MONARCH Dead Men Tell No Tales (Crucial Blast) 2cd 14.98
For a band who supposedly broke up, Monarch sure have managed to put out a whole bunch of music, post mortem. And while this is funeral doom and everything, we're not talking some Biggie Smalls / Tupac Shakur music from beyond the grave thing (although you never know!), it seems the announced breakup was premature, and lucky for all the doomongers among you, the Monarch is alive and (un)well.
Avid readers of the AQ list should need no introduction to French downtuned slow motion sludge doom trio Monarch. A band truly worthy of many multiples of 'o's (dooooooooooooooooooooom), whose plod and crawl is so slow it often veers near static drone territory, and who also manage to deftly mix in a bit of subtle loveliness into their harsh metallic trudge, AND whose peculiar sense of humor, and album art, and unlikely front woman, definitely make them stand out in an increasingly crowded field...
For those new to Monarch let's recap shall we?
Quite possibly the world's only female fronted deathdoomdronedirge outfit. An unholy mix of Khanate, Corrupted, Bunkur and Moss, but with a petite young French woman on lead vocals, usually clad in Converse hightops, a skirt and a sweater, hair in a pony tail, no tattoos or spikes or leather, but when she opens her mouth, out comes the foulest demonic shrieks and hellish gurgles you have EVER heard. Certainly from a woman, maybe from ANY one, man, woman or beast.
Then there are the record covers, always covered in grade school like doodles of cute big eyed skulls, puffy ghosts, burning churches, and hearts all over the place. They're like a Sanrio doom band. And not surprisingly are obsessed with Hello Kitty (their email address is sanriosabbath!!). But eyes closed, and these guys and gal can most definitely hold their own amongst the slow motion elite. With the added bonus of a singer who can actually sing and does occasionally, adding a definite creepy melodic moodiness to the music.
So this double disc collects two ultra limited lps (the band seem to lean toward lps, AND double cds, with songs clocking in at 10, 20, sometimes 30 minutes), one that we carried a while back and sold out in the blink of an eye, the massive and amazing Speak Of The Sea, and weirdly enough, another 2 song lp, that's not really out yet entitled appropriately enough Die Tonight.
So what has us so smitten with Monarch? Besides the above that is? Let's start with Speak Of The Sea, a massive pummeling wall of headsplitting ultra doom, an impossibly glacial plodding thud wrapped in ear shredding sheets of corrosive feedback that will tear your insides out and fill your ears with black tar. A gorgeously dense. ultra caustic and corrosive funereal doom that manages to be dreamy and darn near pretty while it's pummeling you to death. Easily one of the slowest heaviest dooooooooom records ever, three looooong tracks. Each so slow it's almost ambient. It's a bit like listening to SUNNO))) or Earth 2 when some caveman drummer decides to crash the party and start drumming slowly along. Riffs stretched out into huge droning smears of black rumble, ringing and reverberating, pulsing and wavering unsteadily before the next ten ton riff drops. Each track is a slow plodding ultradoomscape, like the ultimate doom metal intro stretched into actual songs, smeared across nearly an hour. The vocals don't even come in until the first song is almost over, a shrieking black coda, after twenty minutes of slow burning doom drone tension. The second track features some distant Ozzy-like crooning way off in the distance before the scowling growl kicks in. So slow and heavy. On the AQ doooooomscale, this ranks more O's than we could possibly include in this review!
And for the cd release, they've tacked on a whole 'nother song to the first disc (album), a creepy, pretty near ambient crawl, nothing but the sound of the surf crashing on the shore, a thick hissy staticky sound, slowly swelling and drifting, very meditative, with hushed urgently whispered vocals hovering above the crashing sea, very strange, but quite nice.
Then we get to Die Tonight, a record most of us (if not all of us) have not heard until now. And if anything it's everything Speak Of The Sea was and MORE. Heavier (as if that were even possible), slower (ditto) and more blurred out, buzzy and dronelike, with bits of the song so blissed out, the drum hits and chaotic crashes are so far apart, you can almost forget you're listening to a doom band, wallowing in the glorious shimmering drones of the drawn out chords, before a howled shriek and a massive crunch knocks you near out of your seat. There's also more singing, with gorgeous drifting vocals that hover alongside long stretches of buzzing guitar making for haunting harmonies, giving the proceedings brief moments of surprising tranquility. And the vocals continue to twist and turn, from hushed and whispery, to girlish and sing songy to inhuman demonic screech, all the while, the band trudging along dronelike, weaving impossibly pretty soundscapes from downtuned crunch and skull cracking thud.
This is absolutely essential doom. If you like Esoteric, Boris, Moss, Bunkur, SUNNO))), Earth, Esoteric, Skepticism, Eyehategod, Marzuraan, Atavist, Catacombs, Khanate, Pale Horse, Monument Of Urns and you NEED this! And the drifting drone element is in full effect, so those who have yet to dabble in the doom pool, might check this out, the long drawn out shimmers and Niblock like layers of guitar rumble might hit the spot and have you digging deeper for more and more dooooom.
Gorgeously packaged in a black gatefold, printed in silver ink, decorated with big eyed ghosts, a sailing ship with upside down crosses and a heart on the sail, lots of stars, some cute birdies, and an anchor with a heart on it. Inside are two silver on black printed inserts, with all the lyrics, the liner notes and a thanks list that says it all: Moss, Noothgrush, Otesanek, Corrupted, Bastard Noise, Rainbow Of Death, Nuit Noire and of course "our lucky stars"!
MPEG Stream: "Speak Of The Devil, Speak Of The Sea"
MPEG Stream: "Winter Bride"

LAPORTE, JEAN-FRANCOIS Soundmatters (23five Incorporated) cd 14.98
Those artists, musicians, misanthropes, and just plain weirdos who not only exist musically on the fringes but have planted their entire existence on the edge have long been the greatest inspirations of Aquarius Records. For proof, you could scroll through oddball recordings that have earned the honor of Aquarius Record Of The Week. There was the Finnish sound artist Terje Isungset who crafted not just one album, but two from untreated percussive instruments entirely made of ice. Hans Edler thrilled us with his 1970s transformation from teen idol into short-circuited electronic composer. The protracted ululations of the profoundly cracked Elizabeth Clare Prophet and the Church Universal and Triumphant were as transcendent as anything that Lamonte Young had to offer, yet also had that creepy cult of personality vibe to boot. And who could forget Kathy McGinty? But one of the earliest recordings that truly made our collective jaw drop was the 3" cd from French-Canadian composer Jean-Francois Laporte called Mantra. Here was a mighty fine 20 minute composition of delicious vibrations, rattles, mechanical hum, and industrial drones that came with a particularly alluring back story: the source material to Mantra was a Zamboni -- the unusual machine only found at hockey rinks responsible for resurfacing its ice.
The one catch to Laporte's Zamboni sourced masterpiece was that we could never verify that a Zamboni was the actual source material. We heard from 'reliable sources' that Mantra is the sound of a Zamboni; and we wanted so desperately to believe that this was the case, just because the Zamboni is such an amazing and eccentric beast of industrial engineering. Before this turns into a dialectic on epistemology, we here at Aquarius discovered that we had been duped by a couple of mischievous DJs on KPFA without the knowledge or consent of Jean-Francois Laporte. It turns out that Laporte used nothing but a common air-compressor in composing Mantra. This factual unveiling should not in any way take away from the splendor of that piece. Here's what we had to say about Mantra many moons ago:
"Mantra opens with a trio of motors starting up and emitting a gentle purr. As these engines warm up and shift through various perfunctory cycles, a wide spectrum of metallic vibrations slowly spins through the stereo field. After a marvelous set of transitions between drones, there is the rattling sound as if a screw or bolt had been loosened by the vibrations, with two pieces of metal beginning a clamorous bell-ringing arrhythmia. When these motors finally are shut down, those pieces of metal still resonate for a beautifully sustained coda."
That 3" cd came out almost a decade ago, became a classic, and went out of print. Thankfully, 23five Incorporated has rescued Mantra from the dustbin by issuing the first major compendium of Laporte's work in the form of Soundmatters. While we've already sung the praises of Mantra, the remainder of Soundmatters is well worth investigating on its own. The opening track "Electro-Prana" is a pristine set of field recordings of a wind that ripped through Montreal, when the city was silenced by a winter time blackout. It's a pure, chilling sound of whistling wind overtaking the urban landscape. The next piece is the only digitally rendered composition on Soundmatters, yet Laporte brings his intuitive expressionism to a series of spiraling drones that easily rival those of your favorite minimalist (e.g. Niblock, Chalk, Hafler Trio, Xenakis, etc.). For those of you who have had the pleasure of experiencing Laporte's live concerts, the third piece will certainly be familiar. He's built an instrument with a series of car horns and elongated trumpet bells attached to an air compressor with each of the valves controlled by foot pedals. This instrument can generate infinitely sustainable, blaring drones from each of the horns; and Laporte craftily layers these sounds for incredible, dynamic results. Well, for this recording, Laporte lugged this instrument into the hull of a giant cargo ship and recorded this composition using the massive reverb of that space and the results are simply jaw-dropping. Imagine the most Nordic bellow from a Wagner symphony stretched out into its melancholic, raw sound and allowed to decay in space and time. Wow!
Following this is the aforementioned Mantra; and then Soundmatters' final piece which explores a quiet, yet thoroughly rich harmonic tapestry produced by a quartet of saxophones that could be Laporte's imagined summit between Evan Parker and Morton Feldman with rasping breaths of sound breaking across a silent event horizon with the ghostly energy of subatomic particles flickering and dissolving in a cloud chamber before amassing into a delirious swarm of Tony Conrad-esque acoustic dissonance. It's all utterly magnificent and one of finest collections of 'serious' composition that we've come across.
MPEG Stream: "Electro-Prana"
MPEG Stream: "Boule qui roule..."
MPEG Stream: "Danse le ventre du dragon"
MPEG Stream: "Mantra"

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ANTIBALAS Security (Anti) cd 14.98
Wow! There is no doubt that Antibalas have always been really good at what they do. One of the few bands carrying the torch of Afro-beat in honor of the late great Fela Kuti, and doing it better then pretty much anyone here in the states. But with this most recent release they have taken things a step further and expanded their sound from merely being capable clones to constructing one of the most lively and rich sounding soul/funk/afro-beat records we've heard in FOREVER. With John McEntire (Tortoise) manning the controls, this is the kind of fusion record all the post-rockers of the 90's wish they had the soul to create. Rich and dirty organs, wild horns, and killer breakbeats all coming together to ignite an undeniable groove. The opening track "Beaten Metal" is for sure one of our favorite songs of '07, but the entire album is pretty much just as mind blowing!
MPEG Stream: "Beaten Metal"
MPEG Stream: "Filibuster XXX"

AXOLOTL Memory Theatre (Important) cd 14.98
Long overdue collection of out of print material from SF based free noise sound sculptor Axolotl. Collecting tracks from the Jyrk cd-r Oranur, the Spirit Of Orr cd-r Object Phantom and the more recent Gypsy Sphinx 12" Chemical Theater.
As much as we pretty much love everything Axolotl has done, and as much as we're psyched to have some of the older stuff on a real cd, this disc is worth it alone for the two tracks from the Chemical Theater 12", the first record where we noticed a distinct stylistic shift in Axolotl's sound. Here's what we had to say about those tracks:
"We had to keep checking to see what we were listening to. Some of the elements are certainly similar, but it's way dreamier and laid back, muted and murky, subtly propulsive, it actually sounds quite a bit like Oval or Gas! Which is a VERY good thing. Slow shifting underwater drift, a looped hypnotic dream world, rich waves of warm sound, a totally gorgeous abstract minimal ambience."
Sounds pretty great huh? Well, it is. And the two tracks from Chemical Theater are nearly twenty minutes long! Basically half of the 12". Including the 11+ minute glorious dreamy drone "Illiaster".
But the funny thing is, revisiting the older tracks, they are just as good somehow, sounding way more fuzzy and blown out and beautiful than we remember. And we definitely remember digging them, a lot, but they sound SO great... Thick washes of murky gritty grime, drones that twist and rumble and give way to fragmented bits of melody. Soft focus stretches of pixelated ambience, guitar strums that come apart, the notes drifting in all different directions, each note enveloped in its own little swath of buzz or fuzz, simple percussion, damaged rhythms, all wrapped in a dense fog of glowing guitar growl and fuzzed out feedback...
So recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Chemical Theater"
MPEG Stream: "Oranur"
MPEG Stream: "Lake Garden"

BLACK SEAS OF INFINITY / KANIBA /UGEGI AOIVEAE A SER The Trinity Of Non Being (Autumn Wind Productions) cd 11.98
From the same label that brought us the amazing Vomit Orchestra discs comes this killer 3 way split, an exploration of black ambient, dark ritual, ambient drone music....
Up first is Black Seas Of Infinity from Salt Lake City. Having started life as a black metal band, they now find themselves, exploring a much more minimal dark ambient world of haunting melodies, mysterious vocals and muted industrial percussion. The first track is based around a mesmerizing melodic fragment, a bit of minor key melody that is looped hypnotically over a strange rhythm that sounds like someone trudging through snow or old brittle branches, while over the top, a slowed down, slightly distorted voice intones a strange litany, making the whole thing sound like some sort of liturgical rite. The next track is a dense martial soundscape of grinding industrial drones and distant distorted drumming, a simple militaristic march, like Wiseblood meets Death In June, before eventually transforming into a roiling wave of low end rumble and whir. BSOI's final track is a 12 minute epic, a series of haunting low end sonic occurrences, situated around a strange rhythm that sounds almost like the wheeze and clatter of an iron lung, the sounds around it constantly crumbling like the tape had decayed, very textural and creepy, like a more industrial Jeck or Tim Hecker almost...
Next up Is Kaniba, who offer up their own creeping crawling blackness. A rumbling soundworld of thumps and bumps, distorted and wrapped in dense sheets of black buzz, there are rhythms, but they don't drive the music, instead they are small creatures that scurry amidst it's black folds. The second of the two tracks is much more spacious and possibly much more harrowing. What begins almost serenely quickly becomes a monstrous moaning living black shadow of sound. Listening is almost like cowering amidst the ruins as some unseeable shape soars above, it's shadow cloaking you in darkness every time it passes. A symphony of low end, almost sounding like an orchestra slooooooowed waaaaaaay dooooown, its epic fanfare twisted into a shapeless squirming blackened thing.
Finally, the strangely named Ugegi Aoiveae A Ser wrap things up with a 16 minute drone coda. Much more minimal than the other contributors, but just as bleak and oppressive. A ringing harmonic shimmer slowly slips further and further into darkness, the high end peeling off like flayed skin, revealing a murky cloudy expanse of dark sound underneath. A slow moving swell, a static, barely shifting wall of sound, layers upon layer, like some hellish Phill Niblock composition. Ultra spare and quite intense.
Plenty here for the drone obsessed, lovers of weird music, and all the black souls in need of dark musical mystery...
MPEG Stream: BLACK SEAS OF INFINITY "To Receive The Perplexity Of The Soul Of Liberation"
MPEG Stream: KANIBA "When The Hurricane Comes"
MPEG Stream: UGEGI AOIVEAE A SER "Alignment In Opposition II"

BRANCA, GLENN Indeterminate Activity Of Resultant Masses (Atavistic) cd 14.98
It's no secret we are huge Glenn Branca fans here at AQ. No one has found ways to create such dissonant beauty and mesmerizing power with guitars quite like Mr. Branca. The title piece here, performed in 1981 with 10 guitars and drums and timpani is one of the most impressive Branca pieces we have ever heard. Its inescapable tension wraps itself around your ears and while you feel it's grasp taking a hold of you, you don't really ever want it to end. With young devotees like Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore in the ensemble it's no wonder the piece sounds so perfect and received the long standing ovation it so deserved. But one man in attendance of this performance was not impressed. In fact he had lots to say about it, and nothing positive. That wouldn't be that big of a deal of course if that person wasn't John Cage!! In a clever twist of their long running rivalry and Cage's very public dismissal of Branca's work, Branca decided to follow the title piece on this reissue with a conversation that John Cage had with Wim Mertons about Branca's piece. In the conversation Cage speaks very eloquently as he always did, about his dislike for Branca's piece and his work in general. He goes as far to call the piece fascist, which then led to a very public and bitter tiff between two legends of forward thinking 20th century music. We have to admit that sometimes we actually like hearing Cage talk even more then we like listening to his music. As the rhythm of his voice and the depth of his intelligence is so damn pleasing to take in. While we wish Wim Mertons would have done a better job of defending Branca, we can't blame him for being a bit tongue tied and slow in the face of Cage's eloquent understated fury. We can imagine that if we ever had the opportunity to have a serious exchange of views about music with Cage we probably would have been crazy nervous and marble mouthed. The record ends with a late 80's piece by Branca called Harmonic Series Chords which is a really nice somber piece performed by the New York Chamber Sinfonia. Like two heavyweight champions exchanging blows we feel lucky to get to sit on the sidelines as Cage disses Branca, and Branca's music speaks so loudly for itself. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Indeterminate Activity Of Resultant Masses"
MPEG Stream: "So That Each Person Is In Charge Of Himself (john cage)"
MPEG Stream: "Harmonic Series Chords"

C.O.B. Moyshe McStiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart (Sunbeam) cd 16.98
This longtime AQ British folk fave from Incredible String band offshoot C.O.B. is back in print again, and with tons of extras, thanks to the fine folks at Sunbeam. Now with vastly improved artwork, tons of liner notes (courtesy of the band themselves!), loads of photos, old album covers and show flyers, and SEVEN bonus tracks, instead of the previous edition's five. Wow! As if we didn't love this record enough already!!!
Here's what we had to say about it the first time around:
C.O.B. (Clive's Original Band) was the creation of Incredible String Band founding member and one of the grandfathers of today's fringe folk scene, Clive Palmer. We don't know if you got the chance to see Mr. Palmer alongside fellow ISB founder Mike Heron at last year's reunion show, but it definitely seemed like his banjo-picking was a little rusty and he looked kind of dazed (no wonder, what with 35 years out of the spotlight). When this record (C.O.B.'s second and best, or at least most exotic and weird) was made in 1972, though, he was in top form, and the result is such beautiful melancholy! Some of the instrumentation here is similar to that of ISB (acoustic guitar, banjo, clarinet) but with lots of harmonium and the addition of a dulcimer with a widened bridge (invented by C.O.B. band member John Bidwell), an odd droning sound that darkens the mood a bit more than most stuff you'll hear from ISB. If you're a fan of British folk in the traditional and/or acid vein such as Shirley Collins, Trees, Forest, Fairport Convention, or current underground folkies such as Espers, Vashti Bunyan, or Current 93, this cd promises to be a true wistful pleasure. WAY recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Eleven Willows"
MPEG Stream: "Oh Bright Eyed One "

CLOAKS A Crystal Skull In Peru (Athiests Are Gods) cd-r 9.98
Those guys in the Starving Weirdos have been kicking our asses with one amazing release after another. And as if that weren't enough, now they've started signing other like minded noisemakers to their Atheists Are Gods label.
The first release comes from Cloaks, aka Spencer Doran, who for his first readily available domestic full length release, offers up two gorgeous lengthy pieces, one for piano, tapes, zither and bells, the other for electric guitar and piano with harmonium and electronics. The result is lush and spellbinding. The closest comparison that even begins to come close is Lubomyr Melnyk, with his dense flurries of notes, creating dizzyingly intricate swirls of melodic fragments that while ultra complex are so intricate they seem to melt into long dreamlike drifts.
Such is the case with Cloaks. And then some. The opening track begins with a strange jumble of chaotic percussion, weird boings, effects drenched squiggles, sounding like something that could be a bit goofy for our liking, but after a burst of record crackle and needle on vinyl static, the track settles into a gorgeously sun baked, glistening shimmer, a fine mist of notes enveloping the listener like a warm fog, multiple abstract melodies drifting into one another becoming gloriously intertwined, hovering ghostlike over soft drifts of smeared piano in the background. It almost sounds like Oval's Diskont, but with soft shimmery piano instead of skipping cds. Fluid and organic, softly swelling, so many notes... you know how you can sort of blur your eyes and make everything look all fuzzy, well imagine you could blur your EARS, it's like listening to Reich or Riley or Palestine with blurred ears. Soft focus and indistinct, every once in a while bits of melody coming into view but quickly fading into the sounds around it. So pretty. One of those rare tracks that we wish went on forever and ever...
The second track is a subtly different beast but with a similar vibe. Beginning with spare spidery electric guitar, suspended in a wide open expanse of near silence, a sort of skeletal post rock, which quickly slips under a gradually building wave of dense Wave-Lox like piano. Thick roiling low end squalls of reverberating rumble and rich overtones, very lush and intense. Near the final few minutes little bits of electronic glitch and grrr begin to surface, slowly wrapping themselves around the piano flurries, eventually surrounding it completely, becoming a dense buzzing electronic drone with almost no trace of the piano remaining...
Packaged in super striking silkscreened digipaks with pasted on textured paper, full color art, and with a hand screened insert.
MPEG Stream: "A Crystal Skull In Peru"
MPEG Stream: "Grass Pillow"

COLECLOUGH, JONATHAN / ANDREW LILES Torch Songs (Die Stadt) 2lp+cd 54.00
Much like the entire back catalogue of John Duncan, British avant-drone artist Jonathan Coleclough has often buttressed his work through an ongoing set of collaborations, each of which push his work into interesting territories while maintaining that essence of Coleclough that makes all of his albums so enthralling. His 2006 collaboration with Murmer was easily one of the best drone albums of that year, twisting field recordings and quiet sessions with electric objects into a gauzy, crepuscular blur that even made those at Artforum perk up their ears and listen. Torch Songs came to fruition when both Coleclough and Liles performed in Preston (probably at the request of the ever-charming Colin Potter) in 2005. In fact, much of the source material for Torch Songs originated from Coleclough's performance to which Liles went on to "add, subtract, multiply, and divide" further. The fundamentals of Torch Songs are primarily Coleclough's signature moves: swelling, resonant drones manipulated from acoustic sources and distilled into tonally vibrant beams of pure sound. Yet, Liles (who in and of himself is a fine technician of sonic alchemy to the point where he has often graced the stage alongside Steve Stapleton, Colin Potter, and Matt Waldron in Nurse With Wound) interjects his own sidereal gestures with wooden creaks, digital time stretching, radiant eruptions of dissonant couplings with Coleclough's drones, and occasional jaunts of heavily filtered tin-can and rubber-band rhythms that parallel much of the output from Liles' recent 12 part Vortex series. Yet for all of Liles' baroque flares for the sonically surreal, it is Coleclough who authors the strongest material on Torch Songs through his sublime use of the drone. The first 300 copies of Torch Songs comes with a bonus CD that documents Coleclough's aforementioned Preston performance back in 2005.
MPEG Stream: "Live at St. Peters (Extract)"

COLLINS, WILLIAM FOWLER Western Violence & Brief Sensuality (West Mountain Road Recordings) cd 14.98
Known as "The Land of Enchantment", the romantic appeal of New Mexico also harbors a thinly veiled sinister quality. Despite its prominence as an epic desert monument heralding incredible vistas and inspiring a nature-based spirituality from its large population of Native Americans, New-Agers and even Catholic Hispanics who flock to the sanctuary of Chimayo every year to take a bit of holy soil said to be blessed with healing powers, the western expansion of the US has also brought to the land massive genocide, toxic pollutants, and covert Government operations. On William Fowler Collins debut CD, the former Mills College graduate who recently relocated to New Mexico, explores the paradoxical perspective of his adopted home through his experimental guitar compositions that are equally beautiful and jarring. Collins' varied use of the guitar with the help of filters and computer programs evokes a wide range of electro-acoustic tropes, many reminiscent of field recordings. The bristling sheets of loud distorted drone that open "Dawn at McDonald Ranch" come across like an air-raid siren or a swarm of locusts before it diffuses into waves of pensive yet gossamer shimmer. The industrial crackle and whirring machine drones of "Untitled Dream 2" recall the metallic toxicity of Superfund sites, and the staticy build-up of broadcast transmissions retains a warm shifting undertone that eases the tension slightly by invoking the bucolic domiciles where such threats live in uneasy harmony. Images of magnetic storms, train engines, electrical lines, and the high-powered industry that Collins evokes through his guitar work are tempered by quietly restrained passages that harbor introspective reflection over the vast and contradictory landscape of mountains, arid deserts and broken mesas. Having previously played with Matmos, Aero-Mic'd, and in his former band Mire, it's nice to see Collins coming into his own on this amazing and accomplished debut. Fans of Tim Hecker, Steven R. Smith, and Flying Saucer Attack should check this out. Recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Dawn At McDonald Ranch"
MPEG Stream: "Foothills' Ghost"
MPEG Stream: "Over The Mountain"

DROMMER Channeling Natural Forces (E.E.E Recordings) cd-r 8.98
More from the unblack camp!! E.E.E. Recordings, the Christian black metal label that brought us some of the best (un)black metal of the last few years, Light Shall Prevail, Glaciial, Agathothodion, strike again, but this time displaying a whole new side and sound.
This latest release is from a band called Drommer, who the label describe as "non-religious dark ambient", and their debut Channeling Natural Forces is a "soundtrack to nature", and indeed, there is plenty of rain, thunder and found sounds, all woven into thick, reverby soundscapes, slow burning, glimmering murky crawls, stretched out melodies, some huge grinding almost industrial drones, crumbling distortion, soaring keyboards, very dramatic and super epic, but fuzzy and buzzy and lo-fi at the same time. Makes it sound very intimate and organic.
The opening track sets the tone, a slowly growing ambience bathed in strange digital distortion and reverb, making what might otherwise be simply a dreamy drone, more a bizarre textured buzzy pulse, a haunting swell, that is constantly shifting and shimmering, the various overtones creating minimal murky rhythms amidst the static buzz. These effects surface throughout the record, giving those tracks a very alien vibe, but managing to remain true to their purpose, reflecting the sounds around us, and creating dramatic sounds to accompany natural events. Most of the tracks sound like the music we hear in our heads when the sun finally breaks through the clouds after weeks of rain and black skies. Not happy so much as glowing and subtly effulgent. Other tracks let nature do the talking offering a simple minimal counterpoint to the sound of the surf, or dripping water, deep dramatic rumbles, raga like buzz, way in the background, while nature performs her particular brand of music making over the top.
A few of the tracks get downright heavy, one when Drommers drones are all tangled up in the sounds of a torrential downpour, which ends up sounding like a natural Sunn 0))), the other, where the tones become sharp and intense, a buzzing high end skree wrapped in hiss and static that eventually crackles and flares wildly before blinking out.
Pretty amazing. Definitely a unique angle on ambient music and a cool way of incorporating field recordings, almost like a black metal Jewelled Antler!!!
As with everything E.E.E., way recommended.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Winds Of The Mountain Deep"
MPEG Stream: "Returning To Liquid Form"

DRUMM, KEVIN Sheer Hellish Miasma (Editions Mego) cd 16.98
This out of print, speaker shredding gem, gets revamped and reissued. With all new artwork courtesy of SUNN 0)))'s Stephen O'Malley (a VERY subtle and minimal black-on-one-side, gold-on-the-other digipak variation of the original) AND a massive 13 minute bonus track, the digitaldirgedrone epic "Impotent Hummer", a gorgeously heavy, thick ropy rrrrrroooooaaaar, buzzing and blown out, sounding a bit like Kevin Drumm remixing Sunn 0))) or Boris, a low end buzz, broken down into its constituent parts and then reassembled into a glitch drenched chest rattling ur-drone. Maybe not worth it for the 'new' artwork, but definitely worth it for the new music. And if you missed out on it the first time around, here's what we had to say about the rest of the disc.
A miasma is defined as a heavy, vaporous emanation or atmosphere, also used to describe a corrupting influence (thank you, dictionary dot com!). So obviously, Chicagoan Kevin Drumm has been hanging around miscreants Peter Rehberg and Masami Akita and has decided to drop a nasty, pungent aural fart on all of us. Normally, guitarist Drumm crafts near inaudible soundscapes which leave much to be imagined. But "Sheer Hellish Miasma", his first recording for the stalwart experimental electronic jetset label Mego (now known as Editions Mego), is just FUCKING LOUD!!!! As to be expected from Mego, there's an abundance of clicks and whirrs, digital chirps and skitters, but I repeat, it is FUCKING LOUD!!!! (!) This'll probably be up for Prix Ars Electronica against Whitehouse. Or not. Who knows what those Ars Electronica people are thinking? The closing "Cloudy", in contrast, builds a simplistic, yet wonderful shimmering drone that ends the disc quite gorgeously. Well done. A necessity for all you pure noise freaks out there. And for all you folks into the epic dirgedrone buzz of acts like Boris and Sunn 0))). Epic and apocalyptic, much like the work of Zbigniew Karkowski, Boyd Rice as NON, the overdriven sonic capacities of Whitehouse or the more hellish punishments of Merzbow (it's a bit like "Hard Lovin' Man" in its trance-inducing aspects). Hellish!
MPEG Stream: "The Inferno"
MPEG Stream: "Hitting The Pavement"

EARTH Hibernaculum (Southern Lord) cd + dvd 17.98
Holy crap, a new Earth album! Since the full-scale return (and reinvention) of Dylan Carlson's Earth project with last year's highly regarded studio album Hex; Or Printing In The Infernal Method (a Record Of The Week here at Aquarius when it came out) and subsequent tour, fans of the slow and low have had plenty to be happy about. That album took the extreme drone-metal Earth invented in the early '90s (a sound appropriated by SUNNO))) some years later) and turned it into a bleak n' desolate hybrid of post-rock and country-western! Spacious desert drone dirge with lap steel, something like Low meets Calexico meets the old Earth. Most Earth fans, ourselves included, had to give Hex a spin or two just to be sure we were hearing things right. But then, we all knew we were hearing it right and right it was. Such a great album.
What manner of follow up then is this new Hibernaculum? Well, some of it is gonna sound familiar...yet different. Since Earth's approach has morphed so much over the years, Dylan and co. have decided to revisit and re-record some old Earth compositions in the style of Hex, the way they've been playing 'em on tour, like when we saw them here in SF last year. Not a bad idea at all! You get to hear 'em do the classic "Ouroboros Is Broken" from their 1991 debut Extra-Capsular Extraction, "Coda Maesoso In F (Flat) Minor" from their final Sub Pop album, 1996's Pentastar: In The Style Of Demons, and the obscure "Miami Morning Coming Down" from a 1997 compilation on the Ash label called Scatter. These tunes all get the Hex treatment and wind up as windswept and lovely as you'd expect. There's also a fourth track, a new mix of the 16+ minute "A Plague Of Angels" which originally appeared last year on a very limited edition split vinyl release with SUNNO))). All of these pieces are simply gorgeous. Minimalist, Morricone-cinematic, twangfuzzdrone. Glacial twilight shimmer, velvet-hammer heavy. Droning deep and dark but uplifting as well. Weirdly we realize that Earth now sounds more like Bohren & Der Club Of Gore than Bohren & Der Club Of Gore ever sounded like Earth, if you know what we mean. And their instrumentation is a lot more like Bohren's now, including Hammond B-3, piano, upright bass, and trombone among other things (not the typical doom arsenal).
And, as they say, that's not all -- this comes with a dvd disc as well! A documentary film by graphic artist Seldon Hunt entitled "Within The Drone", shot on tour with Earth and SUNNO))) in Europe in 2006. Lots of live performance footage, intermixed with scenes from the road, and interviews with Dylan Carlson, who proves to be charmingly laid-back, plain spoken and (yes) down to earth. He talks about LaMonte Young and suchlike inspirations, but he's got no pretentious theories of "the drone" to espouse, though he does opine interestingly that for him, the more complex music becomes the closer it is to noise. So a simple sound, slowly repeated -- a drone -- is much more to his liking. Aha. Hmm. But it's clear from watching the scenes of Earth in action though that simple does not mean "easy". Supreme precision and feel is needed. To play music this slow, they've got to be good -- and they are.
MPEG Stream: "Ouroboros Is Broken"
MPEG Stream: "A Plague Of Angels"

EXPANSION BAY Star Obsolescence (Spanish Magic) cd 14.98
Expansion Bay is the (more) spaced out ambient side project of Sandoz Lab Technician Nathan Thompson, who has also done time in Sleep, EYE and a handful of others like minded outfits.
Utilizing field recordings, laptop, an arsenal of heavily processed instruments as well as samples from his previous bands, Thompson has put together a gorgeously expansive ambient drone world that is rife with sonic action. None of that static drift, no pushing a button or pressing a pedal and letting things take their course, no, these three lengthy tracks are dense, and heavily layered, sounds atop sounds atop sounds, different sonic fragments bleeding into other bits and shards, melodies getting all tangled up with other melodies, droney and ambient certainly, but alive and constantly moving and expanding.
The opener is a nine minute stretch of glistening high end buzz and gleaming sonar shimmers, like a less soothing Oval, sort of underwater sounding, static on the surface, but just below, sounds are constantly shifting and vibrating and changing shape and texture. Bits of melody float by like strange microscopic creatures in a musical petri dish, beneath it all, various whirs and rumbles cause different parts and sounds to shift and birth other sounds.
The title track, is a 16+ minute drift through inner space, beginning with a high end whir, slowly shedding the upper registers, gradually slowing down to a dronelike crawl, the whole thing peppered with glistening glimmering sonic sparkles, like stars in some volatile solar system.
The final twenty minute is the most lush of the bunch, sounding at first like wheezing organs, but as the sounds separate and the fuzz clears away like clouds after a rainstorm, the sounds reveal themselves to be bells, or what certainly sounds like bells, a gorgeously dense cacophony of ringing and clanging, huge thick clouds of overtones, the timbre and tonal colors always changing, so gorgeous and nearly overwhelming, finally fading out in a muted minimal stretch of glitchy low end buzz...
MPEG Stream: "Lateral Drift 1"
MPEG Stream: "Star Obsolescence"

GYDJA Umbilicus Maris (Mystery Sea) cd 17.98
Another gorgeous release from Mystery Sea, whose sonic focus is on "night-ocean drones", and more than anything we've heard on MS, Umbilicus Maris by New Zealand one man drone outfit Gydja perfectly embodies that focus.
Umbilicus Maris is very oceanic, aquatic, even sub-aquatic. The rhythm is tidal, a subtle pulse, a gradual swell, the sounds shift and shimmer like light through water, and of the handful of Mystery Sea releases we've heard, Umbilicus Maris is the loudest and most active. That's in no way to infer that this is anything but drifting blissy ambience. It most certainly is, but the sounds are not lowercase. Not barely audible. Abby Helasdottir, the sole soul behind Gydja, brings the sounds to the fore, they are dark and mysterious, droning and drifting, but they are loud, the listener can hear them, FEEL them, peer inside and around, can experience the sound physically, get lost inside the sound. A pair of headphones is all you need to get sucked under, floating weightless in a strange sun dappled undersea world of sound.
Field recordings (tides, oceans, streams?) are mixed with performances, all processed into some otherworldly soundscape, or seascape. Burbling, shimmering, glistening, glimmering, everything slightly blurry, warped and warbled, multiple layers, shifting and drifting, low end rumbles slowly drift to the surface, where strange sonic skitters and burbles float on the surface, everything drenched in echo and reverb, like some massive undersea cavern, lit only by a single shaft of sunlight, the sounds of dripping water magnified into swirls of sound, distant percussive pings, an ultra abstract undersea dub. So completely warm and dreamlike, headphones like a diving bell, eyes closed, no need to breathe, letting the sound wash over you, slowly sinking to the bottom of some warm sonic sea. Absolutely gorgeous.
And like all Mystery Sea releases, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each disc numbered, and gorgeously packaged in striking full color artwork.
MPEG Stream: "Beyond The Earth's Edge"
MPEG Stream: "The Wave, With Red Stain Running"

KISS THE ANUS OF A BLACK CAT An Interlude To The Outermost ((K-RAA-K)3) cd 16.98
We have been anxiously awaiting the return of the strangely named Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat, the apocalyptic folk project of Stef Heeren, a Belgian instrument builder and musician, who managed to create one of the darkest, most compelling 'folk' records in recent memory. A dark world of strum and buzz, equal parts Comus, Current 93, Woven Hand, Swans and the like. His voice a strange strangled croon, venomous and dramatic, over intensely strummed acoustic guitars and all manner of ambient backdrops.
Things have changed quite a bit on An Interlude To The Outermost, much of the sound is the same, the aggressive acoustic guitars, the vocals, the apocalyptic foreboding, but now there are drums, drums that anchor and drive each song, giving the record a much different vibe, not at all unappealing, just a lot different. Where If The Sky Falls, We Shall Catch Larks seemed to drift, unhinged and unmoored, no distinct rhythms to pin it down, each song hovering like black smoke from a forest campfire, An Interlude To The Outermost is much more structured, songs, arrangements, the drums are an obvious shift, but the tempos too, and the overall sound, this is distinctly more rocking, a sort of near-rollicking campfire folk jam, bringing to mind 16 Horsepower and even the Pogues here and there, albeit much more nihilistic and dark. And the sound is a lot more lush as well, with a wider array of instrumentation, the drums, but also accordion, and electric guitar. In fact, more than ever KTAOABC sounds like some impossible mix of Current 93, 16 Horsepower and New Model Army. If that makes any sense. But it's awesome. Epic and intense, brooding and moody, but a bit rocking as well.
The melodies are still lilting and minor key, the mood is most definitely miserablist, a dour dreary black folk, but with epic blasts of full on, heavily instrument-ed folk ROCK. It takes some getting used to, but once you do, it does make perfect sense. There are still some moments reminiscent of the first record, the funereal crawl of "You Will Reap A Whirlwind", the wheezing dirge of "Beyond The Tanarian Hills"... And actually, even at its most rocking this disc is just as dark and sinister sounding. It's just slightly more lush and upbeat, but it suits the sound. And the more we listen to it, the less we can imagine it sounding any other way. Where the first record channeled dark forests, and leafless trees, crows on abandoned farmhouses, open expanses of barren fields, the new record is the thunder of horse hooves, the rumble of thunder, the shadow of storm clouds, a fierce and furious, subtly rocking, epic and intense divine doom folk. And like the first disc, essential for fans of all things C93, Nick Cave, Death In June, Comus, Swans, Der Blutharsch, Richard Youngs, Woven Hand and 16HP.
Beautifully packaged in a minimally screenprinted fold over cardboard sleeve, with a striking image on the cover, an old fashioned looking drawing of a bedraggled kitten and a big ball of yarn...
MPEG Stream: "The Firesky"
MPEG Stream: "A Scatterbrain Sings Of Christians And The Ghoul Bares Teeth"
MPEG Stream: "You Will Reap A Whirlwind"

KLEINBACH, WILHELM The Funerary Notebooks Of Herr Gratchenfleiss (The Guild Of Funerary Violinists) cd-r 10.98
What is more amazing than discovering a whole movement in music that had never been documented, let alone even heard of. EVER! No mention in any books, magazines, not a single trace. What if that music was in fact the music of Funerary violins. A music created and composed to be performed at funerals. The only evidence of these musics, some scratchy old wax cylinder recordings, some faded photos, and brittle sheafs of old sheet music. A music that flourished in the 1800's and disappeared almost completely by the 1900's after the Catholic church's Great Funerary Purges. Only recently discovered in a locked trunk was the music of Herr Gratchenfleiss, recorded to wax cylinder by Wilhelm Kleinbach. The sound a mournful miserable, gorgeously minor key dirge. So completely moving and emotional, the recordings thick with static and crackle, only adding to the power and timelessness of the music. What could be more amazing?
How about making the whole thing up? Constructing an elaborate history of a genre that never existed. Populating this history with lifelike characters, creating photos, sheet music, historical documents, but most amazingly, recording all the music, and treating it to sound as if it was some old wax cylinder recording.
Hard to say which would be more amazing, a wholly undiscovered hidden dark corner of musical history, quashed by the church and relegated to be lost forever, or an insanely detailed project, the ultimate conceptual art piece. Either way, we are in love with this stuff.
Simply from a musical standpoint, this is everything we could hope for. The recordings are fuzzy and staticky, bathed in layers of crackle and grit, and years of neglect and decay, but beneath the recording inconsistencies we love so much, are some truly moving and emotionally rich performances, the melodies are so intense and sad, minor key and mournful. truly funereal. It's impossible not to imagine some old funeral procession, a row of black clad mourners, trudging down a dirt road, with their deceased atop an old wooden cart, the sky grey, the music of the Funerary violinist winding around the procession like wreaths of black smoke. So goddamn lovely. We have been listening to this non-stop since we got it.
And then there's the story. The "history". Is it real? Is it possible that a musical movement could disappear so completely. So much so that not a single person anywhere EVER had heard of the Guild Of Funerary Violinists? Or is it all a huge put-on? A massive made up world? The ultimate outsider art project. Either way, we are completely blown away. If this is indeed real, HOLY SHIT! How utterly mysterious and romantic!! We do sort of want to believe it's real. It's so perfectly evocative of some other time, of death and sadness throughout the ages. But if it is in fact made up, it has to be one of the most brilliantly conceived and executed hoaxes of all time. There's even a book (you can probably find at you local bookstore), filled with photos and sheet music, and histories of all the players, the birth and death of the genre, it's so detailed and elaborate, so much so it almost seems impossible that someone could have created all of this from thin air, if it was made up, it must have been the creator's life's work. Years and years of methodical planning and writing and recording for sure. But either way, it's magical and fascinating, and 'real' or not, the music is truly gorgeous, and the story completely captivating, both intertwined into some sort of time machine, perfectly transporting us to that rain splattered dirt road, the soaring sad sounds of the Funerary violin drifting into the black sky...
MPEG Stream: "The Noble March Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "The Dizzy Flight Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "The Stately Tragedy Of Death"

KRYPT AXERIPPER Mechanical Witch (Ektro Records Archive) cd ep 7.98
Finland's Ektro Records label (run by Jussi from Circle/Pharaoh Overlord as you may know) would have us believe that this four-song ep is one from the vaults, supposedly a reissue of singles tracks recorded back in '83 by the mysterious metal entity known as Krypt Axeripper. Obscure cult '80s metal, eh? Well it looks like it: it's got a suitable logo, fantastical n' scary artwork, and the cd booklet even reproduces the labels from the "original" vinyl release of the tracks "Battle Of The Axehammer" and "Possessed (By Trees)". Wait a sec, "Battle Of The Axehammer"? Isn't that also the title of the live Pharaoh Overlord album? Indeed it is, and we're about 99.666 percent sure that "Krypt Axeripper" is in fact the heavy metal alter ego of our friend Jussi! Playing guitars, bass, synths, and singing, Axeripper is joined by "Rattfinder" on drums, who from the sound of it is probably one of Jussi's colleagues in Circle...
And of course, as with *anything* Circle-related, no matter what the concept, it's got that hypnotic Circle-sound at its base. In fact, we'd say that there's stuff on Circle's Sunrise or Pharaoh Overlord 4 that's actually way more metal than the songs here. Yes, they're all got a bunch of very metal (and crudely catchy) guitar riffing going on, albeit ramshackle and lo-fi. But then there's the vocals, which despite lyrics about Lucifer, have a very woozy, weirdly crooned, eccentrically pop quality to them, pitched high in a much more gentle way than a real metal screecher would do. And the guitar solos -- those are all totally psychedelic, Floydian/Frippian washes, really nice as well. And the drums, we mentioned, not metal at all. Too wimpy and motorikally rhythmic. So it's a truly unique and amusing mix, and we LOVE it. Sure the vocals come across as a bit silly at first, but they're actually pretty cool when you really listen, and it's impressive how the vocal parts are arranged, with various lead and backing vocals interwoven, all sung by Mr. Axeripper hisownself.
False metal? More like freak metal. Krypt Axeripper may be fake (and funny) but we're still fans for real. It's interesting how in trying to make a pastiche of heavy metal music (if that's really what he was trying to do...), Jussi came up with something that, if we had to compare it to an actual metal record, reminds us of Voivod's most controversially "alternative" album, the college radio confusional Angel Rat from 1991. We also appreciate that this experiment was kept to just 11 minutes, four amazing, strange songs, not overdoing it, just enough to give his inner metalfan a chuckle -- and to get us to keep hitting play again and again and again on this wacked-out quartet of relaxed, quasi-metallic tracks. Krypt Axeripper seriously (or maybe not-so-seriously) rules!
MPEG Stream: "High Speed Thunder Forever Gone"
MPEG Stream: "Possessed (By Trees)"

KTL s/t (Aurora Borealis) 2lp 17.98
Now available on vinyl for a super limited time. Gorgeously elaborate packaging, deluxe gatefold sleeve, thick vinyl, includes a poster as well. Looks as amazing as it sounds. And it sounds like this:
SUNNO)))-worshippers alert! 1/2 of that drone metal behemoth, our pal Stephen O'Malley (who has also piloted or participated in such units as Khanate, Burning Witch, Ginnungagap, Teeth Of The Lions Rule The Divine, Thorr's Hammer, Fungal Hex, Lotus Eaters, etc.) has travelled to Europe to collaborate with Austrian experimental digital noise artist Peter "Pita" Rehberg! They're calling themselves KTL because the music they made is to be the soundtrack to some sort of stage piece called Kindertotenlieder by performance artist Gisele Vienne and novelist Dennis Cooper ("Closer") due to debut at a festival in France next year. Judging from the music, not to mention the people involved, we imagine it's gonna be beautiful, but also somehow disturbing and dark... This cd certainly is.
It starts off with the 24 minute drone "Estranged", blissful and spooky piece that builds towards its end to noisier heights, threatening the storms to come on this album. And yes, the four parts of "Forest Floor" that take up the main, middle part of the disc are a harrowing journey indeed, into a buzzing, claustrophobic realm of dangerous digital sonics and heavy drone, like SUNNO)))'s lugubrious riffage mixed with the glitchy crunch of Pita -- which is what it is, of course! Not for the faint of heart. Part four, in particular, sounds like a doomed prop engine airplane rumbling over a dark forest landscape from some black metal album cover, at night...
Finally O'Malley and Rehberg wind things up with the quieter (but still creepy) 13 minutes of "Snow", a softly pulsing, detailed improv exploration of lowercase sounds... Very nice!
Let's hope KTL isn't just a one-off collaboration, we'd like to hear more from these two! Their mastery of minimalist ambient music, electronic glitchology and Earthy guitar sludge make a fine sipping brew.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. ON BLACK VINYL!!!
There was a version on white vinyl, but those were direct mailorder only from the label and are completely gone. And with these too, there's a good chance when they are gone they will be gone forever....
MPEG Stream: "Estranged"
MPEG Stream: "Forest Floor 4"

LESCALLEET, JASON The Pilgrim (Glistening Examples) picture disc + cd 35.00
With an artist as prolific as Jason Lescalleet, we're a little ashamed that we've only ever managed to list two of his releases. And both of those were fantastic. One a super limited cd-r on Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label, the other a collaboration with fellow sound artist and long time AQ fave John Hudak. We'll try to remedy that, beginning with this most recent release, an epic and incredibly lovingly assembled sonic tribute to Lescalleet's father who passed away in 2005.
A lot of drone music, minimal experimental music, while sounding cool, often amazingly cool, doesn't always resonate emotionally. A lot of it is dark and mysterious, moody or melancholy, but without lyrics, and with minimal melody, it's hard to convey much emotion. A select few, those with a deft hand at sculpting sound, are able to infuse even the most minimal of musics with feeling and emotion, but lots of music is simply an assemblage of interesting sounds, which truth be told is often enough.
For The Pilgrim, Lescalleet has created an incredibly emotional and moving tribute in sound, to his father, who found a strange and surprising appreciation for his son's music. A combination of field recordings, old tape recordings and live performance, this set is both musically ambitious, and sweetly personal. A combination that in less capable hands could have turned into something maudlin and schmaltzy, instead, The Pilgrim is simply beautiful.
The picture disc features two recordings, both moving in their own way. The first is a live performance recorded shortly after the discovery that his Father's cancer was terminal. Lescalleet begins the set by reading an email from his father, where he explains how much he liked his son's music, and how it reminded him of being young and laying on the floor of the car and feeling the vibrations rumble through his body. And the sounds of bells. Both rich memories for his father. So Lescalleet performs a piece incorporating those elements, the parts of his music that so moved his father. And it is indeed lovely. Deep rumbles, subtle whirs, slowly drifting from barely there shimmer to cavernous roar, but usually hovering dreamily somewhere in between. Toward the end, the sound grows more corrosive, with subtle rhythms surfacing amidst the crackle and buzz, before winding down to silence.
The second recording is a little difficult to listen to, and is extremely intense and personal. While Lescalleet's father was in the hospital, he gave him a hand held recorder, thinking it might lift his spirits to be able to record messages and his thoughts. But his father was incapable of having long conversations, so the whole side is a recording of a hospital room, with bits of mumbled speech, footsteps, snatches of conversations in the hall, very stark and lonely sounding, the room giving the recording a strange natural reverb. Incredibly moving...
The cd is a new 70 minute piece based on those same sounds Lescalleet's father found so appealing: bells, chimes, rumbling vibrations. And it's a gorgeous piece of minimal dronemusic. Murky and bleary eyed, a slow almost funereal drift, the low end sometimes throbbing like the engine of a car, but just as often glistening in abstract smears. Part way through, more and more melody surfaces amidst the dreamy drones, before the track devolves into some serious, and very cathartic noise, crumbling, ultra distorted howls of white noise and blown out buzz, eventually fading out, leaving just the voice of Jason's daughter singing to her grandfather while he was in the hospital, an old Irish folk song. As her song ends, the record drifts off with a dark and barely audible coda of softly struck bells. So intense and poignant and absolutely gorgeous to listen to.
The packaging is divine as well, a deluxe gatefold sleeve, a rich blue on the outside, inside a painting by Lescalleet's brother of their Dad, as well as the printed out email. The lp is a picture disc, one side an old fashioned tape reel, the other a photo of Lescaleeet's Dad eating cake. Inside is a deluxe booklet, with the cd in a pouch on the inside of the cover, lots of liner notes, photos, notes on each track and the whole story of this record.
MPEG Stream: "The Pilgrim CD (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "The Pilgrim CD (excerpt 2)"

LUGUBRUM De Ware Hond (Old Grey Hair) cd 13.98
Maybe it's the name, but something about "Lugubrum" makes us think of a steaming witch's cauldron. A sinister sonic stew as it were. Nominally a black metal band, these mega AQ faves definitely blend in a lot of other things into their sound. Of course there's big orange carrots floating around in there (kinda like when cannibals are trying to entice Bugs Bunny into a stew-pot) 'cause we know that these Belgian weirdos just love carrots. But in terms of musical ingredients, the Lugubrum recipe calls for everything from troo grim black metal to avantgarde jazz, from dronological doom to hillbilly heehawin'. They're utterly mad master chefs, though, so when mixed properly and brought to a boil, Lugubrum's bubbling brown stew tastes like nothing else and is thick and heavy enough to eat with a forklift. Ok, enough with the culinary/cauldron metaphor, let's give you some specifics about De Ware Hond, Lugubrum's latest (9th) album. Following up last year's Live In Amsterdam, they bring four (long) new tracks of their "musick" on this one, all of it recorded live in the studio (no overdubs). That in part explains its organic, tranced-out vibe, these songs structured, we're assuming, with plenty of room for improvisation -- particularly sounding like it on the second half of the record, when the usual guitars and drums and organ are joined by "Funhouse" style saxophone and mellow, mesmeric tablas, for even more improv-jazz, out-there-fucked-up-Eastern-psych appeal. Not at all your usual black metal! Apparently "brown metal" as Lugubrum puts it. Loping and lurching and and lurking and blurting and rasping and wretching and roiling, this could be Abruptum jamming with Oxbow, Today Is The Day teamed up with Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, Neurosis playing Pharoah Sanders, or Pan-Thy-Monium vs. Dead Raven Choir... yeah it's that weird and hard to describe. But definitely dark and, dare we say it, druggily dreamy?
This is probably their least "metal" album yet, however just as Lugubrum as ever. And we're absolutely sure they were still the most metal band to appear at the recently concluded 2007 (K-RAA-K)3 Festival in Belgium, alongside such artists as Daniel Higgs, Giuseppe Ielasi, Raccoo-oo-oon, Jozef Van Wissem, Major Stars, Sun City Girls, Phil Minton, Warmer Milks, and others! OK, Witchcraft played too, they're also sorta metal. (And we just heard that the Sun City Girls were at the last minute unable to play the festival, they had to cancel for some reason. Too bad, they definitely would have liked Lugubrum we think...a band maybe even weirder than they are...)
MPEG Stream: "Movement I - Opwaartse Hond"
MPEG Stream: "Movement I - Neerwaartse Hond"

MAGMA Mythes Et Legendes - 35 Ans De Musique (Seventh) dvd 35.00
EPOK 2 has arrived!! For all Magma fans, a glorious moment indeed. Actually this moment should have occurred a month or two ago, but unfortunately the label in France accidentally sent us PAL rather than NTSC dvds, and we only just finally got the correct NTSC ones. But no matter, it was worth the wait! This is part two in the planned four-disc live dvd series documenting Christian Vander's current, amazing Magma lineup (plus some special guests from Magma days of yore) in concert doing versions of their '70s classics, for their 35th anniversary in 2005. Not sure why the heck we didn't fly to France for it, but thank god these shows were filmed for dvd -- pro shot and edited, with multiple camera angles, very intimate and exciting. The disc starts with behind-the-scenes footage of the band arriving at the venue and warming up... they joke around as they greet one another backstage but then when it's time to play... damn this gets SERIOUS.
That's right, since the material performed in the Mythes Et Legendes series was organized chronologically, this second dvd features some of their heaviest masterpieces, several utterly crucial Magma compositions from 1973 to 1976, including a 49 minute "Wurdah Itah", a 42 minute "Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh", and a 21 minute "De Futura". That's what we said. WURDAH ITAH. MEKANIK DESTRUKTIW KOMMANDOH. DE FUTURA. Damn.
Not only that, but freakin' bass maestro Jannick Top (like Vander, an old dude now but looking weirdly burly and badass in his black leather vest and shades) joins the band for "M.D.K." and his own "De Futura"! Plus he shows off with a moody, virtuoso bass solo based on a Bach piece. As if he needed to prove anything.
Basically, if you like Magma, you want, no you NEED to watch them do "De Futura" on this thing. They tear it up. Vander's in a frenzy. Top's bass playing is off the hook. The choir does some crazy shit too. Oh yeah, another old friend is on here -- vocalist Klaus Blasquiz. And by the way, unlike Epok 1, there's no horn section.
What else to say? If you're a Magma fan, you'll be happy with this as soon as you hear the music looped on the menu page, we're telling you!
Tech specs: NTSC, all-region, 2 hours and 18 minutes.

MERZBOW VS NORDVARGR Partikel II (Cold Spring) cd 15.98
The long awaited second installment in the who-knows-how-many-parts Patikel series, which features a collaboration between AQ fave Swedish dark ambient, militant folk, black metal noise technician Nordvargr (Toroidh, MZ412, Folkstorm, Goatvargr, HH9, etc...) and Japanese noise legend Masami Akita aka Merzbow.
Strange bedfellows maybe, but the results here, as on the first installment, are pretty mind-blowing. Akita generated the sounds, Nordvargr took those sounds and twisted them into completely new forms, the result some strange noise/drone/rhythm hybrid that is WAY more listenable than it has any right to be.
The opener sets the tone, a twenty minute crumbling distorted noisescape, like bits of old Merzbow records all chopped up and assembled again Frankenstein's monster fashion, that veers from full on near-metallic crunch, to strange skittery almost IDM, but even at it's calmest, the track is still rife with strange sounds and damaged FX, bursts of harsh noise surfacing here and there amidst an alien landscape of stutters and shuffles, of creaks and squeaks, almost like a black metal Mouse On Mars if one could even imagine such a thing.
The second track sounds heavier on the Nordvargr than the Merzbow, a rumbling shimmering low end, that creeps and drifts before splintering briefly into another rhythmic glitchscape, just as quickly transforming into a buzzing snarling fuzzed out drone, thick and corrosive, subtly rhythmic, but intense and crackling with energy. Deep cavernous tones swell in the background, while above the blurry buzz, strange crunchy electronic pulses mark out a simple static rhythm.
The third track is Part 2 to the opener's Part 1, and takes the openers skitter to a much meaner, much harsher place, a swirling high end cloud of hissing static and keening sine waves, over a relentlessly pulsing backdrop, that changes pitch, and tempo, stuttering and hiccuping, creating a gorgeously confusional rhythmscape, eventually breaking into a near-groove, a loping downtempo slither, but still wrapped in all manner of electronic detritus and squalls of fuzz and crackle and whir.
The closer winds things down with more of a whisper than a scream, the glitchy rhythms are still present, but they are ultra minimal, skeletal, almost like shortwave interference, beneath a tidal swirl of murk and blur, a dark ambient buzz that stretches lazily into long expanses of slow shifting sounds. Over the course of the track, little bits of melody surface here and there, the rhythms get more agitated before drifting back beneath the surface, and mysterious voices surface amidst sparkling sonic glimmers and moaning ambient rumble, a dreamy dark ambient coda to an intense slab of droning skittering buzz and crunch, shimmer and swirl.
Partikel II is IDM for the demon set, a blackened noise drenched skitter, an abstract metallic free-electronica, and a definite droney dancefloor filler, that is if you want your dancefloor filled with shuffling zombies, growling beasts and unspeakable denizens of the underworld...
And who doesn't?!
MPEG Stream: "Reakt 1"
MPEG Stream: "Luxon"

OLD WAINDS / NAV We Are The North (Miriquidi) cd 14.98
We've long been shrieking and demonically howling the praises of Russian black metal horde Old Wainds, but until recently, we had been unable to track down any of their releases. One of their old demos was re-released (Withers Of The Wainds) which was much easier to get, and then slowly but surely we managed to track down the rest of their releases. We reviewed the godlike Scalding Coldness a few lists back (we're still waiting for our restock, thanks for being patient) and this time we've got a killer split, between Old Wainds and their fellow countrymen (and Old Wainds offshoot) Nav. We reviewed the full length lp from Nav a while back but were unable to get their cd (we're still trying) so for lots of folks this may be your first chance to hear Nav.
Anyway, like we've said in the past, a true measure of a band, is who is listening to them, especially when it's other bands, so when we say Old Wainds is EVERYBODY'S favorite (and we're talking Crebain, Leviathan, Xasthur, Nachtmystium, Andee!!) that's pretty high praise indeed.
And not at all unwarranted. Old Wainds are the Blizzard Beasts of the East. A howling buzzing blast of frosty fury, so intense and relentless, a completely epic black buzz, but with incredible riffs, amazing arrangements and some seriously intense vocals. Not as bizarre as they were on the Withers Of The Wainds demo, but much harsher and hellish than on Scalding Coldness. Through The Chaos To Eternal Winter (Old Wainds' half of the split) is 18 minutes of unbridled brutality, black beauty, so gloriously heavy, recorded way back in 1999, this sounds as heavy and intense as most of the bands peddling their black metal wares today. Three blasts of buzzing black brilliance, the fourth a haunting ambient folk drift, complete with dirgey downtuned guitar and disembodied minor key piano, and harsh reverb drenched vocals.
Perfectly matched, and in some ways maybe even better than the Wainds (gasp!), are Nav, the project of Old Wainds drummer Izbor and featuring at least one other Old Waind in its ranks. The sound is similar, grim and frosty, but somehow the buzz is bigger, thicker, with even less melody than Old Wainds, and more blast, the vocals are distorted and buried in the mix, the songs are peppered with bursts of lurching midtempo Burzumic buzz, but Nav spend most of their time buzzing along at hyperspeed, the blackened buzz so thick and relentless, it becomes a fuzzy drone, mesmerizingly blurry and blown out. the drums so fast they are like another layer of sonic fuzz. But it's not just buzz, the riffs are killer, the melodies are there, and are catchy as hell, just completely suffocated by the icy black buzzing of the relentless guitars and nonstop blasting beats. The final track begins with some reverb drenched acoustic guitar, quite lovely and dreamlike, before being engulfed by a strangely melodic and dramatic minor key black blast, almost like a black metal Godspeed, epic and keening and oddly enough, really really pretty.
Absolutely essential, as with all things Old Wainds (and Nav for that matter)...
MPEG Stream: OLD WAINDS "Face Of Madness"
MPEG Stream: OLD WAINDS "Dead Eyes Of The Dark"
MPEG Stream: NAV "Hymn To The Cold Silence (Part 1)"
MPEG Stream: NAV "Warriors Of Glacial Desert"

PREHISTORIC FUCKIN' MORON(S) Nothing Can Save Your Face (Spanish Magic) cassette 7.98
We would be the last ones to deny the fact that we are easily swayed. Or at the very least, easily intrigued. Band names get us every time. A killer band name and we're halfway there. Album title, artwork, it all lures us in, has us already loving bands before we've ever heard them. Sure, once in a while we're disappointed, but for the most part, sometimes you can judge a band by their cover. Needless to say, we were pretty intrigued by a band called Prehistoric Fuckin' Moron(s), the optional plural added an extra bit of mystery to the whole thing as well, even more so when we realized it was indeed a single moron. And as if that weren't enough, all it took was a quick gander at the description of the music and we were well beyond sold: "Take one moron, feed him copious amounts of drugs and alcohol, throw him a bunch of old turntables with some effects and watch him smash the shit out of them. Totally weird, absolutely insane." Almost sounds like we wrote it. And heck, we would have, if they didn't already, cuz this is in fact totally weird and absolutely insane.
Imagine Christian Marclay and Philip Jeck, both dosed with LSD, having some sort of lo-fi DJ battle, the entire thing run through a bank of effects pedals and recorded on a busted 4-track. The weird thing is, this isn't as noisy as you might imagine, at least not all of it. The opener is dark and muddy, a super dubbed out spacey drift, reverb and delay wrapping everything in a thick coat of fuzzy blur, the sounds allowed to drift into oblivion. Very dreamlike and tranquil. But the second track is anything but. A cacophony of industrial clatter, and murky vocal snippets, huge ch-chunks from the needle skipping, but emerging from the cacophony are some strangely dreamy loops as well as some jagged shards of distorted noise. The rest of the tape is schizophrenic in that way, flitting from speaker shredding chaos, to strangely serene loopscapes, often times both simultaneously. It's all very chaotic and fucked up and freaked out and messy, but it's such a glorious mess. Fans of Jeck and Tetreault and Marclay and Strotter Inst and Bastien with an ultra lo-fi bent will be in skipping scratching scraping stuttering turntable heaven.

RHYS, GRUFF Candylion (Team Love) cd 14.98
We know we're only a few months into 2007 but we're pretty sure that Candylion will be right there at the top of the list of our favorite pop records of the year! While we've always sort of liked Super Fury Animals, we have to say this solo outing by front man Gruff Rhys surpasses anything they've ever done! So totally catchy, quirky and impeccably crafted, Candylion is pretty much everything you could want in a pop record. It's so fitting that this record showed up right when Spring finally sprang on SF... this is the perfect soundtrack to carefree afternoons, balmy evenings, topdown freeway excursions as the wind blows in and the sun glows in the sky. Rhys demonstrates great taste and a pretty impressive knowledge of obscure psych rock/pop of the past, in creating his own timeless masterpiece. Whether singing in English or his native Welsh (as he does on a couple tracks), he's a master of vocal melodies and the perfect instrumental accompaniment. When you listen closely you realize there is so much going on from Gameboy beats to flute to pedal steel to stylophone, but like all great pop maestros Rhys knows so perfectly how to incorporate all those elements smoothly and subtly to create dense and dreamy near perfect pop. So totally recommended!
MPEG Stream: "The Court Of King Arthur"
MPEG Stream: "Cycle Of Violence"
MPEG Stream: "Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru"

SHOEMAKER, MATT Spots In The Sun (Regular Edition) (The Helen Scarsdale Agency) cd 14.98
The music found on Matt Shoemaker's Spots In the Sun makes for one of our favorite field recording / drone based records in recent memory. Even though the ultra limited version is already out of print, the regular version (which is still quite fancy) is finally here. So everyone who missed out first time around gets one more chance.
As we spent more time extolling the virtues of the packaging in the review of the super limited version, now we'll focus a bit more on the actual music...
Have a glance back at our most verbose descriptions about anything from the avant-garde fringes of music making, and you'll most likely find a common metaphor of specific locations, or rather the memories that the author attributes to that space -- good, bad, holy, abject, transcendent, etc. Upon listening to Spots In The Sun, we find ourselves returning to the well-trod linguistic device of comparing sound to the detached memories of place; however, Shoemaker's exploration of psychogeographic sound never grounds itself upon a specific location -- like a crumbling hospital, reclaimed World War II bunkers, or even his own favored locations of the jungles of Indonesia. Rather, Shoemaker drops the listener into a sunbleached environment, where heat, humidity, jetlag, fatigue, and general environmental claustrophobia prevent any of the specifics to make themselves known. While Shoemaker's landscapes are openly hostile toward the listener, these swarming masses of sound are incredibly alluring, drawing us in even though we may know better than to enter these openly toxic spaces. Shoemaker is always teasing us with small hints as to where we might be, with screeching birds, temple bells, and the patter of rain; but before we can begin to triangulate a position, Shoemaker rips us from our locale with a ruptured crescendo and drops us somewhere else. It is through the drone that Shoemaker achieves all of this and more, his swarming monochrome morphs from complex vibrations into radioluminescent clouds. Spots In The Sun is an exquisite manifestation of abstracted field recordings pushed to the point of grotesque minimalism, and is indeed some of the finest that we've heard (comparable to the likes of BJ Nilsen, Machinefabriek, Loren Chasse, Philip Jeck's Surf, and mnortham).
MPEG Stream: "1. ..."
MPEG Stream: "3. ..."
MPEG Stream: "4. ..."

STERN, MARNIE In Advance Of The Broken Arm (Kill Rock Stars) cd 14.98
Wow! This is probably the best thing we've heard on Kill Rock Stars in AGES. With totally spazzed out guitar playing and impassioned vocals, Marnie Stern has grabbed us by the throats and refuses to let us go. It makes perfect sense that Zach Hill drums on this record as Stern's herky jerky rhythms and relentless spirit share a similar aesthetic and approach to Hill's band Hella and folks like Lightning Bolt and Orthrelm. In fact Marnie Stern has hit the scene almost like a female counterpart to Mick Barr, with the same kind of manic and infectious guitar playing delivered with her unique vision and fist in the air vocals. Kind of like if Erase Errata or the latest Paradise Island e.p. we loved so much were even louder, faster and way more chaotic, or if Mary Timony were kidnapped by Load records. This album does what all the great Kill Rock Stars records of the past did so well, it makes you feel so alive and so young in spirit as your get to watch and hear someone so passionately realize their vision. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Grapefruit"
MPEG Stream: "Put All Your Eggs In One Basket..."
MPEG Stream: "Vibrational Match"

TAKAYANAGI MASAYUKI NEW DIRECTION FOR THE ART Complete "La Grima" (Doubt Music) cd 16.98
When an avant-garde free jazz outfit plays, and the audience is moved not just to boo and jeer but to also THROW THINGS at them, that's when real fans of outside improv insanity should go, man, I've got to check this out! That the band in question featured the legendary Japanese guitarist Masayuki Takayangi makes perfect sense, since back in the day he was pretty much THE most shockingly extreme electric guitarist in the realm of "jazz."
As would likely be the case today, too, were he still alive. What we have here then is the notorious "La Grima" ("Tears"). 41 minutes, 45 seconds of EXPLOSIVE densefreejazzfreakout from a true power trio: Masayuki Takayangi on guitar, Kenji Mori on sax, and Hiroshi Yamazaki on drums, recorded live at the Genya Festival on August 14th, 1971. This wasn't a normal music fest, rather it was more of a demonstration organized in protest against the expansion of the Narita airport. And as radical as the protesters were, they apparently couldn't handle Takayangi's "new jazz" music AT ALL. His New Direction For The Arts group was NOT well-received at Genya. Those folks who were throwing stuff would probably be surprised to learn that 36 years later, "La Grima" would be a handsomely-presented cd release, eagerly awaited in fact by fans not even born back then!
Yes, here at last is the full unedited recording -- previously just a tantalizing six minutes were heard on the Genya compilation LP, reissued on cd a few years ago. It's been remixed and remastered, and packaged in a miniature LP-styled gatefold sleeve.
If you're familiar with Takayangi's work, you can guess that this is what he'd term a "Mass Projection" piece, nobody in the group holding anything back, Takayangi's guitar rumbling heavily under Mori's flights of sax-skronk, the splattery drumming of Yamazaki running circles 'round the other two, everything endlessly tumbling forward, into the abyss of amplifier abuse spawned by Takayangi, who simultaneously offers up scrabbling leads, dissonant drones, and fierce feedback attack. We suppose the saxophone is the most "jazz" sounding element, offering some snippets of melody amidst the blasting cacophony, but even then serving to highlight, in contrast, the electric violence of Takayangi's playing. With so much energy being released, maybe it's no surprise that the audience couldn't help but give some back!
MPEG Stream: "La Grima"

TIHEASALO, TOPIAS Eyes Of A Dead Lamb (Tyyfus) cd 16.98
Is there no end to the wonderful musical mysteries Finland has to offer? We sure hope not. Whether it's demented black metal, crushing doom sludge, freaky forest folk, or shimmery pop, Finland never disappoints. And now you can add, ultra minimal outsider solo guitar to that list.
Topias Tiheasalo, who we know absolutely nothing about, and google searches also reveal practically nothing, other than the fact that he is 29 years old, is less of a "guitarist" and more of a guitar explorer, a guitar experimentalist. Falling somewhere between the abstract scrabble of Derek Bailey and the moody minimalism of Loren Connors, Tiheasalo, crawls all over the guitar, spending as much time thumping the body, scraping the bridge, and coaxing all manner of buzz and rattle from his guitar as he does either picking or strumming. The opening track is a strange percussive soundscape, punctuated by an awesome deep reverberent buzz drenched throb, as well as some fragmented chunks of slide. While all around these almost-melodies, lurk tons of black space, and all manner or subtle shuffle and accidental squeaks and creaks. Later on, some deliberately stumbling strum becomes a harmonic drenched melody, lurching and stuttering along a very abstract path. Elsewhere the guitar is rubbed to create strange whispery ambience, notes are hurled violently from the guitar, left to flutter to the ground, where they are sprinkled with glistening flurries of harmonics. Lots of angularity and atonality, but their are bits of delicate beauty tucked amidst the twisted and convoluted guitarscapes.
A strange strange record. Not beautiful in any sort of typical way, but damaged and difficult and in that musical obstinance, quite lovely indeed. Fans of Bailey, Connors, Taku Sugimoto, Fabrice Eglin and of course Keith Rowe as well as other atypical six stringers will find much to explore and enjoy...
MPEG Stream: "4:14"
MPEG Stream: "5:22"
MPEG Stream: "3:17"

V/A Johnny Greenwood Is The Controller (Trojan) cd 14.98
Johnny Greenwood has always been our favorite Radiohead member. Sure maybe Thom Yorke is a genius, but Greenwood is the unsung hero, his guitars and sound manipulations transforming Radiohead from run of the mill alternative rock band to one of the more innovative and captivating bands of the last decade. His solo score to the film Bodysong a few years ago showed the wide range of his music making abilities as well and was one of the first hints at his love of reggae with its subtle moments of glitched out dub electronics. Somehow, someway Trojan records got in touch and decided to let him crack their vaults and put together a collection of his favorite tracks from their deep well of reggae gems. We gotta say he did some mighty fine selecting as this ranks as one of the nicer vintage reggae/dub collections we've had in the store in quite a while. With everyone from Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Delroy Wilson, Marcia Griffiths, The Heptones, Scotty, Scientist, and more...
This does a great job at scratching the surface of how much amazing music came out of Jamaica during the fertile era of the 70's. While it might just be clever marketing to put his name on this as all he did was pick out the songs, if it turns on some Radiohead devotees to the richness of reggae's finest then we have no problem with that at all.
MPEG Stream: MARCIA AITKEN "I'm Still In Love"
MPEG Stream: SCOTTY "Clean Race"
MPEG Stream: SCIENTIST & JAMMY & THE ROOTS RADICS "Flash Gordon Meets Luke Skywalker"

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

VARIATIONS, LES Nador / Take It Or Leave It (Magic) 2cd 18.98
Last list we featured Docdail and Triangle, now here's more rare Francais Metal de Proto for y'all, this time from Les Variations! That's right, another French band from the late '60s/early '70s playing an unexpected blend of hard rockin' proto-metal, psychedelic freakiness, Moorish exotica, and groovy pop. This double disc set includes Variations' first two albums -- Nador (1970) and Take It Or Leave It (1973) -- plus 13 bonus tracks.
Nador is the primary reason to get this, as Take It Or Leave It more-or-less lives up to its title. But Nador is a seriously smokin' album, with the exception perhaps of one cheesy commercial pop tune and a detour into oldies rock n' roll territory (the Jerry Lee Lewis piano-pounding of "Mississippi Woman"). At its best though, which is most of the time, Nador is the high-energy, heavy-duty French answer to the likes of Led Zep, the Rolling Stones, and the MC5! Zut alors! Pounding stormers like "Generations" and "What A Mess Again" are gonna please anyone into long-haired, bell-bottomed riff-rock. Meanwhile, Variations mix it up with segues into mysterious Moroccan hippie-raga, as on the acoustic instrumental title track. Basically imagine Leaf Hound with some North African ancestry. We've read that Nador was the heaviest album from a French band ever when it was originally released, and we believe it.
The bonus tracks following Nador are also equally badass, with lots of wild psych guitar and headbangin' rhythm action goin' on. "Come Along" sounds pretty much *exactly* like something by local San Francisco retro-stoner power trio Genghis Khan, actually. There's also the excellent psych-pop ballad "Down The Road" as well.
Disc two's Take It Or Leave It certainly rocks and rolls too, but starts to suffer from some of the fashion faux pas the '70s were known for, shall we say. Way too much honky tonk piano this time around, and overproduced arrangements. The psych side of things is long gone. But it has got its moments though. And several of the bonus tracks found on this disc most definitely live up to the killer standards of disc one ("I Was Down" and "The Jam Factory" ferinstance). So while Nador's great by itself, we're happy to have these two discs worth of Variations! Vive la Francais Metal de Proto!!
MPEG Stream: "What A Mess Again"
MPEG Stream: "Waiting For The Pope"
MPEG Stream: "Love Me"
MPEG Stream: "The Jam Factory"

WHEN Trippy Happy (Voices Music) cd 15.98
Hopefully we've already turned you on to the wonders of When, the sample-happy, electronics-enabled psych pop project of Norway's Lars Pedersen. If not, you've got some other reviews to read on our website, look 'em up! Please do! Because this new album, as with its immediate predecessors, are must haves for anyone into the more eccentric side of Beatles-influenced stuff, like Olivia Tremor Control and the Dreamies. This is super sunshiney pop with an experimental twist, or make that twistedness.
We've been into When for years and years, way back to the late '80s when When made dark prog soundscapes (beloved of Nordic black metallers). But starting with all-time AQ fave album The Lobster Boys in 2001, or maybe even a bit before that, When went all colorful and catchy and kaleidoscopic, keeping the darkness in a subconscious reserve to psychologically augment the poppiness with its opposite -- the dreaminess always has nightmare lurking at its edges... And so as we expected, Trippy Happy is all about totally brilliantly crafted surreal symphonic sound collages, with Beatlesy vocals and music box melodies, pleasant guitar strum and mysterious textures, weirdness and melancholia... and so much genius POP that we don't understand why When isn't huge. Well, When's big around here anyway!!
MPEG Stream: "Life Is Shit, Sometimes It's Beautiful"
MPEG Stream: "This Town Eats People"
MPEG Stream: "Butterflies"

WRAITHS Plaguebearer (Paradigms) cd 12.98
The second of two new releases from the Uk's amazing Paradigms label (who in the past have brought us records by Titan, Hjarnidaudi, The Angelic Process, Throne Of Katarsis, Amber Asylum, Woburn House and more), the first, the moody dramatic post rock smolder of Seattle's Snowdrift, reviewed elsewhere on this list, and this here slab of bleak black brutality, Plaguebearer by Wraiths.
Paradigms began as a sort of metal / drone label, having dipped into decidedly less heavy musical waters lately with the psychfolk of Plants, the post rock pummel of Woburn House, the ambient classical of Hallvardur Asgeirsson, and the aforementioned Snowdrift.
So for those of you who have played your Angelic Process and Hjarnidaudi and Utlagr and Throne of Katarsis discs to death, we bring you salvation, in the form of Wraiths. This has very little in common with any of the above mentioned bands, other that it is dark, heavy, noisy and strangely pretty.
Five tracks clocking in at nearly an hour, Wraiths are some sort of black ambient outfit, unfurling epic swaths of grinding crumbling distortion, thick sheets of squealing feedback, long stretches of cavernous rumble and all bleak black stops in between. Imagine some strange mash up, equal parts Wolf Eyes, Merzbow, MZ412 and Birchville Cat Motel. But all tucked within a spiky, black and brooding carapace.
An expansive drift through bleak landscapes of dubbed out rhythms, and shimmering industrial whir, black swells beneath, grey swirls above, often building to full on cacophonous noise-psych freakouts. Murky worlds of drone and distortion, smeared into soothing and serene drones. Haunting vocals and anguished howls drifting way down in the mix. Full on wall of keening sound, high end harmonies of corrosive downtuned buzz and ear splitting upper register skree, harsh and heavy but completely mesmerizing in that crumbling wasteland, edge of the black abyss, doom drenched blackened ur-drone sort of way. Killer stuff.
Unlike most of the Paradigms releases, which come in cardboard sleeves wrapped in hand stamped, brown paper, this disc is in a white DVD case, with black and white printed insert (like the Hallvardur Asgeirsson) and LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Plaguebearer"
MPEG Stream: "Bone-Flutes And Skull-Drums"

ZODIACS Gone (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98
The Zodiacs unleash sweeping storms of feedback-filled, blown-out, freeform psych-guitar rawk on their debut album Gone, as if they're out to prove that this sort of thing (extreme, deviant Crazy Horse worship?) isn't the exclusive province of Japanese heavies like Up-Tight, LSD-march and Fushitsusha. And prove it they do on these four long, drugged-out tracks of guitars-pressed-to-amplifiers orgiastic volume dealing. Great late night listening that will definitely wake the neighbors. Don't worry, they'll be too scared to complain.
This power trio -- stage names Zodiac Speedcreep, Ezekiel Blackouts III, and Grim Jim Gypsy -- are apparently members of such hippy-folk-drone outfits as Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Wooden Wand, and Hush Arbours. Here though they cranking it up, letting the cosmic Hawkwind howl loud and long through their instruments, burying their blues based jamming under a holy mountain of distortion and pounding cymbal crashes. Speaking of Holy Mountain, it's no wonder the Zodiacs are on that label, also home to Residual Echoes and the David Redford Triad amongst likeminded others.
They've got a sixties motorcycle gang concept going on here, image-wise, and we'd imagine they're even more inspired by the sound of their hogs' engines roaring than they are by biker bands of the era like Blue Cheer...
MPEG Stream: "Born Free"
MPEG Stream: "Road Star Blues"

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6MAJIK9 Loquidiom (Ruralfaune) cd-r 10.98
Here's another band who have released about a million limited cd-r's, but this is the very first one we've managed to get for the store. Australian outfit 6Majik9, sound to us like they could be from Finland. We hear lots of Avarus and Anaksimandros, Uton, but we also hear some Dead C, and more importantly a bunch of stuff we're not sure we've actually heard before.
Short tracks, each a stumbling abstract free jam, sometimes noisy and intense, other times blissy and blown out. Brief bursts of wheezing clattery folk drenched in angular detuned guitar jut up against wild free jazz space rock freakouts, complete with FX drenched guitar squalls, wild octopoidal drumming and mumbled caveman vocals. Wild tribal free for all's peppered with skronky horns and distant clatter morph into ultra minimal found soundscapes, laced with bits of barely there percussion, and distant simple strummed melodies. Elsewhere, these guys unfurl huge murky expanses of drone-y whir, draped over dark piano figures and simple jazzy horns, or create dizzying demented almost cartoon music from processed vocals, pounded piano and swirls of dense effects.
The sounds are all over the place on first listen, but there is some skewed thread of sonic logic that runs through this whole disc, and while it might not be obvious what it is, or how it actually makes these disparate sounds all work together, it does. And we like it. A lot.
Packaged in a red textured sleeve with a fancy printed insert, tied to the sleeve with twine, and containing a bit of tree bark and a very fragrant pod of some sort. An easy way to make your AQ package smell like potpourri...
LIMITED TO 93 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "3"
MPEG Stream: "4"

FIRST COSMOSIS ARTCHESTRA ON VLUBALAND, THE Cokmok (Ruralfaune) cd-r 10.98
There's nothing we love quite as much as discovering a new weird band we had never heard of, and then discovering that the band in question is in fact a side project of yet -another- weird band we hadn't heard of either.
Such is the case with The First Cosmosis Artchestra On Vlubaland (quite a mouthful!) who happen to be an offshoot of the much more simply monickered Vluba.
Not sure what Vluba are all about but we are definitely digging the strange sounds of TFCAOV. The first track ("Cok") is a super abstract soundscape, a sort of free noise drift, lots of high end, feedback, cymbal sizzle, strange whistles and distant squeals, but underpinned by strange simple insistent rhythms, peppered with muted thumps and random blasts of crunch and shimmer. Like a more unhinged, less static Sunroof! or Hototogisu. Or like if someone took a super dense Dead C track and pulled it a part and stretched it out until it was almost transparent.
The second track ("Mok") is an ultra minimal soundscape of mostly percussion. Rattles and shakers, bits of clanging metal, little squalls of manic hand drumming, what sounds like various objects being rolled along other objects, very chaotic but subtle and with a certain elegance, a kitchen sink percussion jam transformed into a strangely meditative rhythmscape. Really cool.
Packaged in a very cryptic color sleeve, with a printed insert, a gorgeous transparent leaf and sealed with a bit of green string tied in a knot.
LIMITED TO 77 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "Cok"
MPEG Stream: "Mok"

TAIGA REMAINS The Nothing And Nowhere (Ruralfaune) cd-r 10.98
Brand new disc from AQ faves Taiga Remains, the solo guitar project of Students Of Decay label head honcho Alex Cobb. We've been digging the Ribbon Of Dust series of 3" cd-r's since we first got them a while back and have been anxiously awaiting more of TR's gorgeous ambient guitarscapes.
The Nothing And Nowhere is just that, a 40 minute expanse of the sound of nothing and nowhere. Almost. With just an electric guitar and some effect pedals, Cobb transforms his axe into some sort of drone producing dream machine, unfurling wispy, vapor trails of abstract melody, of glistening midnight shimmer, long drawn out tendrils of sound that seem to be on the verge of dissipating and disappearing completely.
Like Spacemen 3 with all the rock sucked out, leaving just a ghostly trace of that buzzing raga like guitar, let loose to drift foglike over moonlit landscapes. Or Loren Connors, playing at the bottom of a well, the sounds just barely making it to the surface, and by then, more soft shadows of the sound than the actual sound itself. Dreamlike, delicate and so completely captivating.
Packaged in a full color sleeve with a printed insert and sealed shut with an actual TWIG!!
LIMITED TO 95 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

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

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!!! (CHIK CHIK CHIK) Myth Takes (Warp) cd 14.98
!!!'s latest makes us want to dj (or at least attend) a sweaty summer dance party so bad it hurts. Emulating the underlying mood of such parties, Myth Takes delivers without moderation. Drummer Gerard Fuchs provides a rapid heartbeat for the record by employing the open/closed hi-hat repetition you remember most from old 70's funk classics. Manic vocals that wax abrasive and wane falsetto paired with slap bass, clattering and hypnotic guitars, synths, and a whole lotta effects easily make Myth Takes the dance party record of the year. Accepting that college kegger dance-offs may merely be a not-so-distant memory for some of us, the Brooklyn based band's groove pounding third (full length) release has also proven to come in handy for ass-shakin' apartment cleaning and Aquarius order packing! Established !!! fans will certainly not be disappointed with Myth takes, and the Brooklyn based eight-piece is sure to recruit some new sweatband-rockin' blood with sex drenched hits like "Must Be The Moon."
MPEG Stream: "Myth Takes"
MPEG Stream: "Must Be The Moon"

!!! (CHIK CHIK CHIK) Myth Takes (Warp) lp 20.00
!!!'s latest makes us want to dj (or at least attend) a sweaty summer dance party so bad it hurts. Emulating the underlying mood of such parties, Myth Takes delivers without moderation. Drummer Gerard Fuchs provides a rapid heartbeat for the record by employing the open/closed hi-hat repetition you remember most from old 70's funk classics. Manic vocals that wax abrasive and wane falsetto paired with slap bass, clattering and hypnotic guitars, synths, and a whole lotta effects easily make Myth Takes the dance party record of the year. Accepting that college kegger dance-offs may merely be a not-so-distant memory for some of us, the Brooklyn based band's groove pounding third (full length) release has also proven to come in handy for ass-shakin' apartment cleaning and Aquarius order packing! Established !!! fans will certainly not be disappointed with Myth takes, and the Brooklyn based eight-piece is sure to recruit some new sweatband-rockin' blood with sex drenched hits like "Must Be The Moon."
MPEG Stream: "Myth Takes"
MPEG Stream: "Must Be The Moon"

+ / - (PLUS / MINUS) Let's Build A Fire (Absolutely Kosher) cd 13.98
Let's Build A Fire is the kind of record you unfortunately don't hear much about these days. Not enough bells and whistle's perhaps. What makes the Brooklyn based trio so great is sort of subtle. Well played beautiful guitar riffs that blend perfectly with the gorgeously pitched soft vocals. Complicated, but not flashy drumming. Talented friends playing and harmonizing on a single track not for the novelty of a pedal steel or cello, but to complete the vision of a well rounded gentle pop song. Let's Build A Fire is reminiscent of a very definitive time in the history of indie music that had us glued to our headphones listening to the likes of Yo La Tengo, Superchunk, and Polvo (to name a few). It's the kind of album we definitely don't hear enough about these days.
MPEG Stream: "One Day You'll Be There"
MPEG Stream: "Leap Year"

120 DAYS s/t (Vice) cd 13.98
Of course black metal and soft pop aren't the only cool sounds coming outta Norway these days, but who'd guess there'd be something with such a German bent to it. 120 Days are the Norwegians of whom we speak. Four hip young fellows wearing the sizable influences of kraut rock geniuses (CAN, Neu!, Kraftwerk) and raw angsty post-punk terrors (Suicide and The Stooges) proudly on their sleeves. They take those lessons they've learned studying their masters' classic recordings and project 'em through a modern rock sheen and the result is strangely mesmerizing. Flitting from motorik jam to angular new wave and back again, often in the same song. Long blown out synthscapes and distant robotic pulses butted up against crazed dancefloor throb and jagged guitars... You can almost imagine some exclusive seventies German nightclub, tucked in the basement of some abandoned building, where every week, a crowd of tight panted angular haircutted, garishly make-upped kids meet up with a bunch of long haired space rock burnouts, and stay up all night harmoniously dancing, getting high, making out and drifting off, all to the strains of 120 Days...
MPEG Stream: "Be Mine"
MPEG Stream: "Sleepwalking"

AIR Pocket Symphony (Astralwerks) cd 17.98
While it's been over three years since Air's last record that doesn't mean they've been sitting around doing nothing. In fact just in the last year they made all the music for Charlotte Gainsbourg's great new record 5:55, curated one of the best Late Night Tales compilations, and one half of Air, J.B. Dunckel released his first solo record under the moniker Darkel. But yes like many of you, we've still been getting antsy for a proper new Air record. And here we have it and we have to say it does not disappoint. Pocket Symphony is Air at their moodiest, creating an impeccable atmosphere that flows perfectly from start to finish. There are some guest vocals appearances from Jarvis Cocker (Pulp fans rejoice!) and Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) but truly the strength of Pocket Symphony comes in the instrumentation and overall mood that only the guys in Air seem to be able to conjure up. In many ways this is their most somber recording since their score for The Virgin Suicides. A perfect come down record.
MPEG Stream: "Space Maker"
MPEG Stream: "One Hell Of A Party"
MPEG Stream: "Photograph"

ANAGRAM Lights Went Up (Scenery) cd 12.98
Ohhhh so dreamy! Here's the sophomore album from Anagram aka Mr. Eric Holland (formerly of AQ faves Milk Cult) and Ms Jessica Congdon (formerly of Vervein). Anagram splendidly marry the strengths of their old bands; the textured, atmospheric layers of the former and the pop prettiness of the latter. The follow-up to 2005's Songs From Far Away features a baker's dozen of the Bay Area duo's lushly composed pop songs. Swirling effected guitars and heavenly sweetheart vocals take centerstage amid an assortment of mood-deepening electronic and synthesizer embellishments. They strike an ear pleasing balance of shoe-gazin' and star-gazin' that alternately brings to mind The Cranberries, Lush, The Breeders and The Organ. Actually many tunes struck us as being remarkably feature film and tv soundtrack ready, and wouldn't you know it? Anagram's already had a bunch of songs featured in movies, tv and radio programs. There's guests a-plenty too: Faith No More's Bill Gould, Mike Morasky of Steel Pole Bathtub, The Enablers' Joe Goldring, and Nathan Petty of Rogue Wave among others. Keep your ears peeled!
MPEG Stream: "Everything I Have"
MPEG Stream: "If I Was A Scientist"

APENEST Volume 1 (Apenest) book 14.98
Art books can be pretty hit or miss. Especially indie underground art books, zines, etc... Which run the risk of being a little too insular, self indulgent, whatever the art version of friend rock is... Granted there are lots of exceptions, but we're sure we don't need to tell you that there is as much bad art as there is bad music. But by the same token, there's just as much good art, you just gotta know where to look. We don't often list books, especially art books, but once in a while, our ass is so kicked by one we feel compelled to share it with everybody. The latest ass kicker is the strangely titled Apenest. A 100+ page perfect bound tome, featuring 23 artists from the North East United States... Not a single artist we had heard of, but almost all of them amazing. The art is all over the map, from photos, to pencil drawings, collages, elaborate oil paintings, bizarre squiggles, abstract, lifelike, pretty, ugly, all fantastic.
The concept behind the book is pretty remarkable as well. It's incredibly difficult for artists to have a book of their work published, so for Apenest, each artist contributed an original piece of artwork, which were all assembled into a single portfolio and sold to a private collector. The money was then used to pay for the book. Simple. And now we all get to see some totally kick ass, and off the beaten path art.
Some of our favorites: James Quigley's grotesque cartoon monster drawings, Cody Hoyt's gorgeous and scary snake/rainbow/skull assemblages, Brandon Nastanski's mysterious numbered and patterned figures, Anabel Vasquez's super abstract color drenched photos, we could go on and on. Gorgeously laid out, and lovingly assembled, bits of text interspersed with the artwork, almost all of which is totally great. And so cheap! You spend so much time catering to the whims of your ears, it's high time your eyes got some serious love! Essential.
116 pages, perfect bound book, comes in a zip lock bag with stickers, an 11" x 17" offset poster and a hand silk-screened bandanna!
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES.

ATOM TM Son Of A Glitch (Rather Interesting) cd 21.00
Regardless of which alter ego he's embodying at the time (Senor Coconut, Datacide, Midisport, Lisa Carbon, Disk Orchestra, etc.), virtually all of Uwe Schmidt's releases have some obvious, fully realized concept behind them. Knowing that, it makes his latest Atom TM album a somewhat befuddling listen. Son Of A Glitch squishes together a seemingly random assortment of distinctly Schmidt-y IDM glitch-squidge, sample-delic outbursts and dialogue snippets. Really, we could be missing something, but it seems like his most unfocused work to date -- sounding like a grab bag of recordings of him just messing around in the studio. Still, if this is Uwe Schmidt just fuckin' around, it's still miles more entertaining and well executed than a lot of releases by his contemporaries.
MPEG Stream: "MP3"
MPEG Stream: "Being Human Boring"

BIRD, ANDREW Armchair Apocrypha (Fat Possum) cd 14.98
We're guessin' that with his latest full length, Andrew Bird's already rapt followers will become even more so... and be joined by a whole bunch of new fans too. If you're already familiar with this unassuming, sensitive singer/songwriter, Armchair Apocrypha needs no introduction. It's a terrific progression from his last album Mysterious Production Of Eggs (2005). On songs like "Armchairs", Bird recalls the soft rock mellowness of '70s bands like Bread or America. On other tunes such as "Cataracts" he's more folksy leaning, bringing to mind contemporaries M. Ward, Will Oldham, or Ron Sexsmith. He closes the album with a haunting instrumental. Charming, pretty and never heavy-handed.
MPEG Stream: "Armchairs"
MPEG Stream: "Cataracts"

BLACK COBRA Bestial (At A Loss) lp 13.98
Finally available on vinyl!!
What might one expect from a Black Cobra, one part sludge metal crushers Cavity and one part doom sludge slayers 16? How about two parts massive fucking metallic destruction. A pummeling two man chain gang, pounding sonic boom drumming and rumbling low slung downtuned guitar chug and churn and a whole lot of yelling, Black Cobra are like a WAY more metal Karp, and hell, Karp were pretty dang metal to begin with. A thick gooey paste of noise and sludge as heavy as, if not heavier than, these two guy's former groups combined, but there's ONLY TWO OF 'EM!!! How in the hell do two guys make such an unholy racket??! Who cares! This is some glorious heaviness. 16, Cavity, Dove, Torche, Floor, you get the drift. Heavy and drone-y and groovy and sludgy and so goddamn heavy. We often wonder why heavy two piece bands always choose to ditch the bass player when it's ALL about the low end, but fear not, there is no lack of bass here, hell, the guitar is tuned low enough that it might as well be a bass!!
This is the shit we love. Massive feedback and utter heaviness. Big fat riffs. Lots of "chunka chunka" "chug chug". Huge ride cymbal smashing caveman-behind-the-kit power drumming. DOOM! NOISE! DIRGE! SLUDGE! HELL YEAH!!
MPEG Stream: "One Nine"
MPEG Stream: "Thrown From Great Heights"

BRIGHT EYES Four Winds (Saddle Creek) 12" 12.98
With this generous six-song ep, Conor Oberst dangles a little samplin' of what's to come on his next Bright Eyes album! The title track will reappear on the full length due out in April (with guest stars Gillian Welch and M. Ward among others), but the other five songs are dandy exclusive 'B-sides'! Not ones to scrimp on their label's crown jewel, Saddle Creek has pressed these records on primo 180 gram vinyl!

CYANN & BEN Sweet Beliefs (Ever) cd 24.00
Parisian quartet Cyann & Ben continue their delicate steps through the shadows and glints of sunlight along dewy earthen paths. This music is transportive, shimmering with hushed guitar picking and whispery distant vocals; all embraced by blankets of drone. It's sort of the aural equivalent of being in a half-sleep state while gazing at the sky through draped layers of gauze. Visions shift and melt. It's at once intimate, grand and spacious. So dark yet so blissful. The album progresses at a slow creep, but as it does so, tensions mount with increasingly insistent electric guitar squalls. A stormy peak is reached at the seventh song "Let It Play" at which point all is stripped down to just voice and piano for the next song "Somewhere In The Light Of Time". If you dug Spring and Happy Like An Autumn Tree, this will delight you to no end. Fans of Low, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Mogwai, what are you waiting for? Wonderful!
MPEG Stream: "Words"
MPEG Stream: "Sunny Morning"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Beliefs"

DO MAKE SAY THINK You, You're A History In Rust (Constellation) cd 14.98
Over the years Toronto's Do Make Say Think have become one of the few ensembles able to step out of the shadow of their connection to Godspeed You Black Emperor and make a strong name for themselves in the world of intricate and dynamic instrumental post-rock. Their last few records have shown the band refining their sound, becoming a bit more pop orientated yet not losing their ability to create goosebump inducing moments in their songs. Their latest doesn't veer much from their fine formula, but folks might be surprised to find vocals on a few tracks and we have to say those songs would have been just fine without them. But for the most part all the elements that have made Do Make Say Think one of our favorites from the Constellation family are all still here and shining bright.
MPEG Stream: "The Universe"
MPEG Stream: "Herstory Of Glory"

DO MAKE SAY THINK You, You're A History In Rust (Constellation) lp 17.98
Over the years Toronto's Do Make Say Think have become one of the few ensembles able to step out of the shadow of their connection to Godspeed You Black Emperor and make a strong name for themselves in the world of intricate and dynamic instrumental post-rock. Their last few records have shown the band refining their sound, becoming a bit more pop orientated yet not losing their ability to create goosebump inducing moments in their songs. Their latest doesn't veer much from their fine formula, but folks might be surprised to find vocals on a few tracks and we have to say those songs would have been just fine without them. But for the most part all the elements that have made Do Make Say Think one of our favorites from the Constellation family are all still here and shining bright.
MPEG Stream: "The Universe"
MPEG Stream: "Herstory Of Glory"

EYE s/t (CMR) cd-r + lathe cut 7" 16.98
We won't go into too much detail with these as we only got a tiny handful of each. Latest batch of ultra limited lathe cuts from New Zealand label CMR. Each one packaged in a super striking, simple cardstock jacket, most with printed inner sleeves, Limited to 60 copies, of which we got the remaining stock. Once these are gone, they are gone forever.
We had never heard Eye before, but they seem to be the new outfit of NZ underground luminary Peter Stapleton (Flies Inside The Sun, Sleep, A Handful Of Dust) and no surprise, fans of any of his past work will for sure dig this.
The 7" is a crumbling soundscape of shortwave interference, wavering tones, constantly shifting drones, all very sea sick and dizzy sounding, bits of whispery static, all swaddled in a thick buzz, with lots of strange effects, and what sounds like the hiss and whisper of an army of ghosts that builds and builds to a fever pitch.
The flipside is more of an old school NZ freerock jam, all tribal rhythms under a swirling sea of fuzz and distortion and bits of skree. Layer after layer of constantly shifting grit and grime, propulsive and blown out, but still sort of shimmery and almost ambient.
This lathe cut comes with a cd-r, which contains a single 38 minute track, more glorious abstract soundscaping, bits of rhythms here and there, lots of buzz and hiss, strange disembodied melodies, lo-fi and constantly shifting and drifting, eventually building into a seriously heavy fuzzed out jam, complete with strange horns and bursts of random musical snippets. Cool.

FUTURIANS, THE Spock Ritual (Invisible Spies) cd 11.98
The last we heard from NZ sludgy noise rock outfit the Futurians was a long out of print cd-r released on Jewelled Antler offshoot label Pink Skulls waaaay back in 2003. We were pretty into it, a sort of monotone garage rock trudge, simple plodding drums, blown out fuzz guitar, vocals way way way down in the mix, bits of synth squiggle, a sort of Stooges, Chrome, Fall, Brainbombs chunk of lo-fi noise rock dirge.
Well, here we are almost 4 years later, and the Futurians' primitive stomp sounds as good as ever. In fact, it sounds way better than we remember it.
Simple and stripped down, Each track an endless looping riff, swathed in grungy guitar grrrr and tons of reverb, synths in there too it sounds like, but if anything, their sound got more blown out, more primitive, more skeletal, and somehow more filthy and fuzzy. And who can argue with that?
Like a caveman Dead C, these noiseniks, pound out a relentless slow motion krautrock groove, a simple riff ground forcibly into your skull, drums that don't so much swing as thud, over the top drift shards of damaged electronics, swooping alien synths, extra guitar noise. The vocals are usually lost in the skree and buzz, but occasionally, the vocals take center stage with frontwoman Beth Duckling howling and crooning, her voice drenched in effects, the vocals another layer in the Futurians dense barrage.
In addition to Beth, the Futurians also features a who's who of NZ underground rockers, Clayton Noone (Armpit, CJA), Stefan Neville (Pumice) and Antony Milton (PseudoArcana head honcho)
Limited to 300 copies, each hand numbered, packaged in a cool black and silver screened cardstock sleeve, with a color photo affixed to the inside...
MPEG Stream: "Battles"
MPEG Stream: "Own Your Science"
MPEG Stream: "Pure Green Blood"

HAZELWOOD, LEE Cake Or Death (Ever) cd 16.98
The man with the give 'em hell attitude towards life takes the same approach towards death on what is widely reported to be his farewell record. Suffering from renal cancer, and getting his affairs in order, Hazelwood, the gravelly-voiced singer and producer of some of the most exciting and weirdest country-tinged pop, refuses to wax poetic about his inevitable fate. Full of rollicking new numbers, some duets with non-famous friends, and a couple of visits back to his two best known hits with Nancy Sinatra, "Boots" (featuring Duane Eddy on guitar) and "Some Velvet Morning" (with counter vocals sung by Lee's granddaughter, Phaedra, who thought the song was about her), this is not the kind of record that Hazelwood's fans would have ultimately wanted which would have him harkening back to his late sixties heavy reverb sound, or the sad lonesome burn of songs like "My Autumn's Done Come" recently featured on Air's Late Night Tales compilation. Instead this is a cheerfully black-humored ode to a man who has defined everything on no one else's terms but his own, remaining every bit of a nutter all the way to the very end.
MPEG Stream: "The First Song of The Day"
MPEG Stream: "Anthem"
MPEG Stream: "Boots (Original Melody)"

HOMETOWN FEILDING Clouds Across The Bay (CMR) lathe cut 7" 13.98
We won't go into too much detail with these as we only got a tiny handful of each. Latest batch of ultra limited lathe cuts from New Zealand label CMR. Each one packaged in a super striking, simple cardstock jacket, most with printed inner sleeves, Limited to 60 copies, of which we got the remaining stock. Once these are gone, they are gone forever.
Hometown Feilding (yep, that is the correct spelling) is yet another NZ ensemble we had never heard until now but are digging quite a bit, their sound a crumbling abstract world of fuzz and crackle, haunting alien melodies, strange bits of fragmented rhythms and chunks of melody, almost like some old wax cylinder recording, all the music buried under layers of grit and crackle, weirdly and nosily pretty. Definitely essential listening for the hiss and crackle turntable crowd...

KNIVES OV RESISTANCE Prisca Sapientia (Aurora Borealis) cd 14.98
Latest release from the UK's Aurora Borealis label, responsible for the KTL double lp elsewhere on this list, as well as records from Moss, Ginnungagap, Wolfmangler, Guapo, the Grails, even Crebain!
Knives Ov Resistance are a European ensemble who weave dense soundscapes of blissed out ambience and abstract guitar shimmer, Channeling the spirit of Popol Vuh, Spacemen 3, Godspeed, Jackie O Motherfucker, and other like minded sonic explorationists.
A lush blend of field recordings, glistening guitars, rumbling drones, warbling turntables, all woven into drifting sun dappled sonic tapestries of sound. An ambient post rock drift, that flits and flutters amidst the sounds of children laughing, the lush din of the forest, chittering birds, the sound of leaves and water, a dense and thick backdrop, rife with turntabled fragments of sound, bits of opera, soaring strings, muted squiggles, slowed down ambience, warm whirs, mixed in with simple percussion, everything smeared into fuzzy blurs, all beneath an abstract summery folk, that glimmers and drifts, gradually changing shape and color, texture and timbre. Epic and expansive, yet subtle and simple. Some sort of abstract avant ambient folk perhaps... really really nice.
Fans of the above mentioned bands will definitely dig this, as well as fans of new weird America, modern free folk, and all things Jewelled Antler.
Packaged in a thick vinyl pouch, housed in a cool textured paper sleeve that folds out into a poster.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 1"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 2"

LOW Drums And Guns (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
After Low's 2005 album The Great Destroyer surprised the heck out of us with a startling yet splendid shift in direction into more pop song structuring, we were all curious as to where they'd go next. Well, everyone's favorite slowcore band has drifted halfway back to their former selves. We're a little disappointed to find that there aren't any of the comparatively upbeat yet dark pop numbers that populated their last album. Drums And Guns definitely maintains a consistent somber pace, but they've brought in other new elements in the form of drum machines and sampled loops. It makes their music equally lulling and hypnotic via different channels. That said, some of the gritty dissonance of The Great Destroyer does still linger. Subject matter dips heavily into a dark undercurrent of menace and violence -- glints and glimpses of guns, hatchets, poison, murderers. Need we say? Recommended.
For a limited time, while supplies last, when you buy a cd or an lp, you get a bonus 7"!!
MPEG Stream: "Pretty People"
MPEG Stream: "Belarus"
MPEG Stream: "Take Your Time"

LOW Drums And Guns (Sub Pop) lp 14.98
After Low's 2005 album The Great Destroyer surprised the heck out of us with a startling yet splendid shift in direction into more pop song structuring, we were all curious as to where they'd go next. Well, everyone's favorite slowcore band has drifted halfway back to their former selves. We're a little disappointed to find that there aren't any of the comparatively upbeat yet dark pop numbers that populated their last album. Drums And Guns definitely maintains a consistent somber pace, but they've brought in other new elements in the form of drum machines and sampled loops. It makes their music equally lulling and hypnotic via different channels. That said, some of the gritty dissonance of The Great Destroyer does still linger. Subject matter dips heavily into a dark undercurrent of menace and violence -- glints and glimpses of guns, hatchets, poison, murderers. Need we say? Recommended.
For a limited time, while supplies last, when you buy a cd or an lp, you get a bonus 7"!!
MPEG Stream: "Pretty People"
MPEG Stream: "Belarus"
MPEG Stream: "Take Your Time"

MORTUALIA s/t (Northern Sky Productions / Greivantee) cd 8.98
Ultra grim and frosty, gloriously plodding midtempo black metal from Finland, dirgey and completely hypnotic. featuring at least one member of the mighty Horna. This is ultra simple, dense and buzzing, with riffs that are more like static streaks of black buzz, the drums a caveman thud. Most of the tracks here break or come close to breaking the 15 minute mark, and most have no more than two parts, sometimes just one, usually a simple buzz, sometimes a haunting minor key melody, but always drenched in distortion, and always completely mesmerizing and dronelike. These sound like songs that have been playing forever, and will continue to play forever, and we've just stumbled across them, observing them briefly before moving on, leaving Mortualia to buzz and drone into the ether. But it's not just the riffing and the hypnotic plod, the vocals are utterly insane. Not Bethlehem insane, or even Silencer insane, they are much more feral and mewling, the closest we've come to capturing the sound of Mortualia is Burzum meets Oxbow!! An anguished, tortured shriek, equal parts demon, wild animal, and possessed child, draped over an endlessly blown out blackened droning riffscape. So good.
MPEG Stream: "The Blue Silence"
MPEG Stream: "In Bleak Loneliness"

MOSS Cthonic Rites (Aurora Borealis) cd 14.98
An all time doooooom favorite finally back in print and back in stock. Now with revised and expanded artwork, including new text from Seldon Hunt.
Abject, miserable, mournful, agonized, anguished, tortured and tormented ultra mega doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom! That's right. We've officially reached an all time high in o's (40 in case you were counting), and an all time loooooow in DOOM. Every time we hear from these crushing creeps they've pushed it even further into the deep dark damnable depths, forcing us to add more and more o's. That's right, it's the return of Moss, the UK's heaviest, slowest, sludgiest slow motion downtuned doom metal behemoth. Moss take the paint peeling acidic abrasiveness of Khanate and combine it with the warm suffocating murk of bands like Skepticism or Thergothon, or even AQ faves Nadja (who did a split with Moss a while back). Ultra minimal and nearly static in its sludginess, with the simple caveman plod of the drums the only thing keeping this from turning into a full on drone, this is like one HUGE riff, pulled and stretched into two epic streaks of fuzz and pound, with vocals that might even give Alan Dubin from Khanate a bit of a fright, like a demon howling through a mouthful of broken glass and rusty bottlecaps, teeth black with the blood of a thousand vanquished souls, the sound that finally comes out is a noxious black cloud that causes everything it touches to wither and die, totally blown out and so harsh it makes our throats sore just listening to it.
But like the best sludge / doom, there is some sort of subtle melodic undercurrent going on, maybe it's deliberate and these guys are on some whole other musical level or maybe it's just some chance occurrence, some strange alignment of overtones or some lucky bit of abstract composition, it hardly matters, the end result is somehow both hauntingly beautiful and horrifically harsh, there's definitely some dark beauty hidden beneath Moss' black sludge exterior, but the joy of music like this is the fact that the music's beauty is buried and bruised, battered and brutalized, the sonic search for the beauty within is like wading waist deep through boiling hot pitch, ears plugged with hot tar, all the while being showered from above by the tears of angels.
MPEG Stream: "Crypts Of Somnambulance (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "The Gate (excerpt)"

MUGSTAR Bethany Heart Star / Bilkas Crib (Trensmat) 7" 7.98
Brand new 7" from UK space rockers Mugstar, who pack some serious spaced out psychedelia into these two short sides.
The A side begins with a weird drone-y chant-like whir, along with some tribal drumming and distant guitar plinks, gradually building and building, the minimal vocals transforming into some serious howling, when suddenly everything drops out, leaving just the drums and some super processed guitar strum, very rhythmic and strangely spacy, eventually the rest of the band kicks back in and locks into a cyclical angular groove, looping and repetitive, a furious grinding riff over the relentless drumming. Epic and exhausting.
The flipside is way more synth heavy, some weird sort of post punk noise rock, almost kind of mathy, a bit like a supercharged, way more metallic Stereolab, which intensifies until it explodes into wild psychedelic squalls of acid fried synths and freaked out guitarnoise.
Packaged in a fold over full color sleeve, with a 45 sized hole and one of those old school yellow turntable adapters already in the hole!

NURSE WITH WOUND Rock 'N' Roll Station (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2lp 33.00
Now available on vinyl!!
Slowly. Very slowly, the entire Nurse With Wound back catalogue is getting the reissue treatment; and in the absurdist spirit of Nurse With Wound, there appears to be no rhyme or reason to the order in which these titles are making an appearance. Originally, Rock 'N' Roll Station appeared back in 1994, as an homage to one of Steven Stapleton's heroes Jac Berrocal, the French avant-jazz musician with a occasional taste for obtuse pop. The title track on this Nurse With Wound album is in fact a cover of Berrocal's most well known song, although by now, more people probably know of the song through Stapleton's remake rather than the other way around. Similar to the way that Stapleton / Thirlwell reconstructed Brainticket's lysergic funk and how Stapleton remade Robert Ashely's Automatic Writing, the NWW version of Rock 'N' Roll station is pretty faithful to the original, even if the original was pretty weird to begin with. There's a steady metronomic pulse (which Beta-Lactam have qualified as 'proto-hip-hop,' c'mon... it's a drum machine replicating the same drum pattern that Berrocal scripted back in the '70s) grounding warbled tones and Stapleton's repeating monologue about the infinite possibilities to be found within a Rock 'N' Roll Station, even if he is still "waiting for Michael." All of the other tracks on Rock 'N' Roll Station are essentially variations on the theme of the title track with a similarly laid-back rhythm acting as a foundation upon which Stapleton splatters the stereo field with distorted squigglings, gurgling vocalizations, looping snippets from Perez Prado's mambos, fingernails on the chalk board scrapes, and ghastly drones extracted from the ether. The pronounced use of rhythm on Rock 'N' Roll Station has rubbed some of the die-hard NWW fans the wrong way, but when has Nurse With Wound ever been easy to digest, even when it just might be one of the grooviest and most ecstatic albums he's ever produced? Oh yeah, there's a 'bonus' track (the "1.35 pm Remix") on this version of Rock 'N' Roll Station which was originally released as part of the Second Pirate Sessions of reworkings of the material from Rock 'N' Roll Station. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Rock'n'Roll Station"
MPEG Stream: "2 Golden Microphones"

NVH/BEN CHASNY ....Plays The Book Of Revelations (Yik Yak) lp 21.00
We're not sure who NVH are, but what have they done with Ben Chasney?! A while back we had a super limited cassette release from Six Organs Of Admittance's Ben Chasny and the mysterious NVH, with the same title oddly enough. Needless to say, we sold out of those tapes and left loads of people wanting, and while this lp only release has the same title, it is NOT the same music. One song from the tape is duplicated here, but other than that this is all new music.
So what's this whole Chasny / NVH thing about anyway, well, you won't find any dreamy folky prettiness here. This lp is all about the noise. The noise a guitar and god knows what else can conjure up. This is some serious noiserock. Heck, there's no rock to speak of, this is just good ol' noise. But not really -just- noise, there's a whole lot going on. It's just all wrapped in some of the most corrosive seriously damaged skree we've heard in ages. Guitars careen everywhere, huge walls of crumbling distortion tumble onto blown out riffs, FX drenched squiggles are everywhere, angular melodies are twisted and tangled into psychedelic squalls, riffs are pulled apart into squealing keening roaring parts and hurled separately into the mix bouncing wildly off each other. Here and there the blown out rumbles coalesce into thick buzzing drones, and pretty melodies drift in and out, but are quickly overpowered. Imagine locking Keiji Haino and Kawabata Makoto in a a tiny room, armed with nothing but guitars, distortion pedals and a wall of amps each, dueling to the death, the results recorded and played back through a bank of busted effects. Wild and weird. And pretty fucking awesome. But definitely another one for the iron eared...
Packaged in a super elaborate fold out sleeve, all black, with black printing, black inner sleeve, and the outer jacket unfolds into a massive (upside down?) crucifix!!
Super limited too, so don't snooze on this one....

PANDA BEAR Bro's (Fat Cat) 12" 8.98
Animal Collective's Panda Bear has been releasing an amazing string of singles and splits in anticipation of his new solo album, and this newest single, Bro's, is the best yet.
An extended dose of Phil Spectorish wall of sound, Brill Building beats, layered and shifting vocal harmonies and a hint of Jim "Witchi Tai" Pepper's Native American jazz pop reverie. The B-side is a subdued remix by Terrestrial Tones that complements the single nicely!

PIOLARD, BENOIT Fir (Type) 7" 6.98
Latest in the super limited Type Records 7" series, that in the past has featured Goldmund, Machinefabriek and Paavoharju, which should give you an idea of the sound you can expect. Warm, glistening, shimmering, blissed out, sun dappled, These two tracks from Benoit Pioulard are all of those things, but unlike those other bands, Pioulard is a singer, and these two tracks are heavy on the vocals. He's got a lovely voice, deep and dramatic, not unlike Stephin Merritt, in fact these sort of sound like a more electronic Magnetic Fields. Acoustic guitars drift over electronic glitchery, bits of skitter here and there, but at its heart, some pretty pop music. Think Postal Service, Figurine, B. Fleischmann, Momus, Magnetic Fields, but filtered through the dusty lens of M83's fuzzy bliss. So nice.

POLYPHONIC SPREE, THE Wait (Good) cd ep 6.98
Here's a little teaser while we wait (see the clever title) for the next Polyphonic Spree album. Two new songs which will be on the forthcoming full length, and three covers of The Psychedelic Furs, Nirvana and front man Tim Delaughter's old band Tripping Daisy. Bright eyed pop for the white robe brigade.
MPEG Stream: "Mental Cabaret"
MPEG Stream: "Lithium"

PROSCRIPTOR Thoth Music(k) (Tarot Productions) 7" 6.50
As much as it hurts us to say, it might just be time to give up on hoping for a new Absu record. That bizarre Texan horde is responsible for some of our favorite weirdo black metal ever. But it's been years since we've heard from them, collectively that is. We recently reviewed an electro record from Absu guitarist Equitant. Not metal electro, but real, squelchy, house-y electro. Cool stuff, but nothing we ever imagined hearing from any of the Absu guys, no matter how weird they were. So here we have the latest recording from Absu drummer Proscriptor, who in the past has dabbled in some serious weirdness outside of Absu, with a handful of strange ambient recordings, but this, this is so far out we thought at first we must have put on the wrong record. But as with most things Absu it didn't take long for us to become completely and utterly smitten.
Packaged in a mysterious silver sleeve, with bits of strange numerology and symbology, including an appropriately black metal Proscriptor logo with bat wings and candles and flames. So side one begins with tinkling new age chimes, very tranquil and serene, when suddenly very intense male female vocals, harmonizing, singing of the 4 Horseman, very haunting, almost cheesy, when the band kicks into a fill on rock jam, BIG drums, crunchy guitars, throbbing bass, heavy riffing, wild guitar solos... and then back to the weird dramatic vocals. It doesn't sound so much like metal as it does some sort of bombastic musical. Over the top with a through-the-roof WTF factor. But after a few listens, we sort of WANTED it to actually be a musical, we could imagine some sort of Bat Out Of Hell super stage show, with Proscriptor and his lady battling the Four Horsemen. So it was on to side 2 and if we thought it couldn't get any weirder, well, we were WRONG! Groovy almost Southern rock, but with harsh black metal vocals and bizarre female back up vocals, the whole thing sounding like a metallized Rocky Horror Picture Show. Some impossible mix of Venom and ZZ Top and... wait a minute, we suddenly recognize the song, the cover says it's called "Epod No Sknup Etihw", but it sounds, suspiciously like... THE TUBES. Holy shit! It's a cover of the Tubes "White Punks On Dope"! Again, WHAT THE FUCK?!? Sure, it's amazing, demented, tweaked, bizarre, but this is the drummer from Absu!!! Who would have thought?!?! Only makes us love him more. And for some reason we can't stop listening to either of these tracks...
Cool packaging, metallic silver jacket, printed inner sleeve, and pressed on the THICKEST white vinyl ever!!!

PUMICE s/t (CMR) lathe cut 7" 13.98
We won't go into too much detail with these as we only got a tiny handful of each. Latest batch of ultra limited lathe cuts from New Zealand label CMR. Each one packaged in a super striking, simple cardstock jacket, most with printed inner sleeves, Limited to 60 copies, of which we got the remaining stock. Once these are gone, they are gone forever.
Two brief blasts from AQ fave Pumice, aka Stephan Neville. One side delicate and ephemeral, gorgeous disembodied guitar melodies, drifting in a wide open field of static and distortion, drifty and spacy and so lovely. The other side clattery free noise jam, with junkyard percussion, atonal melodic buzz, bits of low end growl, everything angular and abstract, stumbling and chaotic and strangely catchy.

QUETZOLCOATL / CHANGELING Split (Arbor) cassette 5.98
Another way too limited missive from mysterious Irish drone outfit Quetzolcoatl, this time in the form of a split cassette, with the until now unknown to us outfit Changeling. This ridiculously limited hand painted tape begins with AQ faves Quetzolcoatl, featuring member(s) of another AQ fave Bonecloud, who explore a gorgeously muddy and murky soundworld, long drawn out drifts of grimy gritty sound. Warm and muted, dark sonic swirls, plenty of hiss and fuzz and delay and reverb, with bits of percussion, vocals, keening feedback, all drifting and swirling way below the surface, a roiling miasma of thick sound. Dark and ominous and tribal, dense squalls of distorted guitar drift overhead like storm clouds. It almost sounds like that weird ambient opening to Kiss' "God Of Thunder" but slowed way down and dubbed on to some old thrift store tape. Taj Mahal Travellers is a name that always comes up when we're talking about these guys, and with good reason, while that legendary Japanese ensemble employed a wildly different approach to sound making, the actual sounds themselves are quite similar. The expansiveness, the epic quality, but Quetzolcoatl get a bit more aggressive, the guitars and drums buried beneath thick layers of buzz and grit. The flipside features Changeling, and if anything, they sound like they could well feature some of the same members, cuz the sound is slightly similar, but where Quetzolcoatl are dark and aggressive, intense and murky, Changeling are blisssful and dreamy, dark layers of sound, hiss and fuzz, rumble and whir, but here sculpted into delicate waves, and subtle swells, a little bit dark, but glowing with some sort of mysterious warmth, glistening sounds rich and resplendent woven into soft focus drifts of moody murk. Like rays of the sun through a dirty window. So nice.
Dronemusic is always tough to describe, especially trying to explain or even understand what exactly it is that makes one group so much more compelling than another. Maybe that something isn't meant to be described, some ineffable quality that is in the music, and can't be pulled out and examined, or understood. That's sort of the vibe we get from both these groups. There is a magical mystical quality to the music they make, a sound, or even something outside of the sound (or inside) that connects on some primal level. Something to let wash over you, to fill up your ears, to carry you off, something almost physical, something organic and pure, not something that can be understood or explained. So good.
Hand painted cassette tape housed in a hand painted cloth bag, with a printed insert. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, we got a bunch, but they'll be gone in no time...

RAGAB, SALAH AND THE CAIRO JAZZ BAND ...Present Egyptian Jazz (Art Yard) cd 23.00
Wow! What an artifact. Here's some Egyptian jazz from the late 60's-early 70's courtesy of of the man who founded the first jazz big band in Egypt and later accompanied Sun Ra on tour in Egypt, Greece, France and Spain. We're pretty sure you must be damn curious by now, so we should tell you that beyond those enticing facts this is some seriously fine jazz played by a band made up of some of the best musicians in Egypt during that era. Five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass, drums and percussion all coming together to form a super rich and tasty sound. Incorporating Middle Eastern melodies and mystique into its sound, this is the kind of jazz that's pretty impossible not to fall for. Like the best instrumental Ethiopiques tracks, Sun Ra's big-band era and Randy Weston's multicultural approach to hard bop. Incredibly pleasing!
MPEG Stream: "Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Oriental Mood"

RAMESES III Matanuska (Music Fellowship) cd 15.98
First proper actual cd full length from this blissy UK free folk crew, after a clutch of (now out of print) cd-r's and a collaborative disc with the North Sea. Matanuska begins as a gloriously blissful late afternoon, sunshiney slab of fuzzy, buzzy, muted pop ambience, sparkling and glimmering, there are guitars, but they aren't plucked or strummed so much as spread like a thick glaze over the speakers. Within this gorgeous sun dappled soundfield, are tangled up bits of found sounds, distant ringing bells, rumbling thunder, as well as subtle layers of drone and shimmer adding mystery and depth to each track.
The rest of the record however is not so sunshiney, the mood is much more dark and shadowy, lit by moonlight, rumbles and whirs swirled into lush late night crawls, acoustic guitars draped over slow serene swells of sound, the buzz of steel strings muted and drawn out into simple shimmering ragas, the vibe is definitely sorrowful, melancholy, with minor key melodies drifting through intricate webs of abstract Appalachia, wheezing layered drones spread out like a late afternoon fog, amidst chirping birds and distant bits of conversation, a slowly shifting bit of minimal dreamdrone that brightens subtly as it works its way though the disc.
The record finishes up with the sun peeking out from behind the clouds, like that glorious first day of Spring, the birds once again singing, the shimmering sounds soaking up the sunlight, a drifting drone, warm and glowing, a hopeful dreamy sound that blossoms like a flower after a rainstorm, the hushed buzz growing fuzzier and fuzzier, almost like a fading memory. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "Before The Rains Fall (For Ed Cooke)"
MPEG Stream: "The Great Campaigner"

RJD2 The Third Hand (XL) cd 13.98
DJ RJD2 sampled his way to notoriety with 2002's Dead Ringer and garnered comparisons to Moby and DJ Shadow with his subsequent release Since We Last Spoke. Now it seems he's put all of that behind him in a display of versatility with the very different The Third Hand. The samples and synths that gained the aforementioned praise are present in his current work, but are much more subdued, perhaps to not overshadow another first for the artist - his own vocals. The album slips smoothly from electro pop to electro funk/hop on it's most noteworthy tracks "Beyond" and "Sweet Piece." The promo for this record boldly declares the works to be "genre transcending." We're not so sure the album transcends as much as gently combines and modernizes what we love most about particularly notable genres (Brian Wilson and Stevie Wonder are also mentioned in the promo), but still pretty dang cool.
MPEG Stream: "Beyond"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Piece"

RJD2 The Third Hand (XL) 2lp 15.98
DJ RJD2 sampled his way to notoriety with 2002's Dead Ringer and garnered comparisons to Moby and DJ Shadow with his subsequent release Since We Last Spoke. Now it seems he's put all of that behind him in a display of versatility with the very different The Third Hand. The samples and synths that gained the aforementioned praise are present in his current work, but are much more subdued, perhaps to not overshadow another first for the artist - his own vocals. The album slips smoothly from electro pop to electro funk/hop on it's most noteworthy tracks "Beyond" and "Sweet Piece." The promo for this record boldly declares the works to be "genre transcending." We're not so sure the album transcends as much as gently combines and modernizes what we love most about particularly notable genres (Brian Wilson and Stevie Wonder are also mentioned in the promo), but still pretty dang cool.
MPEG Stream: "Beyond"
MPEG Stream: "Sweet Piece"

SACRED STEEL Hammer Of Destruction (Massacre) cd 17.98
Gotta mention the latest from these German wargods of metal. Speedy, yelpy metal in the '80s Metal Blade tradition that is. Some of us here are big fans of this metal for metal's sake band, in part 'cause of the love 'em or hate 'em vocals of lead warbler (it says here "communicative siren channel", actually) Gerrit Mutz, who (as we've said before) sounds like what we'd think Jello Biafra would if he decided to front a power metal band. Gerrit puts his all into his dramatic vox, which range from high-pitched shrieks to melodic crooning to deathly growls. Meanwhile, the other members of Sacred Steel crank out the fist-pumping tuneage, their ragin' retro riffage totally catchy and exciting and utterly without any pretense or sense of irony.
Sacred Steel are all about madness, metal, Satan, speed, slaughter -- sophisticated stuff like that. So we'd suggest that more "mature" folks, cool kids, and of course poseurs should stay far away! If you're a true metalhead though (particularly one who already digs Mutz' vox) this album is a headbanging delight, taking at least one doomy detour with the slowly chugging, grandiosity of the track "The Black Church". Oh, and there's a computer-playable videoclip included for the track "Maniacs Of Speed".
MPEG Stream: "Where Demons Dare To Tread"
MPEG Stream: "Impaled By Metal"

SCI HI Lab Recordings (CMR) cd-r + lathe cut 7" 16.98
We won't go into too much detail with these as we only got a tiny handful of each. Latest batch of ultra limited lathe cuts from New Zealand label CMR. Each one packaged in a super striking, simple cardstock jacket, most with printed inner sleeves, Limited to 60 copies, of which we got the remaining stock. Once these are gone, they are gone forever.
Sci Hi is another NZ outfit we had never heard of, but we are really digging this. Exclusively upper register exploration, a trilling squeaking keening world of video game sounds and simulated bird calls, dense clouds of high end flutter, reverb and delay wrapped around bursts of beeps and tiny squiggles of sound. Distorted and convoluted, tangled and confusional, but still kinda nice to listen to. This lathe cut 7" comes with a full length cd-r containing 10 tracks, another 40+ minute excursion into Sci Hi's strange high end soundworld.

SHIT AND SHINE Ladybird (Latitudes 0:01V) (Southern) lp 15.98
One of our favorite in Southern's Latitudes series, available on super duper limited vinyl!!!! We got 30 copies and will never be able to get more. So jump on these quick...
Full on, over the top, freaked out psychedelic, drum drenched guitarnoise from this massive UK ensemble Shit And Shine, a a gore soaked, bloody nosed, sweat stained sonic knee to the groin. Multiple drummers, lots of guitars, a toy keyboard and one mighty riff. Think prime era Butthole Surfers, add some Stooges stomp and some Hawkwind spaciness, an unstoppable wall of crushing churning psychedelic crunch, thick sludgy basslines, fuzzy filthy guitars, grunted shouted vocals, all in a druggy swirl of effects, random noises and full on brain frying weirdness. A glorious forty minute pummeling.
Comes packaged in a cool diecut sleeve, a variation on the immediately recognizable Latitudes cd packaging, although this time, white on black instead of white on brown. Includes the same insert as the cd. Pressed on bright red vinyl. And of course, SUPER SUPER LIMITED!!!
MPEG Stream: "Ladybird (Excerpt)"

SIGNAL TO NOISE MAGAZINE Spring 2007 Issue #45 magazine 4.95
Latest issue from this amazing modern music magazine, giving the Wire a serious run for their money! This time around Jarboe's on the cover, obscured by trees, while inside: Arbouretum, Harris Wulfson, Blood Brothers, guitarist Peter Walker, jam band The Slip, vocalist Lauren Newton, saxophonist Jean Derome, tripped out poster artists Patrick and Amy Borezo, the Globe Unity Orchestra, composer Milton Babbitt, trombonist Steve Swell, Sean O'Hagen of the High Llamas and then an overwhelming array of reviews, insightful and well written, books, live performances, tons of cds, dvds lps and even mp3's, 7", 3"s and tapes, and finally a whole mess of reissues...

SNOWDRIFT s/t (Paradigms) cd 12.98
Lots of you are probably pretty obsessed by now with UK label Paradigms and pick up pretty much everything they release. Always interesting, gorgeously packaged, and Snowdrift is no exception.
Veering dramatically from their drone/metal direction, Paradigms surprised us a while back with the recent full length from Plants, a dark, psychfolk duo from Portland who reference everything from Comus to Incredible String Band to M83 to Charlemagne Palestine.
And now, Paradigms have dug up another dark treasure from the Northwest, this time from Seattle, Snowdrift are a dark brooding ensemble, who aren't nearly as far out as the rest of their labelmates. The label mentions Low and Mazzy Star and Amber Asylum and those are pretty good starting points. Imagine a moody shuffling post rock, with moaning cellos, shimmering guitars, sort of laid back and smoky, with occasional squalls of subtly blown out psych, but for the most part sort of drifting and slithering dreamily. The focal point is definitely the vocals, female, dark and throaty, a rich velvety croon, perfectly matched to the warm shimmery musical backdrops. And while the band does explore and experiment here and there, this is nothing so much as moody minor key mope rock. A sort of post rock slowcore pop... On a different label, one could definitely imagine these guys and gal on the radio, maybe even MTV, the dark moodiness just accessible enough for regular folks, but dreamy and dramatic enough to keep it interesting. The songs are fairly conventional, but they are often wrapped in decidedly unconventional layers, be it a thick swaths of shimmering strings, a fuzzy rumbling drone, some clattery abstract ambience. Cool stuff for sure. But might be a bit tame and middle of the road for the truly experimental among you. And if you were hoping for something a little more Hjarnidaudi or Angelic Process, then see elsewhere on this list for the other new Paradigms release from the decidedly more fucked Wraiths.
Limited to 750 copies, packaged in a colorful mini lp style sleeve wrapped in a hand stamped brown paper outer sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "September"
MPEG Stream: "Sleeping Man"
MPEG Stream: "Outlaw Engineers"

SWALLOW AND SWALLOWS s/t (Fogsnob) cd 9.98
You might recognize Mr. Dominic East as the lead vocalist for that fine Bay Area band Our Lady Of The Highway, but now please acquaint yourself with Swallow and Swallows. That's his solo indie folk songsmith alter ego and these are his personal home recordings circa 2004-2006. As we've mentioned with regards to OLOTH, East bears a striking resemblance to both Mountain Goats' John Darnielle and The Weakerthans' John K. Samson in not only his earnest vocal delivery, but also his songcraft and heart-baring lyrical intimacy. It's even more evident on this release as he keeps the arrangements to a minimum with spare and solitary guitar accompaniment. Whenever we've played this, someone invariably asks if it's a new (or long lost) Mountain Goats record. Now, we're by no means griping, but geez, these guys are virtually doppelgangers! Not a bad thing when it sounds this gooood!
MPEG Stream: "Of All The Ways"
MPEG Stream: "Firesign"

TOBIN, AMON Foley Room (Ninja Tune) cd+dvd 17.98
Always keeping things fresh, mysterious and yet unmistakably his own, AQ fave Amon Tobin has one-up'd himself again. Following his Chaos Theory excursion into the videogame soundtrack realm (for Splinter Cell 3), Tobin returns to our welcoming ears and eyes with the cd/dvd extravaganza Foley Room. With a samplin' palette drawn from found sounds and field recordings, the huge aural assaults he unleashes are at once imposingly dense and oh so intricately beautiful. Despite the different source material, sonically and stylistically this initially recalls the foreboding drum'n'bass electronic architecture of his early releases Bricolage and Permutations. However, at track 10 'Always" he shifts gears momentarily, kicking into a more hip hop inflected grooviness like that of his later works Supermodified and Out From Out Where. Fucking wizardly.
MPEG Stream: "Bloodstone"
MPEG Stream: "Always"

TRIGGER RENEGADE Destroy Your Mind (Black Top Fade Records) cd 8.98
From the same folks who brought us deliciously sleazy discs from Jet Fuel and Sinnerjizm, here's the debut album from LA's Trigger Renegade, a pretty potent heavy rockin' band in their own right. Trigger Renegade don't wander into the territories of kaleidoscopic psychedelia, bubblegum pop, or dusted glam metal, taking a much more workmanlike approach to the art of hard rockin'. The fist-pumping swagger from the grittiest elements of the NWOBHM is certainly where Trigger Renegade is drawing their inspiration; and Destroy Your Mind certainly succeeds in getting at sex, drugs (although beer and whiskey seem more appropriate) and of course rock 'n' roll. Musically, Trigger Renegade push forward a relentless backbeat of high-octane rhythms that might have a locomotive relentlessness complete with non-stop blastbeats on one track and then a blues-rock boogie on the next. On top of the rhythms, Trigger Renegade intertwine plenty of dynamic, twin guitar / Thin Lizzy-ish leads and alternating vocal styles between gravel throated barks and screeched falsettos ala Rob Halford. With plenty of nods to Cheap Trick, The Damned, Iron Maiden, and Witchfinder General, had Trigger Renegade been around some 25 years ago, they could have been huge.
MPEG Stream: "Damage"
MPEG Stream: "Robbin' Trains"

TRIGGER RENEGADE Destroy Your Mind (Black Top Fade Records) lp 9.98
From the same folks who brought us deliciously sleazy discs from Jet Fuel and Sinnerjizm, here's the debut album from LA's Trigger Renegade, a pretty potent heavy rockin' band in their own right. Trigger Renegade don't wander into the territories of kaleidoscopic psychedelia, bubblegum pop, or dusted glam metal, taking a much more workmanlike approach to the art of hard rockin'. The fist-pumping swagger from the grittiest elements of the NWOBHM is certainly where Trigger Renegade is drawing their inspiration; and Destroy Your Mind certainly succeeds in getting at sex, drugs (although beer and whiskey seem more appropriate) and of course rock 'n' roll. Musically, Trigger Renegade push forward a relentless backbeat of high-octane rhythms that might have a locomotive relentlessness complete with non-stop blastbeats on one track and then a blues-rock boogie on the next. On top of the rhythms, Trigger Renegade intertwine plenty of dynamic, twin guitar / Thin Lizzy-ish leads and alternating vocal styles between gravel throated barks and screeched falsettos ala Rob Halford. With plenty of nods to Cheap Trick, The Damned, Iron Maiden, and Witchfinder General, had Trigger Renegade been around some 25 years ago, they could have been huge.
MPEG Stream: "Damage"
MPEG Stream: "Robbin' Trains"

UNION TRADE, THE Now The Swell (Tricycle) cd ep 4.98
The Union Trade are a young Bay Area foursome who craft mostly instrumental atmospheric post-rock a la Codeine, Mogwai and Slint. Yes, the 'quiet-loud-quiet' dynamics live on in this band! Occasionally a bit mathy and a bit trippy with lots of effected, distorted electric guitar textures. When vocals come into the picture, they're hushed and quite resemble those of Lou Barlow. A promising debut.
MPEG Stream: "Strings Break"
MPEG Stream: "Violent And Beautiful"

VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS OST (Finders Keepers) lp 27.00
Now available on vinyl!
Well, that just does it, doesn't it?! In case their existing catalog, which includes reissues of Selda, Jean-Claude Vannier, Yamasuki Singers, Mustafa Ozkent and Bruno Spoerri, didn't already do it, the Finders Keepers label's decision to release the soundtrack of this awesome early '70s Czech New Wave film (one of Cup's faves) totally confirms that they rule... or at least confirms that they share our taste in music and movies!
Now, we all know that a soundtrack can be an integral, transformative power in a film, no question, but when one can stand alone sans visuals it takes on a whole 'nother life. Needless to say, we're not talking about those recent lazily compiled nostalgia-button pushing collections of familiar pop songs. Seventies films and their soundtracks were a breed all their own. Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders is a perfect example.
A mesmerizing motif-heavy procession of flutes, tinkling bells, harpsichord, organ, and vocal interludes, Lubos Fiser's soundtrack contributes to the establishment and intensification of the nightmare / dream atmospheres of Jaromil Jires' film. At once lulling and unsettling, recurring timorous prepubescent choral incantations are startled by ominous organ exclamations. On its own, the melange of the carnivalesque, music box-y and chamber drones totally captures a distinctly haunting, pixie-dusted delirium.
Sound good? If so, you need this now, and of course see the film as soon as possible (it was recently released on dvd)! Definitely for those who were spellbound by the soundtracks to The Wicker Man (the original movie and not the recent Nicholas Cage remake!) or Suspiria. Yes, three very different works, but all equally affecting. Absolutely recommended!
MPEG Stream: "The Magic Yard"
MPEG Stream: "Brother And Sister"
MPEG Stream: "In Flames"

VANISHING VOICE Stone Tablet (Important) cd 14.98
On their debut outing for Important, Vanishing Voice (sans Wooden Wand) give us another heaping spoonful of freaked out forest psyche madness. Composed of two tracks (with a mysteriously extra song title but no song), the first is the epic 40 minute title track (or it could be called "Peace Symbols", -we're very confused on the song listing), which takes on a long whirling vortex of clattering percussion (provided by Magik Marker's Pete Nolan) and damaged electronic passages before propelling momentously forward with a Krautrock-like acid jam. The second song (we think it's called "The Last Evil") begins with a twisted sing-a-long that reminds us of "On Top of Old Smokey" but perhaps sung by the mutant children from the recent remake of The Hills Have Eyes, before developing into further mutated lo-fi weirdness.
MPEG Stream: "Peace Symbols"
MPEG Stream: "Last Evil"

VANISHING VOICE Stone Tablet (Important) lp 16.98
On their debut outing for Important, Vanishing Voice (sans Wooden Wand) give us another heaping spoonful of freaked out forest psyche madness. Composed of two tracks (with a mysteriously extra song title but no song), the first is the epic 40 minute title track (or it could be called "Peace Symbols", -we're very confused on the song listing), which takes on a long whirling vortex of clattering percussion (provided by Magik Marker's Pete Nolan) and damaged electronic passages before propelling momentously forward with a Krautrock-like acid jam. The second song (we think it's called "The Last Evil") begins with a twisted sing-a-long that reminds us of "On Top of Old Smokey" but perhaps sung by the mutant children from the recent remake of The Hills Have Eyes, before developing into further mutated lo-fi weirdness.
MPEG Stream: "Peace Symbols"
MPEG Stream: "Last Evil"

VOCOKESH, THE All This And Hieronymus Bosch (Strange Attractors) cd 14.98
A new sssslow, drugggggy pssssych rrrrrock trrrip from The Vocokesh! From the grainy black and white cover photo of the band in their paisley shirts to each of the eleven heady instrumentals on All This And Hieronymus Bosch, The Vocokesh ooze old-school space rock psychedelia with ease. Descend into their thick smokey haze of heavily effected guitars that shimmer, drone and wail.
MPEG Stream: "Gazing At The Dust"
MPEG Stream: "Eddie's Freakout"

WHITE FLIGHT s/t (Range Life) cd 14.98
Heads up for White Flight! He might look a bit familiar to some who know mainman Justin Roelofs as the guitarist for The Anniversary, but he's doin' something quite different from the direct, peppy emo-pop of his other band. Still quite energetic and emotive, but this pop is more sprawling and slightly tweaked in a meandering Beck or Ween-ish fashion with vocals that fall in a similar yelpy range of Hidden Cameras, Wolf Parade and Arcade Fire. While maintaining a core of slouchy indie rock, Roelofs dabbles with shuffling hip hop beats and bleary psych-folk detours. This is an album brimming with often seemingly disjointed ideas -- some more fully realized than others, some we wish he'd elaborated on further. For those with short attention spans who dig cool aural fragments.
MPEG Stream: "Now"
MPEG Stream: "Galactic Seed"

WOLF EYES Black Wing Over The Sand (Kning Disk/iDEAL Recordings) lp 16.98
Not sure exactly what this is, tough to keep track of all the cd-r's and limited lps and everything, but it does appear to be a brand new full length, although it's vinyl only for now. Apparently one single track, spread out over two sides, Black Wing Over The Sand continues to display Wolf Eyes' developing musicality, while managing to not lose a single bit of brutality, which is quite a feat. This is another dark slab of beautiful malevolence, equal parts corrosive rumble and shimmery drone, creepy dark ambience and intense industrial clatter. Side one, the first movement, begins with grinding guitars, blown out streaks of spacy effects, huge synth swells and jagged bits of percussion, occasionally overwhelmed by massive waves of low end buzz that somehow manage to swallow everything else up. Near the end of side one, the record winds down into what could only be described as some sort of Wolf Eyes dub, lots and lots of space, a lurching non-rhythm spread waaaaay out, crashing crumbling bursts scattered throughout. Really cool. Wouldn't mind hearing a whole record of that...
The second side returns to more familiar Wolf Eyes territory, upping the buzz and the industrial clatter. still creeping along, everything wrapped in a black cloak of fuzz and rumble, but much more aggressive, intense, thicker, with layer after layer of constantly shifting sound. Intense, but still managing to be surprisingly musical and listenable.
LIMITED TO 900 COPIES. Vinyl only, packaged in a cool black and white sleeve with some strange animal torture woodcut on one side and a mysterious mountain on the other. Full color printed inner sleeve too. Really nice...

WOLFMANGLER Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves (Aurora Borealis) cd 13.98
Back in print and back in stock at a slightly cheaper price. But still just as warped and wonderful and weird as before...
The return of Wolfmangler, aka Smolken, who also just so happens to be the man behind Dead Raven Choir. Hot on the heels of a split with UK ultra doomlords Moss, Wolfmangler continue to explore the dark world of doom in their own truly peculiar manner. With bass, electric bass, drum, flute, trombone and bassoon (each band member is also credited with things like umber bulk, water nymph, floating eye, tengu, trapper and of course leprechaun) the Wolfmangler ensemble create a truly unique doom, woven together from wheezing woodwinds, throbbing low end, simple occasional drum beats and weird grumbled growly vocals. The result is not so much a massive doom sound as a creepy ancient court music, plodding and funereal. You can almost imagine some black clad procession trudging along the winding cobblestone streets within some walled fortress. Kerry though it sounded like punk rock slowed waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down.
Texturally it's unlike anything we've ever heard. The closest reference might be Skepticism, the way it sounded like their music is being heard through the floor or from a building next door. Wolfmangler's sound has a similar timbre, a bit like some high school marching band dipped in tar and forced to march through a desert of black sand, or maybe like holding a stylus in one hand, and a scratched up 45 of Fleetwood Mac's tusk in the other, and trying to manually play the record by dragging the needle along each groove. Warbly and dizzyingly warped, Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves is some sort of hellish circus music, the soundtrack to a Fellini film, showed one frame at a time, a New Orleans Funeral Jazz band 78 played at 16 rpm on an old dusty victrola. So gorgeously slow, so pretty and creepy and dreamily doomy.
MPEG Stream: "Dirge For A Viking Asshole"
MPEG Stream: "The Last Elegy"

XASTHUR Subliminal Genocide (Hydra Head) 2lp 28.00
Now available on vinyl. Ultra deluxe gatefold jackets, printed inner sleeves, new artwork, and super thick vinyl. And as with all these things, once these are gone we probably won't be able to get more...
What a long strange trip it's been for Malefic and Xasthur. What's even stranger it seems, is that he ended up finding a new home on the very hip indie label Hydra Head. Sure HH has released its share of dark heaviness, but black metal, especially of the ultra personal, cult and grim kind, is so concerned with staying true, and not selling out. So it's a bit of a coup that HH nabbed Xasthur. Especially after a whole mess of records on Moribund, Total Holocaust Blood Fire Death, Profound Lore and Southern Lord. There has apparently been a bit of a backlash in the true cult BM underground. But fuck 'em. Hydra Head is a killer label and Malefic probably just got tired of being screwed left and right. Plus, oh what a joy it is to watch the true grim warriors weep at the loss, their corpsepaint smearing in long grey streaks. But it really is their loss more than any one 'cuz damn if this isn't the best Xasthur record since Nocturnal Poisoning. And that's saying a whole lot considering how much we've loved pretty much everything he's ever done.
The thing With Nocturnal Poisoning is that it was this perfect mix of sorrowful melancholia and black buzz, the sound was murky and muddy and fuzzy, but above it, were delicate melodies, dreamlike minor key filigree over a bottomless black pit. It was that strange juxtaposition that made it so special. Take that pretty element away, and you're left with just another black disc of Burzum worship. It's a little like the oil paining on the cover. You could see the texture of the canvas and the individual brushstrokes beneath the art. And with the music, it was the same thing, you could see the various elements, feel their texture, see the thick grainy backdrop upon which Malefic placed all of his dreamlike melodies and murky anguished howls.
Every record after that contained similar elements, and amazing songs, but it seemed like the recordings got more brittle, lots of high end buzz, not so much of that glorious malefic murk.
Subliminal Genocide almost sounds like it was recorded right after Nocturnal Poisoning and shelved for the last few years. It's THAT heavy and dreamy and melancholy and murky and goddamn beautiful.
There's not a lot of black metal that you might consider truly beautiful, but the songs on Subliminal Genocide, aren't just blasting thrashing metal, they are gorgeous lilting laments, epic and majestic and minor key. Taken out of a black metal context, they'd sound like some sort of super emotional epic post rock, but as they are, buried under thick layers of blackened buzz and wrapped in huge swaths of fuzzy sonic fog, they become even darker and more desolate, lonely and mournful. Almost none of the record is faster than a loping midtempo, about half the tracks are slow motion dirges, downright doom, with the double kick coming in more as a thick black low end cloud than any sort of actual blast, and a handful of tracks are nothing but swirling whorls of sad black ambience.
And because of the fuzzy indistinct production, and the thick murky halo around every track, lots of Subliminal Genocide sounds like some bastardized black metal version of M83, or Tim Hecker, or a little like Jeck and Marclay spinning old scratched up Burzum lps slowed waaaaaay down.
This record is simultaneously so dark and depressed and utterly evil sounding, but also fuzzy and psychedelic and totally blissed out, it's sort of hard to imagine, especially listening to this right now, that there could ever possibly be a better combination.
MPEG Stream: "Prison Of Mirrors"
MPEG Stream: "Beauty Is Only Razor Deep"
MPEG Stream: "Trauma Will Always Linger"

XELA Bubble Hats In Summer (Type) 7" 6.98
Our first exposure to Xela, the musical outfit of Type label head honcho John Twells, was the most recent full length disc The Dead Sea, which took the sound of, well, The Dead C, and got it all tangled up with the blissy fuzz of the Gooom label, and the warm shimmer of Pop Ambient, all coalescing into some perfectly abstract dreamy off kilter pop flecked free noise. Buried amidst all of the other elements was some electronica skitter, but it was a tiny part of the bigger sound.
But as we've dug deeper into his past efforts, we've discovered, that Xela began as much more of an electronica / IDM sort of project. The recently reviewed reissue For Frosty Mornings And Summer Nights was heavy on the beats, carving out a sonic niche somewhere between his later more abstract sound and the warm sun dappled electronic shuffle of Boards Of Canada. And this two song 7" definitely falls within the same sonic parameters. One side is all record crackle over murky thumps, bits of strange industrial clatter, and deep almost house music like swells, but with a HUGE low end that rumbles your ribcage and wraps its thick tendrils around everything. There are some stuttery rhythms, some chopped vocals, bits of looped melody all swirled into the mix, the result sounding like a way more abstract Boards Of Canada. Which is definitely a good thing.
The flipside is even more reminiscent of the Boards, with muted melodies, epic string swells, and all sorts of skittery shuffling Autechre-y rhythms. All amidst layer after layer of warm thick sound, dense and blissed out. Melodic and dramatic and melancholy, dreamy and so so nice.
SUPER LIMITED. Packaged in a plain white sleeve.

XIU XIU VS. GROUPER Creepshow (Release The Bats) lp 15.98
Now available on vinyl!!
Limited to 525 copies, seemingly already out of print...
The beautifully damaged worlds of Xiu Xiu and Grouper are magically melded together on this limited edition ep. The trademark drugged out dreamy drones of Liz Harris aka Grouper perfectly compliment the mopey dark instrumentation of Xiu Xiu. Like their collaboration with Larsen last year, Xiu Xiu prove that besides their intense lyrics and over-the-top vocal delivery, they have a knack for creating a truly creepy and unsettling ambiance. Vocals and voices are just another element of the haunting mood these two effortlessly conjure up. Like the ghost sounds of a carnival that rode off into the sunset hundreds of years ago but whose imprint has never been totally erased. Together Xiu Xiu and Grouper weave sounds that occupy some perfect space between dreams and nightmares. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Sea"
MPEG Stream: "In Dreams"

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----* Compilations :
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V/A Bombay Connection Vol. 1, Funk From Bollywood Action Thrillers 1977-1984 (Bombay Connection) cd 16.98
We can never get enough of the colorful, zesty, infectious sounds of golden era Bollywood. Luckily we have two more outlets for our fix, as Bombay Connection has released two volumes of Bollywood hits that we've been groovin' to in the store for a few months now and finally have gotten enough to review and list. This is Volume 1 (2 to follow next list) and features tons of kick ass classic Bollywood funk from action thrillers spanning 1977-1984. You know what that means: incredible backbeats, suspense building bridges, and ultra saucy vocals. All the greats are here: R.D. Burman, Asha Bhosle, Kalyanji-Anandji, Sapam-Jagmohan, etc. So fun and so great!
MPEG Stream: R.D. BURMAN "Music"
MPEG Stream: GOVIND NARESH "Dance Music"
MPEG Stream: SAPAN JAGMOHAN & SALMA AGHA "Sote Sote Adhi Raat"

V/A Bombay Connection Vol. 1, Funk From Bollywood Action Thrillers 1977-1984 (Bombay Connection) 2lp 32.00
We can never get enough of the colorful, zesty, infectious sounds of golden era Bollywood. Luckily we have two more outlets for our fix, as Bombay Connection has released two volumes of Bollywood hits that we've been groovin' to in the store for a few months now and finally have gotten enough to review and list. This is Volume 1 (2 to follow next list) and features tons of kick ass classic Bollywood funk from action thrillers spanning 1977-1984. You know what that means: incredible backbeats, suspense building bridges, and ultra saucy vocals. All the greats are here: R.D. Burman, Asha Bhosle, Kalyanji-Anandji, Sapam-Jagmohan, etc. So fun and so great!
MPEG Stream: R.D. BURMAN "Music"
MPEG Stream: GOVIND NARESH "Dance Music"
MPEG Stream: SAPAN JAGMOHAN & SALMA AGHA "Sote Sote Adhi Raat"

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----* New DVD's :
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ANGER, KENNETH The Films Of Kenneth Anger, Volume One (Fantoma) dvd 22.00
Such a momentous occasion! Renegade American filmmaker and (oc)cult figure Kenneth Anger's early works have finally been released on dvd! Fans and disciples, you need squint through fuzzy faded VHS and 16mm copies no more. The five shorts were meticulously restored by the UCLA Film Archive, and the dvd features crisp, high definition transfers. Anger's films haven't looked this vivid in decades. Stunning! Works include Anger's debut Fireworks (a sailor fantasy / nightmare gay cinema classic from 1947); Puce Moment (a 1949 short which exudes the absolutely giddy glamour of early Hollywood); Rabbit Moon (a mesmerizing black and white dream from 1950) - the original 16-minute long version could easily be imagined as an alternate-universe mime scene from Marcel Carne's 1945 cinematic masterpiece Children Of Paradise; the mystical garden stroll of Eaux D'Artifice (1953); and last but not least Inauguration Of The Pleasure Dome (dripping with garish colors and bizarre bacchanalia, this film from 1954 was Anger's filmic launch point into the rites and mysticism of Aleister Crowley).
The dvd extras include extensive, frank commentary by Anger and rare outtakes from Rabbit's Moon. Indeed, Anger has long been known to go in and tweak his films years after their 'completion' -- changing music, re-editing scenes, adding, subtracting. Ardent, eagle-eyed fans will probably notice a few such cases on this dvd. And if that's not enough for you, there's also a big 48-page book filled with rare photos, stills, storyboard sketches, and an introduction penned by Martin Scorsese.

DEMOLITION DOLL RODS Let Yourself Go (Munster) dvd 21.00
Oooooooh aren't you a saucy one?! Trashy garage rawk fans, we know you're happy to see this come 'round the bend. The always scantily clad Demolition Doll Rods will rev yer Detroit psychobilly engines with this live dvd of the trio letting themselves go in Madrid last year! Whoa nelly, the front cover tells it all! Check out that package. Ahem, the only thing missing from the photo is all the sweat the gang pumps out while they're stompin' shoutin' and workin' it on out!

OSTROWSKI, ERIC Cyanonide (Jyrk) 3" dvd-r 7.98
Another in the Jyrk series of ultra limited 3" dvd-r's, this one from Eric Ostrowski, who is probably best known as half of the Portland violin / guitar duo Noggin, but who also works some eye popping magic with film, hand painting the individual frames of the film, with bright colors, striking patterns, dense textures, all morphing and changing shape and color in the blink of an eye, as the film runs at normal speed, and the painted frames, blur into kaleidoscopic swirls, almost like someone combined a microscope and a kaleidoscope, and filmed the tiniest inner workings of everyday objects. Three distinct movements, the first, a continuously morphing series of colors and patterns, almost like video feedback but organic, like the different inks were sentient and interacting with each other, the second is much more geometric and plays like a Mondrian come to life, the third, more blurred colors and shifting textures.
All to the sound of Ostrowski's abstract compositions, from whirling fields of pink noise, delicate squalls of hiss and static rife with buried melodies, sort of like a soft focus Merzbow, to strange tangled string sections, looped into hypnotic intertwined patterns, to the ominous atonal thrum and cacophony of what sounds like an orchestra tuning up.
Packaged in a mini 3" plastic DVD case, with full color artwork.
LIMITED TO 90 COPIES!!!! Already out of print, these are the last copies ever...

SABISTON, WILLIAM s/t (Jyrk) 3" dvd-r 7.98
Sabiston is an ex-member of Axolotl, and records under the name Ball Lightning, we had a totally kick ass cd-r from BL a while back. A mindblowingly inventive percussionist, Sabiston is also a pretty amazing video artist as well.
This ultra limited 3" dvd-r features three short films, each one in glorious super lo-res black and white, filmed using a Pixelvision camera, one of those failed toys that became a prized possession for those who could find 'em. The Pixelvision uses regular old cassette audio tapes to capture super lo-fi video, high contrast black and white, very creepy and beautiful and alien looking. It's like watching an ultrasound, weird shapes stutter and jump, lines move, static drifts and wiggles, sort of like video feedback, but even more simple and abstract. So gorgeous and haunting. Each film features original music from Sabiston, a swirling fuzzscape of sound, stuttery glitchy skitter flitting over deep rumbling bass thrum, while buried within are soft snippets of looped melody, everything occasionally blissing out into dubbed out pulses and cavernous low end throbs.
Packaged in a mini 3" plastic DVD case, with black and white artwork.
LIMITED TO 90 COPIES!!!! Already out of print, these are the last copies ever...

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----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed :
----*

If you want to order one of these, just search on the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart!

7000 DYING RATS "Season In Hell" (He Who Corrupts) cd 13.98
A.M. "Orla" (Ikuisuus) cd 15.98
ADULT "Why Bother?" (Thrill Jockey) cd/lp 15.98/13.98
AFFLICTED MAN "The Complete Recordings" (Senseless Whale) 2cd 22.00
ALVARS ORKESTER "Organic Woodtrip 1991-1992" (Kning Disk) cd 17.98
AMORT / THE COMFORT WIVES "Black Blood / Locusta" (Orobas) cassette 4.00
ARBOREA "Wayfaring Summer" (Summer Street) cd 11.98
ASH POOL "Genital Tomb" (Tour De Garde) cassette 5.98
ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "#1-7" (self released) MP3 cd-r 10.98
ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "#11" (self released) cd-r 10.98
ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB "#12" (self released) cd-r 10.98
AUGHRA & MOSH PATROL "Is There Anyone Else Outside?" (Magic Bullet) cd 12.98
AZRAEL "Act III: Self & Act IV: Goat" (Moribund) 2cd 14.98
BABY GRANDMOTHERS "s/t" (Subliminal Sounds) cd 16.98
BARK HAZE "s/t" (Important) lp 14.98
BARK HAZE, THE "Total Joke Era" (Important Records) cd 14.98
BARR, MICK / OCTIS "Iohargh Wended" (Tzadik) cd 16.98
BE PERSECUTED "I.I." (No Colours) cd 15.98
BEE GEES "Horizontal" (Reprise) cd 23.00
BEE GEES "Idea" (Reprise) 2cd 23.00
BLACK TO COMM "Wir Konnen Leider Nicht Etwas Mehr Zu Tun..." (Dekorder) 2lp 21.00
CASHMORE, MICHAEL "The Snow Abides" (Durtro Jnana) cd 12.98
CAVE, NICK & THE BAD SEEDS "The Abattoir Blues Tour" (Mute) 2cd+2dvd 33.00
CHECKER, CHUBBY "Goes Psychedelic" (Underground Masters) cd 21.00
CJA "Pink Metal" (PseudoArcana) 2cd-r 16.98
COLLEY, JOE & JASON LESCALLEET "Annihilate This Week" (Brombron) cd 15.98
DAVENPORT FAMILY "At The Foot Of Zodiac Mountain" (Meudiademorte) cassette 5.98
DENVER GENTLEMEN "Introducing" (Smooch) cd 10.98
DIAGNOSE: LEBENSGEFAHR "Transformalin" (Autopsy Kitchen) cd 14.98
EL-P "I'll Sleep When You're Dead" (Definitive Jux) cd/lp 16.98/16.98
ENSEPULCHERED "The Night Our Rituals Blackened The Stars" (Autopsy Kitchen) cd 13.98
FORTID "Voluspa Part II: The Arrival Of Fenris" (No Colours) cd 15.98
FRAZER, PAULA AND TARNATION "Now It's Time" (Birdman) cd 14.98
GHOSTING "Fox Glove" (Digitalis Industries) cd-r 7.98
GRIMFAUG "Defloration Of Life's Essence" (Eerie Art) cd 15.98
GURDJIEFF, G.I. & THOMAS DE HARTMAN "Oriental Suite" (Basta) 4cd+book 113.00
J DILLA "Ruff Draft" (Stones Throw) 2cd 17.98
JAZZFINGER "Ugly For A Living" (Gold Soundz) cd-r 9.98
JAZZFINGER / NUMBER NONE "Penny Dreadful / Lichfields" (Gold Soundz) cd-r 9.98
JENSEN SPORTAG "s/t" (Midisport) cd 12.98
JONES, GLENN "Against Which The Sea Continually Beats" (Strange Attractors Audio) cd 14.98
KUUPUU "Unilintu" (Dekorder) lp 16.98
LEO, TED AND THE PHARMACISTS "Living With The Living" (Touch And Go) cd+ep 14.98
LESBIAN "Power Hor" (Holy Mountain) cd 14.98
MINSK "The Ritual Fires Of Abandonment" (Relapse) cd 12.98
MOEBIUS "Tonspuren" (Captain Trip) cd 26.00
MOEBIUS / PLANK "Material" (Captain Trip) cd 26.00
MOEBIUS / PLANK "Rastakraut Pasta" (Captain Trip) cd 26.00
MOEBIUS / PLANK / NEUMEIER "Zero Set" (Captain Trip) cd 26.00
N.I.L. "s/t" (Battle Kommand) cd 14.98
NEGURA BUNGET "Inarborat Kosmos" (Code 666) cd 13.98
OTOMO, YOSHIHIDE "Multiple Otomo" (Asphodel) dvd+cd 16.98
QUETZOLCOATL "Vast Eternity Bridges" (Abandon Ship) cassette 5.00
RAMESES III "Honey Rose" (Important) cd 14.98
RWAKE "Voices Of Omens" (Relapse) cd 12.98
SHANKAR, ANANDA "A Musical Discovery Of India" (Cloud Forest Recordings) cd 17.98
SILMARIL "The Voyage Of Icarus" (Locust) cd 14.98
SWALLOW THE SUN "Hope" (Candlelight) cd 13.98
TIMES NEW VIKING "Present The Paisley Reich" (Siltbreeze) cd/lp 13.98/13.98
TOLL "Christ Knows" (Cold Spring) cd 15.98
TRANS AM "Sex Change" (Thrill Jockey) cd/lp 14.98/12.98
TROLLMANN AV ILDTOPPBERG "Tolling Beyond The Tombs Of Ancient Grimnity" (Monolith) cd-r 10.98
V/A "Babcotte, Sudbury And Eaton: The English School Of Funerary Origin" (The Guild Of Funerary Violinists) cd-r 10.98
V/A "Bombay Connection Vol. 2, Bouncin' Grooves From Bollywood Films 1959-1972" (Bombay Connection) cd/2lp 16.98/32.00
V/A "Cherrystones Word" (Tlon Uqbar) cd 10.98
V/A "D-I-Y: Do It Yourself" (Soul Jazz) cd/lp 21.00/24.00
VXPXCX "Reticent Manifest" (Abandon Ship) cassette 5.00
WARPIG "s/t" (Relapse) cd 14.98
WATERMANN, JOHN "Calcutta Gas Chamber" (Cold Spring) cd/pic lp 15.98/35.00
WIZARD PRISON "II" (Gravelvoice) cd 8.98
WOODEN SPOON "The Folk Blues Guitar Of...." (Bo'Weavil) cd 17.98
WUTHERING HEIGHTS "The Shadow Cabinet" (Sensory) 2cd 15.98
YOUNG, NEIL "Massey Hall 1971" (Reprise) cd + dvd 24.00

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ABOUT MAILORDER


Please place your order via our website.

[1] We will contact you to verify your order and let you know when it will be shipped. Please note that occasionally it may take a day or two for us to reply. We are not a faceless bunch of computers replying to your order -- we are human beings!

[2] If we are out of some of your items and we think we will get them within the same week, we can wait to ship. Or... If it's going to be more than a few days to complete your order, we will ship what we have and then will contact you as the remainders arrive.

[ note ] Due to the everchanging nature of the independent record business, we are not responsible for listed price changes (due to supplier price changes) and often cannot update our site fast enough to reflect these changes, but we will always try to let you know of any differences.


DOMESTIC SHIPPING :
--------------------------------
1-2 items $4.50 USPS Priority Mail
3+ items $6.50 UPS Ground

Further Explanation (Please Read!):
Within the USA, an order of 3 or more items will be shipped via UPS ground for a flat fee of $6.50. These packages are automatically insured and trackable.

However, if your package contains just 1 or 2 items, we will ship your order via USPS Priority Mail, and charge you $4.50 for shipping. These packages are NOT insured or trackable, sorry. So if you desire those safeguards, please request UPS delivery at the $6.50 rate. You must mention this in the comments field of our online order form.

Also, please note that UPS will not ship to PO Boxes. If you only have a PO Box, we can ship packages of 3+ items via US Postal Service and charge you by weight according to their rates. Special shipping needs (e.g. UPS Next Day) are also do-able, just ask.

Another important note: box sets DON'T (usually) count as one item. Sorry. A box set will generally bump you up into the "three or more items" category. Y'know, they're big. Boxes.


INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING :
-------------------------------- For foreign customers we ship via US AIRMAIL ("Letterpost"). Your price is based on the actual cost of shipping plus $1. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package, No Correspondence" category and see the price for "Letterpost". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)


We highly recommend insurance for your international package, but it is very expensive! You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package, No Correspondence" category and see the price for "Parcel Post". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)


INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE :
-------------------------------- You are hereby forewarned that Aquarius is not responsible if your international package gets lost in the mail. Insurance is your only recourse if your records never show up. Since the terrible events of 9/11, mail service has been slow and undependable... and while we haven't experienced any *confirmed* permanently lost mail, insurance might provide some additional piece of mind in this time of upheaval. We strongly recommend it. But yes, it is very expensive. It's your choice. Again: Aquarius is not responsible for lost mail, so if you aren't willing to take a (slight but real) risk, please buy the insurance.

International insurance is very expensive! In fact often the insurance costs more than the value of your package, in which case it obviously does not make sense to insure it. You can check the US Postal Service international rate calculator: http://ircalc.usps.gov/. (Use the "Package, No Correspondence" category and see the price for "Parcel Post", which is the way insured packages are sent. 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound.)

For example: for a one-pound package worth $18 going to England, shipping without insurance is about $8. But with insurance, the shipping / insurance total is over $16!

It is your reponsibility to check the international rate calculator in order to determine whether or not you want international insurance. If you tell us you want international insurance, we will add it to your order no matter how much it costs!


PAYMENT :
-------------------------------- Payment is via credit card: Visa, MC, Discover, and Amex. Money orders are accepted only from customers within the USA. If you must pay by money order, you have to confirm the order with us through email or phone BEFORE you send any payment. We cannot take personal checks for mailorder, sorry!


QUESTION?
-------------------------------- Email the mailorder department: mailorder@aquariusrecords.org

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SOME SELECTED UPCOMING RELEASES

----} March 20th
Low "Drums And Guns" cd/lp on Sub Pop
Ted Leo and The Pharmacists "Living With The Living" cd/2lp on Touch
and Go
Cyann & Ben "Sweet Beliefs" domestic cd on Astralwerks
The Decemberists "A Practical Handbook" dvd on Kill Rock Stars
The Locust "New Erections" cd on Anti
J Dilla "Ruff Draft" 2cd on Stones Throw
Adult. "Why Bother?" cd/lp on Thrill Jockey
Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid "Tongues" cd/lp on Domino
Swallow The Sun "Hope" cd on Candlelight
Ratatat "Loud Pipes" 12" on Matador
El-p "I'll Sleep When You're Dead" cd on Def Jux
Anne Briggs "Time Has Come" cd reissue on Water
Cibo Matto "Pom Pom: Essential Cibo Matto" cd on Rhino
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Abattoir Blues Tour" cd on Mute
Kevin Drumm "Sheer Hellish Miasma" cd reissue
LCD Soundsystem "Sound Of Silver" cd on Capitol
The Locust "New Erections" cd on Anti
RTX "Western Xterminator" cd on Drag City
Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound "Ekranoplan" cd on Tee Pee
Tinariwen "Aman Iman" cd

----} also soon
Kemialliset Ystavat "Alkuharka" LP version on Beta-Lactam Ring Records
Tomutonttu "s/t" LP n Beta-Lactam Ring Records
Big Business "Here Come The Waterworks" cd on Hydra Head
Kool Keith "Ultra-Octa-Doom" cd
Sonic Youth "The Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities" LP edition on Goofin'
Nadja "Touched" cd on Alien8
v/a "Eccentric Soul: Twinight's Lunar Rotation" 2cd on Numero
Ghostface Killah "Hidden Darts" cd
Zion I "Street Legends" cd

----} March 27th
Macy Gray "Big" cd on Geffen
Larsen "Musm II" cd on Important
Larsen & Friends "Abeceda" cd w/ dvd on Important
Merzbow "Merzbear" cd on Important
John Zorn "Six Litanies For Heliogablus" cd on Tzadik

----} also in March
Rakhim "Crimson Umbrella" cd on 20 Buck Spin

----} April 4th
Pole "Steingarten" cd/2lp on Scape
Throne Of Katharsis "An Eternal Dark Horizon" cd on Candlelight
Jarvis Cocker "Jarvis" cd on Rough Trade

----} April 10th
Blonde Redhead "23" cd/lp on Matador
Shearwater "Palo Santo: Expanded Edition" 2cd/2lp on Matador
Love Of Diagrams "Mosaic" cd/lp on Matador

----} April 17th
DHG (Dodheimsgard) "Supervillain Outcast" cd on Moonfog/The End

----} April 24th
Destroy All Monsters "Grow Live Monsters" DVD on MVD Visual
Seefeel "Quique (Redux Edition)" 2cd on Too Pure

----} also in April
Abruptum "Evil Genius" cd reissue on Southern Lord

----} May 1st
Dungen new album on Kemado

----} May 8th
Electrelane "No Shouts, No Calls" cd/lp on Too Pure
Lavender Diamond "Imagine Our Love" cd/lp on Matador

----} May 15th
Boris w/ Kurihara "Rainbow" domestic cd version on Drag City

----} June 28th
Striborg "Ghostwoodlands" cd on Displeased

----} also upcoming sooner (maybe real soon) or later (possibly much later)
Masayuki Takayangi "Independence - Tread On Sure Ground" cd on Tiliqua
Xasthur "Subliminal Genocide" 2lp on Hydra Head
Lustmord "Juggernaut" cd on Hydrahead
Inquisition "Nefarious Dismal Oration" cd on No Colours
Neurosis "Given To The Rising" cd on Neurot
Boris w/ Kurihara "Rainbow" LP version on Inoxia
Velvet Cacoon "Genevive" 2LP version
Velvet Cacoon "Northsuite" 2LP version
Earth "Hibernaculam" lp on Southern Lord
Asbestosdeath "Unclean/Dejection" cd/lp on Southern Lord
v/a "Portland" 3lp on RRR
v/a "Texas" 3lp on RRR
v/a "Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word 2" cd on Delay 68
Sonic Youth "Daydream Nation" 4lp reissue on Goofin'
Vibracathedral Orchestra "Thunderbold Wisdom" cd on VHF
Richard Youngs / Alex Neilson "Electric Lotus / Lotus Edition" cd on VHF

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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanLaurenAshleyPamJasonChristineIrwinMattScott and Sally