XELA In Bocca Al Lupo (Type) cd 15.98
Another gorgeous fuzzed out collection of washed out abstract dronescapes from aQ faves Xela, this one a four track, hour long sprawl of glistening, shimmering, crackle and hiss drenched drift. Type label head honcho John Twells, takes the sound of Xela, a sound we had previously described as "Dead C meets Pop Ambient meets Gooom" (Gooom the early home of M83, Abstrackt Keal Agram, Purple Confusion and others), even further out this time, letting the various sounds ring out, spread out, decay and space as much a part of the sound as the notes and arrangements. The amazing thing about Xela, is that it's almost not even music, it often sounds more like a manufactured field recording, sometimes recognizable - are those footsteps? the sound of running water?, the creaking of old machinery? - but just as often, a sound that is totally alien, is that the sound of strange creatures rustling below the surface of some barren asteroid? Is that a recording of magnetic fields, or of spirits or ghosts, or maybe even something there are no words for? Which is what makes the sound of Xela so magical, and mysterious.
In Bocca seems to be steeped in religious symbolism, with a mysterious sigil on the cover of the lp, Latin song titles, and even sonically, it's like a wander through the catacombs beneath some old abandoned church, as if envisioned by Tim Hecker and Philip Jeck, with plenty of loops, smears of hiss, muted buzz, fields of crackle, fragmented melodies, all drifting amidst and among all manner of sounds, footsteps, chiming bells, short wave interference, bits of guitar (?), warm chordal swirls, woven into an incredibly evocative soundscape, that most definitely brings to mind another time and place, a world of darkness and grey skies, of stone walls below the ground dripping with moisture, of dusty shafts of sunlight filtering through bent bars, painting the dirt floors blurred shades of black and brown.
The opening track is thick with distortion and buzz and crackle, its beauty sublimated by all the extraneous noise, but it's that noise that give the track its texture, that turns a drone, a drift, into something much more tactile, a sound that is felt as much as it is heard, but the second track, shrugs off all of that noise, at least in the beginning, leaving just the muted sounds of a carillon, drifting down from a crumbling tower, mournful and funereal, before from below, surfaces swirls of soft electronic buzz, which become more and more smooth and blurred, finally existing as a sheet of warm whir over the ever tolling bells.
All four tracks seem to exist as a single multi movement piece, each slipping smoothly into the next, in the third movement, the bells drift off, and over them are laid deep moaning tones, the buzz and crackle now merely a whisper, a haunting slow motion creep into a thick waterfall of pink noise, before distant drums (courtesy of the dude from Heavy Winged) announce the beginning of the final, and longest movement. Tribal, militaristic, but spare and still abstract, the drums unfurl a skeletal rhythm, while all around it, the sounds become more and more frenzied, feedback, squalls of amp buzz and hiss, cymbals explode like fireworks in a black sky, the background scribbled with electronic squiggles and jagged shards of distortion, growing more and more blown out, the drums growing wilder and wilder, buzzing synths emerging from the chaos, until the drums drop out and the track has been transformed into a spaced out synthscape, all layered and pulsing, buzzing and blissful, as if suddenly, the dank stone floor gave way, and the listener, the catacombs, and everything as we know it, collapsed inward, emerging in some otherworld, a neverending expanse of glimmering, glistening blackness, a slow motion swirl of mysterious voices and distant drones all stretched out along thick streaks of looped buzz stretching off into the void.
The cd is packaged in a normal jewel case, with quite striking, and bloody artwork, the 2lp is limited (of course) and comes in a thick chipboard brown jacket, adorned with a simple black symbol right in the center.
MPEG Stream: "Ut Nos Vivicaret"
MPEG Stream: "In Deo Salutari Meo"

XELA In Bocca Al Lupo (Type) 2lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another gorgeous fuzzed out collection of washed out abstract dronescapes from aQ faves Xela, this one a four track, hour long sprawl of glistening, shimmering, crackle and hiss drenched drift. Type label head honcho John Twells, takes the sound of Xela, a sound we had previously described as "Dead C meets Pop Ambient meets Gooom" (Gooom the early home of M83, Abstrackt Keal Agram, Purple Confusion and others), even further out this time, letting the various sounds ring out, spread out, decay and space as much a part of the sound as the notes and arrangements. The amazing thing about Xela, is that it's almost not even music, it often sounds more like a manufactured field recording, sometimes recognizable - are those footsteps? the sound of running water?, the creaking of old machinery? - but just as often, a sound that is totally alien, is that the sound of strange creatures rustling below the surface of some barren asteroid? Is that a recording of magnetic fields, or of spirits or ghosts, or maybe even something there are no words for? Which is what makes the sound of Xela so magical, and mysterious.
In Bocca seems to be steeped in religious symbolism, with a mysterious sigil on the cover of the lp, Latin song titles, and even sonically, it's like a wander through the catacombs beneath some old abandoned church, as if envisioned by Tim Hecker and Philip Jeck, with plenty of loops, smears of hiss, muted buzz, fields of crackle, fragmented melodies, all drifting amidst and among all manner of sounds, footsteps, chiming bells, short wave interference, bits of guitar (?), warm chordal swirls, woven into an incredibly evocative soundscape, that most definitely brings to mind another time and place, a world of darkness and grey skies, of stone walls below the ground dripping with moisture, of dusty shafts of sunlight filtering through bent bars, painting the dirt floors blurred shades of black and brown.
The opening track is thick with distortion and buzz and crackle, its beauty sublimated by all the extraneous noise, but it's that noise that give the track its texture, that turns a drone, a drift, into something much more tactile, a sound that is felt as much as it is heard, but the second track, shrugs off all of that noise, at least in the beginning, leaving just the muted sounds of a carillon, drifting down from a crumbling tower, mournful and funereal, before from below, surfaces swirls of soft electronic buzz, which become more and more smooth and blurred, finally existing as a sheet of warm whir over the ever tolling bells.
All four tracks seem to exist as a single multi movement piece, each slipping smoothly into the next, in the third movement, the bells drift off, and over them are laid deep moaning tones, the buzz and crackle now merely a whisper, a haunting slow motion creep into a thick waterfall of pink noise, before distant drums (courtesy of the dude from Heavy Winged) announce the beginning of the final, and longest movement. Tribal, militaristic, but spare and still abstract, the drums unfurl a skeletal rhythm, while all around it, the sounds become more and more frenzied, feedback, squalls of amp buzz and hiss, cymbals explode like fireworks in a black sky, the background scribbled with electronic squiggles and jagged shards of distortion, growing more and more blown out, the drums growing wilder and wilder, buzzing synths emerging from the chaos, until the drums drop out and the track has been transformed into a spaced out synthscape, all layered and pulsing, buzzing and blissful, as if suddenly, the dank stone floor gave way, and the listener, the catacombs, and everything as we know it, collapsed inward, emerging in some otherworld, a neverending expanse of glimmering, glistening blackness, a slow motion swirl of mysterious voices and distant drones all stretched out along thick streaks of looped buzz stretching off into the void.
The cd is packaged in a normal jewel case, with quite striking, and bloody artwork, the 2lp is limited (of course) and comes in a thick chipboard brown jacket, adorned with a simple black symbol right in the center.
MPEG Stream: "Ut Nos Vivicaret"
MPEG Stream: "In Deo Salutari Meo"

XELA The Dead Sea (Type) cd 15.98
Remember the French label Gooom? The label that introduced us to the gauzy blissed out dreampop of M83. As well as similarly beautiful pop buzz from bands like Cyann & Ben, KG, Abstract Keal Agram, Montag, Mils., Purple Confusion and others. Well, while Gooom seem to have dropped off the map, Type has stepped up in their bid to be our new favorite label of blissy abstract wonder. While the two labels do share an aesthetic, a sort of blurry buzzy dreamy drift, each approaches the sound from dramatically different angles. Gooom bands are, at their core, simply pop bands, or slow core bands, or post rock bands, but bands nonetheless. Guitar, bass and drums. Choruses, verses, bridges, lyrics, but these seemingly normal elements are then twisted and distorted, blurred and fuzzed out, into the glorious sounds and shapes we fell in love with. Like hearing sweetly psychedelic pop music, filtered through a cracked funhouse mirror made out of amp buzz and fuzzy sheets of reverb. Type are obviously fans of the same sort of cracked sonic shimmer, all of their releases shimmery and ethereal, rife with lots of buzz and hiss, glitch and fuzz.
Such is the case with Xela, the debut release from Type label head honcho John Twells. His cracked pop vision fits perfectly alongside the other outfits on Type, Ryan Teague, Mountaineer, Machinefabriek, Goldmund, North Sea & Rameses III. Twells wanders through a strange world of abstract sound making, fuzzy dreamlike blurs, and manner of mechanical musics. Melodies are rendered indistinct, actual songs are turned into blurry fragments, everything is pulled apart into abstract skeletal soundscapes, like seeing buzzy dream pop from the inside, watching all the gears and bits and parts and machinations that make that sort of music so dang pretty on the outside. But the view from the inside is so gorgeously alien, grinds and clicks, disembodied melodies stretched over rhythmic skitter, it's almost like being shrunken down and exploring some huge music box. Or better yet, imagine the Dead C making a record for children, playfully noisy, subtly melodic, a disembodied dream folk bathed in dreamy static, murky record crackle, and tangled up with little bits of video game music, all stretched into a gauzy later afternoon soundscape. So great. When we first heard about this album, we read a description the label wrote that pretty much seemed intended to make us at AQ curious, as it cited both Italian horror soundtracks by Goblin, AND Jewelled Antler improv soundscapes as references for Xela's sound!! Amazingly enough, The Dead Sea lives up to the expectations thus generated, and we're hooked.
Amazingly creepy cover art. Black and white line drawings of people drowning and being attacked by some sort of underwater zombies. Cool!
MPEG Stream: "Linseed"
MPEG Stream: "Drunk On Salt Water"
MPEG Stream: "Wet Bones"

XELA The Illuminated (Digitalis) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A super limited missive from Xela, aka John Twells, head honcho of the super kick ass Type label. But his work as Xela is much darker than his label might lead you to believe. His is a world of doom. Not old school heavy metal doom. But truly ominous darkened worlds of doom. His is not a doom of huge riffs and pounding drums, but instead, rumbling sinister drones, and haunting ambience. Crumbling black landscapes of mysterious buzz and whispered menace. The A side of this tape is like a field recording of a rickety old dock, jutting out into the choppy waters of the River Styx, old rust chains rattle, rusty lanterns clang against one another, the rotted wood groans and creaks, the wind howls, the choppy water laps at the pilings, black birds circle overhead, an old boat tied up to the dock rocking wildly in the water, straining against the frayed rope, while in the distance, an ominous buzz permeates the air like the stink of decaying flesh, and somewhere, below the surface of the water, or hidden behind the black clouds overhead, some unspeakable beast growls, his ominous rumble like thunder filling the sky.
The B side takes up where the first side left off, that same dock, being lashed by a fierce storm, but instead of rain and lightning, it's decaying black buzz, and howled vocals, a stumbling, lurching doomy drone, recorded on an old tape, the sound dropping out, the speed shifting, slowing down and speeding up, as much a part of the sound as the obfuscated riffs, and the creeping mournful melodies. Fucking awesome.
Red cassettes with metallic gold sticker, in a cryptic printed black and white sleeve, photocopied insert. LIMITED TO 111 COPIES. Already out of print. We got the last batch so act fast.

XELA / AJILVSGA I Love Her Till I Die (Digitalis) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We always say "we only have a very few of these, so we won't go into too much detail" and then we pretty much always do. But not this time. Nope. Cuz we only have 8 copies of this. We got a bunch, but most sold before we could get them reviewed and listed.
So for a lucky few of you, here's a brand new, awesome split tape, LIMITED TO 99 COPIES and already out of print.
One side: Type records head honcho John Twells' ambient doom outfit, creating another haunting, crumbling, creepy world of doom-ed sound, epic and heavy, intense and soaring, layers upon layers of coruscating guitars, woven into moody moving droning beauty. The other side: new discovery Ajilvsga, another ambient doom outfit, a duo, one half of which is Digitalis overlord Brad Rose, their side is a thick viscous grinding sludge of blown out guitars, crumbling distortion, heaving slow motion glacial heaviness, that manages to imbue its buzzing creep with haunting melodies and strange blackened beauty.
Gorgeous full color covers printed on textured paper, each one hand numbered, gone before you know it...

XELA / NORTH SEA Electronic Music Vol.1 (Rite) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Couldn't really think of a much better match up. Xela, aka John Twells, who runs the Type label, and North Sea aka Brad Rose, who runs the Digitalis label, both explore similar sounds and sound making in their respective groups, as well as the various releases on their respective labels. This might be the first time these two have shared a record, but hopefully not the last. Perhaps the Volume 1 in the title does in fact hint at future volumes...
Xela gives us two track of his particular 'electronic music', and it sounds, thankfully, much like his more organic music, a bit more abstract perhaps, a lot less doomy, but just as mysterious and evocative, long sweeping soundscapes made up of sculpted hiss, and buried high pulses, ultra minimal but thick and layered, peppered with buried streaks of feedback, fragmented melodies, what sounds like manipulated samples from other songs, all manner of glitch and buzz, deftly woven into two movements, the first, noisy and staticky, powerful and intense, but still strangely pretty, the second, much more abstract, beginning as a whisper, a barely there drift of found sounds, before drifting forward, and accumulating various sounds as it goes, building to a strange and haunting piece of active ambience, very cinematic, haunting and again, in it's own difficult way, quite lovely.
The North Sea continues on in the same direction as the last few releases, ditching much of the folk and flutter, for churning low end crunch. At this point it does seem that perhaps the title Electronic Music was not necessarily meant literally, cuz at least to our ears this sounds like big heaving slabs of downtuned guitar, glacial doomdronedirge, roiling swirls of rumble and buzz, eventually breaking down to something much more ambient, an ominous blackened drift, rife with bits of electronic glitch and swirling space-y FX, before finally transforming into something much more blown out and blissful, a sort of static soft noise jam equal parts Tim Hecker and Aidan Baker, smeared and blurred into one smoldering expanse of soft focus heaviness. Quite gorgeous.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. Housed in plain white sleeves, hand stamped, the text mostly in Cyrillic.

XELA WITH GREG HAINES & DANNY SAUL The Late Chapel (Type) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
WHOO-HOO! We found we had a (small) secret stash of these, so here's another chance to grab one. Ultra limited one sided vinyl only release from AQ faves Xela. Already out of print, we have the last copies anywhere.
A single long form composition, more classical and minimal sounding than the most recent Xela full length, beginning with gentle simple piano, tinkling chimes, distant whirs, folky steel string twang, subtle percussion, a subtle mixture of cello, piano, vocals, acoustic and electric guitars and effects, all woven into a lovely stretch of active ambience. Soon though this tranquil drift is enveloped in a thick sonic haze of blurred buzz, and the instruments all seem to be deeply effected by the change, the guitars begin to stutter and glitch, the piano detunes and becomes more atonal, throwing out dense little flurries of notes, steel strings scrape and creak and groan, becoming more and more intense, building to a lengthy drone, everything whipped into a frenzy, swirling whirring, intense and dense but still strangely melodic and quite lovely.
Pressed on thick vinyl, packaged in plain white sleeves, each one stamped and hand numbered, limited to 300 copies, and again, already out of print, these are the last copies ever...

XENAKIS, IANNIS Chamber Music 1955-1990 (Montaigne) cd 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

XENAKIS, IANNIS Electronic Music (EMF) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

XENAKIS, IANNIS Electronic Music 1: La Legende d'Eer (Mode) cd 16.98
Greek avant garde composer's 1977/78 46-minutework for 8-channel electronic tape. Challenging, to say the least. You dig Merzbow? Well test your mettle against this - piercing tones from a true master.

XENAKIS, IANNIS Electronic Music 1: La Legende d'Eer (Mode) dvd 26.00

XENAKIS, IANNIS Electronic Works 2 (Mode) cd 16.98

XENAKIS, IANNIS GRM Works 1957-1962 (Editions Mego) lp 24.00
Iannis Xenakis took up residence in the GRM studios in 1957 during the time when it was run by Pierre Schaefer. Over the next five years, Xenakis composed a handful of works, most of which have made their way onto this Editions Mego produced anthology, including "Concrete PH" (1958), "Orient-Occident" (1960), "Diamorphosis" (1957-1958), and "Bohor" (1962). Commissioned as the sound design for the 1958 Phillips Pavilion constructed by the acclaimed architect Le Corbussier, "Concrete PH" was sourced entirely from the sound of burning charcoal, with the crackling sounds being sped up and overdubbed via tape to enhance its brittle tactility in a dense cloud of tumbling sound. This simple piece of audio construction doesn't even reach 3 minutes in length, but is one of those early pieces of electronic music that has inspired countless adventurous musicians over the intervening six decades. Take your pick: Faust, Einsturzende Neubauten, Small Cruel Party, Scott Walker, etc. "Orient-Occident" is a recomposed extract from the soundtrack that Xenakis provided to UNESCO commissioned film by Enrico Fulchignoni. Here, Xenakis builds his piece through the sounds of bowed gongs, with aggregated crescendos of dense metallic reverberation which he intuitively balances with ambient rumblings and radiophonic sine-wave flutterings. Again, this is a very instructive piece of electronic music, not only an obvious precursor to Nurse With Wound's Homotopy To Marie but also to Stockhausen's Mikrophonie which was begun a few years later in 1964. "Diamorphosis" is probably the closest that Xenakis ever came to producing a true musique concrete piece with its jagged start-stop assemblage and almost formalist, spider-web like passages whose loose interpretation of serialism serves him very well. "Bohor" was the last piece that Xenakis composed at GRM, and he dedicated the piece to Pierre Schaefer, who did not appreciate the piece whatsoever. Do keep in mind that Schaefer also didn't care of Eliane Radigue's work with feedback and minimalism, so the attack-softened clamorings from various tuned pieces of metal into a static amalgam is actually not that far from the maximalist / minimalist approach of Organum and the denser moments of early Andrew Chalk. Again some three decades before either were beginning their careers! Much of this work has been long out of print, even on CD, so kudos to Editions Mego for reintroducing these seminal recordings.
MPEG Stream: "Concrete PH"
MPEG Stream: "Orient-Occident"
MPEG Stream: "Bohor"

XENAKIS, IANNIS Kraanerg (Asphodel) cd 12.98
Asphodel, always adventurous, branches out further with two new releases, one "world music" (Min Xiao-Fen, below) and this 20th century classical item, a Xenakis piece performed by Xenakis-experts the ST-X Ensemble, with none other than Aphodel mascot DJ Spooky running the A-DAT machine. The music? Orchestra plus tapes = music that even the Wall St. Journal considers "terrifying masses of sound."

XENAKIS, IANNIS La Legende d'Eer (Montaigne) 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Greek avant garde composer's 1977/78 46-minute work for 8-channel electronic tape. Challenging, to say the least. You dig Merzbow? Well try your mettle on this -- piercing tones from a true master.

XENAKIS, IANNIS La Lˇgende D'eer (Montaigne) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Repressed, now at a more attractive price! Greek avant garde composer's 1977/78 46-minutework for 8-channel electronic tape. Challenging, to say the least. You dig Merzbow? Well try your mettle on this -- piercing tones from a true master.

XENAKIS, IANNIS Metastasis / Pithoprakta / Eonta (Le Chant Du Monde) cd 14.98
These three pieces date back to the early orchestral work of Xenakis in the mid '50s and early '60s when the Greek composer / mathematician was shifting away from Serialism towards what he called "Formalised Music." "Metastatis" divided the orchestra into its individual elements, with 61 instrumentalists playing 61 different parts. This strategy of aesthetic decision through mathematics was the basis for his awesome electronic work including those found within Xenakis' "Electronic Music" anthology. "Pithoprakta" was one of Xenakis' early scores that employed a Stochastic model of exploring the theories of probability within music, as a means of creating a dense granular sound from a 50 piece orchestra (46 strings, 2 trombones, 1 xylophone, and 1 woodblock, if you must know). "Eonta" was almost an impossible score to perform, as certain parts for the piano and brass solos were calculated on an early IBM mainframe computer. Either you're impressed by such conceptual overdrive or you're not.
RealAudio clip: "Eonta (deuxieme partie)"
RealAudio clip: "Metastasis"

XENAKIS, IANNIS Music For Keyboard Instruments (NEOS) cd 23.00

XENAKIS, IANNIS Musique Electro-Acoustic (Fractal) cd 16.98
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This disc premieres two compositions of electro-acoustic work from legendary composer Iannis Xenakis, both utilizing his UPIC system, a method of composition also documented on the recent "CCMIX: New Electroacoustic Music from Paris" double cd compilation. The UPIC system was invented by Xenakis as a means of computer-translating a kinetic motion into music. Thus, scribbles from Xenakis' lightpen become, to the ear, zany modulations of granular synthesis. In the first piece, "Pour La Paix," Xenakis' spiked blurts of electronic noise punctuate an ongoing spoken French narrative written by Xenakis' wife Francoise, denouncing the evils of warfare. The use of vocals are a rarity in Xenakis' electronic works, and so this piece seems closer to the theatrical concrete work of Michel Chion than Xenakis' usual stuff. The second piece, "Voyage Absolu Des Unari Vers Andromede," is a trippy piece of electronics, much more in line with the loose cosmic-tinged Krautrock of Cluster or Tangerine Dream. Not surprisingly, Xenakis intended this to be "a space voyage far in the future, toward the galaxy of Andromeda, with episodes while crossing the spaces between the stars." While these high falutin' sci-fi references were meant with a great deal of earnestness, "Voyage Absolu..." really works much better simply as fodder for being stoned, than for serious 'academic' listening!
RealAudio clip: "Pour La Paix"
RealAudio clip: "Voyage Absolu Des Unari Vers Andromede"

XENAKIS, IANNIS Oresteia (Montaigne) cd 17.98
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From the liner notes for this orchestral and choral piece: "Xenakis' 'Oresteia' -- written in 1966 and complete in 1987 with the addition of the scene entitled 'Kassandra' -- is neither Aeschylus' tragedy in its entirety, nor a work written independently of the classical text. In Xenakis' version the history of the kings is recounted by the people: the tragic chorus becomes the central character in the 'Oresteia.' It interprets its own role, but also, collectively, that of the legendary heroes and gods, sung to Aeschylus' lines which were a powerful inspiration to the music."

XENAKIS, IANNIS Persepolis (Fractal ) cd 15.98
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Attention all you avantgarde electronic music fans! Important reissue alert! Iannis Xenakis' "Persepolis" was originally commisioned in 1971 as large-scale sound installation for the Shiraz-Persepolis Festival of the Arts in Iran. "Persepolis" -- Xenakis' longest electro-acoustic composition -- originally involved 8 channels of dense electro-acoustic material broadcast through the vast complex of the ruined Palaces of Persepolis along with a massive display of arclights, fireworks, and bonfires. Even without the visual explosiveness of the original performance (which we are amusingly told is somehow made up for by the presence of 16 page booklet in this release), "Persepolis" is a challenging and evocative piece of electro-acoustic music. Xenakis arranges slow tectonic rumbles and rough granular trebliness with extended passages of what could have been the bowed metal of Organum if Jackman et. al. were tumbling down a flight of stairs. In the liner notes, Xenakis explains that these complex noises correspond to the history of Iran as transcribed through a system of hermetic hieroglyphics. This history, as turbulent micromirror of the world's history, is elliptically described in a series of violent clashes and explosions. For this metaphor, Xenakis the Greek found himself in a bit of predicament as Alexander the Greek was responsible for the obliteration of the Palace of Persepolis where this performance was taking place. Regardless, "Persepolis" engages the visceral and the physical in a way that no other academic / musique concrete / electro-acoustic / minimalist piece has ever done before. It's frightening how powerful this piece of music is, even to one familiar with more recent massive electronic displays by MB, Merzbow, and Organum.

XENAKIS, IANNIS Persepolis + Remixes Edition 1 (Asphodel) 2cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of legendary 20th century new music composer Iannis Xenakis' most heralded works, "Persepolis" is here remixed by some of today's most adventurous musicians. Though the liner notes clumsily attempt some high brow hoo-ha internationalist theory about why the chosen remixers are appropriate for this project -- "Creative modernism is left with choosing between authoritarianism and religion. Hence, the inclusion of a second disc of remixes..." (hence? huh?) -- the obvious reason why these remixers appear is because, like Xenakis, they manipulate noise, musique concrete, and take experimental music to conceptual and sonic extremes. It makes aural sense; don't give me political wish-wash. Anyway, here's what we've written about Persepolis, which is on the first disc here:
Attention all you avantgarde electronic music fans! Important reissue alert! Iannis Xenakis' "Persepolis" was originally commissioned in 1971 as large-scale sound installation for the Shiraz-Persepolis Festival of the Arts in Iran. "Persepolis" -- Xenakis' longest electro-acoustic composition -- originally involved 8 channels of dense electro-acoustic material broadcast through the vast complex of the ruined Palaces of Persepolis along with a massive display of arclights, fireworks, and bonfires. Xenakis arranges slow tectonic rumbles and rough granular trebliness with extended passages of what could have been the bowed metal of Organum if Jackman et. al. were tumbling down a flight of stairs... "Persepolis" engages the visceral and the physical in a way that no other academic / musique concrete / electro-acoustic / minimalist piece has ever done before. It's frightening how powerful this piece of music is, even to one familiar with more recent massive electronic displays by MB, Merzbow, and Organum.
The remixers include: Ryoji Ikeda, Zbigniew Karkowski, Otomo Yoshihide, Francisco Lopez, Antimatter, Merzbow, Laminar, Ulf Lanheinrich, and more. A veritable noise fest. Construction site rumblings. Very difficult listening. If nothing else, this is a perfect introductory sampler of not only Xenakis but also some of AQ's favorite experimentalists. Nice price -- two discs for the price of one.
RealAudio clip: "Persepolis (Ryoji Ikeda remix)"
RealAudio clip: "Persepolis (Merzbow remix)"

XENAKIS, IANNIS Pleiades: Les Percussions De Strasbourg (Harmonia Mundi) cd 11.98

XENAKIS, IANNIS s/t (Edition RZ) 2cd 25.00
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XENO & OAKLANDER Sentinelle (Wierd) cd 11.98
Situated somewhere near Cold Cave, Zola Jesus, and Blank Dogs, Xeno & Oaklander offer another fantastic distillation of dark-eyed synth-pop from a previous decade. A duo comprised of Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride, Xeno & Oaklander eschew digital technologies in favor of analogue synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines, applying these instruments to the ghostly rhythmic electronics of minimal wave bands such as Absolute Body Control or Snowy Red. Less obtuse references would be early Human League, Xymox, and Depeche Mode; but no matter where you want to pin the influences, X&O are looking back to the European stylings of romantic electronica that dates somewhere between 1982 and 1986. Like Cold Cave, Xeno & Oaklander have made an appearance at the No Fun Festival in 2009, probably being one of the acts that some of the stalwart noiseniks must have hated because of their comparatively pretty songs.
There is something golden and polished to the mechanoid sequences and electrical rhythms on Sentinelle, which stands as the 'proper' debut album for Xeno & Oaklander after a cd-r micro-edition and some choice tracks on Wierd's [sic] first two collections of analogue electronic music. Throughout the album, sad electronic melodies are tightly bound around repetitive phrases and spry post-disco drum programming, with the vocals alternating between both McBride and Wendelbo (the latter singing in English and French). The album has the feel that it could be a stand in as a soundtrack to the silent film Metropolis, with its accompanying aesthetics of art-deco modernism tinged with noir shadows and gleaming bursts of reflected light. Despite the obvious allusions to the past, Xeno & Oaklander seem to have wedged themselves between all of their influences and mustered something that they can claim as their own. Very well done!
MPEG Stream: "4th Wall"
MPEG Stream: "Toho Picture"
MPEG Stream: "Rendez-Vous d'Or"

XENO & OAKLANDER Sentinelle (Wierd) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
ALSO NOW HERE ON VINYL!!
Situated somewhere near Cold Cave, Zola Jesus, and Blank Dogs, Xeno & Oaklander offer another fantastic distillation of dark-eyed synth-pop from a previous decade. A duo comprised of Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride, Xeno & Oaklander eschew digital technologies in favor of analogue synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines, applying these instruments to the ghostly rhythmic electronics of minimal wave bands such as Absolute Body Control or Snowy Red. Less obtuse references would be early Human League, Xymox, and Depeche Mode; but no matter where you want to pin the influences, X&O are looking back to the European stylings of romantic electronica that dates somewhere between 1982 and 1986. Like Cold Cave, Xeno & Oaklander have made an appearance at the No Fun Festival in 2009, probably being one of the acts that some of the stalwart noiseniks must have hated because of their comparatively pretty songs.
There is something golden and polished to the mechanoid sequences and electrical rhythms on Sentinelle, which stands as the 'proper' debut album for Xeno & Oaklander after a cd-r micro-edition and some choice tracks on Wierd's [sic] first two collections of analogue electronic music. Throughout the album, sad electronic melodies are tightly bound around repetitive phrases and spry post-disco drum programming, with the vocals alternating between both McBride and Wendelbo (the latter singing in English and French). The album has the feel that it could be a stand in as a soundtrack to the silent film Metropolis, with its accompanying aesthetics of art-deco modernism tinged with noir shadows and gleaming bursts of reflected light. Despite the obvious allusions to the past, Xeno & Oaklander seem to have wedged themselves between all of their influences and mustered something that they can claim as their own. Very well done!
MPEG Stream: "4th Wall"
MPEG Stream: "Toho Picture"
MPEG Stream: "Rendez-Vous d'Or"

XENO & OAKLANDER Sets & Lights (Wierd Records) cd 11.98
Album number three for the Brooklyn retro-garde duo Xeno & Oaklander (aka Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride), who are the flagship outfit for Wierd Records in their recapitulation of a particular strain of cold synthwave circa 1981. Wendelbo and McBride have collected a mighty impressive collection of synths, sequencers, and drum machines of that era, and they've stuck to their 'no computers' ethos in creating their retro sound. Given the limitations in instrumentation and aesthetics, the Xeno & Oaklander albums do trend toward similarity, veering towards a brighter, new wave / Italo-disco vibe here on Sets & Lights and slightly away from the industrial-tinged notions found on their 2009 breakout album Sentinelle. Wendelbo and McBride alternate on vocals, with Wendelbo taking up her breathy waif-like elegance and McBride adopting British affectations in his delivery. The title track and "Years Before" glide upon percolating, almost Moroder-esque sequencing with disco-inspired basslines and suitably propulsive rhythm tracks bracing everything inside the synth-pop shell that Xeno & Oaklander have so carefully refined. The icy sensuality of the instrumental track "Italy" slows the pace down to something more akin to Johnny Jewel's heartbeat instead of their typically urgent tempos; and it actually suits Xeno & Oaklander quite well, allowing all of the synth blorp to glow just a little bit more. A fine record, even as it doesn't quite venture into new territories.
MPEG Stream: "Years Before"
MPEG Stream: "Italy"
MPEG Stream: "Desert Rose"

XENO & OAKLANDER Sets & Lights (Wierd Records) lp 17.98
Album number three for the Brooklyn retro-garde duo Xeno & Oaklander (aka Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride), who are the flagship outfit for Wierd Records in their recapitulation of a particular strain of cold synthwave circa 1981. Wendelbo and McBride have collected a mighty impressive collection of synths, sequencers, and drum machines of that era, and they've stuck to their 'no computers' ethos in creating their retro sound. Given the limitations in instrumentation and aesthetics, the Xeno & Oaklander albums do trend toward similarity, veering towards a brighter, new wave / Italo-disco vibe here on Sets & Lights and slightly away from the industrial-tinged notions found on their 2009 breakout album Sentinelle. Wendelbo and McBride alternate on vocals, with Wendelbo taking up her breathy waif-like elegance and McBride adopting British affectations in his delivery. The title track and "Years Before" glide upon percolating, almost Moroder-esque sequencing with disco-inspired basslines and suitably propulsive rhythm tracks bracing everything inside the synth-pop shell that Xeno & Oaklander have so carefully refined. The icy sensuality of the instrumental track "Italy" slows the pace down to something more akin to Johnny Jewel's heartbeat instead of their typically urgent tempos; and it actually suits Xeno & Oaklander quite well, allowing all of the synth blorp to glow just a little bit more. A fine record, even as it doesn't quite venture into new territories.
MPEG Stream: "Years Before"
MPEG Stream: "Italy"
MPEG Stream: "Desert Rose"

XENO & OAKLANDER Vigils (Wierd ) lp 16.98
Xeno & Oaklander were born in the wrong decade and on the wrong continent, but that hasn't stopped them from constructing brilliantly haunted minimal-wave tracks which lead directly back to Belgium (or France, or Germany, or England, or anywhere else in Europe for that matter) circa 1982 through all sorts of analog synths, drum machines, and sequencers. Vinyl of course is the right medium for a band that seeks the vintage pleasures of forgotten futures; but Vigils was originally just a cd-r self-released back in 2006. It quickly became a staple at the Wierd Records parties in New York, and some of the tracks here had appeared in slightly different forms on the two Wierd Records compilations from about that same time. Since then, Xeno & Oaklander have seen their stock rise thanks to a number of retrogarde forces at work, including the reissue campaigns from Minimal Wave and Dark Entries, as well as the huge success of fellow dark-synth technicians Cold Cave. While their 2009 album Sentinelle was received with considerable critical acclaim, Vigils is a much better album altogether. Arpeggiating synth lines and skeletal drum machines form the basic structures of all of the Xeno & Oaklander songs, whose uptempo rhythms belie the aching melancholy formed out of the intertwining melodies and detached vocals from both Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride. In all of these echo-plexed pulse-tone synths, stark atmospheres, and romantic pop detachment, Xeno & Oaklander unabashedly channel the spirits of Chris & Cosey, Ruth, and Depeche Mode, with the European desire furthered by lyrics in French and German as well as English.
MPEG Stream: "Zuruck"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Flower"
MPEG Stream: "Non Senti"

XENO VOLCANO Black Book (Hardpresse) cd-r 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's a shame that this is merely a cd-r, as Black Book is the best Xeno Volcano album that has come through these doors, although his website indicates that a proper pressing might be in the works. While his origins lie in the San Francisco Bay Area, Xeno Volcano currently lives in Zurich, Switzerland where he has worked with Black Sun Productions (who in turn offer their sexual magick for Coil's stage show) and makes soundtracks for automobile accident prevention videos. Needless to say, Xeno Volcano's tastes find comfort in the transgressive behavior of post-industrial culture. Black Book is buried in dark overtones, as eerie drones flicker across the barren expanses of Xeno Volcano's electronic landscape, sounding not all that far off from Lustmord's classic dark ambient recording The Place Where The Black Stars Hang.
MPEG Stream: "Lowering Dunes"
MPEG Stream: "Moonlight Doctor"

XENO VOLCANO To In Out And Open (Hardpresse) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Here's a solo work by one half of the Swiss duo responsible for the Die Organik disc that we listed recently - brought to us by the man himself on his way back home to Switzerland. It reveals a subtly different, broader side of Xeno Volcano. As opposed to his rather stern and clipped collaborative work with Elektra Sturmschnell, in which he provides the backdrop to her spoken word, here he allows things to stretch out, shift and linger a bit more. Track length varies from a scant few seconds to over fourteen minutes. The sounds are also less coldly foreboding and more organic with a bit more warmth and light. Drones drift in like looming clouds, skittery clicks and sputtery hiss collects and dissolves, aloof voices (including that of Sturmschnell) and assorted field recordings surface briefly. In all, it is quite a darkly atmospheric 80 minutes, but it's not without a hint of levity (namely in track titles such as "Whoopee Ball Traffic Mall" and "The Bilge Elvis"). Definitely for fans of dark post-industrial experimental soundscapes (Current 93, Christoph Heemann and select Nurse With Wound).
RealAudio clip: "Wisky Rose"
RealAudio clip: "The Bilge Elvis"

XENO VOLCANO & ELEKTRA STURMSCHNELL Die Organik (Hardpresse) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Xeno Volcano and Elektra Sturmschnell are a Swiss dark ambient duo deadset on landing a record on World Serpent (the distribution center for Current 93, Sol Invictus, Coil, Moon Lay Hidden Beneath The Clouds, Chris & Cosey, and other post-industrial art projects). In all likelihood, they have a pretty good shot at it, with a cold, detached aesthetic that merges barren electronics with equally emotionless spoken word poetics. "Die Organik" does come across like the more electronic Current 93 pieces (especially "In A Foreign Land, In A Foreign Town") but with a dominatrix reciting her Nietzchian poetry in German rather than David Tibet and his pantheistic mythologies.
RealAudio clip: "Fibertraum"
RealAudio clip: "Organik Spritch"

XENO VOLCANO & ELEKTRA STURMSCHNELL Die Organik (Hardpresse) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Xeno Volcano and Elektra Sturmschnell are a Swiss dark ambient duo deadset on landing a record on World Serpent (the distribution center for Current 93, Sol Invictus, Coil, Moon Lay Hidden Beneath The Clouds, Chris & Cosey, and other post-industrial art projects). In all likelihood, they have a pretty good shot at it, with a cold, detached aesthetic that merges barren electronics with equally emotionless spoken word poetics. "Die Organik" does come across like the more electronic Current 93 pieces (especially "In A Foreign Land, In A Foreign Town") but with a dominatrix reciting her Nietzchian poetry in German rather than David Tibet and his pantheistic mythologies.
RealAudio clip: "Fibertraum"
RealAudio clip: "Organik Spritch"

XENO VOLCANO & ELEKTRA STURMSCHNELL Wasserleichertraume (Hardpresse) cd 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Into the dark and experimental? Take note! Here's an early work by the Swiss duo responsible for the Die Organik disc that we listed recently - brought to us by Xeno Volcano himself on his way back to Switzerland. Thirty two (!) solemn sonic glimpses of German spoken word amid a spartan landscape of electronic hiss, and soft melodies that drift and whir. Most are under three minutes long. Sturmschnell recites her short prose that shifts between sharp, icy orders to sedated ramblings. Tense, ominous and unsettling latenight listening.
RealAudio clip: "Dia De Los Muertos"
RealAudio clip: "Insomnia"

XEROPHONICS Copying Machine Music (Seeland) cd 14.98
Another high-concept item here, with a quite self-explanatory title. Yep indeedy, it's music made from the sampled sounds of copiers. Kinda not that much different from the dot matrix printer symphonies of The User reviewed here not long ago (though the copiers can't perform live via network and ascii "instructions" like the printers can). The fellow behind Xerophonics, one Dr. Stefan Helmrich PhD., made field recordings of copier machines in action, then sampled and re-assembled 'em via computer into these 13 tracks of manipulated, looping, layered machine rhythms. Clacking parts and melodic electronic blips too. Sometimes it's like a room full of shuddering copiers approximating current cutting-edge electronic dance music -- a copier rave if you will. You can imagine that they provide their own light show as their copying plates flash. There's plenty of weird noises and "notes" that are exceedingly hard to believe came from a copier, but they must have somehow. I mean, some of this gets really scary -- maybe it should have been the soundtrack to that new Terminator movie, "Rise of the Machines" I think it's called. Terminator office machinery!
Pretty cool. Deep thinkers might find more going on here, as part of the motivation for this project involves artistic commentary based on the additional meaning inherent in the sampling of sounds of COPIERS. Geddit, copiers. After all, it's on Negativland's Seeland label. Furthermore, Helmrich's "xerophonic" manipulations are based on aural analogs to the work of xerographic artists: mirroring, resizing, motion-distorting, multiple copy degeneration. Hmm. Regardless, definitely one for fans of the aforementioned The User!
MPEG Stream: "Xerox 5818"
MPEG Stream: "Toshiba 2060"

XEX Group Xex (Smackshire) cd 14.98
Recently reviewed on vinyl, here's a compact disc edition as well...
Xex was the experimental synthpop creation of three high-school misfits living in central New Jersey during the mid-'70s, having survived their teen years of suburban boredom with plenty of drugs and eye-opening excursions to New York. Liberated by the spirit of punk, this outfit - pseudonymously known as Waw Pierogi, Thumbalina Gugielmo, and Alex Zander (later joined by Jon-Boy Diode and David Anderson) - took up the task of infusing a smarty-pants cynicism to hyper-primitive arrangements on a small assortment of synths and drum machines. No guitars whatsoever, the sound of Xex is one of skewed melodicism and incessant repetition. This combined with a typically monotone vocal sensibility put Xex in the same synthpunk orbit as The Units and Crash Course In Science. It's a very American sound, to look back upon all of these records. In Europe, the new wave and synthpop was far more self-possessed, even amongst the DIY circles, but for a certain subset in the States, the nerds had become emboldened in punk to use science and math as a spasmodic, future-shock means for nihilist poetics and cathartic release - hence, Devo, Dark Day, Nervous Gender, the aforementioned Crash Course In Science, and Xex. With the exception of Primitive Calculators and Severed Heads in Australia, there's hardly a parallel anywhere else in the world to this synthpunk sound; and Xex were certainly exceptional at it.
Group Xex was the only record they released, although the band recorded a second album but never released it (unfortunately the tapes of that second album had deteriorated beyond repair). Self-released in 1980, the album was sold pretty much exclusively in Manhattan and North Jersey, with an edition of a 1000 copies disappearing quickly. It's a very quizzical album of purposefully simple electronic tunes played upon whipcrack drum machines and minimally percolating synths matched by the alternating female and male vocals, which are always thin, reedy, and metallic. Thumbalina's girly vocals bounce through the motorik synthpop ditty "Fashion Hurts" whose singsonginess is immediately countered by the unwavering robotic monotone that Pierogi presents on the cybernetic "You Think", and the grim, paranoiac poetry on "SNGA" (which stands for Soviet Nerve Gas Attack).
This cd reissue dates back to 1995, sporting six additional demos not featured on either the original vinyl or the Dark Entries re-mastered lp!
MPEG Stream: "Fashion Hurts"
MPEG Stream: "You Think"
MPEG Stream: "Sgna"
MPEG Stream: "Party"
MPEG Stream: "Holland Tunnel"

XEX Group Xex (Dark Entries) lp 17.98
Xex was the experimental synthpop creation of three high-school misfits living in central New Jersey during the mid-'70s, having survived their teen years of suburban boredom with plenty of drugs and eye-opening excursions to New York. Liberated by the spirit of punk, this outfit - pseudonymously known as Waw Pierogi, Thumbalina Gugielmo, and Alex Zander (later joined by Jon-Boy Diode and David Anderson) - took up the task of infusing a smarty-pants cynicism to hyper-primitive arrangements on a small assortment of synths and drum machines. No guitars whatsoever, the sound of Xex is one of skewed melodicism and incessant repetition. This combined with a typically monotone vocal sensibility put Xex in the same synthpunk orbit as The Units and Crash Course In Science. It's a very American sound, to look back upon all of these records. In Europe, the new wave and synthpop was far more self-possessed, even amongst the DIY circles, but for a certain subset in the States, the nerds had become emboldened in punk to use science and math as a spasmodic, future-shock means for nihilist poetics and cathartic release - hence, Devo, Dark Day, Nervous Gender, the aforementioned Crash Course In Science, and Xex. With the exception of Primitive Calculators and Severed Heads in Australia, there's hardly a parallel anywhere else in the world to this synthpunk sound; and Xex were certainly exceptional at it.
Group Xex was the only record they released, although the band recorded a second album but never released it (unfortunately the tapes of that second album had deteriorated beyond repair). Self-released in 1980, the album was sold pretty much exclusively in Manhattan and North Jersey, with an edition of a 1000 copies disappearing quickly. The album did get a cd reish in 1995 after Tom Smith championed the record after discovering it in the vaults at WFMU. It's a very quizzical album of purposefully simple electronic tunes played upon whipcrack drum machines and minimally percolating synths matched by the alternating female and male vocals, which are always thin, reedy, and metallic. Thumbalina's girly vocals bounce through the motorik synthpop ditty "Fashion Hurts" whose singsonginess is immediately countered by the unwavering robotic monotone that Pierogi presents on the cybernetic "You Think", and the grim, paranoiac poetry on "SNGA" (which stands for Soviet Nerve Gas Attack).
Another great find from the always impressive Dark Entries label! Definitely for fans of Devo and the Units. Limited to 500 copies with a great looking new wave booklet with lyrics, a band history, and some amusing tidbits thrown in for good measure.
MPEG Stream: "Fashion Hurts"
MPEG Stream: "You Think"
MPEG Stream: "Sgna"
MPEG Stream: "Party"
MPEG Stream: "Holland Tunnel"

XEXYZ Primeval Mountain (Suffering Jesus ) cd 13.98
One of our favorite fucked up weirdo black metal records, originally released as a cd-r, and out of print for a while now, gets reissued as an actual cd. With new artwork and extra tracks!!! You know you need to buy it again. And if you missed out on it the first time, do NOT blow it again. And if you saw the XLR8RTV episode featuring techno legend Carl Craig shopping at aQ, you saw him gushing about this record too! The masters of NES-BM (get it? NES like Nintendo!, XEXYZ!!! Read on to share in the utter and complete joy we get from the insane genius that is Xexyz:
Realistically, if you all are anything like us, a one line review is all it will take for you to know in your heart of hearts, that not only do you HAVE to own this, but that it will rapidly and immediately become your favorite record. OF ALL TIME!!
So here we go: Xexyz are a black metal band who use a Nintendo Entertainment System as their "keyboard" and who essentially have composed black metal songs around the 8-bit themes to Nintendo classics like Metroid and Rygar's Quest. Yes!! We were right, weren't we?
Anyway, Xexyz are a grim buzzing lo-fi horde of black warriors who just so happen to be video game nerds and who have decided that there is nothing more grim or more cult than the instantly recognizable buzz and beep of their favorite Nintendo themes. And you know what, it's sort of true. And it definitely works. Some folks here thought this sounded like the Muppets and Stereolab playing black metal, but it's so much more grim than that. A haunting 8-bit refrain bleeps maniacally under moaning black guitar buzz, while hateful hellish vocals rasp and growl over the top. The theme from Metroid rings out, one of the coolest, and weirdest video game themes ever (second only to Rastan maybe), the weird electronic pulse underpins a thick slab of distorted guitar, when the song finally kicks in, it almost sounds like a lo-fi version of THAT Burzum track, the black fuzz with the haunting keyboard figure in the background. But you know... with Metroid instead. And "Nightmare On Elm Street", is so awesome, the Nintendo theme is super fuzzy and haunting, and perfectly lends itself to some Burzumic buzz, creepy crawly and pretty damn black.
So totally amazing and weird and thus of course absolutely fucking recommended...
MPEG Stream: "What Lies Atop Gran Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Metroid"

XEXYZ Primeval Mountain (Dipsomaniac) cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Realistically, if you all are anything like us, a one line review is all it will take for you to know in your heart of hearts, that not only do you HAVE to own this, but that it will rapidly and immediately become your favorite record. OF ALL TIME!!
So here we go: Xexyz are a black metal band who use a Nintendo Entertainment System as their "keyboard" and who essentially have composed black metal songs around the 8-bit themes to Nintendo classics like Metroid and Rygar's Quest. Yes!! We were right, weren't we?
Anyway, Xexyz are a grim buzzing lo-fi horde of black warriors who just so happen to be video game nerds and who have decided that there is nothing more grim or more cult than the instantly recognizable buzz and beep of their favorite Nintendo themes. And you know what, it's sort of true. And it definitely works. Some folks here thought this sounded like the Muppets and Stereolab playing black metal, but it's so much more grim than that. A haunting 8-bit refrain bleeps maniacally under moaning black guitar buzz, while hateful hellish vocals rasp and growl over the top. The theme from Metroid rings out, one of the coolest, and weirdest video game themes ever (second only to Rastan maybe), the weird electronic pulse underpins a thick slab of distorted guitar, when the song finally kicks in, it almost sounds like a lo-fi version of THAT Burzum track, the black fuzz with the haunting keyboard figure in the background. But you know... with Metroid instead. And "Nightmare On Elm Street", is so awesome, the Nintendo theme is super fuzzy and haunting, and perfectly lends itself to some Burzumic buzz, creepy crawly and pretty damn black.
So totally amazing and weird and thus of course absolutely fucking recommended...
MPEG Stream: "What Lies Atop Gran Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Metroid"

XHOL Hau-RUK (Garden Of Delights) cd 21.00

XHOL Motherfuckers GMBH & CO KG (Wah Wah) lp 29.00

XHOL CARAVAN Mother Fuckers GMBH cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

XHOL CARAVAN Motherfuckers Live (United Dairies) 3cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Achtung Krautrock heads! Previously unreleased live recordings by this way-out-there, pioneering German band. Xhol Caravan, who started life playing R&B as Soul Caravan in the late sixties and then mutated into Xhol Caravan (and finally, just Xhol) as their sound developed to encompass hippified jazz fusion and post-"Revolution No. 9" psychedelic sound collage, on albums like "Electrip" and the wonderfully titled "Motherfuckers GMBH & Co KG" (that one a classic krautrock freakfest document indeed, hence this new live collection's title.) You get two live shows on two discs (crazed, spacey stuff from 1968 and '69, including a lengthy version of Donovan's "Season Of The Witch" interpolated into Xhol's freeform "Freedom Opera"), and in addition, a third 20-minute bonus disc, called "Hot Buttered Xhol", that features Current 93, Nurse With Wound, and Christoph Heemann covering Xhol material! (A la the Current 93 bonus disc that came with the same label's previous reissue of recordings by cult krautrockers Sand.) The archival recordings are great (one was for a radio broadcast), plus the booklet is stuffed with colorful art and photos, and liner notes by super-Xhol fans Heeman, David Tibet and Stephen Stapleton.

XI G Funk-3000 / Lucky (LoDubs) 12" 4.98

XIAN ORPHIC s/t (Pre-Cert Home Entertainment) lp 22.00
The latest offering from the Pre-Cert Entertainment label (Anworth Kirk, N. Racker, David Orphan, Slant Azymuth) comes from the man himself, Andy Votel, Finders Keepers / B-Music head honcho and one of the folks behind Pre-Cert Entertainment as well (along with the Demdike Stare guys). As Xian Orphic, Votel has crafted what might be our favorite release on the label so far, a record that plays like some lost seventies soundtrack, and while inevitably there are nods to Goblin and Carpenter and Howarth, we're hearing more Fred Myrow, especially on the first track, which is a dead ringer for Myrow's insanely awesome soundtrack for Phantasm, all thick squelchy synths, an impossibly catchy icy minor key melodic main theme, all wreathed in swirls of abstract ambience, there's a little bit of a cinematic kosmische going on, droney tranced out mesmer, lush and melodic, yet somehow ominous and strangely propulsive. It would be worth it for that track alone. But the record slips easily into something even more haunting, a washed out sprawl of layered and looped shimmer, laced with field recordings and strange FX, this track too reminiscent of some seventies soundtrack mood music.
The flipside changes gears a bit, with some tripped out tropical sounding soundscapery, over skittery rhythms, and peppered with dense sonic swirls, and shot through with more ominous melodies. The vibe is a little bit Morricone actually, albeit reimagined as something more synthy and sinister. The second track dips into some Zombi / Majeure territory, which is inevitable making these sorts of retro soundtrack sounds, but Votel transforms the sound into something even MORE old school, channeling a sort of seventies new age krautrock bliss, all before slipping into the final track, swirly and super abstract, all deep celestial thrum, chordal shimmer and gristled gauzy ambience.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!

XINLISUPREME Murder License (Fat Cat) cd 11.98
Gosh, somebody must have convinced wall-of-sound Japanese "noise-pop" duo Xinlisupreme that their last album "Tomorrow Never Comes" wasn't noisy enough. 'Cause though we'd not have thought it possible, it seems they've upped the mayhem quotient here, on this 7-track followup! Heavily distorted, uh, distortion, with pretty little melodies and beats buried beneath. An extreme electronic blend of My Bloody Valentine, Digital Hardcore, DJ Scud, Merzbow, and stuff like by these feedback-lovin' popsters. We think this is quite nice, though for some that word might seem strange in context of Xinlisupreme's up-front loudness and chaos. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Murder License"
RealAudio clip: "Front Of You"

XINLISUPREME Tomorrow Never Comes (Fat Cat) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Japanese duo Xinlisupreme have been touted by their label Fat Cat as a mix of My Bloody Valentine, Jesus & Mary Chain, and Merzbow! Fat Cat has done well to preload our expectations with three advanced references to avant-rock history, but it has to be said that Xinlisupreme can't so easily be triangulated. True, their debut album "Tomorrow Never Comes" does live up to such claims with their topical application of chainsaw fury feedback worthy of any number of Merzbotic apocalyptic noise metaphors; yet, Xinlisupreme simultaneously demonstrates how such guitar squall can be applied with grace, tenderness, and fragility. As a result, this combination has much more in common with the psychedelic use of noise by fellow Japanese bands like Shizuka or Nagisa Ni Te. Of course, both My Bloody Valentine and Jesus & Mary Chain have their own breathtakingly sublime moments, yet the analogy between the My Bloody Valentine / Jesus & Mary Chain camp and Xinlisupreme dissolves in how each define noise-pop, with the former adding the explosive noise flourishes to well-developed pop songs, and the latter offering pop structures as ghostly, vacuous signposts within emotionally charged noise washes. Or perhaps, it could be stated MBV / JAMC are pop with noise and Xinlisupreme are noise with pop. Regardless of the pithy semantic argument, Xinlisupreme has made a pretty amazing shoegazing record, that has reaminated the genre with a vigor not heard in a very long time.
RealAudio clip: "All You Need Is Love Was Not True"
RealAudio clip: "Fatal Sisters Opened Umbrella"

XINR s/t (Unseen Forces) lp 14.98
Not long ago we listed a cool picture disc vinyl compilation that the Unseen Forces label put out, called Grave Command, featuring the likes of Orchid, Danava, Occultation, Deceased, Ghoul, Ride For Revenge and others from the realms of heavy metallic weirdness. Standing out amongst all those mostly evil & occult modern day acts was a band called XINR, actually a Christian metal act from the '80s, from up in Portland. Their killer track "All Hallow's Eve" was taken from this lp, consisting of demos recorded circa 1984, that Unseen Forces has now released on vinyl for the first time (there IS also a cd version on Stormspell that we can get too by the way). Devout Christans but also devout metalheads, XINR (pronounced ex-sinner, get it?) were obviously heavily influenced by Judas Priest and Accept, and come of sounding a lot like Cirith Ungol, with over the top screechy vocals and heavy, catchy riffs. A bit doomy, and pretty darn (excuse me!) rockin'!! Satan doesn't have all the best tunes it turns out. Sadly, the band's career was tragically ended (before it had barely started) by a motorcycle accident that took the lives of their singer and guitarist. However, their headbanging legacy lives on! If you like rippin' old school metal and don't mind if it's Bible believing as long as it's badass, then this is fer you! Limited white vinyl, includes lyrics and liners.
MPEG Stream: "Ever Present Angel"
MPEG Stream: "Fight The Dragon"
MPEG Stream: "All Hallow's Eve"

XIU XIU A Promise (5RC) cd 14.98
Xiu Xiu, one of the Bay Area's most original bands, is like a synth pop group that doesn't let the shiny happy face of the genre take over. They know the genre is merely a vehicle for expressing the fully intense and anguished emotions they've got bursting out of them. So instead of punchy casios and happy go lucky tunes, the foremost element is this hushed, trembling voice straining towards the epic wail. Yes, it's dramatic but the sincerity of emotion prevents it from becoming melodramatic. Out of the shards of anguish come experimentally structured songs that dart amongst jittery drum machines, wintry minor key piano, fuzzed out noise, clanging percussion. Building new, fresh songs out of raw emotion that might by a lesser band be inarticulate and messy, Xiu Xiu transcend the genre and any of their many influences, which clearly include Joy Division (Ian Curtis is namechecked on a songtitle here) and Talk Talk. Includes a stark, desperately sad cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car."
If you're new to Xiu Xiu, check out their first two releases before this one, not that they're better, but they are simply a teensy bit more upbeat amongst the beautiful despair, and that makes 'em that much more accessible. This one is a downer, albeit in a gorgeous, shimmering beautiful way, like Talk Talk's "Laughingstock."
RealAudio clip: "Apistat Commander"
RealAudio clip: "Sad Pony Guerrilla Girl"

XIU XIU A Promise (Jyrk) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Limited LP version with silkscreened cover. Only 200 in existance!
Xiu Xiu, one of the Bay Area's most original bands, is like a synth pop group that doesn't let the shiny happy face of the genre take over. They know the genre is merely a vehicle for expressing the fully intense and anguished emotions they've got bursting out of them. So instead of punchy casios and happy go lucky tunes, the foremost element is this hushed, trembling voice straining towards the epic wail. Yes, it's dramatic but the sincerity of emotion prevents it from becoming melodramatic. Out of the shards of anguish come experimentally structured songs that dart amongst jittery drum machines, wintry minor key piano, fuzzed out noise, clanging percussion. Building new, fresh songs out of raw emotion that might by a lesser band be inarticulate and messy, Xiu Xiu transcend the genre and any of their many influences, which clearly include Joy Division (Ian Curtis is namechecked on a songtitle here) and Talk Talk. Includes a stark, desperately sad cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car."
If you're new to Xiu Xiu, check out their first two releases before this one, not that they're better, but they are simply a teensy bit more upbeat amongst the beautiful despair, and that makes 'em that much more accessible. This one is a downer, albeit in a gorgeous, shimmering beautiful way, like Talk Talk's "Laughingstock."