ALTER Dusk-Dawn (Wolvserpent) lp 23.00
One half of epic cinematic ambient black chamber doom soundscapers Pussygutt strikes out on his own to create an epic bit of abstract doom creep, that strips down the Pussygutt sound to its essence, and creates something equally as haunting and harrowing. Clean spidery guitars unwind over squalls of distorted rumble, drums offer the occasional thud, feedback streaks and shimmers, the sound subtly intensifying, but never really moving beyond a slow motion moonlit drift. It almost sounds like Slint at 16rpm, a glacial post rock, laced with hints of doom, allowed to creep and crawl through an ever shifting field of whir and buzz and shimmer.
The song(s) continues on the B side, the drums and guitar dropping out leaving just a high end shimmer like a soft focus Sunroof! ur-drone, until some of the doom drifts back in, lush swells of ominous keyboard, muted chugs, sloooow minor key guitars, distant vocals, the overall affect way more pop and pretty than Pussygutt, but still retaining the same overall grim vibe, eventually finishing off with another soaring sheet of harmonized high end which gives way to that original spidery guitar line, drifting all by it's lonesome in an epic expanse of black, only to be joined by delicate pointillist piano for the slowly slipping away outro. So nice.
Beautiful packaging, a silver on black silkscreened tri-fold sleeve, released on Pussygutt's Wolveserpent label. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, hand numbered...

AURICLE, THE s/t (s/r) cd-r 7.98
People went nuts for the most recent record from local psychedelic space rockers 3 Leafs, and rightfully so, a primo clutch of tripped out, druggy drift. The Auricle finds one of those Leafs exploring another quadrant of the outer reaches, this time with a drastically different arsenal, violin, French horn, ukulele and sampler, sounds strange, but this trio makes it work, a healthy dollop of reverb, a little delay, the violin unfurling loooooong velvety ribbons of sound, the French horn moaning out melancholy melodies, the Ukulele spinning out little upper register trills, sent spiraling into the ether, the sampler... well, not sure what it's doing, probably just taking all of the rest of the sounds and subtly twisting and transforming, the end result is something that is definitely space-y, abstract and atmospheric, haunting, playful pizzicato melodies surface here and there, the violin sometimes drifting into more traditional sounds, making this sound like a chamber ensemble drifting through space, and that's just the first track.
The rest of the record definitely branches out a little, from warped minimal sort-of-bluegrass, looped and hypnotic, to otherworldly music box like warble, to clattery almost industrial sounding machinemusic, to deep almost new age sounding ethereal ambience, to strangely drone-y old timey back porch blues, to slow spaced out slowcore lullabies, all tied together by the woozy washed out reverby production, and the strange and wonderful instrumentation.
MPEG Stream: "Fake Moisture"
MPEG Stream: "Truth Gets Its Shoes On"

BIRD TRAPS Don't Be So Reckless (Black Cross Recordings) cd-r 9.98
A copy of this just showed up in the mail one day, all the way from Australia, a long time ago, but then somehow disappeared, lost we can only assume, amidst all of the stuff that is continually piling up here at aQ. Eventually, after some back and forth with the band we managed to secure another copy, and WOW are we glad we did. We were expecting something heavy and dark, not sure if it's the name that maybe had us confusing them with the Bird Blobs (bad ass Aussie garage punks) or the fact that they were pals with the Grey Daturas, either way, this is anything but dark and heavy, instead, Bird Traps traffic in something much more ethereal and ephemeral, slow shimmering soundscapes, cinematic and warm, lush and emotional, long slowly unfurling melancholic melodies, sun dappled and soft focus, dreamlike abstract chamber music of sorts reminding us of William Basinski, the Caretaker, Rachel's, Klimek, Max Richter, Tim Hecker, Belong, but unlike many of those sound sculptors, the music of Bird Traps is not distorted, or decayed, not warped or blown out, but IS hushed and delicate, mysterious and gauzy, a softly spun series of mini epics, long tones stretched out over hazy expanses of minimal whir, of blurred minimal melody, the songs developing gradually, soft swells giving way to gentle washes of crystalline sound, completely mesmerizing, able to envelop the listener in a velvet cocoon of sonic tranquility, but infused with just enough pathos and emotion, to make the sounds compelling, evocative, intimate and intense. A soundtrack to a slowly shifting, nearly static sepia toned film of the sky melting into the horizon, the stars fading into the cloak of night, this world slipping into the next...
MPEG Stream: "Floorboards"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Be So Reckless"

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

BUNKUR II - Nullify (Displeased) cd 13.98
BACK IN STOCK!!
It's been 5 years since the last Bunkur record, the appropriately titled Bludgeon, possibly one of the slowest, heaviest sickest doomdronedirge discs EVER. Corrupted, Esoteric, Khanate, Asva, Rigor Sardonicous, Skepticism, Fleshpress, all heavy and slow, but it always seemed like Bunkur managed to push that sound a little further. And if anything, record number 2 from these guys, titled Nullify, might have thrown down the gauntlet, creating a single, sprawling, 77 minute cloud of oozing slow motion black hate. Until Corrupted come through with their rumored triple disc single song, Nullify might just rank as the one to beat. That is if by beat, you meant create a doom record, that was impossibly slow, with instruments tuned insanely low, a sprawling skeletal song structure that is so spare and sparse it seems essentially structureless, with vocals that sound like you're vomiting up your internal organs, drums that sound like they're playing to some subterranean deathmarch, and basslines that aren't really lines at all, more like subsonic tones emanating from some bottomless pit. Cuz that's what it would take to out-doom these Dutch destroyers. But hell, why bother, better to just sit back, and let Bunkur's filthy black tide wash over you.
Slow, and epic, not really 'heavy' as much as dense, dark, deep and dismal, in fact Nullify almost sounds more ritualistic and abstract than doomy, like a heavier blacker Abruptum, lots of rumbling and groaning and howling and creeping and oozing, here and there the band do lock into something more propulsive, and by that we mean like 4 or 5 bpm, the drums offering up some chaotic fills, the bass swelling and undulating, but just as quickly whatever forward momentum is generated is dispelled and the band grinds back to a near static rumble. In a weird way, this is almost a drone record, strangely soothing in fact, a blurred smeared expanse of rumbling buzzing low end, the vocals and grinding riffage, so low and filthy and downtuned, that they just sound like more layers sound, but strap on some headphones, and it's like being sucked into hell, a harrowing sonic journey through the deepest pits of the underworld, every crushing thrum like the soul shattering footstep of some massive demon, every streak of hiss like a fiery blast of hellbreath, intense and brutal, massive and mysterious, punishing and pummeling, a gorgeously grim expanse of ultra, mega, multiple o'd, beyond funereal, kvltish hell doooooooooooom. And thus, gets our highest, or perhaps lowest, recommendation.
MPEG Stream: "Nullify - Excerpt I"
MPEG Stream: "Nullify - Excerpt II"

CLEANING WOMEN U (Cobra) cd 17.98
We're a sucker for pretty much anything Finnish. The weirder the better. So when we discovered Cleaning Women, a trio of Finns, who dressed up like ladies, housecoats, stockings, the whole nine yards, and who performed on an assemblage of customized kitchen appliances and household items, stoves, ironing boards. drying racks, clothes horses, we were sold before we even heard a note.
Luckily they had the music to back up their eccentric presentation, a strange chaos of wild percussion, blown out fuzz bass, and crooned vocals. Their second record was a soundtrack of sorts, and ended up being way more varied and schizophrenic than their debut, and once again, for record number three, the simply titled U, they've shifted gears again, and really hit their stride. Where as before, it seemed like the music was secondary to the concept, here, the music is dark and brooding and hypnotic, poppy and melodic, minimal and mesmerizing, they even seemed to have ditched the drag, if the band photo is any indication, they're still glamorous, and odd looking, but in a sort of Euro vampire glam rock way. But the music. Wow. Everything we loved about the first two records distilled and compressed into something magical.
The opening track is like a super minimal junkyard Circle, with its endlessly repeating main riff, the clanky percussion, the woozy seasick rhythm, there's even a creepy interlude partway through, with tolling bells, booming metallic rumbles and mysterious reverbed whistles, before the band launch back into it, this time adding vocals, the Circle comparison becoming even more apt, like an industrial Circle covering Morricone or something? However you slice it, it's amazing.
The second track almost sounds like an analog Kraftwerk, with it's blooping bassline, and motorik melody, mix in a little twangy guitar, swirling synths, super cinematic and dramatic. The third track is a pop gem, with it's dreamy vocal melody, and softly propulsive rhythm, and pizzicato strings, it almost reminds us of Uz Jsme Doma, but way more mellow and shimmery.
"The Miners' Song" sounds like a warped Pink Floyd outtake, until the main riff kicks in, fuzzy and fierce and downright heavy, and suddenly we're back in hypnorock territory, but with a distinctly playful pop edge.
The second half of the record is more of the same, from super minimal bowed string dronescapes, rife with surfy twang and delicate shimmer, to strange otherworldly cabaret pop, with xylophone like percussion, and cool Eastern melodies, to clattery math pop workouts that sound like some mad mix of Nomeansno and Sparks, to the eight minute closer "Scythians", which again veers into Circle territory, spidery looped melodies over simple motorik rhythms, reverbed and softly woozy, before shifting gears, introducing chanted vocals and slipping into a super dramatic slow build, culminating in a cool hauntingly harmonized choral outro.
Absolutely WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Quartarius"
MPEG Stream: "Across The Void"
MPEG Stream: "Scythians"

CLEANING WOMEN U (Cobra) lp 24.00
We're a sucker for pretty much anything Finnish. The weirder the better. So when we discovered Cleaning Women, a trio of Finns, who dressed up like ladies, housecoats, stockings, the whole nine yards, and who performed on an assemblage of customized kitchen appliances and household items, stoves, ironing boards. drying racks, clothes horses, we were sold before we even heard a note.
Luckily they had the music to back up their eccentric presentation, a strange chaos of wild percussion, blown out fuzz bass, and crooned vocals. Their second record was a soundtrack of sorts, and ended up being way more varied and schizophrenic than their debut, and once again, for record number three, the simply titled U, they've shifted gears again, and really hit their stride. Where as before, it seemed like the music was secondary to the concept, here, the music is dark and brooding and hypnotic, poppy and melodic, minimal and mesmerizing, they even seemed to have ditched the drag, if the band photo is any indication, they're still glamorous, and odd looking, but in a sort of Euro vampire glam rock way. But the music. Wow. Everything we loved about the first two records distilled and compressed into something magical.
The opening track is like a super minimal junkyard Circle, with its endlessly repeating main riff, the clanky percussion, the woozy seasick rhythm, there's even a creepy interlude partway through, with tolling bells, booming metallic rumbles and mysterious reverbed whistles, before the band launch back into it, this time adding vocals, the Circle comparison becoming even more apt, like an industrial Circle covering Morricone or something? However you slice it, it's amazing.
The second track almost sounds like an analog Kraftwerk, with it's blooping bassline, and motorik melody, mix in a little twangy guitar, swirling synths, super cinematic and dramatic. The third track is a pop gem, with it's dreamy vocal melody, and softly propulsive rhythm, and pizzicato strings, it almost reminds us of Uz Jsme Doma, but way more mellow and shimmery.
"The Miners' Song" sounds like a warped Pink Floyd outtake, until the main riff kicks in, fuzzy and fierce and downright heavy, and suddenly we're back in hypnorock territory, but with a distinctly playful pop edge.
The second half of the record is more of the same, from super minimal bowed string dronescapes, rife with surfy twang and delicate shimmer, to strange otherworldly cabaret pop, with xylophone like percussion, and cool Eastern melodies, to clattery math pop workouts that sound like some mad mix of Nomeansno and Sparks, to the eight minute closer "Scythians", which again veers into Circle territory, spidery looped melodies over simple motorik rhythms, reverbed and softly woozy, before shifting gears, introducing chanted vocals and slipping into a super dramatic slow build, culminating in a cool hauntingly harmonized choral outro.
Absolutely WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Quartarius"
MPEG Stream: "Across The Void"
MPEG Stream: "Scythians"

DEATH DOMAIN Ethidium Bromide / Programmed Cell Death (Dark Entries) 7" 6.98
Dark Entries has only a couple of releases under their belt, but the aesthetic of the label is firmly dictated by those releases: darkened post-punk electronics and dour new wave. Obscure reissues seems to be the focus for Dark Entries, but then there is Death Domain, a contemporary one-man band out of Baltimore, who might as well have been releasing work in Belgium circa 1983. The two tracks here fall between two somewhat obscure sounds -- Kas Product (who you might recall doing the title track to the So Young But So Cold compilation of French coldwave from the '80s) and Leather Nun (in particular the Slow Death single recorded for Industrial Records way back when). Death Domain have the aggro rhythms of Kas Product cranked through the most primitive of drum machines, and the life-support system synths that Leather Nun provided for that one single. All together, it's pretty damn good. Yeah, Cold Cave again rears their oh so influential of late head here, but think Cremations, not Love Comes Close.
Limited to 500 copies, with glow-in-the-dark silkscreened covers!
MPEG Stream: "Ethidium Bromide"
MPEG Stream: "Programmed Cell Death"

DESIRE If I Can't Hold You Tonight (Italians Do It Better) 12" 9.98
Always an exciting day at AQ when a new slab of vinyl from Italians Do It Better comes our way. Earlier this year we got totally addicted to the debut full length from Desire, a record that was so spot on in its 80's sleek and sultry, late-night dance jams infused with a dark romantic aching yearning. With the intoxicating vocals of Megan Luise setting such a perfect tone for the impeccable production of Johnny Jewel (Glass Candy, Chromatics, etc.). So it's rad to get different versions of two of our favorite songs from the album. Side one gives us a totally lysergic slow burning stretched out version of "If I Can't Hold You Tonight" and then a completely stripped down minimal vocal version. Side two starts off with an instrumental version of their cover of "I Can Dream About You" followed by a goosebump inducing 8-track demo of the song that proves that Desire are not just about style and dancefloors, but that their music really does evoke such strong emotions. The 12" offers a much more minimal and slow burning side of Desire then the more over-the-top, all out 80's disco vibe of the full length. We're melting into this wax!

ENOID Suicide Genocide (Bergstolz) 10" 13.98
Another blast of furious blasting blackened sickness from Swiss one man horde Enoid, masterminded by Bornyhake, who also does time in the equally awesome Borgne. We reviewed the Enoid full length Ataraxiis a few lists back, and Suicide Genocide takes up right where that one left off, furious and frantically blasting black metal, Norwegian style, and yeah, he's Swiss, but the sound is classic Scandinavian black metal, the riffs epic and soaring, the drumming brutal and lightning speed, the vocals demonic and bile spewing, the buzz cranked WAY up, the tracks dense and complex lurching from maniacal frenzied blasting, to sludge-y doomic pounding to weirdly melodic, often all those elements colliding midsong. And he's not just a killer player, he's capable of crafting some pretty excellent songs too, hidden amidst all that gnarled blackness and buzz drenched blast, lurk plenty of hooks, subtle perhaps, but there nonetheless infusing this filth with a vibe that keeps it from being just another slab of grim black whatever.
What is it about the Swiss, it's hard to pinpoint, but we're becoming mildly obsessed with bands from Switzerland, Paysage D'Hiver, Darkspace, Wacht, Ordo Infandorum Rituum Occultus (both reviewed elsewhere on this list), Sun Of The Blind, Borgne, and yeah, like the Ukraine, it's probably all the same 4 or 5 guys, but who cares, they've tapped into something, that's positioning Switzerland to give France and Norway And heck, the Ukraine a run for their black metal money.

FREEDOM HAWK s/t (MeteorCity) cd 11.98
We have to admit, when we first got this in, there were some Freedom Rock jokes, "Is that Freedom Hawk? Well, TURN IT UP", but that lasted precisely until we threw it on the stereo, at which point "Is that Freedom Hawk? Well, TURN IT UP" stopped being a joke and became a COMMAND, something we found ourselves thinking if not saying every time someone put it on in the store. Easily the heaviest, hookiest, grooviest slab of stoner rock / hard rock / classic metal we've heard all year. Huge sun baked riffs, throbbing fuzz bass, crashing drums, and howled Ozzy like vox, and most importantly some seriously catchy songs. Think a killer mix of vintage Kyuss, early Queens Of The Stone Age and classic Ozzy. It's stoner rock for sure, it is after all on the stoner rock centric Meteor City label, but it's so METAL, and so so poppy and catchy, and yeah heavy, totally rocking, very likely to induce headbanging, or at the very least air guitaring. One or two folks here thought maybe it was too derivative, and hell these guys do plunder and purloin, but they were quickly won over by the sound, the songs, and how these guys OWN their influences. Even the folks less inclined toward this sort of stuff, we've caught throwing this on when they though no one was listening.
At first we thought this was just a fun record, a sort of guilty pleasure even, but fuck it, this RULES, a killer hard rock / stoner metal record, well crafted, the playing bad ass, the sound warm and crunchy, the songs so catchy, guaranteed to stick in your head like crazy. We could go on and on, and usually do, but the true test is really how much we end up listening to something, and how often it gets played in the store, and if that's really the case, well, then this might just end up being one of THEE records of 2009 (in fact it even made it onto one aQuarian's top 10!!)...
MPEG Stream: "On The Other Side"
MPEG Stream: "Universal"
MPEG Stream: "My Road"

FRESH & ONLYS, THE Second One To Know (Woodsist) 7" 6.98
What more do you need to know? A new Fresh & Onlys 7", which means two more slabs of perfect pop. Not as fucked up and lo-fi as most of their contemporaries, the Fresh & Onlys traffic more in a total classic pop, Beach Boys, Kinks, Raspberries, Shoes, Cheap Trick, Beatles, sure it's rough around the edges, there are some woozy effects, the sound is wee bit lo-fi, but you'd be hard pressed to find any underground combos making pop as pure and catchy as these guys.
The title track is a soaring chunk or nearly perfect power pop, with a chorus to die for, amazing harmonies, and a lush yet lo-fi sound. The flipside is a little bit more shuffly, with acoustic guitars, skittery percussion, a much less obvious hook, but one that definitely sounds like something sixties and British. Awesome. Another band who seem to be bringing back the heyday of the 7", not merely a dumping ground for leftovers, but instead a showcase for a band's best and most immediately appealing songs...

GILDED ROOKS, THE Scarecrow's Pockets (Out Of Round) cd 11.98
Wow! if you've a penchant for rustic melancholia richly rooted in American country folk traditions, don't miss this new SF quintet's debut album. Although these days The Gilded Rooks are a full band of five, for these recordings which were captured in Nashville, TN, the band leaders Jessy Brown and Devon Angus were backed by locals Red White Blue. From the sounds of things, they got along smashingly well. The performances are terrific!, so easy-going and relaxed, you can easily imagine that they've been playing together for years. Scarecrow's Pockets is wonderfully drowsy and withery in mood and tempo. Brown's honeyed lilt and Angus' considerably more bristly, Waits-tinged delivery play off one another beautifully. The band tastefully embellishes the core guitar, bass and drums with piano, lap steel and organ, as well as surprise appearances of bright horns and a ghostly whisper of musical saw - all while still maintaining plenty of space to allow the duo's vocals to truly take flight. Each of the dozen songs is burnished to a mellow, whisky hued glow. Very warm and inviting despite the plaintive tones. Highlights are the opening title track, "31 Pages (Of Country Music)", and the closing "Joan Of Arc Of Bernal Hill". Along with the ten originals, they transform Jules Shear's "All Through The Night" (popularized by Cyndi Lauper) into a sweet shadowy lullaby, and also do a terrific rendition of Richard Thompson's "Walkin' On A Wire". Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Scarecrow's Pockets"
MPEG Stream: "All Through The Night"
MPEG Stream: "31 Pages (Of Country Music)"

GIRLS AT DAWN, THE s/t (Captured Tracks) lp 13.98
As we all make our 2009 favorite lists, we started thinking about what label released the most rad music and Captured Tracks would be pretty hard to beat with their amazing onslaught of killer releases this year, from folks like Blank Dogs, Brilliant Colors, Roman Soldiers, Dum Dum Girls, Gary War, Grass Widow, Woods, Thee Oh Sees, The Mayfair Set... God damn! They put out more amazing records in one year then many labels do in a decade! So it's so fitting that in the final days of 2009 we get one more slab of wax from Captured Tracks that we can't seem to stop listening to.
The Girls At Dawn for sure fit into the Captured Tracks aesthetic and would sound right at home on a bill with any of the above mentioned bands, yet they totally have their own unique charm that has made us so smitten with them. The way they infuse a haunting girl group element into their raw garage pop is totally hitting the spot. Makes us think of Grass Widow teaming up with The Sandwitches or a more lo-fi Slumber Party, or maybe Slant 6 / Quixotic doing Phil Spector and Thee Headoatees covers. In other words this is fucking great!

GOLDEN RING, THE Iranian Styled 60's Garage & Other Exotic Sounds (Persianna) cd 25.00
We first heard the Golden Ring on the amazing compilation Raks Raks Raks: 17 Golden Garage Psych Nuggets From The Iranian 60's Scene, and we knew we had to hear more, and just like that, a collection of 7"s and assorted tracks from the band that was one of the first and most important Iranian garage bands, mixing traditional Iranian music and instrumentation with Western pop of the time, like the Beatles, the results were mindblowing, totally ahead of their time, even know these songs sound incredible, catchy and groovy, but also totally psychedelic and mysterious.
The band never recorded a proper album, which makes this collection all the more amazing, every track here rules, it's a wonder this wasn't reissued ages ago. This is head and shoulders above much of the stuff that gets touted as lost classics.
The collection begins with "Tulip" that sounds like it could have been a Joe Meek production, in fact much of this record had us thinking it could have been a made up band masterminded by Meek, it's that far out, and that brilliant. "Tulip" adds swirling organ to twangy surf guitars, definitely offering a nod, intentional or otherwise to the Telstars, but it's track two where things get really good.
"Beauty" begins with tinkling melodies, and Bollywood like vocals, the sound swirling and definitely psychedelic, very dynamic and groovy, but them in come soaring operatic female vocals, and did we mention the stop start breakdown complete with whistling, so good, so totally classic, but at the same time, so unlike any of the other vintage garage rock we've heard.
And so it goes, much of the record is definitely very Middle Eastern sounding, almost like Iranian folk music given a garage makeover, the Beatles influence is definitely all over the place, as is plenty of whistling, and more of that swirly organ, the production is fantastic, lush, but definitely experimental, there's harmonica, giving those tracks a twangy Morricone vibe, there are dizzying organ driven rockers, the sound murky and washed out, the melodies tangled and weirdly atonal, there are some parts that sound very Bollywood, others just sound totally far out.
"Sun Full Moon" is a favorite, the whole song warped and warbly, guitars bending and swerving, the harmonicas practically melting, it sounds like the pitch is constantly shifting, like a mistake in mastering, but the result is super tripped out and amazing. This whole collection is just fantastic, hard to work on the list cuz this is pretty much all we want to listen to. Totally recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Tulip"
MPEG Stream: "Beauty"
MPEG Stream: "Dancing Beauties"
MPEG Stream: "Heads Or Tails"

GR & FULL-BLOWN EXPANSION s/t (World Sound) cd 23.00
Imagine a slow, but nervously tense rhythmic krautrock ritual, but one that seems like somehow the likes of Bo Diddley, Link Wray, or Hasil Adkins would feel at home sitting in on... you're in Full-Blown Expansion territory.
Early last year, when gonzo French psychpunkrockers Gunslingers were over here on tour, they stayed at Allan's house, and their guitarist Gregory Raimo gifted Allan with a copy of one of his solo releases, an LP attributed to GR & Full-Blown Expansion, which has now been reissued on compact disc. A darn good thing 'cause we'd have wanted to list the LP but it was limited to just 300 colored vinyl copies and we never managed to get any for the store. Now that it's on cd version we've got a chance to justly rave about this wigged out, trance inducing music! While we already were familiar with some music made by the other 2/3rds of the Gunslingers trio, who y'know also play in the much more black metallic and equally awesome bands Aluk Todolo & Diamatregon, we didn't know as much about Gregory Raimo.
Judging by the motorpsycho acid rock six string action GR unleashes in Gunslingers, whom we tagged as trafficking in "utter aggro over the top distortodelic geetar excess" and compared to The Heads and Mainliner, we expected, well, a total amped-up electric geetar full-blown blow-out on his solo set. And yeah, you DO get some of that here all right, particularly later in the album on tracks like "The Scene (Slowly's Getting Louder)" which sure as heck does get loud and fuzzy, like Kinski or your fave Tokyo Flashback psych. But even more crucial to this album may be the roiling, percolating rhythms, evident right away in opening 12+ minute track/trip "Descent Along The An-Ti-Fohn-Nul" which had us convinced this was rad right off the bat, along with its spacey vibe, slashing bursts of guitar distortion, and greasy, drawling bathed-in-effects vocals...
GR's percussion is described thusly, in cryptic but no doubt accurate fashion: "regular & extensionist drums, loco-drums & asymmetric drumming". Crude and entropic it might be, but very effective in propelling these tracks into the a very krauty zone. Some parts are mantrically mesmeric, others more "free" and chaotic, but hypnotic, definitely repetitive and raw.
This record really sounds like a bunch of freaks jamming intently, late at night. Enough so that it's almost weird that it's actually a one man jam, GR playing ALL the instruments, guitar, drums, organ, bass, vocals, effects... layering 'em together via 4-track overdubbing. It's 43 minutes long, but how many man-hours went into it? We're reminded of a looser, garagier and greasier A.R. & Machines, maybe, this krautrockiness somehow bringing in freakbeat rockabilly leanings, so Guru Guru for sure, also considering GR's song titles like "All Stoned Day Long They Take You"!
Each track is different, same weird krauty vibe but different, from the twangy surf licks reverberating over groovy bass lines heard in "Tranfiguration On A Sepiachord", to the druggy jazzy moody improv skitter-skatter scribble-scrabble of "The Metal Spike", to "The Intercessor Speaks" which sounds like a more chaotic Circle or dubbed out Doktor Kettu, to the electrically zapped This Heaty droning finale of "Blind Black Or Pearly White" wherein the electronics really take over... Assuming he recorded this at home, what the heck do his neighbors think? Utter madman in the next-door apt.?! Thanks GR!! We want to hear more from Gunslingers, of course, but are also looking forward to more Full-Blown Expansion, too!!
Get this while you can, we hear the digipack is kinda limited too, it comes with the same graphics as the original LP and has liner notes by Billy Miller from the legendary Texas psychsters Cold Sun!
MPEG Stream: "Descent Along The An-Ti-Fohn-Nul"
MPEG Stream: "Transfiguration On A Sepiachord"
MPEG Stream: "The Intercessor Speaks"

GRIPPERS NOTHER ONESERS At Simmer Beach (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 21.00
Another new release, and another incomprehensibly confusional band name from James Ferraro, formerly one half of warped soft noise duo the Skaters, now a bonified solo phenom, with about a million cd-r's and tapes and lps under various monikers, including his very own actual mom and dad approved name
For Grippers Nother Onesers, Ferraro does more than loop and sample, there seems to be some actual riffing going on, as well as lots of singing, a warbly warped reverb drenched falsetto, over fuzzy fractured riffage, even some drumming, but all the instruments are smeared and blurred and muddied, so instead of coming even remotely close to sounding like a proper rock record, it still sounds like a Ferraro jam, but this time it's got more of a Ariel Pink meets Prince vibe (mostly cuz of the vox), the music tweaked and twisted, the fact that it's actually being played and then buried under a patina of muted hiss and hum, makes it all the more compelling. We're sure there was actual playing on other records, but this one sounds the most like a band, albeit a damaged drugged out band from another dimension, where all communication takes place via busted up old transistor radios, and all record players shift from 33 to 45 constantly, so all sounds seem to twist and melt before your very ears.
The soulful falsetto crooning is the high point here, turning even the most disjointed fucked up Jeck-ian jam into a dizzying slab of alien soul pop. Fans of Ariel Pink and other warped poppers, if you're not already hip to Ferraro's groove, now's the time...

HORISONT Tva Sidor Av Horisonten (Crusher) cd 14.98
Wow. Or maybe not wow, 'cause we should be used to it by now. But yeah, wow. ANOTHER Swedish band that seems, magically, to be from the '70s, though they're actually quite contemporary in 2010. Like AQ faves Witchcraft, Burning Saviours, Dead Man, Elope, Dungen, Graveyard, et. al., newcomers Horisont possess the secret to sounding so '70s, that they probably think Nixon, or maybe Ford, is still the US President. At the latest (and at their most metal), it wouldn't appear that their influences extend beyond the early years of the NWOBHM. (Though that's not to say you won't flash on QOTSA or something while listening to this, but its more akin to vintage and obscure likes of, say, Highway Robbery and Vardis.) And not only do they sound '70s, but like those other Swedish bands we mentioned, they're damn good, too.
In fact, it's from the same label that brought us Dead Man that we've imported the debut cd by Horisont. We ordered it on LP too, but unfortunately they arrived damaged, hopefully we'll get more soon and be able to list the vinyl next time. And while vinyl (or 8 track?) might be the appropriately retro medium for this music, even on cd Horisont kicks out the heavy progressive blues rock in utterly killer fashion, a la early Sabbath (but with maybe more in the way of uptempo energy), Led Zeppelin, UFO, and we think we even hear a little Aerosmith. And what's even more awesome, track 4, "The Unseen", reminds us of Uli-era Scorpions too! Also of course, Horisont sound a lot like their Scandinavian '70s prog-psych uncles, November, Life and others. This IS pretty dang bluesy, and rockin', with high, wailing vox, tasty guitar licks, lumbering riffage, and a propensity for cow-bell-knockin' boogie. They make no bones about it, they even named a song "Horisont Boogie", just in case you didn't believe us. All right! Yet, we must say they boogie quite elegantly, and they also have their mystic moods too, getting mellow and melancholic on occasion, and about half-way through this ten song set, they switch from singing in English to their native language, which adds to the "progg" vibe most charmingly.
Classy, catchy, way impressive stuff, especially for a debut. We're looking forward to seeing 'em play live someday (no, we don't know if they're gonna tour in the USA any time soon, but they ARE playing at the Roadburn festival in Holland next year that Allan here has plans to attend...). We don't know how they do it, but they do. All lovers of '70s proto-metal prog heaviness, who dig hearing a new band doing it right, give it up for Sweden and HORISONT!
This is what that Dead Weather blues rock album we never got around to reviewing really shoulda sounded like, although Dead Weather, for all their supergroup status, and bonus points for covering Pentagram, aren't of course Swedish and that's not their fault we suppose.
MPEG Stream: "Nightrider"
MPEG Stream: "Just Ain't Right"
MPEG Stream: "Efter Min Pipa"

IRON MAN I Have Returned (Shadow Kingdom) lp 16.98
Now on vinyl too!
Here 'tis, the long awaited (with our review longer awaited still, perhaps) fourth full-length opus from a veteran Maryland doom metal band who have finally gone a bit beyond the obvious Black Sabbath emulation that their name suggests. Ok, they still DO sound a lot like Black Sabbath: current vocalist Joe Donelley was frontman for a Sabbath tribute band (and looks a fair bit like Ozzy, in one of his more bloated phases), and of course guitarist Al Morris III is an accomplished riffmeister who's known as "the African-American Tony Iommi" not just 'cause he's a black man who plays an SG and wears fringed leather jackets.
We've previously reviewed a reissue of this band's 1994 album The Passage, and if you liked that one, you'll probably like this, despite the, uh, passage of so many years since that one. The vocalist on that record had more of a Dio thing going on, though, but as we said the singer in their lineup these days is definitely an Ozzy disciple, without doing an outright impersonation all the time, so he's kinda in the mode of Wino.
This new album definitely -sounds- good (and HEAVY), with nice thick, almost slick production, the guitars full and fuzzy. As doom goes, this is on the uptempo side, and it's darn catchy too! Too bad Ozzy didn't simply hire these guys to write/record his last few albums for him (including the vocals!), the title track here for instance would easily be a radio hit, if only it had Ozzy's name on it, far superior to whatever computer-generated product the Oz-man has crapped out lately. Ah well, Ozzy's not doin' it, so Iron Man has to, even without hope of hits.
Sabbath/Ozzy fans open to a modern take on that trad sound, and heck grunge fans looking for something a bit more metal, should welcome the return of Iron Man.
MPEG Stream: "Curse The Ages (Curse Me)"
MPEG Stream: "Blind-Sighted Forward Spiral"
MPEG Stream: "Fallen Angel"

JAVELINA Beasts Among Sheep (Translation Loss) cd 14.98
Any record that starts with a solid 30 seconds of feedback is definitely gonna be good, and then when it explodes into a frenzy of melodic crusty metal, with super distorted howled vocals (and some competing black metal shrieks), spidery harmonized guitar melodies and thick swells of stonery sludge, it pretty much seals the deal. Which is precisely the case with Beasts Among Sheep, the latest from Philly's Javelina, named for a tusked swine that terrorizes the Southwest, killing small animals and destroying gardens, but this Javelina is something way more imposing and terrifying, a lurching, ultra distorted sludge metal juggernaut, that takes what could be a head spinning kitchen sink approach to their craft and instead fuses all sorts of disparate elements into something super heavy, groovy, melodic and rocking, definite references would include NOLA bands like Kylesa, Baroness, Down, Eyehategod, Crowbar, that same sort of swampy groovy and downtuned sludge, but the guitars are straight up NWOBHM, often busting out incredible harmonized leads right in the midst of a plodding tarpit sludge workout. And the vocals, flip from cookie monster growl to demonic shriek, giving the record a totally different vibe, the bass driving everything, especially when they slow it down and get all brooding and doomy, but shit, the riffs, some of the most kick ass riffing we've heard in ages. Fans of Mastodon and High On Fire will probably dig the shit out of this too, but it's away weirder and rawer and so much more catchy and fucked up and original as far as we're concerned. Be sure and stick around after the records' doomcrustprog blowout closer "Beware The Wrath Of The Patient Man", for the frenzied crust sludge secret track tucked away at the end.
Absolutely essential heaviness for sure...
MPEG Stream: "You're Gonna Hate This"
MPEG Stream: "A Little Paranoia Goes A Long Way"
MPEG Stream: "Towers Of Silence"

KALLABRIS Music For Very Simple Objects (Substantia Innominata / Drone Records) 10" 13.98
It's unlikely that Michael Anacker (aka Kallabris) had much if anything to do with the once prolific, post-industrial outfit Cranioclast; but Kallabris did release a couple of magnificent pieces of submariner drone records in the late '80s through the Jazztone imprint which had some sort of cohabitation with the Cranioclast in-house label CoC. In many ways, those early Kallabris records were an obvious precursor to what Leyland Kirby has done recently with his Caretaker project in conjuring the mood of a Victorian ship slowly sinking out at sea. Haunted melodies, incidental creaks of distressed metal, and maudlin ambience are found in both sets of recordings. Jump ahead a decade or two, and Kallabris has buried some of the emotional sentiment found in his earlier work, moving more towards a sense of dislocation and unease through electro-acoustic means. Indebted to the German cut-n-paste work of P16.D.4 and G*Park, Music For Very Simple Objects may have begun humbly (e.g. field recordings and found objects), but results in two highly refined collages. The first side is filled with empty holes, bracketed by small events which get treated with all sorts of oblique effects, ending up sounding stoic and black in nature. The flip is more of the 'drone' side recalling the early Kallabris sounds (after-all this is released by Troum's Drone Records!), with slippery sustained tones oozing out of a musique concrete introduction of gossamer metallic klanks and clicks.

MARIACHI EL BRONX s/t (Swami / White Drugs) cd 13.98
The first Bronx record had us at first sight, it's rad blood dripping fangs front cover, and then we threw it on and were blown away, the perfect blend of punk rock and pop, not pop punk, but a gnarled heaviness that had hooks galore with out sacrificing any of its ferocity. We described their sound as being a bit like a metalcore Strokes, or a poppier Coalesce, or the bastard offspring of Rocket From The Crypt, Quicksand, and the Hives. Sounds killer? It is. Err.. was. Three records, all of them heavy and catchy and punky and poppy. We were super psyched to discover a brand new Bronx record, but weirdly enough, the name on the record was Mariachi El Bronx, and there was a big crab on the cover, with the bands name on it in big gold letters, we sort of just assumed that the band were taking the piss, but lo and behold, we threw it on, and whattayaknow, no punk rock, none at all, straight up, real mariachi music.
The band live in L.A. and grew up around Mexican culture and mariachi music, and found some of those sounds sneaking into their music, so apparently they decided to go for it and bam, Mariachi El Bronx was born. At first we were definitely a bit put off, and weren't sure what to make of it, but the first two tracks stuck in our heads immediately, and we found ourselves returning to this record over and over again, and listening to more of it and constantly, and it's sort of become one of our new favorites. And this is not like a punk mariachi record, or dudes messing around, this is serious mariachi music, from the instrumentation, to the vocal harmonies, it's pretty amazing that a punk band could pull something like this off, but they do, big time. Just listen to the samples, odds are you'll be as smitten as we were.
And again, be warned, there is nothing weird or freaky or far out about this record, other than it's being played by a bunch of punk rockers, this is just a gorgeous collection of super catchy mariachi music, and we dig it big time!
MPEG Stream: "Cell Mates"
MPEG Stream: "Litigation"
MPEG Stream: "Despretador"

MEHRPOUYA, ABBASS Mehrpouya Sitar (Persianna) cd 25.00
Long overdue reissue of this lost psychedelic Indian funk gem from one of Iran's top sitarists, his only record, recorded sometime in the seventies, and a holy grail ever since. The liner notes claim this is one of the rarest and most in demand albums from Iran, and it's easy to hear why. Imagine your favorite jams from the Ethiopiques series, WITH SITAR and FLUTE, and we're talking total psych funk groove nirvana.
Heavy and fuzzy and druggy and a little bit space-y these mostly untitled jams totally destroy, we can only imagine the sort of joyous meltdown any crate digger lucky enough to snag one of these must have experienced, the drums are fierce, powerful, organs swirl, flutes soar and flutter, and all over the tracks that sitar buzzes gloriously. Some of the songs are a bit folkier and more pastoral, sounding like some seventies acid folk record only with sitar and haunting Eastern melodies. But it's the stomping funk workouts that seal the deal, especially the 11 minute funk rock epic "African Jumbo" (one of only two songs here with titles), that sounds straight out of some seventies sitcom, or like it was purloined by Tarantino for one of his soundtracks, looped and hypnotic, super melodic and catchy as all get out. A few of the tracks feature vocals, deep and dramatic, and those songs slip into Bollywood love scene territory for sure, mysterious and moody, in fact the last few songs tend toward ballad territory, until the record closer, a bonus track taken from a super rare tape, that is murky and heavy with strings and wah guitar, total Indian blaxploitation soundtrack groove, that slips from sexy strut, to dreamy croon, to cinematic soar and back again. Amazing stuff. Fans of the Ethiopiques series and the funkier Sublime Frequencies releases will definitely dig...
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "African Jumbo"

MIST s/t (Amethyst Sunset) lp 17.98
Mist is the Ohio-centric retro-grade electronics duo featuring John Elliott of Emeralds and Sam Goldberg, who runs the Pizza Night tape label. This is actually the third outing for Mist, as the two have mustered a couple of other cassettes, released earlier this year which disappeared before we even had the chance to grab any. Fortunately, we did manage to snag some of this LP on Amethyst Sunset, which will most likely be around for at least a little while, although it is limited to 500 copies. The Elliott / Goldberg authored electronics here don't veer too much from the Emeralds spaced-out electronics that reflect the best in the realm of late '70s / early '80s progressive electronics (e.g. the more abstracted moments from Kraftwerk and the Eno collaborations with Fripp and Cluster). It's not quite as dark or as melancholy as Emeralds and thus sounds like those sci-fi percolations that fellow knob-twiddler Oneohtrix Point Never and Pulse Emitter have rejuvinated in recent years. Certainly, these are elegant passages of arppegiating analogue electronics and heavily sequenced patterns that intertwine nicely into chiming, sparkling, bubbling zone-tripping.

ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER / KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN / NO FUN ACID / PREHISTORIC BLACKOUT 4 way split (Protracted View) 2cassette 15.98
These two tapes, housed in a soft-plastic case a la RRRecords, offer documentation of four live, and very nice electronic sets from one evening at the Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn, featuring the 2009 darling of outro-electronics Oneohtrix Point Never, the ever impressive Keith Fullerton Whitman, No Fun Acid (aka Carlos Giffoni in his 'acid' guise), and Prehistoric Blackout (aka Taylor Richardson of Infinity Window).
Oneohtrix Point Never begins his set with a lugubrious plodding synth melody before nestling into those stratospheric arcs of Juno-synth tones found on his recent Russian Mind LP. Keith Fullerton Whitman kicks out squiggles and step-patterned melodic phrases via a C64 emulator on his iPhone (no shit!) which gradually explode into a kaleidoscopic supernova after lifting out of a thick set of modulated tones 'n' drones. Giffoni has been talking up his love of acid techno with No Fun Acid being the project to act upon that infatuation. He sets down a simple breakbeat and begins a set that would make Phuture proud, in a pretty straight forward, but wholly effective techno workout. Prehistoric Blackout offers a four-note synth melody that drifts with counterpointed arpeggiations, tremolo lazer beams of sound, and tripped out, looping electronics. It should be noted that this is a room recording, and not a board mix. But as a result, there is some very amusing banter that Whitman provides at the end of his set with two enthusiastic women describing his set as a being akin to achieving multiple orgasms. Ahem. Throughout most of the sets, the audience politely stays quiet with the exception for the beginning of the Prehistoric Blackout set. Super limited, we've got less than a dozen of these.

OPIUM WARLORDS Live At Colonia Dignidad (Cobra) cd 17.98
We made The Puritan our Record Of The Week a couple lists back, the twisted ultra doom project of Reverend Bizarre's S.A. Hynninen, aka Albert Witchfinder, and that record was indeed twisted and doomy, crushing and slow, warped and mysterious, a little bit gothy and dramatic, a lot bit pummeling downtuned crush. So now we have Opium Warlords, Hynninen's most recent project, which we would have made our record of the week as well if it was a bit easier to get, cuz holy shit, it's like an even more fucked up Puritan, the slow parts are slower, the croony gothy parts, are, well, MORE. It's a creepy crawly burning, sprawling avant doom juggernaut, equal parts classic doom a la My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, Japanese sludge a la Corrupted, Boris, Solar Anus, and strange minimal prog, but it's WAY poppier too, and pretty, so much so, that we often forget what we're listening to, seventies British prog? Peter Hammill? Sounds strange, and it definitely is, but even in true doom outfit Reverend Bizarre, Hynninen and his crew were way weirder than your average doom band. And the thing with Opium Warlords, is at first it just seemed slow and weird, but it totally blossoms, the more melodic songs revealing themselves as epic and catchy, well crafted avant prog. Or something.
The record opens in full on doom mode, big crashing chords ring out, lots of space, the vocals a mewling croon that goes from growl to falsetto, as the track plods along for 8+ minutes, lurching along doomily, yet melodically, before slipping into the second track, a super spacious skeletal drift, that sounds more like Bohren than Boris, before finally stumbling into full on doomsludge, harsh howled vocals, and strange twisted melodies, until the record shifts gears entirely.
The next two songs, nearly 22 minutes, is a smoldering dark cabaret, guitars distorted and spidery, with Hynninen really singing, dramatic and emotional, it almost sounds like some long lost dark krautrock ballad, no drums, minus the occasional rumbling percussion off in the distance, just a warm drift of lush chords, and minor key melodies, really gorgeous, and timeless sounding.
Which gives way to another bout of doomic pummel, but again surprisingly melodic, all instrumental this time, just the guitars churning, the drums pounding, all wound into a tense chunk of doom pop heaviness.
The next track gets all Eastern with some layered guitars, and abstract percussion, heavy for sure, but also a bit raga like, with a strange mix, big bass thrums way up in the mix, the song eventually transforming into a convoluted math metal workout, which gives way to yet another chunk of more classic sounding doom. Slooooow, and spare, harsh growled almost falsetto vocals, over the pounding drums and big distorted chords left to ring out, heavy and slow, but still really pretty...
The final proper track, is all muted bass strum, jangly clean guitar, total dreamy pop vocals over the top, eventually growing more and more rocking, before finishing off in a tangle of almost Champs sounding guitar harmonies and then 30 seconds of feedback and amp buzz.
The whole thing put to bed by the 5 second closing track, a brief burst of pounding grunted furious grind metal. Phew.
Baffling. Brilliant. Even the booklet is utterly confusional. Packed with random text, strange doodles, diagrams, there's even a fragment of one of his papers from grade school, plus the record is NOT live, and it's unclear if this is a band, or if Hynninen plays everything himself, the artwork is super striking, very pink, and on the back, Hynninen offers up this description of Opium Warlords' self described "Black Gobi Desert Rock", which just may render the above review moot:
"A ritual of jet-black sonic occultism inside an imaginary subterranean temple. A mental trip to the minimalist galaxies of suffocatingly slow and heavy nekroambiences. A ground-breaking bi-polar exploration. A droner's delight and headbanger's holiday. A rave of deranged militarist dance beats. A celebration of psychosexual isolation. Essential and easy-to-listen-to fear music for unbalanced and self-hating youth. Kutu-vibrations for sweatshirt-sporting rillirillos. A message "from beyond". Uncontrolled emotional outbursts to cheer up those with the long faces. Something just for you, who "have heard it all" and "really could not care less". Quality time for a suicidal inner-space astrodoomonaut."
MPEG Stream: "I. Soon Be Here, Prince Of Sleep"
MPEG Stream: "II. Return To The Source"
MPEG Stream: "III. Let It Pour, Let It Pour"

OPIUM WARLORDS Live At Colonia Dignidad (Cobra) lp 29.00
We made The Puritan our Record Of The Week a couple lists back, the twisted ultra doom project of Reverend Bizarre's S.A. Hynninen, aka Albert Witchfinder, and that record was indeed twisted and doomy, crushing and slow, warped and mysterious, a little bit gothy and dramatic, a lot bit pummeling downtuned crush. So now we have Opium Warlords, Hynninen's most recent project, which we would have made our record of the week as well if it was a bit easier to get, cuz holy shit, it's like an even more fucked up Puritan, the slow parts are slower, the croony gothy parts, are, well, MORE. It's a creepy crawly burning, sprawling avant doom juggernaut, equal parts classic doom a la My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, Japanese sludge a la Corrupted, Boris, Solar Anus, and strange minimal prog, but it's WAY poppier too, and pretty, so much so, that we often forget what we're listening to, seventies British prog? Peter Hammill? Sounds strange, and it definitely is, but even in true doom outfit Reverend Bizarre, Hynninen and his crew were way weirder than your average doom band. And the thing with Opium Warlords, is at first it just seemed slow and weird, but it totally blossoms, the more melodic songs revealing themselves as epic and catchy, well crafted avant prog. Or something.
The record opens in full on doom mode, big crashing chords ring out, lots of space, the vocals a mewling croon that goes from growl to falsetto, as the track plods along for 8+ minutes, lurching along doomily, yet melodically, before slipping into the second track, a super spacious skeletal drift, that sounds more like Bohren than Boris, before finally stumbling into full on doomsludge, harsh howled vocals, and strange twisted melodies, until the record shifts gears entirely.
The next two songs, nearly 22 minutes, is a smoldering dark cabaret, guitars distorted and spidery, with Hynninen really singing, dramatic and emotional, it almost sounds like some long lost dark krautrock ballad, no drums, minus the occasional rumbling percussion off in the distance, just a warm drift of lush chords, and minor key melodies, really gorgeous, and timeless sounding.
Which gives way to another bout of doomic pummel, but again surprisingly melodic, all instrumental this time, just the guitars churning, the drums pounding, all wound into a tense chunk of doom pop heaviness.
The next track gets all Eastern with some layered guitars, and abstract percussion, heavy for sure, but also a bit raga like, with a strange mix, big bass thrums way up in the mix, the song eventually transforming into a convoluted math metal workout, which gives way to yet another chunk of more classic sounding doom. Slooooow, and spare, harsh growled almost falsetto vocals, over the pounding drums and big distorted chords left to ring out, heavy and slow, but still really pretty...
The final proper track, is all muted bass strum, jangly clean guitar, total dreamy pop vocals over the top, eventually growing more and more rocking, before finishing off in a tangle of almost Champs sounding guitar harmonies and then 30 seconds of feedback and amp buzz.
The whole thing put to bed by the 5 second closing track, a brief burst of pounding grunted furious grind metal. Phew.
Baffling. Brilliant. Even the booklet is utterly confusional. Packed with random text, strange doodles, diagrams, there's even a fragment of one of his papers from grade school, plus the record is NOT live, and it's unclear if this is a band, or if Hynninen plays everything himself, the artwork is super striking, very pink, and on the back, Hynninen offers up this description of Opium Warlords' self described "Black Gobi Desert Rock", which just may render the above review moot:
"A ritual of jet-black sonic occultism inside an imaginary subterranean temple. A mental trip to the minimalist galaxies of suffocatingly slow and heavy nekroambiences. A ground-breaking bi-polar exploration. A droner's delight and headbanger's holiday. A rave of deranged militarist dance beats. A celebration of psychosexual isolation. Essential and easy-to-listen-to fear music for unbalanced and self-hating youth. Kutu-vibrations for sweatshirt-sporting rillirillos. A message "from beyond". Uncontrolled emotional outbursts to cheer up those with the long faces. Something just for you, who "have heard it all" and "really could not care less". Quality time for a suicidal inner-space astrodoomonaut."
MPEG Stream: "I. Soon Be Here, Prince Of Sleep"
MPEG Stream: "II. Return To The Source"
MPEG Stream: "III. Let It Pour, Let It Pour"

ORANGE GLASS s/t (self released) cd-r 9.98
What is it about Nova Scotia and pop music? Has one place produced so much great indie pop music in the last 20+ years? Ever? We don't think so. Sloan, Eric's Trip, Hardship Post, Super Friendz, The Inbreds, Thrush Hermit, Jale, The Memories Attack... And that Halifax sound, while hard to describe exactly, is immediately recognizable by the pop savvy, but even if you've never heard any of those bands (and if you haven't, well hell, get on it!), if you love the rocking jangle of nineties indie pop, if you grew up listening to records on Sub Pop, and K, and Kill Rock Stars, and love big crunchy riffs, even bigger hooks, gloriously lo-fi production, keening sad boy vox, lyrics about love and girls and heartbreak, then you need to do some digging, and why not start here, with this collection of tracks from long defunct indie rockers Orange Glass.
Now we consider ourselves pretty big fans of all those bands, Andee even released the most recent record by The Memories Attack, which happens to feature a member of Eric's Trip AND Mr. Ron Bates, a longtime aQ customer, and frontman for the late great Orange Glass. How did we not know about OG. Everything about them screams BAND WE WOULD HAVE LOVED AND OBSESSED OVER AND PUT ON EVERY MIXTAPE!! But better late than never.
None of the Orange Glass records are available anymore, but Bates recently decided to put together a compilation, of album tracks, singles, compilation tracks, unreleased recordings, to pass out to his friends, we convinced him to let us have 20 of the 50 he made, so odds are once these are gone, they are gone for good. So don't miss out, you'll be sorry.
There's a definite sonic link to Eric's Trip, and of course the Memories Attack, from hissy lo-fi 4 track bedroom folk, to rambunctious crashing power pop, fuzzy guitars, wild drumming, and of course hooks hooks hooks, another one of those bands that should have been huge, or if not huge, at least as popular as all the above mentioned outfits. The sound quality varies greatly from super raw demo rehearsal space sound, to full on studio shine, but nothing can disguise how fun and catchy and amazing these songs are, and Orange Glass were, and for those with an indie rock heart, you may have just discovered a new favorite that by all rights should have been an old favorite too.
Super nice silver metallic covers, inside liner notes on where all the tracks comes from, each one hand numbered, LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!!
MPEG Stream: "Preoccupied"
MPEG Stream: "Saturn And The Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Wait A Day"
MPEG Stream: "Knock Wood"
MPEG Stream: "Cosmic Pilot"

ORDO INFANDORUM RITUUM OCCULTUS / WACHT split (Bergstolz) 7" 7.98
Brand new 7" of grim buzz from two mysterious Swiss black metal bands, neither of which had we ever heard of, and neither of which feature members of any other notable bands. Switzerland is of course the home of Paysage D'Hiver and Darkspace and Enoid among others, so we had high hopes for these two hordes.
Wacht begin the proceedings with what almost sounds like a metal Star Spangled Banner, a sort of twisted guitar intro that soon gives way to a furious murky raw buzz, the drums and bass (if there is any) lost in a storm of relentless riffing and howled anguished vokills. Some killer riffs lurking in that roiling blackness, and the drums do leap out here and there, but for the most part it's like a heaving black cloud of sound, dense and hypnotic.
The much less simply monickered Ordo Infandorum Rituum Occultus (or OIRO for short), offer up their own bit of frosty grimness, a much more stripped down buzzing blast, pounding almost D-beat style rhythm, grunted vocals, raw and old school, but with some strange stuff lurking in the details, maniacal screams, some cool gnarled riffage, layered guitars, that seem to drop in and out, giving the track a sort of dizzying vibe, at times almost like a more stripped down straight ahead Deathspell Omega.
Definitely laves us dying for more from both bands, and as is always a good sing with a single, we've found ourselves flipping this over constantly and listening to both sides over and over again...

PALACE OF WORMS The Forgotten (Flenser) cd 8.98
For a while, San Francisco seemed like some sort of black metal mecca, record after record and shows galore, all sorts of grim and kvlt hordes, Leviathan, Draugar, Crebain, Horn Of Dagoth, Elk, Necrite and more. And while some of those bands are still active, the recordings have seemed to dry up, more a trickle than a torrent. We know there is a Crebain record in the works, there's the forthcoming Mastery 2cd on tUMULt, a rumored Leviathan, but there are lots of new bands too, Botanist, Kerasphorus, and these guys, or rather this guy, Palace Of Worms, and finally a new slab of fucked up freaked out blackness from SF to obsess over, and believe us, this is well worth obsessing over.
Anyone into any of the above mentioned bands will dig PoW for sure, a dizzying blend of troo black metal buzz, and experimental post rock, which is evident from the first few seconds of the record, beginning with haunting majestic synths, then a brittle lo-fi blast of metal, that sounds like it was played on a mandolin, or pitched up, before the song proper kicks in with a wall of frenzied super saturated black buzz, croaked vokills, and buried in the mix blast beats, switching gears multiple times throughout the song, chugging doomic sprawl, to gnarled Deathspell style blackprog, with plenty of tangly guitar lines and lurching tempo changes, clean guitar, very reminiscent of another aQ BM fave Woe, the same sort of melodic sensibility fused into a seriously harrowing chunk of grim black aggression.
The rest of the record follow suit, dipping occasionally into ultra raw, old school black metal pound, weird almost industrial shoegazey ambience (sounding a bit like Nadja or Jesu), classic midtempo Burzumy blackness, awesomely creepy Eastern tinged black ambience, almost Katatonia moody sounding melodic blackness, but always returning to that furious heaviness, all lightning speed riffage, hellish vox, dizzying complex rhythms, soaring synths, but all infused with that strange, and subtle pop element that turns grim and black into something much more interesting, and makes Palace Of Worms another band to add to SF's black pantheon.
MPEG Stream: "Far From The Light"
MPEG Stream: "The Antagonist"
MPEG Stream: "As I Slumber Amongst The Cold Thoughtless Stars"

PIRATE CAT RADIO The Ladies (And Gentlemen) Of Pirate Cat Radio 2010 Calendar (self-released) calendar 19.98
Radio stations are a dying breed. In fact, real commercial radio stations are basically dead already, at least if you're into weird underground sounds. And it seems like record stores, newspapers, magazines, movie theaters, are quickly following radio into an overflowing cultural graveyard. But we can help, by supporting all the things you love, buying records from your local record store (or us!), seeing movies in your local arthouse theater, renting movies from the cool video store in your town instead of Netflix, subscribing to the magazines you love instead of reading them online, ditto for newspapers, and of course radio. Which continues to thrive, and live on, just in a different guise, college radio is of course alive and kicking, KUSF, WFMU, KFJC, we could go on and on, internet radio too, and of course, PIRATE RADIO. San Francisco has a rich history of pirate radio, our very own Allan even used to have show on pirate radio. which brings us to this here calendar, published by the fine folks at Pirate Cat Radio, who need your support. Listen if you can, on the web (piratecatradio.com) or on the air at 87.9 FM, visit their cafe in the Mission here in SF and eat and drink while a DJ spins, but most of all, donate, or buy one of these calendars. EVERYONE needs a calendar, and yeah $20 seems a bit steep, but you're not just buying a calendar, you're supporting this amazing radio station, who were recently fined $10,000 by the FCC, in a seemingly endless battle for the airwaves, or at least the right to broadcast freely on those airwaves.
You probably have your own pirate radio station in your town, do a little digging, or just set your dial for Pirate Cat Radio and show them some love. Plus, who couldn't use a calendar jam packed with tattooed and pierced ladies and gents, hamming it up, getting all dolled up, and mugging for the camera, plus a schedule so you can tune in and see what all the fuss is about!

PUSSYGUTT Gathering Strengths (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 23.00
The return of Pussygutt, a male/female duo from Idaho, who traffic in slow brooding black ambience and ultra doom, and whose last two records have been huge favorites around here, which makes sense as we really can't get enough of sidelong tracks, and sprawling expansive stretches of slow rumbling drones, and minimal slabs of blackened doomic crawl, and gathering Strengths does NOTHING to disappoint, offering up a single two part track, spread out over two sides, beginning with what sounds like oboes or some sort of woodwind (it's in fact a clarinet), long layered tones, emitting endless overtones, laid atop a barely there bit of low end rumble, strange melodies emerging from the constantly shifting layers, eventually joined by mysterious strings, chiming bells, super cinematic and soundtracky, and yet another instance of 'why don't these guys score movies', the music sublime and emotional, not what you'd expect necessarily, slowly building in intensity, until finally, the hammer falls, and a black cloud of rumbling doom descends, hardly overwhelming, but instead wrapping around those keening strings, creating a haunting otherworldly bit of black doom chamber music.
The flipside starts off a bit folkier, shimmering drones drift over simple hand drums, the melodies simple and melancholy, a muted firelit psychfolk, smoldering and dreamlike, eventually building to something much more epic and intense, never exploding into a frenzy of doom, or exploding at all, instead, just hovering, and ratcheting up the tension, again, totally cinematic and dramatic, like some timeless ritual being performed by cloaked figures gathered before a fire, while in the background cities crumble and the sky turns to ash.
Intense, and intensely beautiful. LIMITED TO 550. Each one hand numbered, and housed in super striking, silkscreened heavy sleeves.

REID, STEVE Odyssey Of The Oblong Square (Universal Sound) cd 17.98
Steve Reid is a free jazz legend, his resume, musical and otherwise, is mindblowing, he played in Sun Ra's Arkestra, was a Motown session drummer, was in James Brown's band and played at the Apollo, he lived in Africa, was jailed for opposing the Vietnam War, was a Black Panther, lived in a loft with Meryl Streep and her brother, put on shows and performances there, and played with Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Lester Bowie, about a million others, including more recently Four Tet's Kieran Hebden, which resulted in three amazing albums, all big time aQ faves.
Odyssey Of The Oblong Square is one of Reid's first records, released originally over 30 years ago, was extremely limited even at the time, and is some serious left field, out-funk free jazz genius. Reid was featured recently in Soul Jazz's Freedom Rhythm & Sound: Revolutionary Jazz & The Civil Rights Movement 1963-82 collection, and this record was definitely a musical cornerstone of the rapidly developing free jazz underground in the seventies. Listening to this now, it still sounds as powerful and radical and emotional as it must have nearly 4 decades ago. Wild horns, dense skittery rhythms, sprawling clouds of constantly shifting tempos and timbres, super melodic, but also wild and chaotic, and most importantly FUNKY. The bass is the standout, which is saying something when all the players are so incredible, but it's like a living thing, throbbing and undulating, flurries of rapid fire notes, long languorous tones, even one long stretch where the bass just seems to buzz and hum, transforming the sound into something much more dark and intense, a solid anchor to allow the drums and horns to explore and expand. The two longest tracks here are epic, the band so tight, but simultaneously so loose and expressive, the final track "Ginsamseng" at one point finds the horns playing super loooong tones, layered and shifting, almost sounding like free jazz composed by Phill Niblock. Wow. So intense, and definitely spiritual and utterly transcendent, more than music, this is musical expression, the soul made sound, and that sound lives on, and continues to inspire. Way recommended.
The reissue features the original super striking yellow and black Masonic album artwork, as well as new liner notes, detailing Reid's life and musical exploits. Another fantastic reissue from Universal Sound / Soul Jazz.
MPEG Stream: "Deacon's Son"
MPEG Stream: "Odyssey Sweet"

REID, STEVE Odyssey Of The Oblong Square (Universal Sound) lp 24.00
Steve Reid is a free jazz legend, his resume, musical and otherwise, is mindblowing, he played in Sun Ra's Arkestra, was a Motown session drummer, was in James Brown's band and played at the Apollo, he lived in Africa, was jailed for opposing the Vietnam War, was a Black Panther, lived in a loft with Meryl Streep and her brother, put on shows and performances there, and played with Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Lester Bowie, about a million others, including more recently Four Tet's Kieran Hebden, which resulted in three amazing albums, all big time aQ faves.
Odyssey Of The Oblong Square is one of Reid's first records, released originally over 30 years ago, was extremely limited even at the time, and is some serious left field, out-funk free jazz genius. Reid was featured recently in Soul Jazz's Freedom Rhythm & Sound: Revolutionary Jazz & The Civil Rights Movement 1963-82 collection, and this record was definitely a musical cornerstone of the rapidly developing free jazz underground in the seventies. Listening to this now, it still sounds as powerful and radical and emotional as it must have nearly 4 decades ago. Wild horns, dense skittery rhythms, sprawling clouds of constantly shifting tempos and timbres, super melodic, but also wild and chaotic, and most importantly FUNKY. The bass is the standout, which is saying something when all the players are so incredible, but it's like a living thing, throbbing and undulating, flurries of rapid fire notes, long languorous tones, even one long stretch where the bass just seems to buzz and hum, transforming the sound into something much more dark and intense, a solid anchor to allow the drums and horns to explore and expand. The two longest tracks here are epic, the band so tight, but simultaneously so loose and expressive, the final track "Ginsamseng" at one point finds the horns playing super loooong tones, layered and shifting, almost sounding like free jazz composed by Phill Niblock. Wow. So intense, and definitely spiritual and utterly transcendent, more than music, this is musical expression, the soul made sound, and that sound lives on, and continues to inspire. Way recommended.
The reissue features the original super striking yellow and black Masonic album artwork, as well as new liner notes, detailing Reid's life and musical exploits. Another fantastic reissue from Universal Sound / Soul Jazz.
MPEG Stream: "Deacon's Son"
MPEG Stream: "Odyssey Sweet"

RHODES, EMITT Recordings (1969-1973) (A&M / Geffen) 2cd 31.00
Finally, after a handful of shoddy reissues, bootleg compilations, and a never ending quest to track down every bit of recorded brilliance from this unsung pop genius, comes this amazing and comprehensive collection from the greatest pop singer song writer you've probably never heard of.
Some folks might be familiar with Rhodes from his time in psych pop combo The Merry-Go-Round, but it's on these 4 solo records, that Rhodes truly blossomed into something of a pop music marvel, playing almost all of the instruments himself, drums, bass, piano, guitar, writing, recording, singing, and creating some of the most timeless pop music you'll ever hear. Often called 'the one man Beatles' (in fact there's a new documentary about Rhodes with that title) due in no small part to his voice, a dead ringer for Paul McCartney's, as well as his songwriting, which definitely owes much to the Beatles and the Wings (McCartney again obviously), in fact, sometimes it's incredible how much some of these songs sound like they could have been Wings tracks, but unlike the Wings' tendency toward bombast and overkill, these songs remain sublime and simply brilliant. Besides the McCartney comparisons, there's also the Kinks, the Bee Gees, among others, you might have even heard Rhodes on the soundtrack to The Royal Tenenbaums, and he did have some moderate success, with at least one album and one single charting, but for the most part hovered just below the radar, which is criminal once you hear these songs, 4 albums, every song a practically perfect pop gem, from brooding heartfelt ballads, lush soaring chamber pop, to jangly power pop, his vocals gorgeous, the harmonies angelic, the arrangements incredible.
All four records are fantastic, but his self titled debut, from 1970, ranks up there as one of THEE absolute greatest pop records of all time. Every song could have been a hit, just listen to the sound samples below, the first 5 tracks from that record, impossibly catchy, and dreamy, and lush and so goddamn good. Especially "Long Time No See", with it's strangely morose minor key main melody, fuzzed out psych guitar, strange mix, and super dynamic arrangement, really dark, but still so catchy. As for modern musicians who owe a debt to Rhodes, we'd wager Elliott Smith was a huge fan, and if he wasn't he sure would have been, and Ted Leo is another, mostly the voices, and the knack for crafting hooks.
And while most singer songwriter music from the 70's sounds dated, ALL of these tracks sound as fresh and exciting as ever. If you've never heard Rhodes, you're in for a treat, this collection is one of those rare records, that had practically everybody here in a tizzy, and thus gets played nonstop.
Total pop perfection. Absolutely recommended and totally essential.
MPEG Stream: "Long Time No See"
MPEG Stream: "With My Face On The Floor"
MPEG Stream: "Somebody Made For Me"
MPEG Stream: "She's Such A Beauty"
MPEG Stream: "Lullabye"

SADNESS SATURN She (Frozen Veins) cassette 8.98
We first came across the mysterious black metal entity Sadness Saturn a while back with their awesome split cassette with Utarm. Picking up where they (or maybe he?) left off, Sadness Saturn returns with She, a three song tape that manages to be both raging and strangely meditative. Soundwise, it's a bit like a slightly less bizarre Velvet Cacoon, and it will also make sense to reference experimental black metallers Servile Sect, with whom the Sadness Saturn mainman is also involved. On side 1, "Childhood And The Journey To Satan" plods with a steady drum pound framing some queasy sounding melodies as tortured vocals scream out under a thick blanket of fuzz. The melancholy sounds of guitars and keyboards creep out like a mist of beautiful negativity, accompanied by plain spoken female vocals that actually make this sound a bit like a black metal Cold Cave! The song "Like Ghosts In The Freezing Night" is particularly effective as the calm female voice speaks out above the super intense (yet drumless) black metal atmosphere lurking below the surface. The appropriately named "Dreamer" brings She to its beautiful conclusion, a loping and majestic piece of black metal ambience that is almost uplifting, sort of like if Klaus Schultz had been digging some Ulver. Sound good? You bet.
This handsomely packaged cassette is professionally presented to us by the awesome Japanese label Frozen Veins, and with only 100 copies out there, you are gonna want to act fast!

SCROTUM POLES Auchmithie Forever (Dulc-I-Tone) lp 15.98
We first heard the Scrotum Poles on one of those Messthetics collections, and obviously we were intrigued by the name, though weirdly enough, their sound didn't live up the puerile promise (threat?) of their band name, instead the 'Poles trafficked in some seriously hooky punkish pop, way more pop than punk, similar to say the Television Personalities or even the Go-Betweens at times. This long in the works reissue compiles a load of unreleased home and studio recordings from these Scottish punks, and they're pretty fantastic, catchy, hooky, stumbly, the sound ultra lo-fi, murky and muddy, but the dodgy recording suits the songs, which range from solo acoustic rave ups to pounding punkish jams, pure power pop to sloppy super rocking indie jangle, and several shades in between. After only a handful of listens we've been finding ourselves with lot of these tracks firmly lodged in our heads, which pretty much says it all.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Packed with photos and lyrics and liner notes, and housed in a thick fold out sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "It Just Ain't Fucking Funny"
MPEG Stream: "Just Another Number"
MPEG Stream: "Be No More"
MPEG Stream: "Pick The Cats Eyes Out"
MPEG Stream: "On The Streets Where You Live"

SECOND DECAY La Decadence Electronique (Dark Entries) lp 17.98
Dark Entries made their debut as a label several months ago with the awesome reissue of the Eleven Pond LP and with that single release we knew we were witnessing the birth of a an awesome reissue label, one with its heart set on finding obscure synth-pop and darkwave and and shining the spotlight on records that never got the love, attention or distribution they deserved the first time around.
Second Decay were a German electronic-pop group who formed in the late 1980's dedicated to the sound of analog synthisizers, the album's back cover proudly remarks 'This album was produced without MIDI. It is dedicated to our beloved synthesizers.' And there is no doubt these guys had deep love for the sounds of synthesizers as they used them to craft very infectious, dark new wave with full on pop chops. While there have been tons of reissues and attention paid to the amazing music that was made in Germany in the 70's it's really cool to see someone digging up some of the gold in a post-Kraftwerk Germany as Second Decay have a sound that brings Neue Deutsche Welle to mind (e.g. Grauzone, Liaisons Dangereuses, etc.) and the more dark tinged blasts of electro-pop that folks like Depeche Mode and The Human League were making on their early records, or even early 80's Cabaret Voilatire, and of course you can tell they were WAY influenced by the mighty Kraftwerk. We also hear a cool similarity to the recently reissued Patrick Cowley & Jorge Socarras record Catholic, which kind of makes perfect sense as the man behind Dark Entries was instrumental in saving and preserving the cache of Cowley tapes from which that record was culled.
With new bands like Cold Cave and Xeno & Oaklander grabbing our attention lately with their awesome updated version of that classic vintage synthwave sound, it's pretty rad and perfect timing to hear a lost classic from folks who were making that sound almost twenty years ago. Limited to just 500 copies all screen printed and with an amazing remastered sound thanks to the work of the legendary George Horn at Fantasy Studios. This will make you want to wear all black and dance all night. Minimal wave/gothpop at its best!
MPEG Stream: "Poisonned Water"
MPEG Stream: "Enclose My Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Laboratorium"

SECRETS OF THE MOON Privilegium (Lupus Lounge) cd 14.98
We've dug Germany's Secrets Of The Moon for ages now, but somehow haven't ever reviewed any of their records. Privilegium will right that wrong, and will hopefully have everybody going back and digging up all their other records, cuz these guys slay. Even more now that they've added dreamboat female bass player LSK from Antaeus, oh and the drummer also plays in Antaeus, so you can bet there's a pretty serious French BM vibe going on here, which can only be a good thing. Majestic, sometimes almost elegant in the delivery, but of course, grim and evil at the same time. And like Antaeus, and much of the French scene, Secrets Of The Moon give off an almost industrial vibe at times. The drums are super heavy with a militaristic feeling, the guitars squiggle and screech out all kinds of sour, evil sounding riffs, and the vocals are a steady tortured rasp. Structurally, things are complex and at times a bit proggy, a blackened tangled web of metallic grandeur. There's all kinds of windy atmosphere also, and the interesting choice of cover art - an, um, black apple - gives Privilegium a cool negated religious feeling. What's not to love?
Beautiful packaging on this one, with the aforementioned apple presented on a super glossy digipack with a giant matte bite munched out. Tasty.
MPEG Stream: "Sulphur"
MPEG Stream: "Black Halo"
MPEG Stream: "I Maldoror"

SILK FLOWERS As Above So Below (Captured Tracks) lp 13.98
The label describes Silk Flowers' music as eerie and experimental pop, which while a bit reductive, is somewhat accurate. Simple electronic rhythms drift through fields of reverb, alongside warm whirring synths, while over the top, deep baritone vocals dramatically croon, very new wave and gothic, it's weird how all of these 'cold wave' sort of bands are just coming out of the woodwork, although we're not complaining, we dig this woozy washed out dour depressive synth driven gloom rock. And Silk Flowers are definitely among the gloomiest, slipping from goth pop, to creepy warbly crawl, to swirling psychedelic cold wave, all the sounds warm and wreathed in delay and echo, the melodies minor key and melancholy, the guitars atonal and fragmented, the perfect foil for the thick washes of synth buzz, the bass unfurling a slow motion Crispy Ambulance / Joy Division sort of lugubrious throb, a gorgeously hazy gothic synth pop, that dabbles into heavier spacey synth psych, as well as muted almost cabaret sounding goth pop, the vocals sometimes dangerously close to over-the-top, but even then they sound pretty perfect with the rest of the music.
Fans of all the gothy, gloomy, synthy goodness that we've been digging so much lately around here, should consider this heartily recommended.

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE / JOSEPH MATTSON Empty The Sun (Drag City) cd + book 15.00
Music for airports, music for sleeping, music for film...it's about time someone made music for reading! For his brand new novel Empty The Sun, writer Joseph Mattson called upon the talents of Ben Chasney (Six Organs Of Admittance) to create a musical accompaniment to his novel. What a fantastic idea, especially consideringChasney has shown over the years an ability to create mood and atmosphere with a subtlety and undeniable authenticity that rings with such undeniable truth.
Centered around Chasney's mesmerizing guitar playing as well as wonderful accompaniment by Steve Ruecker on pedal steel, rattlers and bowls, Empty The Sun really is the sound we would want playing as we lose ourselves in a good book. Similar in mood and disposition to the great soundtrack to Mister Lonely that J. Spaceman & Sun City Girls created last year, this is one of those records that flows with a pastoral bliss that could, and we find ourselves wishing WOULD, go on forever and ever. Mostly instrumental, there are a few tracks with really nice subdued vocals including some of the most warm and intoxicating vocals we've heard from Elisa Ambrogio (Magik Markers).
The music of Six Organs Of Admittance really does speak to the soul, so evocative and creative and original, yet still warm and familiar, a rare beast that is as much a fan favorite as an artist's artist, so it's no surprise that Mattson was compelled to bring Six Organs into his world of words, just as film makers like Cam Archer have turned to Six Organs for music in his films, and just about every painter or visual artist we know has copies of Six Organs records in their studio. The sounds Chasney creates seem to be the perfect accompaniment for creation and exploration. And what also makes Chasney's music so amazing is the way it evokes a feeling of comfort, and a gloriously soporific dazem even while you're just sitting on a bus watching your surroundings blur by...
We haven't had a chance to dive into the actual book yet but with a quick skim we're anxious to ring in the new year laying on the couch with Six Organs playing as we dive into what looks to be a compelling novel.
Gorgeously packaged as well, both the cd and lp, each with a slightly different sized novel, to fit the format...
MPEG Stream: "Two Blades"
MPEG Stream: "Goodnight Hal"
MPEG Stream: "Lord, I have Returned"

SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE / JOSEPH MATTSON Empty The Sun (Drag City) lp + book 17.98
Music for airports, music for sleeping, music for film...it's about time someone made music for reading! For his brand new novel Empty The Sun, writer Joseph Mattson called upon the talents of Ben Chasney (Six Organs Of Admittance) to create a musical accompaniment to his novel. What a fantastic idea, especially consideringChasney has shown over the years an ability to create mood and atmosphere with a subtlety and undeniable authenticity that rings with such undeniable truth.
Centered around Chasney's mesmerizing guitar playing as well as wonderful accompaniment by Steve Ruecker on pedal steel, rattlers and bowls, Empty The Sun really is the sound we would want playing as we lose ourselves in a good book. Similar in mood and disposition to the great soundtrack to Mister Lonely that J. Spaceman & Sun City Girls created last year, this is one of those records that flows with a pastoral bliss that could, and we find ourselves wishing WOULD, go on forever and ever. Mostly instrumental, there are a few tracks with really nice subdued vocals including some of the most warm and intoxicating vocals we've heard from Elisa Ambrogio (Magik Markers).
The music of Six Organs Of Admittance really does speak to the soul, so evocative and creative and original, yet still warm and familiar, a rare beast that is as much a fan favorite as an artist's artist, so it's no surprise that Mattson was compelled to bring Six Organs into his world of words, just as film makers like Cam Archer have turned to Six Organs for music in his films, and just about every painter or visual artist we know has copies of Six Organs records in their studio. The sounds Chasney creates seem to be the perfect accompaniment for creation and exploration. And what also makes Chasney's music so amazing is the way it evokes a feeling of comfort, and a gloriously soporific dazem even while you're just sitting on a bus watching your surroundings blur by...
We haven't had a chance to dive into the actual book yet but with a quick skim we're anxious to ring in the new year laying on the couch with Six Organs playing as we dive into what looks to be a compelling novel.
Gorgeously packaged as well, both the cd and lp, each with a slightly different sized novel, to fit the format...
MPEG Stream: "Two Blades"
MPEG Stream: "Goodnight Hal"
MPEG Stream: "Lord, I have Returned"

SKADEN, THE You Will Hope I Had Died (BlackMetal.com) cd 13.98
Finally! The return of Eikenskaden, whose mastermind (and only member as far as we know) was also responsible for the baffling brilliance that was Mystic Forest. Long time readers of the aQ list will no doubt know how much we love Stefan Kozak, and both Mystic Forest and Eikenskaden, so much so that Andee even released Eikenskaden's amazing 665.999 on tUMULt.
And we're happy to report, that besides being just as cool and weird as we remember, along with a strange name change, Eikenskaden is now known as The Skaden, the sound has gotten even MORE bizarre and all overt the map, which is definitely a very good thing.
Right from the outset, the intro to the first track "Pain and sexual Overdose Delusion" (yes there's still a definite BDSM vibe, in the song titles, subject matter, even artwork) Kozak confounds by opening with what sounds like a black metal theme to a James Bond movie we'd kill to see, with it's frantic jangle clean guitar, moaning horns (sounds like horns at least), and super moody melody, but soon, the song kicks in full bore and we're in more familiar Eikenskaden style soaring epic melodic black metal territory. But things get WAY weirder pretty quickly, as the song shifts gears and transforms into a sort of string laden sea shanty, like some strange musical, dramatic and playful, but still growly and buzzy and sinister, a truly weird combo. The second track, is a brooding Katatonia like slab of dour doomic black metal, with lots of slow jangly guitars, spaced out stretches of dramatic post rock, complete with whispered female vox and soaring guitar melodies. And the record just continues to confound, the strange loping almost jig-like fiddle on "A Peaceful Moment", along with the haunting slow build Godspeed like string quartet gone black metal second half of the same song, the wild progged out frenzy of "Grand Final" with frantic speed picked distorted riffing, jangly clean guitar, and tangled flutes laid over growled black metal vox, like some sort of Burzum / Tull mashup, that eventually morphs into some super hypnotic blackened noise rock, the flute along for the whole ride, and finally, the final track, the title and lyrics all in Japanese, which at the outset appears to be the most truly black metal track on the record, but as you might expect, the track seesaws from black buzz, to lurching dramatic cabaret, to haunting shimmery string laden skitter, all the while a female recites the lyrics in Japanese way down in the mix, and those horns return, cloaking the track in a serious noir vibe, before it lurches back into some blasting blackness. Some serious what-the-fuck for sure, but we love it. Did we mention EVERY song begins with the sound of wind blowing? So good.
If you already dig Eikenskaden and Mystic Forest, this is obviously essential, otherwise, if you're looking for something black metal, but still super melodic and WAY WAY twisted, you probably couldn't hope for anything better, or weirder than this!
MPEG Stream: "Pain and sexual Overdose Delusion"
MPEG Stream: "The Suicide Of Thoughts"
MPEG Stream: "White Noise In A Monochrome Night"

SLOMATICS / SELAAH split (Spirit Of Division) cd 10.98
We first discovered the doomlords known as Slomatics via another doomy combo, now defunct UK trio Like A Kind Of Matador, who released their only record on Andee's tUMULt label, and Slomatics definitely hit the spot, slow, crushing bruisers, downtuned and spaced out, heavy as fuck, and nothing has changed since then. On this limited split, they offer us 3 more slabs of lumbering ultracrush, a sound that falls somewhere between Harvey Milk, Like A Kind Of Matador and Electric Wizard. Churning riffage, howling vocals buried in the mix, big booming drums, all very druggy and hypnotic. The two shorter songs here get downright rocking, at least by Slomatics standards, slipping into a head banging 16rpm groove, that sounds a little like ZZ Top on thorazine, and a LOT like a less melodic, way meaner Torche. Definitely need more from these guys and SOON.
Slomatics team up with an outfit called Selaah, who couldn't be more different, solo guitar, looped and cyclical, a bit like a lo-fi Riley or Reich piece played on distorted electric guitar. Super mantra like, and circular, the sound does eventually build to a Sunroof!-like ur-drone finale, before suddenly shifting into a cool shimmering shifty layered upper register dronescape, before gradually growing prettier and prettier, and simultaneously more and more faint. Cool stuff. And definitely a nice way to balance the extreme low end heaviness of the first three tracks.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES. Hand numbered...
MPEG Stream: SLOMATICS "Superlab"
MPEG Stream: SELAAH "17:36"

SOLID DUDES KITCHEN Season One (Gentlemen) dvd 11.98
We definitely love food, and eating, from shitty take out, to fancy pants high end dining. But we've never really found a cooking show we dug enough to watch regularly. One that spoke to us, regular dudes (and ladies) who like music, like to cook, but don't always want to spend hours making food, but do once in a while want to try something crazy.
And while we're not sure Solid Dudes Kitchen speaks EXACTLY to us, it comes pretty damn close. It's funny, there's music, animation, and some killer food. Not to mention two likable dudes manning the kitchen.
One guy cooks, the other watches and provides smart ass commentary. Which is probably a lot like lots of our kitchens. Plenty of swearing, jokes about balls, butts, farts, and other dude stuff. Both guys are tattooed and cool, used to play in rock bands, the key being, they're pretty funny, and seem like dudes you'd totally be into hanging out with and making dinner and drinking. And they do seem like out kind of dudes. For Superbowl Sunday, they make the least DUDE food possible, a beet salad, but moments later, they make pot brownies, the instructions delivered in a buzzing snarling metal / grindcore song. The next episode features the guitarist from the Dillinger Escape Plan, their pal, back from tour, and they're cooking him some comfort food, while said pal, straps on a guitar and rocks out in a computer generated hellish landscape, where he comments on each stage of the cooking, but wordlessly, just shredding wildly, subtitled of course, so you know what he's 'saying'. And that's another thing that makes Solid Dudes Kitchen so rad, some seriously high production values, the editing is amazing, the credits are different each time, super fancy, tons of animation, and variations of that stuff pop up throughout each episode.
And if you weren't sold already, wait til you get to the episode where they make a bacon burger, but not just ANY bacon burger, a bacon burger in which EVERY element is some variation of pork, called the pork motherfucker. There's bacon, but there's also self brined ribs, there's bacon fat mayo (!), there's also pickled onions, braised pork belly, pancetta and ground pork and breadcrumb patties on toasted buns, with cheese. Mmmmmmmm.
The episodes are short, so they're fun to watch, even if you don't want cook anything, although why wouldn't you? And after watching all these, we can't figure out why the heck these guys aren't Food Network superstars. Maybe it's all the metal and swearing and ass jokes...

TAKE UP SERPENTS (Prayers) From Beneath The Sand (Custodian, Color Zoo Containers) cd-r 9.98
Latest batch of corroded sonic mystery from this former Bay Area outfit, now headquartered somewhere in the Rocky Mountains.
Recorded live on KFJC, this set is a head spinning blown out collage of processed sounds, fractured percussion, treated noise, warped feedback, a roiling, pulsing, swirling blur of muted rhythms, in-the-red sheets of sound, twisted and melting melodies, all framed by a strange narrator, his voice processed and transformed into something totally alien, a nonstop stream of political and paranoid invective, warnings, threats, advice and all manner of all woven and tangled in the ever shifting fields of abstract whir and skree. Warped tapes wrap around mumbled chants, everything hissy and hazy and washed out, bits of dialogue from films (?), field recordings, plenty of tape hiss, and degraded crumbling distortion, occasional stretches of spare almost ambience, but even those brief respites are laced with haunting sonic filigree, creaks and groans, clatter and clanks, whispers and rumbles, occasional bursts of tribal drumming pepper the streaks of high end and the stuttering low register whir, throbbing, pulsing, hypnotic and heavy in its own way. This is definitely noise, but more textural and sculpted, than just white out ear shredding pummel, plenty rhythmic, with loads of low end creep, and howling chaotic crunch, all the disparate sounds woven into a super freaky, otherworldly alien transmission from some other plane.
And like all the releases on Custodian, Color Zoo Containers, every release is stunning, most painstakingly hand assembled, these cds have super striking transparent inserts, with all sorts of symbols and strange text, that continues onto the sticker sealing it shut, the discs are printed so the disc image mirrors and blends into the cover image, and of course, these are SUPER LIMITED, only 97 COPIES, each one hand numbered!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Defining Terrorism / Invoke The Deities"
MPEG Stream: "Mythology (Part 1)"

TERRORIZER issue #190 magazine 9.25
Another fine issue of this monthly must-read metal mag from the UK... this issue comes bagged with the usual free cd sampler, its got tracks by Gorgoroth, Katatonia, Count Raven, Saviours, Swallow The Sun, Griftegard, Sacred Steel, and others... including, uh, a band called Milking The Goatmachine. And, also this issue comes with an Immortal poster. Then, of course, the magazine itself is full of good readin', about such bands as Nile, Hypocrisy, Shrinebuilder, Pelican, Katatonia, Dark Funeral, Belphegor, Rammstein, Gorgoroth, and freakin' Manilla Road!! Among others. Plus reviews and news and whatnot as per usual.

TODD Big Ripper (Riot Season) cd 16.98
You would most definitely be forgiven for not expecting big things from a band called Todd. And you sure as shit would probably wouldn't expect something this fierce and heavy and fucked up. But once you realize these guys are on Riot Season, and that they count as members (or did at one time) guys from long time aQ faves Shit And Shine, then it all begins to make a bit more sense. Right down to the taking-the-piss monicker.
And Todd most definitely have plenty in common with their way more tweaked and druggy countrymen S+S, but where S+S do their multiple drummered post Buttholes freak out thing, Todd are a bit more riffy and raw, still rhythmic and heavy and blown out and in the red, but more pounding and relentless, maybe more akin to Brainbombs and Rusted Shut and Twin Stumps and White Mice and the Mayyors, you get the drift, howled marble mouthed vox, riffs crumbling with distortion, so much so that half the time they just sound like a wall of fuzz, the bass a wash of bowel rattling rumble, the drums pounding and frantic, the band swing from unhinged Scratch Acid / Jesus Lizard noise rock, to seasick post rock groove, to lurching sludge-y doom, to full on filthy space rock trip outs, to repetitive, looped sounding dirge-y drug rock, there's even some warped twang flecked almost slowcore sounding drift, but even then, the vocals are unhinged, and the amps sound like they're gradually turning to some sort of black goo, and the band eventually stumble back into a filthy field of sonic broken glass and ear shredding pound and howl.
Needless to say, if you dig Shit And Shine, Brainbombs, No Balls, Twin Stumps, Butthole Surfers, Rusted Shut, Oxbow, Hey Colossus, the Anals, Billy Bao, any of that sort of crusty, metallic, noise drenched filth, then these guys will definitely hit the spot.
MPEG Stream: "Track Side Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Happy Easter Florida"
MPEG Stream: "French And Out Of France"

TYVEK Blunt Instrumental EP (Night People) lp 15.98
Of all the current crop of weirdo garage poppers and minimal cold wavers, the one band who we WISH would shower us with a million releases is the one band that DOESN'T. So when there's a new Tyvek record, you can bet we're all over it. After the recent reissue of their killer debut 7" Mary Ellen Claims, which we played to death, and the Siltbreeze record that's been on nonstop rotation since we first got it in, comes this new record, a gorgeously packaged, short collection of songs, not all instrumental as the title implies, but like the other Tyvek jams, stripped down and catchy, a little stumbly and raw, urgent and hooky, a little new wave-y, a little punky, and way retro poppy, these songs rule, a couple of them almost sound unfinished, sans vocals, but it hardly matters, they're still killer slices of punky retro pop goodness. Most of the songs sound like they could have been yanked right off the Siltbreeze record, and then there's the sprawling final track, a long sprawling, hypnotic slab of warped and warbly minimal new wave pop, with strange murky bits of percussion, spidery guitars, everything muddy and washed out and druggy, almost wish they would have stuck this on on the other side and let it fill the whole thing up. but they couldn't cuz the flipside is silkscreened, a cool blue image on a clear slab of wax, next to a thick silkscreened sleeve, super nice, and probably super limited as well...

ULTRABUNNY Outer Bounds Of Sound (Noiseville) lp 17.98
The latest in Noiseville's Outer Bounds Of Sound series (past installments have come from Wicked King Wicker, Burnt Hills, Kleistwahr) comes from Ultrabunny, aka the trio that was borne from the demise of legendary noiserock freaks the Bunnybrains.
Ultrabunny are heavy and minimal, repetitive and super rocking, a bit like a krautrock Harry Pussy, after a slow build, the band lock into a super repetetive single riff groove, solid and mesmerizing, the sort of sound you wouldn't mind filling up the entire side, soon the vocals come in, a feral caterwaul, the band lurching and pummeling, a sort of looped sounding drug rock, that pounds away, those cracks in your skull slowly spiderwebbing, your grey matter dribbling from your ears.
All the tracks here were improvised and recorded live, most are a single riff, maybe two if you're lucky, the vocals yelp and howl, sometimes moan, on one track they just sort of hold a single note, adding another layer of drone to the proceedings, it might be a guitar too, but either way, the track just churns and pounds, the various elements subtly shifting and tangling, creating a sound that seems slightly warped, as if some greater power was holding his finger down on the band, as if they were a record, altering the speed, making everything seems woozy and melty and tripped out and WAY psychedelic.
The B-side is a lot heavier and more distorted, wild and on the verge of collapse, channeling some of that classic Japanese psych noise, but still filtered through a cracked lo-fi dirt rock vibe.
Killer noise drenched spaced out psychedelic hypnorock, which tells you all you need to know, us, we're digging this big time, especially the B-side.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!

V/A Light: On The South Side (Numero Group) 2lp + Book 57.00
As much as we love Mississippi Records, and we DO love them, we're beginning to wonder why the Numero Group doesn't engender the same slavish devotion. If anything, they're like Mississippi with more money, fancier releases, maybe that's the problem, they're not punk enough, whatever it is, plenty of folks DO understand, and do worship at the altar of Numero Group, cuz it's no mystery as to what just might be the best reissue label going. And if the last 50+ releases didn't convince you, and this one STILL doesn't, we give up.
Light is a gorgeous and massive hardcover book / double lp combo, the book features photos by photographer Michael L. Abramson, who between the years 1975 to 1977 visited a handful of legendary blues bars on Chicago's South Side, not to capture the groups performing, but instead the folks in the crowd, and at the bar, and in the parking lot, and the results are amazing, 100+ photos available for the first time, of folks all dolled up and out on the town, drinking, dancing, socializing, the clothes are amazing, the hair is amazing, a fascinating snapshot of another side of Chicago's blues music scene, the side NOT on stage. The book is massive 12" x 12", with essays and a section of ephemera, and if that weren't enough, the book comes with a double lp featuring funky Chicago blues, just the sort of music the folks in these photos were grooving to live or playing on the jukebox. House in a super striking gatefold sleeve, also included is a little snapshot / catalog, a jukebox 7", printed inner sleeves, liner notes, photos of the 7" labels, ALL that housed in a super thick, boxlike slipcover/ Incredible. Visually, sonically, meticulously researched, perfectly assembled and presented, not sure where Numero Group can go next, but we're dying to find out.

V/A Steppas' Delight 2 (Soul Jazz) 2cd 23.00
BACK IN STOCK!!
The first Steppa's Delight dubstep comp on Soul Jazz totally knocked our socks off. We're so desperate for new dubstep and grime all the time, and we have such limited access to limited 12"s and white label dubplates, that we anxiously await the release of comps, hoping they'll compile some of the best jams, and usually offer up a bunch of new tracks as well.
Since the last Steppa's Delight comp though, a funny thing happened, dubstep continued to mutate and transform and is now something totally different than it was 18 months ago. The core sounds and structure remains the same, THAT beat, and THAT groove, the deep wobbly bass, but the sounds aren't so dark, or sinister, instead, the sound of dubstep has gotten a bit dancier, looking back to jungle and even house, incorporating more melody, more vocals, the sound almost more electro, with buzzy synths wrapped around that rumbling wobble. That said, there's still some darkness lurking in the grooves, and as much as we dig almost everything here, we can't help but lean toward those darker jams, Kutz's "Hardbody" is buzzy and bleak and ominous, "Purple City" by Joker & Ginz starts out all skittery and dancey, but then explodes with some of the fiercest most distorted bass on the comp.
A bunch of the tracks are super stripped down and skeletal, reminding us of some of the Skull Disco 12"s, all barebones and minimal, and some of the tracks are super atmospheric and ethereal. Killer stuff for sure, but be warned, if you're looking for stuff like Kode9 or Burial, you won't find much of that here, but if you're looking for big stuttery beats, thick throbbing bass synth wobble and can't get enough of that dubstep 'step, then this should definitely hold you over until the next comp...
MPEG Stream: JOKER & GINZ "Purple City"
MPEG Stream: SULLY SHANKS "Give Me Up (LD Remix)"
MPEG Stream: KUTZ "Hard Body"

V/A Warp20 (Unheard) (Warp) cd 16.98
Sure some of you music freaks managed to snag one of those crazy Warp boxsets, celebrating the label's 20th anniversary, and what a twenty years it's been, kicking our asses with amazing records from Boards Of Canada, Squarepusher, Autechre, Aphex Twin, Chris Clark, Chris Morris, Disjecta, Broadcast, Grizzly Bear, Flying Lotus, Maximo Park, Born Ruffians, Prefuse 73, Battles, we could go on, needless to say, few labels boast that sort of track record. So this box set was pretty thrilling, albeit a bit unaffordable for most of us. Which is where the cd versions come in. Three releases, one featuring Warp bands covering tracks buy OTHER Warp bands, another release featuring one disc of songs chosen by fans, another by Warp themselves, a sort of greatest hits, both of those we'll review soon, and this one, probably the one most folks were most excited about, featuring rare and previously unreleased tracks by Boards Of Canada, Seefeel, Broadcast, Flying Lotus, Plaid, Autechre, Clark and more! And it's just as good as we had hoped.
Broadcast do a Nico cover, all buzzy and moody and spacey, the first new Boards Of Canada music in 3+ years (since Trans Canada), and of course it's washed out and dreamy and divine, a killer old old Autechre track, the Plaid song is amazing and had us pulling out our old Plaid records, The Clark song is short, but oh so sweet, weirdly skeletal and glitchy and otherworldly, Flying Lotus go all abstract and ambient, and the Seefeel is dark brooding, warm and whirring pop ambient bliss, so good. Totally reminds us of why Warp were so important, and continue to be, and this comp is incredible, a perfect mix of future funk and old school electronica, dubbed out glitchy skitter, and lush electro dream pop. You definitely need this, and probably those other Warp20 collections as well, more about those on the next list...
MPEG Stream: BOARDS OF CANADA "Seven Forty Seven"
MPEG Stream: FLYING LOTUS "Tronix"
MPEG Stream: BROADCAST "Sixty Forty"
MPEG Stream: SEEFEEL "As Link"

YVES / SON / ACE Parade Of Thought / Can't Sleep (Night People) lp 14.98
The strangely monickered Yves/Son/Ace is in fact a solo project from one of the members of gothic post punk new wavers Factums, who we dig big time, and Parade Of Thought / Can't Sleep totally pushes all the same buttons, and if anything is just more abstract and out there, taking the same elements employed to create the gloom pop of Factums but here pulls them apart, recontextualizes them, tangles them all up, worrying less about songs, and more about texture and mood, resulting in a super weird bit of gothy synthy drift.
Long whirring drones, overlap creepy minor key melodies, primitive drum machines bleep and bloop, vocals awash in delay and reverb hover ghostlike amidst the proceedings, the various elements sometimes seem to coalesce into proper songs, but just as soon splinter into spectral fragments, imagine your favorite cold wave band composing the soundtrack for a Victorian haunted house, or for some super abstract arthouse horror film, and this might be what it would sound like.
Super abstract and druggy, these song fragments seem to crumble to pieces, those pieces drifting and joining up with other pieces to make a new brief 'song', before the whole process repeats itself, horns bleat, rhythms stutter, synths whir and wheeze, vocals croon and yelp, effects swirl and swoop, what's not to love!?
Super cool packaging, clear vinyl, housed alongside a black on purple silkscreened sleeve, and like the other Night People records, probably pretty dang limited...

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ALA MUERTE / MAX BONDI Saturday (Public Guilt) 3" cd-r 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Public Guilt is quickly turning into one of our favorite labels. A definite sound and vibe, but no two releases alike. An amazing visual aesthetic, sublime packaging, and some of the most beautiful, the heaviest, and most fucked up sounds we've heard in ages.
Public Guilt were one of the labels responsible for the amazing triple cd Untitled collection, a box gathering up some of the best 'noise' music of the last few years, they were also responsible for both discs from ambient guitarorrists Destructo Swarmbots, and this here super limited 3" cd-r just so happens to be the work of one of those Swarmbots.
The sound here is similar to the DS records, but where those records took guitars and stretched them into spaced out drones and whirring soundscapes, the music on Saturday, is much more obviously guitar music. Swarmbot Bianca Ala Muerte, is joined by Max Bondi, a UK experimental soundmaker, and the two, create a glistening, sublime world of subtly processed steel string buzz, breathless drift, and occasional bursts of fuzzy softpsych buzz.
The opening track is a lovely little tangle of playful guitar melodies, woven tightly amidst drifting wordless vocals, dreamy and hypnotic, the second track takes the same guitars and runs them through the computer, transforming them into stuttering soft edged swells, culminating in a crushing slow motion metallic dirge coda, throbbing crumbling heaviness, pulled into bleary eyed sheets of distorted bliss. The rest of the disc tends more toward the lovely and soft focus, with only super brief bits of downtuned crush. Instead, bits of glitched electronics, distant whistling, whirring chordal swirls, choral like voices, are all laid over the framework of delicate spidery guitars, and drifting melodic blur.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! Packaged in screenprinted mini 3" foldout sleeves, blue black and metallic silver ink, with a printed vellum insert.
MPEG Stream: "Yellow Paper"
MPEG Stream: "Staring At Orion"

ANGMAR / THE TRUE ENDLESS Unholy Virtues / The Dirty Raw Experience (Bestial Burst) cd 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Killer underground black metal battle to the death between the Finns and the Italians, released on Finnish cult metal label Bestial Burst. Angmar, from Finland (not to be confused with the French Angmar, who shared a split with Alcest recently) offer up some fuzzy plodding blackness, dirgey and primitive, ultra lo-fi and buzzy, with simple drumming, and super anguished vocals. A sort of buzzing black thrash with some old school Celtic Frost moments here and there.
The True Endless from Italy counter with their own black blast, some serious buzzing black Mayhem worship. Lightning fast swirls of thick fuzz guitar, manic riffing and blurry blast beats. Two tracks of completely blown out Norwegian style classic blackness, bookending a gorgeously depressive doomic dirge, with sludgy guitars, plodding glacial drumming and howling guttural vocals.
Slightly sexist (sexy?) aside: The True Endless also feature on bass, Soulfucker, quite possibly the hottest corpsepainted lady we've ever seen!
MPEG Stream: ANGMAR "Stone Christ Semen"
MPEG Stream: THE TRUE ENDLESS "Who Stopped The Time?"

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #12 (self-released) cd-r 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB MCR Blast (alt.vinyl) 8" square lathe cut 15.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Holy shit! Record collector nerds and weird music obsessives might as well prepare to give up their first born or take out another mortgage on the ol' homestead, cuz this series of ultra limited 8" SQUARE lathe cuts is gonna break the bank, but it's so so so worth it. This is the first in a series that looks like it will include a who's who of noise rock / free rock / avant noise / free folk luminaries, including SO many all time AQ faves it makes our heads spin. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The first batch of these babies just showed up, three titles, each a custom hand cut, Peter King lathe cut, 8", and SQUARE!!! Packaged in gorgeous square and triangular die cut sleeves, super fancy textured paper, with a paste on front cover and a printed insert, each insert hand numbered, each release limited to 150 copies. Phew.
For those new to the lathe cut, it's a hand cut record, on polycarbonate not vinyl, they are more fragile than normal vinyl, and after repeated plays the sound quality can degrade a bit, but in our experience, in most cases it just makes them sound cooler. Peter King is THE MAN when it comes to super limited small run lathe cut releases, and pretty much every cool band you can think of has gone to him for some super rare or limited release or another.
So anyway, these are clear, they are 8"s across, shaped like a square and are insanely limited, and thus, pretty dang expensive! This is the second in the series and features Astral Social Club, an offshoot of the mighty Vibracathedral Orchestra. And as you might expect, this is two sides of gloriously buzzing raga like ur-drone. Glistening, glimmering, shimmering, sparkling, guitars and sitars and strings and reeds all tangled up in a blissed out harmonious buzz, albeit very melodic, with weird subtle sonic colorations and constantly shifting overtones. So lovely!

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB Plug Music Ramoon (Dancing Wayang) lp 15.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Ultra limited new vinyl only release from UK noisemakers Astral Social Club, a perfect follow up to their recent aQ Record Of The Week, Octuplex. But unlike Octuplex, which mixed ASC's new found obsession with beats and dance music (albeit of the very twisted and alien variety) and their more classic ur-drone sound, Plug Music Ramoon, tends toward the latter, 2 sides, 4 loooong tracks, revisiting the sort of old Astral Social Club / Sunroof! / Skullflower sound we're so fond of. Drawn out notes, layered and interwoven, lots of shifting textures and mesmerizing drones, lots of upper register tones, some seriously blown out space drone meditative bliss out for sure. ASC this time around, as evidenced by the insert, are a three piece here, synths, woodwinds, guitar, and LOTS of effects.
The first track is brief and glorious, a smoldering shimmer of looped melodies and layered drones, sun dappled and dreamily fuzzy, very very lovely and warm and hypnotic. The second track, taking up most of side 1, begins as a murky fuzzed out krautjam, like later Skullflower, a simple, motorik beat, buried beneath a swirl of processed sounds and fractured effects, before the swirl explodes into full on cacophony, a wild space rock free jazz freakout, dizzying and dense, fucked up and free, the rhythm all but swallowed up by the massive blown out ball of skree and buzz and glitch, but noisy as it is, still retaining some semblance of melody.
The second side begins with another krautjam, this one much more spare and stripped down, a tribal sort of drum circle workout, very little in the way of wall of sound, more a steady propulsive beat, augmented by subtle bits of clank and clatter, extra percussive filigree, subtle effects, sounding way more like something you'd hear from Avarus or Kemialliset, muted and minimal, slightly mechanical and totally mesmerizing, and most definitely a bit tripped out. The closer is another softly smoldering dronescape, woozy loops, lots of crunch and grind smoothed into further layers of warm buzz and mysterious melody, a little carnivalesque, dizzyingly off kilter, like a symphony of warped 78s, the end result is a short stretch of washed out, soft focus, subtly rhythmic ambient drift that would do Tim Hecker of Philip Jeck proud.
LIMITED TO ONLY 500 COPIES! We had trouble getting enough in to list, so this might be it. Please don't cry if/when we run out. Super nice thick jackets, each one hand numbered, with a thick textured paper insert.

AZRAEL RISING s/t (Primitive Reaction) cd ep 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
More grim buzzing black metal from Finland! For some of us, that's all we need to know, but then, go ahead and check inside and discover that the lyrics were "written and stolen from various sources", by someone called Ancient Fisherman, who just so happens to be Albert Witchfinder of the mighty Reverend Bizarre!! Fuck yeah!
So in addition to digging through the RB archives and releasing almost as many records posthumously as when they were actually a band, Mr. Witchfinder indulges his glacial ultra doom side as The Puritan, and offers up musical black masses in both Armanenschaft, and now Azrael Rising.
Relentless and furious, buzzing and black, the Ancient Fisherman's partner Vitutor lays down some serious grimness, channeling the Nordic elite, but also countrymen like Horna, Ajattara, Beherit, Sargeist, the Finnish elite, and Azrael sounds right at home. Long epic stretches of sweeping keyboards, give way to loping sprawls of midtempo Burzumic buzz, before slipping into lightning fast blasts of blown out blackness. One track stands out, as it harkens back to Reverend Bizarre, a seriously doomy trudge, the vocals slipping from harsh and screechy to bellowy and demonic, while the riffs churn and the tempos lurch, before the last song crashes in, a blown out hiss drenched burst of midtempo drumming, washed out blurred buzzing guitars, and vocals that are wild and gloriously unhinged.
So there you go... Black metal. Finnish. Albert Witchfinder. Buzz. Blast. Grim. What else do you need?
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"

BAKER, AIDAN Letters (Basses Frequences) lp 12.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Originally released as a cd-r in 2002, so limited we never managed to get ANY at all. So for lots of Baker fans, this will probably be your first chance to wrap your ears around Letters.
Really hard to know what to say about Baker anymore. He definitely has a sound, unlike his dirgier more metallic blissed out doom duo Nadja, his solo stuff tends toward the super minimal, the dark and droney and drifty, the hushed and shimmery, and Letters is no different. But within that somewhat well defined sound, there is in fact much variation, subtle as it may be.
On Letters, Baker offers up soft billows of sound, which are wrapped around a hushed vocals, more of a murmur actually, but instead of a drone record, it transforms the sound into some super minimal slowcore, the pop element sublimated to almost non existence, the vocal melody being the only thing keeping the track from sprawling out into abstract smears and blurs (not that we mind that either mind you). The instrumentation is simple, just guitars and cymbals, but deftly processed into something deep and sonorous, and surprisingly melodic. Streaks of high end drift in and out (guitar or falsetto vocal, it's hard to say), as the record drifts dreamily. The sound does change dramatically here and there, deep overlapping low end tones, soft squalls of spaced out effects, glimmering streaks of washed out doomic blur, stretches of almost symphonic shimmer, the guitars transformed into hushed string sections, but it all resolves in an extended outro of soft deep swells. As always, absolutely lovely.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!!!!

BECKER, JIM & COLLEEN BURKE Interkosmos: A Film By Jim Finn (Shrug) lp 14.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Awesome soundtrack to some strange low budget film about the failed East German space program. Haven't seen the movie yet, but the soundtrack definitely has us curious. Especially considering the players, Jim Becker of Califone, Jim White from the Dirty Three, and lots of other folks who have backed up indie luminaries like Smog, Bright Eyes and more...
Beginning with some creepy shortwave radio, and some spoken German (Conet Project anyone?) the record quickly switches gear and launches into some awesome (Turkish style?) fuzz psych, blown out and wildly rocking, but with the strange addition of mandolin over the top. Ends up sounding like Calexico meets Erkin Koray!!
But like any soundtrack, the music is dictated by the scenes on the screen, so the sound are all over the place. That said, they gel surprisingly well on their own, it helps that many of the tracks are linked by strange radio broadcasts, mysterious German voices, and other distressed broadcast sounds. The rest of the music is a blast, from soft rock big band jams with horns, albeit imbued with a strange buzzy steel string element, to lonesome strings and wheezing accordion, shuffling percussion, a full on free-jazz drum solo that gives way to a primitive Logan's Run space rock synth drone, laid back blues rock, weird off kilter pop, and near the end, that opening blast of fuzzy psych gets revisited, this time with vocals, and it's even cooler.
Pressed on 180 gram swirled pink cotton candy vinyl, housed in an amazing jacket, an oversized matchbook style sleeve, screen printed and letter pressed, black and metallic silver ink on thick brown paper, liner notes printed on the attached inner sleeve, quite striking.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!

BLACK SUN Paralyser (At War With False Noise) lp 9.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
What the heck's up with Glasgow these days? Until recently, Glasgow was all sunshiney jangle pop and brooding epic post rock. Or so it seemed. Maybe we haven't been paying attention. Maybe it's been a while since we took a good hard look at the seedy underbelly of Glasgow's music scene, but something sinister is definitely going on over there, cuz all sorts of filthy, brutal, heavy, sick sounds are oozing across the sea and into our cowering frightened ears. Next list we'll probably be listing a record by another Glaswegian crew called De Salvo, who are scary as shit, and here we've got the latest from Black Sun.
Black Sun is a bit of a name over there, but they're a new name to us, although it only took a few minutes of this filth for us to realize folks over here, especially the ones into massive dronedirgedeathcrush and slow motion ultra doooooom will likely be freaking out big time.
Three tracks, all 'versions' of the same song, the first, 19+ minutes taking up the whole of side one, is all lurching downtuned lumber, squealing harmonics, all locked into step with the pounding drums, the vocals tortured and anguished and WAY up in the mix, the sound somewhere between Khanate, Eyehategod, and Neurosis. About halfway through the sound simmers down a bit, a low slung softly churning bass rumble, clean minor key guitar lines all spidery and skeletal, warm whirring keyboards, that eventually slip into a groove that sounds uncannily like a slowed down Three Mile Pilot. Clean crooned vocals, laid over the woozy rhythm, before exploding back into stuttering metallic stop start lurch, gradually growing more and more noisy and unhinged.
The flip side takes the same track and jacks up the industrial vibe, way more low end crunch, a bit murkier and muddier, the vocals buried in the mix, little streaks of feedback peeking out from behind thick caustic slabs of rhythmic pound. Very reminiscent of Godflesh or Pitchshifter, relentless and machinelike, but wreathed in swirls of strange keyboards, and mysterious effects and all manner of fucked up guitar filigree. In some ways superior to the A side, at least to these ears. And finally, the second half of the B-side offers up the 'dub' version, which takes the more industrial version of "Paralyser" even further, the rhythm stripped down, the guitars processed and clipped, the vocals twisted and doused in effects, the arrangement all spaced out, the drums pounding one second, careening from speaker to speaker the next, the whole track actually is panned pretty hard, making headphones essential for experiencing the full dizzy drift. Definitely left us wanting more...
Essential listening for the usual suspects. If your favorite sounds are most often described with the adjectives doomy, crumbling, blackened, pummeling, crushing, heavy, crusty, metallic, slow motion, glacial, filthy, then my friends, you should prepare to kneel in supplication, and stare directly into the Black Sun...
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, housed in a very Godflesh looking sleeve, with a heavy cardstock insert, liner notes on one side and strange bloody symbols on the other.
MPEG Stream: "Paralyser (Prison Of The Cross)"
MPEG Stream: "Paralyser (Dub Mix)"

BOSMANN, KARL Eskalation (You Don't Have To Call It Music) lp 15.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
We've had these for ages, we listed it a couple times, and somehow we still had a whole bunch of these, which is tragic cuz this is so great! Absolute essential listening for the drone doom dirfe obessed!! But it was priced at nearly $40, which is definitely prohibitve. So... because we'd rather have these spinning on turntables, filling the ears of the aQ faithful with fantastic sounds, rather than gathering dust, we're dropping the price as low as we can go. Basically at our cost. SO c'mon, if you missed out before, or were hemming and hawing because of the price, now's your chance. And these are actually out of print, so the copies we have are the last ones ever!
Her's our review from when we first reviewed it:
We almost didn't list this, as we only managed to get 5 copies of it, and all of our distributors told us it was out of print. But just for the heck of it, we contacted the label directly, and they still had a stash that they were willing to sell us, which is a good thing, cuz it's amazing! And it's CRAZY expensive, but when you see it (and hear it) you'll realize it's pretty much well worth it.
Never heard the name Karl Bosmann before, but he seems to be sonically aligned with the doomdreamdeathdrone crowd. And that's precisely what this is, although a bit more varied than usual, this one's definitely for the SUNNO)))-set (ummŠ sorry), a huge old chunk of low end drone. Multiple variations on the glacial near static crawl, some glimmering and effervescent, others grinding and thick, crumbling and abrasive, at least one seems to be all processed vocals, looped and smeared into some weird Steve Reich-ian drone and coupled with a wash of minimal low end shimmer, and one is all detuned guitar strum and disembodied buzz. Easy to hear some Wolf Eyes and definitely some Vulture Club. All of side 2 is a single slow burning sidelong epic, very Fear Falls Burning sounding, beginning as a whispery shimmer, building to a massive clamorous Sunroof! style din.
And let's not forget the packaging. Holy shit, it would be worth it even if the record sucked. Embossed metallic silver on matte black jacket, inside a metallic silver on black insert, a metallic silver on black sleeve, even the record labels are reflective silver, super striking and SO worth the extra scratch.

CROSSFACE / SCHNAUZER split (Cleveland Hardcore) 7" 4.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
How can you not love a band called Schnauzer? You can't. Not. Love them! We discovered a super fucked up looking cd in a bargain bin somewhere and bought it just cuz the band was called Schnauzer, and of course it was awesome and of course we were immediately obsessed. So here's a brand new disc from these miscreants, and just so you now what we're talking about here, the cover features a mugshot of some shifty looking dude with a wicked devillock, the songs are called "Total Lunatic" and "Blasted Beyond Belief", and here's a message for the listener in the liner notes: "Do NOT attempt top contact this band. Any efforts to do so will further agitate the members of Schnauzer. If you don't like us now, you CERTAINLY won't like us should we become angry. LEAVE US ALONE." Fuck yeah! And the sound? A furious pounding metallic hardcore, a howling vocalist that sounds a bit like Fozzy The Bear from the Muppets, filthy, cruty, blown out, heavy and MEAN as a Schnauzer!
It's a split with some Cleveland band called Crossface, who are cool, NY style hardcore, short pounding and brutal, two tracks, but it hardly matters really, it's ALL ABOUT SCHNAUZER!!!!!!!!

DARSOMBRA Eternal Jewel (Public Guilt) cd 8.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Break out the headphones, relax the body, and close the eyes, it's another one from the devastatingly droney and dark Darsombra, whose debut Ecdysis disc we really liked a couple years back. We like this just as much, maybe more. There's a great deal of melancholic, mesmeric beauty in Darsombra's isolationist grinding and evil ambient shimmer. We can imagine Darsombra's human operator, Brian Daniloski from the Maryland metalcore band Meatjack, up late at night alone in his home studio, lights dim, wreathed in smoke, hunched over his guitar and synth and effects and whatever else he uses to conjure this music, willing himself off into another place, out into the void of space, riding the dense waves of his own creation, returning only at dawn with another track for this album finished.
Let's discuss these tracks, but not in order... The echoey minimalism of "Drops Of Sorrow" is simply glorious, it's Riley or Reich from a psychdronedoom perspective. Or perhaps krautrock's Achim Reichel & The Machines playing Black Boned Angel!? Elsewhere, there's more gloom and glory, from the hushed sinister soundtrack melodies of opener "Auguries" to the haunting, spacey drone-whispers of "Night's Black Agents" - this disc's longest track at 17:34, reminding us of the 'Vox Insecta' work of old AQ fave Q.R. Ghazala. Then, with an intro of ommming voices (or synth) there's "Lamentings / Auguries", featuring sparse melodic guitar weepery buried beneath fuzzed out layers of deep, electronic drone and distortion. Again, this definitely sounds like it would make good soundtrack material for some eerie, arty Italian horror flick. And further cementing our love affair with the abstract attractions of Eternal Jewel, the calmly vibrating "Incarnadine" brings some rays of light to this disc at its very end, with its peacefully repetitive clusters of gentle chimings over a quiet drone.
Packaged by Public Guilt in a nice black, gothically graceful gatefold sleeve, this is definitely recommended. Imagine Expo '70 cloaked in black, performing a seance with Tony Conrad and Lustmord, and you'll have an idea of how much we must like this!
MPEG Stream: "Night's Black Agents"
MPEG Stream: "Drops Of Sorrow"
MPEG Stream: "Lamentings / Auguries"

DECIMATION BLVD Put Your Hand In Fire (Public Guilt) 3" cd-r 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Another in this new super limited series of 3" cd-r's from Public Guilt, who you might remember having co-released the mindblowing Untitled 3cd box set, a collection of noise music, then ended up being more music than noise (only slightly) and got us excited about noisemusic all over again.
The only time we had ever heard from Decimation Blvd, was on that very same compilation, but it's not the only time we've heard from Tradd Sanderson, who is Decimation Blvd., as he is the famed "noise choker" for the mighty Cream Abdul Babar, quite possible the best band ever with the worst name ever. Sanderson contributed lots of grind and grrrrr, skree and shriek, buzz and drone to CAB's punishing metallic post rock.
But here, Sanderson is loosed from the confines of being a backup player in a rock band, and employs an arsenal of electronics and synths, samples and guitars, and carves out a super creepy post industrial cinematic soundscape, that veers from glistening almost Oval like underwater blissout, to crumbling Skinny Puppy like ambience, to full on squalls of white noise, muted into murky whirs and peppered with electronic glitch and buried percussion, to shrieking high end chaos, finally finishing off with the very creepy closing track, HUGE, but spare pounding percussion, dense flurries of grinding electronics, thick washes of distorted whir, and a final burst of face melting sonic fury.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!! Packaged in screenprinted mini 3" foldout sleeves, orange and black ink, with a printed insert on shimmery metallic paper.
MPEG Stream: "Your Book Is Overdue"
MPEG Stream: "Put Your Hand In Fire"

DISCO OPERATING SYSTEM Ultrasonic Bath (Lotta Continua) cd 6.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**

EMIT / VROLOK Musikalisches Opfer / Pestilence 1440 (Christcrusher) picture disc lp 10.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Managed to get a very few of these in on vinyl (think FIVE), direct from the band HIMself. But fair warning, these records seemed to have a harrowing journey across the sea, so some of them have split seams (since they're picture discs and are packaged in those brittle plastic sleeves), but other than that, perfect. Plus they're picture discs! And come with a printed insert and odds are we probably won't be able to get these back in ever again.
Back in 2005, in our neverending quest for the weirdest black metal ever, we discovered the mysterious and perplexing Emit. And while technically they may in fact be black metal, realistically, they are more of some sort of ambient, ethereal, damaged drone outfit, spewing a deconstructed, abstract whatthefuck crash, clang and creep. Definitely black, but more in mood than sound. Either way, we were totally taken and were super psyched to discover a new record from these freaks, a split with Vrolok, more on them later. On their half of this split, Emit start off the proceedings with all vocals, the first track a soft shimmery swirl of ghostly reverbed vocals, floating and drifting, the second track is more vocals, this time some sort of monkish chant, low and liturgical, over a whirring distant drone. It's only by track three, that any sort of 'metal' becomes evident, but even then, it's metal of the most abstract fucked up kind. A buzzing blasting burst of lo-fi blackness, that starts of blazing but as it forges forward it falls apart more and more, each separate element becoming more distorted and more twisted and tweaked, until it's like listening to Darkthrone on a transistor radio through an endless series of funhouse mirrors. Woah! The rest of the tracks delve deeply into a dark realm of medieval ambient drones, a sort of more damaged Abruptum, with haunting atonal detuned guitars, and creepy tiny monster vocals, occasional bursts of super distorted black buzz and sonic shrapnel, but for the most part, a dizzying onslaught of chaotic creepiness and bizarre blackness.
Vrolok are not nearly as weird as Emit, definitely a bit more overtly black metal, but are the perfect match for Emit with their furious and fucked up black buzz. From the tumultuous blast of blazing lo-fi blackness of the first track "Hellchoir (Pestilence 1440)", a snarling, squirming riff, tangled up with lightspeed blast beats and buried under all sorts of suffocating sonic sludge, to the weird martial soundscape of "Black Chemical Waltz", a super blown out simple drum beat, amidst swirls of subsonic drones and buzzing weirdness peppered with creepy distorted snatches of found sound and bits of conversation, to the epic blackness of "Inverse Devotion" sounding like a glorious collision between Xasthur and Immortal, albeit recorded on a busted 4-track, to the epic closer "Between The Astral Shades", which starts off as a shimmering creeped out ambient soundscape, turns into what sounds like Bathory recorded in a high school gymnasium, and finally morphs into an ultra distorted seasick black dirge, replete with anguished howls and washed out black drone guitars, the whole thing blurring into a glorious blackened dronedrenched waltz.
More absolutely essential bizarre blackness for sure!
MPEG Stream: EMIT "Death's Black Diadem"
MPEG Stream: EMIT "Infinite Lucidity"
MPEG Stream: VROLOK "Hellchoir (Pestilence 1440)"
MPEG Stream: VROLOK "Black Chemical Waltz"

EOH Wormy (Diagnosis...Don't!) 3" cd-r 6.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Another blast of glorious noisy weirdness from the Grey Daturas' Diagnosis...Don't! label, this time from the strangely name EOH (named for Rob from the Daturas' son Max's imaginary friend! cool), a trio of drinking buddies (featuring Rob from the Daturas) who channel their drunken unruliness into recording session after recording session. This 20 minute chunk of dark drones and abstract free noise was culled from hours and hours of wild drunken recording, and the results are surprisingly cohesive and listenable. Still dense and noisy and intense, but with a soft touch. More whisper than roar, more drone than screech. A Wolf Eyesian industrial murk march. Dense swirling layers of thick pulsing guitar distortion, wavering and warbling in thick sheets laid over everything, peppered with occasional cymbal crashes and what sounds like some sort of throat singing. This is some seriously massive ur-drone shit. Huge industrial wastescapes, abstract spare stretches of low end rumble swirling like black fog over ruined landscapes of damaged amplifiers and detuned guitars. Haunting, and desolate but strangely lovely. Essential listening for the drone obsessed among you.
Packaged in thick textured paper grey mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. Nice.
And as always, this is SUPER LIMITED, and odds are we won't be able to get more. We did get a whole bunch, but don't let that keep you from ordering it now or you'll be kicking yourself when these are gone...
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt 2"

ETERNAL ELYSIUM / BLACK COBRA split (DIW-Phalanx) cd 14.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
When we ordered this Japanese import, we were like, a split release between Japanese psychedelic stoner/doom rockers Eternal Elysium and San Francisco's own metalcore two-piece Black Cobra? Gotta get that! When it showed up, we were surprised to discover that the entire Black Cobra half had exactly the same tracks as those found on their recent full-length Feather And Stone, which we've already reviewed and raved about. Whoops. So... some of you already have that. However, if you want to get it again, you'll also get 23 minutes of Eternal Elysium material that only appears here. More likely, this is a good call for those who haven't yet picked up the Black Cobra album and also like (or think they might like) EE. Or simply for EE fans who don't mind getting the Black Cobra stuff as well (why would you?) as a bonus. Even at the import price, it's still 2 for the price of 2 (or 1.5 more like it) on one handy disc, not too shabby of a deal, really. So, let's say somethin' about the music for those ignorant of EE and/or BC:
Eternal Elysium always has us a little confused. Strange band. Sometimes they're straight up Sabbath-meets-grunge complete with vocals hinting at Alice In Chains or Soundgarden... and then there's the NWOBHM influences... and the groovy retro-sixties stuff... that's all here, plus of course random weirdness like the brief track "Golden Seaweed", with sped-up chipmunk voices. They try hard to make a stoner drug thing you wouldn't understand, but certainly something that fans of Boris, Solar Anus, and Church Of Misery should check into, to rock out to.
As to the BC half, here's what we said about Feathers And Stone before: Two man heavy riff-machine Black Cobra return with another pummeling release... Picking up right where Bestial left off, Feather And Stone shreds from the start. Brutally punishing circular riffs, heavy as all hell doomy moments, throat ripping screams, and incredibly hard hitting and precise drums. The fact that this massive sound comes from two fellas is pretty damn amazing. The album has all kinds of peaks and valleys. Amidst the constant time signature shifting, and brain-burning riff heavitude, there are a couple of beautifully dark intros and outros thrown in, giving the album a very balanced feeling. But it's mostly just crushingly heavy and ripping. If you can imagine a heavier, much more misanthropic Karp, that's kind of what they remind us of. Feather And Stone is a must for anybody needing a little taste of thrashing triumphant, sometimes doomy and dark, sometimes fast and techy, but always heavy and punk as fuck ROCK music... For fans of Cavity, Karp, Floor, Torche, and things that kill shit! (Note though that unlike the domestic edition of the BC album, there's no cd-rom live footage included.)
MPEG Stream: ETERNAL ELYSIUM "Shadowed Flower"
MPEG Stream: BLACK COBRA "Five Daggers"
MPEG Stream: BLACK COBRA "Ascension"

EXPO 70 Sunglasses / Transcending Energy From Light (Trensmat) 7" 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
The only real downside to an Expo 70 single, is that it's ultimately frustrating in its brevity, as the music of Justin Wright, aka Expo 70 (or Expo '70, they seem to have lost the apostrophe on recent releases) is far better served by longer formats, lps, cds, and while both of these songs are indeed fantastic, it's almost criminal to cut them off after only 4 or 5 minutes, these are the sorts of sounds meant to sprawl and ooze and spread and extend for ages and ages. But as far as complaints got, it's a minor (and not entirely negative one), you'll just have to stick close by the turntable so you can lift the needle and set it right back at the beginning again.
No great surprises or strange sonic twists, just more of that thick dark gloriously heavy space kraut drone we've come to expect. The A side is some seriously deep and drone-y outer space exploration, warm languorous tones over a softly grinding and pulsing buzz, sweeping and epic and darkly mysterious, glistening melodies shifting from speaker to speaker, very new age-y for sure, but a sort of dense and blackened new age.
The B side begins all growling buzzing low end thickness, laced with space-y squiggles, long high end streaks and glimmering tones, beneath the blissy drift is a warm whirring and a softly corrosive crumble, all wound up into epic slow building swells of deeeeep deeeeep buzz. So nice.
Gorgeous full color covers, and of course LIMITED, it's already sold out from the label, so these will be the last copies we can get.

EYE s/t (CMR) cd-r + lathe cut 7" 10.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We won't go into too much detail with these as we only got a tiny handful of each. Latest batch of ultra limited lathe cuts from New Zealand label CMR. Each one packaged in a super striking, simple cardstock jacket, most with printed inner sleeves, Limited to 60 copies, of which we got the remaining stock. Once these are gone, they are gone forever.
We had never heard Eye before, but they seem to be the new outfit of NZ underground luminary Peter Stapleton (Flies Inside The Sun, Sleep, A Handful Of Dust) and no surprise, fans of any of his past work will for sure dig this.
The 7" is a crumbling soundscape of shortwave interference, wavering tones, constantly shifting drones, all very sea sick and dizzy sounding, bits of whispery static, all swaddled in a thick buzz, with lots of strange effects, and what sounds like the hiss and whisper of an army of ghosts that builds and builds to a fever pitch.
The flipside is more of an old school NZ freerock jam, all tribal rhythms under a swirling sea of fuzz and distortion and bits of skree. Layer after layer of constantly shifting grit and grime, propulsive and blown out, but still sort of shimmery and almost ambient.
This lathe cut comes with a cd-r, which contains a single 38 minute track, more glorious abstract soundscaping, bits of rhythms here and there, lots of buzz and hiss, strange disembodied melodies, lo-fi and constantly shifting and drifting, eventually building into a seriously heavy fuzzed out jam, complete with strange horns and bursts of random musical snippets. Cool.

FAMILY BATTLE SNAKE Brain Fried Eternally (Arbor) cd-r 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
MPEG Stream: "Other Needs For Sick Human Prey"
MPEG Stream: "Brain Fried Eternals"

FATHER MURPHY ...And He Told Us To Turn To The Sun (Aagoo / Boring Machines / Madcap Collective) lp 9.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Not only have these current aQ faves been playing shows all over the US recently, and not only did they get to open for the Sandy Bull movie that just played right across the street, they also stopped by aQ to hang out, and were the coolest nicest folks EVER. They also dropped a bunch of lps off, the vinyl version of ...And He Told Us To Turn To The Sun, the cd version of which we raved about not too long ago, so if you somehow missed out on the cd, or were holding out for the vinyl, now's the time...
We get sent a ton of stuff to check out. And it's awesome, truly, there's so much amazing music to discover, but at the same time it's so overwhelming. But every once in a while a record pops up that makes it all worth while. Such is the case with this record from these Italian weirdos Father Murphy. What makes it even cooler is that this record, and this band, are SO hard to describe.
It's a bit like folk, a little bit like post punk math rock, a little avant noise, but stripped way down into something skeletal, they definitely sound a little bit like one of the new breed of freak folk psych folk cd-r outfits, but at the same time, they sound like NOTHING you've ever heard. Detuned guitar plod, spaced out rhythmic thump, lots of deep shimmery ambience and FX drenched drifts, wavery falsetto crooning, warbly organs, and the occasional bursts of feral yowling, wow. Unhinged, fractured, freaky, passionate, super intense and awesome.
In discussing Father Murphy, other reviewers have mentioned Robert Wyatt, This Heat, Samla Mamas Manna, we also hear plenty of Marc Ribot in the guitars, all angular and off kilter, there's also some mysterious female vocals that surface here and there, field recordings, crickets, birds, all beneath weepy mournful Morricone-ish twang, a sound both woozy and ominous, dreamy and dense, a glorious deathlike dirge, part Dirty Three, part fluttery forest folk, a little wheezy organ dirge pop, some slooooooowed down Blonde Redhead, like we said this is super hard to describe. but what we do know is we love it. And you will do, if your tastes run toward the dark, the dolorous, the mysterious, the haunting, the dirgey and the deathlike.
VERY LIMITED!
MPEG Stream: "We Were Colonist"
MPEG Stream: "I Sob No More Rage"
MPEG Stream: "In Their Graves"

FERRARO, JAMES Citrac (Arbor) 2lp 16.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
More warped otherworldly sound collage murky warble from one half of the late great Skaters. And like everything else we've heard from Ferraro post-Skaters, the sounds on Citrac, a two lp collection of mostly previously released material (but most so limited you probably never heard 'em anyway), are a blurred jumble of fantastically twisted time machine lo-fi anti-pop. Ferraro along with his ex-bandmate have been credited with spearheading the so called 'hypnogogic pop' movement, but pop seems to have very little to do with this. Pop CULTURE maybe. Visually, the jacket and inner sleeve are adorned with all manner of eighties cheesiness, which thankfully isn't necessarily reflected in the music. Instead, Ferraro takes his arsenal of music making devices, busted effects and falling apart 4-track, as well as a handful of samples from cop shows and after school specials and late night made for TV movies, and goes about, snipping and pasting and looping and smearing those various sounds into some totally tripped out krautdrone, psych-synth, buzz-loop weirdness.
All of the sounds here are murky and muddy and sound like they were recorded on an old VHS tape and then duped over and over and over and over. The percussion is clattery but buried in the mix, tons of reverb and delay, much of the first disc sounds like a John Carpenter soundtrack spinning lazily on a fucked up turntable while someone holds their thumb down on the vinyl, causing the record to slip and slow down, the whole thing peppered with strange howled vocals (or what sound like vocals). The end of side two features a sonic event that seems to pop up all over these two records, an awesome lurching synth-psych loop, that could have gone on FOREVER, but ends way too soon. Also, as far as we can tell, the first record is meant to play at 45, it definitely sounds like Ferraro at 45, but it sounds really cool at 33 too, even more industrial and woozy and washed out.
The second disc though, sounds like 33 is the correct speed, 45 makes it a bit manic, but still pretty intense and psychedelic, but at 33, it's way more aggressive than the first record, more industrial too, like a doom metal Wolf Eyes or something, albeit way more fucked up and fractured, loads of low end, metallic percussion, and some sick inhuman barks wreathed in effects, at 33 it's creepy, at 45 it becomes some sped up soundtrack video game alien techno. Weirdly twisted and almost proggy. Rad stuff for sure.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!!

FINAL Afar (Avalanche) picture disc lp 16.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Brand new full length album from Justin Broadrick's (Jesu, Godflesh, etc.) Final project, which in the past was a sort of solo guitar thing, or so we thought. On Afar, the eight numbered tracks are arrangements of processed loops, with nary a guitar in site. Which becomes harder to believe the further we get into the record.
The sound here is dark and mesmerizing, each track a slow cycling soundscape, rife with shifting textures and pulsing almost-rhythms, the sounds super varied, but all woven together into one cohesive songsuite. Fans of Tim Hecker and Philip Jeck will dig bigtime, as well as guitar drone aficionados into stuff like Fear Falls Burning.
Layers of crunch and buzz are locked into swelling, swaying hypnotic rhythms, the textures and timbre shifting gradually, the looped aspect not always immediately noticeable. Deep rumbles beneath softly processed whirs are woven into stretches of haunting cinematic shimmer, fading into swooping backwards melodies peppered with bits of glitch and crackle. Elsewhere slow burning 'guitar' sounds buzz explosively into epic and majestic sheets of buzzing woozy blur, before being scattered by dense tangles of reverberating metallic hum and rumbling low end way off in the distance. A few tracks definitely dip into Jeck territory with stuttery looped vocals and clipped samples and muted skitter, before finishing off with a hushed bit of whispery murmur.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. We get these direct from Broadrick's Avalanche label in the UK, so when we run out it might take a couple weeks to get more, assuming there are still some left. Nice thick picture disc in a thick PVC plastic sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Heart Ache"
MPEG Stream: "Ruined"

FRANKLIN, MARTIN & MICHAEL NORTHAM (MNORTHAM) An Opening Of The Earth: Recovered (Faria) cd 12.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Martin Franklin and Michael Northam began communicating in the early '90s, both engrossed with the realm of possibilities extant in the laboratory that was the experimental cassette culture. At the time, Northam was beginning a career of sound-art globetrotting by way of festivals, residencies, and the generosity of others, having emerged from the Austin, Texas sound community that spawned the likes of John Grzinich, Olivia Block, Rick Reed, and Seth Nehil. Martin Franklin had gone on to form the British ambient ensemble Tuu, with releases through Beyond, Hic Sunt Leones, and Amplexus. It seems that Franklin and Martin enjoyed a single three hour session back in 1991, and out of that session came the original set of recordings which made their way on to a cassette, released by Sounds For Consciousness Rape, and later onto cd by SDV Tontrager. As both the cd and the tape have been long out of print, we can't comment on the differences between the original recording and this 'recovered' remix of the original source material.
Franklin and Northam settle organic textures from metal, dirt, and wood clattering against each other and building softened drones amidst the aggregated sounds. It makes perfect sense that Northam would later work with Darren Tate in one of the final Ora recordings, as these sodden ambient passages and quietly gritty noises share plenty of similarities. Northam had also brought to the session a cassette deck rewired to generate feedback systems, and Franklin had a handheld dictaphone with static and white noise broadcasting through the hypercompressed speakers. These elements give the recordings a rough hewn edge which counterpoint Franklin's sinewy ambience and ghostly half-melodies which are evidence of the contemporary remix work. Altogether, this redux has a darkly ritualized feel of isolationist drones divining something tactile out of the void, much like one would expect from the occluded sounds of the recent Drone Records catalog.
MPEG Stream: "Tape 1, Pt. 2"
MPEG Stream: "Tape 1, Pt. 3"
MPEG Stream: "Tape 3, Pt. 2"

GARETH HARDWICK / TAIGA REMAINS split (Low Point) 10" 8.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Another split record featuring two aQ faves, each offering up a sidelong slab of dreamy dronemusic, with each giving it their own subtle twist.
Taiga Remains, aka Alex Cobb, head honcho of the Students Of Decay label, unleashes a deep reverberant drone, all shimmery metallics and soft low end swells. As the track progresses though, the sounds gets more and more dense, thickening, sprawling, becoming more ominous, the bass deepening, within this viscous flow, lurk buried melodies, steel string buzz, super deep melodic rumbles that surface like some massive sea creature before slipping back under. Near the end the sound becomes almost orchestral before finally flickering out.
Gareth Hardwick takes the other side, and his sound is much more tranquil and gentle than the Taiga side, but still similar, almost like the same piece, just stripped to its essence, warm languid layers drifting to and fro, unfurling a soft slow motion melody, melancholy and wistful. About halfway through, electric guitars join in, pulsing and buzzing over the soft shimmery drift, adding an ominous edge, layer upon layer, constantly shifting, overtones appearing and disappearing, the whole thing warm and thick and mesmerizing. Almost metallic but managing to remain somehow soporific and soothing.
Pressed on ultra thick vinyl, housed in a plain green sleeve, and VERY VERY LIMITED!

GAZHEART (RITA ACKERMAN / DAVE NUSS) s/t (Locust) lp 15.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
A gorgeous and mysterious one sided lp from GazHeart, a duo made up of artist Rita Ackerman, and No Neck Blues Band's Dave Nuss. The two played together in Angelblood as well, but these recordings were made after the breakup of that band, on the duo's annual trip to visit Ackerman's family in Budapest. During late nights in the backyard, with Nuss beating on coffee cans and broken bottles, Ackerman sang lyrics she had created using automatic, unmeditated writing. The results are beautiful, innocent, playful, haunting and very mysterious.
This consists of a series of short tracks, each with a slightly different tribal rhythmic component beneath Ackerman's vocals, which range from ghostly chantlike recitations, to sweet cooing, to wild wailing. The record drifts from tripped out FX drenched clang and clank beneath childlike gurgling, to campfire handdrums and sweetly almost whispered vocals, to hypnotic almost looped sounding tribal drums tangled up with breathy ethereal hum, to Casio style drum machine pitted against manic vocalizing and buzzy synth melodies, to the final track, the percussion super abstract, with chimes and bells, the vocals sung by a little girl, very cute and innocent, but also quite haunting.
Fans of Deerhoof, OOIOO, Tenniscoats and obviously No Neck and Angelblood will definitely dig.
Pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Housed in a thick sleeve, with Ackerman drawings on both sides, each the opposite/negative of the other, printed on nice thick paper, the lp is one sides, the flipside has an original Ackerman etching. Cool.

GREY MACHINE Vultures Descend (Hydra Head) 12" 9.00
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The long awaited debut from Grey Machine, the collaborative beast featuring Justin Broadrick of Jesu, and Aaron Turner from Isis, just two songs, it's a teaser for the forthcoming full length, the A side a track from the record, the B side an exclusive remix available only on this here 12".
So what exactly does Grey Machine sound like? Definitely not as blissy as Jesu, although some of those elements still remain, if anything, it's closer to Godflesh in tone, lumbering and industrial, wish some surprising bits of modern electronic music (dubstep!) which manage to be deftly woven into GM's sound without sticking out or sounding forced.
The track from the forthcoming full length is a monster for sure. A wild cacophonous chaotic noise jam, that features crunchy post industrial rhythms wrapped around a thick blown out blast of dubstep style bass, the vocals fuzzy and lo-fi buried way down in the mix, some woozy dark descending riffage, the timbre prickly and abrasive, but beneath all the churning and roiling heaviness (and it IS heavy) are some awesomely melodic guitar lines and some tripped out spacerock FX draped over the almost jungle bass and drums (or should we say drum + bass).
The B-side is a super stripped down dubbed out groove, tons of space, the beats spare and skeletal, rubbery and bassy, over the top of some howled distorted vox (a la Godflesh), in the background streaks of guitar buzz, blurred bits of droning ambience, all sorts of space-y effects, the track pounds away, drifting through little clouds of blissed out crunch and more of those seriously bassbin destroying, thick buzz drenched dubsteppy basslines. Super cool. Bodes well for the full length!
Old school 12" style packaging. Black vinyl, no labels, plain white sleeve, with a black and white sticker affixed to the front. And of course, LIMITED!

HAPTIC The Medium (Flingco Sound System) lp 15.00
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Gorgeous new album of sprawling abstract ambience from this mysterious trio, featuring one member of Pan American and also Necks drummer Tony Buck, and it's on Flingco which in the past has brought us lps by outsider black metal horde Wrnlrd and buzz heavy dronesters Cristal (plus the guy who runs Flingco used to run Kranky!). Phew, pretty bad ass and we haven't even gotten to the music yet!
And the music here is truly strange, delicate, spacious, spare, minimal, but lush and expansive, The Necks is not a bad jumping off point, there is a sort of cyclical feel to the dronemusic here, Bucks drumming is similarly restrained and abstract, offering up a steady stream of snare skitter, or softly billowing clouds of cymbal shimmer, using percussion to create more layers of drone, while the rest of the band coax warm, soft focus swells from their instruments, the players creating a moody ebb and flow, chiming notes and bits of melody drift along the slow moving sonic currents, the whole side unfurling in gorgeous hazy slow motion.
The flip side is even more dark and minimal, again, the focus is on deep bell like tones, the subtle interactions of the notes, the incidental melodies, a warm bleary eyed murk, that grows deeper and deeper, until it's more felt than heard, which is when the percussion becomes the focal point again, a muted cacophony of thumps, a flurry of chimes, the click and clatter of wood on wood, eventually fading out, leaving just a smear of ultra low drift. So nice.
And while they last, we have the SUPER LIMITED version, only 100 copies made, that come with a dvd-r, featuring a live video mix recorded at the Empty Bottle in Chicago in 2007, a cool video that accompanied the band, sourced from manipulated found footage with a live analog VHS loop mix.
Oh yeah, each lp comes with a download card, so you can get a digital version for your computer!

HEATDEATH s/t (Conspiracy) lp 19.00
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This band is definitely tough to pin down sonically. Their sound is equal parts black metal, industrial, free jazz and electronica, but the resulting sound resembles none of those. Or perhaps all of them simultaneously. Hard to tell.
Which is sort of what makes this band so magical. A duo from Minnesota, whose first release is on a Belgian label, continues to confound from the sound to the dearth of information on the sleeve. But as confounding as this record is, it's also fantastic. Totally vibrant and alive and freaked out and joyous, while somehow managing to be grim and brutal and weird as fuck.
But how to accurately describe them... They are a duo, so of course one is tempted to throw some reference to Lightning Bolt in there, and there is some LB to Heatdeath's sound, a relentless churning, maniacal energy, it's impossible to imagine the drummer can play like that nonstop for whole sides of an lp, but he does, and the axeman keeps up just fine thank you. A closer and slightly more accurate comparison, might be a black metal, or black industrial Necks. There is a definite element of slow shifting stasis, no distinct riffs, and no real distinct rhythms, but more a roiling black hole of chaotic drumming and denatured riffing, like the Necks covering Abruptum. Wow. Indeed. The two tracks constantly shift, moving from slightly more tranquil drift, to fullbore crash and buzz, and it sounds improvised for sure, but at the same time, it almost seems composed, the two players shifting seamlessly from part to part, mood to mood, creating gorgeously expansive soundscapes of intense instrumental interplay, and churning abstract ambience, often the two colliding and getting gloriously tangled up.
Packaged in thick plastic sleeves, black on black fold over jackets, and each lp includes a coupon so you can download the whole record for your iPod.
LIMITED TO ONLY 250 COPIES!!!!

HEATDEATH Un (Conspiracy) lp 20.00
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The return of Heatdeath, record number two, and once again, just as hard to describe as the first one. A sprawling soft cacophony of buzz and whir and drone, laced with bits of glitch and hiss all woven into a multi part abstract freenoise epic, that plays out like some futuristic symphony gone haywire.
Fuzzy staticky whirs drift above warm shimmers, mechanical crunch is smoothed into blurred anti-rhythms, thick layers of distortion ripple over roiling depths of hiss and buzz, occasionally a metronomic sonar like beep keeps the time, waves of pink noise crash over shard of keening feedback, occasionally coalescing into thick roiling shoegazey sort-of-doom, all abstract and dreamy, but still rough and raw and doused with crumbling distortion, wild drum freakouts muted and muffled until they become skittery landscapes of thump and shuffle, long stretches of washed out Tim Hecker like ambience, and a long stretch of warped haunted house creep, peppered with soft chimes and deep cavernous drones. All over the place sonically, but the various parts blend perfectly, drifting into one another, taking the form of one single epic abstract chunk of noisy drone-y buzzy doomy mystery.
Gorgeous packaging, thick jackets in super thick PVC sleeves, black inner sleeves and heavy vinyl. Each record comes with a download coupon as well! LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!

HEVOSET s/t (Dekorder) lp 10.00
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Another missive from the wilds of foresty Finland, this time two of our favorites team up, we think, for maybe the first time ever. Jan Anderzen, he of Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Islaja, Tomutonttu and Anaksimandros (phew!), and Hirvonen, he of the mighty and mysterious Uton (who have a new lp reviewed elsewhere on this list) together, as Hevoset.
Between the two of them, these guys have probably released 50 or 60 records all told. maybe even more, and they definitely have similar methodologies, but each has their own distinct take on music making, mixing folk and free noise and ambience and drone, so it makes sense that the two would be drawn to each other, and the results are quite fantastic, infusing elements of both artists' various groups into something new, yet oddly familiar.
The vibe here is definitely more drone-heavy, the tracks all seem rooted around various long tones, lots of layers, plenty of looped repetition. The opener begins with a scalding burst of grinding buzz and squealing feedback, what sounds like processed throat singing and strange keening high end tones, before slipping effortlessly into a murky lullaby, all muted plunks and shimmery whir, before wheezing high end melodies surface from below. The next track again roots itself in the drone, but this time, it's more washed out and dreamy, organs wheeze and whir, the melodies looping and overlapping, while over the top, a guitar feeds back and grinds out a strange burnished melody. A few tracks eschew the drone all together, instead, offering up strange tribal rituals, simple percussion, mewling wordless vocals, haunting abstract guitar groan and skree, others are super minimal stretches of shimmering tones, and woozy plucked strings, spread out into drifting amorphous soundscapes, while others sound like symphonies of scratched records, blurred and smeared into something much less distinct, but even those tracks take those disparate sounds and ground them in a loose drone framework, creating a surprisingly varied, but quite cohesive, and imminently mesmerizing collection of abstract drone divinity.
LIMITED TO ONLY 500 COPIES!!!

HOMETOWN FEILDING Clouds Across The Bay (CMR) lathe cut 7" 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
We won't go into too much detail with these as we only got a tiny handful of each. Latest batch of ultra limited lathe cuts from New Zealand label CMR. Each one packaged in a super striking, simple cardstock jacket, most with printed inner sleeves, Limited to 60 copies, of which we got the remaining stock. Once these are gone, they are gone forever.
Hometown Feilding (yep, that is the correct spelling) is yet another NZ ensemble we had never heard until now but are digging quite a bit, their sound a crumbling abstract world of fuzz and crackle, haunting alien melodies, strange bits of fragmented rhythms and chunks of melody, almost like some old wax cylinder recording, all the music buried under layers of grit and crackle, weirdly and nosily pretty. Definitely essential listening for the hiss and crackle turntable crowd...

HUM OF THE DRUID Raising The New Wing/Braided Industry (SNSE) lp 10.00
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Record number two from the mysteriously monickered Hum Of The Druid, and as we mentioned in the review of the first lp, that's exactly what you'll hear, some serious druidic hum, which is just something we made up so you'll just have to take our word for it. The follow up takes the already intense and heavy caustic drones of the first lps and takes it even further. Darker, filthier, heavier. At times it almost sounds like field recordings of a construction site chopped up and assembled into something slightly more musical, at others it sounds like Earth, circa 2, overdosed and slumped against a wall of Sunn amps cranked to 10, and at still others, it sounds a bit like someone spinning Masonna records on a busted Victrola. Indeed.
Massive swells of sound, all low end, and we mean VERY low end, super blown out, crumbling, Merzbowian, vast expanses of speaker destroying rumble, giving way to stretches of sound much more tranquil, like Masami Akita mixing Wolf Eyes. Sheets of murky industrial drift wreathed in corrosive buzz and wallowing in downtuned tectonic filth. Some parts sound like wind blowing on a microphone, but cranked to danger levels, other parts sound like a million turntables with the needle stuck in the run off groove of some super scratched up old record, peppered with the clatter and clank of some alien machinery, it's almost like a stereo test record, but instead of tones, it's a series of long, sprawling slabs of super intense drone, and speaker shredding grind and buzz. It's all very deep and abrasive, caustic and corrosive, but actually strangely mesmerizing.
Gorgeous and super creepy cover art too! We only have 15 copies and then it's gone for good...

JAZZFINGER Orange Sauce / Peace Factor Fashion (alt.vinyl) 8" square lathe cut 15.00
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We haven't heard from these guys in a while. Which more than likely just means we somehow missed out on about a million super limited cd-r's and cassettes and wax cylinders. But we weren't about to miss out on this one. Another in alt.vinyl's series of ultra limited 8" lathe cuts (the Prurient one is featured elsewhere on this list).
As always, the boys are in fine form, offering up confounding and confusional loveliness and sometimes not so loveliness.
Side one sounds like Nurse With Wound doing the soundtrack for an afternoon soap opera, with a melodramatic organ wheezing and whirring in a sea of partially plucked guitars and dense clouds of shimmering feedback, metallic clang and all sorts of grind and crackle and crunch and glitch and buzz. All deftly woven into something surprisingly listenable, almost like some super lo-fi dada-ist Pop Ambient jam.
The B side is a gorgeous minimal, lazy and languid, slowly unfurling Taj Mahal Travellers like organic drone, all drawn out billowy buzz, drifting over a spare stretch of low end shimmer, very meditative and serene. Occasionally over the top drift little flurries of percussion, bells and shakers, very tribal and ritualistic. Both sides are pretty dang awesome.
And like all the releases in the series, this is a custom hand cut, Peter King lathe cut, 8", and it's SQUARE!!! Packaged in gorgeous square and triangular die cut sleeves, super fancy textured paper, with a paste on front cover and a printed insert, each insert hand numbered, each release LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!!

LAZARUS BLACKSTAR Tomb Of Internal Winter (Future Noise) cd 9.00
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With a name like Lazarus Blackstar, we were sort of expecting something a bit more polished, it definitely has a nu-metal or modern rock ring to it, but holy shit, nothing could be further from the truth. LB are purveyors of some of the crustiest, filthiest, heaviest sludge doom we've heard in ages. Featuring a who's who of British sludge / punk / crust / metal royalty (including at least one member of the legendary Sore Throat) these guys are broooootal. Massive, thick downtuned chug, crushing drum pound, a vocalist who sounds like he's spitting out vital organs with every anguished guttural roar, definitely hearing some Eyehategod, Grief, Bongzilla and that sort of thing, but the band bring some weirdness, like in the opening track, when after trudging through some seriously glacial black tar buzz, a guitar line soars from beneath the murk, tracing out a weirdly warm and buzzy and almost major key melody over the lurching lumber below. "Son Of Sorrow" slows it down even more, veering into some serious Bunkur / Moss / Monarch territory, before launching into an Electric Wizardly, almost stonery groove. The closer "Victim Of The Clergy", superimposes some demonic growling over a haunting hymn, the hammer falls and the song erupts in a slow negative trudge, the vocals this time punkish and yelped. There are some fucked up samples, some weird ambient percussion, like the sound of water dripping, or echoey footsteps, but the riff and the drums pound away, relentlessly, as various voices hover over the top, finally dropping out and finishing with a priest offering absolution. Heavy as fuck. Definitely need to track down the full lengths....
MPEG Stream: "Tomb Of Internal Winter"
MPEG Stream: "Son Of Sorrow"

MAGGUT Into The Gore (Bloodbath) cd 8.00
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Ultra sick gore grind from Japan via aQ faves Bathtub Shitter. Ahh, the magic words for folks around here. Lord knows we love any and all Bathtub Shitter, so we were super excited when we heard about the band Maggut featuing folks from the 'Shitter. Total old school, nineties, downtuned, cookie monster vocals, death gore grind. We love it! Sometimes nothing hits the spot quite like 16 tracks, each averaging about 90 second, of bowel eviscerating, throat shredding, scalp peeling hypergrind, song titles like "Circle Of Maggots", "Frozen Gut", "Cannibal Carnival", "Vicious Vivit Vomit", and a vocalist who sounds like a rabid dog about to tear your throat out. Maggut are ultra tight and super heavy, with massively thick riffs, a killer production, and an appropriate taste for gore, from the lyrics right down to the Carcass homage cover art!
MPEG Stream: "Into The Gore"
MPEG Stream: "Circle Of Maggots"
MPEG Stream: "Frozen Gut"

MANBEARD / AVARUS Split (Tour CDR 2007) (Secret Eye) cd-r 5.00
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This is the first we've heard from the brilliantly named Manbeard, the fucked up freak folk cabaret offshoot of old aQ faves Urdog. Here they share a cd-r with furry Finnish folk combo Avarus, originally a tour only release, and while it might not seem like it, weirdly it's kind of a good match. Manbeard are tough to explain. Very jaunty and sing songy, almost like sea shanties, big drums, dramatic WAY over the top vocals, angular riffing, a little bit gloomy and dark, gothic even, with squiggly synths, damaged percussion, and really twisted songs. And really bizarre overdubs, strange characters making announcements, speaking to the listener, adding their 2 cents to various songs. Definitely an acquired taste, but if you're into the same weird stuff we are, then acquiring it might not be that difficult. The weird thing is, this disc is jam packed with short-ish Manbeard songs, then right in the middle, tack 5 in fact, is the ONE Avarus song, a massive half hour jam, recorded live, all ramshackle rhythms, and detuned guitars, chanted vocals, fluttering woodwinds, raga like buzzing, stumbling druggy far out freaked out damaged outsider genius for sure. It sounds like a blast, like they just set up on the street in the middle of rush hour, and their merrymaking just sucked in a massive crowd, dancing and howling and whooping and wildly frolicking through the streets of Helsinki. At least that's what it sounds like. 
Then it's time again for more Manbeard weirdness, fragmented song experiments, fucked up drones, lo-fi off kilter bedroom folk, fractured dada-ist pop and whatever else crossed their twisted musical minds. 
In cool hand screened color sleeves, with printed inserts. We got these direct from The Manbeard when he was in town, and he mentioned these might be the last copies, so if we run out that might be it.
MPEG Stream: MANBEARD "Original Performance Of The Manbeard Denizens Folk Classic, Manbearde Folk Classic, Manbeard Factory"
MPEG Stream: AVARUS "Mayra Syo Junkun Ihmiseh"

MHFS Driving To Rawene (Pseudo Arcana) 3"cd-r 7.00
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Now that PseudoArcana is ceasing production on most of their back catalog, this is your last chance to pick this up. Last few copies in stock, never to be repressed.
We haven't heard from MHFS for ages, not since their now long out of print cd-r on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon. That release found these NZ noise makers kicking up a serious freerock fuss, with wild spacey synthesizer, crashing chaotic freakout and a bunch of whirring and bleeping and screeching. That very same record though finished up with a stretch of strummy soft shimmer, and that's pretty much where this 3" finds them again. Taking up right where they left off. They incidentally is in fact a he, one Mark Sadgrove, who is quite a fixture in the NZ music underground. In MHFS, Sadgrove utilizes homemade electronics, found sounds, field recordings, his own software, as well as the more traditional voice and guitar to create, subtle soundscapes, from very very minimal happenings a la Francisco Lopez, where we found ourselves reaching for the volume knob just to get a fleeting glimpse of the fuzzy details and barely these smears of soft sound, to rough crackly drones, waves of crumbling guitar distortion and buried in the haze mumbly vocals, all very sleepily sun drenched and beautifully blown out.
MPEG Stream: "Driving To Rawene 1"
MPEG Stream: "Driving To Rawene 2"

MRTYU Ornate Shroud (Tipped Bowler Tapes / Faunasabbatha) lp 12.00
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Latest bit of obscure musical alchemism from the mysterious cave dwelling horde known simply as Mrtyu, but around here, also known as Antony Milton, head honcho of the Pseudo Arcana label, and the man behind numerous musical endeavors we dig BIG time: Street, Nether Dawn, Claypipe, With Throats As Fine As Needles, The Stumps, we could go on and on...
Mrtyu was always Milton's outlet for his darker side, a sort of blackened drone metal behemoth, never full committing the the black buzz, always sort of skirting the grim true BM sound, taking elements of that sound and fusing it to his more abstract, folky dronemusic, the results invariably kick ass. On this latest slab, the Mrtyu sound is markedly different, for all the noise and skree and buzz and general heaviness, it's also probably the prettiest Mrtyu yet. As if the ever raging battle between his folkier dronier 'good' side and his buzzier sludgier 'bad' side, has finally tipped to the side of good. But not too good, fear not.
Unlike some of the more grim noise drenched rituals of the past, the first side could almost be one of Milton's other projects. Sure there's plenty of guitar skree, sheets of feedback, and dense layers of soft chaos, but beneath it all lurk gorgeous lilting melodies, each avalanche of crumbling distortion can barely disguise the weirdly pretty, woozy, spidery, dreamy melodies within. Swirled smears of muted buzz wrap around delicate jangle and simple strum, dense cacophonous walls of sound tumble beneath crystalline chordal streaks.
It's not until the B side that things get seriously heavy. A gorgeous little Middle Eastern sounding tangle of melodies drifts over a soft layer of muted feedback, the strings sawed intensely, then suddenly, a buzzy blown out riff comes in, locked and looped, a mesmerizing lurching groove beneath the ever intensifying tangle of melodies, a twisted metallic Easter drone raga (or something) that could have taken up the whole record and we would have been psyched. Thankfully it takes up half of the second side.
The record finishes off with more abstract blackened folkiness, vocals enter the fray, a weird effected mewl, over rumbling distortion and shards of feedback, more squiggly little melodies, and some warm almost tranquil sounding guitar shimmer underneath.
Perhaps not so much for the weirdo metal obsessives anymore, this Mrtyu record will probably find a home with the more avant folk / abstract drone / free noise freaks, although truly adventurous metalheads should definitely not be dissuaded.
LIMITED TO 350 COPIES. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Housed in hand screened linen paper sleeves. NICE!

ORGANORGANORGANORGAN s/t (Seedy R! / Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 8.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
We just got a batch of new cd-r's from a new label called Seedy R!, a sub label of the already kick ass PsuedoArcana label run by Antony Milton. The Van The Van, reviewed elsewhere on this list, and this curiously titled disc.
Organorganorganorgan is exactly what you might imagine, 4 organs. Played by Sam Hamilton, Stefan Neville, Campbell Kneale and Antony Milton. Recorded live at a NZ art gallery, these chaps plugged in their fan driven chord organs, and proceeded to unfurl an expansive tapestry of whirs and warbles and wheezes, rich and dense. Slow shifting layers of epic warm sound. A half hour of thick slithery shimmery drone, wreathed in a cloud of subtle overtones and muted melody. So nice. Palestine, Sunroof!, Nitsch, Gurdjieff, and other masters of the extended organ drone... you get the idea.
Packaged in a brown paper sleeve, with a hand stamped 'R' on one side, and a killer psychedelic illustration of four madmen wildly abusing their .. ahem.. organs, on the other.
MPEG Stream: "One"

PADDEN, DANIEL The Isaac Storm (Ultra Eczema) lp 16.00
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As much as we all dig Volcano The Bear, we've actually been loving VtB member Daniel Padden's One Ensemble project even more. While Volcano are more of a surreal dadaist experimental sound outfit, for the One Ensemble, Padden takes those same Dadaist tendencies but tempers them a bit, wrapping them around pretty pop or lilting folk and creating some truly alien sounding prettiness.
But on this ultra limited lp, Padden takes his One Ensemble and wanders back into some serious Volcano The Bear territory. Demented music box melodies drift amidst soaring strings, clinking clanking percussion, deep moaning cellos, bursts of staticky field recordings and manipulated field recordings, while over the top float haunting mysterious melodies. Sounds a bit like a more druggy demented Tom Waits.
Elsewhere, thick washes of fuzzed out ambient whir wrap themselves around damaged pitch shifted guitar warble, junk yard percussion marches through thick clouds of ominous drones, detuned acoustic guitars shimmer beneath heavily reverbed scrapes and squeaks and wheezing harmonica melodies. A totally mesmerizing, dizzying and damaged trawl through some surreal junk yard filled with broken musical instruments and ghost musicians, jamming in the middle of the night to an audience of beat up stuffed animals and rusted out appliances. So cool!
Packaged in a super spiffy crayon colored owl, coloring book collage cover.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!!

PELICAN / THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES PLCN / TAAS (Hydra Head) 10" 10.00
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It's been a little while since we've heard from the boys in Pelican, due in no small part to a seemingly endless world tour. They show up in the shop so much, we sometimes think they must have relocated to SF. And this is not exactly a 'new' record, in fact, it's a different version of a song that has already surfaced once a while back on a now out of print 10", "Pink Mammoth", Pelican's 'hit', or about as close as a heavy metallic instrumental post rock band will ever come to a hit, but it's a killer song, and here it gets redone a little with help from Pelican pals These Arms Are Snakes.
It's hard to tell just how different it is without doing a side by side comparison, but on first listen it does sound a bit more washed out and droney, the sound a tad thicker, and more guitar-y, which is obviously because of the various extra players. But it hardly matters, if you haven't heard this song before, you must, and if you have, you probably already dig it and definitely won't mind hearing a slightly different version. Soaring, epic, heavy without actually being metal, the guitars crunchy but clean, the drums busy but restrained, and then there's the hook, that pops up a few minutes in, and seals the deal. There seem to be plenty of extra guitars, getting all tangled up into warm swirls of layered harmonies, and every time that hook resurfaces it's fucking magic!
The flip side finds These Arms Are Snakes redoing one of their songs with the various members of Pelican along for the ride. Loping and mathy, chiming guitar harmonics over a crumbling distorted main riff, the vocals going from weary indie drawl to snarling growly wail, all over a churning motorik rhythm. The vocal harmonies and stripped down rhythmic lope, lock into these dark grooves that totally remind us of late great San Diego trio Three Mile Pilot. Cool stuff for sure.
The vinyl packaging, as with all Hydra Head stuff, is over the top. A blue on blue printed 10" gatefold, incredibly thick, with a third layer of reflective clear ink over the top, and the text in white on top of that. Pressed on thick black vinyl. And probably limited too. The cd packaging ain't so shabby either, blue and pink and clear inks on a brown cardstock, screen printed fold over origami style sleeve, also most likely very limited...
MPEG Stream: PELICAN "Pink Mammoth"
MPEG Stream: THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES "Gold Diggers"

POCCOLUS Ragana (Inferna Profundus) cd 10.00
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The return of Lithuanian black metallers Poccolus! Well, not so much a return, as these guys split up a while back, but we're super psyched to hear more from these guys. Their Supernal label full length was a huge hit with the metalheads around here, gloriously thrashy keyboard drenched, post rock flecked Pagan blackness, originally released in 1996, but reissued a couple years ago. The tracks on Ragana date even further back than that, 1993 and 1994, with a couple live tracks tacked on as a bonus, originally released as a super limited cassette in 1997.
Here, Poccolus sound even more raw, and strangely more melodic. The guitars offering up classic metal sounding harmonies, locked in with the drums, pounding way down in the mix. Shades of Iron Maiden, and at least one of the tracks musically is a dead ringer for Slough Feg, that is until it slips into grim blackness, the bellowy reverb drenched croon, switching to harsh hellish shriek, but even then, the music continues to lope along all mournful and minor key, with plenty of keyboards, although here they're buried under the buzz and lo fidelity hiss. The opening track is so melancholy and catchy it's almost not even black metal. More like some gloomy gothy slightly blackened hard rock, but whatever it is, it's pretty excellent.
In fact, as we dig deeper, all the tracks here are barely black metal, although they're buzzy and heavy enough to keep metalheads' attention, the sound is much more raw and old school and classic sounding, the vocals are the blackest element, but even those shrieks and howls just as often revert to clean-ish croons. And it sound like this was mastered from a cassette, so it's all a little warped and warbly, giving it a haunting woozy off kilter vibe, which only adds to the band's unique sound. One track does actually get super grim and blasty, but that's after about 6 minutes of super minimal rumbling drones. The record closes with another strange only sort of black metal jam, lurching, mid tempo, the guitars warbly and minor key, the keyboard drifting like a haze in the background, the melodies getting more and more grand and epic, the band whipping their lo-fi stumble and buzz into something truly majestic sounding.
The live tracks are way more raw and fierce, lo-fi, but still plenty blown out and brutal, but even then, the weird melodicism of the proper tracks still creeps into the bands grim buzz. The Pagan element is also more present on these later tracks, the overall sound sitting somewhere right between the more polished Pagan crush of the full length, and the warped lo-fi classic metal of the demo tracks included here.
MPEG Stream: "I Pagoniu Zeme"
MPEG Stream: "Ragana"

POOCHLATZ Thanks For Giving In (Something On The Road) cd-r 6.00
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Noise is always a tricky proposition. Some folks just want that harsh, brutal, paint peeling, speaker shredding white noise aural assault, while others (like us) like their noise with a little bit of structure, and texture and -gasp- maybe even some melody and dynamics. Our favorite noise records tend to be those that do something special or original with noise. There's plenty of Merzbow we could do without, but a handful of his discs are truly innovative blasts of gorgeously crafted corrosive sound. Gate's Golden is another example of a 'noise' record that manages to be as pretty and mysterious as it is harsh. And there are a bunch of noise(y) discs that completely kick our asses, records from Hijokaidan, Hototogisu, Hanatarash, Gerogerigegege, Incapacitants, Nerve Net Noise and more, sure we love us some full bore NOISE!!, but typically, of that stuff, the discs that gets the most play, are the ones that aren't just a straight wall of noise. 
We recently reviewed a killer disc of remixes, various artists reinterpreting and recontextualizing tracks from Kurdish Melodies On Zorna by Zadik Zecharia, a pretty solid AQ fave. The Zorna is a traditional Kurdish instrument like a longer more narrow trumpet or Scottish bagpipe, and Zecharia got work magic with his, weaving dense tapestries of joyful sound. The highlight of the remix record was Israeli noise unit Poochlatz's mix, turning Zecharia's playful Zorna into an instrument of doom and gloom! It definitely had us hankering for more. 
So here it is, the latest release from Poochlatz, a single nearly twenty minute track, and it's pretty caustic. Harsh and bleak and distorted and blown out and indeed very very noisy. But there's a lot going on, within the noise and beneath the surface. The whole track exists in a black cloud of squealing feedback, moaning slabs of downtuned guitar, jagged slabs of glitched out electronics, everything muddy and murky and crumbling, but beneath this wall of abject brutality, hover strange barely audible majestic melodies, what sounds like snippets of songs buried way way down, howled blackened vocals, distant demonic roars, streaks of sound all tangled up with smears of disembodied percussion, some almost black metal riffing pulled apart into weird blurry buzzes. On first listen, it's like sticking your head in a hornet's nest, but once your head is firmly lodged in there, the buzzing and constant stinging begins to feel soothing, almost tranquil, you head begins to swell, your ears swollen shut, all sound reduced to thick slabs of whir and shriek, so intense and strangely alien. Think Whitehouse versus Skullflower versus Wolf Eyes versus Prurient with some strange shoegazery pop ambient referee trying desperately to keep the fight fair and failing miserably. A beautifully brutal slab of dreamy (nightmarish?) noise. Recorded live too!
MPEG Stream: "Thanks For Giving In (excerpt)"

QUERCUS MONTANA s/t (Necessary Megahertz) cd-r 3.00
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REDGLAER American Masonry (Anarchymoon Recordings) 10" 7.00
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A killer slab of ultra minimal, low end soundscapes, from this LA noisemaker. Tangled shadowy shapes twist and slither, stretch and contort, a constantly shifting lowercase world of speaker destroying rumble and strangely sibilant buzz. This is thick and crunch and heavy and will probably cause damage to your speakers, but it's all muter and muffled, dragged down into the dark, so instead of being an all out noise assault, it's a beautiful and serene crawl through some black sonic underworld, ambient, but subtly harsh, dreamlike, but ominous and mysteriously fucked up. The sound can be cavernous one second, machinelike the next. Imagine the still warm corpse of Wolf Eyes, laid out on the slab, sliced wide open, all manner of microscopes and imaging devices trained on the various, still pulsing inner workings of the beast, well, the sound being picked up by the most sensitive of microphones, placed delicately within the carcass, are picking up the very sounds captured here.
Packaged in gorgeous chipboard sleeves, one side with a pasted on image, the front adorned with a simple symbol in metallic silver ink. Each one different. Really striking. Pressed on super thick vinyl, with a full color printed insert. LIMITED TO 330 COPIES!

REIGNS The Blank Tape / Frozen Acid (Jonson Family Records) 7" 4.00
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Another back room discovery! Back in stock for as long as they last...
Er, when it Reigns it pours... as you should remember, last list we reviewed the new full-length cd from one of our favorite UK post rock acts, Reigns. We're waiting for a restock of those now, but in the meantime we've got *another* new Reigns release, a limited edition 2-song 7" single. Two new tracks of their lovely, so lovely and evocative instrumental music. Shimmering and mesmeric. That would be reason enough to pick this up, but, there's more: this comes packaged with a twelve-page booklet full of text in a tiny tiny font, detailing more of the adventures of Reigns Operative B, a diary of a field recording investigation into the English countryside. Of course things get a bit fantastical and weird, and in the end it's a bit like something by Thomas Ligotti. This is totally what we think makes Reigns extra-special, that added dash of imagination and mystery, presented in a confusional, supposedly scientific yet tongue-in-cheek manner. Neat!

REYNOLDS, BEN Outmospheric Arts Of The Outmosphere (Digitalis) cd 7.00
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MPEG Stream: "Outmospheric Arts Of The Outmosphere"
MPEG Stream: "Cracks Swoon Moon"

RIGOR SARDONICOUS Vallis Ex Umbra De Mortuus (Paragon Records) cd 9.00
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It's been a while, but it's time to haul out all those extra doom 'o's we've been saving for an occasion just like this. The return of ultra doomlords Rigor Sardonicous, they of the monstrous glacial downtuned crawl, the 'evil' cymbal (more on that in a second), the growled demonic vox, the lugubrious slow motion trudge, all that stuff we love, and all the stuff that can usually only be described by a whole handful of extra 'o's in doooooooooom.
But the opening track threw us for a bit of a loop. All weirdly folky, with chanted vocals, and fluttering flutes, some haunting almost Renn Faire court music, which quickly gives way to clean mournful minor key clean guitar, could this be the same Rigor Sardonicous? All doubts are wiped away moments later when the whole sound shifts down about a hundred octaves, the crumbling super distorted guitar spreads out like a black fog, the drums pounding, the cymbals still way up in the mix (beginning to think it's their trademark), and then the vocals. WOAH. Impossibly gurgly rumbles, like a frog croaking from the bottom of a tarpit, perfectly complimenting the band's murky plod. Weirdly the band does speed it up, but everything is so muddy and blurred that it almost makes no difference. You can hear what sounds like a little girl way off in the distance, as if she's locked in the dungeon of some great black beast. This is some awesomely creepy, heavy, and fucked up dooooooooooomy shit for sure.
If it's even possible, this is the most extreme Rigor record yet. The guitars more dense, heavier, even more downtuned, the vocals absolutely inhuman, it does almost sound like some super slow dooooom record, slowed down even more. And when the band do 'rock', they still out-doom most of their slow motion contemporaries.
Nothing else to say really. Been digging the most recent Moss, the Corrupted reissue? Still loving those Monarch records, the recent Trees disc? Fancy yourself a doomlord? Well strap on your armor, your headlamp, some industrial strength ear protection, and crawl headfirst into this black tarpit of sound, Rigor Sardonicous take even the heaviest and slowest sounds somewhere even slower and lower and so much doooooooooooooooooooooooomierŠ
MPEG Stream: "Silens Somnium"
MPEG Stream: "Incompertus Quod Anon"

SCI HI Lab Recordings (CMR) cd-r + lathe cut 7" 10.00
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We won't go into too much detail with these as we only got a tiny handful of each. Latest batch of ultra limited lathe cuts from New Zealand label CMR. Each one packaged in a super striking, simple cardstock jacket, most with printed inner sleeves, Limited to 60 copies, of which we got the remaining stock. Once these are gone, they are gone forever.
Sci Hi is another NZ outfit we had never heard of, but we are really digging this. Exclusively upper register exploration, a trilling squeaking keening world of video game sounds and simulated bird calls, dense clouds of high end flutter, reverb and delay wrapped around bursts of beeps and tiny squiggles of sound. Distorted and convoluted, tangled and confusional, but still kinda nice to listen to. This lathe cut 7" comes with a full length cd-r containing 10 tracks, another 40+ minute excursion into Sci Hi's strange high end soundworld.

SILENTIST Tunnel (Zum) 7" 5.00
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Every Silentist review always requires a quick recap of the band's back story. Or at least the story of how we were introduced to the band. We were told they were a duo, a classical piano player, and a grindcore drummer (when in fact the same guy handles both drums and piano!!), and thus it was some sort of classical grind hybrid, and while perhaps there are elements of both in the music of Silentist, it's way weirder and harder to describe.
The sound here is similar to the last record, the A side begins with pounding low end piano, forceful and almost violent sounding, beneath it, super mathy and complex drumming, lots of rumbling bass buzz, the result is a sort of classical metal cabaret if that makes any sense, the howled vocals adding a strange punkish element to the weirdly complicated sort-of-groove.
The B side opens with swirly clouds of piano a la Lubomyr Melnyk, over rubbery rumbling bass and muted crunchy percussion, the vocals this time are heavily effected and crooned, and again, the cabaret vibe is heavy, albeit more evil and demonic. The rums explode and get super heavy, the piano becomes more frenzied, the bass thick and distorted almost like a metal guitar, all the elements tangled up and clashing wildly.
Plus at the end of the A side, there's a super brief track, a 26 second long burst of super lo-fi power violence, just insane drumming and shouted vocals, like Drop Dead or Man Is The Bastard but stripped WAY down.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!

SKULL DEFEKTS, THE DFX (Cut Hands) cd-r 9.00
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Another new one from Swedish noisemakers Skull Defekts, who like much of the new breed of cd-r underground outfits, have gone from unknown to prolific in the blink of an eye. This latest comes courtesy of the Cut Hands label, and is crazy limited, only a hundred copiesŠ
And while past Defekts records have been strongly rooted in rhythm, this two tracker is much more about texture and mood, timbre and ambience, with any rhythm merely a muted pulse, a submerged throb, or a bit of dizzying skipped looping. The opening track is 21 minutes of low end murk, soft shimmering drift, smeared pixilated glitch, moaning bass tones, a distant swirl of disembodied voices, croaks and creaks, blurred into another buzzy layer, the track building in intensity, the tones growing thicker and more corrosive, streaks of feedback draped over sonorous tones, all wrapped in a whirring cloud of soft insectoid buzz.
The second track, also 21 minutes, is much more chaotic and confusional, voices swirl dizzily, chunks of glitchy electronics suspended in a roiling sea of constant low end buzz, smears of malfunctioning effects, sine wave skree and crumbling distortion, all looped into some haunting post industrial collage, eventually smoothing out into a long stretch of layered rumble and whir, but still shot through with jagged shards of percussive clatter and sizzling electronic grind. Sort of Pan Sonic meets Wolf Eyes which is most definitely a good thing.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Packaged in cool oversized, textured paper, three color silkscreened gatefold sleeves, the disc attached to a nub on one of the panels, a printed black and white insert, each disc hand painted.
MPEG Stream: "DFX 1"
MPEG Stream: "DFX 2"

SKULL DEFEKTS, THE The Black Hand (Riot Season) lp 14.00
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The Skull Defekts are another one of those bands that seem to have gone from barely existing, with only a cd-r or an lp or two floating around, to a seriously productive group spitting out a release or two every few months. And with SD, unlike a lot of bands, we CAN NOT get enough. Easy to understand why. Their records all sound so completely different, some are glitchy freak outs, others are droney and contemplative, some are heavy and dark, others shimmer and drift, but all of them somehow manage to sound fairly distinctive and unique, with some invisible Skull Defektive thread running through them.
This particular slab of Defektive sound is all synths, thick and pulsing, layers upon layers of grinding throbbing buzzing synthesizer, laced with distant streaks of slightly higher pitched synths, adding a bit of subtle color, a gorgeous glacial Niblock drone synth symphony, the tones beating against each other, subtly altering the tempo and rhythm and timbre, a whole side of dark minimal buzzy crawl, sounds amazing on both 33 or 45.
The flip side begins with more synths, almost like a continuation of the first side, but with a strange industrial jackhammer beat, that eventually dissipates leaving the synths to squirm and slither.. The second track on side 2, is like a higher end mix of side 1, with the various layers beginning to crumble and distort, and glitch out a bit, almost like the Skull Defekts as recorded by William Basinski, all very buzzy and intense, sounding a bit like the gateway to the other dimension in the movie Phantasm gone haywire... So cool.
Packaged in a gorgeous black on black wood cut style sleeve.

SORC'HENN Faro (Crucial Bliss) cd-r 5.00
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Sorc'Henn's last disc, Harmonium Pieces & Dead Reveries, which was released on Faunsabbatha, the more 'metal' sub label of Ruralfaune, wasn't actually a metal record, more a dark dronescape, whirring expanses of Lustmordian Wolf Eyes style post industrial buzzing black shimmer.
This latest Sorc'henn disc, released on Crucial Bliss (another sub-label, this time of Crucial Blast) is even more removed from anything metal. And in many ways anything dark. At least the 21 minute opener, which plays out like an Argento soundtrack composed by Oval, all shimmering layers, and skipping cds, looped ambience, that glimmer and glistens, a bit of Philip Jeck, a little Tim Hecker, all fuzzy and crackly melodies locked into haunting loops, while over the top, a child's voice whispers, and in the background bits of bird song. Truly creepy, but simultaneously quite lovely, totally mesmerizing, would have been happy if this track was stretched out to fill the whole disc. Odds are you'll find yourself listening to it over and over, luxuriating in its haunting mystery, eyes closed, picturing some old crumbling estate, surrounded by dark forests, a child peeking from the heavy curtains in an upstairs window.
After that, the sound gets even more fuzzed out and crackly, a warm washed out hiss, speckled with bits of crackle and pop, a slowly unfurling minimal melody way off in the distance, the sound of thundering low end drifting by like black clouds, warm whirring organs, bits of electronic glitch, deep throbbing reverberating buzz, all leading up to the 27 minute long final track, a totally demented black musickal ritual, deep rumbles, growled Darth Vader like invokations, bits of industrial clatter, squalls of hiss, whirling streaks of effects, detuned guitars, woozy melodies, thick waves of crumbling buzz, slivers of feedback, creaking and groaning machinelike ambience, distorted chimes, disembodied vocals howling and moaning, a truly harrowing black and bleak soundscape, finishing off with a brief snippet of an old timey French piano ballad, adding even more mystery to the song's already eerie and mystical vibe.
Like all the Crucial Bliss releases, packaged in a cool 3 panel full color fold over sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Dodsdansen, Life Of An Island Lad"
MPEG Stream: "Enez Varv Faaro"

SOUVENIRS YOUNG AMERICA / CITY OF SHIPS Split 12" (The Perpetual Motion Machine) 12" 8.00
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We went a little nuts for the debut release from Anduin a while back, the project of Souvenir's Young America keyboardist Jonathan Lee, taking SYA's Western tinged post rock doom, and stretching it out into something much more subtle and ambient. But SYA is back to remind us just why we were so into Lee and his crew in the first place, with two brand new tracks of sweeping epic, spacious and cinematic post rock, rivaling and perhaps surpassing any of their more well known contemporaries.
The guitars chime and ring out, the drums propulsive and subtly mathy, lots of deserty ambience, moody melodic swoon, crunchy almost metal guitars here and there, haunting blissed out stretches of soft strummy drift, slippery slide guitar and pulsing electronics. There are some haunting processed vocals, distant and heavily effected, tribal rhythms, lots of space, little bits of glitch here and there, slightly doomy, with a distinct twang, gorgeous and dark, but always mysterious and hauntingly dreamy. Can't wait for the next full length.
The flipside features a new (to us at least) group called City Of Ships, who prove to be a pretty good match for SYA, starting their side with some washed out ambience, glimmering guitar harmonies, shimmery cymbal washes, all before the band kick in and get all mathy with tangled squiggly guitar leads and hard hitting complicated drumming. And unlike SYA, City Of Ships are NOT instrumental, the vocals a raspy croon that get more and more wild eventually veering into almost emo territory, the sound a mix of June Of 44 and a mellower Neurosis. Long stretches of mellowy meandering peppered with jagged bursts of crunch and pound, the tracks building to seriously epic climaxes with grinding metallic guitars, angular and sharp, with howled vocals and wild chaotic drums. Good stuff.
Packaged in a super swank fold over 2 color hand screened gold colored sleeve, each one hand numbered, with a photocopied insert, and LIMITED TO ONLY 300 COPIES!!!

STICKY FOSTER / NEIL CAMPBELL s/t (alt.vinyl) 8" square lathe cut 15.00
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Holy shit! Record collector nerds and weird music obsessives might as well prepare to give up their first born or take out another mortgage on the ol' homestead, cuz this series of ultra limited 8" SQUARE lathe cuts is gonna break the bank, but it's so so so worth it. This is the first in a series that looks like it will include a who's who of noise rock / free rock / avant noise / free folk luminaries, including SO many all time AQ faves it makes our heads spin. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The first batch of these babies just showed up, three titles, each a custom hand cut, Peter King lathe cut, 8", and SQUARE!!! Packaged in gorgeous square and triangular die cut sleeves, super fancy textured paper, with a paste on front cover and a printed insert, each insert hand numbered, each release limited to 150 copies. Phew.
For those new to the lathe cut, it's a hand cut record, on polycarbonate not vinyl, they are more fragile than normal vinyl, and after repeated plays the sound quality can degrade a bit, but in our experience, in most cases it just makes them sound cooler. Peter King is THE MAN when it comes to super limited small run lathe cut releases, and pretty much every cool band you can think of has gone to him for some super rare or limited release or another.
So anyway, these are clear, they are 8"s across, shaped like a square and are insanely limited, and thus, pretty dang expensive! This is the third in the series and features Neil Campbell of AQ faves Vibracathedral Orchestra, along with his sonic partner in crime, the curiously monickered Sticky Foster, and the din these two stir up is not all that far removed from the VCO mothership. Side A is a glitchy soundscape, with garbled vocals, weird percussion, processed voices, thick whorls of murk and fuzz and hiss, bits of steel string buzz all above a dense tangle of chimes and tinkling percussion. The B side is a huge shimmering ur-drone, a fluttering wall of keening reeds and soaring feedback, all smeared into one glorious sky-reaching tumult, very reminiscent of VCO or Sunroof! So nice.

STUMM / LOINEN split (Kult Of Nihilow) lp 15.00
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It says right there on the sleeve: "100 percent Sludge". They had us at 100 percent sludge. Ummm, anyway, two of Finland's sludge rock heavyweights team up, each taking a side of this here 12", and each, surprisingly, doing something new and unique with their bit of sludge. Not that we wouldn't have loved another slab of slow motion dirgery, but we're even more psyched to see what weird shapes, some of this sludgedoomdrone can get twisted into.
Up first is Loinen, whose lp we totally flipped over a while back. They of the crushing doom with Scott Walker style vocals. Yep! You remember now? Well, here they try another something, also completely different, their side begins with a super distorted bass riff, spread way out, allowing for lots and lots of space, and in those spaces, there are strange chanted choral vocals, female, repeating the same pattern over and over, inexorably tangled up with the plodding riff. It's all very mysterious and hypnotic and continues on for nearly three quarters of the side, at which point the vocals finally come in, a strangled alien croon, alternately growling and sort of moaning, and it's not until nearly the end of the side when the drums finally kick in, and for the first time it begins to resemble the aforementioned 100% sludge. A lurching doom trudge with now croaking vocals all wrapped around that relentless distorted bass line. Finally, right at the very end, the track explodes in a frenzy of freaked out chaos, drums everywhere, feedback squealing and shrieking, the track dissolving in a blast of blown out brutality. Weird and quite cool.
So how do fellow countrymen, and masters of their own particular brand of sludginess, Stumm, respond? With yet another strange take on sludge, there's, at least for this lp side, is downright pretty. Thick swaths of washed out guitar rumble and soaring streaks of feedback all tangled and up like some gorgeous alien melody, not harsh at all really, more just strange sounding, and really quite beautiful, the first time we've heard feedback so skillfully sculpted, underneath, drums are simple and spare, it's more about atmosphere and mood it seems, a thick heavy dreamy drift. Right in the middle there's a brief burst where the guitars get more jagged and angular, and some howling shrieking vocals swoop in, but before you know it, they've swooped right back out, and the track is again drifting darkly, a strangely soft sludge shimmer. So great.
LIMITED TO 265 COPIES!!! These are the only copies we can get. Once they are gone, they are gone for good. Packaged like the Loinen 12", in a similar eye melting black and white high-school-binder tweeker pen and ink cover, with crazy art by Loinen member G.G., a tripped out world of strange figures and weird text and upside down crosses, and squiggles and creatures and who knows what else...

SWINE Marked By The Baron (Vanguard Productions) cd 9.00
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It's strange what a huge influence Bay Area black metallers Von ended up being on pretty much everybody. Not really all that surprising really, they did after all totally destroy. Filthy and grimy and so heavy and primal and raw. It seems like every black metal band has at one time or another covered Von, there was even a full length tribute, and of course, there have been about a million bands who did everything in their power to channel the spirit and ferocity of Von, one of the most successful being Swine, the Von worshipping side project of a guy called Swine appropriately enough, frontman for Hateful Abandon, whose most recent record, Famine (Or Into The Bellies Of Worms), a collection of blackened gothic gloom, we highlighted a while back.
On Marked By The Baron, it's Satanic Blood Angel time, ALL the time, blasting drums supplied by a furious frenzied drum machine, the guitars thick and gritty, buzzy and intense, the vocals drenched in reverb and effects, grunting and growling, as much as howling and shrieking. The sound manages to be weirdly moody and dramatic too, with moaning guitar melodies drifting over the churning black filth below, giving most of the tracks a weirdly wistful vibe, considering how fast and furious the rest of the music is. Rapid fire, frenzied and relentless, pounding and punky, but so atmospheric and with such a vile vibe, and that aforementioned moody melancholy, culminating in the final track, that dips into some super emotional classic sounding doom, even slipping into some mournful clean guitar, and after a few minutes of silence, returning with a bit of washed out dreamy drone, weird.
But beyond those little bits of strangeness, this is some gloriously heavy, harsh, beautifully depressive, raw blasting blackness.
MPEG Stream: "Black Soul King"
MPEG Stream: "Beast Call"
MPEG Stream: "Tusk Toothed"

TARENTEL Home Ruckus (Type) 7" 4.00
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Latest in the super limited Type Records 7" series, that in the past has featured Goldmund, Benoit Piolard, Machinefabriek and Paavoharju, so it's really no surprise that they would invite Tarentel to participate. And their contribution is as good as any of the others if not better.
Continuing on with their 'new', more organic tripped out and rhythmic sound we found so appealing on the recent Ghetto Beats On The Surface Of The Sun series of lps, the A side finds the band blissfully abstract, a sun baked late afternoon, instrumental sprawl, little bits of percussion, melodic fragments, guitar lines drifting in and out, brief flares of distorted psychfuzz, little slivers of industrial hiss and whir, the whole thing very warm and dreamlike, tranquil, but still super active under the surface.
The B side begins in a similar fashion, but quickly ramps up the sound to decidedly un-tranquil levels, unfurling drawn out streaks of shimmery upper register guitardrone and little flurries of rhythmic skitter, the whole thing sort of moaning and majestic, a bit reminiscent of Matthew Bower's Sunroof!. Really nice.

TIC CODE Fbccade (Sickroom) cd 8.00
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Mind melting mathrock madness, kick ass and catchy as hell, cheeck it out again:
At the risk of alienating some of the other amazing records we've been loving and listening to non-stop, we might just have to proclaim this disc our new favorite. Cuz, man, do we miss the good ol' math rock days. Or post rock days, whatever you want to call them. That brief period, when there were instrumental (or mostly instrumental) bands everywhere, each offering up super complex tangled chunks of calculus-rhythmed indie jangle. Guitars intertwined into gorgeous harmonies and splintering into jagged melodic shards. Drums battering out impossibly intricate beats, the bass slithering around and within, supporting and propelling, but always laced with killer pop hooks and amazing minor key melodies. Bands like Polvo, Pitchblende, Table, Breadwinner, Dazzling Killmen, Bitch Magnet, Rodan, Crain, June Of 44, they just don't make bands like that anymore... or do they?
Tic Code, from Portland Oregon sound like they just got sucked up from 1995 and transplanted in 2007, with all their mathy chops intact. Every song here is dense and catchy and weird and rocking. The opener is all Don Caballero ultra complex spazz out. The guitars super dizzying and slippery, over a relentlessly chugging groove, that at one point slips into an almost jig, and then it's back into a hyper rhythmic math jam. The second track is more moody and propulsive, more post than math, the guitars lilting and ringing out, the drums loping lazily, super summer afternoon...
The rest of the record is all over the math map, leaning heavily on the heavy, more chaotic side of things, the drummer destroying, the guitars tangled up wildly around the drums, every song a gorgeous avalanche of sound...
Some of our other favorites are the weird melancholy almost Goblin-esque "The Second Stanza Of The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza" with its epic sweeping chords and haunting melodies, and the Yes-on-steroids of "Swedish Fish", with more killer dual guitar dueling culminating in an explosive freaked out free for all sonic squall... fuck it, they're all amazing. This band is just so great, and sound so modern and old school at the same time.
Screw this whole post rock metal hybrid movement everyone is so hot for, we say: bring back the MATH!!!
MPEG Stream: "Exembox"
MPEG Stream: "Sweedish Fish"
MPEG Stream: "Skeletons"

TIGHT MEAT DUO Creaming The Gutterpunk / Nobody Loves The Hulk (alt.vinyl) 8" square lathe cut 14.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

TORSO / GACK split (Small Doses) cd-r 5.00
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Another killer, super limited cd-r from the ALWAYS kick ass Small Doses label. This one a split between Torso, who we've dug for a while, and Gack who are new to us.
Torso, who we last heard from on a split with fellow dronesters Unicorn, offer up six tracks of deep dark raw drone/noise music. Beginning with some super minimal shimmer, streaked with low end groans and shards of feedback, Torso wander through fields of power electronics, spaced out glitch, thick synthscapes, complete with super distorted demonic vocals and all sorts of industrial buzz and grind, to crumbling malfunctioning electronic dirges, to dense melodic drones culminating in a nearly 10 minute blast of sci-fi outer space abstract glitched out FX drenched dronoise.
Gack respond with something much more minimal and muted, but no less caustic and ominous, LOTS of low end, the sound smeared and blurred and crumbling, tons shimmer and drift, disembodied voices, creaks, and machinelike grunts and murmurs, jagged shards of industrial clatter, deep rumbling ambience, Gack's tracks here sound more like the foley work for some fucked up outer space sci fi horror movie, which is not at all a bad thing.
Fans of Wolf Eyes and other modern bleak post industrialism as well as folks into the current crop of abstract noise drenched drone cd-r-tists should definitely check this out.
LIMITED TO 103 COPIES. Packaged in a plain black and white sleeve, printed on heavy cardstock.
MPEG Stream: TORSO "Wintersky Burial"
MPEG Stream: GACK "9"

TROLLMANN AV ILDTOPPBERG Live At The Tut 'N Shive (Monolith) cd-r 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
If Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg were a cult, a shadowy forest horde of trolls and cavemen, like we had always imagined (hoped?), we would be right there beneath the heavy canopy, eyes wide in the arboreal darkness, bowing before Thundarr and Mordraaneth, trudging through the woods all glassy eyed, chanting in unison, letting Trollmann's subsonic vibrations lull us into a strange doomed trance, filthy and unkempt, clad in loin cloths, faces painted with black mud, spears in hands, first-borns sacrificed, we would gladly give up our daily lives, to serve their trollish dominion. But instead, Trollmann are just a human UK doom duo, keyboards and bass, and if our wild obsession alluded to in the above ramblings didn't clue you in, we LOVE these guys, and for now, will have to make do with raving maniacally about how awesome they are and getting our hands on every possible shred of recorded music they've produced. At least until they actually do become a cult.
To be honest, we were always sort of convinced that Trollmann was some bedroom recorded side project. Some metal guy just sort of experimenting and exploring sounds and soundscapes. The purported facts were just too good to be true, a caveman/troll duo, one member named Thundarr, responsible for "Rumblings of doom" and "Prophecies of times to come", the other member called Mordraaneth, he responsible for "Cosmic keys to gates unknown". The band members always pictured on the record sleeves in drawings, bearded, carrying clubs, seated on huge toadstools. Album titles like Arcane Runes Adorn The Ice-Veiled Monoliths Of The Ancient Cavern Of The Stars and Dark Clouds Blacken The Sky On The Eve Of The Thousandth Sacrifice. It all seems sort of absurd, until you actually hear the music, then it all suddenly makes some sort of impossible sense. It's like a doom metal Land Of The Lost. We all headed down to the club to see some doom band play, but got sucked into some other dimension, and ended up prostrate before Thundarr and Mordraaneth, as they proceeded to create a music, both beautiful and otherworldly, heavy and dreamlike, spreading over us like a black cloud.
So imagine our surprise when we discovered, there was a LIVE recording of Trollmann. Performing on this plane, in this time, to be witnessed by mere mortals. How could that be possible? And where could such a momentous performance take place? Well, here it is. Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg's very first live Aktion, a low end doom drone ritual performed where else but... IN A PUB!!! That's right, the Tut 'N Shive. The good ol' pub down on the corner.
Even just listening, you can practically hear the pub slowly transforming into some vine draped cave, dank and dark, lit from within, some unearthly glow, while two shadowy figures lurk on a small stage-like outcropping of rock. And proceed to fill the room, with viscous black beauty. The only real distraction from this sonic transformation is the between song reaction. 20 or 30 punters, pints in hand, cheering, clapping and hooting, laughing and talking before the next huge wave of black bile comes washing over them. It's not so much distracting as surreal. To imagine this music actually being performed, in a pub, in front of a crowd. It's actually pretty amazing, if not a little unreal.
Three looooooooooooong tracks. The first, begins with a strange throbbing bass, pulsing beneath a glimmering, shimmery keyboard drone, the bass slowly transforming into a huge lurching bass riff, repeated over and over, a totally mesmerizing slow motion doom groove, with huge monstrous guttural vocals all wrapped in thick sheets of amplifier buzz and cavernous reverb. Most definitely the heaviest Trollmann yet, but as it progresses, the sound becomes more fuzzy and the notes less distinct... eventually fading into black.
The second begins with a thick swirl of rumbling low end, glowing and growling, shifting glacially, the overtones beating against each other, a thick dense black cloud of sound, slowly modulating and subtly changing shape. While beneath the roiling blackness, the keyboard offers up a drifting melancholy shimmer, simple mournful melodies that hover and slowly fade, Trollmann at their most dreamlike and ambient. But before long, this droning black shimmer begins to build, slowly swelling into a super majestic, cinematic dirge, massive soaring low end melodies, howled anguished vocals, like Moss playing Godspeed, but then slowed down and somehow rendered impossibly fuzzy and blissy, while remaining intense and threatening.
The final ritual, sounds a bit like Total or Sunroof!, but only if their instrumental arsenal consisted of nothing but bass guitars and HUGE Stonehenge like speaker cabinets, a near static wall of throbbing low end sound wrapped like thick black drifts around a soft shimmery, distant melody, a melancholia drifting well beneath the rumble and whir, eventually becoming more and more tangled, the track becoming so blown out and blurry, so grainy and soft focus it almost sounds like some sort of Pop Ambient Doom.
As disappointed as we are, that Trollmann do in fact exist in the mortal plane, and do practice their strange sonic alchemy in local pubs, the music still compels us, mesmerizes us, possesses us, it blackens our ears and our souls, and thus we are at the ready, to gather up an army, to slip free of this world, to strip off our clothes, to paint our faces and march bravely into the black forest, to serve the mighty Trollmann...
MPEG Stream: "Aeons Of Darkness"
MPEG Stream: "Doomtrolls Of Grelsch"

TROUM Symballein (Small Voices) cd 10.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**

UNAUSTRALIANS s/t (Pulled Out) lp / dvd 15.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
This is quite possibly the most insane outsider-weirdo-grind-metal-what-the-fuck record we have ever heard. Imagine a super lo-fi grindcore, cobbled together from blasting lightning fast drum machines, shredding super tech lead guitars, super processed, almost mechanical riffs, and Melt Banana-like high pitched yelping vocals, all tossed in a blender and spat out at a million miles an hour. Only sometimes all you can hear are the vocals, or the drums disappear underneath an avalanche of guitars, or everything is so amped up it becomes a buzzy blur, topped with high pitched squeaks and yowls. Totally nuts. Imagine Arboga Teenage Riot jamming with Brutal Truth. Or two lps, one a Melt Banana, the other a Deerhoof, both being played simultaneously at 90 rpm, then chopped up and slowed back down to about 60 rpm. So completely dementedly amazing. 46 tracks, most between 30 seconds and 1 minute, no titles, just numbers, 33601 to 33640, except for the last few tracks numbered 1365Y-13659. Wonder if that means that before this lp, the band had already recorded 33,600 songs. We'd believe it! Fans of all the above mention bands and folks who just love the weirdest shit imaginable, this is definitely for you.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, we only got 8... Pressed on clear red vinyl. Includes a printed insert, with a DVD of live performances. It's PAL though, so for those of you without the ability to play PAL discs, there's also a free video download of all the same footage.

UNIVERSAL INDIANS Monster Approach (Killertree) lp 9.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Universal Indians are a long lost noise rock behemoth, from way back in the nineties, featuring Mr. John Olson of the Wolf Eyes on the drums, these guys whipped up a serious blast of blown out super distorted garagey psychedelic noise rock. The opening track is heavy and thick, pulverizingly aggressive, drums totally in the red, guitars crumbling and white hot, the whole recording doing much damage to the speakers, vocals that are sort of sung/spoken, the whole thing sounds very Brainbombs actually, which is a VERY good thing. Come track two though, and the production drops about a hundred notches and suddenly we're in old school noise rock, tin can and twine blow out territory, which is still good, just different, and a surprise after the ultra hot opener. But the rest of the record proceeds along with some serious Dead C worship, mumbled vocals, angular guitars, barely audible drums, recorded in an airplane hangar or a cave somewhere, with some damaged Dylan-y strum and warble mixed in, everything wreathed in lo-fi hiss and tape recorded warble. Gloriously ramshackle... Side two is a single sidelong epic, a sparse, outrock jam, simple strummed guitars, spacious stumbling drums, almost sounds like some long lost old Sebadoh practice tape, albeit run through with some extra noisy ambience and fucked up weirdness. Cool stuff, almost like some sort of super poppy Wolf Eyes... a stumbling, damaged, noise drenched spaced out psych pop...

V/A Records Toreism (Thrill Jockey) lp 10.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Thanks to all the folks who came out for Record Store Day last Saturday. It was a blast, lots of music, familiar faces, not so familiar faces, snacks and beer, and most importantly, tons of hanging out and listening to great music, not to mention a handful of records pressed up specifically for the big day. Lucky for those of you without a local record store, we managed to get extra copies of some of the Record Store Day releases, one of which is this super limited lp from Thrill Jockey, featuring a bunch of bands we love, as well as a cool old school zine, featuring all sorts of folks talking records, and record stores, and waxing poetic on how important record stores have been in all of our lives.
But let's talk about the record itself first. First up, an exclusive track from aQ faves Mountains, more gloriously sun dappled pop ambience, all prismatic and warm, drifty and dreamy and divine. Then a brand new Tortoise track, a sneak peek at the new record, an extended jam that is most definitely surprising, all new wave-y with buzzy synths and skittery beats, a seriously fusiony electro vibe, total late night future funk, that gets super heavy in the second half, very post/kraut rocky like a heavier Stereolab! Cool.
Flipside starts out with Double Dagger, who we had never heard but who definitely kick ass, super distorted, howly, drum heavy, bass heavy post punk, arty, angular, crunchy, almost a bit metal, full length coming out soon (or just out) that we will definitely check into. Then another track from another aQ fave, NY's White Hills, called "Eye To Eye" from an out of print cd-r, and it's just what you'd expect, druggy, tripped out, psychedelic space rock, with plenty of wild guitar freakouts, kick ass drumming and looooong asssss stretches of space-y jamming. Not to mention a second half that gets all wah wah classic rock! Then finally, a new Trans Am jam, featuring the Fucking Champs' Tim Soete on back up vocals and lead (!) guitars, groovy, metallic, post rocky, classic rocky, with some awesomely cheesy deep vocals, call and response of course, ripping leads, the whole thing a serious slab of total car chase old school classic rock jammery.
As if that weren't enough, the packaging is fantastic, gorgeous, ultra thick sleeves, and inside, a mini manifesto, for record store day, and a zine featuring all sorts of folks reminiscing about their favorite records, or first records, or favorite record stores, lots of record store owners, band folks: the guy from Double Dagger, Mike Watt, Julia Cafritz from Pussy Galore, Ron House from Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments (also a record store owner), Nathan Means from Trans Am, Stephen from the Pastels, as well as record store folk from Pier Platters, Dusty Groove, Other Music, Reckless, Permanent as well as our very own Andee (who is both a record store owner and former Thrill Jockey recording artist in his old band A Minor Forest)!!
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. Most of which sold on Record Store Day. We have a bunch, but odds are these will most likely be the only copies we ever have.

V/A Technicolor Hell (Malleable / Badmaster) cd 8.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
As we've mentioned in the past, we're a little wary of the noise. We love us some Merzbow now and again, some Hijokaidan of course, maybe some Masonna, New Blockaders sureŠ but pure noise, harsh noise, is an acquired taste we just haven't acquired yet.
But while Technicolor Hell is by definition a 'noise comp', it's a lot more than that. The sounds are varied and rife with fucked up rhythms, bizarre textures and a world of grinding grating roaring whirring sounds that are somehow both hard AND easy on the ears.
It makes sense that this wouldn't be your run of the mill noise record, as it comes by way of a Mr. Dave Smolen, whose last record we reviewed and dug heavily a while back (still got a few in stock), and who also played on the mind blowing Flittermice Of Eld disc, a single track, abstract not-quite-black-metal-not-quite-noise tribute / homage to the Darkthrone song ""As Flittermice as Satan's Spys", drawn from just a handful of notes from said song. What the fuck?!? But so awesome.
So Mr. Smolen's on here, and it's his label, and it's one of those comps where we pretty much don't recognize a single artist, but the names have us convinced before we even hear them that we'd have to love 'em: Cars Will Burn, Drums Like Machine Guns, Tweeter, Mincemeat Or Tenspeed, Sharks With WingsŠ
Yeah okay already, but what the hell does it sound like, you're thinking, well, obviously the simplest description would be, well, NOISY. But like we mentioned before, that's just the tip of the ruptured eardrum.
Mincemeat Or Tenspeed offer up their own sort of metal, but it's pulled apart and shattered into a million jagged pieces, the resulting skree sounds more like a crumbling wall of blown out distortion, wrapped in sheets of brittle feedback, but part way through, the track morphs into some creepy buzzing Goblin-esque synthscape. Smolen's track has Flittermice in the title, but if there's any Darkthrone in there we sure can't hear it. Instead it's a black sonic sky filled with streaks of ear piercing feedback and fireworks of grinding high end. Sharks With Wings is more traditional noise, channeling Masonna, a garbled vocal transmission caked in filthy FX and blown to bloody bits. Cars Will Burn weave a gorgeous little soundscape of downtuned grind, sine wave glitch, skittery static, all assembled into a strangely rhythmic jam. We had high hopes for Drums Like Machine Guns, c'mon, with a name like that? They don't disappoint, but they do surprise with a kind of lo-fi Atari Teenage Riot thing, pounding techno beats in a field of distortion and buzz, vocals hyper distorted and buried in the mix, almost like a synth squealing and shrieking above the din. Pretty dang cool. In fact this whole comp is pretty bad ass. Surprisingly (or not) we seem to be getting more and more noise in our diet lately, and quite frankly we're digging it big time. I guess it's about time we reconsidered our general position on noise musicŠ
Packaged in an oversized, eye popping color booklet, packed with liner notes, track info, color photos, diagrams and designs, a printed insert with the cd affixed to the last page. And probably pretty dang limitedŠ
MPEG Stream: MINCEMEAT OR TENSPEED "Teammate's And Mandkind's Greatest Adventure"
MPEG Stream: DAVE SMOLEN "Divebombs And Flittermice Screams"
MPEG Stream: DRUMS LIKE MACHINE GUNS "Pay What You Owe"

V/A Trogotronic Compilation - Analog Audio Ordnance (Total Annihilation) cd 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
This comp is sort of an advertisement, a promotional item, which would normally turn us right off, but this disc killer, and it just so happens to be promoting a line of hand crafted 'caveman' effects, created by none other than Nelson from Man Is The Bastard, Sleestak and Geronimo. Wondering where those fucked up sounds were coming from? The damaged electronics on the Geronimo record? Well, most likely it was a Trogotronic device helping to create that racket. They look beautiful and sound even better. Check it out:
http://www.thumbprintpress.com/trogotronic.htm
So this here comp features a who's who of noise artists who apparently endorse Trogotronic. But you know what? Even if you had no clue what the hell Trogotronic was, this comp would still stomp your ass. Check out the lineup:
Geronimo, Unicorn, Sickness, Drunk On Blood, Mike Shiflet, Torso, Bastard Noise and more and more. The sleeve even lets you know which Trogotronic device was used in each specific track. We can't tell you how close we've come to blowing our paychecks on some of these noisemakers. But for now, we're happy to make do with this disc. First off, an unreleased Geronimo track, worth it right there. An awesomely creepy electronic krautrocky crawl, all crumbling and distorted, low end crunch beneath, squealing high end siren like skree. Sounds like an outtake from their full length, which it probably is, and which of course means it's awesome! Drunk On Blood, another Man Is The Bastard side project, offers up a symphony of electronic jackhammering, pounding and pulsing, almost musically, percussive and relentless, and weirdly listenable. The Sickness track is a heaving wall of analog fury, crumbling and crunchy, the Bastard Noise track is downright pretty, a sea of squelches and a distant beastlike howling, Torso unfurl some seriously creeped out hissy dronemusic, Unicorn offer up a weird symphony of shrieks and stumbling percussive clatter, Astrogenic Hallucinating spits out some fucked up, horror movie analog video game music, we could go on and on and on.
All the tracks here are pretty amazing, some textural and drone-y, others blown out and white hot, still others, rhythmic and abstract, at the very least, you'll probably listen to this like crazy and do some serious damage to your speakers, worst case though, you'll end up like us, freaking out and NEEDING some of these noisemakers for yourself, then you can do some REAL damage!
Beautifully packaged in a fold over, silkscreened sleeve.
MPEG Stream: DRUNK ON BLOOD "Flight Check"
MPEG Stream: GERONIMO "Hummingbird & Tarantula"
MPEG Stream: AUTISTATIC "Autistatic Vs. TR-Ogre Pt. 1"
MPEG Stream: SICKNESS "Days Of The Black Sun"

VAN THE VAN Road To Kyogle (Seedy R! / Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 7.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
The launch of yet another cd-r label, this one, cleverly titled Seedy R!, is a sub label of the already kick ass PseudoArcana label run by Antony Milton. This disc is supposedly the result of a van trip up the Eastern coast of Australia, in one tiny van, packed to the rafters with Milton as well as the dronepsychrock band 6Majik9, and of course musical instruments, fast food containers, dirty clothes, sleeping bags, lots of pot, and most importantly, a tape recorder!
The result is an abstract lo-fi tribal jam, a stripped down Wicker Man on wheels, a Sunburned No Neck road trip, the air thick with smoke, as well as dense swirls of keening snakecharmer like melody, detuned guitar scrabble, tin can percussion, fuzzy kazooscapes, long dreamy drones, but instead of any sort of effects, the entire recording session is swathed in that immediately recognizable 'driving-down-the-road-with-the-windows-wide-open' sound, a natural delaychorusreverbdistortion, that adds a fuzzy hiss and a whipping whir to these skeletal psych jams. Pretty dang cool.
Packaged in a brown paper sleeve, with a hand stamped 'R' on one side, and a map of said van journey on the other.
MPEG Stream: "Marrakesh"
MPEG Stream: "Highway Passin'"
MPEG Stream: "What Is This?"

----*
----* In Stock, Not Yet Reviewed :
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If you want to order one of these, just search for the item, then click on the buy button and it will be added to your cart!

2562 "Unbalance" (Tectonic) cd/3lp 15.98/26.00
AMAZING, THE "Code II" (Mexican Summer) 10" 16.98
ANDUIN "Abandoned In Sleep" (SMPG Limited) lp + cd 16.98
ARRIVAL OF SATAN, THE "Vexing Verses" (Black Hate) cd 16.98
BASINSKI, WILLIAM "Vivian & Ondine" (2062) cd 14.98
BLACK BREATH "Razor to Oblivion" (Southern Lord) cd 12.98
BLAKROC "s/t" (Blakroc LLC) cd 14.98
CAMPFIRES "s/t" (Mexican Summer) 7" 4.50
CASABLANCAS, JULIAN "Requiems" (RCA) cd 14.98
CASPA "Everybody's Talking, Nobody's Listening!" (Fabric) cd 11.98
CLIPSE "Til The Casket Drops" (Sony) cd 14.98
DEATH ROW "Alive In Death" (Black Widow) 2cd 22.00
FAXED HEAD "From Coalinga To Osaka: Live In Japan 1985" (Web Of Mimicry) dvd 14.98
FEVER RAY "s/t (Deluxe Edition)" (Mute) 2cd + dvd 21.00
HAMILTON, SAM "Sooty Symposium" (Tumbling Strain) cd-r 12.98
HISS & HUM "s/t" (self-released) cassette 2.98
HUDSON MOHAWKE "Butter" (Warp) cd 16.98
JACKIE O MOTHERFUCKER "Ballads Of The Revolution" (Fire) cd 15.98
LAMBKIN, GRAHAM "Softly Softly Copy Copy" (KYE) cd 14.98
LANDED "How Little Will It Take" (Load) cd+3"cd 15.98
LANDSCAPE "From The Tea-Rooms Of Mars .... To The Hell-Holes Of Uranus" (Cherry Red) cd 16.98
LEECHES OF LORE "s/t" (MeteorCity) cd 11.98
LUCKY DRAGONS "Dark Falcon" (Marriage) lp 15.98
MI AMI "Cut Men / Out At Night" (Thrill Jockey) 12" 12.98
NAAM "s/t" (Tee Pee) cd
NOTHING, CHARLIE "The Psychedelic Saxophone" (No Label) lp 17.98
ORCUTT, BILL "New Way to Pay Old Debts" (Palilalia Records) lp 10.98
PEARL HARBOR "Something About The Chaparrals" (Mexican Summer) lp 16.98
PEVERELIST "Jarvik Mindstate" (Punch Drunk) cd
RADIAN "Chimeric" (Thrill Jockey) cd/lp 15.98/15.98
SLAM DUNK / ORDER OF THE GASH "Split" (Eolian Records) lp + cd 12.98
SOFT PACK, THE "s/t" (Kemado) 12" 17.98
WOODSMAN "Collages" (Mexican Summer) lp 17.98
YELLOW SWANS (DOVE YELLOW SWANS) "Live During War Crimes #3" (Release the Bats) cd 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

----} on the way/or soon
King Khan & BBQ Show "Invisible Girl" cd/lp on In The Red
Felix "You Are The One I Pick" cd on Kranky
Papercuts "Where Are The Waves" cd on Gnomonsong
The Roots "How I Got Over" cd
Max Richter "Memory House" cd
Philip Cohran & The Artistic Heritage Ensemble "The Spanish Suite" cd
Legend "The Anthology" 2cd reissue on Rockadrome

----} January 5th
Buzzov*en "Violence From The Vault" cdep/12" on Relapse
Moebius "Tonspuren" cd reissue on Bureau-B

----} January 19th
Whourkr "Concrete" cd on Crucial Blast
Bill Fay "Still Some Light" 2cd on Coptic Cat
Good For Cows "Audumla" cd on Mimcry

----} January 26th
Beach House "Teen Dream" cd+dvd/2lp+dvd on Sub Pop
Four Tet "There Is Love In You" lp/cd  on Domino
 
----} also in January
Night Control "Life Control" cd on Kill Shaman

----} February 2nd
Skullflower "Strange Keys To Untune God's Firmament" 2cd on Neurot
U.S. Girls "Go Grey" lp on Siltbreeze
Vibracathedral Orchestra "Joka Baya" lp on VHF
Vibracathedral Orchestra "The Secret Base" lp on VHF
Vibracathedral Orchestra "Smoke Song" lp on VHF

----} also upcoming sooner or later or sooner or later or something
Celestiial "Where Life Springs Eternal" cd on Bindrune
Blood Of The Black Owl "A Banishing Ritual" cd on Bindrune
Crispy Ambulance "Plateau Phase" cd reissue on LTM
Vampire Weekend "Contra" cd
Ocean "Pantheon Of The Lesser" 2lp version on Important
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
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
Trans Am "What Day Is Tonight" cd on Thrill Jockey
Boduf Songs "Strait Gait" cd/lp on Latitudes
M. Holterbach + Julia Eckhardt cd on Helen Scarsdale
AFCGT "s/t" lp on Sub Pop


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Lots of love from your devoted AQ staff

Andee Cup Jim AllanIrwinScottNickSallyJonandAndrew