USPUTUSPUD Liturgical Alcoholik (White Lodge Tapes) cassette 4.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Available again! The debut cassette release from our very own Matt's (of Wildildlife) Usputuspud project. New improved version with slightly altered artwork and hand painted cassettes! Here's what we had to say about it the first time around:
Our very own mailorder underlord Matt just got back from a month long US tour with his band Wildildlife, hope you got to catch them live. We grabbed a bunch of this tape that Matt was selling on tour, a recording of his solo project, the bizarrely titled Usputuspud. When he's not shirtless and flailing wildly on stage with a bloodied and battered guitar, he's apparently holed up in a dark corner of some basement with some tapes, a 4 track, a different guitar and a harmonica (!). That's right, harmonica. But fear not, these aren't a bunch of back porch blues jams, this is some seriously dark and droney ambience. Deep resonant swells, drift and shimmer, melodies are pulled apart, the constituent notes allowed to float freely along the mysterious black tide, dramatic, melodic and strangely cinematic, you can almost imagine some vocalist like Nick Cave, crooning over the top, some hellish end of the world balladeering. Mysterious and mystical, a muted mumbly soundscape of rumble and shimmer, a gauzy low end smear, through which all sorts of subtle sonic colorings are visible, everything druggy and subtly psychedelic, an ominous creeping crawl into some dark pit of sound, glowing red, lit from below by some mysterious fire below. Essential for fans of all things slow and low, but wouldn't be entirely out of place in your tape case, next to your Yellow Swans, Skaters and Quetzolcoatl cassettes...

USPUTUSPUD Live In The Shit (The Nafs) cassette 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Don't even try pronouncing this band's name. Just sit back, relax and let the murky tones send you into a cosmic nightmare, where fried-out Afro-beats meet mind melting droney destruction. Sound too awesome to be true? We thought so too. Solo project of Matthew Rogers, member of the heavy hitting Wildildlife (and former aQ employee!!), Live In The Shit is the latest live recording from Upsputspud, and it's a warm engulfing wave of fucked up bliss. Side A begins with a slow building wall of harsh, New Agey drones, kinda reminding us of taking a Cocteau Twins intro and sending it through all kinds of analog fuzziness and delay. A subtle rhythm creeps up from from the hazy horizon, a hypnotic pulse turning and melting into pools of cosmic dust. Usputuspud emits a sound solely its own, lo-fi astral loops soaked in layers of dirt and fuzz, like a more damaged and lo-fi Zomes (if you can even imagine). Side B starts things running, layers of epic harmonica growing louder and louder until some low end crumble begins to eat away at the tape itself. Drugged out psychedelic filth, soaked in radiation and neon face paint, left out in the desert to dry. Imagine a more mysterious and epic sounding Monopoly Star Child Searchers, then thrown in a dash of rhythmic weirdness, and you have Live In The Shit. Limited to 80 tapes in a cryptic xeroxed insert, these will go fast, so don't be left in the dust on this one!

USSACHEVSKY, VLADIMIR Electronic And Acoustic Works (New World Records) cd 16.98

USSACHEVSKY, VLADIMIR Music of... (CRI) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For a man who could have been the Prince of Mongolia (read the liner notes for the whole story...), Ussachevsky has made it into the history books not for political but for musical reasons, as he was the founder of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and the originator of the school of "tape music", the American experimenation developed independently of the French "musique concrete" and the German "elecktroniche musik".
This collection features six compositions for electronic tape (including the awesome "Wireless Fantasy" in which bursts of electrical noise and morse code tappings are collaged over a fragment of Wagner's "Parsifal", which in turn was treated to sound like a short-wave radio transmission) and six pieces of choral work (which are often accompanied the electronic medium).

USTINOV, PETER The Grand Prix Of Gibraltar! (Riverside) cd 15.98

USURP SYNAPSE Disinformation (Alone) cd 14.98

USURPER Necronemesis (Necropolis) cd 14.98
The "brimstone fist" of Chicago metal warlords Usurper strikes again. Necro this, necro that. Deathly grunts and ironclad guitars old skool style, as these dudes are well-known worshippers of Celtic Frost and other '80s underground thrashers. Leather, spikes and chains. This release even has black metal god King Diamond singing backup on one track (which, apparently, he did in return for Usurper rescheduling the recording of this album so that King Diamond could use the same studio to finish his recent disc).

USURPER Skeletal Season (Necropolis) cd 12.98
From Chicago, black/death/thrash metal in the vein of Celtic Frost, including the vocalist's love of Tom G. Warrior's death grunt. "Unghah, hey hey".

USURPER Twilight Dominion (Earache) cd 15.98

USVA / DRACO Re-Desecrating The South Carelian Graves (Bestial Burst) cd 13.98

USX (AKA U.S. CHRISTMAS) Valley Path (Neurot) cd 14.98
Yay, it's Christmastime again. Well, US Xmas time that is. We don't know why they picked that odd name (abbreviated here to USX, dunno if that's an official change or what), but it doesn't matter now anyhow, since we've become firm fans of this band of Southern, psychedelic space rock, Hawkwind-worshipping, country-flecked heavies. Fans like us will be happy that they've got a new album out, and it's good, real good. However, The Valley Path may or may not be the best one for the uninitiated to start with, as it consists of but one long (38:53) song! A real doozy, obviously. Listening to this, we realize USX remind us of True Widow, if they stretched out and drew more on the majestic post-rock dynamics of the Neur-Isis contingent (USX are on Neurot after all), big and bombastic yet seriously moody and atmospheric at the same time. This album/song is replete with weary vocals, epic wailing psych guitar eruptions, wide open drone-twang, sweeping strings, martial drums, ambient field recordings, and sizzling synth FX... Yeah, we think you'll like it, if you dig anything/everything from latter-days Earth and Barn Owl to Godspeed You Black Emperor! to Six Organs Of Admittance to Grails to more recent Zoroaster. Merry USX everybody!
MPEG Stream: "The Valley Path excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "The Valley Path excerpt 2"
MPEG Stream: "The Valley Path excerpt 3"

UT Griller (Mute) cd 14.98
Ut's final recording Griller from 1989 fully demonstrates the radical shift that the band made after they emerged from the NYC No Wave scene in the late '70s. With a much more conventional approach to songwriting, the straight forward tracks and vocals have much more in common with the Riot Grrl movement that was still a couple years away. Even the jagged melodies matched with unnerving vocal trills from Ut's three rotating vocalists (Nina Canal, Jacqui Ham, and Sally Young) were the obvious precursors to what Sleater Kinney would be producing shortly thereafter. Griller is also punctuated by a handful of far more obtuse songs which reflect the earlier, grittier sound with choppy twin guitars, rolling bass, and drum plod paralleling those of Live Skull or early Sonic Youth. Originally released back in the day on Blast First, now reissued through Mute.
MPEG Stream: "How It Goes"
MPEG Stream: "Canker"

UT In Gut's House (Mute) cd 14.98
While the all-women trio Ut had their beginnings in New York back in 1978 coming out of the No Wave scene that spawned Mars, DNA, Sonic Youth, Swans, and many others, New York did not treat the ladies all that well. Their debut release was to come out on the influential Lust/Unlust label; however, the label folded before the record hit the streets. Shortly thereafter, Ut's Nina Canal, Jacqui Ham, and Sally Young packed up and moved to London, where the trio flourished and received considerable acclaim. In Gut's House was originally released as a double LP back in 1988 through Blast First, balancing their acerbic No Wave edge with a skewed pop-sensibility that would have found them in the company of the Slits or Liliput had they entertained more of a propulsive, groove sound. Instead, the rhythmic backbeat of Ut's sound is more of a morose plod acting as counterweight to the agitated, spiky guitars. When shifted further from a pop structuralism, Ut's narcoleptic nervousness was a gripping doppleganger for some of the great tracks produced by Mars back in the late '70s; but when their sound slipped in the other direction toward a more conventional songwriting approach, Ut's tunes foreshadowed the energy of Sleater Kinney. In Gut's House has long been heralded as a remarkable album and certainly enjoys some noble company due to their No Wave credentials, but is also an album that sparked many others who improved upon their template. Look no further than Erase Errata for the case in point.
MPEG Stream: "Swallow"
MPEG Stream: "Big Wing"

UTARM Minus The Divine (Turgid Animal) cd 11.98
No review for this... but here's what we said about Utarm's half of their split with fellow experimental metallers Sadness Saturn:
Utarm are up first, and the sound is more doom than black, the programmed drums a monstrous pound, the music a soaring epic swell of synths, not guitars, or maybe they're super processed guitars, either way, the sound is really unique, reminds us a bit of Gnaw Their Tongues, a sort of cinematic depressive blackness, less about blasting buzz, than dramatic lurching mystery, plenty of strangled tortured heaviness, abstract ambience, everything rife with glitch and skree, the vocals a tortured wail, all wreathed in a blackened haze, raw and in the red and super intense and harrowing.

UTARM / SADNESS SATURN split (Chrysalis Of Matter) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ultra limited split between these two experimental black metal entities. Sadness Saturn is one of the guys behind aQ faves Servile Sect, whose most recent release just got re-issued on vinyl via Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label, and Utarm is a one man band from Norway; the two square off on this split cassette tape.
Utarm are up first, and the sound is more doom than black, the programmed drums a monstrous pound, the music a soaring epic swell of synths, not guitars, or maybe they're super processed guitars, either way, the sound is really unique, reminds us a bit of Gnaw Their Tongues, a sort of cinematic depressive blackness, less about blasting buzz, than dramatic lurching mystery, plenty of strangled tortured heaviness, abstract ambience, everything rife with glitch and skree, the vocals a tortured wail, all wreathed in a blackened haze, raw and in the red and super intense and harrowing.
Sadness Saturn traffic in something much more raw and grim, unlike the glistening alien drone drenched blackness of Servile Sect, the sound here is a pounding black murk, the vocals and guitars nearly indistinguishable, all wound around each other like a single cloud of muted black buzz, the drums relentless and machinelike, but buried within SS's cavernous lo-fi crush, are haunting melodies, soaring and epic, the riffs, after repeated listens seem to crystallize, become much more intense and emotional, transforming simple black metal into something strangely melodic and abstract, but still plenty black and grim.
Incredible packaging, printed black and white fold out covers with the band logos printed in extra glossy black ink, the tape case housed in a hand assembled slipcover, hand screened with a super striking, and super evil sigil.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. We have about 15, probably the last ones we'll ever get...

UTERUS Goatgod (Funeral Moonlight Productions) cd 10.98

UTLAGR 1066 - Blood And Iron In Hastings (Sepulchral Productions) cd 13.98
We were pretty obsessed with the debut from this Canadian Viking black metal horde, released way back when on bad ass UK label Paradigms, so we of course planned on reviewing their second record as well, this one right here, but for whatever reason, it just sort of slipped through the cracks, and thus it was only quite recently that we realized A) we had somehow never reviewed it, and B) we had a handful in stock. Better late than never we suppose, and if we had more copies you can bet this would be a big ol' blackened highlight, but as it is, it's more of a warehouse find, and what a find it is! Like their debut, Utlagr spit out a furious (but still melodic) blast of epic, majestic, Scandinavian style blackness, a little bit Viking for sure, but more in the imagery and themes, sonically, they continue to channel Immortal, Satyricon, Mayhem and most especially Enslaved. Frantic riffing, sweeping melodies, furious drumming, the sound slipping from frosty buzz to waltzy melancholia, grinding grim crunch to mathy DSO style gnarled blackness, woozy depressive drift to almost classic sounding metal majesty. Fucking awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Soleil Invaincu"
MPEG Stream: "Terre De L'Ouest"

UTLAGR Traditions Normandes (Paradigms) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another blast of frosty grim blackness from the always reliable Paradigms label. In the past, they've brought us the drone dirge of Hjarnidaudi (an AQ Record Of The Week), the chamber gloom of Amber Asylum, the cult black metal of Throne Of Katarsis, the druggy prog of Blueprint Human Being, and now two new releases, a slow motion dirge metal epic from The Angelic Process (reviewed elsewhere on this list) and this, the debut (as far as we can tell) from Canadian black metal warriors Utlagr. This is epic, classic, Scandanavian style black metal, very much in the spirit of Immortal, Satyricon and Mayhem, and while Utlagr may not be Scandanavian, their roots most certainly are, as evidenced by this blackened tribute to their Pagan heritage, in honor of Rolfr Utlagr, founder of Normandy, their ancestral homeland. They may in fact be from Canada in the year 2006, but eyes closed they could be from Norway circa 1995! Whirling winter winds blow an ill wind from the North, while melancholy acoustic guitars, offer up lilting melancholia, before being obliterated by a burst of blasting Pagan brutality. Six tracks of buzzing majesty, blasting beats, gloriously epic melodies, all wrapped up in a thunderous swirl of dense and grim, furiously foresty classic cult black metal might!
Limited to 750 copies, packaged in a mini lp style sleeve wrapped in a hand stamped brown paper outer sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Our Last Days"
MPEG Stream: "Utlagr"

UTON Alitaja Ylimina (Dekorder) lp 22.00
For every band that manages a record every few months, there are bands who we like just as much, but who we don't hear from nearly enough. Such is the case with Finnish combo Uton. In the space of time it takes for us to get a new record from these guys, a band like Circle spit out 2 or 3 (even more if you count side projects). But with Uton it's well worth the wait.
Alitaju is another epic expanse of mysterious murk and long form ambience. A dizzying mix of Finnish free folk, and haunting dark ambience. Uton's sound is always both massive and cavernous, as well as intimate and highly detailed. This record is no different. Uton drags us along on a strange and wondrous journey through long muddy swirls of muted melody and wide open stretches of indistinct blur and shadow, almost festive percussion jams draped over wheezing accordions and distorted feedback, all wrapped in foggy swirls of fuzz, chaotic free jazz freakouts with mad drumming, and wildly fluttering flutes, and all stops in between.
The long tracks here tend to be slow moving glacial crawls, with all the instruments smeared into one blurry whole, a drifting stretch of warm muted soft sound, that just sort of envelops you with it's haunting mystery and dense creeping beauty, those tracks separated by the more rhythmic passages, almost like a rise in the road,where the fog clears and you can see for miles into the distance, before you dip back down under cover of the grey clouds and billowing fog. As always, gorgeous and mysterious.

UTON Background For Silence (Ruralfaune) cd-r 10.98
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.
Latest missive from these Finnish forest freaks, who continue to churn out, utterly mesmerizing otherworldly murk, every record as weird and wonderful as the last.
Background For Silence is two tracks, nearly fifty minutes, of Uton at their most subtle and understated, a muddy ambient swirl of sound, simple strummed guitars smeared into streaks of grey and brown, draped over a strange mechanical whirring, the sounds eventually blending into a warm droning shimmer, while over the top drift little crackles of feedback, crumbling clatter, various creaks and thumps, and barely audible voices. None of those extraneous sounds detract from the static mesmer though, with the drone eventually taking on more of an electronic vibe, with the guitar and whir being joined by layers of static and glitchy hiss, all blurred into a single slow shifting expanse of dark ambience.
The second track is even more minimal, with the same sound somehow muted into a mumbled low end drift, while a minimal melody is played out over the top by an oscillating tone that buzzes in and out like a tiny swarm of electronic insects. Before too long however, the track becomes more lively, as the sound expands to include bits of clatter, chimes and percussion, low end guitar thrum, wheezing keyboard, skronking horns, fluttering flutes, bits of FX and processed voices, the sound becoming distinctly more 'free folk' than strictly dreamy and droney.
Packaged in a full color sleeve, with printed inner insert, and sealed with a piece of twine.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!! We got a handful and they will probably go fast...
MPEG Stream: "One"

UTON Ground's Dream Cosmic Love (Students Of Decay) 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.
These last few weeks we've been trying to get a bunch of kick ass cd's and cd-r's reviewed for no other reason than they have been sitting here way too long, when they should be spinning in someone's stereo or jammed into someone's iPod.
It's been a while, almost a year actually, since we last reviewed something by Finnish freedrone combo Uton, not counting these two discs that have been sitting here forever! Not because they're not great, they are actually, just because we dropped the ball. Anyway, these were both super limited, so odds are once we sell out of the small clutch we have of each, we won't be able to get more, so if these tickle your fancy, and hard to imagine they wouldn't, you better be quick.
Ground's Dream Cosmic Love, released on Students of Decay way back in 2006, is most definitely out of print, limited to only 100 copies or so, which means these are definitely the last ever. A single 45 minute long track, about as murky and muddy and mysterious as these guys get, glistening melodies hover wraithlike, beneath a constant warm low end rumble, washed out and whirring endlessly, it's like the sound of surf, the rumble of rain on rooftops, the vibrations of a passing train, thunder, the vibrations of a busy overpass, all melted down into a swirling black morass, a black pool of sound that seems to ripple subtle with various effects and buried sonic events. A seriously dense sprawl, like being buried alive in a concrete bunker and listening to the world above ground, or floating weightless on the ocean's floor, listening to huge tankers rumble by, a dense and gorgeous slab of ultra minimal dronemusic, rife with subtleties that most definitely reward close listening.
Again, this one is WAY out of print, so go for it, but steel yourself for some disappointment.
MPEG Stream: "Ground's Dream Cosmic Love"

UTON Highway Nation (Barl Fire) cd-r 11.98
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.
Quite possibly the most haunting and lovely record yet from these mysterious Finnish free drone explorers. While on other records, Uton have dabbled in more cacophonous noise rock and clattery free folk, Highway Nation is purely a dreamy drone record, deep, dark and utterly sublime. Each track a mysterious sonic drift through a slow shifting soundscape of barely shifting shimmer, Like sitting on a mist enshrouded mountain top, watching a huge freighter drift by, way out at sea, the churning sound of the water, and the thrum of the freighter's engines reduced to a murky murmur. Elsewhere, bits of bowed metal spread out into glistening sheets of upper register whir, dense with subtle overtones and buried melodies. So serene and delicate, abstract and ethereal. The sort of perfect ambient dronemusic that should most definitely appeal to fans of Coleclough, Chalk, Wright (Peter AND Nigel), Mirror, Seht, and similar minded sound sculptors...
SUPER LIMITED. Already out of print at the label. We have 20 copies, once those are gone, they are gone forever...
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

UTON Live In The Center Of The World (Jyvaskyla) (Black Horizons) cassette 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Attention FINNISH music FREEKS!!! Maybe most Finnish bands are crazy prolific, but one of our favorites keeps a much lower profile, the mighty Uton. It's been a little while since we heard from these guys, but as always, well worth the wait. Expansive and abstract, Uton create baffling alien universes of sound, minimal, but somehow dense and alive. Here's it's distant skree and mysterious scrapes, hissy clouds of static, reverb drenched melodies sent careening into the black void, rhythmic crunch and deep cavernous swells, subtle rumblings and washed out ambience. Gorgeous and haunting, creepy and amazing, of all the Finnish groups, we're still a little surprised that more folks aren't freaking out more about these guys.Ê
As if that weren't enough, the flipside is just the A side in reverse, a glorious gorgeous dizzying warbly backwards world of sound, and you know how much we love backwards sound!! Way recommended.Ê
Gorgeously packaged, gold metallic ink on platinum vellum paper. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES.Ê

UTON Mystery Revolution (Digitalis) cd 12.98
Part of the problem with having so many things to review and not nearly enough time, is that every once in a while certain things will slip through the cracks over and over again, until suddenly it's been a month, 6 months, even a year. With cd-r's it's an even bigger problem since they are often so limited that we might only have one chance to get all the copies we need, but even having procured those copies, that record might not get reviewed for ages.
These last few weeks we've been trying to get a bunch of kick ass cd's and cd-r's reviewed for no other reason than they have been sitting here way too long, when they should be spinning in someone's stereo or jammed into someone's iPod.
It's been a while, almost a year actually, since we last reviewed something by Finnish freedrone combo Uton, not counting these two discs that have been sitting here forever! Not because they're not great, they are actually, just because we dropped the ball. Anyway, these were both super limited, so odds are once we sell out of the small clutch we have of each, we won't be able to get more, so if these tickle your fancy, and hard to imagine they wouldn't, you better be quick.
Mystery Revolution is in fact a real cd, released on Digitalis last year, and comes in a gorgeous embossed black and metallic gold sleeve, very austere and mysterious, much like the sounds inside. Uton more often than not remind us of a slightly more twisted, definitely more druggy, and way less minimal Jewelled Antler. They weave dark brooding soundscapes, peppered with hum and whir, crackle and hum, the melodies are off kilter and atonal, piano drifts in and out, sounds are scraped and stretched, everything seems to be nestled in warm drifts and shimmery drones, woodwinds flit and flutter, field recordings (or faux field recordings) drift in and out, organs and harmoniums wheeze out warbly textures, childlike melodies are draped over strange rumbles and jagged shards of crunch and clatter, the sounds of music boxes tangle with whistling winds and warm swells, it's a fantastic and wondrous sonic journey as always.
And again, be warned, there is a good chance this is out of print, so if you want one, grab it fast!
MPEG Stream: "Aikavirta"
MPEG Stream: "Naurumme Hetken (Seuraava Otto)"
MPEG Stream: "Taivaan Sini Sokea (Soikea)"

UTON Pseudohumanoid (Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the wilds of Finland, via the wilds of New Zealand, comes this burbling cauldron of pagan-free-folk-noise from the mysterious outfit known as Uton. Jewelled Antler released a three inch cd a while back, but this full length really allows Uton to do what they do best, spread waaaaay out, and unfurl a thick spiky carpet of jangle and shimmer, amplifier grit and instrument buzz, clumsy primitive percussion, and creepy ambience. Finnophiles are probably already hip to these guys, but for all of you into No Neck, Thuja, Sunburned Hand and all things drone-y and Krautrocky, check this out!
MPEG Stream: "Pseudohuman I"
MPEG Stream: "Pseudohuman II"

UTON Sacred Kiss / Ghost Oracle (Ikuisuus) cd 15.98
Another mysterious transmission from the heart of the Finnish forest. Dark and drone-y, haunting and lovely. A sonic treat for fans of Avarus, Anaksimandros, Kemialliset Ystavat and other practitioners of the folky arts of the forest.

UTON Straight Edge XXS (Dekorder) lp 16.98
Of all the freaky Finnish forest folk we hold so near and dear, Uton continue to be the most mysterious, musically for sure, but also, just in general, with far fewer releases than many of their countrymen, most of those releases containing little or no information, featuring bizarre abstract artwork, strange song titles, or no song titles at all, and a gorgeously twisted outsider music to match.
On this latest, bizarrely titled, lp only release, the first strange thing we noticed was the grooves on the record when we slid it from the sleeve, both sides had a whole bunch of super short tracks, almost like how a record of locked grooves appears, and indeed, Straight Edge XXS is a series of about 30 short tracks, but listening straight through it doesn't necessarily sound that way.
Fans of Uton need not fear, and Finnish music freeks will still feel right at home in Uton's warped and warbly avant folk free noise sound world. Little bits of abstract percussion, scrapes and rattles and bits of crunch and buzz, fluttery flute, strange warped loops, hand drums and chimes, chanted vocals, mysterious invocations, the sound slipping from muddy and murky to glimmering and sun dappled, extended stretches of woozy almost krautrock, fragmented bits of psych folk, haunting ritualistic invocations, layers of buzz and hiss, freaky falsetto crooning, fractured arrangements, all of these super short sonic mini landscapes, deftly woven into a super freaky, surprisingly cohesive, yet still distinctly and deliriously damaged whole.
Amazing, super intricate collage cover, and of course LIMITED TO ONLY 500 COPIES!!!!

UTON Suoniin, Luihin, Ytimin (Ikuisuus) cd 15.98
Live 2005 set from these mysterious Fiinish forest dwellers, a murky cacophony of drifting drones and stumbling primal primitivism. Creepy and lovely.

UTON Violin Massage Vol.2 (Oms-B Records) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Okay Finnish forest freeks, we only got a few of these, and it's CRAZY limited anyway, only 55 copies made, so we'll make this brief, even though it's pretty dang rad.
We're used to all kindsa craziness from Uton, from dark drones to wild fractured folk, from dirgey noise rock to pretty shimmery ambience, but the title should be your first clue that this is none of those.
This is indeed some serious violin massage, in fact you might as well change violin to vioLENT as this is some serious wild and wooly scrape and skree. According to the label, "Nothing is used besides a violin, de-tuned, abused", which is pretty much what this sounds like, but whereas that makes it sound almost unlistenable, the truth is that the sound here is pretty hypnotic, weirdly atonal and brittle, indeed a bit harsh, but not really that far removed from the classic minimal violin freakouts of Henry Flynt, albeit a tad more fractured and primitive. But heck if you like those Flynt discs, with their relentlessly sawed violin and screech detuned and deconstructed avant bluegrass, then you might be just the candidate for an Uton Violin Massage!
Nice printed sleeves, every one hand drawn and painted, every one different and each one hand numbered, LIMITED TO 55 COPIES!!!!

UTON We're Only In It For The Spirit (Digitalis) cd 12.98

UTON Whispers From The Woods (Last Visible Dog) 3cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Once again, the very patient prevail. Or at least the folks who weren't lucky enough to catch any of these super limited cd-r's first time around. A massive triple disc collection that gathers about three hours of early releases from Finland's Uton. Sonically similar to their Finnish free folk brethren (Avarus, Anaksimandros, Kemialliset Ystavat, etc.), Uton specialize in wild and wooly, primitive free forest jams. Clattery rhythms, music box melodies, spaced out guitar echo, minimal vocalization, skronking horns and plenty of droning and rattling and scraping and thumping. Like a krautrock band that was left in the forest by it's parents and raised by wild woodland creatures. Epic and expansive sonic explorations, as spaced out as they are earthbound, soaring otherworldly freakouts collide with centuries old primal sound, to create a totally organic, totally alien wonderful world of sonic experimentation, sometimes percussive and propulsive, sometimes shimmery and dreamlike, sometimes crashing and pounding, sometimes gentle and mysterious but always completely mesmerizing and amazing! Quite possibly one of our Finnish faves! And that's saying a lot!
This collection contains all of Taman Ganan Jalkeen (released on Haamumaa in 2002), all of Mika Kasvaa Maan Gisalla (released on Hammasratas in 2003), all of Ay Um Au Lam (released on Jewelled Antler also in 2003), five rare comp tracks and six previously unreleased tracks!
A little side note: We have the same complaint with the Uton packaging as we had with the MCMS compilation (also on Last Visible Dog), a clear, three pocket plastic sleeve that holds the booklet (no tray card) and the three discs. Seems inevitable that the discs will get scratched, and they seem to stick to the plastic too, so if you, like us, want this music to last, it might be wise to transfer them to a proper jewel case, or at least put them in protective sleeves. Also, while this lists the original releases it doesn't provide any individual track listings!
MPEG Stream: "Disc One, Track One"
MPEG Stream: "Disc One, Track Two"
MPEG Stream: "Disc One, Track Three"

UTON xxx (Gold Soundz) cd-r 9.98
Another gorgeous blast of clattery, murky, foresty free folk wonder from these Finnish weirdos. The latest cd-r in an insanely massive discography. We only got 5 copies, so cross your fingers when you click on that buy button...

UTON Zwuiji (Jewelled Antler) 3" cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Jewelled Antler collective offers another record outside their immediate ranks of Thuja and company. Although they've had a couple of CD-R releases popping up from tiny labels around the globe, this is our introduction to Uton. This anonymous, acoustic-noise-drone band hails from Finland, although they seem far more at home within the New Zealand community of Birchville Cat Motel, Anthony Milton, and Handful of Dust. "Zwuiji" is the 7th in the continuously impressive "Library Series" of 3" CD-Rs from Jewelled Antler, but is a bit more grating than most from the collective which typically opiates themselves with hazy improvised psychedelia and obtuse folk renderings. Rather Uton revels in mistreating their electric gear in order to fill up the audio specturm with buzzing drones that swarm out of their amplifiers like angry wasps. Scratchy violins and atonally shifting wind instruments hover behind these gritty walls of vibrating feedback which comes across more as a misaligned engine block rattling all of those tones inside your head than as a typical trick with a couple of effects boxes. Certainly the fans of cd-r labels Celebrate Psi Phenomenon or PseudoArcana will want to pick this one up.
MPEG Stream: "Zwuiji 02"
MPEG Stream: "Zwuiji 03"

UTON & VALERIO COSI Kaarmeenkaantopiiri (Fire Museum) cd 13.98

UTSIOTSO Puulpaiv (Haki Helu) cd 17.98
Estonian folk music isn't something that comes around these parts all that often (to be honest, it's never shown up until now); so we're not going to claim to have any pre-existing knowledge of the genre. But we'll don our ethnomusicological hats for this beautifully rich document of ancient Estonian folk songs!
Utsiotso is an Estonian men's choir reviving very old songs and archaic dialects from the Estonian people, whose cultural and geographical wanderings had planted villages as far as Novosibirisk in central Siberia over the millennia. There were a number of tribes and communities which took part in this diaspora, including the Seto and the Voru peoples. The former was the more widely spread, responsible for those Siberian settlements many centuries ago; and the latter populated what became southern Estonia and northern Latvia. As you could imagine, their dialects and their cultural traditions vary with the distance from the Estonian cultures localized farther north and west near the Baltic Sea. It's these particular, nearly forgotten cultures that are the objects of research for Utsiotso.
Musically, these folk songs are a capella short numbers, hinged upon the recurring polyphonic chants from the four voices offset in rhythmic phrases by a single voice, who presumably carrying the narrative of the song against the allegorical reprise of the chanting. It's not hard to hear Appalachian call and response, or the cyclical rhythms of Persian song poems, or the melancholy harmonics of Germanic plainsongs in these ancient hymns. The liner-notes are mostly in Estonian, with some brief English translations explaining that the songs wax about love, war, alcohol, and the bitter cold; but throughout these languid harmonies and vocal repetitions, Utiotso emphasizes a profound and beautiful sadness in their songs. They fix this emotional sentiment to the land from which they come by recording these songs in various locations in the Estonian countryside, including the windswept forest, the lapping waves of Lake Peipsi, and a couple of resonant churches. The recording was provided by Patrick McGingley, better known as the sound ecologist / drone strategist Murmer. His role is suitably small, lending all of the weight to the drama of these four men, their voices, and these ancient songs.
MPEG Stream: " Touse, paev"
MPEG Stream: "Kulmah kuunuh"
MPEG Stream: "Puhas puulpaiv"

UTSURO BUNE The Drone Remains The Same (Heavy Lifting) cd-r 4.98
We sure love us some ambient experimental drone metal, thick slow moving rivers of molten riffage, near static black downtuned drift, doom to the Nth degree, glacial, a massive crumbling low end creep, it's one of those sounds that we can never seem to get enough of, a sound that manages to be fierce and brutal, but also soothing and hypnotic.
We're always on the lookout for more of that sort of stuff, and then one day a mysterious disc just showed up in the mail, a stark sleeve with just a skull, the band name, Utsuro Bune, and the album title, the maybe somewhat unfortunately punny The Drone Remains The Same. But that's definitely the only unfortunate thing about this dense black hole of a disc. A single guitar recorded live to two track tape, no overdubs, the sound is massive, and not at all static, the first track is a weird swirling black psychedelia, sort of Keiji Haino doing SUNNO))), the guitar buzzing and grinding and emitting massive gouts of blurred blackness, of pulsing crumbling heaviness, pulsing and throbbing, occasionally stuttering, before slipping back into a reverberating black cloud. The sort of obtuse abstract heaviness we could have dug for the length of the whole cd. But there's more, and it's all equally good. The second track is more serene and tranquil, harder to figure out how a single guitar with no overdubs worked here, a looped bit of swirling low end, fragmented melody, and a buzzing bit of looped percussion. Another track that is way too short. The disc continues on, first with a thick cloud of lush harmonious guitars, a rich chordal whir that seems to swing from speaker to speaker, a melodic counterpoint slowly building behind the raga like ur drone, gorgeous and epic and totally hypnotic, then, another bit of claustrophobic subterranean drift, deep billows of downtuned shimmer, of creeping metallic thrum and whirling muted melody, and finally, a lush washed out bit of processed shoegazey loopage, that sounds a bit like blackened pop ambience, whirling and softly warped and divinely dreamy.
Super sweet stuff, Even sweeter that it showed up mysteriously just as we were hankering for more low end dronemusic and minimal metal drift.
SUPER LIMITED cd-r, comes in a cool reversible vellum sleeve...
MPEG Stream: "Massive Atmospheres"
MPEG Stream: "Raking The Cosmic Leaves"

UTTER BASTARD Slaves To The Grind (self-released) cd-r 7.98

UUSITALO Tulenkantaja (Huume) cd 16.98

UUSITALO Vappa Muurari Live (Force Inc.) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Uusitalo is the latest pseudonym for Vladislav Delay, though I wonder if Uusitalo is perhaps his real name, as I doubt he was born Delay. Regardless, Uusitalo concentrates on the house / non-textural side of the Vladislav Delay aesthetic. Delay (as well as lots of recent Force Inc / Mille Plateaux artists) solely uses a silken organ synth patch (an unfiltered factory preset, it seems) to create the monochromatic loops of sound, with a soul-less but funky house groove. They call it "glitch-funk", if you care what they say.

UUTSKE BUUTSKE The The Interpretations (Mukow) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another crazy and mysterious release from Mr. Ergo Phizmiz, introduced to us by our pals at WFMU and quickly becoming a favorite here at AQ. Supposedly this release is by someone named Uutske Buutske, but I'd bet anything that's just a pseudonym for Phizmiz himself. As the title proclaims, 5 of the 8 tracks here are indeed versions of songs by The The. Those tracks are less experimental than most of the Phizmiz stuff we've heard, and tend more towards the dreamy and pastoral, like a slowed down creepier Love And Rockets, or Magnetic Fields, with wispy female vocals, chimes and accordians, all dreamy and hypnotic. It's on the other tracks where things get a little bit weirder, with clattery clangy instrumental chaos a bit like those clattery percussive soundscapes on later period Tom Waits records. The sixth track is the real gem here though, a sweet and lovely perfect little pop song, with soaring strings and an angelic voice, both gracefully navigating a melancholy melody. So nice. Comes in a cool slipcover covered with negative photographic images of flowers.
MPEG Stream: "The Whisperers (Uutske Buutske Interpretation)"
MPEG Stream: "Homoarachtus (extract)"
MPEG Stream: "Feel Yr Dzeez"

UWAIFO, SIR VICTOR Guitar-Boy Superstar (Soundway) cd 17.98
The mighty Sound Way label (the fine folks who brought us the killer Nigeria Special compilations) is back with another fantastic reissue of classic West African popular music, this time documenting the mid-1970s output of the enigmatic and flamboyant Sir Victor Uwaifo, the guitar-boy superstar! You might recognize Uwaifo from his appearance on the Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump compilation where his track "Dododo (Ekassa 1)" was a real skirt blower. These days, when most of us have access to this kind of music only through curated compilations featuring dozens of performers, it's a rare treat to get a more well-rounded picture of a single artist; big ups to Sound Way for delivering the goods!
The majority of tracks on this collection are based around Uwaifo's unique hybrid of the traditional rhythm of the 'ekassa' coronation dance with highlife instrumentation. The result is something joyous, funky, and soulful that manages to maintain a laid-back, upbeat feel that is distinct from the frenetic rush of Afrobeat and the other scenes happening in mid-'70s Lagos. In fact, there's a sweet, classic pop element to Uwaifo's songwriting that has more in common with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens than it does with the American funk, soul and disco that inspired his contemporaries. Valens is actually a pretty good jumping off point for comparison, as the electrified version of the ekassa rhythm lends a Latin flourish to the music that recalls Valens' Chicano rock styles saturated with fuzz, wah and a distinctly Nigerian rhythmic sensibility.
Unsurprisingly, it's Uwaifo's guitar playing that stand out as the real centerpiece of the record as it skips from traditional highlife accompaniment to psych-tinged, fuzzed-out solos to primitive delay and wah-wah experimentalism, sometimes all within the same song! Uwaifo's jangling open-string solos, jarringly nimble riffing, and ability to switch effortlessly between rhythm and lead again recall Buddy Holly and also classic US surf rock (in fact, the track "Agho" goes so far as to quote parts of "Tequila" - weird, but fantastic!), but there's a lot more going on than that. Check out "Igboroho (Ekassa 24)" to hear Uwaifo pushing his guitar into fractured, no-wave territory; given that it still sounds completely freaked out now, it must've been thoroughly mind-expanding at the time.
As with all things from Sound Ways, this disc comes with lavish packaging; meticulously researched and compiled liner notes replete with archival photographs, album art; and song-by-song gloss by Uwaifo himself. It's a fantastic package highly recommended for anyone who's been enjoying the goldmine of reissues of African popular musics we've been seeing over the past year. So good!
MPEG Stream: "Igboroho (Ekassa 5)"
MPEG Stream: "Egbe Natete"
MPEG Stream: "Agho"

UWAIFO, SIR VICTOR Guitar-Boy Superstar (Soundway) 2lp 23.00
Now available on vinyl!!
The mighty Sound Way label (the fine folks who brought us the killer Nigeria Special compilations) is back with another fantastic reissue of classic West African popular music, this time documenting the mid-1970s output of the enigmatic and flamboyant Sir Victor Uwaifo, the guitar-boy superstar! You might recognize Uwaifo from his appearance on the Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump compilation where his track "Dododo (Ekassa 1)" was a real skirt blower. These days, when most of us have access to this kind of music only through curated compilations featuring dozens of performers, it's a rare treat to get a more well-rounded picture of a single artist; big ups to Sound Way for delivering the goods!
The majority of tracks on this collection are based around Uwaifo's unique hybrid of the traditional rhythm of the 'ekassa' coronation dance with highlife instrumentation. The result is something joyous, funky, and soulful that manages to maintain a laid-back, upbeat feel that is distinct from the frenetic rush of Afrobeat and the other scenes happening in mid-'70s Lagos. In fact, there's a sweet, classic pop element to Uwaifo's songwriting that has more in common with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens than it does with the American funk, soul and disco that inspired his contemporaries. Valens is actually a pretty good jumping off point for comparison, as the electrified version of the ekassa rhythm lends a Latin flourish to the music that recalls Valens' Chicano rock styles saturated with fuzz, wah and a distinctly Nigerian rhythmic sensibility.
Unsurprisingly, it's Uwaifo's guitar playing that stand out as the real centerpiece of the record as it skips from traditional highlife accompaniment to psych-tinged, fuzzed-out solos to primitive delay and wah-wah experimentalism, sometimes all within the same song! Uwaifo's jangling open-string solos, jarringly nimble riffing, and ability to switch effortlessly between rhythm and lead again recall Buddy Holly and also classic US surf rock (in fact, the track "Agho" goes so far as to quote parts of "Tequila" - weird, but fantastic!), but there's a lot more going on than that. Check out "Igboroho (Ekassa 24)" to hear Uwaifo pushing his guitar into fractured, no-wave territory; given that it still sounds completely freaked out now, it must've been thoroughly mind-expanding at the time.
As with all things from Sound Ways, this disc comes with lavish packaging; meticulously researched and compiled liner notes replete with archival photographs, album art; and song-by-song gloss by Uwaifo himself. It's a fantastic package highly recommended for anyone who's been enjoying the goldmine of reissues of African popular musics we've been seeing over the past year. So good!
MPEG Stream: "Igboroho (Ekassa 5)"
MPEG Stream: "Egbe Natete"
MPEG Stream: "Agho"

UZ JSME DOMA Caves (Cuneiform) cd 15.98
We highlighted this last time, but accidentally forgot to make the sound samples, here it is again with those links working!
How long has it been? Seven years? Well it's about time we had a new studio album from these old, old AQ faves. Hopefully they're old faves of yours too, but if not, we're very happy to introduce 'em to you, and this new album will do the job very very well! Hailing from the Czech Republic, this legendary band of radical arty rockers, whose name means "Now I Get It" and is pronounced ooje-May-Dome-uh, or Oozh Smeh Dough-Ma, depending on whom you ask, got their start back in the '80s Prague punk scene, and soon became the PROG punks to reckon with as well; we've described their musical approach as being a sort of "heavy and hyperkinetic ... horn-blasted punk/prog hoedown that mingles the folk melodies of Eastern Europe with the underground/avantgarde of the Rock In Opposition scene" and that's certainly still displayed with fervor on Caves, a spelunking themed album of majestic melodies and energetic pop in their trademark eccentric style.
The current UZD quartet, lead by vocalist Miroslav Wanek (and including as always non-musical member Martin Velisek, credited with "brushes, paints" for his distinctive art and design work) is augmented by several guests on accordion, trombone, violin, upright bass, acoustic guitar, and vocals. That's in addition to their usual guitar, piano, trumpet, drums, and bass. So it's no wonder that this ensemble can be such a powerful musical force, driven by their unique vision.
After a brief intro, "Cave", consisting of dripping water and spoken poetry (in Czech, as are all the songs, though English translations are provided in the cd booklet), the band launches into the album's first song proper, the brassy, bombastic "Droplet", which has a bit of a Hawaii Five-O gone Eastern European vibe. That's followed by the more somber "Abyss", and then 8 more varied, vibrant numbers, some tracks like punked-up Carl Stalling cartoon music, some getting almost metal in the guitar dep't., others slowing down for gorgeous, mournfully melodic parts... They also get into some quite complex, convoluted rockin' that kinda sounds like Japanese zeuhl heavyweights Hundred Sights Of Koenji with more horns! Fans of uber-insane prog should be pleased, as well as anyone who likes their pop music to sound both dramatic and deeply meaningful (even when you don't know the language). We'd further guess that fans of sundry such current indie acts as Deerhoof, Hidden Cameras, and USAisamonster (RIP) could be potential UZD converts, for various reasons, check 'em out.
MPEG Stream: "Droplet"
MPEG Stream: "Reel"
MPEG Stream: "Fascination"

UZ JSME DOMA Fairy Tales From Needland (Indies) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Czech Republic's most wonderous export, masters of making complex pop sound unforced and natural, drawing influences from punk, classical, jazz and anywhere else they see fit.

UZ JSME DOMA Hollywood (Skoda) cd 21.00
Back in stock, an Aquarius staff favorite - meaning we love this band and so should you! Pronounced ooje-May-Dome-uh.

UZ JSME DOMA In The Middle of Words (Indies) cd 21.00
Their first album. Finally re-issued with English translations. Beautiful booklet is cut in the shape of a soldier... Yes, they just played here in San Francisco, that's why we have all this stuff. We also got an AMAZING new Uz Jsme Doma pop-up book plus cd (yes, a pop-up book!) but we've already sold out of that - however, watch this space, 'cause we'll be importing more when we can.

UZ JSME DOMA Live at Archa / Pudding Documentary (Indies MG Records) 2dvd 12.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
WARNING: These are all-region PAL (not NTSC) dvds. That means they'll play just fine in your computer, but not on your TV set, unless you've got a PAL-capable dvd player.
Ah, Uz Jsme Doma! (Pronounced ooje-May-Dome-uh). Nobody else like them. Heavy and hyperkinetic "Wagnerian ska", a horn-blasted punk/prog hoedown that mingles the folk melodies of Eastern Europe with the underground/avantgarde of the Rock In Opposition scene. Yep, nobody else like 'em. We at AQ have been fans of this crazy Czech crew for years and years. And we can tell you, it's about time for a release like this! A double dvd featuring both a live concert and a "behind the music" style documentary, yes!! This is awesome for two basic reasons. Firstly, anyone who has ever seen 'em perform can tell you, as incredible as their records are, they're even more astounding live on stage. So a live dvd is of course essential to any fan, and should make new fans as well. Secondly, as big into Uz Jsme Doma as we are, we confess there's many nuances to the band, conceptually, that escape us, simply because we don't understand the Czech language. The documentary portion of this dvd set, which features English subtitles hallelujah, is quite enlightening as it delves deeply into what Uz Jsme Doma is all about. And it's more than just music and lyrics with these guys. Costumes and artwork are equally important. In fact, maybe you remember a Uz Jsme Doma artifact we once sold here (now long gone), that was a cd packaged in an elaborate pop-up book, shaped like a house? Well if not, you'll see it here, the documentary uses it to organize its varied investigations into UJD's history (one of the first rock bands out of Prague, considered "antisocial" by the Communist authorities then in control), meaning, and methods. Their politics and philosophies. You'll find out about the punk scene in '80s Prague. About the band's obsession with seminal San Francisco avant-act The Residents. About why the color yellow was chosen for so much of their artwork. And plenty more. Fascinating for any fan, and again, a good way to get converted into one if you're currently unfamiliar with the band.
The live dvd, entitled 20 Flyears, was recorded at their 20th anniversary show at the Theatre Archa, Prague, October 13th 2005 and features 35 songs or bits of songs, the first half an immense medley with ex-members joining in, the second half featuring UJD joined by something called the MIKROCHOR choir. The documentary dvd, entitled "Pudding", features interviews with former band members, critics, friends, etc. and incorporates photos and footage from the band's own archives as well as from various film appearances and stuff from Czech TV docs as well.

UZ JSME DOMA Rybi Tuk (Indies) cd 21.00
After three years of not a sound we were beginning to believe that our fave band from Prague had given up music and moved on to greener pastures. So it sure was exciting to have a new album land in our lap and Rybi Tuk does not disappoint. In one sense they're still the same Uz Jsme Doma: super heavy, high energy punk/prog rock, what's often been tagged 'Wagnerian ska' even though it's neither. What's maybe a little different from before is that on Rybi Tuk, Uz Jsme Doma seem to be experimenting with more open ended song structures, obtuse bridges and other unexpected twists & turns. Some of the songs even seem to hint at the majestic, folky metal melodies of bands like Hammers of Misfortune and Slough Feg! If anything, Rybi Tuk's more complex song structures merely lend to more repeated listens, as it's an album that really genuinely grows on you with every turn. Needless to say the core of what drives Uz Jsme Doma (and what excites us here at AQ), their consummate melodic wizardry, and their cleverly understated counterpoint is still very much here in spades. It's most evidenced of course in Miroslav Wanek's amazing vocal lines. Along with Frank Black (and, you know, they kind of look similar) Miroslav is one of those rare vocalists who can seamlessly slip from a croon to a scream like most professional vocalists slide into their falsetto.
Partly recorded in Oakland, CA in 2003, Rybi Tuk features some guest musicians from Bay Area's Idiot Flesh: Carla Kilhstedt, Dan Rathbun (who also recorded the album), Dawn McCarthy, Nils Frykdahl, Jewlia Eisenberg, et al. Being fans, we're glad to have Uz Jsme back and Rybi Tuk is one we'd recommend for the uninitiated as well.
MPEG Stream: "Triska"
MPEG Stream: "Rybi Tuk"
MPEG Stream: "Proud"

UZ JSME DOMA The Ears (Skoda) cd 21.00
Wow, a new studio disc, the first in several years from these amazing mad Czech musicians! As usual, a complex, clever combo of prog-pop and what we, for lack of a superior term, can only describe as "Wagnerian ska" (although it's much much better than that might sound, it's not really ska). A listen to this is likely to be the most energetic thing you'll do all day, even if you're just sitting there in front of the stereo. The horns, the vocals, the guitars (maybe heavier than before), the drums, etc. do their manic best, and the slow, gorgeous parts are there too. Uz Jsme Doma are one of our very favorite bands, both live and on record, and "The Ears" continues that trend! Recommended.

UZ JSME DOMA Unloved World (Skoda) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not only has this great Uz Jsme Doma (crafty Wagnerian Ska with cautious doses of Zappa and the Residents, sez Byram) disc been reissued domestically with English liner notes, they also re-recorded the vocals in English... But about half of the original Czech tracks are appended as a bonus. Either way, crazy and fun. Also, it's the only UJD album with a complete horn section.