V/A Pop Made In France (Magic) cd 19.98
Subtitled Les Plus Grands Groupes De Rock Des Annees 70 En France, here's a 23 track collection of, indeed, swinging '70s French rock n' pop... we imported 'em directly from France just about as soon as we found out about this and scoped the track list. It's on the same label that brought us those Sixties Girls comps, as well as the now out of print Les Variations and Triangle anthologies, amongst other goodies.
Styles here vary, and not every track is a killer, but that's how comps go. We certainly found enough tres bon poppy psych, prog rock bombast, AM radio sunshine, melancholic balladry, glam production and fat beats and flutes and grooves and blues and more to enjoy, for sure! Some of it's seriously cookin', some of it's on the softer side, and either way for the most part we're falling for the combination of Gallic charm and '70 kitsch on display here.
There's some groups here we'd heard of and many more we hadn't. Here's the line-up: Triangle, Time Machine, Les Variations, Dynastie Crisis, Jupiter Sunset, Ange, Alan Jack Civilization, Zoo, Costa-Yared-Costa, Trust, Tai Phong, Presence, Doc Dail, Martin Circus, Alice, Ilous & Decuyper, Labyrinthe, Trianglophone, Starshooter, Pop Tops, Total Issue, and two "bonus instrumentaux" from Le System Crapoutchik and Pachyderm. Too bad there's not much info given in the cd booklet about all these.
MPEG Stream: TIME MACHINE "Turn Back Time"
MPEG Stream: ZOO "City Break Down"
MPEG Stream: ALICE "Le Roseau"
MPEG Stream: TOTAL ISSUE "Les Marins"

V/A Pop Romantique: French Pop Classics (Emperor Norton) cd 13.98
Intriguing collection of diverse folks doing versions of classics like "Si Tu Dois Partir": Apples in Stereo, Ivy, John Wesley Harding, Lloyd Cole, Heavenly, Magnetic Fields, Sukia, Air featuring Francoise Hardy, and The Ladybug Transistor featuring Kevin Ayers!

V/A Pop-Shopping Volume 1 (Crippled Dick Hot Wax) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another collection of sugary sweet pop from the sixties & seventies. This time the focus is aimed specifically at German television ads that aired between 1960 and 1975. Featuring Gert Wilden (Schulmadchen Report), Klaus Doldinger, Johnny Teupen, Christian Bruhn and many others. Would fit snugly in any record collection between Stereolab and the High Llamas.

V/A PopShopping Mixed Up (Crippled Dick Hot Wax) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another edition from this playful series. Warning: there are some painful easy listenin' tracks (for instance, track 3) that seem to have somehow escaped the quality control and the remix knife, and that are not even tolerable on the kitsch level. Nonetheless, many others kick some groovy ass butt, and are perfect for gettin' down and doin' the funky slide through the racks of your chosen chi-chi boutique. Frivolous Euro-fun. Like a revved-up, house-y Charles Wilp. Fans of Arling and Cameron... ahoy!

V/A Popshopping Vol. 2 (Crippled Dick Hot Wax!) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Aaah, the wonder of advertising jingles! Cleverly, insidiously hooking the consumer through the ear. Love 'em or hate 'em, we've all caught ourselves pleasantly humming a tune only to realize it's for some junk food we'd never ever lay a hand on. Pizza on a bagel, anyone? Oops. But what if the melody was for a product from another country? You'd could hear and enjoy the music without visions of the product dancing in your head. Well, that's the case with the Pop Shopping Series from Crippled Dick Hot Wax! Twenty seven ultra-lively tracks from '60s and '70s German commercials. Not as tiki-lounge-y-centric as past like-minded compilations, this one runs the stylistic gamut. Embellished with plenty of playfulness - including but not limited to kooky horns and exuberant voice-overs. Check out Cup's favorite track "Shoe Shoe Twist"! You just might even hear a bit of "Goldfinger", the theme from "S.W.A.T." or Cat Stevens. Campy, kitchy goodness. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: HERMANN GEHLEN "Exposition K'71"
RealAudio clip: CHARLES NOWA "Super-Nowa-Jingles"
RealAudio clip: FISCHER /MALTZ "Shoe Shoe Twist"

V/A Popshopping Vol. 2 (Crippled Dick Hot Wax!) 2lp 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Aaah, the wonder of advertising jingles! Cleverly, insidiously hooking the consumer through the ear. Love 'em or hate 'em, we've all caught ourselves pleasantly humming a tune only to realize it's for some junk food we'd never ever lay a hand on. Pizza on a bagel, anyone? Oops. But what if the melody was for a product from another country? You'd could hear and enjoy the music without visions of the product dancing in your head. Well, that's the case with the Pop Shopping Series from Crippled Dick Hot Wax! Twenty seven ultra-lively tracks from '60s and '70s German commercials. Not as tiki-lounge-y-centric as past like-minded compilations, this one runs the stylistic gamut. Embellished with plenty of playfulness - including but not limited to kooky horns and exuberant voice-overs. Check out Cup's favorite track "Shoe Shoe Twist"! You just might even hear a bit of "Goldfinger", the theme from "S.W.A.T." or Cat Stevens. Campy, kitchy goodness. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: HERMANN GEHLEN "Exposition K'71"
RealAudio clip: CHARLES NOWA "Super-Nowa-Jingles"
RealAudio clip: FISCHER / MALTZ "Shoe Shoe Twist"

V/A Popular (Game Boy) cd 9.98

V/A Popular Electronics (Basta) 4cd box 59.00
What could be better than a cd of kitschy but cool early "popular and applied" electronic music, from back in the '50s? Four cds? Yep, that's right. This sumptuously-packaged Basta box set brings together four cds worth of music originally recorded in Holland at the Phillips Research Laboratories circa 1956-1963, some of it from collectable LPs with space-age titles like Fantasy in Orbit and Song of the Second Moon, and some of it recently discovered and previously unreleased. Historical as heck and fun to listen to, too! In addition to the four discs, this box contains *seven* colorfully illustrated and info-crammed booklets along with posters/fold-outs of musical scores, schematics, and a timeline. In total, more than 180 pages of liner notes, photos, etc. Wow. Super deluxe indeed. These composers -- Henk Badings, Kid Baltan, and Tom Dissevelt -- are legends to some in the electronic music community today, and on the strength of these recordings ought to be as well-known as Pierre Henry, Tod Dockstader, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Gershon Kingsley, Raymond Scott and other AQ-faves in the 'pioneers of electronica' genre. It's a veritable cornucopia of treats here, too much to digest (or review) in a few listens...but well worth investigating! The superb graphics and mucho reading pleasure are but bonuses to go with the alternately clever, evocative, innovative, intriguing, absurd, etc. music found on the discs.
MPEG Stream: HENK BADINGS "Conflict, Reprise (Arioso)"
MPEG Stream: TOM DISSEVELT "Spearhead"

V/A Populare Judische Kunstler: Berlin / Hamburg / Munchen (Trikont) 2cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ich habe ein Problem. Ich spreche nur sehr wenig Deutsch! Or more accurately, I can't speak a lick of it and Winni (AQ pal and native speaker of German) ain't around to help me out with this. Funny how when I need the guy to help me with 80+ pages of German liner notes to translate, the guy is like totally scarce. Actually, between these two collections and three separate booklets there does exist three pages of English translation (each one on the back of each booklet.) The 72 tracks on these two sets collect recordings from the Jewish communities that existed in Vienna (Wien), Berlin, Hamburg and Munich prior to the holocaust. The tracks date back as early as 1903 on up to 1936. The music on the disc is a mix of either piano or orchestra accompanied songs (some male, some female, some choral) with a handful of spoken tracks thrown in for good measure.
RealAudio clip: APLAR, GITTA "La Bella Tangolita"
RealAudio clip: GIALDINI, GUIDO "Tamelan"

V/A Populare Judische Kunstler: Wien (Trikont) cd 15.98
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.
Ich habe ein Problem. Ich spreche nur sehr wenig Deutsch! Or more accurately, I can't speak a lick of it and Winni (AQ pal and native speaker of German) ain't around to help me out with this. Funny how when I need the guy to help me with 80+ pages of German liner notes to translate, the guy is like totally scarce. Actually, between these two collections and three separate booklets there does exist three pages of English translation (each one on the back of each booklet.) The 72 tracks on these two sets collect recordings from the Jewish communities that existed in Vienna (Wien), Berlin, Hamburg and Munich prior to the holocaust. The tracks date back as early as 1903 on up to 1936. The music on the disc is a mix of either piano or orchestra accompanied songs (some male, some female, some choral) with a handful of spoken tracks thrown in for good measure.
RealAudio clip: LEOPOLDI, HERMANN & BETJA MILSKAJA "Frauen Sind Zum Kussen Da"
RealAudio clip: BAUER, JOSEF "Umgebrungen"

V/A Porn Beats (Dust2Dust) cd 17.98
"Electronica erotica" with Mike Flowers, The Mellowtrons, others. Unlike the Vampyros Lesbos compilations, these are contemporary artists performing what to them equals sleazy listening (with lots of beats).

V/A Portable Supersound (Smalltown Supersound) cd 12.98
We really shoulda listed this comp a few weeks ago, since it's a sampler of all the cool new stuff out or about to be out on Norway's happenin' Smalltown Supersound label, some of which wasn't yet released when we first got this in. But hey some of it still isn't, though this does feature a track from that rad Sunburned Hand / Four Tet collab Fire Escape we highlighted last list, and a cut from the blissed-out Arp debut that showed up last week (and is highlighted elsewhere this list). Yep, Smalltown Supersound has been kicking ass lately, and if you want to cheaply and conveniently check out the who, what, and why of that bold statement, this is a great means of doing so. Suffice to say, if post-punk krautrocky space disco tracks (each one here being some and/or all of the above) float yr boat, then The Portable Supersound is a smart purchase -- unless you're planning to buy *every* Smalltown Supersound release anyway, which isn't such a bad idea either. From Scandinavia to San Francisco and beyond, there's a dozen cutting edge yet kinda clubby artists on here to get excited about... besides the already abovementioned, this also includes tracks from Kim Hiorthoy, Bjorn Torske, 120 Days, Tussle, Lindstrom, Mental Overdrive, diskJokke, Toy, Lars Horntveth, and last but not least, Japan's The Lift Boys, aka EYE from the Boredoms, whose full-Bore TECHNO! track taken from a 12" vinyl-only release is a good reason to get this all by itself.
MPEG Stream: BJORN TORSKE "Hatten Passer"
MPEG Stream: THE LIFT BOYS AKA EYE "Anarchy Way"
MPEG Stream: 120 DAYS "Come Out, Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone"

V/A Position Chrome (Chrome/Force Inc.) cd 15.98
Chrome records (the drum & bass subsidiary of Force Inc./Mille Plateaux) has set itself a course to out darken Ed Rush and No U-Turn. Stalking explosive breaks, every beat and drone drenched with teutonic menace...w/ Panacea, Problem Child, Goner and Heinrich at Hart.

V/A Position Chrome Retrospective, Mixed By Panacea (Position Chrome) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Stylish AQ-hero Panacea remixes the Position Chrome back catalog! A tight efficient mix of brutalist techstep drum n' bass. All tracks are previously released except one new Panacea cut. Great booklet photos feature very glam and somewhat slimmed-down Herr Panacea posing in tight tank tops & leather pants, with a spiked wristband to boot. Very cute.

V/A Post-Asiatic: Lost War Dream Music (Urck) 2cd 16.98
We've been meaning to start stocking stuff from the Urck label for a while now. They had sent us a bunch of discs by a band with the strange name of Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional, and to be honest at first we were fearing the worst, yeah we know, don't judge a book by its cover or a band by it's name, but we often judge band's by their names and it usually works out pretty well for us, Bathtub Shitter, Fuck I'm Dead, Pocohaunted, we could go on, but to be totally honest we were sort of expecting some sort of hippy jam band, you know hackey sacks and dayglo jester hats, but thankfully, we couldn't have been more wrong. The sound was devotional for sure, and the focal point was certainly drums, but the sound was more tribal and ethnic, spiritual and dark, more along the lines of Muslimgauze, lots of samples and voices, intricate rhythms, hypnotic and trancey.
So we will eventually review a record proper from Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional, but we figured an even better place to start would be this brand new double disc compilation, featuring lots of bands on the Urck label, as well as a whole bunch of bands we already dig.
The comp is called Post-Asiatic Lost War Dream Music and is subtitled A Compilation Of Eastern Influenced Experimental Music, which pretty much nails it, but within that fairly broad descriptor, the bands veer into all sorts of varied sonic territory.
Right off the bat, there's a handful of bands who would have made owning this comp worthwhile all on their own, Amps For Christ, who offer up a gorgeous sprawling nearly 11 minute long jam, folky and lilting, guitars and sitars woven into drifting dreamlike harmonies, the melodies sunny and wistful, all very free and abstract, but gorgeous and we would have been happy to hear this track stretched out to fill an entire record. Muslimgauze does a stripped down, pure rhythm track, shuffling skittering drums, looped and cyclical, very hypnotic, and very very abstract. Neung Phak deliver a blissy slab of laid back psychpop, whirring organ, simple subtle drumming, twangy guitar, all wrapped around a super catchy Eastern melody. Experimental guitarist Bill Horist delivers some super spare squeak and scrape, chime and clatter, shimmer and swell, eventually that minimal guitar is joined by some sort of fiddle, wailing out a lonesome tune. Z'ev joins up with someone called Ramona Ponzini, for a haunting metallic scrapescape peppered with tribal drumming and with creepy disembodied vocals. There's also several tracks from that amazing Indian Soundscapes record we reviewed a while back, as well as tracks from Soriah, Metal Rouge, Moe! Staiano and F-Space. But the bands we hadn't heard of are just as exciting as those we were already familiar with.
The aforementioned Hop-Frog's Drum Jester Devotional unfurls a drum heavy ceremony, all pounding tribalism, and buzzing steel strings, sounding very East Asian, another track that we would have loved to hear stretched out to fill up the whole disc. Venerable Showers Of Beauty Gamelan, is just that, a DIY gamelan, chiming and resonant, the melodies definitely Asian influenced, but also a bit Western, with many of the tones allowed to drone on and on, giving the track a slightly ominous buzz. C.O.T.A. weave a dark slab of tribal dark ambience, lots of rumble and buzz, a thick bassy pulse and shimmering sitar like strings. We definitely need to hear more from these guys. And we could go on and on and on. This is after all two discs packed with all sorts of amazing music, and a whole clutch of new bands to discover and probably knowing us (and you we'd imagine) decide we need to hear more of. Recommended for fans of any of the above mentioned bands obviously, or anyone looking for into dark, dreamy, buzzy, blissful, tribal sounds. Everytime we play this in the store, someone comes up to ask what it is. Obviously, way recommended.
Packaged in a super thick mini gatefold lp-style sleeve, with liner notes and credits inside.
MPEG Stream: AMPS FOR CHRIST "Happy New Year, Sibanjar"
MPEG Stream: NEUNG PHAK "Sadchatri 06"
MPEG Stream: MUSLIMGAUZE "Zahal End"

V/A Power & Responsibility (Leonardo Music Journal) cd 14.98
This enchanced CD from the Leonardo Music Journal is playable as a normal audio CD and as CD-Rom with additional music, multimedia documents, and software from a number of academically inclined artists such as Phill Niblock, Elisabeth Schimana, Chris Brown, Terre Thaemlitz, Kim Cascone, Anne Wellmer, Audiorom, Sensorband, and many more.

V/A Power For Passion... (Dionysus) cd 14.98

V/A Power Up! Mutations & Mutilations of 8-Bit Hits (Dwell) cd 16.98
Nintendo theme music as performed by a bunch of video game addicted indie musicians! First up, is "The Legend Of Zelda (Overworld Theme)" tackled by supremely qualified for this sort of thing math/metal rockers The Fucking Champs. The mathiness continues with Upsilon Acrux (Rush n' Attack) and Ahleuchatistas (Bad Dudes), both prog rock bands who when not practicing their instrumental chops, must be glued to their gaming consoles. Then there's some artists with more of an electronica approach, also quite appropriate here, like Cripple Camp (Ghosts n' Goblins), Animal Style (Tetris), and Christopher Willits (Metroid). Doug McDiarmid of Anticon artists Why? provides a break from the plugged-in, caffienated craziness of some of these tunes with his pleasant piano rendition of the music from Marble Madness. Most far out is maybe Flossin (Kid 606 + Christopher Willits + Hella's Zach Hill, right?) with their spacey, psychedelic and chaotic version of "Castlevania". As with all tribute comps, there's some bands we hadn't heard of before, like Kindergarten Hazing Ritual (River City Ransom) and Twelve Handed Men Of Mars (more from The Legend Of Zelda)... but whoever they are, they know their Nintendo.
MPEG Stream: AHLEUCHATISTAS "Bad Dudes"
MPEG Stream: DOUG MCDIARMID "Marble Madness (Piano Medley)"
MPEG Stream: DEFENSIVE MODE "Mega Man 2 (Metal Man)"

V/A Powerpuff Girls: Heroes & Villains (Rhino) cd 14.98
Heads up super-popsters! Flying your way are Apples In Stereo, Cornelius, Komeda, Dressy Bessy, The Bill Doss (ex-Olivia Tremor Control), Frank Black, Bis, The Sugarplastic, Optiganally Yours, Shonen Knife, and Devo. Each with a song inspired by Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles (cartoon characters if you didn't know). Puff up kids!

V/A Powerslaves: An Elektro Tribute To Iron Maiden (Angelmaker) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Well, I suppose it had to happen. Or did it? And boy were we torn. On the one hand we really don't want to support this kind of thing. Electro versions of Iron Maiden songs?? But on the other hand, before even hearing it, we knew that we were gonna have to order a ton of 'em, and that we would ALL have to buy one. And as if to seal the deal, we threw it on the stereo the minute we got it, and within 15 seconds a customer was already at the counter telling us they NEEDED whatever we were playing. And our guess is that you're gonna need one too. I mean c'mon ELECTRO versions of IRON MAIDEN songs!! And the timing couldn't be more appropriate with the recent tragic passing of Anton Maiden, the original powerslave, who sang tunelessly over MIDI versions of Iron Maiden songs downloaded from his computer (which some of us liked even more than his singing...). And basically, this is just Anton Maiden with a way bigger budget. Which is a good thing. All those timeless riffs we love and adore played by fuzzed out analog synths and turned into buzzy alien melodies, the throbbing, unmistakable basslines of Steve Harris become burping squelches and rumbling pulses, and of course those dual lead guitar harmonies are transformed into wild squeaky squiggles. Does it work? Hard to say. It does sound great though. Funny and wild and fun and silly. We'd think they were taking the piss, but the liner notes take great pains to explain that the album 'was conceived with the greatest respect' and by having each artist pick their favorite Maiden song and album, often not the track they performed. There are a few familiar names here, Legowelt and Kitbuilders, but most of these artists are new to us (some other names: Captain Ahab, Rude 66, Maxx Klaxon, Ra-X, Imatran Voima, Luke Eargoggle...). The best track has to be Hidari / Platzgumer's Number Of The Beast, which starts so fucked up it's almost impossible to tell what song it is, and the drum programming is so fucked that the rhythm ends up being a damaged and stuttery mess of clicks and crunches. The vocals start out super vocoded and distorted, sounding quite alien / monsterlike, until the clean vocals kick in, and then the melody is sung weirdly, tuneless-y and strangely familiar a la Anton Maiden. Whatever reservations we had were definitely quelled once we heard this whole comp. How could they not be? And it's approved by original Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno himself. A fitting record of the week and for us, a fitting "moment of silence" for Anton Maiden. R.I.P.
MPEG Stream: HIDARI / PLATZGUMER "Number Of The Beast"
MPEG Stream: ACID JUNKIES "Wrathchild"
MPEG Stream: MR. VELCRO FASTENER "The Trooper"

V/A Powerslaves: An Elektro Tribute To Iron Maiden (Angelmaker) 12" 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We haven't been able to get the cd version of Powerslaves recently (maybe someday, we hope) but here's a vinyl 12" with four tracks from that amazing tribute comp: Acid Junkies "Wrathchild", Luke Eargoggle "Mother Russia", Rude 66 "Killers", Legowelt "Run To The Hills". Up the Irons (electro-style)!
MPEG Stream: ACID JUNKIES " Wrathchild"

V/A Praeface (Praemedia) cd 11.98
One of the three new and not so new titles just in from the electronic music label Praemedia (Stars Like Fleas' Sun Lights Down On The Fence and Tim Perkis' Motive are the other two)! This comp features a wide variety of solo and collaborative IDM tracks by the aforementioned artists as well as Lance Grabmiller, Shannon Fields, The Gold Sparkle Band, Matt Lavelle, Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Mou, Lips!, HSoA, Lisle Ellis, Nanaqui, Quiet American, Martin Nieznanski, Tom Djll, Haco and AQ fave Wobbly. Much delightfully clickery, woozy sputtering, squelching and itchy glitchin' ensues!
MPEG Stream: WOBBLY AND MA++ INGALLS "I Think He's Serious"
MPEG Stream: HACO, LISLE ELLIS AND LANCE GRABMILLER "(Untitled)"

V/A Press Play (Instinct) cd 15.98
Down tempo electronica comp with stuff by DJ Cam, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Shinju Gumi (remixed by Kid Loco), Cujo, Koji Sekiguchi (remixed by DJ Cam), Tosca, a guy from Thievery Corp (the jazzy Exodus Quartet) and others... "Lusciously blunted" it says here.

V/A Primitive Finland (Northern Heritage) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Princess Nicotine: Folk & Pop Music of Myanmar (Burma) Vol. 1 (Sublime Frequencies) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If you have the Sublime Frequencies Nat Pwe DVD reviewed a few months back, then you at least have a rough idea of what you're getting yourself into here. But even if you're familiar with Burmese music, you'll find this compilation truly weird and wonderful. Unlike the handful of Burmese releases on Shanachie, this is a completely raw and unfettered, whole grain Burmese sonic assault. In other words: it's absolutely manic! At its most insane, it's akin to taking your standard off the wall Bollywood arrangement and running it through a prog rock or free jazz filter. Nasal double reed instruments parallel vocal lines, clashing cymbals emphasize every beat, while the pat wain (a set of rice paste tuned drums which encircle the performer) smacks out its own melody like a set of out of tune roto-toms. On the mellower side of things there's strange hallucinogenic Appalachia featuring sudden bursts of piano, interjecting banjo, violin, flute, horn and most oddly: sultry female vocals offset by distorted male vocals. There's also hazy semi-Hawaiian psychedelia, with piano and keyboards pounding out the occasional random chord progression. If you have to chose just one record to blow your mind this year, definitely make it this one!
MPEG Stream: MAR MAR AYE "Beautiful Town"
MPEG Stream: YANGON SEIN KYI MOE "The Tune of the Second Entertainment"
MPEG Stream: NI NI WIN SHWE "My Darling's Love Arrow"

V/A Prins Thomas Presents: Cosmo Galactic Prism (Eskimo) 2cd 22.00
The latest Euro-dance burners from beardo Swedes Prins Thomas and his often collaborator Lindstrom have been pretty popular around here, and riding fast on the tail of their Reinterpretations album, we get this two disc mix from Prins Thomas that shows he's as good a compiler as he is producer. Featuring all kinds of unusual choices and sequences from bands we know and don't know in just about equal measure including Joe Meek, Holger Czukay, Hawkwind, Zombi, Boards Of Canada, Lindstrom, The Electric South (featuring Bob Lind), Glissandro 70, Bob James, Metalchicks, and Parliament among many many others. Keeping a proggy cosmic disco vibe that varies in pace but not in momentum, this is great for those long lit hot summer nights. Awesome!
MPEG Stream: THE ELECTRIC SOUTH "Sing"
MPEG Stream: HAWKWIND "City Of Lagoons"
MPEG Stream: VISNADI "Racing Tracks"
MPEG Stream: ZOMBI "Sapphire"
MPEG Stream: HONEYMOON KILLERS "Decollage"

V/A Prison Worksongs (Arhoolie) cd 14.98

V/A Process (Caipirinha Music) cd 14.98
Si Begg, Khan, DJ Cam, Panasonic's Mika Vainio, and others both contribute tracks to this compilation, and "describe the musical process beind the creation of their tracks" in the booklet.

V/A Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word (Delay 68) cd 16.98
Man, is Andy Votel our favorite DJ/mix complier or what?? (With Garreth Goddard/Cherrystones running a close second.) Obviously, Votel's got the record collection we wish we had... or are working on, but he's got the original LPs and 45s and we've just got the cd reissues. Anyway, his love of '60s and '70s obscure, international prog/psych/folk/funk is right up our alley. The Votel comps we've listed include AQ Record Of The Week honoree Vertigo Mixed, the amazing Welsh Rare Beat disc, and the Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word collection. Now here's the follow-up to that one, eagerly awaited 'round these parts, Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word. And you know how we love prog!
Though, Votel's definition of "prog" or "progressive rock" is deliberately loosey-goosey. Indeed, he pretty much wants to leave out what most people would consider prog -- famous bands like Yes, ELP, King Crimson, Mike Oldfield, Genesis, and their imitators... Not that we were expecting any of those to appear here, but we thought maybe Gnidrolog or Osanna might show up, or Magma or Le Orme. However, Votel's agenda is about the grooves, with a helping of fuzz, and the exotic weirdness factor of foreign-language vocals and ethnic influences too... the sometimes pretentious intellectual/conceptual aspects of prog aren't what is being celebrated here, nor symphonics or narrative suites or virtuoso keyboard solos or caped outfits... though we're sure Votel digs all that too. But this is more about tracks that are freaky and avantgarde yet rhythmic and hooky enough to be a DJ's hidden weapon. What you get here is some really obscure stuff from around the globe that *might* be "prog" rock (it's certainly not "regular" rock!), dating from 1969-1978, more or less prog's heyday. Pretty much the most prog-identified band on here is Britain's Egg (who are even featured doing a classical styled piece, "Fugue In D Minor"). They're in the company of a crazy crew of artists from the Continent and further afield, some we've heard of and many we haven't. Among the names we know, there's Jean-Claude Vannier (with a track from the amazing L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches recently reissued and reviewed here last year), Bran from Wales (who also appear, with a different track, on Welsh Rare Beat), Poland's Breakout (who also were on the Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word comp), Krautrock jazz fusion act Embryo, Korea's wonderful San Ul Lim, Baris Manco and 3 Hur-el from Turkey (the latter with one of the best Turkish psych tracks EVER, "Omur Bitter Yol Bimez" from their Hurel Arsivi album), and France's Phillipe Bescombes. But we confess we'd never heard of Italy's Picchio Dal Pozzo, Poland's fierce and fuzzy Czerwone Gitary, or Yugoslavia's Drugi Nacin before, among others on here that leave us wanting to hear, and know, more! There are fairly informative liner notes, though, which is always appreciated. And album covers too! Recommended, 'specially if you're already a fan of the several comps of Votel's that we alluded to above, and the Cherrystones Rocks one, and the best Love, Peace & Poetry volumes and so forth...
MPEG Stream: ILLES " Nem Erdekel, Amit Mondsz"
MPEG Stream: EMBRYO "The Music Of Today"
MPEG Stream: CZERWONE GITARY "Coda"

V/A Proibidao C.V.: Forbidden Gang Funk from Rio de Janeiro (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
The second of two new releases in Sublime Frequencies' ever expanding catalogue of 'world music'. The first, reviewed elsewhere on this list, is the wild Latin American psych rock vinyl sampler Latinamericarpet, one of the weirdest and wildest in the series so far. But this one is pretty weird and wild as well, but in a completely different way, though it's also Latin American.
Remember those Rio Baile Funk comps we reviewed a while back, killer mashups of Miami Bass, new wave, techno, top 40, all wrapped up into super dense and wild sexy dancefloor freakouts? Well this is similar in that this too is the music of the favelas, and features some of the same elements, but unlike the jubilant party vibe of the Rio Baile Funk stuff, this is much more stripped down, much more intense, and aggressive, and is closely linked to criminals, drugs, gangs, murder and mayhem.
Proibidao is the name given to an electronic funk which grew in popularity alongside the blossoming drug gangs in the nineties. The music is basically a stripped down Miami bass style rhythm, mesmerizing and tribal, there are not really any parts, just the drums looped over and over, while MC's and vocalists improvise over the top, toasting, howling, crooning, shouting, singing. Gang leaders set up big parties, hire DJ's and MC's do their thing, the tracks are often recorded and distributed as cd-r's or MP3's...
On first listen, we actually weren't all that into this, it just sounds like super simple stripped down electronic music with way too intense vocals over the top, but the closer you listen, the more you can hear traditional Brazilian musics incorporated into the jams, the sound becomes more and more musical, more powerful, on some tracks you can hear massive crowds responding with call and response vocals, there are lots of sirens, machine gun sounds, the rhythms are WAY down in the mix, offering up the simplest of frameworks for the sweatsoaked distorted vocals. And it IS all about the vocals, strident and urgent, intense and passionate, so much so that a lot of the time it ends up sounding almost like a Rio Baile Funk Fugazi!
Repetitive, hypnotic, stripped down and funky, but at the same time, dark and dangerous, mysterious and really intense and aggressive. Not necessarily recommended for your next dance party (unless there's something we don't know about your dance parties), but recommended nonetheless.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled Proibidao CV# 02"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled Proibidao CV# 03"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled Proibidao CV# 04"

V/A Project Blowed (Massmen) cd 14.98
Legendary So. Cal. hiphop collective from the early '90s, finally reissued. Incredibly deft lyrical flow from Aceyalone of Freestyle Fellowship, among others. Awesome!

V/A Project>Soundwave: An Exploration Into The Nature Of Sound (Special Music) cd 12.98

V/A Providence: 27.4.97 (Little Army, formerly known as Drug Racer) cdep 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The 10" vinyl came out on UK's Earworm and here's the cd version of this all-star spacerock jam session that occured at last year's Terrastock festival in Providence, RI. You've got members of Flying Saucer Attack, Bardo Pond, Windy & Carl, and Azusa Plane doing what they know how to do so well.

V/A PSF & Alchemy: 20th Anniversary Live (PSF) cd 21.00
Pretty much our two favorite Japanese record labels are PSF and Alchemy. Responsible for documenting so much of the Japanese psych/improv/noise underground, Osaka's venerable Alchemy Records and Tokyo's equally long-running and crucial PSF label, have at last joined forces to celebrate their 20th anniversaries together. Two concerts were held last year and this disc is the resultant commemorative souvenir. It's packed with varied and exciting performances, some of 'em one-off collaborations between veterans of each label, for instance PSF's avant-folkster Kan Mikami dueting with Alchemy boss and noise/psych guitar maestro Jojo Hiroshige, or PSF experimental improv guitarist Kazuo Imai playing alongside Alchemy noiseniks Incapacitants. You'll also find PSF mascot Keiji Haino dueling for almost 15 minutes with fellow PSF guitarist Munehiro Narita (of High Rise). There's also tracks from Marble Sheep, L & friends, Go Hirano & Takashi Ueno, Exias-J, and Masayoshi Urabe and Junko (of Hijokaidan). Lots of dark, fucked up sounds without bounds for fans of both labels...
MPEG Stream: KEIJI HAINO & MUNEHIRO NARITA "live"
MPEG Stream: L & FRIENDS "live"

V/A Psychedelic Minds Vol. 1 (World In Sound) cd 21.00
Subtitled: Heavy Underground (1967-71). Some great, late '60s heavy garage psych stuff here. Yep, another compilation of obscure bands from before you were born or at least before you were buying records. And even if you were buying records back then, chances are you didn't ever pick up any of these, tracks from obscure bands released on obscure 7" singles on obscure labels from obscure places, from Peru to Malibu! And amazingly, these dozen tracks really are all pretty darn killer, no filler. Seriously, We've been listening to this pretty much non-stop since we got it in. Like it says, this is heavy, but in that '60s way -- not really proto-metal but rather psych-pop garage rock jams turned up and turned on, folks gettin' a little freaky with the volume and the effects and the sonic psychedelic drug explorations. Lotsa FUZZ of course, that's a major ingredient.
Here's who's here: Blackrock, Sound Machine, Yesterday's Obsession, Mastermind, Sangre Mexicana, Bhagavad Gita, Protein Bros, Purple Canteen, Los Nuevos Shains, Blow Mind, and Dirty Filthy Mud. It's hard to pick faves, though the B-side of the single by Oakland California's Dirty Filthy Mud, "Forest Of Black" from 1967 is pretty much worth the price of admission all by itself if you're into ye olde heaviness like we are! All in all an excellent comp for the psychedelic minded, a bunch of great-sounding tracks we'd never heard before with a decent helping of vintage graphics and liner notes about each act in the cd booklet.
MPEG Stream: PURPLE CANTEEN "Brains In My Feet"
MPEG Stream: SANGRE MEXICANA "Good Cause"

V/A Psychedelic Phinland (Love Records) 2cd 27.00
Two of our favorite words! (Though we normally spell Phinland, Finland.) The current Finnish psych phenomenon -- Avarus, Kemialliset Ystavat, Circle, Pharaoh Overlord, Kiila, etc. etc. is of course a major AQ obsession. As is vintage psych from, well, heck just about anywhere, but certainly Scandinavia. So this double-disc compilation, subtitled "Finnish Hippie & Underground Music 1967-1974" has got us all excited. There's 29 tracks from almost as many artists, a fantastic trip into the early daze of the Finnish freak-scene. Perhaps another good subtitle would have been: "When Drugs Came To Finland". There's even a few songs about marijuana to set the mood, starting off disc one. But Psychedelic Phinland is just as political, and parodic, and perverse as it is potheaded. There's plenty of Flower Power pop and/or fuzzed-out blues rock, but you'll also find jazz-damaged prog and mystic folk, revolutionary theatre and electronic insanity. There's so much here, we can't mention it all, but look out for heavy psych jammers Baby Grandmothers, "rocking lavatory anarchists" Suomen Talvisota 1939-40, and progrock pioneers Wigwam... then there's there's Eastern-inflected psych-folk from Pekka Streng and the Yippie ranting of Markku Uto...
And then on disc two things get REALLY weird. Yeah this one's even further out, crossing over a bit into "Arktinen Hysteria" territory (you maybe remember, that great collection of early Finnish avant-weirdness from a while back, also released by Love Records). It starts off innocently enough with our new favorite band(name), Those Lovely Hula Hands. Really, that's their name, and they included several 13 and 14 year old sisters playing violins and recorders, singing gently amidst tape-recorded bird-twitter... a song about Tarzan! Then we hear from Pekka Airaksinen and also his band The Sperm, doing extended feedback and tape music experiments. We remember The Sperm from that Arktinen comp and had wanted to hear more. Later on, there's some wonderfully primitive, ceremonial hippy jamming, particularly from a band called Sikiot, who have a krautrockish vibe like Siloah or Amon Duul. And there's plenty more, some other names of note on these cds include J.O. Mallander, Charlies, Topmost, Juice Leskinen & Coitus Int, Apollo, Blues Section, Hector & Oscar, and Kruunuhaan Dynamo...
All of this is pretty much totally obscure, in fact a lot of it consists of previously unissued archival recordings from the vaults of Finland's Love label and other sources... A true labor of Love. Comes with a twenty page, full color cd booklet with English-language notes on each track and tons of cool old photos and graphics.
Recommended!
MPEG Stream: CHARLIES "Taiteen Kritiikista"
MPEG Stream: PEKKA STRENG "Olen Erilainen"
MPEG Stream: PEKKA AIRAKSINEN "Fos 2"
MPEG Stream: SIKIOT "Trippin' Together"

V/A Puerto Rico In Polynesia (Original Music) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Since the beginning of the Century, there has been a growing community of Puerto Ricans in Hawaii. These recordings made in 1990, reflect their unique niche. At times, the music is archaic in comparison to mainland Puerto Rican music, yet is spiced with influences from both Hawaiian and Japanese neighbors.

V/A Puistokiitajainen (Carabus Hortensis) (Bem Bole Cassettes) cassette 5.98
FINNISH WEIRD MUSIC OBSESSIVES will not want to pass this up. The strangely named Puistokiitajainen compilation collects haunting and lovely, mostly acoustic tracks from another circle of the Finnish music underground that we have seemingly barely scratched the surface of. Not a single band name we recognize: Adolf Hiller, Amigo Result, Krax Orchestra, Parta & Viikset, Esko Mrk, Tomi, Pulkkinen, Monuments In The Horizon, Jump P.A. And The Guitar That Wasn't Mine, Kanttoripoika, Stories, Jan-Erik & His Band Of Banjos, Neljakakkonen, but we're willing to wager at least a few name we know might be involved. But it hardly matters, every track here is a gem. Dark and folky, detuned and deconstructed, dreamy and drifting. acoustic guitars crumble and drift, wrapped in dense swaths of tape hiss, harmoniums and accordions wheeze out old timey ambience, metallic percussion and random clinks and clatters shimmer way down in the mix, whirring stretches of tinkling ambience butt up against birdlike FX and looped angular guitar, field recordings, and tiny tangles of warm dreamlike strum, each track totally unique, but somehow sonically linked to each other, like a strange sampling of the long lost works of some recently unearthed alien Appalachia, all muted twang and abstract ambience. So nice.

V/A Pull Up The Paisley Covers: A Psychedelic Omnibus (Aether) cd 14.98
Our pal Stan at Aether Records put together this comp of modern-day psychedelic bands paying tribute to the psych greats of the past. Like most comps, it's got its winners and losers, but the concept works out pretty well, and it makes for a good introduction to both the contemporary acts doing the cover versions and the '60s/'70s era artists being covered, who range from Woodstock-era big shots to obscure artists mainly known today only to psychedelic record collector freaks, here's some of 'em: The Doors, The Stones, Jefferson Airplane, The Who, The Pretty Things, The Fox, Apple, The Syn, Linda Perhacs, The Churchills, The Incredible String Band... Meanwhile, the international array of artists doing the covers are *definitely* obscure, with the best-known to AQ customers probably being the Bevis Frond, P.G. Six (doing the ISB cover of course!), Abunai!, and SF's own Mushroom. Then there's Israel's psych-popsters Rockfour (who tackle a track by Israel's premiere '60s psych export, The Churchills), Japan's Kaminumada Yohji (whose 'cover' of AQ-fave UK pagan weirdos Comus is actually more of an improvisatory interpretation inspired by Comus, sorry to say) and ten others, some of which Terrastock types will doubtless recognize. Fortunately, Stan provides plenty of background in his detailed liner notes on every band/track. Generally you can't tell past from present with these covers, one exception being female-fronted LA duo Senseri who start things off with what's maybe a too modern-sounding (and cheesy) take on The Doors' "Peace Frog". After that though you're totally in the realm of retro nirvana though, geared towards fans of the genre. Of course fans will have their own ideas of what bands shoulda been on here (both old and new)...
MPEG Stream: BEVIS FROND "Grounded"
MPEG Stream: P.G. SIX "My Name Is Death"

V/A Pulp Fusion: Evolution (Harmless) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Pulp Fusion: Fully Loaded (Harmless) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Pulp Fusion: Return to the Tough Side (Harmless) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Pulp Fusion: Revenge of the Ghetto Grooves (Harmless) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

V/A Punk Goes Pop (Fearless) cd 13.98
Okay, whose w-a-c-k-y idea was this??? Today's "punk" bands take aim at today's top 40 hitmakers. On the "punk" team? Dynamite Boy, Stretch Arm Strong, Noise Ratchet, Nicotine, Reach The Sky and a dozen more. Some of their targets? Destiny's Child ("Survivor"), Pink ("Get This Party Started"), J. Lo (I'm Real"), Britney Spears ("...Baby One More Time") and the Backstreet-N-Sync-Boys as well as some older hits like Madonna's "Borderline" and "Like A Prayer" or Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is A Place On Earth". All performed in the Epitaph/Fat Wreckords/Fearless pop punk fashion (meaning not very punk at all). But admitedly kind of funny (mostly for song choice) and kind of listenable.
RealAudio clip: KNOCKOUT "Survivor"
RealAudio clip: SHOWOFF "Borderline"

V/A Punk On The Road (CherryRed) dvd 31.00
A quick look at the list of the bands on this DVD is all it should take. GBH, Angelic Upstarts, Adicts, UK Subs, Mau Maus, Exploited, Johnny Thunders, Lurkers, Eater, Vibrators, Peter And The Test Tube Babies and so many more. TOTALLY essential. Culled from an extensive video archive compiled by an independent video company who spent the eighties driving a van around the UK filming show after show and releasing them on video. This is a sort of a best of compiled from all of those videos and holy shit this stuff is amazing. All of the above mentioned bands totally destroy, and it's the first time we've seen lots of those bands live. Worth it for the GBH and Adicts footage alone! Plus there are tons of bands we've never even heard of who are just as cool: One Way System, Burial, Outl4w, Destructors, Urban Dogs, XPOZEZ, Dead Mans Shadow and even a handful of second wave punk rock bands like Red Alert, Menace, Business, Lurkers and more. Fuck yeah! Mohawks and liberty spikes and more spiked leather than the Folsom Street Fair!!!

V/A Putting The Morr Back In Morrissey (Morr Music) 2cd 16.98
Not a collection of Morrissey remixes, or covers as one might expect from the title (or if they are, they sure did a good job disguising them), but a collection of electronica artists new and old to the Morr label out of Germany. Stressing the closeness of these artists, who keep contact via phone and online (exchanging audio files), in their one sheet, this affinity is borne out in the overall sound of this comp. Lots of pleasant electronica in the vein of Boards Of Canada, or the down tempo melodious side of Autechre. Includes tracks by The Notwist, Arovane, Tied & Tickled Trio, Schneider tm, Flowchart and much more.

V/A Qbico U-Nite: Bruxelles II (Qbico) 2lp 45.00

V/A Qbico U-Nite: New York I (Qbico) 2lp 45.00

V/A Qbico V Unite: 11.5.2006, Dynamo Klubi (Qbico) lp 25.00
Another document of Finnish music weirdness featuring a handful of aQ favorites, CIRCLE, in the form of their more sinister side project Rakhim, as well as Finnish cd-r darlings KuuPuu and LauNau. We won't go into too much detail as these are super expensive and we only got 15 or so...
Circle team up with Hans Joachim Irmler from Krautrock legends Faust, for a sidelong heavy percussion jam. The track begins with someone on the kit, busting out some wild fills that eventually coalesce into rhythms, while beneath the drumming is a constant low level clatter of tinkling chimes, muted hand drums, bits of percussive thump and rattle, sometimes whipped up into little flurries of subtle tribalism, but just as often allowed to just shuffle and drift. Part way through washes of muted looped guitar strum surface, accompanied by strange, heavily effected cookie monster vocals, all beneath thick swaths of droning chordal whir. The vocals continue to grunt and growl over an increasingly frenetic percussive backdrop, until everything stumbles to a halt.
The B side features Lau Nau and KuuPuu teamed up with someone called Lauhkeat Lampaat for a double boy/girl free jam, the results are as percussive as the other side, just more abstract, and less propulsive. The vibe is very NNCK or Sunburned Hand, Jew's harp, swirls of video game FX, strange chirping vocals, scraped steel strings, clattery percussion, fragmented melodies, peppered with brief bursts of frenzied drumming, wheezing kazoos, lots of woodblock, disembodied ghostlike vocals, all wound up into a chaotic finale, a wild forest faerie drum circle.
SUPER LIMITED, so much so that we probably can't get more, in a gorgeous blue tinted reindeer-and-snow sleeve, pressed on thick marbled blue vinyl...

V/A Queensbridge (Columbia / Ill Will) cd 16.98