APHEX TWIN Richard D. James Album (Warp) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

APHEX TWIN Richard D. James LP (1972) lp 15.98
If Richard D. James had not made the Richard D. James LP there would probably not be Matmos, there would be no Hrvatski (although the electro-acoustic complexities that KF Whitman later produced might have still spilled out), and there would have definitely been no Kid 606. This record was released on Warp back in 1996 and was the crossover album between IDM and jungle, with the purists from the latter crying foul that Aphex Twin had ruined their party, while giving the former a whole new template of rhythms to mine, deform, and mutate with lightning quick precision. Still, what set this album apart from so many of its contemporaries was the adventurousness with form and the ability to maintain an emotively complex sense of melody. Where much of the more playful forms of electronica tends to get precious and saccharine really quickly, James' rounded basslines and idyllic synth arrangements on such tracks as "Fingerbig" or "To Cure A Weakling Child" spiralled deconstructed Amen breaks around the rhythmic architecture of the tracks, giving the replicants something celebratory to dance to.
But the standout tracks on the album still are the lead single "Boy/Girl Song", with its amazingly inventive tricknology sampling plucked strings molded into an utterly captivating synthesized harmony that propel still one of the most skittery and most dynamic drum 'n' bass numbers ever produced, and then there's "Milk Man" in which a deliberately snivelling James sings for the first time, with lyrics obsessing over the mammary glands of the neighborhood milk man. Ah, David Lynch would have been so proud! This album has been a staple here at Aquarius Records since its original release back in '96, and if you've not picked it up over the years, now's your chance to get this fantastic album on vinyl! Yay!!
MPEG Stream: "Cornish Acid"
MPEG Stream: "Fingerbib"
MPEG Stream: "Boy/Girl Song"
MPEG Stream: "Milk Man"

APHEX TWIN Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (R&S Records) cd 18.98
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APHEX TWIN Selected Ambient Works Volume 2 (Warp) 2cd 14.98
The album from which Richard D. James' electronica genius became obvious. Selected Ambient Works 2 is as if James sonically replicated the post-slumber / pre-waking state when sunlight first strikes the dream riddled eye within the memory banks of his rewired samplers. A beautiful, synaesthetic and haunting post-techno ambient that really must be heard!

APHEX TWIN Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1972) 3lp 34.00
Selected Ambient Works Volume II has been required listening since the album was originally released in 1994 right as the Aphex Twin was poised to capture the world's imagination with his mutant electronica, self-immolating techno, and acid laden drill 'n' bass. Here, the second chapter of Aphex's ambient works (sadly, no third volume followed this) is exactly what is claims to be, a brilliant collection of ambient works that re-engineered and re-interpreted Brian Eno's definition of ambient as a convoluted Phillip K. Dick cosmology of dreaming androids and quixotic sentient machines. This album stands at a crossroads of a number of musicological strains, with Aphex Twin's Richard D. James self-aware and self-conscious of the broader implications of making not just a collection of ambient music, but in making *this* collection of ambient music at *that* particular time. In the post-rave aftermath in the UK of the early '90s, chill-rooms were the zones for all sorts of lightweight collages of directionless new age musics and much of the 'ambient' music that was being produced around those chill-rooms was essentially amphorous techno that tempered the rhythm to a soft pulse and added a bird song here or there (e.g. The Orb, Future Sound Of London); but an ambient music that spoke to a community that was beginning to shape their digital / virtual selves was lacking.
Enter Richard D. James and the Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume Two. The album follows the direction of Eno's Music For Airports with 24 vignettes that ascribe to a constant atmosphere of gilded tones and lugubrious rhythms, which are more often sequenced patterns and cybernetic echoes through mercurial pools of sound. Tracks glisten, lurch, dissolve, morph, materialize, crystallize, bloom, and collapse amidst a subtle latticework of beguiling electronic melody, something that the Aphex Twin has always had in spades. It was a brilliant record when it came out, and it's still brilliant today. This is especially true with the resurgance of new age wallpaper music, as this album outshines pretty much everything on the current landscape.
For nostalgia's sake, we'll reprise what we wrote nearly twenty years ago about this record: "James sonically replicated the post-slumber / pre-waking state when sunlight first strikes the dream riddled eye within the memory banks of his rewired samplers. A beautiful, synaesthetic and haunting post-techno ambient album that really must be heard!" How true. How true.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Calx"

APHID PALISADES III (Hooker Vision) cassette 8.98
Aphid Palisades is the Canadian duo of Ryan Connolly and Lee Tindall, offering up an obtuse and abstracted take on lo-fi kosmische dronescaping. Soft focused guitar and synth drones float out of the introduction of the first track, whose placid nature gradually gets consumed within dub-inflected echos of electrified skitter and murky ice-floes of erratic noise. The feral slump of the Celebrate Psi Phenomenon ethos girds the second track, with a half-melodic din of languid guitar noise that would make Michael Morley proud, with the general torpor of such sounds giving way to a radiant bloom of stratospheric arches from the guitars, synths, pedals, etc. The tape's B side is a side-long sparkle of Ashra / Popul Vuh atmospherics graced with subtle melodies and pastoral, yet stoned vibes. Another nice find from Hooker Vision!
MPEG Stream: "excerpt"

APHOTIC s/t cd 7.98
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APHOTIC Stillness Grows (Flood The Earth) cd 10.98
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APHOTIC Under Veil of Darkness (self-released) cd 7.98
All the way from Green Bay, Wisconsin, comes this blackened doom metal horde, and we just discovered a small clutch (3 actually), of this, their self released 2001 ep, 4 tracks of moody, atmospheric midtempo doomy blackness, programmed beats, swirling keyboards, bellowed gruff vokills that switch to occasional crooned clean vox, all laid over tangled buzzing riffage, and blurred into hazy surprisingly beautiful buzz and blast and pound and crunch, the tracks slipping from frenzied blast, to lumbering dirge to woozy moody waltz and back again, the pretty parts reminding us a bit of older Katatonia, which is not at all a bad thing.
ONLY 3 COPIES!!

APM Sprint Mill (ICR) cd 17.98
Chris Atkins, Colin Potter, and Phil Mouldycliff are the British drone / field recording collective working as APM. Potter is a brilliant technician whose work we are well acquainted with through his long-standing contributions to Nurse With Wound, Ora, and Monos, not to mention his impressive solo work of processed field recordings and sinister electronics. Mouldycliff is a multimedia artist whose has worked with Loren Chasse, Michael Nyman, and Keith Rowe, and we've had a few of his recordings pass through here. But this Chris Atkins is a character we cannot impart much in the way of a shorthand biography. In any case, APM had travelled to the rustic environs of the Sprint Mill in the northwest of England. This Mill is currently inhabited by one Edward Acland, an eccentric artist who had recently opened up the Mill to various installations and performances. Presumably, APM had performed at Sprint Mill; but it's equally likely that they just collected a plethora of field recordings from all of the Industrial Revolution-era machinery, antiquated plumbing, drafty windows, and the overgrown gardens from the grounds of the Mill. This becomes a beautifully rendered collage slipping between the natural detritus surrounding the Mill and the haunted resonance of the tools in the Mill. Thus, massed aggregates of leaves, sticks, and branches coagulate into watery field recordings of rain, wind, and rushing streams. Throughout, the trio gently intrudes with looping structures of rasping metal where the bell-like chiming of the metal is tempered by the years of use. Where you might expect the drone to be dominant given Potter and Mouldycliff's previous work, it's far more rustic and less all-consuming than we might have thought, although there are some mighty fine drone elements to this album! An excellent piece of manipulated field recording for sure along with the likes of Murmer, Tarab, Jgrzinich, and Loren Chasse!
MPEG Stream: "Sprint Mill Mix 1"
MPEG Stream: "Sprint Mill Mix 4"
MPEG Stream: "Sprint Mill Mix 7"

APOCALYPTICA Cult ( Spitfire) cd 16.98
We listed this back on #108, when it first came out as an import (we were stocking the Canadian version, thanks to our friends at Scratch Records in Vancouver who ordered 'em for us and smuggled 'em down here) but it's taken over a year for this to get a proper US release. We never were able to get enough of the import to make a big deal about it, but now that it's out domestically we're ready to give this the big push -- it's one of the best "metal" albums of the year, despite not having a single electric guitar anywhere on it! This is what we said about it before:
We've been huge fans of this Finnish all-cello quartet for a while now, and how could we not be? Their first record was of them sawing away at all Metallica covers! Their second record was almost all covers too, not just Metallica, but Sepultura and Faith No More. It's not all that surprising that these pseudo classical instrumental versions of metal songs worked so well (sometimes better than the originals), especially considering the epic Wagnerian quality of a lot of metal, especially Metallica.
On their third record though, Apocalyptica have almost completely abandoned their metal/Metallica covers (except for a couple bonus tracks) in favor of originals, and the result is probably their best record yet. They have obviously learned all they can from the masters (classical and metal), and have struck out on their own, to create something new, certainly not conventionally metal, but not classical either. Definitely 'heavy' though! The four cellists (here augmented by double bass and all sorts of percussion) craft explosive and complex, super intense epics, fusing classical movements with traditional song structures, bizarre techniques with impeccable chops, all delivered with decidedly un-classical aggression, making for a record way heavier and better than anything Metallica themselves have done in the last few years. Not bad for a bunch of cellists!
This new US edition is a little different than the import -- the bonus tracks are the same (two Metallica covers plus their version of Grieg's "Hall Of The Mountain King"), but they've also included a new version of their song "Path" that adds vocals from the woman from the band Guano Apes (who I guess are popular in Europe), and there's also a cd-rom video included for that same cut. While it's neat to see them flailing away at their cellos in the stylish video, if you already have the import it's not enough to make you trade it in for this version. But if you *don't* have the import (and we know quite a few of you missed out), now's your chance to pick up this awesome album!
(Oh, quick note to the people who write press sheets for Spitfire: "Hall Of The Mountain King" is NOT a Savatage cover, guys!)
RealAudio clip: "Path"
RealAudio clip: "Pray!"
RealAudio clip: "Struggle"

APOCALYPTICA Inquisition Symphony (Mercury) cd 15.98
Tracks from the first Apocalyptica album were prominently featured in the recent film Your Friends and Neighbors as this cello quartet performed blistering versions of Metallica songs. Their second album is a far more advanced affair as the quartet was granted a larger budget for recording. Not just Metallica is represented as we are treated to renditions of tunes by Sepultura, Faith No More, and Pantera, as well as two quite excellent self-penned Apocalyptica tracks of completely intense metal riffs played exclusively on cellos! Very highly recommended by all who work here.

APOCALYPTICA Plays Metallica By Four Cellos (Mercury) cd 15.98
The title really says it all, doesn't it? From Finland. Their version of "Enter Sandman" blows Pat Boone's out of the water. And then there's "Master of Puppets," "Creeping Death," "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)," etc.
Definitely Apocalpytica's best album.

APOCALYPTICA Reflections (Nuclear Blast) cd 16.98
Fourth album from everyone's favorite Finnish Metallica coverin' cello quartet! Of course, they don't do any Metallica covers on this new one, as they've long since established themselves as more than just a tribute act (though, at the sold-out show they played in San Francisco this year with openers Hammers of Misfortune, they did indeed include a healthy helping of Metallica numbers in their set -- if they hadn't there woulda been a riot! Why d'you think it was sold out, after all? Metallica!). Like their previous album, Cult, this one consists of originals -- shredding, cello-metal instrumental originals. And like on Cult, the cello quartet is augmented by a drummer -- on several songs his name is Dave Lombardo of Slayer/Fantomas fame! He's not the only special celebrity guest, either. One of the bonus tracks features vocals from Nina Hagen. But the real stars of the show remain the cellos, even if Apocalyptica is sounding more and more like a metal band with cellos rather than a cello band with metal. That there's one in flames on the cover is an obvious but apt visual summation of Apocalyptica's special something. Casual fans can make do with their debut Plays Metallica By Four Cellos but how can you be just a casual fan of this classical music/metal hybrid??
MPEG Stream: "No Education"
MPEG Stream: "Resurrection"

APOCRYPHAL VOICE Still Trapped (Candlelight) cd 16.98

APOLION Death Grows Into Sperm (Bylec-Tum) cd 6.66
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Last copies!! Here's a new one from this Italian one man black metal band, the awesomely (and confusionally) titled Death Grows Into Sperm, with its equally confusional cover, featuring some sort of demonic sperm/skull hybrid.
For a self described practitioner of "harsh impudent black metal", much of DGIS is surprisingly melodic and lush, especially the opening two part epic (and the closing two parter, but more on that in a second), the intro is all clean guitars, and swirling swells and proggy synths, when the track proper kicks in, the guitars soar majestically, the tempo more doomy and midtempo than black and thrashing, still heavy on the melody, until about 4 minutes in, when some frantic riffing surfaces, and the sound explodes into some seriously bleak and blasting blackness. But even, then the sound is infused with melody, a subtle poppiness, that manages to make the fury and force stick in your head.
The sound shifts quite a bit too, from Nordic style classic black metal, to more traditional eighties style heavy metal riffing, those elements woven together by serpentine guitar leads, and those aforementioned melodies. The middle chunk of the record is much more traditionally grim and black, buzzy and blasting, still rife with bits of melody and unlikely arrangements, until the final two part closing songsuite, which mirrors the opening, creating a super lush and intricate blackened prog epic, lots of spidery clean guitars, droned out buzz, some black blasts for sure, but way heavier on the melody and the atmosphere, especially the second part, which spends the majority of its 8 minutes blurring and swirling and drifting like some Tim Hecker-ish bit of gauzy atmospheric ambience, interrupted briefly by a bit of super melodic heavy riffing, but otherwise left to whir and chime and float and finally fade out.
Grim, black, majestic, epic and melodic, and way recommended for folks who dig that sort of thing. Which we're guessing is a whole lot of you.
MPEG Stream: "Glint Of Creation (Part 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Death Grows Into Sperm"
MPEG Stream: "Inverted King"

APOPTOSE Blutopfer (Tesco) cd 17.98
This disc by the one man dark ambient drum ensemble Apoptose has long been a favorite around these parts, but as it was a few years old, we were never able to get enough to list. And eventually it just went out of print completely. We were thrilled recently to discover however, that it had just been reissued, and thus, now all can share in our mass musical obsession with this amazing slab of percussive overload.
In a small village in Spain called Calanda, the villages gather each year during the holy week of the Christian Easter festival. The villages, clad in purple robes, are all carrying drums, of various shapes and sizes and sounds. The villages all stand completely still, in near silence, until all at once, the whole lot erupt in a frenzy of wild drumming, which continues practically nonstop for 36 hours, the rhythms of the thousands of drums finding their way into every corner of daily life, mundane activities are suddenly performed to some hypnotic rhythm, many of the players enter some sort of fugue state, a trancelike stupor, many passing out, some oblivious to their hands being rubbed raw and beginning to bleed.
The festival is nearly 100 years old, and predates its current Christian orientation, with heathen roots in a tradition of warning of danger outside the cities walls. Sounds almost like A Hermann Nitcsh action. And it must sound like it as well.
Blutopfer is a tribute, a musical homage, an impression of what that festival might sound like. Filtered through a distinctly dark ambient lens, but still dense and complex and hyper rhythmic.
The opening track begins with a low droning hum, as if to imitate the opening hush of the actual ceremony, a dark smoky swirl, which hardly prepares you for the massive crush of a million snare drums, all tangled and intertwined, various distinct rhythms surfacing amongst the dense drum line cacophony. It's so dense in fact, that the drums almost begin to resemble radio static. But unlike the actual festival, there are all sorts of other sounds, huge throbbing bass melodies, rumbling pulses, the drums locked into a super hypnotic martial rhythm, while the buzzing bass propels it forward. So epic and heavy and majestic and dense with drums!
The sound is almost like LUSTMORD JAMMING WITH A MARCHING BAND DRUM LINE, which we shouldn't have to tell you sounds AMAZING.
While that first track is ultra heavy, and rhythmically fucking fierce, much of the rest of the record is more skeletal, more spare, with long stretched out black ambience, slowly unfurling barely there melodies, all beneath totally intense, completely mesmerizing drumming. A relentless militaristic drum corps, weaving killer complex snare rolls. At it's darkest and most intense, it sounds like some drum heavy Toroidh or Folkstorm track, a teutonic industrial throb, the snares just adding to the intensity, but most of the record, it really does sound like a drum line transported to some wasted bleak doomscape, their insistent rhythms just barely keeping the blackness at bay. SO GODDAMN GOOD.
All new packaging, a dark purple, six panel, thick card stock folded sleeve, with liner notes detailing the Spanish festival that inspired this record.
MPEG Stream: "Apotropaion"
MPEG Stream: "Blutopfer"
MPEG Stream: "Calanda"

APOSTLE OF HUSTLE Folkloric Feel (Arts & Crafts) cd 16.98
Canadian lad Andrew Whiteman is the Apostle Of Hustle, but you might be more familiar with him as one of the main guys from Broken Social Scene. His solo album Folkloric Feel is filled with his roaming musical adventures with catchy bits of postrock, krautrock, jazz and folk surfacing throughout. Not surprisingly, some tread along very much the same path as BSS's non-electronic material, and will most definitely appeal to their growing legions of admirers. Plus this release shows even further that Canada has some damn potent music communities (e.g. the loosely strung collaborative networks spearheaded by groups such as Godspeed You Black Emperor and the New Pornographers), as Whiteman is joined by other BSS-ites (many of them multi-band musicians) as well as members of fellow Canadian indie pop band Stars.
MPEG Stream: "Energy Of Death"
MPEG Stream: "Animal Fat"

APOSTLE OF HUSTLE National Anthem Of Nowhere (Arts & Crafts) cd 16.98
Those Broken Social Scene folks don't let grass grow beneath their feet in between albums. Heck no, much like fellow Canadian music collective/family Godspeed You Black Emperor, side projects and offshoots abound. And they're all quite different from each other! And they're all quite good! Andrew Whiteman is the lead guitarist for BSS, but he also goes it alone as mildly eccentric The Apostle Of Hustle (well, sorta, his BSS bantams have been known to sit in on occasion). This is the follow-up to his solo debut Folkloric Feel from 2004. His suave laid-back charm is pretty hard to resist particularly when he's singing in Spanish. Yes indeedie, National Anthem Of Nowhere is filled with tasty horns, flamenco tinged guitars and subtle Latin influences (perhaps even more so than on his debut which he recorded shortly after returning from a culturally enriched stay with his godmother in El Barrio Santa Suarez, Cuba). That said, National Anthem Of Nowhere's definitely got some energetic, quirkful, peppy pop propulsion. A definite standout is the dreamy fifth track "Cheap Like Sebastien" with its organ drones and sweet female backing vocals. Very reminiscent of Stereolab or Broadcast. Really good.
MPEG Stream: "The Naked & Alone"
MPEG Stream: "Cheap Like Sebastien "

APOSTLE OF HUSTLE National Anthem Of Nowhere (Arts & Crafts) lp 16.98
Those Broken Social Scene folks don't let grass grow beneath their feet in between albums. Heck no, much like fellow Canadian music collective/family Godspeed You Black Emperor, side projects and offshoots abound. And they're all quite different from each other! And they're all quite good! Andrew Whiteman is the lead guitarist for BSS, but he also goes it alone as mildly eccentric The Apostle Of Hustle (well, sorta, his BSS bantams have been known to sit in on occasion). This is the follow-up to his solo debut Folkloric Feel from 2004. His suave laid-back charm is pretty hard to resist particularly when he's singing in Spanish. Yes indeedie, National Anthem Of Nowhere is filled with tasty horns, flamenco tinged guitars and subtle Latin influences (perhaps even more so than on his debut which he recorded shortly after returning from a culturally enriched stay with his godmother in El Barrio Santa Suarez, Cuba). That said, National Anthem Of Nowhere's definitely got some energetic, quirkful, peppy pop propulsion. A definite standout is the dreamy fifth track "Cheap Like Sebastien" with its organ drones and sweet female backing vocals. Very reminiscent of Stereolab or Broadcast. Really good.
MPEG Stream: "The Naked & Alone"
MPEG Stream: "Cheap Like Sebastien "

APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE Last Sunrise (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
Full length number two from these Midwestern true doomlords, who hail from the very metal state of Indiana, featuring former Gates Of Slumber drummer Chuck Brown (who sings and plays guitar here), and who do indeed traffic in TROO DOOM! By now you should know what that means, huge distorted Sabbathy riffs, slow doomy grooves, big crushing drums, clean soaring dramatic vocals, epic and soulful, with occasional stretches of more subdued shimmery clean guitar drift, mournful guitar harmonies, as well as brief blasts of almost all out thrashing, but those moments are indeed brief, the majority of the record is spent in full doom groove mode, lurching, lumbering, pounding, heavy and majestic, the sound definitely softened by the VERY melodic vocals, but it also makes their sound pretty unique. Emo doom, maybe?
And like the last record, AoS really like to do covers, and they sure can pick em. Last time they did Sabbath's "Electric Funeral", and while it was killer, it also did what great covers often inadvertently do, outshine the band's originals. So this time around the band run into the same problem, they slay on absolutely killer covers of The Obsessed, the Misfits and Born Against for fuck's sake! And all three RULE, but end up sounding WAY better than anything on the record. We were joking that you should buy this awesome 3 song covers ep, which comes with a bonus album of all originals, and if you're really feeling these covers, you can track down the European version, which features DIFFERENT bonus tracks, Thin Lizzy, Celtic Frost and a different Misfits jam.
Either way, good stuff, but you may find your self returning to the covers more than the record proper, especially the Born Against cover which destroys. And we won't even go into the atrocious cover photo featuring what looks like a jock on a date with a fifty year old European mom, the two of them having decided to engage in an extremely unlikely suicide pact... WTF? Well these guys like to be different, anyway. What other true doom band would have someone wearing a Neutral Milk Hotel t-shirt in their band photo, either?
MPEG Stream: "Last Sunrise"
MPEG Stream: "Acknowledging The Demon"
MPEG Stream: "Streetside (Obsessed)"
MPEG Stream: "Astro Zombies (Misfits cover)"

APOSTLE OF SOLITUDE Sincerest Misery (Eyes Like Snow / Northern Silence) cd 13.98
If you've already guessed from the band name and album title that this is old school DOOM METAL, you'd be correct. What could be more doom than the idea of "Sincere Misery"?? Doom, depression, misery, of course. Sincerity, that's also a hallmark of the truest doom, from Ozzy's earliest croakings with Black Sabbath... he always sounded so sincere, that was a big part of his charisma. Later on, the prayerful likes of Trouble held the same sort of feeling...
So, with this debut, these guys are part of the grand tradition, that's for sure. Cleanly-sung vocal lamentations, soaring o'er CRUNCHY, crawling riffs, sheer epick heaviness in copious quantities, basically. With a variety of interestin' twists here and there to give Apostle Of Solitude their own identity, such as the sampled spoken narrative of some Depression-era old timer over the wide-open-spaces jamming of "This Dustbowl Earth", like a psychedelic Americana. And when comes solo time, they really shine. As achingly gorgeous as doom'd metallic guitarwork can be, yet sharp and fierce too. Perfectly complimenting the glacial gloominess of the band's pained plodding, which reaches its peak on the massive "Warbird", stretched out to over 14 minutes. File alongside the slow and low likes of Solitude Aeturnus, Reverend Bizarre, and home-staters Gates Of Slumber (for whom their guitarist/vocalist played drums, once upon a time).
Oh and we've gotta mention the hidden bonus track, a cover of Sabbath's "Electric Funeral". We think doom bands should resist the urge to cover Sabbath songs, but we're sure for obvious reasons it's an overpowering urge, so we don't blame 'em. At least AoS had the sense to make it an unlisted track at the end of the album. Why do we think doom bands shouldn't cover Sabbath? Well, we ALREADY know you like Sabbath, right? And you're not gonna improve upon the original, nor sound different enough to be interesting from the novelty angle. And now you've gone and ensured that the best song on your album is a cover. Whoops. However, hardly a serious complaint, and true doom fans will enjoy not only AoS's reverent cover of "Electric Funeral" but the whole album for sure. So, TDFs, get this, and also don't miss the new one from Finland's The Wandering Midget, from the same label, reviewed this list too!
MPEG Stream: "The Messenger"
MPEG Stream: "A Slow Suicide"

APOSTLES, THE Onye Akpa / Oshi Onwu (Academy) 7" 9.98
And here's a Record Store Day release that we still have simply 'cause our shipment of these 7"s from Academy Records didn't arrive until a few days ago, AFTER Record Store Day. Billed as the funkiest Record Store Day release ever, and we don't doubt it, Academy's expert Afro-Funk bona fides being second to none. Working in conjunction with DJ/digger Frank "Voodoo Funk" Gossner, as they so often do, they've unearthed and reissued this early '70s West African gem, an ultra rare, ultra funky 45 of which only two original copies are known to exist today. Both A side "Onye Akpa" and "Oshi Onwu" on the flip offer up a head nodding, hip swinging stew of call-and-response chanting vox, chicka-chicka-chicka funk guitar, boom-boom-bap drumming, and psychedelic organ warble.
It's a remastered, official reish, limited edition of course, and "pressed extra loud for maximum impact".

APOTHECARY HYMNS Half Of What Is Seen / The Marigold (Jugenstil) 7" 4.98
Ahoy Court & Spark fans! Here's a brand new lil' somethin' from a founding member of said group. Your introduction to Apothecary Hymns aka Alex Stimmel is only two songs, but such lovely like-minded -- albeit considerably more intimate and barebones -- ones they are. Rough hewn, heartfelt folksy melodies. Limited pressing of 500.

APOTHECARY HYMNS Trowel And Era (Locust) cd 14.98
We've carried a 7" by this one man band (Mr. Alex Stimmel formerly of Court & Spark) for about a year, and we've been wonderin' when he was gonna grace our ears with more 'Hymns. Well, that time is now. Trowel And Era is his debut full length filled with music quite fitting for overcast (but not gloomy!), laidback afternoons. It's considerably more polished and expansive than the pair of intimate, low-key songs on the introductory single.
Electric guitars slink like a cat stretching its limbs after stirring from a nap. An assortment of other stringed instruments are delicately plucked and strummed. The inclusion of soft glockenspiel, flute, kalimba, and autoharp glisten up the impressive psych-folk proceedings. The second song actually brought to mind Pink Floyd at a Ren Faire (particularly in the vocal department), and as the album progresses those visions get even more vividly so.
Psst, the song "The Marigold" from the above mentioned 7"s b-side makes a reappearance here.
MPEG Stream: "The Father"
MPEG Stream: "Watching The Bay (A Sailor Song)"

APPARAT Duplex (Shitkatapult) cd 16.98
The latest from Berlin's Sascha Ring aka Apparat hardly seems appropriate to what the layman might expect from a label called Shitkatapult. Warm, fragile, pretty electronica with many acoustic, human elements? Yes! If T. Raumschmiere (another Shitkatapult-related artist) represents the electronica version of loud rock n' roll, then Apparat is a pensive singer-songwriter. Not that Apparat doesn't bring the beats, this is definitely electronic music, even with guitars and clarinet and other instrumentation from the pre-Powerbook age. It's just that Apparat's glitchy, grainy 'lectronic textures give way to melodic quietude and ...gasp... sensitive, delicate indie-rock boy vocals. Autechre meets the Sea and Cake? An even more electronic Kid A? So nice.
MPEG Stream: "Granular Bastard"
MPEG Stream: "Contradiction"

APPARAT Shapemodes ep (Neo Ouija) cd ep 14.98
Apparat offer up six more skittery tweaked IDM tracks. The best of the half dozen is the final one "Radau". Imagine an argument between synthesized chimey chirps and squidgey blats overseen by a heavy rumbling bass thud presence. Note: although this is called an EP, it is actually over fifty minutes long!
MPEG Stream: "Radau"

APPARAT Silizium (Shitkatapult Strike) cd 16.98

APPARAT Silizium (Shitkatapult Strike) 2lp 17.98

APPARAT Walls (Shitkatapult) cd 16.98
Walls begins on familiar ground for German electronic artist / producer Apparat (aka Sascha Ring) -- chiming music box-y melancholics with strings that slide silkily across the glistening sonic icicles. From there Apparat skitters all over the musical map, only touching down briefly on his well-travelled techno and IDM hotspots. Although this is definitely far heavier and darker in mood than his wispy 2003 album Duplex, it's by no means lacking in emotion and warmth. The unexpected but very welcome soulful vocals of Raz Ohara certainly play a major role in this regard. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Not A Number"
MPEG Stream: "Useless Information"

APPARAT ORGAN QUARTET Romantika (Duophonic) cd single 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Just a 3-track dose of Apparat Organ Quartet, and to be frank, it really doesn't do this group justice. You only get a mere glimpse of this Icelandic organ-synthesizer-keyboard-allsorts foursome's scope. The first percolating track sounds a lot like a slightly more aggressive Postal Service, whereas the second is a little more insistent and rockin' like a slightly less aggressive Add N To (X) or Trans Am, and the third is a revisiting of the first track. Not quite as good as some of their contributions to compilations that we've carried in the past, but pretty fun nonetheless. Their label notes Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, and '70s horror soundtracks as influences, and that very well may be true. However, the most audible influence on this ep is that of Kraftwerk. FYI: AOQ members have worked with the likes of Marc Almond, Hafler Trio, Sigur Ros, Barry Adamson, Stillupsteypa, Mum, Pan Sonic and... Hermann Nitsch!
MPEG Stream: "Romantika"

APPARAT ORGAN QUARTET s/t (Skelt) cd 17.98
Finally, the seemingly impossible to get full length release from this amazing Icelandic organ-synthesizer-keyboard combo gets a proper widespread release! Think Stereolab, Trans Am, Kraftwerk, M83, mix in a little Add N To (X), a little Postal Service and you'll be in the ballpark. From straight-up Stereolab worship, the first track is the best Stereolab song that never was (albeit with a Speak And Spell on lead vocals), to full on synth-rock with buzzy guitars and huge thick burping fuzz organ basslines with cool Kraftwerky computer vocals, to blissy M83 style romantic fuzzscapes, to goofy burbly loungy bleep and bloop, to some distinctly Kraftwerkian krautrock. AOQ's quadruple organ attack is tough to beat. You know how when a band had two guitarists, maybe three, it just made the guitar sound that much thicker and in your face, well, just imagine FOUR ORGANS rocking full on! Whoa! And one of the organs just so happens to be manned by AQ fave Johan Johannsson (who also produced the record). In the past various AOQ members have worked with the likes of Marc Almond, Hafler Trio, Sigur Ros, Barry Adamson, Stillupsteypa, Mum, Pan Sonic and even Hermann Nitsch! But you won't find any blood soaked cacophony here. Nope, this is all warm and warbly, dreamy and bouncy, fun and fuzzy.
Gorgeous cover art featuring oil paintings of the various members of the band as Playmobile figures!!
MPEG Stream: "Romantika"
MPEG Stream: "The Anguish Of Space And Time"

APPELQVIST, HANS Sifantin Och Morkret (Hapna) cd 16.98
This is definitely on the poppy side of things for the Hapna label, in our experience, Hans Appelqvist being a singer-songwriter-with-a-guitar kind of guy, but this self-described "patchwork symphony" brings in a lot of other, weirder sounds as well. It's apparently his 3rd album for Hapna and 4th overall, and we're sorry we missed the others 'cause this is really nice, delightful even, though with a sinister underbelly... it's music that someone like Bjork might hear in her dreams, magical and moody, with singing (in Swedish) and guitar strum and piano and bells and also all sorts of cartoony sound effects, playful children's voices, dogs barking, birds cawing, crickets chirping... all woven into a gorgeous patchwork indeed.
If you like your Swedish indie pop to conjure an intimate, mysterious and quirky soundworld, Hans Appelqvist is your man. There's 12 tracks, but many of them are interludes only a bit over a minute, so it's about 25 mins total. As a bonus, though, you get a Quicktime video clip for "Tank Att Himlens Alla Stjarnor", which puts Appelqvist into a colorful and enchanting animated visual representation of that soundworld... you'll get to "see" some of the stranger sounds that crop up on that track!
MPEG Stream: "Tank Att Himlens Alla Stjarnor"
MPEG Stream: "Jag En Gok"

APPENDIX OUT Daylight Saving (Drag City) cd 13.98
Dark and forlorn hillbilly country dirges from this Scottish group. Very reminiscent of Palace or Songs:Ohia (to the point where, when we play this cd, people always ask if it is Palace), so fans of Will Oldham will LOVE this. Sparse and achingly beautiful.

APPENDIX OUT The Night Is Advancing (Drag City) cd 13.98
Appendix Out are a Scottish outfit whose plaintive neo-folk style has been compared to Palace's Will Oldham. But Appendix Out's sound is free of the patented Oldham quirkiness that I can't seem get past anymore, that calls more attention to its style than the beauty of simply written and performed songs. Somehow, after hearing Oldham records for so many many years, Appendix Out seems fresher and cleaner and more accessible. The stark, melodic sound is augmented with occasional piano and hushed background vocals. This is a lovely record.
RealAudio clip: "Golden Tablets of the Sun"
RealAudio clip: "Year Waxing, Year Waning"

APPENDIX OUT The Rye Bears a Poison (Drag City) cd 12.98
Really nice, stark, warm yet wintry folk from Scotland group. Newest Drag City release will DEFINITELY appeal to Palace fans.

APPENDIX OUT The Rye Bears a Poison (Drag City) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Really nice, stark, warm yet wintry folk from Scotland group. Newest Drag City release will DEFINITELY appeal to Palace fans.

APPLE, FIONA Extraordinary Machine (Epic) dualdisc 19.98
Oh Fiona...you make everything so difficult, but we love you for it. The album that we thought might not ever come out. You maybe heard about the early Jon Brion version that apparently the record label said no to. But then Fiona said actually she didn't like it and it was her choice to re-record it. She enlisted sometime hip-hop producer Mike Elizondo and the result is maybe her best record yet! But beyond all the confusion and delay and mixed messages the important part is that Fiona is for sure one of the smartest pop stars around. Her songs so rich and her voice always so evocative and dead on. In a perfect world she would be number one on the pop charts without a doubt. The dual disc includes live performances at Club Largo (where Jon Brion did his residency) as well as a really funny video for "Not About Love" starring chubby bearded comedian Zach Galinakis. Speaking of "Not About Love", has their ever been a heavier torch song? We don't think so, you can almost imagine Codeine or some doom metal band covering it, with it's weird stop start chorus and pounding minor key dirges. So amazing. Apple may be one of the only real divas who will stand the test of time.
MPEG Stream: "Not About Love"
MPEG Stream: "Extraordinary Machine"
MPEG Stream: "Get Him Back"

APPLE, THE (MGM Home Entertainment) dvd 14.98
We'd never heard of this nutty 1980 Menahem Golan flick before, but a friend clued us in to the existence of this new DVD release of the film and we're glad he did. Within mere moments of the beginning of this movie, you will likely determine that it is in fact possibly THEE most ridiculous thing you've ever seen. Not possibly, probably. Most certainly. It is. The Apple is a campy musical set in the future (1994!) where everyone wears futuristic outfits (big shouldered jackets) and drives boxy cars with space age fins. And it's just one over the top musical number after the other, all set to crazed psychedelic disco show tune music. There's absurd dialogue, glammy costumes, nonsensical narrative, and of course mucho singing and dancing. Quite the spectacle. Imagine "All That Jazz" meets "Logan's Run" or something like that. What plot we can glean from the goings-on involves the machinations of a Mephistophelian music industry mogul (Mr. Boogalow) trying to put a particular act at the top of the charts (and thence to, somehow, rule the world). Beyond that...it's confusing to say the least. At least it eventually becomes evident why the movie is titled The Apple (hint: it's of Biblical proportions). Truly incredible. It's such a kitsch classic, I don't know how we'd never heard of it before! Perhaps you have. In any event, after seeing just a few scenes, we knew we had to stock this. It's definitely the sort of thing that you might rather buy than rent, if only so you can always have it on hand to freak out friends who haven't yet seen it!

APPLEBLIM & PEVERLIST Over Here (Remixes) (Apple Pips) 12" 13.98

APPLEHEAD Applehead De Applehead (Pre-Cert Home Entertainment) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The strangely named duo Applehead is in fact one part the duo (?) Anworth Kirk (which we're pretty sure is at least one part former Record Of The Weekers Demdike Stare (also a duo, confused yet?)), and Applehead's debut record is the second release on Pre-Cert, a label run by Finders Keepers' Andy Votel and the guys in Demdike Stare, focusing on, according to the label themselves, contemporary musical and nonmusical material, referencing research libraries/VHS video culture/electronic Folkways records/sound poetry/tape manipulation/European fumetti/outsider art/field recording and more. Essentially, the music on Pre-Cert, and specifically this new one by the mysterious Applehead, is in fact, some seriously twisted, far out, faux seventies Italo disco soundtrack music. At least that's what we're getting from all that. A heady collection of heavy fuzzed out grooves, strange voices, creepy ambience, all woven into what sounds like the score to the greatest, and creepiest, seventies giallo you've never seen.
The record begins with some haunting, soundtracky murk, all buried melodies, muted buzz and crunch, over which a reverbed female voice intones some mysterious message in some foreign language, all the while ominous chords ring out, until BAM, in swoops a fat funky Italo disco groove, super distorted and gloriously fuzzy, the synths heavy and in-the-red, wah guitars, but the sound is strangely washed out, the groove surrounded by streaks of ghostly shimmer, clouds of effects, the end result is a killer krautrock / space rock sci-fi funk.
The record is peppered with strange little interludes, more of that voice, like a snippet from a film, woven into creepy swirling ambience, blurred minimal dronemusic, but it's not long before the next groove comes in, and it's another buzz drenched bit of giallo style faux soundtrack funkiness, dubbed out percussion, tinkling melodies, complete with terrified gasps and shrieks of females in peril. The A side wraps up with a heavy slice of organ driven haunted house moodiness, that definitely had us thinking Goblin, Zombi, Umberto and the rest of those sci-fi retro futurists.
The flipside offers up more of the same, some pulsing thrum that gives way to another blast of seventies horror funk, chuggy wah wah guitars, muscly drums, creepy minor key melodies, spectral howls super distorted synth buzz, all woven into a heavy organ kraut-funk groove. Finally the record winds down with what is the perfect Italo horror score, another woozy groove, funky and slinky, low slung and slithery, a little dubby, a little disco-y, wreathed in a spectral haze, and rife with haunting melodies, a serious slab of classic John Carpenter style seventies style suspenseful soundtrackiness.
Awesome stuff, and WAY recommended for anyone into the current crop of sci-fi soundtrackers and retro Goblin worshippers, as well as the various strains of modern hauntological soundscaping (a la Demdike Stare)...
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!

APPLES IN STEREO Fun Trick Noisemaker (One Little Indian) cd 14.98
Hip hip hooray, super great news! Apples In Stereo's long out of print albums -- The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone and Fun Trick Noisemaker -- have been reissued! With such a beloved band, you might be wondering why we never reviewed these awesome early Apples In Stereo delights. We were asking ourselves the same question, then we realized that the records predate our aQ website and review writing. Yeah, waaay back before we had the invention known as the computer! Now, we get to take another kick at the can (and replace our own worn copies!), but when an album has been so near and dear for so long, it can be extra difficult to put your love into words. Fun Trick Noisemaker is one such thing! This is indie pop, pure and not so simple! Dare we say, some of the best ever made. It's the soundtrack to that perfect world where you never get a flat tire, your scoop of ice cream never falls from its cone, your record needle never skips, and your secret crush crushes you right back. Each song is its own snugglefest bursting with the peppiest energy, the sweetest melodies and the most irresistible hooks. While on later albums, main man Robert Schneider would surrender completely to the shrine of Brian Wilson, here the influence is indeed central to the band's sound, but not all-encompassingly so. If you want/need a smile-inducing, delicious pop album, look no further! Absolutely, unequivocally recommended straight from the warmed-up cockles of our hearts.
MPEG Stream: "Tidal Wave"
MPEG Stream: "High Tide"

APPLES IN STEREO Her Wallpaper Reverie (Spin Art) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The return of the most polished and shiny of the Elephant 6 pop groups. The songs are slower, more layered, and more substantial than on previous Apples records, which is a good thing: for example, if you like Strawberry Fields Forever you will LOVE this album. In fact, any fan of the Beatles should welcome this record with open arms -- yes it is that good. Robert Schneider's voice is even more perfectly juicy than ever before. Highly recommended.

APPLES IN STEREO Let's Go! (Spin Art) cd ep 7.98
Always the ones to offer up an ep of odds and ends to tide their fans over 'til the next full length appears, the perky Elephant 6ers Apples In Stereo have collected together a live track, an acoustic studio outtake (of a song that appears on Discovery Of A World Inside The Moon), a Powerpuff girls tribute, a demo of the same song, and one other track. As bouncy and jubilant as we've come to expect from these popsters. Not essential unless you're an Apples completist.
RealAudio clip: "Signal To The Sky"

APPLES IN STEREO Look Away (Spin Art) cd 6.98
A new song from Robert Schneider and co. new album "The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone" (forthcoming in April) plus four extra tracks with no prior US release. Fans of Elephant Six pop are sure to rejoice. Did you know that The Apples call their recording studio Pet Sounds? Not surprised...

APPLES IN STEREO New Magnetic Wonder (Yep Roc) cd 16.98
Hurrah! Those delightful lil' Apples In Stereo have come bursting back from a much too long absence. Yes, it's been five long years since we last heard from these Elephant Six collective pop dynamos, but from the bright eyed and bushy tailed sounds of New Magnetic Wonder it's as if they never skipped a beat. Some things never change... head Apple Robert Schneider is still carrying a mighty big torch for Brian Wilson, but he's visiting the E.L.O. camp occasionally on a few tunes here too. This is some seriously yummy pop! Recommended for everyone young and young at heart and particularly those with a big sweet tooth. Not recommended for diabetics or old fogeys.
MPEG Stream: "Sunndal Song"
MPEG Stream: "7 Stars"

APPLES IN STEREO Science Faire (Spin Art) cd 12.98
One of our favorite pop bands collects early releases, b-sides and sundry out-of-print gems, plus one new song. Perky, poppy music that'll bring out the kid in you! You may have seen this recently available as expensive Japanese import.

APPLES IN STEREO Science Faire (Spin Art) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our favorite pop bands collects early releases, b-sides and sundry out-of-print gems, plus one new song. Perky, poppy music that'll bring out the kid in you!

APPLES IN STEREO The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone (One Little Indian) cd 14.98
Hip hip hooray, super great news! Apples In Stereo's long out of print albums -- The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone and Fun Trick Noisemaker -- have been reissued! With such a beloved band, you might be wondering why we never reviewed these awesome early Apples In Stereo delights. We were asking ourselves the same question, then we realized that the records predate our aQ website and review writing. Yeah, waaay back before we had the invention known as the computer! Now, we get to take another kick at the can (and replace our own worn copies!)!
While The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone is not quite as immediately addictive as Fun Trick Noisemaker, it is sooo unabashedly sweet and effervescent nonetheless! Shhh, hear that? Is that maracas or is it the fizz in your ginger ale? Is that a cowbell or is it the snapping of your bubble gum? One can't be sure when the Apples are on the stereo! Wherever their very Beatles and Beach Boys influenced tunes go they leave a sticky candyfloss tree lined trail paved with jelly beans. It's all feel-good yum-pop, but there's brains behind the bounciness. If you're new to this band, for sure start your new crush with Fun Trick Noisemaker, then proceed along your merry way with this one!
MPEG Stream: "The Rainbow"
MPEG Stream: "Submarine Dream"

APPLES IN STEREO Tone Soul Evolution (Spin Art) cd 13.98
Wonderful new pop work from Elephant 6ers.