been collaborating in their two outfits (Current 93 and Nurse With Wound) for nearly two decades, conjuring up "menstrual minstrals" for Current 93 and nightmarish dadaism for Nurse With Wound, the duo occasionally records outside of the agendas of their groups. This is the third such collaboration, with two tracks of blistering noise devolving into throbbing drones and two tracks of mutant psychedelia with some help from Nick Soloman (Bevis Frond).

TIC CODE Fbccade (Sickroom) cd 8.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Mind melting mathrock madness, kick ass and catchy as hell, cheeck it out again:
At the risk of alienating some of the other amazing records we've been loving and listening to non-stop, we might just have to proclaim this disc our new favorite. Cuz, man, do we miss the good ol' math rock days. Or post rock days, whatever you want to call them. That brief period, when there were instrumental (or mostly instrumental) bands everywhere, each offering up super complex tangled chunks of calculus-rhythmed indie jangle. Guitars intertwined into gorgeous harmonies and splintering into jagged melodic shards. Drums battering out impossibly intricate beats, the bass slithering around and within, supporting and propelling, but always laced with killer pop hooks and amazing minor key melodies. Bands like Polvo, Pitchblende, Table, Breadwinner, Dazzling Killmen, Bitch Magnet, Rodan, Crain, June Of 44, they just don't make bands like that anymore... or do they?
Tic Code, from Portland Oregon sound like they just got sucked up from 1995 and transplanted in 2007, with all their mathy chops intact. Every song here is dense and catchy and weird and rocking. The opener is all Don Caballero ultra complex spazz out. The guitars super dizzying and slippery, over a relentlessly chugging groove, that at one point slips into an almost jig, and then it's back into a hyper rhythmic math jam. The second track is more moody and propulsive, more post than math, the guitars lilting and ringing out, the drums loping lazily, super summer afternoon...
The rest of the record is all over the math map, leaning heavily on the heavy, more chaotic side of things, the drummer destroying, the guitars tangled up wildly around the drums, every song a gorgeous avalanche of sound...
Some of our other favorites are the weird melancholy almost Goblin-esque "The Second Stanza Of The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza" with its epic sweeping chords and haunting melodies, and the Yes-on-steroids of "Swedish Fish", with more killer dual guitar dueling culminating in an explosive freaked out free for all sonic squall... fuck it, they're all amazing. This band is just so great, and sound so modern and old school at the same time.
Screw this whole post rock metal hybrid movement everyone is so hot for, we say: bring back the MATH!!!
MPEG Stream: "Exembox"
MPEG Stream: "Sweedish Fish"
MPEG Stream: "Skeletons"

TIDES From Silence (Teenage Disco Bloodbath) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK!!
The Tides made a miraculous journey last year from the reject pile of a very shortsighted local music magazine into the loving arms of aQuarius where it quickly became a unanimous favorite and a big seller. Taking all the things we love about this new post rock / dirge metal hybrid that has been kicking our asses, Pelican, Isis, Minsk, Conifer, Mare and the like, and subtly twisting it into something all their own. Where as the last Tides record alternated between rhythmic moodiness and metallic bombast, From Silence manages to be a little less overtly heavy, and a lot more moody and brooding, dark and dolorous, with slow subtle grooves and warm washes of hypnotic dreaminess, basically just good old post rock minus the metal. Although the metal is still indeed present, just in very subtle ways, more felt than heard, informing the songs and the riffs, giving the music a sort of ominous, sharp edge, lurking just below the surface. However, fear not, for the final 11 minute track is apparently where Tides had been keeping all the metal riffing missing from the first two tracks. What starts as a spacious swoonsome jam, all downtuned guitars, softly strummed, shuffling drums and wide open expanses of swooshing ambience, erupts about halfway through into a thoroughly chugging pummel, crunchy and lurching, pounding and swaying like a much groovier Neurosis before blissing out into a washed out psychedelic drift that threatens to float away completely before the hammer falls again and that gorgeously chugging riff returns to lay waste to any and all in its way.
MPEG Stream: "The Sight"
MPEG Stream: "Unveiled"

TIDES From Silence (Modus Operandi) lp 14.98
Now on vinyl, super limited import version, one sided lp, the flip side lazer etched!
Here's our review from when we first listed the cd:
The Tides made a miraculous journey last year from the reject pile of a very shortsighted local music magazine into the loving arms of aQuarius where it quickly became a unanimous favorite and a big seller. Taking all the things we love about this new post rock / dirge metal hybrid that has been kicking our asses, Pelican, Isis, Minsk, Conifer, Mare and the like, and subtly twisting it into something all their own. Where as the last Tides record alternated between rhythmic moodiness and metallic bombast, From Silence manages to be a little less overtly heavy, and a lot more moody and brooding, dark and dolorous, with slow subtle grooves and warm washes of hypnotic dreaminess, basically just good old post rock minus the metal. Although the metal is still indeed present, just in very subtle ways, more felt than heard, informing the songs and the riffs, giving the music a sort of ominous, sharp edge, lurking just below the surface. However, fear not, for the final 11 minute track is apparently where Tides had been keeping all the metal riffing missing from the first two tracks. What starts as a spacious swoonsome jam, all downtuned guitars, softly strummed, shuffling drums and wide open expanses of swooshing ambience, erupts about halfway through into a thoroughly chugging pummel, crunchy and lurching, pounding and swaying like a much groovier Neurosis before blissing out into a washed out psychedelic drift that threatens to float away completely before the hammer falls again and that gorgeously chugging riff returns to lay waste to any and all in its way.
MPEG Stream: "The Sight"
MPEG Stream: "Unveiled"

TIDES Resurface (Teenage Disco Bloodbath) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We love post rock. There. We said it. And we certainly love when our post rock is delivered with a healthy dose of metallic crunch! And indeed, there's been a bit of a post rock resurgence around these parts lately, from regular old post rock instrumental rhythmic workouts to massive metallic onslaughts, and everything in between. Needless to say we're digging every minute of it. So along comes a band called Tides, whose particularly epic and excellent brand of metallic post rock comes to us in a rather roundabout way. A friend of ours works for a magazine that has a VERY narrow stylistic focus. And we do mean VERY. So anything sent to the magazine that falls even slightly outside this focus ends up in what is lovingly referred to as the reject box. And this dutiful friend goes through the reject box and discovers and delivers to us gem after gem, whose only reasons for being cast into this box of rejection seems to be wholly unique and original attempts at music making. Whether it's too metal, not punk enough, too weird... whatever it is that keeps those folks from listening to something tends to be precisely what makes us LOVE IT. Thus we have Tides. A mysterious instrumental outfit that explores similar sonic territory as Isis, Pelican, Conifer and the like. Not at all what you'd expect from a label called Teenage Disco Bloodbath. Dirge-y fuzzy stoner grooves, huge undulating riffs with wailing keening melodies, majestic and mournful, relentless and epic, often splintering into stretches of blissy tripped out space rock, and sublime dreamy interludes of subtle drumming and acoustic guitar, slow building and gorgeously propulsive. All stretched over a framework of murky, moody post rock mesmer. Totally hypnotic, completely rocking and intensely emotional. Definitely one of our new favorites. Fans of Isis, Neurosis, Pelican, Circle, Old Man Gloom, Conifer, and all things post rock, metal and beyond should definitely check this out.
MPEG Stream: "Resurface"
MPEG Stream: "By The Droves"

TIDES / GIANT split (Teenage Disco Bloodbath) cd 9.98

MPEG Stream: TIDES "The Invisible"
MPEG Stream: GIANT "Horned And Blind"

TIDES / GIANT split (Level-Plane) lp 13.98

MPEG Stream: TIDES "The Invisible"
MPEG Stream: GIANT "Horned And Blind"

TIDFALL Instinct Gate (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98
Super technical, brutal and melodic black/death metal with a slight industrial tinge. Lots of keyboards, blast beats, churning downtuned riffs, Emperor-ish guitar melodies and howled/growled vocals. Nothing earth shatteringly original but still really good. This is the kind of stuff my housemate Erik goes crazy for. So if you dig In Flames, Soilwork, late era Carcass, and that sort of thing, this is right up your alley.
RealAudio clip: "Children Of Man"
RealAudio clip: "Prophecy Horizon"

TIDFALL Nucleus (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98

TIED & TICKLED TRIO a.r.c. (Morr Music) cd/dvd 21.00
For the last eight years this German group, featuring members of The Notwist and Village of Savoonga, have been putting out solid records of dub/jazz/electronica-post rock which has made them come to be regarded as sort of the German little brothers of Tortoise. This release features a new 19 minute track plus a dvd filled with videos and live performances. The new song is one of their blissed out high in the sky traveling through clouds and sun while exploring the outer limits of free-jazz minus the skronk for a very pretty and well played addition to their catalog.
MPEG Stream: "a.r.c."

TIED & TICKLED TRIO ea1 ea2 rmx (Morr Music) cd 16.98
German jazzlovin' post-rockers (some of whom are also in Village of Savoonga, so you know this is good) Tied & Tickled Trio relinquish compositional control to a few of their friends on this eight-song remix album and the results are surprisingly great. Much like the Aerial M remix album of a couple years back (which Tied & Ticked Trio was a part of), this album fits very snugly in the rest of the band's normal catalog. All of the rich electronics are still intact and the rhythms are never harder than the originals. The biggest difference might be the attention to craft. Where T&TT tends to polish everything to a perfect sphere, these remixes offer some slightly more reckless takes on their formula of fusion electro-jazz. Snippets of bandmates talking in their native German tongue and scraps of out-takes are seamlessly blended into many of these tracks. For anyone who has not given this amazing band a chance, now is the time. And this is just as good a place to start as any.
RealAudio clip: "Nummer 2"

TIED & TICKLED TRIO Electric Avenue Tapes (Clear Spot) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the world of quietly melodic experimental electronica, I seem to be the designated AQ reviewer / expert, and that's fine, because I like this world, which is peopled by such relatively popular acts as Boards of Canada, Mouse on Mars, To Rococo Rot, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Oval, pre-d'n'b Aphex Twin, etc. Each group's got a little twist on the basic formula of burbling, staticky layers over an evocative insistent bass line and beats. Mouse on Mars go super pop, Boards of Canada make music for lovers, Aphex's got a sense of humor, Oval warms up the Powerbook, etc. Well, the German group Tied + Tickled Trio make very smart use of jazz. Now don't be afraid. This isn't your run-of-the-mill "let's use a sax!" (i.e. to make our tedious retread electronica more interesting) bullshit, or worse yet that "let's sample Roy Ayers" crap. Face it, that method never yields musical integrity. Tied + Tickled work their sax player's clever, careful horn wailings so seamlessly into the mix that it doesn't seem like, well, a *mix* at all anymore; all the elements work so briliiantly together. There's dub heavy rollicking bass too, and the record has all the energetic swing of a Mingus or Dolphy album. Just so perfectly well done; believe me, this record will not disappoint. With the Acher bros Micha and Markus and Kristoph Brandner, all of another AQ fave band Village of Savoonga. Highly recommended.
RealAudio clip: "United World Elevator (excerpt 1)"
RealAudio clip: "United World Elevator (excerpt 2)"
RealAudio clip: "Tusovska Dub Version"

TIED & TICKLED TRIO Electric Avenue Tapes (Clear Spot) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the world of quietly melodic experimental electronica, I seem to be the designated AQ reviewer / expert, and that's fine, because I like this world, which is peopled by such relatively popular acts as Boards of Canada, Mouse on Mars, To Rococo Rot, Kammerflimmer Kollektief, Oval, pre-d'n'b Aphex Twin, etc. Each group's got a little twist on the basic formula of burbling, staticky layers over an evocative insistent bass line and beats. Mouse on Mars go super pop, Boards of Canada make music for lovers, Aphex's got a sense of humor, Oval warms up the Powerbook, etc. Well, the German group Tied + Tickled Trio make very smart use of jazz. Now don't be afraid. This isn't your run-of-the-mill "let's use a sax!" (i.e. to make our tedious retread electronica more interesting) bullshit, or worse yet that "let's sample Roy Ayers" crap. Face it, that method never yields musical integrity. Tied + Tickled work their sax player's clever, careful horn wailings so seamlessly into the mix that it doesn't seem like, well, a *mix* at all anymore; all the elements work so briliiantly together. There's dub heavy rollicking bass too, and the record has all the energetic swing of a Mingus or Dolphy album. Just so perfectly well done; believe me, this record will not disappoint. With the Acher bros Micha and Markus and Kristoph Brandner, all of another AQ fave band Village of Savoonga. Highly recommended.

TIED & TICKLED TRIO Observing Systems (Morr Music) cd 16.98

TIED + TICKLED TRIO Aelita (Morr) cd 15.98
Tortoise's German counterpart are back with their fifth album. It's a dark, moody instrumental beauty, a languid blending of dub, post-rock and jazz with a prominence of exotica chimes. Perhaps leaning a bit heavier on the former than usual, which draws them more into the company of such contemporary electronic dub luminaries as Twilight Circus Dub Sound System and Massive Attack.
MPEG Stream: "You Said Tomorrow Yesterday"
MPEG Stream: "Other Voices Other Rooms"

TIED + TICKLED TRIO EA1 EA2 (Drag City) cd 13.98
This German group, with members hailing from the Kollaps/Hausmusik label core (especially Village of Savoonga and Potatomai), the Tied + Tickled Trio return with their second record of dark and tweaked jazz. This time it's much heavier on the jazz, sounding downright traditional at times.

TIED AND TICKLED TRIO s/t (Bingo) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Sasha Frere Jones of Ui likes this band so much he released it on his own label, and comparisons with Ui, in fact, are not too far from the mark, although these Germans also have a lot in common with the murky, rhythmic world of Village of Savoonga and the rest of the Hausmusik scene. Recommended.

TIED TO THE BRANCHES Laser Eyes (Sleep Genius) cd-r 5.98
Laser Eyes is the third ep release from Bay Area shoegaze trio, Tied To The Branches and is fast becoming our favorite one. Members, Brad DerManouelian, (who runs the new label, Sleep Genius, which also just released the last Chasms 12" we sold a ton of recently), soundscape artist and aQ fave Marc Manning, and Justin Wasterlain, really rev up the distortion and reverb here, hearkening back to bands like Loop, Flying Saucer Attack and the Jesus and Mary Chain, but with their own skillful knack for writing strong memorable songs with driving tempos. Ghostly vocals and fluid bass lines pierce through the thick and luscious wall of sound the trio create to form a speedball of heavy somnolence, invoking a world of nightmarish sleepwalking hallucination. Amazingly, this was engineered by Don Pyle of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet fame (you know, the creators of the Kids In The Hall theme!), and listening closely there is a hint of twangy surf-rock buried under all the topcoat layers of distortion and reverb, but TTTB are no revivalists. Rather, they are carving their own homegrown niche within a larger heavy shoegaze-psych framework. While this ep will be available to the general public as a digital only release, the band has given aQuarius an exclusive but limited physical cd-r version just for our customers, so act fast on this one. It's so good!
MPEG Stream: "Black Clouds"
MPEG Stream: "9 Times"
MPEG Stream: "Ice"

TIED TO THE BRANCHES Light Of Day, It's OK (Amelia) cd-r ep 5.98
What an awesome new band from right here in San Francisco. Some of you might remember how much we raved about Marc Manning's self released cd-r from last year. A dark, doomy and rustic bedroom excursion that left such an impact on us. Tied To The Branches finds Manning teamed up with his longtime partner, Brad DerManouelian and Justin Wasterlain to create some of the most captivating and inpactful, sludgy and dreamy pop that we could imagine. The sound is like this awesome combination of slowcore legends Low if they added languid synths and drum machines into their mix, while playing interpretations of demos by The Cure, The Chills, Codeine, and The Clean. The songs have a drifty and dirgy disposition that evoke in us such a satisfying daydreamy shoegaze state of mind.
While there has been no shortage of shoegaze inspired bands as of late, so many of them are tapping much more into the polished and glossy side of the genre, so it's so nice to hear a group channeling some of that sound from a much more primitive and DIY ethic. In ways the songs make us think of Slowdive's Pygmalion recorded in a dark and dusty garage. It's one of those records we could see being a 'pop' favorite of folks who usually are into really dark and even metallic sounds, and it could be the weird and sludgy exception for folks who usually are into cleaner and more peppy lo-fi pop. The five songs on Light Of Day, It's OK, clock in at just under half an hour, and are all filled with such understated beauty and an undeniable integrity. So fucking good!
MPEG Stream: "Walls"
MPEG Stream: "Demons"
MPEG Stream: "Backwards"

TIED TO THE BRANCHES Pill Bottle - Complete Recordings (Sleep Genius) pill shaped USB drive + pill bottle 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We're such suckers for inventive / over the top packaging, and this super limited 'box set' from beloved local shoegazers Tied To The Branches pushes all our crazy packaging buttons, and it's not just the packaging here, this special release also collects EVERYTHING they've ever recorded, the two cd-r's we've reviewed and listed, but also a third record we never even got, as well as a bunch of demos AND a bunch of videos. All of these goodies are contained in a cool oversized pill shaped 8gb USB thumbdrive, and that drive comes housed in a classic orange pill bottle with white twist off lid, complete with TTTB prescription label, a TTTB button, and of course plenty of cotton. It's so cool! But sadly, CRAZY limited, as in only TEN copies were made, of which we got just EIGHT. So if you want one, best be quick, cuz these will be gone in a flash!
Here's a couple reviews of the two Tied To The Branches we've reviewed. First, the most recent ep Laser Eyes, TTTB's which might be our favorite from this SF shoegaze trio. Members, Brad DerManouelian, (who runs the new label, Sleep Genius, which also just released the last Chasms 12" we sold a ton of recently), soundscape artist and aQ fave Marc Manning, and Justin Wasterlain, really rev up the distortion and reverb here, hearkening back to bands like Loop, Flying Saucer Attack and the Jesus and Mary Chain, but with their own skillful knack for writing strong memorable songs with driving tempos. Ghostly vocals and fluid bass lines pierce through the thick and luscious wall of sound the trio create to form a speedball of heavy somnolence, invoking a world of nightmarish sleepwalking hallucination. Amazingly, this was engineered by Don Pyle of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet fame (you know, the creators of the Kids In The Hall theme!), and listening closely there is a hint of twangy surf-rock buried under all the topcoat layers of distortion and reverb, but TTTB are no revivalists. Rather, they are carving their own homegrown niche within a larger heavy shoegaze-psych framework.
Also included here is the first release we'd heard from these guys, the Light Of Day, It's OK record, which features some of the most captivating and inpactful, sludgy and dreamy pop that we could imagine. The sound is like this awesome combination of slowcore legends Low if they added languid synths and drum machines into their mix, while playing interpretations of demos by The Cure, The Chills, Codeine, and The Clean. The songs have a drifty and dirgy disposition that evoke in us such a satisfying daydreamy shoegaze state of mind.
While there has been no shortage of shoegaze inspired bands as of late, so many of them are tapping much more into the polished and glossy side of the genre, so it's so nice to hear a group channeling some of that sound from a much more primitive and DIY ethic. In ways the songs make us think of Slowdive's Pygmalion recorded in a dark and dusty garage. It's one of those records we could see being a 'pop' favorite of folks who usually are into really dark and even metallic sounds, and it could be the weird and sludgy exception for folks who usually are into cleaner and more peppy lo-fi pop. Such understated beauty and an undeniable integrity. So fucking good!
And as mentioned above, a third record, demos, unreleased tracks, videos and more more more!
MPEG Stream: "Black Clouds"
MPEG Stream: "9 Times"
MPEG Stream: "Ice"
MPEG Stream: "Walls"
MPEG Stream: "Demons"
MPEG Stream: "Backwards"

TIERE DER NACHT Sleepless (Captain Trip) cd 17.98
New record from the duo of Mani Neumeier (of Guru Guru fame) and Luigi Archetti, features guest Dieter Moebius of Cluster.

TIERMES 777 (Ajna) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finland's Jussi Saivo (who is in Ovalki with Jussi from Circle) builds atmospheric milky drones into slow rhythmic circles. Released by Stephen O'Malley, graphic designer of the metal underground and publisher of the awesome Descent magazine, this cd-R is limited to 100 copies and comes packaged with a five inch square of rusted metal.

TIERMES Malahvia (self-released) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We finally managed to get a handful of these back in. They probably won't last long...
It's been several years since we last heard from Finland's mysterious drone ensemble Tiermes, and even then it was an ultra limited (100 copies) cd-r packaged with a sheet of rusted metal. So odds are a lot of folks have yet to discover the mystickal black drone beauty of Tiermes. So at last here we have their only actual in-print cd release and it's nothing short of astounding. Again lovingly hand packaged, this time the cd is housed in a thick cardstock sleeve, wrapped in an unbelievably gorgeous two sided poster (so ultra detailed and intense, very reminiscent of Nick Blinko's artwork for Rudimentary Peni), the whole thing wrapped in thick black paper and tied up with twine. A dark and mysterious package that perfectly reflects the music within. Three lengthy tracks, the first, a glistening shimmer of minimal drone, like delicate layers made up of the overtones of struck bells or Tibetan bowls, a slowly radiating reverberation, that drifts and fades, like ripples in a black pond. The second track hints at Tiermes mainman Jussi Saivo's Finnish rock pedigree (early soundman for Circle, member of Circle side-project Ovalki as well as one half of Temple Of Tiermes with a member of Finnish doom band Unholy!) with ten minutes of ultra distorted electric bass, and a strange minimal squelchy rhythm, very Circular and hypnotic, the same figure repeated over and over. a gorgeous ultra simple meditation in dirge drone. Might hit the spot for adventurous SUNNO))) / Earth / Boris / Corrupted fans. The final track is a massive 40 minute track, or shimmering crystalline drone, very similar in makeup to the first track, but stretched even further out, with even more overtones and distant drones added to the mix as well as some strange minimal percussion. A truly otherworldly ambience, darkly dreamy and absolutely lovely. As beautiful and breathtaking as anything by Chalk, Coleclough, Basinski, Mirror, Monos, Ora or any of our other favorite dronologists.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

TIERSEN, YANN & SHANNON WRIGHT s/t (Vicious Circle) cd 15.98
There's such wonderful chemistry between Mr. Jann Tiersen (composer of numerous soundtrack works for films such as Amelie and Good Bye Lenin) and Ms Shannon Wright (singer/songwriter of four fine dark, druggy folk rock albums). Whoever thought of this inspired pairing deserves a hearty toast! Tiersen's presence seems to offer a grander scale to Wright's usually more intimate works which in the past have drawn plenty of comparisons to a PJ Harvey fronted Dirty Three. With its gorgeous arrangements composed mainly of piano, strings, electric guitar, and vocals, this collaboration actually serves as quite a smooth and fitting progression from Wright's last solo album, Over The Sun (which was a particular fave around here). Fans of hers will surely not be disappointed. With each track the pair delve deeper and deeper into the shadowy depths of lost hopes and despair -- only breaking briefly from this downward spiral at the sixth song "While You Sleep". It's like a sudden surfacing, a desperate gasp for breath in the midst of a drowning, a shattering of the relative calm. Check out the howling violin and empassioned vocal performance, thrashing and clawing to escape the misery. Whoa, that in itself was a sudden geyser of metaphors, but the music definitely stirs up such imagery.
MPEG Stream: "Sound The Bells"
MPEG Stream: "While You Sleep"

TIETCHENS, ASMUS A-Menge (Ritornell) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
To be blunt, Asmus Tietchens is one of the many prolific experimentalists whose long career (begun in the '70s) hasn't really amounted to much of any great merit. Fortunately, there's at least one disc like "A-Menge" which makes up for all of those other inconsequential albums full of cheap beatboxes and out of key analogue knob twiddling. After so many failed attempts at mimicking the aural plasticity of composers like Vladimir Ussachevsky or Morton Subotnik, Tietchens finally got it right. On the three lengthy pieces, Tietchens slowly phases together layers of processed sine-waves and crystalline bleeps of granular synthesis. The trebly hypnosis spins in syncronicity with the inorganic whir of a mainframe computer's cooling fan or perhaps with the motion of tiny nanotechnic machines. The success of his debut for the Mille Plateaux sub-label is in the subtlety and delicacy in each of the gradual shifts of sound, that relates this work much closer to Bernhard Gunter than the clinical rigidity of the Raster kids.

TIETCHENS, ASMUS Adventures In Sound / Nachtstucke (Die Stadt) 2cd 23.00
This is the first in a massive 18 CD reissue campaign from Die Stadt of the German electronic music composer Asmus Tietchens.
"Adventures in Sound" documents some of the earliest recordings from Tietchens dating from 1965-1969. To the best of my knowledge, these had only been released in tiny private editions back in the day; but Tietchens may have transformed some of these on his seminal album "Formen Letzter Hausmusik" released by United Dairies in 1984. Working with two close friends Otto Becker (who to this day still helps with Tietchens' productions) and Hans Deiter Wohlmann, Tietchens offers a messy explosion of freeform experimentation into anti-structuralist streams of sound, playing both with the concepts of free jazz through loose psychedelic improvisations with guitar, flute, bass, piano, trumpet, drums, toy pianos, rubber bands, etc. and through primitive tape machine tricks (i.e. backwards masking, varispeed manipulation, rudimentary splicing, etc.). While not as well developed as Nurse With Wound or H.N.A.S., "Adventures In Sound" sounds not dissimilar to those projects' improv aesthetics, predating them by a good decade.
Originally released in 1980, "Nachtstucke" was the first major album for Tietchens despite his experimentations with music dating back to 1965. It was his one and only album for Egg Records, the shortlived division of Barclay in France specializing in progressive music (i.e. Christian Vander, Conrad Schnitzler, Popul Vuh, Vangelis, Roedelius, Heldon, etc.). This was the beginning of his 'pop' phase which lasted 4 albums, before announcing a dramatic shift towards electro-acoustic experimentation. With "Nachtstucke," he used rudimentary pop structures of simple one-finger keyboard melodies and arpeggiated electronic repetitions to build his obtuse electronic compositions, that fall somewhere between ice-rink music, Vangelis, and the Dr. Who theme.
MPEG Stream: "Cripple Story (from Adventures In Sound)"
MPEG Stream: "Falter-Lamento (from Nachtstucke)"

TIETCHENS, ASMUS Aus Freude Am Elend (Die Stadt) cd 28.00
Number 11 in Die Stadt's ongoing reissue campaign of the Asmus Tietchens back catalogue. Originally released in 1988 on Dom America, Aus Freude Am Elend is Tietchens response to the Plunderphonics campaigns of Negativland and John Oswald, sans the culture jamming context. It's all voice stolen from the bargain bins of throw-away pop tunes and re-engineered through looping devices, ring modulators, and pitch shifters into what has long been claimed as one of his better releases.
MPEG Stream: "Den Stiftsherren"
MPEG Stream: "Rosenkranz"

TIETCHENS, ASMUS Biotop (Die Stadt) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Die Stadt marches on with the second in the series of CD reissues documenting the unique career of German electronic musician Asmus Tietchens. "Biotop" was originally released in 1981 on Sky Music, marking the second album in Tietchens' self-professed 'pop intermezzo,' before unleashing a torrent of emphatically abstract electronic recordings. Tietchens' definition of pop music was always a bit suspect, as his Moog synthesizer melodies while playful and cheeky are often stiff and lacking in basslines. That said, "Biotop" is a charmingly naive record that is far more suited to the ironic listening experiences within Jean-Jacques Perrey, Dick Hyman, and even some of Atom Heart's clever recapitulations of dorky electronics. Comes with two bonus tracks of likeminded material not found on the original vinyl version.
MPEG Stream: "Fast Food"
MPEG Stream: "Cretin Statique"

TIETCHENS, ASMUS Eisgang / Dammerattacke (Submergence) 2cd 21.00
Over the next year of 2002-3, German electronic / new music composer Asmus Tietchens will be re-issuing many of the vinyl only albums that had been published during the last couple of decades. With a catalogue as massive as Tietchens' (rivalling both Muslimgauze and Merzbow in sheer volume of work), there are bound to be some duds. Fortunately, this 2CD reissue of two limited edition LPs originally released on Korm Plastics 'Ambient Series' is NOT one of those. While the press release describes "Eisgang / Dammerattacke" as "not your everyday ambient music," these two albums fall within the 'classic' definition of ambient as proposed by Brian Eno. Both of these albums use similar tonal palettes with vaguely chilly, but far from ominous electronic washes soaked in blurring reverb, and are slightly more dramatic than Eno's "On Land" or like those darkened Gas albums devoid of their skeletal rhythms.
RealAudio clip: "Zweiter Nachtschatten"
RealAudio clip: "Maessig Bewegt"

TIETCHENS, ASMUS Formen Letzter Hausmusik (Die Stadt) cd 23.00
Up until the release of Formen Letzter Hausmusik in 1984, Asmus Tietchens had released several curious electro-pop albums built upon rudimentary keyboard melodies and jaunty drum machine rhythms. However, this facet of Mr. Tietchens represents a very minor aspect of his entire catalogue; and in fact, many qualified Formen Letzter Hausmusik as the first 'real' Asmus Tietchens record, as some of the material for this album dates back to the late '60s when he first began to experiment with reel-to-reel tape and primitive electronics. When these recordings caught the ear of Steven Stapleton (of Nurse With Wound), he gushed, "I nearly fainted, never before have I heard music which touched my heart, indeed, I would go so far as to say it's possibly the most exciting sound I've heard for at least 10 years!" Woah! Now, that's high praise, and Formen Letzter Hausmusik does not disappoint. Tietchens presents sad accordion droning melodies next to synthetic, post-Dockstoder squiggle and whirling tape machine splutter, occasionally punctuated by Z'ev-ish metallic clanging and feedback squeals. Certainly fits in more with esoteric, post-industrial collage of Stapleton's United Dairies label (which actually released this back in the day) than the more clinical electro-acoustic presentations that Tietchens has produced over the past two decades.
MPEG Stream: "Volksfest"
MPEG Stream: "Hydrophonie I"

TIETCHENS, ASMUS G-Menge (Ritornell) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Stalwart German electronic composer Asmus Tietchens presents the third in the 'teilmengen' series. It appears that this series features recordings of generative sound from a computer program called "Perpetuum Mobile", but then again, the broken English from the press-release has the tone of a poor internet translation. Regardless, this album sounds like the infinite variations which can be generated from a granular synthesis patch on Max / MSP.
RealAudio clip: "Teilmenge 3"

TIETCHENS, ASMUS Geboren, Um Zu Dienen (Die Stadt) cd 24.00

TIETCHENS, ASMUS Leuchtidioten (Die Stadt) 10" 15.98
In what looks to be the beginning of an onslaught of Asmus Tietchens' archival recordings from Die Stadt (who will be releasing 18 of Tietchens early LPs on CD), comes "Leuchtidioten", featuring two tracks that were recorded during the 'Teilmengen' sessions which resulted in the "a-Menge," "b-Menge," and "g-Menge" albums on Mille Plateaux. Comparatively more rhythmic than those compositions of post-'60s computer-based abstraction, the two tracks on this 10" are filled with tense percolations, with one track sounding like a paranoid acid house number run horribly amok, generatively shifting frequencies, adding / subtracting chunks of sound, and devoid of bass drum kicks, mind you. The other track appears as a synthetic reworking of tribal percussion, with tightly controlled flanges and ring modulation. Limited to 500 copies.
RealAudio clip: "Tot 3"
RealAudio clip: "Tot 5"

TIETCHENS, ASMUS Marches Funebres (Die Stadt / Auf Abwegen) cd 17.98
Marches Funebres is volume 13 in the ongoing series of Asmus Tietchens reissues from Die Stadt (here, in conjunction with Auf Abwegen). Tietchens, of course, is the experimental electronic krautrock musician who began his lengthy career back in the late '60s and stylistically morphed his compositions from obliterated tape music to coy electronic pop to sterile acousmatic seriousness as well as countless collaborative projects with Moebius, Conny Plank, Thomas Koner, Merzbow, Richard Chartier, Vidna Obmana, Arcane Device, and his long standing partner Okko Bekker.
Originally released on the now defunct Swedish label Multimood on vinyl in 1989 (and later on disc in 1994), Marches Funebres is something of a retrogarde piece of electronics for Tietchens looking back to the cosmic synthesis of his contemporaries in the late '70s. "Linea 5" is a slow-motion 20 minute piece of synthesized tension churning with step sequenced notes whose minor key repetitions ripple further in dynamically evolving delay patterns and aggregated ambience. Composed in '89, Tietchens offered an alternate take on what John Carpenter and Goblin were creating in their electronic sequencing, stripping away the melody and leaving behind the anxiety. The next track "Grunschattiger Nachmittag" is all melody, with Tietchens embarking on an orchestral work utilizing the technological advances in sampling circa 1989, creating a hyperbolic, trashy filmscore music dripping in pathos and saccharine emotion through the simulated timpani, strings, and even fake baritone vocalist. The 1979 version of "Grunschattiger Nachmittag" which is a bonus track on this reissue is far more compelling due to the more limited set-up of a Minimoog and drum machine, resulting in a much more impressive piece of Kraut-electronica akin to the best work of Cluster and Harmonium. The irony which became so prominent in the 1989 version is lost in translation early on, and the piece is better off without it. As a result, this track is probably the best 'pop' track Tietchens did during that spell on Sky Records in the late '70s and '80s.
MPEG Stream: "Linea 5"
MPEG Stream: "Grunschattiger Nachmittag"
MPEG Stream: "Grunschattiger Nachmittag 1979"