BUG, THE FEATURING WARRIOR QUEEN Aktion Pak (Rephlex) cd ep 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A new Bug single and it's a doozy. Featuring the amazing (and new to us) Warrior Queen, who kicks so much ass that the tracks without her vocals seem wimpy and pale in comparison. So I guess it's good that most of the tracks on this ep do indeed feature her fierce toasting. Tack on a couple instrumentals / versions and a wicked final number featuring Ras B, and you've got a decent little chunk of bassbin rattling ragga brutality to hold us over 'til the next Bug full length. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Aktion Pak"
MPEG Stream: "Pain Yu A Ga Feel"

BUG, THE FEATURING WARRIOR QUEEN Aktion Pak (Rephlex) 12" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A new Bug single and it's a doozy. Featuring the amazing (and new to us) Warrior Queen, who kicks so much ass that the tracks without her vocals seem wimpy and pale in comparison. So I guess it's good that most of the tracks on this ep do indeed feature here fierce toasting. Tack on a couple instrumentals / versions and a wicked final number featuring Ras B, and you've got a decent little chunk of bassbin rattling ragga brutality to hold us over 'til the next Bug full length. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Aktion Pak"
MPEG Stream: "Pain Yu A Ga Feel"

BUG, THE VS. ROOTSMAN / DJ/RUPTURE split (Tigerbeat6) cd 7.98

BUG, THE VS. THE ROOTSMAN Killer (Razor (mi)X) 7" 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We only got ten of these so if you want one act fast. Two mixes of one of our favorite tracks from 'Pressure', both souped up with some wild and chaotic old school drum and bass, huge fuzzed out synth lines and maniacal drum programming, with Rootsman's toasting chopped up and sprinkled throughout. Cool stuff.

BUGAJ, ADAM Telegraphed (Deep Water) cd-r 6.98
Tape hiss, simple melodies, mechanical rhythms, dubby reverb... Nice! We're diggin' on the 16 tracks, 33 minutes of blissful, bedroom-recorded Casio-dub instrumental music here, this cd-r being the second solo joint from Oakland's Adam Bugaj, a Pennsylvania transplant who played "lysergic barn rock" with underground psych acts Peacefeather and Clear Spots back in PA. Rather than rockin' out, though, this is lazy Sunday stoned music from the man, lo-fi DIY mesmerism, like a Jewelled Antler production of home-brewed Kompakt techno, shimmering with hiss and distortion. 'Tis spacey and mellow, sometimes subverted by sudden manual tape edits... Throw in a bit of Fahey folky guitar ramble here or there, and broken electronics that get accidentally cosmic and Cluster-like, with echoey keys, heartbeat drum machine pulses, minimal drones, fractured rhythms... Imagine, maybe, a more outsider version of Pantha Du Prince, recorded on, like, $15 worth of yard sale equipment and cheap cassette tapes. Yes it's pretty nice!
MPEG Stream: "The New Nod"
MPEG Stream: "Hawthorne Blues"
MPEG Stream: "No Lavender"
MPEG Stream: "Play It Pretty"

BUKEM, LTJ Journey Inwards (Kinetic ) 2cd 17.98
Another really, er, uneventful double cd of slowjams for the electronica set from the popular LTJ Bukem. Rhodes organ tinkling, flute & sax jazz solos, and sensitive-boy synth pads over downtempo drum & bass/two step breaks.

BUMP AND GRIND Init Sequence (Sub Rosa) cd 15.98
Described as "cinemascopic big beat" but that's not to say that they sound like the tepid funk of the likes of Chemical Brothers--rather, Bump & Grind drop explosive 'Amen' drum & bass breaks as well as swing 4/4 drum kicks. Includes remix work by Third Eye Foundation and Scanner. Nice graphics too.

BUND DEUTSCHER PROGRAMMIERER Stoffwechsel (Rather Interesting) cd 16.98
"The Federation of German Programmers" has only one member, but one that has so many alter-egos as to comprise a small parliamentary body. That individual is Uwe Schmidt -- better known as Atom Heart and Senor Coconut, and also known as Lisa Carbon, Datacide, LB, and many others. "Stoffwechsel" is more seriously minded than much of his recent output. Complex bubbling electronic percolations -- like Schematic without the big post-hip hop breaks or Mille Plateaux's clickery with more of a groove. Intersperced between all of the electronic clicks/cuts, Schmidt drops in fragments of German spoken word, which give the whole album a sort of academic vibe.

BURAKA SOM SISTEMA Black Diamond (Fabric) cd 16.98
Oh shit! These are some intensely sweaty and dancey jammers that are sure to be the soundtrack of any truly down and dirty party this summer, and probably for a long time to come. Hailing from Portugal, Buraka Som Sistema have become international ambassadors for the Kuduro scene, bringing this unique sound to people throughout the world. It makes perfect sense that M.I.A. lends her voice to the record's standout track, as the sounds on Black Diamond make a great companion to her latest record Kala. Incorporating elements of hip-hop, Baile funk and electronica, Black Diamond is all about being uptempo and making bodies sweat, move and shake and groove. This is one of those records that should appeal to all sots of music lovers, from fans of Konono No.1 seeking that same sort of intense all out energy to fans of Missy Elliott who want something pulsating and creative to move them on the dance floor. So damn good!
MPEG Stream: "Sound of Kuduro (feat. DJ Znobia, MIA, Saborosa, & Puto Prata)"
MPEG Stream: "Aqui Para Vocs (feat. Deize Tigrona)"
MPEG Stream: "IC19"

BURAKA SOM SISTEMA Black Diamond (Fabric) lp 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Oh shit! These are some intensely sweaty and dancey jammers that are sure to be the soundtrack of any truly down and dirty party this summer, and probably for a long time to come. Hailing from Portugal, Buraka Som Sistema have become international ambassadors for the Kuduro scene, bringing this unique sound to people throughout the world. It makes perfect sense that M.I.A. lends her voice to the record's standout track, as the sounds on Black Diamond make a great companion to her latest record Kala. Incorporating elements of hip-hop, Baile funk and electronica, Black Diamond is all about being uptempo and making bodies sweat, move and shake and groove. This is one of those records that should appeal to all sots of music lovers, from fans of Konono No.1 seeking that same sort of intense all out energy to fans of Missy Elliott who want something pulsating and creative to move them on the dance floor. So damn good!
MPEG Stream: "Sound of Kuduro (feat. DJ Znobia, MIA, Saborosa, & Puto Prata)"
MPEG Stream: "Aqui Para Vocs (feat. Deize Tigrona)"
MPEG Stream: "IC19"

BURBANK, TOM Famous First Words (Planet Mu) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Fragile "
MPEG Stream: "Knuckles"
MPEG Stream: "Stay One"

BURBANK, TOM Famous First Words (Planet Mu) 2lp 17.98

MPEG Stream: "Fragile "
MPEG Stream: "Knuckles"
MPEG Stream: "Stay One"

BURGALAT, BERTRAND Portrait-Robot (Hit Thing / Tricatel) cd 15.98
The euro-pop sounds of composer / solo crooner Monsieur Bertand Burgalat pleases many ears around the globe. Swirling strings, funky guitar and basslines, playful keyboards, horns, woodwinds, swooning male and female choruses -- it's charming in oh so many ways, elaborate and suave but not without levity and wit. If we have any complaints about Portrait-Robot, it would be that when on occasion Burgalat opts for programmed drum beats (versus live acoustic ones) such as on the song "Ripples" they're a bit... well, clunkily robotic and too upfront in the mix. When you take into consideration the album's title, you wonder if maybe be that was his intention, but it's oddly jarring when you take in the rest of the carefully crafted and composed smooth operatin' affair. The album features 19 lounge-ready songs, plus 2 bonus tracks and a video for "Spring Isn't Fair".
MPEG Stream: "Ripples"
MPEG Stream: "Spring Isn't Fair"

BURGALAT, BERTRAND The Genius Of Bertrand Burgalat (Bungalow) cd 15.98
Paying homage to French lounge pop maestro Bertrand Burgalat are such jaunty hipsters as April March, Louis Philippe, Etienne Charry, Mick Harvey, and Nick Cave. This is a compilation very much for the swoonsome, euro-cocktail set. Fans of such labels as Burgalat's own Tricatel or Le Magistery (home to Momus and Kahimi Karie), and of artists such as Air (who also contribute a track here), Pizzicato Five, and Charles Wilp...what are you waiting for? Ultra-stylish and playful music to spin in your swingin' space age pad.

BURGER/INK Las Vegas (Matador) cd 13.98
The label tells us: "The hypnotic sounds of 'Las Vegas are the products of a running collabortaion between Mike ink (Love Inc., Gas, Vinyl COuntdown, and the Profan and Studio Eins labels) and Jorg Burger (The Modernist, Bionaut, Burger Industries, the Eat Raw label), the two prominent figures of the burgeoning Cologne techno underground. Neither have dated Jerry Hall." Minimalist, subtle electronica. We're glad Matador is releasing good electronica, especially the forthcoming Boards of Canada record, which will please Aphex Twin fans everywhere.

BURGER/INK Las Vegas (Matador) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The label tells us: "The hypnotic sounds of 'Las Vegas are the products of a running collabortaion between Mike ink (Love Inc., Gas, Vinyl COuntdown, and the Profan and Studio Eins labels) and Jorg Burger (The Modernist, Bionaut, Burger Industries, the Eat Raw label), the two prominent figures of the burgeoning Cologne techno underground. Neither have dated Jerry Hall." Minimalist, subtle electronica. We're glad Matador is releasing good electronica, especially the forthcoming Boards of Canada record, which will please Aphex Twin fans everywhere.

BURIAL Distant Lights (Hyperdub) 12" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BURIAL Ghost Hardware (Hyperdub) 12" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BURIAL Kindred (Hyperdub) 12" 16.98
Whether or not we'll ever see a new full length from this mysterious producer, the arrival of a new single is still cause for anxious excitement. And this one is beautifully sad and heavy, with three long gorgeous tracks.
At 12 minutes on the A side, "Kindred" is laid out like a dystopic symphonic requiem that morphs through a slow-motion roughshodden landscape. Lonely remote vocals spliced and polished into barely discernible words pitter-patter over record crackle, far-off doomy atmospheres and clanging minimal garage rhythms propel forward and then drop out at irregular intervals. On the B side, "Loner" steps it up with arpeggiated synths and an anxious pace with a cinematic car chase theme feel and r&b-ish vocal shadows buried underneath a layer of sonic grit and asphalt that freefalls into a strange haunted ambiance. "Ashtray Wasp" show a bit more light and hope at first. The vocals culled from cell phone recordings give a broader sense of actual song structure with sped up minimalist Phillip Glass-like orchestrations wrapping the song in a dramatically understated fury, eventually disintegrating into an extended oceanic womb of crackling unease. The final salvo turning into a lyrical filigree of piano, cascading vocal swatches and waves of radio static that fades like the night into the stratosphere. Chilling!

BURIAL s/t (Hyperdub / Cargo) cd 17.98
This record has totally knocked us for a loop. An impossible mix of grimy dubstep, murky triphop, and minimal spaced out dub. When we first threw this on we were immediately transported back to when we first heard Massive Attack, or Portishead, and a whole new world suddenly opened up to us. A creepy, muted world of barebones beats and haunting atmospheres that would go on to inform our musical tastes forever.
This is the first release on Hyperdub, a label run by grime/dubstep DJ Kode9, and we expected a blasting barrage of grimy beats, but instead, were sucked into a swirling vortex of late night groove and midnight stutter. Think those Rhythm And Sound Burial Mix eps, mixed with some Pole-like glitched out dub, and some slow burning Portishead smolder. Creepy and crawly, mysterious and moody. Beats suspended in a black shimmering fog, snippets of vocals, crooning, toasting, drenched in reverb, chopped up and let loose to drift over super dark, muffled dubscapes. Huge rumbling bass lines, like distant foghorns, dreamy ambience sort of drifting and ethereal but so so ominous. Tiny sonic sparkles glimmer like some alien sonar, drifting dreamily through fuzzy darkness. Drowned and submerged grooves, all muffled muted melody and shuffling minimal beats. Suffocating atmospheres of low end thrum, record crackle and shortwave interference. Some sort of slithering slinky dubstep shuffle slowed waaaaaaaaay down, into a blackened glacial dub jam. So fucking awesome. Our newest every night late night listen. A record of perfect dark and damaged dubbed out lullabies.
MPEG Stream: "Distant Lights"
MPEG Stream: "Spaceape"
MPEG Stream: "Wounder"

BURIAL s/t (Hyperdub / Cargo) 2lp 23.00
Finally, one of the murkiest, darkest, speaker crushing slabs of ultra ominous low slung spaced out dubstep is now available on vinyl. The beatless tracks have been nixed, and the record has been resequenced into one continuous, stuttering, slithering DJ / dancefloor friendly underwater slow motion dubbed out groove. Here's what we had to say about the cd when we first reviewed it last year:
This record has totally knocked us for a loop. An impossible mix of grimy dubstep, murky triphop, and minimal spaced out dub. When we first threw this on we were immediately transported back to when we first heard Massive Attack, or Portishead, and a whole new world suddenly opened up to us. A creepy, muted world of barebones beats and haunting atmospheres that would go on to inform our musical tastes forever.
This is the first release on Hyperdub, a label run by grime/dubstep DJ Kode9, and we expected a blasting barrage of grimy beats, but instead, were sucked into a swirling vortex of late night groove and midnight stutter. Think those Rhythm And Sound Burial Mix eps, mixed with some Pole-like glitched out dub, and some slow burning Portishead smolder. Creepy and crawly, mysterious and moody. Beats suspended in a black shimmering fog, snippets of vocals, crooning, toasting, drenched in reverb, chopped up and let loose to drift over super dark, muffled dubscapes. Huge rumbling bass lines, like distant foghorns, dreamy ambience sort of drifting and ethereal but so so ominous. Tiny sonic sparkles glimmer like some alien sonar, drifting dreamily through fuzzy darkness. Drowned and submerged grooves, all muffled muted melody and shuffling minimal beats. Suffocating atmospheres of low end thrum, record crackle and shortwave interference. Some sort of slithering slinky dubstep shuffle slowed waaaaaaaaay down, into a blackened glacial dub jam. So fucking awesome. Our newest every night late night listen. A record of perfect dark and damaged dubbed out lullabies.
MPEG Stream: "Distant Lights"
MPEG Stream: "Spaceape"
MPEG Stream: "Wounder"

BURIAL South London Boroughs ep (Hyperdub) 12" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A reissued 12" from one of this list's Record of the Week artists, Burial, who unleashes a lurching, shuffling, deep and dense mix of murky grimy dubstep. Equal parts minimal dub, slowed down grime, and super slow motion jungle.
This 12", originally released last year, features what sounds like an alternate version of one of the album tracks, sort of slowed down and more blissed out. The other track is WAY more drum and bass, a mumbled 16 rpm jungle stutter, with a definite grime vibe and a super dense chaotic rhythmic coda! So cool.

BURIAL Street Halo (Hyperdub) 12" 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The first new music from Burial in 4+ years, this one hardly needs a review at all, the master of dark moody soul inflected minimal dubstep does it again, with the murky melancholy "Street Halo", which ditches some of the more overt dubsteppiness of past records, for something a bit more techno flecked, the beat a muted four on the floor pulse, while the surrounding sounds remain appropriately washed out and dreamlike, some spectral soulful female vox just add to the vibe. We actually spun this at 33 the first few times, and holy shit, not sure if it's just us, but might sound even better that way, syrupy and witch house-y, total slo-mo cough syrup blackened dub electro drag. But even at the right speed of 45, it's pretty dang perfect, only a slight swerve from the dubbed out soul of Untrue.
"NYC" slows it way down, lacing some electro skitter and shuffling techno with a seriously dubbed out production and some sped up soul samples, spare and skeletal, wreathed in a late night, winding down, chill out haze. And finally "Stolen Dog" is a dubby downtempo electro soul ballad, with a super hooky main melody, warm swirling low end swells, a skittery beat buried in the mix, and still more vocal soul. So good.
Could be kinda limited, we're not sure, and the copies we got in this week have been going fast, so when/if we run out, be prepared. Hopefully we can get more sometime soon though.

BURIAL Street Halo / Kindred (Hyperdub) cd 19.98
Like the title suggests, this is the cd version of Burial's last two 12"s. 6 tracks, almost an hour long, complete with obi 'cause it's a Japanese import. Both 12"s are pretty much out of print, so if you missed them, you gotta get this!
Street Halo was the first new music we had heard from Burial in 4+ years, and hardly needed a review at all (then or now), needless to say, the master of dark moody soul inflected minimal dubstep does it again, just check out the murky melancholy "Street Halo", which ditches some of the more overt dubsteppiness of past records, for something a bit more techno flecked, the beat a muted four on the floor pulse, while the surrounding sounds remain appropriately washed out and dreamlike, some spectral soulful female vox just add to the vibe. We actually spun the vinyl version of this at 33 the first few times, and holy shit, not sure if it's just us, but might sound even better that way, syrupy and witch house-y, total slomo cough syrup blackened dub electro drag. Too bad you can't easily slow down a cd, but even at the right speed of 45, it's pretty dang perfect, only a slight swerve from the dubbed out soul of Untrue.
"NYC" slows things way down, lacing some electro skitter and shuffling techno with a seriously dubbed out production and some sped up soul samples, still spare and skeletal, wreathed in a late night, winding down, chill out haze. And finally "Stolen Dog" is a dubby downtempo electro soul ballad, with a super hooky main melody, warm swirling low end swells, a skittery beat buried in the mix, and still more vocal soul. So good!
Beautifully sad and heavy, "Kindred" is laid out like a dystopic symphonic requiem that morphs through a slow-motion roughshodden landscape. Lonely remote vocals spliced and polished into barely discernible words pitter-patter over record crackle, and far-off doomy atmospheres as clanging minimal garage rhythms propel forward and then drop out at irregular intervals. "Loner" steps it up with arpeggiated synths and an anxious pace with a cinematic car chase theme feel and RnB-ish vocal shadows buried underneath a layer of sonic grit and asphalt that freefalls into a strange haunted ambiance. "Ashtray Wasp" show a bit more light and hope at first. The vocals culled from cell phone recordings give a broader sense of actual song structure with sped up minimalist Phillip Glass-like orchestrations wrapping the song in a dramatically understated fury, eventually disintegrating into an extended oceanic womb of crackling unease. The final salvo turning into a lyrical filigree of piano, cascading vocal swatches and waves of radio static that fades like the night into the stratosphere. Chilling!
MPEG Stream: "Street Halo"
MPEG Stream: "Stolen Dog"
MPEG Stream: "Kindred"

BURIAL Untrue (Hyperdub) cd 16.98
Record of the year, 2007. As far as some of us are concerned, there's no question. Burial's first album was an eponymous release on Kode 9's Hyperdub imprint and really came out of nowhere. Here was this amalgamation of British dance tropes (e.g. dubstep, 2-step garage, darkcore drum & bass, etc.) into a magnificent exercise in mood engineering. Even though an urban malaise echoes through the whollop bass-bin rattle of most dubstep, that first Burial record mined a melancholy whose dramatic power has never been heard in dubstep, and rarely matched even by such downbeat experts as Massive Attack, Boards of Canada, Slowdive, or even Joy Division.
So with his second album Untrue, the aesthetic framework for Burial remains intact; yet the anonymous figure behind Burial has admitted that he was seeking a "downcast euphoria." You know what, he fucking nailed it. All of the sounds retain the first album's urban dourness reverberating through each electron and washed drone. The hovering basslines which once stalked the darkest of jungle's rhythms are ghostly presences flickering around Burial's atypical drum programming, which by his own admission is done by hand without the aid of a sequencer. The clipped, 2-step breakbeats always appear as the cocking of a gun; but it doesn't seem like Burial is taking aim at his audience. Rather, it's metaphor for the cold, inhumane existence in the grimy parts of London, where violence is just another thing to shrug at and move beyond. All of these sounds are clearly present in Burial's debut album, but the "euphoric" part of Untrue's intention is found in Burial's use of voice. Taking a cappella tunes sung by his friends (sometimes, left as a voice mail on his cellphone), Burial has crafted an eerie cast of disembodied vocals, twisted into cybernetic R&B croons, all clipped and compressed in the same manner as his pistol-whipped snare cracks. It's as if the human voice alone can transcend the dire circumstances of our earthly confines, even when the songs reflected broken dreams and a dwindling hope. Burial seeks out the fleeting moments of beauty and raw emotion, codifying it through his impeccable craft on this very impressive and soon to be iconic recording. If you're not hearing it from us, you'll hear from somebody else: Burial's Untrue is the best record of 2007.
MPEG Stream: "Archangel"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost Hardware"
MPEG Stream: "Untrue"

BURIAL Untrue (Cargo) lp 24.00
Finally, this unanimous AQ fave is available on vinyl!
Record of the year, 2007. As far as some of us are concerned, there's no question. Burial's first album was an eponymous release on Kode 9's Hyperdub imprint and really came out of nowhere. Here was this amalgamation of British dance tropes (e.g. dubstep, 2-step garage, darkcore drum & bass, etc.) into a magnificent exercise in mood engineering. Even though an urban malaise echoes through the whollop bass-bin rattle of most dubstep, that first Burial record mined a melancholy whose dramatic power has never been heard in dubstep, and rarely matched even by such downbeat experts as Massive Attack, Boards of Canada, Slowdive, or even Joy Division.
So with his second album Untrue, the aesthetic framework for Burial remains intact; yet the anonymous figure behind Burial has admitted that he was seeking a "downcast euphoria." You know what, he fucking nailed it. All of the sounds retain the first album's urban dourness reverberating through each electron and washed drone. The hovering basslines which once stalked the darkest of jungle's rhythms are ghostly presences flickering around Burial's atypical drum programming, which by his own admission is done by hand without the aid of a sequencer. The clipped, 2-step breakbeats always appear as the cocking of a gun; but it doesn't seem like Burial is taking aim at his audience. Rather, it's metaphor for the cold, inhumane existence in the grimy parts of London, where violence is just another thing to shrug at and move beyond. All of these sounds are clearly present in Burial's debut album, but the "euphoric" part of Untrue's intention is found in Burial's use of voice. Taking a cappella tunes sung by his friends (sometimes, left as a voice mail on his cellphone), Burial has crafted an eerie cast of disembodied vocals, twisted into cybernetic R&B croons, all clipped and compressed in the same manner as his pistol-whipped snare cracks. It's as if the human voice alone can transcend the dire circumstances of our earthly confines, even when the songs reflected broken dreams and a dwindling hope. Burial seeks out the fleeting moments of beauty and raw emotion, codifying it through his impeccable craft on this very impressive and soon to be iconic recording. If you're not hearing it from us, you'll hear from somebody else: Burial's Untrue is the best record of 2007.
MPEG Stream: "Archangel"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost Hardware"
MPEG Stream: "Untrue"

BURIAL & FOUR TET Nova (Text) 12" 13.98

BURIAL / FOUR TET / THOM YORKE Ego (Text) 12" 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BURNING STAR CORE Let's Play Wild Like (RRR) cd 11.98

BYETONE 20' To 2000 : May (Noton/Raster) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Olaf Bender - founder of the Rastermusic label and member of Signal - provides us with Volume 5 of the 20 to 2000 series. As this series has been progressing, one gets the impression that each artist (or the curator of the series) is attempting to link these bursts of minimalist electronica into a cogent whole pieced together of disparate fragments. From the rhythmic shards of Ilpo Vaisainen & Komet violated by Ryoji Ikeda's blistering sine waves, the series took a pleasant shift into the minimalism of Coh and now Byetone, who has expanded the spaces of silence to wrap around warm hypnotic pulses which erraticly appear.

BYETONE Symeta (Raster-Noton) lp 17.98
NOW ON VINYL!!
It doesn't happen very often, but occasionally, TWO aQ staffers accidentally review the same record, and usually, we try to just cram them together into one (sort of) cohesive single review, but this time we figured, screw it, here's two different aQ-er's takes on the latest from Byetone, a record we liked so much we reviewed it twice! See if you can guess who wrote which!!
Review one:
It's weird to say, but it seems like the most compellingly funky electronic music is coming from a camp that pretty much perfected the ultimate cold clinical electronic sound. Raster-Noton for years has been home to icy cold collections of bleep and click, him and hiss, taking music and seemingly reducing it to it's most elemental form, and arranging it into machine like rhythms. Don't get us wrong, we LOVE that stuff, and hearing pristine arrangements of ultra low, rib cage rattling lows, and dog whistle highs, rhythms created from clipped static and 1 bit bursts, total mad scientist genius. But all along, it seemed like something lurked just below the surface. A funkiness that the artists seemed to be combating, as if the whole thing was an elaborate sonic ploy to keep the funk at bay. And then suddenly, one of the brave ones, decided to let a little of the funk seep into his audio experiments, and it was good. Too good. Too good to not let more in. And soon, it was too late, and then against all odds, and in an ironic twist of sonic fate, people like Alva Noto were crafting some of THEE funkiest sounds we'd ever heard, all assembled from the same elements, beeps and clicks, 1 bit bursts and sine waves, culminating in the recently reviewed Univrs record.
But then along comes Byetone, not to be outdone, takes those same elements, and decides to not just let the funk seep into his sounds, but to go all out, and craft lush expansive soundscapes, epic and cinematic, proving that those same ingredients could be twisted up into all new shapes, which brings us to Symeta, a gorgeously lush collection of electronica, that slips easily from super clinical click and buzz, to warm lush chordal swells, often in the same song, the various elements arranged into killer grooves and funky beats, with some of the tracks sounding almost Pop Ambient, that lush and lovely, while others stayed more clinical, and still others found a middle ground, which strangely enough sounds like a weird take on the whole Goblin/Carpenter sci-fi future-retro synthscape thing, but somehow cooler, and more -actually- sci-fi sounding, and more hauntingly futuristic, with Byetone coaxing some seriously gristly buzz and tripped out psychedelia from his strange sonic laboratory.
Awesome!
Review two:
Olaf Bender's Byetone project is hardly prolific, but he has proven to be strongly consistent in his clinical electronica, which nudges the signature Raster-Noton sound of glitch 'n' tone on a trajectory that might not be all that averse to the dancefloor. Symeta comes three years after the much acclaimed Death Of A Typographer; and like that earlier record, this one also owes quite a bit to the formative work of Pan Sonic and Mika Vainio's solo album Metri. The hypnotic, adrenaline-pulsed piece of minimalist techno on "Opal" is right out of the Vainio playbook, slowly ramping a militant drum-roll from Bender's drum machine out of a throbbing basspulse radiating ominous hisses and x-ray frequencies. "Helix" and "Black Peace" nod toward the latter Pan Sonic works of gnarled, distorted electronica through an excellent track of grimy blocks of electronic riffage, caustic blasts of noise, and dubstepping electro backbeats, in the construction of some exceptional, high-pressure chamber electronica. Lest you think that it's all Vainio all the time, the first three blips from the album opening "Topas" are devilishly close to the robotic sequencing that Kraftwerk used to build their onomatopoeic "Boing Boom Tschak." Another great record from Raster-Noton.
MPEG Stream: "Topas"
MPEG Stream: "T-E-L-E-G-R-A-M-M"
MPEG Stream: "Neuschnee"

C., PATRIC The Horrible Plans of Flex Busterman (DHR) cd 19.98
Patric (Catani) is a member of DHR/Grand Royal recording artists EC8OR.

CABARET VOLTAIRE Methodology '74/'78. Attic Tapes; (Mute) 3cd 26.00

CABARET VOLTAIRE Mix-Up (Mute) cd 16.98
"Mix Up" was the first album from Cabaret Voltaire, the pioneering Industrial trio of Richard H. Kirk, Chris Watson, and Stephen Mallinder, and is qualitatively the best from that period for Cabaret Voltaire. Their sound centered around the dessication of rhythm with sinewy guitar lines, super primitive electronic synthesis (cheap drum machines, rapidly spirally tape loops, warbling effects), and monotonous vocals rasping through tons of electronics effects. This last trick became a staple of the '80s industrialists, perhaps more due to Skinny Puppy's Ogre than vocalist Kirk. "Mix Up" succeeds by keeping things creepy, dark, and monotonous, whereas the albums that immediately followed got a little too clever in trying to outsmart the audience with their rhetoric of paranoia.
RealAudio clip: "Kirlian Photography"
RealAudio clip: "On Every Other Street"

CABARET VOLTAIRE Nagnagnag + remixes (Novamute) cd ep 8.98
"Nag Nag Nag" was an early single for Cabaret Voltaire, recording it initially back in 1979 when they mere meshing a hollowed-out electro-punk sound with William S. Burroughs' notion of the cut-up. Along with the title track, this features three contemporary remixes from Montreal's Akufen, CV's mainman Richard H. Kirk, and Vice-approved electro bass-bin boomers Tiga & Zyntherius.
RealAudio clip: "Nag Nag Nag (original)"
RealAudio clip: "Nag Nag Nag (Tiga & Zyntherius Radio Mix)"

CABARET VOLTAIRE Red Mecca (Mute) cd 16.98
Originally released in 1981 through Rough Trade, Cabaret Voltaire's third album "Red Mecca" now gets another reissue courtesy of the fine folks at Mute! Having taken their name from the club started in Zurich by the principals of the Dada art movement during the First World War, Cabaret Voltaire has always been considered one of the pillars of Industrial Culture, along side Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Einsturzende Neubauten. That said, Cabaret Voltaire's sound was probably the weakest link in the Industrial lineage. This trio of Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder, and Chris Watson filtered disco grooves and afro-beat rhythms through paranoid constructions swelling with conspiracy theories, excessive drug use, and the politics of control, to arrive at a strangled funk, with all of the references to any sort of sensuality sucked dry. Often cited by their fans as the most horrific of the CV catalogue, "Red Mecca" had a lot of great ideas that don't seem as fully realised as their proponents would like us to believe. While many of the '80s bands have enjoyed recent renewed popularity due in part to a sudden spike of interest in all things 'new wave', time hasn't been all that kind to Cabaret Voltaire's early experiments (unlike contemporaries like 23 Skidoo, Suicide, This Heat, and even Throbbing Gristle) sounding very, very eighties (and not necessarily in a good way).
RealAudio clip: "A Thousand Ways"
RealAudio clip: "Red Mask"

CABARET VOLTAIRE The Living Legends (Mute) cd 16.98
"The Living Legends" is a collection of the earliest Cabaret Voltaire singles recorded for Rough Trade between 1978 and 1981. While still lumped in with the Industrial family alongside Psychic TV, SPK, and Chris and Cosey, the Cabs' may have been the most overreaching in their attempt to subvert pop structures. Their ideas were quite clear in their attempt to mutate disco and jangle pop through a bombardment of electronic effects (lots of frequency shifting, flange, delay, etc.), but they didn't really do that much in terms of altering what the root song was. Take for example the singles included on "The Living Legends," which transcribe upbeat pop songs into insectoid mutations that still essentially speak as upbeat pop songs. Their best work is of course when they actually turn their pop structures into something dark and paranoid such as in the electronic wasteland dub of "Silent Command" and "Seconds Too Late," but even these were effortlessly done better by The Pop Group a couple of years later.
RealAudio clip: "Silent Command "
RealAudio clip: "Seconds Too Late"

CABARET VOLTAIRE The Original Sound Of Sheffield '83/'87. Best of; (Virgin) cd 17.98
The Northern industrialized town of Sheffield, England was home not only to Cabaret Voltaire, but also to Warp Records, which is probably where the notion of a 'sound of Sheffield' came from. The period in question found the 'Cabs' on EMI, thus providing the band with much better access to equipment and good studios. They (Stephen Mallinder and Richard H. Kirk, as Chris Watson had departed to form The Hafler Trio with Andrew McKenzie) took the opportunity to further investigate the William S. Burroughs idea of the cut-up within a system of organized repitition. At the center of the Cabs' slice-n-dice funk, gritty beat-box repititions, and media samples was a urgency that club culture was a viable political atmosphere standing in opposition to mainstream control tactics. The sound that Cabaret Voltaire produced during this period was an incredibly influential one, inspiring Skinny Puppy, Nitzer Ebb, the early incarnations of Wax Trax / Ministry, and the ubiquitous presence of Adrian Sherwood's production work throughout the '80s. This influence ended up becoming a double-edged sword for the Cabs, as many of their innovations - the paranoid repititions of arpeggiating synths and their stuttering use of media samples (as in "Sensoria," with the constant declaration: "Do Right, D-D-Do Right") - have become incredibly tired, vapid signifiers of where Industrial Music was going to end up. There was of course a reason why so many artists had taken the ideas from this period of Cabaret Voltaire: it worked on the dance floor.
RealAudio clip: "Crackdown"
RealAudio clip: "Sensoria"

CABOLADIES Renewable Destination (Students Of Decay) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest analog onslaught from this Midwestern duo who add a distinctly kitchen sink aesthetic to their brand of guitar/synth/effects soundscapery. After a brief bit of simulated field recording, cricket like electronic chitter and deep low end thrum, the record slips right into a swirling soft cacophony of warm whirring tones, wild electronics careening every which way, fragmented rhythms, clatter and crunch and bloop and bleep, spidery guitar melodies, on the surface it's a big old swirling mess, but there does seem to be a method to their madness as the various and disparate sounds seem to coalesce into something that does in fact have design, and ends up somehow listenable and not a little bit dreamy. The record continues on, shifting into something a bit more blissed out, a hazy smoldery shimmer peppered with tinkling chiming melodies, and a blurred gauzy drift, before finishing off the side with a weird bit of cartoony sonic chaos.
The B side begins with what sound like it could have been a prime slab of heroin house or minimal dub, but here it's gone totally haywire, all robotic glitch and sputter, everything reverby and echoey, clicks and pulses swooping to and fro, simultaneously dizzyingly disorienting and mesmerizingly hypnotic. The rest of the side plays out as a hazy, druggy, blurred soft psych drift, everything woozy and washed out, before finishing off with another brief bit of twisted electronic faux field recording.
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES. Already sold out from the label, these could very well be the last copies we're able to getÉ
Includes a download coupon as well.
MPEG Stream: "Counterfeit Reflection"
MPEG Stream: "Collector"
MPEG Stream: "Woodn"

CABOLADIES s/t (DNT Records) lp 12.98
Caboladies specialize in ecstatic electrical jams that have been making the rounds of the various psychedelic-post-noise-zonked tape and cd-r labels (Arbor, Gneiss, Peasant Magik, Digitalis, etc.). And at one time, these two Kentucky ex-pats (now living in Chicago) shared a tape release with Oneohtrix Point Never. They've always been a bit loopier and more shambolic than Oneohtrix, elevating their work to the druggiest plateau of spiralling bloop and eyes-dilated sparkle that you might expect from an Astral Social Club reworking of J.D. Emmanuel. Many of those tape and cd-r releases had disappeared from physical distribution, although some less than stunning sounding mp3s are making their way around the blogosphere. So, it's really great to hear Caboladies on wax, which is certainly the best medium for these celestial crystallizations blossoming from piles of analogue gear. Taken separately, each piece of electronic gear is dialed to a twitchy spasmodic set of bleeps and swoops, that would be ungainly had Caboladies not playfully situated five, six, eight, ten complementary sets of tones that smear together into an ambient shimmer that's anything but static. These irregular vibrations and delirious patterns are alive with psychedelic energy, that you could almost see fitting into some freak-folk nature jam session... but then again, everything needs to be plugged rather heavily into the grid. Great stuff!

CACCIAPAGLIA, ROBERTO Sei Note In Logica (Mupymup) lp+cd 29.00
Released in 1979, the same year as The Ann Steel Record we raved about awhile back, Roberto Cacciapaglia's second release, Sei Note In Logica, exists in an entirely different sonic universe, one closer to his minimal classical leanings. While The Ann Steel Record was a retro-future pop album, Sei Note In Logica is an avant-garde systems composition for voices, orchestra and computer, that takes a six note melodic phrase and runs it through every possible musical combination with a choir of female vocalists (including the processed spoken voice of Ann Steel!) and the instrumentation of marimbas. strings and woodwinds and computer-based electronics. Its emphasis on repetition and rhythm puts Cacciapaglia rightfully in a more well known circle of minimalist composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Terry Riley and is a beautifully epic piece of economic means. Recorded in two parts, this vinyl reissue includes a cd of the vinyl recording plus a bonus version of the acoustic version of the piece with the ensemble without the computer derived enhancements and Ann Steel vocal. It's great to see this on vinyl, but don't hesitate as these great deluxe reissues have a way of disappearing fast! Highly Recommended!

CACCIAPAGLIA, ROBERTO The Ann Steel Album (Half Machine) lp 17.98
It took a while for us to be able to list these - first our supplier ran out, then we got copies that were damaged, but now we've got more and we're glad to be able to review it, 'cause few records in recent memory have brought us as much unbridled joy as this one. We've heard inklings here and there about this record over the years and when we heard it was being reissued several months ago, our excitement grew with each new report. Straddling the lines between post-disco and new wave electronica without quite being either, The Ann Steel Album from 1979 is the product of avant-classical composer Roberto Cacciapaglia, a multi-instrumentalist that performed on Franco Battiato's Pollution (a unanimous aQ favorite!) and who is mostly known for composing works of progressive classical minimalism (Wah Wah recently reissued his debut Sonanze from 1975, and Sei Note in Logica from the same year as this, is also worth seeking out). But The Ann Steel Album is an entirely different animal, not only because of its skewed electronic dance-pop leanings, but because it features the beautifully strange and charming vocal presence of American model Ann Steel, who obviously is the real star of this record. She sings like a warm bodied android in clipped chirps and strange phrasings like a machine with english language programming for public interaction. Think Siri with a higher register. In the awesome opening song, "My Time", she's ready to sell you on the artificial wonders of modern society, where consciousness is akin to commodification: "My life runs smooth like a highway / Billboards show me the way" (Belgian synth trio, Telex covered this in a smoother, more well known version on their debut a year later). Every song on here fully rejoices in the positive joys of the synthetic present, making this an infectiously grooving pop art statement with any trace of irony fully camouflaged under layers of glossy surface. It's easy to tell that retro-futurist bands like Stereolab and Sweden's Komeda were influenced heavily by this record, and it fits right in with the brilliant like-minded eccentric synthesis of Bruce Haack and Giorgio Moroder. Not sold yet? Go here to see an awesome clip from Italian dance show, Tilt, from 1980 and just try and remain unconvinced that this is awesome!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu2ESLpe-rE
Thank you Half-Machine for bringing this record back to life! Might just be reissue of the year! And apologies to you non-vinyl folks as this looks like for the present to be vinyl only.
MPEG Stream: "My Time"
MPEG Stream: "Sport et Divertissement"
MPEG Stream: "Portrait"

CALIX, MIRA Eyes Set Against The Sun (Warp ) cd 25.00
In the opening moments of detached vocals doubled into an eerie chorus and collaged against scraped violin and lengthy field recordings of water, Eyes Set Against The Sun holds more in common with the avant-folk splatter of Islaja or even the Dada delirium of Diana Rogerson's Chrystal Belle Scrodd recordings than what we might have expected. Mira Calix (nee Chantal Passamonte) has always been one of Warp's more oblique electronica artists; but here, the connections to anything Autechre or Aphex are completely removed. Drifting orchestral passages that would easily fit into the Type Records catalogue of languid post-classical composition sit next to whimsically clunky kitchen utensil gamelan suites of intertwining rhythms, and plenty of eccentric juxtapositions in these off-the-rocker folktronica tunes. An intriguing record to say the least!
MPEG Stream: "Because To Why"
MPEG Stream: "Umbra / Penumbra"

CALIX, MIRA One On One (Warp) cd 13.98
Mira Calix's debut album on Warp is quite a nice surprise from this South African transplant to London, creating lazy looping grooves of downtempo house beats, dark electro thuds, more-Skam-than-Warp digital skitter, and more than a few nods to Mouse On Mars within sweeping arid desert ambience. Quite good!

CALIX, MIRA Prickle (Warp) cd ep 6.98
Chantal Passamonte was at one time (and may still be) Warp's publicist, but has certainly come into her own as one of the label's most interesting artists as Mira Calix, celebrating and augmenting the advanced electronics that Warp has always championed. "Prickle" is a five track ep, although the first four cuts are unindexed as one track, followed by a remix from Andrea Parker. The Mira Calix tracks are moody and disjointed, with an unapologetically synthetic keyboard patch proceeding like the Joy Division funeral dirge "Atmosphere," but plenty of oblique Black Dog-esque rhythms to mark this as contemporary. Andrea Parker's remix tends to heighten the alienation of Mira Calix, with a paranoid / bad-ass electro remix of "Skin With Me" originally from Calix's "One On One" album.
RealAudio clip: "Skin With Me (Andrea Parker Remix)"
RealAudio clip: "Miliaria"

CALIX, MIRA Skimskitta (Warp) cd 17.98
This album sounds like it was snatched straight out of the late '90s. Textbook darktronica which is certainly pleasant enough, if somewhat faceless and uneven. The synth strings melodies on the 15th track "Shadenfreunde" sound as though they're being played through a factory pre-set patch, and being performed by a complete novice no less (or perhaps they were programmed quite messily)! As a result, the track comes off as clumsy... and the album as a whole? File under 'h' for Ho hum.
MPEG Stream: "Shadenfreunde"

CALL BACK THE GIANTS s/t (Kye) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is indeed a weird one, even from the already extra weird Shadow Ring camp. Call Back The Giants is the solo project of SR keyboardist Tim Goss, and on this, the debut lp from Goss and his CBTG, he weaves an ever shifting landscape of warped keyboard drones, twisted new age drift, fractured late night ambience, creepy processed vocals, and blissed out psychedelia.
Gloomy and otherworldly, some sort of soundtrack for another world, another time, another dimension, low tones wheeze and creep and slither, blossoming into Technicolor expanses of hazy, gauzy ambience, rife with fragmented melodies, slowed down voices, swirling FX and heart-of-the-sun kosmische solar shimmer.
The title track takes the retro futuristic sci-fi synthscapes of Zombi and Majeure and pulls them apart until they sound like a melting VHS tape of some seventies British science program, and of course, that's not counting the bizarre male and female vocals, both drawled and druggy, and distorted, mostly blotting out the sounds beneath them.
The rest of the record unfurls similarly, slipping from woozy, Dr. Who style synthscapery, all warbly and woozy, to hazy, almost shoegazy glitched out rainbowy shimmer, to murky underwater electronica, laced with sing songy synth pulses, to ominous electronic flecked faux string lofi MIDI sounding dirges, to 8 bit style primitive keyboard majesty, all of those various shades of fantastical whatthefuck, made even more twisted by the various vocals, mush mouthed mumble one second, deep moody croon the next, almost falsetto sounding warble the next, and eventually to that very recognizable Shadow Ring style spoken word.
Weird record for sure, but Shadow Ring fans will be in heaven, and folks who like tripped out electronic dronemusic and otherworldly new age avant ambience, or hell, just plain far out (but still mysterious and melodic) weirdness, then this is definitely worth checking out!
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Reaching In"
MPEG Stream: "Call Back The Giants"
MPEG Stream: "Shadows"

CALL BACK THE GIANTS The Rising (Kye) lp 17.98
Record number two from this Shadow Ring offshoot, and it's another strange sonic trip, the framework in some ways similar to the Shadow Ring, in that the songs here are droned out and drifty, with the occasional vocals delivered in a haunting deep spoken word (or occasionally a hushed female croon), but the sounds in CBTG are much more dreamy and drifty, still a bit twisted and atonal in places, but the record starts with a surprisingly lush and warm bit of almost new agey soundscapery, before slipping into a short stretch of kosmische synth shimmer, it's not until a few tracks in that things begin to darken, the sound turning a bit more grim, a gurgling electronic dronescape, rumbling beneath those aforementioned hauntingly intoned spoken vocals, the whole thing peppered with sci-fi squiggles and shards of synth buzz, the A side finishing off with a sonic bookend, a reprise of the opener, another bit of warm ambient swirl, which quickly gives way to a bit of hazy synth-folk drift, that sounds a bit like Fastest / Xynfonica, the sounds slightly atonal, the melodies subtly sour, which is balanced by the sweetly crooned female vox that hover ghostlike above.
The flipside flits restlessly from epic synth prog to murky droney creep, occasionally slipping into long sprawls of low end shimmer, laced with overlapping voices, and hazy washed out melodies, bits of skittery IDM electronics surfacing here and there, and still more hauntingly intoned vox, culminating in what has to be the strangest track on the record, the weirdly riffy, dirgey, droney closer, "Passage Of Arms", a muddy stretch of muted tinny riffage, like some sort of transistor radio alien doom, the vocals sung (at least compare to the rest of the record), and while this might be the most 'rock' thing CBTG have ever done, fear not, it's still appropriately weirdly twisted and woozily warped into the perfect coda for what was already and beautifully baffling collection of sound.

CALLA Custom (Quatermass) cd 15.98

CAM, DJ Loa Project (Volume II) (Six Degrees) cd 15.98
Latest from this well-known French DJ. Jazzy, beat heavy mixology. Samples, scratches, live playing, guest vox...definitely more on the DJ Shadow side of things than the DJ Q-bert side (in the easy listenability vs. turntable acrobatics spectrum). Downtempo cinematic noir-ish hip hop grooves rub shoulders with more dance-floor oriented material.