SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE Diary (Sub Pop) cd 11.98
It's a strange musical time lately, with pretty much every cool band we loved in the eighties and nineties reforming, many of them recording brand new albums, lots of them performing classic albums in their entirety, and while we're usually not all that psyched on the reunion thing, we have to say, we were pretty thrilled to get to see Slint, and some of us are going to see the Get Up Kids next week, and who could possibly complain about seeing the Butthole Surfers or Killdozer or Jesus Lizard? Sure, they were better back in the day, the energy is different, back then they were young and hungry and had something to prove, now they're moms and dads with jobs and many are probably doing it for the money, considering they're probably gonna make more reuniting for a few months now than they ever did in years of recording and touring.
Plus there's a whole new generation of music fanatics, who missed out on arguably some of the best music ever, many of whom love bands who wouldn't even exist if it weren't for all those bands that came before.
One reunion that folks have been clamoring for since mere moments after breaking up, is for emo legends Sunny Day Real Estate, and while it only took a decade, it looks like the band will in fact finally reunite, and tour, and yeah, we'll probably all be there, freaking out when they play the hits, and speaking of the hits, maybe more exciting than the reunion, is the deluxe reissue of SDRE's first two albums, Diary, and LP2, both absolute classics, redefining the template for modern day indie rock / emo, and like Slint, SDRE were most definitely a band that launched a million other bands. Odds are most folks have these discs already, but if for some reason you don't holy shit are you in for a treat. Heavy, mathy, emotional, catchy, totally rocking, and just absolutely incredible.
Diary, originally released back in 1994, is another one of those records that is so front loaded, you could be forgiven for owning this record and nor making it to the end. Even now, we have to fight the urge to play the first few tracks over and over and over. But fight on, cuz the second half is just as kick ass.
"Seven" and "In Circles" are probably SDRE's best known songs and for good reason, two of THEE most perfect indie rock jams ever. The guitars lines are tangled melodic, the riffs crunchy, the drums complex and pounding, the arrangements complex, with plenty of starts and stops, little bursts of manic chug, streaks of chiming shimmer, the vocals so anguished and passionate, high and reedy, but still a little rough and ragged, keening and on the verge of breaking, slipping from whisper to howl and back again, really, if you've never heard these guys, just listen to the sound samples, and if you're not immediately smitten / obsessed, then heck, we're not sure what else to do for you.
"In Circles" is the prettier half of the opening one-two punch, with that immediately recognizable looped guitar intro, before slipping into some shimmery stripped down almost slowcore, but with a fantastically soaring, epic, majestic, hands in the air, heartbreak chorus, which ranks up there as one of those all time goosebumps, hair on the back of your neck, tearjerker, air guitar, indie rock musical moments, and a testament to its power is that it has that affect EVERY time, and still does 15 years later.
So after listening to those two songs 20 or 30 times, force yourself to continue on, you won't be disappointed. "Song About An Angel" is another slow brooding drift, that has one of the coolest stop start staccato bridges ever, as catchy as any other song's chorus. "47" had it been pushed forward a little in the playing order, might have been part of that irresistible replay opening salvo, with an incredible main melody, and verses that somehow manage to be even catchier than the catchy chorus. And don't let all this poppiness and catchiness ward off you heavy music folks, all that pop is tangled up and intertwined with some serious heaviness, plenty of heft and crunch, some incredible guitar playing, wild mathy, almost metallic drumming, and again, all wound up into highly unconventional song structures.
We could go on and on and on, the rest of the record is just as awesome, there are a handful of brooding slow burners, but even those are peppered with some seriously emo blowouts, not a bad one in the bunch, it's not hard to see why we all freaked out about this band when this record first appeared, and none of its power or emotion or energy has been blunted by the passing of time. Not in the least.
The reissue features two bonus tracks, from the awesome and long gone Thief, Steal Me A Peach 7", which predated Diary by about a year, and if anything is even heavier and more dense, the perfect sort of bonus track, melding seamlessly with the album proper (and one thing we notice listening to the 7"s tracks is how much SDRE sometimes sounded like a WAY heavier, way more rocking Decemberists!). New fancy gatefold digipak packaging, with that iconic Fisher Price Little People parody artwork, featuring those conical people shaped toys, set in depressing environments, like in a kitchen with the toast burning, amidst a not so happy family, a couple sleeping far apart in their bed, in surgery, at the scene of a car accident, etc. Also includes all new liner notes and interviews with the various band members.
One complaint about the cd packaging though, the digipak comes in a slipcover, which is always cool, but the slipcover has the record title, band name, and some random text about bonus tracks and the producer, stuff that should obviously have been on a sticker but is printed over that super cool artwork, and unfortunately, you can't toss the slipcover, cuz it's the ONLY place where the track listing is printed, thankfully, the lp version does not make the same mistake...
MPEG Stream: "Seven"
MPEG Stream: "In Circles"
MPEG Stream: "47"

SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE Diary (Sub Pop) 2lp 16.98
It's a strange musical time lately, with pretty much every cool band we loved in the eighties and nineties reforming, many of them recording brand new albums, lots of them performing classic albums in their entirety, and while we're usually not all that psyched on the reunion thing, we have to say, we were pretty thrilled to get to see Slint, and some of us are going to see the Get Up Kids next week, and who could possibly complain about seeing the Butthole Surfers or Killdozer or Jesus Lizard? Sure, they were better back in the day, the energy is different, back then they were young and hungry and had something to prove, now they're moms and dads with jobs and many are probably doing it for the money, considering they're probably gonna make more reuniting for a few months now than they ever did in years of recording and touring.
Plus there's a whole new generation of music fanatics, who missed out on arguably some of the best music ever, many of whom love bands who wouldn't even exist if it weren't for all those bands that came before.
One reunion that folks have been clamoring for since mere moments after breaking up, is for emo legends Sunny Day Real Estate, and while it only took a decade, it looks like the band will in fact finally reunite, and tour, and yeah, we'll probably all be there, freaking out when they play the hits, and speaking of the hits, maybe more exciting than the reunion, is the deluxe reissue of SDRE's first two albums, Diary, and LP2, both absolute classics, redefining the template for modern day indie rock / emo, and like Slint, SDRE were most definitely a band that launched a million other bands. Odds are most folks have these discs already, but if for some reason you don't holy shit are you in for a treat. Heavy, mathy, emotional, catchy, totally rocking, and just absolutely incredible.
Diary, originally released back in 1994, is another one of those records that is so front loaded, you could be forgiven for owning this record and nor making it to the end. Even now, we have to fight the urge to play the first few tracks over and over and over. But fight on, cuz the second half is just as kick ass.
"Seven" and "In Circles" are probably SDRE's best known songs and for good reason, two of THEE most perfect indie rock jams ever. The guitars lines are tangled melodic, the riffs crunchy, the drums complex and pounding, the arrangements complex, with plenty of starts and stops, little bursts of manic chug, streaks of chiming shimmer, the vocals so anguished and passionate, high and reedy, but still a little rough and ragged, keening and on the verge of breaking, slipping from whisper to howl and back again, really, if you've never heard these guys, just listen to the sound samples, and if you're not immediately smitten / obsessed, then heck, we're not sure what else to do for you.
"In Circles" is the prettier half of the opening one-two punch, with that immediately recognizable looped guitar intro, before slipping into some shimmery stripped down almost slowcore, but with a fantastically soaring, epic, majestic, hands in the air, heartbreak chorus, which ranks up there as one of those all time goosebumps, hair on the back of your neck, tearjerker, air guitar, indie rock musical moments, and a testament to its power is that it has that affect EVERY time, and still does 15 years later.
So after listening to those two songs 20 or 30 times, force yourself to continue on, you won't be disappointed. "Song About An Angel" is another slow brooding drift, that has one of the coolest stop start staccato bridges ever, as catchy as any other song's chorus. "47" had it been pushed forward a little in the playing order, might have been part of that irresistible replay opening salvo, with an incredible main melody, and verses that somehow manage to be even catchier than the catchy chorus. And don't let all this poppiness and catchiness ward off you heavy music folks, all that pop is tangled up and intertwined with some serious heaviness, plenty of heft and crunch, some incredible guitar playing, wild mathy, almost metallic drumming, and again, all wound up into highly unconventional song structures.
We could go on and on and on, the rest of the record is just as awesome, there are a handful of brooding slow burners, but even those are peppered with some seriously emo blowouts, not a bad one in the bunch, it's not hard to see why we all freaked out about this band when this record first appeared, and none of its power or emotion or energy has been blunted by the passing of time. Not in the least.
The reissue features two bonus tracks, from the awesome and long gone Thief, Steal Me A Peach 7", which predated Diary by about a year, and if anything is even heavier and more dense, the perfect sort of bonus track, melding seamlessly with the album proper (and one thing we notice listening to the 7"s tracks is how much SDRE sometimes sounded like a WAY heavier, way more rocking Decemberists!). New fancy gatefold digipak packaging, with that iconic Fisher Price Little People parody artwork, featuring those conical people shaped toys, set in depressing environments, like in a kitchen with the toast burning, amidst a not so happy family, a couple sleeping far apart in their bed, in surgery, at the scene of a car accident, etc. Also includes all new liner notes and interviews with the various band members.
One complaint about the cd packaging though, the digipak comes in a slipcover, which is always cool, but the slipcover has the record title, band name, and some random text about bonus tracks and the producer, stuff that should obviously have been on a sticker but is printed over that super cool artwork, and unfortunately, you can't toss the slipcover, cuz it's the ONLY place where the track listing is printed, thankfully, the lp version does not make the same mistake...
MPEG Stream: "Seven"
MPEG Stream: "In Circles"
MPEG Stream: "47"

SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE LP2 (Sub Pop) cd 11.98
It's a strange musical time lately, with pretty much every cool band we loved in the eighties and nineties reforming, many of them recording brand new albums, lots of them performing classic albums in their entirety, and while we're usually not all that psyched on the reunion thing, we have to say, we were pretty thrilled to get to see Slint, and some of us are going to see the Get Up Kids next week, and who could possibly complain about seeing the Butthole Surfers or Killdozer or Jesus Lizard? Sure, they were better back in the day, the energy is different, back then they were young and hungry and had something to prove, now they're moms and dads with jobs and many are probably doing it for the money, considering they're probably gonna make more reuniting for a few months now than they ever did in years of recording and touring.
Plus there's a whole new generation of music fanatics, who missed out on arguably some of the best music ever, many of whom love bands who wouldn't even exist if it weren't for all those bands that came before.
One reunion that folks have been clamoring for since mere moments after breaking up, is for emo legends Sunny Day Real Estate, and while it only took a decade, it looks like the band will in fact finally reunite, and tour, and yeah, we'll probably all be there, freaking out when they play the hits, and speaking of the hits, maybe more exciting than the reunion, is the deluxe reissue of SDRE's first two albums, Diary, and LP2, both absolute classics, redefining the template for modern day indie rock / emo, and like Slint, SDRE were most definitely a band that launched a million other bands. Odds are most folks have these discs already, but if for some reason you don't holy shit are you in for a treat. Heavy, mathy, emotional, catchy, totally rocking, and just absolutely incredible.
Sunny Day Real Estate's second record, self titled, often referred to as 'the pink album' due to its simple all pink cover, as well as being known now as LP2, was released in 1995, mere months before the band broke up (for the first time), and it's easy to hear in the music, the sound is much less immediately catchy than Diary, a bit darker, a grower for sure, all the sonic elements are still present, the same spidery chiming guitars, dense complex arrangements, soaring chug heavy choruses, Jeremy Enigk's plaintive emotional wail, and hooks, they're there all right, but they sink in slowly, over repeated listens. Over the years, LP2 has become just as powerful as Diary, in some ways even more so, with its overall sound more wrought with tension and emotion, the songs more minor key and somehow more sad sounding. And thus even, maybe a bit more emo.
There are some 'hits' here too. "Theo B" is frantic, with a cool lurching tempo, weirdly angular guitars, and some seriously intense vocals. "Red Elephant", is a slow burning post rocker, with a soaring chorus, rife with chiming guitars and dense drum pound, but with a weary, worn vibe, like much of the record, a strange undercurrent of impending doom. Definitely darker than Diary, but instead of that being a weakness, it's most definitely the record's strength. "Waffle" might be our favorite track here, a meandering low end slither, all woozy bass and Slint-y guitars, a sing songy tempo, a gorgeous main melody, and some truly beautiful voice-about-to-crack vocals. Then there's "8", which sounds like it could have been plucked right off of Diary, and like the single bonus tracks on Diary, reminds us again how much SDRE sometimes sound like a super heavy emo Decemberists. The strange thing about LP2, is that it's really back heavy, with some of the best SDRE songs EVER, tucked way near the end of the record, which makes sense in a way if you consider LP2 to be a sort of continuation of Diary...
The thing is, as long as we've had these records, they seemed more like 2 halves of the same record, a sprawling concept record, one side lighter, one darker, perfectly complimenting each other, both on their own practically perfect, but combined, pretty much one of the greatest song suites in second wave emo for sure, but maybe even in indie rock history all together.
After this record, frontman Jeremy Enigk would discover Jesus and go on to record some awesome solo records, 1/2 the band would go on to play in the Foo Fighters, and the band would get back together 4 or 5 years later, and record two more SDRE records, both pretty great, but nothing really compared to the magic of this one, and Diary.
LP2 features two bonus tracks, each single B-sides, and both again, pretty kick ass, and both surprisingly dark and heavy and EPIC.
All new deluxe packaging, gatefold digipak, printed inner sleeve, and a massive booklet with all new liner notes, and an interview with the band members.
MPEG Stream: "Friday"
MPEG Stream: "Theo B"
MPEG Stream: "Red Elephant"

SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE LP2 (Sub Pop) 2lp 14.98
It's a strange musical time lately, with pretty much every cool band we loved in the eighties and nineties reforming, many of them recording brand new albums, lots of them performing classic albums in their entirety, and while we're usually not all that psyched on the reunion thing, we have to say, we were pretty thrilled to get to see Slint, and some of us are going to see the Get Up Kids next week, and who could possibly complain about seeing the Butthole Surfers or Killdozer or Jesus Lizard? Sure, they were better back in the day, the energy is different, back then they were young and hungry and had something to prove, now they're moms and dads with jobs and many are probably doing it for the money, considering they're probably gonna make more reuniting for a few months now than they ever did in years of recording and touring.
Plus there's a whole new generation of music fanatics, who missed out on arguably some of the best music ever, many of whom love bands who wouldn't even exist if it weren't for all those bands that came before.
One reunion that folks have been clamoring for since mere moments after breaking up, is for emo legends Sunny Day Real Estate, and while it only took a decade, it looks like the band will in fact finally reunite, and tour, and yeah, we'll probably all be there, freaking out when they play the hits, and speaking of the hits, maybe more exciting than the reunion, is the deluxe reissue of SDRE's first two albums, Diary, and LP2, both absolute classics, redefining the template for modern day indie rock / emo, and like Slint, SDRE were most definitely a band that launched a million other bands. Odds are most folks have these discs already, but if for some reason you don't holy shit are you in for a treat. Heavy, mathy, emotional, catchy, totally rocking, and just absolutely incredible.
Sunny Day Real Estate's second record, self titled, often referred to as 'the pink album' due to its simple all pink cover, as well as being known now as LP2, was released in 1995, mere months before the band broke up (for the first time), and it's easy to hear in the music, the sound is much less immediately catchy than Diary, a bit darker, a grower for sure, all the sonic elements are still present, the same spidery chiming guitars, dense complex arrangements, soaring chug heavy choruses, Jeremy Enigk's plaintive emotional wail, and hooks, they're there all right, but they sink in slowly, over repeated listens. Over the years, LP2 has become just as powerful as Diary, in some ways even more so, with its overall sound more wrought with tension and emotion, the songs more minor key and somehow more sad sounding. And thus even, maybe a bit more emo.
There are some 'hits' here too. "Theo B" is frantic, with a cool lurching tempo, weirdly angular guitars, and some seriously intense vocals. "Red Elephant", is a slow burning post rocker, with a soaring chorus, rife with chiming guitars and dense drum pound, but with a weary, worn vibe, like much of the record, a strange undercurrent of impending doom. Definitely darker than Diary, but instead of that being a weakness, it's most definitely the record's strength. "Waffle" might be our favorite track here, a meandering low end slither, all woozy bass and Slint-y guitars, a sing songy tempo, a gorgeous main melody, and some truly beautiful voice-about-to-crack vocals. Then there's "8", which sounds like it could have been plucked right off of Diary, and like the single bonus tracks on Diary, reminds us again how much SDRE sometimes sound like a super heavy emo Decemberists. The strange thing about LP2, is that it's really back heavy, with some of the best SDRE songs EVER, tucked way near the end of the record, which makes sense in a way if you consider LP2 to be a sort of continuation of Diary...
The thing is, as long as we've had these records, they seemed more like 2 halves of the same record, a sprawling concept record, one side lighter, one darker, perfectly complimenting each other, both on their own practically perfect, but combined, pretty much one of the greatest song suites in second wave emo for sure, but maybe even in indie rock history all together.
After this record, frontman Jeremy Enigk would discover Jesus and go on to record some awesome solo records, 1/2 the band would go on to play in the Foo Fighters, and the band would get back together 4 or 5 years later, and record two more SDRE records, both pretty great, but nothing really compared to the magic of this one, and Diary.
LP2 features two bonus tracks, each single B-sides, and both again, pretty kick ass, and both surprisingly dark and heavy and EPIC.
All new deluxe packaging, gatefold digipak, printed inner sleeve, and a massive booklet with all new liner notes, and an interview with the band members.
MPEG Stream: "Friday"
MPEG Stream: "Theo B"
MPEG Stream: "Red Elephant"

V/A Shadow Music Of Thailand (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
It's almost impossible to pick a favorite Sublime Frequencies release. Every one is amazing, mysterious, wondrous, fantastical, funky, fun, far out, in fact, we could just have a standing Record Of The Week reserved for all the Sublime Frequencies records. However, no matter how hard it is, we do in fact have favorites, and this is most definitely one. Not sure how SF decides which records to release as vinyl only, or cd only, it's definitely frustrating for the format specific fan, the vinyl is expensive, limited, and often ends up on eBay for crazy amounts of money, the cd is simple and cheaper, and most of the releases are in fact cd, most likely never to make it to vinyl. Thankfully, at least for the digitally inclined, all of the lp only releases seems to eventually make it to cd, they may make us wait, make us sweat a little, but it always happens, and it's always worth the wait. We wanted to make this Record Of The Week when it first came out on vinyl, but it seemed sad to leave out the still sizeable group of turntableless music lovers, but now it's on cd (and sadly out of print on vinyl), so here we go, another fantastic Sublime Frequencies release, and latest Aquarius Record Of The Week, Shadow Music Of Thailand!
So what is Shadow Music Of Thailand? Well, it's Thai pop heavily influenced by UK instrumental rockers The Shadows of course. More specifically it's a strain of sixties Thai guitar pop heavily influenced by Western music, rock, garage and especially surf. The guitar being the most obvious influence.
So here we have a collection of some of the most notable purveyors of "Shadow Music": The Son Of P.M., P.M. Pocket Music, P.M 7 / Jupiter and Johnny Guitar. You may have noticed the recurring P.M., well that stands for Payong Mukda, one of the most prolific composers and performers of the time and the music genius behind all of those P.M. groups.
On first listen, the Shadow Music here doesn't sound all that different than much of the Thai Pop we've heard before on other collections, and no doubt there is some overlap. But keep listening, and all sorts of strange and unique little sonic flourishes reveal themselves. Really, where else can you hear gamelan percussion with super fuzzed out ? And The Mysterions style organ and wailing surf guitar? From groovy garage rock to shimmery surf, lots of organ, and plenty of gamelan, vibraphone, xylophone, gorgeous vocals, strange harmonies, mysterious melodies, but it's those guitars, it buzzes and howls, chugs and twangs, woven into all of the songs here, creating this strange hybrid, Thai Pop, Bollywood, surf rock, blues rock, Latin, soul, all woven into a wild groovy psychedelic fuzzy funky garage folkpop that will totally hit the spot for fans of exotic grooves and wild and wonderful sounds.
Full color booklet with tons of original Thai artwork and brief liner notes.
MPEG Stream: THE SON OF P.M. "Luk Tung Klong Yao"
MPEG Stream: P.M. POCKET MUSIC "Kack Toi Mor"
MPEG Stream: JOHNNY GUITAR "Mon Du Dow"
MPEG Stream: P.M. 7 / JUPITER "Susie Wong"

YO LA TENGO Popular Songs (Matador) cd 13.98
They never ever disappoint, in fact more often than not, they totally blow us away. And with Popular Songs, Yo La Tengo remind us once again why they are one of the best bands of the last quarter century. From start to finish this is an album with so many different sounds, styles, moods and motifs, yet it's all so deliciously Yo La Tengo! Like their best albums, the first time you hear this record you know it's going to be an album that you'll listen to for the rest of your life. And in this day and age of disposable culture it's so incredibly refreshing to have YLT, whose music has such a timeless element, and sounds so personal and passionate, and will undoubtedly stand the test of time. YLT never aspired to be the hippest or trendiest or coolest band around. Simply stated, slow and steady wins the race! They've definitely won, and continue to win, and in turn so have we. They've made their indelible mark by just being themselves, and when it comes to pure substance it just doesn't get more richly rewarding than YLT.
Popular Songs is like an album that represent the best friend we all wish we could have. Someone you can turn to when it's time to get deep or vent some bittersweet sadness, someone you can also have fun sleepover parties with and let loose and experience total joy together. These are a set of songs that really do hit at almost the entire spectrum of emotion, and the pacing/sequencing of the album just couldn't be more perfect. Whether being melted away by one of Georgia Hubley's beautifully aching drift-away numbers or being swept up in a Motown like fury or rocked by a straight ahead burner, there is such immaculate skill in the crafting of each song.
The album features wonderfully lush string arrangements provided by Richard Evans, the legendary soul pioneer who contributed so much to the amazing '60s Chicago/Cadet soul scene, who many of you might know and love for his work on the great Afro-Harping album by Dorothy Ashby. So awesome, and yet after taking so many wonderful twist and turns, it is the ending of the album that really leaves us so stunned and in awe.
The last two tracks are very long and mostly instrumental. "The Fireside" is eleven minutes of total shoegaze bliss, that puts most actual 'shoegaze' bands to shame, letting the listener get lost in a slow glowing haze. And then the album's closer "And The Glitter Is Gone", an almost sixteen minute sonic smolder brimming with a droning and triumphant psychedelic spirit that we could listen to forever.
One of those rare records that is all 'favorite songs', every listen, a new song gets stuck in your head and fills your heart, only to be supplanted by another the next time, and on it goes, favorite after favorite after favorite. We think it's fair to say this is a total masterpiece from one of our favorite groups!
MPEG Stream: "Here To Fall"
MPEG Stream: "If It's True"
MPEG Stream: "The Fireside"
MPEG Stream: "And The Glitter Is Gone"

YO LA TENGO Popular Songs (Matador) 2lp 25.00
They never ever disappoint, in fact more often than not, they totally blow us away. And with Popular Songs, Yo La Tengo remind us once again why they are one of the best bands of the last quarter century. From start to finish this is an album with so many different sounds, styles, moods and motifs, yet it's all so deliciously Yo La Tengo! Like their best albums, the first time you hear this record you know it's going to be an album that you'll listen to for the rest of your life. And in this day and age of disposable culture it's so incredibly refreshing to have YLT, whose music has such a timeless element, and sounds so personal and passionate, and will undoubtedly stand the test of time. YLT never aspired to be the hippest or trendiest or coolest band around. Simply stated, slow and steady wins the race! They've definitely won, and continue to win, and in turn so have we. They've made their indelible mark by just being themselves, and when it comes to pure substance it just doesn't get more richly rewarding than YLT.
Popular Songs is like an album that represent the best friend we all wish we could have. Someone you can turn to when it's time to get deep or vent some bittersweet sadness, someone you can also have fun sleepover parties with and let loose and experience total joy together. These are a set of songs that really do hit at almost the entire spectrum of emotion, and the pacing/sequencing of the album just couldn't be more perfect. Whether being melted away by one of Georgia Hubley's beautifully aching drift-away numbers or being swept up in a Motown like fury or rocked by a straight ahead burner, there is such immaculate skill in the crafting of each song.
The album features wonderfully lush string arrangements provided by Richard Evans, the legendary soul pioneer who contributed so much to the amazing '60s Chicago/Cadet soul scene, who many of you might know and love for his work on the great Afro-Harping album by Dorothy Ashby. So awesome, and yet after taking so many wonderful twist and turns, it is the ending of the album that really leaves us so stunned and in awe.
The last two tracks are very long and mostly instrumental. "The Fireside" is eleven minutes of total shoegaze bliss, that puts most actual 'shoegaze' bands to shame, letting the listener get lost in a slow glowing haze. And then the album's closer "And The Glitter Is Gone", an almost sixteen minute sonic smolder brimming with a droning and triumphant psychedelic spirit that we could listen to forever.
One of those rare records that is all 'favorite songs', every listen, a new song gets stuck in your head and fills your heart, only to be supplanted by another the next time, and on it goes, favorite after favorite after favorite. We think it's fair to say this is a total masterpiece from one of our favorite groups!
MPEG Stream: "Here To Fall"
MPEG Stream: "If It's True"
MPEG Stream: "The Fireside"
MPEG Stream: "And The Glitter Is Gone"

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AMON DUUL II Phallus Dei (Revisted) lp 27.00
Not long ago this label reissued the our all time Amon Duul II fave, the genius Yeti, on vinyl. Now they've done the same for the almost equally as great Phallus Dei, ADII's debut, which was originally released in 1969, immediately preceding 1970's Yeti. Here's some of the brief review we wrote up the last time this was reissued on cd:
Split apart from the more politicized fraction known as Amon Duul I (Psychedelic Underground, etc.), Amon Duul II emerged in 1969 when they released this fantastic debut album. It's a masterwork of drug-dazed guitar psych, long tracks, middle eastern influence, churning trance rock, etc.
Where the music of Amon Duul I flowed freely like the loose collective of hippies they were, Amon Duul II was a delirious explosion of psychedelia that, with small exception, always kept one foot firmly planted in structure. The extended jams, especially the title track, have the benefit of being both very accessible straight ahead, heavy, psychedelic rock while retaining the spontaneity of an improv sensibility.
We could go on and on but let's just say it's another krautrock essential, and one that's cool to have back on vinyl!!

APATI Eufori (Total Holocaust) cd 12.98
First record from Swedish depressive black metal trio, Apati (Apathy we assume), who travel a well worn path, one most recently and fantastically tread by their countrymen Lifelover, but who manage to take that sound and do their own thing with it. To be fair, that 'thing' is most definitely not that far removed from Lifelover, although we do hear plenty of other sonically similar groups like Hypothermia and Happy Days, and other outfits who are melding melodic blackened pop with harsh shrieking vocals and black atmospherics. Also worth mentioning is Katatonia, who seem to have inadvertently created the template for the modern wave of depressive black metal, strip the hellish shrieks away, introduce some deep crooning vocals, and you'd have some seriously dark and catchy blackened doom pop. Which should give you an idea of what's going on with Apati, the music is mournful and melodic, epic and grandiose, the drums sound programmed, but they're simple and there more as a framework, allowing the guitars to loop into mesmerizing riffscapes, most of the tracks only have one or two parts, more about repetition and mood than songsmithery. The vocals are really the only thing that keep Apati at all tethered to black metal, they shriek maniacally, frenzied, hysterical, anguished, wailed dramatically, easily the most metal element besides the buzzy guitars, but the guitar buzz is less harsh and hellish and more melodic and poppy.
Apati also offer up plenty of haunting instrumental interludes (which is probably another reason they get slagged off for being Lifelover copies), dark chamber music, looping piano figures, the sound of storms, disembodied voices, sampled dialogue, all draped over hazy, gauzy stretches of dreamy shimmer, or murky ambience. Where Lifelover are seriously demented and fucked up and damaged, Apati don't concern themselves more with creating beautiful music, the juxtaposition is certainly odd, and is what make them what they are, but it's not willfully far out, it seems more like an aesthetic choice, the harsh vocals, adding to the dread and drama of the melancholy music underneath.
We're pretty partial to this new breed of depressive black metal, most of our favorite BM has elements of pop anyway, this more like a dark rock band infusing their sound with elements of black metal, whatever you call it, gloom pop, dark metal, depressive dirge pop, black pop, it hardly matters, this stuff is awesome, moody, melodic, hypnotic and heavy, and heck, it will definitely tide us over until the next Lifelover record, or even the next Apati record. RECOMMENDED!
MPEG Stream: "Host"
MPEG Stream: "Somnlosa Natter"
MPEG Stream: "Nykter Idag"

ASCEND Ample Fire Within (Southern Lord) cd 15.98
Along with the Pentemple cd/lp reviewed elsewhere on this week's list, this Ascend record had also been floating in limbo, as we wanted to bring in an alternate import version, but like with Pentemple, the wait got way longer than we expected, and we realized what a huge drag it was that we had yet to list either of these, both of which we dig a LOT, so yeah, it's been out forever, you probably have it already, but on the off chance, someone out there never picked this up, or even worse, was waiting for us to review it (sorry!), here it is, the long awaited (at the time) collaboration between Greg Anderson of SUNNO))), Engine Kid and others, and Gentry Densley of the late great Iceburn. Since this record was released, Densley went on to form Eagle Twin, also on Southern Lord (and recentlyl reviewed by us in timely fashion) the seeds of which can be heard here, but Ascend is its own strange dark beast.
The guitars are massive and thick and slow, the sound is dense and doomy, but the arrangements are something else, jazzy really, with horns moaning and bleating within the buzz and rumble, a lurching lumbering bit of blackened funereal doom jazz maybe? The sound is most definitely SUNNO)))-y, all about the slabs of crumbling distortion, but then things get super weird, all twangy and Morricone-esque, with some growled evil Tom Waitsian vox, only to have the sound shift to a a weird pounding slow motion almost garage sounding dirge, with wild lysergic leads, and moaned mantra like chanted vocals, that definitely remind us of Om, or for an even more obscure reference, Skin Yard at 16 rpm. The closer "Dark Matter" is a perfect mix of all the songs, spacious skeletal twang gives way to lugubrious tarpit riffing, some blissed out ambient shimmer, rife with sitar like buzz, sprawling out into a gloomy crawl and eventually erupting into a Melvinsy dirge, the vocals becoming more and more distant, practically melting into the guitars, becoming another layer of buzz, finishing off with a 3 minute crush of weirdly psychedelic Harvey Milk like pummel.
Definitely a weird record, groovy, jazzy, heavy, psychedelic and doomy, but somehow it works, Ascend are way out on the fringe of the doomdronesludge sound, still close enough to appeal to metalheads in need of nothing more than buzz and pound, but far enough out to make this one of the cooler weirder records to come out of a scene that is often a little too similar sounding.
MPEG Stream: "The Obelisk Of Kolob"
MPEG Stream: "Ample Fire Within"

A SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW Ashes Grammar (Mis Ojos Discos) cd 13.98
Not many bands have a sound that fits their moniker as perfectly as A Sunny Day In Glasgow. Though they hail from Pennsylvania, their lush swirling day dream shoegaze pop really evoke not only so many great Glasgow bands but also exactly how we imagine a crisp bright sunny day over there to feel like. The band's debut Scribble Mural was an out of nowhere sleeper hit of 2007, in fact it was one of our favorite records of that year. Ashes Grammar finds them upping the ante, adding even more complex elements to their already dense mix of sounds. There is definitely a really nice 4AD influence in their sound as we're always reminded a bit of the Cocteau Twins, and there are BIG nods to Loveless era My Bloody Valentine. This time out you can also hear hints of 21st century composition in their saturated colorful approach to dense avant pop. Imagine if The Swirlies and Seefeel collaborated to create some seriously shimmering blissed out pop perfection!
MPEG Stream: "Canalfish"
MPEG Stream: "Nitetime Rainbows"
MPEG Stream: "Shy"

A SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW Ashes Grammar (Mis Ojos Discos) lp 17.98
Not many bands have a sound that fits their moniker as perfectly as A Sunny Day In Glasgow. Though they hail from Pennsylvania, their lush swirling day dream shoegaze pop really evoke not only so many great Glasgow bands but also exactly how we imagine a crisp bright sunny day over there to feel like. The band's debut Scribble Mural was an out of nowhere sleeper hit of 2007, in fact it was one of our favorite records of that year. Ashes Grammar finds them upping the ante, adding even more complex elements to their already dense mix of sounds. There is definitely a really nice 4AD influence in their sound as we're always reminded a bit of the Cocteau Twins, and there are BIG nods to Loveless era My Bloody Valentine. This time out you can also hear hints of 21st century composition in their saturated colorful approach to dense avant pop. Imagine if The Swirlies and Seefeel collaborated to create some seriously shimmering blissed out pop perfection!
MPEG Stream: "Canalfish"
MPEG Stream: "Nitetime Rainbows"
MPEG Stream: "Shy"

BARN OWL Transfiguration (Electric Totem) cd-r 8.98
Back in stock! Managed to get a few more of these from the band, but again, not sure how long these will last....
San Francisco's dronelords Barn Owl (featuring our very own Jon!) return with Transfiguration, an awe inspiring slab of expansive psychedelia that is both heavy and beautiful. Recorded live on tour in Vancouver in summer 2008, Transfiguration clocks in at a massive 21 minutes, giving the duo plenty of time to put together a sprawling slow burning expanse that manages to retain a high degree of focus while also flowing freely.
Beginning with high pitched, bell like drones and a slowly creeping guitar note, it is hard to tell whether the vibes are good or evil, and before long the piece begins to move forward cinematically. It's like things are ascending way up to the heavens, and as the bells create a hypnotic flow, massive guitar drones take over everything. The sound is truly mountainous, with bits of molten feedback punctuating the atmosphere, and just when you think everything is going to be taken over by total noise, you realize that even though the music appears to be alive and of its own will, things are kept very much in control by the band. Amazingly, there seems to be a sense of implied rhythm, not in the sense of a traditional pop song, but the rhythm of the drone, taking things into a more realized form of existence. The white hot squalls of heavily distorted bliss swirl about but never decay, instead its like they are alive and breathing... and then, the piece is separated into its second half, by a lone voice. The low chant creates its own sort of spacious cavern, and the surrounding silence creates its own tension as more chants enter the atmosphere while higher voices float ethereally at the top. Giant cyclones of droned voices rise and recede, creating their own unique style of movement. The way the voices merge creates a cool disorienting effect where you lose all sense of direction in a state of suspended consciousness. Awesome.
Limited to a scant 200 copies, Transfiguration comes beautifully packaged in a thick cardstock sleeve with a professionally printed cd-r and serves as a nice teaser to the duo's upcoming full length on Root Strata!
MPEG Stream: "Transfiguration"

BEATLES, THE Beatles For Sale (Capitol) cd 17.98
We said it about Nirvana a while back, and we'll say it about the Beatles, people who say they hate the Beatles are LYING. And if they're not lying, well, then we just feel sorry for them. We're perfectly willing to admit to Beatles oversaturation, and fair enough if you've heard enough Beatles on classic rock radio, that you never want to hear any again, but that's so unfair to a band's legacy, especially a band who wrote so many amazing songs. Take Led Zeppelin, imagine NEVER having heard them, and then getting your ears on "Stairway To Heaven" or "Immigrant Song" or "No Quarter" or "When The Levee Breaks". Your mind would be BLOWN, and you'd suddenly realize how much every metal band you ever loved owed to Zeppelin. We remember playing Neu! for a friend whose favorite band was Stereolab, she had never heard Neu! but the second the first song started, her whole idea of Stereolab changed, and in fact, if we remember correctly, she said something like "Stereolab is a total Neu! ripoff!!"...
So imagine, for a second, being super into pop music, and never having heard the Beatles, needless to say, you would be overwhelmed by their sheer genius, their utter mastery of pop music, and how much they defined the template for almost all pop to come. No band since has such a distinct and immediately recognizable sound, or such an expansive and hit filled catalog. And yeah, is this reissue campaign number 5, 6, 10? So odds are most of you have all the Beatles records, or at least the ones you like, and probably, you've had your fill of old record nerds getting all misty eyed for the Nth time, and talking about remastered sound quality and stereo versus mono.
But, we thought as long as these records are available again, nicely repackaged, and indeed sounding better than ever, we'd make the case for one of our favorites, a commonly dismissed, overlooked, and surprisingly depressive Beatles gem. Beatles For Sale came out in 1964 (we think), and was met with much confusion. Sure there were hits, "Eight Days A Week" was massive, "I'll Follow The Sun" has always been a favorite. But then there was record opener "No Reply", which begins as a total classic sounding, but is broken up by some seriously caustic (and almost heavy) parts, with voice on the verge of cracking, guitars distorted, and the hook, one of the Beatles' best. But our heart belongs to the second track "I'm A Loser", another total classic sounding Beatles jam, with incredible harmonies, and dark lyrics that are at odds with the song's lush sound and groovy feel, acoustic guitars, walking basslines, all sorts of melodic filigree, it's been 20 years or more since we first heard it, and not only are we still not tired of it (maybe partly cuz it NEVER gets played on the radio) but it still ranks up there with our all time favorite pop songs.
The one strange thing about Beatles For Sale, is the mix of dark brooding lush pop, and stomping rock and roll numbers. We had sort of forgotten about the more rocking tracks, cuz to be honest, when we made a tape of this way back when, and later put it on our iPod, we actually left those tracks off, not cuz they're BAD, just because they're not what made us fall in love with this record in the first place. Strip away those rockers, and this is a gorgeous, introspective, hook filled, dark and subtly depressive pop gem.
Fancy new digipak packaging, new liner notes, rare photos, a mini documentary about For Sale, and yeah, it's remastered and sounds AWESOME!
PS we've got a bunch of the other newly reissued remastered digipacked Beatles discs in stock too, love 'em too, just happened to get extra excited to write about this one!
MPEG Stream: "I'm A Loser"
MPEG Stream: "No Reply"
MPEG Stream: "I'll Follow The Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Every Little Thing"

BIBLE OF THE DEVIL Freedom Metal (Heavy Birth Vinyl Records) lp 14.98
NOW ON VINYL! We only got a handful though... One of the best unabashed rock/metal records from last year, this indeed definitely deserves the vinyl treatment. Here's what we said about the cd:
This is pretty much exactly what you'd hope for from a band who has a Flying V guitar as part of their logo! Chicago's Bible Of The Devil are back, all hairy and bearded, with another ripping record of '80s, NWOBHM inspired heavy metal rockin'. It's their fifth album, so along with the guitar, they've got a (Roman numeral) V in the logo on the cover of this, too. V can also stand for victory, and "triumphant" is a word we've used to describe these guys' metallic gallop in the past, a gallop graced with gruff Lemmy-ish vocal gargle and (of course) tons of twin Flying V fret burnin' leads and dual harmonies.
Catchy stoner riffage, soaring melodies, singalong choruses, total shred, these guys bring it on Freedom Metal, recorded by their hometown heaviness production guru, Sanford Parker. No wonder they're such good buddies with those epic eccentrics known as Slough Feg. Their rollicking riffs even seemingly share some of the same Celtic/folk influences at times... or Thin Lizzy influence anyway, as on the likes of "Greek Fire", "500 More", and especially the super Lizzyish, upbeat "Ol' Girl" (which we could also describe as sounding like Southern rock with extra Champs-y guitars). Furthermore, while the whole album hews to BOTD's usual raw rock vibe, one foot still in the garage, they mix it up from track-to-track, some more blazingly metallic, and a few more melodically mellow, as with the moody "Heat Feeler" which has moments that make us think of Elvis Costello or something!
Basically, Bible Of The Devil just keep gettin' better n' better, and Freedom Metal is a blast. And like a blast from the past that ain't actually from the past. Our only question: why no song called "Turn It Up, Man"?
MPEG Stream: "Hijack The Night"
MPEG Stream: "Womanize"
MPEG Stream: "Greek Fire"

BIRDS OF AVALON Uncanny Valley (Volcom Entertainment) cd 14.98
It's only their 2nd full-length release and already Raleigh NC's Birds Of Avalon has become one of those bands that seems just so classic and capable that we find it hard to say anything other than that this is self evidently cool, please check it out if you like music! They're not easily pigeonholed you see. Early on when we heard their debut we could readily compare 'em to Thin Lizzy and Cheap Trick and the Allmans, but this album simply sounds like Birds Of Avalon. They're not as retro as before, or at least have incorporated an even wider range of influences, from '60s psychpop to '90s altrock... From track to track, we couldn't predict what was coming up next, so in some ways this the Birds Of Avalon at their experimental, eclectic, and warmly weird. That we've heard thus far anyway. There's plenty of melodic indie rock jangle goin' on, really pretty songs with mellow vocals, even a track ("Dadcage") that sounds like Frippertronics, all ambient guitar and gentle electronic gurgle. There's certainly some more rockin' stuff as well, but even that's got a sheen of laidback blissfulness to it. And power pop is still part of the Birds equation, but tripped out, with buzzing wooshing synths and stuff along with the (occasionally heavy, distorted) guitars.
Though we just said it's harder now to compare 'em to other bands, we like to try and do that anyway in our reviews, so at least will say that this is "recommended for fans of" these bands, and others: Swedish AQ faves Elope, Queens Of The Stone Age, The Cars, The Breeders, Sloan, 31Knots, and (thus) even early '70s Yes... plus all the others that Birds at one time or another has reminded us of.
A very satisfying listen. A bit different than before, but definitely like we said classic Birds Of Avalon no matter what. Experimenting, perhaps, but they know what they're doing.
MPEG Stream: "Side Two"
MPEG Stream: "Your Downtime Is Up"
MPEG Stream: "Student Teaching"

BIRDS OF AVALON Uncanny Valley (Volcom) lp 13.98
It's only their 2nd full-length release and already Raleigh NC's Birds Of Avalon has become one of those bands that seems just so classic and capable that we find it hard to say anything other than that this is self evidently cool, please check it out if you like music! They're not easily pigeonholed you see. Early on when we heard their debut we could readily compare 'em to Thin Lizzy and Cheap Trick and the Allmans, but this album simply sounds like Birds Of Avalon. They're not as retro as before, or at least have incorporated an even wider range of influences, from '60s psychpop to '90s altrock... From track to track, we couldn't predict what was coming up next, so in some ways this the Birds Of Avalon at their experimental, eclectic, and warmly weird. That we've heard thus far anyway. There's plenty of melodic indie rock jangle goin' on, really pretty songs with mellow vocals, even a track ("Dadcage") that sounds like Frippertronics, all ambient guitar and gentle electronic gurgle. There's certainly some more rockin' stuff as well, but even that's got a sheen of laidback blissfulness to it. And power pop is still part of the Birds equation, but tripped out, with buzzing wooshing synths and stuff along with the (occasionally heavy, distorted) guitars.
Though we just said it's harder now to compare 'em to other bands, we like to try and do that anyway in our reviews, so at least will say that this is "recommended for fans of" these bands, and others: Swedish AQ faves Elope, Queens Of The Stone Age, The Cars, The Breeders, Sloan, 31Knots, and (thus) even early '70s Yes... plus all the others that Birds at one time or another has reminded us of.
A very satisfying listen. A bit different than before, but definitely like we said classic Birds Of Avalon no matter what. Experimenting, perhaps, but they know what they're doing.
MPEG Stream: "Side Two"
MPEG Stream: "Your Downtime Is Up"
MPEG Stream: "Student Teaching"

BLACK JOKER Watch Out (Olde English Spelling Bees) lp 21.00
It's been a while since we've heard from the OTHER half of defunct noise duo the Skaters, after a slew of releases from James Ferraro comes this latest blast of rhythmic cosmic bliss from Ferraro's former partner, Spencer Clark in his latest guise as the Black Joker. Originally released as a super limited (80 copies!) cassette in Europe, this hazy gem is now available on vinyl, and still super limited...
Whereas Ferraro channels his eighties afterschool special cop show theme synthscapes through a bank of effects and a warm whirl of hiss and fuzz, Clark is more about the rhythm, two sidelong jams, each wrapped around a motorik groove, sounding like it was cobbled together from a junkyard gamelan, an amplified thumb piano (a la Konono No.1) and some bongos, locked into an endless loop, the rhythm is sent loping into swirling clouds of wheezing tones and tangled melodies, a soundscape of constantly shifting, spinning, twisting, contorting and expanding sounds, effects galore, sputtering synths, crumbling layers, all wreathed in soft noise, a blown out space psych ur-drone krautrock from another dimension. Hazy, glistening, sun baked and lysergic, mesmerizing and hypnotic, and so so good.

BORIS Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol. 1 (Southern Lord) 7" 5.98
Like those little tremors that come right before the big quake, after a seriously long period of near silence, new music has begun to seep out of the Boris camp recently, first, the super strange split we reviewed on the last list, that found Boris getting all shoegazey and Ariel Pink-y and teaming up with a weird Shadowfaxy techno group, now this record, the first in a series of three 7"s, which continues to demonstrate Boris' willingness to push sonic boundaries.
This first seven inch starts off with a bang, the band rocking up a storm Pink style, big and bombastic and blown out, psychedelic and in-the-red, massive guitar crunch and pretty ethereal vocals, wild drumming, a pretty serious slab of... well, heavy rock! Not a huge departure really, but it sounds great, and should have most Boris fanatics going nuts.
The flipside is another rocker, but this one is a bit more fuzzy and poppy, still plenty distorted and heavy, but super hooky, and crazy catchy, a poppier Boris is still probably heavier than most heavy bands on their best day, and like the A side, these new recordings sound fantastic, super hot and way suitable for headphone hearing abuse.
Cool super thick covers too, designed by Stephen O'Malley, and featuring a weird glamor shot of one of the band members, Takeshi we think, which we can only assume means each member will get their own glamorous cover shot. Weird, but hey, it's Boris. Odds are you know you already need this, and are already eagerly awaiting volume two, which drops next month. Can't wait...

BRAINBOMBS s/t (The Singles Collection II) (Polly Maggoo) cd 15.98
FINALLY! BACK IN STOCK. The killer second singles collection from our favorite sick sonic bastards...
Oh lord, are we ever in filthy, crusty, demented, depraved, misanthropic, sludge rock heaven! That's right, FINALLY, it's the second collection of 7"s from Sweden's mightiest musical export (well, if you ask us, at least!) THE BRAINBOMBS! Everything we love about these musical miscreants is in full affect, the pummeling trash can percussion, the downtuned fuzz drenched ultra distorted guitars, the bizarre, sort of fey, sort of scary vocals, regaling tales of murder and mayhem, rape and torture, death and destruction, the warbly dented drunken trumpet, all wrapped up into a stumbling, hypnotic, and seriously fucking disturbed package. 
It's like they took their favorite Stooges riff, stole a bunch of instruments from the music store, and set up in the basement of the local highschool, where in between kidnapping and torturing students, they would record these slabs of abject musical horror, each one a single riff, pounded and pummeled into submission, sometimes flecked with bits of slide guitar, or that damaged trumpet, but always dripping and oozing with all manner of pestilence and putrefaction. And we can't get enough. 
Folks who love Bone Awl and Akitsa and other primitive droning black metal outfits, will probably hear lots of that foul blackness all tangled up in the Brainbombs primitive garage stomp, and folks who have bee digging stuff like the Violent Students and Clockcleaner and Shit And Shine and Rusted Shut and other similar noisy bastards absolutely need this!!
Includes the single that came out on Andee's tUMULt label, the most recent Stinking Memory 7" on Anthem, as well as the Wabana Gun Court single, the Ken Rock single as well as the Big Brothel single. Easily some of our favorite BB tracks ever, "Stigma Of The Ripper", "The Grinder", "I Need Speed"... fuck! If only more bands could do so much with so little. Stripped down and blown out, catchy as all get out but still grimy and brutal and very very very fucked up.  
Also included are some rare live tracks, all time BB classics, "Urge To Kill" among them, recorded live in Norway way back in 1993, the sound appropriately distorted and low fidelity, and don't miss the hidden last track, a minute long, post performance Brainbombs sign off, with some demented crowd action, chanting for more...
Essential!
MPEG Stream: "Stigma Of The Ripper"
MPEG Stream: "The Grinder"
MPEG Stream: "Stinking Memory"

BRONZE s/t (Hobo Jungle) 10" 14.98
Can't think of a Bay Area band at the moment that's been so consistently capable of blowing us away live more than Bronze. Something so damn refreshing and exhilarating about their approach to rhythmic psychedelic post-punk, a sound overflowing with dizzying synths and syncopated rhythms that totally transport us to another dimension. So psyched we were finally able to get our hands on this, their debut recording. A beautifully packaged clear 10" with a bronze tinted embossed cover (there is a crazy limited edition version with an actual bronze cover! that we might get in at some point, but don't hold your breath!) but the classy packaging is just icing on the cake as it's the two wonderful songs in these grooves that dazzle and delight.
The sounds of underground luminaries like Silver Apples, Public Image Ltd., Suicide, and Throbbing Gristle are the launching point for Bronze's mind melting excursions into swirling and sizzling sonic mystery and melody, but they really do take those influences and craft a sound all their own. Not to be missed live, Bronze's stage presence and delivery are so damn action packed and captivating, and this debut recording offers a really nice glimpse of that fiery disposition. This is a band that truly deserves to get some world wide attention. So damn good!

CARGILL, HENSON On The Road (The Omni Recording Corporation) cd 16.98
Another primo slice of forgotten Nashville from the always kick ass Omni Recording Corporation. Over the last few months, Omni has brought us discs from Johnny Paycheck, Tommy Cash, Dee Mulling, Lorne Greene, Gil Trythall, as well as the amazing Plantation Gold compilation we made Record Of The Week back on list 314.
Apparently Cargill was quite a hitmaker back in the day, his "Skip A Rope", a rumination on racism, was somewhat controversial, but also netted him some serious chart action on both the country and pop charts. But before that, he had apparently struggled to get heard, as a page in the cd booklet proclaims: "Rejected by nearly every label in Nashville"! That all changed after the hit, but this collection focuses on the recordings pre breakthrough, and it's difficult to understand why some of these weren't hits as well.
Lots of Omni stuff is far out and kitschy, but this is just some serious genuine sixties country pop, we've seen it referred to elsewhere as 'countrypolitan', but whatever you call it, this is some gorgeous stuff, simple and heartfelt, lush instrumentation, Cargill's voice is deep and dramatic, his songs touch on some sensitive topics even in these early days, the whole On The Road record a study of the great Depression, tales of poverty, war, loss, death and loneliness. The early tracks are definitely the best, tacked on to the end are some later tracks, recorded in the seventies, and they tend toward the overly dramatic, lush, string laden, shades of Neil Diamond and Tom Jones, some killer moments, but stick to the first 22 tracks, all appearing on cd for the first time, and a handful, stone cold classics.
As always, a massive booklet, tone of rare photos, and lengthy and super informative liner notes.
MPEG Stream: "Pencil Marks On The Wall"
MPEG Stream: "Afraid To Rock The Boat"
MPEG Stream: "Running From The Rain"
MPEG Stream: "1932"

CLEAN, THE Mister Pop (Merge) cd 14.98
It would take way more space than we have for this review to list off all the great bands who have been influenced by The Clean over the years. For the sake of brevity we'll just mention off a handful: Yo La Tengo, The Chills, Jay Reatard, R.E.M, Eat Skull, Times New Viking, Woods, Pavement, Sebadoh, the list goes on and on! Since the early '80s this New Zealand band has been crafting totally infectious left of center pop that really helped usher in the sound of "college radio" as we know it.
It's been quite a long while since we last heard from The Clean, yet with Mister Pop there is something so natural and free flowing that it feels like they were never gone. Focusing more on their hazy psychedelic dream pop side, the songs on Mister Pop unfold so easily, yet with a sonic depth that makes you keep going back to them over and over. While it would be so easy for The Clean to just rest on their laurels and dial in a standard reunion album, they instead remind us of why they are the legends they are, and what great songsmiths they were and still are, with an unparalleled ability to not only create hooks and melody but mood and feeling.
MPEG Stream: "Are You Really On Drugs"
MPEG Stream: "Loog"
MPEG Stream: "Back In The Day"

CLOAKED LIGHT Creek (Monorail Trespassing) cassette 6.98
Crank this album all the way up at the beginning and slowly begin to back down the volume on this, lest you want to set off car alarms outside your building or trigger seismic sensors or just have this recording be way too fucking loud. On the first side of Creek, an ominous hum rises out of icy silence, following the path set forth on Kevin Drumm's unsettled ambient opus Imperial Distortion or even some of the Eliane Radigue constructs. These are sounds that could hail from field recordings of massive tanker ship engines or a bank of oscillators tuned to be as low as possible or the thrum of feedback from a bass guitar slumped over an amplifier. Very little happens in this arcing, darkly meditative offering; but that's exactly the point. The second side picks up exactly where the first left off, with a similarly oppressive tone exhibiting some minute ripples and variations on the theme. No idea who or what Cloaked Light happens to be, but he/she/they managed a cassette on Monorail Trespassing. And that always causes us to perk our ears up a bit. Limited to 125 copies.

DEVOID OF ALL MERCY Cleansac Burial / Shackled To A Corpse (Root Don Lonie For Cash) 7" lathe cut 13.98
A long time ago, we became pretty obsessed with a record called Your Children Left With The Stranger, from weirdo outsider metal murk merchants Devoid Of All Mercy, one of a handful of releases on the now defunct Battlecruiser label, a sort-of-metal sublabel of the also now defunct legendary New Zealand boutique label Celebrate Psi Phenomenon. The weird thing was, the sound of Devoid Of All Mercy was barely metal at all, instead, it was some strange Bohren / Low style slowcore, a super minimal, skeletal post rock, that slithered and oozed and creeped, gorgeously and oh so lugubriously.
We hadn't heard a peep since, but then out of the blue, a clutch of these showed up, an ultra limited (and we mean ULTRA, as in, limited to THIRTY COPIES, of which we got half), hand cut lathe all the way from New Zealand, in a cool, transparent cover, the whole thing hazy and see through.
The record finds DOAM refining their sound even further, at low volume, we weren't sure at first if there was any sound at all, but in headphones, the record unfolded, a whispery, hushed, barely there creep, the guitars spidery and ethereal, the melodies detuned and warbly, the vocals, a demonic gurgle, but it too is almost a whisper, in the background, are footsteps and voices, and all manner of room sound, as if Mr. Devoid was just hunched over in the corner, pouring this blackened mystery onto tape, while the world just went on around him, oblivious to the delicate and haunting grimness taking place right under their noses.
Imagine a WAY less lush, WAY more abstract, WAY more metal (in spirit if not actual sound) Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore, a dark shuffling abstract anti-rock, more ambient than rock, but plenty harrowing and haunting.
Again, LIMITED TO 30 COPIES, we have LESS THAN 15!!!

DODOS Time To Die (French Kiss) cd 12.98
Long gone are the days when Meric Long's sweet vocals and talented songwriting skills were just our little secret. After carrying his debut self released cd-r from a few years back, Meric has merged his forces into creating one of the most refreshing and rewarding bands in the modern indie-pop landscape. The Dodos have proven to be a force to be reckoned with, their record from last year, Visiter, launched them into the stratosphere and rewarded them with a whole new and very large fan base. Which was well deserved considering that Visiter was most definitely the sound of a band finding their sound, everything falling into place perfectly, passion, hooks and creative instrumentation. Time To Die finds the band sounding even more assured with a refined sound that is pretty darn irresistible. Like a more effervescent Built To Spill, The Dodos create songs that have maximum mix-tape potency, every song here a gem, really not a wasted moment or a throwaway track anywhere to be found. While not many of today's indie rock bands really do it for us, The Dodos are a shining exception!
MPEG Stream: "Two Medicines"
MPEG Stream: "Fables"
MPEG Stream: "Time To Die"

DODOS Time To Die (French Kiss) lp 16.98
Long gone are the days when Meric Long's sweet vocals and talented songwriting skills were just our little secret. After carrying his debut self released cd-r from a few years back, Meric has merged his forces into creating one of the most refreshing and rewarding bands in the modern indie-pop landscape. The Dodos have proven to be a force to be reckoned with, their record from last year, Visiter, launched them into the stratosphere and rewarded them with a whole new and very large fan base. Which was well deserved considering that Visiter was most definitely the sound of a band finding their sound, everything falling into place perfectly, passion, hooks and creative instrumentation. Time To Die finds the band sounding even more assured with a refined sound that is pretty darn irresistible. Like a more effervescent Built To Spill, The Dodos create songs that have maximum mix-tape potency, every song here a gem, really not a wasted moment or a throwaway track anywhere to be found. While not many of today's indie rock bands really do it for us, The Dodos are a shining exception!
MPEG Stream: "Two Medicines"
MPEG Stream: "Fables"
MPEG Stream: "Time To Die"

DUNCAN, JOHN & CARL MICHAEL VON HAUSSWOLFF Our Telluric Conversation (23five) cd 21.00
BACK IN STOCK!!!
Before we get into the amazing sounds that John Duncan and C.M. von Hausswolff have created for this album (which we have to say is pretty fucking incredible), we have to drool over the artwork. Sure, it's always nice to get one of those handmade packages, loving assembled by the musician from scraps of wallpaper or gesso smeared across heavy card stock; where the investment is paid through blood and sweat. But at the same time, it can sometimes be pretty fascinating to go all the way to the other end of the spectrum, to see what happens when money is no object, and thus nearly any vision can be realized. So, there's Our Telluric Conversation, which employs a seriously and gloriously reckless design sensibility. Unfortunately, jpeg reproductions of this cd's cover will never translate how amazingly cool the packaging is. The white O-card / slipcover which wraps around the cd and the accompanying 40-page booklet is printed on a rubberized paper dotted with Braille, making it strangely tactile, and thus not a little unsettling just to touch the album! Which is appropriate considering the musical content...
John Duncan and Carl Michael von Hausswolff have made an dark and unsettling album in Our Telluric Conversation, the second collaboration between these two AQ-favorite sound artists, opening with ominous bleeping, sort of sounding like sonar or a life support system barely keeping someone alive. An electronic turbulence gradually swarms around these mechanized pulses and explodes in a torrent of furious magneto noise, sounding very similar to the recent Duncan collaboration with Mika Vainio and Ilpo Vaisainen. Abruptly, the track comes to a halt as the whispering voice of Hausswolff begins reciting a presumably fictional tale in which the protagonist has been infected with maggots and tries to rid his body of the parasites by communing with lizards and snakes through a combination of occult rituals. Hausswolff's whisper is all that one hears, with his lips closely pressed up to the microphone making saliva, lips smacking, and teeth gnashing all audible. Upon the conclusion of Hausswolff's spoken excerpt, the two proceed with a long-form construction for brilliantly shimmered drones and flickering sinewaves that's as good as anything by Phill Niblock, Mirror, or The Hafler Trio. Our Telluric Conversation concludes with another extended composition that bridges the signature aesthetics of the two artists, with a deadened monotone of processed 60-cycle hums (that's Hausswolff) and a seductive processing of shortwave static (that's Duncan). By themselves, Duncan and Hausswolff have crafted amazing records; but together, these two have really tapped into something eerie, psychologically unstable, and sublimely beautiful. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Like A Lizard"
MPEG Stream: "Entry (Enhanced)"
MPEG Stream: "Yet Another (Very) Abridged And Linear Interpretation"

EMACIATOR Defeat (Monorail Trespassing) cassette 6.98
Defeat is set of recordings that date back to 2007, around the same time as the seminal Emaciator record Reflection which was transitioning from the blistered noise aggression of his earliest days to the more glacial drifts of his recent output. Jon Borges (the man behind Emaciator, Pedestrian Deposit, and the Monorail Trespassing empire) alluded to this as something like trance-goth noise; and that's pretty accurate. An overblown slab of MB / Broken Flag-ish hiss and distortion acts as the groundwork to the first side of this cassette, with a minor-key two-note melody from an equally overblown synth lilts beneath the surface of noise as if it were the sad remains of a small plant getting fried by the urban desert sun. The flip side retains the same hostile noise underbelly with an insistent squarewave arpeggiation that mechanically scrapes into the surface of that noise. Borges intertwines this throbbing noise with another round of downer melodies - rudimentary yes, but effectively cold bedroom noise hypnosis for sure. Defeat is a 35 minute program altogether and stands as another impressive outing for Emaciator. Oh yeah, it's limited to 125 copies.

EMERALDS s/t (Wagon / Gneiss Things) lp 21.00
Drifting backwards in time from the post-noise excursions into placid meditations for guitar and synth, Emeralds have become one of the favorites here at Aquarius; and for very good reason, everything they touch seems to turn to gold. Solar Bridge was a such a tease of an introduction for us, and probably was the same for many out there entering into the swirling concoctions of electronic drone; but it has been the two albums What Happened and Allegory of Allergies that really laid the foundation for their impending greatness. Not only do they have a strong grasp on the minimalist theatrics of the drone, but also Emeralds enjoys a selective memory of what made progressive electronics and progressive rock in the late '70s and early '80s great. The pastoral colorfields of Cluster, the alienated ethos of Heldon, and the insistent arpeggiations of Achim Reichel and Ash Ra Tempel all figure heavily into Emeralds sound.
This vinyl-only, eponymous record seems to percolate and bubble with electronics, at times veering into the same Omni Magazine territory that Oneothrix Point Never has been mustering for the past year. It may not be a surprise that OPN and Emerald's guitarist Mark McGuire have collaborated in a project called Skyramps, which is as good as you might imagine. The three tracks on the first side wrangle squiggling rhythms, bleepity squelches, and bending sustained tones generated by Emeralds' two synth jockeys John Elliott and Steve Hauschildt, while McGuire dishes out his best Manuel Gottsching impression. The second side is one of the epochal, long form constructs that slows everything on the first side down to an elegant pace with watery field recordings laced throughout. Pretty fucking awesome. And no doubt somewhat limited...

EXPO 70 Corridors To Infinity (Sonic Meditations) cassette 5.98
More druggy space-y kraut drone bliss from Justin Wright and his Expo 70, here expanded to a duo for one track, and a trio for the other, a dizzying drifty blend of minimal guitar rumble and Moog and organ whir, peppered with glistening shards of sonic starlight, buried melodies, blurred into a gorgeous ever expanding expanse of hushed new age drift, not nearly as heavy as some past outings, although the first track, a whopping 30 minute epic, does build to a soft blackened roar, although that roar is muted and dulled into something closer to rib cage rattling thrum. Regardless, it's transcendent and sublime, subtly heavy, and utterly cosmic.
The second track is another nearly half hour exploration of inner sonic space, heavy on the organs this time, thick layered buzz and rumble and whir, flecked with strange little stuttery melodies, a sheet of softly swirling effects draped over slow motion organ melodies, slowly shimmering textures, before the track begins to grow ominous, the sound of a darkening sun, bits of high end glimmer throughout, while the core blackens and expands, the sound shifting into pulses, a strangely surreal sci-fi throb, haunting and harrowing, a caustic cloud that slowly dissipates, leaving vapor trails of soft streaked FX flecked buzz and a stretch of skeletal rhythm, slowly fading out into a horzion of minimal muted high end shimmer.
THE CD-R IS LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! THE TAPE IS PROBABLY MORE LIMITED THAN THAT! Housed in cool red sleeves printed in gold metallic ink!
MPEG Stream: "Meetings Of The Lunar Eclipse"
MPEG Stream: "Black Pyramids Under The Martian Sun"

EXPO 70 Corridors To Infinity (Sonic Meditations) cd-r 5.98
More druggy space-y kraut drone bliss from Justin Wright and his Expo 70, here expanded to a duo for one track, and a trio for the other, a dizzying drifty blend of minimal guitar rumble and Moog and organ whir, peppered with glistening shards of sonic starlight, buried melodies, blurred into a gorgeous ever expanding expanse of hushed new age drift, not nearly as heavy as some past outings, although the first track, a whopping 30 minute epic, does build to a soft blackened roar, although that roar is muted and dulled into something closer to rib cage rattling thrum. Regardless, it's transcendent and sublime, subtly heavy, and utterly cosmic.
The second track is another nearly half hour exploration of inner sonic space, heavy on the organs this time, thick layered buzz and rumble and whir, flecked with strange little stuttery melodies, a sheet of softly swirling effects draped over slow motion organ melodies, slowly shimmering textures, before the track begins to grow ominous, the sound of a darkening sun, bits of high end glimmer throughout, while the core blackens and expands, the sound shifting into pulses, a strangely surreal sci-fi throb, haunting and harrowing, a caustic cloud that slowly dissipates, leaving vapor trails of soft streaked FX flecked buzz and a stretch of skeletal rhythm, slowly fading out into a horzion of minimal muted high end shimmer.
THE CD-R IS LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! THE TAPE IS PROBABLY MORE LIMITED THAN THAT! Housed in cool red sleeves printed in gold metallic ink!
MPEG Stream: "Meetings Of The Lunar Eclipse"
MPEG Stream: "Black Pyramids Under The Martian Sun"

FLOWER MAN Exotic Cameo (Upstairs) cd-r 8.98
Flower Man is the work of Chris Bush from the Kentucky based electron revivalist ensemble Caboladies. While we've failed to hear any of his work from that outfit, the constant comparisons to Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never was more than enough to pique our interest. As Flower Man, Bush doesn't stray too far from what we would assume Caboladies to sound like, squiggling and squirming around his analogue synths and some pretty murky tape production that triangulates his sound somewhere between Grouper, a really druggy Bruce Haack, and a happy-go-lucky Omit. With its clunky Ikue Mori-styled drum-kit leaden dance around the rhythm, the opening track laces itself around two harmonized '80s / sci-fi melodies that fragment into squelchy percolations and lazer beam vibrations. The next batch of tracks could easily originate in any number of BBC Radiophonic projects with playful yet somewhat detached bleepity-blooping interwoven with some of those spooky synth sounds that Richard D. James mustered on his really early Aphex Twin tracks from Selected Ambient Works Vol. 1. Bush slows everything down to a turgid crawl of introspection through a lonesome, moping piece of bedroom electronics on the suitably titled track "Swirling" coming across as Delia Derbyshire on Quaaludes; and then makes a quick turnabout with some spasmodic electroid flashes which dissipate into nothingness as if sucked in various directions into outer space.
It makes perfect sense that Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never) would release this on his newly launched CD-R imprint Upstairs. Limited to 75 copies, and already sold out at the label!
MPEG Stream: "Behind The Habit Wheel"
MPEG Stream: "Swirling"
MPEG Stream: "Perhaps We're Floating On"

FRESH & ONLYS, THE Grey-Eyed Girls (Woodsist) cd 13.98
By the time we had finally heard the Fresh & Onlys, there was already some sort of mania for them going on, that we found ourselves in the midst of, all their records were sold out, we couldn't get more, out of print 7"s were popping up on eBay, the sort of thing that we might expect to happen with super popular ultra hip bands, but this local band who only had a couple 7"s?? We were skeptical, until we heard 'em, then it all made sense. These guys rule. And rock. They have sort of fallen in with the new breed of noise pop lo-fi tweakers, but the Fresh & Onlys are way more about classic pop songs, their sound channeling vintage sixties pop, the early eighties LA sound, classic power pop, garage rock. The production is most definitely not lo-fi, the guitars are thick and loud and ring out, the bass throbs, the drums are simple and understated, the vocals are down in the mix, but not buried, there are plenty of harmonies, falsettos, cool little spidery guitar leads, the overall sound is just a tiny bit fuzzed out. We never noticed it before, but the band that we're most reminded of is the Leaving Trains, easily one of our favorite bands ever, criminally under appreciated for sure (Kill Tunes and Fuck are two all time stone cold classics). Tim Cohen's vocals are a dead ringer for the Leaving Trains' Falling James, and the sound too has that sort of punk rock morphed into fuzz pop sound. They also share lots of sonic elements with local pals Thee Oh Sees, that sort of washed out wall of sound classic Spector sound, plenty of fuzzy organs, strummed steel string guitars, reverby girl group back up vox, as well as some seriously garage guitar crunch all over the place. We dig BIGTIME!
MPEG Stream: "Black Coffin"
MPEG Stream: "Grey-Eyed Girl"
MPEG Stream: "No Second Guessing"
MPEG Stream: "What's His Shadow Still Doing Here?"

FRESH & ONLYS, THE Grey-Eyed Girls (Woodsist) lp 14.98
By the time we had finally heard the Fresh & Onlys, there was already some sort of mania for them going on, that we found ourselves in the midst of, all their records were sold out, we couldn't get more, out of print 7"s were popping up on eBay, the sort of thing that we might expect to happen with super popular ultra hip bands, but this local band who only had a couple 7"s?? We were skeptical, until we heard 'em, then it all made sense. These guys rule. And rock. They have sort of fallen in with the new breed of noise pop lo-fi tweakers, but the Fresh & Onlys are way more about classic pop songs, their sound channeling vintage sixties pop, the early eighties LA sound, classic power pop, garage rock. The production is most definitely not lo-fi, the guitars are thick and loud and ring out, the bass throbs, the drums are simple and understated, the vocals are down in the mix, but not buried, there are plenty of harmonies, falsettos, cool little spidery guitar leads, the overall sound is just a tiny bit fuzzed out. We never noticed it before, but the band that we're most reminded of is the Leaving Trains, easily one of our favorite bands ever, criminally under appreciated for sure (Kill Tunes and Fuck are two all time stone cold classics). Tim Cohen's vocals are a dead ringer for the Leaving Trains' Falling James, and the sound too has that sort of punk rock morphed into fuzz pop sound. They also share lots of sonic elements with local pals Thee Oh Sees, that sort of washed out wall of sound classic Spector sound, plenty of fuzzy organs, strummed steel string guitars, reverby girl group back up vox, as well as some seriously garage guitar crunch all over the place. We dig BIGTIME!
MPEG Stream: "Black Coffin"
MPEG Stream: "Grey-Eyed Girl"
MPEG Stream: "No Second Guessing"
MPEG Stream: "What's His Shadow Still Doing Here?"

GIRLS Album (True Panther / Matador) cd 13.98
It's been a while since a San Francisco pop band has gotten the kind of national attention that Girls are receiving although in the case of Girls, we have to say it's totally well deserved! The timing couldn't be more perfect for some totally unabashed romantic, wide eyed soaring pop. Recently most of the pop we've been digging on is so much about its lo-fi aesthetic and somewhat detached disposition, so it's super refreshing to hear a band who really understand the power of a song, and who also display a really nice sonic range that turns and flows so perfectly throughout their record. Girls kind of make you want to be a twenty something dreamer for the rest of your life. They conjure images of running through the streets at night with a bottle of wine and no cares, a ratty old shirt, a tattered heart but an unrelenting smile plastered on your face. No doubt many of the songs here will conjure images of those early Elvis Costello records that are so undeniable in their universal appeal.
While so many records have been made in tribute, love, admiration and under the influence of New York City, it's so nice for those of us here in San Francisco to get a record that really does feel like an absolute product of the city we live in. Laying in the grass in Dolores Park, taking that special someone to the top of Bernal Heights, getting lost in the fog of the Outer Sunset... We've listened to this record so much as we ride the bus and walk the streets and hills of SF and we just can't think of a better soundtrack to remind us of how magical this city really is. But not to fear, no matter where you live, this is an album that gives so much as it taps into universal feelings of yearning and bittersweet triumph with such ease and undying conviction. Get with Girls!
MPEG Stream: "Lust For Life"
MPEG Stream: "Hellhole Ratrace"
MPEG Stream: "Summertime"

GIRLS Album (True Panther / Matador) lp 13.98
It's been a while since a San Francisco pop band has gotten the kind of national attention that Girls are receiving although in the case of Girls, we have to say it's totally well deserved! The timing couldn't be more perfect for some totally unabashed romantic, wide eyed soaring pop. Recently most of the pop we've been digging on is so much about its lo-fi aesthetic and somewhat detached disposition, so it's super refreshing to hear a band who really understand the power of a song, and who also display a really nice sonic range that turns and flows so perfectly throughout their record. Girls kind of make you want to be a twenty something dreamer for the rest of your life. They conjure images of running through the streets at night with a bottle of wine and no cares, a ratty old shirt, a tattered heart but an unrelenting smile plastered on your face. No doubt many of the songs here will conjure images of those early Elvis Costello records that are so undeniable in their universal appeal.
While so many records have been made in tribute, love, admiration and under the influence of New York City, it's so nice for those of us here in San Francisco to get a record that really does feel like an absolute product of the city we live in. Laying in the grass in Dolores Park, taking that special someone to the top of Bernal Heights, getting lost in the fog of the Outer Sunset... We've listened to this record so much as we ride the bus and walk the streets and hills of SF and we just can't think of a better soundtrack to remind us of how magical this city really is. But not to fear, no matter where you live, this is an album that gives so much as it taps into universal feelings of yearning and bittersweet triumph with such ease and undying conviction. Get with Girls!
MPEG Stream: "Lust For Life"
MPEG Stream: "Hellhole Ratrace"
MPEG Stream: "Summertime"

GRASS WIDOW s/t (Captured Tracks) (Captured Tracks) 12" 12.98
That old adage about what happens when you assume, couldn't be more true than with how we had approached Grass Widow. We had seen their flyers and even some records of theirs over the last couple years, but we just kind of assumed they were another Nevada City inspired folk outfit and being a bit burnt on that scene we just didn't pay much attention. Well now we are the asses of that adage because that's not what Grass Widow is about at all! In fact Grass Widow create songs in a terrain that we can never seem to grow tired of. Coming out of the tradition of Young Marble Giants, Vaselines, Shop Assistants, Beat Happening, The Swirlies, etc. Their songs have a bare bones approach yet hit with such deep impact. They fit very nicely next to modern day kindred spirits like Brilliant Colors, Vivian Girls, The Splinters, etc. Yet there is something a bit more rustic, poetic and nuanced in their delivery. Not only is this 12" on constant rotation for us right now it also helped re-teach us that valuable lesson of never judging a band before you've actually heard them! So glad our preconceived ideas about this band were completely wrong as Grass Widow has fast becoming one of our favorite newer bands around, so good!

GREEN BLOSSOMS Whiskey Leaves (Digitalis) cd 12.98
As summer comes to an end, we're left with those lingering nights that offer up so much room for wandering reflection, and early mornings where all you want to do is gaze out the window and watch birds and butterflies fly free in the sky. This new outing from Green Blossoms is proving to be the absolute perfect soundtrack for those days of hazy daydreams, letting your memory and imagination flow so easily. The Green Blossoms' sound and aesthetic explores similar pastoral bliss as equally delicate and rewarding music makers like Tenniscoats, Eddie Marcon, Miko, Ethan Rose, Nagisa Ni Te, crafting a sound that has us imagining Mum, if they ditched the electronics and found a path to organic pastoral bliss.
Many wonderful sparse yet finely textured instrumentals here as well as a few stunningly beautiful tracks with Aiko Koga's vocals, that even those of us who don't understand Japanese can still totally understand, emotional and passionate, evoking the simple themes and understanding of nature and the life around us. The music of Green Blossoms is such a great reminder that sometimes the most powerful moments are conjured by the most delicate and quiet of creators. Beyond lovely! And rife with a richness that keeps us turning to this album for early afternoon naps in the park, the kind we wish we could have every single day of forever...
MPEG Stream: "White Noon"
MPEG Stream: "Red Cup"
MPEG Stream: "Slight Sun"

GRIEF NO ABSOLUTION Eurostopodus Argus / Crypsis (Flingco) 10" + 7" 26.00
Took some close listening, with some serious headphones, to actually discern the black metal happening on this double vinyl epic from the mysterious Grief No Absolution, who traffic in their own brand of 'bleak metal', which to these ears, at least at first sounded less like metal and more like noise, but cool noise for sure, but after a few listens, the blackened underbelly began to reveal itself, this one is definitely gonna hit the spot for folks into black metal noise hybridists like WOLD or Nekrasov, people who like their blast and buzz obscured by hiss and crunch and rumble and skree.
The 7" is the noisier component of this twofer. Psychedelic squall, a buzzing organic fog of sheer white noise shot through with shards of melody, and jagged sheets of processed feedback, layers of grinding fuzz collapsing in a swirling black hole of sound, but every once in a while, a streak of Merzbowian crunch will become a howling vokill, or a smear of caustic hiss will morph into an icy bit of riffage, but never for long, always quickly swallowed up by the roiling blacknoise nipping at its heels.
The 10" component is the darker dronier of the two, and is all about the slooow and looow, deep rumbling tones, SUNNO)))-y swells of slow motion riffage, so slow it's rendered ambient, a gorgeous drifting doomdrone, soft edged buzz, swirling and blurring into lush expanses of blackened shimmer. Abstract, skeletal, deep and minimal, ambient and atmospheric, but still plenty grim and blackened.
From the Flingco label who last list brought us The Black Box. Cool packaging as always, black on black printed sleeve, with a printed Japanese style obi, inside, a white on white printed insert, and it comes with a download card as well!

HEALTH Get Color (Lovepump United) cd 14.98
Health just keep getting weirder and weirder, and thus better and better. This is record number three, and all the elements that made us fall in love with these guys are still present, feral jittery rhythms, sharp angular guitars, wild chaotic drumming, spaced out effects, a sort of fractured no wave new wave dancefloor destroying post punk, and here, on Get Color, they've reigned in their propensity for freakouts, and expanded their sound dramatically, whereas before, they were more about energy and sound and mood and texture, about beats and cool effects, and while there were pop songs buried in there, or at least fragments of pop songs, they were often pretty hard to separate from the chaos around them.
Get Color is indeed still plenty chaotic and frantic, but there definitely seems to be more of a focus on songs. Opener "In Health" is a sub two minute introductory blast, but even then the song opens up revealing some dreamy vocals and some subtle hooks. But "Die Slow" is a killer rhythmic psych pop dance jam, equal parts the Boredoms, Fischerspooner and Gang Gang Dance, super melodic, and in some alternate universe this would be as big as LCD Soundsystem. "Nice Girls", is all drum driven, with more ethereal vocals, burst of jagged crunch and squalls of effected percussion, the whole thing woozy and dreamy and super hypnotic. Some of the tracks get all new wave, with low slung Joy Division basslines jacked up and distorted, with angular post punk guitars, but still all wrapped around those frenetic beats, while others are just totally far out, like record closer "In Violet" a strange soundscape of looped, chopped, clipped synth tones, swirling shimmering high end streaks, more hushed wispy vocals, the rhythm, and the whole song really constructed from digital skips and strange glitches. So awesome, dance music for only those with a super abstract idea of what dance music is, for the rest of us, total head spinning headphone bliss!
The cd (not the vinyl, sorry) might just include one of 66 handmade tickets, each redeemable for some sort of prize, the grand prize is a three night trip to LA to hang with Health, but other prizes include care packages, posters, baby photos, crank calls, knitted scarfs, astrological readings, test pressings and who knows what else. A regular post punk new wave Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Good luck!
MPEG Stream: "In Heat"
MPEG Stream: "Die Slow"
MPEG Stream: "Nice Girls"

HEALTH Get Color (Lovepump United) lp 15.98
Health just keep getting weirder and weirder, and thus better and better. This is record number three, and all the elements that made us fall in love with these guys are still present, feral jittery rhythms, sharp angular guitars, wild chaotic drumming, spaced out effects, a sort of fractured no wave new wave dancefloor destroying post punk, and here, on Get Color, they've reigned in their propensity for freakouts, and expanded their sound dramatically, whereas before, they were more about energy and sound and mood and texture, about beats and cool effects, and while there were pop songs buried in there, or at least fragments of pop songs, they were often pretty hard to separate from the chaos around them.
Get Color is indeed still plenty chaotic and frantic, but there definitely seems to be more of a focus on songs. Opener "In Health" is a sub two minute introductory blast, but even then the song opens up revealing some dreamy vocals and some subtle hooks. But "Die Slow" is a killer rhythmic psych pop dance jam, equal parts the Boredoms, Fischerspooner and Gang Gang Dance, super melodic, and in some alternate universe this would be as big as LCD Soundsystem. "Nice Girls", is all drum driven, with more ethereal vocals, burst of jagged crunch and squalls of effected percussion, the whole thing woozy and dreamy and super hypnotic. Some of the tracks get all new wave, with low slung Joy Division basslines jacked up and distorted, with angular post punk guitars, but still all wrapped around those frenetic beats, while others are just totally far out, like record closer "In Violet" a strange soundscape of looped, chopped, clipped synth tones, swirling shimmering high end streaks, more hushed wispy vocals, the rhythm, and the whole song really constructed from digital skips and strange glitches. So awesome, dance music for only those with a super abstract idea of what dance music is, for the rest of us, total head spinning headphone bliss!
The cd (not the vinyl, sorry) might just include one of 66 handmade tickets, each redeemable for some sort of prize, the grand prize is a three night trip to LA to hang with Health, but other prizes include care packages, posters, baby photos, crank calls, knitted scarfs, astrological readings, test pressings and who knows what else. A regular post punk new wave Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Good luck!
MPEG Stream: "In Heat"
MPEG Stream: "Die Slow"
MPEG Stream: "Nice Girls"

JAMAL, KHAN Cool (Porter) cd 14.98
The '80s aren't the first decade most people think of when it comes to rich, deep and spiritual jazz. But Khan Jamal is one of those special artists who has kept his integrity fully intact from his beginnings in the early '60s, playing vibes for Byard Lancaster, as well as creating a free-jazz masterpiece called Drumdance To The Motherland in 1973, with his Creative Arts Ensemble, which was finally given a proper release a couple years back after being a private press only LP. Through the years, he's also played with folks like Sunny Murray and Frank Wright, his mighty vibes often defining the sound as much as that of the band leaders themselves.
This newly reissued 1989 album finds Jamal in top form, again, behind the vibes, performing with dizzying perfection in a quartet that also features cello, bass and drums. There is a sonic breadth displayed on Cool, from blistering fast flurries to the more slow and spiritual and even moments that almost sound like proto-Stereolab, as well as some amazing brooding almost Klezmer that would be right at home on Tzadik! One of those albums that jazz freeks for sure will enjoy, but even those who aren't usually down for jazz, there's much to latch onto in these sounds. So many sounds and samples that we think J Dilla would have loved to plunder and that Flying Lotus just might incorporate into future outings. These grooves have the most amazing vibes (pun most definitely intended!).
MPEG Stream: "Dansk Morn"
MPEG Stream: "Rythm Thang"
MPEG Stream: "Six Plus Seven"

LONESUMMER / MARSH Split (Starlight Temple Society) cassette 6.98
Second missive from black metal weirdo Lonesummer, whose What We Were cd-r from last list was a huge hit around here. A twisted blend of strange samples, totally blown out black metal buzz, and weird sun dappled melodic pop, all wound into a massively confusional, incredibly fucked up bit of blackened avant noise pop, or something, tough to know exactly how to describe this. We have to imagine that most black metallers would find Lonesummer just way too damaged and freaky, but for us, it's exactly the sort of weirdness we've been dying for.
The opening track sums it up pretty nicely, beginning with some sample conversations, street noise, a hushed minimal drone, which explodes into a crumbling in-the-red almost white noise blow out, the sound so saturated, it's impossible to pick out instruments, the sound just a thick cloud of swirling buzz and skree, as the track progresses, riffs seem to materialize out of the ether, but instead of taking the form of a proper BM jam, it seems more than anything to add a sense of rhythm, creating a fucked up, looped bit of buzz drenched mesmer, before, the buzz fades out, leaving some sampled African music, which eventually fades out. Phew. The next song is just s far out, beginning with some new age swoosh, some sampled wind (or is it tape hiss), a delicate chiming melody, before a tiny bit of drum skitter leads into another explosion of impossibly distorted, but weirdly pretty and shoegaze-y blacknoise. 4 tracks total from Lonesummer, and goddamn we already want more!!!
Lonesummer are paired up here with Marsh, a one man band from Minneapolis, whose take on black metal is much more primitive and raw, a bit punky, with a definite D-beat vibe, so folks into Akitsa, Malveillance, Bone Awl, this is definitely your cup of tea, but Marsh manage to infuse their own vibe, the repetitive almost looped sounding arrangements, the cool hazy washed out production, loads of effects and like Lonesummer, a weirdly off kilter pop element too. Need to hear more from these guys as well.
LIMITED TO ONLY 50 COPIES, we got about half, but they won't last long, so grab one while you can. They come housed in hand sewn, African fabric, drawstring pouches, with two photocopied inserts.

LORD OF THE GRAVE Raunacht (The Church Within Records) cd 15.98
Lordy. From the same label that brought us Lord Vicar, comes another doom metal act with Lord in the name, Lord Of The Grave! They like their Lords over there at The Church Within.
So yeah, of course this is some doomy stuff. This Swiss power trio plays raw doom metal along the lines of Sleep, Electric Wizard, and Eyehategod. Slow and low, but not quite glacially ultradoomic, though definitely on the sludgy side of Sabbath, with swinging, swaying, repetitive riffs pounding themselves pleasantly into your (possibly) stoned skull. Simple but effective! The relentless blown-out riffage sometimes segues into spacey, nod-scene atmospherics (where they really begin to sound like Om, approaching that style of psychedelic metal minimalism).
There's five tracks here, none of 'em short, most around 7-10 minutes long and the final number clocking in at 17:33 (a track long enough, and with enough tripped out guitar soloing, to draw comparisons to Earthless). Any one of 'em though seems like they could (or should, or maybe even do) go on forever, lumbering along heavily and hypnotically. Adding to the mesmeric vibe are the rhyming incantations of the singer, his voice a hoarse holler, or sometimes a spoken-sung stoned mumble, buried in the mix. Again, we're reminded of Sleep/Om.
Not much else to say, you either like this sort of stuff or you don't. And if you do, we probably don't even need to mention that the first track is entitled "Holy Vitus", do we?
MPEG Stream: "Holy Vitus"
MPEG Stream: "Lord Of The Grave"
MPEG Stream: "Bardo"

LORD VICAR Fear No Pain (The Church Within Records) 2lp 48.00
NOW ON VINYL! IN SUPER DELUXE, SUPER LIMITED EDITION PACKAGING!! It's a oversized hardback book-jacket style double LP gatefold thing with a folio of 12"x12" photographs bound into it, 24 pages of color and b&w pictures of this cult band dooming it up live, in all their hairy glory, amidst smoke and fog... Needless to say we only got a very small handful and when they're gone they're gone. Here's our review of it from when we highlighted the cd version a few months back:
Supergroup - or as Julian Cope would put it, stuporgroup - doom action here folks! Even before we heard it, we were chuffed about Lord Vicar's debut full length. We'd already had a taste of the Vicar via their 7" last year on I Hate Records, and so as soon as we heard there was an album out we HAD to have it... we made contact with the label in Germany directly, and now some weeks later here they are. Even if we hadn't heard that 7", this is a no-brainer for anyone (like us) into traditional doom metal, just based on the heavyweight pedigree of the band's members. From Sweden, singer Christian Lindersson aka Lord Chritus, former frontman for Count Raven, Terra Firma, and (on the album after Wino left the band) the legendary Saint Vitus! From Finland, guitarist Peter Inverted formerly Peter Vicar, of Reverend Bizarre (R.I.P.) as well as VDGGish progsters Orne. From England, drummer Gareth Milsted of Centurion's Ghost. Also from Finland, there's bassist Jussi "Iron Hammer" Myllykoski who is not from any band we know of, but makes up for it by having a cool nickname. And then, giving this even more cult cred, there's a guest guitar solo on one song by Don Angelo Tringali of Slough Feg and Cold Mourning from the USA.
If any of these names mean anything to you, you know you're gonna be well and truly doomed when you put this on. There's slo-mo, mouldering witchburning riffs played on loud, fuzzed out axes, hand in cloven hoof with the weepy, whiney, sometimes effected and always affecting vox of Lord Chritus, extremely Ozzy-esque yet utterly distinctive. Anything with these guys is gonna be steeped in Sabbath-iness. And as Peter Inverted's post-Reverend Bizarre project, this basically sounds a lot like his old band (and thus also like Sabbath, and Sleep, and Cathedral...) but with a few new wrinkles. The songs on Fear No Pain range from the super sludgy to a plodding swing to even more uptempo ("The Last Of The Templars" is in the rockin' mode of "Cromwell" by RB for sure). In addition there's some morosely folky parts that also remind us of Witchcraft, Lord Vicar certainly having supped from the same '70s folk-prog nectar-filled chalice as those Swedish retro doom sensations. Especially on this album's last track, the truly epic 14 and a half minute "The Funeral Pyre" which begins all acoustic-guitary before eventually unleashing monumental riffage (echoing Sabbath's "Lord Of This World" perhaps), all of which is graced by Chritus's most raw and lachrymose performance, almost a la Paternoster, ending this album with a heavy '70s prog vibe indeed...
For fans of all the bands abovementioned, no doubt, also the likes of Witchfinder General, Electric Wizard, Solstice... heck you get the idea. Highly recommended to all doomhounds.
MPEG Stream: "Pillars Under Water"
MPEG Stream: "Born Of A Jackal"
MPEG Stream: "The Funeral Pyre"

MANTLES s/t (Siltbreeze) lp 14.98
Long awaited full length debut from these local purveyors of druggy jangly psych pop after two super limited and now out of print ep jams, this new one though is by far the best sounding and most fully realized of the three. Falling somewhere beteen the current crop of lo-fi garage pop weirdos, and more classic space jammers, the Mantles create blissed out grooves, wrapped in tons of hazy reverb, the drums are a simple pound, the vocals a weary shadow, the guitars though, they drive these songs, they're thick, and crunchy, sometimes angular and jagged, sometimes shimmery and melodic, there's some warm whirring organ here and there, a classic rock vibe infuses the whole thing, the Velvets of course, the Doors (in the way the Shjips channel the Doors), as well as eighties New Zealand pop, nineties college rock slouch and jangle a la Sebadoh, catchy and groovy and psychedelic, not fucked up or far out, just propuslive and intense, and as the record progresses, the songs seem to get more and more ragged, often erupting into full on garage psych jams. These guys play all the time with bands like Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall and those sorts of cats, so odds are if you dig that stuff, you'll dig these guys too.
Comes with a printed lyric sheet and a digital download card.

MORDANT MUSIC / SHACKLETON / VINDICATRIX Picking O'er The Bones (Mordant Music) cd 16.98
Not sure of what the connection is between aQ faves Shackleton, the Skull Disco label, and Mordant music really, they seem somehow interconnected, Shackleton having been a part of Mordant Music at some point maybe, doesn't really matter, all you need to know is that this disc collects all the Shackleton related releases from this era (the Mordant era?), all WAY out of print, and all seriously kick ass. In fact we've been trying to get these for ages, the first time we heard it we freaked out, proclaiming it the electronic music record of the year, or weirdo dubstap jam of the year, or some similar rave, and thus, needless to say, this disc blows us away. It has been out for a while, but we only just now managed to get enough to list. Which also means when we run out, we very ell may not be able to get more, so consider yourself warned.
So yeah, these tracks are dark and spacey, and dense and weirdly funky and groovy, the core of most of these tracks is definitely dubstep, moreso on the Shackleton tracks proper than the others. "Stalker" is spare and skeletal, with woozy synths, plenty of skittery rhythms, and some awesome rubbery squlechy bass wobble, easily a classic dubstep jam if there ever was one. "I Want To Eat You" takes the same sound and blisses it out a bit, adding a Middle Eastern tinge, channeling Muslimgauze through effects laden abstract dub. "El Din" and "El Din 2" offer up more of the same, exotic and mysterious, moody and minimal, shifting from Eastern shuffle to dark Chain Reactiony pulse and back again.
Then there are the Mordant Music tracks, which are way more techno sounding, more beat-y with chopped up melodies and soaring synths, some with thick throbbing bass warble, one with creepy electronic buzz woven into the sklittery shuffle, and then there's the record closer, "Marston Moor", a super noisy noise drenched creepfest, complete with shriekd black metal vocals buried in the mix, swirling and chaotic, with what sound like processed horns, would kill to hear a whole record of this stuff.
Finally there's two tracks from Vindicatrix, one a tripped out druggy FX-fest, vocals doused in delay and sent spinning into the ether, super minimal beats and rumbling low end buzz, a weird sort of post industrial glitchscape, while the second is a murky chunk of minimal techno dub, with haunting processed female vocals, creepy Goblin-y synths, all draped in a blurred grime-y eighties haze.
Require listening for fans of tripped out electronica, weird abstract dub(step) and damaged glitch beat minimalism.
MPEG Stream: SHACKLETON "Stalker"
MPEG Stream: SHACKLETON "I Want To Eat You"
MPEG Stream: MORDANT MUSIC "Hummdrumm"
MPEG Stream: VINDICATRIX "Private Places (RMX)"
MPEG Stream: MORDANT MUSIC "Marston Moor"

NADJA Under The Jaguar Sun (Beta-Lactam Ring) 2cd 16.98
Brand new double disc from prolific drone doom duo Nadja, each disc a whole record unto itself one crushing and heavy, the other blissed out and shimmery, but both discs meant to be played together simultaneously, Zaireeka style, if you're so inclined (and equipped).
Both discs sound a bit clearer on their own, the doomier disc is spacious and spaced out, bass driven with simple programmed drums, hushed vocals, lots more tripped out effects than usual, a dizzying cloud of glimmers and chimes, swoops and bleeps, all wrapped around simple lumbering crush and heaving swells of lush heaviness, very Godfleshy sounding actually, pretty stripped down, long stretches of low end rumble and drum pound. One track is all ambient, washed out and hushed, some woozy slowcore drift, that gives way to a final track that is gorgeously caustic, blown and and sun baked, heavy heavy heavy, the weird thing is that without the second disc, it definitely sounds less lush, more murky, which for Nadja is not actually a bad thing. Probably most folks don't have a way of listening to both discs simultaneously, so know that the first disc is a killer blast of sludgy Nadja doomdrone that sounds great as it is.
The second disc is a much more abstract affair, obviously as it's meant to add texture and depth to the original, but it actually sounds pretty amazing on its own, all looped and hazy and gauzy, very Philip Jeck sounding in places, and in fact, this second disc has becomes a great late night drifting off record, with only one track that gets loud, and even then it's a soft cacophony of tones and blurred melodies, like a timestretched gamelan broadcast through a kaleidoscope.
So together, it's a little difficult to get the balance right, but when you do, it sounds pretty neat, the slower prettier numbers seem to work better, as the two tranquil drones have an easier time blending, the heavier jams get pretty chaotic, but listening to the final super heavy track, with both discs blasting, it is pretty transcendent, if there was some way to run both these through headphones at the same time, it might just send you spinning into some other dimension, certainly it'll probably invoke some sort of spontaneous hallucinations. Heavy, and pretty, and together, way dense and psychedelic!
And the packaging, wow! A huge hardcover book-like digipak with full color fold out panels, inside two printed inner sleeves (the only bummer being that their are no pockets, so the sleeves just sort of fall out when you open it), super striking for sure, and super limited too we're pretty sure.
MPEG Stream: "SUN1jaguar"
MPEG Stream: "SUN2windstorm"
MPEG Stream: "Ocelotonatiuh"
MPEG Stream: "Ehecatonatiuh"

NONHORSE Shadow World (Upstairs) cd-r 8.98
G. Lucas Crane is the man behind the dead-eyed tape excursions he broadcasts as Nonhorse; and he's the same G. Lucas Crane who can also be found in the equally as psychedelic, but far less grim projects Woods and Vanishing Voice. It's all about the cassette for Nonhorse, how the hiss accumulates over multiple dubbings, how crappy tape heads can fuck up the sound, how the machines start, stop, rewind, and fast-forward against the tape itself. The door creaking loop that begins Shadow World is a very low-tech translation of Philip Jeck's equally low-tech turntable rhythms; and the crawling synth rhythm takes this somewhere way more phantasmagoric than anything Jeck has produced. Floating monastic vocals spiral against the agitated delivery of shortwave radio transmissions from a Christian evangelist. These kaleidoscopic revolutions haphazardly tumble in and out of the simple overlapping structures, eventually mutating into a thumbing mess of pre-recorded tinklings from synthetic bells while clarinets tumble about some drill 'n' bass breaks appropriated from Hrvatski's missing-in-action Oiseaux 96-98 album, all of which is augmented through start-and-stop strategies on the tape decks, through a chain-linked fence of delay and reverb. As a willfully confused collage of warped hiss, toxic noise, and corroded found sound, Shadow World is a throw-back to the tape-trading heyday of cassette culture permeated by the likes of Solid Eye, Blackhumour, AMK, and Premature Ejaculation. You don't see this type of stuff kicking around much these days, that's for sure!
Released in several tiny editions through Upstairs, which has already sold out of all of their copies, meaning these few copies are all we will ever get!
MPEG Stream: "Shadow World"

NORTH SEA, THE Royal Arsenal (Black Horizons) cassette 6.98
Latest chunk of crunch from The North Sea, one of many musical projects perpetrated by Brad Rose, the man behind the mighty Digitalis label. Longtime readers of the list probably remember when The North Sea was more of a folk thing, Rose then a sort of modern day folk drone troubadour, creating lush twang flecked soundscapes, but somewhere in the recent past, The North Sea encountered a bit of a... well, sea change, and shifted direction dramatically, drifting toward a sound much more in keeping with the drone-doom-dirge tradition, where once was shimmer, now was rumble, where once was delicate, now was crushing, but, the cool thing about the new North Sea, is that the folky past has not been discarded, merely absorbed.
This latest jam is the perfect example, a massive corrosive sprawl of post industrial buzz and throb, layers of crumbling distortion and keening feedback, howling heaviness, blurred and smeared into thick tarpit swells, layered and shaded and lush, but for the most part intense and HEAVY. But throughout, Rose has laced his buzz with delicate steel string melodies, what sounds like a bouzouki, or even a sitar, is plucked gently, its notes reverbed and delayed, but left clean and clear and simple, the perfect counterpoint to the blackened squall that is constantly threatening to swallow it whole.
Probably too much for the New Weird America types, and the free folkies, but for the rest of you, into heavy guitar drone, and post industrial black ambience, this folk flecked beast will be much to your liking.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! Each in deluxe printed metallic vellum sleeves, with a single panel hand marbled piece of art, and every one with a printed marbled metallic obi INSIDE the case held together with rivets!

NORTHAM, MICHAEL Suhira (Substantia Innominata / Drone Records) 10" 13.98
These two tracks of hypnotizing dronemusik from the wandering sound artist Michael Northam originated from a night camping in the Finnish hinterlands, where he became fascinated with the sound of wind whipping through the trees. Field recordings have long been central to Northam's work dating back to his tactile compositions of corroded ambience and titanic drone arcing; and even the aspects of wind had featured heavily in work through the Aeolian harps he built in a bunker on a desolate Finnish island. Where those recordings were attempting to harness to power of wind as something of an intersection between technology and the landscape, these two beautiful recordings of brightly shimmering ambience are more of a poetic response to the dynamics of wind. So those whispings and scatterings of summertime arctic winds introduce the first side of this 10" and quickly subside amidst Northam's billowing drones from his Indonesian flute and an overblown Casio keyboard. The resulting waving tones flicker with the lingering glow of the sun arching toward the horizon at twilight, with golds, oranges, and reds radiating through each timbre. So striking are the colors that Northam gets through these tones, it can almost distract from his conceptual anchor. No matter, as he's creating one of his finest pieces in a long time. Nice!

ONO, YOKO PLASTIC ONO BAND Between My Head And The Sky (Chimera) cd 14.98
Oh Yoko! After all these years and all you've gone through, you still manage to have such dynamic energy and such a magnetic spirit. Who else at 76 years of age could make a record that pretty much blows away all the stuff made by folks in the supposed 'prime' of their lives.
With Between My Head And The Sky, Ono has done just that, this is maybe one of the most rewarding, immediate and satisfying albums in her expansive back catalog. Sounding so totally modern yet so totally Yoko at the same time. With an awesome band behind her featuring Cornelius (!) and the amazing drummer from his band Yuko Araki, as well as cellist Erik Friedlander, saxophonist Daniel Carter, Yuka Honda from Cibo Matto, Yoko's son Sean Lennon, and a few other great musical minds.
While they all help to create beautiful layers of sound and incredible grooves to each of these songs, it's Yoko's compositions and of course idiosyncratic delivery that pushes these songs into another realm. This is a record that perfectly blends Ono's more "out" and cosmic tendencies with her astute awareness of presence and nature and our surroundings, ranging from the charged and manic to the sweet and organic.
We know that folks tend to have quite strong opinions of Ono, with some of us at the store falling decidedly and staunchly on both sides of that divide, but a true testament to how great this record is, was when we were playing it in the store the other day, a customer asked what it was, when we told him he looked so surprised and told us he always assumed he didn't like her music, but that this was in fact a disc he would end up listening to over and over. For those of us here who are way way in the pro/in-love-with Yoko side of the equation, this is simply an amazing reconfirmation of why she is one of the most striking, sincere and creative forces of nature to live in our lifetime. Along with folks like Ornette Coleman and Asha Bhosle she is a constant reminder that growing old has nothing to do with losing spirit or soul, quite the opposite. So what will you be doing when you're 76??!!
MPEG Stream: "Waiting For The D Train"
MPEG Stream: "The Sun Is Down!"
MPEG Stream: "Healing"

OXBOW Fuckfest (Hydra Head) cd 13.98
We've written a lot about this band over the years (many years - they've been around for, like, 20!). Here's a quote: "Oxbow have always languished in relative obscurity here in the US when they really deserve to be ruling the whole damn world. Essential, intense, heavy, dark, weird, artful, aggressive, fucked genius with few peers."
We said that years ago about the previous reissue of Fuckfest (as an import double cd with their 2nd album King Of The Jews) and while they've gotten a bit less obscure - their unholy alliance with the Hydra Head empire has helped a lot in recent years, way better for them than their former label, SST - and Oxbow now have fans from among the legions of metalcore/postrock kids for sure, they still aren't yet the overlords of all that they should be. Maybe in the next life (now that would be a shock!). Those that have gotten into 'em though, in this life, are indeed the chosen ones.
Now Hydra Head has done all the new Oxbow fans a favor and reissued the band's magnificent 1989 debut Fuckfest on cd by itself for the first time, in a nice mini-lp-style sleeve, remastered. If you haven't heard Oxbow before, this is just the place to start, begin at the beginning. If you have heard Oxbow, but haven't heard Fuckfest, then you need to. All their albums are amazing, but this one is the one that first blew our minds way back when (well along with King Of The Jews, their other early effort that followed this in 1991, we first heard 'em both together on 2-on-1 cd Balls In the Great Meat Grinder Collection released by the long defunct Pathological label in the UK), and has the same effect today. Some insane shit here folks.
Fuckfest features all the trademark Oxbow elements... Sheer heaviness and suspenseful calm. Nearly indecipherable yet disturbingly expressive, anguished, almost hysterical vocals. Transgressive lyrics bawled by a man-baby-monster. Massive sheets of swampy slide guitar. Skittery bleeding hand solos. Led Zeppish cockrock riffage one moment, abstract angular post punk dissonance the next. Tinkling piano. Jazz infected drumming, country tinged atmosphere. What we'd now call postrock loud-soft dynamics. Music that's cathartic, cacophonous and complex. As well as impassioned and emotive. And exceedingly well crafted.
This album is maybe Oxbow at their most "metal" (and punk). After all, the original release was billed as "a six-song mega-muscled trip into total desperation". Certainly it's a tour de force of primal screaming stomping staggering, that's also surprisingly full of beaten-down beauty.
You could compare Oxbow then and now to the likes of the Jesus Lizard, the Melvins, the Bad Seeds, and there's elements of all of those here, but from the get-go Oxbow was OXBOW. Nothing else like 'em, and that's not even taking their infamous live performances into account.
To quote something else one of us (Allan, when he interviewed guitarist Niko in the first issue of his old 'zine) wrote about Oxbow long ago: "Oxbow is definitely a what-the-hell-is-this? kind of band... I can only describe their sound as kinda if you took, say, the Jesus Lizard, Neurosis, the Ruins, and Caroliner and got them all howling at the moon together". Again, that just means they're unique. And amazing. (And, to be sure, maybe not for everyone.) Fuckfest proves all that, though fans know already.
Thanks, Hydra Head. Presumably we can look forward to a similar reissue of King Of The Jews soon too? The same review above will go for it too, pretty much!
MPEG Stream: "Curse"
MPEG Stream: "Bull's Eye"
MPEG Stream: "Yoke"

PENS Hey Friend! What You Doing? (De Stijl) cd 13.98
'Tis the season for blown out and supercharged lo-fi burners and we can't say we mind one bit. Band after band, this eruption of buzzy stumbly hook filled garage-y pop is pretty impossible not to love. Pens are a great addition to the current crop of noise-poppers like Wavves, Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, etc. Luckily they defiantly have their own take on that sound, as the record opens with what sounds like thumb piano before erupting into a full on garage pop anthem. Pens are a London trio who infuse wonderfully swirling psychedelic moments into their Shaggs like crash and burn approach to way-in-the-red and dizzyingly fucked up pop. There is something so spirited and punk rock about their sound and approach, imagine your favorite riot grrrrl band on Woodsist! Bikini Kill mixed with Wavves? You get the idea, a hectic, urgent and way damn pleasing musical ruckus!
MPEG Stream: "Horsies"
MPEG Stream: "Fuckufuckinfuck"
MPEG Stream: "High In The Cinema"

PENS Hey Friend! What You Doing? (De Stijl) lp 14.98
'Tis the season for blown out and supercharged lo-fi burners and we can't say we mind one bit. Band after band, this eruption of buzzy stumbly hook filled garage-y pop is pretty impossible not to love. Pens are a great addition to the current crop of noise-poppers like Wavves, Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, etc. Luckily they defiantly have their own take on that sound, as the record opens with what sounds like thumb piano before erupting into a full on garage pop anthem. Pens are a London trio who infuse wonderfully swirling psychedelic moments into their Shaggs like crash and burn approach to way-in-the-red and dizzyingly fucked up pop. There is something so spirited and punk rock about their sound and approach, imagine your favorite riot grrrrl band on Woodsist! Bikini Kill mixed with Wavves? You get the idea, a hectic, urgent and way damn pleasing musical ruckus!
MPEG Stream: "Horsies"
MPEG Stream: "Fuckufuckinfuck"
MPEG Stream: "High In The Cinema"

PENTEMPLE s/t (Southern Lord) cd 15.98
This is really not new at all, and we had been holding out for the cd import version for ages, but then realized we still had never gotten it in, and thus had never listed this record at all, even though we've had a stack of the Southern Lord vinyl edition sitting here all this time, and it is pretty awesome, so we just decided to list it anyway, import compact disc be damned, so here it is, better late than never, the debut from Pentemple, which for those of you who have somehow missed out on this, is essentially a SUNNO))) record, as it features the core duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, frequent SUNNO))) collaborators Oren Ambarchi and Attila Csihar, with the addition of the mysterious Sin Nanna of mighty one man black metal horde Striborg!
Needless to say, SUNNO))) fans will dig the shit out of this, two long 20+ minute tracks, each thick and slow and heavy and drone-y, the guitars not riffing so much as crawling like some black fog, and some seriously fucked up vox, feral mewling gives way to distant moaning, strange chanting tangled up with hellish shrieks and guttural growls, all draped over a constantly shifting blackened doomscape, it takes nearly seven minutes for the drums to kick in, but when they do, it changes the whole feel of the record, chaotic, abstract, very free, suddenly it sounds like free jazz SUNNO))), or SUNNO))) covering Coltrane or Ayler or something, whatever it is, it's really rad, a buzzing free form doom jazz that sprawls and oozes, splatter and hums, the two pieces are part of a bigger whole, by the second movement, it's all about the drums, now locked into a lurching stuttery rhythm, and the vocals, growing in intensity, the whole sound thickening and expanding, until the drums peter out, leaving 6 or 6 minutes of super thick, layered gristled and corrosive buzz, that manages to be super heavy but super hypnotic and dreamy at the same time before finishing off with a little melodic tangle at the end, still wreathed in hazy heaviness and a thick cloud of crumbling fuzz.
Killer packaging too, with the front cover image of the crowned goat hoof black on black and embossed so you can feel the grimness...
MPEG Stream: "Pazuzu 1 (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "Pazuzu 2 (excerpt)"

PENTEMPLE s/t (Southern Lord) lp 16.98
This is really not new at all, and we had been holding out for the cd import version for ages, but then realized we still had never gotten it in, and thus had never listed this record at all, even though we've had a stack of the Southern Lord vinyl edition sitting here all this time, and it is pretty awesome, so we just decided to list it anyway, import compact disc be damned, so here it is, better late than never, the debut from Pentemple, which for those of you who have somehow missed out on this, is essentially a SUNNO))) record, as it features the core duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson, frequent SUNNO))) collaborators Oren Ambarchi and Attila Csihar, with the addition of the mysterious Sin Nanna of mighty one man black metal horde Striborg!
Needless to say, SUNNO))) fans will dig the shit out of this, two long 20+ minute tracks, each thick and slow and heavy and drone-y, the guitars not riffing so much as crawling like some black fog, and some seriously fucked up vox, feral mewling gives way to distant moaning, strange chanting tangled up with hellish shrieks and guttural growls, all draped over a constantly shifting blackened doomscape, it takes nearly seven minutes for the drums to kick in, but when they do, it changes the whole feel of the record, chaotic, abstract, very free, suddenly it sounds like free jazz SUNNO))), or SUNNO))) covering Coltrane or Ayler or something, whatever it is, it's really rad, a buzzing free form doom jazz that sprawls and oozes, splatter and hums, the two pieces are part of a bigger whole, by the second movement, it's all about the drums, now locked into a lurching stuttery rhythm, and the vocals, growing in intensity, the whole sound thickening and expanding, until the drums peter out, leaving 6 or 6 minutes of super thick, layered gristled and corrosive buzz, that manages to be super heavy but super hypnotic and dreamy at the same time before finishing off with a little melodic tangle at the end, still wreathed in hazy heaviness and a thick cloud of crumbling fuzz.
Killer packaging too, with the front cover image of the crowned goat hoof black on black and embossed so you can feel the grimness...
MPEG Stream: "Pazuzu 1 (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "Pazuzu 2 (excerpt)"

PINK NOISE Graffiti Youth (Kill Shaman) lp 15.98
Record number 3 from this weirdo Canadian duo, sure it'll be a big hit with the kids into the current crop of lo-fi warble and fractured garage pop, but these guys take that sound in a much darker, and way creepier direction. Sort of new wave, kind of garage-y, even a little bit industrial, but also a whole lot fucked up and fractured, a bit of that Residents off kilter creep, all warped guitars and motorik beats, and some seriously demented vocals.
Every song is raw and blown out, but more murky and synthy than anything, the whole record wreathed in grit and hiss and filth, the vocals weirdly tangled and often doubled, the guitars melting into black puddles of hum and rumble, super fuzzy and jagged, but simultaneously muted and muddy, definitely more punk than most of those bands but filtered through the same sort of alternate universe FM radio vibe, a few of the tracks are even laced with some weird off kilter 8-bit video game sounds, which somehow manage to blend in perfectly with the rest of the sonic strangeness, stumbling drum machines, woozy ambience, twisted production, and yet, somehow, buried under all the buzz and crunch and lope and lumber, lurks some seriously catchy and irresistible lo-fi dream-doom-pop. Definitely a new favorite...

POLVO In Prism (Merge) cd 14.98
The reunion / reissue onslaught seems like it might never end. But when bands like Polvo decide to get back together, why would we ever want it to?
Easily one of our favorite math rock bands from the nineties, whose sound was truly unique, tangled Eastern sounding guitars, slippery riffs, complicated song structures, weary laid back vox, all wound tight into some of the catchiest, most unlikely indie rock songs ever.
We knew Polvo had gotten back together, and then we found out they were recording a brand new record, which could definitely have been a disappointment, but this is most definitely not a disappointment. Not at all. There are awesome reunion records for sure, but this isn't just an awesome *reunion* record, In Prism totally stands up to the rest of their catalog, Today's Active Lifestyles, Shapes, Exploded Drawing, only the pickiest of ears would be able to pick one of the In Prism songs out as not belonging, and only then it would probably be mostly because they didn't know it by heart like the rest of the catalog. Which is sort of the magic of Polvo, their music is so NOT typically catchy or poppy, it's obtuse, angular, off kilter, twisted, tangled, but somehow it IS both catchy and poppy. Those slithery woozy riffs get stuck in your head as hard as any radio hit pop song.
And yeah, In Prism carries on that tradition, another kick ass set of songs, hooky and heavy, warped and mathy, with a bit of a classic rock vibe going on, which we didn't really notice until someone pointed it out to us. But goddamn this stuff is awesome. Opener "Right The Relation" is perfect Polvo, with one of THOSE riffs, vocals and guitar lines getting all tangled up, and some incredible drumming. And then there's "Beggar's Bowl", the most classic Polvo track of all the jams here, with one of the best riffs ever, draped over shimmery high end guitar whir, super rad jagged start stop arrangements, hazy production, layered lush guitars, and a main hook that slays.
Anyone who loved Polvo back in the day, or who still loves Polvo (which we imagine must be everyone right?) will go nuts for In Prism, and folks into mathy, crunchy, indie post rock and have somehow never heard Polvo before, this might be an introduction to your new favorite band.
MPEG Stream: "Right The Relation"
MPEG Stream: "D.C. Trails"
MPEG Stream: "Beggar's Bowl"

POLVO In Prism (Merge) 2lp 24.00
The reunion / reissue onslaught seems like it might never end. But when bands like Polvo decide to get back together, why would we ever want it to?
Easily one of our favorite math rock bands from the nineties, whose sound was truly unique, tangled Eastern sounding guitars, slippery riffs, complicated song structures, weary laid back vox, all wound tight into some of the catchiest, most unlikely indie rock songs ever.
We knew Polvo had gotten back together, and then we found out they were recording a brand new record, which could definitely have been a disappointment, but this is most definitely not a disappointment. Not at all. There are awesome reunion records for sure, but this isn't just an awesome *reunion* record, In Prism totally stands up to the rest of their catalog, Today's Active Lifestyles, Shapes, Exploded Drawing, only the pickiest of ears would be able to pick one of the In Prism songs out as not belonging, and only then it would probably be mostly because they didn't know it by heart like the rest of the catalog. Which is sort of the magic of Polvo, their music is so NOT typically catchy or poppy, it's obtuse, angular, off kilter, twisted, tangled, but somehow it IS both catchy and poppy. Those slithery woozy riffs get stuck in your head as hard as any radio hit pop song.
And yeah, In Prism carries on that tradition, another kick ass set of songs, hooky and heavy, warped and mathy, with a bit of a classic rock vibe going on, which we didn't really notice until someone pointed it out to us. But goddamn this stuff is awesome. Opener "Right The Relation" is perfect Polvo, with one of THOSE riffs, vocals and guitar lines getting all tangled up, and some incredible drumming. And then there's "Beggar's Bowl", the most classic Polvo track of all the jams here, with one of the best riffs ever, draped over shimmery high end guitar whir, super rad jagged start stop arrangements, hazy production, layered lush guitars, and a main hook that slays.
Anyone who loved Polvo back in the day, or who still loves Polvo (which we imagine must be everyone right?) will go nuts for In Prism, and folks into mathy, crunchy, indie post rock and have somehow never heard Polvo before, this might be an introduction to your new favorite band.
MPEG Stream: "Right The Relation"
MPEG Stream: "D.C. Trails"
MPEG Stream: "Beggar's Bowl"

PULSE EMITTER Meditative Music 3 (Synthnoise) cd-r 4.98
Daryl Groetsch - the one-man synth symphony better known as Pulse Emitter - has just answered one of the more commonly asked questions by passersby, but strangely one of the more difficult questions for us to answer: "Do you have any music for massage?"
That question gets addressed to us here at aQuarius more often than you might think; and the as far as music *we* would want as soundtracks to our massages (i.e. SUNNO))), Corrupted, Lustmord, Hazard, Thomas Koner, hell, even Merzbow might work for us!), well they just don't seem to cut it for most folks. So with this series of contemplative and un-cheesy ambient recordings, Pulse Emitter has that perfect record that we can recommend for that particular purpose; and it certainly works for us in terms of drifting to sleep music as well.
The continuation in the Meditative Music series brings us to the brightest of the three released so far. A slow, shimmering oscillation of an interwoven set of synths from Pulse Emitter's patch-bay modules gird the entire album which is dotted by a series of chiming bell-tones placed above. This is more of a record for summertime daydreaming than of the introspective meditations found on the previous two. Still a potent opiate through sound despite the warmly rounded tones of the album. Groetsch offers a brief description of this one: "placid waves for reflective times."

PULSE EMITTER Oppressive Nature (Digitalis) cd 13.98
Oppressive Nature couldn't be a more apt title for this album from Portland's wizard of analogue synthesis Daryl Groestch (aka Pulse Emitter), or at least for the opening track of this album. Through and through, this is a far cry from the pastoral ambient sensibilities administered through his surprisingly great Meditative Music cd-r series. A grim curtain is cast from the onset, with squelching distortions, animalistic grunts, and wounded chirps propagated through electronic means. All of these blistered, cracked, and abused noises are strategically placed on a rumbling battlefield of crunched-low end rumblings, lending comparisons of today to Wolf Eyes and UW Owl and of yesterday to SPK and Factrix. Groestch lets off the distortion pedal for good chunks of Oppressive Nature, relying upon his filter-sweeping modulations and sinusoidal oscillations to craft isolating, deep space atmospheres. Weirdly majestic melodies counter the streams of noise generated throughout the untitled second track, eventually overtaking the noise amidst a series of tightly appregiated squiggles. The fourth cut hangs a sequence of revolving tones of phased dissonance upon a hyper minimal structure of tiny clicks and glitched pulses, which had they been generated digitally could easily fit within the Raster-Noton ethos. The album glides to a stop with windswept drones laced with distant clouds of feedback, white-noise, and one of Groetsch's melodic motifs.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"
MPEG Stream: "Track 5"

SILVER PINES Night Smoker (self-released) cassette 5.98
Oh, how we miss the "cassingle". Those two or three songs and perhaps a dance remix that would play on both sides of a cassette over and over again, burning those couple of songs immediately into our heads. And with its cheap cardstock sleeve instead of a case, for the time, before we got so super concerned about the environment, it was so happily disposable.
That's not to say this new 4 song cassette release by aQ faves, Silver Pines is similarly throwaway, but their choice of packaging (a black cardstock sleeve with unique collage elements) and the brevity of its length, just takes us back to those (not really) good ol' days. Made for their recent tour, this is a more lo-fi and blown out take on their majestic shoegazey Americana than we saw on the Forces cd-r (oh, and btw vinyl of that is coming soon!). In fact side one starter, "You Came To My Door", starts off very in the red, with the vocals and drifting guitar soundscapes near clipping out, but the sound issues are pretty much corrected by the second track "(I Believe In) Magic Dreams", a more spacious and slow-burning instrumental. Yet it's the second side that holds the real gold. Both songs, "Glass Church" and "Baby Universe" are stunningly beautiful and druggy ballads that are more strung out and psychedelic than anything we've ever heard from Hope Sandoval or Mazzy Star, the Pines most recognizable sonic touchstones. These two songs alone are worth the price of admission, but act fast, because only 100 were made and we only got a handful. So freakin' lovely!

SOCIAL JUNK Born Into It (Digitalis) cd 13.98
Don't know too much about these guys (this guy?) other than the fact that they create the sort of hazy mechanical looped soundscape we can't seem to get enough of. Imagine the music of Philip Jeck, Wolf Eyes, Tim Hecker, Starving Weirdos and This Heat but all stripped down and reassembled into some abstract collage of post industrial loops, gritty lo-fi dronemusic and abstract motorik krautrock abstraction.
Hard to say what exactly these guys are using as sound sources, there is some sort of metallic percussion, super processed vocals, tons of FX, layer upon layer of fuzzy grit, grimy blurs and deeprumbles, there's a drumkit in there too, lurking below the woozy fug above, but occasionally exploding in a little burst of sizzling cymbals. There's a definite grim gothic vibe too, when the noise occasionally peels back, it reveals a moody meandering sort of doom drift, cold wave, gloom pop, all tribal and haunting and hypnotic. With warm warbly organ, weird swirling production, before the record explodes again in a sprawl of clank and clatter and crunch.
The record shifts and transforms constantly, but often finds a gorgeous washed out hypnotic sound and settles in, sticking with it for long stretches, lulling the listener into an altered state, and then yanking them out and hurling them into an avalanche of crumbling distortion and fractured truncated beats, streaks of feedback and heaving swells of muted distortion.
Even at its noisiest, Born Into It manages to be weirdly pretty and super mesmerizing, but more often than not, the noise is tamped down by thick swaths of thick whirring dreamdronedrift, and wrapped around abstract skeletal rhythms.
Super cool stuff.
MPEG Stream: "It Just Isn't The Same"
MPEG Stream: "Those Final Seconds"
MPEG Stream: "Grief"

TAKEN BY TREES East Of Eden (Rough Trade) cd 13.98
After parting ways with her band The Concretes a few years ago, Victoria Bergsman has since shown the world that she not only possesses one of the most lovely voices around, but also has a musical mind that is as tasteful as it is creative. Her first album as Taken By Trees was nothing short of pure bittersweet pop perfection, and this sophomore effort follows suit with some really tasty twists. The main twist being that she headed to Pakistan to record most of the album with local musicians there which adds such a unique texture to her richly crafted songs. Tablas, flutes, violin, tumha, dholak, etc. all come together with such a free flowing ease and Bergsman's singular touch and vision shines through the entire record.
Most folks who embark on similar projects often forget about subtly, and awkwardly inject another region's sounds into their songs with no regard for how the various elements will flow. But Taken By Trees creates that fusion effortlessly, never letting the new sounds overpower the old, a delicate balance achieved so gracefully.
With the amazing voice she posses it would be so easy for Bergsman to just make very straight ahead coffee house ready songs, but instead she injects as much thought and passion into the texture of her songs as she does her beautiful vocal delivery. Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) also lends his voice to a few tracks, which makes the awesome cover of Animal Collective's "My Girls" (here transformed into "My Boys") even more endearing. Conjuring images of greats like Astrud Gilberto, Taken By Trees really is a true modern day chanteuse.
MPEG Stream: "Greyest Love Of All"
MPEG Stream: "My Boys"
MPEG Stream: "Watch The Waves"

TAKEN BY TREES East Of Eden (Rough Trade) lp 14.98
After parting ways with her band The Concretes a few years ago, Victoria Bergsman has since shown the world that she not only possesses one of the most lovely voices around, but also has a musical mind that is as tasteful as it is creative. Her first album as Taken By Trees was nothing short of pure bittersweet pop perfection, and this sophomore effort follows suit with some really tasty twists. The main twist being that she headed to Pakistan to record most of the album with local musicians there which adds such a unique texture to her richly crafted songs. Tablas, flutes, violin, tumha, dholak, etc. all come together with such a free flowing ease and Bergsman's singular touch and vision shines through the entire record.
Most folks who embark on similar projects often forget about subtly, and awkwardly inject another region's sounds into their songs with no regard for how the various elements will flow. But Taken By Trees creates that fusion effortlessly, never letting the new sounds overpower the old, a delicate balance achieved so gracefully.
With the amazing voice she posses it would be so easy for Bergsman to just make very straight ahead coffee house ready songs, but instead she injects as much thought and passion into the texture of her songs as she does her beautiful vocal delivery. Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) also lends his voice to a few tracks, which makes the awesome cover of Animal Collective's "My Girls" (here transformed into "My Boys") even more endearing. Conjuring images of greats like Astrud Gilberto, Taken By Trees really is a true modern day chanteuse.
MPEG Stream: "Greyest Love Of All"
MPEG Stream: "My Boys"
MPEG Stream: "Watch The Waves"

TAMARU Figure (Trumn) cd 21.00
Tamaru is a Japanese minimalist, who's not terribly well known outside of Japan, as this is only his second cd in well over a decade of making music. Both on this record and in performance, he uses little more than his bass guitar, a volume pedal, and a delay pedal; and with this process, he restricts himself to an open tuning, using only those four notes as the basis for his harmonic and subharmonic overtones. His thrumbing drones are the results from a decade of refining his craft, discovering which tones he can master, and seamlessly layering sound on top of itself. The eight tracks on Figure are all essentially variations on this same theme for lugubrious undulations of sound that organically ripple, echo, and hypnotize as if they were the cyclical patterns from waves moving across a relatively calm body of water. The first couple of tracks are pretty heavy constructs of tonal interplay within thundering drones stretched upon elongated bowings from his bass guitar, somewhat not all that dissimilar to the longform works by Jonathan Coleclough or Yoshi Wada. On "Stream," Tamaru allows for more of a traditional means of playing the bass, as rounded clouds of tone billow forth like some of the amorphous material from Rothko. "Juju" is a wavering mirage for overlapping drones and slippery swells of bass timbre; and "Room" is downright playful exercise in delay driven phase patterns. Any number of these pieces could be rendered successfully as sustained duration compositions, but Tamaru's economy of scale renders everything as a precious, tightly encapsulated gem of low end frequencies. Nicely done!
MPEG Stream: "Torso"
MPEG Stream: "Stream"
MPEG Stream: "Juju"

13TH CHIME Singles 1981-1983 (Sacred Bones) lp 19.98
13th Chime were an obscure band for sure, having issued only 3 singles in the early '80s before calling it quits. Their history was not a charmed one for sure, as the band known as 13th Chime came out of another punk band known as The Anticx, whose bass player died during a Dead Kennedy's gig in 1980. The remaining members of The Anticx kept playing as 13th Chime, having found another bassist who helped push the band in a new direction. Perhaps because of the death of their friend, 13th Chime found themselves darkening their sound and embracing the Goth redux of punk at the time. The Damned's Black Album, the first Bauhaus record, Crispy Ambulance, the first Christian Death record, and X-Mal Deutschland would have been the contemporaries of 13th Chime's singles, with their gloomy take on punk whilst all the while maintaining driving, propulsive rhythms throughout. The guitars offered detuned buzzsaw attacks with little in the way of melody, as that was pretty much the role of the bassist (Terry Taylor) whose high-neck basslines lead almost all of the songs (a la Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order). Mick Hand's vocals are somewhat nasal in delivery, but certainly not without their Howard Devoto charm. There's plenty of Bat Cave theatrics (including some guitar cabinets made out of coffins), clearly dating this material to the early '80s; but even so, 13th Chime were better than most of the bands that seemed to emerge from that scene without those three amazing singles to show for it. And all of the tracks from those singles are featured here on this fine collection from Sacred Bones.

3 INCHES OF BLOOD Here Waits Thy Doom (Century Media) cd 15.98
Ready for another ripping, rousing session of state of the art, orc slaughtering, ultra-metal action?? That's right, Canada's remarkably popular (both at AQ and elsewhere - they have their own signature Nike sneaker now, we're told!) 3 Inches Of Blood are back, let the headbanging commence! Their entertaining, energetic brand of '80s influenced power metal (birthed, though, from the modern metalcore scene) is as thrillingly, thrashingly over the top and unabashedly METAL as ever. Un-ironically so, we think, though the song title "All Of Them Witches" sounds like something The Fucking Champs would have come up with. Other titles though, like "Rock In Hell", "Fierce Defender" and "Battles And Brotherhood", are definitely sincere, face-value, heavy metal to the death declarations.
Shredding and shrieking, the eleven tracks of Here Waits Thy Doom pretty much all traffic in triumphant galloping glory. "Preachers Daughter" is a bit of a departure, more of a mid paced, blues metal stomp, in which we realize that the high pitched, always on the verge of a gargle vocals of the appropriately named Cam Pipes remind us slightly of a power metal version of Eric Wagner from Trouble. There's also an all-acoustic instrumental interlude (penultimate track "12:34") before the album concludes. So there's some variety, but what you'll mainly find here is an enjoyable overdose of balls to the wall speed metal from a band who owe a lot to the '80s but are definitely modern metal extremists as well.
Oh, and this is the first album without their other vocalist (they used to have two), the lanky short-haired guy who did the more growly hardcore/death metal vox. He retired or something, so now it's all ragged high-end, long-haired singer Pipes' show, although one of the guitarists does chip in with some more guttural backing vocals now and then.
Fuckin' awesome. And yes, our gratuitous use of such fuckin' language is perfectly suited to this album and band!
MPEG Stream: "Fierce Defender"
MPEG Stream: "Preachers Daughter"

UNREST Imperial f.f.r.r. (TeenBeat) lp 17.98
Now available on vinyl again! For the first time in more than 15 years! One of our favorite Unrest records, hell, one of our favorite records ever period...
Ahhhh, Unrest. There was a time when Unrest were IT. They could do no wrong. Mark Robinson (Unrest / Teenbeat Records mainman) was king of the indie scene. And listening to this record there is no doubt in our minds as to why. While the records before Imperial were sloppy and chaotic (in a good way!) and sort of punk rock, they were also dark and dreamy and sweetly melancholy, all hinting at some doleful sensitive underside, lurking like a shy boy, beneath Unrest's spikey exterior. So along comes Imperial (originally released in 1992), and it was sort of like that shy boy finally got up the guts to talk to that girl he had been longing for all year, and while she still ignored him, something about reaching that point made him realize he didn't need loud noisy punk rock, or smashing chaos, he could just be himself, and the sound of being himself, finally unveiled on Imperial, managed to suddenly illuminate the pop treasure map Unrest had been following since day one. All that sweet sweet pop was now the focal point, the foundation, no longer hiding bashfully behind the crash and clang. Gone were the willful snottiness, the distorted guitars, the ramshackle drumming and in their place, a languid, lustrous jangle pop shimmer, bathed in reverb, and laced with dreamy soulful crooning, lilting guitar melodies, and sweet sweet hooks, with the ultimate mixtape lyrics. "I Do Believe You Are Blushing". I mean, c'mon!! How sweetly romantic is that?! I for one must fess up to at least several tracks on Imperial making their way on to many a mix tape.
And while a few tracks do 'rock' ("Suki" has to be one of the best rocking pop songs EVER!), it's in that sort of liquidly propulsive Neu! meets Beat Happening sort of way, a droney jangle with repetitive guitars and shuffling rhythms, mesmerizing but a little bouncy too. However, on Imperial, it's all about the blissed out shimmer pop, lazy electric guitars, and distant throbbing bass floating delicately atop a slowly unfurling popscape, simple and absolutely beautiful, with Mark Robinson's gorgeous heartfelt croon as well as the occasional delicate angelic female vocal. So so so so beautiful! Such a stunning slice of pop perfection. Listen to the sound samples and you will understand just what we mean.
MPEG Stream: "Imperial"
MPEG Stream: "I Do Believe You Are Blushing"
MPEG Stream: "Suki"

V/A A Orillas Del Magdalena (Domino Sound) lp 14.98
MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT!! MISSIS... oh wait. Scratch that. A Orillas Del Magdalena might LOOK like a Mississippi record, and may SOUND like a Mississippi record, but is in fact a new archival release on Domino Sound, the beginning of a new series? We don't know, but we sure hope so. Needless to say, all you Mississippi Records fanatics, might want to grab one of these, sure maybe it doesn't yet have the fetishistic cache that Mississippi has attained, but it is a fantastic collection of lost sounds.
Unlike the gospel / blues focus of Mississippi, A Orillas Del Magdalena is a collection of Cumbia music, a mix of African and Spanish sounds from Columbia, that is festive and celebratory, raucous and emotional. The songs here are culled from the archives of recordist Antonio Fuentes, who began recording the music of Columbia in the early 30s and went on to start Columbia's first record label. The tracks here span the several decades between the fifties and the seventies, and are so fantastic, the sound incorporates lots of horns and accordions, call and response vocalizing, wild percussion, fluttery flutes, playful melodies, it's a little bit calypso, a little bit mariachi, all infused with a distinctly African vibe, fans of the Ethiopiques series and all the Sublime Frequencies releases will definitely dig this and yeah, this easily could have found it's way to Mississippi, which means, as if you couldn't have sussed it out already, WAY recommended!

V/A Electric Asylum Volume 3 (Past & Present) cd 17.98
Those crazies at Past & Present are gonna have to add a whole new wing to their Electric Asylum, we're up to volume 3! More late '60s, early '70s "Rare British Acid Freakrock" from 20 obscure acts, these are they: Renegade, Primitive Man, Sensations, Puzzle, Barracuda, Grumbleweeds, Boneshaker, Barron Knights, Dynasty, M.A.S.K., Shakane, Wheels, Spode, 1984, Greg Robbins, Things Fall Apart, Roger Ruskin Spear, Don Crown, Zebedee, and Amazon Trust. Never heard of most of 'em before, probably won't hear of 'em again, but we're enjoying the one-off treats (some fun bubblegum, some grooving glam, some trippy prog pop) found here, now. And we'll be humming along with some of these for a while. One we did know was Primitive Man, whose outrageous "Animal Love" appeared on another cool comp, Neurotic Reactions, a few years back.
Another worth the price of admission highlight has to be "Little Girl" by a band called 1984, a remarkably jaunty number, upbeat and energetic and so very catchy, the bright and bouncy qualities of which contrast with the lyrics, the singer smugly telling off some girl who wronged him. And somehow also this song is replete with heavy psych guitar. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Likewise with the rest of the stuff on the disc, really! On the other hand, there's the super gruff voice used on the maniacal "Drop Out" by one Roger Ruskin Spear, that was probably a novelty back in the era it was recorded, though unwittingly a precursor to the likes of Killdozer!
The pseudo-occultic, proto-proto-metal percentage is down somewhat compared to the previous 2 volumes, but this still rocks, and the delightful kitsch quotient hasn't changed at all. Fuzzy, goofy, good times.
Like the other Electric Asylums, the cd booklet contains info on each track, as much as the compiler (who calls himself "Psychomania", so you know where his head's at) could dig up anyway, which actually often enough is more than you thought you'd ever want to know. Nicely done, with plenty of colorful original sleeve/label graphics illustrating the thick booklet.
MPEG Stream: 1984 "Little Girl"
MPEG Stream: GREG ROBBINS "Virginia Creeper"
MPEG Stream: THINGS FALL APART "Bye Bye My Rose"

V/A High All The Time Vol. 1 (Past & Present) cd 17.98
We've said it before and we'll say it again. It never ceases to amaze us how there can be such an endless supply of killer '60s garage-psych songs to fill up compilation after compilation. Sure, once in a while there's some overlap, but really, it's incredible how many obscure bands managed to release a completely charming 7" single or two and then vanished - but their music lives on, thanks to comps like this one! The appropriately named High All The Time features a whole bunch of turned-on, drugged-out sounds circa 1966-69, all of it fuzzy and freaky and sometimes beautifully melodic.
14 tracks, 11 bands, mostly from the US of A, though two bands are Dutch and one Swedish (The Shakers, doing "Who Will Buy (These Wonderful Evils)", a classic acid-guitar drenched track we know from another comp that took that for its title. But that Shakers song is the only thing here we'd heard before.
Opening the proceedings, Mammoth takes a Kinks "You Really Got Me" type riff and fuzzes it up big time, hinting at Blue Cheer style heaviness. Then, getting even freakier, The Hobbit tosses some musique concrete sound FX into their exotic "Author's Message". Next up, Dragonfly's "Celestial Dream" is indeed pretty dreamy, coming from a band who wore wild dragonfly-wing facepaint.... so, we won't describe all the tracks, but suffice to say they're all quite groovy, and varied, and definitely high all the time, yeah! No bummers here. Bad trips, yes, well, there's The Darelyck's track "Bad Trip", a propulsive sorta-rockabilly garage beat number with the vocalist mainly chanting "It was a bad trip, it was a bad trip" over and over, way cool... From start to finish, this is comp is our idea of a good trip. And the finish is a strong one, tracks 13 and 14 being both sides of The Beautiful Daze's "City Jungle Parts 1 & 2", with Part 2 being a particularly dense, droning, throbbing piece of work.
This compact disc edition (the comp itself is a reissue, apparently originally released on LP back in the late '70s or '80s we'd guess) includes in its booklet what meager information they were able to dig up about each band, with discographical information and sometimes graphics from the original 45's.
MPEG Stream: MAMMOTH "The Mammoth"
MPEG Stream: THE TOWER "Slow Motion Mind"
MPEG Stream: THE BUZZARDS "Burned"

V/A Mary Anne Hobbs: Wild Angels (Planet Mu) cd 12.98
Latest collection of forward thinking electronica from UK DJ Mary Anne Hobbs, this latest expands her focus from mostly grime and dubstep, to techno and hip hop and all sorts of variations and microgenres in between.
The compilation begins with a track by Mark Pritchard, who we had never heard of before, but his track "?" is a gorgeous bit of minimal dronemusic, that begins super spare and only begins to blossom near the end, with the drone splintering into woozy minor key melodies, creating a sort of bittersweet ambient drift, which leads right into a jam from Hudson Mohawke (Best band name ever? Quite possibly!), a lurching stuttery glitchy electronic freak out, all splatters of 8-bit beep and bloop, weird female grunts, and a killer hip hop beat underneath, warped and so good. Mike Slott is up next with a warbly slow jam, another flurry of blips and weird truncated vocals, pretty and sunshiney, but still plenty weird, which butts up against Brackles, some tripped out synth heavy techno, and so it goes, all over the map for sure, although there is some sort of sonic thread connecting all of the jams here.
We're still partial to the dubstep, and Hobbs has gathered up some killers, Mono/Poly dishes up some strangled stutter step, heavy on the glitch and crunch, plenty of bass warble, but here the treble is cranked, so that warble is more like a little blast of static. Architeq kicks up some serious warble, with a rad loping beat, and some thick thick bass, Tranqill kills it with some dubbed out hip hop, lots of Western twang, buzzy sitar, creepy flurries of
processed old school computer sounds, and Untold is super spare, and skeletal, lots of space, the beats spare and skittery, with a distinctly Eastern flair. Those jams are scattered throughout, amidst hazy almost pop ambience, glittery house-y grooves, fuzzy indie electronic pop and the killer closer, maybe our favorite track from the Legion Of Two record we made Record Of The Week a while back, some seriously grim and heavy live drummer post industrial dub step heaviness.
For a limited time, the compact disc version of Wild Angles is on sale! $2 off regular list price (which normally would be $14.98) for the next two weeks. Dig it!
MPEG Stream: MONO/POLY "Red And Yellow Toys"
MPEG Stream: ARCHITEQ "Sleeping Bear Lament (Take Remix)"
MPEG Stream: TRANQILL "Payroll (Paul White's Clean Dub)"
MPEG Stream: UNTOLD "Discipline"

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

V/A Radio Scenic Glow Volume 1 (Upstairs) cd-r 8.98
Upstairs is the cd-r imprint for nostalgic electrons and warped lo-fi esoterica run by Daniel Lapotin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never), and what's a better way to kick-start things than with a comp of the accomplices, malcontents, and hangers-on? There's a handful of artists we're familiar with (Julian Lynch, Pulse Emitter, Africa Germany, Caboladies, and of course Oneohtrix who's covering a Grouper song which sounds as weird and fucking awesome as you could imagine!) but a ton we've not got a clue about. For example, take Autre Ne Veut's '80s pop simulacrum filtered through disposable recording techniques; or the anti-aesthetics, bleepity techno of cheap synthesizers from No Fun Acid; or the suitably kosmiche zone tripping from Stellar Om Source; or the wild and woolly oscillations from Nackt Insecten. Pulse Emitter's jagged electronica maps out lunar rhythms for those smooth surfaces of synthetic melodies he's mastered in recent years. Julian Lynch wistfully taps out softened melodies sort of like an idiot savant rendition of Erik Satie with some squiggly ring modulation tossed in for good measure. Gatekeeper brings the compilation to a conclusion with murky recapitulation of early Chris & Cosey smears of shadowy electronica. There's plenty more between all of these points of interest, making for a pretty great album. It's a shame that there's only 75 copies, and Upstairs has already sold out of all of their copies...
MPEG Stream: ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER "Heavy Water"
MPEG Stream: AUTRE NE VEUT "Artimis"
MPEG Stream: GATEKEEPER "Origins"

V/A Siamese Soul: Thai Pop Spectacular Vol.2 1960's-1980's (Sublime Frequencies) cd 16.98
Elsewhere on this week's list you'll find a review of another Sublime Frequencies release, the Shadow Music Of Thailand, where we discuss how hard it is to pick a favorite release, cuz they're all so goddamn good.
And such is the case with this one too, a sequel of sorts to 2007's Thai Pop Spectacular 1960s-1980s, this one titled Siamese Soul, but the first one was pretty soulful as well, so we'll presume that it was just chosen as a catchy title, because this does play out like a continuation of the first part which is in no way a bad thing, in fact, we'd been hankering for more ever since that first volume.
As the loner notes discuss, Cambodian pop has gotten so much attention lately, that it seems almost criminal that Thai pop wasn't getting the same attention, which becomes even more apparent listening to Siamese Soul (as well as the first volume). In the review of the first volume we described Thai Pop as "an awesomely confusional mix of Molam, Bollywood, Ethiopian groove, funk, soul, American pop and surf rock, all tangled up into amazing shapes, and peppered with killer hooks, amazing vocalists, bizarre production techniques, but most of all amazing amazing songs." Which of course still absolutely applies. Heavy Western funk to Ethiopian sounding grooves, tripped out organ drenched fuzz rock, with creepy sexy female vox to Shadows / Ventures style surf rock, a bunch of the songs like many of the tracks on the two Molam: Thai Country Groove Sublime Frequencies comps, totally remind us of whatever Thai song the Butthole Surfers appropriated for their song "Kuntz", that distinctly Thai vocal melody is so unmistakable and unforgettable. The whole record is just so wild and fun and varied and out there, slipping easily from classic sounding pop, to mysterious folk music, to stomping funk, to twangy soundtrack sounds to smokey bar ballads, to slithery soul, to far out almost Bollywood sounding exotica, all with a distinctly Thai flavor. Funky, groovy, soulful, so so good. Check out the sound samples. Sometimes we feel words can't quite do sounds like these justice. And the more we listen to this, the more THIS one is becoming one of our favorites, and heck, we could very well have made this another Record Of The Week too!
MPEG Stream: DAW BANDON "Bong Ja Bong (Bong, Oh Bong)"
MPEG Stream: KWAN JAI & KWAN JIT SRIPRAJAN "E-Saew Tam Punha Huajai (Advice Column For Love Troubles (Part 1)"
MPEG Stream: KWAN JIT SRIPRAJAN "Panatibat (Sin No. 1: Do Not Kill)"
MPEG Stream: ROONG PETCH LAEM SING "Kob Kanong Fon (Frogs Dancing In The Rain)  "

V/A The Midnite Sound Of The Milky Way (Big Beat) cd 16.98
We reviewed the Dean Carter disc a few lists back, a killer collection of super twisted rockabilly and garage rock, ultra distorted, tons of weird effects, super rocking and far out, especially for the time. We sold a ton, and still can't seem to stop listening to it. In the liner notes, they kept mentioning a comp called The Midnite Sound Of The Milky Way, a collection of singles from the label that Dean Carter called home, and we figured if it was even half as weird as the Carter disc, we had to have it, and guess what, it totally is.
This one is not new either, a few years old in fact, but somehow we missed out both on the Carter, and the Milky Way, so we figured maybe some of you did too. More twisted garage rock, weirdo rockabilly, some proto-doom (really!) and some stuff that we're not exactly sure how to describe. One name keeps popping up all over this disc, with NINE tracks, and that's Kookie Cook, who just so happened to be a member of Dean Carter's band, and judging from these tracks, had much to do with that twisted sound. "Workin' Man" is a total classic, with a killer main riff, a bunch of whistling, some weirdly delivered sung spoken vocals, lots of "HEY!"s, some awesome drumming, and a screaming lead that lasts all of two seconds. Woah. "Don't Lie" is a slithery twisted swampy bit of blues, with frenzied howled vox, and some strange female back ups. "Revenge" is a total reverbed surf jam, with some more super strange vocals, frenzied and maniacal, all over some shimmery twang, and some seriously pounding drums. "Misery" and "I Feel Alright" are classic fifties sounding rockabilly blues jams, with bad ass guitar wrangling, all super distorted and tangled. "Ooby Dooby" is another fifties style groover, with lots of nonsense lyrics, and some really weird female back up vox, and finally, "Drums" begins with Cook shouting "Drums! Baby!" and then two minutes of wild drum freakout and occasional shouts. So good. We hope this guy has a lost album somewhere. Cook also contributes two tracks with his band the Satalites, one of which sounds a little like the Benny Hill theme mixed with surf rock, while the other is a weird slow jam, all wild manic laughing, and weird horns and 'whoop!'s in the background. And that's just Cook's tracks (which are more than enough reason to buy this), there's also the mysterious 12th Knight, whose "Death Row" is total fuzz drenched proto-doom, like Sabbath played on shitty little amps, so grim and weirdly heavy, and there's a bunch of other groups, The Cobras, Dave Marten, Four A While, George Jacks, Jack Johnson, The Grapes Of Wrath and Willie & The Travelaires, all of them cool, although not as weird or far out as Cook or as heavy and haunting as 12th Knight. Such a killer comp. Anyone who dug the Dean Carter, or just loves lost outsider gems from the sixties, this is definitely well worth checking out!
MPEG Stream: KOOKIE COOK "Workin' Man"
MPEG Stream: KOOKIE COOK "Space Race"
MPEG Stream: KOOKIE COOK "I Feel Alright"
MPEG Stream: KOOKIE COOK "Drums"

VIVIAN GIRLS Everything Goes Wrong (In The Red) cd 13.98
Much has transpired in the last year or two since the Vivian Girls first hit the scene with their exciting and refreshing brand of girl group meets blown out garage rock stomp. Their original drummer jumped ship and left to join Crystal Stilts, and loads of new bands emerged with their own like-minded approach to amped up raw and melodic garage pop (Wavves, Brilliant Colors, Dum Dum Girls, Cause Co-Motion, Pens, etc...), and all the while the Vivian Girls have been touring pretty much non stop with a schedule so rigorous they would often find themselves playing multiple shows in one day.
We were quite anxious to hear how this much anticipated sophomore outing would fare, and it totally kills! Picking right up where the last one left off but played with even more confidence and unrelenting passion. Under the raucous surface of their songs, you can totally tell the Vivian Girls understand the importance of melody and hooks, and they totally sound like a band on K Records that ditched those cuddly sweaters and threw on ripped up t-shirts to get down to some seriously rocking business! Moments of Spector-like wall of sound glory collide with full throttle shredding garage pop, which these Girls masterfully and effortlessly pull off big time!
MPEG Stream: "I Have No Fun"
MPEG Stream: "Walking Alone At Night"
MPEG Stream: "Tension"

WOLD Imperator (Rotting Chapel) cassette 8.98
Woah, didn't expect to get another round of these super limited (300 copies to be specific) cassette anthologies from Saskatchewan's favorite (only?) black metal noise terrorists, the mighty WOLD. Imperator serves as a good introduction to the truly insane sounds of WOLD, combining tracks from each of their three awesome full lengths, and more importantly, impossibly rare tracks from various cd-rs and cassettes released in tiny batches that less than 100 people would have ever gotten their hands on.
It's hard to actually describe a band like WOLD. Sure, it's black. You could call it "metal", but these boys whip up some of the noisiest, most out of control sounds ever committed to tape, seeming to owe more of a significant debt to industrial noise merchants like Whitehouse and Throbbing Gristle than any black metal band we could think of. Whatever you want to call it, WOLD's brand of chaos is truly unique. Sheets of uncontrollable white noise, an industrial strength throb, and the unbelievable witch-like shrieks of Fortress Crookedjaw (best black metal name ever, methinks) all merge into a hellacious brew of unrestrained evil, with amazing lyrics (none of which are printed here, so good luck) and perhaps most surprisingly, melodies that are both beautiful and catchy. Of course, said melodies are buried under multiple layers of windy tape hiss, crumbling distortion, and overblown electronics, and what you get out of a WOLD track depends on how well you are prepared to listen, preferably under a pair of headphones at maximum volume. It's like taking a wild ride through a barren wilderness of ice and fog, both disorienting and exhilarating, and noisy as fuck.
Released as a professionally printed, smoky black cartridge on the very cool cassette label Rotting Chapel, this is probably the only chance you will ever have to get this little bastard from us. We got about 10 (yes, TEN) copies, so act fast!

WOODS Sunlit / The Dark (Captured Tracks) 7" 6.98
We know this came out a while back, not sure why we haven't gotten around to reviewing it till now, but rest assured it is killer! Another sun soaked, acid bathed dose of strummy pop from East Coasters Woods. This 7" hits hard with two driving tracks of their usual lo-fi clanking around, up-beat catchy lyrics, vocals sung in the usual high pitched, seven-year-old-trying-to-imitate-Neil-Young kind of voice, driving rhythm guitar plods on and on like the Stooges gone punk, soaring fuzz leads driving each song into rock and roll oblivion, all wrapped up in a neat little package just waiting to be thrown on your turntable before the last days of summer slip away. We know there's a lot of folks rolling with the whole old-as-new aesthetic, and we have to say Woods really stands out as being one of the most charming of these new lo-fi garage groups. That said, this 7" is a must have and should not be missed!! Recommended!

WYATT, ROBERT Radio Experiment Rome, February 1981 (Rai Trade) cd 22.00
Easily the BEST album whose tracks contain of a lot of seeming nonsense baby babble and backwards tape manipulations (that was originally improvised for Italian radio) we've ever heard. Even if you already think you'd like babbling vocals and tape FX, this is even better than you think. Why? well it helps that it was done by Robert Wyatt, who is a bit of a genius, you know. Of course, if you're a Wyatt fan, you already know you want this 'cause it's basically an UNRELEASED ROBERT WYATT ALBUM FROM 1981.
Now, the title is Radio Experiment as it definitely was an experiment, a successful one, fortunately. Wyatt was invited to come to Rome and spend a week at this radio station's studio, recording his spontaneous creative process during that time frame, whatever might transpire.
The radio people picked the right artist to participate in this project, as Wyatt fully embraced the concept, working in a "blank frenzy", willing to let the end results remain secondary to documenting the work in progress of music making, though as it turned out, the finished music is pretty cool. And strange.
There's seven completed compositions presented on this disc, along with a final 10 minute track that was assembled and edited by the radio program's staff from recordings made surreptitiously during Wyatt's initial "rehearsals" in the studio. He's a one-man band here, playing piano and keys and drums and Jew's harp and other "objects". And singing, overdubbing his voice, which is all over the place, from playfully chopped up burble to weird whisper to high pitched whine to mumbled chatter to, well, actual singing that's quite fragile and pretty. There's plenty of wordless ba ba ba la la la, and other more coherent parts where you can understand the lyrics, in some cases read from political/historical texts. Multitracked and layered, all these pieces have a dreamy, hazy, hallucinatory aspect, somewhat abstract but pleasant, moody and melodic too. Being to a degree improvised, some jazz seeps in from Wyatt's Soft Machine days, and one track in fact is an interpretation, of sorts, of Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce".
Overall, a week well spent! Wyatt fans of course should enjoy this, and it also sounds to us like something perhaps This Heat related, and there's lots of current underground, cd-r scene activity featuring fractured pop and rhythmic lo-fi psychedelia and the textural use of the human voice that unknowingly harks back to these archival recordings from 28 years ago, long hidden away but thankfully now issued on cd and vinyl. The way this combines both beautiful pop-iness with really weird methods and sounds seems like something fans of, say, Panda Bear would be totally into. Very recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Opium War"
MPEG Stream: "Heathens Have No Souls"
MPEG Stream: "Born Again Cretin"

WYATT, ROBERT Radio Experiment Rome, February 1981 (Rai Trade) lp 26.00
Easily the BEST album whose tracks contain of a lot of seeming nonsense baby babble and backwards tape manipulations (that was originally improvised for Italian radio) we've ever heard. Even if you already think you'd like babbling vocals and tape FX, this is even better than you think. Why? well it helps that it was done by Robert Wyatt, who is a bit of a genius, you know. Of course, if you're a Wyatt fan, you already know you want this 'cause it's basically an UNRELEASED ROBERT WYATT ALBUM FROM 1981.
Now, the title is Radio Experiment as it definitely was an experiment, a successful one, fortunately. Wyatt was invited to come to Rome and spend a week at this radio station's studio, recording his spontaneous creative process during that time frame, whatever might transpire.
The radio people picked the right artist to participate in this project, as Wyatt fully embraced the concept, working in a "blank frenzy", willing to let the end results remain secondary to documenting the work in progress of music making, though as it turned out, the finished music is pretty cool. And strange.
There's seven completed compositions presented on this disc, along with a final 10 minute track that was assembled and edited by the radio program's staff from recordings made surreptitiously during Wyatt's initial "rehearsals" in the studio. He's a one-man band here, playing piano and keys and drums and Jew's harp and other "objects". And singing, overdubbing his voice, which is all over the place, from playfully chopped up burble to weird whisper to high pitched whine to mumbled chatter to, well, actual singing that's quite fragile and pretty. There's plenty of wordless ba ba ba la la la, and other more coherent parts where you can understand the lyrics, in some cases read from political/historical texts. Multitracked and layered, all these pieces have a dreamy, hazy, hallucinatory aspect, somewhat abstract but pleasant, moody and melodic too. Being to a degree improvised, some jazz seeps in from Wyatt's Soft Machine days, and one track in fact is an interpretation, of sorts, of Charlie Parker's "Billie's Bounce".
Overall, a week well spent! Wyatt fans of course should enjoy this, and it also sounds to us like something perhaps This Heat related, and there's lots of current underground, cd-r scene activity featuring fractured pop and rhythmic lo-fi psychedelia and the textural use of the human voice that unknowingly harks back to these archival recordings from 28 years ago, long hidden away but thankfully now issued on cd and vinyl. The way this combines both beautiful pop-iness with really weird methods and sounds seems like something fans of, say, Panda Bear would be totally into. Very recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Opium War"
MPEG Stream: "Heathens Have No Souls"
MPEG Stream: "Born Again Cretin"

YO LA TENGO They Shoot, We Score (Egon) cd 14.98
Over the years, Yo La Tengo have proven to be masters at creating such evocative atmosphere and feeling and emotion in their songs. So it was only a matter of time that wise film directors would seek them out to create scores for their films.
Between the years 2005 and 2006 four different films employed the (maybe not so) surprising soundtrack prowess of YLT, their film music, not all that removed from their band music, creating lingering bittersweet sounds both classy and sophisticated, lush and intimate.
For the score to Old Joy they were joined by Smokey Hormel on guitar to create the perfect hazy sounds for meandering roadtrip and a bit of Northwest exploration. For Junebug they employed a string and horn ensemble adding fluttery floral ambience. For Game 6 the band went at it alone creating the most dynamic and eclectic set of the bunch showing once again what amazing range YLT posses. The disc concludes with their contributions to the John Cameron Mitchell film Shortbus, adding some nice, light and charming sonic snippets to that sexually provocative/honest film.
Aside from being perfect for film music, we also always appreciated just how painterly the instrumental side of Yo La Tengo managed to be, conjuring so many moods and images with such a nice wide palette of delicately employed sounds. We want to give this to all our artist friends as we think it would be the perfect record to have playing in the studio when folks go to create art of their own. This collection came out last year but we only just got in enough of them to list, so grab one as fast as you can, 'cause if we run out we're not sure how quickly we will get them back in stock, since they were sent to us directly by the band (who says rockstars don't go to the post office!?) on the same day they left to go on a big tour!
MPEG Stream: "Getting Lost"
MPEG Stream: "Love Chant"
MPEG Stream: "Wizard's Sleeve"

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ANVIL This Is Thirteen (VH1 Classic) cd 13.98
Here it is, the record you've been waiting for - that is, if you saw the surprisingly well-received documentary "Anvil: The Story Of Anvil", wherein the long-suffering Canadian thrash band go through emotional and financial hell, and endure misadventures of Spinal Tap proportions, to record this, their 13th album if you didn't figure that out from the title. In the movie, it's the album they hope will put them back in the big leagues (where the were for about 15 minutes, maybe, back in the early '80s). And in the movie, it's obvious to everyone but them that going to the UK to record with a big name (and expensive) producer, the same one who recorded their early classic Metal On Metal in 1982, is NOT going to guarantee them the major label deal and rock star status they desire and (desperately believe they) deserve. But, it does leave you curious to hear the results.
After we saw the movie the first time last year, we (like everyone else who sees it) were overwhelmed with sympathy (pity?) for these never-say-die, 50-something kids still trying to make it big. Plus we already liked Anvil anyway. So we contacted the band via their website and tried to order their self-released This Is Thirteen album for AQ, figuring we should do our part for the cause. Unfortunately, it turned out the band wanted WAY too much money for 'em, we'd have had to sell 'em for like $25. So we had to pass. But now, thanks to the success of the quite excellent movie (go see it if you haven't already, even if you don't care about metal, trust us, it's great), it turns out that this is the lucky 13th album of Anvil's career after all, now getting a wider release. They've gotten more press in the last year or so than they had over the last two decades probably. Thanks to the film, Anvil is now touring regularly (double billed with the movie, at times, in fact) and apparently were finally able to quit their day jobs! We almost thought they would want to make a whole new album now with songs explicitly referencing the themes of the documentary - never giving up, following your dreams, believing in your friends and family, rockin' out, and being beaten down by harsh reality (not necessarily in that order). But now we realize those things ARE actually what these songs are about. Titles here include "Worry", "Should'a Would'a Could'a" and "Flying Blind" after all. "Ready To Fight" is another one, and in the movie guys did fight (each other) a lot too, though they always made up in the end. Furthermore, this IS very much an Anvil album, and the movie was called Anvil: The Story Of Anvil after all.
If you've heard any of Anvil's other records you know what to expect here. Straightforward '80s speed (and not so speedy) metal. Lots of shredding guitar solos, powerhouse drumming, catchy riffage, and singer/guitarist Lips' unique gravelly caterwaul, which can convey a lot of emotion at times (he's an emotional dude, you know if you've seen the movie). Basically, a headbanging good time, not unlike a hyper caffeinated Motorhead (if we had to describe this to someone unfamiliar with most metal).
The opening, title track is certainly quite heavy, a lumbering behemoth, though some might find it a little boring at over six minutes long. It showcases the powerful production job that the band were so proud of, however. The album then picks up speed up pretty quickly, with "Bombs Away" assaulting the ears in thrashy fashion, clocking in, as do most of the tracks here, at closer to 3 minutes. There's 13 songs (of course) plus one bonus - for this domestic VH1 Classic label release, they've added an extra track, and not just any track, it's "Thumb Hang", the wonderfully juvenile, Inquisition-themed, previously unrecorded early Anvil tune that was demoed a cappella by Lips in a scene in the movie, now done properly by the whole band! One of our faves here, with a memorable build up and killer galloping middle section.
While we can't say this is as good as Metal On Metal or Forged In Fire, it's no disgrace to their legacy either. Recommended to those who already have all dozen previous Anvil albums (of course). Or even just a couple Anvil albums. And to those who love the movie. And to those who just want to rock. The feel-good throwback metal album of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Flying Blind"
MPEG Stream: "Axe To Grind"
MPEG Stream: "American Refugee"

BACHELORETTE My Electric Family (Drag City) lp 15.98
Now available on vinyl!
We somehow missed the boat on the first two Bachelorette albums but now that the band has landed on Drag City, all the folks who slept on Bachelorette will finally get a chance to experience the utterly charming musical magic of this multitalented New Zealand songstress.
Bachelorette employ a keen pop sensibility as well as a fresh use of electronics, all the while finding inspiration in distinctly left-field musics, creating songs that are so totally engaging and memorable. You can definitely here bits of Broadcast, Bjork, and Goldfrapp, but Bachelorette rises is so much more than her inspiration, easily soaring over the mostly underwhelming hordes aiming for the same sound. The strength of Bachelorette is how she absorbs all sorts of disparate sounds and ideas ('60s psych-pop, Delia Derbshyre-esque electronics, girl groups, and we can't help but think that her song "Mindwarp" might be a tip of a hat to Patrick Cowley's classic hi-nrgy classic of the same name) and deftly weaving them together into so many different musical landscapes, which makes the whole album totally coherent, songs that flow with an ease and assured seduction that has us under her spell. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "The National Grid"
MPEG Stream: "Mindwarp"
MPEG Stream: "Long Time Gone"

BLACK SHEEP Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse (Invada) 2cd 31.00
Achtung! UK's Black Sheep are another wonderfully indulgent Julian Cope related heavy psych rawk unit (a la Brain Donor), not to be confused with the '90s hiphop group. If you're a regular at JC's Head Heritage website (you should be) you know all about the man's expert obsession with underground '70s freakrock, The Stooges, Faust, Hawkwind, all that good stuff. That's the idea here, two sprawling discs, Black Sheep jamming away giving musical expression to such political / subversive / revolutionary / radical chic topics as "Underground Resistance" and "Che".
It all begins (of course) with disc one, track one, "Ernesto": urgent strum, field recordings of rain and thunder, it's like an Amon Duul acoustic ritual mashed up with the intro to Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath". The track reaches a screaming peak, then settles back to a simple throb... The throbbing continues on the more drum based "Protest-Underground", a tribal chant of that channels Ya Ho Wha and Edgar Broughton. The disc's third and final track starts off as a sparse voice/acoustic guitar ditty before pounding tom-tom drums join in to accentuate the song's apocalyptic character. Disc two boasts another three, long tracks, again full of chanting and strumming and drumming and gobs of droning spacey synth FX... There's some quite nice mellow parts mixed in, and it all really does sound like something recorded no later than 1976.
Probably coulda/shoulda highlighted this, but we do have to admit that unless you're totally hooked on Cope's Kool Aid, you might find, ferinstance, that someone chanting the phrase "underground resistance" over and over again (signifying what exactly?) IS sorta dumb... though that doesn't stop us from digging it. The title (also one of the songs) "Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse" is also a mite too clever, meaning dumb as well. Sounds like something Acid Mothers Temple would come up with, but of course we like them too, and if you also like Acid Mothers Temple, chances are you'll enjoy Black Sheep, their music and mindset are fairly well aligned.
MPEG Stream: "Ernesto"
MPEG Stream: "Protest-Underground"
MPEG Stream: "Leila Khaled"

BLACK SHEEP Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse (Invada) 2lp 39.00
Achtung! UK's Black Sheep are another wonderfully indulgent Julian Cope related heavy psych rawk unit (a la Brain Donor), not to be confused with the '90s hiphop group. If you're a regular at JC's Head Heritage website (you should be) you know all about the man's expert obsession with underground '70s freakrock, The Stooges, Faust, Hawkwind, all that good stuff. That's the idea here, two sprawling discs, Black Sheep jamming away giving musical expression to such political / subversive / revolutionary / radical chic topics as "Underground Resistance" and "Che".
It all begins (of course) with disc one, track one, "Ernesto": urgent strum, field recordings of rain and thunder, it's like an Amon Duul acoustic ritual mashed up with the intro to Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath". The track reaches a screaming peak, then settles back to a simple throb... The throbbing continues on the more drum based "Protest-Underground", a tribal chant of that channels Ya Ho Wha and Edgar Broughton. The disc's third and final track starts off as a sparse voice/acoustic guitar ditty before pounding tom-tom drums join in to accentuate the song's apocalyptic character. Disc two boasts another three, long tracks, again full of chanting and strumming and drumming and gobs of droning spacey synth FX... There's some quite nice mellow parts mixed in, and it all really does sound like something recorded no later than 1976.
Probably coulda/shoulda highlighted this, but we do have to admit that unless you're totally hooked on Cope's Kool Aid, you might find, ferinstance, that someone chanting the phrase "underground resistance" over and over again (signifying what exactly?) IS sorta dumb... though that doesn't stop us from digging it. The title (also one of the songs) "Kiss My Sweet Apocalypse" is also a mite too clever, meaning dumb as well. Sounds like something Acid Mothers Temple would come up with, but of course we like them too, and if you also like Acid Mothers Temple, chances are you'll enjoy Black Sheep, their music and mindset are fairly well aligned.
MPEG Stream: "Ernesto"
MPEG Stream: "Protest-Underground"
MPEG Stream: "Leila Khaled"

BONG Bethmoora (Infinite Exchange) 2cd-r 16.98
A new double disc of crushing slow motion space doom from UK doomlords BONG, and be warned, this thing is limited to maybe 100 copies, we tried to order half of those and ended up with more like a dozen. So normally we would highlight this, make a huge deal about it, and sell a ton, cuz this is exactly the format required to fully enjoy the epic glacial cosmic drift of Bong, 2 discs, 3 songs, an epic multi part blackened expanse of slowly unfurling low end doomdronesludge, spaced out and druggy, single riffs spread out to forever, meditative, mesmerizing, a sound somewhere between Electric Wizard, Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg and Bohren. Two originals on disc one, and the whole of disc two is filled up with an epic, ultra minimal cover of Pink Floyd's "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun", a surprisingly restrained, deep, dark, smoldering space rock slow jam, total late night chill out come down dream doom for sure.
So we won't make a big deal out of it, but grab one of these while you can, they're probably already out of print which means we most likely won't be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: "Stone Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Bethmoora"
MPEG Stream: "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun"

CLUSTER & ENO s/t (Bureau B) cd 15.98
With the band's blessing, Germany's Bureau B has taken over from the Water label, re-reissuing a bunch of crucial Cluster albums, on both cd and vinyl, including this one of our favorite Krautrock, or heck, just plain ol' records ever, the first of two collaborations between art rock / "ambient" music pioneer n' generally acknowledged genius Brian Eno and Krautrock electronics legends Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius aka Cluster! You know that's got to be good, and it is, paving the way for the likes of Aphex Twin so many years later. This self-titled disc (the one with the microphone stand silhouetted against a blue sky on the cover) dates originally from 1977. On it, they're joined by guests including Asmus Tietchens and Can's Holger Czukay, and construct warm, organic instrumentals utilizing both acoustic instruments and analog synths. This is soft and mellow and melodic but at the same time these songs are no push-overs, however gentle. To be honest, I (Allan) had never heard *anything* quite like Cluster before these got reissued on cd by the Gyroscope label back in the mid '90s, but I very quickly fell in love with 'em. The discs with Eno are good starting places to get into the extensive Cluster and Cluster-related discography, and certainly they're Cluster's best-sellers... but anything with Moebius and/or Roedelius involved is worth hearing, we'd say. Another chance to get with the Cluster & Eno program, people!
MPEG Stream: "Ho Renomo"
MPEG Stream: "Schone Hande"

CLUSTER & ENO s/t (Bureau B) lp 17.98
With the band's blessing, Germany's Bureau B has taken over from the Water label, re-reissuing a bunch of crucial Cluster albums, on both cd and vinyl, including this one of our favorite Krautrock, or heck, just plain ol' records ever, the first of two collaborations between art rock / "ambient" music pioneer n' generally acknowledged genius Brian Eno and Krautrock electronics legends Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius aka Cluster! You know that's got to be good, and it is, paving the way for the likes of Aphex Twin so many years later. This self-titled disc (the one with the microphone stand silhouetted against a blue sky on the cover) dates originally from 1977. On it, they're joined by guests including Asmus Tietchens and Can's Holger Czukay, and construct warm, organic instrumentals utilizing both acoustic instruments and analog synths. This is soft and mellow and melodic but at the same time these songs are no push-overs, however gentle. To be honest, I (Allan) had never heard *anything* quite like Cluster before these got reissued on cd by the Gyroscope label back in the mid '90s, but I very quickly fell in love with 'em. The discs with Eno are good starting places to get into the extensive Cluster and Cluster-related discography, and certainly they're Cluster's best-sellers... but anything with Moebius and/or Roedelius involved is worth hearing, we'd say. Another chance to get with the Cluster & Eno program, people!
MPEG Stream: "Ho Renomo"
MPEG Stream: "Schone Hande"

DECIBEL #60 October 2009 magazine 4.95
On the cover, the return of IMMORTAL!! Inside, an awesome oral history of splatter metal legends Gwar, as well as Municipal Waste, Job For A Cowboy, Nile, Devildriver, Divine Heresy, Asphyx, Goreaphobia, Keelhaul, Amon, Rammstein, City Of Ships, Scale The Summit, Sarke, Demonical, Born Of Osiris, Arkaea, Bill Steer of Carcass, reviews a handful of MP3's, Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares reviews his favorite restaurants, an extreme metal football preview, Cynic's Focus inducted into the Decibel Hall Of Fame, and of course tons of reviews, as well as some hilarious back page snark from the Mountain Goats John Darnielle.

ELECTRIC PRUNES Release Of An Oath (Reprise) lp 14.98
Reissued! Great to have this classic available on vinyl, again!
It's funny that this record came out under the Electric Prunes moniker as the '60s psych band best known for their hit "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" aren't really anywhere to be found on this record. Instead this is the brainchild and work of legendary arranger and producer David Axelrod - and much like the Prunes' better known Mass In F Minor, this is its Judaic follow-up. Clocking in at around 25 minutes, and utilizing some of the best Los Angeles players of the late '60s, Release Of An Oath is a brilliant concoction of rich grooves, prog moments, acid rock and classical tropes. It's no surprise that to this day Axelrod's work is sampled left and right, as his sense of melody and his kick ass breaks are so damn perfect!
MPEG Stream: "Kol Nidre"
MPEG Stream: "General Confessional"

LHASA s/t (Nettwerk) cd 15.98
We were very excited to see the arrival of a new full length from this Montreal based songstress! This is album number 3 for Ms Lhasa De Sela, and all of the adjectives we've showered upon her previous two albums do still apply here (2004's The Living Road and 1997's La Llorona were both highly recommended, beautiful, sultry wonders, please see our reviews for the detailed descriptions!). However, some might find this one to be perhaps a bit more (or too) 'Lilith Fair' and AOR-ish at times. 'Twas a bit disappointing in that regard. Although her voice is as amazing as ever, these recordings didn't floor us immediately like the previous ones did. The overall tone weighs heavier on melancholia and less on darkly whimsical enchantment. Actually, it draws easy comparisons to Norah Jones' last album Not Too Late, and conjured imaginings of Chan Marshall as a smoky lounge singer too. So, while we still wholeheartedly embrace her first two albums to one and all, this one might be destined for a different audience.
MPEG Stream: "Rising"
MPEG Stream: "The Lonely Spider"

MATINEES, THE Make The Leap (Snowstorm Music) cd 9.98
The indie pop garden continues to blossom in the Bay Area! The Matinees' sophomore full length catches a ride on the fleeting warm sunbeams that visit SF around this time of year. Bask with us in some really good girl/boy sung tunes. On songs such as "Mission Beach" they're very much in the vein of Quasi, and take a more reeling whimsical spin more akin to Fiery Furnaces on "Fair Weather Friend". As for their drowsy pop rendition of David Bowie's "Modern Love"... well, we're not quite sure how we feel about that, but the rest of the album sure sounds sweet. Much more polished and composed than 2007's Sleepy Seeds. The album was recorded and co-produced by Greg Ashley, and features guests from local pals Love Is Chemical, Scrabbel, Invisible Cities, and Agent Ribbons.
MPEG Stream: "Mission Beach"
MPEG Stream: "Fair Weather Friend"

MIJ Yodeling Astrologer (Jackpot) lp 19.98
Now available on vinyl!
Just when we thought all the weird dusty corners of strange and magical sounds had been uncovered from the vast archives of the ESP label, something new to us, shiny and unbelievably wonderful gets unearthed. MIJ is the strangely cryptic moniker of Jim Holberg, (or on second thought not so strange as we just realized, it's his name spelled backwards!) who was discovered in Washington Square Park on a hot summer day in 1969 yodeling and playing guitar by ESP label head Bernard Stoller. But this wasn't any country western or Swiss Alps yodeling, this was some freaked out high-keening spacey Martian kind of yodeling. The kind that cuts through time and space and penetrates your subconscious. Blown away by his street performance, Stoller invited Holberg into the studio the next day to record a full length album and in just three hours with an array of echo effects and a patient and agreeable engineer, the Yodeling Astrologer was born. Apparently Holberg had explained to Stoller that after being injured in an auto-accident that had fractured his skull and impaired his hearing, his perceptions became altered and he began to do things musically that he couldn't comprehend but they somehow worked, and indeed they do. With both voice and guitar reverbed to the Nth degree, this is some Donovan meet Dreamies meets Curt Boetchner of The Millenium psych-folk magic. So awesome and beautiful, weird and dreamy, with well-written songs and just enough freaky yodeling that won't scare off the folks who might be put off by the concept of, well, freaky yodeling. We've been playing this nearly everyday, it's so good. So Highly Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Two Stars"
MPEG Stream: "Grok (Martian Love Call)"
MPEG Stream: "Never Be Free"

MOJO September 2009 magazine + cd 9.99
Arctic Monkeys on the cover of this month's Mojo, while inside:Sky Saxon, Beastie Boys Comus, Billy Childish, an interview with David Sylvian, White Denim, Queen photgrapher Peter Hince, J.J. Cale, Michael Jackson, The Housemartins plus reviews galore, as well as a cover mounted cd featuring a killer collection of "essential mindblowing summer grooves", from Tinariwen, Tony Allan, Ali Farka Toure, Konono No.1 and more...

MONOTONIX Where Were You When It Happened? (Drag City) cd 14.98
If you've ever heard anyone speaking about Israeli trio Monotonix, you've no doubt heard one main detail: the band is fucking INSANE live. There's not even enough hyperbole that could accurately describe the sensation of seeing these three hairy, scantily clad, mustachioed dudes chugging Red Bull (no, really, there wasn't a beer in sight, just... Red Bull... and lots of it) and rocking their balls off like, well, no one else. Their super stripped down approach, consisting of guitar, drums, and a singer decked out in nothing but a pair of short shorts, is sure to appeal to fans of sleazy, sweaty rock in the vein of the Estrus Records roster, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Royal Trux. The band's unhinged live performances have certainly set the bar pretty high and sort of jinxed any attempts to review their albums, because no one - NO ONE - could ever capture that kind of energy in the studio. And even still, Monotonix know how to bring it, and their albums are a perfect lesson in relentlessly wild, bloozey fun. While the sound is not exactly "tight", the band has mastered the art of holding it together in their own way, never missing a beat in the process. The sound of Monotonix is relatively simple, but very effective: Super thick, octaved guitars, heavily accented wildman vocals, and drumming that is even more impressive when you see the guy being hoisted up on his bass drum while audience members hold the snare and the hi-hat and pass him through the crowd. All in all, Monotonix make ridiculously fun music, giving you the freedom to get drunker than drunk while they do all the hard work. Instant party. 'Nuff said.
MPEG Stream: "Flesh And Blood"
MPEG Stream: "My Needs"
MPEG Stream: "Spit It On Your Face"

MONOTONIX Where Were You When It Happened? (Drag City) lp 15.98
If you've ever heard anyone speaking about Israeli trio Monotonix, you've no doubt heard one main detail: the band is fucking INSANE live. There's not even enough hyperbole that could accurately describe the sensation of seeing these three hairy, scantily clad, mustachioed dudes chugging Red Bull (no, really, there wasn't a beer in sight, just... Red Bull... and lots of it) and rocking their balls off like, well, no one else. Their super stripped down approach, consisting of guitar, drums, and a singer decked out in nothing but a pair of short shorts, is sure to appeal to fans of sleazy, sweaty rock in the vein of the Estrus Records roster, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Royal Trux. The band's unhinged live performances have certainly set the bar pretty high and sort of jinxed any attempts to review their albums, because no one - NO ONE - could ever capture that kind of energy in the studio. And even still, Monotonix know how to bring it, and their albums are a perfect lesson in relentlessly wild, bloozey fun. While the sound is not exactly "tight", the band has mastered the art of holding it together in their own way, never missing a beat in the process. The sound of Monotonix is relatively simple, but very effective: Super thick, octaved guitars, heavily accented wildman vocals, and drumming that is even more impressive when you see the guy being hoisted up on his bass drum while audience members hold the snare and the hi-hat and pass him through the crowd. All in all, Monotonix make ridiculously fun music, giving you the freedom to get drunker than drunk while they do all the hard work. Instant party. 'Nuff said.
MPEG Stream: "Flesh And Blood"
MPEG Stream: "My Needs"
MPEG Stream: "Spit It On Your Face"

O'MALLEY, STEPHEN Petite Geante (The Tapeworm) cassette 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, MAINLY BECAUSE IT WAS AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE! HEE HEE! SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest in the Tapeworm series of super limited cassette releases, the first two were from Philip Jeck (now sold out) and Jean Baudrillard (not really Baudrillard, but a reading of his work), but this one might be the most anticipated, which makes the fact that we were only able to get only 10 copies even that much more of a bummer.
So yeah, a tiny handful of you will get lucky and will snag one of these, a gorgeous sidelong dronescape from Stephen O'Malley (of SUNNO))), KTL, Gravetemple, Aethenor, Ginnungagap, Lotus Eaters, Khanate, Burning Witch, Thorr's Hammer among others), buzzing rumbling guitars, throbbing low end, delicate shimmer, haunting field recordings, music from an art installation, gorgeous stuff, without even noticing, we listened to it 4 or 5 times in a row, the tape flipping over and over, and we could have listened to it 5 more times!
Again apologies for the tiny number of copies, but often we don't have any control over stuff like that...
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES, cool cover art by Savage Pencil.

ONRA Chinoiseries (Baked Goods) cd 17.98
Back in print, and back in stock!!
Every crate digger worth their salt has come upon the Asian record dilemma. Records (often Chinese) that look so awesome and full of promise with their mysterious photography, strange graphics and humorous English misspellings, only to be underwhelmed by the most boring, pedestrian and oft-times sickly sweet music contained within. But what's a cratedigger to do when they are actually IN Asia and have to wade through stacks upon stacks of such records knowing they can only bring home a tiny batch? That's the dilemma the French-Vietnamese producer Onra found himself in on a trip to Vietnam where scouring through various flea markets, he picked up a stack of promising but highly worn records. Like the best of recent instrumental hip-hop records by J Dilla, Madlib (especially his Beat Konducta Indian series), and Oh No processed through the radio collage filters of Sublime Frequencies, Onra was able to mine pure gold from the scratchy sounds he collected abroad. Bits of operatic theater, odd sixties easy-listening covers, traditional flute and string ensembles, love songs and obscure soundtracks chopped into loops and grooves with all the rough crackle and sheen kept in tact. Soooo Awesome!!!!
MPEG Stream: "I Wanna Go Back"
MPEG Stream: "Dark Sea"
MPEG Stream: "Here Come The Flutes"
MPEG Stream: "The Vallee of Love"

PILCHER, JOHN & MARTIN MCKELVEY A Bun Dance (Dungeon Taxis) cd 22.00
Here's some fucked-up, lo-fi collage music composed from 1968-1972 by two New Zealand artists, neither of which seem to have much in the way of a history before these recordings or even afterward. All we are left with is this head-scratching document loosely contextualized by an anonymously penned piece of academic writing that pretty much tells us this is fucked-up, lo-fi collage music amidst the five dollar wordplay. Appropriated snippets from the Apollo 11 lunar landing communications, and the Beatles' Help poster on the cover are the smallest of entry points to this album of murkily recorded potato mash of free-noise improvisation, varispeed tape manipulation, gritty vinyl abuse, and tonal smear. These primitive excursions in free-noise unhinged from various sources were contemporaries to the Canadian performance art / sound collage project Intersystems (albeit without any of the authoritarian vocal delivery from Intersystems' Blake Parker) and closer to home, looks forward to the advent many years later of New Zealand innerspace weirdos Sandoz Lab Technicians.
MPEG Stream: "One Giant Leap"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Smoke"
MPEG Stream: "Ac 2"

RAVAGE End Of Tomorrow (Metal Blade) cd 14.98
Metal Blade brings us the blazing attack of Boston's Ravage, and boy do they sound like they belong on Metal Blade - circa 1987 maybe. Total '80s style metal a la Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, extra-energetic and self-consciously classic.
They've apparently been around for a while (formed in 1995) but this is only their second studio album. Otherwise their discography, according to the Metal Archives site on the internet, consists entirely of limited edition live albums (5 of them!! Including, apparently, a mostly instrumental one called Yes, We Have No Lead Singer, 'cause he got lost on the way to the show!) plus a few eps and demo tapes and whatnot. So it's cool that Metal Blade picked 'em up, odd too because Metal Blade has already released plenty of albums by bands that sound a lot like this in the '90s (Wardog anyone?) and they never did that well outside of Germany anyway. Maybe they thought it was time to try again.
We can recommend this, at any rate, it's a good one if you're in the mood for some surefire headbanging action. And, it's got a Repka painting of a giant radioactive spider laying waste to a city on the cover. More importantly, perhaps, this also boasts the vocals of one Al Ravage, who possesses a great shrieky voice, sorta Dickinsonian. Perfect for this heavy and speedy metal, loaded with catchy riffage, some of it recalling Euro power metallers like Gamma Ray and Iron Fire for sure, but also the NWOBHM and American acts like Metal Church and Metallica back in the day. And we're definitely reminded of Judas Priest's maybe-most-metal offering, Painkiller. Possibly 'cause Ravage cover "The Nightcrawler" from that album here. And their own song "The Shredder" could easily have been on Painkiller too. No bad thing, that..

RUBE WADDELL Bound For The Gates Of Hell (self-released) cd 11.98
Eccentric Bay Area band Rube Waddell have gone back and remastered their albums so now a whole new bunch of folks can dig these guys' fun and oddball approach to music making! The beloved local trio make great use of the usual rock instruments, but also include more oddball sound making devices such as sousa horn, jaw harp, mahogany and koa wood ukuleles, accordion, glass harmonica, marimba, autoharp, and much more. Rube Waddell's sound is a little bit acousticky punk, a little bit Tom Waitsian drunken carousing, a touch of twangy silliness, and a pinch of gravely blues rowdiness. An SF institution!
MPEG Stream: "Assoi"
MPEG Stream: "Nadie Va Al Cielo"

SKYGREEN LEOPARDS Gorgeous Johnny (Jagjaguwar) cd 14.98
Yeah, we know this came out a coupla months ago, but we think it makes a perfect late summer into autumn kind of listen. Y'know, one that's best listened to amid the soft rustle of freshly falling leaves and the cooler evening breezes. The Skygreen Leopards' latest album Gorgeous Johnny is filled with a baker's dozen willowy psych-tinged folk pop numbers. Their pretty, slightly woozy melodies drift in and out of the shadows, making for an ever so comfortingly drowsy listen. Adding a bit more sweetness to the hazy warm concoction is the presence of The Papercuts' Jason Quever on bass, drums and piano. The band continues to follow surefootedly in the distinctly west coast countrified pop Americana tradition of The Byrds, Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Grateful Dead. Definitely recommended if you dig contemporaries like Devendra Banhart, Fleet Foxes and Vetiver too.
MPEG Stream: "Margery"
MPEG Stream: "Paid By The Hour"

SKYGREEN LEOPARDS Gorgeous Johnny (Jagjaguwar) lp 14.98
Yeah, we know this came out a coupla months ago, but we think it makes a perfect late summer into autumn kind of listen. Y'know, one that's best listened to amid the soft rustle of freshly falling leaves and the cooler evening breezes. The Skygreen Leopards' latest album Gorgeous Johnny is filled with a baker's dozen willowy psych-tinged folk pop numbers. Their pretty, slightly woozy melodies drift in and out of the shadows, making for an ever so comfortingly drowsy listen. Adding a bit more sweetness to the hazy warm concoction is the presence of The Papercuts' Jason Quever on bass, drums and piano. The band continues to follow surefootedly in the distinctly west coast countrified pop Americana tradition of The Byrds, Moby Grape, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Grateful Dead. Definitely recommended if you dig contemporaries like Devendra Banhart, Fleet Foxes and Vetiver too.
MPEG Stream: "Margery"
MPEG Stream: "Paid By The Hour"

SOLARS Shadow / Cave (Pop Drones) cass 7.98
If you're a loyal aQ follower, you already know how much we love to discover new and awesome music from all over this dusty planet. And you probably already know that what makes us even more excited is being able to share it with all of our fellow music nerds! With that in mind, we absolutely could not wait to share with you our newest obsession and latest discovery, Vancouver's best-kept dream drone secret, Solars!
This brand new tape from the heavy hitting drone-gaze duo completely hits the spot, super unique and magical stuff here. Imagine the slow creep of distant bells growing louder and louder until you're bundled in a blanket of rich, metallic swell, then massive layers of thick guitar wash expand over you into monolithic chords that shimmer and morph in the blinding sunlight. Like taking the crushingly heavy, melodic smear of MBV's loveless, and combining it with the melodic richness and orchestral detail of Stars of the Lid, and there you have Solars' Shadow/ Cave, their debut cassette on Pop Drones Records. Somber melodies wrapped in cocoons of fuzz and buzzing heaviness, echoing electric guitar lulling you deeper and deeper into the night's hazy mist, completely blissed out and amazing!! Though the duo have also released a 7" in the past, this is their most recent release and a fine representation of what these sonic magi can conjure up. With a tape debut as killer as this, we seriously cannot wait to hear what else these Canadian conjurers cook up in the future. Super duper limited to an edition of 30, we only have a few, so you better be quick if you want one, they will be gone in no time!!
MPEG Stream: "Shadow"
MPEG Stream: "Cave"

SWASHBUCKLE Back To The Noose (Nuclear Blast) cd 15.98
You thought rap and metal sounded good together? (Or not?)
Well, how about thrash metal and PIRATES?? A match made in Heaven. Or hell! Or on the high seas! Kinda silly, but fun for sure... the thrash metal is furious and tight and heavy, the vocals aren't especially 'pirate-y', but the lyrics certainly are. And there are some awesome between song interludes, featuring clips from movies and samples and various other bits of pirate dialogue and drama...
MPEG Stream: "Scurvy Black"
MPEG Stream: "Rime Of The Haggard Mariner"
MPEG Stream: "Back To The Noose"

TERRORIZER Issue #187 magazine + 2cd 9.25
Latest issue of UK heavy music powerhouse Terrorizer. On the cover, Taiwanese black metallers Chthonic (a particularly awesome and creepy cover shot btw!), inside there's Behmoth, Bolt Thrower, Ulver, Neurosis, Death Angel, Glorior Belli, Burnt By The Sun, as well as part one of Terrorizer's Sludge Special, featuring a rad oral histroy of sludge and of course a brief history of Eyehategod. There's also a cool feature on Until The Light Takes Us, the new black metal doc made by Aaron from noise pop band Iran.
And as always, a ton of features on new and upcoming bands, loads of reviews, records, cds, reissues, shows, books movies, and this issue comes with a double cd, one of the discs featuring exclusively unsigned bands!

TROUBLE Simple Mind Condition (Escapi Music) cd 12.98
SALE ITEM! We got these imports a while back, at end of '07, listed them then for all the eager doomfans. The disc has FINALLY just come out domestically, but we happen to still have a handful of those imports, previously priced at $25.00. Can't really expect anyone to pay the import price now, so we're marking 'em down, actually below what the actual domestic retail price would be, and less than we paid for 'em actually, but that's what a sale is all about sometimes. A deal for you! Well, a deal if you missed it when we originally listed this. Our review:
Must be a cold day in Hell. The long rumored, NEW Trouble album is finally here. Been a long time coming. In fact, it seemed like Judgment Day might get here first, that this would never happen, but it has. Chances are, those looking to pick up this expensive import are probably only gonna be fans already, so there's not much need for us to explain just how legendary these Chicago doom metallers are. Let's just say that along with Pentagram, Saint Vitus and Candlemass, in the eighties these guys were the bearers of the Black Sabbath torch...with hints of more psychedelic '60s stuff like Hendrix, Pink Floyd, and the Beatles surfacing in their music as well. Rick Rubin tried to break 'em big back in 1990 but it wasn't to be, though their eponymous Def American debut remains a (sadly out of print) classic. Various breakups, lineups, fuckups, and troubles befell, the band last releasing a studio album in 1995, Plastic Green Head, which easily could have been their swansong, their final epitaph. But twelve long years later they have reconvened (more or less) with the most crucial factor being that original vocalist Eric Wagner is at the mic. When we last heard him, on Dave Grohl's Probot project, it seemed criminal that Trouble wasn't happening at the time and that their future was, as ever, in doubt. Now, at last, at least, they're back (even if this release was damn hard for us to get) and at this point is just nice to hear Wagner crooning in his sincere soaring gargle over some heavy riffs once again!! Like Dio and his rainbows and wishing wells, Eric Wagner has still got Heaven on his mind. Other familiar Trouble tropes, musical and lyrical, abound, from swinging Sabbathy riffage to mellow stoner psych balladry about reaching "the end of my daze". Better than Plastic Green Head? As good as Manic Frustration? Up there with Run To The Light? Er, well, each fan must judge. One thing that's most definitely rad about this record is that they chose to do a cover of "Ride The Sky" by krautrock proto-metallers Lucifer's Friend!
MPEG Stream: "Pictures Of Life"
MPEG Stream: "If I Only Had A Reason"

VILE, KURT He's Alright (Matador) 7" 4.98
SHIT YEAH. Kurt Vile returns with this 3 song teaser to his upcoming full length on indie rock powerhouse Matador, and if the scores of KV records we've been digging these last few months weren't confirmation enough, this 7" proves it: Kurt Vile is no fucking fluke, but the real deal. An honest, heartfelt songwriter and a damn fine guitarist who will no doubt be setting the world on fire with his catchy, melodic tunes and cool slow drawl vocals. "He's Alright" is a cool acoustic number, sort of Neil Young-ish with a nice upbeat acoustic guitar and some spacey electrics. It's simple and straightforward, but the production is lush and 100% bullshit free. The B-side kicks off with the brief "Farfisas In Falltime," utilizing the legendary titular organ to create a droney, buzzing looplike interlude before finishing up with "Take Your Time," another acoustic number showing off Kurt's fingerpicking proficiency and delightfully mushmouthed vocals.
This little record comes pressed on handsome marbled blue vinyl, and has us jonesin' for the day - not too far off now - that Kurt unleashes Childish Prodigy upon the world. We can't wait!

WIRE, THE #308 October 2009 magazine + cd 9.98
This month's issue features Broadcast (on the cover) discussing their witchy new release, also spacey techno technician Dopplereffekt, "hypnagogic popster" Sun Araw, Romanian avant-composer Iancu Dumitrescu, the Master Musicians of Joujouka, and more, including Lou Reed given the Invisible Jukebox blindfold listening test by Alan Licht. Also, the Primer this issue is about kosmische krautrock music a la Ash Ra Tempel, Siloah, and Yatha Sidra amongst others. And Christian Marclay discusses the cover art of Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream & Other Delights. Plus all the usual reviews, columns, new bits, charts (where you'll find an Aquarius 15!), and more.
Oh, and this issue also features a free cover mounted cd sampler, The Wire Tapper 22, featuring Shits And Giggles, Zenlo, Pink Mountain, Climax Golden Twins, and 16 others.

XLR8R #128 August 2009 magazine 4.99
Latest from this bad ass SF based electronic music magazine, on the cover, the Modular Recordings label from Australia, inside: grime lord Durrty Goods, dubstepper Untold, LA jazzhead Ras G, Toronto post punkers DD/MM/YYYY, a feature on labels XLR*R loves, including Werk Discs, Truckback, Modern Love, Type, Bersa Discos, Dirty, Mothership, Wireblock, True Panther Sounds, I Am Sound, In The Red, Discerror, DIYNamic and Interdependent Media. Also inside: Black Moth Super Rainbow, a weird fashion shoot with Belgian musicians and the usual ton of reviews.

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V/A Wayfaring Strangers: Lonesome Heroes (Numero Group) 2lp 22.00
Now on Vinyl!!
Another incredible installment in Numero Group's Wayfaring Strangers series, Lonesome Heroes is the male singer-songwriter counterpart to the series' first installment, Ladies of The Canyon. But instead of one artist serving as the thematic touchstone (Joni Mitchell and John Fahey were the key influences of the first two installments), there are several influences present, but the artists are unified by a moody tone of loneliness and introspection. You can hear traces of Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Tim Hardin and Tom Rapp in this collection of private press wonder (one artist, Kieran White, the only singer from the UK and a member of Steamhammer, actually sounds a lot like Sam Beam from Iron and Wine!), but the songs that span the late sixties to the early eighties are neither love songs or protest songs. Nor do they connect in any real way to a folk music scene or its traditions. These 17 artists, mostly from America, were rambling individuals who more often than not wrote music for recording more than for performing, penning quiet songs about time spent and lost, regrets and joys, and nature as the mystical reminder of this ever present balance of life. The home studio has a big presence in the recordings casting a warm tape aura around the songs and making subtle studio effects (reverb, multi-tracking, panning) add interesting details to the compositions. It's not all just an acoustic guitar and a voice (though some of it is), but aural flourishes of flutes, pianos, and female backing vocals can also be heard throughout. Perfect for Sunday Morning listening! As usual, Numero Group do a great job with the packaging with an added booklet featuring photos of the original private press lps and mini-bios of all the artists here. Astonishing!
MPEG Stream: RICHARD SMYRNIOS "As I Walk"
MPEG Stream: KIERAN WHITE "Hummingbirds"
MPEG Stream: GEORGE CROMARTY "Little Children"
MPEG Stream: JOHN VILLEMONTE "I Am The Moonlight"

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SUCH HAWKS SUCH HOUNDS (Long Song Films) dvd-r 16.98
Long in the works documentary chronicling the development of stoner rock, heavy psych, doom, drone and lots of stops in between. It's almost too broad a concept to cover completely in a single movie, but the film makers do a pretty great job focusing on the bands they dig.
Lots of interviews, Wino, the dudes from Fatso Jetson, Scott Reeder of Kyuss and the Obsessed, Om, Sleep, Acid King, Dead Meadow, SUNNO))), Comets On Fire, Bardo Pond, Earthless, Nebula, and an amazing series of interviews with original Pentagram drummer Geof O'Keefe.
Lots of extended focus features/interviews/performance segments on Earthless, Fatso Jetson, Comets On Fire, Dead Meadow and others, and some awesome rare footage of pre-Kyuss outfit Across The River.
Pretty great actually, a fun film, lots of rad live footage, and some of those guys are total characters, from the burned out stoners in Nebula to the cosmic wisemen in Om. The segment where all the bands talk about their seventies proto-metal faves like Sir Lord Baltimore and Dust, among others, had us hankering bad for a film covering all that amazing early stuff. Here's hoping someone somewhere is working on that one...

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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!

ALTAR OF OBLIVION "Sinews Of Anguish" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 14.98
ARGUS "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98
ASTRA "The Weirding" (Rise Above) cd 13.98
ASYLUM "The Earth Is The Insane Asylum Of The Universe" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98
AUSTRASIAN GOAT, THE / CHAMBRE FROIDE "split" (At War With False Noise) 7" 9.98
AVETT BROTHERS "Slight Figure Of Speech" (American) 7" 6.50
BEATLES, THE "Magical Mystery Tour (2009 Remaster)" (EMI) cd 17.98
BEATLES, THE "Revolver (2009 Remaster)" (EMI) cd 17.98
BEATLES, THE "Rubber Soul (2009 Remaster)" (EMI) cd 17.98
BEATLES, THE "s/t (White Album 2009 Remaster)" (EMI) 2cd 26.00
BIBLE OF THE DEVIL / BLADE OF THE RIPPER "split" (Scarey Records) 7" 5.98
BLACK COBRA "Chronomega" (Southern Lord) cd 15.98
BLIND BLAKE "Back Biting Bee Blues" (Monk) lp 22.00
BLK JKS "After Robots" (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98
CARTER FAMILY "I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes" (Monk) lp 22.00
CARY, TRISTRAM "Trios For Synthi VCS3 Synthesizer And Turntables" (AKA) lp 27.00
CELAN "Halo" (Exile On Mainstream) cd 14.98
CIRCLE X "Live In Dijon '79" (Fractal) 10" 22.00
CIRCUS "s/t" (Esoteric Recordings) cd 23.00
COPELAND, ERIC "Alanon" (Catsup Plate) lp 16.98
COPELAND, ERIC "Alien In A Garbage Dump" (Paw Tracks) cd 14.98
COTTEN, ELIZABETH "When I'm Gone" (Smithsonian Folkways) lp 16.98
DAVIS, BETTY "Is It Love Or Desire" (Light In The Attic/Sundazed) cd/lp 16.98/21.00
DDAA "Action And Japanese Demonstration" (Fractal) cd 27.00
DEADNOTES "Orange Trumpet" (Soft Abuse) lp 14.98
DIMINISHED MEN "Shadow Instrumentals" (Abduction) lp 16.98
ESPVALL, HELENA & MASAKI BATOH "Overloaded Ark" (Drag City) cd/lp 14.98/21.00
ESSO TRINIDAD STEELBAND, THE "Van Dyke Parks Presents" (Bananastan) cd + dvd 16.98
FAR EAST FAMILY BAND "Nipponjin" (Phoenix) cd 17.98
FRISELL, BILL "Disfarmer" (Nonesuch) cd 19.98
GERMANO, LISA "Magic Neighbor" (Young God) cd/lp 14.98/15.98
GIRLS "Lust For Life / Life In San Francisco" (True Panther) 7" 5.50
GOES CUBE "Another Day Has Passed" (The End) cd 14.98
GRASS WIDOW "s/t" (Make A Mess) lp 12.98
HEIMS "Worship Or Die" (Moribund) cd 15.98
HELCARAXE "Broadsword" (Regimental) cd 14.98
HOOD, ROBERT "Minimal Nation" (M-Plant) 2cd 17.98
HORDE OF HEL "Blodskam" (Moribund) cd 15.98
ILL WIND "Flashes" (Sunbeam) 2cd 25.00
IRON MONKEY "Iron Monkey / Our Problem" (Earache) 2cd 15.98
JANDEK "Not Hunting For Meaning" (Corwood Industries) cd 8.98
JAY-Z "The Blueprint 3" (RocNation / Atlantic) cd 16.98
JEFFERSON, BLIND LEMON "I Want To Be Like Jesus In My Head" (Monk) lp 22.00
KONGH "Shadows Of The Shapeless" (Trust No One) cd 21.00
KUUPUU "Lumen Tahden" (Time-Lag) cd/lp 15.98/29.00
LA NUEVA BANDA DE SANTISTEBAN "Sabor A Fresa" (Vampi Soul) cd 22.00
LAY, JOSH "True Mask" (Small Doses) cd 13.98
LITMUS "Aurora" (Metal Blade / Rise Above) cd 14.98
LYNN, BARBARA "Here Is..." (Water) cd 15.98
MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ "C'est La Derniere Chanson" (K) 2cd 13.98
MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ W/ MASAMI SHINODA "s/t" (PSF) dvd 27.00
MASERATI "Passages" (Temporary Residence) cd 13.98
METH TEETH "Everything Went Wrong" (Woodsist) lp 14.98
MISSISSIPPI SHEIKS "Sitting On Top Of The World" (Monk) lp 22.00
MITTOO, JACKIE "Rides On" (Jamaican Recordings) cd 21.00
NICHOLAS, PAX & THE NETTEY FAMILY "Na Teef Know De Road Of Teef" (Daptone Records) cd/lp 14.98/14.98
NIHILL "Krach" (Hydra Head) cd 16.98
ORANSSI PAZUZU "Muukalainen Puhuu" (Violent Journey) cd 14.98
PACHA, FEDAYI "From The Oriental School Of Dub" (Hammer Bass) cd 16.98
PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART "Come Saturday" (Slumberland) 7" 3.98
PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART "Higher Than The Stars" (Slumberland) cd ep/12" 8.98/8.98
PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC "1976 Live Mothership Connection" (Mojo Working / Shout Factory) dvd 14.98
PUMICE "Magnedisk Recordings of gfrenzy Songs" (Dirty Knobby) 7" 6.50
PUMICE "Perservere" (Soft Abuse) 7" 6.98
RADIGUE, ELIANE "Triptych" (Important) cd 14.98
RADIGUE, ELIANE "Vice Versa, etc...." (Important) cd 16.98
ROYHKA JA RATTO JA LEHTISALO "Hiekkarantaa" (Ektro) cd 14.98
SCIENCE FICTION DANCE PARTY "Dance With Action" (B-Music / Finders Keepers) lp 29.00
SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO "Temporary Pleasure" (Wichita Recordings) cd 21.00
SUN OF THE BLIND "Skullreader" (Avantgarde) cd 17.98
SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN "Loose Bugs" (Spirit of Orr) cd-r 14.98
TIMES NEW VIKING "Born Again Revisited" (Matador) cd/lp 13.98/14.98
TIMES NEW VIKING "Move To California" (Matador) 7" 5.50
V/A "Artificial Faces" (Crazy Apple) cd 24.00
V/A "Cazumbi Volume 2" (No Smoke) cd/lp 25.00/33.00
V/A "Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series" (Wergo) 3cd 53.00
V/A "Live At The Smell" (Peanut Baby) dvd 16.98
V/A "More Andergraun Vibrations" (Hundergum) cd 25.00
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 Vol.2" (Zrmr) cd 27.00
V/A "Wheedle's Groove" (Light In The Attic) 2lp 30.00
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR "Time Vaults" (Abstract Sounds) cd 13.98
VOIVOD "Infini" (Relapse) cd 14.98
WHITE WIZZARD "High Speed GTO" (Earache) cd/lp 14.98/17.98
XX, THE "s/t" (XL) lp 14.98
ZOMBY "One Foot Ahead Of The Other" (Ramp) cd 14.98

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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 :
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1-2 items    $5.00 USPS Priority Mail
3+ items    $7.50 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 $7.50. 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 $5.00 for shipping. These packages are NOT insured or trackable, sorry. So if you desire those safeguards, please request UPS delivery at the $7.50 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 $7.50 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, but only in $USD. International customers please note that they must be international postal money orders purchased at a post office. Additional processing fees may apply. 

If you wish to pay by money order, you must confirm the order with us through email or phone BEFORE you send any payment. It's best to just use the secure order form on the website, and when checking out mark money order as your payment choice. We will then process your order and respond with all the crucial payment info.

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.

Unfortunately, we cannot take personal checks for mailorder, sorry!


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

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On Land

September 19th & 20th
San Francisco, CA
Curated by Root Strata

Sponsored by Aquarius Records

Hosted by The Swedish American Hall
& Cafe DuNord

onlandfestival.com
Tickets available at
cafedunord.com

LIMITED FESTIVAL PASSES available for $35! Available only by calling Cafe DuNord box office (mon-fri, 2pm-6pm: 415-861-5016) to purchase over the phone!!

Sunday, September 20th
The Swedish American Hall
$20

Grouper
Christina Carter
Ilays Ahmed
Barn Owl
Sun Circle
Common Eider, King Eider
Brendon Murray

Saturday, September 19th
Cafe DuNord
$10

Tarentel
Keith Fullerton Whitman
The Alps
Ducktails
Pete Swanson
Joe Grimm
Operative (Scott Goodwin)
Saturday, September 19th

The Swedish American Hall
Early Show!
$10

Starving Weirdos
William Fowler Collins
Metal Rouge
Darwinsbitch
Jim Haynes
John Davis
Danny Paul Grody

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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanIrwinScottNickSallyJonandAndrew