WAITS, TOM Real Gone (Anti) cd 15.98
If the flurry of Waits lovin' customers clambering at our door on this album's release date is any indication, Real Gone needs no introduction nor fanfare. All that we'll say then is that Mr. Waits has drawn back his threadbare theater curtain on fourteen new songs about the strange, seedy underbelly to which only he has access. As always, the dream / nightmare atmospheres that Waits' music conjure are slightly unhinged and carnivalesque with his pace slipping effortlessly from a snappy clip to the downright funereal. Some songs are stark and jagged like the scratchy poke of a boney finger. Some shuffle about like a drunken scarecrow, while others brittly waver like a seasick musicbox. The range of his voice once again assumes the form of a battered, creaky rasp, a gruff incoherent mutter, and a weary bluesy croon. Unmistakable and unforgettable.
MPEG Stream: "Hoist"
MPEG Stream: "Shake"

WAITS, TOM Swordfishtrombones (Island) cd 11.98

WAITS, TOM Swordfishtrombones (Island) lp 23.00

WAITS, TOM The Heart Of Saturday Night (Elektra) cd 12.98

WAITS, TOM Used Songs (Rhino) cd 16.98
A sort of greatest hits collection from one of the greatest songwriters of our time. Being a huge fan as I am, I'm inclined to blow off the greatest hits and tell you to just buy all the albums since, Waits, up until 'The Black Rider' had almost never written a bad song. But for the uninitiated, this is a great place to start. Spanning the years 1973-1980 when he recorded for the Asylum label, 'Used Songs' has some of the best songs Waits has ever recorded. His drunken gypsy/troubador/loner/outcast persona is in full effect, with his whiskey-and-cigarettes rasp still showing a slight hint of melody (before he gave it up completely in favor of the bellowing tuneless rasp that accompanies his later more percussive albums). 'Blue Valentines', 'Tom Traubert's Blues' and 'Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapoilis' are gentle ballads, but Tom Waits style, total heartbreakers, spilling out tales of lost love and the dirty city. 'Whistlin' Past The Graveyard' is a drunken gallop through a wasteland of the past with lots of could-have-beens and wish-I-hads. Also includes the pop gem 'Ol '55' which the Eagles later covered, as well as his sad/funny duet with Bette Middler 'I Never Talk To Strangers.' You can't really go wrong with the early Waits records where all this material is culled from, so if you are a Waits virgin, start here, but if you've dabbled before, c'mon, dive in and pick up 'Swordfishtrombones' and 'Rain Dogs'. You won't be sorry.

WAITS. TOM Rain Dogs (Island) cd 11.98

WAKE, THE Harmony (LTM / Factory) cd 17.98
While Joy Division and New Order had certainly been the bread and butter for Factory Records, a number of bands who recorded for the label applied alternative signatures to the classic Factory template of post-punk gloom. The Wake -- a Scottish group who gained a broader audience in the post-C-86 sounds of Sarah Records -- produced one of the forgotten gems for Factory in their first record "Harmony." On this album, The Wake intertwines brightly colored, Byrds-inspired guitar jangle from frontman Caesar and bouncy Peter Hookish basslines from Bobby Gillespie (who later went onto join the Jesus & Mary Chain and front Primal Scream). Much of the early '80s post-punk suffered from insufferably stiff percussion; but not so for The Wake, whose Steven Allen is remarkably spry and painterly in his application of metronomic beats - that alternately recalled the monochromatic funk of A Certain Ratio and the jazzed flutter of Durutti Column.
When originally released in 1982, "Harmony" was a brief 7 songs; but has been flushed out on CD with some exceptional complementary tracks from a their first two singles on their own label Scan 45 ("On Our Honeymoon" and "Something Outside") plus 3 tracks from their BBC Peel Sessions.
All in all, a great find!
RealAudio clip: "Favour"
RealAudio clip: "An Immaculate Conception"
RealAudio clip: "Testament"
RealAudio clip: "Patrol"

WAKEFIELD Which Side Are You On? (Jive) cd 13.98
This is the record Weezer should have made. In fact this is the record Weezer should have made instead of every record after the blue album (okay, Pinkerton was pretty good). Which Side Are You On? is criminally Weezer like, which seems less criminal when you think about how un-Weezer like the last Weezer record was. This is massive hook filled pop, HUGE guitars, quiggly synth melodies, a dangerously Rivers Cuomo like voice. But so what? Weezer stopped giving us the sort of pop we wanted, nay NEEEDED, long ago, so what's a pop kid to do? From the first few seconds of the first track, you'll know you're in good hands. Hook after hook after hook, huge catchy choruses, killer riffs. This is power pop nirvana for sure! Track three also features a really funny out of nowhere hip hop breakdown, you heard us hip hop, that materializes out of some sugary sweet chorus, and just as quickly slips back in to the same chorus. Weird. It'll have you shaking your head and thinking, "Did I really just hear that?" Makes us think these guys are pretty funny as well as being killer pop songsmiths. As long as you can forgive the bad photo under the tray, white pants all around, hair gel, bare feet. Ugh. The cover art is amazing though, a full color robot surrounded by barely visible robots and samurais printed in back gloss on a matte black background!
MPEG Stream: "Without You (Which Side Are You On?)"
MPEG Stream: "Take Off"
MPEG Stream: "C'mon Baby"

WAKEFORD, TONY, & STEVEN STAPLETON Revenge of the Selfish Shellfish (United Daries) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We certainly missed the boat on this one... But it's never too late to pick up a great record! Steve Stapleton (aka Nurse With Wound) continues his mad scientist ethos while taking over Tony Wakeford's penchant for Nietzchean death folk (as can be seen in his outfit Sol Invictus) for a somber album of washed out acoustic guitars and devilish drones. Exceptional!

WAKHEVITCH, IGOR Donc... (Fractal) 6cd 80.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This limited-to-500 copies only 6cd retrospective box set of the 1970's 'electronic' albums by obscure French composer Igor Wakhevitch is loaded with tense awe-inspiring surrealism constructed from neo-chamber music, spatial electronics, massive plodding percussion, and odd ethnic influences. The earliest albums in the box feature contributions from French psych band Triangle, making for an incredible combination of eerie modern classical composition (with choirs, etc.) with krautrockish rhythms and fuzzed guitar. While he was an early associate of Soft Machine and Terry Riley, Wakhevitch's work is far more malevolent than either, taking on qualities that have more in common with the Swans. It should not be a surprise that Michael Gira has recently claimed Wakhevitch as one of his favourite musicians. Very highly recommended -- everyone who works here bought a copy!!!

WALDAMSEL / FOREST BLACKBIRD s/t (Natural Sound / Wergo) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Most of you who are gonna want this already know you need this before I even describe it. All of you who bought the Conet Project, Sounds Of North American Frogs, recordings of ghosts, telephone wires, caves, burning fires, seals, whales, penguins, cracking knuckles....well here's one you can add to that collection. Field recordings of the Forest Blackbird, supposedly the most gifted songbird measured by our standards of melody, harmony and rhythm. And this recording is in fact quite beautiful, and not just because of the Blackbirds' song, but all the other surrounding sounds as well: the roaring of the sea, Tawny owls, a Robin, a Reed Bunting, a Grasshopper Warbler, rustling of leaves, a Willow Warbler, barking dogs, a Cuckoo, a Wren, a Raven, the engines of Diesel ships at sea, a Lesser Whitethroat, a Blue Tit, a Wood Pigeon and morning breezes. Really quite nice.
RealAudio clip: "One"
RealAudio clip: "Four"
RealAudio clip: "Five"

WALDER, SYLVIE Moments (Experimedia) cd-r 10.98
Sylvie Walder has been recording the sounds around her since childhood, with piles of tapes, mini-discs, and now digital files amassing her obsession with sound. It's a little unclear as to when Ms. Walder began to manipulate and transform her recordings into artfully slow-burn compositions of ambient wash and darkened piano smear. Sure, we have to wonder what treasures may be lurking in the tapes made by a precocious French kid some 15 years ago; but we're really happy to have discovered this strikingly confident ambient record that could easily find itself on Kranky next to Stars Of The Kid or Gregg Kowalsky.
The piano seems to be the source material for the bulk of this album, as Spartan, deep notes are rendered through digitally tricked effects for a pitchshifted and timestretched mass of reverberating tones which in turn spiral into a darkened atmosphere of shimmer and drone. Eno's Thursday Afternoon and Coleclough's Period would be the nearest landmarks of elongated ambience and melancholy impressionism. Walder's production does harken to some of the Pop Ambient pixel-pushing washes of sound, but always push forward the liminal slippages between forgetting and remembering through her shadowy sounds.
Limited to 130 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Une Route, Vers Ou?"
MPEG Stream: "Sunday After Noon"
MPEG Stream: "Non Depourvue D'Une Certaine Violence"

WALDRON, M.S., STEVEN STAPLETON, SIGTRYGGUR BERG SIGMARSSON, JIM HAYNES, & R.K. FAULHABER The Sleeping Moustache (The Helen Scarsdale Agency) cd 15.98
You know it's gotta be an amazing record when we start a review by stating "we don't know where to begin with this record" and then we blather on and on for another 500 words pretty much demonstrating that while we may not where to begin, we certainly have a lot to say. And that totally applies to The Sleeping Moustache, the latest release from the enigmatic Helen Scarsdale Agency. The most well known of these five audio contortionists is Steven Stapleton who is the brains behind Nurse With Wound, who convolutedly reconstitute Surrealism, avant-garde aesthetics, and krautrock expressivity, resulting in some of the most profoundly brilliant and disturbing records we've ever heard. Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson is one of the drunken pilots of Stilluppsteypa, an Icelandic project of electro-absurdity capable of magnificent minimalism. M.S. Waldron is responsible for irr. app. (ext.), (an unwieldy moniker for sure) which has produced an amazing body of post-Surrealist expressivity in recent years. When he's not manning the fron counter here at Aquarius, Jim Haynes has developed a peculiar knack for rust-inflected dronescaping, and finally R.K. Faulhaber, who is the mystery man amongst the bunch, although we've been told his unpublished works offer a byzantine array of mutilated sonic collages. The album that these five produced is a weighty proposition to say the least, with detours a plenty within this mangled concoction of delirious dronescaping punctuated with glossalaic vocalizations. Delicate plinks and plonks sprinkled across sublime, gaping tones which transition to a convulsive beauty with mechanical spasms and nightmarish creakings. Throughout The Sleeping Moustache, ghostly reminders of each of the contributors' refined aesthetics emerge as a Gordon knot of convoluted logic, unsettling shifts between horror and comedy, psychological instability, and disquieting soundscapes. If you're even remotely a fan of Nurse With Wound or irr. app. (ext.) or Stilluppsteypa, this album is not just recommended... it's absolutely required.
MPEG Stream: "Sprawled Naked Across A Piano"
MPEG Stream: "A Few Items Known As Children"
MPEG Stream: "Oh Sir, I'm Scared"

WALDRON, MAL & STEVE LACY Mal Waldron With The Steve Lacy Quintet (America) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
WOW. And do we mean WOW!! Fifteen classic free jazz records from the late sixties / early seventies, long out of print, finally getting the ULTRA deluxe reissue treatment. Incredibly limited, these will probably be out of print before you know it.
Comes in a gorgeous diecut fullcover three panel sleeve, with new artwork, as well as a huge booklet with the original album sleeve notes, new liner notes in french and english as well as a bunch of cool photos. So nice!

WALKABOUTS Slow Days With Nina (Shingle Street) cd ep 5.98
A big welcome back greeting goes out to Seattle's Walkabouts! They're that great band who bucked the trend back in those Pacific Northwest grunge rock days, making beautiful, somber and decidedly un-grunge music. Hmmm, maybe that's a bit misleading for us to say, 'cause actually they never went away. In the years since they've continued to craft their distinct gothic (not goth) Americana music in abundance. Really, the size (not to mention caliber) of their body of recordings is astounding. The problem is that many of their releases have been downright impossible-to-find imports, but fortunately this particular release found its way to our ears. And we are grateful. The theme of this release is Nina Simone. That's right, they've covered five of her songs, and they're fantastic! Their haunting version of "Nobody's Fault But Mine" may send chills down your spine! For fans of Ms Simone, The Walkabouts, of both or of neither. We only wish they'd kept on goin' past the five song mark.
MPEG Stream: "The Desperate Ones"
MPEG Stream: "Nobody's Fault But Mine"

WALKEN 01.21.07 (self-released) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Walken raise their fists at the crossroads of hardcore punk and metal on this their debut -- a brief, but promising ep that the band self released on cd-r. With bass strings so loosely strung that you can hear 'em clatter and manly screamo vocals, the band's raw thrashing is heavily indebted to very early Bay Area metal bands such as Metallica, Exodus and Testament, but with unexpected bluesiness in the riff department. Furious, chunky and part of the latest virulent strains of Bay Area thrash.
MPEG Stream: "Bitch Wizard"
MPEG Stream: "Like The Phoenix"

WALKEN s/t (self-released) cd 9.98
Even though these dudes are a local band, few of us had heard of them. However, all it took was a brief glance at the back cover, revealing a song called "Beast Toker," and we were pretty much sold. We carried their last ep, a self-released cd-r, but that one is long gone, and now Walken take things to the next logical place with an actual cd, one that is sure to win them support from anyone digging fellow local sludgelords like Kowloon Walled City, Black Cobra, and pretty much all of the East Bay. The band stands along the border of punk and metal, with one foot on each side, but luckily things never seem like some self-conscious hybrid. Best of all, Walken shred things up in expert fashion with all kinds of cool pinch harmonics and uber metal elements while the songs chug along with catchy riffs, super tight drumming, and lots of cool gang vocals. At times, there seems to be a fairly pronounced NWOBHM vibe, but maybe that's just us (probably not though). Things often end up sounding like a more grooving Converge with vocals at times reminiscent of legendary Swedes Refused, or perhaps a more punked out Nachtmystium. Sound good? You bet it does. And if this album is any indication of this band's unholy talents, we can only imagine how much they must KILL it live. Another welcome release from San Francisco's ever fertile heavy underground. Fuck yeah.
MPEG Stream: "Watch It Burn"
MPEG Stream: "Thunder Paws"
MPEG Stream: "Beast Toker"

WALKER BROTHERS Singles (BR Music) 2cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the mid-1960s the Walker Brothers scored a string of hits in the UK. An American trio (who weren't really brothers), their brooding, epic recordings appealed to the same crowd entranced by the Righteous Brothers. Scott Walker went on to become even more famous than the Walker Bros, with three solo albums that went to the Top 3. We try to always carry his solo albums, as they are classics that will never ever sound dated, and you should definitely give them a try. But if you are already in possession of those you might want to pick up this double cd collection. It's filled with all their hit singles, including the sublime "Make It Easy on Yourself". The second disc is a collector's delight, with selected solo tracks from all three Walker Bros' separate solo projects.
RealAudio clip: "Make It Easy on Yourself"
RealAudio clip: "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore"

WALKER, ERIK IAN / MARIT BROOK-KOTHLOW I Have Never Told You (Bottomfeeder) cd 11.98
I Have Never Told You is comprised of twenty tracks of haunting, contemplative compositions from the fine songwriting quill of one Mr. Erik Ian Walker. Together they form a somberly dramatic soundscape of constantly changing atmospheres. Walker's piano, hammond organ and vintage synthesizers (a Buchla and an Oberheim Matrix-12) entwine with a variety of guest musicians' strings, horns and woodwinds. Brief surfacings of Marit Brook-Kothlow's soulful forlorn vocals, occasional rhythmic outbursts and fleeting glimpses of ambient sounds like the whistling of a tea kettle or the percussive rattle of an old radiator punctuate the proceedings. A particularly stirring stretch comes in the tenth track "Castle Canyon" in which over the course of a few minutes a mere whisper of sound slowly builds, swelling to an absolute roar. Wonderful!
MPEG Stream: "Castle Canyon"
MPEG Stream: "Far From Here"

WALKER, JEFF UND DIE FLUFFERS Welcome To Carcass Cuntry (Fractured Transmitter) cd 17.98
Oh how the mighty have fallen. We were secretly psyched for this, a country solo record from ex-Carcass guitarist Jeff Walker. How cool would that be, Carcass country!! But the actual end product is not quite what we had hoped. In fact it's sort of embarrassing. The arrangements are pretty cool, a bunch of countrified covers of badass classic tunes, rock, country, whatever, but Walker is just not a very good vocalist. In fact we might go so far as to say he is really really bad. And since it's the vocals that are front and center, a lot of this is a bit tough to stomach. We almost wish he had sung these Carcass-style, a harsh raspy shriek over acoustic guitars and fiddle would have been pretty dang weird. But alas... Carcass freaks might just need to own this cuz it's Walker, but not sure who else we could recommend this to.
Killer Cherry Poptart cover art though, if you're into that...
MPEG Stream: "The Man Comes Around"
MPEG Stream: "I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)"
MPEG Stream: "Rocky Mountaiin High"

WALKER, PETER Echo Of My Soul (Tompkins Square) cd 14.98
After an amazing tribute album and a recent statewide tour with Jack Rose, here is the first official cd release of new material in over 40 years from one of the more underated masters of acoustic guitar, Peter Walker. Best known for a couple of mid-'60s records on the Vanguard label, Walker was known for a fusion of Eastern and Western, mixing raga with classical and jazz- inflected styles. On Echo Of My Soul, Walker explores his love of Flamenco as the original bridge of Eastern and Western music. A connector of Spanish and Arabic music developed from Kinartic Indian music which is arguably the world's oldest system of music, Walker handles the style well with a lot of inspired passion blowing the dust off the typical traditionalist notions of Flamenco music. This is no Carlos Montoya or Charo, so no puffy sleeves or rose in teeth. Instead Walker steers closer to the intuitive earthiness of the music's multifarious cultural origins, similar in spirit to how Sir Richard Bishop handles the genre. We'd still very much love to see Rainy Day Ragas reissued, but until then, this is a pretty nice listen.
MPEG Stream: "Sacromonte (Sacred Mountain)"
MPEG Stream: "Por Rosa (Song in E Major)"

WALKER, PETER Long Lost Tapes (Tompkins Square) cd 14.98
You may or may not have noticed that everytime we review anything by Peter Walker, it's always sort of in the tone of yeah, we like the new stuff, but come on, really, please reissue the old stuff!!! And while his two amazing records on Vanguard in the sixties remain bafflingly un-reissued, we can finally give you a taste of what we've been jonesing for. These recently unearthed recordings from 1970 were Walker's last recorded effort before facing "years of obscurity". Gathering a group of session players in Woodstock, NY at the home of Levon Helm (while Helm was away), Walker recorded these loose raga jams with tablas, flute, clarinet, bells, bass, and trap drums. These long-form meditative grooves are probably the best recorded insight into the sounds of Timothy Leary's Celebration gatherings at Harvard of which Walker was the musical director. Spiraling and trance-inducing, built on Eastern modal progressions, with flute and clarinet weaving throughout. Really beautiful! We're very thankful that the label head of Tompkins Square, Josh Rosenthal, managed to convince Walker to dig through his storage vaults and unearth this lost session. We want more!
MPEG Stream: "City Pulse"
MPEG Stream: "102nd Psalm"
MPEG Stream: "Mellowtime"

WALKER, PETER Long Lost Tapes (Vinyl Lovers) lp 25.00
NOW ON VINYL!! Sorta expensive, but it IS a cool record...
You may or may not have noticed that everytime we review anything by Peter Walker, it's always sort of in the tone of yeah, we like the new stuff, but come on, really, please reissue the old stuff!!! And while his two amazing records on Vanguard in the sixties remain bafflingly un-reissued, we can finally give you a taste of what we've been jonesing for. These recently unearthed recordings from 1970 were Walker's last recorded effort before facing "years of obscurity". Gathering a group of session players in Woodstock, NY at the home of Levon Helm (while Helm was away), Walker recorded these loose raga jams with tablas, flute, clarinet, bells, bass, and trap drums. These long-form meditative grooves are probably the best recorded insight into the sounds of Timothy Leary's Celebration gatherings at Harvard of which Walker was the musical director. Spiraling and trance-inducing, built on Eastern modal progressions, with flute and clarinet weaving throughout. Really beautiful! We're very thankful that the label head of Tompkins Square, Josh Rosenthal, managed to convince Walker to dig through his storage vaults and unearth this lost session. We want more!
MPEG Stream: "City Pulse"
MPEG Stream: "102nd Psalm"
MPEG Stream: "Mellowtime"

WALKER, PETER Rainy Day Raga (Harte) lp 16.98
Finally reissued and on vinyl, is one of our all time favorite solo guitar records, Rainy Day Raga by Peter Walker!!! Released on Vanguard in 1966, it sits perfectly between John Fahey's Requia and Sandy Bull's Inventions. Like Bull, Walker was fascinated and influenced by Middle Eastern, raga and modal forms (as well as Spanish and Baltic Romantic motifs) and found the perfect venue to explore the raga's hypnotic trance-like properties in Cambridge, Massachusetts as musical director of Timothy Leary's Celebration festivals. Offering up a mostly original record, save for a beautiful rendition of The Beatles "Norwegian Wood", the lysergic qualities of Walker's performance here are augmented by accompanying musicians Bruce Langhorne (!!) on percussion and Jeremy Steig on flute displaying a gentle pastoralism to the sometimes intense raga workouts. But even the quieter solo parts like "River" and "April In Cambridge" showcase Walker's astute knack for dynamic technique in his performances, and composition. While he only recorded two albums for Vanguard in the sixties, before his recent resurgence, they aptly showcase what a visionary he was to the current generation of solo guitar excursionists, and we are so grateful that this record is available once again to prove it! Highest Recommendation!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Morning Joy"
MPEG Stream: "Rainy Day Raga"
MPEG Stream: "River"

WALKER, SCOTT 'Til The Band Comes In (Water) cd 15.98
Recorded right after his stellar quartet of numbered records 1-4, 'Til the Band Comes In, was in our opinion, unfairly panned upon its original release in 1970. Now the Water label gives us all a chance to re-evaluate. While not his outright best record ever (that would be Scott 2!), and definitely not the weirdest (The Drift), it's noteworthy for being the beginning of his more experimental later period, while at the same time adopting the old school variety-show schtick of his television show in full force. The record starts out with a couple of moments of anticipatory sounds, a low rumble, a bit of noisy shuffling that wouldn't sound out of place at the start of any metal record today before the sonic onslaught is unleashed, but instead here we get an orchestra swooping into the full wall-of-sound pop production of the first song "Little Things (That Keep Us Together)", that harkens back to the sublime pop of The Walker Brothers. Other songs like "Time Operator" use the recordings of the telephone time lady as a backdrop for a ballad of utter loneliness. Largely the songs are of the big war-time ballad variety that we love from his previous records, with some moments of baroque country and ecstatic pop, only occasionally drooping into some vaudevillian schmaltz that is fun but not quite as endearing. The last few songs go into some well-worn covers territory like Classics IV's "Stormy" and "What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life", which are performed well but seem to be reaching out to a different audience altogether. An admitted oddity in an already odd discography, this is still classic Scott Walker where hits and misses are pretty much relative to each listener.
MPEG Stream: "Little Things (That Keep Us Together)"
MPEG Stream: "Time Operator"
MPEG Stream: "Stormy"

WALKER, SCOTT And Who Shall Go To The Ball? And What Shall Go To The Ball? (4AD) cd ep 8.98
Last year's The Drift was a menacing fever dream, delving into dark sonic realms that wasn't for the weak of heart. Who knew that the same sort of staccato violin stabs, claustrophobic restraint and pounding rhythms would translate into a moving score for dance. Scott Walker, commissioned by the CandoCo Dance Company and Choreographer Rafael Bonachela, has composed 4 instrumental pieces for the dance piece "And Who Shall Go To The Ball, And What Shall Go To The Ball". In his own words, "the music is full of edgy and staccato shapes and cuts, reflecting how we cut up the world around us as a consequence of the shape of our bodies". While it may be a bit hard to fully appreciate the music removed from the realm of the resulting dance performance, a new Scott Walker release is pretty much always welcome in our books.
MPEG Stream: "Part 2"
MPEG Stream: "Part 4"

WALKER, SCOTT Climate Of Hunter (Virgin) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

WALKER, SCOTT Pola X (Universal) cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Melodramatic orchestrations by deep-voiced mystery man Scott Walker scored for the film "Pola X" by Leos Carax. Includes original tracks from Smog and Sonic Youth.

WALKER, SCOTT Scott (Fontana) cd 16.98
Whether you are enamored of them or perplexed by them, there is nothing quite like Scott Walker's suite of solo records from the late sixties. Exquisitely produced with dizzyingly lush orchestrations to emphasize full pop dramatic effect, they are also literally dripping with visual and visceral lyricism, filled with vile and wonderous characters and sung in Walker's deeply mellifluent and over-the-top croon. Tortured torch songs, incendiary victory songs, pop fantasias, ghostly ballads, and folk pop are eccentrically intermixed through dynamic interpretations of popular songs, and as the records progress, uniquely original compositions. Each one a perfect piece on its own, yet as a whole suite offers a dazzling entry into an incomparably visual sound world like a rich confection that begs to be slowly consumed.
While we wholeheartedly recommend all four, for those looking for a good starting point, our favorites as whole records are Scott 2 and Scott 4. Recorded after the breakup of the Walker Brothers in 1967, the American born British resident Scott Walker (ne: Noel Scott Engel), embarked on these solo efforts to explore his fascination with European musical, literary, and theatrical forms: The creepy wonderment of classical composer Saint-Saens, The French Symbolist literature of Baudelaire and Huysmans, the political theatre of Brecht and Weill, the stark existentialism of Bergman, the theatrical whimsy of Anthony Newley, and most of all, the celebrated street urchin poetry of Flemish singer-songwriter, Jacques Brel, of whom Walker covers nine English versions of his songs throughout.
Seemingly out of step with his time, these records must have been too serious for the youthful psychedelic era, yet too odd for the older pop-vocal market. The first three enjoyed minimal success, enough to get a short-lived TV show, but the fourth (and one of the best) was a commercial flop (probably due to his attempt to release it under his given name; it was later changed to Scott 4). Yet, over the years, these records have developed an increasingly avid cult following, enough of one for Walker to come out of his reclusiveness and occasionally record a new album. Though what he's on about now makes these first solo albums seem like a ride at Disneyland, you have to respect an artist who explores his vision relentlessly and never looks back. Yet, as fans, we will always come back to these first four records, which amazingly have withstood the test of time and should be canonized amongst the most highly influential records ever! High Art or High Camp? Generous heapings of both, please.
Although comprised mostly of covers, Walker already began to show strong songwriting skills on his first solo record, Scott, especially with "Montague Terrace (In Blue)" where he describes unsavory neighbors in his tenement flat, one as a "bloated belching figure", and another "whose thighs are full of tales to tell of nights she's known". But it's "My Death", one of three Brel covers that is the album's centerpiece. Later covered by David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust phase, Walker's version features such hypnotic orchestration, serpentine guitar passages and swelling stabbing strings that it almost feels like we're being brought to the threshold of death on a cloud of poisonous perfume.
Overall, a fine selection of songs that show his range of performance and promise for the records to come.
MPEG Stream: "Montague Terrace (In Blue)"
MPEG Stream: "My Death"
MPEG Stream: "Such A Small Love"

WALKER, SCOTT Scott (4 Men With Beards) lp 17.98
Whether you are enamored of them or perplexed by them, there is nothing quite like Scott Walker's suite of solo records from the late sixties. Exquisitely produced with dizzyingly lush orchestrations to emphasize full pop dramatic effect, they are also literally dripping with visual and visceral lyricism, filled with vile and wondrous characters and sung in Walker's deeply mellifluent and over-the-top croon. Tortured torch songs, incendiary victory songs, pop fantasias, ghostly ballads, and folk pop are eccentrically intermixed through dynamic interpretations of popular songs, and as the records progress, uniquely original compositions. Each one a perfect piece on its own, yet as a whole suite offers a dazzling entry into an incomparably visual sound world like a rich confection that begs to be slowly consumed. Finally reissued on vinyl, the way they were meant to be heard, we have fallen in love all over again. While we wholeheartedly recommend all four, for those looking for a good starting point, our favorites as whole records are Scott 2 and Scott 4. For those not blessed with record players, the cd versions are also available.
Recorded after the breakup of the Walker Brothers in 1967, the American born British resident Scott Walker (nee: Noel Scott Engel), embarked on these solo efforts to explore his fascination with European musical, literary, and theatrical forms: The creepy wonderment of classical composer Saint-Saens, The French Symbolist literature of Baudelaire and Huysmans, the political theater of Brecht and Weill, the stark existentialism of Bergman, the theatrical whimsy of Anthony Newley, and most of all, the celebrated street urchin poetry of Flemish singer-songwriter, Jacques Brel, of whom Walker covers nine English versions of his songs throughout.
Seemingly out of step with his time, these records must have been too serious for the youthful psychedelic era, yet too odd for the older pop-vocal market. The first three enjoyed minimal success, enough to get a short-lived TV show, but the fourth (and one of the best) was a commercial flop (probably due to his attempt to release it under his given name; it was later changed to Scott 4). Yet, over the years, these records have developed an increasingly avid cult following, enough of one for Walker to come out of his reclusiveness and occasionally record a new album. Though what he's on about now makes these first solo albums seem like a ride at Disneyland, you have to respect an artist who explores his vision relentlessly and never looks back. Yet, as fans, we will always come back to these first four records, which amazingly have withstood the test of time and should be canonized amongst the most highly influential records ever! High Art or High Camp? Generous heapings of both, please.
Although comprised mostly of covers, Walker already began to show strong songwriting skills on his first solo record, Scott, especially with "Montague Terrace (In Blue)" where he describes unsavory neighbors in his tenement flat, one as a "bloated belching figure", and another "whose thighs are full of tales to tell of nights she's known". But it's "My Death", one of three Brel covers that is the album's centerpiece. Later covered by David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust phase, Walker's version features such hypnotic orchestration, serpentine guitar passages and swelling stabbing strings that it almost feels like we're being brought to the threshold of death on a cloud of poisonous perfume.
Overall, a fine selection of songs that show his range of performance and promise for the records to come.
MPEG Stream: "Montague Terrace (In Blue)"
MPEG Stream: "My Death"
MPEG Stream: "Such A Small Love"

WALKER, SCOTT Scott 2 (Fontana) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Whether you are enamored of them or perplexed by them, there is nothing quite like Scott Walker's suite of solo records from the late sixties. Exquisitely produced with dizzyingly lush orchestrations to emphasize full pop dramatic effect, they are also literally dripping with visual and visceral lyricism, filled with vile and wonderous characters and sung in Walker's deeply mellifluent and over-the-top croon. Tortured torch songs, incendiary victory songs, pop fantasias, ghostly ballads, and folk pop are eccentrically intermixed through dynamic interpretations of popular songs, and as the records progress, uniquely original compositions. Each one a perfect piece on its own, yet as a whole suite offers a dazzling entry into an incomparably visual sound world like a rich confection that begs to be slowly consumed.
While we wholeheartedly recommend all four, for those looking for a good starting point, our favorites as whole records are Scott 2 and Scott 4.
Recorded after the breakup of the Walker Brothers in 1967, the American born British resident Scott Walker (ne: Noel Scott Engel), embarked on these solo efforts to explore his fascination with European musical, literary, and theatrical forms: The creepy wonderment of classical composer Saint-Saens, The French Symbolist literature of Baudelaire and Huysmans, the political theatre of Brecht and Weill, the stark existentialism of Bergman, the theatrical whimsy of Anthony Newley, and most of all, the celebrated street urchin poetry of Flemish singer-songwriter, Jacques Brel, of whom Walker covers nine English versions of his songs throughout.
Seemingly out of step with his time, these records must have been too serious for the youthful psychedelic era, yet too odd for the older pop-vocal market. The first three enjoyed minimal success, enough to get a short-lived TV show, but the fourth (and one of the best) was a commercial flop (probably due to his attempt to release it under his given name; it was later changed to Scott 4). Yet, over the years, these records have developed an increasingly avid cult following, enough of one for Walker to come out of his reclusiveness and occasionally record a new album. Though what he's on about now makes these first solo albums seem like a ride at Disneyland, you have to respect an artist who explores his vision relentlessly and never looks back. Yet, as fans, we will always come back to these first four records, which amazingly have withstood the test of time and should be canonized amongst the most highly influential records ever! High Art or High Camp? Generous heapings of both, please.
Scott 2 is one of our favorites, not that it's necessarily different from the others but the choice of songs flows perfectly together. In fact the first side of Scott 2 is pure pop vocal perfection, beginning with the Brel cover "Jackie", whose enthusiastically fast delivery is mind-boggling (You-tube this!). Then the bitter torch of "Best of Both Worlds", the Tim Hardin cover, "Black Sheep Boy", the original "The Amorous Humphrey Plugg" about a man escaping from the claustrophobia of domestic life into a tragic fantasy. "Next" is next, one of Brel's most visceral and theatrical tunes about the dehumanizing experience of a military coming of age, which is then followed by Walker's companion sequel "Girls From The Streets" told by the same character as a man resigned to a life of bitterness and depravity. Yet the centerpiece is the fantasia "Plastic Palace People, which begins side 2. A dizzying dualistic fairy tale about a boy's embrace of his youthful innocence and a girl mourning the loss of hers. This kills!
MPEG Stream: "The Amorous Humphrey Plugg"
MPEG Stream: "Next"
MPEG Stream: "Plastic Palace People"

WALKER, SCOTT Scott 2 (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98
Whether you are enamored of them or perplexed by them, there is nothing quite like Scott Walker's suite of solo records from the late sixties. Exquisitely produced with dizzyingly lush orchestrations to emphasize full pop dramatic effect, they are also literally dripping with visual and visceral lyricism, filled with vile and wonderous characters and sung in Walker's deeply mellifluent and over-the-top croon. Tortured torch songs, incendiary victory songs, pop fantasias, ghostly ballads, and folk pop are eccentrically intermixed through dynamic interpretations of popular songs, and as the records progress, uniquely original compositions. Each one a perfect piece on its own, yet as a whole suite offers a dazzling entry into an incomparably visual sound world like a rich confection that begs to be slowly consumed. Finally reissued on vinyl, the way they were meant to be heard, we have fallen in love all over again. While we wholeheartedly recommend all four, for those looking for a good starting point, our favorites as whole records are Scott 2 and Scott 4. For those not blessed with record players, the cd versions are also available.
Recorded after the breakup of the Walker Brothers in 1967, the American born British resident Scott Walker (ne: Noel Scott Engel), embarked on these solo efforts to explore his fascination with European musical, literary, and theatrical forms: The creepy wonderment of classical composer Saint-Saens, The French Symbolist literature of Baudelaire and Huysmans, the political theatre of Brecht and Weill, the stark existentialism of Bergman, the theatrical whimsy of Anthony Newley, and most of all, the celebrated street urchin poetry of Flemish singer-songwriter, Jacques Brel, of whom Walker covers nine English versions of his songs throughout.
Seemingly out of step with his time, these records must have been too serious for the youthful psychedelic era, yet too odd for the older pop-vocal market. The first three enjoyed minimal success, enough to get a short-lived TV show, but the fourth (and one of the best) was a commercial flop (probably due to his attempt to release it under his given name; it was later changed to Scott 4). Yet, over the years, these records have developed an increasingly avid cult following, enough of one for Walker to come out of his reclusiveness and occasionally record a new album. Though what he's on about now makes these first solo albums seem like a ride at Disneyland, you have to respect an artist who explores his vision relentlessly and never looks back. Yet, as fans, we will always come back to these first four records, which amazingly have withstood the test of time and should be canonized amongst the most highly influential records ever! High Art or High Camp? Generous heapings of both, please.
Scott 2 is one of our favorites, not that it's necessarily different from the others but the choice of songs flows perfectly together. In fact the first side of Scott 2 is pure pop vocal perfection, beginning with the Brel cover "Jackie", whose enthusiastically fast delivery is mind-boggling (Youtube this!). Then the bitter torch of "Best of Both Worlds", the Tim Hardin cover, "Black Sheep Boy", the original "The Amorous Humphrey Plugg" about a man escaping from the claustrophobia of domestic life into a tragic fantasy. "Next" is next, one of Brel's most visceral and theatrical tunes about the dehumanizing experience of a military coming of age, which is then followed by Walker's companion sequel "Girls From The Streets" told by the same character as a man resigned to a life of bitterness and depravity. Yet the centerpiece is the fantasia "Plastic Palace People", which begins side 2. A dizzying dualistic fairy tale about a boy's embrace of his youthful innocence and a girl mourning the loss of hers. This kills!
MPEG Stream: "The Amorous Humphrey Plugg"
MPEG Stream: "Next"
MPEG Stream: "Plastic Palace People"

WALKER, SCOTT Scott 3 (Fontana) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Whether you are enamored of them or perplexed by them, there is nothing quite like Scott Walker's suite of solo records from the late sixties. Exquisitely produced with dizzyingly lush orchestrations to emphasize full pop dramatic effect, they are also literally dripping with visual and visceral lyricism, filled with vile and wonderous characters and sung in Walker's deeply mellifluent and over-the-top croon. Tortured torch songs, incendiary victory songs, pop fantasias, ghostly ballads, and folk pop are eccentrically intermixed through dynamic interpretations of popular songs, and as the records progress, uniquely original compositions. Each one a perfect piece on its own, yet as a whole suite offers a dazzling entry into an incomparably visual sound world like a rich confection that begs to be slowly consumed.
While we wholeheartedly recommend all four, for those looking for a good starting point, our favorites as whole records are Scott 2 and Scott 4.
Recorded after the breakup of the Walker Brothers in 1967, the American born British resident Scott Walker (ne: Noel Scott Engel), embarked on these solo efforts to explore his fascination with European musical, literary, and theatrical forms: The creepy wonderment of classical composer Saint-Saens, The French Symbolist literature of Baudelaire and Huysmans, the political theatre of Brecht and Weill, the stark existentialism of Bergman, the theatrical whimsy of Anthony Newley, and most of all, the celebrated street urchin poetry of Flemish singer-songwriter, Jacques Brel, of whom Walker covers nine English versions of his songs throughout.
Seemingly out of step with his time, these records must have been too serious for the youthful psychedelic era, yet too odd for the older pop-vocal market. The first three enjoyed minimal success, enough to get a short-lived TV show, but the fourth (and one of the best) was a commercial flop (probably due to his attempt to release it under his given name; it was later changed to Scott 4). Yet, over the years, these records have developed an increasingly avid cult following, enough of one for Walker to come out of his reclusiveness and occasionally record a new album. Though what he's on about now makes these first solo albums seem like a ride at Disneyland, you have to respect an artist who explores his vision relentlessly and never looks back. Yet, as fans, we will always come back to these first four records, which amazingly have withstood the test of time and should be canonized amongst the most highly influential records ever! High Art or High Camp? Generous heapings of both, please.
Scott 3 has the best cover of the bunch. The others are pretty straight ahead portraits, but 3 is a close up of an eye with vibrantly purple eyelashes. Inside the pupil we see a melancholy Walker, which is apt, as Scott 3 is the most melancholy of the four records. The tempo is slower and apart from the Brel inspired original, "We Came Through" and the quirky acoustic tribute to Cryogenics of "30th Century Man" (featured on the soundtrack to Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic"), most of the tracks on Scott 3 are ballads to the ghosts of romance. Definitely a rainy day record, and probably not the best place to start for newbies.
MPEG Stream: "It's Raining Today"
MPEG Stream: "We Came Through"
MPEG Stream: "30th Century Man"

WALKER, SCOTT Scott 3 (4 Men With Beards) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Whether you are enamored of them or perplexed by them, there is nothing quite like Scott Walker's suite of solo records from the late sixties. Exquisitely produced with dizzyingly lush orchestrations to emphasize full pop dramatic effect, they are also literally dripping with visual and visceral lyricism, filled with vile and wonderous characters and sung in Walker's deeply mellifluent and over-the-top croon. Tortured torch songs, incendiary victory songs, pop fantasias, ghostly ballads, and folk pop are eccentrically intermixed through dynamic interpretations of popular songs, and as the records progress, uniquely original compositions. Each one a perfect piece on its own, yet as a whole suite offers a dazzling entry into an incomparably visual sound world like a rich confection that begs to be slowly consumed. Finally reissued on vinyl, the way they were meant to be heard, we have fallen in love all over again. While we wholeheartedly recommend all four, for those looking for a good starting point, our favorites as whole records are Scott 2 and Scott 4. For those not blessed with record players, the cd versions are also available.
Recorded after the breakup of the Walker Brothers in 1967, the American born British resident Scott Walker (ne: Noel Scott Engel), embarked on these solo efforts to explore his fascination with European musical, literary, and theatrical forms: The creepy wonderment of classical composer Saint-Saens, The French Symbolist literature of Baudelaire and Huysmans, the political theatre of Brecht and Weill, the stark existentialism of Bergman, the theatrical whimsy of Anthony Newley, and most of all, the celebrated street urchin poetry of Flemish singer-songwriter, Jacques Brel, of whom Walker covers nine English versions of his songs throughout.
Seemingly out of step with his time, these records must have been too serious for the youthful psychedelic era, yet too odd for the older pop-vocal market. The first three enjoyed minimal success, enough to get a short-lived TV show, but the fourth (and one of the best) was a commercial flop (probably due to his attempt to release it under his given name; it was later changed to Scott 4). Yet, over the years, these records have developed an increasingly avid cult following, enough of one for Walker to come out of his reclusiveness and occasionally record a new album. Though what he's on about now makes these first solo albums seem like a ride at Disneyland, you have to respect an artist who explores his vision relentlessly and never looks back. Yet, as fans, we will always come back to these first four records, which amazingly have withstood the test of time and should be canonized amongst the most highly influential records ever! High Art or High Camp? Generous heapings of both, please.
Scott 3 has the best cover art of the bunch. The others are pretty straight ahead portraits, but 3 is a close up of an eye with vibrantly purple eyelashes. Inside the pupil we see a melancholy Walker, which is apt, as Scott 3 is the most melancholy of the four records. The tempo is slower and apart from the Brel inspired original, "We Came Through" and the quirky acoustic tribute to Cryogenics of "30th Century Man" (featured on the soundtrack to Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic"), most of the tracks on Scott 3 are ballads to the ghosts of romance. Definitely a rainy day record, and probably not the best place to start for newbies.
MPEG Stream: "It's Raining Today"
MPEG Stream: "We Came Through"
MPEG Stream: "30th Century Man"

WALKER, SCOTT Scott 4 (Fontana) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Whether you are enamored of them or perplexed by them, there is nothing quite like Scott Walker's suite of solo records from the late sixties. Exquisitely produced with dizzyingly lush orchestrations to emphasize full pop dramatic effect, they are also literally dripping with visual and visceral lyricism, filled with vile and wonderous characters and sung in Walker's deeply mellifluent and over-the-top croon. Tortured torch songs, incendiary victory songs, pop fantasias, ghostly ballads, and folk pop are eccentrically intermixed through dynamic interpretations of popular songs, and as the records progress, uniquely original compositions. Each one a perfect piece on its own, yet as a whole suite offers a dazzling entry into an incomparably visual sound world like a rich confection that begs to be slowly consumed. While we wholeheartedly recommend all four, for those looking for a good starting point, our favorites as whole records are Scott 2 and Scott 4.
Recorded after the breakup of the Walker Brothers in 1967, the American born British resident Scott Walker (ne: Noel Scott Engel), embarked on these solo efforts to explore his fascination with European musical, literary, and theatrical forms: The creepy wonderment of classical composer Saint-Saens, The French Symbolist literature of Baudelaire and Huysmans, the political theatre of Brecht and Weill, the stark existentialism of Bergman, the theatrical whimsy of Anthony Newley, and most of all, the celebrated street urchin poetry of Flemish singer-songwriter, Jacques Brel, of whom Walker covers nine English versions of his songs throughout.
Seemingly out of step with his time, these records must have been too serious for the youthful psychedelic era, yet too odd for the older pop-vocal market. The first three enjoyed minimal success, enough to get a short-lived TV show, but the fourth (and one of the best) was a commercial flop (probably due to his attempt to release it under his given name; it was later changed to Scott 4). Yet, over the years, these records have developed an increasingly avid cult following, enough of one for Walker to come out of his reclusiveness and occasionally record a new album. Though what he's on about now makes these first solo albums seem like a ride at Disneyland, you have to respect an artist who explores his vision relentlessly and never looks back. Yet, as fans, we will always come back to these first four records, which amazingly have withstood the test of time and should be canonized amongst the most highly influential records ever! High Art or High Camp? Generous heapings of both, please.
Scott 4 is definitely the most unique of the four. It's all original compositions for one thing, but also the arrangements are more upbeat, and while the orchestral elements are there, folk, rock and country elements of guitar and drums appear more than ever before. Still eccentric songwriting abounds. The opener, "The Seventh Seal", a flamenco pop tribute to the Bergman film of the same name about a medieval knight's chess game with Death is full of the pomp we love in Scott Walkers music. And while there are no Brel covers on 4, his influence can be heard on centerpiece "The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime)", as well as "Hero of the War". A sequel of sorts to "Plastic Palace People" on Scott 2 can be seen in "Boy Child", one of the most beautifully arranged ballads, while the strings in "The World's Strongest Man" brings tears every time. Yet, weirder still, the final three songs take a strange turn into lush country pop with slide guitar, and back-up vocals (for the first time!) that allude to the direction Walker persued unsuccessfully through the seventies. Still very Stellar!
MPEG Stream: "The Seventh Seal"
MPEG Stream: "World's Strongest Man"
MPEG Stream: "The Old Man's Back Again"

WALKER, SCOTT Scott 4 (4 Men With Beards) lp 17.98
Whether you are enamored of them or perplexed by them, there is nothing quite like Scott Walker's suite of solo records from the late sixties. Exquisitely produced with dizzyingly lush orchestrations to emphasize full pop dramatic effect, they are also literally dripping with visual and visceral lyricism, filled with vile and wonderous characters and sung in Walker's deeply mellifluent and over-the-top croon. Tortured torch songs, incendiary victory songs, pop fantasias, ghostly ballads, and folk pop are eccentrically intermixed through dynamic interpretations of popular songs, and as the records progress, uniquely original compositions. Each one a perfect piece on its own, yet as a whole suite offers a dazzling entry into an incomparably visual sound world like a rich confection that begs to be slowly consumed. Finally reissued on vinyl, the way they were meant to be heard, we have fallen in love all over again. While we wholeheartedly recommend all four, for those looking for a good starting point, our favorites as whole records are Scott 2 and Scott 4. For those not blessed with record players, the cd versions are also available.
Recorded after the breakup of the Walker Brothers in 1967, the American born British resident Scott Walker (ne: Noel Scott Engel), embarked on these solo efforts to explore his fascination with European musical, literary, and theatrical forms: The creepy wonderment of classical composer Saint-Saens, The French Symbolist literature of Baudelaire and Huysmans, the political theatre of Brecht and Weill, the stark existentialism of Bergman, the theatrical whimsy of Anthony Newley, and most of all, the celebrated street urchin poetry of Flemish singer-songwriter, Jacques Brel, of whom Walker covers nine English versions of his songs throughout.
Seemingly out of step with his time, these records must have been too serious for the youthful psychedelic era, yet too odd for the older pop-vocal market. The first three enjoyed minimal success, enough to get a short-lived TV show, but the fourth (and one of the best) was a commercial flop (probably due to his attempt to release it under his given name; it was later changed to Scott 4). Yet, over the years, these records have developed an increasingly avid cult following, enough of one for Walker to come out of his reclusiveness and occasionally record a new album. Though what he's on about now makes these first solo albums seem like a ride at Disneyland, you have to respect an artist who explores his vision relentlessly and never looks back. Yet, as fans, we will always come back to these first four records, which amazingly have withstood the test of time and should be canonized amongst the most highly influential records ever! High Art or High Camp? Generous heapings of both, please.
Scott 4 is definitely the most unique of the four. It's all original compositions for one thing, but also the arrangements are more upbeat, and while the orchestral elements are there, folk, rock and country elements of guitar and drums appear more than ever before. Still eccentric songwriting abounds. The opener, "The Seventh Seal", a flamenco pop tribute to the Bergman film of the same name about a medieval knight's chess game with Death is full of the pomp we love in Scott Walkers music. And while there are no Brel covers on 4, his influence can be heard on centerpiece "The Old Man's Back Again (Dedicated to the Neo-Stalinist Regime)", as well as "Hero of the War". A sequel of sorts to "Plastic Palace People" on Scott 2 can be seen in "Boy Child", one of the most beautifully arranged ballads, while the strings in "The World's Strongest Man" brings tears every time. Yet, weirder still, the final three songs take a strange turn into lush country pop with slide guitar, and back-up vocals (for the first time!) that allude to the direction Walker persued unsuccessfully through the seventies. Still very Stellar!
MPEG Stream: "The Seventh Seal"
MPEG Stream: "World's Strongest Man"
MPEG Stream: "The Old Man's Back Again"

WALKER, SCOTT Sings Jacques Brel (Fontana) cd 19.98

WALKER, SCOTT The Drift (4AD) cd 14.98
Whoa! Scott Walker has certainly never been about meeting audience expectations, but we never expected hime to go in a direction this extreme, a lyrical and musical excursion so far out it's a little disconcerting. The Drift, his first release in 11 years has got to be some of the darkest and intensely uneasy soul-baring music we have heard lately, which is saying a lot for us. Visceral and highly visual, Walker seems to be channeling the decadent symbolist literature of Rimbaud, Verlaine or J.K. Huysmans as well as the surrealist existentialism of T. S. Eliot or Georges Bataille, as he takes us on a poisoned delirious absinthe-induced journey through the seasons of hell. Walker's voice recalls a strange mutation of Antony's (from Antony and the Johnsons) operatic theatrics and Jandek's sorrowful moans as it plays against orchestral arrangements that sound like Arvo Part, Morricone and Penderecki caught in a purgatorial bar-room brawl. Punctuated by deep resonant strings, concrete blocks pounding on wood, sounds of donkeys braying, and snippets of shortwave radio, Walker's arrangements vary from oppressive ambience to brutal stabs of orchestrated noise, as they cover a wide gamut of themes, characters and moods, from the reproachful condemnation of power to the painful humanity of love. The saving moment comes at the end with A Lover Loves, a spare but melodic ballad of voice and acoustic guitar that is the albums only peek back to the Scott Walker of old (in particular, Scott 4), and it kills!
Good, great, amazing, none of those are really useful superlatives in the case of The Drift, although it is all of those things and then some, as it definitely will not appeal to everyone, especially fans of Walker's first four solo records from the late sixties. But viewed as a work of art, with all the genuine brilliance and pretension that that may entail, this is extraordinary and astonishing uneasy listening!
MPEG Stream: "Cossacks Are"
MPEG Stream: "Hand Me Ups"
MPEG Stream: "A Lover Loves"

WALKER, SCOTT The Drift (4AD) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Whoa! Scott Walker has certainly never been about meeting audience expectations, but we never expected hime to go in a direction this extreme, a lyrical and musical excursion so far out it's a little disconcerting. The Drift, his first release in 11 years has got to be some of the darkest and intensely uneasy soul-baring music we have heard lately, which is saying a lot for us. Visceral and highly visual, Walker seems to be channeling the decadent symbolist literature of Rimbaud, Verlaine or J.K. Huysmans as well as the surrealist existentialism of T. S. Eliot or Georges Bataille, as he takes us on a poisoned delirious absinthe-induced journey through the seasons of hell. Walker's voice recalls a strange mutation of Antony's (from Antony and the Johnsons) operatic theatrics and Jandek's sorrowful moans as it plays against orchestral arrangements that sound like Arvo Part, Morricone and Penderecki caught in a purgatorial bar-room brawl. Punctuated by deep resonant strings, concrete blocks pounding on wood, sounds of donkeys braying, and snippets of shortwave radio, Walker's arrangements vary from oppressive ambience to brutal stabs of orchestrated noise, as they cover a wide gamut of themes, characters and moods, from the reproachful condemnation of power to the painful humanity of love. The saving moment comes at the end with A Lover Loves, a spare but melodic ballad of voice and acoustic guitar that is the albums only peek back to the Scott Walker of old (in particular, Scott 4), and it kills!
Good, great, amazing, none of those are really useful superlatives in the case of The Drift, although it is all of those things and then some, as it definitely will not appeal to everyone, especially fans of Walker's first four solo records from the late sixties. But viewed as a work of art, with all the genuine brilliance and pretension that that may entail, this is extraordinary and astonishing uneasy listening!
MPEG Stream: "Cossacks Are"
MPEG Stream: "Hand Me Ups"
MPEG Stream: "A Lover Loves"

WALKER, SCOTT & THE WALKER BROTHERS The Best Of: The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore (Universal) cd 37.00
Damn expensive import! But, really, these songs are maybe worth it!

WALKING TIMEBOMBS (Charnel Music) cd 11.98
Ex-Pain Teen Scott Ayer's solo project, tape loops and guitar noise and distorted vocals and all that. In other words, the Pain Teens w/o Bliss Blood.

WALKING TIMEBOMBS, THE Sapsucker (Anomie Records) cd 9.98
Guitar (and sample) slinging Texan Scott Ayers's Walking Timebombs make a return to the fucked up industrial/goth/experimental rock of his previous outfit, the late great Pain Teens. The Walking Timebombs are not only a full-fledged guitar/bass/drums band now, they also got themselves a female singer a la Pain Teens. But while Scott's heavy duty guitar, loops, and samples haven't changed much from the Pain Teens days, new singer Sarah Evans is no Bliss Blood. Her singing is just too forced and affected, in that Alanis Morrisette style. Or like a female Layne Staley, even. Alanis Morrisette fronting the Pain Teens? Hmm. None of the danger of Blood, indeed a few tracks like "Good Thoughts" could maybe be played on modern rock radio. Ugh. What's with that? Pain Teens wrote some "pop" songs too ("RU486") but not like this. Still, some of this certainly does bring back memories of Pain Teens' heyday, and might get you dragging out your old "Stimulation Festival" or "Born In Blood" discs, 'cause while "Sapsucker" has its enjoyable moments, for this most part this new stuff is just too safe. The Pain Teens we remember had much more of an edge, this is just kinda hokey; the 'disturbing' bits just aren't convincing even when the music is fairly heavy. Of course, it's NOT the Pain Teens, so maybe we're not being fair. But Scott and Co. have to expect comparisons... so give it a listen yourself.
RealAudio clip: "Parasite"
RealAudio clip: "Fallen"

WALKINGSEEDS Bad Orb, Whirling Ball (Shimmy Disc) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now here's a warehouse find that actually came from a real warehouse, instead of our closet behind the counter or the shelf near Andee's desk. We dug up a handful of these at one of our distributors, the same place we found those rare Japanese cds we've listed lately.
We have always been obsessed with Shimmy Disc. For a long stretch there, everything they put out was weird and wonderful and unlike ANYthing else we had ever heard. Bongwater, Velvet Monkeys, Dogbowl, B.A.L.L., Fred Lane, King Missile, Carney-Hild-Kramer, Spongehead, Shockabilly, Jellyfish Kiss, and long before they became household names, Shimmy Disc was introducing us to groups like the Boredoms, the Ruins, Gwar, Naked City, Ween, Damon And Naomi we could go on. Needless to say, our Shimmy loyalty was not misplaced.
One other band we discovered via Shimmy Disc, was UK psychedelic space rockers Walkingseeds, and as luck would have it, one of our local distributors had a handful of copies gathering dust in their warehouse, of the group's final, and some would argue best, record, Bad Orb, Whirling Ball. If you're a reader of Julian Cope's Head Heritage blog (and if you're not you should be!), you might remember him raving about Bad Orb, describing it thusly:
"An album of malign, choppy cosmic fuzz that Killing Joke would have died for, an album that twists American delta blues and English folk shanties into strange psychedelic vistas that far better musicians can only dream of... a relentless, cathartic, pysch-rock album that spins with malice towards its final conclusion!"
Tough to argue with that, and why would you? This is some fantastically tripped out, spacey, weirdly poppy, psychedelic fuzz garage heaviness, produced by Shimmy Disc head honcho Kramer, so instead of sounding heavy or spacey, it sounds gorgeously washed out and cosmic, otherworldly, but still raw and urgent and super rocking. Don Fleming of B.A.L.L. and at one time Dinosaur Jr. contributes some "Chinese alien guitar" on one track, which is a strange coincidence since head Walkingseed Frank Martin is an almost dead ringer for Fleming, with a similarly nasal, ragged style of vocalizing.
Equal parts Stooges, Blue Cheer, Hawkwind, Blue Oyster Cult (who they cover on another record), the Beatles (who they cover brilliantly here), vintage psychedelia, classic sixties pop, seventies classic rock, druggy space rock, crunchy, fuzzy, gritty, garagey, loose and still fucking amazing. Puts the current crop of wannabe psychedelic space rockers to shame! We figure fans of The Heads should dig.
The cd version includes three bonus tracks which are remixes of songs from the group's previous record, Upwind Of Disaster, Downwind Of Atonement, and offer up more of the same, and will most likely have you desperately searching for a copy of that one too. Good luck! Worth the hunt for sure. Unfortunately, we have a very limited number of these, especially the cds, which we most likely will NOT be able to get more of, it's long out of print, so we took all the copies our distributor had, but they do have more of the lp, and while that's 3 tracks shorter than the cd, it's also cheaper!
MPEG Stream: "Gates Of Freedom"
MPEG Stream: "Weight Of The Years"
MPEG Stream: "Mortal Blues"
MPEG Stream: "He Said, She Said"

WALKINGSEEDS Bad Orb, Whirling Ball (Shimmy Disc) lp 8.98
Now here's a warehouse find that actually came from a real warehouse, instead of our closet behind the counter or the shelf near Andee's desk. We dug up a handful of these at one of our distributors, the same place we found those rare Japanese cds we've listed lately.
We have always been obsessed with Shimmy Disc. For a long stretch there, everything they put out was weird and wonderful and unlike ANYthing else we had ever heard. Bongwater, Velvet Monkeys, Dogbowl, B.A.L.L., Fred Lane, King Missile, Carney-Hild-Kramer, Spongehead, Shockabilly, Jellyfish Kiss, and long before they became household names, Shimmy Disc was introducing us to groups like the Boredoms, the Ruins, Gwar, Naked City, Ween, Damon And Naomi we could go on. Needless to say, our Shimmy loyalty was not misplaced.
One other band we discovered via Shimmy Disc, was UK psychedelic space rockers Walkingseeds, and as luck would have it, one of our local distributors had a handful of copies gathering dust in their warehouse, of the group's final, and some would argue best, record, Bad Orb, Whirling Ball. If you're a reader of Julian Cope's Head Heritage blog (and if you're not you should be!), you might remember him raving about Bad Orb, describing it thusly:
"An album of malign, choppy cosmic fuzz that Killing Joke would have died for, an album that twists American delta blues and English folk shanties into strange psychedelic vistas that far better musicians can only dream of... a relentless, cathartic, pysch-rock album that spins with malice towards its final conclusion!"
Tough to argue with that, and why would you? This is some fantastically tripped out, spacey, weirdly poppy, psychedelic fuzz garage heaviness, produced by Shimmy Disc head honcho Kramer, so instead of sounding heavy or spacey, it sounds gorgeously washed out and cosmic, otherworldly, but still raw and urgent and super rocking. Don Fleming of B.A.L.L. and at one time Dinosaur Jr. contributes some "Chinese alien guitar" on one track, which is a strange coincidence since head Walkingseed Frank Martin is an almost dead ringer for Fleming, with a similarly nasal, ragged style of vocalizing.
Equal parts Stooges, Blue Cheer, Hawkwind, Blue Oyster Cult (who they cover on another record), the Beatles (who they cover brilliantly here), vintage psychedelia, classic sixties pop, seventies classic rock, druggy space rock, crunchy, fuzzy, gritty, garagey, loose and still fucking amazing. Puts the current crop of wannabe psychedelic space rockers to shame! We figure fans of The Heads should dig.
The cd version includes three bonus tracks which are remixes of songs from the group's previous record, Upwind Of Disaster, Downwind Of Atonement, and offer up more of the same, and will most likely have you desperately searching for a copy of that one too. Good luck! Worth the hunt for sure. Unfortunately, we have a very limited number of these, especially the cds, which we most likely will NOT be able to get more of, it's long out of print, so we took all the copies our distributor had, but they do have more of the lp, and while that's 3 tracks shorter than the cd, it's also cheaper!
MPEG Stream: "Gates Of Freedom"
MPEG Stream: "Weight Of The Years"
MPEG Stream: "Mortal Blues"
MPEG Stream: "He Said, She Said"

WALKMEN Lisbon (Fat Possum) cd 13.98

WALKMEN Lisbon (Fat Possum) cd 13.98

WALKMEN Lisbon (Fat Possum) lp 16.98

WALKMEN Lisbon (Fat Possum) lp 16.98

WALKMEN Pussy Cats (Record Collection) cd+dvd 16.98
Oh those beloved Walkmen, they've been up to some fine goings-on. 'Twas just a few months ago when their latest album proper A Hundred Miles Off was released, and it is a dandy that's grown on us more and more with each listen. Now they've taken a break from their own tunesmithery to issue forth this complete remake of Harry Nilsson and John Lennon's legendary album Pussy Cats. It's clearly a work that the band knows and loves wholeheartedly. The offbeat original was recorded back in '74 during Lennon's infamous months-long "lost weekend" (Unfamiliar with the tale? Well, it's far to much to get into here, you'll just have to do your own research!), and The Walkmen's was recorded during the Hundred Miles Off sessions. Joining the band in this incredibly faithful re-creation of the album are the Make Up's Ian Svenonius (popping in to deliver some of his unmistakable vocals) and Quentin Stoltzfus from Azusa Plane (adding his two-bits worth on "Mucho Mongo / Mt. Elga"). It's unquestionably well executed, if somewhat restrained and downright safe at times. Might not win them new fans, but it'll prolly please their existing ones and maybe bring some new ears to the original album.
MPEG Stream: "All My Life"
MPEG Stream: "Save The Last Dance For Me"

WALKMEN You & Me (Gigantic Music) cd 12.98