V/A Making Singles, Drinking Doubles (Bloodshot) cd 14.98
To commemorate their 100th release, Bloodshot Records put out this release which is loaded with out of print or hard to find singles. There's plenty of lively covers (of Funkadelic, Loretta Lynn, Poison, and Madonna to name a few) and a handful of previously unreleased treasures too. Tracks include: Waco Brothers "Harder They Come", Kelly Hogan "1,000,001" (previously unreleased), Ryan Adams "Goodbye Honey" (previously unreleased from the "Heartbreaker" sessions), Andre Williams & 2 Star Tabernacle "Lilly White Mama/Jet Black Daddy", Moonshine Willy "Complicated Games, The Meat Purveyors "The Madonna Trilogy", Neko Case & the Sadies "Rated X", Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys "Every Rose Has Its Thorn", The Sadies "Little Sadie", Moonshine Willy "George Set Me Strait", The Volebeats "Maggot Brain, Parts 1 & 2", Kelly Hogan & the Mellocremes "Hanky Panky Woman", Ryan Adams "To Be Young" (previously unreleased acoustic version), Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights", Kelly Hogan & John Wesley Harding "It's Only Make Believe" (previously unreleased), Andre Williams & 2 Star Tabernacle "Ramblin' Man", Moonshine Willy "Alone", and Jonboy Langford "Nashville Radio".
RealAudio clip: ANDRE WILLIAMS & 2 STAR TABERNACLE "Ramblin' Man"
RealAudio clip: THE SADIES "Little Sadie"

V/A Mali Lolo! Stars Of Mali (Smithsonian) cd 14.98

V/A Mali: Cordes Anciennes (Buda Musique) cd 16.98
Originally recorded and released on LP in 1970, "Ancient Strings" was the first recording devoted solely to the art of playing the Kora. Though it has been around for centuries in various shapes and under different names, the Kora -- a bridged lute with a large calf-skin covered gourd resonator -- is now pretty much standardized to 21 strings. The tracks on this disc are all kora duets (with the exception of two solo numbers) and the songs are beautiful, lulling pieces with the performers sharing in melodic and lead and accompaniment -- usually the songs tend to have one melodic lead supported by another melodic ostinato and a plucked drone bass underlying everything. These are definitely some of the musicians that Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck researched before releasing their classic Djam Leelii album (which, by the way was re-issued a ways back re-mastered and with extra tracks in case you're lacking a copy of it.)
RealAudio clip: BATOUROU SEKOU KOUYATE & SIDIKI DIABTE "Kulanjan"
RealAudio clip: BATOUROU SEKOU KOUYATE & N'FA DIABATE "Asumba"

V/A Mali: Le Hoddu Peul (Ocora) cd 21.00

MPEG Stream: "N'Doondo / Garbaare"
MPEG Stream: "Durgama"

V/A Malpractice: A Fflint Central Primer (Birdman) cd 14.98
We've long been champions of the mighty mysterious Fflint central label and their beautifully bizarre droning electronic weirdness. And we've raved about every single one of their cd-r releases. So we were pretty excited when the kind folks at Birdman decided to collect the best bits from all those releases and compile them on a real cd to create the ultimate Fflint primer. Essential for those of you who have yet to discover the amazing sonic world that is Fflint Central; absolutely necessary for those of you who have worn your old Fflint cd-r's down to spinning plastic nubs; and don't think you Fflint obsessives are getting off easy, there are several exclusive tracks never before released that you of course need! We could go on and on and gush endlessly, but since our very own Andee wrote the liner notes, we might as well just let you read what he had to say:
What the fuck is Fflint anyway? A place? A label? A bunch of cheeky bastards who have, in the matter of a few short years, rendered all other UK electronica obsolete? Umm, a place?
In the world of popular music, world-changing things get old fast. With the advent of punk rock, it was a thrill realising that anyone could start a band, but that wore off -real- quick, once everybody did. And then, when the laptop replaced the guitar as the "instrument" anyone could buy and thus have their own" band", it wasn't long before we found ourselves at shows, watching nerds check their emails on stage while we sipped overpriced drinks and fantasized about slipping into the bar to play some Galaga. And then came the cd-r. Christ, you thought the tape was bad. At least with tapes you always had something laying around to dub the new Van Halen or Motley Crue record on. But cd-r's, c'mon. Fuck. Not only can you not tape over them, but even my mom has a limited cd-r release. (And it's not half bad!)
So when you discover some mysterious group, who are quietly releasing cd-r's filled with sounds that are beautiful and perplexing and dreamy and annoying and dark and mesmerising and fucked beyond all possible comprehension, you cling to them like you were a mama bear and these cd-r's were your newborn cubs. But at the same time you are constantly wondering why -- knowing that these sounds exist and are somewhat readily available -- anyone would knowingly choose to listen to the rest of the shit out there.
Well that's all about to change.
And I guess that brings us back to the big question. What the hell is Fflint anyway? Obviously it's music, after all you're holding their cd in your grubby little paws as we speak. But is it electronica? Noise? Dark ambience? Twentieth century? Twenty First Century? Who the hell knows? And honestly, who gives a shit.
This is sound, pure and not so simple. An endless series of unlikely musical events. Some soothing and serene, some droning and delirious, and some so harsh it hurts to even listen. But all of it, every single bit, is unlike anything you've ever heard. Or ever will hear again. It's not just music, but the sounds of music. And the music of sound, entering your ears from the inside, filling your wide open skull with malfunctioning maelstroms of stuttering, fuzzed out synth and hiccupping bursts of thundering glitchery colliding with sputtering clicks and oscillating low end rumbles, draped over chest rattling modulated pulses. Ultra harsh noise smeared over a strange man humming into a broken telephone, while an orchestra of detuned guitars tries desperately to compete in the background. Thousands of tiny hands unwrapping cellophane candies in a hyperbolic chamber, while little girls in tap shoes run laps around your eardrums. Epileptic bagpipes and faraway seal calls rub up against scratching and scraping woodblocks, timestretched into sinister growls or raw and ultra distorted high end melodies, while player pianos are reverbed to death until they become an ominous hum, like a swarm of mechanical wasps pinned down by loping, stumbling Autechre-ish loops and rhythmic workouts: all stuttering thumps and slow motion handclaps, like Timbaland being held down in your bathtub struggling for air. Mysterious and sing-songy Krautrock, jangly and noisy, rambling and shambolic, giving way to shimmery skree, melodies shifting and eventually splitting apart and forming new more abstract melodies, while chirping birds and guttural Orc-ish vocalisations convulse atop a bed of keening chimes and high end swells. Abstract IDM gets deconstructed into shards of jagged dance refuse, beats, shuffling and skittering beneath shifting chords and slabs of minor key sound. Rich sheets of dense sound, layers of sweet ambience, and the metallic hum of excited strings, eventually becoming clipped and static, a hypnotic looped rhythm over accordions, crowd sounds and more bird calls. Grinding scraping pulsing drones unfurl like a small village being over run by snakes made out of bowed cymbals and broken samplers. A dense, crushing melodic downpour, like laying prone in a pool of Rephlex 12"s while hundreds of 'electronica artists' piss on you from above. Hissing ambience created by a choir of tracheotomy patients with malfunctioning hearing aids spewing intercepted shortwave transmissions, interrupted by occasional gunfire; only the bullets are Masonna cassettes and Merzbow cd-r's. A skittery but smooth drone-dirge, like someone drugged Boards of Canada and then pushed them down the stairs, while outside the Fflint guys try desperately to start the getaway car.
Yes, but is it music? Can I dance to it? Will it make the opposite sex swoon and want to sleep with me? No, probably not. Actually, most definitely not. This is not like the music you're used to. This is not music you'll hear on the radio or download from iTunes or hear on a car commercial. This is not music to dance to, or fuck to, or headbang to. Or maybe it is. At least for some of us. But that's precisely what makes Fflint and their divine din so special. And so goddamn important. This is pure sound, sound outside of music. But music the way we wish all music could be: Pure and freed from all the constraints that keeps "popular music" so boring and pointless and well, popular.
This is unpopular music. We are unpopular people.
And we couldn't be happier.
MPEG Stream: THE GIDEON LEECHES "Burra Folly II"
MPEG Stream: COUSIN SILAS "Setting The Clinch"
MPEG Stream: CAVENDISH SANGUINE "Halzaphron"
MPEG Stream: BERKOWITZ LAKE & DAHMER "Occidental Bowl"

V/A Man of Constant Sorrow (Yazoo) cd 16.98
Arrrrggggggghhhhhh!!! When will it end?! Okay, so at least there's no mention of O' Brother Where Art Thou in this collection, but there can be no doubt as to what goose Yazoo is pulling their eggs from this time round. To their credit, Yazoo has an excellent catalog of early rural American music in their possession. Unfortunately, that catalog is not getting any bigger as time goes by. So those of you who have picked up previous concept anthologies on Yazoo such as: 'Times Ain't What They Used To Be', 'Before The Blues', 'Rose Grew Around The Briar', 'Music of Kentucky', and 'My Rough & Rowdy Ways' have probably noticed a lot of overlap in the songs included on them. The end result is that the average person interested in the wares offered by Yazoo picks up a few titles until the redundancy gets to be too great and they stop. Of the 20 tracks on 'Man of Constant Sorrow' half of them have been included on one of these other collections, so you can play your chips on this one if you've got a few of the others or pass. However, if your eye was caught by this title because of its connection to the platinum selling soundtrack to that particular Coen Brothers film and you have not previously delved into the anthology world of Yazoo, this collection may be the thing for you. And I think that's what the intent is anyhoo. 'Man of Constant Sorrow: And other Timeless Mountain Ballads' is the compiler's attempt to demonstrate the rich heritage of brutally straightforward ballads in rural American music from the 30's and 40's. From well known classics such as the album's namesake "John Henry", "John Hardy", "Darling Cora" and a heap of lesser known tiles as well.
RealAudio clip: ARTHUR, EMRY "Man of Constant Sorrow"
RealAudio clip: ROBERTSON, ECK & FAMILY "The Island Unknown Part 1"

V/A Marc Bolan: Great Jewish Music (Tzadik) cd 15.98
'70s glam songster Bolan gets his due as a great composer up there with Serge Gainsbourg and Burt Bacharach in this third installment of Tzadik's tribute series. Worshippers include the Tall Dwarfs, Buckethead, Melvins, Cake Like, Mike Patton, Marc Ribot, Kramer, Sean Lennon & Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto), Trey Spruance (Mr. Bungle), Medeski Martin & Wood, etc.

V/A Marchenland: Musika Aus Den Defa-Marchenfilmen (All Score Media) cd 18.98
A compilation of music and dialogue from over forty years of fairy-tale movies produced in the former GDR??!! Sounds like a total AQ cream dream! And it is... especially if you're part of our lucky German-speaking demographic! While the music magically ranges from wide-eyed, sparkly "why, hello bluebird!"-type crescendos to tense "no, Hans, don't go in there!" moments, we should mention that a hefty portion of the CD is dialogue highlights that are most likely dramatic conversations about golden geese and, um, prinzes und konigs und such, but since our German is limited, we're not entirely sure. Still, it sounds great and seems to transform everyone's mood into something sunny and full of possibility. Plus, the CD booklet contains saturated color photos of busty, blonde women in braids and bearded forestmen. Wunderbar!
MPEG Stream: "Die Ganseprinzessin Und Ihr Pferd Falada"
MPEG Stream: "Drei Haselnusse Fur Aschenbrodel"
MPEG Stream: "Die Goldne Gans"
MPEG Stream: "Konig Drosselbart"

V/A Marvellous Boy: Calypso From West Africa (Honest Jons) cd 17.98

V/A Marvellous Boy: Calypso From West Africa (Honest Jons) 2lp 22.00

V/A Mary Anne Hobbs - Warrior Dubs (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
What the hell more can we say about grime?! Other than we love it. We're obsessed with it. Grime and dubstep are everything we wish hip hop still was (and some still is, the new Clipse absolutely destroys!). Fresh and funky, wild and weird. Fucked up beats and even more fucked up flows. Stuttering hiccupping what the fuck rhythms. It's maddeningly mind bending. And we just can't get enough. And the thing is, we're forced to subsist on a new grime/dubstep release every few weeks or every couple of months, when we could easily be eating up ten times that. This is the only music that stands any chance of getting our non-dancing asses out of our chairs and out onto the dancefloor. And even if dancing is even lower on your list of priorities that it is on ours, this shit is the perfect kicking back music, drifting off, mellowing out, late night dubbed out chill music, it also sounds absolutely amazing blasting in your car. Like we said, we just can't get enough. So here we have a collection of some of the best dubstep (and grime) jams of the last little while compiled by legendary DJ Mary Anne Hobbs. About half of these tracks were recorded or at least remixed specifically for this comp, the rest being all time grime/dubstep classics.
The disc starts off with a track from recent AQ Record of the Weeker Milanese, a furious muted blast of grime-y groove and some killer dancehall style toasting over the top. The grime element is sort of pushed aside in favor of the more blissed out dubstep sound for the rest of the disc, featuring a track from another AQ record of the week Burial, as well as a track from Kode9 & Space Ape whose full length we raved about not too long ago. And of course a track from Kevin Martin's Bug... This whole record is just so dark and deliriously groovy. Beats are all over the place, alternating between shuffling and pounding, slithering and stuttering, huge basslines fuzz and buzz, thick swaths of low end synth threaten your woofers, vocals are minimal, sometimes wild tongue twisting flows, other times growled dancehall toasting, bits of jungle surface here and there, thick swirls of ominous ambience EVERYWHERE. So goddamn good. We've been listening to this non stop!! And every time we play this in the store somebody comes up to find out what it is, and usually ends up buying it. So what else do you need to know. Buy this now!
MPEG Stream: BENGA "Music Box"
MPEG Stream: ANDY STOTT "Black"
MPEG Stream: PLASTICIAN "Cha Vocal"
MPEG Stream: THE BUG "Jah War"

V/A Mary Anne Hobbs - Warrior Dubs (Planet Mu) 3lp 17.98
What the hell more can we say about grime?! Other than we love it. We're obsessed with it. Grime and dubstep are everything we wish hip hop still was (and some still is, the new Clipse absolutely destroys!). Fresh and funky, wild and weird. Fucked up beats and even more fucked up flows. Stuttering hiccupping what the fuck rhythms. It's maddeningly mind bending. And we just can't get enough. And the thing is, we're forced to subsist on a new grime/dubstep release every few weeks or every couple of months, when we could easily be eating up ten times that. This is the only music that stands any chance of getting our non-dancing asses out of our chairs and out onto the dancefloor. And even if dancing is even lower on your list of priorities that it is on ours, this shit is the perfect kicking back music, drifting off, mellowing out, late night dubbed out chill music, it also sounds absolutely amazing blasting in your car. Like we said, we just can't get enough. So here we have a collection of some of the best dubstep (and grime) jams of the last little while compiled by legendary DJ Mary Anne Hobbs. About half of these tracks were recorded or at least remixed specifically for this comp, the rest being all time grime/dubstep classics.
The disc starts off with a track from recent AQ Record of the Weeker Milanese, a furious muted blast of grime-y groove and some killer dancehall style toasting over the top. The grime element is sort of pushed aside in favor of the more blissed out dubstep sound for the rest of the disc, featuring a track from another AQ record of the week Burial, as well as a track from Kode9 & Space Ape whose full length we raved about not too long ago. And of course a track from Kevin Martin's Bug... This whole record is just so dark and deliriously groovy. Beats are all over the place, alternating between shuffling and pounding, slithering and stuttering, huge basslines fuzz and buzz, thick swaths of low end synth threaten your woofers, vocals are minimal, sometimes wild tongue twisting flows, other times growled dancehall toasting, bits of jungle surface here and there, thick swirls of ominous ambience EVERYWHERE. So goddamn good. We've been listening to this non stop!! And every time we play this in the store somebody comes up to find out what it is, and usually ends up buying it. So what else do you need to know. Buy this now!
MPEG Stream: BENGA "Music Box"
MPEG Stream: ANDY STOTT "Black"
MPEG Stream: PLASTICIAN "Cha Vocal"
MPEG Stream: THE BUG "Jah War"

V/A Mary Anne Hobbs : Evangeline (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
The first mix cd from dubstep diva DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, Warrior Dubs, was a sort of greatest hits snapshot of the dubstep/grime scene at the time. Lots of well known names, tons of aQ faves: Milanese, Burial, Kode9, Bug, and loads more. And while it was an incredible comp, for those of us who had already been obsessively tracking down as much grime and dubstep as we could get our hands on, it was a little light on new discoveries, a terrific mix for sure, but one we might have made ourselves. Which is ironic considering that dubstep, like jungle and garage and techno before it, is a genre that thrives on the newest thing, on the latest tracks, so much so that all the great DJ's tend to spin dubplates, unique copies of discs that have yet to be commercially released.
This latest collection from Miss Hobbs is something completely different though. And precisely what we were hoping for. Not only does if feature a whole mess of new names and never-heard-of's amongst the usual suspects, it also spreads out sonically, way beyond the realms of grime or dubstep, incorporating all manner of other electronic musics, but all somehow woven into something incredibly cohesive, and darkly groovy.
Much of this collection is super minimal, laid back and downtempo, lots of murky production and slowly skittering beats, some haunting almost completely ambient tracks, but some serious bangers as well. But before we get to all those, we might as well talk about the biggest surprise here, "Theory Of Machines" by Ben Frost, a nine and a half minute slab of slow burning blurred dronemusic, that over the course of its 9 minutes builds from soft shimmer to dense crumbling Tim Hecker style blurred beauty, to thick caustic blown out soft noise, to an super distorted almost-trip-hop. The sound is immense and epic, and so gorgeous, wreathed in crackle and underpinned by buzzing downtuned lowend, streaked with soaring synths, the track's climax, all skittery beats beneath clouds of hiss and whir and crackle and fuzz is totally intense and gorgeous. And the fact that it's dropped right between a super spaced out reverb drenched out chunk of muddy dubstep and some sun dappled Boards Of Canada style downtempo shuffle, speaks to Hobbs' skills as a DJ. Song choice, arrangement, segues.
Even with the artists we know, Hobbs didn't necessarily pick their big hit, instead opting for the song that best suited the mix, and it pays off. Opening with Ital Tek's glitchy dubby stutter, and closing with Claro Intelecto's hushed techno whisper, a soft washed out dreaminess over a barely there pulse, the tracks in between manages to be all over the map, without sounding random or just thrown together. A grinding buzzing synth heavy grime jam from Wiley follows hot on the heels of Cult Of The 13th Hour's Kode9-ish slow dub, replete with a motorik pulse, some muted muddied skitter, and some deep spoken word vocals. DJ Pinch offers up some super abstract dubstep, the usual synth buzz relegated to a distant murmur, the main rhythm, surrounded by little flurries of tribal shuffle, which is quickly followed up by Magnetic Man's electronic dub, that minus the dubstep synth warble brings to mind On-U-Sound or the Dub Chemists. Surgeon offers up some awesome Kompakt style techno, all looped and hypnotic, minimal and murky, which quickly gives way to a Boxcutter track that almost sounds like some electronic dub infused free jazz, all abstract skitter, crooned vocals, throbbing bass, strange space FX, bits of free freakout, even some whirring organ.
Definitely not the mix for someone looking for a dubstep greatest hits, we've got the recent Steppa's Delight collection among others for that, this is more a collection of modern electronic music, a glimpse into the future of sound, how these various tracks fit together, how electronic music continues to change before our very ears, dub becomes dubstep but what will it become next, techno and grime and downtempo and trip-hop seep back into the 'new' sound and makes it even newer, hybrids of hybrids of hybrids, how these sounds look to the past to reach the future. But more importantly, you can dance to them. Well, sort of.
MPEG Stream: ITAL TEK "Archaic"
MPEG Stream: CULT OF THE 13TH HOUR "The Way Of The Gun"
MPEG Stream: BEN FROST "Theory Of Machines"
MPEG Stream: CLARO INTELECTO "Beautiful Death"

V/A Mary Anne Hobbs : Evangeline (Planet Mu) 4lp 22.00
The first mix cd from dubstep diva DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, Warrior Dubs, was a sort of greatest hits snapshot of the dubstep/grime scene at the time. Lots of well known names, tons of aQ faves: Milanese, Burial, Kode9, Bug, and loads more. And while it was an incredible comp, for those of us who had already been obsessively tracking down as much grime and dubstep as we could get our hands on, it was a little light on new discoveries, a terrific mix for sure, but one we might have made ourselves. Which is ironic considering that dubstep, like jungle and garage and techno before it, is a genre that thrives on the newest thing, on the latest tracks, so much so that all the great DJ's tend to spin dubplates, unique copies of discs that have yet to be commercially released.
This latest collection from Miss Hobbs is something completely different though. And precisely what we were hoping for. Not only does if feature a whole mess of new names and never-heard-of's amongst the usual suspects, it also spreads out sonically, way beyond the realms of grime or dubstep, incorporating all manner of other electronic musics, but all somehow woven into something incredibly cohesive, and darkly groovy.
Much of this collection is super minimal, laid back and downtempo, lots of murky production and slowly skittering beats, some haunting almost completely ambient tracks, but some serious bangers as well. But before we get to all those, we might as well talk about the biggest surprise here, "Theory Of Machines" by Ben Frost, a nine and a half minute slab of slow burning blurred dronemusic, that over the course of its 9 minutes builds from soft shimmer to dense crumbling Tim Hecker style blurred beauty, to thick caustic blown out soft noise, to an super distorted almost-trip-hop. The sound is immense and epic, and so gorgeous, wreathed in crackle and underpinned by buzzing downtuned lowend, streaked with soaring synths, the track's climax, all skittery beats beneath clouds of hiss and whir and crackle and fuzz is totally intense and gorgeous. And the fact that it's dropped right between a super spaced out reverb drenched out chunk of muddy dubstep and some sun dappled Boards Of Canada style downtempo shuffle, speaks to Hobbs' skills as a DJ. Song choice, arrangement, segues.
Even with the artists we know, Hobbs didn't necessarily pick their big hit, instead opting for the song that best suited the mix, and it pays off. Opening with Ital Tek's glitchy dubby stutter, and closing with Claro Intelecto's hushed techno whisper, a soft washed out dreaminess over a barely there pulse, the tracks in between manages to be all over the map, without sounding random or just thrown together. A grinding buzzing synth heavy grime jam from Wiley follows hot on the heels of Cult Of The 13th Hour's Kode9-ish slow dub, replete with a motorik pulse, some muted muddied skitter, and some deep spoken word vocals. DJ Pinch offers up some super abstract dubstep, the usual synth buzz relegated to a distant murmur, the main rhythm, surrounded by little flurries of tribal shuffle, which is quickly followed up by Magnetic Man's electronic dub, that minus the dubstep synth warble brings to mind On-U-Sound or the Dub Chemists. Surgeon offers up some awesome Kompakt style techno, all looped and hypnotic, minimal and murky, which quickly gives way to a Boxcutter track that almost sounds like some electronic dub infused free jazz, all abstract skitter, crooned vocals, throbbing bass, strange space FX, bits of free freakout, even some whirring organ.
Definitely not the mix for someone looking for a dubstep greatest hits, we've got the recent Steppa's Delight collection among others for that, this is more a collection of modern electronic music, a glimpse into the future of sound, how these various tracks fit together, how electronic music continues to change before our very ears, dub becomes dubstep but what will it become next, techno and grime and downtempo and trip-hop seep back into the 'new' sound and makes it even newer, hybrids of hybrids of hybrids, how these sounds look to the past to reach the future. But more importantly, you can dance to them. Well, sort of.
MPEG Stream: ITAL TEK "Archaic"
MPEG Stream: CULT OF THE 13TH HOUR "The Way Of The Gun"
MPEG Stream: BEN FROST "Theory Of Machines"
MPEG Stream: CLARO INTELECTO "Beautiful Death"

V/A Mary Anne Hobbs: Wild Angels (Planet Mu) cd 14.98
Latest collection of forward thinking electronica from UK DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, this latest expands her focus from mostly grime and dubstep, to techno and hip hop and all sorts of variations and microgenres in between.
The compilation begins with a track by Mark Pritchard, who we had never heard of before, but his track "?" is a gorgeous bit of minimal dronemusic, that begins super spare and only begins to blossom near the end, with the drone splintering into woozy minor key melodies, creating a sort of bittersweet ambient drift, which leads right into a jam from Hudson Mohawke (Best band name ever? Quite possibly!), a lurching stuttery glitchy electronic freak out, all splatters of 8-bit beep and bloop, weird female grunts, and a killer hip hop beat underneath, warped and so good. Mike Slott is up next with a warbly slow jam, another flurry of blips and weird truncated vocals, pretty and sunshiney, but still plenty weird, which butts up against Brackles, some tripped out synth heavy techno, and so it goes, all over the map for sure, although there is some sort of sonic thread connecting all of the jams here.
We're still partial to the dubstep, and Hobbs has gathered up some killers, Mono/Poly dishes up some strangled stutter step, heavy on the glitch and crunch, plenty of bass warble, but here the treble is cranked, so that warble is more like a little blast of static. Architeq kicks up some serious warble, with a rad loping beat, and some thick thick bass, Tranqill kills it with some dubbed out hip hop, lots of Western twang, buzzy sitar, creepy flurries of
processed old school computer sounds, and Untold is super spare, and skeletal, lots of space, the beats spare and skittery, with a distinctly Eastern flair. Those jams are scattered throughout, amidst hazy almost pop ambience, glittery house-y grooves, fuzzy indie electronic pop and the killer closer, maybe our favorite track from the Legion Of Two record we made Record Of The Week a while back, some seriously grim and heavy live drummer post industrial dub step heaviness.
MPEG Stream: MONO/POLY "Red And Yellow Toys"
MPEG Stream: ARCHITEQ "Sleeping Bear Lament (Take Remix)"
MPEG Stream: TRANQILL "Payroll (Paul White's Clean Dub)"
MPEG Stream: UNTOLD "Discipline"

V/A Mary Anne Hobbs: Wild Angels (Planet Mu) 2lp 17.98
Latest collection of forward thinking electronica from UK DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, this latest expands her focus from mostly grime and dubstep, to techno and hip hop and all sorts of variations and microgenres in between.
The compilation begins with a track by Mark Pritchard, who we had never heard of before, but his track "?" is a gorgeous bit of minimal dronemusic, that begins super spare and only begins to blossom near the end, with the drone splintering into woozy minor key melodies, creating a sort of bittersweet ambient drift, which leads right into a jam from Hudson Mohawke (Best band name ever? Quite possibly!), a lurching stuttery glitchy electronic freak out, all splatters of 8-bit beep and bloop, weird female grunts, and a killer hip hop beat underneath, warped and so good. Mike Slott is up next with a warbly slow jam, another flurry of blips and weird truncated vocals, pretty and sunshiney, but still plenty weird, which butts up against Brackles, some tripped out synth heavy techno, and so it goes, all over the map for sure, although there is some sort of sonic thread connecting all of the jams here.
We're still partial to the dubstep, and Hobbs has gathered up some killers, Mono/Poly dishes up some strangled stutter step, heavy on the glitch and crunch, plenty of bass warble, but here the treble is cranked, so that warble is more like a little blast of static. Architeq kicks up some serious warble, with a rad loping beat, and some thick thick bass, Tranqill kills it with some dubbed out hip hop, lots of Western twang, buzzy sitar, creepy flurries of
processed old school computer sounds, and Untold is super spare, and skeletal, lots of space, the beats spare and skittery, with a distinctly Eastern flair. Those jams are scattered throughout, amidst hazy almost pop ambience, glittery house-y grooves, fuzzy indie electronic pop and the killer closer, maybe our favorite track from the Legion Of Two record we made Record Of The Week a while back, some seriously grim and heavy live drummer post industrial dub step heaviness.
For a limited time, the compact disc version of Wild Angles is on sale! $2 off regular list price (which normally would be $14.98) for the next two weeks. Dig it!
MPEG Stream: MONO/POLY "Red And Yellow Toys"
MPEG Stream: ARCHITEQ "Sleeping Bear Lament (Take Remix)"
MPEG Stream: TRANQILL "Payroll (Paul White's Clean Dub)"
MPEG Stream: UNTOLD "Discipline"

V/A MAS Confusion (K7 / Music Aus Strom) cd 17.98
Almost a decade has passed since Warp Records issued "Real Intelligence" -- a compilation of electronic music that expanded the boundaries of techno beyond the mere utility of club music. That compilation has often been viewed as the blueprint for IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) introducing artists like Black Dog, Autechre, B12, and Aphex Twin. The aesthetic successes that these artists have enjoyed during the ensuing years has been both a blessing and a curse to the genre, as many of the IDM proponents have indulged in the rich veneer of IDM (with its fractured breakbeats, minor chord melodies, complex algorithmic patterns, aloof references towards obscure musique concrete composers, a techgnostic favoritism of circuitry over flesh, etc.) as opposed to the conceptualization behind IDM as a continuous examination of how 'intelligence' can marry 'dance music.' "MAS Confusion" is a compilation that undeniably falls into the worship of IDM surfaces. Curated by Don and Roel Funcken (the brothers who call themselves Funckarma) from the boxes of demo tapes collecting dust at the house of Michael Fakesch (from Funkstorung), "MAS Confusion" follows the same formulas that Funkstorung liberally acquired from Autechre. There is no inquiry or new solutions being put forward into the IDM discourse, but instead offers some exceptionally well-executed renditions of Autechre, Aphex, and the Autechre side-project Gescom. The artists in question include Metamatics, Lusine ICL, Stars As Eyes, Zela, Autophmc, Adam Johnson, Quench, Tomato Weirdo, Michael Fakesch, and Mr. Projectile.
RealAudio clip: MICHAEL FAKESCH "We Got A Generator"

V/A Maschinelle + Strategeme (Ritornell) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Maschinelle + Strategeme", the latest compilation of blip bleep minimalism courtesy of Mille Plateux imprint Ritornell, is the curatorial handy work of a certain Kit Clayton. The common thread that links the work on this compilation together being the recurrent implementation of cyclical structures imposed onto fabricated electronic sound. With: Autopoieses, Kim Cascone, Taylor Dupree, Stilluppsteypa, Dean Roberts, Terre Thaemlitz, Christoph Charles, and more.

V/A Mash Tha Place Up: Ambush Records Comp (Wabanna/Ambush) cd 13.98
Just in, a collection of tracks previously released only as limited edition 12"s on South London's very rad Ambush label, featuring some of the best underground digital hardcore, drill 'n bass noisemakers around: DJ Scud, Shizuo, Give Up, Din-S.T. (aka Fever), and others. Note: Wabana's vinyl of this is limited to 500, and the import cd has a slightly different selection of tracks.

V/A Mash Tha Place Up: Ambush Records Comp (Wabanna/Ambush) lp 16.98
Just in, a collection of tracks previously released only as limited edition 12"s on South London's very rad Ambush label, featuring some of the best underground digital hardcore, drill 'n bass noisemakers around: DJ Scud, Shizuo, Give Up, Din-S.T. (aka Fever), and others. Note: Wabana's vinyl of this is limited to 500, and the import cd has a slightly different selection of tracks.

V/A Masonic. (Hymen Records) 2cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The "Masonic." compilation celebrates five years of operation for the Germanic tekno / noirish IDM label with a bunch of mostly unreleased tracks from m2 (aka Panacea), Funkstorung, Scorn, Lilienthal, Venetian Snares, Somatic Responses, Lusine ICL, Bochum Welt, Neutral, Dead Hollywood Stars, Beefcake, Immanent, Gridlock, Xingu Hill, Substanz-T, Starfish Pool, Noosa Hedz, and tons more. Pretty much acts as the missing link between contemporary IDM and Skinny Puppy's lineage throughout the '80s.
RealAudio clip: NEUTRAL "Blue Paper"
RealAudio clip: FUNKSTORUNG "Beinh"
RealAudio clip: TRIFFIC PROJECT "Psalm 66"

V/A Massive B 2G1 Answer Meets Dun Dem (Massive B) cd 16.98
New collection from New York dancehall label Massive B featuring cuts by artists toasting over Massive B's new improved upon -- punchier bass -- "2G1 Answer" and "Dun Dem" rhythms. 17 cuts (8 using the Answer rhythm and 9 using Dun Dem) featuring such notables as Jr. Kelly ("Ghetto Region"), Elephant Man ("The Anthem"), Burro Banton ("Settle Yours"), Half Pint ("She's Fever"), Lexxus ("Nine Dem"), Bounty Killer ("Fire With Fire"), and much more. This is a collection geared more for die hard dancehall fans DJ's, as most people go nuts hearing the same rhythm repeated over and over. A better choice might be to pick up one of the Massive B's 7"s that were culled together for this compilation.
RealAudio clip: ELEPHANT MAN "The Anthem (Answer rhythm)"
RealAudio clip: LEXXUS "Nine Dem (Dun Dem rhythm)"

V/A Massive B 2G1 Answer Meets Dun Dem (Massive B) lp 12.98
New collection from New York dancehall label Massive B featuring cuts by artists toasting over Massive B's new improved upon -- punchier bass -- "2G1 Answer" and "Dun Dem" rhythms. 17 cuts (8 using the Answer rhythm and 9 using Dun Dem) featuring such notables as Jr. Kelly ("Ghetto Region"), Elephant Man ("The Anthem"), Burro Banton ("Settle Yours"), Half Pint ("She's Fever"), Lexxus ("Nine Dem"), Bounty Killer ("Fire With Fire"), and much more. This is a collection geared more for die hard dancehall fans DJ's, as most people go nuts hearing the same rhythm repeated over and over. A better choice might be to pick up one of the Massive B's 7"s that were culled together for this compilation.

V/A Mata La Pena: A Compilation Of International Music (Mississippi) lp 16.98
MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!!
After a label collaboration (String of Pearls) and a (sort-of) label fake out (A Orillas Del Magdalena), we now have a genuine Mississippi Records compilation of International selections that feels like the Mississippi Records of old (dig the hand-assembled covers and Chris Johanson drawing adorning the front!). And while we say this about every Mississippi release, we really mean it when we say this one is killer! What we like about it most is its lack of explanatory text, so the only clue to the provenance of the song is through the song title and the name of the singers or groups, and even some of them are unknown. This also makes locating the where's and whens of the song a bit tricky, but it forces us to listen to the songs as they are, and how they relate to and flow into one another. In the spirit of the record, we did no online research to find out where each song came from, so we can't tell you if the song "Danza Mora" by Canajas is Spanish Flamenco or Romanian Gypsy music or if the group called "The Tiger" is Caribbean, Cuban, or African or none of these at all. The Dezurik Sisters' "Arizona Yodeller" seems straightforward enough, until you listen to it and find out it has more in common aurally with the Pygmy sounding Hiran 'Ny Tanoran 'Ny than Ernest Rodgers 1920's (again, guessing) cabaret tale "Willie The [drug-addicted] Chimney Sweeper". Even the blues song, "Honey In The Rock" by Blind Mamie Forehand sounds like it comes from the same plaintive place as the record opener by an unknown female Southeast Asian a capella singer. Add to the mix some tropical island jams, a Mexican chanteuse with an almost punkish delivery and some Cumbia Tipica, and we're immersed in transcendent global sounds without the globe. Mata La Pena roughly translates to "It Kills The Grief", but these lonely sounds also fill the heart. Amazing!

V/A Matador At 21 (Matador) 2lp 14.98
Holy cow! Matador Records has turned 21!! Hard to believe that it's been over 2 decades, and that what was once a tiny little indie label has turned into one of, if not THEE biggest independent labels in the world. But it's not all that surprising when you look at the records Matador has released, and the bands who call (or called) Matador home, just off the top of our heads: Pavement, Guided By Voices, Interpol, Yo La Tengo, Bardo Pond, Chavez, Belle And Sebastian, Matmos, Arab Strap, Cat Power, New Pornographers, Fucked Up, Sonic Youth, Ted Leo... We could go on, but you get the drift, in fact, if you're reading this, odds are you own a whole bunch of those records, and your house is probably overflowing with Matador jams.
So to celebrate the big TWO-ONE, Matador had a huge party in Las Vegas, with tons of awesome bands playing, and released this incredible 6cd box set (or 2lp, not so incredible, more on that at the end of the review, vinyl folks might as well skip the next bit as it only applies to the cd version). Six discs, a massive sprawling greatest hits collection, spanning the label's entire history, chronologically. The first disc is maybe the most exciting, as it features tons of the lesser known Matador outfits: Dust Devils, Toiling Midgets, Bailter Space, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Come, Bettie Serveert, Chain Gang, Circle X, H.P. Zinker as well as Unsane, Superchunk, Railroad Jerk (one of Andee's favorite bands EVER), Teenage Fanclub and more. The next few discs feature all of the bands mentioned in the first paragraph, as well as Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Pizzicato Five, 18th Dye, Guitar Wolf, San Francisco Seals, Helium, Boards Of Canada, Spoon, Pole, Mogwai, Cornelius, Dizzee Rascal, Dead Meadow, Mission Of Burma, Early Man, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Shearwater, Jennifer O'Connor, Stephen Malkmus, Lavender Diamond, Kurt Vile, Times New Viking, Jay Reatard, Harlem, Ted Leo, Magic Kids, Perfume Genius, Cold Cave and more more more! As if that weren't enough, there's a sixth disc featuring all unreleased recordings from Matador's 10th anniversary show back in 1999, live tracks from Pavement, Come, Bardo Pond, Cat Power and Mogwai!
Those all come in a super swank box, with an 80 page book, packed with liner notes, a history of the label, photos, emails and other goodies, and finally, 36 custom Matador poker chips (in keeping with their Las Vegas celebration, we presume).
Phew! Basically the raddest Matador mixtape EVER.
Vinyl folks are not so luck, the lp version is a more stripped down greatest hits double lp, featuring a handful of jams from Matador and Matador sublabel True Panther Sounds from Fucked Up, Sonic Youth, Kurt Vile, Yo La Tengo, Kurt Vile, Jay Reatard, Times New Viking, Ted Leo, Cold Cave, Girls, Interpol, Cat Power, Delorean and a few more. Still a pretty excellent mix/collection, but in this case, seems like probably the cd version is the way to go, $43 for 6 discs, poker chips and a swank box is not bad at all...

V/A Matador At 21 (Matador) 6cd 43.00
Just found a couple of these stashed away in the closet, and realized we oughta list it again, as they'd make a pretty dang cool present for that indie rock music nerd in your life...
Holy cow! Matador Records has turned 21!! Hard to believe that it's been over 2 decades, and that what was once a tiny little indie label has turned into one of, if not THEE biggest independent label in the world. But it's not all that surprising when you look at the records Matador has released, and the bands who call (or called) Matador home, just off the top of our heads: Pavement, Guided By Voices, Interpol, Yo La Tengo, Bardo Pond, Chavez, Belle And Sebastian, Matmos, Arab Strap, Cat Power, New Pornographers, Fucked Up, Sonic Youth, Ted Leo... We could go on, but you get the drift, in fact, if you're reading this, odds are you own a whole bunch of those records, and your house is probably overflowing with Matador jams.
So to celebrate the big TWO-ONE, Matador had a huge party in Las Vegas, with tons of awesome bands playing, and released this incredible 6cd box set. Six discs, a massive sprawling greatest hits collection, spanning the label's entire history, chronologically. The first disc is maybe the most exciting, as it features tons of the lesser known Matador outfits: Dust Devils, Toiling Midgets, Bailter Space, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Come, Bettie Serveert, Chain Gang, Circle X, H.P. Zinker as well as Unsane, Superchunk, Railroad Jerk (one of Andee's favorite bands EVER), Teenage Fanclub and more. The next few discs feature all of the bands mentioned in the first paragraph, as well as Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Pizzicato Five, 18th Dye, Guitar Wolf, San Francisco Seals, Helium, Boards Of Canada, Spoon, Pole, Mogwai, Cornelius, Dizzee Rascal, Dead Meadow, Mission Of Burma, Early Man, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Shearwater, Jennifer O'Connor, Stephen Malkmus, Lavender Diamond, Kurt Vile, Times New Viking, Jay Reatard, Harlem, Ted Leo, Magic Kids, Perfume Genius, Cold Cave and more more more! As if that weren't enough, there's a sixth disc featuring all unreleased recordings from Matador's 10th anniversary show back in 1999, live tracks from Pavement, Come, Bardo Pond, Cat Power and Mogwai!
Those all come in a super swank box, with an 80 page book, packed with liner notes, a history of the label, photos, emails and other goodies, and finally, 36 custom Matador poker chips (in keeping with their Las Vegas celebration, we presume).
Phew! Basically the raddest Matador mixtape EVER!

V/A Matador At Fifteen (Matador) 3cd 14.98
It's a Matador Records 15th birthday fest, and the party favors are two cds and a dvd containing highlights from 1999 through 2004, the years since their tenth birthday compilation!
The dvd features a dozen videos by the likes of Pavement, Mogwai, Wisdom Of Harry, New Pornographers, Mary Timony, Stephen Malkmus, Interpol, Cat Power, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Matmos and Cornelius. On the audio side of things, one disc compiles eighteen 'greatest hits' by artists such as Guided By Voices, Interpol, the New Pornographers, Yo La Tengo, Matmos, Bardo Pond, Dead Meadow, Belle & Sabastian, Mogwai, Cat Power, Mission Of Burma among others. The second disc is the crowd pleaser tho' with sixteen rare and previously unreleased songs kicking off with the compilation's best track "Graceland" by the New Pornographers -- totally great! it's worth buying this comp for this song alone! -- plus Stephen Malkmus live in Spain, Mission Of Burma live in Boston, Yo La Tengo live acoustic in Australia as well as remixes of Mogwai and Preston School of Industry... oh yeah, and did we mention the New Pornographers' "Graceland"? We did!
MPEG Stream: NEW PORNOGRAPHERS "Graceland"
MPEG Stream: YO LA TENGO "Deeper Into Movies"

V/A Matanzas Cuba, ca. 1957: Afro-Cuban Sacred Music From The Countryside (Smithsonian Folkways) cd 15.98
Second in a pair of new releases of early Cuban music on Smithsonian Folkways. They provide their own very good description here: "Recorded in Matanzas in 1957, these ritual rhythms provide a direct link to the music of 19th-century colonial Cuba, and provide a window into the religious life of the first generations of Africans who worked the sugar mills. Collected by Lydia Cabrera and Josefina Tarafa, these recordings preserve extremely rare bembŽ lukumi ritual drumming used by practitioners of Santer’a to summon the gods or salute Cuba's African nations. It is remarkably different from the urban style heard today in Havana, although some of the same songs were sung in both city and countryside. With origins in Yoruba religion in West Africa, this music reveals the roots of today's Afro-Cuban ceremonial practices." As usual with S/F, you get almost as much written information as you do audio. A detailed 28 page booklet of liner notes and track annotations is a valuble accompaniment to this issue.
RealAudio clip: "Toque Oyo"
RealAudio clip: "Babaluaiye"

V/A Matter 10.2007 (Tape Of The Month) (self-released) cassette 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in September we got the first installment in what was meant to be a sort of tape of the month thing organized and recorded by two local guys, one who you all might know from his weirdo black metal band Amacoma (he also plays in Black Fiction and 3). It was a huge hit (we do have a few copies left if you missed it) and so they immediately got to work on the October installment. So we know what you're thinking, but it wasn't all our fault, just mostly. We got the October tape, right at the end of the month, but then stuff got crazy and we're only now getting around to reviewing it and it's December! But fuck it, just imagine that ten is a twelve and we'll be fine, it's just as cool and weird and varied as the first volume, with each dude taking a side of the tape, and this one like the first is essential for lovers of weirdo black metal as there's a brand new Amocoma track!
And it's a doozy, worth the price of admission alone. So buzzy and washed out, it's barely even black metal, it's more like some cavernous black ambient epic, the riffs more like throbbing pulses, the vocals hissy clouds of static, grim and fuzzed out, but because of the extreme blur and smear it's almost like black metal pop ambient. Here and there, the riffage does coalesce into extreme blackness, or splinters off into some spare clean guitar slither, but it always returns to the blossoming avalanche of black buzz.
There's a track by a band called Hash Hashish, that's a serious slab of gorgeous distorted dreampop, with some weird almost death metal vocals mixed in as well as some circusy keyboards and a dense wall of My Bloody Valentine blur. The 3 Leafs song is an awesome stretch of super spaced out druggy ambience, all whirling FX and disembodied voices, percussive thud and dark rumbling whir.
The flip side is packed with sonic weirdness, it's hard to differentiate which is which (ah, good old tapes!), but there are two tracks by Debre Damo, and two by Atom Eve, they all sort of blend into each other, but it's all awesome. Abstract electronic experimentation, bleeps and bloops, whirs and shimmers, very musiq concrete, woven into dense tripped out garagey space rock with thick guitars and pounding drums and of course lots and lots of FX. Weird alien guitar experiments are stretched out into crumbling glitchy ambience, it seems like maybe the names are just to keep it interesting as the whole side plays like a single piece.
As always, dying to hear more from all of these outfits, and keep listening to that Amocoma track over and over...

V/A Matter 9.2007 (Tape Of The Month) (self-released) cassette 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
First in a new series of monthly tape releases from two local guys, one who AQ customers might know from his weirdo black metal band Amocoma (as well as playing in Black Fiction and 3 Leafs among others) and the other, his partners in musical crime. For this inaugural tape, the two decided to each compile one side of the tape, offering their own take on the sounds they've been making, discovering, and digging.Ê
Side A begins with a blast and never lets up, the first bandÊBereavement delivers aÊsuper dense blast of thrashing black noise, drenched in reverb, a furious chaos, a whirling dervish of sound, with strange little interludes that are just as quickly swallowed up again. Black Fiction deliver some damaged tribalism, all simple drumming, reverbed chanting, jagged shardsÊ of upper register guitar, streaks of feedback, some creepy ritualistic ambience for sure. Then there's an unreleased track from Amocoma, a glorious muddy murky soundscape of black buzz and blown out drone (anyone who missed out on the full length should buy it NOW)... the side continues on, leaning toward the chaotic and heavy, another track from Bereavement, as well as more Black Fiction and tons of other cool stuff.Ê
The B side begins with two tracks from the awesomely monickered Death Cheetah, who traffic in a weird sort of lo-fi, Hella meets Justice, synth and drums ramjam, funky and chaotic, heavy and weird as all get out. The cool thing about this tape (or frustrating thing depending on your angle), is that it's sort of difficult to tell where one song ends and another begins, they're all sort of tangled up, blending into one another, some groups sound similar, so their tracks almost sound like two parts of the same track. The B side continues with a bunch of songs from Atom Eve (we think), who sound like some crossbreeding experiment between Finnish folk and NY free noise a la NNCK or SHOTM, fluttering flutes, tribal drumming, simple guitar riffing, looped and circular... and this side continues on, more from Death Cheetah, some spaced out ambient glitchiness (Man In San Diego?) and a bunch more Atom Eve.
A killer glimpse into the mad musical minds of these mystery men, a nice sampling of some SF underground sounds, and a brand new Amocoma track to top it all off! Can't wait to hear what October's installment has in store...

V/A Maximum Freakbeat (Past & Present) cd 17.98
'60s beat music gettin' crazy and psychedelic, but not too flower-powery psych, more hard and frenzied, that's "freakbeat", music that took throbbing distortion and unhinged vocals to outta control heights never before heard on this planet, and rarely since with this much swinging sixties style. The early Who, maybe The Sonics in the USA, that's freakbeat: rockin' stuff to which terms like "deranged" and "psychotic" can be applied with abandon. Supposedly most authentic freakbeat dates from 1966, certainly many of the 21 tracks here do, on this killer comp of bands from the UK and elsewhere doing the freakbeat thing. You've heard of the Troggs, they're on there doing "Lost Girl", maybe also you know Syndicat ("Crawdaddy Simone") and Wimple Witch ("Save My Soul"), if you do you'll be curious to hear the other acts you maybe haven't heard of, and if you DON'T know those songs, you're in for a treat, they're classics indeed. Sinister grooves, sneering vox, this stuff was about as punk as it got back then, catchy and chaotic. The besides the three we mentioned, the lineup here includes Elois, Red Squares, Truth, Lee Kings, Crying Shames, Southern Sound, Missing Links, Mark Four, Wheels, Game, Mascots, Fairies, Motions, Thor's Hammer, Allen Pound's Get Rich, Primitives, and Ricketts. Originally released about 10 years ago, now back in print thanks to Past & Present, who appreciate a good compilation (see their own Maximum Prog highlighted this list for an example).
MPEG Stream: WIMPLE WITCH "Save My Soul"
MPEG Stream: TROGGS "Lost Girl"
MPEG Stream: THOR'S HAMMER "I Don't Care"
MPEG Stream: ALLEN POUND'S GET RICH "Searchin' In The Wilderness"

V/A Maximum Prog (Past & Present) cd 17.98
Those industrious diggers over at the Past & Present label bring us another cool comp of vintage jams, subtitled "16 Rare Gems From The Golden Age Of British Progressive Rock", though the title itself pretty much tells you all you need to know: MAXIMUM PROG! Which is a bit of a bold claim, given just how "maximum" much prog can be by definition, the prog genre all about indulgence, excess, and bombast, that is if you take the likes of ELP as a prime example. And we do (bow down to ELP!). So at any rate, even if you believe as we do that too much progginess is never enough, this disc certainly will provide plenty more than the recommended MINIMUM daily dose of the stuff!!
There's well over an hour of music here, but squeezing 16 bands on means that the compliers necessarily could NOT pick the most epic-length songs, so there's no 20+ minute side long suites here, in fact, nothing even in the double digits, some songs even as short as (gasp) 3 minutes, like "normal" pop music.
But aside from the relatively reined-in track lengths, this stuff is definitely the proggermost of the poppermost! If not the toppermost of the proggermost, in terms of renown - while we consider ourselves pretty "into" prog, the some of these acts being well off our radar, we'd heard of only maybe a third of 'em previously (though perusal of the informative liner notes reveal many connections to other bands and artists we do know). Here's the whole lineup: Aardvark, Abacus, Big Sleep, Brainchild, Czar, Don Shinn, Goliath, Heaven, 9:30 Fly, Quicksand, Quiet World, Rock Workshop, Samurai, Second Hand, Sweet Slag, and Titus Groan. All tracks circa 1969-'73, most from right around '70 and '71. And as you'd expect, the music here is rather more complexified than just plain ol' psych pop or hard rock, variously employing classical-sounding keyboards or fluttering flutes or jazzy horns, but not forgetting the acid rock guitar action either, with instrumental flurries and ambitious arrangements and (yup) plenty of bombast... but also some killer grooves and catchy melodies.
A few of our faves have got to be the heavy, distorted keyboard riffage of Aardvark's still rather lovely "Copper Sunset", the urgently freaked out "Wade In The Water" from Rock Workshop (a group featuring cult jazz/rock guitarist Ray Russell, playing a wild solo here) and Sweet Slag's rollicking n' riffy "Specific", amongst non-specific others. There's lots of nifty prog treats here, we're guessing the compliers probably cherrypicked some of the best tracks even from what might prove to be somewhat dodgy full-lengths...
Basically an unofficial, overachieving volume 5 in Past & Present's popular Electric Asylum series, as far as we're concerned, so if you liked those check this out too! Booklet includes notes and discographical info about each obscure band, along with vintage photos and clippings.
MPEG Stream: AARDVARK "Copper Sunset"
MPEG Stream: ROCK WORKSHOP "Wade In The Water"
MPEG Stream: HEAVEN "This Time Tomorrow"

V/A May 6, 2001 (And/OAR) cd 13.98

V/A Medical Milestones (Hot Air) cd 14.98
"Medical Milestones" collects all of the super limited 7" singles that Stock, Hausen, and Walkman released on their Hot Air label. Upon looking back at all of these singles through this compilation, it's possible to conjecture that all Hot Air had in mind was releasing a bunch of fart jokes, not really bothering to disguise them as art. Stahlgren & Fergusen's medical presentation of the internal sounds of a 'constricted tranverse colon,' Stock, Hausen, and Walkman's aptly titled "Sphincter," and Gino Robair's squeaky fart sounds of bowed styrofoam are the obvious points in favor of idea that it's all about passing gas. Nic Birmingham's frenetic drill & bass numbers and Janek Schaefer's neato conceptual piece (in which he sent a voice operated tape recorder through the mail to surreptitiously capture what goes on behind the scenes at the post office) do offer keep this low brow compilation from getting too, um, stale.

V/A Meet Me In The Time Tunnel (Wizzard In Vinyl) cd 17.98

V/A Melenudos! (Gorilla) cd 24.00
Smokin' collection of Spanish groovers and rockers from the '60s and '70s. The opener from Rudy Ventura could get any disco floor shaking, past or present, while the rest of the record goes more in a catchy pop/rock direction with healthy doses of soul, funk and garage, reminding us a lot of that great Sensacional Soul collection we went crazy for a few years back. Barely any of these artists were familiar to us before except for maybe Los Shakers and Los Rollers, which is fine with us, as it's always exciting to get turned on to all sorts of awesome Spanish sounds we weren't hip to. The price tag might be a bit hefty, but luckily the songs on this collection are well worth the price of admission!
MPEG Stream: RUDY VENTURA "Sigo Sonando"
MPEG Stream: LOS SHAKERS "Pafff...Bum"
MPEG Stream: LOS ARCHIDUQUES "Lamento De Gaitas"

V/A Mellow Mellow: Original 1970s Smooth Grooves & Chilled Breaks (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 Melodii Tuvi: Throat Songs And Folk Tunes From Tuva (Dust-To-Digital) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There is no more powerful form of vocalizing than Tuvan throat singing. Tibetan chants, opera, death metal grunts, they all pale in comparison to the gorgeous multi-toned 'whistle singing' that throat singers use to create two distinct tones at once, throat singing is one of the few truly mysterious singing styles, and one that still remains difficult to understand, with no real scientific explanation as to how it is actually done, merely educated guesses. The style has been popularized worldwide by the group Huun-Huur-Tu, who have been performing and recording for almost 20 years, in fact recently they performed here in SF. And speaking to the above mentioned power and mystery, we happen to know that in attendance were several local extreme metal musicians, who for years had been trying to learn to throat sing! We've even mentioned in a review or two how amazing a metal band with a throat singing vocalist would be. Maybe some day...
These recordings from 1969, originally only released in the Soviet Union, are only now being released worldwide for the first time. And like most of the Tuvan music we've heard, it's totally mesmerizing, utterly unique, and so beautiful. There are several distinct styles, but most involve the vocalist producing two tones at once, a low raspy buzz, and a high pitched whistle, the buzz acting as a background for the whistle like melodies. The sound is so completely unique, unlike anything you've ever heard, unless you've heard Tuvan throat singing before. Typically, the singes voices tend to sound a bit like Popeye, a raspy croak, that slips seamlessly into that haunting multi-toned whistle/buzz. Sometimes the sound is warm and shimmery, the two notes, the tones perfectly meshed, other times, the vocals are a long drawn out froglike croak, the whistle not in counterpoint as much as the two tone s being produced simultaneously, often as a harmony to an instrumental melody. And the instruments are quite unique too, lots of buzzing strings, Tuvan instruments, of one, two, three or more strings, much like a fiddle, or cello, various woodwinds and of course the Jew's Harp, which is the perfect accompaniment to throat singing.
The instrumental passages here convey the same sort of spirit even sans vocals, moody and melancholic, longing and wistful, the strings buzz and shimmer, long drawn out tones making up slowly unfolding melodies.
The final two tracks are perhaps the most unique. One features solo Jew's Harp, but with the player incorporating a throat singing style, turning the harp's unique sound into an even more unique, twisted melodic vocalized buzz. And the final track, is one of the few examples we've heard of female singing from the region, and while the woman here does not throat sing per se, her voice is lovely, and the melody haunting, the plucked strings perfectly intertwined with the emotive vocalizing. So lovely.
In fact this whole record is fantastic. Anyone who already loves the music of Tuva will want to add this to their collection, and anyone who is hearing this stuff for the first time, will, like most of us, probably become obsessed and need to track down everything they can. It's that powerful.
Includes a massive booklet with new liner notes, photos and an essay on throat singing.
MPEG Stream: OORJAK HUNASHTAAR-OOL "Reka Alash"
MPEG Stream: OORJAK HUNASHTAAR-OOL "Bayan-Kol"
MPEG Stream: SAT MANTSAKAY "TuvinSkiye Narodniye Napevy"
MPEG Stream: KARA-SAI AK-OOL "Uzun-Khoyug"

V/A Meme 001 (Meme) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Minimalist packaging for minimalist music. A stark white cover exercises its visual austerity while the delicate pulsings of CM Von Hausswolff, Stillupstyepa, Ryoji Ikeda, and Rehberg & Bauer (Mego) stand next to the melancholic Fahey strum of Jim O'Rourke and Loren Mazzacane Connors. This is the first release from this label and a very interesting one at that!

V/A Menagerie #1 (Blackest Rainbow) cd 16.98
Are you one of the many aQ customers just waiting for the perfect compilation of psych folk goodness from around the world? Well, illustrator Jake Blanchard and the Blackest Rainbow label have answered your call. They've complied 10 tracks from the most prominent psych-folk gurus around including MV & EE, the Skygreen Leopards, and Ben Nash! There's also a few tracks from some not-so-well-know folkies who are fresh to the scene and ready to impress, like Cam Deas (young solo guitarist from Manchester), Winter Drones (a member of Hush Arbor's live band) and Jerusalem and the Starbaskets. Also included are two live tracks from the hallowed Hush Arbors and Beequeen. Housed in super beautiful silk screened covers with illustrations by Jake Blanchard himself, Menagerie was pressed in a limited edition of 500 on cd and should NOT be missed!
MPEG Stream: CAM DEAS "Steel Gave Me Fire"
MPEG Stream: HUSH ARBORS "Gone"

V/A Menagerie #2 (Blackest Rainbow) lp 25.00
People have been clamoring for this long in the works compilation from UK label Blackest Rainbow, mostly for the two looooooong exclusive tracks from SF space kraut combo Moon Duo and French psychedelic dronefolk duo Natural Snow Buildings, and those tracks do rule, and are well worth the price of admission on their own, but there's way more going on, both sonically and visually. Eight exclusive tracks on the lp, including a handful of bands we had never even heard of, as well as a printed full color zine, featuring original artwork from 8 different artists, presumably with each artist's piece representing one of the tracks.
Let's start with the vinyl, and with Moon Duo, who offer up another fantastic, sprawling synth heavy psychedelic space groove blowout, looped, motorik and mesmerizing, the guitar and keyboard locked into pulsing fuzzed out melodies, the guitars buzzy and crunchy, the synths thick and spacey, heavily reverbed vox floating over the top, the whole thing laced with awesome super melodic, warped and woozy psychedelic leads. Murky, dreamy, druggy, a whole lot of Spacemen 3, a whole lot of krautrock, nods to fellow astral travelers like White Hills and the Heads, and like Moon Duo related outfit Wooden Shjips, a little Doors as well, albeit WAY more tripped out and abstract.
The other main attraction comes courtesy of Natural Snow Buildings, who offer up a gorgeous soundscape of luminescent layered guitars and sprawling epic slow motion melodies, the vibe dreamily dark and majestic, a little brooding and ominous, a smoldering slow build, that eventually settles and slips back into a more tranquil drift, an almost new agey haze, laced with soaring wordless vocals, steel string guitars and deep lush astral shimmer.
Beyond that, there's Akron/Family's warm soft sun dappled psychedelia, crystalline acoustic guitars, clouds of processed melodic drift, sweetly dramatic and lush, WAND's seventies style West Coast country folk pop, acoustic guitars, piano, simple percussion, and heartfelt vocals, Joanne Robertson and Matthew Ashworth's hushed doomfolk dronescape, all blurred buzz and spidery melodies, Married In Berdichev's dreamy washed out psychfolk, gauzy streaks of fractured melody, layered loops and jangly percussion, underpinning more dramatic vocals and finishing with a squall of soft noise, Seadog's poppy folky soft psychedelia, rife with lush strings and muted drones, sounding spacey and almost Pink Floyd-ish, and finally, The See See, who sound like they time traveled from the late sixties / early seventies, their sound total pitch perfect classic California country pop, the Eagles, the Byrds, Fleetwood Mac, gorgeous harmonies, and incredible arrangements.
The accompanying booklet/zine, is about DVD sized and includes all sorts of artwork, from a bunch of cool artists, most notably, long time fave Pete Fowler, the art ranges from super abstract and colorful, to stylized rock poster designs, to simple and cartoony, to druggy and seriously tripped out.
Pressed on nice heavy vinyl. Both the jacket and booklet printed on heavy stock. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES.

V/A Merzbow - Frog - Remixed And Revisited (Misanthropic Agenda) 2cd 14.98
Ok, I know what you're thinking. A remix record?!?! A Merzbow remix record fer chrissakes?!?!? But c'mon, look at who's on this, it reads like an Aquarius who's who: Boris, When, Ulver, Fennesz, Sunn 0))), Hrvatski, Pita, House Of Low Culture and more! And they are remixing one of the best Merzbow records of recent memory, Frog. Surprisingly, all of the "remixes" are pretty cool, but the best results come from folks taking Merzbow's 'noise' in a decidedly more drony, dreamy, minimal direction, as opposed to making -his- noise sound more like -their- noise. Sunn 0))) offer up a gorgeously gritty, minimal rumble-scape, warm and languorous, with far-away guitars and slowly building static that threatens to, and eventually does, disrupt the murky ambience. Ulver minimalise as well, creating a grinding, lethargic rhythm from static, and slight blips of Merz-noise, all under a creepy, horror movie landscape of, ghostly theremin-like wails and warbly minor key melodies. And When take the noise, turn it way down until it's just soothing static, add distant carnival music, chirping cricket like sounds, a heartbeat like pulse, with occasional monster sounds (or maybe croaking frogs, but slowed down they sound like monsters!), rumbling, groaning and creaking ominously as proceedings build in intensity. But it's the Boris track that really makes this all worth while. An epic 20 minute dirge, with glacial guitars throbbing and moaning, creating a doleful, funereal threnody that sounds like Earth or Sunn 0))) buried under waves of shortwave static. The slow motion riffs stretch waaaay out, wailing mournfully almost like whale calls. So beautiful and haunting. Not bad for a remix record! Packaged in a gorgeous psychedelic fold out sleeve.
MPEG Stream: BORIS "Froggie Bee Baa"
MPEG Stream: ULVER "Denki No Numa (Frog Voice Mix)"
MPEG Stream: WHEN "Dark Side Of The Pink Frog"

V/A Message From The Tribe: An Anthology of Tribe Records: 1972-1976 (Universal Sound) cd 21.00
Similar in spirit to the AACM (the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) collective out of Chicago, The Tribe was a collective of free-spirited musicians in Detroit, some of them former Motown session players, who produced and distributed independent recordings by local musicians to foster their own community and have their own creative control of marketing and artistic freedom. Founded by Phil Ranelin and Wendell Harrison, the collective also included Marcus Belgrave, Harold McKinney and Doug Hammond. Musically, The Tribe leaned more to the soul and funk side of jazz, often sounding similar in vibe to Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd rather than the freer sounds of the AACM which included the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Philip Cohran. The Tribe were similarly community minded, but displayed a more activist bent politically, trying to arouse a sense of communal pride and self-reliance in a city beseiged by economic woes, first in the relocation of Motown from Detroit to Los Angeles, and then in the long decline of the auto industry. They did this not only by making and releasing music, but also through the monthly publishing of the Tribe magazine, "Detroit's first black awareness magazine" which featured articles on history, politics, business and culture. While the collective only lasted five years, their output has continued to inspire. In fact, Carl Craig recently brought Tribe members back together to record for the first time in thirty years. Universal Sound has done an amazing job of anthologizing their collective output and this release features a 60 page booklet of history, photos and articles form the Tribe magazine, complete with vintage advertisements from local businesses. Fans of the Sounds of Liberation release or that Spiritual Jazz compilation on Now Again should definitely check this out. So freaking cool!
MPEG Stream: PHIL/PHILIP RANELIN & TRIBE "Vibes From The Tribe"
MPEG Stream: TRIBE "What We Need"
MPEG Stream: MARCUS BELGRAVE "Space Odyssey"
MPEG Stream: DOUG HAMMOND "Wake Up Brothers"
MPEG Stream: TRIBE "Farewell To The Welfare "

V/A Message From The Tribe: An Anthology of Tribe Records: 1972-1976 (Universal Sound) 2lp 23.00
Similar in spirit to the AACM (the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) collective out of Chicago, The Tribe was a collective of free-spirited musicians in Detroit, some of them former Motown session players, who produced and distributed independent recordings by local musicians to foster their own community and have their own creative control of marketing and artistic freedom. Founded by Phil Ranelin and Wendell Harrison, the collective also included Marcus Belgrave, Harold McKinney and Doug Hammond. Musically, The Tribe leaned more to the soul and funk side of jazz, often sounding similar in vibe to Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd rather than the freer sounds of the AACM which included the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Philip Cohran. The Tribe were similarly community minded, but displayed a more activist bent politically, trying to arouse a sense of communal pride and self-reliance in a city beseiged by economic woes, first in the relocation of Motown from Detroit to Los Angeles, and then in the long decline of the auto industry. They did this not only by making and releasing music, but also through the monthly publishing of the Tribe magazine, "Detroit's first black awareness magazine" which featured articles on history, politics, business and culture. While the collective only lasted five years, their output has continued to inspire. In fact, Carl Craig recently brought Tribe members back together to record for the first time in thirty years. Universal Sound has done an amazing job of anthologizing their collective output and this release features a 60 page booklet of history, photos and articles form the Tribe magazine, complete with vintage advertisements from local businesses. Fans of the Sounds of Liberation release or that Spiritual Jazz compilation on Now Again should definitely check this out. So freaking cool!
MPEG Stream: PHIL/PHILIP RANELIN & TRIBE "Vibes From The Tribe"
MPEG Stream: TRIBE "What We Need"
MPEG Stream: MARCUS BELGRAVE "Space Odyssey"
MPEG Stream: DOUG HAMMOND "Wake Up Brothers"
MPEG Stream: TRIBE "Farewell To The Welfare "

V/A Messthetics #101: DIY 78-81 London I (Hyped To Death) cd 14.98
Here's the first two promised discs in the revised, regionally-based Messthetics series. (Which is a MUCH BETTER way to do it than the old, alphabetically-organized Messthetics cd-rs!) Messthetics, if you don't know, is the Hyped To Death label's term for all the arty D.I.Y. kinda punk lo-fi amateur rock/pop goodness n' weirdness spawned in the UK during the late '70s and early '80s. Obscure bands that only made cassettes, or appeared on rare 7" vinyl comps, that sort of thing. A few of the bands developed cult followings or went on to evolve into more well-known, professional acts. But most of 'em were but brief blips, if that, on the cultural radar. However, thanks to the loving efforts that have gone in to compiling these and forthcoming Messthetics volumes, now 25 years later these otherwise lost gems can still be enjoyed. Both #101 and #102 are focussed on the heart of the Empire, bands hailing from the Big Smoke, London. Messthetics #101 (full subtitle: D.I.Y. and (very) indie post-punk from London and the Home Counties '78-81, pt I) includes The Homosexuals, George Harassment, Take It, Scissor Fits, and Milkshake Melon, Exhibit A, Different I's, Acid Drops, Funboy Five, Blue Screaming, Karel Fialka, Tiny Town, Grinder, The Door And The Window, Collective Horizontal, Jimmy Nipper Five, Rejects, Rich & Famous, Existence, Twelve Cubic Feet, and Outrageous Flesh. There's 22 regular audio tracks on the cd, and an additional five bonus mp3 tracks as well! Of course, some of these bands are better n' others... and everybody will have their own favorites. Plenty to chose from for sure. Messthetics #102 is indeed part II, another 23 tracks (no mp3s on this one) from Steve Treatment, London PX, Dry Rib, Vacants, Auntie Pus, Astronauts, Lines, Frank Details, Dad, Lines, Tea Set, Walking Floors, MLR, Restricted Hours, The Syrups, Metrophase, Nigel Simpkins, and Innerpropriates. Yeah, we haven't heard of many of these either (well, maybe we have but only in context of the old Messthetics cd-rs), but that's just the point!! Where the heck else are you gonna hear such weird ditties as "Marmelade Freak" and "Drive Your Car To The Middle Of Your Brain" and "I Don't Wanna Work For British Airways"?
Sure, for a more consistent track-to-track collection of pop smarts of similar styles, vintage and geographic origin, we recommend getting that recently reviewed 7" Up comp before these... but for the type of creativity that can only come when artists have ABSOLUTELY no expectations, Messthetics is the place to go. We're eagerly awaiting further volumes!
MPEG Stream: FUNBOY FIVE "Compulsive Eater"
MPEG Stream: RICH & FAMOUS "Machine Gun"

V/A Messthetics #102: DIY 78-81 London II (Hyped To Death) cd 14.98
Here's the first two promised discs in the revised, regionally-based Messthetics series. (Which is a MUCH BETTER way to do it than the old, alphabetically-organized Messthetics cd-rs!) Messthetics, if you don't know, is the Hyped To Death label's term for all the arty D.I.Y. kinda punk lo-fi amateur rock/pop goodness n' weirdness spawned in the UK during the late '70s and early '80s. Obscure bands that only made cassettes, or appeared on rare 7" vinyl comps, that sort of thing. A few of the bands developed cult followings or went on to evolve into more well-known, professional acts. But most of 'em were but brief blips, if that, on the cultural radar. However, thanks to the loving efforts that have gone in to compiling these and forthcoming Messthetics volumes, now 25 years later these otherwise lost gems can still be enjoyed. Both #101 and #102 are focussed on the heart of the Empire, bands hailing from the Big Smoke, London. Messthetics #101 (full subtitle: D.I.Y. and (very) indie post-punk from London and the Home Counties '78-81, pt I) includes The Homosexuals, George Harassment, Take It, Scissor Fits, and Milkshake Melon, Exhibit A, Different I's, Acid Drops, Funboy Five, Blue Screaming, Karel Fialka, Tiny Town, Grinder, The Door And The Window, Collective Horizontal, Jimmy Nipper Five, Rejects, Rich & Famous, Existence, Twelve Cubic Feet, and Outrageous Flesh. There's 22 regular audio tracks on the cd, and an additional five bonus mp3 tracks as well! Of course, some of these bands are better n' others... and everybody will have their own favorites. Plenty to chose from for sure. Messthetics #102 is indeed part II, another 23 tracks (no mp3s on this one) from Steve Treatment, London PX, Dry Rib, Vacants, Auntie Pus, Astronauts, Lines, Frank Details, Dad, Lines, Tea Set, Walking Floors, MLR, Restricted Hours, The Syrups, Metrophase, Nigel Simpkins, and Innerpropriates. Yeah, we haven't heard of many of these either (well, maybe we have but only in context of the old Messthetics cd-rs), but that's just the point!! Where the heck else are you gonna hear such weird ditties as "Marmelade Freak" and "Drive Your Car To The Middle Of Your Brain" and "I Don't Wanna Work For British Airways"?
Sure, for a more consistent track-to-track collection of pop smarts of similar styles, vintage and geographic origin, we recommend getting that recently reviewed 7" Up comp before these... but for the type of creativity that can only come when artists have ABSOLUTELY no expectations, Messthetics is the place to go. We're eagerly awaiting further volumes!
MPEG Stream: ASTRONAUTS "All Night Party"
MPEG Stream: RESTRICTED HOURS "Getting Things Done"

V/A Messthetics #103: DIY 77-81 Midlands 1 (Hyped To Death) cd 14.98
The Messthetics series marches on! Now we visit the grotty Midlands, where (we're told, we weren't there) the avant/pop/punk DIY scene of the late '70s and early '80s was meager in comparison to the rest of the UK on account of the NWOBHM explosion taking place there then. Yet, the industrious compliers at Hyped To Death have managed to dig up a whole disc's worth (and then some, as there are bonus mp3 tracks here as well) of interestin' rare tracks from kids making non-metallic (but still loud and often obnoxious) noise. The best-known of the slew of bands found here would be the Swell Maps, and also there's a band, the Versatile Newts, who was later on to become Felt. Also: Human Cabbages, The Shapes, Domestic Bliss, Cult Figures, School Meals, Hardware, Prefects, The Buzz, Famous Explorers, Digital Dinosaurs, 021, Lester and the Brew, Cravats, Cracked Actors, the Accused (not the Martha Splatterhead Accused, obviously), Dangerous Girls, Spizzoil, and Profile. 22 tracks in all plus 4 mp3s. And as always, there's copious liner notes and graphics in the booklet, chock full of information on all these weird bands. Once you get started on the Messthetics series, we're pretty sure you'll want 'em all, and #103 provides no objection to that notion.
MPEG Stream: THE SHAPES "(I Saw) Batman (In The Launderette)"
MPEG Stream: DIGITAL DINOSAURS "Aliens In Your Skies"
MPEG Stream: HUMAN CABBAGES "The Witch"

V/A Messthetics #104: D.I.Y. '77-81 South Wales (Hyped To Death) cd 14.98
This deep and delightful series of late '70s/early '80s UK post-punk DIY art school pop weirdness continues its ongoing region-by-region march. This volume, Messthetics #104, brings us 23 tracks (29 counting bonus mp3s) of super freakin' obscure tracks from South Wales bands circa 1977-81, with some emphasis on a scene surrounding the Cardiff indie label Z-Block. For what it's worth here's the lineup of bands: Czechs, Current Obsessions, What To Wear, Tax Exiles, Flying Brix, Immortal Invisibles, Spitfire Boys, Decadent Few, The Sane, Discount Chiefs, Table Table (now there's a name), Crash Action Winners (doing a Red Crayola cover), Reptile Ranch, Addiction, Boywonders, Hugh Volk, Ralph & The Ponytails, Janet & Johns, and Puritan Guitars (plus Autonomes, John Marlon, and Filmstars among the bonus mp3 tracks). Sounds range from fuzzed out aggro punkishness to naive, singsongy twee pop klutz stuff, all of it wonderfully eccentric and lo, lo, lo-fi. There's enough goodness here to make it tough to pick faves, though Reptile Ranch's "(Don't Give) The Lifeguard (A Second Chance)" stands out as sounding like the music from the scene in a psychsploitation flick when there's a montage of laughing mouths, hedonistic grape-crushing, and dancing girls.
You gotta hand it to Hyped To Death label owner and Messthetics compiler Chuck Warner. This is a true labor of love, and he knows his stuff. No slapdash, ill-informed compilations these! Instead, you get a bunch of brilliant (or at least entertainingly interesting) music you'd probably never ever hear otherwise, packaged with a thick 24 page booklet stuffed with detailed notes on each track, photos, 7" sleeve art, even a comic strip. Super informative, super fun. Warner points out that Wales was never given a lot of attention by the UK music industry, so the whole DIY thing really had an impact there, giving the Messthetics series plenty of treats to dole out this time 'round!
(PS also new in stock, to be reviewed next time: Messthetics #105, a Scottish volume.)
MPEG Stream: TAX EXILES "(I Don't Believe In) Miracles"
MPEG Stream: REPTILE RANCH "(Don't Give) The Lifeguard (A Second Chance)"

V/A Messthetics #105: D.I.Y. 77-81 Scotland I (Hyped To Death) cd 13.98
This deep and delightful series of late '70s/early '80s UK post-punk DIY indie pop weirdness continues its ongoing region-by-region march! This volume, Messthetics #105, brings us 24 tracks (33 counting bonus mp3s) of super freakin' obscure tracks from 7" singles and demo cassettes by Scottish bands circa 1977-81, with a focus on the extremely underground, art-school spawned "Sound Of Young Scotland". Best known band here is probably Fire Engines. And let's not forget Scrotum Poles. But for sure there's plenty of gems (as usual with these comps), in fact, track for track this may be one of the best so far. This also includes the likes of 35mm Dreams, The Exile, Fakes, Metropak, Radio Ghosts, Rapid Dance, Restricted Code, Brills, Dirty Reds (pre-Fire Engines), He's Dead Jim, and many more.
Lots of lo-fi bands that formed before they either owned instruments or knew how to play them. And they were only tangentially inspired by the '77 punk explosion down London way. The band Vertical Smiles even offer a critique of the commercial aspect of the punk movement on their sarcastic song "New Clash Single". Some of the acts here go for an energetic attack but we're most taken with the more moody, melodic, sometimes monotonic skinny tie new wavey ones...
As usual, this labor of love is packed to the max with photos, art, and well-researched, extensive track notes in the super thick cd booklet. This is the comp to pick up before you go getting anything else by, say, Franz Ferdinand.
MPEG Stream: VISITORS "Moth"
MPEG Stream: RADIO GHOSTS "My Room"
MPEG Stream: VERTICAL SMILES "New Clash Single"

V/A Messthetics #106 - The Manchester Musicians Collective 1977-1982 (Hyped to Death) cd 14.98
These Messthetics comps are so great. Truly a labor of love. So meticulously researched, pretty much ever single collection chock full of bands we've never heard of, with liner notes that read like a book about whatever scene or band is the focus of the comp. So here we go again, number 106 collects a bunch of rarities from The Manchester Musicians Collective. Heard of it? Neither had we. The Fall and Joy Division were the focal points, but this comp proves there were amazing things happening outside of the limelight. According to the liner notes, the four reasons that the MMC scene was different from the various other scenes were as follows:
1. The Buzzcocks, who inspired the scene to make it happen, to get involved, pick up instruments and start bands, set up shows and release records.
2. Live performances. The various meetings of the group helped fledgling bands get their shit together live and on stage, performing in front of their pals and peers, getting tight and honing their sound.
3. The MMC was not just for rocker dudes, there were plenty of gay teenagers and women making just as much noise as the guys in a scene predominantly male. And finally:
4. Incorporating more than just guitars into the sound, keyboards, synths, electronics, effects, all giving the bands a unique sound.
There's plenty more about the history and the development of the MMC, but as with anything it's all about the sound, and the songs, and the groups, and starting with the MMC's stars: Joy Division, The Fall and the Buzzcocks, you can get a pretty good idea of where they were coming from. But then there's groups like the Mud Hutters, who combined angular post punk guitars, with yowled throaty vocals and lurching tribal rhythms, with sheets of insectoid buzz. Or Grow-Up, who adding horns to their new wave, and wrapped it all around jangly guitar and funky rhythms, or Liggers, a punk rock band made up of three Catholic school girls who obsessed over Patty Smith but sounded more like Toto Coelo, or Passage, who tangled up simple rhythms with buzzing low end synths and spoken / sung vocals, or Bee Vamp, whose sound was very Devo, jagged jangle guitar, skronky synths, tribal drumming, and killer glammy vocals... and on and on it goes. So many amazing bands, one hit wonders (minus the hit), and groups who barely existed outside of the MMC scene, and who essentially don't exist at all outside of this comp. Hyped To Death should get some sort of grant, preserving musical history, like a punk rock Smithsonian. As will all of the Messthetics collections and pretty much everything on Hyped to Death, totally recommended.
MPEG Stream: MUD HUTTERS "Water Torture"
MPEG Stream: LIGGERS "Deathwish"
MPEG Stream: PASSAGE "16 Hours + Time Delay"
MPEG Stream: BEE VAMP "Valium Girls"