RUSTED SHUT Dead (Load) cd 15.98
What would you think if someone described a band to you, as sounding like a mix of Butthole Surfers, Black Flag, the Brainbombs and black metal? Want if they went on to describe the band's sound in more detail, and they came up with something like "thick oozing ultra distorted, totally chaotic, drone drenched, drugged out, noisy as fuck, weirdly hypnotic, punishing and pulverizing, scuzz drenched doomic plod"? Well your first thought, if you were anything like us, would be "could such a band actually exist?" It does sound too good to be true. Your next thought might be "well okay, if a band like that did exist, not only would they be scary as shit, they'd also probably be my favorite band EVER."
Thus we have Rusted Shut. Going on 20 years now, these Texan noisemakers have somehow only managed two proper records and a single or two, each one of those jammed to overflowing with the abovementioned thick oozing ultra distorted, totally chaotic, pulverizing scuzz drenched plod. When we reviewed their Hot Sex ep, we alluded to the fact that if said ep wasn't an ep, wasn't vinyl only, wasn't over a decade old, and wasn't WAY too fucked up for most normal ears, it would have not only been out Record Of The Week, but our Record Of The YEAR. Of our EVER! Well, it's as if whatever God enjoys inflicting sonic torture on his children heard our prayers and conjured up this festering bit of blackened noise punk brilliance from whatever pit these guys call home.
It's rare that a band 20+ years old makes a record on the tail end of 20 years even half as good as the record that started it all, but we're tempted to say, this just might be the heaviest, freakiest, most brutally brilliant thing we've heard from these guys so far. Which is indeed saying a whole hell of a lot.
The opener "Home", is 5 minutes of blown out punk-drone, the guitars unwinding in thick gnarled tangles, moaning and rumbling and howling, a dense undulating layered swell of roiling sonic filth, fragmented riffs, squiggly downtuned Greg Ginn-ish guitar scrabble, the drums skittery and abstract clouds of cymbal sizzle, bursts of free rock splatter, while over the top, some sort of harsh, whiskey soaked punk rock testifying, spouting all sorts of misanthropic misinformation, like a post punk noise rock gutter scum Whitehouse. The music grows more and more frantic, faster, more freaked out, the various streaks of sound coalescing into riffs, that blur into still more smears of sound, the song an exercise in droned out filth caked tension.
Then there's "Heart Of Hell", total old school punk rock, but filtered through a sort of washed out lo-fi Brainbombs dirginess, the main riff, total classic punk rock, but locked and looped, and played over and over and over and over, totally trancelike, the vocals just as sneeringly scowly as on the first track, but once they drop out, the song locks into a total droned out punked up krautrock groove, that sounds a bit like Circle covering the Brainbombs, albeit doused in crumbling distortion and blurred reverb and delay.
Then comes "Intellect", 15 minutes of total blown out garage dirge bliss, the sound so in the red, that every time a cymbal hits, it swallows up the rest of the sound, the vocals so loud it sounds like the singer grabbed you by the head and locked his lips around your ears, you can feel his hot hellish breath and the spray of spittle. But all the while the music underneath, grows more and more distorted and somehow more and more hypnotic, so damaged and fractured that it sounds like the song might crumble into pieces at any moment. But that's just the first few minutes. Soon the band switch gear and the bass EXPLODES, like suddenly while the band was playing, the bass player went out to his truck and got 3 or 4 more amps and just let fucking loose, low end overload, everything acid drenched and psychedelic, the sound of speakers frying, of headphones melting, the vocals garbled like speaking in tongues, the bass unleashing a sludgey doomy groove, the song an endless noise rock blown out druggy musical brawl that makes the Butthole Surfers at their fiercest sound practically tame.
This song more than anything here reminds us of our first live run in with these weirdos. At SXSW this year, they played an instore, everyone was waiting to see the Mayyors, but Rusted Shut were just destroying the place, super noisy and scuzzy and awesome, and they just NEVER STOPPED PLAYING. The homeless-looking singer/guitarist guy kept getting shocked by the mic, so eventually he simply walked outside, after leaning his guitar up against his amp... some punk dude in the audience then picked up the mic, and freestyled some "I hate SXSW" lyrics... when he was done and threw the mic down, it seemed like the drummer and bassist would wrap it up, but instead they kept on jamming... and jamming... and jammingŠ then the guitarist came back in after being outside for what felt like (and pretty much WAS) ages, picked up his guitar, and then it seemed like, OK, this must be the grande finale... but that was only the beginning!! They literally kept on playing for another half hour at least. After a while, most of the crowd had gone outside to wait for the Mayyors, driven away by the bands wall of harsh vibes and skull stomping crush, and someone even joked that they should shut the doors of the shop and lock Rusted Shut inside...
These guys are lifers, they're insane, a total mess, which is the only way a piece of glorious sonic filth like this could ever happen. This is not music made by nice guys slumming it, by punk rockers getting their hands dirty, no, this is the sound of old guys pissed and insane, hell bent on punishing the rest of the world, a furious plod and pound fueled by hate, and misery, and drugs. Lots and lots and LOTS of drugs. And that instore, for all of it's confusional chaos, is pretty much the exact same vibe captured here. That is what this band is all about. About relentless endless riffing, hypnotic crustpunk dirges, wild damaged Neanderthal noise rock. The sick sick energy of Rusted Shut is an anomaly. This is not music, this is the sound these guys conjure up from their dead souls and black hearts, a fucked up noise drenched hardcore psychedelic space sludge whathtefuck that's just about the greatest thing we've ever heard.
MPEG Stream: "Home"
MPEG Stream: "Heart Of Hell"
MPEG Stream: "Intellect"

RUSTED SHUT Dead (Load) lp 15.98
What would you think if someone described a band to you, as sounding like a mix of Butthole Surfers, Black Flag, the Brainbombs and black metal? Want if they went on to describe the band's sound in more detail, and they came up with something like "thick oozing ultra distorted, totally chaotic, drone drenched, drugged out, noisy as fuck, weirdly hypnotic, punishing and pulverizing, scuzz drenched doomic plod"? Well your first thought, if you were anything like us, would be "could such a band actually exist?" It does sound too good to be true. Your next thought might be "well okay, if a band like that did exist, not only would they be scary as shit, they'd also probably be my favorite band EVER."
Thus we have Rusted Shut. Going on 20 years now, these Texan noisemakers have somehow only managed two proper records and a single or two, each one of those jammed to overflowing with the abovementioned thick oozing ultra distorted, totally chaotic, pulverizing scuzz drenched plod. When we reviewed their Hot Sex ep, we alluded to the fact that if said ep wasn't an ep, wasn't vinyl only, wasn't over a decade old, and wasn't WAY too fucked up for most normal ears, it would have not only been out Record Of The Week, but our Record Of The YEAR. Of our EVER! Well, it's as if whatever God enjoys inflicting sonic torture on his children heard our prayers and conjured up this festering bit of blackened noise punk brilliance from whatever pit these guys call home.
It's rare that a band 20+ years old makes a record on the tail end of 20 years even half as good as the record that started it all, but we're tempted to say, this just might be the heaviest, freakiest, most brutally brilliant thing we've heard from these guys so far. Which is indeed saying a whole hell of a lot.
The opener "Home", is 5 minutes of blown out punk-drone, the guitars unwinding in thick gnarled tangles, moaning and rumbling and howling, a dense undulating layered swell of roiling sonic filth, fragmented riffs, squiggly downtuned Greg Ginn-ish guitar scrabble, the drums skittery and abstract clouds of cymbal sizzle, bursts of free rock splatter, while over the top, some sort of harsh, whiskey soaked punk rock testifying, spouting all sorts of misanthropic misinformation, like a post punk noise rock gutter scum Whitehouse. The music grows more and more frantic, faster, more freaked out, the various streaks of sound coalescing into riffs, that blur into still more smears of sound, the song an exercise in droned out filth caked tension.
Then there's "Heart Of Hell", total old school punk rock, but filtered through a sort of washed out lo-fi Brainbombs dirginess, the main riff, total classic punk rock, but locked and looped, and played over and over and over and over, totally trancelike, the vocals just as sneeringly scowly as on the first track, but once they drop out, the song locks into a total droned out punked up krautrock groove, that sounds a bit like Circle covering the Brainbombs, albeit doused in crumbling distortion and blurred reverb and delay.
Then comes "Intellect", 15 minutes of total blown out garage dirge bliss, the sound so in the red, that every time a cymbal hits, it swallows up the rest of the sound, the vocals so loud it sounds like the singer grabbed you by the head and locked his lips around your ears, you can feel his hot hellish breath and the spray of spittle. But all the while the music underneath, grows more and more distorted and somehow more and more hypnotic, so damaged and fractured that it sounds like the song might crumble into pieces at any moment. But that's just the first few minutes. Soon the band switch gear and the bass EXPLODES, like suddenly while the band was playing, the bass player went out to his truck and got 3 or 4 more amps and just let fucking loose, low end overload, everything acid drenched and psychedelic, the sound of speakers frying, of headphones melting, the vocals garbled like speaking in tongues, the bass unleashing a sludgey doomy groove, the song an endless noise rock blown out druggy musical brawl that makes the Butthole Surfers at their fiercest sound practically tame.
This song more than anything here reminds us of our first live run in with these weirdos. At SXSW this year, they played an instore, everyone was waiting to see the Mayyors, but Rusted Shut were just destroying the place, super noisy and scuzzy and awesome, and they just NEVER STOPPED PLAYING. The homeless-looking singer/guitarist guy kept getting shocked by the mic, so eventually he simply walked outside, after leaning his guitar up against his amp... some punk dude in the audience then picked up the mic, and freestyled some "I hate SXSW" lyrics... when he was done and threw the mic down, it seemed like the drummer and bassist would wrap it up, but instead they kept on jamming... and jamming... and jammingŠ then the guitarist came back in after being outside for what felt like (and pretty much WAS) ages, picked up his guitar, and then it seemed like, OK, this must be the grande finale... but that was only the beginning!! They literally kept on playing for another half hour at least. After a while, most of the crowd had gone outside to wait for the Mayyors, driven away by the bands wall of harsh vibes and skull stomping crush, and someone even joked that they should shut the doors of the shop and lock Rusted Shut inside...
These guys are lifers, they're insane, a total mess, which is the only way a piece of glorious sonic filth like this could ever happen. This is not music made by nice guys slumming it, by punk rockers getting their hands dirty, no, this is the sound of old guys pissed and insane, hell bent on punishing the rest of the world, a furious plod and pound fueled by hate, and misery, and drugs. Lots and lots and LOTS of drugs. And that instore, for all of it's confusional chaos, is pretty much the exact same vibe captured here. That is what this band is all about. About relentless endless riffing, hypnotic crustpunk dirges, wild damaged Neanderthal noise rock. The sick sick energy of Rusted Shut is an anomaly. This is not music, this is the sound these guys conjure up from their dead souls and black hearts, a fucked up noise drenched hardcore psychedelic space sludge whathtefuck that's just about the greatest thing we've ever heard.
MPEG Stream: "Home"
MPEG Stream: "Heart Of Hell"
MPEG Stream: "Intellect"

UNITS History Of The Units (Community Library) cd 14.98
Moog-enabled synth punk subversion straight outta San Francisco in the late '70s/early '80s, entertaining n' agitating electronic New Wave action excavated and reissued! And it's totally timely considering how many bands in today's scene would so love to sound like this.
We won't pretend we were familiar with The Units before this fantastic anthology album showed up. Perhaps we'd heard the name before (or maybe we were confusing 'em with ol' Jandek's 1978 debut album, also under the name The Units), but we knew nothing about this band 'til we heard this disc a few weeks ago. And as soon as we did, it went into heavy rotation here at the store. These Units were definitely a important piece of San Francisco punk/new wave history, but just a bit before our time. Well, not Aquarius's time, just us folks who work here now! Actually, a close reading of the thanks list in the cd booklet will find a shout out to Aquarius, 'cause (if you didn't know) Aquarius was THEE punk/new wave record store in San Francisco in the '70s... (Which reminds us, we've got to get more of our history up on the AQ website.) And, in fact, The Units' debut lp Digital Stimulation was the very first release on seminal SF indie 415 Records (who had their biggest hit with Romeo Void), a label run in part by Aquarius' owners at the time. So this most certainly isn't the first time that The Units music has been blasting regularly in the Aquarius shop, it's just been a few years, is all.
Putting things in proper place/time/scene perspective, this archival disc starts off with an audio snippet of the late SF punk "godfather" Dirk Dirksen on stage at Mabuhay Gardens, good-naturedly mocking both The Units (accidentally referring to them by the name of another band, the Zeros) and their cheering fans (with the sardonic comment "obviously, people with as little taste as yourself would become ecstatic over such average talent"). Then, making us ecstatic, twenty tracks of prime Units music follows, The History Of The Units containing most all of the tracks from their 1980 415 Records album Digital Stimulation as well as a handful of stuff taken from early 7"s and demo tapes, as well as more experimental pieces recorded for film soundtracks and art happenings and other ephemera.
Not unlike Devo, The Units had a concept thing going, all about a critique of alienated modern industrial society, dehumanizing conformity, and corporate culture, with songs like "Cannibals" and "Work". Perhaps perversely choosing to use machines to make their point, The Units tried to take the human element out of the rock band equation, preferring for instance to project their own propaganda films rather than allow the audience to focus on a frontperson. And yes, they do also sound quite bit like Devo at times, which is way okay by us!
Their synth-obsession was also in part an anti-guitar thing, a reaction to the mainstream. In fact, they took their anti-guitar philosophy to the extreme of not only having a "stamp out guitars" logo, but also making fake guitars out of plywood to smash on stage, while letting their synths play on "cruise control". So definitely The Units were highly conceptual, art schoolish, but not academic - the liner notes are clear that the idea was to be an all-synth band that "kicks ass" (the full quote being: ""I wanted an all synthesizer band... and not some fucking polite, socially acceptable electronic experiment in academia. I didn't want a doctorate in electronic doodling. No, I'm talking about a synth band that kicks ass!") and according to what we're hearing here, they succeeded. And they were not without contemporaries. There were The Screamers, Nervous Gender, and of course Devo; all of whom wanted to take the synthesizer into punk. For many of the Units tracks, it would very easy to replace the lead synth lines with guitars and have an equally kick ass rock song, but the fact is that these are Moog-powered cuts which do oscillate between a quirky sensibility with angular chops and a full-throttle punk car-crash. If you would think the former finds the Units sounding like Devo and the latter like the Screamers, you'd be right!
Yes indeed, the songs on this disc range from urgent Devo-esque pop punk and Screamers-y rants to moody proto-'80s dance tracks to more abstract, instrumental, rhythmic/textural electronic pieces like "Tight Fit" and "East West". There's loads of electric energy, some goofy humor, and certainly serious intent. So many gems here, incorporating buzzing droning distorted synths, propulsively skittering drum beats, and monotone vocals (both male and female).
Their incredible singles "Cannibals" (a tempestuous, driving song that was pure '70s punk), "High Pressure Days", and "Warm Moving Bodies," are prominently featured here, all of which were impressively catchy. Their ability to write these hooks earned them a deal with Epic, who released two seminal 12" singles (which couldn't be licensed for this compilation) and has been sitting on another collection of recordings since 1983. But beyond the hook, the Units were plenty weird, as seen in their peculiar lullaby melodies on "Red" which almost comes across like a Rodd Keith song-poem with a very sparse arrangement. Despite the band's curses toward academic music, a few choice intertwining moments of the Units minimalist grooves come awfully close to sounding like a punked out Terry Riley! Hardly polite music!
Other selections here include the cold wave weird science of "Digital Stimulation", the gloriously grinding downer melody of "Contemporary Emotion" (apparently a cover, a song by some contemporaneous hard rock band we've never heard of called Trakstod Station), and there's even an ode to our very neighborhood, "The Mission Is Bitchin", with lyrics about burritos and marijuana!
Of course it's all a bit dated, of its era, and that's part of the charm... but like we said, a lot of this also sounds like it could be put out by a band today, since everything old is new again and the '80s New Wave / synth thing is a current retro craze. Definitely this is a good time for The Units to be reissued!
And Community Library have done a really nice job of it, the gatefold cd sleeve containing a thick 32 page cd booklet with elaborate colorful collage style liner notes by bandleader Scott "Dr. Tex Nology" Ryser, a Units manifesto of sorts, he also talks about the wild and crazy San Francisco of the '70s/early '80s era, and also there's several pages of old fliers for Units gigs at the Fab Mab and other SF punk venues... we noticed one for the Warfield too, with The Units opening for OMD and Gary Numan. Also shows with Romeo Void, Dead Boys, Soft Cell, Psychedelic Furs, Dead Kennedys, Crime, Screamers, Iggy Pop, the Police, Tuxedomoon... Definitely makes us young 'uns wish we'd been around in SF back then. (Another note about the packaging, it says copyright 2007 on the back but that that's a mistake, it's when the artwork was initially prepared, this is indeed a brand new 2009 release, with also a vinyl version upcoming as well, not sure when, though.)
MPEG Stream: "Cannibals"
MPEG Stream: "Warm Moving Bodies"
MPEG Stream: "i Night"
MPEG Stream: "East West"

BIG BUSINESS Mind The Drift (Hydrahead) cd 15.98
Big Business had always sounded a bit like the Melvins, which made perfect sense, as the drums and bass duo also function as 2nd bass and 2nd drums in the Melvins. But they always had their own thing going on, a sound that while still heavy and obtuse, was weirdly melodic, a sort of metallicized fractured pop. We meant to review last year's Here Comes The Waterworks, a totally classic chunk of hooky heaviness, equal parts heaving metallic heft, and twisted melodicism, but somehow it slipped through the review-writing cracks here, whoops. We were mostly expecting more of the same on Mind The Drift, but holy shit, it's even better than Waterworks. Way more epic and sprawling and proggy, showtunes is probably not the best word to use to describe the songs here, but that was definitely our first thought, not cheesy showtunes like your parents made you listen to in the car on long trips, no, BB's tunes could be the soundtrack to to some otherworldly Broadway musical jam packed with twisted carnivalesque epic songsmithery, smoke and streamers and flames and leering demonic faces, twisted shapes, colors psychedelic and kaleidoscopic, but more than anything, the songs are incredibly catchy, the vocals soaring and dramatic, a huge development from the punk rock howl of their earlier recordings, the instrumentation is lush, fleshed out by a guitarist, and the arrangements are impossibly complex, lots of stop / starts, amazing vocal interplay, some of the most incredibly irresistible melodies ever, all woven into super tight, dense mini-epics. It's not metal, it's not punk, it's not post rock, it's bits and pieces of all of those, but cobbled together into something completely jaw droppingly over the top, but not ostentatious, the songs might feel grand and majestic, but it also feels like these guys could just reel off a new song at the drop of a hat and it would sound as good as any of these. The band do get rough and raw, and rock out a bit, but they shine on those aforementioned numbers, where they kick out the sprawling dramatic soundtracky post punk show tune jams, like some impossibly rad mix of the Melvins and Meat Loaf (circa Bat Out Of Hell). Our favorite track is probably "Gold And Final" (although it seems like every time we listen to this we discover a new favorite), with its super tense brooding verse, the little looped effected stutter before a devastating chorus, and an insane hook. We've been humming this song nonstop since we got this. Just listen to the sound sample, totally timeless, like some classic rock jam transported forward in time several decades, but picking up all sorts of detritus in the process and growing gradually slightly more warped and twisted. So good. Could be a contender for record of the year. Really.
Incredible packaging too, done up like found vintage postcards, the song titles and credits worked into mysterious missives, all the images washed out, complete with a Big Business post mark and everything.
MPEG Stream: "Found Art"
MPEG Stream: "Gold And Final"
MPEG Stream: "Cats, Mice."

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A BROKEN CONSORT Box Of Birch (Tompkins Square) cd 14.98
A Broken Consort is only one of the monickers under which UK sound artist Richard Skelton performs, and this, Box Of Birch, only one of many releases under various guises, but the first to receive any sort of widespread release.
Skelton started a private press after the passing of his wife, who was a visual artist. She left him all sorts of unfinished works, drawings and sketches, and the purpose of the press was to release her artwork posthumously, collaborating together, her art, his music, a tribute to her memory.
But it's not just the source of this music and the story behind it that makes Box Of Birch so dark and heartfelt and bittersweet, the music itself is a gorgeous tribute to a lost love, to sorrow and remembrance, moving forward but also to never forgetting.
Haunting and lush, the 4 long tracks here are epic and orchestral, long tones, layered drones, darkly minor key melodies, a muted blissed out sort of cosmic space drift. Dark dreamlike ragas constructed from softly strummed guitars, wheezing accordions, tinkling percussion, all manner of buzzing strings woven into deep gentle sonic swells, it's at once abstract and ethereal, but also subtly song based, the tracks feel composed, as much as they feel free. Strings saw out intensely emotional melodies over having soundscapes of dark dark shimmer. The music here is not at all tranquil, not new age-y or easy listening, no these are complex, emotionally charged sounds, these songs, or pieces, throb with passion and energy, they ooze sadness and misery, but also mange to evoke hope, the long slow burning drones seems to constantly drift heavenward, glowing and glistening, a timeless expanse of rumble and whir and buzz, effulgent and everbright, shrouded in darkness for now, but the warm heart within seems to grow with every listen, in every song, an organic living progression, as the record plays, it seems inevitable that the mysterious warmth, will undoubtedly overpower the dark.
Absolutely gorgeous. Lovely artwork too. Recommended for folks into blissed out drones, deep buzzing ragas and minimal abstract space rock: Lamp Of The Universe, Sunroof!, Expo '70, Emeralds, Astral Social Club, Golden Sores, Barn Owl, etc...
MPEG Stream: "A Sundering Path"
MPEG Stream: "Weight Of Days"

ACID MOTHER'S TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O. Dark Side Of The Black Moon: What Planet Are We On? (Important) cd 14.98
Just like the phases of the moon, and the cycle of the seasons, and the rising and setting of the sun, we can always count on the regular appearance of another rad release from Japanese psychedelic freaks Acid Mothers Temple. And for all we know, maybe they too are an integral part of the rhythm of nature, and we begin to wonder, if they DIDN'T have a new disc of cosmic jams out every month or so, would the universe come to an end? Well no worries, that's not gonna happen. Based on current trends, the flow of krautrock inspired music from bearded guitar guru Kawabata Makoto & Co. seems unlikely to abate, at least not in our lifetimes, and possibly not before the sun itself goes supernova.
So, as destined, here's the Dark Side Of The Black Moon, billed as a sequel of sorts to the remarkably SUNNO)))-y, super heavy fan fave Recurring Dream & Apocalypse Of Darkness, released on Important last year. Although, we thought that the intervening Important release of Glorify Astrological Martyrdom qualified as that already. (Hmm, all three feature cover art by Seldon Hunt, maybe it's a trilogy of sorts?). In any event, this one is pretty extreme too, always intense though not doomdrone heavy, as it's less about riffs than it is about sheer wailing psych guitar abandon, swirls of electronic FX, manic dervish rhythms, possessed vocal chant, and other contributing factors towards total disorienting delirium, this album's apparent purpose.
The 13+ minute "Space Labyrinth or Eclipse On Friday" eases the listener into it... if you can call explosions of distortion and spooky wordless vocals "ease". Loads of gtr feedback n' skree are included as well. Next track "Astro Kama Sutra: Take Me To The Outer Limits" then if anything ups the ante, though this disc does have its mellowed-out moments of space-babble - as on the quietly meandering "Blessing Of The Load Galaxy", track 3. That's followed by the chaotic groove of "Space A Go Go"... and then we get to the title track, 17 minutes long, each of those minutes building in feverish intensity. Whew!
If you want more, well, get the deluxe gatefold double lp vinyl edition instead of the cd, 'cause it adds two bonus cuts, "Universe In Witch's Blue" and "Intergalactic Space Trackin'"!
MPEG Stream: "Astro Kama Sutra: Take Me To The Outer Limits"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Side of the Black Moon"

ACID MOTHER'S TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO U.F.O. Dark Side Of The Black Moon: What Planet Are We On? (Important) 2lp 26.00
Just like the phases of the moon, and the cycle of the seasons, and the rising and setting of the sun, we can always count on the regular appearance of another rad release from Japanese psychedelic freaks Acid Mothers Temple. And for all we know, maybe they too are an integral part of the rhythm of nature, and we begin to wonder, if they DIDN'T have a new disc of cosmic jams out every month or so, would the universe come to an end? Well no worries, that's not gonna happen. Based on current trends, the flow of krautrock inspired music from bearded guitar guru Kawabata Makoto & Co. seems unlikely to abate, at least not in our lifetimes, and possibly not before the sun itself goes supernova.
So, as destined, here's the Dark Side Of The Black Moon, billed as a sequel of sorts to the remarkably SUNNO)))-y, super heavy fan fave Recurring Dream & Apocalypse Of Darkness, released on Important last year. Although, we thought that the intervening Important release of Glorify Astrological Martyrdom qualified as that already. (Hmm, all three feature cover art by Seldon Hunt, maybe it's a trilogy of sorts?). In any event, this one is pretty extreme too, always intense though not doomdrone heavy, as it's less about riffs than it is about sheer wailing psych guitar abandon, swirls of electronic FX, manic dervish rhythms, possessed vocal chant, and other contributing factors towards total disorienting delirium, this album's apparent purpose.
The 13+ minute "Space Labyrinth or Eclipse On Friday" eases the listener into it... if you can call explosions of distortion and spooky wordless vocals "ease". Loads of gtr feedback n' skree are included as well. Next track "Astro Kama Sutra: Take Me To The Outer Limits" then if anything ups the ante, though this disc does have its mellowed-out moments of space-babble - as on the quietly meandering "Blessing Of The Load Galaxy", track 3. That's followed by the chaotic groove of "Space A Go Go"... and then we get to the title track, 17 minutes long, each of those minutes building in feverish intensity. Whew!
If you want more, well, get the deluxe gatefold double lp vinyl edition instead of the cd, 'cause it adds two bonus cuts, "Universe In Witch's Blue" and "Intergalactic Space Trackin'"!
MPEG Stream: "Astro Kama Sutra: Take Me To The Outer Limits"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Side of the Black Moon"

ANDY, HORACE Rare Dubs 1973-1976 (Jamaican Recordings) cd 14.98
Not only is this collection of golden voice reggae icon Horace Andy one of our favorite dub records of all time, it just might be one of our favorite records PERIOD, dub or otherwise... We know that's one seriously bold statement but just listen to the sound clips and read these words and you might just be convinced.
For decades now Horace Andy has been making some of the most crucial, sizzling and seductive music we've ever heard. In more recent years he's been exposed to a whole new generation thanks to his work with folks like Massive Attack, who he totally stole the show from on their kick ass collaboration. So rare and rad for someone who continually makes quality and moving music for as many years as Horace Andy has to keep getting better, and pushing boundaries. This record finds Andy at his dubbiest and best. Recorded at all the great Jamaican studios like Channel 1 and King Tubby's with production by Bunny Lee and a band of bad ass and out of control heavyweights: Sly & Robby the rhythm section, Augustus Pablo on keyboards, Tommy McCook on Sax, Earl 'Chinna' Smith on guitar, that's so far beyond simply an all star ensemble. Together they help make a dubby, dreamy and tripped out backdrop of lush sound for Andy's gorgeous voice, and it all melts together so perfectly. This is one of those records we turn to on so many occasions. When we need to relax, calm down, get perspective, bliss out, recharge, check in with ourselves... a go to records that will always be there for you. Totally essential!
MPEG Stream: "Zion Dub"
MPEG Stream: "Dub Say How"
MPEG Stream: "Dub Angel"

ARKHA SVA / WINTER FUNERAL Mikalp Khis Bia Ozongon (Zyklon-B Productions) cd ep 15.98
More operatic and buzzing grim black metal madness from Japanese horde Arkha Sva, who team up here with a French BM band called Winter Funeral who we had never heard until now. More on the Arkha Sva tracks in a moment, odds are most aQ black metal freaks are already sold by the two exclusive AS tracks anyway, but Winter Funeral definitely deserve their due. This is some seriously twisted bizarre blackness. The track begins with almost indie rock sounding jangle and some tribal sounding drums, all beneath gorgeous choral hymns, a strange combination, but it sounds amazing. Creepy and haunting and really beautiful. A shirked vocal joins the fray, and the choral vocals drop out... leaving some frantic buzz, and then the band lurches into some more traditional blast and buzz. The sound is murky and muddy and muted, the vocals a grow, the guitar weirdly pretty, sounding like Alcest or Amesoeurs, until the screams return, maniacal almost operatic howls, which is what stylistically ties these bands together most, as Arkha Sva employ even more over the top operatic shrieks, but the bands do make a good combo. The end of the Winter Funeral track finds the weird minor key indie jangle returning, but this time all tangled up with the harsh demonic vox.
Then comes Arkha Sva, and of course, both tracks utterly rule. Fuzzy and blown out and a little lo-fi, chaotic drumming and tangled atonal riffage, and an insane array of shrieks, almost veering into Bathtub Shitter territory for a minute. But then the song breaks down into some cool convoluted, cinematic stop start thing, epic and strange, very dramatic and soundtracky, reminding us of a more black metal Devil Doll or Death SS. The second track is a creeped out doomy plod, the guitars anguished and jagged, the vocals a continuous howl / growl / gurgle, it almost sounds like black metal Black Flag, before the track explodes into more frosty grimness, the guitars a churning swirl, multiple vocals all over the place, growls and shrieks and another feral wail that's entirely over the top.
So fucking awesome. Equal parts traditional black buzz and fucked up far out blackened weirdness. We only got 15 of these, and it's been out for a little while so, once we run out, not sure we'll be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: ARKHA SVA "Bringer Of Hate Plague"
MPEG Stream: WINTER FUNERAL "Fallen From Grace"

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #18 (self released) cd-r 10.98
The series continues... Neil Campbell and his Astral Social Club return with two more installments, each a limited cd-r of trippy, druggy, spaced out dronemusic, but more and more the sound of ASC has been drifting toward some sort of otherworldly dancemusic, and that's just how number 18 starts off, with a dense chunk of drone-raga house music, a thumping 4 on the floor beat, that pounds its way through swirling clouds of blurred buzz and industrial crunch, the beat flips backwards, and the surrounding sounds just get more thick and dense. The rest of the disc is all over the map, from super tangled speaker abusing blasts of strangled high end and stuttery glitch, to washed out noise drenched loops, all warm and fuzzy and textural, to super minimal muted buzzscapes, to cool jagged downtempo anti-grooves, to barely there hushed rhythmic skitter, to gorgeous fluttery ur-drones that slowly transform into billowy almost pop ambience, to crunchy heard-through-the-floor dancefloor throb and so it goes. Definitely the sound of the more beat oriented ASC, but even at its beatiest, Campbell still has a way with drones and ambience, wrapping every beat here in swirling squalls of soft noise, crumbling distorted rumbles and twisted glistening effects. Awesome stuff as always. Each in a handmade sleeve with all sorts of random clippings affixed to the front.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #19 (self released) cd-r 10.98
The latest in the ongoing Astral Social Club cd-r series is in fact a collection of live recordings, gathered over the past 9 months, recorded in multiple locations with a bunch of guests including a veritable choir on the last track.
6 tracks, 34 minutes, the first track sounds like Yello's "Oh Yeah" chopped up and reassembled into a dizzyingly skittery psych jam, the beat relentless, wrapped in all sorts of chirping high end squeaks and bleeps, looped and super hypnotic. The second track, from the same set, takes that first number and strips away the frantic rhythms, leaving just a buried pulse, and a thick swirl of high end hiss and smoothed out glitches, a droned out high end drift, that manages to entrance with that barely there beat. The final track from that same show is a chaotic cacophony of sci-fi stutter, and fractured effects, a symphony of what sounds like lazer pistols, looped and layered into a head spinning sonic free for all, underpinned by some haunting almost Goblin-y super distorted mood music.
The second set of tracks is a much murkier affair, the first track an endless Sunroof!-y drone, long tones overlapping and intertwining, the second pulls back the skree, leaving a cool, industrial sounding drum loop, that is soon joined by a house-y 4 on the floor kick drum high hat pulse, which transforms the song into some sort of damaged, house-drone-industrial mash up, but again, ASC are able to turn it into something hypnotic and if not danceable, at least in some strange way groovy. The final track is another murky industrial flecked crawl, spread out over what sounds like some strange undulating drone, but on closer listening is in fact a sort of choir, but they all seem to be moaning or humming, not a harmonious exactly, but it does make for some truly strange and haunting textures, a very abstract, organic human dronemusic. Cool. And definitely the first time we've heard anything like it.
Each cd-r is housed in a printed cover with a pasted on live photo.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 4"

BEHERIT Engram (Spinefarm) cd 15.98
If you asked us at the beginning of the year what records we were anticipating the most, we wouldn't have mentioned anything from Finnish black metal pioneers Beherit, simply because their rebirth was really the last thing we expected. Following the band's super blasphemous and chaotic odes to Satan in the early '90s, leader Nuclear Holocausto took over the reigns to become Beherit's sole member, steering the project into dark ambient waters with nary a trace of metal remaining, eventually pulling the plug altogether in 1995. But here we are with Engram in 2009, and the big question is, duh, what does it sound like? After a brief glitchy noise, you are confronted by an accented voice that proclaims, "Because. I just fucking hate this world," and then we're off into the hate filled world of Beherit that we know and love best. These guys could certainly show the younger generations a thing or two, as it becomes immediately clear that Beherit has returned as a furious and totally unrelenting black metal force that retains plenty of what made the original band so great, but with enough surprises to show that there is plenty left to say.
Joined by his longtime partner in crime Sodomatic Slaughter on the skins, as well as two new members, Nuclear Holocausto has created an album that serves Beherit's legacy quite well indeed. In terms of the actual fidelity, it would appear that Beherit has embraced modern recording technology, as they sound significantly beefier than on their earlier efforts, which essential as they are, generally sound a few steps below "piss poor". This album sounds burly as hell, with thick, super heavy riffs and classic black metal blasts, all topped off with Holocausto's croaking vocals and plenty of atmospheric synths adding an exciting and unexpected element to the songs. Like the classic Drawing Down The Moon album, Engram is full of weird, spaced out keyboards that, even today, put Beherit in a realm of their own. The way the keyboards go against the main riffs really bring things into psychedelic territories, and while there are plenty of super fast numbers here, some of our favorite moments are when the band take things down a notch, like on the monolithic 15 minute closer "Demon Advance", a doomy two chord juggernaut with strange oscillating noises and some of the most vile vocals we've heard in a while.
Engram seems to have metalheads across the globe divided, but Beherit were never really an easy band to pin down. Of course, the use of synthesizers will always be an area of controversy when it comes to metal, but Beherit have always taken a unique approach with their electronics, venturing into spacey realms that most black metal bands don't even know exist. If you're willing to spit in the face of orthodoxy, and if you like hellish riffs, awesome puking vocals, and powerful drumming, Engram should be an obvious choice. It's good to have them back.
MPEG Stream: "Axiom Heroine"
MPEG Stream: "Destroyer Of Thousand Worlds"
MPEG Stream: "Demon Advance"

BELONG October Language (Geographic North) lp 14.98
Finally this blissed out dreamy drone-y aQ favorite is available on vinyl!!
Belong, belong (couldn't resist) in a world of washed out sound, faded memories and blistering layers of sound. Imagine the warm crackles of Endless Summer era Fennesz, a touch of Godspeed You Black Emperor aimed at monumental peaks and valleys, a Flying Saucer Attack eyes half closed eyes half open delivery with a My Bloody Valentine shimmering layer of sound thrown in for good measure. A duo from New Orleans, Belong do a really nice job of taking from their influences but also having their own unique take on the whole gauzy smeary ambient free noise sound. Their take being a thick heady blast of sound that doesn't at all lose any of its gauzy dreaminess. October Language is that great kind of record that can take on different lives when played soft vs. loud. It allows you to enjoy it quiet, as a textural layer that you can dream beneath or drift away on top of. Or you can blast Belong and they'll take you out of your dreams, and your head and into another state completely. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "I Never Lose. Never Really."
MPEG Stream: "October Language"

BERGRAVEN Till Makabert Vasen (Hydra Head) cd 15.98
After 2007's much lauded Dodsvisioner album, Sweden's Bergraven returns with another set of odd gothic-tinged post-rocking blackness. While the music of Bergraven definitely fits well within the realm of black metal with its overall mood and spirit, Till Makabert Vasen is a hard one to pin down. Things never get insanely over-the-top metal, at least not in a typical way, instead opting to create a decidedly eerie and disconcerting atmosphere with all the tension found in the build up. The instrumentation here seems to imply an expert awareness of restraint, and how effectively it can be used for achieving a certain uneasy feeling. Not that this bears any resemblance to the Doors, but think of "The Crystal Ship" to get an idea of how negative space can be used to create a powerful sense of focus without getting all aggro. The gruff vocals are upfront and strong, sounding pretty pissed, but as they are sung in Swedish we can only assume... But they are definitely very interesting, as black metal vocals are generally known for being shrieky or bellowing, often buried in the mix as just another part of the maelstrom. Here Bergraven mainman Par Gustafsson's voice retains a surprising clarity that you simply can't ignore. While the vocals never seem to get too frantic or out of control, they retain a forcefulness that, at the heart of it all, is pretty damn metal.
Another noteworthy aspect of Bergraven's approach is the seriously impressive musicianship and the overall song structures, which are just plain weird and quite unexpected. The guitars seem to have just as much to do with '90s indie rock heroes like Drive Like Jehu or Unwound as they do with black metal, while the Slinty rhythm section keeps things moving in a winding, snakelike manner with all sorts of mathy weirdness. The songs kind of swirl within their own self-contained world, never getting too expansive or wandering, but retaining a high degree of concentration. One is reminded at times of Lifelover, or even Deathspell Omega's weirder, jazzier moments from Fas, with sour, discordant guitar chords and plodding, sometimes sparse drumming helping to set the generally unwavering vibe that keeps this one flowing evenly.
Whatever it is that Bergraven sings about, one certainly detects a sense of isolation and loneliness. The artwork features strange images of an empty chair in a forest and a man, presumably Gustafsson, sitting in a cabin in front of a fireplace with his face blurred out, making it clear that you will never know too much about the mastermind behind the music.
With Dodsvisioner, everyone seemed a bit confused that Hydra Head was venturing into such dark waters, but to us, it makes total sense. That label has always championed a unique commingling of art and metal, and it is clear that Bergraven has no problems stepping outside the norms of its genre.
MPEG Stream: "Drommen Om Undersang"
MPEG Stream: "Asketens Enda Prydnad"
MPEG Stream: "Det Andra Liket"

BLACK UHURU Sinsemilla (Island) cd 13.98
Sinsemilla is a total masterpiece, originally released in 1980, but which somehow most of us managed to miss out on completely, until just recently. When we finally did hear it for the first time we knew this would be one of those lifer discs, a record that would never leave our collection, and that would get repeated play for years and years to come.
Black Uhuru formed in Jamaica in the late '70s and with this, their third album they drafted the blueprint for the possibilities of how wide reaching and soul satisfying reggae songs could really sound. We stress SONGS as this is a collection of some of the most well crafted, melodic, catchy and deep grooved reggae jams we've ever heard. So good, it's tough to imagine that this isn't some sort of greatest hits album, every single track sizzles with a personality of its own that grabs your attention and keeps you coming back for more. With nods to Patrick Adams, a revolutionary spirit and a true yearning for that elusive state of happiness, this is a record that even though we discovered late, will most likely rank as an all-time AQ reggae favorite. Eternal summer jams!
MPEG Stream: "Happiness"
MPEG Stream: "Push Push"
MPEG Stream: "Sinsemilla"

BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE Mitleid Lady (Latitudes 0:11) (Southern / Latitudes) cd ep 13.98
Long rumored, long awaited, Bohren and Der Club Of Gore's installment in Southern UK's limited edition Latitudes series is, finally, here!! While the Latitudes series has included a disparate selection of interesting artists, including AQ faves like Circle, Shit & Shine, Grails, and now Bohren. You'd think they were asking US who they should put out! Certainly if they HAD asked us, we'd have said Bohren, we're (as you probably know) huge fans, we're still in awe of the live show they played in San Francisco a few months back, also something that we didn't ever think we'd see. The stage was in total darkness except for small lights shining from directly above each musician, one bassist, one keyboardist, and another who played keys, bass, and sax as necessary. And while it was unfortunate that there was no drummer (for some reason he couldn't travel with the band) their usual slow tempo meant that the keyboardist could "play" sampled drums fairly effectively, though doubtless it would probably have been even better had the actual drummer been there (however, one of our friends who was at the show didn't even realize there was no live drummer present, due to the darkness, and the fact that the glowing Bohren skull-head logo in the center of the stage looked like it was on a bass drum head!). Their music was so beautiful, and sooooo heavy. Literally one of the HEAVIEST performances we've ever witnessed, SO MUCH BASS it was insane. And remember, they're essentially a jazz group.
So, we like Bohren. You like Bohren (or if you haven't heard 'em, may we suggest their most recent album, Dolores?). And so we're both excited that this is here. Heck, we've been waiting for it for a while. Apparently the Latitudes folks like to get people all in a tizzy by announcing things YEARS in advance of the actual release. As a result, Bohren fans have been asking about this one, since, well back when Barack Obama was still an unknown community organizer, it seems. We had sorta given up hope of ever actually seeing it come out, assuming it was a figment of someone at Southern's overactive imagination. But then what do you know, out of the blue, with no warning, here they are. We got ALL the copies we're gonna be able to get, and good luck finding it elsewhere. So act fast if you want one.
Here's the lowdown: Like the previous Latitudes volume, from White Magic, this is an ep, just one song in fact, and while Bohren have been known to make some looooong songs, this one is "only" 10 and a half minutes in length. But of course what with Bohren's typical mesmeric glacial pace and soporific atmospheres, when "Mitleid Lady" is playing it's as if time has stopped, anyway... the bass frequencies throbbing gently, the sparse snick...snick...snick of the drummer's high hat, the dulcet liquid tones of electric piano melodically meandering... eventually the merest suggestion of a sweet whisper of smoky saxophone... ahhh the unique slo-mo "jazz" of Bohren is utterly entrancing as usual. This track was recorded back 2006 (we said it was long awaited), after their Geisterfaust record and before the more recent Dolores, and sounds like it could easily have found a place on either album. But having it here on its own disc is actually rather nice, as a "concentrated" (not really) dose of Bohren's special sound to savor.
It's also an attractive collectible artifact, in the usual die-cut, cardboard Latitudes packaging, including an insert with text in German on one side, and a curiously unexpected picture of the mostly all-bald Bohren guys on the other side - all four of them dressed in black, of course, but standing in a grassy park on a sunny day somewhere, three of them wearing shorts, two of 'em in sandals and flipflops!
LIMITED EDITION! 1000 COPIES ONLY! We got less than 100, and that's IT. And don't ask us when the also-announced 12" vinyl version is coming out, we don't know...
MPEG Stream: "Mitleid Lady"

BONG Novum Castellum (Turgid Animal) 3cd 27.00
It always seems to happen this way, we spend ages and ages trying to track down recordings from an elusive band, hearing rumors about 7"s and cd-r's and tapes, and then suddenly, BOOM. Or in the case of these guys, Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom... the recordings come bursting forth, and again, in this case, the sounds spew from speakers and headphones like some viscous black torrent. Which can only mean one thing, the return of drugged out sludge drone mavens Bong. If ever a band was more appropriately named, Bong are ready to take them on. In fact, the only way a band could prevail monicker-wise, they'd have to be called Bong Blood Hell Froth, or Bladed Bong Skullorb, or something, and even with a name all ready for battle, it's doubtful their pathetic sounds would be any match for Bong's thick, sprawling doomscapes of sitar like buzz, churning bottom heavy crunch, and at least on one of the tracks here some serious drum pummel.
Three discs, five tracks, three hours, recorded in pubs, under bridges and in restaurants, one can only imagine the smoldering ruins these guys left in their lumbering drug-doom wake. Their live sound much more rocking then their doomed out minimal records might lead you to believe.
The opener on its own is worth the price of admission, a relentless buzzy, space-y sludgey groove, with some killer drumming, chaotic, mathy, but locked in pretty tight, the cymbals offering up a layer of warm swirling sizzle, the vocals a haunted demonic chant, the rest of the sonic space taken up by woozy washed out buzzing sitar like strings, a sort of Sleep meets Circle meets SUNNO))), a downtuned krautrock crunch, smeared into an endless drug drenched space rock groove. The second half of disc two offers up more of the same, with the drums even more frantic, the band rocking propulsively, not so sludgey as heavy and fierce, the song slipping into a tranced out sonic tarpit partway through, before exploding into a tangled doom-math outro.
The two tracks on the second disc see the drums pulling back a little, letting the guitars and vocals interlock, the result some sort of ritualistic groove, albeit wrapped around some serious percussive heft, the second of the two tracks blissing out pretty nicely, the band slipping comfortably into something a bit more meditative and slowcore sounding, but still the guitars smoke and smolder, the drums, while restrained, still sound urgent, the track seething with dark intensity, and minimal doomic menace.
The final disc, a nearly 40 minute single song set, is the heaviest and densest of the bunch, somehow fusing the blown out ur-drone of groups like Sunroof! with a fuzzed out garage doom space stomp. Think White Hills, the Heads, Monster Magnet, this is the sort of doom that's bursting with barely restrained psychedelia, like watching some black star explode, swirling red and yellow gouts of sonic fire spilling forth from a heaving black hole of sound. The sound lo-fi, lots of noise and reverb and distortion and ambient noise, the sound crumbles and breaks apart here and there, the band slipping easily from ponderous trudge to blissed out shimmer, often merging the two into some soul shearing psychedelic doom.
A few of these tracks were already released, but as a cd-r in a limited run of 50 or something crazy like that, so odds are, like us, you never even saw 'em. These are proper, real cds (NOT cd-r's), packaged in a dvd style case, with printed inserts. And is also limited, this time to 300 copies!
MPEG Stream: "Trillians / January 08 (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "Under Byker Bridge Space / 1st June 08 (excerpt)"

BROKENCYDE I'm Not A Fan But The Kids Like It (Break Silence Recordings) cd 14.98
By now you've no doubt heard these guys. Or at the very least, you've probably been sent the video for their song "Freaxxx" by a friend (or enemy). It's been viewed on YouTube about eight hundred gazillion times. And at least a gazillion of those times was US!
If we were really honest with ourselves, and based our love of a band entirely on these criteria: how many times have we listened to a specific song by this band, how many times have we watched a video by this band, how many hundreds of people have we sent a video by this band to, and how much time have we spent talking about this band, be it positive or negative? Well in that case these retarded Crunk-core goofs would be our favorite band EVER.
Ever since we first discovered these guys on YouTube, we, as well as many of our friends have been totally obsessed. A bunch of slacker girl jean spikey hair indie dorks playing a totally fucked up and dipshitty hybrid of Southern style crunk with all its low slung hip hop beats and buzzy synths, and screamo... the emo offshoot that involved, well, as far as these guys are concerned, lots and lots of screaming. So if you can imagine some white indie rockers rapping about Bentleys and Cristal and bitches and ho's while one of the guys screams dramatically every few seconds, while the band pout and preen, with a bunch of slutty looking indie chicks and a huge pink pig, well, you're either totally disgusted, totally mesmerized, or most likely BOTH.
It's like a trainwreck, both audial and visual, but at the same time, we CAN'T STOP WATCHING. Plenty of our friends have expressed a similar dilemma, an utter and extreme hatred for these guys, but the seeming inability to stop listening to it, watching the videos, or even buying their records. Yeah it's stupid, puerile, dumb as fuck, and a waste of brain cells and airwaves, but in some weird way, it's kind of clever, definitely fun, and to be totally honest, some of the sounds and songs do sorta rule. "Freaxxx" is the obvious jam, watch the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8F5YSA1Oz0
You just can't look away. And it's a little bit catchy. What the fuck?! We've dug way stupider and way more annoying stuff than this in the past, so why not just embrace it. Both Allan and Andee ordered their old ep, which also features the other jam "Bree Bree", the chorus of which is a screamed 'Breeeee Breee' meant to sound like an oinking pig. We shit you not.
So there you go, you can't fight it. You might as well buy it, you may not listen to it on your own, but we guarantee you'll play it for everyone you know. The ultimate "you WILL not believe this shit" disc. Which means in some insanely backhanded way, this is indeed recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Freaxxx"
MPEG Stream: "Booty Call"

CATHEDRAL Forest Of Equilibrium (Earache) cd + dvd 16.98
Ok, raise your hands, everybody into Electric Wizard and Moss and Sleep and Reverend Bizarre and Om and, uh, Solar Anus, do you all have a copy of Cathedral's 1990 debut album Forest Of Equilibrium in your doom collection?? If not, total doom-foul. You must rectify that immediately, we decree. And now's the time, 'cause Earache has just reissued this all-time doom classic with not only an entire out of print ep tacked on as bonus tracks, but also with an extra dvd disc featuring a 40 minute documentary shot in 2009, about the band's early daze... which means folks who DO already have the original might want to consider the upgrade.
Now, as we've said before, British band Cathedral's debut was one of the saddest, heaviest slabs of doom ever heard, magically melding slowed-down Sabbath riffage, depressed prog-folk flutes, and ex-Napalm Death throat Lee Dorrian's gravelly vocals. It belongs in any doom metal top 20, maybe top 10, we would argue. And the band never made a better record, though the four song Soul Sacrifice ep that immediately followed this was also pretty fine (and that's what's included here as bonus tracks!).
From the morose, molasses-slow strains of album's opening, the acoustic guitar and flute intro entitled "Picture Of Beauty And Innocence" that leads into the majestically crushing "Commiserating The Celebration", the unique quality of Forest Of Equilibrium's take on classic, epic doom metal is evident. Early Cathedral's gruff gothic exhalations and chugging downtuned doomic riffs is something quite special to behold, preferably sitting on a pillow or lying prone on the floor, perhaps wreathed in pot smoke, directly in front of a very loud set of speakers. There's something warm-blanket soothing about it, the utter sobbing misery expressed somehow comforting.
These guys never made a secret of their heavy progressive, proto metal, psychedelic '70s influences (proudly listing obscure bands known only to bearded record collectors and aging hippies in their cd booklets' thanks lists at great length) but unlike Witchcraft, for instance, Cathedral didn't attempt to emulate those bands exactly, rather they incorporated certain elements of '70s prog (like the occasional flute!) into their much heavier-than-thou Sabbath/Candlemass derived sludge metal, going to an epic extreme (at the time) hitherto unmatched of sheer glacial-paced melancholia. Remember, frontman Lee Dorrian's former band Napalm Death was one of the FASTEST bands ever, so his next band Cathedral had to be the SLOWEST, the equivalent of grindcore at 16rpm. With of course ultra-long songs (the first track clocking in at over 11 minutes). The Soul Sacrifice ep did see the band speeding up a bit, and Lee letting loose with a few Ozzy-derived "All right!" exclamations, which led eventually to the slightly too much tongue in cheek let's boogie '70s kitsch stoner rock that characterized the middle period of their long career. But never fear, that came later, Forest Of Equilibrium is deadly serious, utterly doomed and despairing. And oh so beautiful.
For those who have the original, some further notes on the extra stuff included here:
Soul Sacrifice ep includes an extended version of the title track, also on Forest, plus three others: "Autumn Twilight", "Frozen Rapture", and "Golden Blood (Flooding)", all of which could have fit in perfectly well on the album itself style-wise, though the production is a bit different sounding.
Then, the bonus dvd documentary about the formation of the band and the making of Forest Of Equilibrium is going to be quite interesting to fans. It even includes an interview with the artist responsible for all of Cathedral's fantastical cover art, and concludes with the music video for the track "Ebony Tears".
MPEG Stream: "Ebony Tears"
MPEG Stream: "Reaching Happiness, Touching Pain"
MPEG Stream: "Golden Blood (Flooding)"

CHURCH OF MISERY Houses Of The Unholy (Rise Above) cd 15.98
How much you love Church Of Misery depends on two things, how you feel about massive super rocking ultra crushing downtuned stoner sludge, and how you feel about serial killers. Cuz with Church Of Misery, you get a blown out, in-the-red, druggy, metallic mix of the two. The serial killer aspect is probably easier to overlook, it manifests itself mostly as artwork and song titles, although most of the tracks also have samples of newscasts, or radio broadcasts, detailing the exploits of whichever killer is the focus of the song. For some of us, those samples are cool and creepy, and just add to the band's riff rocking menace, but for others, it's a just a dumb distraction.
We obviously fall into the former camp, especially considering that element is nothing compared to the MUSIC, which just continues to get heavier and heavier and groovier and groovier with every record. Incredible riffs, a guitar sound that devours everything in its path, pounding drums, and some of the gnarliest howled throat shredding vocals EVER. Not to mention plenty of twisted blues, wild shredding leads, groovy wah guitars. We mentioned in the review of the last CoM record, that the sound reminded us a bit of ZZ Top, albeit a supercharged ultra metal version, and that sort of groovy Southern fried vibe pervades everything here, but Houses is even more intense, more aggressive, especially the vocals, the best comparison we could come up with is equal parts ZZ Top, Eyehategod, Black Sabbath (of course) and Boris at their most wildly psychedelic and hard rocking, with some sort of Demonic Phil Anselmo on vocals. And Boris fans, Church Of Misery rock out big time here, trading in much of the sluggish sludge for blown out amp destroying full rock action, so fans of later Boris, if you can imagine them a bit more sloppy, a lot more furious and frenzied, and WAY more heavy, then this stuff will definitely hit the spot.
But fear not, those who yearn for sludge, there's still plenty of lurching, lumbering doomy groove, a la Acrimony, Bongzilla, Buzzov-en, Sourvein, but all tangled up with the more rocking parts, and wild freaked out guitar jams. PLUS, for all you proto metal obsessives, they even do a killer version of "Master Heartache" by Sir Lord Baltimore!
The more we listen to it the better it sounds. The riffs kill, the songs rule, total headbanger bliss.
And for those who DO care, the killers this time around are: Charles Starkweather & Caril Ann Fugate, Richard Speck, Richard Trenton Chase, Albert Fish, James Oliver Huberty and Adolfo De Jesus Constanzo. And as always, awesome packaging. Each song/killer gets its own page in the booklet, every one designed like an old worn Blue Note album cover, and the cd itself, printed to look like a dusty old slab of vinyl.
Totally and utterly recommended. One of our favorite metal records of the year so far for sure.
MPEG Stream: "El Padrino (Adolpho Constanzo)"
MPEG Stream: "Shotgun Boogie (James Oliver Huberty)"
MPEG Stream: "The Gray Man (Albert Fish)"

CLIMAX GOLDEN TWINS Eerie Fragrance (Etude) lp 15.98
The Climax Golden Twins have always had their hands in as many cookie jars as they could; and all of the records are true adventures in sound that could include fucked-up collages of old 78s, thudding art-rock that has earned them opening spots for Sonic Youth, blissful ambience for narcoleptic art-installations, clattering urban gamelan presentations, and plenty more. Eerie Fragrance hits all of these marks and then some, having originally been released as a cassette back in 1995. The original title to the cassette was Eyeless Formation, but has been redubbed as Eerie Fragrance for the vinyl reissue. There's also a couple of extra tracks which didn't appear on the original cassette which had appeared on compilations from around the same time period.
The album quickly revolves through a collage of improvised bursts that accelerates up to an unsettled loop of a woman possibly in the midst of a breakup repeating her pleas over a turgid thrumb of static and rumbling drone which spills out of a series of peculiar squeaks and squiggles. As such, these moments have more in common with Nurse With Wound than their geographical and spiritual neighbors in the Sun City Girls; but is certainly well within the scope of CGT's esoteric collages. Noirish loops and raucous crowd noise tumble out of the beginning of the flipside, with guitar plucks that sound more like rubber bands snapping in the distant. Artifacts of tape noise and crusty debris inhabit a set of overlapping loops topped with gnarled scrapes on the guitar. Crunches of leaves and thick industrial field recordings give way to seasick wooden creakings, laughing gulls, and bellowing foghorns. As disconnected as all of these elements appear after the fact, they all work rather effortlessly in the context of this recording. Really great!
MPEG Stream: "excerpt"

CLUBROOT s/t (LoDubs) cd 14.98
One of two discs vying for our personal dubstep disc of the year. The other is the recent Mordant Music disc, which we'll try to review next time, an unlikely collaboration between Mordant and the Skull Disco crew, and this, the first full length from mysterious atmospheric dubstep soundscaper Clubroot.
We know nothing about this guy (or these guys?), other than he takes that dubbed out skitter we love so much and sets it in expansive fields of swirling ambience, creeped out dronescapes and all manner of super evocative and gorgeously textural soundworlds. Where as most dubstep is super spare and stripped down, skeletal even, the sound here is lush and sprawling. Thick layers of synths whir and shimmer and buzz, deep swells throbbing and pulsing, everything hazy and gauzy and washed out, every song some sort of otherworldy dreamscape, shot through with some super bad ass bit of pounding churning dubstep stutter. The massive basslines and fluctuating synth buzz that usually adds texture to typical dubstep, here just becomes another element in Clubroot's mysterious mist shrouded sonic landscape.
The cover features a lonely tree, set atop a rocky outcropping, the sky dense with clouds, the picture all misty and hauntingly lonely seeming, which perfectly reflects the mood of the music here. Strip away the beats, and you'd still be left with an incredible bit of blackened new age swirl, of abstract kosmiche krautdrone, but add the beats, and these sounds become something entirely other. This is definitely not dancemusic, this is mind expansion music. Late night, lights off, starting at the stars drifting off, other dimension, spaced out, dream dub music.
Clubroot taps into the same darkside as Burial, and Kode9, and the more atmospheric beatmakers, but where those guys pull back before the fog grows to thick, Clubroot pushes forward, traveling through the dark forest, into some forbidden zone, some land lost in time, lost from time, a massive emptiness, as beautiful as it is lonely and ominous, and this is the soundtrack to that lost world. So intense and haunting and unlike any other dubstep, or electronic music even, that we've heard before. The rare sort of record that lets even the most jaded and heard-it-all listener get totally, and fantastically lost.
And if you need more than our effusive gushing praise, look no further than Fenriz, 1/2 of legendary black metal duo Darkthrone, a long time lover of techno and electronic music, who has this to say about Clubroot:
"This is the sort of soaring dubstep I'd never expect to come out of the US! I just transferred the adorable "Embryo" track to my MP3 player FAVES 09 list, as I am going tenting and swimming in a forest lake tomorrow with some connoiceur-friends [sic]. It's sleek and not nasty, the melodic kind and not the grimy. But wait a minute, it seems like the newest tracks are on first, as the last songs drift into some de-tranced balearic style, even with vocals stabs and 90s synths! Blimey."
And if you can't trust Fenriz on matters of dubstep, then who can you trust? WAY recommended. And quite possibly dubstep record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Low Pressure Zone"
MPEG Stream: "Embryo"
MPEG Stream: "High Strung"
MPEG Stream: "Dulcet"

CLUSTER Qua (Nepenthe) cd 14.98
We are totally in love with this new Cluster album. Not just because they are living legends of krautrock who helped shape electronic music as we know it. Not just because they are in their '70s and still making amazing music. Not just because their instore performance here at AQ a couple years ago left everyone in awe... those are all reasons why we love Cluster in general so it would be easy to just talk about all their past attributes, but the new record doesn't rely on the past, at all!
While Cluster have released a few live records recently, this is their first full on studio album in fourteen years! On Qua they do revisit some of the classic Cluster sounds immortalized on records like Zuckerzeit and Sowiesoso, but what we really love about the album is how they aren't just rehashing the Cluster of old. They continue to explore different sound palettes and the musical options and directions those new sounds open up to them. Using their synths they carefully craft these seventeen tracks and while each seems to have a life of its own they are woven together in such a compelling way. Listening to Qua is hearing two masters at their craft weaving sounds together, creating such interesting patterns, shapes and colors. Still at the top of their game all these decades later, Qua ranks high in their mighty back catalog.
MPEG Stream: "Formalt"
MPEG Stream: "So Ney"
MPEG Stream: "Ymstrob"
MPEG Stream: "Putoil"

COALESCE Ox (Relapse) cd 15.98
Who would have thought we'd ever see a new Coalesce album, ever again? After a spate of unbelievable records, and a fairly acrimonious breakup, we figured we'd have to make do with Give Them Rope and Revolution In Just Listening and Functioning on Impatience, which hell, is the sort of 'making do' most bands would kill to be able to offer their faithful. But this new Coalesce pretty much picks up right where the last one left off, after a 10 year break, the sound is immediately recognizable, churning chugging super complex mathy post hardcore metal fury, stop start arrangements, lurching mosh worthy blowouts, the guitars massive, the drumming relentless, and the vocals, how can Sean Ingram still sound like this ten years later? Actually how can he even speak after a decade of vitriolic bellowing. But for all that stayed the same, a lot has changed in the decade since Revolution. On "The Comedian In Question", the band break down into a sort of droned out lope, and the vocals slip into some clear crooning, the sound is definitely sort of Alice In Chains, but on Coalesce it sounds so good. Great in fact.
Then there's the beginning of "Wild Ox Moan", a total lo-fi distorted blues jam, again with clean vox, the guitar clangy and clean, some slippery slide slipped in as well, before the band erupts into another furious pounding anvil to the skull. Long stretches of reverbed nylon string guitar butt up against some of the heaviest punishment these guys have ever doled out, which is saying something considering they're old enough to be the parents of most of the kids in the crowd (not counting us old guys), cool angular Drive Like Jehu high end guitar melodies wind around bizarre vocals and spill over into a weirdly groovy churn that sounds as much like Pantera as it does Coalesce, some stripped down jazzy moodiness, and at least one track that is so awesomely off kilter and slippery and dizzy, the whirling woozy guitars constantly causing the listener's head to spin, and while all the weird shit sticks out the most, it's really not the most prevalent stuff going on here, although the weirdness does seep into most of the more classic Coalesce sounding riffage, even so, the majority of this record IS in fact classic sounding Coalesce, just a bit more twisted, still heavy as fuck, and still weirdly catchy, maybe more so then ever, the weird stuff only makes it cooler and more fun.
Killer packaging too, beautiful silver and black-on-black digipak, with one of the most elaborate die cut booklets we've ever seen.
MPEG Stream: "The Plot Against My Love"
MPEG Stream: "The Comedian In Question"
MPEG Stream: "Wild Ox Moan"
MPEG Stream: "Designed To Break A Man"

COLLINS, WILLIAM FOWLER Perdition Hill Radio (Type) cd 15.98
We were big fans of William Fowler Collins' debut album, Western Violence & Brief Sensuality, so we're very happy to see that his follow-up, Perdition Hill Radio is being released on one of our favorite experimental labels, Type. Fitting right at home between Koen Holtkamps's dreamy effervescent drift and Svarte Greiner's darkly spectral shipwreck atmospherics, Collins offers an intense nocturnal Western counterpart to the unrelenting Southwest heat of his debut. And from the image of a dim moon behind a dark looming hill on the cover, it's obvious this is a much more doom-laden outing than before. Like slow motion black holes opening in the dark desert sand, the guitar drones that Collins conjures undulate and pull us down into a nether world of enveloping starless night, the air electric with magnetic activity and static radio transmissions that churn and dissipate in an infernal ebb and flow of sonic waves. Like moving indiscernible shapes in the dim light, uncertain sounds peek out through the din, prowling animal growls, ghostly disembodied dialogue like EVP transmissions buried under sheets of noise that at times conjure images of passing trains, horse-led stagecoaches, mysterious Native American rituals, and swarms of flies. The song titles like "Grave Robbing In Texas" and "Slow Motion Prayer Circle" only add to the dread and mystery of what those fleeting sounds could allude to. On the album's 21 minute centerpiece, "Dark Country Road", the far-off echoing twang of a slide guitar can be heard fading into the distance before a mountainous dronescape rises out of the still air and crests tunnel-like into an inky pool of uneasy shimmer for much of its length (the vinyl version ends in a locked groove!). Only on the last song, "The Ghosts of Eden Trail", does the sound brighten up into a beautifully levitating and expansive drifting ambience offering just a glimpse of torturing hope. The limited double vinyl version contains a side-long bonus track, "Saturnine Reverie" not on the cd. We have often said that Earth's later records are Cormac McCarthy novels in song, but Perdition Hill Radio is the closest comparison to an imagined soundtrack for The Road that we have ever heard, and that of course means this has our highest recommendation!!!
MPEG Stream: "Grave Robbing In Texas"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Country Road"
MPEG Stream: "On Perdition Hill"

COLLINS, WILLIAM FOWLER Perdition Hill Radio (Type) 2lp 23.00
We were big fans of William Fowler Collins' debut album, Western Violence & Brief Sensuality, so we're very happy to see that his follow-up, Perdition Hill Radio is being released on one of our favorite experimental labels, Type. Fitting right at home between Koen Holtkamps's dreamy effervescent drift and Svarte Greiner's darkly spectral shipwreck atmospherics, Collins offers an intense nocturnal Western counterpart to the unrelenting Southwest heat of his debut. And from the image of a dim moon behind a dark looming hill on the cover, it's obvious this is a much more doom-laden outing than before. Like slow motion black holes opening in the dark desert sand, the guitar drones that Collins conjures undulate and pull us down into a nether world of enveloping starless night, the air electric with magnetic activity and static radio transmissions that churn and dissipate in an infernal ebb and flow of sonic waves. Like moving indiscernible shapes in the dim light, uncertain sounds peek out through the din, prowling animal growls, ghostly disembodied dialogue like EVP transmissions buried under sheets of noise that at times conjure images of passing trains, horse-led stagecoaches, mysterious Native American rituals, and swarms of flies. The song titles like "Grave Robbing In Texas" and "Slow Motion Prayer Circle" only add to the dread and mystery of what those fleeting sounds could allude to. On the album's 21 minute centerpiece, "Dark Country Road", the far-off echoing twang of a slide guitar can be heard fading into the distance before a mountainous dronescape rises out of the still air and crests tunnel-like into an inky pool of uneasy shimmer for much of its length (the vinyl version ends in a locked groove!). Only on the last song, "The Ghosts of Eden Trail", does the sound brighten up into a beautifully levitating and expansive drifting ambience offering just a glimpse of torturing hope. The limited double vinyl version contains a side-long bonus track, "Saturnine Reverie" not on the cd. We have often said that Earth's later records are Cormac McCarthy novels in song, but Perdition Hill Radio is the closest comparison to an imagined soundtrack for The Road that we have ever heard, and that of course means this has our highest recommendation!!!
MPEG Stream: "Grave Robbing In Texas"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Country Road"
MPEG Stream: "On Perdition Hill"

DEATH CHEETAH s/t (Celibate Celebrity) 3" cd-r 9.98
Death Cheetah is probably a name new to you, it was to us, the man behind Death Cheetah though you might know as the guy who painted that bad ass pile of skulls album cover for the recent AmocomA record on tUMULt, he also contributed to the short lived Matter tape of the month series we reviewed a while back, but this super limited 3" is the first recording from the curiously named one man band, a teaser for an upcoming full length, but it's doubtful that could possibly be as cool as these. LIMITED TO 20 COPIES, of which we got ALL 20, each one hand painted, every single one super striking and unique, just like the music inside.
Three tracks, the first one is some sort of brooding Bohren like crawl, all skittery brushed drums and deep rumbling low end, ominous hushed vocals, little muted flurries of soft focus keyboard, a blissed out nightmarish creep, slithery and shimmery and dark dark dark, almost jazzy, but more in a Necks sort of way, some seriously deeeeep slowcore minimalism, that builds to more of a downtempo plod near the end.
The second track is totally different, stuttery dubbed out drums, dubstep style fuzzed out synth bass rumbles, shouted distorted vocals, a woozy post punk dubby groove, flecked with shards of reverb drenched guitar, streaks of synthesizer, it sounds like some lost eighties DIY deathfunk jam, but a bit more freaked out and abstract. The closing track veers more toward the minimalism of the opener, spare bits of guitar flutter, jazzy skittery drums, flickers of flute, acoustic guitar, tons of space, a slow slow late night drift, abstract and dreamy, smoke-y and gauzy and so so nice.
Hard to get a handle on just what Death Cheetah is all about, three tracks, three different directions, but we like them all, and in some strange way they do all link together, and flow, and when taken with the meticulously hand painted covers, this is a gorgeous piece of outsider soundart, and one that won't be around for long, grab one of these quick or steel yourself for a long wait for the full length...
MPEG Stream: "Cloning Device"
MPEG Stream: "The Book That Bit Me"

DOUBLE DAGGER More (Thrill Jockey) cd 14.98
We've definitely said it before, but it bears repeating. As much as we love endless squalls of black buzz, long drawn out low end drones, noise of every stripe, and music that is less music and more SOUND, we do love SONGS. And bands who write songs. Kick ass super rocking songs. When we step back and observe objectively, it's strange how few 'rock bands' there are. Guitars, bass, drums, verses, choruses, and yeah, we know that's not nearly enough, but when a band like that has the chops and more importantly THE SONGS to back it up, then holy shit, look out.
We heard Double Dagger for the first time on Thrill Jockey's Record Store Day release Records Toreism (of which we have a very few copies left!), we described their song as "kick ass, super distorted, howly, drum heavy, bass heavy, arty, angular, crunchy, almost a bit metal post punk", which we're happy to report is still the case on this, their debut full length.
A chaotic, heady mix of all the things we love about math rock, post rock, noise rock, emo and screamo, equal parts Fugazi, Pavement and Fucked Up, a churning juggernaut of thick super distorted bass, pounding mathy rhythms and yowled vocals that definitely sound like the perfect mix of Ian Mackaye and Stephen Malkumus, and yeah, NO guitars, not that you'd ever notice, the bass is massive, thick and undulating, sometimes dripping with crumbling distortion, other times as clear as a bell, definitely reminiscent of Lightning Bolt's Brian Gibson, but way more indie rock. And the songs, awesome, super mathy and complex, weirdly dense and convoluted, but with hooks galore, totally takes us back to the nineties glory days of this sort of sound, and reminds us how awesome music can be when it IS more than just cool sounds. And these songs have been lodged in our heads like crazy since we first got this in, and it's obvious from listening to these guys rock, how amazing they must be live, wild and sweaty and blown out and fun as fuck. Which pretty much perfectly describes More.
MPEG Stream: "No Allies"
MPEG Stream: "Vivre Sans Temps Mort"
MPEG Stream: "We Are The Ones"

DOUBLE DAGGER More (Thrill Jockey) lp 15.98
We've definitely said it before, but it bears repeating. As much as we love endless squalls of black buzz, long drawn out low end drones, noise of every stripe, and music that is less music and more SOUND, we do love SONGS. And bands who write songs. Kick ass super rocking songs. When we step back and observe objectively, it's strange how few 'rock bands' there are. Guitars, bass, drums, verses, choruses, and yeah, we know that's not nearly enough, but when a band like that has the chops and more importantly THE SONGS to back it up, then holy shit, look out.
We heard Double Dagger for the first time on Thrill Jockey's Record Store Day release Records Toreism (of which we have a very few copies left!), we described their song as "kick ass, super distorted, howly, drum heavy, bass heavy, arty, angular, crunchy, almost a bit metal post punk", which we're happy to report is still the case on this, their debut full length.
A chaotic, heady mix of all the things we love about math rock, post rock, noise rock, emo and screamo, equal parts Fugazi, Pavement and Fucked Up, a churning juggernaut of thick super distorted bass, pounding mathy rhythms and yowled vocals that definitely sound like the perfect mix of Ian Mackaye and Stephen Malkumus, and yeah, NO guitars, not that you'd ever notice, the bass is massive, thick and undulating, sometimes dripping with crumbling distortion, other times as clear as a bell, definitely reminiscent of Lightning Bolt's Brian Gibson, but way more indie rock. And the songs, awesome, super mathy and complex, weirdly dense and convoluted, but with hooks galore, totally takes us back to the nineties glory days of this sort of sound, and reminds us how awesome music can be when it IS more than just cool sounds. And these songs have been lodged in our heads like crazy since we first got this in, and it's obvious from listening to these guys rock, how amazing they must be live, wild and sweaty and blown out and fun as fuck. Which pretty much perfectly describes More.
MPEG Stream: "No Allies"
MPEG Stream: "Vivre Sans Temps Mort"
MPEG Stream: "We Are The Ones"

DRIVE LIKE JEHU Yank Crime (Swami) cd 13.98
AT LONG LAST, AGAIN BACK IN PRINT!! Here's what we said seven years ago when Swami first reissued this (and we made it a Record Of The Week):
Sometimes it's hard to believe that certain records just go out of print. I mean who would let the Conet Project go out of print, or Souled American, or the Incredible String Band. It's even weirder when the record is not old or obscure. Then it's usually some bureaucratic red tape or major label bullshit that keeps people from hearing some great record. Such is the case with the second, ultimate release from San Diego's Drive Like Jehu, originally released on Interscope in 1994. A record Allan and Andee and Jim and Sadie and Windy and quite possibly the rest of the AQ staff would rank as one of the best rock records ever! Easily as good/important as Slint's Spiderland. For those who don't know, Drive Like Jehu was fronted by John Reis of Rocket From The Crypt (who has now reissued Yank Crime on his own Swami label) and featured vocalist Rick Farr (his rock name, he's also known as Eric Froberg) who later went on with Reis to play in the Hot Snakes. Drive Like Jehu also just happened to have one of the tightest rhythm sections EVER. E V E R! Yank Crime is a tightly wound record of 'post rock' (before post rock meant watered down instrumental indie rock bullshit) with head nodding, repetitive grooves, propulsive, ultra concise drumming, and some of the most inventive guitar playing we've ever heard. All topped off with Farr's distinctive high pitched vocals (familiar to all you folks who dig the Hot Snakes). The songs are looooong and hypnotic but never boring. The band locks into totally intense, static grooves, that can go on for minutes before exploding into mayhemic bursts of controlled fury. So goddamn good. Anyone who likes the Hot Snakes MUST own this record. Drive Like Jehu is like a hyper charged, heavier, more intense and complex, MUCH BETTER Hot Snakes. Anyone who likes Feuhler or Don Cab or Slint or Engine Kid or almost any post rock will discover what all those other comers had been shooting for. This is IT. Trust us. An automatic AQ "record of the week" selection as soon as we heard it was finally being re-released - with three bonus tracks to boot! ("Bullet Train To Vegas" and "Hand Over Fist" from their Merge label 7", and the original version of "Sinews" from a Cargo/Headhunter compilation.) So even if you have the original you might want to get this reissue for those.
MPEG Stream: "Do You Compute"
MPEG Stream: "Sinews"

DRUDKH Microcosmos (Season Of Mist) cd 13.98
The return of Ukrainian black metal legends Drudkh! In the past, the Ukraine have given us Hate Forest and Nokturnal Mortum and Astrofaes and Lucifugum and so many more, but Drudkh somehow always manage to overshadow their blackened brethren, their sound transcendent and otherworldly, at once grim and frosty and black, but at the same time timeless and epic and majestic and melodic. Few black metal bands could release an all acoustic folk record, and imbue it with the same sort of intensity and emotion, but Drudkh did just that with Songs Of Grief And Solitude, a folk record that one might assume would most definitely not appeal to metalheads, but we've yet to meet a black metal freek who didn't also love that record. Definitely speaks to the band's power and originality and energy.
Something strange seems to be going on currently with Drudkh and their catalog though (or maybe with Drudkh and their old label Supernal), all of their previous records are currently out of print and unavailable, which makes the arrival of Microcosmos even more timely. Continuing on from where the brilliant Estrangement left off, the sound of Drudkh is a dizzying blend of old world folk music, melodic metal, and of course grim buzzing blackness. The record begins with a brief bit of baroque court music, some old school folk, all buzzing strings and simple percussion, Eastern melodies and warm wheezing textures, before the second song kicks in with a flurry of frenetic buzz and wildly blasting drums, the main guitar immediately unfurling a totally epic and timeless sounding melody. The band establishing in a matter of seconds that they have returned, and all other black minions must bow down or be smote. The nearly ten minute epic is packed with twists and turns, as we described Drudkh songs in a past review, an epic sonic journey, from soaring washed out melodic whir, to howled blasting fury, to woozy mid tempo grooves laced with heart rending minor key melodies, stretches of Deathspell-ish gnarled riffage, even a drifty acoustic interlude, with steel string guitars, weird bits of buzz and fragmented riffage and some scraped atonal bass, before lurching back into a blown out Godspeedian majestic black coda.
And so it goes for the whole record. Four songs, all hovering around ten minutes, the guitars intense and massive, the melodies and arrangements so unlikely but so perfect. Strip away the buzz and take away the vocals, and this would be some super dense tripped out folk flecked post rock epic, but as it is, Microcosmos is next level black metal, their naturalist vibe is totally present, the songs and sounds organic and lush, evocative of forests and fjords, of grey skies and snow covered mountains, but the magic most definitely lays in the songs, even the harshest heaviest parts are impossibly melodic, and even the pretty parts often splinter into total buzz drenched chaos. The bass is all over the place (a rarity in the realm of black metal), throbbing and pulsing, adding melodic counterpoint as often as it does texture and ambience, the vocals appropriately harsh and howled, but really, they seem to just merge with the music, a gorgeously blackened metal that easily slips from relentless blasting, to Burzumic plod, to seasick lurch, all blended into a sound that while on the surface is most definitely black metal, is ultimately a strain of blackness that could only be Drudkh.
In the past we've mentioned the bands possibly problematic politics, but recently the band issued a statement to the effect that the absence of lyrics and information, the no photos, no interviews, no website policy is purposeful, and this dearth of information is what led some folks to posit that the band espoused ideals in line with the NSBM movement, when in fact, the band claim to be apolitical, and to promote "individualism, self-improvement and estrangement from modern values." So there.
MPEG Stream: "Distant Cries Of Cranes"
MPEG Stream: "Decadence"
MPEG Stream: "Ars Poetica"

ENCOMIAST / THE COPPER THIEVES 139 Nevada : Masked Mirror / Slam Your Doors In Golden Silence (Lens) 2cd-r 15.98
Latest from Encomiast, a long time aQ fave, whose expansive mysterious dark drones have never failed to blow us away, but this is not just a new album, it's a sprawling double disc concept record split between two separate groups, and recorded in one of the most haunted buildings in Colorado. The story behind this record revolves around the Belvedere Theater in Central City, Colorado, a group of musicians repeatedly visited with the idea of capturing EVP (aka electromagnetic voice phenomena), where else but an extremely haunted old theater would one be able to capture the voices of the dead, but alas, no such sounds were discovered or captured, BUT, the musicians did manage to record, and those recordings were reworked into the two discs found here. The first is by Encomiast, the second is by a group called The Copper Thieves, which is Encomiast along with members of Mandible Chatter. Both discs conjure up the dark spirit of that theater, each in its own way.
The Encomiast disc is downright frightening, all creaking moaning low end, deep ominous rumbles, all manner of tiny sounds drifting up out of the inky blackness, cold and sinister, abstract and ephemeral, the sounds of the theater's busted up old grand piano, smeared into blurred atonal clouds of clustered notes, the overtones drifting like lost specters, voices moan and bellow, the natural room sound as much an instrument as anything else, these deep dark drones totally evoke the spirit of that haunted space, headphone required, to truly get lost, and submerge yourself in these seemingly bottomless sounds.
The Copper Thieves disc is not nearly as minimal, but just as ominous and haunting, the piano again plays a big part, but the notes are distorted and blurred into a massive warm wall of softly crumbling sound, which gives way to a strange haunted house of thumps and creaks and glitches and disembodied voices, groaning layers of low end thrum, soft filed of overtones overlap chiming bells, pounded notes on the piano drift up from below like monstrous growls, the disc finishing of with long tones, that seem to glow, warm and almost sun dappled, as if capturing shafts of light, drawing delicate lines on the dusty floor, and illuminating the snowflake like motes drifting in the still air.
Both discs are fantastic, darkly evocative, and gorgeously droney, for fans of Lustmord, Andrew Chalk, Jonathan Coleclough, Troum, Organum and other droning denizens of the dark...
LIMITED TO ONLY 200 COPIES, a double cd-r housed in a textured cardboard box, hand stamped on the outside with two printed inserts featuring liner notes and photos.
MPEG Stream: ENCOMIAST "Freed From Time Yet Vulnerable To Air"
MPEG Stream: ENCOMIAST "A Nervous Light"
MPEG Stream: THE COPPER THIEVES "Something Shines Through"
MPEG Stream: THE COPPER THIEVES "Slam Your Doors"

ES Kesamaan Lapset (Fonal) cd 17.98
Brand new record from this Finnish aQ fave, every new album a slowly blossoming mystery in sound, whether it's manipulated chunks of old vinyl, rickety campfire psychedelia, or expansive soundscapes of delicate crystalline shimmer. Es is the musical monicker of Sami Sanpakkila, who also plays in some other aQ Finnish favorites, most notably Kemialliset Ystavat and Kiila, and who is often joined by various members of the ever shifting and constantly collaborating Finnish underground community.
Kesamaan Lapset seems to be a record composed and performed entirely on keyboards and synthesizers, the opening track is a gloriously sun dappled chunk of skittery sunshiney new age synths, lush swoonsome swells of fuzzy whir, tinkling little melodies, and soft tangles of squiggly glitches, looped and chopped, like a more kinetic caffeinated Oval. The follow up begins with some circusy lo-fi keyboard melodies, that get more and more dense and intricate before the vocals swoop in, super effected and lush, wrapped in delay and reverb, ghostly and otherworldly, drifting lazily and dreamily over the softly chaotic jumble of tones and melodic fragments, managing to be pretty and soft, but fractured and off kilter at the same time.
The first of the two long tracks is a slow building dronescape, thick swells of warm lush organ whir, beneath delicate spidery piano melodies, the whole thing growing ever brighter and more insistent, various keyboards beginning to stutter and skitter creating all manner of incidental rhythms before finishing off in a dense swirl of hissy soft focus drift.
The 21 minute title track is all woozy dream pop, female vocals, over a constantly undulating bed of looped pianos and swirling synths, male vocals offer up some unlikely harmonies, horns slowly surface as do gauzy clouds of effects, before transforming into a deep, dark, almost brooding bit of keyboard driven drift, replete with all manner of Oval like digital glitch, warbly and underwater sounding, super hypnotic and intense, eventually giving way to a strange bit of majestic fanfare before fading out in a brief blur of warm abstract melody.
The final brief track is a buzzed out coda, all electronic glitchery, fuzzy drones, plonked electric piano, howled vocals buried in the mix, tons of grit and texture, buzz and whir, like a way more abstract Animal Collective.
Certainly a bit different than any of the other Es releases, but in its own warm and warped, tripped out and twisted way, a logical extension of Es's ever expanding soundworld. And we dig it.
As always, the packaging is super cool full color 4 panel gatefold, with some amazing childhood photos, printed insert with more cool art and liner notes, and a gold and white printed obi.
MPEG Stream: "Ennen Oli Huonommin"
MPEG Stream: "Kesa Ja Hymyilevat Huulet"
MPEG Stream: "Sateet Sun Sielusta"

EXPO 70 Ostara (Small Doses) 3"cd-r 4.98
What more to say about Justin Wright and his Expo 70 that we haven't already? Every record so far a deep dense slab of drifting droning outer space krautdrone heaviness. And this 22 minute single song ep is no exception.
Taking the glacial downtuned rumble of SUNNO))), and sending it spinning into the outer reaches of the galaxy, Wright crafts another expansive psychedelic, smoldering downtuned dronescape, merging a blissy dreaminess with a seriously caustic heaviness, the two blend and blur into one single epic long form drone, flecked with delicate melodies, constantly shifting textures, overtones surfacing all over the place, the entire track a single heaving organic whole, throbbing and pulsing and whirring and rumbling, if they decided to remake Cosmos (how could you without Carl Sagan?!?!?) updated and modernized, this would be the soundtrack for all of the various and glorious goings on in the universe, exploding supernovas, births of planets, swirling black holes, this is the sound of blackness extending into space, spreading out endlessly, forever and forever.
Gorgeous and breathtaking, Expo 70 is definitely creating some of the most gorgeous dronemusic we've ever heard. And Ostara is yet another fantastic addition to Wright's stunning, and constantly expanding body of work.
LIMITED TO 102 COPIES. Comes in a mini plastic sleeve, with a diecut triangular insert that folds out into a pyramid. Cool!
MPEG Stream: "Ostara (excerpt)"

EXPO '70 Center Of The Earth (Sonic Meditations) cassette 5.98
Now available on tape! Super rad old school style cassettes, with cool full color multi panel sleeves printed inside and out!
Third missive from our new favorite modern ambient space rock / krautrocky outfit. As if there were even any other contenders. These guys (or this guy rather) came out of nowhere and just blew our fucking minds. Expo '70, aka Justin Wright, has, over the last few months. given us two full lengths of gloriously dreamy kraut infused dronemusic, looped cyclical guitars, thick waves of smeared riffs and muted murky FX. A heavier, dronier take on Eno, Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Tempel. This latest transmission from the deepest reaches of the Expo '70's universe, is by far the heaviest and most aggressive sounding yet, as if they decided to give the boys in SUNNO))) and Earth a run for their money. But this is not just some massive slab of caveman sludge, instead this is an ominous soundworld of thick coruscating waves of grinding low end guitar fuzz, roiling and churning, but with a propulsive inner pulse, like some lost Ash Ra jam dipped in tar, and launched into the ether. Or if the other two Expo '70 records were the sounds of drifting weightlessly through space, the stars a distant shimmer, everything muted and slowly shifting, like some huge black expanse of water, Center Of The Earth is the sound of the sky buckling, the galaxy fracturing, of being sucked into some mysterious other universe, a subterranean world beneath our visible existence, murky and turbulent, a darkness impenetrable except for a few swirling swaths of grey light, quickly tangled up in the dark, the endless drift into a black hole, the sound a reverberating whir, a massive resonant hum that thickens and intensifies, until you can feel the drone in your bones, every cell in your body vibrating sympathetically, until you slip into glorious blackness. The final track is like the aftermath, your ship a ruined wreckage, floating through the sky, just another piece of debris in a sky full of memories and regrets and ruin, a drifting blissed out space rock riff beneath abstract streaks of psychedelia, wrapped in a gauzy film, the rays of some alien sun lighting up the sky and wrapping you in warm shadows. So gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

FATHER MURPHY ...And He Told Us To Turn To The Sun (Aagoo / Boring Machines / Madcap Collective) lp 13.98
Not only have these current aQ faves been playing shows all over the US recently, and not only did they get to open for the Sandy Bull movie that just played right across the street, they also stopped by aQ to hang out, and were the coolest nicest folks EVER. They also dropped a bunch of lps off, the vinyl version of ...And He Told Us To Turn To The Sun, the cd version of which we raved about not too long ago, so if you somehow missed out on the cd, or were holding out for the vinyl, now's the time...
We get sent a ton of stuff to check out. And it's awesome, truly, there's so much amazing music to discover, but at the same time it's so overwhelming. But every once in a while a record pops up that makes it all worth while. Such is the case with this record from these Italian weirdos Father Murphy. What makes it even cooler is that this record, and this band, are SO hard to describe.
It's a bit like folk, a little bit like post punk math rock, a little avant noise, but stripped way down into something skeletal, they definitely sound a little bit like one of the new breed of freak folk psych folk cd-r outfits, but at the same time, they sound like NOTHING you've ever heard. Detuned guitar plod, spaced out rhythmic thump, lots of deep shimmery ambience and FX drenched drifts, wavery falsetto crooning, warbly organs, and the occasional bursts of feral yowling, wow. Unhinged, fractured, freaky, passionate, super intense and awesome.
In discussing Father Murphy, other reviewers have mentioned Robert Wyatt, This Heat, Samla Mamas Manna, we also hear plenty of Marc Ribot in the guitars, all angular and off kilter, there's also some mysterious female vocals that surface here and there, field recordings, crickets, birds, all beneath weepy mournful Morricone-ish twang, a sound both woozy and ominous, dreamy and dense, a glorious deathlike dirge, part Dirty Three, part fluttery forest folk, a little wheezy organ dirge pop, some slooooooowed down Blonde Redhead, like we said this is super hard to describe. but what we do know is we love it. And you will do, if your tastes run toward the dark, the dolorous, the mysterious, the haunting, the dirgey and the deathlike.
VERY LIMITED!
MPEG Stream: "We Were Colonist"
MPEG Stream: "I Sob No More Rage"
MPEG Stream: "In Their Graves"

FLOOD Native (Meteor City) cd 11.98
More crushing slo-mo heaviness from right here in SF... For a while it seemed like most of the bands we were hearing ooze out of the Bay Area tended toward the psychedelic (Wooden Shjips, Sleepy Sun, etc), or at the the other end of the spectrum, the abstract and avant, but SF has a rich history of extreme heaviness as most music obsessives are well aware, and recently, there seems to be yet another heaving, pummeling wave of misanthropic metallic crush burbling to the surface, Prizehog for one, a killer 3 piece, drums guitar and synth, who we dug so much we had play our South By Southwest showcase, and they did in fact lay waste. And now Flood, another band that seem to have a little Harvey Milk in 'em, which is NEVER a bad thing. A sludgey, doomy, lugubrious crawl, lots of space, chords sprawling and ringing out, the drums a sporadic pound, the song almost skeletal, until the band lock in and PULVERIZE.
The weird thing about Flood, is that even at their heaviest, they still sound a little dreamy, a little blissed out, the sound more woozy and washed out and warm than jagged and sharp, but somehow that doesn't at all take away from their power. What it does more than anything, is add a space rocky psychedelic element, sometimes subtle, other times more overt, but always seemingly present.
The vocals bellow, wreathed in clouds of reverb and delay, the songs groove, but slowly, dizzily, the band tight, but able to sound loose. There are long stretches of blissed out minimal shimmer, some cool, moody mathy breakdowns, even some abstract ambience with waves crashing, wind, bird call, but all woven into Flood's tripped out, doom-ed stoner space sludge. Killer stuff. For anyone who digs, Sleep, Om, Harvey Milk, Prizehog, Melvins, Wildildlife, Like A Kind Of Matador, Zoroaster, Electric Wizard and all those sorts of spaced out heavies.
MPEG Stream: "Aphelion"
MPEG Stream: "Dam"

GNAW THEIR TONGUES Die Mutter Wahlt Das Todtenkleidchen (Universal Consciousness) cd 11.98
Two long out of print cd-r's from our favorite symphonic black doom noize combo, gets the ultra deluxe reissue treatment. Both Die Mutter Wahlt Das Todtenkleidchen, originally released on Corps-Morts (the first thing we ever heard from GTT), and Dawn Breaks Open Like A Wound That Bleeds Afresh originally released on Universal Tongue, are both represented here in full, and on top of that, there are THREE unreleased bonus tracks, so even folks who have those original cds will probably want this, not just for the bonus tracks (although that might be enough), but to have those two out of print cd-r's on a proper cd!! Gorgeous packaging too, super striking 6 panel digipak, comes with a GTT sticker too.
Not sure how we first heard about Gnaw Their Tongues, pretty sure a customer recommended them, but believe us when we say that the words Gnaw Their Tongues had barely left their lips (or maybe more accurately, the words had barely left the email and reached our cerebral cortex) and we were already smitten. How could they not rule with a name like that? The question was merely HOW they would rule, dark and creepy? Heavy and harsh? Doom? Blacknoise? Drone? Howabout all of those?! Oh yeah, it's almost like someone snuck into the AQ barracks in the middle of the night to scan our minds and see what kind of bands we dreamed about, the bands our subconscious really wished existed. 
They took all the data back to their lair, the one hidden beneath that big scary mountain, and spent years analyzing it, and creating equations, chemicals, compounds, months in an underground lab, until eventually the whole project was forgotten. 
Until years later, when a record store employee was hiking and discovered the ruins of some old, well, it looked like a fortress, maybe a lair, and decided, against all the wisdom gleaned from a million after school specials, to explore. Way down deep in the dusty recesses of this old forgotten lair, this record store feller discovered some sort of portal, rusted shut it seemed, and adorned with messages in some strange language, an alien tongue if you will, they looked like warnings, but what the heck, shit like that only happens in horror movies, so the feller went about trying to unlock the portal, and after what seemed like ages, the lock clicked, and the rusty metal swung open, and suddenly all was blackness, and dripping red, and agony and misery, and hell embodied on earth, in the form of this filthy black musick. 
That filthy black musick was in fact these two musical documents by these mysterious black beasties known as Gnaw Their Tongues. Who on Die Mutter Wahlt Das Todtenkleidchen, spew forth a caustic noxious ultradoom. A black metallized lurch and stumble, harsh, hellish vocals buried beneath an avalanche of corrosive guitar, strange alien ambience, and mechanical monster drumming. Horrible and grotesque and dizzyingly brutal, but with tiny vestiges of beauty and melody, occasionally visible through the dense black sonic fog. Stretches of distorted doom verging on the beautiful, separating gut wrenching squalls of utter black chaos. And that's just the first track. 
The second is like the first, only fast. Really fast. Like sticking your head into the middle of a lightning storm. Like Velvet Caccoon and Wold and AmacomA all playing simultaneously, at full volume, broadcast through Konono's PA, until your ears bleed, but it's not all pain and suffering, this  whirling world of sound is again strangely melodic, twisted into some almost pop like shapes, but always quickly bathed in blackness and sent spinning back into the fray. 
"29 Needles" is a step away from the end, and is some sort of industrial plod, a garish landscape of bleak brutality, sparse ultradistorted percussion, clouds of caustic whir, creepy ghostlike voices, the sort of sounds that make Wolf Eyes sound like the Carpenters. A musical death march through a world of fire and death and destruction, of keening musical misery and downtuned sonic punishment. 
Finally, the prophecy is complete with once the sounds of "Die Mutter Wahlt Das Todtenkleidchen" reach the ears of mortal man. The plants wither and the sky grows dim, our hearts beat slower and our blood begins to boil, the earth begins to crack, and slowly we sink into the depths of the underworld, and this is the sound that the end of all things makes. A lonely slowed down low end caterwaul, a rumbling whir peppered with jagged streaks of harsh noise, thick swells of coruscating sonic malevolence, storm clouds of hiss and buzz, a pounding skull splitting din from the heavens, an electrical storm that singes every nerve in your body, leaving you paralyzed, supine, blind, and mute, with only your ears ringing painfully, just barely able to make out the dying gasps of life as we know it.
Then came Dawn Breaks Open Like A Wound That Bleeds Afresh. We almost missed out on it completely. The original version limited to 100 copies or so, we tried to order 40 and were informed they only had a handful left. So we begged and pleaded, and the label agreed to press up 40 more copies just for us, and thus for you. But those were gone before we knew it. Which is why this reissue is such a godsend (satansend?) Since we first discovered this band we had become pretty obsessed. As have the aQ blacknoize minions, judging from how quick we sell out of Gnaw records. They're heavy, they're super fucked up, it's not just black metal or sludge, it's some head spinning hybrid equal parts abstract industrial, ambient collageblasting blackness, hyperspeed grind, blackdrone, harsh and hellish, but strangely musical.
Dawn Breaks Open Like A Wound That Bleeds Afresh finds GTT at their most black metal. The first two tracks, while laced with bits of orchestral grandeur, and blown out crumbling bliss, spend most of their time blasting away, but even then, there are bits of melodic flair here and there, the distortion is so thick and intense, the whole thing threatens to blur into some thick whirring drone, the opener has a killer breakdown groove, utterly majestic and epic, before flitting back to the black blast. The second track is another blackened monster, furiously thrashing and convulsing wildly, but it too is peppered with bits of glimmering effulgence, and a middle breakdown where distorted guitars are pitched up and allowed to shimmer ominously like some Bernard Hermann score, before the metal drops back in, transforming the track into a pummeling slow motion Godflesh style industrial dirge that eventually launches itself back into a furious burst of grim brutality.
The final track is the creepiest of the bunch, long drawn out synth drones, wavering ominously, wrapped in bis of whir and metallic buzz, samples distorted and effected drifting amidst the swirling black ambience, the moodiness eventually overtaken by a thick wave of white noise distortion and what sounds like voices screaming in terror, finally splintering into a hellish black frenzy.
As mentioned in the introduction to this review, in addition to the reissued tracks, this version of Die Mutter also includes three new, unreleased tracks. The first is a gorgeous post industrial orchestral crawl, heaving horns, crunching metallic percussion, guttural vocalizations, blasting beats, exotic strings, long stretches of haunting cinematic ambience, heavy and harrowing, the production fucked up and fractured, the sound woozy and wonderfully grim. The second is more of the same, a lumbering death march painted in broad swaths of majestic strings, buzz drenched guitars, all wrapped around a super spare machinelike pound, fuzzed out Goblin like synths, like a Bernard Hermann score gone haywire. And finally, the awesomely titled closer "I Am The Lord And There Is No Other; I Make The Light, I Create Darkness" (GTT definitely have a way with song and album titles), a slow burning bit of black ambient drift, distant drones, creepy keyboard shimmers, dark layered waves of low end rumble, epic swells of soundtracky creepiness, while all throughout, the track drifts through sprawling fields of mysterious creaks and groans, clatter and crunch. Occasional squalls of orchestral percussion tangle with blurred bits of otherworldly whir, all streaked with sweetly sorrowful strings. So good.
If you're new to Gnaw Their Tongues, and you're into sounds blackened and brutal and bizarre and fucked up and noisy and creepy and epic, then you couldn't find a better place to start than this, and yeah, GTT fanatics, you're definitely gonna want this, even if you have the cd-r's, as we mentioned above, this is some of the best GTT material, finally on a proper cd, but even more importantly, this would be well worth $12 even if it was just a 20 minute / 3 song ep containing only the bonus tracks.
MPEG Stream: "Leichenbergen"
MPEG Stream: "And The Waters Shall Prevail Upon The Earth"
MPEG Stream: "Blood Drenched Altars"
MPEG Stream: "Knife... Martyr... Despair"

GULAGGH Vorkuta (New Era Productions) cd 13.98
Most of you weird music obsessives should probably remember Dutch black ambient freaks Stalaggh, whose MO was creating harsh atonal drones and buzzes, hellish noise drenched soundscapes as backdrops for various vocalists, those vocalists all inmates at a local psychiatric hospital. Yup.
The results were chilling, and creepy, and pretty fucking demented and incredible. Those Stalaggh recordings made even the evilest black metal sound totally tame in comparison. Some seriously emotional, demented and damaged, psychological sonic terror.
Since then, the band has regrouped, now called Gulaggh, with a similar plan of attack, with one little twist, according to the band, Gulaggh will be about "the perversion and inversion of Classical music combined with the vocals of the mentally insane". Definitely sounds good. Or maybe good is not the right word. But like Stalaggh, it seemed like Gulaggh would be equally disturbing.
So here it is. One track, 45 minutes, of totally haunting, mysterious... music? Sound? Soundart? Hard to know how to classify this. The sound of a voice, reverbed, over a deep distant thrum, all wrapped in little bits of hiss and creak, long tones rumble and drone, and then the voices begin to surface, mewling and moaning, groaning and mumbling, all over an insidious low end thrum, horns bleat, various bits of percussion pound scrape, and still the various voices get louder, more and more frenzied, the overall vibe ever more terrifying. The sound does seem to get classical, but more like an orchestra tuning up, abstract tones and atonal bleats and blurps, and then things go fucking apeshit, with all the vocalists, shrieking and screaming and howling, pounding on walls, stomping on floors, the cries growing more and more anguished, then out of nowhere some random drumming comes in, just in the middle of this cacophony of howls and shrieks, building to a frantic climax, before the voices begin to fade, swirling screams, sounding more like kids on a playground, but still intense knowing these aren't kids and they aren't on the playground. The horns step it up, honking and skronking and bleating and moaning, the drums skittering to a halt, then it's a weird fade out, quite voices, humming and murmuring and squeaking beneath the slowly fading horns, streaks of feedback, and that commanding, authoritarian voice from the beginning returns, the track ending how it started.
Holy shit, definitely super intense, and squirm inducing, somewhere between abject black ambience, a horror movie soundtrack, an educational film, a field recording, and a smattering of stumbling musical experimentation. Freaky as all get out, but in it's harrowing miserablism, does lurk moments of beauty, bits of melody, but for the most part those are definitely overshadowed by the evil and misery and terror, that the maniacs in Gulaggh have somehow rendered into music. Or at least sound.
Reservedly recommended. Difficult listening of the highest order, but would definitely be right at home on your cd shelf next to the Conet Project, the Ghost Orchid EVP recordings, and other mysterious and challenging collections of sounds found and otherwise.
MPEG Stream: "Vorkuta (excerpt)"

HASSELVANDER, JOE Road Kill / Lady Killer (Rock Saviour Records) cd 13.98
Pentagram man in sleaze metal shocker! Big hair, bullet belt, snakeskin boots. Sometimes (all the time) you just can't beat good ol' skool heavy metal, '80s style! This reissue is just that, authentic underground '80s metal, recorded circa '84 and '86, capturing the party time sleazy rock vibe of the big hair era, but with an extra doom twist, so while arena Ozzy is one influence, Witchfinder General is another. And Pentagram, definitely Pentagram. That's 'cause this Joe Hasselvander fella is best known as the longtime drummer for those American doom metal legends. (His other claim to fame: since the late '80s, he's also been the drummer for NWOBHM stalwarts Raven.) He was a member of Pentagram for years and years (until recently), in particular a crucial member of the band when they were but a duo, he and wizened vocalist Bobby Liebling together creating Pentagram's comeback classics Review Your Choices (1999) and Sub-Basement (2000), Hasselvander playing not only drums but guitar and bass as well on those albums, as well as penning a good portion of the material! (Reissues of which are back in stock this list by the way.)
So, anyone into Pentagram should be curious about the solo material Hasselvander recorded back in the '80s, and your curiosity will be rewarded if you pick up this disc... it rocks! And demonstrates again that he's a talented multi-instrumentalist, metal songwriter, and a pretty decent singer as well.
It's basic, heavy, fun stuff that's stick-in-your-head catchy. Track 4, "Loud Enough", was echoing 'round my brain for days after first spinning this - you know when you start thinking of a song, your humming it without knowing it, but can't figure out what it is? Listening to as much music as we do here at AQ, that happens now and then, and it took a while before I was able to identify the chorus occupying my mind as being from that song, and this disc.
There's 16 tracks total on this disc, consisting of the Lady Killer lp from 1984 and the Roadkill sessions from '86. Plus, there's two bonus tracks. One's a live recording circa 1979 from another Hasselvander band, Overlord. And then another a live track, "The Ghoul", performed by Death Row (aka Pentagram) from 1982, with Bobby L. on vox of course, another reason for Penta-fans to get this.
The Roadkill material comes first on the disc, probably a good thing 'cause it sounds much better - though all of this has raw sound quality, the budget production of Ladykiller material is especially fuzzed and frazzed with distortion, sounding more like a demo than Roadkill does, even though Roadkill was a demo (later issued on vinyl in the late '90s), while Ladykiller was an actual release in '84.
Apparently Lady Killer was originally intended as an exploito-metal project, supposedly to be an all-girl band a la Girlschool. But when the female singer hired for the session failed to show up, Joe had to sing instead, with no prior vocal experience. He also played all instruments except lead guitar. Universally panned upon release, it's got a bit of a cult status now... but the Road Kill material is stronger, Joe's vocals much improved (since he had a chance to practice 'em) consisting of 8 demo tracks, six by Joe and two by former Pentagram guitarist Victor Griffin. Songs from Road Kill like "Back Door Man" and "Under The Gun" seem like they could have been hits... in the '80s anyway. Kinda like early Twisted Sister, early Motley Crue, or early W.A.S.P (with that extra doomy vibe already mentioned). Heavy and hooky, meat and potatoes American metal, nothing too high falutin', but with tons of underground '80s metal atmosphere.
This is packaged with a thick cd booklet full of lyrics, liner notes from Joe, and vintage photos (including an unbelievably wasted lookin' pic of the now-deceased guy who played guitar on Roadkill, Jay Smith). Recommended to all heshers and headbangers!!
MPEG Stream: "Under The Gun"
MPEG Stream: "Loud Enough"
MPEG Stream: "I'm Alright"

HUNX AND HIS PUNX Teardrops On My Telephone (Shattered Records) 7" 6.98
Oohh la la! Hunx made his first colorful and sassy splash as a member of ultra fun Kill Rock Stars outfit Gravy Train, but in fact he's been contributing to D.I.Y culture ever since he was a young teenager making some of the most amusing and amazing zines we've ever read (if you are ever lucky enough to find his zine about Applebees by all means grab it!).
While it seems that Gravy Train have gone on hiatus, that break has spawned two awesome offshoots as Chunx (Brontez) started his own scrappy garage pop project The Younger Lovers and Hunx has been blasting out saucy, catchy and irresistible bedroom garage pop gems of his own with his new project Hunx And His Punx. Taking inspiration from girl groups, John Waters films and a hot vintage queer aesthetic complete with unzipped black leather jackets and lots of skin, Hunx is truly one of the few out and proud folks making waves in what was until recently a really stale garage pop scene. But wow has that changed in the last year or two as folks like Brilliant Colors, Wavves, Ty Segall, Dum Dum Girls, and more have injected much needed heaps of fresh energy and wild vibes into the scene. Hunx And His Punx lean much more towards the bubble gum side of garage pop in the best way. Kind of like if a young Fred Schneider jammed out Ronettes covers. "Teardrops On My Telephone" could have been the perfect soundtrack to one of those early Kenneth Anger short films. While others who try to inject humor and sass into their pop usually fall so flat, Hunx has the ability to make songs that are as charmingly goofy as they are catchy.
We slept on the now way out of print and wonderfully scandalous scratch and sniff 7" so grab one of these before they too are gone for good.

IOTA Tales (Small Stone) cd 14.98
Detroit's Small Stone label is the one of the most reliable "stoner rock" standard bearers these days. While we don't necessarily like everything they put out, you can bet your bong it's ALL stoner rock. And they do have some great bands on their roster, a few that really push the stoner rock thing into interesting psychedelic directions, including recently reviewed discs from AQ faves Los Natas (El Nuevo Orden De La Libertad) and Sons Of Otis (Exiled), both highlights on our last couple lists. So we figure its worth checking out other stuff on the label, and guess what? Here's one from last year that we had overlooked when it came out, but just one listen and we knew we should get some copies in and review it!
Basically, we could describe Salt Lake City's Iota as being a mixture of trippy Hawkwindiness and more aggressive blues based hard rockin', sorta like (early) Soundgarden or Skin Yard meets the heavier, more spaced out sounds of Sons Of Otis or UFOmammut. One reason we mention Soundgarden and Skin Yard is 'cause of the grungy melodic vocals, which bear a certain resemblance to that of those bands, but otherwise this is HEAVIER and SPACIER than any Seattle grunge for sure. And it's not like the singing is the focus of any of this, whereas interstellar jamming IS. However, it's easy shorthand to say Soundgarden + Sons Of Otis, when you hear this you know what we mean.
The five tracks on this 50 minute disc are programed so you get the two stormers out of the gate, tracks 1 and 2 being the throbbing metallic riff attacks of "New Mantis" and "We Are The Yithians", respectively. Then, it's time to blast off and bliss out, as tracks 3 and 4 are extended trips into the alien drug fantasies depicted in the disc's cool cover art. Those two cuts, "The Sleeping Heathen" (10:42) and the even more massive, nearly 23 minute "Dimensional Orbiter", are equally as heavy as the disc's first two tracks, but just a lot more spaced out. Then there's the fifth and final track, Tales closing with the 8+ minute bluesy nod scene that is the harmonica-laced "Opiate Blues", though it still seems it's a transmission from outer space, despite the earthier overt blues element.
Like we said, one listen and we were bowing down, Iota's Tales pushing all our psychedelic stoner rock buttons, with killer guitar soloing, scifi freakiness, sheer heaviosity, and surprisingly excellent vocals. Very, very cool.
MPEG Stream: "New Mantis"
MPEG Stream: "Dimensional Orbiter"
MPEG Stream: "Opiate Blues"

KHANATE Clean Hands Go Foul (Hydra Head) cd + dvd 16.98
Now available on cd! And, while supplies last, with a limited bonus "End: Capture & Release" live in Chicago 2005 dvd (we only have a few, though - but after those are gone, we'll still have the cd-only version, for just $14.98). Good news, too, is that unlike what'd we'd heard on the unreliable internet, this DOES include the full half hour version the track on the original vinyl's B side, of "Every God Damn Thing", NOT a shorter edit. So, here's what we said when we reviewed the (now out of print) lp version:
Wait, what? Are we having a collective ultra-doom induced dream? A NEW Khanate record?? We'd practically been ready to slit our wrists (or should that be, ready to *stop* slitting our wrists?) when we heard that this sludgey supergroup (featuring members of SUNNO))) and Old) had split up a while back. But here's Hydra Head with a new, vinyl-only (for now, see below) Khanate release! Turns out, it's music they recorded back in 2005-2006 by James Ploktin, Stephen O'Malley and Tim Wyskida, with vocals apparently added later on by the inimitable Alan Dubin. And it's a pretty killer Khanate set, a fitting finale really, taking things to an extreme, emotional, and artistic level that they'd perhaps never reached before - or ever will again, seeing as how this is indeed their last album.
There's four tracks, "Wings From Spine", "Clean My Heart", "In That Corner", and "Every God Damn Thing". All of 'em claustrophobic and chaotic, but it's doomic slow-motion chaos, a ballet of percussive skitter, sculpted feedback, washes of grim drone, and crucially, insane wailing vokillz. Of course, with Khanate (and Dubin's new project Gnaw) a lot depends on how into his vocals you can get - and maybe you should be worried about your mental health if you get really into 'em! His misanthropic throat-peeling rants about, well, every Dubin-damned thing are perhaps an acquired taste, or affliction. We're fans though, yikes...
Musically, on Clean Hands we were struck by the lengthy semi-ambient stretches, seemingly improvised, that provide a disturbingly quiet yet creepy backdrop for Dubin's bloodcurdling extemporizations. The restrained rumble and clatter of these segments certainly build the tension, for the release that comes when the really heavy parts kick in, as of course they ultimately do. The thirty-plus minute "Every God Damn Thing", which takes up all of the B side, is especially hushed and ambient sounding, humming and hissing with fractured bits of amp buzz and jack/cord glitch, it's Khanate at their most Sinistri/Starfuckers-ish. Experimental, more than metal.
MPEG Stream: "Wings From Spine"
MPEG Stream: "Clean My Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Every God Damn Thing"

KIILA Tuota Tuota (Fonal) cd 17.98
Of all the Finnish bands we love, and all the bands on Finnish label Fonal, Kiila might just be the most traditionally indie rock. But then that's really relative, since we're talking about Finland, and the fact that Kiila is made up of members of other, much more far out bands like Es, Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Anaksimadros. So you can figure that even though Kiila traffic in indie rock, it's unlike most indie rock you know.
Right off the bat the first track reminds us of a much more blissed out folkier Animal Collective, chiming guitars, delicate fingerpicking, softly tangled harmonies, reverbed abstract vocals, sunshine-y and dreamy, really quite lovely. The rest of the record is not so blissed out though, the second track is a fiddle laced bit of indie rocking, jangly guitars, propulsive drumming, lots of swirling drone-y organs, and much more traditional sounding vocals, in fact it almost reminds us a little of Wilco, albeit filtered through the cracked Finnish pop sensibility. The rest of the record continues in a simialr direction, channeling much of what we love about indie rock, but infusing it with plenty of twang, Finnish forest folkiness, and plenty of off kilter weirdness, whether it's thick sheets of undulating buzz, fluries of birdsong, streaks of tripped out effects or thick swells of rumbling low end crunch, those various elements are deftly woven into more traditional pop smithery.
A few tracks revisit the dreamy folkiness of the record opener, stripped down to just acoustic guitar, fiddle and voice, while others are almost entirely vocal harmony drive, and at least one is a gorgeous droned out synthscape, and another is a ramshackle horn flecked, chaotically percussive tripped out free jam.
The sounds are lush and beautiful, jangly and poppy, and just a little bit twisted and fractured, they may be the most 'traditional' sounding of all our Finnish faves, but that still means this is weirder and more awesomely abstract thatn 90 percent of music out there.
Gorgeous Fonal packaging as always, the cd in a full color 6 panel cardboard gatefold jacket, with a printed inner sleeve which includes liner notes and lyrics and cool printed Japanese style obi, the vinyl in a normal but quite colorful sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Viisi Hirvasta"
MPEG Stream: "Kevatlaulu"
MPEG Stream: "Portaissa"

KIILA Tuota Tuota (Fonal) lp 17.98
Of all the Finnish bands we love, and all the bands on Finnish label Fonal, Kiila might just be the most traditionally indie rock. But then that's really relative, since we're talking about Finland, and the fact that Kiila is made up of members of other, much more far out bands like Es, Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Anaksimadros. So you can figure that even though Kiila traffic in indie rock, it's unlike most indie rock you know.
Right off the bat the first track reminds us of a much more blissed out folkier Animal Collective, chiming guitars, delicate fingerpicking, softly tangled harmonies, reverbed abstract vocals, sunshine-y and dreamy, really quite lovely. The rest of the record is not so blissed out though, the second track is a fiddle laced bit of indie rocking, jangly guitars, propulsive drumming, lots of swirling drone-y organs, and much more traditional sounding vocals, in fact it almost reminds us a little of Wilco, albeit filtered through the cracked Finnish pop sensibility. The rest of the record continues in a simialr direction, channeling much of what we love about indie rock, but infusing it with plenty of twang, Finnish forest folkiness, and plenty of off kilter weirdness, whether it's thick sheets of undulating buzz, fluries of birdsong, streaks of tripped out effects or thick swells of rumbling low end crunch, those various elements are deftly woven into more traditional pop smithery.
A few tracks revisit the dreamy folkiness of the record opener, stripped down to just acoustic guitar, fiddle and voice, while others are almost entirely vocal harmony drive, and at least one is a gorgeous droned out synthscape, and another is a ramshackle horn flecked, chaotically percussive tripped out free jam.
The sounds are lush and beautiful, jangly and poppy, and just a little bit twisted and fractured, they may be the most 'traditional' sounding of all our Finnish faves, but that still means this is weirder and more awesomely abstract thatn 90 percent of music out there.
Gorgeous Fonal packaging as always, the cd in a full color 6 panel cardboard gatefold jacket, with a printed inner sleeve which includes liner notes and lyrics and cool printed Japanese style obi, the vinyl in a normal but quite colorful sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Viisi Hirvasta"
MPEG Stream: "Kevatlaulu"
MPEG Stream: "Portaissa"

KRAZY BALDHEAD The B-Suite (Ed Banger) cd 16.98
Some of our favorite tracks on the most recent Ed Banger compilation of tripped out psychedelic dancefloor electro synth weirdness came from the awesomely monicker'd Krazy Baldhead, a Frenchman who just might give Justice and the like a run for their francs.
The B-Suite is in fact a nearly 50 minute continuous jam/mix, that takes everything we like about Justice, Ed Banger, the current breed of weirdo electro synth shit, and stirs it up into a massive outer space dance party.
Synths everywhere, that's a give, they buzz and how, and rumble, they get chopped up into throbs and pulses, the get layered into dense walls of sound, they get wrapped around beats, BIG block rockin' beats, skittery laid back beats, housey beats, hip hoppy beats... It's all about the beats and the synths, and they get all tangled up and mashed up and smeared and blurred into pounding late night grooves, druggy sci-fi cinematic slow jams, stuttery chunks of hiccupping hip hop, thumping space aged electro house, whatever the fuck Baldhead can come up with, he's called Krazy for a reason.
Rappers pop up here and there, flowing over stripped down abstract hip hop or woozy groovy future funk, but those brief bits are surrounded on all sides by the aforementioned array of constantly colliding and swerving and shimmering synths, and the non stop avalanche of unlikely beatsmithery.
Insane and insanely catchy robotic electro from another planet, beamed down here in order to melt down dancefloors, soak the populace with sweat, and generally get the party started, even if said party is some next level, futuristic, intergalactic, alien synth shit. Awesome.
Anyone into Justice, Ed Banger records, metal house, and all that sort of far out dancefloor synth damage, this is for YOU.
MPEG Stream: "1st Movement Part. 1"
MPEG Stream: "1st Movement Part. 2"
MPEG Stream: "3rd Movement Part. 1"
MPEG Stream: "4th Movement Part. 3"

LASCOWIEC / MARBLEBOG / VERZIVATAR Deep Horizons Of Eternity (Turanian Honour) cd 13.98
We've been trying to get our hands on enough of these to list for ages, a killer 3 way split of obscure strangely melodic blackness, released on Hungarian label Turanian Honour, featuring long time aQ faves Marblebog, Bay Area depressive black metal duo Lascowiec and Verzivatar, another Hungarian horde we had never heard until now.
Lascowiec, whose killer demo compilation we raved about a while back (which we still have a small handful left), returns with four more tracks of washed out black beauty, darkly depressive and beautifully buzzy, the music of Lascowiec is a blurred and smeared minor key mystery, remove the distorted vokill croak, and you'd be left with a deep swirling shoegazey bit of soft focus buzz. The riffs are muted and muddy, lo-fi but still lush, locked into trancelike loops, woozy and warbly and hypnotic, about as pretty as black metal can sound without ceasing to be black or metal. Spidery tangled little melodies, wreathed in otherworldly effects, distorted but not harsh or jagged, more smoothed out and blissy, the vocals the grimmest element, but for the most part, it's the music that carries Lascowiec, gorgeously mournful, and hauntingly lovely buzzy blackness.
Marblebog offer up two songs, epic and majestic, melodic too, but with some super twisted way UP in the mix vocals, that transform an otherwise loping mysterious minor key dirge into something creeped out and harrowing. The main melody is gorgeous, almost power metal sounding, albeit slowed down and draped over a monotonous doomy drum plod, but those vocals, the perfect blend of harsh and hellish, brooding and pretty. Their second track is another strange blend, this time the guitars and drums are buried beneath thick swirling keyboards, and some fucked up demonic gurgled croaking vocals. Again, the effect is the same, a sort of woozy softly buzzing prettiness transformed into a fractured, Burzumic, off kilter depressive black dirge.
Finally Verzivatar deliver two tracks of fierce and frantic blasting blackness, but like the other two bands on the split, their sound is marked by an unlikely melodiousness, the riffs, frenetic and buzzy are also soaring and majestic, the vocals here too are weird, but less black metal, or really metal at all, more like a raspy punkish howl, or a strangled mewl. Gives Verzivatar a sort of crusty punkish vibe, reminding us a bit of French faerical black metal punks Nuit Noire. Definitely need to hear more from these guys.
All three bands offer up some seriously gorgeous melodic grimness, some surprisingly blissed out black metal buzz, unfortunately this is LIMITED TO 666 COPIES, and has been out for a while, so not sure we can get more. Each one is hand numbered, with a big full color booklet, liner notes, lyrics and the works.
MPEG Stream: LASCOWIEC "By Eight Hooves To Asgard"
MPEG Stream: MARBLEBOG "Rivers Of Eternity"
MPEG Stream: VERZIVATAR "Final Catharsis"

LEMONHEADS Varshons (The End) cd 14.98
Our musical hearts can't help but be warmed by a new Lemonheads record. Sure the last few were pretty meh, And for the last decade Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando has been more well known for drug problems and celebrity dalliances that the punk rock and later indie rock that made the Lemonheads so awesome. And hell, even the last few records, while not even approaching the greatness that was Shame About Ray or Lick or Creator, still had a few killer tracks.
Varshons is the long rumored Lemonheads cover record, and if one can overlook the two unlikely celebrity guest spots, which would be Kate Moss and Liv Tyler, then probably the biggest surprise here is the song selection. Probably most well known to most folks for their cover of Simon And Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson", the Lemonheads always had kick ass and often unlikely covers in their repertoire, Suzanne Vega's "My Name Is Luka", Kiss's "Plaster Caster", Charles Manson's "Home Is Where You're Happy", the Misfits' "Skulls", New Kids On The Block's "Step By Step", the Stone Poney's "Different Drum", Gram Parsons' "Brass Buttons", and this new all covers record continues Dando's eclectic choice of covers, including tracks by GG Allin, Townes Van Zandt, Sam Gopal (Lemmy's pre-Hawkwind outfit), legendary garage rockers Green Fuz, Wire, UK psych rockers July, punk rock legends Fuckemos, Leonard Cohen, and even pop songwriter for hire and former 4 Non Blonde Linda Perry among others. The story is that Dando and Gibby from the Butthole Surfers (who produced the record) became pals and Gibby started making Dando mixtapes like crazy, from which most of these tracks were culled, which helps explain the unlikely inclusion of Texas punk rockers Fuckemos. But how cool is that, we sure wouldn't mind a monthly mixtape from the man responsible for Hairway To Steven and Locust Abortion Technician!
For the most part, none of these tracks is super radical sounding, beyond the fact that the more rocking originals sound a bit stripped down, and the fact that you might not have ever expected to hear the Lemonheads covering GG Allin of Fuckemos, Dando deftly transforms each song, no matter how UN-Lemonheads, into a song that sounds like it could have actually been a Dando original.
Dando's voice is much deeper these days, a bit more raw, so the country-ish tunes here sound great, Gram Parson's "I Just Can't Take It Anymore", Townes Van Zandt's classic "Waiting Around To Die", even GG Allin's expletive laced "Layin' Up With Linda" becomes a David Allan Coe-worthy twangy outlaw country hoedown. The Sam Gopal cover is laced with buzzing sitars and skittery tablas, the July jam is all wah guitars and shuffling percussion, tripped out and psychedelic. Wire's "Fragile" sounds awesome all stripped down and acoustic. The Green Fuz track is slithery and slow burning, with warm guitar buzz and muted rhythms, swirling effects and a druggy swirl of backwards guitars. The Leonard Cohen cover, "Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye" is appropriately dark and moody and torch songy, Liv Tyler offering up some breathy hushed vocals that sound great next to Dando's. But then there's the record's one weak spot, a cover of Arling & Cameron's "Dirty Robot", that either sounds like a favor, or a ploy to get in Kate Moss' panties, she being the one contributing the sung/spoken cold Euro new wave vocals over some crunchy guitars, weird vocoders, and some seriously dated nineties sounding electro. We'll just skip that one and hope it worked.
Minus that one track, we're pretty into all the versions here, or Varshons, we've missed Dando, his voice and that particular Lemonheads sound, let's hope these covers have gotten him all revved up to make a new proper Lemonheads full length. It's about time!
MPEG Stream: "Waiting Around To Die (Townes Van Zandt)"
MPEG Stream: "Green Fuz (Randy Alvey & Green Fuz)"
MPEG Stream: "Yesterlove (Sam Gopal)"

LEVIATHAN / ACHERONTAS Sic Luceat Lux (Zyklon-B Productions) cd 21.00
Seems like rumors regarding the end of Leviathan were greatly exaggerated. Not only is Leviathan still a going concern, but then out of nowhere pops this brand new, bad ass split, with a Greek band called Achernotas, who we knew by name but had never heard until now.
Needless to say, most aQ metalheads won't need much more prodding than the words "new Leviathan record", then there's the fact that the cd AND vinyl version of this split are both insanely limited, which means once we sell out of these, odds are we won't be able to get more, which is a huge bummer, because not only are the Leviathan tracks awesome (obviously), but we're pretty psyched on Acherontas as well.
The Leviathan tracks sound like maybe they're a bit older, perhaps before the shift from electronic drums to acoustic drums, the sound is murky, but still gnarled and chaotic and dense, the arrangements furious and frenzied, the drumming insane, and that unmistakable demonic croak. Lots of glitch and buzz, tangled atonal melodies, a heaving wall of blackened chaos, but it is Leviathan, so there's plenty of dark brooding ambience, some classic metal sounding chug, some spaced out almost doomy sounding blackness, the sound here falls somewhere right between classic Leviathan and the more twisted sonic soundscapes of Lurker Of Chalice.
The Acherontas tracks start off with haunting reverb drenched piano, creating a creepy otherworldly vibe, before the band launches into some super grim sounding black pound, the drums simple but intense, the guitars super distorted, the riffs woozy and minor key, the sound slipping easily from loping Burzumic plod, to proggy almost folky swirl, with clean guitars and strangely complex drumming, smothered in ethereal effects, the vocals especially harsh, dripping with demonic intensity, then suddenly transforming into deep haunting croon, the guitars following suit, growing more and more melodic and lovely, still all wrapped in a haze of distorted buzz, eventually fading out in a blur of minor key miserablism. Really awesome stuff. Definitely need to hear more from these guys.
But for now, if you do want one of these, cd OR lp, act fast, these have been selling like crazy and we're down to about half of what we started with. The cds come in a nice digipak (although be warned, some of the edges are a little worn in shipping, nothing we can do about it, these are probably all we're gonna get), and the lp is a super striking pictured disc, that comes in a heavy sleeve with a printed 12" x 12" insert.
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "Crusted, Blackened"
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "To A Grotesque Of Swollen Flesh"
MPEG Stream: ACHERONTAS "Velvet Aurora"
MPEG Stream: ACHERONTAS "Kornugia"

LEVIATHAN / ACHERONTAS Sic Luceat Lux (Zyklon-B Productions) picture disc lp 31.00
Seems like rumors regarding the end of Leviathan were greatly exaggerated. Not only is Leviathan still a going concern, but then out of nowhere pops this brand new, bad ass split, with a Greek band called Achernotas, who we knew by name but had never heard until now.
Needless to say, most aQ metalheads won't need much more prodding than the words "new Leviathan record", then there's the fact that the cd AND vinyl version of this split are both insanely limited, which means once we sell out of these, odds are we won't be able to get more, which is a huge bummer, because not only are the Leviathan tracks awesome (obviously), but we're pretty psyched on Acherontas as well.
The Leviathan tracks sound like maybe they're a bit older, perhaps before the shift from electronic drums to acoustic drums, the sound is murky, but still gnarled and chaotic and dense, the arrangements furious and frenzied, the drumming insane, and that unmistakable demonic croak. Lots of glitch and buzz, tangled atonal melodies, a heaving wall of blackened chaos, but it is Leviathan, so there's plenty of dark brooding ambience, some classic metal sounding chug, some spaced out almost doomy sounding blackness, the sound here falls somewhere right between classic Leviathan and the more twisted sonic soundscapes of Lurker Of Chalice.
The Acherontas tracks start off with haunting reverb drenched piano, creating a creepy otherworldly vibe, before the band launches into some super grim sounding black pound, the drums simple but intense, the guitars super distorted, the riffs woozy and minor key, the sound slipping easily from loping Burzumic plod, to proggy almost folky swirl, with clean guitars and strangely complex drumming, smothered in ethereal effects, the vocals especially harsh, dripping with demonic intensity, then suddenly transforming into deep haunting croon, the guitars following suit, growing more and more melodic and lovely, still all wrapped in a haze of distorted buzz, eventually fading out in a blur of minor key miserablism. Really awesome stuff. Definitely need to hear more from these guys.
But for now, if you do want one of these, cd OR lp, act fast, these have been selling like crazy and we're down to about half of what we started with. The cds come in a nice digipak (although be warned, some of the edges are a little worn in shipping, nothing we can do about it, these are probably all we're gonna get), and the lp is a super striking pictured disc, that comes in a heavy sleeve with a printed 12" x 12" insert.
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "Crusted, Blackened"
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "To A Grotesque Of Swollen Flesh"
MPEG Stream: ACHERONTAS "Velvet Aurora"
MPEG Stream: ACHERONTAS "Kornugia"

MAJOR LAZER Guns Don't Kill... Lazers Kill (Mad Descent / Downtown Music) cd 15.98
We love dancehall, the beat, the rhythms, the toasting especially, the lurching hypnotic groove of it, but what we, and lots of other folks have always had trouble with, was the lyrical content, the whole scene in fact, rife with violence, and homophobia and misogyny, much like American hip hop, but even more fucked up and seriously unpalatable.
So much so that plenty of folks around aQ land who might otherwise dig dancehall big time, have sworn off it completely. UNTIL NOW.
Diplo and Switch, bring their twisted and tweaked approach to beats and grooves, and whip up one the wildest, craziest dancehall records EVER. And what better way to thumb their noses at traditional dancehall than by getting a whole gaggle of female rappers and toasters to team up with the more well know male Jamaican dancehall vocalists, often verbally sparring back and forth in the same song. The sound is supercharged, electrifying, the beats banging, the samples bizarre but perfect, a tangled technicolor musical backdrop over which the vocalists do their THANG.
Morricone-esque guitars, the clip clop of horse hooves, ringing cell phones, horse whinnies, dizzying looped rhythms, a killer stuttery beat, tons of woozy low end, everything chopped and hiccuppy, an awesome deep growly bit of toasting, and some cool looped Santogold vox, before she gets to spit her own bad ass verse, and that's just the first song.
The whole disc destroys though, relentless non stop hip shaking head bobbing sweaty sexy speaker destroying musical magic, some tracks bliss out into some sunshiney reggae grooviness, all laid back, infused with some awesome smoky sultry vox, other tracks get raw and rough, with buzzing guitars and fuzzed out bass lines, plenty of clatter and crunch, others are fizzly and festive, with vocodered vocals and skittery beats, and still others are dense tightly wound jams, drenched in effects and tangled up with rollicking block rocking beats and squiggly melodies. Even as an instrumental record, this would kill, but the vocalists push it over the top, tongue twisting flows all over the place, lightning fast sputters, growly drawls, head spinning back and forth and of course plenty of whoops and whooooooos...
Summer dancehall party record of the year for sure, with awesome Major Lazer cartoon cover art, very reminiscent of the classic old Scientist albums!! So recommended. Every time we play this in the store, someone comes up to see what the heck it is!
MPEG Stream: "Hold The Line"
MPEG Stream: "When You Hear The Bassline"
MPEG Stream: "Can't Stop Now"

MAMMUT s/t (Long Hair) cd 27.00
The Long Hair label digs up another kool krautrock obscurity for reissue here, one that Andee and Allan both happened to have heard already via a previous cd edition. It's an album that we're now glad to be able to get to list (with a bonus track!). Originally released on LP in 1971 (natch) on a tiny label with the wonderful name of Mouse Trick Track Music, this one-off rarity is a bit of a trippy gem, groovy and flutey and fuzzy. And plenty weird too, as is evidenced by the album's odd song titles, each with the word "Mammut" in them:
"Bird Mammut" (indeed featuring birds twittering, and birdsong like flute flutter, amidst propulsively grooving drumming), "Classical Mammut" (a brief interlude of whooshing wind, crying baby, placid piano), "Mammut Ecstasy" (hippy chant, fuzzed out guitar heaviness), "Footmachine Mammut" (laidback groove, what sounds like a lively dinner party in the background, with clinking percussion/wine glasses, more guitar soloing), "Short Mammut" (kinda like "Mammut Ecstacy", but shorter), "Shizoyd Mammut" (shrieking vocals, organ jamming)... and that's just side 1. Side 2 actually consists of just two songs, longer, more lyrical ones, including the 13+ minute psychedelic tour de force "Mammut Opera", that's both dramatic and rather lovely.
The whole thing, the way it combines the acid rock guitar action with Hammond organ, flute, and even field recordings (both outdoor and indoor it would seem), sorta sounds like a demented Deep Purple dosed on drugs, jazzily jamming away at some hippy party place in the Black Forest (where the were, recording in the studios of jazz label MPS). It's more groovy than heavy, but they let loose with some wild guitar riffery now and then, as well as dabbling in some (Beatles inspired?) songiness, particularly on the second half of the record. Krautrock aficionados should definitely investigate! And, especially as we know they overlap, Acid Mothers Temple fans too! There's definitely a precursor to AMT's funny freeform freakout vibe going on here. Specific krautrock comparisons could be to some of the previous Long Hair reissues like Et Cetera, Kollektiv and Wolfgang Dauner's The Oimels.
This official reissue has been digitally remastered, and comes with a thick, textually informative cd booklet, and the aforementioned 5 minute bonus track ("Da Du Da", recorded by these musicians in '69 for a compilation album, leading to the formation of the Mammut band/album project).
MPEG Stream: "Bird Mammut"
MPEG Stream: "Mammut Ecstasy"

MOS DEF The Ecstatic (Downtown Records) cd 16.98
Some of us were ready to concede the fact that Mos Def may have evolved into a much more important and amazing actor than rapper, but with The Ecstatic he grabs us forcefully and reminds us that he is most definitely still a potent musical force to be reckoned with! Any record that opens with a Malcolm X soundclip and goes right into a song that samples the music of Turkish psych singer Selda is setting the bar pretty high, and Mos Def just keeps pushing that bar higher and higher, as The Ecstatic is his most intense, immediate and powerful record in a long time.
The Ecstatic features some of the best hip-hop producers around (Madlib, Oh No, Georgia Ann Muldrow, Mr. Flash and even the late great J Dilla). While those producers help flesh out the strong beats and slightly Eastern vibe, the strength of the album is all about the presence of a rejuvenated Mos Def who sounds so commanding, in control and at ease on the mic. His flow and intensity on the record reminds us of classic Eric B. & Rakim, the kind of hip-hop that hits you hard on first listen but keeps unveiling more of its potency on repeated listens. Can't imagine a better hip-hop record coming out this year. So great!
MPEG Stream: "Supermagic"
MPEG Stream: "Revelations"
MPEG Stream: "Auditorium (Feat. The Ruler)"

MOSS Tombs Of The Blind Drugged (Candlelight) 10" 25.00
There's been a lot of drama about this, the vinyl version of the most recent Moss lp. It was apparently meant to be a DOUBLE 10", but ended up being a single (although the price makes it seem like it should still be a double, ugh), of the four songs on the cd, only TWO are on the 10". That said, it is on red vinyl, and comes in a bad ass gatefold sleeve. But it's expensive, and missing songs, but we know for some vinyl trumps all, if that's the case, we have 5 of these left, so grab one while you can.
If we had to come up with a four-letter word for doom, that wasn't d-o-o-m, it would be m-o-s-s. MOSS! These UK sludgelords, whose previous full-length Sub Templum was a record of The Week last year, are about as heavy as it gets, Moss sinking to the bottom of the black tarpit of doom below almost all others. Of course, playing so slow and low, the songs here manage to stretch this way beyond ordinary ep length, each of 'em upwards of ten minutes... And it's the usual grief we get from Moss: these tracks all anguished and distorted, with distended guitar and bass strings hanging loose and low, kokillizations of sheer misery and madness torn from the singer's throat like a still beating bloody heart ripped from the sacrifice, and bits of bent and battered drum kit scattered across the rancid tundra that is Moss's metallic soundspace... sometimes it eventually all congeals into one massive, melancholic drone, a true thing of beauty, heard for instance towards the end of the title track, upon which Moss employ Hammond organ. What else would you expect from something titled Tombs Of The Blind Drugged?? Tombs to which Moss have the "Skeletal Keys"...

NURSE WITH WOUND May The Fleas Of A Thousand Camels Infest Your Armpits (United Dairies) cd 17.98
One of two mailorder only / tour discs from Nurse With Wound that hadn't been available through any typical distribution channels, May The Fleas Of A Thousand Camels stitches together the minimal moments from two Nurse With Wound shows here in San Francisco back in 2006. Those shows marked the return of Nurse as a stage production after some two decades of refusing to perform live. Since then, Nurse has appeared on various stages in various countries in various guises. There's been a pretty steady touring core which has appeared alongside Steven Stapleton; those being Colin Potter, Andrew Liles, and Matt Waldron. Yup, that ensemble is present for these live sessions along with appearances from Stan Reed (Blue Sabbath Black Cheer), Moe! Staino, Richard Faulhaber, and a few others. Despite the large orchestra of sound-making potential, this album concentrates on the more minimal elements from those performances. Cyclical loops from the Nurse With Wound opus Salt Marie Celeste pop up throughout the set, although much less so than from what we can remember from the live shows themselves. Nevertheless, Stapleton and company were setting out to make dark music; and dark, shadowy, Dada-industrial sounds are what you will find here! Horror soundtrack slashes from atonal drone swell and collapse amidst hand-stewn squiggles, electronic errata, bizarre pig-like grunts, unsettled gasps for air, and the unexpected sounds that we have all come to expect from Nurse With Wound. The amount of space and those cyclical loops which return throughout the album certainly align this with the aforementioned Salt Marie Celeste, but also with some of the earlier masterpieces of unsettled Nurse With Wound minimalism - Homotopy To Marie, Soliloquy For Lilith, and A Missing Sense.
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 2"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 9"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 14"

NURSE WITH WOUND Od Lot (United Dairies) cd 17.98
The title pretty much says it all, if you were to pronounce it "odd lot." That should go without saying for any given Nurse With Wound record, and this one certainly qualifies, even though technically Od Lot shouldn't be considered a proper Nurse With Wound record. Rather, this is a four-way split between the four touring members of Nurse -- Steven Stapleton, Colin Potter, Andrew Liles, and Matt Waldron - each offering a set of solo tracks. Colin Potter's pieces are worth the price of admission alone, with the first being a creepy, creepy horrordrone that ranks as some of the finest that we've heard from Colin. Hissing pulses swell into an undergirding rhythm that guides a series of undulating, arching tones. Much closer to a really dark Biosphere or maybe even some of the later digitally sculpted Zoviet France pieces. His second piece plods with a mechanoid plod culminating in a huge guitar crescendo. It's surprisingly straight forward for a Nurse With Wound project; but it's actually pretty damn amazing, more like a brighty rendered Troum or Nadja piece. Mr. Liles offers a series of dada-exotica following his contributions to The Bacteria Magnet with some fucked-up skronk laced around slinky disco cuts with funky wah-wah guitars and freakish whisperings upfront in the mix. The Stapleton track features a vulgar rant by Hazel Two-Twigs against an unknown Texan hipster, who probably had "it" coming to him; and Stapleton's backing noise is a signature, wild collage of splutter, squiggle, low-slung prog basslines clinging to a breakcore rhythm (remember his long-promised hip-hop album?). Waldron's solo track is a splattered semi-improv number for bass, guitar, and drums, more in keeping with what's been found on his Perekluchenie album and some of the proggy live material he's done as irr. app. (ext.) in recent years.
Like May The Fleas Of A Thousand Camels Infest Your Armpits, Od Lot was to be a tour / mail order only release, but aQuarius was lucky enough to get a handful of these. Don't expect either to last long!
MPEG Stream: COLIN POTTER "A Jigsaw With 2 Pieces"
MPEG Stream: ANDREW LILES "Toad In The Hole"
MPEG Stream: STEVEN STAPLETON "Fine Writin'"
MPEG Stream: M.S. WALDRON "Let Sleeping Toads Lie"

OH SEES, THEE / TY SEGALL split (Castle Face) 7" 5.98
Thee Oh Sees and Ty Segall cover each other on this brand new smokin' seven inch. We really don't need to say anything more. Anyone who's been listening to the current wave of charged, blown out garage pop these days knows that these are two of the most potent forces in the game. Thee Oh Sees are coming off what we think may be one of the best records of the year, Help, and Ty Segall's debut was one of our favorites of '08. So rad to hear them tackle each other's songs. Thee Oh Sees do "The Drag" with a deep-in-the-void reverb filled flair that suits the song so well. Ty does "Maria Stacks" from The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending A Night In, a song which might just be Andee's favorite Oh Sees jam, not just cuz it's hooky and catchy, but it also immortalizes AQ pal and amazing artist/zine-maker Maria Forde. Ty finds a way to make the song a bit more lo-fi and fucked up sounding while still holding on to the great melody that makes the original stick like it does. Pretty much a no-brainer, best grab one of these while you can!

OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD Cursegoback (Don't Fuck With Magic) lathe cut 12" 67.00
This thing is SO cool, but super limited and insanely expensive, so we only got THREE copies. Thus, we shall be brief. By now most of you should know what to expect from Campbell Kneale's new project, like a trippier more blessed out noise drenched less drone-y Birchville Cat Motel or something? Whatever it is, it's awesome. This two sided monster features epic slabs of fragmented jangle, symphonies of transistor radios, looped whirs and liquid low end, thick drones and glistening shimmer, looped minimal rhythms and wheezing heaving ragas laced with delicate melodies, all woven into a dizzying expanse of tripped out sound.
It's a custom made lathe cut picture disc, insanely thick (3 mm, like three records stacked on top of each other and glued together, cut one at a time by Peter King in New Zealand, which means they are each subtly unique, they wear down the more you play them, eventually sounding WAY different, they smell amazing, it's more than a record, it's an item, an artifact, a piece of soundart. Kneale freaks will definitely need these. We only have three, we might be able to get more, but since they only made 80 these puppies are scarce, so grab one while you can.

PANDISCORDIAN NECROGENESIS Live Across The Abyssic Planes (self released) cd-r 9.98
One man black metal bands are a dime a dozen these days. Heck we review one or two every list, and that's only a fraction of the one man bedroom grimnity going on in the world at any one time. Anyone with a 4 track, a black heart, and a rudimentary grasp of riffs and programming a busted up old drum machine, through the magic of the internet, can become a mysterious kvlt BM figure overnight. That said, there are plenty of one man black metal bands who transcend, some of our favorites in fact, Leviathan, Draugar, Xasthur, I Shalt Become, Striborg, Nekrasov, AmocomA, Moloch, Paysage D'Hiver we could go on and on. But the thing is, none of those 'groups' are truly one man bands. They are one man, and they are technically bands, but none are proper one man bands, you know, like the old timey sort of one man band, bass drum on the back, harmonica on a rack around the neck, tiny cymbals on the knees, squeezebox in front, ONE MAN BAND.
So as far as we know, there has never been an ACTUAL one man black metal band. UNTIL NOW. Pandiscordian Necrogeneis is the project of Lord Ephemeral Domignostika, also known as Mastery, the man behind the SF black metal monster of the same name (who have a double cd coming out soon on tUMULt) and who is also the vocalist and bass player for Horn Of Dagoth.
But in Pandiscordian Necrogenesis, Lord plays all the instruments himself, AT THE SAME TIME. Right foot plays the kick drum, left foot plays the snare, while he sings and plays guitar simultaneously. As if that weren't enough, all the songs and sounds here are totally improvised on the spot. WTF?? This shit is insane, and ridiculous, and incredible. Imagine a spike laden corpsepainted dude, sitting in the forest on an old rotted log, his feet pounding away on a kick drum and a weirdly rigged snare, his hands a blur on the guitar as he howls and shrieks into a microphone dangling from the branches above. Well, that's at least how we imagine it. But seriously, this shit is amazing. Frenzied and furious, the drums, a relentless D-beat pound, a sort of almost blast beat, the vocals sometimes a hellish croak, other times a demonic shriek, the guitar though, the riffs are incredible, tangled and gnarled, slipping from garbled chug, to insectoid buzz, sometimes soaring and majestic, other times murky and atonal, the songs shifting from stumbling blast to Burzumic plod, pretty hard to believe that one guy is playing all the instruments at once, AND that he's making up this shit off the top of his head. Most actual black metal bands recording one track at a time, couldn't come up with something this heavy and buzzy and grim and black.
Essential listening for the true black metal hordes, a brief, but gloriously blasting slab of outsider blackness, indeed performed by the only ACTUAL one man black metal horde in the world...
LIMITED TO 88 COPIES. Each one hand numbered with a printed insert, with liner notes / lyrics / packaged in dvd cases, the cover a cool tangled snake on a smeared blood red backdrop that actually IS BLOOD. The whole cover is in fact soaked / painted in actual blood! The effect is pretty cool an creepy, every one different, all with a strangely coppery scent, that will most likely drive your pets insane if you leave it out.
We got about half the pressing, but these will be gone before you know it...
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 4"
MPEG Stream: "Track 5"

PELICAN Ephemeral (Southern Lord) 12" 15.98
Ephemeral is the first new music from instrumental post rockers Pelican since they switched from Hydrahead to Southern Lord. Definitely an interesting development, as Pelican was definitely one of the bands that defined the Hydra Head sound. But heck, listening to these three tracks it's obvious they sound right at home on SL.
The side long first track is immediately recognizably Pelican, if anything the sound is a bit heavier, a little meaner sounding, there's definitely a Champs vibe, with lots of guitar trills and plenty of low slung chug, the weird thing is that unlike past Pelican efforts, this one in particular really does seem to scream out for some vocals. Any minute we expect some voice to just start howling or bellowing. We're imagining Wino, but there is that feel, a weird bit of tension, which works instrumentally for sure, but still had us hankering. But it's a killer jam, the drums especially, dense and wild, some intricate of kilter double kick action, plenty of mathy pound, and when the band lock into that main groove, it's like a massive black bulldozer made out of drums and amps and guitars.
The title track on the flipside is anything BUT ephemeral, sounding like an extension of the A side, but with even MORE chug, and a distinctly doomy vibe, even a bit of grunge. We could totally picture Mark Arm swooping in to sing a verse. And the record finishes off with a bad ass Earth cover, the band joined by Earth mainman Dylan Carlson, and while not too far removed from the original, it's definitely heavier, and darker, a little noisier, with seriously beefed up guitars, and a much more muscled rhythm, but retaining the same gorgeous, and ominous windswept vibe conjured up by Earth on the original.
Super thick sleeves, fancy Stephen O'Malley cover art. And probably wicked limited.

PSYCHEDELIC HORSESHIT Golden Oldies (Wasted Vinyl) lp 17.98
And you thought other Psychedelic Horseshit records were lo-fi, whoooeee, then this collection of out of print cd-rs and tapes, from way back in the band's early days must be NO-fi, or shit-fi, or whatever the next step down is. But damn if this stuff doesn't sound just as good, short sharp bursts of punked up garage pop and indie jangle, caked in filth and hiss and crackle and buzz.
Tin can and twine vocals, garbage can lid drums, fuzzy transistor radio bass, warped Casio organ warble and crappy practice amp guitar crunch, all woven into some seriously classic sounding fractured pop, thing Guided By Voices if instead of being raised on British Invasion bands, it was Pavement and Sebadoh and all that killer nineties lo-fi indie rock.
Catchy and quirky and surprisingly lush here and there, and not surprisingly UN-lush everywhere else. Some of their best songs for sure, the grit and grime only adding to the magic of these lo-fi noise pop miscreants. Total proto-shitgaze genius!

ROSE, JACK & THE BLACK TWIG PICKERS s/t (Klang Industries) lp 23.00
Sometime labelmates Jack Rose and the Black Twig Pickers finally team up for a record together. Unlike most Rose records, which while delicate and dark and beautiful, are also showcases for one of the most incredible guitar virtuosos playing these days, this collaboration is way more of a team effort. There are definitely moments where you can hear Rose doing his thing, but for the most part, he's part of the band here, and the rest of the Twig Pickers are pretty serious players themselves.
Guitar, banjo, fiddle, bass drum, harmonica, vocals and bones (!), the tracks here veer from wild campfire old school blue grass hoedowns to more darkly contemplative folk explorations, and pretty much every stop in between. Tone of intricate fingerpicking, the stringed instruments getting tangled up in flurries of rapid fire notes, the vocals wild and loose, in fact the whole recording is pretty loose, like they just got together and jammed, which who knows, could be just how this happened.
Folks looking for pure solo guitar Appalachia probably won't find what they're looking for, although elements surface throughout, but for folks into old timey blues, classic bluegrass, those Mississippi blues reissue lps, and the more rollicking tracks on past Rose records, this will totally hit the spot.

SECRET ABUSE Immeasurable Gift (Arbor) lp 13.98
Everything we've heard from Secret Abuse, aka one man noise making machine Jeffrey Witscher, has been pretty harsh, heavy, noisy, brutal. A certain element of washed out drone, but for the most part, some serious speaker destroying chaos.
But on this latest lp, The Immeasurable Gift, Witscher expands his palette, keeping much of the grit and brutality intact, but wrapping it around warm glowing orbs of glistening melodic shimmer, and long drawn out streaks of kaleidoscopic blur. Anyone into Tim Hecker and Nadja and Fennesz and all those other musical obfuscationists, will definitely dig this big time.
The A side is a three part epic, made up of warm swirling swells, pulsing beneath a gauzy layer of crunch and hiss and whir, everything noisy and melodic, the tracks constantly teetering between the two, the end result is a totally fantastical sun dappled soft focus noisescape, light on the noise, and heavy on the warm warped shimmer. Beneath the constantly churning layers of grit and grim and crumbling buzz, a soaring epic, throbs and glows, brooding, slow building, languorous and lustrous, visible only as streaks and fragments visible through the whirling sonic clouds all around it.
The flipside is a bit more caustic, the melodies buried WAY further down, the main element a stuttery, skittery looped crunch, like someone playing a helicopter rotor, a whirring, flickering low end that creates deep slow burning melodies and barely discernible rhythmic pulses. The sounds build to a full on rrrrooooaaar before settling back down, the noise element gradually blunted and muted, revealing tantalizing glimpses of what lurks beneath the surface, some gorgeous gauzy mysterious soundworld, intercepted radio broadcasts, lilting melodies, pop song fragments, all drifting in the shadows, but it's only moments before the noise erupts once more and swallows it whole. So good.
LIMITED TO 425 COPIES, housed in super fancy full color jackets, with a Xeroxed insert.

SEGALL, TY Cents (Goner) 7" 5.98
Good time to love the damaged and super charged garage prowess of Ty Segall as he's got great songs just gushing forth with a whole slew of new releases, most of which are of course crazy limited. There's his split with Thee Oh Sees, two new 7"s of his own, a split 12" with Black Time and a brand new full length coming soon on Goner. We were slow on the draw on the last round of TS 7"s which are sadly already out of print, so we're happy we were able to grab some of these before they disappeared too.
"Cents" is one of Segall's best songs yet and it'll probably be on his forthcoming full length too. Packed with infectious raw and dirty guitar and those slightly distorted yet crisp vocals, all coming together to make your body do the herky jerky. The 'b' side has two great fast and furious pop nuggets that are as timeless and potent as perfectly crafted garage rock gets. The kid is on fire!

SEGALL, TY Universal Momma b/w 86'D (True Panther Sounds) 7" 5.98
Good time to love the damaged and super charged garage prowess of Ty Segall as he's got great songs just gushing forth with a whole slew of new releases, most of which are of course crazy limited. There's his split with Thee Oh Sees, two new 7"s of his own, a split 12" with Black Time and a brand new full length coming soon on Goner. We were slow on the draw on the last round of TS 7"s which are sadly already out of print, so we're happy we were able to grab some of these before they disappeared too.
"Universal Momma" finds Ty exploring a more slowed down and drugged out vibe with a Roky Erikson sound heavy in its grooves and the title isn't just some rock talk, his mama Cherrie Segal actually co-wrote the song with him. The flip side "86'd" is also a bit more on the midtempo side proving Segall's far from a one trick pony, instead he's a seriously immediate and satisfying garage rock songwriter and is one of the folks helping the current scene sound so vibrant and alive. Limited to 500 of which we only have a handful.

SKULLFLOWER Malediction (Second Layer) cd 15.98
Matthew Bower's growing obsession with black metal has gradually infiltrated the blown out guitar skree of his earlier recordings and continues to push the sound of modern Skullflower into realms blacker and more grim and gristly than ever. Much like the recently reviewed (but sadly now out of print) Vile Veil lp, word on the street was that Malediction was to be the "Skullflower black metal" record, which it could very well be, but you have to realize that no matter how much Darkthrone or Pyha or Old Wainds or Arckanum Bower listens too, those sounds get filtered through that mysterious mind, eventually coming out via his guitar as a sound not terribly removed from something recognizably Skullflower, but with enough blackness, enough buzzing riffage, enough cello (here transformed into howling moans and caustic shards of scrape and skree) and enough chaotic drum splatter, courtesy of original Skullflower drummer Stuart Dennison, to make this more than just another Skullflower record, and more than just another guitarnoise record, it transforms this wild cacophony into some transcendent blacknoise hybrid, equal parts ur-drone and black buzz, psychedelic freakout and free-noise experiment, a pulsing, throbbing swirl of abstract heaviness and in-the-red speaker damaging crunch, a sound that slips fluidly from total abstract atom scatter to lurching almost riffy mesmer, remaining always wreathed in a thick, corrosive field of upper register sonic static, only the drums, ever really leaping from the fray, to hurl some thunderous beats before being quickly sucked back under.
Not sure if it was that brief foray into almost seventies sounding riffiness, back circa the records Exquisite Fucking Boredom and Orange Canyon Mind, but ever since then, Bower and company have been making noise with a vengeance, the sound of Skullflower and fierce and fucked up and heavy and noisy as it's ever been, Bower's black metal interests only adding to the bands hellish sonic trajectory. That's not all to say black metallers would dig this, cuz odds are, only the most extreme music obsessives among the black legions would find this particular brand of psych-skree to their liking, but heck, those of you who do fit that profile, go for it, immerse yourself, and discover just what it is about Skullflower, just what sort of black ritualistic magic lurks within the caustic black sonic sun that is Malediction.
Noiseniks will no doubt flip their lids, appropriately so, but there's so much more to this 'noise', what seems like a wall of sound, crumbles into pieces revealing so much texture within, every heaving wave of punishing crunch, gradually parts revealing a delicate network of strange melodies, the sounds while on the surface seem easily defined, are in fact more complex then they might appear, guitars and drums and voices and cellos all careening chaotically into a roiling churning black sea, a bottomless sonic expanse that takes metal and sludge and doom and noise and punk rock and minimal drone music and melts it down, shaping it into something new and mysterious, a baffling, deafening sound that defies any sort of classification, as the title of an old SF record so boldly proclaimed. This is Skullflower. And THIS, is Skullflower NOW.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. Packaged in a six panel full color digipak with cool tripped out watercolor artwork by Bower himself.
MPEG Stream: "A'arab Zaraq ~ Ravens Of The Burning Of God"
MPEG Stream: "Drenched In Moonsblood (Waxing Gibbous)"

SPOON Got Nuffin (Merge) cd ep 4.98
What more to say? A new Spoon record! Sure it may only be 4 songs (not 3 like it says on the sleeve), but heck, how long has it been since we've had some new Spoon? Far too long. And "Got Nuffin" is just what we've all been hankering for, nothing super new, no sonic reinvention, but then who wants that, it's just another killer brooding, chugging chunk of moody indie rock, a sound that few other modern rock bands can even come close to. Lots of fuzzy bass, minimal piano plink, some cool effected guitar, and Britt Daniel's unmistakable croon. Catchy and kick ass, sounds like it could have come right off any of their last few full lengths.
The other three tracks are all over the map. "Tweakers" is some cool abstract piano and drum experiment. Just a looping drum jam, super muddy and muted, with the occasional bit of electronic crunch, or atonal piano pound, even a little bit of drone-y high end, but it's mostly just the drums, and it's kinda cool. Leads right into "Stroke Their Brains", a shuffling slow burner, all fuzzy jangle and skittery rhythm, minor key melodies, strange effected vocals, an awesome Daniel vocal part, and lots of woozy twang.
Then after a few minutes of silence is the "Tweakers" remix, which sounds almost exactly the same, slightly altered, the beat subtly effected, the song a bit chopped up and stuttery, really cool, but then for a brief moment, there's some rapping, yep, rapping, really goofy dorky distorted rapping. It's only for 30 seconds or so, and it somehow works, sort of, but we imagine there's a reason it's tucked away after the silence and is unlisted on the sleeve. Maybe that track's for Spoon freeks only, but the rest of this way too brief ep definitely has us chomping at the bit for a new full length!
MPEG Stream: "Got Nuffin"

STAFF BENDA BILILI Tres Tres Fort (Crammed Discs) cd 16.98
What is it about Kinshasa? The capitol city of the Democratic Republic Of The Congo first brought us the mind blowing Konono No.1, who fashioned PA's and amps out of old car parts, and rigged up thumb pianos with home built pick ups, crafting one of the most unique and fascinating and exuberant sounds we had ever heard. Now, also from Kinshasa, comes Staff Benda Bilili, an even more unique musical combo (as if that were even possible). A group of senior paraplegic street musicians, who live in and around the grounds of the zoo, who travel in cool custom built wheelchairs that look more like motorcycles, they sing and play guitar, and are backed up by a young all acoustic rhythm section, featuring a 17 year old prodigy, who plays wild psychedelic leads on a one string 'guitar' made from a tin can. There are pictures in the booklet, it's hard to believe anyone could conjure such amazing sounds from this little bit of scrap and string, but the proof is right here.
The music itself is not as far out as Konono No.1, it has much more of a traditionally folky feel, a distinctly highlife vibe, the vocal harmonies form the core of the sound, lush and laid back, stunningly intricate and gorgeous, the various stringed instruments buzz and twang, simple drumming holds it all together, and the occasional wild tangled squiggly solos on the tin can lute, sounding slippery and super high, the songs build to festive codas, and just as often slip back into something much more contemplative.
Feel good, sunshiney sounds that make you want to dance or drift off, you can almost imagine these guys all parked in their motorcycle wheelchairs, rocking late into the night around the campfire or under the streetlights. But you don't have to imagine, there are a handful of live videos too, so you can watch these guys create these amazing sounds live, sitting on the grass in the park, under the trees, hanging out in after dark lit only by firelight, and seeing that little kid rock out on the tin can lute, WOW. Also includes a really cool trailer, for what could either be a documentary about the band, or it could just be a short film / trailer for the record.
Needless to say, but we will anyway, TOTALLY recommended, especially for anyone who loves Konono No.1!!
MPEG Stream: "Sala Keba"
MPEG Stream: "Moto Moindo"
MPEG Stream: "Staff Benda Bilili"

SUCK Time To Suck (Shadoks) cd 17.98
The main problem with unearthed supposed 'proto-metal' rarities or 'holy grail' psychedelic artifacts, is that after hearing for years and years how amazing and heavy and fuzzed out they are, often when we finally get to hear them, they so often sound a lot more like ordinary bar rock, or blues rock, the hype far exceeding the sound.
No such problem with South African heavies Suck. This, their only record has been circulating for years as a bootleg, and the first time we saw it, we knew it had to be good. The cover was a cool black and white photo of a little long haired hippy kid sitting in the grass next to a kick drum, the band was called Suck (rumored to have almost been called FUCK), and the record was called Time To Suck, they covered Sabbath and King Crimson and Deep Purple, they're from South Africa and the record originally came out in 1970. It HAD to be good. But we were cautious, we had most definitely been burned before, but thankfully there was no need for caution cuz holy shit is this stuff amazing. Hard and heavy, super rocking, wildly psychedelic, the fact that if you weren't familiar with the covers here you'd be hard pressed to pick out the one original says a lot about these guys.
Apparently Suck were infamous in South Africa for raucous, sometimes violent, always chaotic live shows, they were only a band for 8 months, and in that time only ever recorded ONE original track, and released one proper album, Time To Suck.
Two Grand Funk Railroad tunes, "Aimless Lady" and "Sin's A Good Man's Brother", King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man", "Season Of The Witch" by Donovan, Free's "I'll Be Creeping", Deep Purple's "Into The Fire", "Elegy" by Colosseum and finally Black Sabbath's "War Pigs". That's a serious selection of songs. Then there's the one original, "The Whip", a killer chunk of Zeppeliny slither and Sabbathy crunch, some wildly proggy arrangements, frenzied guitar leads, incredible drumming, and lead vocalist Andrew Ionnides' Robert Plant like wail. A churning heavy metallic rock jam that sounds right at home amongst all those better known tunes.
Their version of "21st Century Schizoid Man" is fierce and super distorted and as heavy if not more so than the original. "Season Of The Witch" burns slowly, peppered with cool fluttering flutes and all sorts of subtle guitar filigree, and of course "War Pigs", that takes balls to tackle that one, especially in 1970, but these guys definitely make it their own, staying pretty true to the original, minus an even more blown out intro, and the addition of some weird percussive string plucks or maybe bongos, way up in the mix, but makes it even more dizzyingly psychedelic, and if anything, their version as a whole is just a bit more chaotic and off kilter, an definitely faster, more like the German TV version of the Sabs you can find on YouTube.
Needless to say, this is an essential proto-metal document, one that is actually pretty metal, fuzzed out, super heavy, intensely rocking, psychedelic and druggy, plenty proggy, and well, the song selection can't be beat!
MPEG Stream: "Aimless Lady"
MPEG Stream: "21st Century Schizoid Man"
MPEG Stream: "The Whip"

SUNN O))) & PAN SONIC / ALAN VEGA / STEPHEN BURROUGHS split (Blast First Petite) 10" 15.98
Killer collaboration, another one of those team ups you might not have ever necessarily imagined happening, and even if you did, you probably didn't think it would sound this good. The core SUNNO))) duo do their thing, thick roiling riffage, warm and lush, surprisingly propulsive, and weirdly catchy, Steve Moore from Earth contributes some gorgeous gauzy organ drones and Joe Preston handles the vocals, deep growl, part intoned, part almost crooned, and of course Mika Vainio of Pan Sonic, offering up little flurries of industrial hiss, and bits of subtle glitch, taking voices and sounds and lopping them back on themselves, Vainio's contribution subtle, but practically perfect. Easily one of the coolest SUNNO))) tracks ever, maybe better than anything on the recent Monoliths And Dimensions.
The flipside features a live jam from Suicide mainman Alan Vega, recorded last year, live and lo-fi, lots of glitch and skitter, a sort of fractured electronica, Vega's vocals super effected, looped and chopped, dense and stuttery and seriously tripped out.
And the closing track on the B side is a stripped down, very Angels Of Light sounding acoustic number from Stephen Burroughs, former frontman for industrial icons Head Of David, his first recording in a decade, his voice rough and raw and simple, the guitar playing fantastic, the song dark and mysterious and haunting.
LIMITED TO 3000 COPIES, half on white vinyl, half on clear, we have the clear, housed in plain white hand stamped covers, but open the cover up (you might have to tear it open) and inside is some gorgeous original artwork.

TARAB Take All The Ships From The Harbour, And Sail Them Straight Into Hell (23five Incorporated) cd 14.98
With a huge clamorous slash of metal grinding against metal, Eamon Sprod (aka Tarab) introduces the aptly titled album Take All The Ships From The Harbour, And Sail Them Straight Into Hell. This Australian sound artist has in the past already deeply impressed us with his incredible albums of field recordings interspliced with found object manipulation. In previous recordings, Tarab has exhibited sleights of hand in turning the sounds of the dry scrub lands outside of Melbourne into watery, sinewy compositions with haunted ambience lurking throughout. Here, Tarab activates the resonance of abandoned spaces (including a handful of recordings made at Angel Island with all of its crumbling beauty housed here in the San Francisco Bay); and the watery details, which emerged as illusion before, are pronounced in an ominous rumble of surf, rain, and wind rattling the undercarriage of this album. An album of extreme dynamics, Take All The Ships evolves quite effortlessly from that opening metallic klang through a series of softened white noises culled from oceanic sources and cutting into a quiet passage of vacant spaces with sand and pebbles pushed slowly across the stereo's surface. Through these events, Tarab presents his album with a cinematic grandeur and an orchestral pacing, despite the fact that all of the sounds are derived from those field recordings and found objects. Aside from a few choice backwards masked tracks and the timbral emphasis of EQ, there's no apparent electronic manipulation in his sympathetic layering of sound. The details have all of the presence of the best sound ecologists (e.g. Chris Watson, Douglas Quin, Eric La Casa, etc.), and have been enhanced through the unveiling drama of Tarab's compositions. This is best noted in the album's concluding 15 minutes which gradually build out of a concoction of insect chorales, piles of tumbling sand, and corroded metal handrail being coaxed to emit a gong-like resonant drone. A series of ramped accumulations of sound are cut away to reveal a thicker set of reverberant drones and humid ambience which swell and grow more in keeping with those minimalists we love so much (Chalk, Coleclough, Svarte Greiner, Xela, Peter Wright, etc.). As infernal as the opening of the album is and as prophetic as the title is, this coda to Take All The Ships is uncannily beautiful, almost hallowed, and certainly imbued with melancholy. A damn great record!
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 2"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 3"

TOMUTONTTU s/t (Fonal) cd 17.98
Originally released on vinyl back in 2007, now finally available on cd!
Tomutonttu is Jan Anderzen, member of Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Anaksimandros, and who knows how many other Finnish free folk outfits. He's one of the kings of that scene. His hand (and gnarled guitar, and wheezing keyboard...) have been in tons of our favorite records and projects. This however is the first chance we've had to hear Anderzen on his own as Tomutonttu, seeing as the first Tomutonttu was so limited it disappeared before we were able to get even a single copy.
Needless to say, fans of all things folky and Finnish will love this, it fits perfectly amidst the Avarus and Kemialliset releases, but it stands on it's own too, strange in its own right, personal, and lovely, but also spacey and kind of freaked out. But then why would we expect anything else?
The record begins with the calls of whippoorwills, soon joined by the calls of yet more birds, all whipping wildly above a thrumming drone made up of buzzing kazoo vocals, moaning muted strings, and some mysterious pulsing minimal throb. Sounding almost like a super lo-fi "Symphony Of The Birds" all tangled up with some chunk of freaky forest folk. Ends up those aren't real birds, as their calls slow down and get all twisted up, it becomes evident it's a record of birds being slowly manipulated, becoming more and more abstract, the bird calls transforming into weird rumbles and flurries of high pitched squiggles, all over the growing buzz of a shimmery space guitar and more of that strange buzzy kazoo like moaning, peppered with deep rich sonic swells, very dreamy and alien, like some sort of otherworldly nature recording.
The next track hews closer to the Finnish folk sound, sort of medieval sounding with drifting high end keyboard melodies draped over muted rhythmic clang and sweet swoonsome swirls of soft sound. The last track on side A sounds like some strange Bollywood Western, minor key and very Eastern sounding, processed guitar and blown out keyboards all tangled up into a gorgeously lilting melody, dreamy and sparkly and super playful.
Side B begins with more playfulness, this time the percussion, all drenched in reverb and echo, like some sort of wind chime garden, muted into strange melodies, droning keyboards beneath, very haunting and otherworldly, it almost sounds African, like likembes, sometimes there are hints of gamelan too, at least in the timbre and the melodies, but all warm and distorted and dreamily blown out. The next track is a brief snatch of what sounds like some unearthed old time recording, all fuzzy warble and a softly keening melancholy melody. And finally, the lengthy final track is a reprise of the opener, all tinkling chimes, distant moaned vocals, and soft clouds of constantly shifting and swirling bird calls, dizzying but also strangely soothing. Definitely one of the nicest records we've heard from the Avarus/Anaksimandros/Kemialliset Finnish freakfolk axis...
Packaged in an amazing sleeve with the same eye popping artwork as the original lp.
MPEG Stream: "Tteema"
MPEG Stream: "Kohtublues"
MPEG Stream: "Live In EU 1"

TORTOISE Beacons Of Ancestorship (Thrill Jockey) cd 15.98
Now this is indeed a pleasant surprise. The return of Tortoise. A band we were OBSESSED with in the beginning, whose first few records are classics, undefinable masterpieces that managed to totally transcend their classification as mere post rock. Tortoise's self titled debut still sounds classic and timeless, a loping hypnotic blend of math rock and krautrock and jazz. Their Millions Now Living, which was released in the very early days of the aQ list, so it only has a barely descriptive two sentence review, was a mind blowing meld of Oval like electronics and abstract jazziness, of brooding post rock and almost orchestral arrangements. The remix record, which found the band being reimagined by Steve Albini, Brad Wood, Bundy Brown, Jim O'Rourke, John McEntire and others, still ranks as one of the few examples of how a collection of remixes, in some ways can even transcend the originals. But from that point on, the band seemed to lose their way, it's hard to explain just how, but their record, often literally years in the making, surprisingly enough didn't sound fresh anymore, the sounds tired and played out, maybe meant to be 'mature' or 'academic' but instead mostly sounded boring, and in some cases bad.
There was always a spark, and every record had brief flashes, little musical moments that reminded us what they were once capable of.
Which brings us to the awkwardly titled Beacons Of Ancestorship, which while not a total mind blowing complete return to form, is pretty dang good. A handful of the tracks ranking up there with some of their classic jams from years back.
Most folks have been focusing on record opener "High Class Slim Came Floatin' In", and rightfully so, the band definitely had something to prove, some lost ground to make up, and some fans to win over again, and hell, "High Class Slim" is just the song to do it. It still sounds like Tortoise, but it's all revved up, skittery jazzy drums wrapped around deep woozy bass and reedy synth buzz, before in swoops some tripped out Stereolab / Tangerine Dream keyboard swirl, and then some super out of place buzzy keyboard groove, but it somehow works, the track gets more intense, the sounds smolder and throb, blissy and subtly psychedelic, a little bit funky, a lot bit space-y, even a breakdown that gets all cybotronic robot funk, washed over by some new age shimmer, and sparkely space-y effects... it was almost too much to hope for that the whole record would sound like that the whole way through, but then it wouldn't really be Tortoise, for these guys it's just a launching point for their latest exploration of sounds both simple and sinister, serene and cinematic, jazzy and funky.
There are definitely a few moments where things lag, where it definitely sounds like they're back to doing Tortoise by numbers, some Morricone-ish guitar, that while we usually love, here doesn't do much, some of the stretched out jams bog down more than bliss out, but those moments are few and far between, the rest of their time is spent weaving pretty fantastic flights of instrumental fancy, mathy jams rife with melodic curlicues and warm whirls of warble and whir, cool skittery almost dancehall sounding bits of buzz and blurt, wrapped around some truly funky rhythms, long stretches of stuttering almost African sounding grooves, laced with sitar like buzz, and cool psychedelic flourishes, and at least one track that starts off with some looped Afterschool Special music that is transformed into what sounds like the perfect backing track for a Kanye West song. And then there's the unpronounceable "Yinxianghechengqi" which finds Tortoise getting their Trans Am on, fuzzed out, snarling guitars wrapped in crumbling distortion, pulsing bass, John McEntire pummeling his kit like he probably hasn't since his Bastro Days, but then this IS Tortoise, so over the top they drape some atonal modal Return To Forever sort of buzz drenched melodic weirdness which ends up turning the song into something else entirely. And minus those few aforementioned lulls, the rest of the record continues on, and manages to hold our attention, and definitely has had us returning again and again.
So while it's not quite Millions, Beacons is definitely the best Tortoise record since the mid nineties, and once distanced from the legacy and the expectations and all the non musical bullshit, on it's own as simply a record by a band, a collection of songs and sounds, Beacons is really pretty fantastic.
MPEG Stream: "High Class Slim Came Floatin' In"
MPEG Stream: "Prepare Your Coffin"
MPEG Stream: "Yinxianghechengqi"

V/A Legends Of Benin (Analog Africa) cd 24.00
Score three in a row for the always amazing Analog Africa label! First African Scream Contest, then Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou, and now Legends of Benin! Focusing on four composers, Gnonnas Pedro, Honore Avolonto, Antoine Dougbe, and El Rego from the small West African country Benin, recording between 1969 and 1981. All coming from different regional musical traditions but operating in the same fervent musical scene in Cotonou where the Orchestre Poly Rhythmo were also from, that group providing back-up on a couple of tracks here.
As with the other two Analog Africa compilations, this one also focuses on tight danceable grooves and rare afro-funk. Gnonnas Pedro was perhaps the most popular of the four, being a master of the style known as Agbadja, derived from early burial rituals focusing on three differently toned percussion instruments, Pedro modernized the sound to such a degree that the first track, the highly infectious "Dadje Von O Von Non" later became the anthem for the national football team. Honore Avolonto, a young tumba player from Togo, was the most prolific composer in Benin, writing songs for pretty much every group around. Amazingly, he had no band of his own, but would score a hit, tour with the band until the hit faded and then write another hit with some other band and be off. He eventually recorded an LP,which became Benin's biggest selling LP ever. El Rego, a boxer in his young life and a brothel owner later on, made one of the first recordings of Jerk music (as soul and funk music was so dubbed) in Benin. His tracks are the most Western influenced, often times singing in English. Antoine Dougbe, is the most obscure and his tracks are among the rarest finds. His style combined elements of Congolese Rhumba, High Life, and traditional Beninese rhythms into a form he called Afro-Cavacha, named after the fast rhythms of pop music from Zaire. Dougbe, often worked with the Orchestre Poly-Rhytmo, but it was often an uneasy relationship since Dougbe's father was a feared and powerful Voudon priest, and the band (most of them practicing Voudons) feared reprisals should they question Dougbe's arrangements and musical instruction. But undoubtedly this religious quality so pervasive in Benin is what created such intensely tight and dynamic music, hypnotic and bewitching and endlessly captivating. Pure Gold!
MPEG Stream: GNONNAS PEDRO ET SES DADJES "Dadje Von O Von Non"
MPEG Stream: EL REGO ET SES COMMANDOS "Vimado Wingnan"
MPEG Stream: ANTOINE DOUGBE "Kovito Gbe De Towe"
MPEG Stream: HONORE AVOLONTO "Na Mi Do Gbe Hue Nu"

V/A The World Is Shaking: Cubanismo From The Congo, 1954-55 (Honest Jons) cd 17.98
Another rich and immersive vintage compilation from the always reliable Honest's Jons label, The World Is Shaking focuses on a highly productive period during the fifties of urban popular music that was the seed for what would become Congolese Rumba, one of the African Continent's most popular musical dance forms of the sixties and seventies. We often hear of the westwardly influence of African music on West Indies, Cuba and the Caribbean Islands, but not so much in reverse. Yet the Congo in the fifties after suffering centuries of decimation from slave traders and Belgian colonial rule, embraced the Latin music of South and Central America like no other country. Many factors contributed to this, including the exports of radios and records from slave trading countries as well as the increasing popularity of early American Jazz music and European Torch singers that attracted Congolese musicians to play less traditional and indigenous musical forms in order to get work in colonial nightclubs. But perhaps the biggest factor was the arrival of recording equipment to the region that allowed radio stations to record and broadcast local musicians allowing them to become more disciplined in their musical approach due to the strict limitations of the three minute song format. And so with more records and bands, popular nightlife increased. Inspired by 78's from Latin America, musicians would often adopt the tunes and rewrite the lyrics in their own language. Adwika Depala, one of the more successful players recorded his own take on the popular latin song, El Manicero (The Peanut Vendor), changing the word for peanut (Mani) to a women's name (Moni), offering a lament to a jilting lover that local audiences perhaps related more to than the original lyrics. The danceable rhythms provided by guitars, horns, and accordions with occasional moments of odder instrumentation like banjo and kazoos sparked attraction in audiences hungry for modernity as well as a renewed sense of identity. Honest Jon's scores again!
MPEG Stream: LAURENT LOMANDE "Maboka Marie"
MPEG Stream: ADIKWA DEPALA "Akei Cimetierre"
MPEG Stream: BOMIFACE KOUFOUDILA "Tokowela Angelique"
MPEG Stream: JEAN MPIA "Tika Koseka"

V/A The World Is Shaking: Cubanismo From The Congo, 1954-55 (Honest Jons) 2lp 22.00
Another rich and immersive vintage compilation from the always reliable Honest's Jons label, The World Is Shaking focuses on a highly productive period during the fifties of urban popular music that was the seed for what would become Congolese Rumba, one of the African Continent's most popular musical dance forms of the sixties and seventies. We often hear of the westwardly influence of African music on West Indies, Cuba and the Caribbean Islands, but not so much in reverse. Yet the Congo in the fifties after suffering centuries of decimation from slave traders and Belgian colonial rule, embraced the Latin music of South and Central America like no other country. Many factors contributed to this, including the exports of radios and records from slave trading countries as well as the increasing popularity of early American Jazz music and European Torch singers that attracted Congolese musicians to play less traditional and indigenous musical forms in order to get work in colonial nightclubs. But perhaps the biggest factor was the arrival of recording equipment to the region that allowed radio stations to record and broadcast local musicians allowing them to become more disciplined in their musical approach due to the strict limitations of the three minute song format. And so with more records and bands, popular nightlife increased. Inspired by 78's from Latin America, musicians would often adopt the tunes and rewrite the lyrics in their own language. Adwika Depala, one of the more successful players recorded his own take on the popular latin song, El Manicero (The Peanut Vendor), changing the word for peanut (Mani) to a women's name (Moni), offering a lament to a jilting lover that local audiences perhaps related more to than the original lyrics. The danceable rhythms provided by guitars, horns, and accordions with occasional moments of odder instrumentation like banjo and kazoos sparked attraction in audiences hungry for modernity as well as a renewed sense of identity. Honest Jon's scores again!
MPEG Stream: LAURENT LOMANDE "Maboka Marie"
MPEG Stream: ADIKWA DEPALA "Akei Cimetierre"
MPEG Stream: BONIFACE KOUFOUDILA "Tokowela Angelique"
MPEG Stream: JEAN MPIA "Tika Koseka"

VENETIAN SNARES Horsey Noises (Planet Mu) cd 9.98
We love Venetian Snares, every record, we're faced with the possibility of more of we love, or something new and twisted that's bound to confuse and confound. Whether it's splattery drill and bass, or cinematic string drenched soundtrackisms or old school nineties retro techno weirdness, we're pretty much into everything this guy give us.
That said, the most recent full length, Filth, was the first one in a long time that just didn't hit the spot, it just wasn't... well, filthy enough. A little bit of the same old thing, and even then not the same old thing that we loved, definitely sort of blah.
But then comes along Horsey Noises, and we're flipping our lids. The firs thing you'll notice are the vocals. Yep, vocals, the title track is weird fractured electro Depeche Mode-ish slow burn groove, complete with crooned vocals talking about how he wants to make the horse teethed girl make horsey noises. Sick and twisted, and the music suits it perfectly, rubbery buzzy basslines, skittery beats, even handclaps, but all blown out and woozy, lots of atonal abstract melodies, like Venetian Snares remixed through a mainstream pop funhouse mirror. By the end, all the sounds and the vocals are chopped up and twisted and super distorted and twisted all around into a noise drenched electro noisejam. If there was ever gonna be a hit single (there wasn't!) this could be it, if it wasn't so fucked up and jumbled and chaotic and if the lyrics weren't so bizarre. But we love it. Kinda has us hoping VS will sing more in the future. Picture Venetian Snares as some twisted electro pop crooner. Could be cool.
The title track gets remixed, the vocals get pushed way up, but the music is even more far out, eventually exploding into some classic super damaged drilled out jungle craziness. Might be the jam of the record!
The other two tracks are pretty bad ass too, "Horsey Vag Island" is post Aphex, Squarepushery jazz bass bit of looped skittery buzz and stutter, groovy and danceable, but filtered through a sort of ADD, full frontal lobotomy, DJ meltdown. The second track "Pig Dync", about a pig's special part, is a tad more tame, with woozy synths, haunting late night melodies, some total house music synths, but the beats still plenty convoluted, everything chopped up, and thrown back together, even mixes in what sounds like some 'oinks'. Crazy shit. But so good. So good in fact that we might have to revisit Filth. But for now, "Horsey Noises" and the even more mutated remix "Horsey Noisers" will remain in constant heavy rotation in the wild all night dancefloor that exists only in our heads. That's where we dance to stuff like this. Yeah, weird, we know....
RealAudio clip: "Horsey Noises"
MPEG Stream: "Horsey Noisers"

VENETIAN SNARES Horsey Noises (Planet Mu) 12" 7.98
We love Venetian Snares, every record, we're faced with the possibility of more of we love, or something new and twisted that's bound to confuse and confound. Whether it's splattery drill and bass, or cinematic string drenched soundtrackisms or old school nineties retro techno weirdness, we're pretty much into everything this guy give us.
That said, the most recent full length, Filth, was the first one in a long time that just didn't hit the spot, it just wasn't... well, filthy enough. A little bit of the same old thing, and even then not the same old thing that we loved, definitely sort of blah.
But then comes along Horsey Noises, and we're flipping our lids. The firs thing you'll notice are the vocals. Yep, vocals, the title track is weird fractured electro Depeche Mode-ish slow burn groove, complete with crooned vocals talking about how he wants to make the horse teethed girl make horsey noises. Sick and twisted, and the music suits it perfectly, rubbery buzzy basslines, skittery beats, even handclaps, but all blown out and woozy, lots of atonal abstract melodies, like Venetian Snares remixed through a mainstream pop funhouse mirror. By the end, all the sounds and the vocals are chopped up and twisted and super distorted and twisted all around into a noise drenched electro noisejam. If there was ever gonna be a hit single (there wasn't!) this could be it, if it wasn't so fucked up and jumbled and chaotic and if the lyrics weren't so bizarre. But we love it. Kinda has us hoping VS will sing more in the future. Picture Venetian Snares as some twisted electro pop crooner. Could be cool.
The title track gets remixed, the vocals get pushed way up, but the music is even more far out, eventually exploding into some classic super damaged drilled out jungle craziness. Might be the jam of the record!
The other two tracks are pretty bad ass too, "Horsey Vag Island" is post Aphex, Squarepushery jazz bass bit of looped skittery buzz and stutter, groovy and danceable, but filtered through a sort of ADD, full frontal lobotomy, DJ meltdown. The second track "Pig Dync", about a pig's special part, is a tad more tame, with woozy synths, haunting late night melodies, some total house music synths, but the beats still plenty convoluted, everything chopped up, and thrown back together, even mixes in what sounds like some 'oinks'. Crazy shit. But so good. So good in fact that we might have to revisit Filth. But for now, "Horsey Noises" and the even more mutated remix "Horsey Noisers" will remain in constant heavy rotation in the wild all night dancefloor that exists only in our heads. That's where we dance to stuff like this. Yeah, weird, we know....
MPEG Stream: "Horsey Noises"
MPEG Stream: "Horsey Noisers"

VOLTIGEURS s/t (Turgid Animal) cd 11.98
The latest project from the mighty Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Total, Sunroof!, etc.) is not all that far removed from more recent Skullflower records in several ways. The first is the lineup, Voltigeurs is a duo of Bower and one of his newer SF bandmates, Samantha Davies, the second is the sound, which once again finds Bower exploring his own little dark corner of black metal, an admitted recent obsession for him. Much like the SF "black metal" discs (including the most recent, Malediction, reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), Bower's black metal is a whole 'nother twisted noise slathered beast than what we're used to. Sure the sound is raw and grim and buzzy and heavy, but this blackness is more concerned with texture and tension, with drone and density, than proper riffage, no drums, so the songs don't blast or pound, even at their heaviest, they still drift, the guitars, possibly the thickest and crunchiest we've heard from Bower in ages, do seem to be unfurling some sort of black riffage, but here the blur and smear into thick clouds of FX drenched buzz, of howling feedback and string strangling crunch, Davies, who plays cello in Skullflower, must be doing terrible things to her cello here (assuming she hasn't switched to guitar), because it's nearly impossible to differentiate who's who and who's playing what in Voltigeurs' big glorious tangle of heaving fractured heaviness.
It almost sounds like a symphony of black metal cassettes unspooling in zero gravity, a swirling mass of a million mobius strips of sound. The strange thing is, for being one of the heavies things we've heard from Bower, it also seems to be one of the loveliest, and most melodic. Not always mind you, but here and there, the furious fug clears, and reveals some woozy mournful soaring bit of melodic doominess, the opening of "Pearlescent Abyss" sounds like some lost early doom jam, slathered in noise and tape hiss and amp buzz, but still, the sound oozes with emotion and anguish. And those moments do surface throughout the record, giving Voltigeurs' noisiness a definite black doom vibe.
There's also a distinctly dronedoomdirge feel to a lot of the songs, Bower's guitar more obviously a guitar, the sounds he's conjuring up more obviously riff based, SUNNO))), Fear Falls Burning, Vulture Club, it's like that sound but more feral, more fierce, less composed, more loose, more instinctual, and somehow more alive, a constantly expanding ball of buzzing smoldering abstract riffage, the sound organic and lush, while remaining fuzzy and abrasive and intensely heavy.
The record finishes off with another bit of melodic mystery, the 9 minute "Condor", is a slow buzz drenched crawl, the guitars crumbling, wrapped around a lurching slow motion pulse, a dense blackened throb, but swirling throughout and within that main guitardrone, spidery tendrils of melody burn white hot, shards and streaks of warm shimmer, a lugubrious bit of glacial downtuned beauty.
Voltigeurs debut full length seems like the perfect foil for the new Skullflower (maybe it was intended to be just that), it's like that other record's shadow, its less evil twin, where the other is noxious and corrosive, this one is effulgent and luminous, where the other is blackened and chaotic, this one seems to glow with some long buried beauty, it almost sounds like the two could be played simultaneously, to create some intense multi part, blacknoise dronedirge epic, but each, on its own, is fantastic, each one in its own way psychedelic and heavy, blackened and buzzy, but Voltigeurs might be the slightly prettier of the two, but still somehow manages to remain as heavy and as intense as any guitardrone record we've heard. WAY WAY recommended (As is the Skullflower!)!!
MPEG Stream: "Archon"
MPEG Stream: "Lamia"
MPEG Stream: "Yesod"

VORDR s/t (Nykta) cd ep 9.99
The return of these Finnish freaks, and another awesome disc of blown out, ultra raw, ultra grim black metal buzz. Vordr may feature a member of aQ faves Circle Of Ouroborus, but as we mentioned in our review of the last Vordr, you won't find any stumbling folk, or abstract black ambience, or bizarre fractured WTF here, the domain of Vordr is reserved for tweeter destroying high end brittle lo-fi blast and pound, a swirling melee of chaotic skree drenched buzz, D-beat death pounding drums and sharp slivers of buzzing insectoid riffage, unfurling in long blurred streaks beneath anguished tortured wails and teeth gnashing demonic shrieks.
There is most definitely plenty of melody lurking below the surface, but those bits of melody are well protected, only the blackest of souls can withstand the constantly churning sea of fucked up sound that surrounds them, billious bursts of abject fury, in-the-red shards of buzz drenched rrroooaaar, festering gouts of sonic virulence, this is sick, ugly, gloriously noxious black grimnity, a series of musical ice picks to the inner ear, a tinnitus inducing swarm of beautiful blackness, which will most definitely warm the cold dead hearts of all who worship at the altars of Bone Awl, Ash Pool, Akitsa Vegas Martyrs and the like.
MPEG Stream: "Wild Of Glory"
MPEG Stream: "Legends In The Bark"
MPEG Stream: "Vitterlicht"

WHITE MAGIC New Egypt (Latitudes 0:13) (Latitudes / Southern) lp 15.98
FINALLY AVAILABLE ON VINYL!! And like all Latitudes releases (especially lps), super limited! Here's our review of New Egypt from when we first had the cd...
It's almost impossible to keep ourselves still and write about this new White Magic release as every time we listen to it all we want to do is spin and jump around. We've only had New Egypt in our hands and ears for a week now but we've already lost count of how many times we've pressed repeat to hear this ten minute track over and over again. Like some kind of amazing mantra on love, hope, paranoia and what the future could hold, this is White Magic at their fiery and feverish best!
Taking some of the ingredients of what was previously our favorite White Magic song "One-Note" from their Through The Sun Door debut over four years ago and stretching it out with even more dynamics, more fire and a dizzying spell that casts its magic in such physical ways. What separates White Magic from the psychedelic folk masses is that they create music that actually creates a strong physical sensation as well as tapping into emotional realms. It's impossible to listen to "New Egypt" and not have your body start responding physically to the sounds, it's perfect for strapping on headphones and taking on the city and walking faster and with more purpose than ever before.
We'd been hearing that this was supposed to come out for several months, but somehow the timing of it finally arriving now seems so perfect for the crisp October air, as this really sounds like a ceremonial offering to the season of fall. There is a flame ignited at the core of what White Magic creates that's truly connected to all the Earth elements while still inhabiting a space that's filled with intriguing mystique. Make sure to play this one loud as we've found it resonates with such striking glory when it blasts through our skin and inhabits both the inner and outer realms of our psyche.
Packaged in one of those immediately recognizable black and white 12"s Latitudes sleeves with full color insert. And since it's only one song, the flipside is the SAME song, only the vinyl has been cut so the record plays from the inside out, plus al the stuff on the label is reversed too. Cool!
MPEG Stream: "New Egypt"

WILCO Wilco (The Album) (Nonesuch) cd 16.98
We have to be honest, Wilco's last outing Sky Blue Sky left us a little more then underwhelmed. And most of us had pretty much relegated Wilco to the unflattering status of 'DAD rock'. The songs just lacked that magic that Tweedy and company had built a career on. The disappointment of that record was no doubt due in part to the fact that it came hot on the heels of two of the most adventurous albums Wilco had made, A Ghost Is Born and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. So while there are no kraut-like moments or electronic dabbling on Wilco (The Album) it does find the band sounding more like classic Wilco, with full on irresistible pop moments that recall Summerteeth and that ready to be immortalized on classic rock radio feel of Being There. "You Never Know" should be a mega-hit single , if there's any justice. While we do still wish the band would explore more outer limits territory, truth is, at the heart of it all, Jeff Tweedy knows how to write timeless songs full of texture and a fleeting sense of memory and lingering emotion.
MPEG Stream: "You Never Know"
MPEG Stream: "Wilco (the song)"
MPEG Stream: "Solitaire"

YAHOWAH 13 Magnificence In The Memory (Drag City) cd 14.98
We here at Aquarius Records love our jobs. There's just some things you can get working at a record store that otherwise might pass you by for years, if not for your entire life. The pleasure of listening to Yahowah 13 is one of those. The chanting, the improvisation, the psychedelia, the beards! For those of you who didn't pick up God and Hair, the 13 cd reissue box-set, Magnificence in Memory might be a good place to start. Over 70 albums were recorded by Yod and his "sons" in the early '70s, but only 13 were originally issued on vinyl. The rest sat around on tape in a garage for 30 years accumulating dust and unfortunately disintegrating a bit. Magnificence in Memory is the second album to be released from those original unused tapes, and why these songs were never used, only Yod knows. The excellent songs on Magnificence range from early Beefheart-like dissonant blues jams to tribal chanting to improvised hippie whistling workouts to heavy proto-metal yowling. Despite these disparate elements, there is a continuity that escapes the recordings, one that can only come from a bunch of people living together and creating together in close harmony for years. One gets the feeling that most if not all of these cuts were made up on the spot, but the changes within the songs are (mostly) executed with an almost uncanny precision, like the musicians were speaking to each other on another, higher, plane of existence. Well, maybe. But regardless of how you feel towards communes, cults and hippies, we guarantee you will love Magnificence in Memory from the bizarre Yahowah 13.
MPEG Stream: "Camp Of The Gypsies"
MPEG Stream: "Nam Yo Ho Renge Kyo"
MPEG Stream: "Father Whistling"

YAHOWAH 13 Magnificence In The Memory (Drag City) lp 15.98
We here at Aquarius Records love our jobs. There's just some things you can get working at a record store that otherwise might pass you by for years, if not for your entire life. The pleasure of listening to Yahowah 13 is one of those. The chanting, the improvisation, the psychedelia, the beards! For those of you who didn't pick up God and Hair, the 13 cd reissue box-set, Magnificence in Memory might be a good place to start. Over 70 albums were recorded by Yod and his "sons" in the early '70s, but only 13 were originally issued on vinyl. The rest sat around on tape in a garage for 30 years accumulating dust and unfortunately disintegrating a bit. Magnificence in Memory is the second album to be released from those original unused tapes, and why these songs were never used, only Yod knows. The excellent songs on Magnificence range from early Beefheart-like dissonant blues jams to tribal chanting to improvised hippie whistling workouts to heavy proto-metal yowling. Despite these disparate elements, there is a continuity that escapes the recordings, one that can only come from a bunch of people living together and creating together in close harmony for years. One gets the feeling that most if not all of these cuts were made up on the spot, but the changes within the songs are (mostly) executed with an almost uncanny precision, like the musicians were speaking to each other on another, higher, plane of existence. Well, maybe. But regardless of how you feel towards communes, cults and hippies, we guarantee you will love Magnificence in Memory from the bizarre Yahowah 13.
MPEG Stream: "Camp Of The Gypsies"
MPEG Stream: "Nam Yo Ho Renge Kyo"
MPEG Stream: "Father Whistling"

YOUNG WIDOWS / PELICAN split (Temporary Residence) 7" 5.98
Volume 3 in the 4 part series of split singles from noise rockers the Young Widows. The first two featured the band teamed up with Bonnie Prince Billy and Melt-Banana, and for number 3 they go toe to toe with metallic post rockers Pelican.
Of the three volumes so far, this is the most laid back and least heavy of the Young Widows jams, a long tribal slow building almost Shellac sounding groove, all drums and buzzing bass, while the guitar grinds and scrapes, tons of space, very minimal, then the vocals come in, hovering over the spare musical backdrop, reminds us quite bit of that classic Amphetamine Reptile sound, especially when the guitar locks in with the vocals, sounds like it could be one of the weirder cooler lesser known groups in the AmRep stable. The last minute though gets rough and raw and heavy, channeling some supercharged Fugazi, howled vocals and sharp crunchy guitars, another killer jam that just like the other two volumes, sounds too good to be relegated to a 7". Or it's a return to the good ol' days when the best songs WERE on 7"s.
Pelican does what they do best for their side, heavy, chunky, melodic instrumental epic metallic post rock, and it sounds fantastic. This particular number is WAY on the melodic side, even with it's churning chugging breakdown, the main part is gorgeous, majestic and massive and crazy catchy. These guys do just keep getting better, but like the 12" featured elsewhere on this list, we still find ourselves imagining various singers doing their thing on Pelican songs. Here's a rad idea for a weirdo Pelican project. Those guys should pick their favorite vocalists, and have those vocalists pick their favorite Pelican songs, and record vocals for a record of 'vocal mixes'. Just give us some credit if it happens!
Like the other 7"s in the series, packaged in cool spot varnished full color covers, all four of which fit together to form one big creepy angular skull image.

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1349 Revelations Of The Black Flame + Works Of Fire Live (Deluxe) (Candlelight) 2lp 28.00
NOW ON VINYL!!!
A quick look online reveals a crazy amount of negative feedback and terrible reviews for this, the newest record from Norwegian black metal supergroup 1349. Most of that negativity stems from the fact that everyone seemed to be hoping for a Hellfire Part 2. Hellfire being their last record, a frenetic non stop blast of frenzied lightning speed berserk blackened buzz. Which is strange, because we were actually hoping for something different. Hellfire was SO fast, and SO relentless, so much so that in many places it just became a furious black blur, which is fine, and we do love that record, but where does a band go from there? Certainly not faster, but somehow, faster seemed to be what most folks expected. What we can tell you is no one expected THIS. Slower. Weirder. Even a Pink Floyd cover. Could this really be 1349? It is, and it's awesome. Dark and lurching doom-ed blackness, shades of Celtic Frost for sure (whose Tom G. Warrior did some production work here). So fuck the haters, we already have a Hellfire, this is something way more interesting and original.
The record opens with some anguished screams, which give way to a long drifting dronescape, deep rumbling dark ambience, thick and layered, caustic and ominous, before finally lurching into song, but not in a black blast, more of a chugging pound, a little bit of tangled blackness, and then woozy, midtempo meander, atonal chords, off kilter rhythms, lots of start and stop, the tempo sort of sea sick, the vibe still WAY sinister, but much more abstract and avant, and way doomier, and it suits them. At first it seemed like maybe drummer Frost was wasted here, but finally, he has the opportunity to do something other than blast maniacally.
The second track is more of the same, a lumbering doomy bit of avant blackness, with gnarled riffs, simple pounding percussion, the arrangement mathy and convoluted, sounding more like Thorns or Khold or Tulus, which is a very good thing.
The record does offer up some blasting black metal, but not a whole lot, as one disgruntled reviewer put it "there's like maybe 10 minutes of ACTUAL black metal on the whole record!", which is true, the majority of the record is still 'black', but much weirder, slower, atmospheric, with a few straight up ambient tracks, long snarling dronescapes, spaced out stretches of gauzy piano wrapped in streaks of feedback, and bits of glitchy buzz, drifty chunks of guitar flecked rumble and whir, all butted up against awesomely twisted bits of black doom weirdness.
One of the best tracks sounds like a Deathspell Omega jam slowed way down, "Uncreation" is all woozy and tangled and almost gothy at points, but with cool bursts of staccato almost industrial sounding chug, and those dense black riffs, pulled apart and wrapped around the pounding rhythms.
The record closes with the haunting "At The Gate..." which begins like some doomdrone record, all downtuned guitar drone, thickening and sprawling like some noxious black cloud, it eventually splinters into a song, but all that means is the wall of guitar buzz and grinding low end is peppered with occasional drum pound, distant guitar leads, and super creepy processed vocals, before eventually blissing out and drifting off.
And let's not forget the Pink Floyd cover. It's almost unrecognizable, but for THAT bass line, super fuzzy and distorted, drifting through swirling layers of effects, the vocals whispered and doused in delay, the drums a machinelike pound, the guitars unfurling all manner of strange sounds, drones and whirs and shrieks and buzzes, no proper riffs, it's the bass and drums that drive this track, the guitars left to fill in the surrounding space with all manner of blurred black ambience. Haunting and spaced out but still plenty black. WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Invocation"
MPEG Stream: "Serpentine Sibilance"
MPEG Stream: "Uncreation"
MPEG Stream: "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun"

AKRON / FAMILY Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free (Dead Oceans) cd 14.98
It's the case with lots of our favorite bands that the magic and awesomeness of any group comes from the collaborative energy every member puts forth into the overall sound. It's not so much one member leading, or one guitar part, or one vocal hook that makes a band awesome. Put it this way, the whole is always greater than its parts. After leaving the infamous Young God Records and losing key member Ryan Vanderhoof, Akron family find themselves in a state of creative purgatory. We were surprised to hear Set 'Em Wild sounding so unconfident and unsure, one song lead by a post-rock guitar splurge, then the next a funky bassline from some sweaty disco romp. Not to say we don't fully appreciate the weird and unconventional approach these dudes have always taken, but there's something missing here. In all fairness, the production and performance is up to par with past Akron records, rich group harmonies, catchy pop hooks, atmospheric wash and delay, but the overall magic that linked all these key elements into something tangible seems to have unfortunately faded away...
MPEG Stream: "Everyone Is Guilty"
MPEG Stream: "Set 'Em Free"

AKRON / FAMILY Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free (Deep Oceans) 2lp 17.98
It's the case with lots of our favorite bands that the magic and awesomeness of any group comes from the collaborative energy every member puts forth into the overall sound. It's not so much one member leading, or one guitar part, or one vocal hook that makes a band awesome. Put it this way, the whole is always greater than its parts. After leaving the infamous Young God Records and losing key member Ryan Vanderhoof, Akron family find themselves in a state of creative purgatory. We were surprised to hear Set 'Em Wild sounding so unconfident and unsure, one song lead by a post-rock guitar splurge, then the next a funky bassline from some sweaty disco romp. Not to say we don't fully appreciate the weird and unconventional approach these dudes have always taken, but there's something missing here. In all fairness, the production and performance is up to par with past Akron records, rich group harmonies, catchy pop hooks, atmospheric wash and delay, but the overall magic that linked all these key elements into something tangible seems to have unfortunately faded away...
MPEG Stream: "Everyone Is Guilty"
MPEG Stream: "Set 'Em Free"

ALASEHIR Tormenting The Metals (Important Records) lp 22.00
John and Michael Gibbons of the infamous Bardo Pond have been on quite a roll lately. As if the three other recent Bardo Pond related vinyl-only releases on Important weren't killer enough, here's another one to complete the four piece series of mind melting guitar driven psychedelic haze. Alasehir finds the Gibbons brothers in cahoots with drummer, Jason Kourkouni. The result is a smoldering heap of fried out, stoned to the bone, free psych madness! Plumes of smoke rising behind towering tube amps and blistering feedback, stoner doom riffs plodding on and on into the distant horizon, menacing solos hovering above waves of crashing cymbals and driving drums, all building and building into some Parson Sound, doom kraut heaviness. We love how blown out the record sounds, every instrument being dragged to its far off limits, we could've sworn we heard the wax start to melt right under the needle. This one is also limited to 500 copies, and those of you with a sweet spot for blistering guitar heaviness will not want to miss this. Recommended!

ALUMBRADOS Monochord (Important Records) lp 22.00
The most calm and serene of the four Bardo Pond related lps from Important, Alumbrados documents the mystic explorations of John and Michael Gibbons through the hazy scope of loosely arranged cosmic atmospheres and acoustic psychedelic ethno-droones. Though it probably goes without saying, Monochord reaches out from the deep ringing center of an ancient gong, sending soaring tones of bowed acoustic guitar, buzzing sitar, and ritual percussion high into the midnight sky. A short step away from the driving, more rockin' sound of their Alasehir project, Alumbrados shimmers with the distant glow of woodland lanterns and dreamy grasslands, all effortlessly sculpted into a somber raga-esque drone masterpiece. Calm acoustic finger picking in the distance, ritualistic percussion thumping away, all drenched in an eastern wash of buzzing strings and far off flutes. Limited to 500 copies, this one will be gone in no time, so pick it up while you still can!

BEASTIE BOYS Check Your Head (Capitol) 2lp 28.00
So rad to finally have this Beastie Boys classic back on wax, all fancy gatefold 180 gram vinyl style. Originally released back in '92 it was a record that so many of us were dying for, as it was their first record in almost four years following the classic yet not totally embraced at the time sophomore outing Paul's Boutique. While they pretty much mastered the art of sampling on that album, they decided to pick up the instruments themselves on this one and along with their buddy Money Mark they hashed out most of the instrumentation themselves. There is a gritty aura to Check Your Head which found the Beastie Boys embracing their punk roots and finding how to create their own grooves which were just as tasty and funky as all the great stuff they had sampled in years past. Another Beastie Boys album that has passed the test of time, and whenever we blast this there's definitely some nostalgia but we're also reminded of how damn good these songs still sound!
MPEG Stream: "Pass The Mic"
MPEG Stream: "Jimmy James"

BJORK Voltaic (One Little Indian) 2cd+2dvd 56.00
For those who can't get enough Bjork (we know who you are) how about this, the two audio compact disc, two video dvd disc edition of Voltaic, the live companion to the eccentric Icelandic singer's latest album Volta! No, we're not reviewing it, really, just letting you know it's here... calling your name...

BONG / GNOD split (Box) 7" + cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A split waiting to happen if there ever was one, both by name, and by sound, blissed out ambient soundscapers Gnod, best know for their split with White Hills, and beloved drugged out space rockers form the UK Bong.
The real bummer is that we tried to get a ton of these and only managed to wrangle TEN. Otherwise this would have been up with the highlights and the review would be about 10 times as long. But since odds are we'll probably get more orders for this than copies we actually have, we'll keep it brief.
Gnod offer up a warbly looped pianoscape, peppered with distant percussive rattles, draped over slow deep ambient swells, all building to a dense blackened rumble. Nice. Bong counter with more of that thing they do, rad tripped out FX drenched space rock, replete with sitar like buzz, kosmiche krautrock drumming, incendiary guitar buzz and deep chanted vocals, the sort of song that could, and probably should go on forever, but here fills up the side with gloriously dense hypnotic psychedelic heaviness.
The 7" comes with a cd-r, with over 50 minutes of extra stuff, one massive 30+ minute Bong jam, and three shorter Gnod tracks. Again we have less than ten, we really did try, all but the very quickest on the trigger, prepare to be disappointed.

BRITISH SEA POWER Man Of Aran (Rough Trade) cd+dvd 16.98
Wow, this band keeps on evolving in wonderful ways! British Sea Power's latest musical outing is a soundtrack for the classic 1934 documentary Man Of Aran by explorer / filmmaker Robert Flaherty. Somberly foreboding, these mostly instrumental passages could easily seem like they were torn from the dramatically atmospheric books of Godspeed You Black Emperor! There are some really gorgeous, gloomily grey stretches that balance cloudy drones with delicate melodies played out on guitar, piano and strings. Nice. The rock band in British Sea Power only really surfaces a few times ever so fleetingly - midway through the proceedings on "Boy Vertiginous", then on the rugged number "Spearing The Sunfish", and on the finale "No Man Is An Archipelago" - but it fits effectively and doesn't seem incongruous. An added bonus: the cd is accompanied by a dvd that features the film with its new score!
MPEG Stream: "Woman Of Aran"
MPEG Stream: "Spearing The Sunfish"

CHECKER, CHUBBY Goes Psychedelic (Mariola) lp 30.00
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!! Good thing too, since the cd reissue is now out of print. Our review of it follows...
When you think deep soulful psychedelic tinged rock the first name that probably does NOT come to mind is Chubby Checker. But guess what, he did in fact brew up a totally potent batch of psych rock burners that somehow slipped completely under the radar.
Apparently Chubby was living in Holland in 1971 when he hooked up with some eccentric and unknown hippie rockers who all seemed to be smoking some seriously good stuff and together they recorded this batch of seriously scorching tracks! Forget everything you know about Chubby Checker. This is not "The Twist", or the golden-oldies or a novelty comeback with the Fat Boys in the '80s. This is impassioned psychedelic rock killer with deep grooves and a super emotional and intense vocal delivery from Chubby. Every time we play this in the store someone thinks it's some rare Hendrix track or an unreleased Arthur Lee gem or some amazing group like Black Merda finally being resurrected. In fact just about all of these songs could have appeared on any of the recent spate of psych reissue comps that we have fallen so in love with (Nuggets, Cherrystones), and actually we were given our first sneak peak into this secret world of Chubby Checker a few years back on the great collection Mr. Toytown Presents Vol. 2: Nightmares at Toby's Shop. We never thought we'd finally hear the whole disc, heck, we didn't even think there -was- a whole disc. Turns out there was, now on cd as Goes Psychedelic though it was originally released on some budget labels variously under the titles New Revelation and Chequered.
There are some mind blowing songs here. Songs that aren't just cool cause it's neat and weird and interesting that they are actually being sung by Chubby Checker but songs that stand on their own two feet and grab your and shake you and sound so damn good! What's also so cool about this recording is that 9 of the 11 songs were actually written by Chubby, so it's not like some hip producer just grabbed a bunch of great songs and slapped his name and voice on them. He shows such an amazing range, from scorching stingers ("Love Tunnel") to druggy cookers ("Stoned In The Bathroom") to darkly solemn tales ("He Died"). What an absolute surprise of a record! We haven't been able to stop playing it since it arrived to AQ. We're completely addicted! And we think you will be too.
MPEG Stream: "Love Tunnel"
MPEG Stream: "How Does It Feel"
MPEG Stream: "Goodbye Victoria"

CITY CENTER s/t (Type) cd 15.98
We all were really excited when we saw that Animal Collective had picked Grouper to open their tour, how cool that Grouper's dreamy and hazy sounds would reach so many new ears at all of their sold out shows. While it might not seem like an obvious match, we think there is much in Panda Bear's aesthetic that drew him and the rest of his gang to Grouper's daydream delights. Enter City Center, who we first heard on a split 7" with Grouper and who to our ears sound a lot like a much more slowed down and blissed out and dreamy Panda Bear. While using similar sounds and ideas, tons of reverb and the same sort of repetition that made the Panda Bear album so unique, City Center never reaches the same kind of ecstatic boiling point, instead keeping things in more understated and lingering. Like the perfect foggy Sunday morning or lazy laid back late night soundtrack, the sound of City Center floats and flows with such ease. Fred Thomas, better known for his band Saturday Looks Good To me, will probably now end up being more well known for City Center, building from his indie-pop roots into something a bit more atmospheric. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Killer Whale"
MPEG Stream: "Summer School"

DOKTOR KETTU Soft Delirium (Super-Metsa / Ektro) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK!!
Many of you will recall that a few years back, we had the pleasure of reviewing six (6) different limited edition cd-r releases by this murky and mysterious improvised instrumental free rock ensemble from Finland, which features members (we eventually determined for sure) of mega AQ faves Circle! In those reviews, which taxed our powers of description, we said things like:
"A Finnish drug thing you wouldn't understand."
"Lo-fi, low-key freakout."
"Imagine a cross between Circle and Thuja."
"Imagine Hawkwind or Acid Mothers Temple locked in a cave with broken instruments."
"Installments from some massive on-going jam still happening right now... outdoors under the ever-dark winter sky."
"Slow, meandering, very stoned ambient psych jamming to the max."
"Imagine if you had neighbors who lived below you in a WWII bunker and all they did all day was listen to certain Fushitsusha albums, this is what you might hear through the floor."
Now, all six of those cd-r's have been out of print for some time now. But Doktor Kettu's spacey jamming is indeed on-going, and now they're back with a brand new disc, Soft Delirium, and ALL our lines quoted above could easily apply, again. This time it's a real cd, not a cd-r, from Super-Metsa, a division of our friend Jussi's Ektro label that brings us so much stuff by his band Circle and other strange treats. In the typical Doktor Kettu tradition, there's but three long tracks on this disc, each of them an extended, wandering journey through darkness and light. The twelve minute, 44 second "Wulff" which opens the disc, billows forth, amplifier hum and droning chords riding abstract waves of percussive tinkerings to eventually unleash some seriously dense, distorted muzz. Someone's having a Tokyo Flashback, even though these guys are from Finland! Track two, "Triggeri" (9:56) is a bit gentler. Rather pretty, reminding us a bit of Circle's exquisite Miljard. Quiet music you'll want to play loud. And then the disc's third and final track "Kosmonaut", provides even more brooding ambience, exhibiting the ominous, twilight moodiness of another AQ fave, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. It's over seventeen minutes long, but for us that's barely long enough. These pale rumblings, with surges of percussive texture and slow, slow hints of melody, could flow on endlessly and we'd be forever entranced...
MPEG Stream: "Wulff"
MPEG Stream: "Kosmonaut"

FORGOTTEN TOMB Negative Megalomania (Avantgarde) cd 14.98
Found just a few of these lurking in our closet, that we hadn't listed, though they've been here since 2007. It's this mournful but rockin' Italian band's most recent release, though, and if you're looking for some sheer blackened doomic metal this disc is still quite potent. 58 minutes, 5 songs of dark depressiveness that quite befits the name Forgotten Tomb, their songwriting taking a variety of twists and turns along the way. Sounding like a black n' roll Katatonia at the start, they then experiment with some more avant-garde Slint-y bits on other tracks, and also allow vocalist "Herr Morbid" to switch between the wretched raspings typical of black metal to a clean vocal style for some of these songs. Fans of Lifelover could do well to check this out, it's in a similar vein, perhaps deliberately so.
MPEG Stream: "Negative Megalomania"
MPEG Stream: "Blood And Concrete"

FRAGMENT s/t (ConSOULing Sounds) cd-r 10.98
Killer debut from this French one man post rock outfit, whose sound definitely leans toward Jesu and Nadja and that sort of fuzz drenched dirginess. From the first few second of the opening track, the 'band' launches into a blissed out hazy drift, programmed drums pound out a hypnotic beat, the guitars swirl, wreathed in thick crumbling fuzz, and then the vocals, holy cow, they sort of seal the deal as far as Jesu-ness is concerned, a dead ringer for Justin Broadrick's reverb drenched soft croon.
If anything, imagine a more laid back, driftier dreamier Jesu, which sounds like a very good thing, and it is. The songs to get chunky and riffy launching into stretches of muscled metallic pound, and just as often the sound slips into super minimal drones, whether it's synths or guitars, it's difficult to tell, but the end result is the same, warm fuzzy rumbles and blissed out murky whir. Then the drums kick in, then the vocals, and the sound is squarely back in Jesu / Nadja territory.
Folks looking for something totally original, that they've never ever heard before, might fight Fragment a little frustrating, but for anyone who loves THAT sound, the blissed out shoegazey metallic post rock shimmer of Jesu, or the distorted drenched dream doom of Nadja, and wants more more more, and might even like that sound even more if it were softer and prettier, well then Fragment will definitely hit the spot.
A perfect collection of late night drifting-off soft metallic drift. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Probably the last copies we'll be able to get...
MPEG Stream: "Empire"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost"

FUNKADELIC Toys (Westbound) lp 24.00
NOW ON VINYL!!! What's that? A whole disc of unreleased vintage Funkadelic jams?? You don't gotta say that twice, we're on it like Michael Phelps on any passing bong. Yep, we were pretty excited when this showed up here, as Funkadelic are one of our favoritest bands ever. Early '70s psychedelic funk rock genius, y'know. If you're not already hip to the whole Parliament-Funkadelic "thang" (which we don't have room to properly enthuse over here), this wouldn't be the first disc of theirs to get, though it would certainly whet your appetite to hear more. If you want our advice, noobs should pick up Maggot Brain and Up For the Down Stroke and a few other "actual" P-Funk albums first, before getting Toys. For folks who are already fans, though, we heartily recommend this disc to y'all!!
Toys features four songs with vocals and five live-in-the-studio instrumentals, the best of which really let Funkadelic axemaster Eddie Hazel show off his Jimi Hendrix inspired wah-wah wailin'. There's alternate (slower, heavier, harder) versions of "You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure" (herein called "Heart Trouble") and "The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg" (sans vocals) which appeared on later Funkadelic and Parliament records, respectively. Other tracks, like the nearly 11 minute long "Slide On In", are total (and totally badass) improvs. Though not all are so extended, to wit the brief laidback goof "2 Dollars & 2 Dimes". Meanwhile, poppier, songi-er fare includes "Talk About Jesus" (a gospel-ly tune, duh) and "Stink Finger", a bright and sunny number, which you might not guess from its title. Now, we'll admit this buried treasure ain't all gold, one of the lesser tracks here to our ears would be the just a bit too straight jazzy "Magnifunk", though this keyboard-led jam does get wilder as it goes on. But Funkadelic's throwaways are still way better than most other bands' best stuff, of course.
Also this includes an alternate "karaoke" version of the throbbing freakfunk classic from Maggot Brain, "Wars Of Armageddon", the original of which probably inspired half of that Wicked Witch album we highlighted recently.
MPEG Stream: "Heart Trouble aka You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure"
MPEG Stream: "Vampy Funky Bernie (3rd Tune Olympic)"
MPEG Stream: "Slide On In (2nd Tune Olympic)"

GRAND LAKE Nevermint (500 Records) cd 10.98
When the opening tune of Nevermint kicks off, we were immediately struck by its remarkable Pixies-ness. Clearly that venerable band's impact has been mighty on Grand Lake. It resurfaces often on this their debut album. That has its up side and its down side. You get a immediate sense of familiarity which might be a plus if you dig the Pixies. On the other hand, they run the risk of swift dismissal with folks who don't like those rock vets or soundalike bands in general. Funnily enough though, that particular song's title is "Concrete Blonde On Blonde"(!). So we were sort of expecting them to sound like... umm, Johnette Napolitano or Bob Dylan, but no. Fortunately it is actually on the numbers where Mr. Black and co.'s influence is less apparent that these Oaklanders (led by former Port O'Brien singer/bassist Caleb Nichols) really shine brightest, melting into some delightful hazy daydreamy indie pop with warm boy-girl vocal harmonies. Check out "Blue Hoodie". We're only half kidding when we say we'd prefer that they lay off the Pixiestix, heh heh, and dish out more of their own honey pop sweetness. Recommended if you like Caribou, Loney, Dear, and/or fellow Bay Area pop band The Papercuts who also have a terrific new album out now! They go together really well!
MPEG Stream: "Concrete Blonde On Blonde"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Hoodie"

GREY WOLVES, THE Judgement (Hospital) cd 14.98
The Grey Wolves, a British industrial, provocateur duo, has been in operation since the mid-'80s, presenting themselves with a patchwork of antisocial, right-wing images under the pretense of a critique against contemporary cultural paradigms. They make the case that if they can get anyone in their audience to "think" about the political implications that run amok through daily life, then their antagonism through Nazi imagery, Osama Bin Laden t-shirts, poses of sexual domination, and even their name (a Turkish right-wing political movement responsible for hundreds of murders in the '70s and '80s) are justified. Unlike Throbbing Gristle and Laibach whose irony and wit are self-evident in their darkened theatrics, The Grey Wolves play fast and loose with all of these allusions; and more often than not, they stand as sympathizers to right-wing causes rather than as cultural critics.
Given how much of black metal aligns itself with the far right and how some of those bands can kick-ass in spite of their politics, we can't wholly denigrate The Grey Wolves on their questionable politics attempting to disguise themselves as art. This is doubly so considering that the reissue of Judgement is a pretty great document of tape damaged, lo-fi murk and rumbling noise. Hospital merely states that Judgement was originally released "in the late 20th Century," but given that the Grey Wolves had yet to adopt the post-Whitehouse aesthetic of power electronics found on their '90s recordings, we can safely say this was one of their earliest documents from the mid-'80s. The blown out 4-track recordings enjoy a crackling, ominous hiss which accompanies plenty of lo-fi crumpled rhythms and minor-key melodies sculpted out of feedback. While certainly snarling and nasty, many of these sounds could easily transition into any of more abrasive moments from turntablists like Philip Jeck or Gum. The Grey Wolves were gifted in terms of sound construction; and this album is thankfully devoid of any overt political statement. If only the rest of their catalog had such foresight.
MPEG Stream: "Restraint"
MPEG Stream: "Judgement"

HAWK AND A HACKSAW, A Deliverance (Leaf) lp 15.98
Also available on vinyl... Following up their glorious, but sadly very limited edition 78rpm 10" record Foni Tu Argile, A Hawk And A Hacksaw present their latest full length via more modern technological means. As always, the band remain deeply reverent and faithful to the traditional Eastern European gypsy folk styles that they hold near and dear. Their songs rush by at a frenzied pace. It's almost faster than your toe can tap, but the music does spur your limbs into action. We found ourselves moving a bit quicker around the store while it played. Even without our morning coffee fix! So if you've been trying to kick caffeine, maybe consider this a healthy substitute... no, seriously! Check out the wild piano action on "Kertesz" and the twisting horns on "Turkiye". Amazing musicianship! Stunning stuff! They do slow things down briefly for numbers such as the mesmerizing "Raggle Taggle" (though it ends with an unexpected lively clip!) and "I Am Not A Gambling Man", only to start back up again at an even more frantic tempo! If you've dug their previous recordings, this will surely please you a-plenty! Also recommended for fans of Beirut and Gogol Bordello!
MPEG Stream: "Kertész"
MPEG Stream: "Raggle Taggle"

LOCRIAN Plague Journal (self released) 7" 8.98
Super limited tour only 7", we got the very last handful. Unlike the blackened drones on Locrian's full length, this is way more in the realm of guitar heaviness, not quite black metal, but there is definitely some shades of black happening. A killer riff fragment, looped over and over, hypnotic and trancelike, slowly evolving in tone and timbre, getting higher and more jagged, while all around it, the ambient sounds build to a thunderous almost industrial cacophony.
The B side is a billowy bit of spaced out drift, trippy synth shimmer, another looped bit of abstract guitar, swirling effects, layered textures, erupting into a stretch of slow motion doominess right at the end. More dark heavy beauty from this Chicago duo.
All white cover, white labels, very little info, a Xeroxed insert with liner notes. 300 copies, these are the last ones ever.

LOCRIAN Visible / Invisible (Small Doses) 3"cd-r 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ultra crazy limited tour only 3"cd-r from these Chicago blackened dronelords, we tried to order a ton of these, but managed to get less than a dozen. Considering it was limited to 93 copies, and most of those went on tour with the band, these are most likely the last and only copies we'll ever get.
Which is a bummer cuz this is really great. Two tracks, both the same length, the second is the exact reverse of track one - which makes this a musical palindrome. Prettier than most of the other Locrian stuff, delicate and drifty, washed out and woozy, long fuzzy layered drones, a little bit space-y, very hypnotic and trancelike, the end of the first track (and thus the beginning of the second) builds to a buzzing blown out looped sounding coda, which then follows the reverse path through the length of the second track eventually settling back down into some soft sun dappled dronebliss, before finally fading out completely. Quite lovely, even the heavy parts are more pretty than heavy. Only 10 or so of these in stock. Be quick, or be without...
LIMITED TO 93 COPIES. Housed in a mini plastic sleeve, with a cool black on black fold out insert.
MPEG Stream: "Visible / Invisible"
MPEG Stream: "Invisible / Visible"

LOWBROW READER OF LOWBROW COMEDY, THE Issue #7 - Summer/Fall 2009 magazine 3.00
Finally a new issue of this dandy New York zine! Neil Michael Hagerty (y'know, of Royal Trux, Howling Hex, etc.) is still the "writer at large" for this wry, wit filled tome, and this time he's joined in Lowbrow Reader land by David and Shelley Berman (aka Silver Jews) among a dozen or so other contributors. This issue features editorials on comedians Don Rickles and John Mulaney, articles about novelist Gilbert Rogin, overlooked comedy flicks circa 1968 through 1983. Always a good, entertaining read and re-read! 32 pages.

MARS VOLTA Octahedron (Warner Bros.) cd 13.98
This latest release from modern prog heroes Mars Volta finds them at their orchestrated and organized best. Omar Rodriguez Lopez lays on the guitar effects while Cedric Bixler Zavala's vocals soar above and beyond into the stratosphere. There's a lot of extended build ups (as one has grown to expect) and some really crazy drum work on this record (especially on "Cotopaxi"). Though most of the eight tracks rock almost beyond belief, there are a couple sloooow, dreamy jams that almost require closed eyes and a doobie to fully appreciate.
MPEG Stream: "Since We've Been Wrong"
MPEG Stream: "Teflon"
MPEG Stream: "Halo Of Nembutals"

MODERAT s/t (Bpitch Control) cd 15.98
What do you get when you put Modeselktor and Apparat together....Moderat! The debut collaboration between these German electronic heavyweights finds them joining forces to create some heavy duty electronic pleasures. Pulling from so many different elements of electronic music for their own special form of German techno that satisfies so nicely. There are a couple tracks with guest vocalists that we weren't digging too much, as they come off a bit forced and slick, but the majority of this record is chock full of sounds and beats for electronic heads to get down with.
MPEG Stream: "A New Error"
MPEG Stream: "Seamonkey"

MOUNT VICIOUS Don't Be A Baby, Come And Get It (Seismic Wave) cd 9.98
Mount Vicious certainly have a lot of fun. Their live shows feature (count 'em) three guitar players, one of whom (Conan) usually rips his shirt off and throws his guitar down to more easily interact with the crowd. The other two often play back to back, axe necks bobbing in unison. Really, with song titles like "Steroid Unicorn," "Wherewolf," and "We Enjoy Fucking (To This Music)" how can YOU not have fun listening (or maybe fucking?) to this music? Mount Vicious features Conan Neutron and Chris Bolig of local loudnicks Replicator and Alli Pheteplace of The Holy Kiss, both of which are now, sadly, defunct. Mount Vicious plays a more straightforward (a.k.a. fistpumping) brand of hard rock than either of those two outfits, well utilizing the technique of the harmonized guitar solo. Conan sounds surprisingly like a Misfits-era Glenn Danzig, with a little Mike Patton thrown in for good measure. Listen to this record at high volume.
MPEG Stream: "Da Proposition"
MPEG Stream: "Princess of the Brodeo"
MPEG Stream: "Steroid Unicorn"

PAPERCUTS You Can Have What You Want (Gnomonsong) cd 14.98
So lovely, and soft as pussywillows! Jason Quever's back with his fourth Papercuts full length! His indie psych-tinged pop calls to mind a more cryptic and loosely woven Camera Obscura or Magnetic Fields (when Claudia is singing, mind you!). Everything about You Can Have What You Want is warm and fuzzy and inviting. Generous applications of reverb melt and blur the pop song structures into ear-hugging blankets that glisten and glow. Quever's wheezy '60s vibe vintage organs cozy up to the ultra pretty string arrangements of Beach House's Alex Scally who contributed a good deal to this album. Wistful and slightly melancholic, this really is a terrific end of summer album. So maybe nab it now, and tuck it away for when you really need it come late August? Some might find it to be a gradual grow-on-you kind of album (as we admittedly sort of did!), so the timing might actually work out perfectly that it'll have completely sunken its dreary lil' hooks into your heart by Labor Day! Recommended if you like the abovementioned bands as well as Caribou, Loney, Dear, and/or fellow Bay Area popsters Grand Lake who also have a terrific new album out now.
MPEG Stream: "Future Primitive"
MPEG Stream: "Jet Plane"

PAPERCUTS You Can Have What You Want (Gnomonsong) lp 15.98
So lovely, and soft as pussywillows! Jason Quever's back with his fourth Papercuts full length! His indie psych-tinged pop calls to mind a more cryptic and loosely woven Camera Obscura or Magnetic Fields (when Claudia is singing, mind you!). Everything about You Can Have What You Want is warm and fuzzy and inviting. Generous applications of reverb melt and blur the pop song structures into ear-hugging blankets that glisten and glow. Quever's wheezy '60s vibe vintage organs cozy up to the ultra pretty string arrangements of Beach House's Alex Scally who contributed a good deal to this album. Wistful and slightly melancholic, this really is a terrific end of summer album. So maybe nab it now, and tuck it away for when you really need it come late August? Some might find it to be a gradual grow-on-you kind of album (as we admittedly sort of did!), so the timing might actually work out perfectly that it'll have completely sunken its dreary lil' hooks into your heart by Labor Day! Recommended if you like the abovementioned bands as well as Caribou, Loney, Dear, and/or fellow Bay Area popsters Grand Lake who also have a terrific new album out now.
MPEG Stream: "Future Primitive"
MPEG Stream: "Jet Plane"

PENTAGRAM Review Your Choices (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK!
'70s semi-survivors Pentagram, one of the only truly O.G. doom metal outfits still somewhat extant, their legend only growing in recent years, more people getting into them, hordes of Witchcraft fans prominent among 'em. When Review Your Choices first came out in 1999, Pentagram were not quite as "hip" a band as they are now. So lots of folks who missed out before should be happy it's been reissued, along with its 2001 follow-up Sub-Basement, together the one-two-punch of a (temporarily) revitalized, turn-of-the-century Pentagram. Both albums now come in styley digipacks, with 2 bonus tracks each.
Here's our original review of Review Your Choices: The long-awaited new album from doom metal legend Bobby Liebling and his cult band Pentagram, one of the most ancient bands in the genre (not much younger than their lords Black Sabbath themselves). Indeed, about half of the tunes on this album were originally recorded as demo tracks back in the mid-'70s when Gene Simmons and KISS took an interest in the Pentagram boys and were trying, unsuccessfully, to get them signed to their Casablanca label. Both the old stuff (recently rerecorded of course) and the newly-written stuff on here resound with an authentic '70s/Sabbath vibe (right down to Bobby's vocals, which sound like Ozzy at his most demented and troglodytic!). Imagine taking records by the heavy likes of Saint Vitus, Trouble, and Blue Cheer and mixing them in a bowl with several boxes of Count Chocula (the cereal paid homage to in the booklet photo spread!) and a quart of way-past-its-expiration-date milk. That's the curdled, dark and soggy breakfast of champions served up by Pentagram on Review Your Choices. What a way to start your day, or perhaps to end it all.
Not much more to say other than, a classic, full of Pentagram necessities old and new. The killer, slide-y main riff on "Megalania". The cheerful insanity of "Gilla?". The old, old utter classic "Forever My Queen".... all of it, really! The bonus tracks are alternative takes of album tracks, and their production or lack thereof is pretty raw, but then again the album proper has its own "gluey" production eccentricities... either way these tracks sound plenty doomy!
Now, since the release of these two albums, Pentagram fans have been exposed to more of the band's original '70s recordings via the two First Daze Here comps that Relapse put out. If you have those, you'll certainly recognize many of the songs on Review Your Choices and Sub-Basement. But not only are these recordings of 'em quite worthy in their own right (some of these versions being our preferred ones for sure), these albums also contain plenty of circa-Y2K penned Pentagram material that's equally worthy.
MPEG Stream: "Living In A Ram's Head"
MPEG Stream: "Review Your Choices"

PENTAGRAM Sub-Basement (Season Of Mist) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK!
'70s semi-survivors Pentagram, one of the only truly O.G. doom metal outfits still somewhat extant, their legend only growing in recent years, more people getting into them, hordes of Witchcraft fans prominent among 'em. When Review Your Choices first came out in 1999, Pentagram were not quite as "hip" a band as they are now. So lots of folks who missed out before should be happy it's been reissued, along with its 2001 follow-up Sub-Basement, together the one-two-punch of a (temporarily) revitalized, turn-of-the-century Pentagram. Both albums now come in styley digipacks, with 2 bonus tracks each.
Here's what we said about Sub-Basement when it first appeared: There's been a lot of activity lately from these semi-legendary lords of doom, surprising coming from a band that's been around for about thirty years and has dwindled down to only two members! But (thankfully for all fans of dark, doomy heavy metal) founder/frontman Bobby Liebling and henchman/drummer/guitarist/bassist Joe Hasselvander have been busy bees, following up their well-received 1999 album Review Your Choices with this new slab of heaviosity. As with Review, they mix newly penned songs (by Joe) with old, unrecorded '70s compositions by Bobby. This new disc might be even better than Review, though, 'cause Bobby's vocals aren't as weirdly affected. Sub-Basement is a solid addition to the hallowed (and rapidly expanding) Pentagram catalog, filled with killer songs and atmosphere. They masterfully combine droning, monolithic moments of almost SUNNO))) like proportions with utterly rocking vintage '70s riffage. Although they're not Sabbath clones, they mine similar territory, fitting in as well with (former) contemporaries like Captain Beyond and Dust. But at this point, if you've listened to these guys enough, you can't say that they sound like anything other than themselves - always an amazing achievement for any rock band! The Pentagram sound revolves around Bobby's unique voice/personality and eccentric songwriting choices that only could be made by folks fully centered in the heavy, psychedelic seventies. Let's hope they hang around for another 30 years! (Although, by the wretched looks of Bobby in some of the pictures in the booklet, that's not too likely!)
Well, eight years later Pentagram's still around (totally new line up, though - no Joe, only Bobby on board from this era), apparently with some rare gigs coming up. And who knows, hopefully we'll hear another album from 'em someday, since it's now been a while since their last one, 2004's Show 'Em How...
The bonus tracks on this one are raw outtake versions of tracks not from the Sub-Basement sessions, but from the Review Your Choices album, again.
MPEG Stream: "Buzzsaw"
MPEG Stream: "Sub-Basement"

POCCOLUS Ragana (Inferna Profundus) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK!
The return of Lithuanian black metallers Poccolus! Well, not so much a return, as these guys split up a while back, but we're super psyched to hear more from these guys. Their Supernal label full length was a huge hit with the metalheads around here, gloriously thrashy keyboard drenched, post rock flecked Pagan blackness, originally released in 1996, but reissued a couple years ago. The tracks on Ragana date even further back than that, 1993 and 1994, with a couple live tracks tacked on as a bonus, originally released as a super limited cassette in 1997.
Here, Poccolus sound even more raw, and strangely more melodic. The guitars offering up classic metal sounding harmonies, locked in with the drums, pounding way down in the mix. Shades of Iron Maiden, and at least one of the tracks musically is a dead ringer for Slough Feg, that is until it slips into grim blackness, the bellowy reverb drenched croon, switching to harsh hellish shriek, but even then, the music continues to lope along all mournful and minor key, with plenty of keyboards, although here they're buried under the buzz and lo fidelity hiss. The opening track is so melancholy and catchy it's almost not even black metal. More like some gloomy gothy slightly blackened hard rock, but whatever it is, it's pretty excellent.
In fact, as we dig deeper, all the tracks here are barely black metal, although they're buzzy and heavy enough to keep metalheads' attention, the sound is much more raw and old school and classic sounding, the vocals are the blackest element, but even those shrieks and howls just as often revert to clean-ish croons. And it sound like this was mastered from a cassette, so it's all a little warped and warbly, giving it a haunting woozy off kilter vibe, which only adds to the band's unique sound. One track does actually get super grim and blasty, but that's after about 6 minutes of super minimal rumbling drones. The record closes with another strange only sort of black metal jam, lurching, mid tempo, the guitars warbly and minor key, the keyboard drifting like a haze in the background, the melodies getting more and more grand and epic, the band whipping their lo-fi stumble and buzz into something truly majestic sounding.
The live tracks are way more raw and fierce, lo-fi, but still plenty blown out and brutal, but even then, the weird melodicism of the proper tracks still creeps into the bands grim buzz. The Pagan element is also more present on these later tracks, the overall sound sitting somewhere right between the more polished Pagan crush of the full length, and the warped lo-fi classic metal of the demo tracks included here.
MPEG Stream: "I Pagoniu Zeme"
MPEG Stream: "Ragana"

PRESENT, THE The Way We Are (Loaf) lp 22.00
Now also on vinyl!! Sophomore effort for Rusty Santos' expanding head band, The Present, and this one is even weirder and farther out then their first album, World I See. Constantly morphing textures and tempos radiate through each of the tracks so it's hard to tell where one piece begins and ends. Mechanized loops and repetitive whirrs, woozy tones, sparkly drones, watery robotic bleeps and bloops, cascading nebulas of metallic and magnetic drift, lots of dreamy floating and translucent shimmer, other times the sounds are dark, murky, wallowing and opaque. Murmurs of vocal melodies processed through multiple electronic filters and effects pedals can be heard buried under a doomy kaleidoscopic rainbow of pink and blue noise that swells from gorgeous to creepy and back again. Heady, alien and strange, this is like depressed robots taking a hit of acid with their prozac. Beautiful and deeply unsettling!
MPEG Stream: "Medman"
MPEG Stream: "Space Meadow"
MPEG Stream: "Press Play"

RED HOUSE PAINTERS Songs For A Blue Guitar (Plain Recordings) 2lp 22.00
It's funny when we discover an old aQ favorite that somehow never got a review. We scratch our heads and wonder how the heck that happened... and we get a bittersweet pang of guilt and warm fuzzies - partly because we're a bit ashamed that we never put our affection in print and partly because when we notice it, we are compelled to revisit the record again. Inevitably we end up falling right back under its spell. Trust us, it's not from a lack of love that something might not have a review on our website. There's a seemingly endless torrent of music coming at us at all times, but there's only so many hours... sigh! Anyhoo, that's a long-winded way to announce that longtime aQ fave Mark Kozelek's old band Red House Painters' fifth album has been reissued on vinyl! We shamefully never wrote a review about the original cd version, but that might've been because it came out back in 1996 (i.e, pre-aQ website and email newsletter!). The album is as beautiful and potently melancholic today as it was thirteen years ago. Lovely burnished golden twang! What else would you expect from Kozelek and RHP?! Songs For A Blue Guitar was, for all intents and purposes, Kozelek's first solo album (no other band members are listed in the credits), and in addition to it being the most guitar driven, country rock-ish RHP album up to that point, it also revealed his soon to be notorious penchant for covering seemingly incongruous songs and making them his own. Here he tackles McCartney & Wings' "Silly Love Songs", The Cars' "All Shook Up" and Yes' "Long Distance Runaround"!

SHINDIG July - August 2009, Vol. 2 Issue 11 magazine 8.98
UK '60s / '70s retro rock (garage, folk, psych, beat, soul...) magazine Shindig is back with another ish, this time Kippington Lodge and Brinsley Schwarz on the cover (not too familiar with them, perhaps? well then read up on 'em here). Also: Rodriguez, H.P. Lovecraft (the band, not the man), Sandy Salisbury of The Millennium, The Poets, articles on The Prisoner TV series and hippy lit, plus the usual ton o' reviews... and more. Including some stuff on new bands that are carrying on the spirit of the '60s...

SHIZUKA Live/Traditional (PSF) cd 16.98
BACK IN STOCK.
Live in '95. Hmm, I think maybe that was right about when some of us here at AQ saw this Japanese psych band, they came to SF and played an amazing show at the Kilowatt, back when they had shows there. Tokyo's Shizuka, with their haunting female vocals drifting ahead of an inevitable onslaught of noisy, billowing, distorto-delic electric guitar murk, were one of the '90s precursors to such current bands as LSD-march, Suishou No Fune, and Up-Tight. At the time, we compared 'em to Angel 'In Heavy Syrup and Slapp Happy Humphrey, the latter especially 'cause of Shizuka's extreme mix of delicacy and destructiveness, of melancholic melody and sheer, feedback-laden guitar/amp/earhole abuse. Not abuse, though, not really... it's loud, sculpted sound that's actually quite beautiful. As with so many Japanese bands from the PSF/Tokyo Flashback scene, it's like a cotton candy dream of the most out there Neil Young & Crazy Horse amplifier meltdowns (a la Arc). This raw (but not to Rallizes-like levels of low fidelity) 52 minute live set is Shizuka in their element, and even if you've never heard 'em before wouldn't be a bad place to start, at all. The first song alone should make you a believer if you're at all open to this sort of thing (i.e. maybe already a fan of some of the other bands mentioned above). And it is 26 and a half minutes long! That's the biggest blow-out on the disc, the other three tracks trafficking more in the tranquil side of Shizuka, with long slow-moving stretches of sweet vocals backed by echo and hum and hiss as the shoegazing guitar bides its time before finally erupting into full flight.
And of course, those already into Shizuka know they're one of the best, unique within the pantheon, and should be pleased have another rare document of their sad dark mystery.
MPEG Stream: "Shizuka live track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Shizuka live track 2"

TEMBO, CHRISSY ZEBBY & NGOZI FAMILY My Ancestors (Hummingbird) lp 30.00
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!! Good thing too, since the cd reissue is now out of print. Our review of it follows...
We've been getting all riled up over some hot Afro-rock releases lately, first from those killer Nigerian comps put out by the Strut and Soundway labels and then The Peace's Black Power reissue. But the lo-fi fuzz that's really rocking our world is this gem from Chrissy Zebby Tembo & Ngozi family, 1974's My Ancestors. Though included on the Love Peace and Poetry African psych compilation, Chrissy Zebby Tembo may not be so memorable from that because their track was the one instrumental track from My Ancestors, and though it's great, it's not as good as the tracks where Tembo sings. Like an odd hybrid of Malcolm Mooney from Can and Sabbath-era Ozzy Osbourne, Tembo's English delivery over these fuzzed-out groovers is the reason to take notice. Hailing from Zambia, same as The Peace and The Witch (another Afro-rock group we'd like to see get more affordably reissued), Tembo wails over these rhythmically charged but largely western-style rock structures. The best being the Sabbath gone to South Africa "Trouble Maker". In constant rotation, since this first arrived a few weeks ago, we've finally managed to get enough to share with our customers. Don't hesitate, this whole record kills!
MPEG Stream: "My Ancestors"
MPEG Stream: "Trouble Maker"
MPEG Stream: "Feeling Good"

TERRORIZER issue #184 magazine + cd 9.25
We unintentionally skipped over listing a couple issues of this essential 'extreme' metal mag (but still have a few of 'em in stock - #182 w/ Mastodon on the cover and #183, their UK Death Metal special). So, getting back on track, here's #184, bagged with the usual free cover mounted cd sampler. On the cover this time, er, Slipknot, but also there's features on Funeral Mist (that's more like it!), Heaven & Hell, Gojira, Municipal Waste, Isis, Destroyer 666, Devin Townsend, and more... all the usual columns and reviews and whatnot too of course.
And of special note, in the "Morbid Visions" art column, this month's subject none other than our friend Justin Bartlett, who did the first (and so far, only) in our limited artist edition t-shirt series! He's done a Terrorizer shirt now too.
(Also in this issue's news section, we learned that 3 Inches Of Blood has had their own signature running shoe released by Nike!)

THE ONE I, MASTER (Total Holocaust) cd 12.98
FINALLY, this fucked up grim black masterpiece back in stock!
It's been almost 5 years since we last heard from Greek duo THE ONE, who back then, were maybe not a duo, and who were most definitely in our pantheon of weirdo black metal, along with Necrofrost, Abruptum and Vondur, vying for the top spot with their heavily reverbed blackness and insane vocals.
But here we are years later, and The One are not nearly as weird as they once were. Like Necrofrost, who have also resurfaced and whose new record is reviewed elsewhere on this list, it might not be that they are less weird, but that the weirdness is better integrated into their sound.
Before, the music was a stumbling chaotic blur, everything tangled up with everything else, the mix super erratic, with various elements exploding out of the mix, the drumming wild and off kilter, lots of grunts and some of the growliest monster vocals ever, and we'd be lying if we didn't say we weren't initially disappointed that this record was so GOOD. And tight. And solid. Cuz it is. Good. Really good. Heavy and black, the guitars intense and thick and full, some awesome riffing, the drums hard hitting and audible in the mix, the mix itself lush and LOUD, plenty of groove and hooks hidden here and there, but not damaged or demented or fucked up. At least at first. No one can make music that weird and then suddenly ditch all the various elements that made that music so strange. So here, on I, Master, the weird shit is subtle, and generally tucked away amidst thrashing blasting blackness and chugging riffage, whether it's an impossibly long and harsh hissy howl, or some weird dubbed out cymbal shimmer, or even a creepy circusy interlude with a looped music box groove and whispered vocals, the weird stuff is definitely there, but that's no longer why we're here, this is some heavy Ravenstormy Blizzard Beastly blown out buzz drenched heaviness, with just the right amount of crooning chanted vocals and midtempo doominess to keep it interesting, but they have definitely ditched their fucked up fractured past in favor of something ultimately way more pleasing, a super epic, ultra heavy, dense and destructive, blasting and buzzing black metal, and so far today, we've listened to the whole record all the way through THREE times, and the night is still young...
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "III"

VANDERSLICE, JOHN Romanian Names (Dead Oceans) cd 14.98
John Vanderslice reaches the seventh album marker with what is arguably his most immediately engaging work to date. He hasn't completely left behind the roaming patchwork-y feel of his previous albums, but each song seems a bit more focused and encapsulated. Softly rumpled like a comfy sweater, Vanderslice's hushed vocal delivery draws the listener in close, and as always, his achingly earnest introspective songs take a pluck at your heartstrings. Slowly playing out intertwined melodies in gentle fashion, the album's multi-layered instrumentation is lush but never seems heavy handed. Gauzily drifting in and out of focus, Romanian Names maintains an airiness throughout. As a point of reference, at times we found it to be quite akin to the latest solo album by Grandaddy's Jason Lytle or Calexico's more pop moments. Good stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Tremble And Tear"
MPEG Stream: "D.I.A.L.O."

VANDERSLICE, JOHN Romanian Names (Dead Oceans) lp 14.98
John Vanderslice reaches the seventh album marker with what is arguably his most immediately engaging work to date. He hasn't completely left behind the roaming patchwork-y feel of his previous albums, but each song seems a bit more focused and encapsulated. Softly rumpled like a comfy sweater, Vanderslice's hushed vocal delivery draws the listener in close, and as always, his achingly earnest introspective songs take a pluck at your heartstrings. Slowly playing out intertwined melodies in gentle fashion, the album's multi-layered instrumentation is lush but never seems heavy handed. Gauzily drifting in and out of focus, Romanian Names maintains an airiness throughout. As a point of reference, at times we found it to be quite akin to the latest solo album by Grandaddy's Jason Lytle or Calexico's more pop moments. Good stuff!
MPEG Stream: "Tremble And Tear"
MPEG Stream: "D.I.A.L.O."

WHITE HILLS A Little Bliss Forever (Drug Space Records) lp 15.98
Finally available again, back in print, slightly different cover, comes with a xeroxed mini poster, and an insert with liner notes (not sure if the first one did too), limited like crazy again this second time around so grab one while you can...
Here's what we said about the lp when we first got it in last year:
First vinyl release from these NY based drug addled space rock explorers, featuring a new member and a somewhat different sound. The new member is Kid Millions, drummer for the band Oneida, whose most recent disc, Preteen Weaponry, was a huge hit around here. But the addition of Millions doesn't signify a shift towards the abstract rhythmic heaviness of Oneida, instead, White Hills seem to have gone in the opposite direction, ditching some of their heavy freak out tendencies, and instead sprawling languorously, letting the instruments unwind, the songs unfurl, laid back, blissed out, far out, and endlessly drifting space rock, heavier on the space than the rock.
Two sidelong jams, the first, is thick with wah guitars, but those guitars are suspended in wide open stretches of whir and hum, wreathed in reverb, and allowed to drift and shimmer, the drums are the steadiest part, alternately jazzy and shuffling, subtle and propulsive, the recording and production is raw and immediate, almost like a rehearsal space demo, but it definitely suits the sound. The track wanders and meanders, like a super stripped down Hawkwind, until the various sounds become enveloped in soft clouds of spacey FX and buzzing synths, a crescendo of sorts, but the track never explodes, never gets heavy, it's almost like a field recording of some eternal space jam, a neverending sonic entity that continues forever in both directions, backwards until the birth of the universe, forward into infinity, we're just offered a glimpse as it passes us by.
The flipside is a bit dirgier, more garagey, a sort of stripped down Stooges-y stomp, but slowed way down, until it's almost a doomy dirge, more clouds of spaced out FX, this time a bit more raw, the sound a bit heavier, but still more spacey and abstract, the second half of side two a tripped out ambient bliss out, layers of drones and buzz, whirling beneath random minimal effects and some creepy looped vocals.

XASTHUR All Reflections Drained (Hydra Head) 2cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK!!
Originally released on cassette, then on vinyl, now finally available on cd, including a bonus disc of unreleased tracks and sonic experiments. Packaged in a cool dvd style digibook. Here's what we had to say about the album proper, skip to the end for more on the bonus disc...
FINALLY, a new record from Xasthur, aka Malefic, a one man doom-ed depressive black metal machine, whose last release, Defective Epitaph was a huge hit around these parts, due in no small part to the shift from drum machine to actual drums, no programmed beats, actual kit bashing rhythms courtesy of Malefic himself, and the result was pretty stellar, creating a sound even more raw and murky and lo-fi than past efforts, but no less bleak or introspective or amazing. So now comes All Reflections Drained, and it's very much a continuation of Defective Epitaph, from moment one, the sound boomy and reverb drenched, echoey and WAY lo-fi, loping doomy guitars, stumbling midtempo drums, and then WOAH, the sound shifts, and the drums double time it under a layer of thick low end dramatic piano, creating some strange Skepticismy drift, over the relentlessly buzzing blackness below. The mix is REALLY weird, fractured and gloriously fucked up, the sounds shifting and merging into one another, the songs too, woozy and warped and seasick sounding and a bit waltzy, the drum sound super raw and distant and for the most part buried in the mix, minus some flurries of kick drum that practically explode. The guitars are washed out and melancholic, lumbering doomily through hazy clouds of muted buzz and soft focus hiss, lots of creeped out ambience, and dark soundscaping, way less of a focus on vocals, in fact several songs in, and we barely noticed any, minus some far off clean crooning and some rumbled mutterings, the usual blackened harsh rasps seemingly lost in the swirling off kilter mix.
If anything this record is a logical extension of the direction Malefic had been taking the sound of Xasthur, like a Defective Epitaph part two maybe, but somehow quite a bit doomier, and WAY weirder, more spaced out and experimental, with a serious focus on dark brooding non-metal parts, hints of slowcore and drone abound, some parts are downright orchestral, and the sound is definitely even murkier and mysterious than ever, dripping with buzz and tape hiss, blown out low end (that sounds like a tuba or something similar) and thick crumbling distortion, but fear not troo grim hordes, it's still plenty depressive and dolorous, minor key and epic, miserable and moody, gorgeously buzzy and bafflingly brilliant.
It's unclear exactly what the material on the bonus disc actually is, or where it came from. The booklet only offers these cryptic words: "This is simply a bonus disc. Nothing more. It has very little to do with the album 'All Reflections Drained.' Experimenting in between the chapters... that's what these songs are. Sme are literally exclusive. Some are not." Okay then. To our ears, it sounds like the perfect addendum to All Reflections Drained. Still murky and muddy and buzzy and blurry and doomy, a few of the tracks are weridly crunchy and gritty, one has what sounds like strings, making it sound like some weird black metal Sigur Ros or something, but then of course quickly crumbles back into filthy blackness. There's some cool acoustic ambience, very cinematic and soundtracky (this stuff would make a KILLER soundtrack for some avant horror thriller!), there's a bit of practice space pound, all stumbling lurching minimalism, some seriously creeped out guitarscapery, and more of that blackened post rock that has been creeping into more and more Xasthur jams. It almost plays like a proper disc 2, as in, not a bonus disc of odds and ends, and more a second half of All Refelctions Drained, and there are at least a couple of songs here that sound as good as if not better than anything on the first disc. Which means, everyone who bought the tape, or the 2lp, are probably gonna have to buy this too...
MPEG Stream: "Dirge Forsaken"
MPEG Stream: "Maze Of Oppression"
MPEG Stream: "Concealed Barren Thoughts (Bonus)"

Z'EV Sum Things (Cold Spring) cd 15.98
Z'ev set out to make Sum Things to be his 'dark ambient' record, but with a few restrictions that he imposed upon himself. The first was to use only sources from his vast archive of percussive rituals and explorations with metallic resonance; the second was to use a limited sampling strategy of time-stretching and pitch shifting his sources. With reverb being so central to so many dark ambient projects (most notably Lustmord's recordings of catacombs and subterranean caves specifically for their dank reverberations), Z'ev's reductions are duly noted throughout Sum Things; and at the same time, he's left behind much of the digital artifacts endemic to his sampling tricks. The thunderous metallic rumbles and slippery timbral slashes of sound evolve into shimmering pools of sustained sound. Many of his metallic sounds chime with the sonorous quality of Javanese gamelan, although with the aid of Z'ev's timestretching, he's rendered these sounds into darkly beautiful sets of arcing drones. With more allusions to the wire recordings of Alan Lamb, the sound sculptures of Harry Bertoia, and even some of Andrew Chalk's more aggressive pieces, Sum Things ranks as one of Z'ev's best productions in years.
MPEG Stream: "Track 2"
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"
MPEG Stream: "Track 4"

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V/A Panama!! 2 : Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical & Calypso Funk On The Isthmus 1967-77 (Sound Way) 2lp 23.00
Now available on vinyl!
All June long we've been having a "graycation" here in foggy San Francisco, but yesterday the clouds lifted and it finally feels like summer!! Just in time for weekend barbecues comes this sizzling hottie of a compilation of Cumbia, Salsa and Calypso Funk from the Southern most country of North America, Panama! This is the second volume of sixties and seventies jams from this tiny nation that sees plenty of cross-pollination from many musical forms to the North, South and East. Northern Soul and Salsa influences, Afro-Caribbean calypso, Cubano percussion, Columbian Cumbia and Panama's own Musica Tipica, a black and mestizo rural country form notable for its wide array of rustic percussion as well as its use of multiple violins and accordian-led arrangements. The beauty of these compilations is their flow; traditonal cumbia is followed by sweaty salsa into Latin funk and back like it was tailor made for dance party listening. There's some amazing psychedelic soul funk numbers in here too from The Duncan Brother's "Dreams", The Soul Fantastic's awesome version of Bill Wither's "Ain't No Sunshine", and Lord Cobra's "Love Letters". Summer starts right here!!!
MPEG Stream: PAPI BRANDAO Y SUS EJECUTIVOS "Decidete Mi Amor"
MPEG Stream: THE DUNCAN BROTHERS "Dreams"
MPEG Stream: THE SOUL FANTASTICS "Ain't No Sunshine"
MPEG Stream: ALFREDO Y SU SALSA MONTANERA "La Escoba"

V/A (SORC'HENN / DRUNJUS / BURIAL HEX / TEETH COLLECTION / CRYSTAL DRAGON / BLACK SPARROW / PAN TO SCRATCH / TAIKURI TALI) Bright And Dark Light (Earjerk) 4 x cassette box 23.00
LAST COPIES!!!
Killer quadruple cassette tape box, featuring a handful of amazing sound and noise makers, some definite aQ faves, as well as a whole bunch of names ne to us, each band was instructed to compose a single sidelong piece, representing either light or darkness, and as the Earjerk website mentions, it's really no surprise that most bands chose darkness (either that or they have a weirdly skewed idea of what constitutes 'light').
Up first, long time aQ fave Sorc'Henn, who in the past has dabbled in buzzy black metal, shimmery deep ambience, here it something else entirely, a thick caustic fog of hiss and buzz and grit and grime, buried melodies swirl beneath a constantly shifting layered soft blackened noise. Grim and haunting for sure.
Teeth Collection are a name we know, but we'd never heard their (his?) music until now. A strangely haunting soundscape of reverbed clatter, truncated melodies, distant hiss, muted rumble, all slowly building to a cathartic swirl of blown out heaviness.
We had a Drunjus cassette ages ago, and had always wanted to hear more. Here, the sound is a crystalline web of haunting synths, of keening long tones, of muted melodies, bowed gongs (courtesy of one of the guys from Pelt), this is some mysterious otherworldly cinematic drift for sure. Like a way more minimal abstract Goblin almost. Then comes Crystal Dragon, awesome name, and even more awesome sound, a super raw and primitive chunk of outer space sci-fi weirdness, grinding synths, wound into whirring dronescapes, thick and undulating, warm and luxuriously textured.
Then we have Burial Hex, aka Clay Ruby, who also does time in Jex Thoth and Wormsblood, but Burial Hex is his ritualistic black ambient project, and that's precisely what you get here, a super raw recording, distorted and effected, the tape seeming to crumble, plenty of low end warble, clang and clatter and crunch, doused in effects, like a madman locked in a dungeon, dragging chains, and assembling some unholy machine, super creepy and pretty hard to describe. Black Sparrow are another group we'd never heard of, but they fit pretty well amongst this esteemed brotherhood of sound, an ethereal ephemeral shimmer, made from crumbling effected guitars and processed synths (we think), woven into a soft almost serene bit of buzzy drift, peppered with bits of glitch and squelch, but smoothed out into a blurred bit of mesmer.
Then some Finnish weirdness from Taikuri Tali, definitely a band we're gonna have to hear more from, some random bits of conversation, before the trio launch into a gorgeously tweaked bit of mad scientists soundscaping, squeaks and rattles and scrapes and whirs that get more and more abstract as the track progresses, eventually transforming into some sort of alien shortwave broadcast.
Finally, Pan To Scratch, another new to us outfit, they finish things off with a super old school bit of layered dronemusic, letting the overtones crate strange and subtle rhythms, intertwined with what sounds like birdsong, tape manipulation, lots of tape hiss, and random bumps and thumps, weird and pretty wonderful.
Which is a pretty good way of describing this whole collection, weird and wonderful, as well as abstract and haunting and dark and buzzy and raw. The usual suspects should freak for this, SUPER LIMITED of course, handsomely packaged as well in one of those oversized molded plastic booklike folders, the kind of case instructional language tapes usually come in. Cool!

----*
----* New DVD :
----*

TRIPS FESTIVAL: THE MOVIE (self-released) dvd 25.00
Woodstock, Altamont and the Summer of Love's Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park seem to get all the sixties hippie group-festival nostalgia attention, but before all that, there was the Trips Festival in 1966. Over three days in January at The Longshoreman's Hall in the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco (why this isn't still an active venue here is a mystery to us as this place is still there and looks totally rad!), 10,000 people converged for this multimedia event of bands (Grateful Dead, Sons Of Champlin and Big Brother and The Holding Company among others), lightshows, and group theater. Organized by Ken Kesey, Stewart Brand (Founder of the Whole Earth Catalog) and Bill Graham (in his very first festival organizing role!) with support from The San Francisco Tape Music Center providing the lightshows, film projections and electronic tape music (they even used an original Buchla Box!), and The Open Theater and The Merry Pranksters offering absurdist LSD-induced performance interludes, this event provided the blueprint for all drug-centric group celebrations to come from raves to Burning Man. This documentary contains interviews with everyone involved and tangentially segues into the multiple factors of how hippie culture evolved in San Francisco in the early sixties, as well as what the organizers ended up doing afterwards. What truly makes this essential, however, is one of the bonus features, a vintage nine minute film by Ben Van Meter, one of the original lightshow creators. With lots of layered lights and imagery from the event and a cool electronic music score, this is by far the trippiest bit, and truly feels like what it must of been like to be there in person. We wished it lasted for hours!

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

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

ACID WITCH "Witchtantic Hellucinations" (Razorback) cd 13.98
ALTAR OF OBLIVION "Sinews Of Anguish" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 16.98
ALVA NOTO & RYUICHI SAKAMOTO WITH ENSEMBLE MODERN "UTP_" (Raster Norton) wcd+dvd 32.00
AMBER ASYLUM "Bitter River" (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
ANIMAL HOSPITAL "Memory" (Barge) cd 12.98
ASHDAUTUS "Where The Sun Is Silent" (Full Moon Productions) cd 11.98
BIBLE OF THE DEVIL / BLADE OF THE RIPPER "split" (Scarey Records) 7" 5.98
BIXBY, DAVE "Ode To Quetzalcoatl" (Guerssen) cd/lp 17.98/26.00
BLACK MATH HORSEMAN "Wylit" (Tee Pee) cd 14.98
BUBBLE PUPPY "A Gathering Of Promises" (Charly) cd 17.98
BUTTHOLE SURFERS "Brown Reason To Live" (Alternative Tentacles) lp 9.98
CAMPBELL, CORNELL "The Gorgon Dubwise" (Jamaican Recordings) cd/lp 17.98/17.98
CARTER, DEAN "Call Of The Wild" (Big Beat) cd 16.98
CLOAKS "Veresus Grain" (Baked Goods) cd 15.98
COLTRANE, ALICE "Huntington Ashram Monastery" (Impulse) lp 15.98
CONGOS / THE UPSETTER / CONGO MAN "The Carl Craig Edits" (Honest Jon's) 12" 12.98
CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX "200 Tons Of Back Luck" (Invada) cd 15.98
DIAL (NZ) "s/t" (Robotic Empire) cd ep 6.98
FAUST "C'est Com... Com... Complique" (Bureau B) cd 17.98
FENRIZ' RED PLANET / NATTEFROST "Engansgrill" (Indie Recordings) cd 21.00
GALACTIC RAMBLE "A Peregrination Through British Rock, Pop, Folk, And Jazz Of The 1960's And 1970's" (Fox Cote Books) book 57.00
GARCIA, RUSS "Fantastica: Music From Outer Space" (Basta) cd 21.00
GOES CUBE "Another Day Has Passed" (The End) cd 14.98
HABOOB "s/t" (Long Hair) cd 27.00
HAINO, KEIJI / KAWABATA MAKOTO / YOSHIDA TATSUYA "Ichi To Ichi To Ichi Ga Kasanatte Shimaumade (Live At Missions)" (PSF) dvd 27.00
HARBINGER "Second Coming" (Guerssen) cd/lp 17.98/26.00
HAWKWIND "The Text Of Festival" (East World) cd/2lp 12.98/23.00
HENRIKSEN, ARVE "Cartography" (ECM) cd 17.98
HIGH RISE "Psychedelic Speed Freaks Live 1986" (PSF) dvd 27.00
HOOD, ROBERT "Minimal Nation" (M-Plant) 2cd 17.98
HOPKINS, JON "Insides" (Domino) cd 15.98
HUNX AND HIS PUNX "Don't Cha Want Me Back?" (True Panther Sounds) 7" 5.98
IRON MAN "I Have Returned" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 12.98
IRONSWORD "Overlords Of Chaos" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 12.98
JAFFE, SARA & MIA CLARKE "The Art of Touring" (Square Root Books) book + cd 19.95
JOHN'S CHILDREN "Jagged Time Lapse" (Vinyl Lovers) lp 24.00
K11 "Voices From Thelema" (Aurora Borealis) cd 14.98
KONGH "Shadows Of The Shapeless" (Trust No One) cd 21.00
KRENG "L'Autopsie Pheneomenale De Dieu" (Miasmah) cd/lp 15.98/19.98
LI JIANHONG "Classic Of The Mountains And Seas" (PSF) cd 22.00
LIMOSINE "s/t" (s/r) cdr + poster 5.98
MAGIK MARKERS "Balf Quarry" (Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/15.98
MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ W/ MASAMI SHINODA "s/t" (PSF) dvd 27.00
MAHIKARI "s/t" (Birdman) lp 14.98
MARCHES OF THE IRON GUARD "In Marcia Guardie Di Ferro" (no label) cd 13.98
MECHANICAL CHILDREN "I Rise" (Blackest Rainbow) lp 17.98
MINITEL ROSE "The French Machine" (Futur) cd 14.98
MOKIRA "Persona" (Type) cd/lp 15.98/18.98
MOTHLITE "The Flax of Reverie" (Southern) 2lp 16.98
MUELLER, JON "Physical Changes" (Radium) lp+cd+dvd 25.00
NEW MIMINOKOTO "All About Mimi" (PSF) cd 22.00
OGRE "Plague Of The Planet" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98
P.H.O.B.O.S. "Anoedipal" (megaton) cd 28.00
PALAIS SCHAUMBURG "Lupa" (Phonogram / Tapete) cd 17.98
PALAIS SCHAUMBURG "s/t" (Phonogram / Tapete) cd 17.98
PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC "1976 Live Mothership Connection" (Mojo Working / Shout Factory) dvd 14.98
PERSISTENCE IN MOURNING "Undead Shall Rise" (At War With False Noise) lp 15.98
PORTRAIT "s/t" (Holycaust) cd 13.98
RAIL BAND "Mansa 2" (Sterns) 2cd 19.98
RUBY THROAT "s/t" (Sleep Like Wolves) cd 14.98
SARKE "Vorunah" (Indie Recordings) cd 21.00
SEGALL, TY / BLACK TIME "split" (Telephone Explosion) lp 14.98
SILVER APPLES "Contact" (Kapp) lp 17.98
SIMONES, AL "Corridor Of Dreams / Enchanted Forest" (South Side) cd 24.00
SOUNDCARRIERS, THE "Harmonium" (Melodic) cd 16.98
STARVING WEIRDOS, THE "B/P/M Series 1" (Blackest Rainbow) lp 21.00
STONE GARDEN "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 12.98
STREET SWEEPER SOCIAL CLUB "s/t" (Epitaph) cd 16.98
SUBWAY "II" (Soul Jazz) cd 17.98
TINY VIPERS "Life Of Earth" (Sub Pop) cd 13.98
TOMUTONTTU "Tomutonto" (Fonal) cd 17.98
TORCHE "Meanderthal Demos" (Rotting Chapel) cassette 8.98
TRAD GRAS OCH STENAR "Hemlosa Katter (Homeless Cats)" (Gashud / Subliminal Sounds) cd/2lp 17.98/34.00
TREE PEOPLE, THE "Human Voices" (Guersen) cd 17.98
TREMBLING BELLS "Carbeth" (Honest Jons) cd/lp 17.98/17.98
V/A "Dirty French Psychedelics" (Dirty) cd 16.98
V/A "Dub Echoes" (Soul Jazz Films) dvd 21.00
V/A "Musique Pour Statues Menhirs" (Arbouse Recordings) 2cd-r 16.98
V/A "School Me! Vol. 1 (1968-1975)" (Stage Band Research) lp 19.98
V/A "Take Me To The Water: Immersion Baptism In Vintage Music And Photography 1890-1950" (Dust To Digital) book + cd 34.00
V/A "Thai Funk ZudRangMa" (ZRM) cd 23.00
V/A "Transmissions From Sinai" (Arthur) cd 13.98
VAJRA "Live" (PSF) cd 16.98
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR "Time Vaults" (Abstract Sounds) cd 13.98
VAN WEY, BROCK "White Clouds Drift On And On" (Echospace) 2cd 21.00
VOIVOD "Infini" (Relapse) cd 14.98
VON OSWALD TRIO, MORITZ "Vertical Ascent" (Honest Jons) 2lp 22.00
WALKER, PETER "Rainy Day Raga" (Harte) lp 16.98
WARDUNNA "Runaljod - Gap Var Ginnunga" (Indie Recordings / Fimbullijod) cd 21.00
WITCH TRIALS "s/t" (Alternative Tentacles) cd 10.98
WOLF "Ravenous" (Century Media) cd 12.98
WRIGHT, O.V. "Memphis Unlimited" (Reel Music) cd 14.98
WRNLRD "Mask Of Hate" (Small Sacrifice / Order Of The Cloven Eye) cd-r 8.98
YELLOW SWANS "Mort Aux Vaches" (Staalplaat) cd 27.00
YOUNGS, RICHARD "High Sun Energy" (Dull Knife) 7" 8.98


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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    $4.75 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 $4.75 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 at the $6.50 rate. 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 ("First Class International"). 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" category and see the price for "First Class International". 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" category and see the price for "Priority Mail International". 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound. 1 lp is usually a little over 1.5 pounds.)


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" category and see the price for "Priority Mail International", which is the way insured packages are sent. 1-3 cds is usually 1 pound. 1 lp is usually a little over 1.5 pounds.)

For example: for a one-pound package worth $18 going to England, shipping without insurance is about $11.00. But with insurance, the shipping / insurance total is over $26.00!

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 :
-------------------------------- We accept the following credit cards: Visa, MC, Discover, and Amex. We will not charge your credit card until your order is ready to ship.
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 also accept payment by Paypal. If you opt for this payment method, we will send you a paypal total and payment instructions as soon as we've confirmed your order with you. Please do not send payment until you have received human contact from our mailorder department. We cannot take personal checks for mailorder, sorry!


QUESTION?
-------------------------------- Email the mailorder department: mailorder@aquariusrecords.org
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SOME SELECTED UPCOMING RELEASES

----} sometime soon/on the way/where is it?
Slough Feg "Ape Uprising" lp on Iron Kodex
Circle "Taantumus" cd reissue on Ektro w/ bonus track
Thor "Unchained" cd reissue on Ektro
Acid Mothers Temple "Are We Experimental" cd
Bible Of The Devil "Freedom Rock" lp version

----} July 7th
Reichman "Wunderbar" cd reissue on Bureau B
Son Volt "American Central Dust" cd
Nebula "Heavy Psych" cd/lp on Tee Pee
Nudge "As Good As Gone" cd/lp on Kranky
Bowerbirds "Upper Air" cd
Dysrhythmia "Psychic Maps" cd on Relapse
Oneida "Rated O" 3cd/3lp on Jagjaguar
Discovery "s/t" cd/lp on XL

----} July 14th
Blues Control "Local Flavor" cd/lp on Siltbreeze
Anaal Nathrakh "In The Constellation Of The Black Widow" cd on Candlelight
Nadja & Black Boned Angel "s/t" cd on 20 Buck Spin
Milanese "Lockout Planet" cd/2x12" on Planet Mu
Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers cd on VHF
Ty Segall "Lemons" cd/lp on Goner
Yob "Great Cessation" cd on Profound Lore
Black Meteoric Star "Dreamcatcher" 12" on DFA

----} July 21st
The Fiery Furnaces "I'm Going Away" cd/lp on Thrill Jockey
DJ Ilya Monosov & The 21st Century Punks "New Music" 12" on Holy Mountain
Galactic Zoo Dossier #8 magazine

----} July 28th
Yacht "See Mystery Lights" cd on DFA

----} August 11th
Bloody Panda "Summon" cd on Profound Lore
Bizzy B "Retrospective" cd/2lp on Planet Mu

----} August 18th
Steven R. Smith "Cities" lp on Immune
Final "Reading All The Right Signals Wrong" cd on No Quarter
Dock Boggs "Legendary Singer And Banjo Player" lp on Folkways
Elisabeth Cotten "When I'm Gone" lp on Folkways
John Fahey "America" lp reissue on Four Men With Beards
Roscoe Holcomb "High Lonesome Sound" lp reissue on Folkways

----} August 25th
16 Horsepower "Secret South" cd+dvd/lp+dvd on Alternative Tentacles
Cloudland Canyon "Silver Tongue Sisyphus" lp version on Holy Mountain
Jega "Variance" cd/2lp on Planet Mu
Liturgy "Renihiliation" cd on 20 Buck Spin
Laudanum "Coronation" cd on 20 Buck Spin
Sic Alps "L Mansion" 7" on Slumberland
Yoga "Megafauna" cd on Holy Mountain

----} also upcoming sooner or later or sooner or later
Six Organs Of Admittance "Luminous Night" cd/lp on Drag City
Gösta Berlings Saga "Detta Har Hant" cd on Transubstans Records
Om "Live Conference" lp on Important
v/a "Kompakt Total 10" 2cd/3lp on Kompakt
v/a "The Electric Asylum Volume 3: Rare British Acid Freakrock" cd on Past & Present
Black Boned Angel "Verdun" cd/lp on Riot Season
Shit And Shine "229 2299 Girls Against Shit" cd/lp on Riot Season
Der TPK "s/t" 12" on Captured Tracks
Ocean "Pantheon Of The Lesser" 2lp version on Important
Moondog "s/t", "More Moondog", and "The Story Of Moondog" lp reissues on 4 Men With Beards
Bunkur "Nullify" cd on Displeased
Grumbling Fur (Guapo + Jussi from Circle) cd
Der TPK (Teenage Panzerkorps) "Games For Slaves" lp on Siltbreeze
Oxbow "Fuckfest" cd reissue on Hydrahead
Combat Astronomy "Earth Divided by Zero" cd
Rosetta "Wake/Lift" vinyl version
Anton Batagov "Passionate Desire To Be An Angel" cd on Long Arms Records
Japancakes "If I Could See Dallas"
Sean Smith "Eternal" cd on Ultra Hard Gel
Jazzfinger "The Sun's Golden Blood" cd on Beta-Lactam Ring
v/a "Noise Room" cd on Soniq
Country Teasers / Ezee Tiger split lp on Holy Mountain
Erase Errata TBA cd on Kill Rock Stars
Xiu Xiu TBA cd on Kill Rock Stars
The Black Heart Procession TBA cd/lp on Touch And Go
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists TBA cd/lp on Touch And Go
Rodan TBA cd/lp on Quarterstick
Deftones "Eros" cd on Warner Bros.
Swell Maps "International Rescue" clear vinyl LP reissue on Alive
Black Lips "We Didn't Know..." green vinyl LP on Bomp!
Loss "Despond" cd on Profound Lore

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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanIrwinScottNickSallyJonandAndrew