TARGODIE Against The Sky (Mobilization) cd 12.98

TARKATAK Lur (Prion) cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Lur" is another cd-r release for the exceptional German drone ensemble Tarkatak -- who have a number of tiny editioned releases. With perhaps only using tape speed modulation and a few effects (mostly reverb), Tarkatak beautifully processes a series of heavy bell tones into dark shimmering ambience on par with Andrew Chalk's amazing "East Of The Sun" album. "Lur" comes packaged with a sewn blue hessian bag (a similar idea to :Zoviet France:'s early album entitled "Hessian") which tends to fray easily, so please be careful when handling it.

TARKATAK Skok (Trummer Kassetten) cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The German drone outfit Tarkatak has been a little too low profile for their own good, with a handful of super limited edition releases that have sadly been pressed as cd-rs. Fortunately Jef Cantu of Tarentel plans on releasing a Tarkatak album on his newly christened dronological label Blessed / Cursed, which could very likely get Tarkatak the attention which they deserve. But until that day comes, we'll try and keep as many of the tiny editions of Tarkatak records as we can. "Skok" is a fairly recent release, though the recordings date back to winter of 96 / 97. Tarkatak keeps things very quiet with some beautiful deep drones punctuated by subaquatic washes. The tonal palette is remarkably similar to Zoviet France's "Digilogue." Excellent work!!!

TARKIO Omnibus (Kill Rock Stars) 2cd 16.98
Decemberists alert! This was Colin Meloy's band before the Decemberists that not many people got to hear. Maybe if you were really on top of the Montana indie-rock scene of the late '90s you have one of their releases that were limited to a couple hundred copies. But if you are like us, maybe you missed the boat on them the first time around, but thanks to the popularity of his current band the all out of print recordings of Tarkio have been unearthed on this two-cd set. There is no mistaking Meloy's voice and lyrical stylings with Tarkio but with a more Midwestern/salt-of-the-earth, less Victorian and dramatic delivery. In fact this reminds us so much of early and mid-era R.E.M. which ain't a bad thing at all. And his Robyn Hitchcock-like delivery was in full effect as well. Had they been on a label like Merge, Alias, or Matador they would have been staples of college radio but their location and lack of distro kept them pretty much a Missoula secret. A must have for Decemberists enthusiasts!
MPEG Stream: "Keeping Me Awake"
MPEG Stream: "Save Yourself"

TARKOVSKY, ANDREY Andrey Rublyov (Toei) cd 32.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Over the years, I have met many people who have taken the pains to make cassette dubs of the "Stalker" soundtrack straight from the video. No longer necessary. Dark and heavy orchestrations and vibrations resonating from the claustrophobic cloak of the cold, cold iron curtain. And one folk dance. Very highly recommended. And if you have seen (heard) "Solaris" lately, you know how beautiful and mysterious it is too. Japanese imports, hence the price (nice packaging though.) "Ivanovo" is a little cheaper because it's a little shorter.

TARKOVSKY, ANDREY Ivanovo Destvo (Toei) cd 32.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Over the years, I have met many people who have taken the pains to make cassette dubs of the "Stalker" soundtrack straight from the video. No longer necessary. Dark and heavy orchestrations and vibrations resonating from the claustrophobic cloak of the cold, cold iron curtain. And one folk dance. Very highly recommended. And if you have seen (heard) "Solaris" lately, you know how beautiful and mysterious it is too. Japanese imports, hence the price (nice packaging though.) "Ivanovo" is a little cheaper because it's a little shorter.

TARKOVSKY, ANDREY Solaris (Toei) cd 34.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Over the years, I have met many people who have taken the pains to make cassette dubs of the "Stalker" soundtrack straight from the video. No longer necessary. Dark and heavy orchestrations and vibrations resonating from the claustrophobic cloak of the cold, cold iron curtain. And one folk dance. Very highly recommended. And if you have seen (heard) "Solaris" lately, you know how beautiful and mysterious it is too. Japanese imports, hence the price (nice packaging though.) "Ivanovo" is a little cheaper because it's a little shorter.

TARKOVSKY, ANDREY Zerkalo/Stalker (Toei) cd 32.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Over the years, I have met many people who have taken the pains to make cassette dubs of the "Stalker" soundtrack straight from the video. No longer necessary. Dark and heavy orchestrations and vibrations resonating from the claustrophobic cloak of the cold, cold iron curtain. And one folk dance. Very highly recommended. And if you have seen (heard) "Solaris" lately, you know how beautiful and mysterious it is too. Japanese imports, hence the price (nice packaging though.) "Ivanovo" is a little cheaper because it's a little shorter.

TARKUS s/t (Repsychled) cd 15.98
BACK IN STOCK!
What's this? Maybe the cover, all-black but for the name Tarkus, caught your eye? Holy grail time here, people. We've been wanting to get this album on cd FOREVER. There was a hard-to-find LP reissue some years ago, but we'd never yet found a cd version -- until now, at last, and it's a totally legit one from the master tapes! Released (barely, in an edition of just, like, 50 copies) in Tarkus' native Peru back in 1972, this is an album to go down in the annals of heavy rock, proudly belonging to the pantheon of proggy proto-metal!!! We'd definitely rank this with favorites of ours in that truly cult realm, other early '70s stuff like Necronomicon and Night Sun and Eduardo Bort and Steamhammer's Speech!
It may be that they're named after the ELP's 1971 album Tarkus (you know, the one with that freaky armadillo/tank on the cover), but they don't sound much like ELP in any event. While progressive rock is part of their sound, this Tarkus come across more like a bizarro hybrid of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and some of the more out-there and baroque Italian prog outfits of the era, rather than ELP. It's music that's dark and doomy and powerful and psychedelically dosed, sometimes with really weird operatic vocals -- and always with about a zillion cool, heavy guitar riffs. It's meant to be played LOUD. Shouldn't be hard to comply!
With some very pretty melodies and acoustic moments, Tarkus somehow seem like a '60s garage psych act (which they previously were, Tarkus being formed by members of Peruvian psych-pop group Telegraph Ave.) in possession of a crystal ball that enabled them to gaze into the future to be anachronistically inspired by Black Sabbath's Sabotage album, which was released three years later in 1975 (we'll have to assume that crystal ball had a place to plug in earphones).
This previously came packaged in a gatefold, miniature LP styled sleeve, but now it's in a jewel case, with cd booklet including liner notes in both Spanish and English, which make mention of the band dressing like monks when they made one of their rare live appearances.
And by the way, we'd somehow suspect that Portland's Danava have heard this record. If not, they should -- we think they'd like it! And we think you will too, if any of the above raving and referencing strikes a chord!
MPEG Stream: "El Pirata"
MPEG Stream: "Team Para Lilus"

TARTIT Abacabok (Crammed Discs) cd 16.98
There is no doubt that we have a big soft spot for so much of the music that comes out of West Africa and Mali in particular, so we were not sure how we missed the first album from this great Mali outfit called Tartit, but we are more then pleased to jump on their fan wagon with their new outing Abacabok. Recorded in the northern Mali desert by Congotronics producer Vincent Kenis, this is a record that keeps you captivated from start to finish. Call and response vocals, handclaps and percussion creating the perfect back-beat, three-string lute and one string fiddle, a few moments of electric guitar. It all comes together to form a record that feels so coherent, hypnotic and grounded to the salt of the earth. Fans of Tinariwen and Ali Farka Toure will be thrilled to hear this record. And just about everyone here at AQ has caught the Tartit fever with a fury! This is really great!
MPEG Stream: "Eha Ehenia"
MPEG Stream: "Tihou Beyatene"

TARTUFI Nests Of Waves And Wire (Southern) cd 11.98
This dynamic Bay Area duo continue onwards and upwards into the stratosphere of terrific music making with their latest release, Nests Of Waves And Wire. After 2006's Us Upon Buildings Upon Us left our ears wonderfully tangled in its wild mathiness and quick twists, we still have to admit we're a bit happy to hear Tartufi bringing back some of their earlier poppiness. This is really really good! Just as ambitious as its predecessor and perhaps even more fully realized. Lynne Angel and Brian Gorman really let their creative juices flow. Each of the seven tracks are impressively multilayered and detailed musical journeys incorporating elements of prog, post-rock, psych (yup, all the good stuff!) - particularly the almost thirteen minute long awesome third track "Engineering" and the final "Hole Or Space". Most are feverishly propulsive and highly rhythmic with vocals chanted and howled in hypnotic cycles. That said, the fifth song "System Folds" does brings a bit of calm to the otherwise breathless proceedings! Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Fear Of Tall Giraffes, Fear Of Some Birds"
MPEG Stream: "Engineering"

TARTUFI So We Are Alive (self-released) cd 12.98
Tartufi's second cd is simply burstin' with energy and confidence. We still stand by our previous comparison of this Bay Area band (which we made with regards to their six-song EP Westward Onward) to what you might imagine a collaboration between Jody Bleyle (Team Dresch, Hazel) and Rob Crow (Heavy Vegetable, Pinback) sounding like. Sounds pretty darn good to you, don't it? As well, some of their new songs are very much along similar lines as the recent Electrelane album Axes. Hope that doesn't sound like we're oversimplifying things. Really, we're just tryin' to say that Tartufi's music is packed with all the good stuff: a solid emotive pop core, infectious hooks, smartly crafted, challenging twists and strong female vocals. And they just keep gettin' better. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Distractions"
MPEG Stream: "Terremoto"

TARTUFI Trouble EP (Acuarela) cd ep 9.98
Bay Area indie pop trio Tartufi have reached across the ocean to release a four-song EP with the Spainish label Acuarela... and we're glad to hear the word is spreading on this terrific band. If you've dug their intelligent, well-crafted first two cds So We Are Alive and Westward Onward then this will surely be a welcome treat too. Pop tunes played primarily on the straight-forward instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums (okay, there's a little piano, synthesizer and xylophone too), but with lots of plot twists (melodic, rhythmic and tempo-wise) to keep things interestin' and movin' along at a spritely clip. Check 'em (all) out!
MPEG Stream: "Slow Man"
MPEG Stream: "Nurses"

TARTUFI Us Upon Buildings Upon Us (Thread) cd 14.98
Now that they're a duo instead of a trio, SF's Tartufi have shifted their focus away from punchy pop hooks and towards a more epic and expansive punk/prog/pop exploration. The news has created some division around here between those who totally thought their old incarnation was pretty darn great and let down somewhat by their new direction; and those who think their old sound was good but a tad derivative and find their new direction amazing, ambitious and refreshingly their own. Perhaps this division would have been better resolved with a new name for their new sound, but what's done is done. Singer and guitarist, Lynne Angel and drummer, Brian Gorman with the help from Tim Green (of The Fucking Champs) have crafted a mathy stew of beauty and noise with vocals that are at times both angelic and damning with turn-on-a-dime changes, majestic sweeps, soft interludes, and only a touch of over-indulgence. The acrobatics that Angel brings doubly to the guitar and her voice have to be seen live to be believed, where they seriously sound like a four piece with a choir. While their new sound to some of us is definitely less immediately engaging than their old sound and may take a little getting used to, we think there will be plenty of fans, love and support for their new shift in focus. Rock on!
MPEG Stream: "Mourning's Wake"
MPEG Stream: "Boat Of Armor"

TARTUFI Westward Onward (Thread Records) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The introduction to new SF duo Tartufi comes in the form of this six song EP. From the get go, Westward Onward brings to mind the power pop smarts of bands such as Jody Bleyle's Hazel and Team Dresch or any one of Rob Crow's many incarnations (that is, if he were a she). Very energetic and emotive with lots of lilting vocal counter melodies. A little amusing side note: if you put this album's cover side by side with that of Adult.'s Anxiety Always, you get a complete picture of a car.
MPEG Stream: "Los Lomos"
MPEG Stream: "Why I Am Late"

TARWATER Animals, Suns, and Atoms (Mute) cd 14.98
Like so many bands, it's the singing that'll make it or break it. Tarwater's monochromatic Germanic mumble worked with their bleak electronic / post-rock albums, but when attempts to sport songwriting chops and to arrive at the baritone croon of Stephin Merritt are met by uptempo funboy electro pop tunes, the results can make skin crawl. Swear to God, while we were listening to it, Windy kept asking if it was the new Lou Reed album. Still, it's not *all* that guy's vocals, and the music is that nice Tarwater submerged sample crackle, so...

TARWATER Dwellers On The Threshold (Mute) cd 16.98
Excellent album! Tarwater come out of a very fertile German electronica meets rock scene, one which has also sprouted To Rococo Rot and Kreidler, both big AQ faves. You want details? OK -- Tarwater is the duo of Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram. Ronald and brother Robert are in To Rococo Rot along with Stefan Schneider who is in Kreidler and who also lends his keyboard sound to Tarwater on a track here. Jestram has engineered a couple of To Rococo Rot's recordings.
This close proximity has resulted in a some amazingly beautiful records from all three of these groups, and as a whole they just keep bettering themselves for our delight. Dwellers On The Threshold is one of the very best of the bunch. Just gorgeous! About half instrumental, the album's vocal tracks feature Lippok's vocals which are a morose sort of talk / sing murmur that reminds me of Tindersticks. Several of the tracks feature bittersweet strings and the exact same lush plucked harp-sounding thing that made the last Kreidler record Eve Future so stunning. There's lots and lots of serenely picked guitar amongst the programmed beats that don't call too much attention to themselves; rather it's the melody and songwriting that stand out. And the whole thing runs on a consistently stately pace. And there's a Swans cover. Really well done. Highly recommended, especially if you're a fan of the Notwist, Fridge, Tindersticks, To Rococo Rot, Kreidler, etc. A big fave of Windy and Allan.
RealAudio clip: "1985"
RealAudio clip: "Be Late"
RealAudio clip: "Metal Flakes"

TARWATER Dwellers On The Threshold (Kitty-Yo) lp 16.98
Excellent album! Tarwater come out of a very fertile German electronica meets rock scene, one which has also sprouted To Rococo Rot and Kreidler, both big AQ faves. You want details? OK -- Tarwater is the duo of Ronald Lippok and Bernd Jestram. Ronald and brother Robert are in To Rococo Rot along with Stefan Schneider who is in Kreidler and who also lends his keyboard sound to Tarwater on a track here. Jestram has engineered a couple of To Rococo Rot's recordings.
This close proximity has resulted in a some amazingly beautiful records from all three of these groups, and as a whole they just keep bettering themselves for our delight. Dwellers On The Threshold is one of the very best of the bunch. Just gorgeous! About half instrumental, the album's vocal tracks feature Lippok's vocals which are a morose sort of talk / sing murmur that reminds me of Tindersticks. Several of the tracks feature bittersweet strings and the exact same lush plucked harp-sounding thing that made the last Kreidler record Eve Future so stunning. There's lots and lots of serenely picked guitar amongst the programmed beats that don't call too much attention to themselves; rather it's the melody and songwriting that stand out. And the whole thing runs on a consistently stately pace. And there's a Swans cover. Really well done. Highly recommended, especially if you're a fan of the Notwist, Fridge, Tindersticks, To Rococo Rot, Kreidler, etc. A big fave of Windy and Allan.

TARWATER Not the Wheel (Gustaff Rec.) cd 14.98
After the fairly savage review we gave to Tarwater's previous effort (we said we thought "Animals, Suns, and Atoms" sounded like a new Lou Reed album!) we can happily say we like this new one better. Indeed, we'll call it a comeback for the Tarwater duo of Robert (To Rococo Rot) Lippok and Bernd Jestram. (Tho we'd probably still recommend their "Silur" and "11/6 12/5" discs before this one.) Apparently consisting of stuff originally commissioned for various film/theatre/art projects, "Not The Wheel" has less of the mopey-male talk-singing that so marred "Animals", and of course the crackly, downtempo instrumental sections are gorgeous and moody. Tarwater's melodic, organic electronica soundscapes almost bring to mind an abstract, experimental Portishead, but with electro elements and a German guy speaking instead of female vox...
RealAudio clip: "Warszawa on the Roof"

TARWATER Silur (Kitty Yo) cd 14.98
Germans Ronald Lippok (of To Rococo Rot) and Bernd Jestram are Tarwater, and this is the follow-up to their fine 11/6 12/5 album which seemed to bridge Nick Cave and Portishead. Here's some of what Forced Exposure's email list has to say about the new disc: "DJing (loops, breakbeats, cut-ups, speeches), electronic experiments and classical song structures lay next to each other in Tarwater's music, which leads them in the direction of artists as DJ Shadow or Tricky...and one can find a long list of other references: early 90's East Coast Hip Hop, the Coil of the Horse Rotovator Phase, the Crooklyn Dub Consortium, the minimal electronic sets of DJ Kazi Lenka and Taschensound, and the compositions of Carl Wilson. Still: the intuition kicks out the strategy and gives this music a rather mysterious pop-appeal."

TARWATER Spider Smile (Morr Music) cd 16.98
As we've said before, we've both loved and not-loved-quite-so-much past releases from the modern day kraut-tronica duo of Robert Lippok (To Rococo Rot) and Bernd Jestram. But overall we like 'em pretty well. So we're sorry we didn't get around to listing this disc when it came out... last year... since it's certainly a nice enough entry in the ever so textural Tarwater discography. We particularly dig the track that sounds like underwatery video game music, sonar pings in a soundscape of moodiness...
MPEG Stream: "A Marriage In Belmont"
MPEG Stream: "Lower Manhattan Pantoum"

TARWATER The Needle Was Travelling (Morr Music) cd 16.98
Tarwater, the German postrock/electronica duo featuring a member of To Rococo Rot, has had their ups and downs with their fans here at AQ. If you look back at our reviews of their several previous albums you'll find some we rave about and some we pan. Their last full-length, Dwellers On The Threshold, got a rave. So does that mean that this new one, their first for new label Morr Music, is bound for the downswing? Or are they at last on a steady upward trajectory with us? Well if you're a fan by now you've probably made up your own mind 'cause this has been out for a little while now. But for what it's worth, we like this one. The unique Tarwater charm -- the combination of bloodless vocals and mellow beats and instrumental textures -- does it for us again. Relaxed, pretty, downtempo stuff for the most part. With the aid of various guests, Tarwater's Robert Lippok and Bernd Jestram have come up with 14 songs that (as always) blend "live" instruments and singing and electronics into a variety of melodic, moody soundscapes and low-key synthpop tunes. There are some more upbeat numbers with percolating rhythms but the vocals are never upbeat! Indeed, the singing remains the thing that is either going to make or break this for most listeners. Depends if you like their style of gently spoken-sung, kinda soft and dreary, English-language vocals. Their unexcitable, deadpan delivery would be easy to parody. But Tarwater's intimate, rainy-day electro-acoustic symphonics give this album human warmth. The Needle Was Travelling is mysteriously groovy, whilst being laid-back and droney too. It's modern-day krautrock after all. Some might like it better in an instrumental version, but Lippok's vocal limitations are for better or worse a key part of the Tarwater sound that we enjoy.
MPEG Stream: "Across The Dial"
MPEG Stream: "Yeah!"

TATE, DARREN A Strange Artifact (Fungal) cd-r 13.98
This is the second pressing of A Strange Artifact which dates to 2004. The second edition, like the first, comes by the way of Darren Tate's own Fungal imprint, although he's vastly improved the artwork with reproductions of Tate's stain-and-ink drawings adorning the sleeve. Given the limited nature of the original edition, this one is certainly new to us; and for better or for worse, the second one will soon depart from these doors.
Darren Tate has been a regular fixture here at Aquarius with his self-produced constructs of eccentric droneworks, although he's best known for his impressionist compositions with Andrew Chalk and Colin Potter, in Ora and Monos respectively. A Strange Artifact is a suitable title for this album, which Tate composed as a fictional piece of automatic music through accordion, guitar, and field recordings. The accordion tentatively seesaws a quizzical arpeggiation that when brought up to speed sounds like a primitive variation of Phillip Glass's early work, but mostly is a slow meander through notes providing something eerily carnivalesque like a Svankmajer soundtrack. Spindly guitar plucks float amidst the accordion, and subterranean field recordings churn in the distant. Perhaps this is the least droning piece we've encountered from Darren Tate, certainly one of the weirdest, too. Limited to 100 copies.
MPEG Stream: "A Strange Artifact (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "A Strange Artifact (excerpt 2)"

TATE, DARREN Another Sunday (Fungal) cd-r 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another Sunday is another self-released micro-edition from the British drone maestro Darren Tate, best known for his work in Ora and Monos. Here, Mr. Tate presents three lengthy tracks of analogue synth variations on a theme and one pastoral field recordings of the birds flitting around his country garden. The analogue sounds revolve around a kosmische swirl of filter-sweep minimalism dappled with oceanic, tonal glissandos which gently sway up and down for a subtle hypnotic effect. Tate weaves into these ambient modulations a chorus of sympathetic vibrations, which taken on their own could easily be confused for the glacial pacing of Eliane Radigue's compositions. The coda of birds is a nice touch, countering the navel-gazing circuitry of the electronic sound with a fanciful chorus of avian calls. For those of you who have picked up any number of those field recording documents from Sittelle, try your hand at identifying all of these birds. In any case, Another Sunday is super limited, with an edition of 100 copies. We've got only a handful!
MPEG Stream: "Another Sunday 2"
MPEG Stream: "Another Sunday 4"

TATE, DARREN Nature In The City (Fungal) cd-r 13.98
Darren Tate has quietly amassed a substantial catalogue of treated field recordings and electrical eccentricities over the past twenty years, most notably through his collaborations with Andrew Chalk in Ora and more recently through his drone-centric project Monos, which typically features Colin Potter as Tate's trusted foil. While billed as a solo record, Nature In The City was to be the follow-up to the well received (and now out of print) Monos 2cd Generators released on Die Stadt in 2005. That album with its science fiction bleakness through analog electronics was the jumping off point for many of the recent Darren Tate experiments, and was clearly something that Nature In The City comes out of. However, Die Stadt decided to drop Nature In The City from their release schedule, leaving Tate to put this recording out through his own Fungal imprint. Here, Tate concentrates upon atonal flares of sawtooth synth tones and phaser-shot guitar noises that jump out from beds of undulating drones, bellowing loops, and eerie LFO-driven frequencies. Oblique half-melodies nervously flicker out of these constructions, occasionally joined by dreamy flickerings of pixel dust, all awash in nocturnal reverberations. Limited to a mere 100 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"

TATE, DARREN Old Pointed Hat (Fungal) cd-r 13.98
A wayward psychedelia and an English eccentricity sets Darren Tate apart from many of his psychedelic dronework counterparts. He's unashamed to declare his infatuation with cats and gnomes throughout his many productions. His early recordings with Andrew Chalk (amongst others) as Ora had self-released through their imprint Gnome Records with a few of Tate's kooky watercolors of cats gracing the covers of those albums. Old Pointed Hat was ostensibly to be Tate's "Christmas" album, but he decided to go with the gnome theme once again... at least for the cover art. It's hard to see how gnomes fit into this primitive recording for electronics and guitar, which sounds more like something that should have come out on Snatch Tapes back in 1982, and was only now rediscovered by the bloggers. It's clear by now that Tate has become less interested in the pure drone, pushing more towards an expressive urge through gesture and abstraction. Tate sets up his Roland 101 synthesizer to randomly shuffle through a stoccatic sci-fi bleepity-bloop that slowly evolves into a malcontent post-TG turgid pseudo groove. Throughout this evolution, Tate interjects with a metallic splatter of splintered guitar noise coupled with radio interference and warbles of odd distortion. Growled sawtooth low-end noise and horror / sci-fi half melodies elsewhere on the album give an early Maurizio Bianchi / Hospital Productions vibe. Limited to a 50 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Old Pointed Hat 1"
MPEG Stream: "Old Pointed Hat 2"

TATE, DARREN Organ Of Sight (Fungal) cd-r 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of the dronescapers behind the seminal Ora project, which also prominently featured Andrew Chalk and Colin Potter, Darren Tate has been quietly churning out tiny edition CD-Rs. Most of his self-released discs have completely evaded us, but we managed to snag the last batch of copies of Organ Of Sight from Mr. Tate himself, who has warned us that these are indeed the last copies to be found. The limited availability of this album is not reason alone to investigate, as Darren Tate has long been an exemplary proponent of otherworldly, long-form abstraction and Organ Of Sight is no exception. A spectral vibrato of an analogue synth set to UFO hover is the foundation for Tate's untitled opening piece, which flashes with eerie electronics on par with much of the '60s esoterica genius mined found in the Creel Pone series. These paranoiac ambient gestures also resemble the general tone of Tate's contributions to the Monos album Generators, from 2005. While the second track rumbles with a deep space frequency and echoes with unsettled sonar pings, Tate counters his isolationist sentiment with a languid series of synthetic harpsichord melodies which make for a dreamy, blissful atmosphere. The final number rattles with a deadened vacuum cleaner hum spotted with smallish events and spooky sound effects cracking the event horizon, which altogether resembles something like Nurse With Wound's A Missing Sense. Limited to a mere 100 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"

TATE, DARREN Reflections On A Ceiling (Fungal) cd-r 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Reflections On A Ceiling is another micro-edition from Darren Tate, the founder of the seminal British avant-drone project Ora with Andrew Chalk. In his recent investigations both under his own name and the Monos project, Tate has been pushing towards a more electronic context with all of the cold, barren, and alien references found in '60s electronic music (e.g. Delia Derbyshire, the Forbidden Plant soundtrack, and most of the electronic esoterica reissued through Creel Pone). Reflections On A Ceiling continues with that trend. Tate opens the album with a series of cold wet field recordings of rain, wind, and other soggy, sodden sounds. Out of this introduction, Tate unravels a series of oscillating tones whose ringing electronics occasionally tumble into declining melodies only to drift into the distance as a Klaus Schulze ambience. For a few minutes in the middle of the album, the synthetic notes subside in a deep dark mass of ghastly electron murk, sort of sounding like a typical Hospital / Hanson production gone by the way of Brian Eno. Tate slowly slips back into the twin-note phase shift with thickly delayed field recordings of wind and rain as the finale to this album. Nicely done. There's something like 150 copies of this kicking around. We've also read that the pressing was only 50 copies. In either case, we don't have many and it's unlikely we'll get more!
MPEG Stream: "Reflections On A Ceiling 1"
MPEG Stream: "Reflections On A Ceiling 2"

TATE, DARREN When An Insect Visits Your Window (Fungal) cd-r 13.98
For many years now, Darren Tate has been content to issue micro-editions of his work, his earliest recordings with Andrew Chalk and Colin Potter as Ora almost always emerging as an edition of 50 copies or so on cd-r or cassette before warranting a larger pressing on vinyl or cd. Yet recently, the editions on his Fungal imprint have remained the tiny editions with little notion that any will resurface later. True, Tate's eccentric droning, autodidact guitarwork, and psychedelic electronics equate with far more difficult listening than the impressionist blurs of Ora's grand atmospheres; but the paucity of these releases (augmented by their peculiar nature) makes them treasures all the more.
Let's assume this album to be an exaggerated view of what Darren might be meditating upon when he stares out his window. While he's been known to incorporate field recordings from various sources into his work, the flutter of moth wings or the buzz of a wasp won't be found here. The insectoid repetition from the seasickly swooshing glissando that opens the album is the weird science mimesis you get instead; and from there, Tate presents an ever collapsing set of two note melodies (very much on the Giancarlo Toniutti / Maurizio Bianchi end of the hypno-melodic drone spectrum), flanging oscillations, spectral Tetuzi Akiyama style stabs at his guitar, and plenty of asynchronous tone clusters to hang in empty space.
Limited to 75 copies, and that's it!
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 2"

TATE, DARREN & ANDREW LILES Without Season (Twenty Hertz) cd 16.98
For the first collaborative effort between venerable British dronescapists Darren Tate (Monos, Ora, etc.) and Andrew Liles (a recent collaborator with Steven Stapleton in the live presentations of Salt Marie Celeste), Liles identifies himself as the Conductor with Tate providing improvisations and field recordings. On the first couple of tracks, the division of labor also equates to a dualism between the menacing minimalism which Liles has been producing with frightening success as of late and the rather charming sounds of Tate's field recordings, consisting of numerous birds twittering around his Northern English garden. But later on, Without Season spirals into a blur of asynchronous loopings, creepy minor key piano progressions, dissonant swells from an accordion (played by Tate's 79-year old neighbor Kathleen Vance), complex chorales for filigree feedback, and post-Jewelled Antler communions with nature. It would make sense if Liles controlled the outcome of Without Season through his claim as the Conductor, as the album's overall feel resembles his unnerving sleights of hand and eerie ambience as opposed to the impressionist dreary dreaminess of either Monos or Ora. Liles' sensibility provide subtle hints at something horrific creeping throughout the charged ether collided with earthen crackle; and it's these occasional reflections of something unsettling that sets this record apart. Exceptional.
MPEG Stream: "Part I"
MPEG Stream: "Part V"

TATE, DARREN & PAUL BRADLEY Sometime Today (Plinkety Plonk) cd 19.98

TATE, HOWARD s/t (Koch) cd 12.98
Reissue of an LP that Atlantic originally put out back in 1972. Howard Tate ("one of the top ten R&B singers of all time" sez Jerry Ragovoy, who incidentally produced this album and Tate's lone other LP for Verve) quit the music biz in '74 for a career in insurance (and, later became a minister) but has been enjoying a renaissance of late, getting back on stage with some new music, again collaborating with Ragovoy! Our friend Nick Tangborn turned us on to this guy -- he actually saw him on his "comeback" tour, at a bar in New Orleans, and described the experience as akin to seeing Otis Redding!
This LP features 12 tracks of relaxed funk and soul, always groovin and showcasing Tate's undeniably star-quality vox, with material by Ragovoy and Tate (and covers of Dylan and The Band!). Tate's other album is supposed to be even better, but this is pretty fine for what it is. Despite his talent, Tate never really "made it" but it's nice to know he's not forgotten.
RealAudio clip: "Keep Cool (Don't Be A Fool)"

TAU EMERALD Travellers Two (Important Records) cd 14.98

TAURPIS TULA Sparrow (Eclipse) lp 16.98
Taurpis Tula are a Scottish duo made up of guitarist / shortwave radio operator David Keenan (who you might recognize as a writer for The Wire) and vocalist / pedal steel guitarist Heather Leigh Murray (of Charalambides and Scorces). The two create a druggy haze from buzzy tentative guitar explorations mired in a wash of shimmery static. Occasional ghostly barely there vocals, and minimal melodies drift and flutter before being swallowed up again. Side two is a single track, an extended ambient blur of bombinating instruments, percussive creaks and fragile theremin like melodies keening in the distance. Like a smoke filled room, operatic vocals buried beneath a dense swirl of murky blackness. Packaged in a gorgeous screen printed black on black sleeve, with a black on black insert. LIMITED TO 700 COPIES!

TAUSSIG, HARRY Fate Is Only Once (Tompkins Square) cd 14.98
The Tompkins Square label who puts out the Imaginational Anthem compilations (volume 2 of which is reviewed elsewhere on this list), has reissued the 1965 sole private press record of finger-picking guitarist Harry Taussig. A contemporary of John Fahey and Robbie Basho (Taussig's only other recording is on a 1967 Takoma label compilation featuring both Fahey and Basho), Taussig's repertoire explores blues, ragtime and Americana, covering songs from Reverend Gary Davis and Elizabeth Cotten as well as other traditional songs. Comparisons to Fahey will of course abound, but there are definite differences in their playing styles. Most notably Taussig's exploration of stark ragtime idioms and stricter adherence to songforms, leaving less room for the excursionary meditations that Fahey fostered.
While this reissue is remastered with original liner notes and photos, our only complaint about it is the lack of Taussig's back story. What happened to him? Is he still alive? Perhaps the mystery is what the title eludes to. Fate is Only Once.
MPEG Stream: "Blues For Zone VII"
MPEG Stream: "Dorian Sonata"

TAUSSIG, HARRY Fate Is Only Once (Tompkins Square) lp 14.98
Now on Vinyl!
The Tompkins Square label who puts out the Imaginational Anthem compilations, has reissued the 1965 sole private press record of finger-picking guitarist Harry Taussig. A contemporary of John Fahey and Robbie Basho (Taussig's only other recording is on a 1967 Takoma label compilation featuring both Fahey and Basho), Taussig's repertoire explores blues, ragtime and Americana, covering songs from Reverend Gary Davis and Elizabeth Cotten as well as other traditional songs. Comparisons to Fahey will of course abound, but there are definite differences in their playing styles. Most notably Taussig's exploration of stark ragtime idioms and stricter adherence to songforms, leaving less room for the excursionary meditations that Fahey fostered.
While this reissue is remastered with original liner notes and photos, our only complaint about it is the lack of Taussig's back story. What happened to him? Is he still alive? Perhaps the mystery is what the title eludes to: Fate is Only Once.
MPEG Stream: "Blues For Zone VII"
MPEG Stream: "Dorian Sonata"

TAYLOR BOW Thin Air (Youth Attack) lp 14.98
Last time we were in New York, we managed to grab a single by this band, Taylor Bow, named for an infamous online porn site featuring videos posted by a disgruntled and spurned ex boyfriend, we heard it playing in a store, and had to buy it. An insanely furious and frenzied, blown out chunk of metallic punkness, or maybe punked out metal, either way, the speakers seemed to be melting and malfunctioning, spewing red hot daggers of sound, the vocals ultra distorted and in the red, the drums, total practice space boom and crunch, chaotic and unhinged, the guitars slipping from wild feedback soaked squalls, to churning Brainbombs-y sludge. So we of course tried to order a bunch, but it was the LAST copy.
So we waited and waited, and our patience was finally rewarded with this, the first full length from NYC hardcore noise metal weirdos Taylor Bow, fronted, you might not be surprised to discover by Dom Fernow, of Prurient, Vegas Martyrs and Ash Pool among others. Taylor Bow features the same sort of lo-fi metal-punk noise drenched crush, but instead of blasting blackly, or exploding into sheets of white noise, TB slip back and forth between freaked out on-the-verge-of-collapse hardcore and looped sounding sinister dirges, that totally push all our Brainbombs buttons. The sound is red hot, blown out, brittle and brutal, but still thick and heavy, the vocals are super intense, which sometimes makes Taylor Bow sound like a way more rocking Whitehouse, but there are definite nods to the current crop of stripped down raw black metal, Fernow's Ash Pool for sure, but also stuff like Akitsa and Bone Awl. But even with that metal edge, this stuff is way more filthy and punky, and we're loving it. Released on the same label that brought us Ancestors and that Hallow record, which makes perfect sense, just more fucked up freaked out heaviness that we can't seem to get enough of.
SUPER LIMITED of course, we may have the last 20 or so copies, so grab one while you can...

TAYLOR, CECIL Air Above Mountains (Enja) cd 12.98

TAYLOR, CECIL Nefertiti, The Beautiful One Has Come (Revenant) 2cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A crucial, cult recording of pianist Taylor from Paris, 1962, now available on domestic cd thanks to John Fahey's new Revenant label.

TAYLOR, CECIL Nefertiti, The Beautiful One Has Come (Revenant) 2lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A crucial, cult recording of pianist Cecil Taylor from Paris, 1962, a jazz holy grail, and rightfully so. Arguably THE defining moment in Taylor's career. Featuring some unbeleivable drumming from Sunny Murray (who would also later drum just as inspirationally with Albert Ayler!)
Originally released in 1975, and reissued on cd a few years ago, now available on deluxe vinyl, in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve, courtesy of the seemingly infallable Revenant Records.

TAYLOR, CECIL UNIT Dark To Themselves (Enja) cd 15.98
1976 live session with heavyweight players (besides the great pianist Taylor himself) Raphe Malik, David S. Ware, Jimmy Lyons and Marc Edwards (that's trumpet, alto sax, tenor sax, and drums respectively).

TAYLOR, CECIL UNIT It Is In The Brewing Luminous (Hat Hut) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

TAYLOR, MIKE QUARTET Pendulum (Sunbeam) cd 16.98
Sunbeam brings us a lost classic of '60s modern British jazz, the 1965 debut as leader from ill-fated pianist Mike Taylor, who, at the tragic end of a drug-induded downward slide, died (drowned in the River Thames) just four years later in 1969 at age 30, after making only one other album. As a result, not too many folks have heard of him, although he was a major young talent on the scene while he was alive. Reissued on cd for probably the first time, remastered and with new liner notes as well as vintage photos in the cd booklet, Pendulum is a both an historically important release to pique the interest of jazz buffs with its promise and originality, and also a thoroughly enjoyable, melodic and moody listen for more casual jazz fans as well. Taylor eases us into his personal sound-world by stocking all the first side with well-known standards, including pieces by Gershwin and Gillespie, adding to 'em a level of avant-garde abstraction that mirrors the way his sometimes saturnine original compositions, which occupy the entirely of side two, possess a certain foot-tapping familiarity.
MPEG Stream: "Pendulum"
MPEG Stream: "A Night In Tunisia"

TAYLOR, STEVE s/t (self-released) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Five sunkissed, laidback pop songs make up this debut from this Bay Area singer/songwriter Mr. Steve Taylor. Very much along the lines of The Shins, Elliott Smith and Matthew Sweet... or the soft side of Sloan and The Posies... or perhaps actually reaching further back in the school of pop timeline there's a good deal of Big Star and '70s soft rock in there too.
MPEG Stream: "Trials"
MPEG Stream: "If The Summer Should Change To Winter"

TAYLOR, TERRY EARL Another Time (Dark Holler) cd 14.98

TBA (AKA NATALIE BERIDZE) Size & Tears (Max Ernst) 2cd 18.98
"Too wrong and too dreamy." So says the press release for this 2cd set of electronic curiosities from Natalie Beridze; and it's a strangely apt description of these sounds, of course, meant in the best possible way. Beridze hails from the former Soviet republic of Georgia; and some time ago, she caught the attention of Thomas Brinkmann, who has since helped produce her albums and released them on his Max Ernst imprint. There's a strange intimacy to her collages of whispered spoken word and MIDI-sequenced piano solos that stream around the concrete slabs of post-techno breakbeats and electroid glitches. Given the leftfield abstractions of her work, references to Autechre and Aphex Twin have been popping up in the media; but her work (like that of Ukraine's Zavoloka) speak with a whimsical playfulness through electronics and semantics that is almost completely detached from a dancefloor context. A difficult set of recordings to take in, given its atypical agenda; but this is well worth spending some time with.
MPEG Stream: "March In Ocean And Falling Asleep"
MPEG Stream: "Itaka Farewell March"

TBC Gute Luft (Drone Records) 7" 6.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Drone Records, the 7" only label run by Stefan Knappe of Troum / Maeror Tri, offers another fine excursion into the underground of German drone music; this time with a single from TBC, the acronym used by Hamburg's Thomas Beck. Using field recordings and voice as source material, Beck's repetitive chunks of sound revolve into elliptical patterns of murky ambience not far from Cranioclast or possibly a more lo-fi re-creation of Biosphere's synthetic sound. Limited to 250 copies, and pressed on pink vinyl.

TCHICAI, JOHN - IRENE SCHWEIZER - GROUP Willi the Pig (Atavistic / Unheard Music Series) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another great free jazz find in John Corbett and Atavistic's "Unheard Music Series", this disc is the reissue of long out of print 1976 LP documenting a live performance by saxophonist Tchicai and pianist Schweizer (with a drummer and bassist) at a Swiss jazz fest in '75. Two long, burning tracks of Euro-jazz improv from folks who know what they're doing. This was number one on the list of her out of print works that Schweizer wanted to see reissued, by the way. Handsome hot pink pig cover too!

TEAGUE, RYAN Coins & Crosses (Type) cd 15.98
Ahhh, so delicate, slinky, and ephemeral. UK solo artist Ryan Teague implements no solid objects nor hard lines on Coins & Crosses. If we were able to get our ears right up close, this is what we imagine the hazy clouds taking their sweet time making their way across the evening sky would sound like. There's a very slow motion film soundtrack feel. Later in the album electronic glitch and long gauzy tones materialize and draw musings of: what if Boards Of Canada were to perform segments of the Andromeda Strain soundtrack? At once, it's a haunting and blissful affair.
MPEG Stream: "Nephesch"
MPEG Stream: "Rounds"

TEAGUE, RYAN Six Preludes (Type Recordings) cd 14.98