TEENAGE FILMSTARS Rocket Charms / Buy Our Record Support Our Sickness / Bring Back The Cartel: The Epiphany Triptych (Artpop! / Cherry Red) 2cd 16.98
Finally. Finally. FINALLY! If ever there was a more anticipated (around here at least) or a more criminally overdue reissue, it's this one right here. A mind blowing three-fer from should-have-been-massive blissed out fractured psych pop masters Teenage Filmstars, fronted by the inimitable Ed Ball, whom as we mentioned in our review of Star, TF's genius debut, was once described by My Bloody Valentine mainman Kevin Shields as "A sensitive soul from another planet. A modernist musical alchemist". Shield also had this to say about Ball: "Where other people struggle, Ed Ball plays what we're thinking." Which coming from the man behind My Bloody Valentine means a lot. Especially when considering Teenage Filmstars, who employ a sonic palette not all that far removed from MBV's. BUT, and a very big but at that, minus the explosive bursts of caustic noise, MBV hewed more to a traditional pop sensibility than Teenage Filmstars. Where as Loveless, even for all its amazing wall of guitar heaviness, and effects drenched dreaminess, was still anchored to a verse chorus verse framework, with Teenage Filmstars, those conventions are tossed aside, or at the very least, flipped over, doused in effects, chopped up and played backwards. Which is why once again, we must proclaim, that in the landscape of (not so) popular music, TEENAGE FILMSTARS ARE BETTER THAN MY BLOODY VALENTINE. And don't get us wrong, we LOVE LOVE LOVE My Bloody Valentine, but imagine an alternate universe MBV, where for some reason, Shields' guitars played backwards, effects boxes grew sentient and demanded as much space as the instruments and voices, imagine viewing all of those sounds, already twisted and skewed, through a fractured funhouse mirror, and then, if you can, imagine some musical wizard, who is able to reign in all of those sounds, and somehow shape them into some of the most perfect UNpop you've ever heard.
Which brings us to Rocket Charms, record number two from Teenage Filmstars, which finds all the sounds on Star, pushed even farther out, the backwards sounds are more backwards (and there are more of them), the guitars are crunchier and more crumbly, the melodies are more catchy, the murk and shimmer are both murkier and shimmerier, and the production, is even more hazy and spaced out and lysergic and psychedelic and fucking head spinning. And yet somehow, Rocket Charms is a pop record, hooky and catchy, lilting and melodic. Opener "Pressure" is an immediate 'hit' if there ever was one, processed falsetto vox over swooping backwards rhythms and washed out guitar haze, a sort of druggy backwards Beach Boys pop ambience. And it just goes on from there, every song, a gorgeous slab of outsider twisted pop, on the surface a whirling sonic dervish, but within drift all manner of classic pop tropes, in the able hands of Ed Ball, subverted and turned inside out, wreathed in hiss and sparkle, and rendered, well, Teenage.
But then amidst all this deconstructed shoegazey noise pop (or pop noise), comes the track "Alone", quite possible our favorite jam on Rocket Charms, a slow brooding dirge, all skittery Stone Roses-y drums, thick distorted bass, disembodied voices, swirling ominous dark ambience, and a main melody that just might be the catchiest bit on the record, sounding like a slowed down twisted take on the Cure's "Close To You", but via Pop Will Eat Itself or some other warped UK grebo combo.
The crazy thing is, Rocket Charms for being as fantastic and over the top and incredible, isn't even our favorite Teenage Filmstars record. That honor belongs to the awesomely titled Buy Our Record Support Our Sickness, which takes all of the songs and sounds from Rocket Charms and Star, and makes them WAY HEAVIER, WAY MORE FUCKED UP, the processed guitars and backwards guitars and vocals have gone haywire, the songs are less songs here and more fucked up fragmented pop experiments, but again, Ball has such a deft hand that he manages to take all these totally freaked out elements, and gets them to work, and sound like pop songs, albeit, totally dizzying and abstract, psychedelic and almost metallic at times. The record's defining moment is the opener "Physical Graffiti", not a Zeppelin cover, but hell, it sounds like it could be some sort of insane My Bloody Valentine / Led Zeppelin mash up maybe, but one that had been totally tweaked, chopped and screwed, then sped up and flipped reverse again, listening to it, it's hard to imagine how anyone could envision music like this, let alone actually make it. The guitars swoop all over the stereo field, stuttering, blurring into huge backwards swells, the drums are chaotic, the vocals sound backwards too, but not overtly, the melodies so memorable and catchy, at one point the whole track begins to stutter, almost as if your cd player is skipping, but it soon swoops back into the dreamlike psychedelic swirl.
Not all of Support Our Sickness is as heavy and crunchy, many of the tracks begin as classic sixties sounding pop, but as they progress, the effects seem to slowly take over, often one or more of the instruments flipping backwards and erupting into a squall of psychedelic freakout, but just as often, sprawling into a woozy almost balladic bit of slithery backwards slowcore. But even at its prettiest, the sounds are slightly tweaked, the vibe is subtly menacing, laced with bits of sunshiney jangle for sure, but this is some seriously drugged out dream pop damage, and remains to this day, one of the most amazing, and unlikely genius pop records EVER.
The first disc features 5 bonus tracks, two from the Support Our Sickness sessions, as well as three other unreleased jams, none quite as twisted, but still awesome, and in fact, they almost sound like they were rough drafts, just waiting to get the Ed Ball mad scientist backwards fucked up FX makeover. So that's it, BUY IT, you won't be sorry, this is easily some of the most forward thinking pop music ever, heavy and psychedelic, druggy and delirious, catchy and crazy and bafflingly brilliant.
But wait, what's this, a THIRD record? Teenage Filmstars final missive, and a pretty bizarre sonic sea change, in fact, it sounds like a totally different band. To be honest, we're not into it at all, Bring Back The Cartel found the band doing some sort of skittery smooth jazz electronic mood music, it makes very little sense that this one would get tacked on with the other two, when we first ordered this we actually thought it WAS just those other two, but maybe some folks will dig Bring Back The Cartel, there are some moments, here and there, but it doesn't at all approach the sheer brilliance of Rocket Charms or Buy Our Record Support Our Sickness, so our advice would be probably to just give it a spin, and if you dig it, cool, if not, just ignore it, pretend it's not there, and immerse yourself in those first two, let the sounds twist you inside out and carry you off, play it over and over and over and over, forever and ever and ever and ever. Totally fucking incredible, and not just worthy of Record Of The Week honors, definitely something more, like how about Record of FOREVER!?!?
MPEG Stream: "Pressure"
MPEG Stream: "Alone"
MPEG Stream: "Physical Graffiti"
MPEG Stream: "Guruprophecy"
MPEG Stream: "Feeding The Blue Jays"
MPEG Stream: "Whatever Happened To Richard Boon"

SANDOVAL, HOPE & THE WARM INVENTIONS Through The Devil Softly (Nettwerk) cd 12.98
Before Cat Power, Beach House, Grouper, Edith Frost, Christina Carter, Valet, Marissa Nadler, Tara Jane O'Neil, El Perro Del Mar, Isobel Campbell, Brightblack Morning Light, etc.... there was Hope Sandoval.
Beginning with her work in seminal and influential slowcore dream pop legends Mazzy Star, Sandoval's trademark dazed and hazy vocals have inspired countless other bands and performers, her gorgeous languid purr and the dark swirling sounds surrounding it were no doubt an intoxicating influence, and as fantastic as so many of those Mazzy acolytes are, there is just something so magical, otherworldly and trance inducing about the original. After Mazzy Star called it quits, Sandoval released both an ep and a full length under her own name, that full length, Bavarian Fruit Bread, was easily as dreamy, seductive and enchanting as anything that Mazzy Star had ever created.
It's been over 8 years since that album came out and we've heard very little from the elusive and mysterious chanteuse (other than rumors of a proposed Codeine reunion, with Sandoval on vocals, how amazing would that have been!!). She lives right here in the Bay Area, and performs now and again, sometimes with like minded music makers, sometimes on her own, she even made an appearance a while back on Vetiver's great debut record. Now finally, almost a decade since her last proper record, we have this completely chilling and utterly beautiful record, that proves it was well worth the wait, the record at once immediate and intimate, but also with the feel of something meticulously crafted over many long dark nights.
Immaculate, lush, warm, melancholy, seductive, sensual, sexy, smoky... words only begin to scratch the surface when describing the intensity and emotion, the depth and and delicate beauty of Through The Devil Softly.
The music here is again, a perfect match for Sandoval's gorgeous vocals, dark and lush and seductive and hypnotic, which comes as no surprise since her band The Warm inventions is comprised of some incredible players, including her main musical coconspirator, Colin O Ciosoig of My Bloody Valentine, who co-wrote several of the songs as well as being the Inventions' drummer.
Through The Devil Softly is a record that even on first listen sounds timeless, and ageless, a record that will no doubt seep into your heart, and soul, and play on and on, a constant companion, a musical balm that will soothe and comfort, ease you when you are uneasy, wrap you in warmth as you dream the day away, and lift you into the air as millions of memories, thoughts and desires infuse your body and mind. Simply breathtaking!
MPEG Stream: "For The Rest Of Your Life"
MPEG Stream: "Fall Aside"
MPEG Stream: "Blanchard"
MPEG Stream: "Thinking Like That"

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AMORT Winter Songs (Kreation) lp 15.98
Now on lp, a killer compilation of jams from abstract doomlord Amort, mostly culled from various cassettes, that we've raved about on past lists, but with an unreleased track included to sweeten the deal...
Amort is one of our favorite purveyors of 'ambient slowcore doom'. Influenced heavily by bands like SUNNO))), as well as groups on the blacker and more metal end of the sonic spectrum, Amort, have their own unique angle, at once mysterious and cinematic, heavy and atmospheric.
This collection begins with the sound of lilting piano, notes hanging suspended in wide open expanses of near silence, but soon that piano is joined by a slow lava like flow of glacial riffing, a downtuned low end throb, a la SUNNO))), Earth, Corrupted, but draped over a delicate slowcore background, then in comes some incredibly low, gurgling vocals, and suddenly all is revealed to us, gloriously hauntingly beautiful slowcore sludge. The massive riffing and monstrous vocals, drift in and out, often leaving just a lilting minor key guitar, to gently pick out the melody, hushed and minimal, like some sort of super abstract post rock, before the guitars pour back in and the vocals croak forth, but even at its heaviest and sludgiest, it's strangely pretty, the melody a minor key lament, the sound more murky and muddy than pummeling and heavy, like Corrupted covering Low maybe... The tempo gets upped a notch or two, sounding like the band might lurch into full on rocking, but instead, the riff just loops over and over, becoming more of a rhythmic drone than an any sort of actual rock riff, eventually fading to black.
The next track creeps along similar ground, beginning with abstract minor key guitar figures, allowed to unfurl and drift through an empty space, joined by simple piano, before launching into a slow motion ambient doom, all burnt out guitar and reverb drenched vocals. Very reminiscent of the Tomb Of... cassette, a strange melding of abstract ambient piano and dirgey doom drenched sludge. The interesting thing about Amort is there are no drums, this is all just huge walls of guitar, harsh demonic vocals, and tinkling piano...
The flipside begins like most Amort songs, with plodding abstract piano, throbbing low end notes, ringing out and reverberating, drifting in vast expanses of near silent hiss. With hushed whispered vocals, and the occasional distant wail of anguish and again, NO DRUMS (although it took us a while to even realize there were no drums, the sound is so thick and dense). Eventually, the guitars roll in like some thick black fog, and the band becomes some sort of black glacial beast, slithering and lurching in slow motion. The piano picks out mournful melodies beneath a thick wash of rumbling crumbling distortion. It's definitely closer to Thergothon or Skepticism that SUNNO))), not so much a static drift as a plodding trudge, the guitars beating against each other, pulsing and throbbing, the piano pounding away, buried way down in the mix. Imagine a Mazzy Star / Khanate mash up and you might be getting close!
The next track begins with gently picked downtuned guitar, the low end cranked, a thick pulsing rumble, another guitar unfurling a plodding chug, another loosing little trills of high end shimmer into the blackness, the vocals again, a gurgling black cloud. But with a little flutter of clean guitar surfacing here and there, drifting through the throbbing black expanse.
Essential listening for the ultra-doom obsessed, and slow core fans looking for something a little darker or heavier should definitely check this out....
And in addition to those previously released grimdoom jams, the record tacks on another slow and low epic, the previously unreleased "Desert Of Ice"!! Sweet packaging, the lp housed in a super thick black and white sleeve, the record pressed on nice thick vinyl and LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!

ANCESTORS Of Sound Mind (Tee Pee) cd 14.98
We're gonna start this review like the last one from these guys: Not to be confused with the -other- Ancestors, the noise drenched, blackened lo-fi, blown out raw as fuck punk metal outfit, no, this is something all together more stoned and groovy, spaced out and ROCK.
Ok, with that out of the way, let's talk. This Ancestors, hailing from Los Angeles (um, wait, might that be where the -other- Ancestors are also from? Maybe?), takes the whole prog-metal approach that so many bands attempt and does it, frankly, WAY better than most. Like, you can tell Ancestors actually listen to prog rock, not just Neurosis-informed metal bands showing off proggy chops merely because it is the latest thing. In fact, there are certain moments of majestic grandeur on Of Sound Mind that many metalheads would have been embarrassed by just a few years ago. We sure are glad things have changed, because this stuff is really hitting the spot, and one of the band's greatest strengths is their prowess with amazing sounding keyboards. There are tons of swirling, distorted Hammond-style organs and fuckloads of buzzy synthesized goodness. Of course, the rest of the band really have it together as well, what, with all the epic guitar solos and the awesome rhythm section. Along with bands like UFOmammut and Titan, Ancestors are one of the more impressive bands to offer up music that perfectly merges progged out, atmospheric heaviosity with CRUSHING, grooving metal in the vein of the Melvins (the dude sounds quite like King Buzzo, in fact), Neurosis, and the like. Thankfully, things never get too proggy for their own good, and more than anything, you will be digging this collection of lumbering, epic songs that effortlessly chug into double digit time limits, sometimes separated by cool keyboard-centric interludes. The songs are long enough to take you all kinds of places, and the structures are sufficiently out there and complex, perfectly utilizing the cd/double lp format over the course of 71 minutes, making Of Sound Mind one of those perfect albums for late night, lonely listening.
MPEG Stream: "Mother Animal"
MPEG Stream: "Bounty Of Age"
MPEG Stream: "A Friend"

ANCESTORS Of Sound Mind (Tee Pee) 2lp 16.98
We're gonna start this review like the last one from these guys: Not to be confused with the -other- Ancestors, the noise drenched, blackened lo-fi, blown out raw as fuck punk metal outfit, no, this is something all together more stoned and groovy, spaced out and ROCK.
Ok, with that out of the way, let's talk. This Ancestors, hailing from Los Angeles (um, wait, might that be where the -other- Ancestors are also from? Maybe?), takes the whole prog-metal approach that so many bands attempt and does it, frankly, WAY better than most. Like, you can tell Ancestors actually listen to prog rock, not just Neurosis-informed metal bands showing off proggy chops merely because it is the latest thing. In fact, there are certain moments of majestic grandeur on Of Sound Mind that many metalheads would have been embarrassed by just a few years ago. We sure are glad things have changed, because this stuff is really hitting the spot, and one of the band's greatest strengths is their prowess with amazing sounding keyboards. There are tons of swirling, distorted Hammond-style organs and fuckloads of buzzy synthesized goodness. Of course, the rest of the band really have it together as well, what, with all the epic guitar solos and the awesome rhythm section. Along with bands like UFOmammut and Titan, Ancestors are one of the more impressive bands to offer up music that perfectly merges progged out, atmospheric heaviosity with CRUSHING, grooving metal in the vein of the Melvins (the dude sounds quite like King Buzzo, in fact), Neurosis, and the like. Thankfully, things never get too proggy for their own good, and more than anything, you will be digging this collection of lumbering, epic songs that effortlessly chug into double digit time limits, sometimes separated by cool keyboard-centric interludes. The songs are long enough to take you all kinds of places, and the structures are sufficiently out there and complex, perfectly utilizing the cd/double lp format over the course of 71 minutes, making Of Sound Mind one of those perfect albums for late night, lonely listening.
MPEG Stream: "Mother Animal"
MPEG Stream: "Bounty Of Age"
MPEG Stream: "A Friend"

ASTRA The Weirding (Metal Blade / Rise Above) cd 14.98
A while ago we found a cd-r by this mysterious heavy space rock band (they hail from San Diego as it turns out) and thought it was pretty cool. Probably should have tracked 'em down for the store, but never did, sorry. Thankfully however, Astra have popped up again, this time with a proper cd release on the English metal/doom/psych label Rise Above! (Issued domestically now by Metal Blade.)
Astra is for anyone into the sounds of prog rock yesteryear (i.e. a lot of AQ customers, and us!) especially of the more Floydian, spaced out variety loaded with Mellotron, Moog, Arp, and other tasty synthesizer wooshery. Some flute also makes an appearance which we always like. The eight epic tracks here very obviously hark back to bands like King Crimson and Yes (note the Roger Dean alike cover).
Astra's melodic vocals also sound quite authentically seventies, mellow and moody and sad, which feeds into the doomy feel you might expect from a Rise Above release, this is at least slightly doomy, in a very old school way, with the keyboards getting Uriah Heepish at times. And like we said, they're obviously fans of the band who arguably wrote the first ever metal and/or doom track, King Crimson, whose "21st Century Schizoid Man" predates even Black Sabbath. Speaking of metal, and keyboards, we might recommend this to those into the most recent, most proggy output of local avant metal fave Hammers Of Misfortune. And also to fans of other "young prog" acts we've listed, like England's Diagonal and Sweden's Gosta Berlings Saga. Everything old is new again, maybe it's not that "progressive" anymore in the truest sense of the word, but it's still a sound we like to hear, and bands like Astra and the others mentioned manage to keep the '70s prog spirit alive without seeming too cheesy or pretentiously ponytailed about it. It helps of course that it's on the heavy side, though not to the extent of our favorite San Diego heavy space prog act, Tarantula Hawk (whatever happened to them????).
MPEG Stream: "The Weirding"
MPEG Stream: "The River Under"

BEETS, THE Spit in the Face of People Who Don't Want To Be Cool (Captured Tracks) cd 12.98
Now available on cd!
Captured Tracks is turning into the go to label for rad and limited vinyl pressings (and cd's!) of some of the most interesting and offbeat damaged garage pop bands around. Recent releases from the label include records by Blank Dogs, Brilliant Colors, Dum Dum Girls, etc. The Beets fit perfectly with the label's aesthetic, these are some way lo-fi reverbed out rudimentary garage pop gems with a charming kind of innocence about them. We hear a kinship with Thee Oh Sees, especially circa Sucks Blood, as these tracks have that same kind of stoned and lacka-daze-ical quality. Imagine what it might sound like if Dwyer and company did a bunch of Shaggs covers and you'd pretty much have the Beets. There is something so refreshingly effortless and free flowing about this record. Maybe it's their name but we have dreams of seeing them play live in a friend's kitchen as we nibble on snacks and they use everything in the kitchen sink to create totally endearing lo-fi punk rock brilliance.
MPEG Stream: "Happy But On My Way"
MPEG Stream: "Go Away"
MPEG Stream: "My Bones My Flesh And Me"

BERTHET, PIERRE Extended Loudspeakers (Sub Rosa) cd 16.98
Belgium's Sub Rosa is one of those labels that's always worth checking out. Often, we have never before heard of the artists they put out, and may never hear of them again, but the discs they release quite often become favorites 'round here: Saule, Israel Quellet, Time Control, The Wild Classical Music Ensemble, Mace... Of course Sub Rosa issues stuff by plenty of better known names as well, like Philip Jeck, but the point is, when its someone we don't know on Sub Rosa, we have learned we'd still better pay attention, it might be amazing!
Which is all by way of saying that we had no idea who Pierre Berthet was or what to expect from him, except it was on Sub Rosa, and maybe the disc's title held a clue: Extended Loudspeakers. That sounds potentially cool, right? And it is, if you're into subtle, active droneworks! This is a recording of a sound installation from a Belgian art gallery, and while it would probably be really neat to witness Berthet's whole sonic apparatus in person, it's quite good as a compact disc recording too! We might as well quote the handwritten note printed inside the digipack, as Berthlet can probably do a better job of explaining his elaborate "extended loudspeakers" set up than we can: "An 'extended loudspeaker' is a loudspeaker with as less membrane as possible connected with long steel wires to a net of metal cans resonators. Inputs are sine waves, feedbacks and radio. At the end of the piece, steel wires are also vibrated with a small low tension electric motor equipped with a flexible fan." He also explains that "the piece starts with drops falling on small tin cans." And, additionally, there's helpful, and rather cute, simple stickfigure illustrations diagramming the thing visually. So now you know how these sounds were sourced, sort of, but listening to it, your imagination will doubtless delve further into the fantastical, because the overall effect of Berthet's creation is one of mysteriousness. There's passages of bell-like ringing, layered rainfall rhythms that beat with and against each other, accompanied by wavering, high-end drones, quite trance inducing. Elsewhere in the piece (which lasts for about an hour, arbitrarily indexed into seven tracks on the cd for listening convenience) the chiming, dripping sounds fade into something more spacious and abstract and arrhythmic, whilst the drone-tones of feedback grow more present and prominent, but still pleasant... it's beautiful stuff, calm, soothing, mesmeric. (But maybe only for drone-heads, I was playing this at low volume in the car, driving someplace with my dad, and he thought either something was wrong with the stereo or his hearing aid, but then again he'd say that about almost any music we like here.)
At times Berthet's cans, wires, membranes, fans, and drip devices conjure up the prayerful practice of meditative monks, or the massed rhythms of a Far Eastern percussion ensemble, or the delicate hum of Japanese onkyo experimentalists. Meanwhile his methods recall the resonating wires of composer Arnold Dreyblatt, and the unique "mechano" of another Pierre, Bastien (with both of whom Berthet has worked, it turns out).
So, glad we paid attention this time, 'cause actually this ain't Berthet's first disc for Sub Rosa we now realize, and he has another on Sonoris too, so we'll have to check those out as well, since this one really is one of the loveliest and most intriguing, ever-changing sound installation / drone recordings we've heard in a while.
MPEG Stream: "Part 1"
MPEG Stream: "Part 3"
MPEG Stream: "Part 6"

BLACK DEVIL DISCO CLUB Presents The Strange New World of Bernard Fevre (Lo Recordings) cd 14.98
Lo previously brought us the most excellent, very much of the retro moment Black Devil Disco Club disc entitled 28 After, which was (supposedly) an archival document of the late '70s Parisian answer to Italo-Disco and Giorgio Moroder. We say supposedly 'cause the whole BDDC thing is intentionally shrouded in mystery, and it's been postulated that the contents of that disc are probably partly old and partly new. It's conclusively the case, though, that the man behind BDDC, one Bernard Fevre, WAS indeed active making music in the '70s. And now under the BDDC name, Lo has re-released Fevre's 1975 "library music" album, The Strange World Of Bernard Fevre. Sort of, that is. Being BDDC, things aren't that straightforward. First off, note that this cd is titled The Strange NEW World of Bernard Fevre, and features obviously all-new cover art. Furthermore, some research reveals that 7 of the 14 tracks on here appeared on the authentic, original LP, but 7 didn't... likewise, an equal number of tracks from the 1975 record don't show up on this disc (we're disappointed not to get to hear the likes of "Hell Ride" ferinstance). But not THAT disappointed, since what we have here, whenever and wherever it's from, is pretty neat!!
Super groovy and super moody, these rhythmic instrumentals are laced with sinister synth, driven by tick-tock drum machines and thick bass lines. Eerie Goblin-y atmospheres meet the icy electro robotics of Kraftwerk. Or imagine John Carpenter gone disco. With plenty of entrancing, elegant melody to make this a good at home in the evening listen.
Regardless of whether all these tracks were composed/recorded at the same time (the ones not from the original Strange World Of Bernard Fevre could be outtakes from that LP, or other unreleased material from the era, OR they could have been produced on vintage analog equipment just yesterday, we don't know, and for that matter we're not really sure if everything has been remixed or rerecorded recently), they certainly all SOUND like they all belong together. Anyone into minimal wave, or Italo-disco, or that "So Young But So Cold" comp of French synthwerks circa '77-'82, that sort of thing, should find themselves getting all tingly over this. Furthermore, if the slinky tempos were sped up just a bit, and you did some choppy edits and/or dropped in some glitchery, you'd practically have skweee!
MPEG Stream: "Dali"
MPEG Stream: "Dangerous Mixture"
MPEG Stream: "Pendulum"

BOREDOMS Super Roots 10 (Thrill Jockey) 2x12" 16.98
Aaahhhhhhhh!!! It's the sound of Japan's Boredoms at their heavily percussive, psychedelically tranced-out best. Making the case for the Boredoms being one of the most original and inspirational bands of the past 25 years in might be easier in a review of one of their "proper" albums, rather than in a review of one from their often (extra-) confounding Super Roots series. On the other hand, this particular installment in the Super Roots saga is one that some folks totally new to the Boredoms may want to pick up, as features a pretty crucial remix from Swedish disco DJ of the moment, Lindstrom! So we thought we'd just mention that if this is in fact your first experience with the Boredoms, and you like what you hear here, you have a lot of catching up to do in the their discography (with lots of surprises in store for you therein as well, we recommend working backwards so as not to endure the immediate shock of jumping in with their early, Butthole Surfers style cacophony).
Super Roots 10 is basically one song, "Ant 10", prefaced by a brief seemingly silent track called "Super Rooy" (?). Glimmering and sparkling, "Ant 10" is a cosmic, rhythmic, ecstatic Bore-jam rocketing to the heavens, fueled by voice, drums, synth and effects, pretty much just what we expect (and want) from the Boredoms these days. The original track is 9 and a half minutes long. But what really makes it interesting is the continuation of it, over the remainder of this cd, via various variant mixes. "Ant 10" just keeps going and going and going, morphing into ever more freaky and groovy iterations, provided by Lindstrom, DJ Finger Hat (who is probably Eye from the Boredoms, since we can't find any reference to Finger Hat online that's NOT about this disc), and DJ Altz, whom you might recall from his Roland Young remix disc we listed recently on the EM label. The Altz and Finger Hat mixes bring in some additional techno house-y four on the floor thump, though Altz's first mix (he got to do two), "Ant 10/Estereo 10" is notable for the repeated figure of severe synth jabs, sizzling and droning and somewhat jarring, that he introduces into the track at the beginning. Meanwhile DJ Finger Hat's mix goes for more of a shimmery sheen. The Lindstrom mix is the one that made Irwin here remark that this sounds like "the Boredoms go to a disco", and also that it's rad, and it's WAY funkier than the other tracks, though equally as chaotic and complex. Cool, though we'd have to guess that the percentage of actual Boredoms source material in this percolating cut is less than the rest. Then, the throbbing, hypnotic appeal of the Boredoms in general and "Ant 10" in particular is accentuated by the final remix, Altz's "Ant 10/Mineral Dub Break", which also indulges in some cool cut-ups of the more or less wordless vocal. But, heck, discussing these tracks individually is almost silly since they all flow together, Super Roots 10 being a Technicolor trip from start to finish.
FYI this came out originally earlier this year on cd and vinyl both in Japan, the cd now out of print, and for some reason this domestic US version via Thrill Jockey is vinyl-only, maybe 'cause then there's more room for Eye's colorful art. And, naturally, somewhat limited too.
MPEG Stream: "Ant 10"
MPEG Stream: "Ant 10 (Remix By Lindstrom)"

CARTER FAMILY I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes (Monk) lp 22.00
Does the Carter Family really need any introduction? Family Patriarch, A.P., his wife Sara, and their sister-in-law Maybelle are probably the most influential country music band of all time, and with good reason. Well-versed in hundreds of British and Appalachian folk songs that A.P. collected in their native Virginia, they managed to save these timeless songs for generations to come. Bluegrass music pretty much wouldn't have existed without the Carter Family. First playing as a husband and wife duo in 1915, they didn't get label notice until the addition of A.P.'s brother's wife, Maybelle (June Carter Cash's mother!) on guitar in 1926 right before they first signed to Victor. They stayed active until 1956 even during bouts of financial stress from the Great Depression and A.P. and Sara's divorce in 1939. This beautiful record compiles the best of the early Victor recordings, including their hits, "Single Girl, Married Girl", "Wabash Cannonball" and "Keep on The Sunny Side of Life". What we find most amazing about the Carter Family is their consistent use of Nature as spiritual metaphor. Though their songs are rooted in the Gospel tradition, the positive force of God is always represented lyrically by the Sun, Trees, and The Sea. This no doubt added to their populist appeal, especially in the folk revival of the fifties and sixties. Essential!! Go Monk label, go!

CHALK, ANDREW East Of The Sun (Faraway Press) cd 21.00
BACK IN PRINT!!! Easily, one of the most important reissues of 2006 (available again now in 2009!), East Of The Sun available again though Andrew Chalk's own Faraway Press, complete with breathtakingly resplendent packaging. These recordings originally came out in 1994 as a cassette, released through Ora's in-house label, Ora being an early collective that revolved around Chalk, Colin Potter, and Darren Tate with occasional assistance from Jonathan Coleclough, mnortham, Lol Coxhill, and a handful of like-minded British drone enthusiasts. A few years later, the Italian label Hic Sunt Leones convinced Chalk to reissue the cassette in digital form. That CD version of East Of The Sun compressed the two sides of the cassette into a single 50 minute piece and was flushed out with some complementary dronescaping. Chalk was never happy with the Hic Sunt Leones version; and thus his reissue of the album returns to the original version found on the cassette, now gloriously remastered in its entirety. For those persnickety types, the 17 minutes or so which concluded the Hic Sunt Leones version is not here; but that is a minor loss compared to the pinnacle of drone-based minimalism found here.
Sure, Eno's ambient records On Land and Thursday Afternoon were milestones in the realm of ambient music, setting an impressionist context through which any number of the images, thoughts, and ideals could be imagined; but that strategy was perfected by Andrew Chalk on a couple of records. There was his ephemeral album Sumac in collaboration with Jonathan Coleclough, there was the first Mirror album Eye Of The Storm, and there's East Of The Sun. Very dark without becoming unbearably cold, East Of The Sun is a constant bloom of nocturnal frequencies, whose origins may be thoroughly blurred bass guitar or possibly some resonant artifact from Chalk's acoustic work in Organum. Regardless, the resultant drones drift with no beginning and no end, merely rippling, reflecting, and turning upon themselves in a perpetual, very slow motion turbulence. Leaves tumbling in autumnal twilight. Fog spilling over coastal hills. Moonlight tickling the agitated surface of a pond. Any of these organic references for meditation on simplicity to reach the sublime and the profound could easily apply to Chalk's East Of The Sun. Not just recommended, this is required listening.
MPEG Stream: "Winter Arc"
MPEG Stream: "High Water"

CHALK, ANDREW Goldfall (Faraway Press) cd 21.00
BACK IN PRINT!!! Goldfall originally came out in late 2006 as a heavy duty slab of vinyl, swaddled in a delicate piece of tissue paper that also featured an elegant print reminiscent of Shoji screen prints. Chalk released a mere 300 copies through his Faraway Press imprint; and as with most of the tiny vinyl pressings that Chalk had done with his now defunct Mirror project with Christoph Heemann, it went out of print very quickly, with its scarcity only matched by the critical praise heaped upon it. Thankfully, Chalk has been far more willing to repress his hard to find material through Faraway Press; and Goldfall is the latest part of this reissue campaign. In contrast to the floral artwork which Chalk has replicated on the hand-screened / die-cut cardboard sleeves, Chalk's sound production within is a far darker and heavier experience. Sourced from the meandering piano interludes of Vikki Jackman, Goldfall is a dark, shadowy record of protracted reverberation and timbral rumblings. In comparison to Chalk's previous piano album Blue Eyes Of The March or to other exceptional piano abstractions (i.e. Jonathan Coleclough's Period or Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon), Goldfall is downright ominous. Upon closer investigation into the sounds on Goldfall, the second track is a backwards remix of the first, turning the entire experience of listening to the album as a palindrome of shadows, with each darkly flecked piano tone on the second track harder to locate against the structure of the first given the droning miasma of Chalk's impeccable sound. Far from being like one of David Jackman's tiresome attempts at elongating his increasingly pointless ideas, Chalk's experiment was one to be discovered by the audience. We may have spoiled something magical about the record, or maybe not. It's still a magnificent, ominous piece of dronescaping; and you all should know that Andrew Chalk + ominous = highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Goldfall 1"
MPEG Stream: "Goldfall 2"

CHALK, ANDREW The River That Flows Into The Sand (Faraway Press) cd 21.00
BACK IN PRINT!!! Yup, it appears that Andrew Chalk has retained the impressive workload he and Christoph Heemann had managed for their now defunct project Mirror. The River That Flows Into The Sand is the second album in as many months to emerge from Andrew Chalk's own Faraway Press. Like it's predecessor Shadows From The Album Skies, this album is a reissue of a cd-r originally released in a very small edition. However, Chalk has decided to truly develop Faraway Press into a viable cottage industry, encasing all of his work in elaborately hand-packaged constructions, that rival the original Zoviet France assemblages in terms of innovative design. How he managed to print these is a bit of a mystery, although Cup and Jim think it to be a form of decalcomania, in which an image is delicately transferred from one surface to another. Regardless, it doesn't hurt that Chalk again has produced an immaculate drone album housed within the beautiful packaging.
For many years now, the guitar has been the instrument of choice for Chalk's minimalist explorations; and here on The River, he's tightroping between the ghostly impressionism of Keiji Haino's Nijumu project from many moons ago, the narcoleptic atmospheres of Maeror Tri / Troum, the oceanic ambience of Boris' Flood, and the time-reversal qualities of Eliane Radigue. Undulations of extended sounds cascade from his guitar, occasionally rippling with beautiful half melodies. This is a a drop dead gorgeous album, and may even be better than the aforementioned Shadows From The Album Skies. We can't recommend this album enough!
MPEG Stream: "One "
MPEG Stream: "Two"
MPEG Stream: "Three"

CHALK, ANDREW The River That Flows Into The Sands II (Faraway Press) cd 21.00
BACK IN STOCK!!! The sequel to the River That Flows Into The Sand was originally released through Andrew Chalk's Faraway Press imprint as a super-limited edition cassette in early 2006. We never managed to get a hold of those cassettes; and it goes without saying that they disappeared before we could even blink. Thankfully, Chalk has re-released all of that material on cd, remastered by the inimitable Colin Potter. As on the first part of The River, Chalk picks up the guitar for his minimalist explorations tightroping between the ghostly impressionism of Keiji Haino's Nijiumu project from many moons ago, the narcoleptic atmospheres of Maeror Tri / Troum, the oceanic ambience of Boris' Flood, and the time-reversal qualities of Eliane Radigue, all the while putting to shame every upstart drone artist with a cd burner and an Echoplex.
Just as the first River cd meanders through five variations of the cascade sound, Chalk produces another five tracks of rippling drones on this disc. Similarly, he has packaged the disc in the dotted decalcomania which graced the first cd. The major differences can be found in the gritty, growling distortion which exists just beneath the surface of these glassine drones. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!
MPEG Stream: "The River II, track 2"
MPEG Stream: "The River II, track 4"
MPEG Stream: "The River II, track 5"

CIRCULATORY SYSTEM Signal Morning (Cloud Recordings) cd 14.98
Holy shit! Some things are just worth the wait, even when the wait is almost an entire decade! It was over eight years ago that Will Cullen Hart put out a record as Circulatory System after the dissolution of his legendary Elephant Six flagship outfit Olivia Tremor Control. And ever since we've been waiting for more...
Signal Morning is a dazzling, fucked up pop record that ranks near the top of anything to come out of the great Elephant Six movement. With a bunch of E6 folks playing on the record including the ever elusive Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel fame drumming on some tracks. It's fuzzy, layered, crackling, and then bursting with such dynamic melodies and a triumphant spirit that's as warped as it is colorful and chaotic. It's easy to forget that Hart and the Elephant Six folks were doing fractured multilayered glorious pop way before Animal Collective were even a band.
Signal Morning is just such a charged and monumental sounding record, you can tell that Hart poured every ounce of himself into every single moment of the record. Kind of cool that this is coming out right around the same time all The Beatles reissues have been released as Hart was one of the folks to best realize how to take The Beatles sound into entirely new sonic realms, adding enough layers and undercurrents of weirdness to make something all his own out of that holy grail of pop. There is some serious fuzz and distortion going on amidst all the glorious pop music, in fact a customer who was in the store the first time we played this thought we were playing some great lost pop tinged This Heat record. Maybe (maybe) even better than Olivia Tremor Control's finest moment Dusk At Cubist Castle, and that's saying a hell of a lot! This one's gonna be a contender for record of the year, so damn great!
MPEG Stream: "Woodpecker Greeting Worker Ant"
MPEG Stream: "Blasting Through"
MPEG Stream: "Particle Parades"
MPEG Stream: "Rocks and Stones"

CIRCUS s/t (Esoteric Recordings) cd 23.00
Why are we highlighting this fairly obscure, UK prog/pop/jazz band's one-off album from 1969? For an AQ prog-pick this Circus reissue is not all that weird, it's not really heavy (though there's some moments of killer fuzz), not from some exotic locale, not "cosmic", not a lot of other things that we normally get off on regarding this genre of music, no, BUT it's one that we found very appealing regardless, when we first randomly encountered this record some years ago. It's simply a classy, enjoyable album from a bygone era, combining pleasant psych pop rock with the freeform exuberance of jazz improv. Generally laidback and melodic, it also grooves hard when it wants. We were probably initially won over by the way the album opens, with an awesomely fuzzed out (and also swingingly jazzy too, somehow) version of the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood". Especially towards the end of this lengthy jamming track, the guitarist really wails in full fuzz-garage fashion, while elsewhere non-sucky sax soloing is actually incorporated quite effectively. As Beatles covers go, it's a keeper, and almost alone worth the price of admission! That track is followed by the much mellower "Pleasures Of A Lifetime", and indeed as we said a lot of the rest of this album is rather laid back, with gentle vocals and a melancholic vibe, though some tracks boast funky flute and groovy percussion as well, not so melancholic those, more sunny really, even with a tropical island feel.
Another highlight is their version of "II B.S." by Charles Mingus. Again, a groovy launch pad for improv, which apparently was a big part of the live Circus show, whose performances of "II B.S." and "Norwegian Wood" each could stretch out for 20-30 minutes on stage we're told. (They clock in at 7:20 and 6:34 here, respectively.)
So it's neat that this has just been nicely reissued again, as it's a minor classic in a genre that doesn't really exist anymore (though there were a spate of SST bands in the '90s exploring some of the same jazz crossover elements, we're thinking of Hotel X in particular, who also covered "II B.S." on their debut A Random History Of The Avant-Groove in '93, but we digress). Anyway we'd recommend this to those that liked previous prog-picks of ours such as Bachdenkel and East Of Eden, NSU and Luv Machine. For fans of Caravan and King Crimson too - in fact, Circus features future King Crimson member Mel Collins on flute and tenor saxophone. You can definitely hear here why/how Collins would wind up in KC, playing on several of their early/mid period albums that had a sort of pastoral vibe to 'em. Collins' career actually started before Circus, and continued far beyond KC, his quite impressive c.v. including appearances over the years on a myriad of records from such diverse artists as Camel, Caravan, the Alan Parsons Project, the Rolling Stones, Eric Burdon, Baron Rojo, Dire Straits, Tears For Fears, David Sylvian, the Stray Cats, the Small Faces, Uriah Heep, Phil Lynott, the list goes on and on... In Circus, though, he's not just a sideman but definitely one of the stars, though the guitarist gets his share of the spotlight too!
MPEG Stream: "Norwegian Wood"
MPEG Stream: "Pleasures Of A Lifetime"
MPEG Stream: "II B.S."

CLIENTELE, THE Bonfires on the Heath (Merge) cd 14.98
No better time then the onset of autumn to get all warm and fuzzy with a new Clientele record. They have proven to be masters of creating the kind of rich, textured pop that just soothes so right and feels like the musical version of that perfect sweater you just never want to take off.
Bonfires On The Heath finds the UK band in top form with a set of songs that flow so perfectly, as they create the kind of soft glowing sonics that are just nearly impossible to resist. Much of the strength of the Clientele is how incredibly warm their records sound, this is a band that could run a workshop on the craft of how use the studio to imbue music with an impossibly deep and burnished warmth. Able to capture both the sound of classic FM radio as well as the lush and dreamy quality of bands like Felt, Galaxie 500, Mojave 3 and the like. Makes perfect sense that they hit the road with Beach House on their last tour, what a dreamy pairing that was! Such a perfect sound to share with that special someone you dig a lot as you spend lazy afternoons together and wander through warm autumnal afternoons with no specific destination. Perfect for whiling way the days, walking hand in hand, or cuddling beneath blankets, by the fire, as the air grows cold outside. So dreamy and divine.
MPEG Stream: "I Wonder Who We Are"
MPEG Stream: "Tonight"
MPEG Stream: "Walking In The Park"

CLIENTELE, THE Bonfires on the Heath (Merge) lp 15.98
No better time then the onset of autumn to get all warm and fuzzy with a new Clientele record. They have proven to be masters of creating the kind of rich, textured pop that just soothes so right and feels like the musical version of that perfect sweater you just never want to take off.
Bonfires On The Heath finds the UK band in top form with a set of songs that flow so perfectly, as they create the kind of soft glowing sonics that are just nearly impossible to resist. Much of the strength of the Clientele is how incredibly warm their records sound, this is a band that could run a workshop on the craft of how use the studio to imbue music with an impossibly deep and burnished warmth. Able to capture both the sound of classic FM radio as well as the lush and dreamy quality of bands like Felt, Galaxie 500, Mojave 3 and the like. Makes perfect sense that they hit the road with Beach House on their last tour, what a dreamy pairing that was! Such a perfect sound to share with that special someone you dig a lot as you spend lazy afternoons together and wander through warm autumnal afternoons with no specific destination. Perfect for whiling way the days, walking hand in hand, or cuddling beneath blankets, by the fire, as the air grows cold outside. So dreamy and divine.
MPEG Stream: "I Wonder Who We Are"
MPEG Stream: "Tonight"
MPEG Stream: "Walking In The Park"

COHEN, ALICE Walking Up Walls (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 14.98
Alice Cohen is one of the cofounders of the Portland-based Olde English Spelling Bee label and here on her second release offers up an intense sketchbook of sonic seances. Recorded from home, these recordings were originally made as a musical diary, not intended for release. But their home-spun nature revealed, through a process akin to automatic writing, a kind of ghostly songcraft that would otherwise not have been created through a normal studio recording. Swathes of burning guitar, rockish organ and disembodied layers of vocals culminate in shadowy perfumed murk. Bits of fuzzy song-structures peek through the miasma reminding us of times of a more carnivalesque Grouper or a more freeform Azalia Snail. Drifting and shimmery but at times woozily unsteady or blithely romantic in it conjuration. building up to rapturous peaks and then sinking into sullen valleys. Truly exploratory music!

COLD CAVE Cremations (Hospital) lp 17.98
Now available on (long awaited) vinyl!
Cremations is a collection of previously released tracks from the darling noisenik / minimal wave project Cold Cave, the bulk of which had been so painfully limited that they might as well have not been at all. The first three cuts should be familiar to most Aquarius readers, being from Cold Cave's awesome 7" single Painted Nails. The other tracks came from a cassette and an LP, both of which Cold Cave's Wes Eisold released through his Heartworm Press as editions of 100 in 2009 and 2007 respectively. The description we gave to the Painted Nails single is still apt: a morose and melodic blast of blown out noise-wave, a corrosive chunk of Cure-meets-Whitehouse or New Order-meets-Wolf Eyes. The tracks that follow the Painted Nails single on this collection certainly live up to the hype of that single, standing as lo-fi, scribbled new wave tunes for simple bass-synth lines, eerie-as-hell melodies, tinny drum machines, and alienated vocals with plenty of megaphone noise and 4-track scratchiness embedded into the mix. Cold Cave also tosses in some incidental music tracks which sort of sound like the interludes from Christian Death's Elektra Descending redone for Brian Eno's Music for Airports. It should be noted that none of the tracks here have been fleshed out like the incredible The Trees Grew Emotions And Died 12" which came and went a couple months back, and we don't mean that as a negative. Seriously, how many times have we championed the shittiest recordings on the crappiest media: flexi-disc, microcassette, wire recordings, shortwave, etc. And much of Cold Cave's grit and grime on Cremations appeals to that very aesthetic of ours. In fact a lot of these tracks remind us of some of our favorite electronic punk acts of the new dark age: The Screamers, Primitive Calculators, early Severed Heads, Dark Day, etc. You won't just be hearing it from us: this is incredible!
MPEG Stream: "Sex Ads"
MPEG Stream: "Heavenly Metals"
MPEG Stream: "Gates"
MPEG Stream: "Swallow The Sun"

COPELAND, ERIC Alien In A Garbage Dump (Paw Tracks) cd 14.98
No doubt about it, Eric Copeland is a bona fide weirdo! In the best of ways, as his manic and often hyper musical stylings have reached near brilliance with his band Black Dice and on his great mind-melting solo outing from a couple years back. In fact we think we kind of prefer what Copeland does on his own these days more than the recent Black Dice outings, there's just something a bit more inventive, immediate and deliciously confusing and mind bending about his solo stuff. Alien In A Garbage Dump is a pretty appropriate title considering the warped way Copeland's musical mind seems to work. Utilizing busted, broken and discarded equipment, the sort of stuff most people would throw out, Copeland sees the opportunity to explore other dimensions, reachable only by using damaged electronics, old tapes, and warped loops that feel like they've been melted, messed with and burned beyond recognition.
Using repetition often to the point of exhaustion, some songs definitely a test of endurance, yet the rewards that come from sticking it out are totally worth it! We can hear the influence of monumental 20th Century experimental compositions like Terry Riley's "You're No Good" and Steve Reich's "Come Out" and "It's Going To Rain". Yet you can also tell that underneath the extreme left field sonic fuckery in which Copeland roams he also loves dizzying rhythms and pulsating waves of sound. It's kind of like Daft Punk records playing underneath an Astral Social Club freakout. There is also a really cool Seefeel influence that he of course takes and tweaks to create a totally different atmosphere. One of those records that you can't really just hear a bit or piece of to appreciate but instead it does really work best when you can blast it loudly and let it unfold with all its twists and turns from beginning to end. With plenty of turbulence, chaos, and moments of pure ecstatic joy, this is one fucked up musical journey worth jumping on board for!
MPEG Stream: "Alien in a Garbage Dump"
MPEG Stream: "Al Anon"
MPEG Stream: "Auto Dimmer"

COTTEN, ELIZABETH When I'm Gone (Smithsonian Folkways) lp 16.98
Firstly, whomever made the decision to stick to the original design and packaging for the Smithsonian Folkways vinyl reissues, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! The benign simplicity of the original Folkways records have always had the charmed feel of a true folk document, one that never needed to oversell the musical wonders inside. And this is indeed a wonder of wonders, the third installment of recordings by legendary guitar player and singer Elizabeth Cotten, compiled from sessions made in the sixties and seventies by Mike Seeger. Originally released in 1979, these are mostly instrumentals with a few songs written by Cotten's granddaughter, often referring to death, salvation and the afterlife. She even does a later rendition of her hit song, "Freight Train", slowing the tempo down, imbibing it with the wisdom and experience of her old age. Her masterful picking and chording style, developed at an early age by playing with the guitar and banjo placed in her lap, displays an earthy virtuosity that easily trumps anything from the Fahey school. As it should, coming from a poor but educated black woman who pretty much was never without her guitar, using it as a diviner of storytelling and song or just making it weep in unbridled joy. Highest Recommendation!

DAVIS, BETTY Is It Love Or Desire (Light In The Attic) cd 16.98
There's really no doubt about it, Betty Davis was the true queen of funk! While she was only Mrs. Miles Davis for a very brief time, the influence she had on him was considerable, introducing him to rock and funk culture which undoubtedly led to his amazing funk filled '70s era that resulted in records like On The Corner and Agharta. Then there's her own amazing albums. Her first two records in the early '70s, a self-titled one and They Say I'm Different (both finally back in print on cd, by the way) really are the blueprints for raw, nasty, super charged soul filled funk and they still hold up so well even after all these years, and anytime we play them for someone who has never heard them before, they invariably are instantly blown away and want to learn all they can about the force of funky nature that is Betty Davis.
Little is known about much of her musical output outside of those legendary two albums, well there was a record called Nasty Gal released later in the '70s that has its moments but just didn't quite get to that magical place those first two records did. So when we found out there was a lost album from 1976 finally being released we were both way excited and a bit nervous as we love Betty Davis so much that we didn't want her legacy to be dampened at all with another sub par album. Luckily we didn't have anything to worry about, Is It Love Or Desire is one damn smoking set of fully on fire funk! There is such strength and conviction that in Betty's voice, every word she sings oozing with sez and power and intensity. If you've never heard any of her albums before we INSIST you get those first two records immediately - they are truly holy grails of funk, so it is pretty impossible to match that level of greatness, but this one really comes damn close.
There is such a raw and hedonistic salaciousness to these songs. You can picture some hedonistic no holds barred seventies coke party with this blasting in the background as the perfect soundtrack. These jams are almost abstract in their sheer funkiness, the band vamping, Davis and an equally badass male vocalist trading off exclamations and exultations of the FUNK. So crazy to think how early in the game Davis was getting to such a raw, deep and nasty side of things, WAY before folks like Rick James, Grace Jones, Chaka Kahn, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Missy Elliott, Trina, Lil' Kim, and Beth Ditto would all become mega stars channeling the same sort of energy. Funk lessons don't come with more fire and sexual swagger then when Betty Davis is on the mic, take out your pen and paper because school is in session!
PS Make sure to check out the amazing photo spread in the cd booklet for some seriously scandalous photos!
MPEG Stream: "Is It Love Or Desire"
MPEG Stream: "Crashin' From Passion"
MPEG Stream: "Stars Starve, You Know"

ELM Nemcatacoa (Digitalis) cd 13.98
Brand new disc of narcotic psychedelic somnambulant guitar drift from Elm, aka Jon Porras, one half of similarly sonically inclined duo Barn Owl, and also one of your faithful aQuarians. Whereas past missives from Elm were brooding and minimal, they crept and crawled and oozed and sprawled, Nemcatacoa immediately sounds more epic, more song based instead of sound based, channeling both the slow burn guitar drone of groups like SUNNO))) and Vulture Club and Fear Falls Burning, as well as the epic post rock build of groups like Godspeed. The sound is much closer to live Barn Owl, humid and hazy and HEAVY, distortion wreathing all of the melodies, there's even some drums, buried way down in the mix, offering up a skeletal framework for Porras' blackened guitarscapes.
It's not all heavy and dense though, some of the tracks are breathlessly lovely, spacious and spare, the notes drifting weightlessly, strung together by hazy contrails of reverb and soft focus feedback, hushed and reverent and meditative. But often those quiet moments splinter into heaving swells of crumbling distortion, or arcing streaks of burnished black melody. The sound is humid and heady, a constantly shifting dronescape, that goes from barely there folk flutter to blurred buzz drenched haze and back again. So awesome. Definitely has us excited for the forthcoming Barn Owl lp as well...
As always, SUPER LIMITED, packaged in a cool arigato style screen printed cardstock sleeve, with wolves and trees and an animal skull, all printed in metallic silver ink. Nice!
MPEG Stream: "Nemcatacoa"
MPEG Stream: "In The Shadow Of Red Rock"
MPEG Stream: "Silver Dust In Moonlight"

FAHEY, JOHN Twilight On Prince Georges Avenue (Rounder) cd 10.98
This compilation seemed to have come out of nowhere, but it's noteworthy because it collects the best of Fahey's Varrick years. Varrick, for those who may not know, was (still is?) a subsidiary of Rounder Records and in the eighties and early nineties they released a string of Fahey releases from 1984's Let Go to 1992's Old Girlfriends and Other Horrible Memories. Yes, these were Fahey's lost-in-the-wilderness years, and these releases with their bad eighties new age-y artwork and hodgepodge song selections (lots of cover versions from Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stravinsky, Bola Sete and Eric Clapton, with only a few originals) have never been the sought-after records in his huge body of work. But this compilation takes most of the Fahey originals from those releases and puts them together on one disc for the first time, spotlighting an otherwise overlooked period of his career to great measure. His originals from this period, though few, were among the best pieces these releases had to offer, from the Delta excursionary "Black Mommy" to the sad Hawaiian guitar of "Love On Waikiki". (Thankfully, the compilers left off his version of "Layla"!) This is one of those occasions where a 'best of' comp is the way to go, so Rounder has done quite a service here for Fahey fans!
MPEG Stream: "Black Mommy"
MPEG Stream: "Improv In E Minor"
MPEG Stream: "Love On Waikiki"

FAR EAST FAMILY BAND Nipponjin (Phoenix) cd 17.98
The subtitle here, or perhaps it's their slogan, is "Join Our Mental Phase Sound". It's a good slogan, whatever it means, and if you wonder what "Mental Phase Sound" is, all you have to do is listen. Total Pink Floydian, Tangerine Dreamy synthesizer laden space travel from Japanese hippies with krautrock connections! The Far East Family Band, as their name definitely implies, was a '70s hippie Japanese psych/prog outfit, forerunners of the likes of Acid Mothers Temple. Once known as Far Out (they were!), they got even trippier in their Far East Family Band formation, which included future New Age artist Kitaro as a member. This album was their 2nd, originally released in 1975, and is a classic for sure (#14 in Julian Cope's Japrocksampler Top 50). It was produced by krautrock legend Klaus Schulze by the way, for extra kosmische cred!!
Nipponjin is an electronic/organic/rock ritual, a symphonic ceremonial music, effortlessly fusing the spacey synths of the German krautrock scene with authentic Eastern mysticism in a way that probably made the European hippies jealous. Some tracks are propulsive, full of electronically effected drum beats, others more mellow and meditative, with the whooshing of synths... there's ethnic instrumental twang, heavy bluesy electric guitar noodling, stately rhythms, majestic vocal choirs, and it's all quite melodic too, making for memorable music that's a prog classic album for the ages, from Japan or anywhere else in the universe. Heck the side-long title track that opens the album qualifies all by itself.
This is the first time we've seen a non-Japanese-import (and thus non-ultra-expensive) cd reissue of this, so get it while you can. It's limited to 1000 numbered copies, packaged in a cardboard "wallet" sleeve like Phoenix did for Flower Travellin Band's Satori and other reissues.
MPEG Stream: "The Cave"
MPEG Stream: "Timeless"

FRESH & ONLYS, THE Laughter is Contagious (Trouble in Mind) 7" 7.98
Another blast of fuzzed out garage pop from these SF noise poppers, this one short and sweet, two super hooky catchy jams, the first all old school garage rock (via the new breed of retro new wave pop garage weirdos), throbbing bass, tons of Farfisa organs way up in the mix, heavily reverbed vocals, a catchy chorus (and a pretty catchy verse as well), and a super twisted laughing vocal part.
The flipside is an Oh Sees style rocker, heavy on the fifties fuzz and the falsetto back up vox, all wound around a frantic beat, but with some cool unexpected angular atonal melodies. Probably pretty dang limited so don't dawdle, no idea how long these will last, which makes sense, a 7" is pretty much the perfect way to experience a band like the F&O's, little frenetic bursts of rocking pop perfection.
Comes with a download card too, so you can cram these jams onto your computer.

FRISELL, BILL Disfarmer (Nonesuch) cd 17.98
The Wexner Center For The Arts knew just what they were doing when they commissioned Bill Frisell to create a score to compliment the stark photography of Mike Disfarmer, who took riveting and honest portraits of people living in the rural South during the late '30s and early '40s. Frisell plays both electric and acoustic guitars, uses loops and music boxes to create sepia toned, twangy and haunting short instrumentals that really evoke such mystery, evoking rural landscapes and life drifting by, sometimes seeming to pass in an instant, other times interminable and endless. While Frisell isn't someone you might think of right away when it comes to aQ, his varied and large back catalog is rife with gems and aQ faves, and we're really happy to see that in recent years he's begun to lean again more towards a less shiny and more intriguing side of his musical palette. In fact, let's not forget he added some seriously warm and lush richness to the latest full length by Earth!
Backed by a badass trio, the arrangements of steel guitar, mandolin, violin and bass are exquisite, not only showing off the talent of all the players but acting as a testament to Frisell's ability to compose pieces that so perfectly speak to Disfarmer's striking photos. Imagine a less drone filled Steven R. Smith, or a more tight and focused Dirty Three, or even maybe a new Earth album, stripped of its residual doomic leanings.
The cd is a long one, pushing to pretty much the maximum length that can fit on one disc, which makes it perfect to put on for a long road trip through winding roads and desolate landscapes or for whenever you just want to get lost in a rustic glow.
MPEG Stream: "Disfarmer Theme"
MPEG Stream: "Natural Light"
MPEG Stream: "Lost, Night"

GANGLIANS Blood on the Sand (Captured) 7" 7.98
Once again, Captured Tracks demonstrates why they are quickly turning into one of the only labels that matters, a practically perfect record of kick ass punk and pop and new wave, and every possible permutation in between. Just over the last few months they've given us records by Grass Widow, The Beets, Blank Dogs, Gary War, Roman Soldiers, Teenage Panzercorps, Woods and now this, latest chunk of summery surfy gloom pop from the Ganglians.
Taking up right where their most recent full length left off, these two tracks offer up more of that slightly new wave-y, very Beach Boys influenced, reverby fuzz pop, the A side lays down some wild wipeout drumming, those Wilson brothers style vocal harmonies, plenty of fuzz and buzz, a irresistible sing along chorus, and just a tinge of gothic brood, which adds just a tinge of darkness, somehow without taking away from the song's summer afternoon haze.
The B side is just more of the same, some serious garage goth surf pop, with even more of a Beach Boys vibe, lots of falsetto vox, and like the first track, the whole thing all warm and washed out and dreamy and summery.

GERMANO, LISA Magic Neighbor (Young God) cd 14.98
Oh, we love love love Lisa Germano! At times so whimsically enigmatic, at others downright hallucinatorily strange. Yet even in such elliptical and cryptic manner she seldom fails to make a direct hit on your heart. It doesn't take long on Magic Neighbor to show that Ms Germano's aim is as fine as ever. A brief chamber ensemble instrumental opens the album onto her drowsy effected voice singing witheringly "It's a beautiful day..." over and over again as if to perhaps convince herself and anyone listening. Few do melancholia as she does - bleak, despairing, an endless search for solace and escape that winds its way in and out of dream states - mostly inhabiting the shadows, but with glints of sun and starlight when she fleetingly comes up for a gasp of air. The lush backing of primarily strings and piano with some unconventional percussive sound makers (that offer texture more than rhythm) is a perfect accompaniment for her singular presence. Sometimes it enshrouds her in a protective velvety cloak as on "Cocoon", sometimes as on "A Million Times" it ominously clitter-clatterily spirals up with a life of its own. The ninth track "Snow" is the album's standout though, beginning with Germano's trademark always slightly off-kilter piano playing and her singing "I love how you see things" suggesting that she's at long last found a kindred spirit (or a like-minded haven, and perhaps she has with Michael Gira's Young God label). It's a beauty that slowly take flight at a point marked by four pensive single strikes on the piano. Wonderful. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "To The Mighty One"
MPEG Stream: "A Million Times"
MPEG Stream: "Snow"

GERMANO, LISA Magic Neighbor (Young God) lp 15.98
Oh, we love love love Lisa Germano! At times so whimsically enigmatic, at others downright hallucinatorily strange. Yet even in such elliptical and cryptic manner she seldom fails to make a direct hit on your heart. It doesn't take long on Magic Neighbor to show that Ms Germano's aim is as fine as ever. A brief chamber ensemble instrumental opens the album onto her drowsy effected voice singing witheringly "It's a beautiful day..." over and over again as if to perhaps convince herself and anyone listening. Few do melancholia as she does - bleak, despairing, an endless search for solace and escape that winds its way in and out of dream states - mostly inhabiting the shadows, but with glints of sun and starlight when she fleetingly comes up for a gasp of air. The lush backing of primarily strings and piano with some unconventional percussive sound makers (that offer texture more than rhythm) is a perfect accompaniment for her singular presence. Sometimes it enshrouds her in a protective velvety cloak as on "Cocoon", sometimes as on "A Million Times" it ominously clitter-clatterily spirals up with a life of its own. The ninth track "Snow" is the album's standout though, beginning with Germano's trademark always slightly off-kilter piano playing and her singing "I love how you see things" suggesting that she's at long last found a kindred spirit (or a like-minded haven, and perhaps she has with Michael Gira's Young God label). It's a beauty that slowly take flight at a point marked by four pensive single strikes on the piano. Wonderful. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "To The Mighty One"
MPEG Stream: "A Million Times"
MPEG Stream: "Snow"

GIRLS Lust For Life / Life In San Francisco (True Panther) 7" 5.50
When we gushed about how much we love the Girls debut full length last list, we talked about how much of a San Francisco record it was. Paying homage and being influenced by this great city we are lucky enough to live in. So it's more then fitting that this new single that features the great lead off track "Lust For Life" from the full length, offers a non-album track on the B side called "Life In San Francisco". The song really does perfectly demonstrate how much this city has shaped and informed the wonderful and romantic vision Girls create with their music. One of those songs that sounds as good whether it's crisp and sunny out or for those wet gray days we know are on the horizon. Never sure how long singles stay in print these days so best to grab one of these before you say oh how I wish I had......

GIRLS AT OUR BEST Pleasure (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
We might have missed out on this reissue from earlier this year had it not been for Mick from Rubber O Cement commenting in the store that recent Slumberland darlings Liechtenstein sounded a lot like Girls At Our Best. Given how much we were smitten by the Liechtenstein and their seductive twee punk melodies, we gave the Girls a shot; and damn if Mick didn't totally nail it. Girls At Our Best are a little more jagged at times (sort of like a brighter version of Scream period Siouxsie & The Banshees in terms of the arrangements) and enjoy some nifty production tricks of vocal multi-tracking to give Jo Evans all sorts of call and response choruses of her lightly melodic then intensely present vocals.
Girls At Our Best was shortlived from the get-go, as the band had already broken up once using the moniker The Butterflies, but took up an offer for half-price sessions at a studio in their hometown of Leeds to record. They recorded four singles, a couple of which ended up on Rough Trade before the tiny indie Happy Birthday offered them a deal to release their first LP Pleasure in 1981. Like any self-respecting punk band of the day, they managed a BBC session though Richard Skinner and not John Peel. All of these aforementioned singles, that LP, and the BBC session fit snugly on this cd compendium of their work. By the time, Girls At Our Best had jumped from the economical single to the full album, they were tinkering around with some whimsical vaudevillian tropes, sarcastic sugar-punk excess, and anthemic vocal acrobatics. And as ramshackledly silly some of these track sound, they were much better on the punchy, dance-punk numbers like "Warm Girls" and "Go For Gold."
MPEG Stream: "Getting Nowhere Fast"
MPEG Stream: "Warm Girls"
MPEG Stream: "Go For Gold"

GRASS WIDOW s/t (Make A Mess) lp 12.98
Not to be confused with their s/t 12" on Captured Tracks, this is also self titled, but actually a full length record from this awesome Bay Area trio, who most definitely know how to whip up some seriously awesome art punk garage rock. A bit more raw and rocking than the 12" but still very much in the tradition of bands like the Shop Assistants, Young Marble Giants, Vaselines, Kleenex, The Fall, as well as fitting really nicely alongside current comrades like Thee Oh Sees, Brilliant Colors, Vivian Girls, etc. There's such a sense of urgency and immediate energy that comes pouring out in these songs as well as a timeless quality to their approach that will no doubt give their sound a lasting power. They even incorporate trumpet really nicely into a couple of the tracks, including a slow burner called "Time Could Bend" which demonstrates the kind of dynamics Grass Widow are really capable of. There is a haunting/beautiful quality to their vocal delivery as well which reminds us a bit of one of our favorite and most underrated bands from a decade ago, Quixotic. We're definitely gonna keep our eyes and ears glued to what these ladies do because every record so far has been amazing, and they definitely seem like they'll only keep getting better and better...

HARVEY MILK Live At Supersonic, July 12 2008 (Capsule) lp 14.98
Around these parts, a new record from sludgelords Harvey Milk barely requires a review. They are the rulers of the slow and low, every record equally heavy and catchy, crushing and complex, glacial and epic. And this live set is no different. Their very first European performance EVER, recorded last year, jam packed with tons of our favorite HM jams, very little stage banter, or even crowd sounds, the band just plow through song after song, barely pausing to catch their breath, and as you might imagine, it's breathtaking, and the sound is as good as any of their records proper, the drums dense and chaotic, the guitars impossibly massive and downtuned, the bass a wall of rib cage rattling rumble, and the vocals, Creston Spiers and Joe Preston offer up some incredible harmonies, incredible mostly cuz the two of them have voices like molasses being poured out of a cement mixer, growly and raspy moaning bellows, but together, they sound practically angelic (if you're imagining filth encrusted fallen angels drowning in a tarpit, that is). The sound is ace, the band is tight as fuck, what more do you need to know? Well, probably that it's wicked limited, pressed on clear yellow vinyl, comes with a printed insert with photos and liner notes from both the label and the band, and if that all's not enough, they totally nail a crushing grinding blown out cover of Fear's "We Destroy The Family"! WAY RECOMMENDED, grab one while you can...

HAWTHORNE, MAYER A Strange Arrangement (Stones Throw) cd 12.98
Mayer Hawthorne is the pseudonym for Ann Arbor native and multi-instrumentalist/DJ /producer, Andrew Cohen, who began recording as the retro-soul heavy Mayer Hawthorne as a sort of joke.
When Stones Throw label head Peanut Butter Wolf first heard it, he thought he was listening to reedits of some obscure late sixties soul singles, not realizing Cohen had laid down all the tracks himself. Cohen is definitely channeling the same retro soul vibe that the Daptone label is putting out, and listening to this, he's got all the right soul references down from The Dells, The Delfonics, The Stylistics and The Moments, with the benefit of great song writing hooks. His first single, "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out", released on a red heart shaped 45 is probably the most groovy breakup song we've ever heard (It ironically get played a lot at weddings!). But our favorite track is the second single, "Maybe So, Maybe No", that shows that his hip blue-eyed soul persona is no mere shtick, but a viable modern soul force to be reckoned with.
MPEG Stream: "Maybe So, Maybe No"
MPEG Stream: "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out"
MPEG Stream: "Green Eyed Love"

HEADS Tilburg (Rooster) 2lp 28.00
As much as we dig the new breed of psychedelic space rockers, none of them can touch the Heads, whose sound is some impossible union of Hawkwind, the Stooges and Monster Magnet, able to whip off a 3 minute pounding garage psych jam one minute, and a 30+ minute free form metallic space drone the next, usually choosing to meld the two into super rocking, ur-psych blowouts, sprawling and heavy and blown out and EPIC.
This 2 lp live set, recorded while the band were on tour with SF's own Wooden Shjips, finds the Heads in fine form, effortlessly kicking out the jams live, BIG TIME, and in the process offering up a primer for all those young psych rock whipper snappers.
Brooding slow burn space-out to full on supernova lysergic psych meltdown, effects everywhere, swirling clouds of hazy blurred distortion, drums, heavy and pounding and rock solid, but occasionally getting all skittery and abstract, the songs slip from dirgey and doomy to hypnotic and heavy to super rocking and chaotic, the vox (when they do surface) are distorted and howled and buried in the mix, and the riffs, oh the riffs, for all the atmosphere and the vibe and the effects, the riffs slay, the melodies are insanely catchy, the leads stick in your head as if they were the chorus from a pop song, hooks buried everywhere beneath the roiling incendiary space rocking and free form psychedelia.
So goddamn good, the band's already heavy and unhinged sound gets even more far out live, the songs and sounds let loose, the unfurling into super spacious drone drenched spaced out psychedelic heaviness. Fuck yeah.
SUPER LIMITED. Gorgeous Day Of The Dead sixties style psychedelic cover art, thick stock, nice heavy vinyl, killer sound, essential...

HORDE OF HEL Blodskam (Moribund) cd 15.98
Just when we thought an album couldn't quite scare the shit out of us like Funeral Mist's Maranatha, along comes Horde Of Hel with their debut Blodskam. And while this Swedish group may not be *quite* as terrifying as Funeral Mist, they're not far behind, which is pretty much our highest seal of approval. If anything, the over the top pornographic imagery littering the liner notes is definitely on par with the ultrablasphemous art that is inseparable to Funeral Mist, and sonically there are some similarities as well. Horde Of Hel is pretty strange at times, with totally bizarre song structures and some awesome, unique riffs. There seems to be a pretty heavy industrial influence on display, with crazy electronics going all over the place, as well as some moments of experimental ambience, but they never get too weird or arty for their own good, and no one will mistake this for anything but the most vile, hate filled, and blasphemous black metal. Plus, you know you can't go wrong with a band whose MySpace page lists their members as "KILLERS, ANTI SOCIAL BEINGS, PREDATORS, DICTATORS, PSYCHO, MANIACS, ULTRA RADICAL TERRORISTS, SADISTIC ANTI HUMANS, PEOPLE OF SURT, PEOPLE OF THE BLOOD!!!!!!!!!" Yes, please!
The band perfectly understands their craft while avoiding the cliches that many black metal bands stumble on. Perhaps most significantly, instead of focusing on speed, they choose skull-crushing heaviness. The pounding drums keep things moving at a slow dirgey pace, combined with super thick, evil sounding riffs and heavily distorted vocals that alternate between guttural croaks and demonic shrieks. At times, some of the riffs recall the heavy as fuck atonality of My War era Black Flag, which is always a good thing, and which should give you an indication of the band's nihilistic m.o. There's something about black metal groups who understand the importance of lumbering, doomed out atmospheres that just can't be beaten. Each drum hit is like being hit with a sledgehammer while the rest of the band stands over your broken body, mocking you with their Satanic riffs and crazed vocals.
These guys seemed to appear from out of nowhere, which makes Blodskam even more of a welcome surprise. We're certainly looking forward to whatever this band may unleash upon the unsuspecting world next, because when you produce something this evil, there's really only one place you can go afterwards: straight to hell.
MPEG Stream: "Leave Life Behind"
MPEG Stream: "Born Again Into Submission"
MPEG Stream: "Hail To Chaos"

HUNX & HIS PUNX Gay Singles (True Panther) lp 16.98
As hard as we tried, we were never able to get in all the 7" singles that Hunx & His Punx released on labels like Bachelor, Shattered House, True Panther and Bubbledum, since Hunx began recording with his Punx while his other band Gravy Train! was on an indefinite hiatus. So we were so psyched to find that True Panther was compiling all those 7"s on a single lp, and since they're are all pretty much already out of print, so this might be your only chance to get all those tracks. Appropriately titled Gay Singles, the cover features an eye popping close up of a zebra stripe jockey clad crotch.
Hot on the heels of a long tour he's just embarked on supporting Jay Reatard, we're so excited that Hunx & His Punx gets to spread his amazingly flamboyant and sexy spirit and pure garage pop and punk perfection to a wider audience. A total student/lover of all things popular culture, Seth Bogart (aka Hunx) has become such a master of infusing his songs with playful and seductive themes, crafting killer pop jams, displaying plenty of tongue in cheek lyrics and a whole lot of skin, yet this is not just some kind of joke rock, as there is a really great understanding of true pop music, girl group sound and power pop and Ramones style punk rock. So damn catchy and loaded with innuendo and sex appeal that's sure to create a party anywhere and anytime these punx perform (or even just get blasted on your boombox!). So damn fun!

IMMORTAL All Shall Fall (Nuclear Blast) cd 14.98
RETURN OF THE BLIZZARD BEASTS!
Black Metal legends Immortal emerge after a few years of inactivity, and we are happy to report that the only noticeable difference is that things have gotten bigger and better and FASTER. And while the sound remains relatively unchanged, the strength of Immortal's songwriting and their unbelievable musicianship are enough to ensure All Shall Fall's status as a classic that will sit nicely alongside Pure Holocaust and Blizzard Beasts.
No matter how many black metal albums make their way to aQuarius, certain groups stand out, and Immortal will always be one of those bands we never tire of. Why? Because they're pretty much better than anything and everything else, that's why. While other groups have come and gone, or changed their style drastically with the trends of the day, Immortal continue to remain true to themselves, and with the two years it took to write and record All Shall Fall, you can safely bet that the band has delivered an album that is, in it's own way, absolutely perfect. All the elements of classic Immortal are here: supercharged riffing with a nod to classic metal (and hell, classic ROCK too), rumbling and relentless bass playing, and yes, INSANE, incomprehensibly fast drumming. Of course, none of that would mean shit if the songs weren't great, which they most certainly are. They are 100 percent black metal, but also surprisingly catchy, super melodic but brutal, and fucking EPIC. And like all Immortal records, the songs revolve around the band's self created fantasy realm of Blashyrkh, with lyrics handled by out-of-commission guitarist Demonaz. Go ahead and laugh; while every other black metal band sings their stupid bullshit about Satan, Immortal instead created an appropriate metaphor for the REAL darkness and evil that so many other bands could never truly conceive of.
We could go on about individual songs, but this is the kind of album you will want to listen to front to back. Everything ties together perfectly as you would expect, the production is spot on, and the band sounds amazing as always. Definitely one of the best metal albums of 2009, you could spend some time checking out the sound samples, but do you really need to? It's fucking Immortal.
MPEG Stream: "All Shall Fall"
MPEG Stream: "Hordes Of War"
MPEG Stream: "Arctic Swarm"

IMMORTAL All Shall Fall (Nuclear Blast) lp 38.00
RETURN OF THE BLIZZARD BEASTS!
Black Metal legends Immortal emerge after a few years of inactivity, and we are happy to report that the only noticeable difference is that things have gotten bigger and better and FASTER. And while the sound remains relatively unchanged, the strength of Immortal's songwriting and their unbelievable musicianship are enough to ensure All Shall Fall's status as a classic that will sit nicely alongside Pure Holocaust and Blizzard Beasts.
No matter how many black metal albums make their way to aQuarius, certain groups stand out, and Immortal will always be one of those bands we never tire of. Why? Because they're pretty much better than anything and everything else, that's why. While other groups have come and gone, or changed their style drastically with the trends of the day, Immortal continue to remain true to themselves, and with the two years it took to write and record All Shall Fall, you can safely bet that the band has delivered an album that is, in it's own way, absolutely perfect. All the elements of classic Immortal are here: supercharged riffing with a nod to classic metal (and hell, classic ROCK too), rumbling and relentless bass playing, and yes, INSANE, incomprehensibly fast drumming. Of course, none of that would mean shit if the songs weren't great, which they most certainly are. They are 100 percent black metal, but also surprisingly catchy, super melodic but brutal, and fucking EPIC. And like all Immortal records, the songs revolve around the band's self created fantasy realm of Blashyrkh, with lyrics handled by out-of-commission guitarist Demonaz. Go ahead and laugh; while every other black metal band sings their stupid bullshit about Satan, Immortal instead created an appropriate metaphor for the REAL darkness and evil that so many other bands could never truly conceive of.
We could go on about individual songs, but this is the kind of album you will want to listen to front to back. Everything ties together perfectly as you would expect, the production is spot on, and the band sounds amazing as always. Definitely one of the best metal albums of 2009, you could spend some time checking out the sound samples, but do you really need to? It's fucking Immortal.
MPEG Stream: "All Shall Fall"
MPEG Stream: "Hordes Of War"
MPEG Stream: "Arctic Swarm"

JAN DUKES DE GREY Sorcerers / Mice And Rats In The Loft (Cherry Tree) 2cd 23.00
Finally available again, one of our favorite weirdo psych folk records EVER, reissued, with a whole 'nother record tacked on. The previously reviewed disc, Mice And Rats In The Loft, it definitely the reason to pick this up, the other record, the band's debut Sorcerers, is just a bonus. More on that one further down, first let's talk about the genius of Mice And Rats In The Loft:
After Comus' genius First Utterance record was re-released, this left Jan Dukes De Grey as THE missing seventies psych / prog / folk holy grail. And rightfully so. Originally released in 1971 (the year Allan has determined that almost every great seventies record was released, even though he was only two years old then), this record manages to be totally brilliant and absolutely absurd at the same time. It has much in common with the Comus record, super dramatic trilling vocals, frenzied acoustic guitars and manic bongos. But there the similarities end. Where Comus took those elements and created a harrowing pagan ritual, Jan Dukes De Grey take those same elements and embark on a freaked out prog journey into utter madness. Sweetly melodic flutes, acoustic guitars, and weirdly bombastic drumming are woven into a weird and wonderful lilting British folk, peppered with an ultra-memorable little arpeggiated guitar lick that you won't be able to get out of your head, pausing once for a fierce heavily strummed riff that sounds almost Sabbathy before resuming it's sweet folky journey. Then suddenly the whole thing is thrown into chaos by a brief splattery drum break, which the band emerges from in entirely different garb. An epic journey through angular, almost eighties sounding nowave skronk, damaged seventies prog, ultra twee psychfolk and avant jazz krautrock. Weaving wildly from sound to sound, muted duck like saxophone, super distorted acoustic guitar, warbling trumpets, manic bongos, soaring strings, fluttering flamenco sputter, employing a massive arsenal of instruments: violin, cello, zeldaphone (!), clarinet, recorder, chanter, harmonica, hunting horn, glockenspiel, as well as a 'clothes horse' contraption with a hanging flat drum, tabla, cymbal, chimes and Indian bells. And that's all in the first song! Twenty plus minutes of freaked out psych-prog-folk brilliance.
The second track sounds much more traditionally seventies British folk, but only compared to the first track. Jaunty and folky, occasionally dark and menacing, with bursts of maniacal strumming, and sweet vocal harmonies, before the band switches gears and belts out a wild klezmer folk-prog shuffle that sounds quite a bit like Uz Jsme Doma. The final track is a dense and relentless, heavy psychedelic swirl, with jagged wah guitars, throaty theatrical vocals and wild octopoidal Krupa-ish drumming, thumping tribal tom toms and sizzling cymbals. Phew.
Take a dash of Comus, a pinch of the Incredible String Band, a hint of Jethro Tull, a splash of Captain Beefheart, a drop of Uz Jsme Doma and a whole lot of LSD and shake vigorously!
As if that weren't enough, this double disc reissue tacks on the group's 1970 debut, Sorcerers, which while still quite cool, is not nearly as weird or rocking or proggy as the follow up, instead it's a heady slice of lysergic seventies acid folk, lots of acoustic guitars, fluttery flutes and of course, those acidy trilled Comus like vocals. Seems unfair to Sorcerers to pair it up with a record as mind blowing as Mice And Rats, but they do work well together, it's easy to hear the seeds in Sorcerers that would soon blossom into something much more twisted and gnarled and freaky. Definitely essential for folks into classic British sixties and seventies psych folk, and a great record, but odds are you'll probably find yourself gravitating toward Mice And Rats In The Loft anyway.
Either way, this set is way way way recommended! Includes all new liner notes, as well as the original album notes, newspaper clippings, and tons of super cool photos.
MPEG Stream: "Sun Symphonica (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Sun Symphonica (excerpt 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Dragons"
MPEG Stream: "Rags, Old Iron"

KIRBY, LEYLAND When We Parted My Heart Wanted To Die: Part One (History Always Favours The Winners) 2lp 26.00
For a couple of years now, Leyland James Kirby has been releasing a highly acclaimed catalogue of maudlin ambient recordings culled from melodic phrases looped and blurred from old 78s. The bulk of these recordings (typically released under the Caretaker moniker) didn't seem to leave England or at least they didn't arrive in California. Now that the distribution has improved, we've finally been able to hear what the fuss has been all about. This album belongs to a trilogy called Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was that Kirby has made now that he finds himself living under the grey skies of Berlin having relocated from grey skied Manchester; lo and behold, he's still making cold, rainy grey music for cold, rainy days. And yeah, he's pretty damn good at it.
As a piece of vinyl, When We Parted My Heart Wanted To Die eschews titles and doesn't even give us any information what so ever on the artwork, a paint-smeared canvas. It works as an endless loop of flipping the two records, forgetting which track you've drifted in and out of, and wondering where to start next. These pieces of blurred ambience, obfuscated field recordings, and sad piano melodies hint at the furniture music of Erik Satie, the mood engineering of Angelo Badalamenti, and the emotional resonance of William Basinski. Limited to 450 copies, these will not last. However, we have been told that a 3cd set will be emerging at sometime in the future containing the whole vinyl trilogy.

KOWLOON WALLED CITY Gambling On The Richter Scale (The Perpetual Motion Machine) lp+cd 11.98
More and more every day we miss that brief period in the nineties when rock music was heavy, and noisy, and LOUD. Not necessarily metal, although to some ears it probably sounded like metal. It was more about BIG riffs, lumbering tempos, huge pounding drums, throat shredding vox. Think: Unsane, Halo Of Flies, Today Is The Day, Tad, Killdozer, Tar, Helmet, Lubricated Goat, Karp, Unwound, we could go on and on, but you understand what we're talking about.
There are very few modern bands who can channel the same sort of sonic energy without being retro, and typically, the heavier they are, the more they get lumped in with some metal subsect. But goddamn if there doesn't seem to be a bit of a modern noise rock scene brewing, bands popping up here and there, pushing all those noise rock buttons, and totally hitting the spot.
Which brings us to local boys Kowloon Walled City, whose recent Turk Street ep knocked us on our asses with it's noise rock / doom sludge hybrid. Weirdly enough, with this here debut full length, Gambling On The Richter Scale, the band somehow sound WAY heavier, but at the same time way less metal. Tapping into the rich noise rock history, and creating a disc that's both intense and punishing, melodic and heavy, and yeah, still a bit metallic here and there..
Opener "Annandale" is a churning hook filled noise rock jam, with big guitars, some killer melodies, harsh vox, wild dense drumming, some awesomely soaring high guitar parts, as well as the occasional burst of super melodic almost indie rock, before lurching back into the chug and crush. The sound definitely veers closer to a band like Torche or Floor than Neurosis or Eyehategod.
The second track though totally reminds us of the Unsane, with its roiling distorted bass, looped churning riffage, and weirdly mathy arrangement, some cool dynamics and some stop / starts that definitely had us in math rock heaven. But even here, the band inject some clean guitars, and some downright pretty melody before getting all aggro again.
It's a pretty relentless record, but thankfully KWC mix it up, changing up tempos, letting the drums breath here and there, giving riffs space to ring out and decay once in a while, stretching out into spaced out slowmo ambient drifts, pulling tracks apart into almost groovy sounding doomy dirges, slipping in plenty of subtle pop, heavy hooks galore. The title track is a monster, beginning with some clean guitar strum, minor key and tense, before lurching into a fierce chugging plod, with some Maideny guitar harmonies, plenty of palm muted guitar throb, an impossibly heavy downtuned chorus, and subtle melody mixed in throughout.
The record finishes off with the 6+ minute "More Like The Shit Factory", a sprawling slowjam, the guitars droning out in long streaks, peppered with bursts of downtuned crunch, the drums never really kicking in, the guitars all intertwined and layered, beating against each other, a cloud of swirling overtones, while the vocals howl, the drums sporadically pound, eventually everything dropping out entirely, leaving just a blown out psychedelic dual guitar drone, which crumbles and gradually fades out over the last minute, although. we'd have been perfectly happy had they let those guitars drone endlessly and fill up the rest of the record. Next time maybe.
So yeah, if you're in the market for some heavy, catchy as fuck, NOISE ROCK, okay, maybe call it metal, then Gambling On The Richter Scale is IT, and by the sounds of this record, they probably destroy live. On that same label that that brought us Catalyst, another bad ass noise rock band well worth checking out.
Packaged in full color gloss varnished jackets, pressed on colored vinyl (either clear, or black/silver haze), comes with a cd version of the record (it's an actual cd not a cd-r) housed in a separate hand screened sleeve. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Annandale"
MPEG Stream: "Diabetic Feet"
MPEG Stream: "More Like The Shit Factory"

KUUPUU Lumen Tahden (Time-Lag) cd 15.98
Kuupuu is a bit like a Finnish Grouper, her songs are murky and mysterious, the sounds feel disembodied and otherworldly, her vocals are ghostlike and gauzy, but those Grouper-like sounds are filtered through her Finnish folk filter, having spent time in Avarus, Anaksimandros and a handful of other big time aQ faves. Nearly half the record is made up of hushed intimate lo-fi ballads, muted and muddy and almost underwater sounding, her voice and musical accompaniment bleeding into each other until it's sometimes almost impossible to tell which is which, but those stretches of bleary eyed balladic drift and muffled shimmery dreamdrone are peppered with chucks of weird soft noise, abstract rhythmic workouts and some strange very Finnish sounding bursts of what-the-fuck chaos: plenty of clattery tribal percussion, detuned guitars, demented music box melodies, field recordings and found sounds, tape manipulation, gongs and bells and birdcalls, looped acoustic guitars, super lo-fi tape recorded voices, swooping backwards melodies, and the occasional jagged shard of feedback or streak of fractured crunch, but somehow Kuupuu manages to tie it all together into something much more cohesive and lovely than you might imagine.
Definitely for fans of all things Finnish and foresty and folky and freaky: Avarus, Islaja, Anaksimandros, Kemialliset Ystavat, Kiila, Shogun Kunitoki, Es, etc. And adventurous fans of Grouper might give this a try, if they're not averse to some weirdo noisemaking with their moody melancholia.
MPEG Stream: "Pahan Lintu"
MPEG Stream: "Susipoika Siniset"
MPEG Stream: "Joella"

KUUPUU Lumen Tahden (Time-Lag) lp 29.00
Kuupuu is a bit like a Finnish Grouper, her songs are murky and mysterious, the sounds feel disembodied and otherworldly, her vocals are ghostlike and gauzy, but those Grouper-like sounds are filtered through her Finnish folk filter, having spent time in Avarus, Anaksimandros and a handful of other big time aQ faves. Nearly half the record is made up of hushed intimate lo-fi ballads, muted and muddy and almost underwater sounding, her voice and musical accompaniment bleeding into each other until it's sometimes almost impossible to tell which is which, but those stretches of bleary eyed balladic drift and muffled shimmery dreamdrone are peppered with chucks of weird soft noise, abstract rhythmic workouts and some strange very Finnish sounding bursts of what-the-fuck chaos: plenty of clattery tribal percussion, detuned guitars, demented music box melodies, field recordings and found sounds, tape manipulation, gongs and bells and birdcalls, looped acoustic guitars, super lo-fi tape recorded voices, swooping backwards melodies, and the occasional jagged shard of feedback or streak of fractured crunch, but somehow Kuupuu manages to tie it all together into something much more cohesive and lovely than you might imagine.
Definitely for fans of all things Finnish and foresty and folky and freaky: Avarus, Islaja, Anaksimandros, Kemialliset Ystavat, Kiila, Shogun Kunitoki, Es, etc. And adventurous fans of Grouper might give this a try, if they're not averse to some weirdo noisemaking with their moody melancholia.
MPEG Stream: "Pahan Lintu"
MPEG Stream: "Susipoika Siniset"
MPEG Stream: "Joella"

L'ACEPHALE Malefeasance (Aurora Borealis) 2lp 22.00
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL! This killer chunk of avant outsider black metal mystery, carved into two slabs, a super deluxe 180 gram double lp, housed in a super thick jacket, with a big two sided poster, a 20 page full color booklet, LIMITED TO ONLY 500 COPIES!!!
They may have taken two years between their first and second records, but here comes number three, mere months after we raved about number two, Stahlhartes Gehause. Malefeasance is another stunner, again mixing all manner of experimentation and soundscapery with a core grim black buzz, but L'Acephale move ever farther from the constricting tropes of black metal here, instead utilizing those sounds and styles to their own end, i.e. creating some of the most mysterious and darkly compelling abstract buzz drenched heaviness we've heard in ages.
Where Stahlhartes Gehause was still essentially a black metal record, Malefeasance feels like anything but, with much of the record buzz-free, and even when the band do create some seriously harrowing grimnity, it's abstract, and obtuse, avant even, bordering on a sort of sculpted noise, utilizing bits of blackness to enhance each track's mood and menace.
Album opener "Vainamoinen Nacht" is an epic 10 minute chunk of blackened drift, hushed and shimmery, laced with strange samples and nits of found sound, ominous and haunting, eventually, the song culminates in a flurry of hiss and static and crunch, leaving just some strange bit of European choral music. The following track, "Hitori Bon Odori", harkens back to L'Acephale's Mord Und Totsclag record, offering up some apocalyptic folk, replete with steel string strum and martial snares, whirling winds, and deem ominous wordless vocals. "A Burned Village" is the first time the band explore any black metal, although the track begins with a haunting funereal drum dirge and deep monk like chanting, which continues throughout the track, which consists of buzzing insectoid riffage, harsh vokills, and no traditional blasting drum beats, instead, more martial snares and that same opening percussion. Heavy for sure, and black, but not necessarily metal, more like some sort of metallic black ambience.
The last three tracks, clocking in at 18:09, 14:17 and 23:00 respectively, make up the bulk of the record, the first, "From A Miserable Abode" explodes in a squall of swirling downtuned guitars, super distorted and saturated vocals, a heaving Merzbowian freakout, tons of effects and stuttering sonic fragments, there do seem to be drums, but they're buried in the mix, instead the track seems to expand ever outwards, a huge dense cloud of frenzied sound, all underpinned by a moaning, keening high end drone, which later on reveals itself as a bagpipe or some sort of horn, the metal and noise fading out, leaving just a glorious Eastern style high end ur-drone, mesmerizing and meditative and very very mysterious. "Sleep Has His House" is another 'metal' track, but again, there seems to be very little forward momentum, very little propulsion, instead, the band whip up supercharged drifts of noise drenched high end skree, while underneath, a guitar is locked in a motorik hypnotic loop, the result a sound like some Finnish forest drone folk outfit remixed by some harsh noise combo, the two disparate elements melding into something wholly original and hauntingly listenable.
Finally, the record closes with the 23 minute "Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted", a deep drone / soft noise exploration, beginning with some subsonic rumbles, some streaks of feedback and brittle high end, and finally an extended doom folk dirge outro, a simple minor key guitar figure over a backdrop of his and whir, the whole thing strangely textural and visceral, ominous and dense with menace.
It's definitely strange that what might be the best L'Acephale record so far, also happens to be the least metal. So much so that we can only recommend this to the most adventurous of metalheads (which we like to think would be the majority of metal loving folk that read the aQ list), but fair warning to the rest, that this is not really a black metal record at all, instead, it's some gloriously abstract, blackened ritualistic collection of dark metallic drift and alchemical doom folk, of blacknoise and apocalyptic dronemusik, and thus, metal or not, is WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "From A Miserable Abode"
MPEG Stream: "Vainamoinen Nacht"
MPEG Stream: "Hitori Bon Odori"

LIGHT Life Is Meaningless & Goes On Forever (self-released) cd-r 11.98
Earlier this year, we reviewed a super limited avant outsider blackened doom record called A Million Dead Beneath The Ice, by a duo called Light. Which was anything but light, in fact, it was one of the darkest and most harrowing discs we'd heard in a long time, a slow motion drone drenched funereal crawl, with a lush almost orchestrated feel that definitely reminded us of Skepticism. And if anything, record number two, the awesomely titled Life Is Meaningless & Goes On Forever is even more! More black, more doomy, more droney, more beautiful, more harsh and more bizarre.
One long hour long track, which begins with a slowly cycling piano figure, draped over a wash of reverbed tones, distant rumbles, the sound gorgeous, slightly atonal, ominous and sinister, and then there are the vocals, a nearly impossible to describe high pitched shriek, that almost sounds like someone screaming as they breathe in, a twisted strangled howl, totally at odds with the music underneath, reminding us a bit of Tomb Of..., who also paired up piano and black metal vokills, but Light seems borne more of a free noise aesthetic. Minus the vocals, the sound on Life Is Meaningless, is a sort of abstract slowcore crawl, a little post rocky, a little doomy, a bit of black ambient drift, but the vocals are just SOOOO creepy, it definitely pushes it into a whole other realm. And suddenly what could have been something darkly pretty, becomes something fucked up and grimly gorgeous.
Like the first release (which is long out of print so don't ask), the packaging is a hand folded, hand assembled, plain grey origami style sleeve, with a Japanese style obi, and an extra inner sleeve, as well as a hand written insert, and again crazy limited to less than 50 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Life Is Meaningless & Goes On Forever (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Life Is Meaningless & Goes On Forever (excerpt 2)"

LORD, MARK / MORGAN EGG Last Chance In Heaven / Discontinue Stardust (No Label) lp 17.98
Ah, the second release from the Mimaroglu Music Sale sponsored "No Label" which probably will stick as a name, when it really was meant to be a private imprint with the absence of a label name. No matter, though as this split LP from Mark Lord (the pseudonym of Christopher Forgues) and Morgan Egg (who we know next to nothing about). Forgues has previous work under the Whitehouse inspired project Kites with blistering pierced noise surrounded by shock-horror tactics; and that sensibility has been tempered under the Mark Lord moniker. The only semblance of that former self appears in an appropriated dialogue of a '70s porn, buttressed by some fantastic retro-garde / minimal wave electronics. These looping synth modulations arppegiate and expand along linear pulsations dappled by circuit bent twiddle and scrags of cheap noise. Sort of like a more progressive take on the Units without so much of the punk overdrive. The final cut "Warpath" tops the drum machine propulsion with an almost charmingly playful melody to the counter the insistent synth bass pulse. Really great stuff!
Morgan Egg's snarled drone tempests declares their influences from the classic Italian industrial work by Maurizio Bianchi and Giancarlo Toniutti. Washes of grey static and revolving chunks of leaden distortion meld into the grim atmospheres that Egg laces with oscillating electronics and curiously languid bell tones. Quite a departure from the Mark Lord side, but just as incredible.
This small pressing is less than 300 copies, of which we have less than a dozen. Who knows if more will be in our future.

LYNN, BARBARA Here Is Barbara Lynn (Water) cd 15.98
For the life of us, we can not understand why this record didn't become a huge hit when it came out originally in 1968. It always seems so arbitrary as far as to which artists or records get hugely popular and which fall through the cracks into obscurity. Luckily, Water knew what was what, and is giving this true soul classic another shot!
Barbara Lynn possessed not only one of those totally melty soulful voices, but she was also quite an accomplished (left-handed) guitar player. Bittersweet and heart wrenching, Lynn's voice just nails every emotion and conveys so much passion and pathos, we're reminded a lot of Irma Thomas, and many of the more uptempo exquisitely crafted tracks here make us think of The Supremes as well. And heck, somewhere between Irma Thomas and The Supremes is a pretty damn great place to be, and Here is Barbara Lynn is a damn great record. Any fan of the golden age of soul absolutely needs this as it's given our ears such a great and lasting ride. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Take Your Love And Run"
MPEG Stream: "I'll Suffer"
MPEG Stream: "Sure Is Worth It"

MOON DUO Killing Time ep (Sacred Bones) 12" 12.98
All right! Moon Duo returns with another hazed out transmission from some lost dimension (otherwise known as San Francisco), this one courtesy of the always cool Sacred Bones label. The duo (obviously) features Ripley Johnson from local heroes Wooden Shjips, and their sound is not too far removed from Ripley's main band, maybe a little more ethereal and not quite as overtly "rocking", but definitely following a similar path of hypnotic, fuzzy repetition that we can't get enough of.
Moon Duo are capable of creating powerful songs from very little and they obviously understand the power of simplicity. Each of the four songs on this ep utilize the same hypnotic drum machine groove, altered to various pitches and speeds to accommodate each individual song. The result is like a mechanical heartbeat, throbbing relentlessly with krauty precision, and almost serving as some sort of chain to link each of the songs together. The record begins with "Killing Time", which sounds a bit like a Joy Division part looped forever as the soft, distorted vocals lurk beneath melodic guitars and fuzzy background static. With its buzzing organ and controlled feedback, "Speed" rocks a bit like Suicide augmented by shrieking guitar pulses and, uh, harmonica? Maybe. The cool thing here is how sounds blend together in a cyclone of warm, pulsating analog goodness. At times you are unaware of what you're hearing, and even though it gets noisy and overblown, the results are always catchy and super melodic.
Side 2 begins with "Dead West", which has a cool underwater feel. The song fucks with your perception of time and place, as it could have been recorded 40 years ago or 40 years from now. Sonically, it is a bit reminiscent of fellow California space travelers Sun Araw with its percussive guitar strumming and shimmering psychedelic feel, as a little keyboard melody stands at the center of things while the rest of the sounds oscillate all over the place. "Ripples" gives off a Spacemen 3 vibe as the drumbeat is slowed significantly. The guitars have a nice bit of twang to them, and the sounds once again appear to get caught in some sort of musical whirlpool as they merge together before a cool fadeout.
Picking up where the last ep left off, Killing Time finds Moon Duo descending even deeper into a state of super rhythmic, dreamy psychedelia. Just the way we like it.

MOUNTAIN GOATS, THE Life Of The World To Come (4AD) cd 13.98
Sometimes it really is strange to contrast the Mountain Goats of today with the Mountain Goats of old. It's not really that strange for bands to develop and grow, to explore and expand their sonic palette, but for YEARS, the Mountain Goats WAS John Darnielle, a super aggressively strummed acoustic guitar, and his nasally whine, belted out at full volume, but it wasn't that simple, the songs, as bare bones as they may have appeared on the surface, were incredible, catchy and deep, melodic and super rocking (for an acoustic guitars), and the lyrics, by turns clever and bitter and funny and literate, all still totally punk rock, recorded on boomboxes, released on lo-fi mainstay Shrimper. Never in a million years would we have expected Darnielle and his Mountain Goats to end up on 4AD, nor would we have imagined the sound of the Mountain Goats could change so dramatically. But it did, and we've made our peace with it, those lo-fi days are long gone, which in some ways, makes us a little sad, but we would never have glimpsed this other side of Darnielle, which would have been a damn shame, as he's proven himself to be quite a songwriter and arranger, the NEW Mountain Goats, a whole new proposition, still with brief glimpses of the MG's of old, but for the most part, a proper band, sometimes rocking, other times brooding, always a little dark, the lyrics still awesome, so much so you sometimes wonder how Darnielle became a musician and not a writer, but the combination of super literate lyrics and more traditional rock arrangements still hits the spot.
Life Of The World To Come is a dark record, even by MG's standards, every track named for a verse of the Bible, although the lyrical content is not explicitly connected to said verses, at least not on the surface. The sound is lovely, lush and moody and dark and a bit mournful, the opening track is hushed and intimate, Darnielle's vocals restrained, the guitars muted, muffled percussion, everything murky and mysterious. The second track is much more 'rocking', with Darnielle slipping into his old vocal style, which is a good match for the chugging riffs, and pounding drums.
The record explores lots of stylistic territory, but the finest moments (much of the record in fact) find Darnielle abandoning the guitar for piano, the dark chords ominous and lush, backed by strings sometimes, getting a little chamber, which sounds fantastic, it's deeply moving, haunting and emotional. A couple of the more rocking numbers are a bit lite, and sound a tad mainstream, but invariably, they lead right back to something much darker, and ominously lovely.
Available both on cd and super deluxe double black vinyl. There were some purple copies, but those colored vinyl versions are long gone... plus black vinyl does sound better anyway!
MPEG Stream: "1 Samuel 15:23"
MPEG Stream: "Psalms 40:2"
MPEG Stream: "Genesis 3:23"
MPEG Stream: "Ezekiel 7 And The Permanent Efficacy Of Grace"

MOUNTAIN GOATS, THE Life Of The World To Come (4AD) 2lp 17.98
Sometimes it really is strange to contrast the Mountain Goats of today with the Mountain Goats of old. It's not really that strange for bands to develop and grow, to explore and expand their sonic palette, but for YEARS, the Mountain Goats WAS John Darnielle, a super aggressively strummed acoustic guitar, and his nasally whine, belted out at full volume, but it wasn't that simple, the songs, as bare bones as they may have appeared on the surface, were incredible, catchy and deep, melodic and super rocking (for an acoustic guitars), and the lyrics, by turns clever and bitter and funny and literate, all still totally punk rock, recorded on boomboxes, released on lo-fi mainstay Shrimper. Never in a million years would we have expected Darnielle and his Mountain Goats to end up on 4AD, nor would we have imagined the sound of the Mountain Goats could change so dramatically. But it did, and we've made our peace with it, those lo-fi days are long gone, which in some ways, makes us a little sad, but we would never have glimpsed this other side of Darnielle, which would have been a damn shame, as he's proven himself to be quite a songwriter and arranger, the NEW Mountain Goats, a whole new proposition, still with brief glimpses of the MG's of old, but for the most part, a proper band, sometimes rocking, other times brooding, always a little dark, the lyrics still awesome, so much so you sometimes wonder how Darnielle became a musician and not a writer, but the combination of super literate lyrics and more traditional rock arrangements still hits the spot.
Life Of The World To Come is a dark record, even by MG's standards, every track named for a verse of the Bible, although the lyrical content is not explicitly connected to said verses, at least not on the surface. The sound is lovely, lush and moody and dark and a bit mournful, the opening track is hushed and intimate, Darnielle's vocals restrained, the guitars muted, muffled percussion, everything murky and mysterious. The second track is much more 'rocking', with Darnielle slipping into his old vocal style, which is a good match for the chugging riffs, and pounding drums.
The record explores lots of stylistic territory, but the finest moments (much of the record in fact) find Darnielle abandoning the guitar for piano, the dark chords ominous and lush, backed by strings sometimes, getting a little chamber, which sounds fantastic, it's deeply moving, haunting and emotional. A couple of the more rocking numbers are a bit lite, and sound a tad mainstream, but invariably, they lead right back to something much darker, and ominously lovely.
Available both on cd and super deluxe double black vinyl. There were some purple copies, but those colored vinyl versions are long gone... plus black vinyl does sound better anyway!
MPEG Stream: "1 Samuel 15:23"
MPEG Stream: "Psalms 40:2"
MPEG Stream: "Genesis 3:23"
MPEG Stream: "Ezekiel 7 And The Permanent Efficacy Of Grace"

NATURAL SNOW BUILDINGS Shadow Kingdom (Blackest Rainbow) 2cd + comic book 25.00
We love super limited collectable releases as much as the next person, but it really does seem to be getting out of hand. Cd-r's, tapes, vinyl, limited to 1000, to 500, to 50, 33, even 12 in some cases. Sure it makes sense that there is a limited audience for a lot of music, so maybe 12 or 33 or 50 is enough, but once it's obvious that you've moved beyond such a limited fanbase, it's time to ramp it up. A band who routinely sells thousands of records, can not (or at least SHOULD not) release a record limited to 100 copies. All it does is piss off all the fans who love your music. And by the same token, bands who DO release ultra limited releases, well, when those releases begin to sell out in a matter of hours, or minutes, or if those releases end up on eBay the next day and sell for hundreds of bucks, well, then similarly, it's time to give up on the limited release. It's partially the listeners' fault, clamoring for ANYTHING limited, sometimes it seems like how limited something is, is vastly more important to folks than what it sounds like.
But why discuss this here, in a review of dynamic drone duo Natural Snow Buildings? Well, because these guys have LONG surpassed the point at which they should be doing pressings any smaller than 500, heck, any smaller than 1000. So far, every NSB record or NSB sideproject record we've gotten, has been so limited that A. We were not able to get as many as we wanted. B. They all were practically out of print by the time they landed at aQ, and worst of all, C. Loads of folks who wanted the music and could care less about collectability and were just big fans of the band ended up shit out of luck, and had to buy it on eBay for some crazy amount of money, if they wanted to hear it at all.
Shadow Kingdom is not as limited as many of the past NSB jams, but is still limited enough that we could only manage a smallish chunk, and it's yet to be determined if we can get more once these sell out, but we'll for sure try.
Which when you break it down is really a bummer, cuz music this good, sounds this dark and intense and incredible need to be heard by as many people as possible. Shadow Kingdom is at its core, a drone record, but NSB's take on the drone is so lush and expansive and epic, slow burning, but burning bright, effulgent and incendiary, guitars blurred into thick glimmering streaks, the various layers, pulse and throb and undulate, and those drones are shot through with flecks of folk, bits of twang, dreamy vocals, buzzing sitar, shimmering ambience, and those epic swaths of dronemusic are set amidst more song based sounds, the record slipping from nearly half hour walls of drone, to delicate fluttery folky ambience, to skittery sun dappled free folk, to washed out new age whir, to warm gauzy dream pop, all of those various permutations constantly drifting into one another, overlapping, intertwining, changing shape, melodies bleeding into other melodies, tones and chords drifting and whirling, it's all very otherworldly, and mesmerizing, meditative and so so so dreamy. A double cd is perfect for NSB, as they can indulge themselves, letting pop songs sprawl into disembodied hazy space-y anti-pop, allowing warm bits of forest folk, to blossom into ever expanding fields of flickering fluttery sonic shimmer. It's hard to listen to music this beautiful, and emotional, and exquisitely crafted, and imagine it only being heard by a handful of people. So yeah, another fantastic disc of drone folk loveliness from this French duo, grab one if you can, and c'mon guys, make as many copies as there are people who want to hear it, at the very least, someone should gather up all the out of print tapes and lps and cds and assemble a massive bargain priced boxset, for all the fans who missed out on so much music from a band they love. So gorgeous, and in case you hadn't figured it out by now, very, very, very limited.
MPEG Stream: "The Fall Of Shadow Kingdom"
MPEG Stream: "For Fear They May Come Back/Childrens Of The Seventh Circle/The Dark Road"
MPEG Stream: "Gauled Ones And Birth Rugs"
MPEG Stream: "The Crystal Bird"

NICHOLAS, PAX & THE NETTEY FAMILY Na Teef Know De Road Of Teef (Daptone Records) cd 14.98
A highly obscure Afro-beat document from the seventies, this is a little heard recording by Fela Kuti sideman, Nicholas Addo Nettey. Recorded in Lagos at the same Ginger Baker-run studio that Kuti cut many of his famous albums, this feels like a rawer more stripped down Fela Kuti album just without Fela Kuti, with more chicken scratch organ than funk horns. Four songs, 2 long-form politically charged call and response hypnotic jams with 2 shorter soul grooving instrumentals. Daptone does quite a service uncovering this beast! No Afro-beat collection should be without it!
MPEG Stream: "Na Teef Know De Road Of Teef"
MPEG Stream: "Na Six Feet"

OH SEES, THEE Dog Poison (Captured Tracks) cd 12.98
John Dwyer, one of the most prolific performers in recent memory, returns with yet another new record by his band Thee Oh Sees. And by "his band" we are not discounting the contributions of the other members because on Dog Poison, all the instruments are played by J.P.D. all by himself! Percussion, guitars, vocals, keyboards, even a flute on a few of the tracks. Though definitely more fuzzed out and raucous than Help, the last Oh Sees full-length, Dog Poison draws on similar veins of '60s pop and proto-punk, sculpting songs only one of which is over three minutes (and that just barely). Way more loud and rocking than other releases that were all Dwyer, it makes sense that Dog Poison is ostensibly by "Thee Oh Sees" rather than "OCS" or some other variation on that theme. It's like the old OCS is emulating what has become Thee new Oh Sees.
Those of you who think you might miss the boy/girl vocals of other Oh Sees releases, do not despair. There are multiple vocal layers on almost all of the tracks, most using "regular" singing and falsetto that echoes the perfect combination John and Brigid have found on other recordings. Sometimes, as on "The Sun Goes All Around", the lead falsetto vocals are backed up by (believe it) even higher falsetto backing vocals.
Clocking in at just under 25 minutes, these 10 songs will have you on the dance floor in no time.
MPEG Stream: "The River Rushes (To Screw MD Over)"
MPEG Stream: "Fake Song"
MPEG Stream: "Dead Energy"

OH SEES, THEE Dog Poison (Captured Tracks) lp 14.98
John Dwyer, one of the most prolific performers in recent memory, returns with yet another new record by his band Thee Oh Sees. And by "his band" we are not discounting the contributions of the other members because on Dog Poison, all the instruments are played by J.P.D. all by himself! Percussion, guitars, vocals, keyboards, even a flute on a few of the tracks. Though definitely more fuzzed out and raucous than Help, the last Oh Sees full-length, Dog Poison draws on similar veins of '60s pop and proto-punk, sculpting songs only one of which is over three minutes (and that just barely). Way more loud and rocking than other releases that were all Dwyer, it makes sense that Dog Poison is ostensibly by "Thee Oh Sees" rather than "OCS" or some other variation on that theme. It's like the old OCS is emulating what has become Thee new Oh Sees.
Those of you who think you might miss the boy/girl vocals of other Oh Sees releases, do not despair. There are multiple vocal layers on almost all of the tracks, most using "regular" singing and falsetto that echoes the perfect combination John and Brigid have found on other recordings. Sometimes, as on "The Sun Goes All Around", the lead falsetto vocals are backed up by (believe it) even higher falsetto backing vocals.
Clocking in at just under 25 minutes, these 10 songs will have you on the dance floor in no time.
MPEG Stream: "The River Rushes (To Screw MD Over)"
MPEG Stream: "Fake Song"
MPEG Stream: "Dead Energy"

OM God Is Good (Drag City) cd 14.98
Here it is, the first post-Chris Hakius Om studio record. And there sure has been a lot of whining. "How could Al Cisneros continue when half the group (Om being a duo) left?" "The new guy doesn't hit as hard," "It's on Drag City," blah blah blah. Fuck all that. If people cannot understand that music should be about progression and taking new risks, then they should stick to the old records and leave it at that. That said, there will be no mistaking this for anyone other than Om. The template hasn't changed drastically, but new drummer Emil Amos (who also pounds the skins for Grails and has a kick ass project of his own, Holy Sons) has certainly brought something new and fresh to the table. His drumming is more meditative, less pounding than Hakius' style and at times a little, ahem, "jazzy", and it honestly suits the direction Om had been heading in perfectly. And when the band does kick into its trademark fuzzed out monolithic jams, the changes come off as more dynamic and drastic. So, if you loved what Om has done before, chances are God Is Good will not disappoint.
The album kicks off with "Thebes," a 19 minute monster that begins life as a subdued sitar drone. The band jams it out for a while with clean bass and focused drumming, and of course, Al's amazing and totally out there stoner lyrics, before switching gears into the musical theme they have been exploring since, uh, Variations On A Theme. The best part is how it recalls the foundation from which Om was born while still showing the progression they have made since Amos' arrival. And it's fucking perfect. With Steve Albini once again at the recording console, you can safely bet that it sounds incredible, spacious yet controlled, with every nuance of Om's minimal but super amplified approach coming out nice and clear. Following an epic fadeout comes the second song, "Meditation Is The Practice Of Death", which is carried forward by a snaky, Middle Eastern styled bass groove as Amos provides some awesome drum work heavy on the cymbals and toms. The droniness just feels so great, with Al's monotone voice maintaining its steadiness over production that seems to show off a heavy dub influence. Probably weren't expecting that the first time you heard these guys, were you? But it actually makes total sense. Towards the end, there is a killer FLUTE solo, and its awesomeness should be enough to silence any of the non believers out there. This is still Om, but believe it or not, they are taking things into new realms, which is made even clearer on the next track, a two part song called "Cremation Ghat". Perhaps the fastest and busiest Om song to date, the song begins with a highly focused cyclical bass groove and percussion accented by hand claps playing out over a steady pound and a serpentine vocal chant. It's actually a bit reminiscent of Circle, but then Part II goes into a slow burning groove with the same sitar loop from "Thebes" entering the picture over more Middle Eastern inspired melodies. The album ends as it began, with the sitar loop urging you to press play once again. This is seriously great stuff.
So yeah, God Is Good is good, and we can only wonder where Om will venture after this. Luckily, it will probably still include 19 minute songs, thundering bass, hypnotic drumming, and totally stoned shamanic incantations, so really what's to complain about?
MPEG Stream: "Thebes"
MPEG Stream: "Meditation Is The Practice Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Cremation Ghat I"

OM God Is Good (Drag City) lp 17.98
Here it is, the first post-Chris Hakius Om studio record. And there sure has been a lot of whining. "How could Al Cisneros continue when half the group (Om being a duo) left?" "The new guy doesn't hit as hard," "It's on Drag City," blah blah blah. Fuck all that. If people cannot understand that music should be about progression and taking new risks, then they should stick to the old records and leave it at that. That said, there will be no mistaking this for anyone other than Om. The template hasn't changed drastically, but new drummer Emil Amos (who also pounds the skins for Grails and has a kick ass project of his own, Holy Sons) has certainly brought something new and fresh to the table. His drumming is more meditative, less pounding than Hakius' style and at times a little, ahem, "jazzy", and it honestly suits the direction Om had been heading in perfectly. And when the band does kick into its trademark fuzzed out monolithic jams, the changes come off as more dynamic and drastic. So, if you loved what Om has done before, chances are God Is Good will not disappoint.
The album kicks off with "Thebes," a 19 minute monster that begins life as a subdued sitar drone. The band jams it out for a while with clean bass and focused drumming, and of course, Al's amazing and totally out there stoner lyrics, before switching gears into the musical theme they have been exploring since, uh, Variations On A Theme. The best part is how it recalls the foundation from which Om was born while still showing the progression they have made since Amos' arrival. And it's fucking perfect. With Steve Albini once again at the recording console, you can safely bet that it sounds incredible, spacious yet controlled, with every nuance of Om's minimal but super amplified approach coming out nice and clear. Following an epic fadeout comes the second song, "Meditation Is The Practice Of Death", which is carried forward by a snaky, Middle Eastern styled bass groove as Amos provides some awesome drum work heavy on the cymbals and toms. The droniness just feels so great, with Al's monotone voice maintaining its steadiness over production that seems to show off a heavy dub influence. Probably weren't expecting that the first time you heard these guys, were you? But it actually makes total sense. Towards the end, there is a killer FLUTE solo, and its awesomeness should be enough to silence any of the non believers out there. This is still Om, but believe it or not, they are taking things into new realms, which is made even clearer on the next track, a two part song called "Cremation Ghat". Perhaps the fastest and busiest Om song to date, the song begins with a highly focused cyclical bass groove and percussion accented by hand claps playing out over a steady pound and a serpentine vocal chant. It's actually a bit reminiscent of Circle, but then Part II goes into a slow burning groove with the same sitar loop from "Thebes" entering the picture over more Middle Eastern inspired melodies. The album ends as it began, with the sitar loop urging you to press play once again. This is seriously great stuff.
So yeah, God Is Good is good, and we can only wonder where Om will venture after this. Luckily, it will probably still include 19 minute songs, thundering bass, hypnotic drumming, and totally stoned shamanic incantations, so really what's to complain about?
MPEG Stream: "Thebes"
MPEG Stream: "Meditation Is The Practice Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Cremation Ghat I"

ONO, YOKO PLASTIC ONO BAND Between My Head And The Sky (Chimera) 2lp 24.00
Now in stock on vinyl too!
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"

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART Higher Than The Stars (Slumberland) cd ep 8.98
Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are responsible for one of our favorite albums of the year! Their debut full length which came out right at the beginning of 2009, was the sort of refreshing slab of pure pop bliss that we had been so starved for. It's a record that we still listen to with as much excitement and frequency as we did all those months ago. The way they are able to tap into that great dreamy '80s state of pop while still sounding so fresh and original has made it a record that's going to be on many of our year end favorite lists for sure.
So of course we were super excited to get a new ep from the Pains, they really are one of those rare bands that have made such an impact on us that just getting a handful of new songs from them is so damn exciting. What's even more exciting is that these songs are some of the best and most infectious they have written so far.
Influenced by that Sara records sound, Pains create songs that soar with such ease reminding you of being in the backseat of your best friends car with the window's down as you heard The Smiths playing for the first time. With the recent passing of John Hughes, these are the kind of songs you know he would have wanted to be on the soundtrack for a movie like The Breakfast Club or Pretty In Pink if they they been made today. So romantic and yearning and with a distinctly daydream spirit we've already fallen head over heels for. Another amazing set of songs from one of our favorite new bands!
The cd version comes with an extra track not on the vinyl which is a really cool remix of the title track by Saint Etienne.
MPEG Stream: "Higher Than The Stars"
MPEG Stream: "Falling Over"

PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART Higher Than The Stars (Slumberland) 12" 8.98
Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are responsible for one of our favorite albums of the year! Their debut full length which came out right at the beginning of 2009, was the sort of refreshing slab of pure pop bliss that we had been so starved for. It's a record that we still listen to with as much excitement and frequency as we did all those months ago. The way they are able to tap into that great dreamy '80s state of pop while still sounding so fresh and original has made it a record that's going to be on many of our year end favorite lists for sure.
So of course we were super excited to get a new ep from the Pains, they really are one of those rare bands that have made such an impact on us that just getting a handful of new songs from them is so damn exciting. What's even more exciting is that these songs are some of the best and most infectious they have written so far.
Influenced by that Sara records sound, Pains create songs that soar with such ease reminding you of being in the backseat of your best friends car with the window's down as you heard The Smiths playing for the first time. With the recent passing of John Hughes, these are the kind of songs you know he would have wanted to be on the soundtrack for a movie like The Breakfast Club or Pretty In Pink if they they been made today. So romantic and yearning and with a distinctly daydream spirit we've already fallen head over heels for. Another amazing set of songs from one of our favorite new bands!
The cd version comes with an extra track not on the vinyl which is a really cool remix of the title track by Saint Etienne.
MPEG Stream: "Higher Than The Stars"
MPEG Stream: "Falling Over"

PASTELS / TENNISCOATS Two Sunsets (Geographic / Domino) cd 14.98
If you're looking to get to dreamboat island there really is no better way than to go with the Pastels & Tenniscoats as your dreamy and breezy ship captains. We're not sure how Glasgow legends Pastels and Tokyo's Tenniscoats linked up but it makes complete perfect sense as they each have perfected soft and soothing twee escapades like no one else. Pastels have been around the block, beginning in the 1980's where they helped usher in a new refreshing sound that would influence folks across the globe and plant the seeds for labels like K records. Tenniscoats have been around for the last few years and ever since we heard their pastoral and blissful take on hushed pop we became big fans. Our love of them only increased when their singer Saya performed at an instore here at AQ with Satomi of Deerhoof in their side project OneOne. This is truly a collaborative effort with members from both bands playing on every track and vocals trade off quite nicely and equally between each group, but all together the sounds of each band mesh with each other so well and with such ease that nothing feels forced about the combination of these two groups. So perfect that the artwork inside features a picture of the groups together sitting on such lush green grass, as we always want to be laying in some scenic peaceful park starring into the sky when we hear the dreamy sounds these groups create. Dreamboat island, we have arrived!
MPEG Stream: "Two Sunsets"
MPEG Stream: "Boats"
MPEG Stream: "Tokyo Glasgow"

QUELLET, ISRAEL Soni Sclavus (Sub Rosa) cd 16.98
Israel Quellet's 2nd album for Sub Rosa is not the unexpected surprise from an unknown artist that this Swiss sound-maker's debut disc was (for both us, and the label, read our review of it to see what we mean, we started off by saying "who the heck is Israel Quellet?"). But, that's because THIS time 'round, when we saw Quellet's had a new recording coming out, we were already eager to hear it. Much like its excellent predecessor, it's about compositions (improvisations? explorations?) limited to specific sound sources, each track featuring the use/abuse of a certain instrument or two, or perhaps a non-instrument, and to Quellet, his methods are his music, this is the focus, to the extent that the tracks are identified thusly... For example, track 1 is "for organ and percussion". Track 3 is "for fitness rower". Track 7 is "for footsteps and knocks on stairs, and vented carbon dioxide". He makes use of organ on here quite a bit, as well as percussion and less frequently voice, electronically treated (and in French). Actually much of this seems electronically treated, or in some way distorted, with "saturation" factoring into several of his pieces, occasionally achieving Merzbowian levels of noise (on track 6, "for percussions and saturation" especially!). All in all, this disc can be heard as one man's playful but moody, quasi-industrial homebrewed take on 20th (now 21st) century classical music. With so much somber organ and repetitive thunderous percussion, many of these tracks seem quite ominous, you can start imagining DIY Nitsch-style "aktions" happening in Quellet's backyard.
As with Quellet's prior album, this is varied and fascinating throughout, and surprisingly listenable. Truly experimental (and successfully so) music for curious ears made by someone with curious ears too. Recommended!!
Oh, and by the way, on our list this week there IS a cool Sub Rosa disc from a hitherto unknown (to us) artist, look for Pierre Berthet's Extended Loudspeakers, it's also AQ recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Pour orgue et percussions"
MPEG Stream: "Pour orgue, voix"
MPEG Stream: "Pour caisse claire, balais et saturation"

RADIGUE, ELIANE Vice Versa, etc.... (Important) cd 16.98
Back in 1970, Eliane Radigue ran off ten copies of her final composition for feedback on magnetic tape, each of which included a small handwritten note. She intended for the piece to be played back at any speed and at any duration and either backwards or forwards. Given the smooth polish to her sustained drones that could easily blur into infinity, such instructions to her audience of ten seems quite reasonable, even if the tiny edition of 10 is far from a reasonable amount. Fortunately, the French sound artist Manu Holterbach (whose minimalist work is awe-inspiring in its own right) has been sifting through Radigue's archives and came across this incredibly rare document which Radigue originally released for the Lara Vincy Gallery in Paris as part of a group sound exhibition. For the cd repackaging of this lone composition, Holterbach curated a double disc of various mixes of the original recordings. The first disc being the straight versions of the composition, played back at the four standard speeds of a reel-to-reel tape deck; and the second disc being backwards versions, also played back at those four speeds. The longest version is a little over 13 minutes long, with the shortest being a bit under 3 minutes; and all four mixes exhibit variations in tonal colors and slight oscillating modulations not heard on previous mixes. The first mix is the longest, slowest, and thus deepest plunge into the Radigue drone, which balances an asymmetrical undulation of low end against a static vibration which sits a couple octaves higher than the super-low rumble and pushes a little farther into the distance. As the track develops, Radigue seems to be gradually increasing the tension of these pieces, as if tension were just a knob she were effortlessly twisting, but in fact she's deftly controlling all of the parameters of her feedback loop to cause such effects. The second piece clocks in under a brisk 9 minutes with that irregular hovering sounds more pronounced. The next two pieces are a bit over four and two minutes respectively, each brightening vibrations to a sharp resolution on the finale. Both discs exhibit essentially the same sounds, which might be accentuated if you were to play both discs at the exact same time. A peculiar excerpt, yes, but a wonderful record for sure from one of the finest authors of 20th Century minimalism.
MPEG Stream: "Backward 19"
MPEG Stream: "Backward 38"
MPEG Stream: "Backward 76"

RAMESES III I Could Not Love You More (Type) cd 15.98
South London's daydreaming guitar trio are back with a brand new offering of gorgeous electric guitar wash and hazy ambient epiphany, this time on everyone's favorite big time of the small time label, Type. I Could Not Love You More finds Rameses III perfecting their regal, monolithic sound, and we couldn't be more thrilled! Majestic chords and metallic shimmer rise from the blurring horizon, heart-wrenching melody and cinematic richness pour into the sky with a radiant ooze. Pastoral soundtracks stretched out and slowed down into time-lapsed images of rising tides and exploding stars, blissfully huge and epic while always grasping on to a forward moving narrative, through quiet grasslands of fingerpicked, Takoma style acoustic guitar to swelling waves of glistening tones that grow and radiate on the verge of feedback.
While even some of our favorite modern ambient music relies on layers and layers of digital processing, Rameses III maintains a certain acoustic integrity by layering strictly live instruments. Electric guitars, electric pianos, and mellotrons produce a warm, ethereal wash that brings an otherworldly depth to their sound, a depth that digital processing could never recreate.
Ghostly and melodic, mysterious and heavy, ambient and thoughtful, I Could Not Love You More is no doubt the trio's finest work and a perfect addition to the Type catalogue, highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "We Shall Never Sing of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "No Water, No Moon"
MPEG Stream: "I Could Not Love You More"

RAMESES III I Could Not Love You More (Type) lp 19.98
South London's daydreaming guitar trio are back with a brand new offering of gorgeous electric guitar wash and hazy ambient epiphany, this time on everyone's favorite big time of the small time label, Type. I Could Not Love You More finds Rameses III perfecting their regal, monolithic sound, and we couldn't be more thrilled! Majestic chords and metallic shimmer rise from the blurring horizon, heart-wrenching melody and cinematic richness pour into the sky with a radiant ooze. Pastoral soundtracks stretched out and slowed down into time-lapsed images of rising tides and exploding stars, blissfully huge and epic while always grasping on to a forward moving narrative, through quiet grasslands of fingerpicked, Takoma style acoustic guitar to swelling waves of glistening tones that grow and radiate on the verge of feedback.
While even some of our favorite modern ambient music relies on layers and layers of digital processing, Rameses III maintains a certain acoustic integrity by layering strictly live instruments. Electric guitars, electric pianos, and mellotrons produce a warm, ethereal wash that brings an otherworldly depth to their sound, a depth that digital processing could never recreate.
Ghostly and melodic, mysterious and heavy, ambient and thoughtful, I Could Not Love You More is no doubt the trio's finest work and a perfect addition to the Type catalogue, highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "We Shall Never Sing of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "No Water, No Moon"
MPEG Stream: "I Could Not Love You More"

SANDWITCHES, THE How To Make Ambient Sadcake (Turn Up) lp 14.98
Lately some of our favorite Bay Area music makers have added record label head honcho to their resumes. John Dwyer (Thee Oh Sees) started his label Castle Face a few years ago, and Kelley Stoltz started Chuffed last year and now Marc Dantona of Conspiracy Of Beards and the now sadly defunct Pillars Of Silence has just launched his own label, Turn Up. The Sandwitches are the perfect band to be the first release on the label, as their smart approach to wide spanning pop shows what happens when folk minded musicians take it to the garage. The three ladies in the band have done time in great San Francisco bands like Brilliant Colors, The Fresh & Onlys, Pillars Of Silence and it is kind of cool how if you did put all three of those bands in a blender the sound of the Sandwitches can really be imagined. So many bands of late seem to be so dialed into such a narrow and small palette of sounds so it's really refreshing to hear a band who are no one trick pony, but instead cover lots of musical ground but do so with a cohesiveness that is often really tricky to pull off like The Sandwitches do on this debut. In lots of ways the record makes us think of what it would sound like for a band on Woodsist to cover Fleetwood Mac's amazing record Tusk.
There is also something so honest and sincere about their delivery that you get the feeling they would play these songs with as much conviction and emotion in their living room filled with a few friends as much as they would on stage at a packed venue. Can't wait to hear what Turn Up unleash in the future and if this debut release is any indication this is going to be a label to keep your eyes on!
MPEG Stream: "Back To The Sea Again"
MPEG Stream: "Relax At The Beach"
MPEG Stream: "Wicked Inger"

SILVER PINES Forces (Light Lodge) lp 14.98
Now On Vinyl!
We weren't sure what to expect of this, when one slow night we were going through a pile of cd submissions and it was the last thing we put on. But we were instantly floored! We didn't really know too much about this band except they were from San Marcos, TX and recently relocated to Austin, having dropped off the cd with us when they were on tour (we had mistakenly assumed at first they were local!).
Silver Pines revel in a sound that can be best described as shoegazey stoner country-rock. Thick, warm, slow-burning and gauzy with lots of reverbed slide guitar and heavy psych amp fuzz underscoring the female singer's pretty heavy-lidded drawled vocals, the songs on Forces remind us of smoky perfumed parlors from a forgotten age. The kind of music that instantly transports you to an a dreamy antiquated time but in a way that seems refreshingly unfamiliar and charmed. Reminiscent of a fuzzier more narcoleptic Mazzy Star or a more heavier slow-rocking Beach House, Silver Pines has taken us all quite by surprise by their majestic grace and atmospheric beauty. Soooo good!! Hopefully this won't be the last we hear from this band. Already assured a spot on our top ten lists for the year. Limited to 500 copies. Don't miss out!!!
MPEG Stream: "Timefather"
MPEG Stream: "Polar Bear"
MPEG Stream: "Old Sky"

SNOWBLOOD s/t (Super-Fi) cd 13.98
It's been almost 3 years since we last heard from Snowblood, who at the time were super hyped to us as being a "metal Mogwai", which makes sense as they are Scottish, they write epic slow burning metallic post rock jams, and they manages to fuse extreme heaviness with super melodic rock, but unlike Mogwai, these guys get very VERY metal, as in ULTRA heavy, sometimes sludgey and crushing, other times frenzied and thrashy, incorporating howling black metal vokills, even blast beats.
This long in the works new album, finds the band refining their sound, the prettier melodic parts are a bit crunchier, a little more krautrocky, loping and hypnotic, and the heavy parts, well, the band have really outdone themselves, kicking out the metallic jams big time, exploding into bursts of Coalesce / Converge chaotic fury before stumbling into lurching epic metallic doom sludge, the vocals even more harsh and hellish than before, the band sometime slowing it way down and dipping into full on Eyehategod territory.
Four long tracks, none shorter than 10 minutes, the longest a sprawling 18:31, each one a meandering journey from drift and strum and jangle to pummel and crush and crumble. The second track is all washed out and shoegazey with what sounds like accordions or strings, adding a layer of woozy buzz, until the band explodes into another bout of brutality, at which point those accordions or strings get all super distorted and sound almost like a metal kazoo, the effect is not as goofy as it sounds, especially considering the band lock into a seriously intense minor key mournful doom metal dirge. The third trajectory is the mathiest of the bunch, and never quite gets full metallized, although the vocals get pretty harsh, but the music gets more loud / epic Mogwai style, a Godspeed like flourish before settling back into a drifty post rocky fade out.
The final track mixes it up and starts out all metal, a huge churning chug, with a soaring main melody, those killer vox, before breaking down into a cool abstract drift, with jagged shards of droneguitar, fractured fragmented riffs, a downtuned crumbling chug way off in the distance, all woven around a woozy minor key melody, before exploding into another stretch of churning riffage and intense drum pound, finally finishing off with a thick wall of guitar hum and hiss. Awesome stuff. Seems like these guys should be massive, touring with Isis and Neurosis and Baroness and all those sorts of heavy hitters, maybe they do on the other side of the ocean, but it seems like over here they're way more under the radar, metalheads and post rockers over here need to get hip to these guys, lots of folks just might find themselves with a new favorite band.
Killer packaging, housed in a gorgeous silkscreened cardstock sleeve, with a fancy fold out printed insert.
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "IV"

STROSZEK The Wild Hunt (God Is Myth) 3"cd-r 9.98
Volume eight in the ongoing HP Lovecraft 3"cd-r series, each a unique tribute to the writer and his works, past installments included discs from Caina, Brown Jenkins, Sapthuran, Smohalla, Frostmoon Eclipse, LVTHN and Harvist, all of them WAY out of print, since each one is limited to a mere 100 copies. Out of each batch of 100 we get 20 copies, so by now you should know exactly what that means...
Stroszek is the solo project of Claudio of Frostmoon Eclipse, and is, wait for it, ALL ACOUSTIC. Yeah, we know, we're very cautious when it comes to acoustic solo folky projects from grim black metallers, but as we discussed at length in the review of the most recent Stroszek full length, Songs For Remorse, which itself wasn't strictly acoustic, somehow even in Frostmoon, this guy has such a way with melody and arrangement, that even without distortion or blast beats or drums at all, he's able to conjure up dark spirits, evoke dreamlike memories and call forth all manner of ancient mystery. But this, this is definitely not even remotely black metal, instead, this is some gorgeous dark acoustic folk, solo acoustic guitar, and nothing else,moody and brooding, minor key and melancholic, a little bit Appalachia, but more simple and stripped down, no furious flurries of notes or slippery slide, this is all about melody and ambience, these skeletal minimal acoustic guitarscapes are delicate and dark and so lovely. There are vocals, but they are nearly whispered and only surface occasionally. leaving the guitar to unfurl crystalline notes and gently line them up into shimmery melodies, the whole thing darkly intimate, and really quite beautiful.
Metal fans may want this to round out the series, but only the most open minded metalhead will dig this, instead, we'd recommend this to fans of free folk and dark folk other delicate six stringery, Six Organs Of Admittance, Steven R. Smith, Ilyas Ahmed, James Blackshaw, Jack Rose, that sort of thing.
Again, LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES. We got only TWENTY! Packaged in a normal slimline cd case, with sepia toned covers, and a sepia printed cardstock insert with a photo and a brief biography of Lovecraft.
MPEG Stream: "Secret Of The Earth"
MPEG Stream: "From Mound To Mound"

TIMES NEW VIKING Born Again Revisited (Matador) cd 13.98
The kings (and queen) of shitgaze return once again, to prove once again, that none of those wannabe noiseniks can even come close. It's not about your shitty 4-track, or your busted ass equipment, or recording onto a boombox in Mom's basement, it's about songs and hooks, the riffs and the melodies, and TNV have it all covered. The songs rule, impossibly catchy, with weary drawled indie sad boy vocals all tangled up with dreamy girl group la la la girl vocals, the guitars are crunchy and angular, the drums are blown out, in-the-red basement crunch, the keyboard is warm and warbly and wheezy, not sure if there's an actual bass, it's hard to tell since most of these tracks lean toward the trebly, and the production varies, from surprisingly clean and shimmery (on "Martin Luther King Day"), to crumbling and distorted almost everywhere else.
But again, that's all incidental to the songs, which manage to be sort of pop, sort of punk, a little new wave, a bit crusty, all wrapped around unlikely, but irresistible hooks, a few songs get super jagged and no wave-y, and the sound totally suits them, but then there are jams like "Martin Luther King Day" which sound like classic nineties indie rock, albeit a bit rougher around the edges. And the rest of the tracks fall somewhere in between, raw, blown out garage-y new wave-y pop, that easily outshines all the other shitgaze combos, as well as positioning TNV comfortably amidst a similar but parallel scene, the weirdo lo-fi new wave garage pop scene that Thee Oh Sees, Sic Alps, The Fresh & Onlys, Ty Segall and Tyvek all call home.
We LOVE this band!
MPEG Stream: "Martin Luther King Day"
MPEG Stream: "I Smell Bubblegum"
MPEG Stream: "City On Drugs"

TIMES NEW VIKING Born Again Revisited (Matador) lp 14.98
The kings (and queen) of shitgaze return once again, to prove once again, that none of those wannabe noiseniks can even come close. It's not about your shitty 4-track, or your busted ass equipment, or recording onto a boombox in Mom's basement, it's about songs and hooks, the riffs and the melodies, and TNV have it all covered. The songs rule, impossibly catchy, with weary drawled indie sad boy vocals all tangled up with dreamy girl group la la la girl vocals, the guitars are crunchy and angular, the drums are blown out, in-the-red basement crunch, the keyboard is warm and warbly and wheezy, not sure if there's an actual bass, it's hard to tell since most of these tracks lean toward the trebly, and the production varies, from surprisingly clean and shimmery (on "Martin Luther King Day"), to crumbling and distorted almost everywhere else.
But again, that's all incidental to the songs, which manage to be sort of pop, sort of punk, a little new wave, a bit crusty, all wrapped around unlikely, but irresistible hooks, a few songs get super jagged and no wave-y, and the sound totally suits them, but then there are jams like "Martin Luther King Day" which sound like classic nineties indie rock, albeit a bit rougher around the edges. And the rest of the tracks fall somewhere in between, raw, blown out garage-y new wave-y pop, that easily outshines all the other shitgaze combos, as well as positioning TNV comfortably amidst a similar but parallel scene, the weirdo lo-fi new wave garage pop scene that Thee Oh Sees, Sic Alps, The Fresh & Onlys, Ty Segall and Tyvek all call home.
We LOVE this band!
MPEG Stream: "Martin Luther King Day"
MPEG Stream: "I Smell Bubblegum"
MPEG Stream: "City On Drugs"

TRANSITIONAL Stomach Of The Sun (Conspiracy) cd 15.98
Sometimes a pedigree can tell you a lot about a band. For instance, take Transitional. Here's a list of bands the various members have been a part of: Novatron, Head Of David, Jesu, Grey Machine, God, Fear Falls Burning, and if you include the guy who mastered the record, add to the list: Jesu, Godflesh, Final, Ice, Techno Animal, Sidewinder and Napalm Death. Phew! You probably nailed that last one as Justin Broadrick, who does indeed master this second disc from Transitional, and the group does not stray too far from this sonic lineage, as Stomach Of The Sun is indeed intense, drone-y, grim, ominous, noisy, distorted, rhythmic, blackened, atmospheric, hypnotic and HEAVY. Fans of any or all of the above mentioned bands will most likely find this much to their liking.
The record begins with a 13+ minute slow burn guitardrone, that builds and builds, growing ever more intense and caustic, but somehow remaining warm and lush, before stumbling into a lurching industrial Godflesh-ed pound, dirgey and dense, but with a bit of a melodic element, a feedbacky melody draped over Transitional's tarpit plod, totally brings us back to the early Earache / Pathological days, but with a slightly more modern sheen. "In My Collapse" follows up with more rhythmic metallic crunch, this time a bit more dubbed out, a little space-y, like a Godflesh ballad if there could ever be such a thing, which leads directly into "Drowning", a gorgeously washed out doomic drift, spare drums, swirling effects, and lots of streaked longform tones, hypnotic and dreamy. The rest of the record pretty much shifts between those sounds, the more Jesu-y metalgaze drift, the post industrial metallic plod and the dreamlike ambient shimmer, the three sounds rarely remaining totally distinct, instead, constantly blending and mixing, creating gorgeous hybrids, sometimes dense and ominous, othertimes soft focus and otherworldly. "Hideaway" is the best song Jesu never recorded, the title track begins all spaced out and dubby, before introducing one of the most crushing (and weirdly processed) riffs ever, and the record closes with an epic swath of noise drenched free form ambient soft noise drift, that manages to be soothing and serene, as well as intense and haunting at the same time.
Seriously awesome stuff, not sure how we missed out on their debut, but this one is so good we're definitely gonna have to track that one down as well... On limited (naturally) vinyl and cd.
MPEG Stream: "Vacant Monolith Rotation"
MPEG Stream: "Pyramid"
MPEG Stream: "In My Collapse"
MPEG Stream: "Worst Eyes Shut"

TRANSITIONAL Stomach Of The Sun (Conspiracy) 2lp 37.00
Sometimes a pedigree can tell you a lot about a band. For instance, take Transitional. Here's a list of bands the various members have been a part of: Novatron, Head Of David, Jesu, Grey Machine, God, Fear Falls Burning, and if you include the guy who mastered the record, add to the list: Jesu, Godflesh, Final, Ice, Techno Animal, Sidewinder and Napalm Death. Phew! You probably nailed that last one as Justin Broadrick, who does indeed master this second disc from Transitional, and the group does not stray too far from this sonic lineage, as Stomach Of The Sun is indeed intense, drone-y, grim, ominous, noisy, distorted, rhythmic, blackened, atmospheric, hypnotic and HEAVY. Fans of any or all of the above mentioned bands will most likely find this much to their liking.
The record begins with a 13+ minute slow burn guitardrone, that builds and builds, growing ever more intense and caustic, but somehow remaining warm and lush, before stumbling into a lurching industrial Godflesh-ed pound, dirgey and dense, but with a bit of a melodic element, a feedbacky melody draped over Transitional's tarpit plod, totally brings us back to the early Earache / Pathological days, but with a slightly more modern sheen. "In My Collapse" follows up with more rhythmic metallic crunch, this time a bit more dubbed out, a little space-y, like a Godflesh ballad if there could ever be such a thing, which leads directly into "Drowning", a gorgeously washed out doomic drift, spare drums, swirling effects, and lots of streaked longform tones, hypnotic and dreamy. The rest of the record pretty much shifts between those sounds, the more Jesu-y metalgaze drift, the post industrial metallic plod and the dreamlike ambient shimmer, the three sounds rarely remaining totally distinct, instead, constantly blending and mixing, creating gorgeous hybrids, sometimes dense and ominous, othertimes soft focus and otherworldly. "Hideaway" is the best song Jesu never recorded, the title track begins all spaced out and dubby, before introducing one of the most crushing (and weirdly processed) riffs ever, and the record closes with an epic swath of noise drenched free form ambient soft noise drift, that manages to be soothing and serene, as well as intense and haunting at the same time.
Seriously awesome stuff, not sure how we missed out on their debut, but this one is so good we're definitely gonna have to track that one down as well... On limited (naturally) vinyl and cd.
MPEG Stream: "Vacant Monolith Rotation"
MPEG Stream: "Pyramid"
MPEG Stream: "In My Collapse"
MPEG Stream: "Worst Eyes Shut"

TURNER, SIMON FISHER De Dentro Hacia Afuera (The Tapeworm) cassette 7.98
Actor turned musician Simon Fisher Turner has had a long and illustrious career, TV and film, from punk rock to extreme avant sound making, this latest releases comes in the form of a super limited cassette on the Tapeworm label, number 4 for those of you keeping track, with previous installments from Philip Jeck, Stephen O'Malley, and a recording from a text by Baudrillard. Turner's contribution to the series is an odd one. The A side is a super cool field recording from Spain, the procession of the Virgen Del Carmen, you can hear people talking, laughing, footsteps, various ambient sounds, until the music starts, a swirling festive gypsy big band, horns, snares, strings, peppered with huge booms (fireworks?) and of course the voices of people lining the procession route, wheels on the dirt road, what sounds like distant thunder. Really really nice.
The other side features two solo piano improvisations, recorded in 2003 as a film score, very haunting and atonal, strange angular melodies, lots of space, little flurries of notes, looped and hypnotic sounding, slipping from dark and almost balladic, to more jagged and manic and back again. Cool stuff for sure, not sure how the two sides tie together, but each on its own is a super satisfying listen.
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES!! And if this one is anything like the other installments in the series, these won't last long at all.

V/A Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs Of Mark Mulcahy (Shout Factory) cd 15.98
It may not be super obvious from the aQ website, but we've long been champions of Mark Mulcahy, whose band Miracle Legion was and is an all time favorite. All of the Miracle Legion records went out of print long before the aQ list, so we never got a chance to gush adoringly. We also became a bit obsessed with Mulcahy's post Miracle Legion outfit Polaris, who performed the bad ass themes song to the late great kids show Pete And Pete. We have however, highlighted at least two of Mulcahy's solo records, the last of which, In Pursuit Of Your Happiness, still gets played all the time. And features some utterly perfect pop, emotional, clever, jangly and so so catchy.
Apparently we're not alone, judging from this star studded comp, a tribute not just to the amazing songs of Mulcahy, but to his late wife, who passed away last year. The outpouring of musical emotion and support is truly moving, and the redone versions are uniformly fantastic, with some fairly faithful renditions, and some seriously out there takes.
This record is getting TONS of press, mostly due to the inclusion of a Thom Yorke track, and it is great, skittery rhythms, distorted electric guitar, super strange percussion, and some super intense emotional vocals, kind of like a more punk rock, lo-fi take on one of his Eraser tracks. Well worth the price of admission for sure. But that's just the first track. Other bands taking on Mulcahy's genius originals include The National, Dinosaur Jr, Frank Black, Vic Chesnutt, Rocket From The Tombs (whose version is SO twisted, but so great!), Michael Stipe, Mercury Rev, Juliana Hatfield, and on and on. It plays out like a killer classic nineties college rock mix, anchored by Mulcahy's awesome songs. Hopefully it'll get the world to finally discover what an amazing and way under appreciated songwriter Mulcahy really is, and just maybe it'll convince someone somewhere to get all of those Miracle Legion records reissued!
The only bummer about this release is that there's another 20+ songs, not on the cd proper, only available electronically (from iTunes), which is ironic, since Miracle Legion and Mulcahy on his own were embraced by indie record stores first and foremost, who sort of get the shaft as do fans who if they want all of the songs have to shell out another $20 for the bonus tracks, but the download only tracks include jams from AC Newman, Buffalo Tom, Dumptruck, Syd Straw, Laura Veirs, and others. They should have just made it a double cd, but what can you do, worth it either way, and if you like what you hear, you'll probably end up trying to track down every Mulcahy thing ever, and rightfully so...
MPEG Stream: THOM YORKE "All For The Best"
MPEG Stream: DINOSAUR JR "The Backyard"
MPEG Stream: VIC CHESNUTT "Little Man"
MPEG Stream: ROCKET FROM THE TOMBS "In Pursuit Of Your Happiness"

V/A Konkani Songs: Music From Goa - Made In Bombay (Trikont) cd 17.98
It's been a while since we've heard from the Trikont label, and we've missed them. In the past, they've brought us some all time aQ faves, the Flashbacks series, Africa Raps, so many amazing compilations: Beyond Istanbul, Doom & Gloom, Creative Outlaws, In Prison, Dope & Glory and of course Ho! Roady Music From Vietnam. Always impeccably curated, with extensive liner notes, tons of photos, and an in-depth history of the music and the performers.
Konkani Songs is a fantastic addition, Music from India, a sort of Indian light and folk music, ballads, big band jazz, torch songs, festive folky dance numbers, all with a hint of Bollywood, as well as plenty of other influences, Western soundtrack music, Morricone, fifties and sixties European pop, but all so distinctly and uniquely Indian.
Anyone into the Sublime Frequencies series will definitely want to grab one of these, sounds both familiar and foreign, far out and classic, groovy Eastern melodies intertwine with Klezmer like accordions, soaring dramatic strings, chiming bells, wild percussion, the sounds slipping from calypso to mariachi, Bollywood to cheesy pop, groovy funk to organ driven sort-of-country, rad groovy surfy garage to dark tango-y waltzes, the sound is uniformly warm and fuzzy, that gorgeous washed out old recording sound. But it's the vocalists that seal the deal, from deep baritones, to sweet songbird croons, some hushed and intimate, some intense and expressive, sometimes a perfect match for the music backing it up, sometimes brilliantly at odds, we've only just begun to dig into the liner notes, there's much to learn about Onkani songs, but based on the songs alone, this could be one of our favorite comps of the year so far.
MPEG Stream: ALFRED ROSE "Munglurkar"
MPEG Stream: LORNA "Lisboa"
MPEG Stream: ROBIN VAZ, CECILIA MACHADO & CHORUS "Staram Gaddiwalla"
MPEG Stream: HENRY D'SOUZA & HELEN D'CRUZ "Cathrina"
MPEG Stream: BAB PETER "Mog Boom Boom Boom"

V/A Mata La Pena: A Compilation Of International Music (Mississippi) lp 16.98
MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!MISSISSIPPI ALERT!!!!!
After a label collaboration (String of Pearls) and a (sort-of) label fake out (A Orillas Del Magdalena), we now have a genuine Mississippi Records compilation of International selections that feels like the Mississippi Records of old (dig the hand-assembled covers and Chris Johanson drawing adorning the front!). And while we say this about every Mississippi release, we really mean it when we say this one is killer! What we like about it most is its lack of explanatory text, so the only clue to the provenance of the song is through the song title and the name of the singers or groups, and even some of them are unknown. This also makes locating the where's and whens of the song a bit tricky, but it forces us to listen to the songs as they are, and how they relate to and flow into one another. In the spirit of the record, we did no online research to find out where each song came from, so we can't tell you if the song "Danza Mora" by Canajas is Spanish Flamenco or Romanian Gypsy music or if the group called "The Tiger" is Caribbean, Cuban, or African or none of these at all. The Dezurik Sisters' "Arizona Yodeller" seems straightforward enough, until you listen to it and find out it has more in common aurally with the Pygmy sounding Hiran 'Ny Tanoran 'Ny than Ernest Rodgers 1920's (again, guessing) cabaret tale "Willie The [drug-addicted] Chimney Sweeper". Even the blues song, "Honey In The Rock" by Blind Mamie Forehand sounds like it comes from the same plaintive place as the record opener by an unknown female Southeast Asian a capella singer. Add to the mix some tropical island jams, a Mexican chanteuse with an almost punkish delivery and some Cumbia Tipica, and we're immersed in transcendent global sounds without the globe. Mata La Pena roughly translates to "It Kills The Grief", but these lonely sounds also fill the heart. Amazing!

VILE, KURT Childish Prodigy (Matador) cd 13.98
Riding high on the success of a string of releases, Kurt Vile seems poised to break into the spotlight with his Matador debut, Childish Prodigy. It's hard to imagine that not happening, because this stuff is just so great, recalling at various times everyone from Neil Young to the Stooges to shoegazing giants like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. At the end of the day, however, you could say this sounds like, well, Kurt Vile! The guy masterfully breathes life into sounds others have done and overdone by emphasizing what you love about this kind of thing and avoiding the pitfalls of getting lumped into a specific genre. It's pretty rootsy stuff, but everything is strong enough to avoid being pigeonholed, and while certain elements could be categorized as "retro" or "lo-fi", we would prefer to call it "classic" or "timeless". Kurt Vile is clearly someone who understands the importance of production; instead of half assing things on a cassette 8-track, these songs are not only well written, but recorded with a great attention to detail, making them awesome for late night headphone listening. The sounds are hazy and swirling with the perfect amount of grit, and really Childish Prodigy sounds like it could have been recorded any time within the last 30 years or so. But guess what? It's 2009, and Kurt Vile has ARRIVED.
The album begins with a re-recorded version of "Hunchback", lifting elements from the song "Freeway" off Constant Hitmaker, with some slight chord changes. The song flows with a nice lazy groove, like the Stooges after a couple bongloads, adding some distorted vocals to compliment the perfectly dirty analog sound. Kurt's folkier side is demonstrated on the following track, "Dead Alive", with fingerpicked electric guitar and some badass vocals up in the forefront as a fuzzy analog hiss rides steady in the background. "Overnight Religion" is a nice surprise, with an incessant drum machine beat carrying the song forward for over 7 minutes as the instruments lock in perfectly. "Monkey" is a melodic, slow burning rocker that successfully merges upbeat psych pop with a sound that incorporates elements from folk and shoegaze. And yeah, the guitars sound killer. The album flows really well, and certain melodic themes appear and reappear in different songs, helping to tie everything together perfectly.
It's been a great year for Kurt Vile, and one can only imagine that things will get even better for him now. We can't wait to see where this guy heads next!
MPEG Stream: "Hunchback"
MPEG Stream: "Dead Alive"
MPEG Stream: "Overnite Religion"

VILE, KURT Childish Prodigy (Matador) lp 16.98
Riding high on the success of a string of releases, Kurt Vile seems poised to break into the spotlight with his Matador debut, Childish Prodigy. It's hard to imagine that not happening, because this stuff is just so great, recalling at various times everyone from Neil Young to the Stooges to shoegazing giants like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. At the end of the day, however, you could say this sounds like, well, Kurt Vile! The guy masterfully breathes life into sounds others have done and overdone by emphasizing what you love about this kind of thing and avoiding the pitfalls of getting lumped into a specific genre. It's pretty rootsy stuff, but everything is strong enough to avoid being pigeonholed, and while certain elements could be categorized as "retro" or "lo-fi", we would prefer to call it "classic" or "timeless". Kurt Vile is clearly someone who understands the importance of production; instead of half assing things on a cassette 8-track, these songs are not only well written, but recorded with a great attention to detail, making them awesome for late night headphone listening. The sounds are hazy and swirling with the perfect amount of grit, and really Childish Prodigy sounds like it could have been recorded any time within the last 30 years or so. But guess what? It's 2009, and Kurt Vile has ARRIVED.
The album begins with a re-recorded version of "Hunchback", lifting elements from the song "Freeway" off Constant Hitmaker, with some slight chord changes. The song flows with a nice lazy groove, like the Stooges after a couple bongloads, adding some distorted vocals to compliment the perfectly dirty analog sound. Kurt's folkier side is demonstrated on the following track, "Dead Alive", with fingerpicked electric guitar and some badass vocals up in the forefront as a fuzzy analog hiss rides steady in the background. "Overnight Religion" is a nice surprise, with an incessant drum machine beat carrying the song forward for over 7 minutes as the instruments lock in perfectly. "Monkey" is a melodic, slow burning rocker that successfully merges upbeat psych pop with a sound that incorporates elements from folk and shoegaze. And yeah, the guitars sound killer. The album flows really well, and certain melodic themes appear and reappear in different songs, helping to tie everything together perfectly.
It's been a great year for Kurt Vile, and one can only imagine that things will get even better for him now. We can't wait to see where this guy heads next!
MPEG Stream: "Hunchback"
MPEG Stream: "Dead Alive"
MPEG Stream: "Overnite Religion"

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

WHITE HILLS Dead (Thrill Jockey) 12" 14.98
Latest blast of modern space psych drone rock from these East Coast spacelords, an ultra limited (only 1000 copies) 12", part of Thrill Jockey's new subscription series, which means these will probably be gone in a flash.
Which is too bad, cuz this is one of the best White Hills jams yet, thankfully, only two of these tracks are exclusive, one is a new version of a track from Heads On Fire, remixed by Julian Cope's drummer, one is a track from the upcoming full length, but two of them are ONLY available here (and the remixed version of "Oceans Of Sound" from Heads On Fire is different enough to make it essentially a new track) so pretty much a must own for the space rock psych drone obsessives out there, which is most likely most of you.
The A side begins with "Dead" which will be on the band's upcoming full length, and it's a doozy, fuzzy, druggy, a little bit lo-fi, looped and hypnotic, with dreamy soft singing, beneath billowing clouds of distorted guitars, all hazy and super space rocky, definitely channeling the spirits of Loop and Spacemen 3, definitely has us chomping at the bit for the new album.
The second track is the remixed "Oceans Of Sound" and is a cool processed guitarscape, swirled FX wrapped around a stuttery tremolo guitar, like a drugged out space rock "How Soon Is Now?", fragmented riffs careen through streaks of buzz and hum, building to a total space pop climax that definitely had us thinking Spiritualized or Teenage Filmstars.
Flip it over, and "Another Coming" explodes out of the speakers, a grinding thick viscous dronescape, very reminiscent of Expo 70, that sort of krautdronespacedrift, with dense looped guitars, stretched out into a churning blur, the whole thing wreathed in hazy effects. The second track, "Red Sun", is all skeletal and dubbed out, almost funky sounding, with minimal guitar, but again loads of effects, thick throbbing bass, and creepy sampled voices.
Super rad. And SUPER LIMITED. ONLY 1000 COPIES, and most likely sold out any minute, we got a whole bunch, but that doesn't mean we won't blow through these. Gorgeous jackets too, matte black with spot UV gloss lettering, and a fancy full color pasted on art card front cover.

XX, THE XX (XL) cd 13.98
This UK band with their dueling male/female vocals really know how to get to evoke a seriously sleek and sexy state of sound. Falling somewhere between The Concretes and The Chromatics, The XX pull from a myriad of influences ranging from post-punk, electronica, RnB and pop to create a sound overflowing with shining hooks and smoky melodies.
In many ways their sound is like a fleshed out Young Marble Giants infused with warm layers of shiny sparkle and a smooth seductive sheen that totally gets under your skin. There is an ease and stripped down sensibility in the way The XX meld electronics into their more organic sounds, that has us imagining Hot Chip, if they took a deep breath and chilled out a bit or if Junior Boys tried their hand at covering Taken By Trees. We haven't heard someone tap into a mellow, sparkling groove like this in quite a while, and it's definitely hitting the spot!
MPEG Stream: "Islands"
MPEG Stream: "VCR"
MPEG Stream: "Basic Space"

XX, THE XX (XL) lp 14.98
This UK band with their dueling male/female vocals really know how to get to evoke a seriously sleek and sexy state of sound. Falling somewhere between The Concretes and The Chromatics, The XX pull from a myriad of influences ranging from post-punk, electronica, RnB and pop to create a sound overflowing with shining hooks and smoky melodies.
In many ways their sound is like a fleshed out Young Marble Giants infused with warm layers of shiny sparkle and a smooth seductive sheen that totally gets under your skin. There is an ease and stripped down sensibility in the way The XX meld electronics into their more organic sounds, that has us imagining Hot Chip, if they took a deep breath and chilled out a bit or if Junior Boys tried their hand at covering Taken By Trees. We haven't heard someone tap into a mellow, sparkling groove like this in quite a while, and it's definitely hitting the spot!
MPEG Stream: "Islands"
MPEG Stream: "VCR"
MPEG Stream: "Basic Space"

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ALTAR OF OBLIVION Sinews Of Anguish - Opus 1 In D Minor (Shadow Kingdom) cd 14.98
Danish doom metal, from a band who apparently don't think that calling your album "something of something" when your band's name also follows the "something of something" formula is any sort of faux pas, like for example wearing denim with denim. Something of something overkill is not of concern to them, not when they're also willing to subtitle their album "Opus 1 In D Minor". Furthermore, while we're not sure what exactly an altar of oblivion is, we might guess that sinews of anguish is the result of not stretching properly before exercise?
Ok, we're poking fun, but just to lighten the mood, 'cause these guys are really indeed quite DOOOMY. In the epic, traditional, sorrowful style of Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus, as applied to a concept album that's about WWII - as experienced by a German soldier on the Eastern Front. Don't worry, this doesn't glorify the Nazis, Altar Of Oblivion are not that sort of band, instead this is about the horrors of war, and furthermore the horrific realization comes to this album's protagonist about just who and what he's fighting for, as, demoralized by the harsh reality of war, he shakes off his Nazi indoctrination and it dawns on him that Hitler is an evil madman, leading the Germans to defeat, not victory! Imagine being likely to die at Stalingrad, fighting the Russians for a cause in which you no longer believe, hopelessly struggling for survival because you have no choice. Now that's doom.
AoO's heavy chugging riffage does its job, creating a massive mood of depressive fatalism, and evoking the crushing juggernaut of war, o'er which this inglorious tale is spun, delivered by a singer whose stylings range from deep voiced majesty to a more biting, gritty whine. Probably his "operatic invocations & ars melancholica" are what will either make or break this for you, quite compelling to some, but mere morose monotony for others. Of course, morose monotony is what doom is all about, really, and melded with metallic guitars what's not to like if you're into doom? There is plenty of guitar here, in fact, 3 of the 5 band members are credited with "lead guitar" - even including the drummer! But, as you might a expect from a concept album, an additional '70s prog edge is added as well by the use of Mellotron (also handled by the drummer) and flute (by a guest "flute mistress"). We could imagine them playing with another something of something band, Hammers Of Misfortune.
MPEG Stream: "The Final Pledge"
MPEG Stream: "Wrapped In Ruins"

BARLOW, LOU Goodnight Unknown (Merge) cd 14.98
On a sticker affixed to the cd's shrinkwrap, Lou B. proclaims this to be "A cross between Folk Implosion and Sebadoh. To my ears, anyway."
And yeah, we guess that is pretty much what this is... although we sorta though it sounded like a someone *trying* to sound like a cross between Folk Implosion and Sebadoh. Not the man himself. A bit strange, yes? And it gets stranger, the third song "Too Much Freedom" sounds like it's constantly on the verge of becoming REM's "Man On The Moon". WTF? We've always had a special place in our hearts for the slouchy heartstring pluckin' goodness of Mr. Barlow, but this album sadly left us cold and wondering if he's been hanging around with fellow indie rock vet, the hot/cold Mr. Pollard. Y'know, when he's 'on', he's in a league all his own, but when he's not, you've just gotta steer clear! For diehards only!
MPEG Stream: "Too Much Freedom"
MPEG Stream: "The Right"

BARLOW, LOU Goodnight Unknown (Merge) lp 16.98
On a sticker affixed to the cd's shrinkwrap, Lou B. proclaims this to be "A cross between Folk Implosion and Sebadoh. To my ears, anyway."
And yeah, we guess that is pretty much what this is... although we sorta though it sounded like a someone *trying* to sound like a cross between Folk Implosion and Sebadoh. Not the man himself. A bit strange, yes? And it gets stranger, the third song "Too Much Freedom" sounds like it's constantly on the verge of becoming REM's "Man On The Moon". WTF? We've always had a special place in our hearts for the slouchy heartstring pluckin' goodness of Mr. Barlow, but this album sadly left us cold and wondering if he's been hanging around with fellow indie rock vet, the hot/cold Mr. Pollard. Y'know, when he's 'on', he's in a league all his own, but when he's not, you've just gotta steer clear! For diehards only!
MPEG Stream: "Too Much Freedom"
MPEG Stream: "The Right"

BIG STAR Keep An Eye On The Sky (Rhino) 4cd 78.00
If you've never heard Big Star before, and you've got $80 to burn, buy this NOW. You could probably buy the three records proper on their own for way less, but odds are, once you dig in to Big Star, you're gonna become obsessed, and want everything you can get. They're that kind of band, and these songs are just so goddamn good. Even if you're not familiar with Big Star, you are almost for sure familiar with about a million bands who owe everything they are to this legendary Southern power pop band. And we're not talking bubblegum pop, Big Star wrote dark and serious songs, emotional and super personal, able to rock with the best of them, but also able to weave gorgeous minimal intimate tales of love and loss and death. You've no doubt heard some of these songs before, even if you didn't realize it was them.
Keep An Eye On The Sky includes some of their best tracks from all three of their records, but also tacks on FIFTY TWO unreleased tracks, demos, alternate takes, live tracks, as well as the only existing film footage of the band. The packaging is deluxe and gorgeous and expansive, a huge fold out book jammed with liner notes and photos, this is a great introduction to the band for sure, and is of course absolutely ESSENTIAL if you're already a super fan. And how could you not be?! These are such seminal, lifechanging sounds, and this is such timeless music. Big Star are most definitely, one of THE all time great rock bands. Up there with the Stones, the Beatles, the Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin. Really.
And really essential.

BISHOP, SIR RICHARD While My Guitar Violently Bleeds (Locust Music) lp 21.00
Now repressed, and once again available on vinyl! We never were able to get enough to list originally, so we're especially glad it's back. Here's what we said about the cd version:
Sir Richard Bishop's latest offering of altruistic guitar ragas is mesmerizingly pastoral despite the violence eluded to in the pun-y title. Three long tracks begin with flamenco-tinged Neo-Appalachia before turning down darker, drony and dirgy paths and finally emerging into the third and longest track that combines Indian mysticism with old-world European romantic beauty. What else do we need to say? This is simply outstanding!
MPEG Stream: "Smashana"
MPEG Stream: "Mahavidya"

BLACK COBRA Chronomega (Southern Lord) cd 15.98
Do you like riffs? Do you like heavy as fuck sludged out goodness that at times reaches cosmic proportions? Do you like the band Karp? If you answered yes to any of these, then the chances are good you will do real well with the latest sonic missive from the two headed metal machine known as Black Cobra, their first for Southern Lord. Chronomega is so chock full of subharmonic super low tuned guitars, pummeling war drums, and mean ass vocals that you probably won't even notice (or care) that there is no bass. This band is INSANELY heavy, and they truly understand the possibilities that a two man lineup can shoot for and achieve if they've got the right pedigree. Considering that these dudes have served time in Cavity and 16, you can bet your sweet ass they have that pedigree. The band manages to be both loose and precise, swinging and propulsive, and one could easily imagine Black Cobra at home somewhere in the center of the earth, or maybe in a giant cave. Their sound is brutal but also quite melodic at times, and it's pretty clear that these two know what the fuck they're doing. The results are strangely hypnotic, it's as if there is an ever present hum from the vibrations of the guitar strings as the drums carry things forward into the center of a volcano.
Obviously for fans of the aforementioned Karp (as well as Big Business), the Melvins, and maybe even the more thuggish elements of bands like Mastodon and Baroness. Get this now!
MPEG Stream: "Negative Reversal"
MPEG Stream: "Catalyst"
MPEG Stream: "Lightning In His Hand"

BLACKSHAW, JAMES O True Believers (Important) cd 14.98
Back in print!
We often lament the state of musical affairs that would render records that are as good as anything and everything we've heard by James Blackshaw to be so limited as to only be heard by a mere handful of people. But until now that has indeed been the case. Cd-r after gorgeous cd-r, limited to 200 copies, 100 copies, even less in some instances. But music this beautiful, this lush, this lovely definitely deserves a wider audience, even if its cd-r / underground / outsider / avant folk / new weird America cache suffers accordingly. Who cares? Who -can- care when faced with the sounds on O True Believers. Over the last few years, Blackshaw has found a home amongst free noise fellows and their fans (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, Birchville Cat Motel, Rameses III, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Sunroof!, Avarus, etc.) even though his sound hewed much closer to Fahey and the like, a stark but sweet steel string Appalachia. Here, that sound is even more stark, more spare and oh so even sweeter. The opening two tracks will have you swooning, or drifting off, or swaying in some glorious mesmerized state or whatever it is you do when you find yourself submerged in some lush swirl of tonal dreaminess, 30 full minutes of guitar, mostly just guitar, spacious and grand, lilting and delicate, no whir or fuzz or rumble or any of the other sonic detritus that usually decorates most of the music like this we love -- no this is crystal clear and crystalline, shimmering and glistening, as if Blackshaw was some strange musical alchemist who discovered how to use a guitar to describe leaves covered in dew, green grass sparkling with morning frost, the sun reflecting on a placid pond, silvery streaks of sunlight filtered through the interwoven branches overhead. It's like wandering into a lost glade, laying in a thick soft patch of grass, and slowly sinking into the ground, until you BECOME the forest around you, sinking into a warm, wash of tranquil otherworldliness. Towards the end of track two, the guitars are joined by cymbalon, tamboura, and bells, and what was only moments earlier some sort of mysterious Appalachian folk, becomes a slow burning blissed out raga, steel strings buzz, each note smeared into warm drones, then sprinkled with delicate chimes and reverberating bells. Track three is equally as blissful, but is constructed quite differently, the guitar lines speed up and become intense and intricate tangles of notes, so snug that the melodies blur and stretch out melodic whirs, while lush major key swells, ebb and flow in the background, a swaying swooning sweetness. The final track is almost jubilant by comparison and 'rocks' as much as any foresty free folk Appalachia can be thought to rock, dense steel string strums, a simple percussive framework of cymbals and chimes, the whole thing wrapped in the wonderfully warm wheeze of a harmonium, adding a thick warm fuzzy patina to the sparkling steel shimmer beneath.
MPEG Stream: "Transient Life In Twilight"
MPEG Stream: "Spiralling Skeleton Memorial"

DELAY, VLADISLAV Tummaa (Leaf) cd 14.98
Sasu Ripatti (the man behind Vladislav Delay mask for a decade now) has long touted his jazz roots when talking about the complex pixel-fizz and digi-blur he crafted above his seminal Chain Reaction records of abstracted techno from the turn of the century. It seemed a bit of a stretch; but yeah, you could hear some tinklings of jazz expressionism lurking within his liminal electronic rhythms. Jump to 2009 with his first album as Vladislav Delay in two years (there was a Luomo record from 2008, mind you!), and Ripatti has made a fine piece of noir-laced electronics that balance his formative years as a jazz drummer and his contemporary explorations with digital synthesis. Boozy atmospheres, scatter-shot percussion occasionally tightening into repeating sequences, looping organic rhythms, and dub-inflected electronics abound.
MPEG Stream: "Kuula (Kiitos)"
MPEG Stream: "Toive"

DELAY, VLADISLAV Tummaa (Leaf) 2lp 22.00
Sasu Ripatti (the man behind Vladislav Delay mask for a decade now) has long touted his jazz roots when talking about the complex pixel-fizz and digi-blur he crafted above his seminal Chain Reaction records of abstracted techno from the turn of the century. It seemed a bit of a stretch; but yeah, you could hear some tinklings of jazz expressionism lurking within his liminal electronic rhythms. Jump to 2009 with his first album as Vladislav Delay in two years (there was a Luomo record from 2008, mind you!), and Ripatti has made a fine piece of noir-laced electronics that balance his formative years as a jazz drummer and his contemporary explorations with digital synthesis. Boozy atmospheres, scatter-shot percussion occasionally tightening into repeating sequences, looping organic rhythms, and dub-inflected electronics abound.
MPEG Stream: "Kuula (Kiitos)"
MPEG Stream: "Toive"

EXCEPTER Frkwys Vol.2 (RVNG International) 12" 16.98
Really? Carter Tutti and Foetus remixing Excepter? Yup, that's what you'll get on this 12" from the newly birthed Frkwys imprint (read Freakways as a play on Folkways). Carter Tutti (the re-named duo for Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, then and now of Throbbing Gristle fame) have tightened up the jammy industrial wanderings of Excepter's "Shors Ring" (from the Debt Dept. album) within their own rhythmicist precision that recalls some of the best work they've ever produced over the past 30 years (e.g. Heartbeat, Synaesthesia, The Space Between, etc.). Mr. Foetus twists Excepter's "Stretch" (also from Debt Dept.) into one of his manic marches of bombastic drum corps rhythms and huge melodic crescendos certainly not dissimilar from his twisted anthems of old. It's hard to hear much of the Excepter sounds within either track, but the productions from both remixing agents are so strong that it really doesn't matter.

INFANTRY / PYROTOXIC Infantry Versus Pyrotoxic: Thrash Clash Volume 4 (Stormspell) cd 14.98
There's a whole series of these, split cd releases from the cult-minded metal label Stormspell, giving some of the new breed of thrash metal bands from all around the world a snazzy showcase, two bands per disc. Head to head headbanging, as it were. They're all been pretty cool, and we probably should be listing each one, but can't write reviews 24/7... however, we really wanted to at least do a write up regarding this volume in particular. It pits California's Infantry against Finland's Pyrotoxic... and if you know AQ, you won't be surprised to learn that it's Pyrotoxic that really got us all excited. FRENZIED FINNISH THRASH METAL MADNESS!!! Don't get us wrong, Infantry are good, but Pyrotoxic simply kill. Part of what gets us about these maniacs is their uber energetic off-the-rails speediness (they make Infantry sound slothful) but it's also the awesomely wretched and rabid vokill delivery of the singer. Furthermore, while their more chaotic approach is quite frazzled, and feedbacking, and frothing mad, amidst all of it they've got hooks happenin' too, really rockin' and rollin' on such tracks as "Nuclear War (Has No Rules)" and "The Secret Of Steel". This is the true NWOFHM!
Though Pyrotoxic are our faves here, Infantry bring it too, they're just in comparison much more restrained, polished and precise, but certainly slay it up with such tunes as "Desecrate The Church" and the instrumental "Inhumane". Heck, their half comes first and listening to 'em rage you wouldn't think they'd get upstaged by the Finns, no sir. Which makes Pyrotoxic all the more impressive.
Well, not much more to say, there's 6 songs here from Infantry and 5 from Pyrotoxic. songs, and we'll be definitely on the lookout for more from either band, but especially those crazy Finns!
PS to give you a further notion of what these bands are all about, we'll mention the influences they each cite in the cd booklet. Infantry give props to "Slayer, Demolition Hammer, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Destruction, Kreator, etc." We get the idea they like black metal too, since one song is called, "Black Metal", and we already mentioned the one about church desecration! Meanwhile, Pyrotoxic hail "Dark Angel, Bulldozer, Tankard, (early) Slayer, Destruction, Armagedom, Sadus".
MPEG Stream: INFANTRY "Malicious Thrill To Kill"
MPEG Stream: PYROTOXIC "Nocturnal Violator"
MPEG Stream: PYROTOXIC "Nuclear War (Has No Rules)"

JACOPO Mai Come Ora (Last Stop Records) cd 9.98
Jacopo Di Nicola is an Italian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose band is locally based here in San Francisco. Inspired by European cafe rock, Tropicalia and global rhythms, Jacopo manages on his debut cd to show a wide variety of styles and directions but keep it encapsulated as a satisfying whole. Treading a path between the baroque pop of Lucio Battisti and the frenetic rhythms of Manu Chao, Jacopo manages to charm with infectious songs sung in both Italian and English and unique instrumentation including mandolins, hand percussion, and some rather masterful kazoo playing! Nice!
MPEG Stream: "La Mia Citta"
MPEG Stream: "Stati Emozionali"
MPEG Stream: "Stolidi Pensieri"

KING-CAT COMICS Number 70 magazine 3.00
John Porcellino's King-Cat comic book series reaches its seventieth issue, and not only that, it also marks King-Cat's twentieth anniversary! Wow! We're always delighted to see what curious observations and funny encounters have flown out of John Porcellino's skinny tipped drawing pens since the previous issue. He seldom disappoints. His very minimal sketches of himself, his friends, neighbors and strangers suggest a child-like vision, but the stories and anecdotes offer a far more world-weary outlook.

NIHILL Krach (Hydra Head) cd 16.98
This killer slab of heaviness, originally reviewed right here way back in 2007, has been out of print for a while, but the fine folks at Hydra Head have gotten the rights from the Monumentum label to unleash it once again. So for those of you who missed out on this the first time, don't blow it again, after all, it's practically impossible to not love a band that sounds like some unholy spawn of Deathspell Omega and SUNNO))), a blackened ritualistic blend of furious black metal and epic doomdrone. And while that combination in and of itself is not outrageously novel, since lots of BM record incorporate ambience and drones, it's all in the execution, and Nihill have managed to spin a sinister black web of sound that while familiar in some ways, is truly unlike anything we've heard before.
The first in a supposedly already completed trilogy of albums, Krach is a droning black beast, that begins with a short intro, a barely there bit of dark ambience, before exploding into blasting chaotic, almost industrial black metal, so intense and blown out it basically ceases being black metal and becomes some droning buzzing black noisescape, the relentless blast beats the only thing holding everything together, huge swaths of ugly buzz and furious tangled black riffing. About part way through the brutality abates, leaving a fuzzy free floating tangle of strange voices, and circusy guitar melodies, whirring drones and abstract ambience, before a black blast shatters the tranquility and we're sucked right back down into Nihill's fuzzed out hellish sonic abyss.
The rest of the record is primarily the epic, three part, 42 minute Gnosis song suite. Each movement a cinematic slab of black doomdronedrift, huge ultra distorted swells of chordal crunch, over haunting plodding percussion that sounds like it was recorded in some massive underground cathedral, these glacial sonic shifts lumber beastlike through sprawling black hole soundscapes, the various layers and drones shifting from hateful industrial pummel to gorgeous ambient shimmer and back again. Imagine a more druggy SUNNO))) but with actual percussion, some demonic propulsion driving this epic's 16 rpm engine. The trilogy is broken up by another burst of DSO style blackened chaos, a completely deranged off kilter sonic assault, but the last two movements follow, one right after the other, finishing off the record with a nearly half hour of glacial, suffocating, brutal black drift. 
Any one remotely into any of the following bands absolutely NEEDS this: SUNNO))), Deathspell Omega, Moss, Khanate, Bunkur, S.V.E.S.T., Trollmann, Tenhornedbeast, Monument Of Urns, Marzuraan, Black Boned Angel... we could go on and on and on. A new deathdoomdronedrift favorite, with the added bonus of some seriously buzzing blackness. 
And we're STILL dying for the rest of the trilogy....
MPEG Stream: "Mundus Subterreanus"
MPEG Stream: "Gnosis Pt. 1"
MPEG Stream: "Dreams Upon The Scaffold"

PETRACOVICH Crepusculo (Redbuttons Records) cd 12.98
This SF songstress (aka Jessica Peter) continues to make the sweetest of pop music that never topples overboard into the sugar bowl. Her graceful, bubbly piano and lovely voice draws the immediate attention. She can belt it out, or coo in a crystal clarity, or murmur out the merest whispery breath of a vocal. Check out the aching "You Are Perfect". Indeed unlike the dreamy airiness of her previous recordings, here she treads on somewhat darker terrain especially on the sumptuous instrumental interlude "Dark Woods". If you dig other awesome, crafty female singer/songwriters like Mirah or Mary Timony, take note!
MPEG Stream: "Miramar"
MPEG Stream: "You Are This Perfect"
MPEG Stream: "Sleep It Off / Lie Down"

PURE ECSTASY Future Nostalgia (self-released) 7" 8.98
Pure Ecstacy comes from the same home-grown Austin scene as Yellow Fever, Silent Land Time Machine and Smokey Emery, and includes members of Silver Pines. This is their first self-released 7" of lackadaisical lo-fi stoner rock, taking its time to unfurl through hypnotic washes of wah'd and delayed guitar and low-key vocals that slowly build, reminding us a bit of Ducktails on a breezy roadtrip through the American heartland. Only 50 copies of this 7" were made with hand assembled spraypainted covers. We only have a handful, may not get more, so you know the drill!

SCIENCE FICTION DANCE PARTY (AKA THE SCIENCE FICTION CORPORATION) Dance With Action (B-Music / Finders Keepers) lp 29.00
Also available on (import only) vinyl!
It's pretty obvious why the folks at B-music (like DJs Andy Votel and Dom Thomas) dig these particular collectible exploito obscurities so much, and why they're so excited to be reissuing 'em in their new "Germanic Miner" series dedicated to "krautsider music"! What could be more B-musical than these two faux soundtracks concocted in the late sixties by a couple of creative German producers, operating at the weird, wacked out intersection of kitschy library music and freaky krautrock? One's a slice of slinky, sorta-scary "horrotica", the other a spaced out sci-fi fest for the Barbarella set. Both are delirious, demented party-pleasers.
The Vampires Of Dartmoore and their Dracula's Music Cabinet conjures a sexy frightmare of hip swinging, bloodsucking sounds. "Mord Im Ohio Express (Murder In The Ohio Express)" seems kinda surfy, but mostly this is about groovy porno lounge music, with smoky horns and jazzy percussion, interwoven with screams and creepy sound effects, moaning and groaning, dogs barking and something going boing boing boing... It's a very NON-academic application of musique concrete technique, noises worked into the songs, such as the rumbling explosions that punctuate "Eine Handvoll Nitro (A Handful Of Nitro)". The mix is fairly chaotic, stuff fading in and out, levels up and down. If this WAS a movie soundtrack, it would have been a pretty crazy movie. Tracks reference Hitchcock, Dr. Caligari, and Frankenstein's monster. And sex. Definitely sex.
Equally bizarre, if less R-rated, is the Science Fiction Dance Party. Again, it's groovy, jazzy, sometimes fuzzy "instro-hipster" style stuff, laced with loads of goofy outer space sound effects and rocketship radio drama theatrics. It sounds like music for a cocktail party and/or acid test on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. You can imagine Robbie the Robot getting down to this. Distorted alien and/or computer voices abound, song titles include "Visitors Of A.D. 2022", "The Whistling Astronaut", and "Hit Parade In The Light Year 25" (which doesn't even make sense, don't they know that light years are a measure of distance?). As well as whistling, there's some screams here too, as spacemen are presumably being zapped with rayguns, but the music remains jaunty. Even the song "Death Rays Out Of The Universe" is inexplicably upbeat. So, it's all very silly, but a lot of fun.
Both albums feature bonus tracks (2 previously unreleased "Petting Party" jams on Vampires, 4 extra tracks on Science Fiction that come back to earth to delve into disco and Eastern exotica instead). The slipcased cds of these are now domestic releases (we waited instead of getting the expensive imports) but the LP versions remain imports.
MPEG Stream: "Monster On Saturn 1"
MPEG Stream: "Murder In The Space Station"
MPEG Stream: "Death Rays Out Of The Universe"

SNAKE FLOWER 2 Renegade Daydream (Tic Tac Totally) cd 11.98
BACK IN STOCK!
Not sure why, but it's been SO impossible to get enough of these to list, which is a huge bummer, cuz it's definitely turned into one of our favorite records of the year (and yeah, we know it didn't come out this year, but so what!). Our distros never have it, emails to the label never get returned, so fuck it, we listed it once and sold out, we just managed to get another handful back in, but who knows how long we'll be able to kep these in stock...
The weird thing is we were expecting something much more generic and garagey and run of the mill, but from the first song (a definite contender for jam of the year) we knew this was something WAY more. Fuzzy, and buzzy, and stoney and groovy and spaced out, crunchy guitars busy burbling basslines, some bad ass drumming, and some super wicked scowly vox, somewhere between the Lyres, Monster Magnet and the White Stripes.
"Flight Of The Navigator", the aforementioned jam, encapsulates pretty much everything we love about these guys and gal. A sharp jagged jangly main riff, with a killer stop start descending verse, a woozy soaring chorus, and then a total Monster Magnet bridge with weird processed vocals, and the guitars all space-y and stretched out. Some wild leads here and there, and HOOKS THAT KILL. We literally listened to this first track so many times, that it was weeks before we got any further into the record, but when we did, we discovered that the rest of the record was pretty much just as bad ass. The Lyres vibe can't be underestimated, but Monster Magnet is all over these tracks, as is Hawkwind, plenty of fuzzy poppiness too, classic garage infuses everything here, but it's way more poppy, and space-y and heavy and hooky. We could go on and on and on and on, but since the availability of this record is a bit up in the air, we'll just sum it up by saying this kicks ass big time, and if favorite records were indeed judged entirely and soley on how many times and how often it gets listened to, then we're pretty sure there's no other record this year that would even come close (if you ask Andee).
MPEG Stream: "Flight Of The Navigator"
MPEG Stream: "Talk About It"
MPEG Stream: "I Woke Up In A Dream"

TARTUFI Nests Of Waves And Wire (Southern) cd 11.98
This dynamic Bay Area duo continue onwards and upwards into the stratosphere of terrific music making with their latest release, Nests Of Waves And Wire. After 2006's Us Upon Buildings Upon Us left our ears wonderfully tangled in its wild mathiness and quick twists, we still have to admit we're a bit happy to hear Tartufi bringing back some of their earlier poppiness. This is really really good! Just as ambitious as its predecessor and perhaps even more fully realized. Lynne Angel and Brian Gorman really let their creative juices flow. Each of the seven tracks are impressively multilayered and detailed musical journeys incorporating elements of prog, post-rock, psych (yup, all the good stuff!) - particularly the almost thirteen minute long awesome third track "Engineering" and the final "Hole Or Space". Most are feverishly propulsive and highly rhythmic with vocals chanted and howled in hypnotic cycles. That said, the fifth song "System Folds" does brings a bit of calm to the otherwise breathless proceedings! Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Fear Of Tall Giraffes, Fear Of Some Birds"
MPEG Stream: "Engineering"

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS Here Comes Science (Idlewild / Disney) cd+dvd 17.98
Would've loved to have had Mr. Linnell and Mr. Flansburgh for elementary music teachers, wouldn't you? The learning process would've been so much fun. So much better than Barney and so much cooler than Sharon, Lois and Bram. Over the years, they've proven that they're just as skilled at schooling kids of all ages on other subjects too - the alphabet (2005's Here Comes The ABCs), arithmetic (2008's Here Come The 123s), history (well, sort of on 1990's "James K. Polk"), geography (well, sort of on 2005's Venue Songs) and now science! Here they succinctly and catchily cover topics such as speed and velocity, the color spectrum, the planets, the elements, the environment, photosynthesis, evolution, thought processes, biology and more. 19 smart, engaging pop tunes that bounce along at a sprightly pace, planting little seeds of learning. For the most part this stands up to repeat listens without completely driving the grown-ups nuts... unless you happen to have an aversion to TMBG's trademark nasality which we understand some folks do. That said, we should note that there are a few more singing voices than usual including that of Mrs. Flansburgh. Heck, though this is definitely for youngsters, older listeners might learn something too! Sounds like the Johns have recycled a few melodic lines from their old songs which might make this ring warmly familiar to those parents who cherish their early TMBG albums. They've even reprised "Why Does The Sun Shine?" from 1994. Plus you also get a terrific dvd that's filled with playful candy colored animated video clips for each song which can be viewed individually in alphabetical order, or altogether as a program hosted by the Johns. With this delightful set, we'd say they're really giving Sesame Street a run for their money!
MPEG Stream: "Meet The Elements"
MPEG Stream: "Roy G. Biv"
MPEG Stream: "Why Does The Sun Shine?"

TWILIGHT SAD, THE Forget The Night Ahead (Fat Cat) cd 14.98
Been looking forward to some new Twilight Sad for a while! You might recall our gushing over this four piece's self titled debut ep back in 2006. Well, we've just gotten in their latest album! What first caught our ears was their ability to draw on key sonic elements of three aQ faves My Bloody Valentine, Interpol and Arab Strap, yet still inhabit their own place in the musical arena. They incorporate densely packed atmospherics a la MBV with the moody brooding swagger of Interpol and the weathered unmistakably Scottish vocals akin to Arab Strap's Malcolm Middleton. Now add in the epic dynamics of Mogwai (whom they played with earlier this year) and the low-slung driving guitar force of Swervedriver, and you have the Twilight Sad of Forget The Night Ahead! In other words, this is a really potent Scottish musical concoction... one we've already been enjoying repeat listens of!
MPEG Stream: "At The Burnside"
MPEG Stream: "Interrupted"

TWILIGHT SAD, THE Forget The Night Ahead (Fat Cat) 2lp 25.00
Been looking forward to some new Twilight Sad for a while! You might recall our gushing over this four piece's self titled debut ep back in 2006. Well, we've just gotten in their latest album! What first caught our ears was their ability to draw on key sonic elements of three aQ faves My Bloody Valentine, Interpol and Arab Strap, yet still inhabit their own place in the musical arena. They incorporate densely packed atmospherics a la MBV with the moody brooding swagger of Interpol and the weathered unmistakably Scottish vocals akin to Arab Strap's Malcolm Middleton. Now add in the epic dynamics of Mogwai (whom they played with earlier this year) and the low-slung driving guitar force of Swervedriver, and you have the Twilight Sad of Forget The Night Ahead! In other words, this is a really potent Scottish musical concoction... one we've already been enjoying repeat listens of!
MPEG Stream: "At The Burnside"
MPEG Stream: "Interrupted"

VAMPIRES OF DARTMOORE, THE Dracula's Music Cabinet (Finders Keepers) lp 27.00
Also available on (import only) vinyl!
It's pretty obvious why the folks at B-music (like DJs Andy Votel and Dom Thomas) dig these particular collectible exploito obscurities so much, and why they're so excited to be reissuing 'em in their new "Germanic Miner" series dedicated to "krautsider music"! What could be more B-musical than these two faux soundtracks concocted in the late sixties by a couple of creative German producers, operating at the weird, wacked out intersection of kitschy library music and freaky krautrock? One's a slice of slinky, sorta-scary "horrotica", the other a spaced out sci-fi fest for the Barbarella set. Both are delirious, demented party-pleasers.
The Vampires Of Dartmoore and their Dracula's Music Cabinet conjures a sexy frightmare of hip swinging, bloodsucking sounds. "Mord Im Ohio Express (Murder In The Ohio Express)" seems kinda surfy, but mostly this is about groovy porno lounge music, with smoky horns and jazzy percussion, interwoven with screams and creepy sound effects, moaning and groaning, dogs barking and something going boing boing boing... It's a very NON-academic application of musique concrete technique, noises worked into the songs, such as the rumbling explosions that punctuate "Eine Handvoll Nitro (A Handful Of Nitro)". The mix is fairly chaotic, stuff fading in and out, levels up and down. If this WAS a movie soundtrack, it would have been a pretty crazy movie. Tracks reference Hitchcock, Dr. Caligari, and Frankenstein's monster. And sex. Definitely sex.
Equally bizarre, if less R-rated, is the Science Fiction Dance Party. Again, it's groovy, jazzy, sometimes fuzzy "instro-hipster" style stuff, laced with loads of goofy outer space sound effects and rocketship radio drama theatrics. It sounds like music for a cocktail party and/or acid test on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. You can imagine Robbie the Robot getting down to this. Distorted alien and/or computer voices abound, song titles include "Visitors Of A.D. 2022", "The Whistling Astronaut", and "Hit Parade In The Light Year 25" (which doesn't even make sense, don't they know that light years are a measure of distance?). As well as whistling, there's some screams here too, as spacemen are presumably being zapped with rayguns, but the music remains jaunty. Even the song "Death Rays Out Of The Universe" is inexplicably upbeat. So, it's all very silly, but a lot of fun.
Both albums feature bonus tracks (2 previously unreleased "Petting Party" jams on Vampires, 4 extra tracks on Science Fiction that come back to earth to delve into disco and Eastern exotica instead). The slipcased cds of these are now domestic releases (we waited instead of getting the expensive imports) but the LP versions remain imports.
MPEG Stream: "Crime And Horror"
MPEG Stream: "Mord Im Ohio Express (Murder In The Ohio Express)"
MPEG Stream: "Tanz Der Vampires (Dance Of The Vampires)"

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V/A World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's A Real Thing (Luaka Bop) cd 14.98
About time this AQ Record Of The Week from about four or five years ago got repressed, it's been absent for much too long, considering all the recent interest in Afro-funk reissues! And this collection has got some ESSENTIAL jams on it for sure, so we're glad it's back, and you will be too if you didn't already get one. Here's what we wrote about this when we originally listed it:
It's hard to argue with this one. Indeed, we're gonna do quite the opposite and make it a Record Of The Week! This collection, the third in the World Psychedelic Classics series on Luaka Bop (David Byrne's "world music" label), after an Os Mutantes collection and that incredible Shuggie Otis album, is further subtitled: "The Funky, Fuzzy Sounds Of West Africa". Stress on the funk we thinks. Yup, authentic '70s West African funk with a 'delic bent. Really really hard stuff not to like.
The dozen tracks here have got it all: Afro-centric chants, polyrhythmic percussion, James Brown style raspy yelps, wicked organ workouts, and even hard wah-wah acid fuzz jams (Ofo & The Black Company's bad-ass "Allah Wakbarr" is about the last word in that department, though we'd like to hear more). Though some come closer to the compilers' stated concept than others, all the tracks are winners, from the moody, marimba-based soundtrack theme of Manu Dibango's "Ceddo End Title" to the Cuban stylings of No. 1 de No. 1's "Guajira Van" to the percolating political space-funk of William Onyeabor's "Better Change Your Mind". And Alison simply says that "Ifa" by Tunji Oyelana and the Benders is her favorite. Probably because it sets itself apart from the other tracks by utilizing a more scrappy electronic sound to back its stripped-down politically-bent Afro-pop-style lyricism.
All the tracks come from the decade of the '70s, and the bands that recorded them hail from the West African countries of Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Gambia, Benin, and Nigeria (but only two tracks overlap with the now-out-of-print 3cd Nigeria 70 compilation). And we think the compliers did a damn fine job, though it seems any survey of West African psych shoulda included a track by Blo, the closest thing to Cream the continent produced as far as we know. Ah well... we can hope for a second volume someday perhaps. Meanwhile, anyone who digs James Brown, Fela, Funkadelic, Orchestra Baobab, or more recent AQ reviewees Konono No. 1 and Black Merda, for instance, will certainly find that love IS a real thing when it comes to how you're gonna feel about this compilation!!
The liner notes go on about the psychedelic aspect of these bands, and while this stuff is definitely far out and groovy it's way more James Brown than brown acid. Mention of Haight-Ashbury seems a stretch, and the music of these bands has got as much or more to do with their motherland than, say, the generally more Western-derived psych we've heard from Thailand, Cambodia, or Turkey on various other comps we've carried. Then again, when you look at rock music influencing African music, you've got a full-circle phenomenon to examine. And when we reviewed the (currently unavailable) Love Peace & Poetry: African Psychedelic Music compiliation some months back, the stuff on this new comp is exactly what we felt was missing and should have been included.
In any case, proper psych or not, and with or without much fuzz, this is definitely FUNKY.
The attractive cd booklet includes notes on each track/artist, complete with color album sleeve art where available. Nicely done. Furthermore, this is an "enhanced cd", allowing those with the appropriate computer technology to witness a video of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Dahomey's track "Minsato Le, Mi Dayhome".
MPEG Stream: SUPER EAGLES "Love's A Real Thing"
MPEG Stream: MANU DIBANGO "Ceddo End Title"
MPEG Stream: OFO & THE BLACK COMPANY "Allah Wakbarr"

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AHAB "The Divinity Of Oceans" (Napalm) cd 16.98
ARGUS "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98
ARMAGEDDON "s/t" (Esoteric) cd 23.00
AVETT BROTHERS "Slight Figure Of Speech" (American) 7" 6.50
AVETT BROTHERS, THE "I Love You And You" (American) cd/2lp 12.98/28.00
BARE WIRES "Artificial Clouds" (Tic Tac Totally) lp 14.98
BARE WIRES "Let Down" (Milk 'n' Hepes Records) 7" 5.98
BARRACUDA, RANDY "s/t" (Flogsta Dancehall) lp 27.00
BASEMENT JAXX "Scars" (XL) cd 15.98
BIBLE OF THE DEVIL / BLADE OF THE RIPPER "split" (Scarey Records) 7" 5.98
BLIND BLAKE "Back Biting Bee Blues" (Monk) lp 22.00
BLIND BLAKE "Bahamian Songs" (Megaphone) cd 17.98
BLO "Chapters And Phases: The Complete Albums 1973-1975" (RPM) cd 17.98
BO MARLEY VS. DISRUPT "s/t" (Jahtari) cd 21.00
CALIFONE "All My Friends Are Funeral Singers" (Dead Oceans) cd 14.98
CELAN "Halo" (Exile On Mainstream) cd 14.98
CHESNUTT, VIC "At The Cut" (Constellation) cd/lp 15.98/25.00
CYMBALS EAT GUITARS "Why Are There Mountains" (Sister's Den) cd 13.98
DE KIFT "Yverzucht" (Mississippi) lp 12.98
DISRUPT "The Bass Has Left The Building" (Jahtari) cd 21.00
FACTUMS "A Primitive Future" (Assophon) lp 16.98
FEELIES "Good Earth" (Bar None) cd 14.98
FENRIZ' RED PLANET / NATTEFROST "Engansgrill" (Indie Recordings) cd 21.00
FUN YEARS / .CUT FEATURING GIBET "Split" (Three:Four) 10" 27.00
GATES OF SLUMBER, THE "Hymns Of Blood And Thunder" (Metal Blade) cd 14.98
GOES CUBE "Another Day Has Passed" (The End) cd 14.98
HELCARAXE "Broadsword" (Regimental) cd 14.98
HELDON "Allez Teia" (Wah Wah) lp + 7" 30.00
HELDON "Electronique Guerilla" (Wah Wah) lp + 7" 30.00
HIDDEN CAMERAS "Origin: Orphans" (Arts & Crafts) cd/lp 14.98/16.98
HIGGINS, GARY "Seconds" (Drag City) cd 14.98
HOOD, ROBERT "Minimal Nation" (M-Plant) 2cd 17.98
ILL WIND "Flashes" (Sunbeam) 2cd 25.00
INCAPACITANTS "Lon Guy" (Harbinger) cd 14.98
JESUS LIZARD "Down" (Touch & Go) cd 14.98
JESUS LIZARD "Goat" (Touch & Go) cd 14.98
JESUS LIZARD "Head" (Touch & Go) cd 14.98
JESUS LIZARD "Liar" (Touch & Go) cd 14.98
KARUNA KHYAL "Alomoni 1985" (Phoenix) cd 17.98
LA NUEVA BANDA DE SANTISTEBAN "Sabor A Fresa" (Vampi Soul) cd 22.00
LANDSCAPE "From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars .... To The Hell-Holes Of Uranus" (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
LAY, JOSH "True Mask" (Small Doses) cd 13.98
LE LOUP "Family" (Hardly Art) cd/lp 11.98/13.98
LITMUS "Aurora" (Metal Blade / Rise Above) cd 14.98
MASERATI "Passages" (Temporary Residence) cd 13.98
MELVINS "Chicken Switch" (Ipecac) cd 15.98
MERRIMACK "Grey Rigorism" (Moribund) cd 14.98
MISSISSIPPI SHEIKS "Sitting On Top Of The World" (Monk) lp 22.00
MUDHONEY "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" (Sub Pop) lp 14.98
MUDHONEY "s/t" (Sub Pop) lp 14.98
MUDHONEY "Superfuzz Bigmuff" (Sub Pop) lp 12.98
MUM "Sing Along To Songs You Don't Know" (Euphone) cd 14.98
ODD CLOUDS "Deceiving Illusion" (Not Not Fun) lp 17.98
PUMICE "Magnedisk Recordings of gfrenzy Songs" (Dirty Knobby) 7" 6.50
PUMICE "Perservere" (Soft Abuse) 7" 6.98
SINISTER REALM "s/t" (Shadow Kingdom) cd 13.98
STOKES, FRANK "Downtown Blues" (Monk) lp 22.00
STOOGES, THE "You Don't Want My Name You Want My Action" (Easy Action) 4cd-boxset 70.00
THORR'S HAMMER "Dommedagsnatt" (Southern Lord) lp 17.98
TIMES, THE "E For Edward / Pure / Et Dieu Crea La Femme" (Artpop!) 2cd 16.98
V/A "Earle Brown Contemporary Sound Series" (Wergo) 3cd 53.00
V/A "Limits Of Control OST" (Lakeshore Records) cd 17.98
V/A "Tokyo Flashback 7" (P.S.F.) cd 22.00
V/A "Warp 20 (Chosen)" (Warp) 2cd 22.00
V/A "Warp 20 (Recreated)" (Warp) 2cd 25.00
V/A "Wheedle's Groove" (Light In The Attic) 2lp 30.00
VIDYA (PRASANT RADHAKRISHNAN) "s/t" (Lotus Music) cd 14.98
VOIVOD "Infini" (Relapse) cd 14.98
WHITE WIZZARD "High Speed GTO" (Earache) cd/lp 14.98/17.98

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Please place your order via our website.

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

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

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


DOMESTIC SHIPPING :
--------------------------------

1-2 items    $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

----} October 6th
Built To Spill "There Is No Enemy" cd on Warner Brothers
Gossip "Music For Men" cd on Sony
Air "Love 2" cd on Astralwerks
DJ Spooky "Secret Song" cd on Thirsty Ear
Harmonia & Eno 76 "Tracks And Traces" cd reissue
Horse The Band "Desperate Living" cd on Vagrant
Hush Arbors "Yankee Reality" cd on Ecstatic Peace
Kraftwerk cd reissues on Astralwerks (including "Radio-Activity", "Man-Machine" and "Autobahn")
Morphine "At Your Service" cd
King Crimson "Red" cd reissue on Discipline
Steel Panther "Feel The Steel" cd
Sparklehorse / Fennesz "In The Fishtank" cd
 
----} October 13th
Flaming Lips "Embryonic" cd on Warner Brothers
Lightning Bolt "Earthly Delight" cd/2lp on Load
Skeletonwitch "Breathing The Fire" cd/lp on Prosthetic
Melvins / Brian Walsby "Manchild 4: Pick Your Battles" book+cd
v/a "Zanzibara 5: Hot In Dar" cd on Buda Records
MV & EE "Barn Nova" cd on Ecstatic Peace
Tinariwen "Imidiwan: Companions" 2cd on World Village USA

----} October 20th
White Rainbow "New Clouds" cd on Kranky
Richard Youngs "Under Stellar Stream" cd on Jagjaguwar
Spiral Stairs "Real Feel" cd on Matador
OOIOO "Armonico Hewa" cd on Thrill Jockey
Little Dragon "Machine Dreams" cd/lp 

----} October 27th
Saviours "Accelerated Living" cd/lp on Tee Pee
Broadcast "Broadcast & The Focus Group Investigate" cd on Warp
Eagle Twin "The Unkindness of Crows" lp version on Southern Lord

----} November 3rd
Cold Cave "Love Comes Close" cd/lp reissued via Matador

----} also upcoming sooner or later or sooner or later
Shit And Shine "229 2299 Girls Against Shit" lp on Riot Season
Ocean "Pantheon Of The Lesser" 2lp version on Important
Bunkur "Nullify" cd on Displeased
Grumbling Fur (Guapo + Jussi from Circle) cd
Combat Astronomy "Earth Divided by Zero" cd
Rosetta "Wake/Lift" vinyl version
Anton Batagov "Passionate Desire To Be An Angel" cd on Long Arms Records
Japancakes "If I Could See Dallas"
Sean Smith "Eternal" cd on Ultra Hard Gel
Jazzfinger "The Sun's Golden Blood" cd on Beta-Lactam Ring
v/a "Noise Room" cd on Soniq
Country Teasers / Ezee Tiger split lp on Holy Mountain
Erase Errata TBA cd on Kill Rock Stars
Xiu Xiu TBA cd on Kill Rock Stars
The Black Heart Procession TBA cd/lp on Touch And Go
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists TBA cd/lp on Touch And Go
Rodan TBA cd/lp on Quarterstick
Deftones "Eros" cd on Warner Bros.
Swell Maps "International Rescue" clear vinyl LP reissue on Alive
Black Lips "We Didn't Know..." green vinyl LP on Bomp!
Loss "Despond" cd on Profound Lore
Celestiial "Where Life Springs Eternal" cd on Bindrune
Blood Of The Black Owl "A Banishing Ritual" cd on Bindrune

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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanIrwinScottNickSallyJonandAndrew