1 SPEED BIKE Droopy Butt Begone! (Constellation) cd 14.98
Aidan Girt, drummer from Godspeed You Black Emperor and the man behind Exhaust, has a new side project. Gritty, atmospheric tunes laid out with hip-hop and down-tempo electronica beats give "Droopy Butt Begone!" (I know, a regretful album title, there seem to be a lot of those lately) a feel akin to Village of Savoonga's "Score" but with a bit more kick, ie: beats. Works pretty well, although the voice samples of pointless crazy guy rambling (a la Godspeed) are a bit unnecessary.

1 SPEED BIKE Droopy Butt Begone! (Constellation) lp 13.98
Aidan Girt, drummer from Godspeed You Black Emperor and the man behind Exhaust, has a new side project. Gritty, atmospheric tunes laid out with hip-hop and down-tempo electronica beats give "Droopy Butt Begone!" (I know, a regretful album title, there seem to be a lot of those lately) a feel akin to Village of Savoonga's "Score" but with a bit more kick, ie: beats. Works pretty well, although the voice samples of pointless crazy guy rambling (a la Godspeed) are a bit unnecessary.

1 SPEED BIKE Someone Told Me Life Gets Easier In Your 50's (Broklyn Beats) cd 14.98
Much like his American counterpart Kid 606, Montreal, Quebec's 1-Speed Bike makes IDM that's not afraid to nuzzle right up beside your tender ear, only to deliver a hefty dose of ripe and robust digital flatulence. Aidan Girt (also of the very differently minded Godspeed You Black Emperor and Exhaust) tailors his jagged tracks from heavy grit electronic sandpaper providing the maximum degree of aural abrasions. As his moniker implies this music pretty much travels at a singular pace... full throttle. Heaps of distorted digital spasms and splatters elbow their way through the thumpin' programmed thuds and crashes that only occasionally allow the rubble to settle into some sort of traceable rhythms. A side note: Girt's song titles are as smart-ass and in-your-face as his music (often more so). A sample: "If You Were A McDonalds, Your Lips Would Be An Orange Soda, But Your Dick Would Be A Shriveled-Up Fry". Aaaah, ma pomme frite malheureuse!
MPEG Stream: "Cats Don't Judge People Do"
MPEG Stream: "My Dick Is This Small Because It's -40 Degrees F"

13 & GOD s/t (Anticon / Alien Transistor) cd 14.98
This is essentially the perfect mix of Anticon's off kilter avant indie hip hop, and the Notwist's melancholy electronic bliss rock. Which makes perfect sense considering that 13 And God is made up of 3/5 of the Notwist (Markus and Micha Acher, Martin Gretschmann) and all of Anticon's Themselves (Doseone, Dax, and Jel). The rest of the Notwist (drummer Martin Messerschmid and guitarist Max Punktezahl) help with production and several tracks feature guest vocals from Steffi Bohm of Ms. John Soda and Valerie Trebeljahr of Lali Puna. That should give some idea of what 13 And God is all about. Dreamy expanses of melancholy glitchpop, wistful and wandering, simple shuffling and loping drum beats, fuzzy synth melodies, warm warbling loops, soft focused and otherworldly, and then the strange entangling of Notwist-like breathy effervescent vocals and Doesone's rapid fire tongue twisting helium affected flow. Seems like it would be a mess, but surprisingly, they manage to make it all fit perfectly. Fans of the Notwist's Neon Golden should find this essential (assuming they aren't averse to a little hip hop here and there) and fans of Themselves, Doseone and those sorts of things will most likely just find this to be yet another perfect piece in Anticon's always evolving musical puzzle.
MPEG Stream: "Low Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "Men Of Station"
MPEG Stream: "Superman On Ice"

13 & GOD s/t (Anticon / Alien Transistor) 2lp 14.98
This is essentially the perfect mix of Anticon's off kilter avant indie hip hop, and the Notwist's melancholy electronic bliss rock. Which makes perfect sense considering that 13 And God is made up of 3/5 of the Notwist (Markus and Micha Acher, Martin Gretschmann) and all of Anticon's Themselves (Doseone, Dax, and Jel). The rest of the Notwist (drummer Martin Messerschmid and guitarist Max Punktezahl) help with production and several tracks feature guest vocals from Steffi Bohm of Ms. John Soda and Valerie Trebeljahr of Lali Puna. That should give some idea of what 13 And God is all about. Dreamy expanses of melancholy glitchpop, wistful and wandering, simple shuffling and loping drum beats, fuzzy synth melodies, warm warbling loops, soft focused and otherworldly, and then the strange entangling of Notwist-like breathy effervescent vocals and Doesone's rapid fire tongue twisting helium affected flow. Seems like it would be a mess, but surprisingly, they manage to make it all fit perfectly. Fans of the Notwist's Neon Golden should find this essential (assuming they aren't averse to a little hip hop here and there) and fans of Themselves, Doseone and those sorts of things will most likely just find this to be yet another perfect piece in Anticon's always evolving musical puzzle.
MPEG Stream: "Low Heaven"
MPEG Stream: "Men Of Station"
MPEG Stream: "Superman On Ice"

1349 RYKKINN Brown Ring Of Fury (Jester) cd 14.98
Jester strikes again! After quite a few stellar releases by the likes of When, Ulver, Bogus Blimp, Kare Joao, Single Unit and others, this time the unpredictable (except for being predictably good) Norwegian avant-garde label Jester brings us another unknown quantity: the debut cd from something called 1349 Rykkin. Initially, this seemed like an exercise in distorted clobbering noise electronics with percussive hits and crunkly rhythms, definitely for fans of recent Merzbow and Kevin Drumm. Aggro but also varied and interesting. But, there's more -- four tracks in, the destructo stuff gives way to urban field recordings (passing cars, street sounds) and some really pretty, melancholic acoustic guitar playing in the form of "Field With Flowers In Crazy Colors", revealing Brown Ring Of Fury's sensitive side. Then the noise returns, but always, as before, with some left-field component. The penultimate track, "Best Boy", is also the album's epic centerpiece, being over 25 minutes of noise-throb akin to some ominous mechanical heartbeat, augmented with washes of spacey synth and vicious drones. Merzbow/Aube/Space Machine Japanoise territory here for sure. After that, there's a recording of some blokes in a bar on holiday (it seems) that makes for a confusing/bizarre/silly coda. Funny.
Our research reveals that this disc is the work of one guy, Bard Erik Strand Torgersen, with help from a few friends (including Jester label boss Kristoffer Rygg, aka Garm of Ulver). 1349 refers to the year the Black Plague devastated Norway, and Rykkin is the suburb of Oslo where Torgersen grew up. Apparently he's a Norwegian techno pioneer who hasn't made music for years, this is a new direction for him and certainly far from "techno" as it's normally conceived!
MPEG Stream: "Extreme Sunlight"
MPEG Stream: "Fields With Flowers In Crazy Colors"

16 BIT Put Ya Dirt Inside (Destub) 10" 13.98

16 BITCH PILE-UP / MIKE SHIFLET Split (Ecstatic Peace) 12" 13.98

16-17 Human Distortion (DHR) cdep 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Swiss jazzcore group lead by saxophonist Alex Buess, with production assistance from Techno-Animal's Kevin Martin, contribute four tracks to the Digital Hardcore label. Strangely, not as brutal as some of their past work (like the amazing Gyatso cd) but still brilliant, similiar in some ways to DHR's Shizuo. Recommended.

16-17 When All Else Fails... (Vision) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A couple of copies of this 1989 lp found their way out of the hidden corners of one of our distributors' warehouses... 16-17, who recently released an ep on Digital Hardcore, are a Swiss outfit led by horn player Alex Buess, who unleash a seemingly never-ending avalanche of sax squeals and skronks on top of bleating electronics and high-octane drum machine arrhythmia. Intense! (and, you're not likely to see this again!)

20' TO 2000 PACKAGING SYSTEM (Noton/Raster/Bless) 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
While over 50% of the staff here at AQ has been meticulously collecting all twelve volumes of the wonderful 20' to 2000 series of cds, one of each of which was released during the months of 1999 as a countdown to the millenium, somehow we don't think 50% of the rest of the general population is doing likewise. However, for those intrepid few of you who are similarly obsessed, here is the long-awaited storage system. Since the exact nature of the system was never divulged in advance, instore speculation involved fanstasies of hanging shoe-tree contraptions, clear plastic rods, or fan-like structures. It got wild, let me tell you. However, in keeping with the digital minimalism of the series' music and its packaging (slim, clear plastic circular cases that fit super closely to the discs), the Bless-designed storage system consists of... 12 super strong magnetic links. Wait til you see how it looks when put together -- it's not a letdown; it's a full on triumph of simplicity. The magnetic links are accompanied by 12 stickers and a set of directions warning you not to let them near any computers or other magnetc data storage media. Cool.

2562 Aerial (Baked Goods) cd 15.98

2562 Aerial (Tectonic / Baked Goods) lp 17.98

2562 Techno Dread (Tectonic) 12" 12.98

2562 Unbalance (Tectonic) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "Flashback"
MPEG Stream: "Lost"
MPEG Stream: "Like A Dream"

2562 Unbalance (Tectonic) 3lp 26.00

MPEG Stream: "Flashback"
MPEG Stream: "Lost"
MPEG Stream: "Like A Dream"

2ND GEN Irony Is (Mute) cd 15.98
2nd Gen is the work of Manchester's Wajid Yaseen, whose blistering shards of electro-shock hip-hop have graced a good number of Mille Plateaux's "Electric Ladyland" compilations alongside Alec Empire, Techno Animal, and Fever. "Irony Is" finds itself thinking of a post-DHR afterlife of brutal breakbeats and murderous distortion tactics that bring together hip hop's fury with Alec Empire-ish noise posturing. Sensational makes a mumbling / stumbling vocal appearance on one track, with all sorts of headache inducing electronic flanges and crunchy distortion that run throughout the album with an almost industrial vein. At first we thought this might be the second coming of DHR hiphop act Fever, but the industrialisms bring too much of this disc into the realm of the ordinary, although some tracks (like the opener "And/Or" and the one with Sensational) are killer.

310 After All (Leaf) cd 16.98
With Kruder & Dorfmeister and Thievery Corporation striving for the lowest common denominator, trip hop hasn't been an arena of adventurous music for many years now. It could be due to hip hop's increasing appetite for eccentric production (see the latest Missy Elliot record, Anticon, Chocolate Industries, etc), which has diminished the interest in instrumental hip hop (a slightly inaccurate, but workable definition for trip-hop). Certainly nothing new, 310 produces a slightly updated version of ye olde trip hop from Kid Loco, Funky Porcini, and Coldcut. "After All" -- the outfit's sophomore release -- is cinematic in scope, full of big dramatic breakbeats that blast through a constant jangle of Johnny Marr-like guitar and soft-focus noirish jazz textures. Worthwhile if those Mo' Wax "Headz" compilations are your bibles...
RealAudio clip: "An Seanachi"

310 Nod (Leaf) 12" 8.98

310 Nothing To See Here (Desolat) cd 14.98
Simply subtitled "Short Stories by 310," "Nothing To See Here" lives up to its name as a series of short tracks culled from processed field recordings of waves crashing, creaking floors, crickets, Southern gospel call-and-response choirs, distant church bells, feet shuffling across a dishevelled floor, and a whole bunch of other very discreet sounds. Instead of their usual post-rock / electronica (ala Fridge or Four Tet) 310 offers a sound quite similar in feel to Stars Of The Lid with dreamy fluctuations of synthetic sound, tremolo vibrations and ambient swish. Nice.
RealAudio clip: "Nothing To See Here 4"
RealAudio clip: "Nothing To See Here 6"

310 Recessional (Leaf) cd 15.98

4MOD3 A Translation of Simplicity (Phthalo) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of the cd-r releases from Phthalo with an edition of 250, 4mod3 is the work of SF electronica genius Kit Clayton. Recorded in early 1999, "A Translation of Simpilicity" is a precursor to the neo-dub mastered on Clayton's albums for Scape. Setting up what could be an aquatic virtual sound arena, Clayton's highly processed glitches float to the surface with all of the erratic behaviour of air bubbles around reverberant sonar-dub tones and hypnotic downtempo rhythms. Brilliant as always.

6666 (DJ 6666 FEAT. THE ILLEGAL) Death Breathing (DHR) cd 22.00

6666 (DJ 6666 FEAT. THE ILLEGAL) Death Breathing (DHR) 2lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

6BLOCC VS. R.A.W. Live At Various 7.5.08 (Various Bass PDX) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another bad ass live set, equal parts weirdo mash up, speaker rattling dubstep and dancehall, pounding old school jungle, abstract hip hop, all wound into an action packed hour long ass shaking, bass heavy, big beat blow out. Courtesy of our pals at Lo Dubs, who brought us the atmospheric dubstep of Clubroot, the bad ass Starkey mix from a while back, as well as a mess of killer 12"s. This live set is packed with tons of unreleased dubplates, mixed with a handful of classics. Dismiss the opening chunk of Rush's "Tom Sawyer", at least until it gets all tangled up with some rad jungle beats and we're off, Ice Cube, Ninja Man, Shabba Ranks, Cutty Ranks, Mobb Deep, Capleton, Dread Foxx, Pharoahe Monch and more, but even the tracks we recognize are all chopped up and slung over different beats, records are stuttered and stopped, rewound and played again, over a different beat, or a different vocal, classic hip hop gets all dubbed out, toasting, drill and bass, classic jungle, all wrapped around wild flows, the beats are big, the bass thick and wobbly, when the mix slips into dubstep, it's some of the heaviest sickest shit you've heard, skittery, stuttery and downright heavy, woven into old school dub, or pulled apart into super spaced out minimal pulses, wild and totally all over the map, but heavy on the bass, and the big beats, the dubstep and the DUB. Easily one of the coolest mixes we've heard lately. And CRAZY LIMITED, pressed up for a tour, we have a handful of copies, but odds are these will be the last ones we see...
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 2"
MPEG Stream: "Excerpt 3"

8-BIT OPERATORS The Music Of Kraftwerk (Astralwerks) cd 14.98
8-bit tribute to Kraftwerk. Almost sounds TOO Kraftwerky if you know what we mean. How 'bout an 8-bit tribute to, uh, Amon Duul, now that would be interesting.

9DW / BORIS Golden Dance Classics (Catune) cd 16.98
It's been a while since we've heard from Boris, mostly because they've seemingly been touring non stop for the last few years, but it looks like finally some new music is happening, including a forthcoming split with low end sludge popppers Torche, and this, another split with a Japanese band we've never heard of called 9DW, who as far as we can tell is sonically about as far removed from Boris as any band could be. A sort of eighties cosmic disco, like a way less edgier Justice maybe. More on those tracks in a second, since odds are most aQ customers will be all over this for the two brand new Boris tracks.
But be warned, not sure if it's a general shift in sound, or they were just trying to mix it up for this split, but this is Boris like you've never heard them. The first Boris track, "Tokyo Wonder Land", in a blind listening test, everyone here, when asked who they though it was, invariably said Ariel Pink, or John Maus, yep, a warbly warped blurry lo fi alien FM radio pop, with primitive drum machine, mumbled vocals, shimmery eighties production, whirring synths, jangly reverbed guitar, buzzy rubbery cop show basslines, super woozy and trippy and WAY druggy, there are even some falsetto 'oooh's. It only really gets Boris-y briefly in the middle with a wild tangle of super distorted psychedelic leads. Woah, What the fuck? Not sure what's going on, or what happened, but we are digging it BIG time, in fact, we might go so far as to say, this is one of our favorite Boris jams in ages, as is the second track here, "Akirame Flower", which finds Boris in full on washed out bleary eared nineties shoegaze mode, My Bloody Valentine, Bailter Space, fuzz guitar, weary vox, tons of delay and reverb and effects, all smeared and blurred into a gorgeous hazy 16 Candles / Dinosaur Jr / M83 soft focus, dream jam. Fuck. Awesome.
So what the heck are Boris doing with a band like 9DW? Can't say, and can't really say, how often we'll find ourselves listening to their two tracks, groovy, slightly jazzy, a little house-y, definitely eighties, not one guy, an actual band, sounds a bit like M83 if he were to do a techno record, stir in a little Justice stomp, some post rocky skittery, looped synths, and some total eighties MTV new romantic guitar jangle, a little Shadowfax and some worrisome funkiness...
But fuck it, Boris is why you're here, and if you're an adventurous Boris fan, who won't be disappointed by the lack of fuzzed out buzzy psych rock, then two Boris jams will kick your ass something good. Dying to hear if they continue on in this direction, and give the rest of the warbly new wave noise pop outsiders a run for their warped druggy money.
MPEG Stream: 9DW "Stingray"
MPEG Stream: BORIS "Tokyo Wonder Land"

9DW / BORIS Golden Dance Classics (Catune) lp 16.98
It's been a while since we've heard from Boris, mostly because they've seemingly been touring non stop for the last few years, but it looks like finally some new music is happening, including a forthcoming split with low end sludge popppers Torche, and this, another split with a Japanese band we've never heard of called 9DW, who as far as we can tell is sonically about as far removed from Boris as any band could be. A sort of eighties cosmic disco, like a way less edgier Justice maybe. More on those tracks in a second, since odds are most aQ customers will be all over this for the two brand new Boris tracks.
But be warned, not sure if it's a general shift in sound, or they were just trying to mix it up for this split, but this is Boris like you've never heard them. The first Boris track, "Tokyo Wonder Land", in a blind listening test, everyone here, when asked who they though it was, invariably said Ariel Pink, or John Maus, yep, a warbly warped blurry lo fi alien FM radio pop, with primitive drum machine, mumbled vocals, shimmery eighties production, whirring synths, jangly reverbed guitar, buzzy rubbery cop show basslines, super woozy and trippy and WAY druggy, there are even some falsetto 'oooh's. It only really gets Boris-y briefly in the middle with a wild tangle of super distorted psychedelic leads. Woah, What the fuck? Not sure what's going on, or what happened, but we are digging it BIG time, in fact, we might go so far as to say, this is one of our favorite Boris jams in ages, as is the second track here, "Akirame Flower", which finds Boris in full on washed out bleary eared nineties shoegaze mode, My Bloody Valentine, Bailter Space, fuzz guitar, weary vox, tons of delay and reverb and effects, all smeared and blurred into a gorgeous hazy 16 Candles / Dinosaur Jr / M83 soft focus, dream jam. Fuck. Awesome.
So what the heck are Boris doing with a band like 9DW? Can't say, and can't really say, how often we'll find ourselves listening to their two tracks, groovy, slightly jazzy, a little house-y, definitely eighties, not one guy, an actual band, sounds a bit like M83 if he were to do a techno record, stir in a little Justice stomp, some post rocky skittery, looped synths, and some total eighties MTV new romantic guitar jangle, a little Shadowfax and some worrisome funkiness...
But fuck it, Boris is why you're here, and if you're an adventurous Boris fan, who won't be disappointed by the lack of fuzzed out buzzy psych rock, then two Boris jams will kick your ass something good. Dying to hear if they continue on in this direction, and give the rest of the warbly new wave noise pop outsiders a run for their warped druggy money.
MPEG Stream: 9DW "Stingray"
MPEG Stream: BORIS "Tokyo Wonder Land"

A GUY CALLED GERALD Essence (Studio K7) cd 17.98
A drum & bass styled outing for this famed electronica producer-guy (David Bowie!).

A.R. & MACHINES Echoes From Times Of The Green Journey (Polydor) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
An anthology of the hypnotic output of this krautrock/electronica pioneer, taken from albums spanning the years 1971 to 1975. Beautiful, rhythmic stuff, way ahead of its time. For fans of Frippertronics, Cluster, Neu, Kraftwerk, Can, and (more recently) Kriedler. Not new, but we just got a few of this fantastic disc at a bargain price, so we thought we'd list it, get it while you can. We've had it before for 19 bucks and it was worth it at that price too!

AAVIKKO Novo Atlantis (Stupido) cd 17.98
Electronic. Muysic. Finland. When we see those three words, which appear in small type on the top right corner of the cover to this album, we get pretty excited. Even when Music is spelled Muysic. ESPECIALLY when it's spelled like that. 'Cause that's means it's an Aavikko album. The mostly instrumental Finnish synthesizer/synthesizer/drums trio's new disc, Novo Atlantis, is finally here! Now, each album of theirs has always been a little bit different, but we've always loved Aavikko, from their early "maniacal monkey jazz" days as a lo-fi Casiocore band circa 1997's Derek to their more recent and polished productions of space age bachelor pad exotica like 2005's Back From The Futer.
So what's in store for listeners on Novo Atlantis? Initially we were struck by this album's even MORE electronic sound, taking Aavikko into techno-disco territory, more computery, less live band sounding. Though human metronome Tomi Leppanen (also the drummer for AQ faves Circle) is still behind the drum kit, there's plenty of purely electronic beats and rhythms on here it seems. Yet at the same time, this album also features French horn, trombone, trumpet, tuba, and even church pipe organ!! So while on one had it's all very futuristic (in a spaced out cosmic disco way), this also takes inspiration from way way back, the pre-electronic, classical music era in fact. You could call Novo Atlantis the "switched-on Bach" version of Aavikko, or more precisely, "switched-on Hoppel", Egil Hoppel allegedly being an obscure Finnish composer of the baroque period, discussed in the sleeve notes of Novo Atlantis. Supposedly he was some sort of child prodigy (he only lived 1722-1737!), an organist whose music has apparently become a major influence on Aavikko's new direction. We say allegedly and supposedly since we halfway suspect they made him him up, that he's a hoax much like those "funerary violin" fellows. Probably some quick Googling would resolve the question, but we prefer not to know for sure. If Aavikko invented him, they certainly were thorough about it - there are two purported Hoppel compositions included on the cd format as a hidden bonus track (we won't tell you how to find it, but check out our review of the most recent Agoraphobic Nosebleed disc for a clue!). And having heard those, it does seem like you can hear Hoppel's purported influence right in this disc's very first track, "Syntaksis", which definitely has an Aavikko goes classical feel, like a lot of the stuff here having shades of the "classically trained" approach of all those Moog-laden '70s prog keyboard bands a la ELP and krautrockers Novalis... But don't let that make you think this is somehow stuffy, over-serious or highbrow or whatever, nope not at all, far from it as any Aavikko fan would guess. While it's got its moody moments, most of Novo Atlantis is percolating, infectious electronic fun. Super groovy, quirky, krauty - in the Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder sense of krauty.
The album ends with what must be Aavikko's longest track ever, the 15 minutes of "Novo Atlantis II". Wow, quite an epic, with echoes of Joe Meek's "Telstar" in its melodies, and long mesmeric burbling sequencer trance-outs, something like early '80s Tangerine Dream, Wolfgang Duren, or Zombi's "Sapphire". A Lindstrom remix seems to be in order, where is it? Certainly Aavikko's new album fits nicely into the current disco craze. It also goes well with our obsession with skweee, too. Electronic muysic Finland, hooray!
MPEG Stream: "Syntaksis"
MPEG Stream: "Dies Irae Discodelico"
MPEG Stream: "Novo Atlantis II"

AAVIKKO Novo Atlantis (Stupido) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Electronic. Muysic. Finland. When we see those three words, which appear in small type on the top right corner of the cover to this album, we get pretty excited. Even when Music is spelled Muysic. ESPECIALLY when it's spelled like that. 'Cause that's means it's an Aavikko album. The mostly instrumental Finnish synthesizer/synthesizer/drums trio's new disc, Novo Atlantis, is finally here! Now, each album of theirs has always been a little bit different, but we've always loved Aavikko, from their early "maniacal monkey jazz" days as a lo-fi Casiocore band circa 1997's Derek to their more recent and polished productions of space age bachelor pad exotica like 2005's Back From The Futer.
So what's in store for listeners on Novo Atlantis? Initially we were struck by this album's even MORE electronic sound, taking Aavikko into techno-disco territory, more computery, less live band sounding. Though human metronome Tomi Leppanen (also the drummer for AQ faves Circle) is still behind the drum kit, there's plenty of purely electronic beats and rhythms on here it seems. Yet at the same time, this album also features French horn, trombone, trumpet, tuba, and even church pipe organ!! So while on one had it's all very futuristic (in a spaced out cosmic disco way), this also takes inspiration from way way back, the pre-electronic, classical music era in fact. You could call Novo Atlantis the "switched-on Bach" version of Aavikko, or more precisely, "switched-on Hoppel", Egil Hoppel allegedly being an obscure Finnish composer of the baroque period, discussed in the sleeve notes of Novo Atlantis. Supposedly he was some sort of child prodigy (he only lived 1722-1737!), an organist whose music has apparently become a major influence on Aavikko's new direction. We say allegedly and supposedly since we halfway suspect they made him him up, that he's a hoax much like those "funerary violin" fellows. Probably some quick Googling would resolve the question, but we prefer not to know for sure. If Aavikko invented him, they certainly were thorough about it - there are two purported Hoppel compositions included on the cd format as a hidden bonus track (we won't tell you how to find it, but check out our review of the most recent Agoraphobic Nosebleed disc for a clue!). And having heard those, it does seem like you can hear Hoppel's purported influence right in this disc's very first track, "Syntaksis", which definitely has an Aavikko goes classical feel, like a lot of the stuff here having shades of the "classically trained" approach of all those Moog-laden '70s prog keyboard bands a la ELP and krautrockers Novalis... But don't let that make you think this is somehow stuffy, over-serious or highbrow or whatever, nope not at all, far from it as any Aavikko fan would guess. While it's got its moody moments, most of Novo Atlantis is percolating, infectious electronic fun. Super groovy, quirky, krauty - in the Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder sense of krauty.
The album ends with what must be Aavikko's longest track ever, the 15 minutes of "Novo Atlantis II". Wow, quite an epic, with echoes of Joe Meek's "Telstar" in its melodies, and long mesmeric burbling sequencer trance-outs, something like early '80s Tangerine Dream, Wolfgang Duren, or Zombi's "Sapphire". A Lindstrom remix seems to be in order, where is it? Certainly Aavikko's new album fits nicely into the current disco craze. It also goes well with our obsession with skweee, too. Electronic muysic Finland, hooray!
MPEG Stream: "Syntaksis"
MPEG Stream: "Dies Irae Discodelico"
MPEG Stream: "Novo Atlantis II"

ABOUT Bongo (Cock Rock Disco) cd 14.98

ABRAMS, DAN Stream (Mille Plateaux) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The latest offspring in Mille Plateaux's propagation of minimalist techno comes from Los Angeles graphic designer Dan Abrams, who continues the trend of elegeat glitch techno also heard from SND, Andreas Tilliander, Mikael Stavostrand, and Taylor Deupree.

ABSTRACKT KEAL AGRAM Bad Thriller (Gooom) cd 15.98
Finally back in stock again!!
How does Gooom do it? Where do these bands come from? (I know, I know, France...) Release after release, they somehow dig up more and more amazingly breathtaking slabs of fuzzy, droney, poppy, rocking electronic weirdness. Bad Thriller is no different. The newest record from the bizarrely named Abstrackt Keal Agram is quite possibly our favorite Gooom release since the mighty M83. Like M83, AKA also dabble in fuzzed out My Bloody Valentine worship, skittery glitched out electronica, and murky creepy atmospherics. But where M83 are all glistening sparkling effervescence and warm pulsing throb, AKA are a much darker proposition, falling somewhere between the epic downer ambience of Godspeed, the shuffling glitch pop of the Notwist and the bastardized hip hop of some of the weirder Anticon artists. Drone-y and moody melancholia woven from spare acoustic guitars, heavy fuzzy electronic organs, squiggly synthesizers spitting out dizzying melodies, mumbly sadboy vocals, stuttering, a vast array of alien sounds and even more alien soundscapes and all sorts of unfunky drum programming and live drums. And it is most definitely about the rhythms. The whole record is an experiment in rhythmic juxtaposition. Warm languid indie rock or fuzzed out shoe-gazey bliss pop or dreamy epic instrumentals, all demarcated by beautifully damaged rhythms that shift from song to song, and sometimes even in the course of a single track, funky almost hip hop drums, stumbling, seemingly random rhythmic chaos, big booming simplicity or dense complex Autechre-ish programming. Sounds like it could be a mess but it all falls (im)perfectly into place. A gorgeously unlikely electronic indie pop dipped in a thick viscous druggy space fuzz. The biggest surprise though is track two, which is straight up hip hop! Somehow it fits though, a chaotic Anticon / Mush sort of number, with multiple whining whiteboy flows, chaotic funky bounce and lots of weird loops and samples. Turntables do surface occasionally throughout the rest of the record, as do some Anticon-ish moments, but in more of an ambient supporting role to the overall buzzing fuzzy murky sonic dreaminess. Once again, SO GOOD!
MPEG Stream: "Bad Thriller"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost Version (+ Atoms Family)"
MPEG Stream: "Riviere"

ABSTRACKT KEAL AGRAM Cluster Ville (Gooom) cd 15.98
The last AKA record was such a huge hit around these parts we figured we would go back a bit and track down their earlier album. And good thing we did 'cause it's pretty darn great. On Bad Thriller, AKA spun a sugary web of M83-ish shoegazey blisspop, with the occasional bit of glitchy electronica and out of left field hip hoppery. Well, here we are back a few years and AKA's penchant for hip hop is in full effect. And it definitely suits them. The record is a dark, head nodding assemblage of DJ Shadow-ish ambient groovescapes, and full on hip hop. But the hip hop is constructed from the Gooom sonic staples we should all be familiar with by now, blissed out slightly melancholic ambience, buzzy fuzzy summer-y day soundscapes, electronic birds singing, digital clouds drifting by, occasional DJ scratching. Think M83 meets Boards Of Canada with Del or Sensational rapping. A super dense and a rich sonic stew of trad hip hop, modern glitch pop, eighties shoe gaze, a truly weird concoction, but it works somehow. Might be too much rapping for some (those of you coming at it from the fuzz pop angle) but avant hip hop headz will be blown away and anyone who's been jonesing for a record that hits the same sweet spot Shadow's Endtroducing did, should definitely check this out!
MPEG Stream: "Del"
MPEG Stream: "Piece"
MPEG Stream: "Brouillard"

AC/3P Watch Me Explode (Spasticated) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the folks who brought us the hilarious/funky/brilliantly twisted Ministry Of Shit compilation reviewed some lists ago, comes this blast of weird and silly electronic dementia. Did you love the recent Powerslaves record of the week, that selection of Iron Maiden tracks done electro style? Well, then this *might* just hit the same sweet spot. AC/DC covers, done lo-fi midi style, with a vocalist that sounds like a strange hybrid of Anton Maiden and Udo Dirkschneider from Accept, sometimes giving a homoerotic twist to the lyrics. Dumb? Absolutely. Funny? Maybe. Do you need this? Uh, definitely!
MPEG Stream: "Hells Bells"
MPEG Stream: "Whole Lotta Woman"

ACCELERA DECK Sunstrings ep (Scarcelight) cd ep 8.98

ACTRESS Hazyville (Werk Discs) cd 17.98
We only just discovered one man UK electronica outfit Actress a few weeks ago, when we reviewed their (his) record Splazsh, and we flipped, proclaiming it electronic record of the year, describing it as "a dizzyingly varied and truly curious collection of post techno minimal skitterscapes, abstract rhythmic mystery, and playful electronic weirdness, looping and repetitive and hypnotic, truncated vocals worked into strange circular figures, and then laced over muted thumps and shuffling laid back pulses, fields of glitch and squelch rain down on glimmering fields of chiming melody and twisted Pop Ambience."
So of course we immediately tracked down the first Actress records, and goddamn if it's not just as good. Another tripped out assemblage of fucked up sounds and fractured beats, so weird and wonderful, in some ways we wonder how this stuff ever appealed to regular dance music / e-music folks at all, hell, maybe it didn't, or maybe we're not giving folks enough credit. Be damn difficult to dance to this stuff, but if you're in the market for some head nodding, psychedelic, warped electronic ear candy, then this is for YOU.
Right from the start, you can tell this is not a normal electronica record, with muted muddied loops swirling and whirling beneath mechanical skitter, and strange chopped up voices, constantly shifting, but never really going anywhere, but why would you want it to? It's a heady tranced out weirdo loopscape. Which leads directly into the appropriately titled "Hazylude" which is indeed a hazy blissed out dronedrift interlude, that segues into "Doggin'", a warbly, skitter-laced bit of woozy electronic ambience, sounding like the tape is warped, and the drum machine is malfunctioning, but it's all wrapped in a gauzy big of shimmer and whir, making it hypnotic and dreamlike as well as twisted and tweaked.
There's no real way to describe Actress except by going song by song, there is a thread that connects all the various sounds, but we're not sure exactly what it is, and even if we did know, not sure we could describe it. Probably better to just go with it, get lost, let the sounds push and pull, drag you wherever they may, whether it's some loping locked groove exotica, or some beep-click Rater-Noton style minimalism, or warm washed out hazy heroin house, or squelchy avant electro, or even blurred prismatic outsider IDM, it's all gorgeously twisted, and like Splazsh, we can't seem to get enough.
Now we have to figure out what year this came out originally so we can retroactively proclaim this the electronic record of whatever-that-year-was. Can't wait for next year now...
MPEG Stream: "Again The Addiction"
MPEG Stream: "Doggin'"
MPEG Stream: "Ivy May Gilpin"
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Forgive You"

ACTRESS Splazsh (Honest Jon's) cd 17.98
When it comes time to pick our favorite electronic record of the year, it's gonna be seriously tough to narrow it down... Pantha Du Prince's Black Noise, that killer T++ 12" of African sampled dubstep, the hazy expansive ultra lush dubstep of Clubroot, the shoegaze-y haze pop of Walls, the Vex'd Record Of The Week from a while back, that amazing Thomas Fehlman soundtrack to Gute Luft, Klimek's latest pop ambient masterpiece, Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds, we could go on and on and on, but we may not have to, cuz Splazsh, the second record from UK electronic one man band Actress might just trump them all. A dizzyingly varied and truly curious collection of post techno minimal skitterscapes, abstract rhythmic mystery, and playful electronic weirdness, looping and repetitive and hypnotic, truncated vocals worked into strange circular figures, and then laced over muted thumps and shuffling laid back pulses, fields of glitch and squelch rain down on glimmering fields of chiming melody and twisted Pop Ambience.
The sound is definitely on the chill out side of the spectrum, with most of the beats muted and washed out, the overall feel hazy and dreamy and dreamlike, but there's so much going on, deep slow burning synth swells, little squalls of lazer like bleeps and bloops, thick fuzzy warbly bass, strange clipped beats, and female vox all over the place, but less like vocals and more like another instrument, like a more psychedelic, more groovy take on the second Burial record, but augmented by lurching angular new wave-isms, blissed out streaks of soft focus prismatic shimmer, but underpinned by more-felt-than-heard bass throbs, twisted future funk, laced with alien hi-hats and lo-fu four on the floor thumps, lurching gnarled rhythms, liquid and amorphous, wrapped around jagged shards of synthesizer crunch, and woozy low end melodies, some tracks get all vintage retro soundtrack, sounding like Carpenter or Goblin, as if Daft Punk was scoring seventies Italo thrillers, or cheesy eighties MTV, like Michael Jackson or even better Rockwell, all chopped up and smeared into new warped shapes.
There are definitely some more straight up style Kompakt techno/house jams, but even those tracks are pretty twisted, with the synths wrapped in wah wah's, or the beats constantly changing timbre, slipping from crisp and sharp to muffled and muddy and back again, often dragging the whole track with it, but most of the tracks veer wildly in their own freaked out direction, spinning off into strange swirls of tweaked melody and stuttering chopped beats, or mutated Oval style cd skip skitter, or lumbering machine disco with distorted vocals and wild squiggles of space age glitchery, or super tripped out minimal techno crafted from what sounds like fields of white noise static and heavily chorused piano...
Holy shit this record is amazing. Weird as hell, and not necessarily something that will fill the dancefloor, but then that was never really what it was about for us. This is some truly unique, far out and freaky, avant outsider electronic weirdness, that will definitely be vying for our electronic record of the year top spot, but just might just be a contender for the top spot, electronic or otherwise!
MPEG Stream: "Hubble"
MPEG Stream: "Lost"
MPEG Stream: "Futureproofing"
MPEG Stream: "Bubble Butts And Equations"

ACTRESS Splazsh (Honest Jon's) 2lp 22.00
When it comes time to pick our favorite electronic record of the year, it's gonna be seriously tough to narrow it down... Pantha Du Prince's Black Noise, that killer T++ 12" of African sampled dubstep, the hazy expansive ultra lush dubstep of Clubroot, the shoegaze-y haze pop of Walls, the Vex'd Record Of The Week from a while back, that amazing Thomas Fehlman soundtrack to Gute Luft, Klimek's latest pop ambient masterpiece, Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds, we could go on and on and on, but we may not have to, cuz Splazsh, the second record from UK electronic one man band Actress might just trump them all. A dizzyingly varied and truly curious collection of post techno minimal skitterscapes, abstract rhythmic mystery, and playful electronic weirdness, looping and repetitive and hypnotic, truncated vocals worked into strange circular figures, and then laced over muted thumps and shuffling laid back pulses, fields of glitch and squelch rain down on glimmering fields of chiming melody and twisted Pop Ambience.
The sound is definitely on the chill out side of the spectrum, with most of the beats muted and washed out, the overall feel hazy and dreamy and dreamlike, but there's so much going on, deep slow burning synth swells, little squalls of lazer like bleeps and bloops, thick fuzzy warbly bass, strange clipped beats, and female vox all over the place, but less like vocals and more like another instrument, like a more psychedelic, more groovy take on the second Burial record, but augmented by lurching angular new wave-isms, blissed out streaks of soft focus prismatic shimmer, but underpinned by more-felt-than-heard bass throbs, twisted future funk, laced with alien hi-hats and lo-fu four on the floor thumps, lurching gnarled rhythms, liquid and amorphous, wrapped around jagged shards of synthesizer crunch, and woozy low end melodies, some tracks get all vintage retro soundtrack, sounding like Carpenter or Goblin, as if Daft Punk was scoring seventies Italo thrillers, or cheesy eighties MTV, like Michael Jackson or even better Rockwell, all chopped up and smeared into new warped shapes.
There are definitely some more straight up style Kompakt techno/house jams, but even those tracks are pretty twisted, with the synths wrapped in wah wah's, or the beats constantly changing timbre, slipping from crisp and sharp to muffled and muddy and back again, often dragging the whole track with it, but most of the tracks veer wildly in their own freaked out direction, spinning off into strange swirls of tweaked melody and stuttering chopped beats, or mutated Oval style cd skip skitter, or lumbering machine disco with distorted vocals and wild squiggles of space age glitchery, or super tripped out minimal techno crafted from what sounds like fields of white noise static and heavily chorused piano...
Holy shit this record is amazing. Weird as hell, and not necessarily something that will fill the dancefloor, but then that was never really what it was about for us. This is some truly unique, far out and freaky, avant outsider electronic weirdness, that will definitely be vying for our electronic record of the year top spot, but just might just be a contender for the top spot, electronic or otherwise!
MPEG Stream: "Hubble"
MPEG Stream: "Lost"
MPEG Stream: "Futureproofing"
MPEG Stream: "Bubble Butts And Equations"

ADA Mixtape #1 / Adaptions (Kompakt) cd 15.98

ADAMSON, BARRY + PAN SONIC The Hymn Of The Seventh Illusion (Kitchen Motors) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From its beginnings, the Icelandic arts organization Kitchen Motors has been pairing off interesting cross-platform artists who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to work together. "The Hymn Of The Seventh Illusion" was a commission by Kitchen Motors for Pan Sonic and Barry Adamson to score a composition for the Hljomeyki Choir from Iceland. Surprised yet delighted to be working together, Adamson (best known for coining the term "imaginary filmscore" within his amazing noir albums such as "Moss Side Story) and Pan Sonic (the Finnish pioneers of ultra-minimal techno) had arrived an amazing piece that could have been a snippet from the eerie GYoRGY LIGETI chorales that were so instrumental to the sense of alienation within Kubrick's "2001." Utilizing the natural reverberation from Digraneskirkja church in Reykjavik, Pan Sonic and Adamson gently fluttered sustained vocal tones amidst the space, occasionally allowing for the choir to delve into a simple haunting melody, whilst Pan Sonic sets down a very subdued electronic back beat. Hopefully, the Kitchen Motors collaboration between Adamson and Pan Sonic won't end here!
Compounding the collaborative spirit, Kitchen Motors employed The Hafler Trio (whose solo member Andrew McKensie now lives in Iceland) to remix "The Hymn Of The Seventh Illusion." As McKensie has been moving further away from the fictional research projects and more towards the electro-acoustic studies from Luigi Nono, The Hafler Trio is a perfect fit. This remix has stretched and abstracted the polyphony of the chorus into a very creepy extended drone collage. Very nice work!
RealAudio clip: "The Hymn Of The Seventh Illusion"
RealAudio clip: "The Hymn Of The Seventh Illusion (Hafler Trio Remix)"

ADD N TO (X) Add Insult To Injury (Mute) cd 17.98
With the awesome explosion that Add N To (X) provided with the super limited single "Little Black Rocks On The Sun," there was hope that Add N To (X) would do something as good as the second album "On The Wire Of Our Nerves." But the two following releases including "Add Insult To Injury" proved that they only had about 90 minutes of good music in them. Right now, the UK trio has only been interested in the irony of using analogue synthesizers and vocoders... how boring.
RealAudio clip: "Adding N to X"

ADD N TO (X) Avant Hard (Mute) cd 15.98
Veering from the sci-fi bleakness of their last effort On The Wires Of Our Nerves, Add N To (X) have modernized the Moog exotica of the '60s with this propulsive collection of epic analog fuckery... Ignore the record-label hype that this is some sort of Stockhausen meets Motorhead experimental hard rock record (what were they thinking, it's not).

ADD N TO (X) Loud Like Nature (Mute) cd 16.98
When listening to the first track of the new Add N To (X), I could not escape the overwhelming feeling that I was listening to an analog synthesizer muzak version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. A rousing, campy, kitschful time. Confirming once again that they're a one-trick pony, ANTX have assembled another album that gets the toes tapping and rumps shaking yet ultimately leaves the listener's ears unsatiated. There's an abundance of burly vocoded vocals, and vintage synths that bloop and blurp out gelatinous cycles of riffs... which all sound super cool, if very predictable. Frankly this probably wouldn't be such an issue at all if only they'd never released their first two albums which surpass - in both composition and rocking power - anything they've done since. However... they did. If you're new to this London trio, definitely check out either of their first two before venturing into later territory. For further ANTX thoughts, please see the review of the "Take Me To Your Leader" ep.
RealAudio clip: "Total All Out Water"
RealAudio clip: "All Night Lazy"

ADD N TO (X) On The Wires Of Our Nerves (Mute) cd 16.98
Somewhere between Gary Numan and Jean-Jacques Perrey. The aesthetics of Kraftwerk fused with punk brought the industrial sounds of SPK, Esplendor Geometrico, and Nocturnal Emissions...this continuum continues under the guise of "post-rock" with Trans Am, Six Finger Satellite, and now Add N To X...a bloody assault of analogue synths, propulsive bass lines and hyper catchy tunes...recommended by those kids at the Wire!

ADD N TO (X) Take Me To Your Leader (Mute) cd ep 8.98
These three new songs (two of them edit versions) offer a mere glimpse at their fifth album Loud Like Nature. What to expect? Churning robot rock in 4/4 time featuring a whole gang of highly processed vocals - not unlike what you might think garage rock performed completely on analog synths would sound. Fun, funky and repetitive, these songs will probably make for ideal additions to a party comp tape, but will they stand up to repeat listens? Not so sure about that. Once again it seems this London trio recorded some jams, and from the outcome, chose a handful of cool synth and bass lines and came up with some even cooler synth sounds, but didn't pursue composing fleshed out songs around them. It appears their best work is still the aforementioned sophomore release. Note: the vinyl features an extended mix of "The Trees Are Dreamless Leafless Genius" whereas the cd version includes a video for the title track.
RealAudio clip: "Take Me To Your Leader"

ADD N TO FU(X)A And Another Thing (Rocket Girl) cd 10.98
This is a collaboration between Barry from Add N To (X) and Randall from Fuxa. Hardly the fusion of Michigan space rock and the antiquated electronic grooves of Add N To (X) we might expect, "And Another Thing" is a smug collage of looping dorky electronics that strives to be charming rather than innovative. And it is charming in the same way that Pram is. Randall and Barry have set up a monotonous rhythm around a sampled loop of a clanging xylophone and bass clarinet that strolls along at an awkward bowlegged pace. Little melodic elements of swelling Lawrence Welk strings and vibes waltz around the rhythm to sound much more like the obtuse comedy records concocted by People Like Us or Nurse With Wound.