ASANO, KOJI The Last Shade of Evening Falls 4/4 (Solstice) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
...And the fourth and final installment of Asano's "Last Shade" wavers and keens like the mad monstrous pipers of Azathoth's court in the center of the universe trying to play a Tony Conrad composition!

ASANO, KOJI Vacant Land (Solstice) cd 16.98
A noisy/ambient one, in a digipak.

ASANO, KOJI Wind Gauge (Solstice) cd 14.98

ASANO, KOJI You Cannot Open The Door Because It Is Already Open (Solstice) cd 14.98
So lovely. Another AQ-fave by this AQ-fave Japanese composer. "You Cannot Open The Door Because It Is Already Open" is moody, abstract piano improv, recorded in an abandoned Russian castle, which provides the mysterious background ambiance.

ASANO, KOJI Zoo Telepathy (Solstice) cd 14.98

ASANO. KOJI The Last Shade of Evening Falls 1/4 (Solstice) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Japanese composer/experimentalist (and AQ fave sound artist) Koji Asano is known not only for the quality of his work (almost always quite excellent) but for the sheer quantity of his releases over the last few years -- sixteen of 'em as of today, more if you count limited edition cd-rs -- which run the creative gamut from gorgeous piano meditiations, to computer noise, to chamber music, to rock guitar improv. Also unique about Koji is that ALL his music has been released on his own label, Solstice (now based, as he is, in Spain). And as if to cement Koji's reputation as a prolific composer, now Solstice presents the simutanous release of four new cds, comprising one extensive composition of abstract electro-acoustic drone, entitled "The Last Shade of Evening Falls". Now if there's one thing that drone-lovers can agree on, is that you never want 'em to end -- so what could be better than the over four and a half hours of this piece? Each disc is over an hour long, one track. Now it's not at all pure drone all the way through, that's but a part of the equation. Over the course of these four cds, Koji utilizes all sorts of slow groaning burbling tones, higher-pitched distortion, moaning echoes. His sounds are derived from violin and contrabass -- not that you'd guess, although you can tell they're from something "organic". Koji wrote music for those instruments that was recorded in Japan by his Koji Asano Ensemble, and then he spent the long dusks of a week in Barceleona near the time of the summer solstice to reconstruct and recompose the piece in his computer, processing and manipulating the original recording. Overall, "Last Shade" is dark, textural work that's going to take us longer than the running time to come to fully digest -- but what we've heard so far has been lovely. We're selling the cds seperately but obviously you need to get all four! However, a capsule review of "1/4" is that it's relatively more "melodic" than the other discs, and establishes a murder-mystery sense of tension as well.

ASBESTOSCAPE s/t (self-released) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the wake of Jesu, and about a million other shoegazey bliss-metal combos, it's a little surprising that Asbestoscape is the first band to take that blown out dreamy heaviness to an entirely new place. Well okay, maybe not entirely, but this, the debut cd-r by this mysterious one man band is actually quite refreshing, and a handful of folks we trust are proclaiming this their record of the year. And we can see why. In a nutshell, imagine sweeping post rock epics, merged with crumbling distorted blissed out metalgaze, but now lace the whole thing with skittery programmed rhythms, bursts of stuttery jungle, stretches of shuffling downtempo grooves, it's pretty fucking great. And the sound, deconstructed, can result in two different equations, one: a metal band, a slow, fuzzy dreamy metal band, mixing in cool jungle rhythms, or two: an electronic outfit, jungle or drum and bass or whatever, incorporating guitars and post rocky melodies. Either way, the results are sublime.
But this juxtaposition, while cool, is not enough to sustain an entire record. Thankfully, Asbestoscape has a deft hand with composition too, the tracks here are dark and minor key, grand and majestic, epic and super dramatic. Instrumental of course, but never boring, the textures and melodies and rhythms more than enough to keep it interesting. It's easy to hear bits of Jesu, Mono, Explosions In The Sky, Mogwai, Nadja, but those sounds get their own unique twist, the deal sealed by flurries of spastic drum splatter, or mechanical minimal almost industrial rhythmic crunch. There are long slow building epics, the jangly guitars, shot through with high end streaks, underpinned by thick swells of muted heaviness, all held together by crystalline frameworks of programmed skitter, there are huge chugging metallic riffs gradually blurred into shimmering squalls of blissy buzz, some gorgeous slow burning dirges, that almost sound like a slowed down, prettier Godflesh (doing it almost better than Jesu), simple glistening stretches of stripped down post rock, wreathed in prismatic guitar jangle and a deep droney low end that sounds almost like strings, there's even a track that sounds like a post rock-ed chunk of dubstep. But it all works, and while in lesser hands the programmed rhythms could sound forced and gimmicky, they don't here, not only do they manage to sound organic, they also become an integral part of the Asbestoscape sound.
The more we listen to this, the more we dig it. And thankfully, as Jesu moves more and more toward M83's eighties retro revival, albeit heavier (a move we're not at all opposed to, btw) it seems like Asbestoscape are here to fill that void, in addition to offering up a new take on the post rock / metal sound that should have fans of any of the above mentioned bands freaking out big time.
MPEG Stream: "Arctic"
MPEG Stream: "Mono"
MPEG Stream: "Ashen"

ASCENSION Broadcast (Shock) 2cd 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A double-disc live recording by the amazing extreme improv duo of guitarist Stephan Jaworzyn (ex-Skullflower, ex-Whitehouse) and drummer Tony Irving (Derv), as broadcast by San Jose's KFJC live via ISDN from their home of London, England. Noisy, heavy, "out" guitar explorations/explosions don't come much better. Highly recommended for fans of Derek Bailey, Harry Pussy, Keiji Haino, etc.

ASEETHE Reverent Burden (Floating Cave) lp 14.98
First we've heard from this doom drone trio from Iowa, and it's definitely right up our alley. How could it not be when two members are credited with "drones", and one with "contact mics", in addition to the usual metallic instrumentation? Not your run of the mill doom/drone we're thinkingÉ A smoldering blackened ambience starts things off, all haunting creaks and whirling winds, distant guitar buzz and abstract strum, the build ultimately culminates in some seriously pummeling and lumbering doomic plod, the crashes and churning riffage spaced way out, leaving plenty of room for long stretches of heavily layered guitar buzz and blurred expanses of low end shimmer. The vocals are deep and bellowed, and everything is subtly infused with a bit of melody, but those melodies seem to bleed into the blackness surrounding them, each track a haunting downtuned black doom creep.
The B side pushes the drone element even further, so dirgey and slow that the doom almost seems to transform into drone right before our ears. Occasionally interrupted by little blasts of extra riffage, and driven by some abstract drum pound, the song lumbers monstrously, eventually the drums taking up less space, the crashes happening less often, causing the second half of the B side to lean heavy on the drone and drift, lulling you into a druggy haze before exploding with another blast of blackened doomic churn.
The sort of stuff that will definitely appeal to fans of Monarch and Whitehorse and all that sort of slo-mo crush.
Super sweet packaging, thick heavy jackets, nice thick vinyl, each record with an old parchment, with the original writing, but also augmented with a more modern stone rubbing.
WARNING, the jackets got a little beat up in transit, so if you need absolute collector nerd perfection, you're out of luck...

ASGEIRSSON, HALLVARDUR Lifsblomio (Paradigms) cd 16.98
From the seemingly infallible Paradigms label, who in the past have brought us amazing releases from (we're gonna have to stop doing this, pretty soon the list of killer Paradigms releases will be longer than most reviews): Hjarnidaudi, Amber Asylum, Throne Of Katarsis, Blueprint Human Being, Utlagr, the Angelic Process, Titan, Jarboe and that amazing Walking With Ghosts compilation. Avid readers of the list should probably own all of those by now. Each one totally unique and amazing in its own way. This time around we have two more releases just as unique and amazing, the post rock avant doom of Woburn House, reviewed elsewhere on this list, and this disc of droning doomed classical beauty from Icelandic composer Hallvardur Asgeirsson.
It's hard to know exactly how to describe this. That Icelandic sound is there. You can certainly here bits of Sigur Ros, that sort of dramatic dreaminess, but it's way more abstract. Almost like some twentieth century classical minimalism played by Sigur Ros, or even the other way around. Strings soar and drift, weaving melancholy sadscapes of sound, the whole thing wrapped in gauzy streaks of industrial noise, buzzing metallic shimmer, high keening tones, crackling hiss, fuzzy low end rumbles. It could almost be a track from some nonexistent Kranky records tribute to Schonberg. Dark and droney enough to appeal to the usual suspects, but at the same time this is ABSOLUTELY classical music. Mainly piano and strings, but occasionally accompanied by operatic vocals and various percussion, these pieces are alternately minimal, abstract, droney, dense, dreamy and doomy. In fact, track six is simply titled "Doom" and is most definitely doom, with a guitar / bass / drums / contrabass lineup replacing the more traditional classical arrangement, but it somehow manages to still sound classical, albeit, with a heavier dirge element. The final track, the nearly 19 minute "Vitisvelar" takes the super spare sound of modern classical minimalism, mixes in strange fanfares, as well as some driving propulsive rhythms, the result being a very cinematic sound, like the action scenes from some lost sixties spy move. So cool!
Unlike most of the Paradigms releases, which come in cardboard sleeves wrapped in hand stamped, brown paper, this disc is in a white DVD case, with black and white printed insert...
MPEG Stream: "Doom"
MPEG Stream: "Seasons In Black"
MPEG Stream: "Die Blume Des Lebens"

ASH POOL World Turns On Its Hinge (Hospital Productions) cd 12.98
Finally! The first proper full length from these NY based, ultra sick, primitive black metal noise merchants. Everything we've heard so far we've dug like crazy, a single and a tape, each filthy and dripping with blown out black buzz and pounding punkish riffing. This full length is more of the same, and if anything ups the ante sonically.
Meaner, heavier, thrashier, filthier, more raw and primitive and blown out, and like the other records, still poppy and weirdly catchy. This is most definitely black metal, but a crushing primitive D-beat style BM, following a similar sonic path as fellow black hordes Bone Awl, Ancestors, Akitsa, Malveillance and the like.
Ash Pool is one part blacknoise outfit Prurient, so you knew there was gonna be noise, but the noise here is deftly harnessed into roiling black riffs and blasting beats, woozy, dizzying seasick blasts of relentless pound, furious and fierce, the production thick and blown out, in the red, crumbling distortion and murky reverb everywhere.
But this isn't just the same song over and over, set the instruments to blast and let the record play out. No these songs are varied and bizarre, occasionally epic and dramatic, sometimes so fast and brutal it borders on pure noise, sometimes a Brainbombs style caveman pound, sometimes a weird minor key mathrock jam, always appropriately blown out and noisy, but now and then the songs veer into strange, creepy, almost pretty territory, a slow and loping doomic lurch, with minor key melodies that manage to be mournful and funereal but still jagged and buzzy. Winding melancholic lopes that just sort of meander and chug abstractly. But it's never long before the tracks splinter into jagged shards, with the song exploding into another stretch of raw toxic pummel, the vocals doused in FX and convulsing wildly atop the relentless riffage. And every once in a while, the band lock into some crazy melodic groove, and for a brief moment you almost forget you're listening to some harsh and hateful black noise outfit.
Hard to explain how great this stuff is, it all manages to be so visceral and intense, emotional and depressive, melodic with losing it's flesh-peeling edge, so sonically varied without losing its focus, the slow songs are perfect bridges between the speaker shredding streaks of black brutality, but even when things are chaotic and on the verge of collapse, the songs still manage to be catchy and melodic and heavy as fuck.
MPEG Stream: "Sin Of Life"
MPEG Stream: "Crucifixion Fantasy"
MPEG Stream: "Vices Triumph Over Wisdom"

ASH POOL World Turns On Its Hinge (Paragon) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now on vinyl, the amazing debut full length from these NY based, ultra sick, primitive black metal noise merchants. Everything we've heard so far we've dug like crazy, a single and a tape, each filthy and dripping with blown out black buzz and pounding punkish riffing. This full length is more of the same, and if anything ups the ante sonically.
Meaner, heavier, thrashier, filthier, more raw and primitive and blown out, and like the other records, still poppy and weirdly catchy. This is most definitely black metal, but a crushing primitive D-beat style BM, following a similar sonic path as fellow black hordes Bone Awl, Ancestors, Akitsa, Malveillance and the like.
Ash Pool is one part blacknoise outfit Prurient, so you knew there was gonna be noise, but the noise here is deftly harnessed into roiling black riffs and blasting beats, woozy, dizzying seasick blasts of relentless pound, furious and fierce, the production thick and blown out, in the red, crumbling distortion and murky reverb everywhere.
But this isn't just the same song over and over, set the instruments to blast and let the record play out. No these songs are varied and bizarre, occasionally epic and dramatic, sometimes so fast and brutal it borders on pure noise, sometimes a Brainbombs style caveman pound, sometimes a weird minor key mathrock jam, always appropriately blown out and noisy, but now and then the songs veer into strange, creepy, almost pretty territory, a slow and loping doomic lurch, with minor key melodies that manage to be mournful and funereal but still jagged and buzzy. Winding melancholic lopes that just sort of meander and chug abstractly. But it's never long before the tracks splinter into jagged shards, with the song exploding into another stretch of raw toxic pummel, the vocals doused in FX and convulsing wildly atop the relentless riffage. And every once in a while, the band lock into some crazy melodic groove, and for a brief moment you almost forget you're listening to some harsh and hateful black noise outfit.
Hard to explain how great this stuff is, it all manages to be so visceral and intense, emotional and depressive, melodic with losing it's flesh-peeling edge, so sonically varied without losing its focus, the slow songs are perfect bridges between the speaker shredding streaks of black brutality, but even when things are chaotic and on the verge of collapse, the songs still manage to be catchy and melodic and heavy as fuck.
The lp version includes super striking new artwork and an lp sized insert!
MPEG Stream: "Sin Of Life"
MPEG Stream: "Crucifixion Fantasy"
MPEG Stream: "Vices Triumph Over Wisdom"

ASHER The Depths, The Colors, The Objects & The Silence (Mystery Sea) cd-r 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in stock. Found just a few more copies...
Another gorgeously subdued missive from one of our favorite cd-r labels, Mystery Sea. Each release somehow fits into the label's focus on "night-ocean drones" whether literally, sonically, conceptually or spiritually. And every disc impeccably designed and packaged, the artwork as much a part of the art as the music inside.
This installment (one of two on this week's list) comes from the East Coast, Massachusetts to be exact, from a one man band known only as Asher. One of the better-known artists to release a record on Mystery Sea, Asher, focuses on field recordings, processed and manipulated into fantastic minimal microlandscapes of sound, creating textures and melodies, spreading found sounds and bits of generated music into long-form, slow-moving near static drones. But closer examination reveals all sorts of subtle rhythms, and constantly changing tonal colors, deep swells and distant shimmers, keening slivers of amp skree, but smeared into glistens rather than glares, the sounds of people and things, barely visible through the glorious blurry fuzz. Really quite lovely. Very close listening is definitely required, but the listener will be suitably rewarded by a beautiful and haunting otherworld of sound.
MPEG Stream: "Partly Framed In Sunlight"
MPEG Stream: "The Blue Gently Linked"

ASHER & UBEBOET Cell Memory (Winds Measure Recordings) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Intentional or otherwise, Asher Thal-Nir and Ubeboet (also known as Miguel Tolosa) have created a near perfect soundscape for winter. While Cell Memory is not nearly as isolated and grim as the classic Thomas Koner records that looked to Greenland for inspiration, the hushed noises and barren drones of Cell Memory capture a similarly cold environment. The album is split almost evenly between two near 20 minute tracks. "Alter" echoes a muted howl across a billowing mass of radio snow, nocturnal hallucinatory gestures, and soft focus noise, all of which has been muffled into a long-stare miasma of ghostly repetitions flickering against a fog-laden horizon line. While the mood of "Alter" has something akin to being awakened at 3am by a snowstorm, the second track "Nullus" is more of a subterranean, bunker recording, with flecks of static dropping on the cavernous subharmonic drones like seeped water from the ceiling into a massive concrete cistern. Electrical murmurings and accreted layers of smeared textures ebb and flow against the near constant background hum. Beautifully chilling impressionism that would fit very well next to Jonathan Colecough, Mirror, Murmer, Bernhard Gunter, Steve Roden, and the aforementioned Thomas Koner.
As with all of the Wind Measures Recordings, Cell Memory comes in an elegant folio, letterpressed by WMR's Ben Owen. It's a professionally duplicated cd-r and is limited to 150 copies.
MPEG Stream: "Alter"
MPEG Stream: "Nullus"

ASHES OF PIEMONTE, THE Winter's Fire (deluxe) (Time Released Sound) cd 45.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another gorgeous collection of blissed out ambience from local label Time Released Sound, this one from a TRS vet, Mr. Wil Bolton, whose Quarry Bank release was a big hit around here, and who in Ashes Of Piemonte, is teamed up with another like minded soundmaker by the name of Lee Anthony Norris. The two together have conjured up a broody bit of haunting minimalist drift, one that's not that far removed from what we're discovering is a sort of "Time Released Sound SOUND", and while each band has their own distinct take on THAT sound, at its core, it's typically an ethereal, ephemeral ambience, neo-classical dronescapery that's softly psychedelic, hushed and mysterious, almost new agey at times, an electronic flecked dreaminess that blends organic and machine generated sounds into something lush and lovely. Winter's Fire though takes that TRS sound and darkens it a bit, adding an overcast patina, the sound more grey and rainswept, low tones rumbling and shimmering beneath crystalline flecks of glimmering melody, hazy swaths of voice like synth floating weightless above softly thrumming chordal swells, the sound almost choral in places, very cinematic, wistful and melancholy, a weary, washed out sprawl of delicate moody mesmerism, drifting spectrally through field recordings of rainfall, mysterious echo drenched samples, and ghostly voices, all of which seem to fade eerily into the gauzy shimmery backdrop Bolton and Norris so effortlessly weave. Fans of other Time Released Sound releases will most definitely not be disappointed, but folks into sounds darker and dronier, might just want to give this one a try, a perfect mix of hushed haunting ambience, ominous cinematic soundscaping and dark droning drift.
As with all Time Released Sound releases, Winter's Fire comes in two versions, one a pricey ultra deluxe package, and less expensive standard one. The deluxe version this time around consists of a stamped and printed page from a 100 year old apothecary's ledger, complete with all the original hand written prescriptions, the page has tiny twigs woven into it, and the whole thing is tied with antique string, to which is attached an old brass clothespin. All of that is then housed in an antiqued envelope, printed and distressed with ash, ink and pastels, then hand stamped and sealed with wax. WOW. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, we have but a handful. The Standard version is less limited and comes housed in a simple printed paper sleeve, slightly smudged and distressed.
MPEG Stream: "Isola"
MPEG Stream: "Under The River"
MPEG Stream: "Ordained By Winter's Fire"

ASHES OF PIEMONTE, THE Winter's Fire (regular) (Time Released Sound) cd 12.98
Another gorgeous collection of blissed out ambience from local label Time Released Sound, this one from a TRS vet, Mr. Wil Bolton, whose Quarry Bank release was a big hit around here, and who in Ashes Of Piemonte, is teamed up with another like minded soundmaker by the name of Lee Anthony Norris. The two together have conjured up a broody bit of haunting minimalist drift, one that's not that far removed from what we're discovering is a sort of "Time Released Sound SOUND", and while each band has their own distinct take on THAT sound, at its core, it's typically an ethereal, ephemeral ambience, neo-classical dronescapery that's softly psychedelic, hushed and mysterious, almost new agey at times, an electronic flecked dreaminess that blends organic and machine generated sounds into something lush and lovely. Winter's Fire though takes that TRS sound and darkens it a bit, adding an overcast patina, the sound more grey and rainswept, low tones rumbling and shimmering beneath crystalline flecks of glimmering melody, hazy swaths of voice like synth floating weightless above softly thrumming chordal swells, the sound almost choral in places, very cinematic, wistful and melancholy, a weary, washed out sprawl of delicate moody mesmerism, drifting spectrally through field recordings of rainfall, mysterious echo drenched samples, and ghostly voices, all of which seem to fade eerily into the gauzy shimmery backdrop Bolton and Norris so effortlessly weave. Fans of other Time Released Sound releases will most definitely not be disappointed, but folks into sounds darker and dronier, might just want to give this one a try, a perfect mix of hushed haunting ambience, ominous cinematic soundscaping and dark droning drift.
As with all Time Released Sound releases, Winter's Fire comes in two versions, one a pricey ultra deluxe package, and less expensive standard one. The deluxe version this time around consists of a stamped and printed page from a 100 year old apothecary's ledger, complete with all the original hand written prescriptions, the page has tiny twigs woven into it, and the whole thing is tied with antique string, to which is attached an old brass clothespin. All of that is then housed in an antiqued envelope, printed and distressed with ash, ink and pastels, then hand stamped and sealed with wax. WOW. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, we have but a handful. The Standard version is less limited and comes housed in a simple printed paper sleeve, slightly smudged and distressed.
MPEG Stream: "Isola"
MPEG Stream: "Under The River"
MPEG Stream: "Ordained By Winter's Fire"

ASHLAR Saturday Drones (Time Released Sound) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The latest release from local label Time Released Sound comes via the UK duo Ashlar, who traffic in a hazy, dreamy ambience, a field recording flecked sprawl of spidery crystalline guitar melodies, lush chordal swells, and blurred dronedrift shimmer. Softly looped passages seem to gradually decay, revealing all manner of textures beneath, each track here dreamy and ethereal, tending toward the hushed and minimal, but in places blossoming into dense droning buzz or keening high-end skree, but always settling back into something much more serene and tranquil. The fuzzy gauzy sound reminds us of Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker for sure, but the music is more in line with Jasper TX or Machinefabriek, darkly delicate, lushly woven soundscapes that manage to be both haunting and cinematic, melancholy and slightly sinister, the field recordings, giving many of these tracks a slightly paranoid vibe like an alternate modern score for The Conversation. Gorgeous stuff.
As with all the TRS releases, there are two versions. There's the ultra deluxe version, in this case, limited to just 80 copies, and we only have a small handful, each one housed in an original old school 'clock dial' hobby store style package, with the original (slightly modified) clock dial decal, as well as a series of reproduced prints of (slightly altered) drone related projects from the imagined Ashlar Industries. Also included is a sticker, old aerial photographic ephemera, and of course an actual cd (not cd-r) housed in a hand printed and stamped envelope. And of course there's the standard version, which is simply the cd in the hand printed / stamped envelope, that one is quite limited too this time around, just 70 copies!
MPEG Stream: "The First Saturday"
MPEG Stream: "Hope Street"
MPEG Stream: "The Last Drone"

ASHLAR Saturday Drones - DELUXE VERSION (Time Released Sound) cd + inserts + decal 45.00
The latest release from local label Time Released Sound comes via the UK duo Ashlar, who traffic in a hazy, dreamy ambience, a field recording flecked sprawl of spidery crystalline guitar melodies, lush chordal swells, and blurred dronedrift shimmer. Softly looped passages seem to gradually decay, revealing all manner of textures beneath, each track here dreamy and ethereal, tending toward the hushed and minimal, but in places blossoming into dense droning buzz or keening high-end skree, but always settling back into something much more serene and tranquil. The fuzzy gauzy sound reminds us of Philip Jeck or Tim Hecker for sure, but the music is more in line with Jasper TX or Machinefabriek, darkly delicate, lushly woven soundscapes that manage to be both haunting and cinematic, melancholy and slightly sinister, the field recordings, giving many of these tracks a slightly paranoid vibe like an alternate modern score for The Conversation. Gorgeous stuff.
As with all the TRS releases, there are two versions. There's the ultra deluxe version, in this case, limited to just 80 copies, and we only have a small handful, each one housed in an original old school 'clock dial' hobby store style package, with the original (slightly modified) clock dial decal, as well as a series of reproduced prints of (slightly altered) drone related projects from the imagined Ashlar Industries. Also included is a sticker, old aerial photographic ephemera, and of course an actual cd (not cd-r) housed in a hand printed and stamped envelope. And of course there's the standard version, which is simply the cd in the hand printed / stamped envelope, that one is quite limited too this time around, just 70 copies!
MPEG Stream: "The First Saturday"
MPEG Stream: "Hope Street"
MPEG Stream: "The Last Drone"

ASHLEY, ROBERT Wolfman (Alga Marghen) cd 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 one of three separate shards of electronic music history (Ashley, Neuhaus, and Palestine) recently unearthed by Italian audio archaeologists Alga Marghen.
"Wolfman" collects four pieces circa 1957-1964 by American original Robert Ashley, a composer known for his releases on Lovely Music. Noisy tape-music and electronics to accompany equally extreme vocal performances. Pretty wild, and hard to take, certainly pioneering stuff!
MPEG Stream: "The Wolfman"

ASHTORATH Darkstorm Entwinded (NOTHingness) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As we mentioned in the review of the Exxasens cd elsewhere on this list, Belgian label NOTHingness, a long time aQ fave, is no more. The folks who ran NOTHingness decided to close shop and start a new label called Consouling Sounds. But we did manage to get one last NOTHingness release, this gorgeous collection of haunting forest dronescapes from a Canadian outfit called Ashtorath.
And yeah, drone records are a dime a dozen these days, but this is much more than just a drone record, it's more like a collection of creepy cinematic soundscapes which just happen to be intensely droney. The music of Ashtorath is moody and melancholic, dramatic and dark, haunting and harrowing. Beginning with the sound of insects in the night, thunderstorms, whipping wind, a tolling bell, it sets the stage for what's to come. A slowly unfolding sonic narrative, synths unfurl woozy melodies, mysterious drones and whirs lurk just below the surface, guitars wrapped in reverb ring out over the sound of rainfall, peppered with bits of muted glitch, moaning ghostly tones, creepy tinkling chimes, deep resonant rumbles, mysterious voices, warbly woozy music box melodies, this tuff is just so creepy and weird, definitely sounds like it could have been pulled right out of some super sinister underground arty horror film. A little bit neoclassical, a little bit dark ambient, a little bit horror movie score, some drone, and even some almost metallic distorted guitar, lurching and lumbering through a field of whirring weirdness on the last track.
Pretty and droney enough for the free noise drone rock cd-r crowd, but of particular interest to folks into Zombi, Goblin, Trollman Av Ildtoppberg, Ensepulchred, Zombie Battle Axe and actual horror movie music.
SUPER LIMITED. ALREADY OUT OF PRINT. We got the last copies...
MPEG Stream: "Stormshard"
MPEG Stream: "The Darkwood Forest"
MPEG Stream: "Of Ebon Wings"

ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS Never Grew Out of Being Holden Caulfield (Pink Skulls) 3" cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Second Ashtray Navigations disc in two weeks! This time, it comes courtesy of our pal Glenn (Blithe Suns, Ivytree, Jewelled Antler, etc.) and his Pink Skulls cd-r label. Originally begun to release stuff that was too weird / out there or just too different from the Jewelled Antler aesthetic, Pink Skulls seems to be getting a little closer to its big brother label with this release, as this new Ashtray Navigations wouldn't be all that out of place on JA. A sweet dreamy three-part mini epic. Part one is a long meditative simple high end drone, keening and warbling, up and down in a simple two note melody. Parts two and three are brief addendums, one a series of rumbling low end swells, chirping crickets, and detuned guitars, the other a sort of echo of the first, with distorted lilting melodies over a wash of Skullflower style high-end scree. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "Good Fight Over A Woman"
MPEG Stream: "Diamond Fin Shark His Home Is The Ocean"

ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS The Love That Whirrs (Last Visible Dog) cd 9.98
The UK's Ashtray Navigations (aka Phil Todd) has been spitting out cd after cd after tape after tape after cd-r after cd-r for years now. Close to twenty would be our guess. If not more even. Which is pretty dang impressive. So here we are twenty years down the line and Todd is still kicking up the sort of glorious din that shames most of the other free noise outifts out there. Billowing clouds of thick chordal bliss, washes of high end feedback and layer after layer of sonic skree, all shifting and swirling and drifting with subtle acustic guitars in the background as well as whining reeds unfurling melancholy Eastern melodies. The closest comparison would have to be Sunroof! or Vibracathedral Orchestra, who just so happen to occupy the same sonic scene as Todd and his Ashtray Navigations. From pixilated clouds of abstract tinkle and glimmer to dense supernovas of roiling sonic fury, The Love That Whirrs is totally essential listening (like all things Sunroof!, VCO, Pelt, Skullflower, Jazzfinger, etc.) for all you freeambientdronedrifters out there!
MPEG Stream: "The Soul Of Man Under Socialism"
MPEG Stream: "Darwin's Seal, Animal Tracks And Bones"

ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS Three Rockets Thicken (Trensmat) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
First we've heard in a long while from this prolific home recordist, going on 20 years now, and while at one point we may have gotten a wee bit burnt out on AN, we have to say, this new single is definitely reminding us why we liked it so much in the first place.
The A side begins all lo-fi with a spidery melody unwinding over a bed of swirling electronics, laced with some raga like buzz, a little droney psychedelia, would have been perfectly happy to listen to just that for five minutes, but the side shifts dramatically, and the sound is transformed into a sort of cosmic synth swirl, the sort of sound that would be right at home on an Emeralds record, a sun dappled wall of blissy hazy soft focus buzz.
The flipside follows a similar pattern, this time opening with some slow synth creep, sounding a bit like a lost John Carpenter soundtrack, and then it too blossoms into another chunk of kosmische bliss out, this time, a high end raga drone that sounds like Sunroof! crossed with Muslimgauze, driven by a pulsing rhythm, everything wreathed in a blurred shimmer and tangled up with muted psychedelic leads, totally heady and hypnotic, and another one of those tracks that could have stretched out forEVER.
Gorgeous stuff, and again, we're reminded of just how much we may have been missing Ashtray Navigations. Not sure how limited these are, but we're guessing, probably pretty limited, so grab one before they're gone.

ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS Throw Up In The Sky (Qbico) lp 26.00

ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS Triste Tropiques (Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers / Blackbean & Placenta) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another fucking drop dead record of gorgeous, hazy ambience from this UK mystery man. Droning and buzzing and humming with tinges of middle eastern flavor and No Neck Blues Band style free chaos. Fans of NNBB and Chalk/Coleclough should deinitely check this out.

ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS When You See The Moon You've Got To Howl (Rhizome) cd-r 12.98
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New release from AQ pal Jon Dale's Rhizome Recordings label. Three gorgeously hazy tracks of shimmery minimal abstraction from this mysterious UK outfit. Track one is all warbly synths, bleating horns, and keening angelic oscillations, like slow motion free-jazz played over Sunroof! outtakes. Track two is a sun dappled blissout of buzzing sitar-like guitars over Spacemen Three guitar pulses, with fuzzed out melodies and found sound snippets. The final track is a buzzing mosquito soundscape of squiggly synths, scribbled shortwaves, and ghostly hums over muted conversations. Good stuff for fans of Skullflower, Sunroof!, Vibracathedral Orchestra and the like!
MPEG Stream: "The Less I See Of Me The Better"

ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS You Cannot Tell Cigars By The Picture On The Box (Celebrate Psi Phenomenon) cd 14.98
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ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS / SANDOZ LAB TECHNICIANS / R.O.T. & TOSS (Veglia) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is a 3 band split cd featuring two of the best free noise units around as well as a group we hadn't heard until now. Ashtray Navigations (from the U.K.) contribute two tracks of delicate screech and rumbling flutter as well as a lovely live track of what sounds like processed radio static with slight melodic traces transmitted from somewhere below the surface of the earth. New Zealand's Sandoz Lab Technicians spread out a minimal wash of low end hum and far away melody, laying heavily atop wistful strains of some mysterious refrain, all murky tinkle and chime. Finally R.O.T./Toss offer up some good old fashioned Skullflower-style guitar drone/feedback hypnotics, but with a more trance-y dream feel. Really great!

ASIA NOVA Magnamnemonicon (Drone) 10" 14.98
The amazing Drone Records label, run by Stefan Knappe of Maeror Tri / Troum, has been quietly releasing super limited, hand made slabs of gorgeous drone music for years now. Mostly 7", always vinyl (although there will soon be a 2cd collection of early out of print singles on Andee's tUMULt label), each disc an ultra personal exploration of the drone, sometimes soft and dreamlike, sometimes harsh and noisy, but always beautiful. Recently, Drone has launched a new series, 10"s this time, with a very complicated premise: "A concept that embraces the prospect of infinite possibilities for artists to create music about the intangible such as: the unnameable, the unspeakable, the unthinkable, the unidentifiable, etc. Various aspects related to "The Unknown". Sound artists and artwork designers were invited to work on the theme of the "grey matter" / the "dark continent" surrounding us & within us. Transforming this paradoxical idea into acoustic and visual objectifications." Phew. Pretty heady stuff. But these first three installments are up to the task, creating dark and disturbing and truly though provoking dronemusic. We can hardly weight for the rest of the series.
The second in the series is from Asia Nova, who hail from California, and offer up slow shifting instrumental swells, like an orchestra tuning up in outer space, crumbling waves of deconstructed melody slowly stretched into a vast ocean of hiss and static and tiny sonic events that gradually dissipate into the surrounding sounds. In the background hovers ominous gurgling rumbles and far away melodic sparkles. The other side is barely there, an ultra minimal drone, more space than sound, like drifting through some darkened undersea cavern, a barren abstract sonic landscape. Incredibly spare but strangely alluring.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Pressed on pink and white swirled vinyl.

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #1-7 (self-released) MP3 cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For those of you who missed out on the first seven installments of Astral Social Club's limited series of self released cd-r's (us and probably most of you), the ASC swoops in to save the day with this massive MP3 cd-r, containing every track from all 7 of those discs, 589 mb's, 57 tracks, over FIVE HOURS!!! All for 11 bucks! Hard to beat, and as we've only made it through the first three, we can tell you already, it's well worth it.
Astral Social Club just so happens to be Mr. Neil Campbell, the mastermind behind the genius Vibracathedral Orchestra as well, who for years, has been spending his days off from VCO, recording disc after amazing disc of deliriously spaced out drone, blown out extended ragas, and seemingly endless slabs of hypnotic pulse and drift. Pick any track on any of these seven releases and you'll be instantly transported to some other world, where sounds are alive, everything is glistening, the sky is full of vivid blinding streaks of sound, synths pulse and throb, it's like Terry Riley or Steve Reich transported to some imaginary sci-fi future where they spend all their time composing for Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh.
These seven discs cover a whole lot of ground, from epic droning raga like bliss a la Skullflower or Sunroof!, to simple mesmerizing minimalism a la Riley or La Monte Young, sometimes both at the same time. All of it amazing.
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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #11 (self-released) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
On the last list we reviewed #1-7, an Astral Social Club mp3 cd which collected the first 7 volumes of their self released cd-r series and everybody flipped. We've barely been able to keep them in stock (if you're waiting, more are on the way!). Well, the series is now up to volume 12! No plans as of yet for another mp3 collection, and volumes 8 through 10 seem to be already gone, but we've got a bunch of number 11 and number 12, both of which are killers.
This here disc, number 11, begins with some strange (and not very ASC like) murky, looped percussion, with bits of electronic glitch, sounding almost a little like some sort of twentieth century classical filtered through some primitive krautrock. After that though we're back in familiar territory, with glorious sparkling epic shimmering drones, technicolor cascades of rich reverberant sounds and all manner of glimmering glittering ear candy, super minimal dark ambience, with drifting whale call melodies and deep rumbling swells, Sunroof!-y bit of high end raga sparkle, complete with the sounds of crickets and running water, sun dappled, dreamy looped guitar sheen, all wrapped up into one big glorious space drone whole.
The last three tracks might be the best here, dense synthscapes, lots of hiss and whir, with buried rhythmic pulses, weird underwater bloops and burbles... all three tracks sounding very much like some white label Pop Ambient 12". Awesome.
Packaged in thick plastic sleeves with a full color paste on insert. And of course, quite limited...
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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #12 (self-released) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #14 (self-released) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest in the ongoing series of self released cd-r's from Mr. Neil Campbell, aka Astral Social Club, formerly of divine dronesters Vibracathedral Orchestra. This is number 14, and sonically begins with a track (after a brief noisy intro) that had us thinking this might end up sounding like the recent releases on Important, taking the blissed out incandescent white hot ragas, and transforming them into some strange propulsive alien dance music. And yeah, on the Important discs, dance music might have been stretching it a bit, but here, at least on the opening track, the beat is definitely the focal point, insistent and pulsing, laying down a simple groove amidst flittering clouds of spacy FX and little bleeps and bloops.
But after that it's right back to business, the business of thick corrosive washes of overblown distortion and buzzing droning ragas, thick slabs of feedback, grinding chunks of guitarbuzz, processed vocals, all wound up into a snarled dronepsych blowouts.
A few of the track eschew the noisy psych side completely, choosing instead to tinkle and drift through tranquil smears of soft sound, but even those tracks eventually build to intense climaxes, high end streaks and tangled slivers of feedback all wound up into gorgeously shimmering upper register skreescapes.
Another gorgeous collection of dense freeform psychedelia, definitely for fans of all things Vibracathedral, Skullflower, Yellow Swans, Skaters and the like, and those afraid of beats, or dancefloor phobic, no matter how noisy and strange that particular dancefloor is, can just skip over that second trackÉ
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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #15 (self-released) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's that time again, another volume in Astral Social Club's ever expanding self released cd-r series. It's been only a few months since the last one, but who's complaining? If we didn't have to work and do stuff and eat, and all that, we might just spend all our time high as a kite, sprawled out on a big ol' fuzzy sofa, with Astral Social Club blasting through 1000 watt quadraphonic speakers mounted in the ceiling.
But, as it is, we'll just have to make do rocking these cd-r's in our iPods. Which is fine, as this stuff is perfect to drown out daily life, or to fill your head with whirs and buzzes, drone and spaced out psych, to chillout, drift off, or to groove to on some alien dancefloor, or to blast from your strange sleek pod like vehicle as you speed down some alien highway. Neil Campbell, ex-Vibracathedral Orchestra, the man behind ASC, continues to dabble in dance music, as well as spacekraut, taking his usual Sunroof!-ed ragas, into all sorts of new directions. Sure the core of the sound is still the circular looped hypnotic longform drone, but many of the tracks here get twisted into strange mesmerizing rhythms, some bordering on dance grooves, but even at its 'funkiest' it's still blissy and droney and spaced out and druggy. A few of these tracks still show that Campbell can hold his own within the dreamdrone set, offering up transcendental slabs of glistening high end that Sunroof! Or Birchville would love to call their own, but then right after, will come some super minimal percussive flutter, some swirling abstract FX-scape, or some pounding almost house sounding banger. But all filtered through Campbell's uniquely cracked effects-soaked, drug-infused, blissed out, space drone soundworld.
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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #18 (self-released) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The series continues... Neil Campbell and his Astral Social Club return with two more installments, each a limited cd-r of trippy, druggy, spaced out dronemusic, but more and more the sound of ASC has been drifting toward some sort of otherworldly dancemusic, and that's just how number 18 starts off, with a dense chunk of drone-raga house music, a thumping 4 on the floor beat, that pounds its way through swirling clouds of blurred buzz and industrial crunch, the beat flips backwards, and the surrounding sounds just get more thick and dense. The rest of the disc is all over the map, from super tangled speaker abusing blasts of strangled high end and stuttery glitch, to washed out noise drenched loops, all warm and fuzzy and textural, to super minimal muted buzzscapes, to cool jagged downtempo anti-grooves, to barely there hushed rhythmic skitter, to gorgeous fluttery ur-drones that slowly transform into billowy almost pop ambience, to crunchy heard-through-the-floor dancefloor throb and so it goes. Definitely the sound of the more beat oriented ASC, but even at its beatiest, Campbell still has a way with drones and ambience, wrapping every beat here in swirling squalls of soft noise, crumbling distorted rumbles and twisted glistening effects. Awesome stuff as always. Each in a handmade sleeve with all sorts of random clippings affixed to the front.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 3"

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #19 (self-released) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The latest in the ongoing Astral Social Club cd-r series is in fact a collection of live recordings, gathered over the past 9 months, recorded in multiple locations with a bunch of guests including a veritable choir on the last track.
6 tracks, 34 minutes, the first track sounds like Yello's "Oh Yeah" chopped up and reassembled into a dizzyingly skittery psych jam, the beat relentless, wrapped in all sorts of chirping high end squeaks and bleeps, looped and super hypnotic. The second track, from the same set, takes that first number and strips away the frantic rhythms, leaving just a buried pulse, and a thick swirl of high end hiss and smoothed out glitches, a droned out high end drift, that manages to entrance with that barely there beat. The final track from that same show is a chaotic cacophony of sci-fi stutter, and fractured effects, a symphony of what sounds like lazer pistols, looped and layered into a head spinning sonic free for all, underpinned by some haunting almost Goblin-y super distorted mood music.
The second set of tracks is a much murkier affair, the first track an endless Sunroof!-y drone, long tones overlapping and intertwining, the second pulls back the skree, leaving a cool, industrial sounding drum loop, that is soon joined by a house-y 4 on the floor kick drum high hat pulse, which transforms the song into some sort of damaged, house-drone-industrial mash up, but again, ASC are able to turn it into something hypnotic and if not danceable, at least in some strange way groovy. The final track is another murky industrial flecked crawl, spread out over what sounds like some strange undulating drone, but on closer listening is in fact a sort of choir, but they all seem to be moaning or humming, not a harmonious exactly, but it does make for some truly strange and haunting textures, a very abstract, organic human dronemusic. Cool. And definitely the first time we've heard anything like it.
Each cd-r is housed in a printed cover with a pasted on live photo.
MPEG Stream: "Track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Track 4"

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB #8-16 (self-released) MP3 cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The second in the Astral Social Club mp3 reissue program. One disc, 9 cd-r's and close to 8 hours worth of blissed out shimmer, soft dreamy noisescapes and mutant alien discodrone, all jammed onto one little disc. So for those of you who missed out on any of the numbers 8 through 16 (heck we did too, we only reviewed 3 of those!), then this is a good way to get it ALL!
First, an Astral Social club primer would probably be useful:
For those who don't already know, Astral Social Club just so happens to be Mr. Neil Campbell, the mastermind behind the genius Vibracathedral Orchestra, who for years, has been spending his days off from VCO, recording disc after amazing disc of deliriously spaced out drone, blown out extended ragas, and seemingly endless slabs of hypnotic pulse and drift, and more recently a sort of fractured otherworldy dancemusic.
Okay then, odds are, most of you are probably gonna want this, but in case you need a quick description of some of the sonic joys to be found within, here goes:
Strange and murky, looped percussion, with bits of electronic glitch, sounding almost a little like some sort of twentieth century classical filtered through some primitive krautrock, glorious sparkling epic shimmering drones, Technicolor cascades of rich reverberant sounds and all manner of glimmering glittering ear candy, super minimal dark ambience, with drifting whale call melodies and deep rumbling swells, Sunroof!-y bit of high end raga sparkle, complete with the sounds of crickets and running water, sun dappled, dreamy looped guitar sheen, all wrapped up into one big glorious space drone whole, dense synthscapes, lots of hiss and whir, with buried rhythmic pulses, weird underwater bloops and burbles... all sounding very much like some white label Pop Ambient 12", thick corrosive washes of overblown distortion and buzzing droning ragas, thick slabs of feedback, grinding chunks of guitarbuzz, processed vocals, all wound up into a snarled dronepsych blowouts, tranquil smears of soft sound, high end streaks and tangled slivers of feedback all wound up into gorgeously shimmering upper register skreescapes, circular looped hypnotic longform dronemusic, blissy and droney and spaced out and druggy, transcendental slabs of glistening high, super minimal percussive flutter, swirling abstract FX-scapes, pounding almost house sounding bangers all uniquely cracked, effects-soaked, drug-infused and blissed out and more more more more.
Essential listening for fans of all things drone-y and blissed out, fans of Vibracathedral, Skullflower, Yellow Swans, the Skaters and folks looking for some truly twisted outsider dance trax to go with their ambient dronemusic.
packaged in a thick PVC plastic sleeve, in a plain white jacket with a paste on front cover image.
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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB MCR Blast (alt.vinyl) 8" square lathe cut 15.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Holy shit! Record collector nerds and weird music obsessives might as well prepare to give up their first born or take out another mortgage on the ol' homestead, cuz this series of ultra limited 8" SQUARE lathe cuts is gonna break the bank, but it's so so so worth it. This is the first in a series that looks like it will include a who's who of noise rock / free rock / avant noise / free folk luminaries, including SO many all time AQ faves it makes our heads spin. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The first batch of these babies just showed up, three titles, each a custom hand cut, Peter King lathe cut, 8", and SQUARE!!! Packaged in gorgeous square and triangular die cut sleeves, super fancy textured paper, with a paste on front cover and a printed insert, each insert hand numbered, each release limited to 150 copies. Phew.
For those new to the lathe cut, it's a hand cut record, on polycarbonate not vinyl, they are more fragile than normal vinyl, and after repeated plays the sound quality can degrade a bit, but in our experience, in most cases it just makes them sound cooler. Peter King is THE MAN when it comes to super limited small run lathe cut releases, and pretty much every cool band you can think of has gone to him for some super rare or limited release or another.
So anyway, these are clear, they are 8"s across, shaped like a square and are insanely limited, and thus, pretty dang expensive! This is the second in the series and features Astral Social Club, an offshoot of the mighty Vibracathedral Orchestra. And as you might expect, this is two sides of gloriously buzzing raga like ur-drone. Glistening, glimmering, shimmering, sparkling, guitars and sitars and strings and reeds all tangled up in a blissed out harmonious buzz, albeit very melodic, with weird subtle sonic colorations and constantly shifting overtones. So lovely!

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB Monster Mittens (Dirty Knobby) 7" 5.98
It seems the transformation is finally complete. Astral Social Club began life as a logical sonic extension of the mothership that birthed in, Vibracathedral Orchestra. But lately, Mr. ASC aka Neil Campbell, has been dabbling in sounds more suited to the dancefloor. Just a track here and there, but with this new single, hot on the heels of a recent sonically similar 7"/cd-r, it seems that the new Astral Social Club is indeed making music for THE CLUB.
Not that it's not still noisy and tripped out and bizarre and space-y, it most certainly is, but now you can dance to it. Or at least nod subtly, or just sort of sway back and forth. The point is there's a beat, and the beat makes it sort of funky in some alien psychedelic way, and we LOVE it.
The A side features the above mentioned beat, it's propulsive and sort of house-y, pulsing away beneath a cloud of swirling FX, strange percussion, stuttery loops, it's all very chaotic and free, druggy and far our, but that rhythm keeps in grounded. Music for some video game danceparty on an alien planet, or some seriously drug addled fucked up underground rave held in a cave a mile below the surface of the earth. Either way, it's excellent.
The flipside is like the chill out version of the A side, still looped and hypnotic, but that thud that defines the beat is replaced with a synthy squelch, all around it sounds streak and blur and shimmer, everything sort of bleary eyed and indistinct, like the wind down 3 am chill out after party at the end of the universe.
Now that Campbell has found his groove, we're dying for a full length, which will undoubtedly be the freaked out fucked up drug fueled underground alien danceparty record of the year!

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB Neon Pibroch (Important) cd 14.98
You thought UK space drone freeks Vibracathedral Orchestra were prolific!? Well get a load of Neil Campbell, one of VCO's founding fathers, who split that scene a while back, only to whip up a new ensemble, well, ensemble is maybe not the right word, since Astral Social Club is just him, let's just call it an Astral Social Club then, even more spacey, abstract, and experimental than the 'Orchestra. Oh and outrageously prolific. An avalanche of cd-r's, every one of them a mind blower, difficult to keep up with, but well worth the effort...
This is one of two new releases, the other being vinyl only, both sort of two sides of the same sonic coin, although they definitely both have their own distinct vibe. Read about the lp elsewhere on this list, but the funny thing about the cd is, we could probably describe it in 4 words, and if you are anything like us, those 4 words would have you diving madly for the Add To Cart button.... So what does Neon Pibroch sound like? Well, at least the first track sounds just like *Spacemen 3 on Kompakt*!!! That's right. Imagine those endless loops of druggy effects, the subtle melodies stretched into gauzy soundscapes, super head nodding and hypnotic, but then imagine it with a strangely propulsive, almost techno beat, a relentless pulse, it's easy to imagine that endless spaced out groove pouring out of the sound system on some alien dancefloor. It's nearly twenty minutes long too, so that alone would be worth the price of admission. But hold up... there are two more tracks, and 40 more minutes of drifting beatless bliss to come...
The title track begins as a glistening ur-drone, all buzzing strings and keening high end, but part way through erupts into a white hot wall of coruscating grinding guitar buzz, super distorted and blown out, before drifting off again, leaving that burbling cosmic drift to fade gracefully out. The final track offers up more of the same, but if anything it's even more rich and thick and dense, it's the sort of sound that is almost visible, physical, it's like staring into the sun with your ears, makes you want to shade your eyes from the glorious sonic glare...
Can this man do no wrong? Guess not when it comes to transcendental sonic space drone... Absolutely essential listening for fans of such things, as is Super Grease, this record's vinyl analog...
MPEG Stream: "Tripel Foment"
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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB Octuplex (VHF) cd 13.98
It's a weird thing, but we've always noticed that musicians, especially avant outsider musicians (and even then ESPECIALLY metal musicians) seemed inordinately fond of electronic music. Every time a band would come in the store, they would head straight for the electronic section and end up buying a bunch of weird techno or jungle or whatever.
Which then might make it less surprising that recently some of our favorite noise makers seem to be heading in that direction with their own music. Campbell Kneale's Birchville Cat Motel is gone, and in its place, Our Love Will Destroy The World, whose first record was indeed some bastardized dance music, a strange hybrid of blurred buzzy drone music, and thumping club jamz. Similarly, Neil Campbell, aka Astral Social Club has been peppering his recent record with similarly club worthy jamz, but again, those sounds still soaked in the same sort of blissed out psychedelic ambience that most people associate with his Astral Social Club.
For this latest full length, Campbell once again starts things off with a track that would almost sound more at home on Planet Mu than VHF. A skittery bloopfest, with a thick grinding synth bass line, and bloopy bleepy beats, but all wreathed in processed guitars and blurred soft focus buzz, which leads right into the second track, still electronic, but not actually danceable, it sounded more like a club jam on 45, the beats stumbling over one another, like a jumbled, almost hyper speed Pierre Bastien, a million little mechanical men, spewing a symphony of clicks and bleeps and loops, all wound around buried melodies and long thick streaks of hiss and fuzz.
We kept expecting things to switch gears, and for the sound to gradually bliss out into the more 'traditional' ASC sound, long form ur-drones more along the lines of Sunroof! or Skullflower, but most of us were hoping just the opposite, that maybe he'd push further, take ASC somewhere no band like that had really felt at home, the dancefloor, albeit, some strange seriously fucked up and drug addled ALIEN dancefloor. And so he has, for the most part. The first half of the record is indeed, all fractured beats, and warped loops, woozy tripped out grooves, effects swirling and whirling everywhere, the beats playful and not quite funky, stuttery skittery, and seriously fun. This is the kind of stuff that just might lure the perpetual wallflowers out onto that dancefloor.
BUT!!! Hidden between the opening salvo of beats and loops, and the closing outer space house jam, lurks some of the prettiest droned out ambience we've heard from ASC. Processed glitchery, smeared into grainy expanses of glistening blur and shimmery starburst, draped with delicate melodies, gradually growing into a glorious wall of warm fuzz, super thick grinding buzz, smoothed into hypnotic loops and pulsing soundscapes, a more caffeinated Tim Hecker, gauzy and washed out but propulsive and kinetic, glorious sun baked upper register blow outs, wrapped around crystalline acoustic guitars, all woven into a wheezing heaving whole, some sort of super abstract avant garde raga, and finally, a brief but fantastical tangle of crunch and buzz, off hiss and glitch, warped melodies and damaged arrangements, lo-fi tape hiss slithers beneath stuttering chopped up samples, again all blurred into something dreamlike and bleary eyed. WOW.
It all might seem a little schizophrenic, and it is, but it's also the best of both worlds, and the key being that the more beat oriented tracks, are still able to function like the more ambient drone based sounds, if you're laying in the dark, headphones strapped on, those beats might not induce you to shake your tail feathers, but they'll still be able to suck you under, to transport you to some crazed soundworld, to totally mesmerize and hypnotize, which makes the whole record either the weirdest most fucked up electronic dance record EVER, or quite possibly just the best Astral Social Club release so far. Maybe both...
MPEG Stream: "Caustic Roe"
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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB Plug Music Ramoon (Dancing Wayang) lp 15.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Ultra limited new vinyl only release from UK noisemakers Astral Social Club, a perfect follow up to their recent aQ Record Of The Week, Octuplex. But unlike Octuplex, which mixed ASC's new found obsession with beats and dance music (albeit of the very twisted and alien variety) and their more classic ur-drone sound, Plug Music Ramoon, tends toward the latter, 2 sides, 4 loooong tracks, revisiting the sort of old Astral Social Club / Sunroof! / Skullflower sound we're so fond of. Drawn out notes, layered and interwoven, lots of shifting textures and mesmerizing drones, lots of upper register tones, some seriously blown out space drone meditative bliss out for sure. ASC this time around, as evidenced by the insert, are a three piece here, synths, woodwinds, guitar, and LOTS of effects.
The first track is brief and glorious, a smoldering shimmer of looped melodies and layered drones, sun dappled and dreamily fuzzy, very very lovely and warm and hypnotic. The second track, taking up most of side 1, begins as a murky fuzzed out krautjam, like later Skullflower, a simple, motorik beat, buried beneath a swirl of processed sounds and fractured effects, before the swirl explodes into full on cacophony, a wild space rock free jazz freakout, dizzying and dense, fucked up and free, the rhythm all but swallowed up by the massive blown out ball of skree and buzz and glitch, but noisy as it is, still retaining some semblance of melody.
The second side begins with another krautjam, this one much more spare and stripped down, a tribal sort of drum circle workout, very little in the way of wall of sound, more a steady propulsive beat, augmented by subtle bits of clank and clatter, extra percussive filigree, subtle effects, sounding way more like something you'd hear from Avarus or Kemialliset, muted and minimal, slightly mechanical and totally mesmerizing, and most definitely a bit tripped out. The closer is another softly smoldering dronescape, woozy loops, lots of crunch and grind smoothed into further layers of warm buzz and mysterious melody, a little carnivalesque, dizzyingly off kilter, like a symphony of warped 78s, the end result is a short stretch of washed out, soft focus, subtly rhythmic ambient drift that would do Tim Hecker of Philip Jeck proud.
LIMITED TO ONLY 500 COPIES! We had trouble getting enough in to list, so this might be it. Please don't cry if/when we run out. Super nice thick jackets, each one hand numbered, with a thick textured paper insert.

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB Psychic Smog 1-7 (Qbico) lp 26.00
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Another spaced out and droned out musical missive from Neil Campbell and his Astral Social Club. This vinyl only release is yet another leap into the unknown, as we follow along with Campbell's continuous exploration of ur-drone and fractured alien techno. Psychic Smog finds Campbell revisiting a more classic ASC sound, with only two tracks exhibiting his newfound love for fractured rhythms and alien dancefloor beatmaking.
Distant soaring painterly melodies swirl over crunchy grinding high end electronics, while below seas of muted cyclical whir roil and churn, overlapped loops become jagged and splinter apart before more layers take their place. The sound goes from tranquil to dense and overdriven and chaotic. The beats, when they do surface, are mechanical and robotic, and are doused in burbly squelching buzz, groovy for sure, but those beats quickly give way to some of the most divine and otherworldy drift Campbell has ever cooked up. Swirly, shimmery and oh so dreamlike, the A side finishing off with a wall of fractured beats, caustic buzz, pulsing crunch, but all infused with plenty of muted bleep and bloop.
The B side is two long tracks, the first, is all delicately druggy ambience, almost post rocky in its slow build to a thick swirly soft cacophony. While the second track is another loping programmed beatscape, the groove galloping through a glimmering field of chopped synth stutter, warped electronic glitchery and sparkling streaks of soft focus shimmer. Not groovy or dance-y so much as rhythmic and almost krautrocky. Awesome!
Pressed on gorgeous swirled pink and red and black and white vinyl, and housed in a full color sleeve.

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB s/t (VHF) cd 13.98
As if Vibracathdral Orchestra wasn't prolific enough, VCO mainman Neil Campbell spends his spare time recording even -more- records under the monicker Astral Social Club. This actual cd (not a cd-r). VHF's 100th release, compiles Campbell's favorite tracks from all the various long out of print cd-r's and gives them the remix and remaster super megamix treatment. All tweaked and twisted into one continuous 67 minute spaced out psych collage (although it's tracked for easy listening). But anyone wouldn't want to just sit back and listen to this all the way through is beyond us. A gloriously tripped out psychedelic ambient space rock stretched into pulsing, throbbing buzzy droney bliss. Like the extended outro to every Monster Magnet song all tangled up and mixed together, a blurry, dizzying free rock trip. From hiccupping rhythmic flutter, to super minimal drift, to thick grinding fuzz, to hypnotic krautrock jam and every psychrock stop in between.
For fans of Monster Magnet, Bardo Pond, Spacemen 3, the Telescopes, VCO, Loop, Kinski, EAR and all those sonic spacemen ...
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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB Skelp / Ginnel (Trensmat) 7"+cd-r 10.98
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He may be a master of droned out noise, but he's been flirting with club music on and off for the last few years, each full length hiding at least one dancefloor gem, and so Mr. Neil Campbell, ex of Vibracathedral Orchestra, now of Astral Social CLUB, at least on this here new 7", is all about the tripped out psychedelic electronic groove.
But seeing as this is Neil Campbell, his idea of what constitutes dance music, or even electronica is WAAAAY different than most folks. Just check out the A side here. Maddeningly repetitive, a flurry of bleeps and glitches, swoops and burbles, locked into a relentless loop, the main 'beat' staying steady, while all around it a cloud of FX swirls and shimmers, some seriously druggy electro psych drone for sure.
The second track is all minimal house music, sort of. The main beat a stripped down pulse and squelch, with synthy basslines, and some haunting disembodied piano drifting over the top, making for a truly creepy mash up. Maybe one of our favorite Astral tracks ever!
As with all Trensmat 7" releases, the vinyl comes bundled with a cd-r, featuring both the tracks from the 7", as well as three remixes from Richard Youngs, John Clyde-Evans and Magnetize, ranging from super spastic chopped up electronic madness, to spacey static drenched minimal house groove, to wild Bruce Haack like electronic experimentalism, playful and goofy and over the top.
Don't let all the talk of club music scare you away though, fans of recent Astral Social Club know all about Campbell's wild and off kilter take on dance music, which really ends up having more in common with tripped out psych drone and free noise weirdness than it does with -actual- club music.
Pressed on yellow vinyl, and SUPER limited.
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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB Snaefell (Trensmat) 7" 5.98
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After three years, Astral Social Club returns, the project of Neil Campbell, he formerly of Vibracathedral Orchestra. Originally ASC was a logical sonic offshoot of VCO, but along the way something happened, and ASC was transformed into some strange bit of alien electronica, and this brand new single continues in Campbell's warped dancefloor trajectory.
The A side is some serious cosmic psychedelic space techno or whatever you want to call it. The sound is hazy and shimmery and psychedelic, but it's all about the beats, and the glitches and squelches, arranged into a twisted bit of daft funk, fractured beats, super distorted Casios, buzzing synths, propulsive and frenetic, and growing gradually thicker and darker as the track progresses. The B side is like some twisted ASC house music, a pounding 4 on the floor beat, surrounded by buzzing drones, more glitched out electronics, percussive synths adding sympathetic rhythms, all wound up with tangled distorted melodies, peppered with high end hiss and more tangled tones, some seriously psychedelic space house. The perfect music for your next alien dance party...
SUPER LIMITED, the label doesn't say how many exactly, but there's a good chance that these are the only copies we'll be able to get since we had to pre-order these, and Trensmat only made as many as were ordered...

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB Star Guzzlers (Qbico) lp 26.00
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ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB Super Grease (Important) lp 16.98
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Two new ones from Mr. Neil Campbell in the last few weeks, formerly a founding member of the mighty Vibracathedral Orchestra, now the main (and only?) man behind Astral Social Club, who continue on in a similar direction as VCO, taking sounds and weaving them into epic ur-drones and outerspace ragas, stretching and looping them into long form sonic chunks launched into the cosmos.
This lp only, two song killer, comes on gorgeous swirled milky blue vinyl, and fills up each side with a single blast of blissed out druggy drift. Side one begins with looped machine like rhythms, which frame a vast pool of liquid sound, cricket like chirps, chunks of fuzz distortion and swirling reverb, glistening bits of synthy sparkle, all building gradually into a manic chattering wall of cyclical fuzz and blur, culminating in a grinding jagged angular coda.
Side two begins with a brief swooshy, flanger flecked krautrocky jam, simple and propulsive, that slowly changes timbre and texture as the effects cycle through, the rhythms and song structure sinking beneath the ever increasing wash of FX, splintering into near tranquil ambience, another ASC slow building celestial wash, undulating swells of synths and electronics, gorgeous and massive and dreamy, sounds a bit like what we imagine it might sound like standing on some alien planet watching a new universe being born from the endless blackness of space. Intense and epic.

ASTRAL SOCIAL CLUB / TOMUTONTTU Wet Wheel (Tipped Bowler) lp 17.98
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ASTRAL TRAVELLING UNITY Studio And Live (aRCHIVE) cd 14.98
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Another mysterious release from the mighty aRCHIVE label who in the past have brought us releases by Bardo Pond, Goslings, Keiji Haino, LSD-March, Growing, Khanate, James Plotkin, Earth, Boris as well as Jack Rose and Tetuzi Akiyama (elsewhere on this week's list), all super limited and amazingly packaged.
Astral Travelling Unity is a Japanese space drone outfit fronted by Hiroshi Hasagawa of legendary Japanoise combo CCCC. But turn back now if 'tis noise ye seek.. ahem... nothing noisy about this disc, this sounds exactly like the name would lead you to believe, deeeeeeep astral drone music for travelling through inner space. Guitars are pulled apart into wispy tendrils, sitars buzz, and that buzz shimmers out into slow lazy ripples, analog synths supply even more buzz and drone, not a thick tangle mind you, this is gloriously spare and spacious, abstract spiritual ur-ambience, the sound of universes forming, with your eyes closed you can see forever and ever and ever. Distant streaks of melody color an infinitive landscape of deep droning swells, glistening song fragments sparkle as they float lazily through a night sky dense with twinkling stars.
The second track is live, so it's a bit more raw, a little bit more lo-fi, with Acid Mothers Temple guitar guru Kawabata Makoto adding some extra guitar and showing an amazing amount of restraint. The raw live sound adds a whole other layer of fuzz and atmospheric ambience as does the addition of some simple percussion. Utterly spaced out and divine!
Amazing packaging. The disc is affixed to a full color two panel sleeve with paintings by Hasagawa, with a color acetate insert printed with another of Hasagawa's oil paintings that lays over the cd, which is printed with an image of a cd-r found washed up on the beach.
LIMITED TO 600 COPIES!!
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