V/A Ed Rec Vol III (Ed Banger) cd 15.98
Volume twa! Or at least that's how the pronunciation sounds, yeah our French sucks here but that never kept us from leaving work sore from chronic head bobbing and rabid fist thrusting. Okay maybe not that extreme, but it's like our own mini rave here at aQ whenever this is bumped. Yep, it's the third installment of much hyped French imprint, Ed Banger Records. More pumping electro from the masterminds behind the more commonly used term, "the French touch" and a very consistent example of the description.
Within this compilation the Ed Rec roster explore new ground and take some unexpected yet intriguing attempts at chopping the hell out of samples, synths, and vocals, and turning them into full on grueling disco-house anthems. But not ALL of it's that jump up, dancey, semi-rave hype shit, they tend to unveil more of their hip hop roots this time around with the likes of label frontman, Busy P's number, "To Protect and Entertain" a collab with Murs from LA's underground hip hop troop The Living Legends, including a simple yet arduous analog synth melody rolling over boosty drum patterns to accompany Murs' simple yet catchy raps. Along with Spankrock's rap appearance on the indie-rave thriller "Back it Up" by Feadz, as well as new predominately hip hop label signees DSL, who deliver a new twist to French rap with "Find Me a World". But of course the majority of the artists shine most with their dancefloor thrashers and grinding synth driven tunes that we've grown to love. Veteran Mr. Oizo cooks up more of his signature punchy and spastic sample chopping techniques, horns and all, with everything in its right place to produce a bouncy yet fun rhythm. Then of course there's Sebastian who delivers a mind fuck of a track, "Dog", sampling, yes, a black metal tune and cutting it to shreds, guitars, screams and all, delivering a punishing yet addictive, sweatdriven "banger" that we like to call "metal house" if we may...(yeah we said). While Dj Mehdi delivers his blissful disco composition "Pocket Piano", not necessarily for the dancefloor but amazing "groove" music nonetheless! Simply put, Ed Rec 3 is a well rounded hype machine that's bound to work wonders at any given party. Truly one to check out!
MPEG Stream: KRAZY BALDHEAD "No Cow No Pow"
MPEG Stream: SEBASTIAN "Dog"
MPEG Stream: BUSY P "To Protect and Entertain"

SUNFOREST Sound Of Sunforest (Acme Gramophone / Lion Productions) cd 16.98
Somewhere between The Free Design, The Incredible String Band and The Buggaloos lies Sunforest. Sunforest were a mysterious British female trio that recorded this sole 1969 gem of acid-folk prog-tinged popsike that has been a holy grail of sorts for sample-searching record heads. Even our own Antaeus (Lazer Sword) admitted to sampling the opening track "Overture To The Sun" to make a beat. That song along with another track, "Lighthouse Keeper" are also famous for their inclusion in the film "A Clockwork Orange". Medieval and baroque at times with harpsichord, piano and pump organ flourishes, lilting horns and sublime triple harmonies, Sound of Sunforest also features some of the best British session players around including Herbie Flowers (bassist on Lou Reed's "Walk on The Wild Side, Bowie's Space Oddity and Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire Du Melody Nelson), and Big Jim Sullivan (Lord Sitar) on guitar. Like most British records of the era, whimsy and zaniness can gain the upper hand at times with songs about candy shops, insect weddings, and eccentric old hippy ladies taking us back to the Sid and Marty Kroft days of our youth, but there is plenty of insanely beautiful songs of the likes we've never heard making this an odd but highly satisfying listen.
MPEG Stream: "Be Like Me"
MPEG Stream: "And I Was Blue"
MPEG Stream: "Magician in The Mountain"

SEBASTIAN Motor Momy Army (Because Music) 12" 13.98
Ed Banger producer, Sebastian, really "revs" things up with this 12". The title track "Motor" is the epitome of rude! If you're tired of wimpy dance music and need something to put some hair on your chest, this is probably the biggest, hardest, grinding, pumping, and almost unbearable (in a good way) tune you could hope for. The jist of it is a sample of a motor revving faster and faster, chopped up, pitched in different ways, and arranged over some pretty sinister drum slappage. You'll either hate it or love it and we here at AQ are eating it up. The other 2 B-side tracks are definitely much more endurable and just as good if not better. "Momy" is actually more of a quintessential disco track compared to Sebastian's common production style, filled with strings, trills, and the normal choppery of course. "Army" sums everything up with Sebastian displaying his usual yet crafty beat trickery, throwing pounding drums mixed with more of that gritty, churning, distorted bass synth that we've always loved from him and the rest of the French Ed Banger family. Awesome!

V/A Des Jeunes Gens Modernes (Naive) 2cd 27.00
Just a month or so ago we listed the vinyl version of fantastic collection. Most of us picked it up, and we're probably going to do the same with this expanded double cd version as well. Afterall, the lp (already now gone and out of print, boo hoo) was great, but the vibrant and prolific scene that it showcases can hardly be summed up in just one disc! If you have the vinyl, the good news is that you have the vinyl, which, well, totally rules. The bad news is that the extra tracks on here are even better, and now you're going to want this too! End Data's "Jungle Soho," MKB Fraction Provisoire's "Fights in Technonights," and Martin Dupont's "Just Because" alone can sell this compilation. Ahhh! Truth be told, this is probably - if not definitely - the absolute best grouping of late '70s/early '80s French post-punk, cold-wave, new-wave, whatever we've ever heard. So, if you have even a passing interest in this type of music, welcome home. Here's what we said about the vinyl version:
If you've been keeping up with the fairly recent wave of late '70s, early '80s French post-punk and new wave experimentation, then you're definitely going to need this. Des Jeunes Gens Modernes - Modern Young People - oscillates between the pop electronics of Ruth and the angular guitar stabs of Metal Urbain. Officially, the compilation is in conjunction with a show at the Agnes B gallery in Paris, but for those of us too far to just stop by, this is the next best thing. Also, we've got to admit, college was a long time ago, and our French is pretty rusty. So, attempting to decipher the fold-up insert was a bit of a challenge, and instead of potentially embarrassing ourselves we'll just tell you that it's there. In addition to the bands mentioned above, there are some other rare favorites on here. Guerre Froide, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, and Charles de Goal all make appearances. You may remember Guerre Froide's "Demain Berlin" from the Flexi-Pop series, as well as the band Visible. If nothing else, let it be known: GF's absolutely anthemic and completely amazing "Ersatz" is finally available again! That alone makes this worth buying! For sure one of the better, if not the best, of the whole early '80s French electronic/punk revival compilations. If you've got any interest at all in that scene then you need to pick this up pronto, because there's no telling when half of these tracks will be available again!
MPEG Stream: END OF DATA " Jungle Soho"
MPEG Stream: MARTIN DUPONT " Just Because"

V/A Des Jeunes Gens Modernes (Naive) lp 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If you've been keeping up with the fairly recent wave of late '70s, early '80s French post-punk and new wave experimentation, then you're definitely going to need this. Des Jeunes Gens Modernes - Modern Young People - oscillates between the pop electronics of Ruth and the angular guitar stabs of Metal Urbain. Officially, the compilation is in conjunction with a show at the Agnes B gallery in Paris, but for those of us too far to just stop by, this is the next best thing. Also, we've got to admit, college was a long time ago, and our French is pretty rusty. So, attempting to decipher the fold-up insert was a bit of a challenge, and instead of potentially embarrassing ourselves we'll just tell you that it's there. In addition to the bands mentioned above, there are some other rare favorites on here. Guerre Froide, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, and Charles de Goal all make appearances. You may remember Guerre Froide's "Demain Berlin" from the Flexi-Pop series, as well as the band Visible. If nothing else, let it be known: GF's absolutely anthemic and completely amazing "Ersatz" is finally available again! That alone makes this worth buying! For sure one of the better, if not the best, of the whole early '80s French electronic/punk revival compilations. If you've got any interest at all in that scene then you need to pick this up pronto, because there's no telling when half of these tracks will be available again!
MPEG Stream: END OF DATA " Jungle Soho"
MPEG Stream: MARTIN DUPONT " Just Because"

V/A Ed Rec Vol III (Ed Banger) 2lp 29.00
Volume twa! Or at least that's how the pronunciation sounds, yeah our French sucks here but that never kept us from leaving work sore from chronic head bobbing and rabid fist thrusting. Okay maybe not that extreme, but it's like our own mini rave here at aQ whenever this is bumped. Yep, it's the third installment of much hyped French imprint, Ed Banger Records. More pumping electro from the masterminds behind the more commonly used term, "the French touch" and a very consistent example of the description.
Within this compilation the Ed Rec roster explore new ground and take some unexpected yet intriguing attempts at chopping the hell out of samples, synths, and vocals, and turning them into full on grueling disco-house anthems. But not ALL of it's that jump up, dancey, semi-rave hype shit, they tend to unveil more of their hip hop roots this time around with the likes of label frontman, Busy P's number, "To Protect and Entertain" a collab with Murs from LA's underground hip hop troop The Living Legends, including a simple yet arduous analog synth melody rolling over boosty drum patterns to accompany Murs' simple yet catchy raps. Along with Spankrock's rap appearance on the indie-rave thriller "Back it Up" by Feadz, as well as new predominately hip hop label signees DSL, who deliver a new twist to French rap with "Find Me a World". But of course the majority of the artists shine most with their dancefloor thrashers and grinding synth driven tunes that we've grown to love. Veteran Mr. Oizo cooks up more of his signature punchy and spastic sample chopping techniques, horns and all, with everything in its right place to produce a bouncy yet fun rhythm. Then of course there's Sebastian who delivers a mind fuck of a track, "Dog", sampling, yes, a black metal tune and cutting it to shreds, guitars, screams and all, delivering a punishing yet addictive, sweatdriven "banger" that we like to call "metal house" if we may...(yeah we said). While Dj Mehdi delivers his blissful disco composition "Pocket Piano", not necessarily for the dancefloor but amazing "groove" music nonetheless! Simply put, Ed Rec 3 is a well rounded hype machine that's bound to work wonders at any given party. Truly one to check out!
MPEG Stream: KRAZY BALDHEAD "No Cow No Pow"
MPEG Stream: SEBASTIAN "Dog"
MPEG Stream: BUSY P "To Protect and Entertain"

LAST SHADOW PUPPETS, THE The Age Of The Understatement (Domino) cd 14.98
Some records are worth it for just one track. Even if the rest of the record is amazing. It's that one moment of sonic perfection, that almost renders the rest of the songs, and all of the other music, an afterthought.
Which is the case with this, the debut from The Last Shadow Puppets, a barely disguised homage to the orchestral pop of the legendary Scott Walker. Which is precisely why the opening track, "The Age Of The Understatement" is so irresistible. The strings, soaring and dramatic, the shuffling militaristic snares, the main hook, a swirling cinematic, almost Morricone-ish chunk of moody continental classic pop music. Fuck Amy Winehouse, these guys should be doing the theme to the new Bond movie. This is mysterious, stuff, evoking, cobblestone streets, tweed overcoat, wandering lonely villages hands in pockets, head down against the cold wind, everything steely grey, winter skies, brooding clouds, fleeting shadows, little corner cafes, a missed rendezvous. Even the video taps into that, a lonely ice skater, tanks trundling through some winter landscape, the natty band members looking all sixties and mod, in overcoats and turtlenecks, astride the tanks, amidst soldiers, neon, empty concert halls, long Soviet looking hallways, huge empty town squares. Which makes it even more surprising to find out that the Puppets are in fact, Arctic Monkeys lead singer Alex Turner, a guy from Simian Mobile Disco, the guy from Final Fantasy and a member of UK pop band the Rascals.
It's not just that track either, the whole record is subtly over the top but perfect, dark, shimmery, chunky and rocking here and there, but more sort of brooding and mysterious, channeling the same sort of pomp and drama of classic Walker while giving it a slight modern tweak. The vocals are obvious, Turner's twang is so distinct, and he doesn't do much to disguise it, singing exactly how he would (and did) in the Arctic Monkeys, but it works, even in this new sonic landscape.
And even with the opening track being that good, the rest of the record holds up pretty well, introducing horns, vibraphone, sizzling synths, and all sorts of subtle sonic mystery into their dark string laden pop. Some tracks are sunshine-y and jangley, but even then, they are infused with a certain amount of foreboding. The more rocking tracks are thick with buzzing synths, and propulsive drumming, but those too, never lose their cinematic moodiness. And the strings, arranged by Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett, who would have thought he had it in him, it's really the defining sound of the record, they soar and shimmer, shooting out high end streaks here, unfurling moaning cello like drones there, swirling into little climactic frenzies or drifting into lush minor key backdrops.
Every song is a like a little glimpse of some mysterious cold war spy movie, starring some dashing mystery man, rife with chase scenes, assassins, spies, murder, love, loss and betrayal, all set to The Last Shadow Puppets' pitch perfect chamber pop.
MPEG Stream: "The Age Of The Understatement"
MPEG Stream: "Standing Next To Me"
MPEG Stream: "Calm Like you"

HAACK, BRUCE Haackula (The Omni Recording Corporation) cd 16.98
Wow. This is a real "believe it or not" release. We thought we knew all about eccentric electropop pioneer Bruce Haack (1931-1988). Omni's reissue of Haack's 1969 psychedelic synth classic The Electric Lucifer was an automatic Record Of The Week for us. But we'd never heard of Haackula before. However, it lives up to its billing as a "lost classic of outsider electronica" for sure. At first, we weren't sure what to expect, putting it on with some excitement and trepidation... rest assured, we now have big smiles on our faces. Haackula is playful and perverse, and perhaps more than a little bit paranoid. Imagine Perrey and Kingsley on some bad acid. Haack's electronically effected vocals here continue the wordplay that he delighted in on The Electric Lucifer but now, shockingly, some swear words have crept in, for instance he drops the f-bomb in the first song "Lie Back", wherein he also rhymes "schizoid" with "shitzoid"!
Bruce Haack unleashed his Moogs (and warped imagination) in his bedroom studio to create Haackula back in 1978, but it remained officially unreleased until now. Possibly 'cause a large portion of Haack's discography consists of records for children, we were really surprised by the R-rated content of Haackula. And the R isn't just for robotic. There's a song called "Blow Job" fer chrissakes. Perhaps this is why it never saw the light of day in Haack's lifetime...
Haack's homebuilt synths and rhythm machines bleep and bloop, shuffle and shudder, conjuring an alternate universe of electronic computer funk wackier and weirder and way more off-kilter than anything Kraftwerk was up to at the time. The musical sense of childlike innocence with which Haack was so adept is still happening here, these tracks are as tuneful and catchy as ever, but his mystical ideas are joined by sexual themes... where The Electric Lucifer was astrological, Haackula is scatological. Adult realities are confronting the outsider, making Haackula's haunted house electronics all the more eerie, while the bizzaro-factor (plus Haack's aforementioned songwriting skills) insure that it's all very entertaining, gleefully so.
And if Haackula itself wasn't cool enuff, there two equally mindblowing bonus tracks. First there's Bruce Haack's 1982 proto-hiphop collaboration with Def Jam's Russell Simmons, an 8 minute track entitled "Party Machine" that features funky Herbie Hancock "rockit" style grooves and deep distorted vocals laying down such science as "Haack attack is back... Bruce Haack... Anti-wack." Damn!
The other bonus track included is an epic 32:15 piece called "Icarus" that would have made a fine release all by itself. Commissioned in 1979 to accompany an avant-garde art exhibition in Guadalajara, it's a sensational soundscape of everything from mad scientist laboratory burbling to faux-classical fantasias, frightening noise and groovy beats...
Omni has done their usual nice job with this. It's remastered from the original master tapes, and includes a thick booklet. Extensive, informative liner notes tell the story of Haack's "lost years", about his psychological ups and downs, how his passion for music and technology (and the two together!) never flagged despite his lack of major label success after The Electric Lucifer failed to take the world by storm... we also learn how he hooked up with hiphop producer Simmons, though we're left wondering if any DJs back in the day ever got their hands on it. As well, the cd booklet includes vintage photos and lyrics to all the Haackula songs.
Like we said, believe it or not, it's true. Haackula lives!!
MPEG Stream: "Man Kind"
MPEG Stream: "Blow Job"
MPEG Stream: "Party Machine"

V/A Museum Of Future Sound Vol. 2 (Flogsta Danshall) cd 14.98
In the time since we highlighted the original volume of Flogsta Danshall's Museum Of Future Sound (in the fall of '07), there have been literally hundreds if not thousands of records reviewed on our list. And while among those hundreds of records there have been a great many we really really liked, plenty of great music, the fact remains that NONE of it has been skweee.
And that just won't do. We need more skweee!!!
Thank god Flogsta Danshall has at last released "the next level" of the Museum Of Future Sound, volume two, 18 more tracks of pure skweee! Skweee, if you weren't paying attention back when we listed the first Museum Of Future Sound, is the cutting edge new Scandinavian electro-funk sound that's sweeping the globe. Well we maybe not quite sweeping. Or even skweeeping. But we're really into it, and heck it SHOULD be blowing up big, if we have anything to say about it.
Why do we love skweee so much? It's both atmospheric and groovy and sorta silly (it sometimes -sounds- silly plus there's all the skweee-punning potential), it's very DIY and has that video game chip-tune retro-ness that you know we'd think was cool. It's funky, goofy, pretty much always instrumental, full of Kraftwerkian melodies, ridiculous nasty crunching bass, and glitched-up hiphop rhythms, skweeeird broken-machine beats tailor made for your most skweeetarded robotic poppin' and lockin' dance moves. It's immediately recognizable, when someone here starts pumpin' the skweee on the stereo we all know what it is. And the whole MySpace-based, internet "nation of skweee" Nordic b-boy (skweee-boy?) community, small as it is, seems pretty cool. A whole little scene (skweeene?) of skweee-obsessiveness to get into.
Museum Of Future Sound vol. 2 is a good place to start (if you have vol. 1 you already know you want this, right??). There's cuts from a few vol. 1 superstars such as Mesak, Randy Barracuda, Claws Costeau, and Daniel Savio, plus tons more tracks introducing such skweee powers-to-be as Eero Johannes, Mrs Qaeda, Joxaren, Spartan Lover, Limonious, Wankers United, Rigas Den Andre, and more... some we already knew from our internet skweee-search, others totally new to us. All these museum exhibits are pretty fantastic!! Each with their own idiosyncracies (idiosyncraskweees?). Ok, stop! By the way, while the first volume came in a slim plastic case, this one is packaged in a cardstock sleeve with three skweee stickers as inserts.
Also, volume one of the Museum is being repressed, so we're out of them now but will have it back in the next few weeks hopefully. Also, we do have a handful of skweee 7"s still in stock, ask us about 'em... maybe we'll try to get some 12" vinyl at some point in the future too.
MPEG Stream: RIGAS DEN ANDRE " I Am Crane"
MPEG Stream: LIMONIOUS "Swedish Pommak"
MPEG Stream: RANDY BARRACUDA "Shock The Plankton"

LIL MAMA VYP Voice Of the Young People (Zomba) cd 17.98
Last year just about all of us who heard the song "Lip Gloss" were immediately smitten with what had to be one of the most fun and catchy bubble-gum-hip-hop songs ever recorded. It snapped and popped like a young Missy Elliott on the greatest high school cheerleading squad EVER. If you haven't heard it you must check it out! So undeniably catchy and irresistible! So we were almost afraid to check out this full length when it finally came out as we didn't want to find out that Lil Mama would turn out to be just another in a long line of one-hit wonders. Of course the record's first song is "Lip Gloss" and it's followed by the cleverly titled "One Hit Wonder" which is a total slammer in its own right and the next several songs prove that Lil Mama has actually got plenty of hits up in her sleeve. She really has lots of the potential to become a new Missy Elliott for the next generation. She can sound so self assured, confident and full of vibrant color. There are a handful of really great and catchy songs on here for sure. It does lose steam towards the end with some misses and a should-have-never-been bonus track featuring Avril Lavigne. But we were happy to find out that Lil Mama is not just a one-hit wonder and we'll definitely be keeping our ears open for what she does in the future.
MPEG Stream: "Lip Gloss"
MPEG Stream: "What it Is (Strike a Pose) [Feat. T-Pain]"
MPEG Stream: "One Hit Wonder"

V/A Bippp: French Synth Wave 1979-85 (Born Bad) lp 22.00
Also now available on vinyl!! Yay!
Ah those French and their electronics, if there's one thing we've learned, they're really good at busting out catchy synth lines and addictive dance tunes. France in the late '70s to mid '80s particularly, held an abundance of innovative and distinct synth-based cold-wave acts, many of whom where under the radar and less popular than the likes of Jean Michel Jarre or Richard Pinhas, but still rich in texture and just as brilliant. We read somewhere that Ruth sold just 50 copies of their (amazing) album released in 1985. The fact that we know next to nothing about any of the artists on this comp makes it even better!
If the Tigersushi Collection, So Young But So Cold that we listed a while back tickled your fancy, Bippp will not disappoint. The folks here at aQ have been eating this up! This compilation, put out by Everloving, licensed from the French label Born Bad, is a marvelous collection of raw futuristic energy and minimalist beats. In it you hear the beginnings of cold wave, dark-wave, post punk, and electro pop. Act's "Ping Pong" suggests everything from The Police to early New Order while the quirky efforts of "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" by The Comix is fast, spastic and bouncy with minimal drum machine effects, slicing synth stabs, and swirly, grinding melodies similar to Kraftwerk or early OMD. CKC's "20h25", catchy as all hell, stands out the most with backing robotic vocals, eerie Casio lines, and a somewhat random slap bass break mid-song. In the pulsing, metronomic works of "Pretty Day" by Mary Moore, another gem in the collection and one of the only two tracks with English vocals, Mary sings about love and death in equally coy tones. TGV's "Partie 1" is sort of a punk anthem (as are a couple others in the collection) with interlocking key patterns and quick, nervous yelps.
Seems a little out of place that the last song, "Rainbow Man", is a tune by Ed Banger (present day French electro monarch) label frontman Busy P (who samples the "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" track by The Comix listed earlier on in the comp) though the Collection's title suggests French New Wave "1979-85"..?? Still a damned good track regardless. And maybe the bait to get some of the young 'uns interested in this cool old stuff. Really it's astounding how fresh in quality the bulk of these songs are as well, as if they could've been released within the last five years, on a label like Ed Banger...
Most of the bands on the compilation apparently released vinyl runs of 1000 or less the first time around. Lacking an aboveground hit by a homegrown version of Depeche Mode or Soft Cell, the scene portrayed on Bippp remained largely hidden. As brilliant and often catchy as the tunes are, they remained weirdly confidential. We can only hope that the release of Bippp leads to reissues of full albums by these acts! We already knew we needed that Ruth record back in print.
MPEG Stream: CKC "20h25"
MPEG Stream: MARIE MOORE "Pretty Day"
MPEG Stream: DEUX "Game And Performance"

CRYSTAL CASTLES s/t (Last Gang Records) cd 14.98
Man, we really, really love old school video games around here. The Tron and Rastan games in the store, the Arcade Ambience field recording series, Power Pill Fist, etc. It has to be part of what lured us into the world of Toronto's Crystal Castles and their 8-bit electro mayhem. We're so glad this finally came out, because half of these tracks have been on the internet for about two years and a legitimate release was looking sort of unlikely. But here it is! We digress, on with the review.
Okay, so the duo has been lumped in -- maybe mistakenly -- with the Klaxons, Justice, Digitalism, and the like, but we hear darker, more interesting minor key melodies that occasionally hint at things like The Knife and Junior Boys. In reality, they're not divorced from any of those bands, but there's something about them that gets us. No, not just the aural video game quality, but the undeniable urge to somehow say they're just a bit more punk. Fun. Playful. In fact, there's a handful of tracks on the record that aren't even mixed. And when we saw them play here a year or so ago, their singer Alice was telling us about how she had been kicked out of the previous night's venue for underage drinking.
It doesn't hurt their art-punk street cred that they're best buds with LA's own Health, who they did a split 7" with a year or so ago. When listening to Crystal Castles, there's the feeling that this duo would be just as happy blasting their sounds through a shitty stereo system at their friend's house party, but lucky for us everyone else seems to be feeling it too -- and now they can invite us along to the party.
MPEG Stream: "Untrust Us"
MPEG Stream: "Xxzxcuzx Me"

V/A Bippp: French Synth Wave 1979 - 85 (Everloving) cd 14.98
Ah those French and their electronics, if there's one thing we've learned, they're really good at busting out catchy synth lines and addictive dance tunes. France in the late '70s to mid '80s particularly, held an abundance of innovative and distinct synth-based cold-wave acts, many of whom where under the radar and less popular than the likes of Jean Michel Jarre or Richard Pinhas, but still rich in texture and just as brilliant. We read somewhere that Ruth sold just 50 copies of their (amazing) album released in 1985. The fact that we know next to nothing about any of the artists on this comp makes it even better!
If the Tigersushi Collection, So Young But So Cold that we listed a while back tickled your fancy, Bippp will not disappoint. The folks here at aQ have been eating this up! This compilation, put out by Everloving, licensed from the French label Born Bad, is a marvelous collection of raw futuristic energy and minimalist beats. In it you hear the beginnings of cold wave, dark-wave, post punk, and electro pop. Act's "Ping Pong" suggests everything from The Police to early New Order while the quirky efforts of "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" by The Comix is fast, spastic and bouncy with minimal drum machine effects, slicing synth stabs, and swirly, grinding melodies similar to Kraftwerk or early OMD. CKC's "20h25", catchy as all hell, stands out the most with backing robotic vocals, eerie Casio lines, and a somewhat random slap bass break mid-song. In the pulsing, metronomic works of "Pretty Day" by Mary Moore, another gem in the collection and one of the only two tracks with English vocals, Mary sings about love and death in equally coy tones. TGV's "Partie 1" is sort of a punk anthem (as are a couple others in the collection) with interlocking key patterns and quick, nervous yelps.
Seems a little out of place that the last song, "Rainbow Man", is a tune by Ed Banger (present day French electro monarch) label frontman Busy P (who samples the "Touche Pas Mon Sexe" track by The Comix listed earlier on in the comp) though the Collection's title suggests French New Wave "1979-85"..?? Still a damned good track regardless. And maybe the bait to get some of the young 'uns interested in this cool old stuff. Really it's astounding how fresh in quality the bulk of these songs are as well, as if they could've been released within the last five years, on a label like Ed Banger...
Most of the bands on the compilation apparently released vinyl runs of 1000 or less the first time around. Lacking an aboveground hit by a homegrown version of Depeche Mode or Soft Cell, the scene portrayed on Bippp remained largely hidden. As brilliant and often catchy as the tunes are, they remained weirdly confidential. We can only hope that the release of Bippp leads to reissues of full albums by these acts! We already knew we needed that Ruth record back in print.
MPEG Stream: CKC "20h25"
MPEG Stream: MARIE MOORE "Pretty Day"
MPEG Stream: DEUX "Game And Performance"

MANSET, GERARD La Mort D'Orion (World Psychedelia Ltd.) cd 17.98
Last year one of our favorite reissues came in the form of the strong and passionate voice of Gerard Manset. A French mastermind musician who has been crafting iconoclastic and lush sounds since the late '60s. The release we first heard last year titled 1968 quickly became an AQ favorite and made us think of Manset as a French incarnation of Caetano Veloso. We went from barely knowing anything about Manset to wanting to try to find out as much as we could about him, as that release reeled us in so strongly with its elegant and charged melodies.
La Mort D'Orion was recorded a couple years after that release in 1970 and finds Manset in a much more avant setting, but with equally stunning results. Created as one multi-part suite, the record is filled with strings, the music moving from small scale moments to sweeping epics, beautiful melodies everywhere, all colored with rich instrumentation and of course there's Manset's elegant voice.
This is the perfect antidote to fluffy ye-ye pop. With La Mort D'Orion, Manset created a piece of challenging and brooding symphonic pop akin to the best work created by the likes of Robert Wyatt, Scott Walker and Franco Battiato. Accented with shots of prog, psychedelia and modern classical, Manset displays his amazing ability to pull together a wide range of elements in creating such a monumental and rewarding piece of music. Highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "La mort d'Orion: 2. La mort d'Orion"
MPEG Stream: "Ils"
MPEG Stream: "La mort d'Orion: 3. Où l'horizon prend fin"

PERICH, TRISTAN 1-Bit Music (Cantaloupe Music) jewel case 1-bit electronic music generator 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Attention music geeks, music-tech nerds, cool gadget obsessives and espeically anyone who freaked out over the amazing Buddha Machine! We've got another far out musical gadget that will have you all in a tizzy.
Tristan Perich is a name we had never heard before. Turns out he's a musician and inventor, who has released this record, his debut we think, of 1-bit music (more on that in a moment) in its own self contained jewel case player. What's that? A gorgeous little electronic sculpture, made up of a plain old plastic jewel case, and a handful of colored wires and chips and tiny dials, completely self contained, a headphone jack in the jewel case offering you entry into Perich's crunchy minimal electronic sound world.
As many of you know, 8-bit music is the sound of '80s video game music, all your arcade favorites, super simple electronic sounds crafted into equally simple harmonies and melodies, so get rid of seven of those bits, and you're left with just ONE bit, the smallest increment of memory and sound. So Perich has taken these super minimal tones, and constructed some amazing electronic music, that is crunchy and raw, the sound all buzzy tones and staticky clicks, ranging from playful lullabies to grinding dense tangles of squelch and squiggle. Some of the tracks definitely sound like they could be some lost video game music, but others are drone-y and weirdly layered and textured smears of crumbling lo-fi bleep and buzz, through headphones it sounds amazing, but through your speakers, it sounds like someone is in there pulling your speakers apart with rusty blunted shears. This would destroy a dancefloor, add some booming beats and you'd have some Daft Punk jam of the year, all grinding minimalism, in fact one track sounds like Fischerspooner via your Atari 2600, while some of the others sound like a much more playful and lo-fi Ryoji Ikeda, the sound of someone playing Pac Man turned into a 1-bit techno jam, and like the ultra minimal little brother of Skweee (that Scandinavian electro we've been so obsessed with lately)!
But the music really only is half of it. The player is so striking, the whole record contained on a tiny chip, soldered to the jewel case, a battery in its little holder, two tiny volume controls, a mini on/off switch, a button to skip tracks, wires leading to a tiny headphone jack, the only liner notes a printed piece of paper that comes off with the plastic shrinkwrap, and a transparency with Perich's name and the name of the record. Before any of us had even heard the music, we all new we had to have one. It's a tiny musical sculpture, a piece of art that functions as a piece of sound art as well. Anyone who bought a Buddha Machine will want one of these. And if you were wondering what to get that weirdo music freek friend of yours, we'd be hard pressed to think of something cooler than this!
Be warned. We got ONLY 50 COPIES!!! They are super labor intensive and hand made. Perich is currently trying to sort out a way to make more, so when we run out, it may be a while before we can get more, so if you want one, and we can't imagine how you wouldn't, then act fast!!!
Cool music gadget (and minimal lo-fi 1-bit videogame glitch crunch record) of the year!
MPEG Stream: "Certain Movement"

XYNFONICA A Feast For Famished Ravens (Hekaloth / Cyclops) cd 15.98
What we're about to say, we don't say lightly. Trust us. We may traffic in hyperbole. And our shelves may be stuffed with lots of 'best evers' and 'worst evers' and 'greatest evers', but this friends, is quite possibly the weirdest record we've ever carried. When we first threw it on, we were immediately struck with the realization, that what we were hearing, was either the most amazing thing we had ever heard, or absolutely the worst piece of shit EVER. Andee quickly decided on the former. And no matter how hard he tried, or how many repeated listens he was subjected to, Allan is sticking with the latter. But the more we play this in the store, the more the tribe of Xynfonica worshippers grows, Antaeus, Matt, Cameron, one can only handle a few listens before you're forever in its thrall. We're not sure how Allan does it, maybe there's some sort of chip in his brain, or maybe he's not really human at all, who knows. What we do know is we will wear him down, and just like you, faithful yet doomed reader of this list, he will eventually bow down to the damaged glory that is Xynfonica.
By now you're probably wondering what the fuck we're on about. Fair enough. So let's go back a bit. Not sure how we first heard about Xynfonica, but we got the disc in, it had an amazing cover, an old painting of some ancient battle, men on horseback, wielding swords, the record title: A Feast For Famished Ravens, song titles like: "From Your Father's Skull" and "The Viking Zodiac", a huge booklet jammed with more lyrics than could possibly fit in the three songs here, there are even footnotes!!! So we still hadn't listened to it, but we were pretty much sold already.
So we finally threw it on, and were greeted with some strange synthesizers, guitar synthesizers to be specific (we later discovered) and a growled demonic vocal, the synths, sort of atonal and detuned, like a demented Peter And The Wolf, the vocals, a strangled black metal rasp, so okay, we're thinking, a cool weird intro, so we waited for the band to kick in, and waited, and waited, and waited some more, scanned forwardŠ So then we thought, okay, maybe the whole first track is the intro, so we skipped to the second track, which of course started with the raspy vocals and the seasick synths, but we gave it the benefit of the doubt and waited and waited, scanned forward, and then it dawned on us. HOLY SHIT. This was the band. There were no drums, no guitarist. It was just some trollish demon and his damaged synth, spewing endless tales of mysterious battles and lost civilizations. And suddenly, it had us. Xynfonica. Sure it's creepy and demented, and borderline retarded, and the synths sometime sound so wrong it makes us dizzy, so 'off' it makes our eyes water, the melodies are demented, alien, creepy ominous one second, bouncing cheerfully the next, but always those vocals, an everpresent demon storyteller, it's hard to explain exactly why we're so taken, but we are. Every time we play this, initial reactions range from confusion, to hysterical laughter, to anxiety to sheer unadulterated joy. Imagine if Jandek was the keyboard player in a black metal band and decided to make a solo record, or imagine Mr. Roger's neighborhood but Mr. Rogers is out sick, so the dude from Abruptum is filling in, or imagine the music files from some medieval video game getting corrupted, and then used as the intro music for some evil metal band. Well you know, what? There's no need to imagine. It's all right here. Xynfonica will give you all of that and more. With just a rudimentary grasp of the synthesizer, and a frog in his throat, all will be revealed, and we shall all revel in his stumbling, confusional musical brilliance.
Xynfonica. Xynfonica. Xynfonica. Xynfonica. XynfonicaŠ
MPEG Stream: "A Feast For Famished Ravens Pt.1"
MPEG Stream: "The Viking Zodiac Pt.1"

MULLER, THIERRY Rare & Unreleased 1974-1984 (Fractal) cd 22.00
What could be cooler than a French guy in the '70s, hanging out with naked chicks and teetering stacks of analog synths, making underground DIY futuristic psychedelic new wave punk drone proto-industrial music??? Uh, not much. Particularly when said French guy (Thierry Muller) is so good at it. Longtime AQ list readers might recall us raving some time ago about something called Ilitch and something else called Ruth, both bands/projects of Muller reissued on the Fractal label. Now, those discs are all out of print (why? they should repress!), but the label has just presented us with a collection of mostly previously unreleased material from the man's various projects over the period indicated in the subtitle... and even the stuff that has been available is super rare. None of it included on those previous Fractal cds of Ilitch and Ruth. For the uninitiated, let us say, Thierry Muller was a French pioneer in the realm of electronic/prog/punk weirdness, an "early Industrial" genius indeed! This disc is all the proof you need. There's material from five different Muller led projects: Arcane (1974), Ilitch (1975), Breaking Point (1978), Ruth (1978), and Crash (1984). The progression, if we can generalize, from "band" to "band" is from the more abstract, lo-fi distorted homebaked soundscape-psych displayed by Arcane all the way to the robotic sci-fi FX pop of Crash. But it's all got a kind of tense krautrock meets the new wave vibe, and if you like the likeminded work of Muller's countryman Richard Pinhas (Heldon) you should check this out! You could buy it just for the blissful 28 minutes of Ilitch's 1975 "Un Jour Come Tant d'Autres" and get your money's worth. Highly recommended!!
MPEG Stream: ARCANE "Punkhardlove"
MPEG Stream: BREAKING POINT "Breaking Point, Pt.1"
MPEG Stream: RUTH "Mon Pote"

V/A Got Howls (Pish Posh Of North America) cd 9.98
Killer three way split from three local modern hip hop / electronica outfits, one of which, the awesomely titled Lazer Sword, just so happens to include our very own Antaeus. So let's start with the Lazer Sword, who of the three are probably our favorites, and we're not just saying that cuz of Antaeus, nope, we're saying that, cuz of the three, LS are the hardest and the grittiest, with fierce beats, and crazy hidden hooks, each of the three tracks are full on looped, stuttering, skipping dancefloor fillers, with big beats that shuffle and pound, vocals chopped up into strange hiccuping rhythms, buzzing synths and throbbing bin rattling bass, angular alien melodies, everything sharp and grinding, but warm and thick at the same time. We definitely hear some Justice in there, and boy would Lazer Sword be right at home on one of those Ed Rec comps. But just because Lazer Sword are our favorites, doesn't mean the other two bands don't 'rock' just as hard, cuz they do, only differently. 
Ghosts on Tape is a bit groovier, a little more laid back, "Mogadishu Night Life" has a definite dancehall vibe, with Eastern melodies, and rhythms chopped and looped into some strange circusy hip hop jam, "Port Moresby" is rife with more block rocking beats, weird swooping FX, robotic and machinelike, some cyborg freaked out future funk for sure, and their last track, "Scraped Up", is muted murky slither, complete with a super recognizable sitar sample, but smeared into a blur of fuzzy synths, thumping beats and blown out buzz.
Finally, Hours Of Worship deliver three tracks of swooshy fuzzy pop ambient techno, the beats simple pulses beneath dense clouds of looped vocal samples and swirls of dense FX, strangely propulsive chill out music, minor key melodies, and a bit of cinematic epic-ness, that over the course of their three tracks, drifts from four on the floor pound (but a soft and shimmering pound), two mumbly almost heroin house, to the closer, a dreamy, eighties style slab of New Order-y new wave, complete with rainy day melody and a blurry washed out M83 sheen over the whole thing. So good. 
All we have to say to dance music dorks is fuck Europe, people better start looking to the US (and maybe to SF in particular) for the new breed of dancefloor destroyers, cuz they're right here...
MPEG Stream: LAZER SWORD "Street Scooby"
MPEG Stream: LAZER SWORD "Gucci Sweatshirt"
MPEG Stream: GHOSTS ON TAPE "Mogadishu Night Life"
MPEG Stream: HOURS OF WORSHIP "Visions"

JUSTICE (cross) (Vice / Ed Banger) cd 14.98
Holy waters of Nazareth! There's still a faint ringing in our ears after listening to this debut disco-metal machine of an album, whose title is simply a cross, by the much talked about French duo, Justice, on the French electro imprint, Ed Banger Records. No electronic group has received as much hype and hysteria (mainly via internet music blogs and much remixed material by big name producers and DJs) in so little time as Justice, and Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay, the men of Justice, more than meet expectations with all barrels blazing dishing out 48 minutes of a near-perfect, sinister beats 'n' synths face-off. We must admit, with all the long drawn out hype and remixing of their first few singles within the last two years, "Waters of Nazareth" (more or less the jump start for Ed Banger Records all together), their smash collaboraton with Simian, "We Are Your Friends" (which you probably would have heard everywhere in Europe in 2006), and their more recent single "D.A.N.C.E.", the two slowly began to drift out of our interest, especially with the 18+ months it's taken "Waters of Nazareth" to make it from French 12" to worldwide CD. But of course after hearing the debut, we were sucked right back in.
The opener, "Genesis", takes the electro cake, with a super theatrical intro building up to mysteriously cranky synth lines, slicing, over-compressed drums, and frazzled disco trills, reminiscent of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" but with a sonic twist. "Let There Be Light" is dirty disco pop with hints of Daft Punk-esque melodies and bass riffs. Justice thrill most when using old sputtering analogue synth sounds over momentous rhythms as in "Waters of Nazareth" and "Phantom" parts 1 and 2. "Stress" is a heavy beast of a track with it's chaotic string arrangements, backing sirens, and random abrasive sweeping glitch effects throughout the drums and bass. We ran like four red lights on our bike listening to this one (dangerous, kids don't try this at home). But there's an apparent balance within the album with sweeter numbers like "Valentine" with it's melodic electric piano, the popular recent single "D.A.N.C.E." voiced by the London Children's Choir, and the mashed-up funk of "New Jack" in which human voices are cut up and recycled into new arrangements.
As a whole, this album is filled with squelchy sound textures and wild arrogant dance patterns and rhythms.
In the last year everyone has been basically hoping Justice would release the equivalent to any of Daft Punk's epics, "Homework" or "Discovery", assuming Justice would emerge as the next big French electronic leaders. Though the comparisons to Daft Punk are inevitable, the album proves that Justice can stand on their own just fine without borrowing too much from their predecessor. Overall... a full on aural assault. A pulsing and shimmering piece of electronic music standing at the forefront of the current rock'n'rave collision.
MPEG Stream: "Genesis"
MPEG Stream: "Phantom"
MPEG Stream: "Waters Of Nazareth"

V/A Ed Rec Vol. 2 (Ed Banger) cd 14.98
We often feel like we're totally out of the loop when it comes to dance music. And as if to prove that point, every once in a while we'll randomly stumble across a disc that totally kicks our ass, only to realize, that the world at large had already been hyping said disc to death. Such is the case with this second comp of far out futuristic electro weirdness from Ed Banger Records. We sort of just picked it up on a whim (some AQ folks were already hip to it, we're not all dance music squares) and were immediately smitten. Wild and fun, funky and funny, heavy and fuzzy and if the person writing this review actually danced, this disc would have had him out of his seat like a shot.
No need to do a total track by track run down, as every single song here is a killer, a few names we knew, most we didn't, but the sound is crazy. And fucking awesome. It's like the music of LCD Soundsystem, Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, but supercharged, injected with youthful energy and punk rock snottiness, peppered with more distortion and buzz, fucked up beats, off kilter loops and samples, but remaining totally hooky and danceable.
Some of the best tracks:
The killer dis track "Dismissed" from Uffie, a killer slab of seriously foul mouthed electro nastiness using a bastardized version of what sounds like Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" as the main loop, but it's all about the vitriolic invective, what sounds like a nasty teenage white girl awkwardly rapping and spitting all sorts of goofy playground insults.
Ultra hyped next big things Justice who do their best Daft Punk, and offer up a super damaged cop-show block rockin' beat workout with machine like rhythms and cool crumbling synthy bass lines and awesome glitched out buzz drenched synthesized riffage.
Krazy Baldhead who come closest to Jones Machine for sheer mindless electronic bliss, throbbing synths, bouncing bass, another track that sounds like some futuristic chase scene.
Sebastian, who offers up a blast of ultra distorted beats, weird blown out fuzzy loops, the whole thing chopped and hiccuping like some radio with bad reception or a turntable with fuzz all over the needle.
We could go on and on. Needless to say, every time we play this in the store folks go nuts for it, and even some of the dance music phobic we know have been rocking this like crazy! Some of the other folks on the comp: Mr. Oizo, DJ Mehdi, Mr. Flash, Feadz, Busy P, Klaxons, Fancy and Vicarious Bliss.
Way recommended.
MPEG Stream: UFFIE "Dismissed"
MPEG Stream: JUSTICE "Phantom"
MPEG Stream: KRAZY BALDHEAD "Strings Of Death"

MOTOR Klunk (Mute) cd 16.98
Normally the way to get me (Allan) to listen to, let alone like, a record *isn't* to tell me that it's got elements of techno, acid house, and/or Hi-NRG dance music to it. Comparisons to various '80s industrial/club culture icons like Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb are also not terribly enticing, either. Yet this album, with its stark, stylish black and white (and red) graphics and suggestively Kraftwerkian name and title somehow drew me in, and guess what? I ended up really digging it! (No, not dancing to it, though I'm sure people will.) The dozen, almost entirely instrumental tracks on Motor's full-length debut may be a species of techno/house music, but they're sufficiently raw and ominously droning to appeal to me as a pure listening experience... the relentless 4/4 energy here is simply brutal, and this disc is thick and heavy with machine beats and super-distorted synths, the kind that sound like dive-bombing Stukkas! Sure, it's Sprocketsy but ballsy too, this trans-Atlantic duo (one guy from Minneapolis, another from Paris) making the perfect in-my-imagination Euro techno ideal of computer-jerked motorik electro grooves, tranced-out tones, and video game gibbering...
OK, gotta cut this review short as everyone else here is making fun of what I'm listening to, doing robotic dance moves and making raver glow stick comments, but I know they're all secretly enjoying this as well -- AND I think they're getting their work done faster and more efficiently, too!
(Note: this isn't to be confused with another, different electronic outfit also named Motor who hail from Russia.)
MPEG Stream: "Black Powder"
MPEG Stream: "King Of USA"

TRETTIOARIGA KRIGET s/t (Mellotronen) cd 23.00
Back in stock, along with its previously un-listed by AQ follow-up Krissang. Both albums are among our biggest obscure prog faves, and they've now been reissued in sturdy, swank digipacks by the Mellotronen label, looking quite spiffy and boasting a bunch of bonus tracks as well! Here's what we said about this one, when we reviewed it before:
When Byram heard this, his first reaction was: Allan, dude, this has you written all over it! And it's true, *both* of AQ's resident prog-heads (proudly, Allan and Andee) are way into this band and this album -- that's why we ordered a few from overseas to share with our likeminded customers. On this, their 1974 debut album, Trettioariga Kriget (aka Thirty Years War) dish out jazzed-up but also kinda heavy '70s prog rock from Sweden, boasting some over-the-top falsetto vocals worthy of Amon Duul II's Renate Knaup or the guy from Flower Travellin' Band. Mathy, King Crimson-esque hard rock, that's also (in context of this sort of thing) quite catchy, actually. Vocal hooks coexist with the math jazz rock instrumental display and noisy skronk. Recommended, especially if you're among the many (?) AQ customers happy with our prior obscure prog suggestions (Il Balletto di Bronzo, Osanna, etc.)
Now even more recommended, nicely packaged with liner notes, lyrics, photos and (best of all) over twenty minutes of extra, previously unreleased music added!
MPEG Stream: "Kaledoniska Orogenesen"
MPEG Stream: "Fjarilsttityder"

V/A So Young But So Cold: Underground French Music 1977-1983 (Tigersushi) cd 16.98
After being AWOL for a year or so, this longtime fave is now back in stock, and the timing is perfect since we've been raving about a bunch of similar comps of cool vintage French new wave/punk/electro stuff recently like Bippp and IVG and Des Jeunes Gens Modernes. If you liked those, you gotta check this out, 'especially if you're into the proggier side of things.
This one was kind of a sleeper hit when we first listed it. I mean, we knew it was a cool record, but boy did people like it. We sold a ton and then the label ran out. At last it's been repressed, so here it is again. Definitely recommended!
France. Synths. 1977-83. Intrigued? You should be. This comp, compiled by a couple of today's top trainspotting electronica mavens, highlights what are indeed some obscure, awesome French entries into the field of proto-techno. Richard Pinhas of Heldon we've talked about recently, also Metal Boys, and you might remember Ruth from a reissue a while back, but there's plenty of names here we're getting acquainted with for the first time: Nini Raviolette, Mathematiques Modernes, Kas Product, The (Hypothetical) Prophets, Moderne, The Droids... Sixteen tracks in all of sinister prog/pop electronics, droning ambience, Magmoid robotics, futurepunk, and sci-fi dance darkness. So young, so cold - so stylish.
MPEG Stream: NINI RAVIOLETTE "Suis-Je Normale"
MPEG Stream: BERNARD SZAJNER "Welcome (To Deathrow)"