BOLLANI, STEFANO Piano Solo (ECM) cd 22.00
Bbbb-oo-rrr-ing.

BOLTON, WIL Quarry Bank (Time Released Sound) cd-r + hand sewn book + printed canvas bag 45.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Release number ten from local label Time Released Sound, a one man operation that produces some of THEE most extravagantly packaged micro releases we have ever laid eyes on, with every element of every release meticulously assembled by hand, or built, or drawn, or collaged, or whatever it takes to realize these miniature works of art. Which is precisely what these are, they are records obviously, and the music is fantastic, but that steep price tag is because this music is paired with the perfect packaging, that both represent the sounds within, the unique and ephemeral nature of sound and of music, and these works of art offer a visual analogue to the music, thematically linked in a way that's not always super obvious.
Needless to say, every release is fantastic, sonically, visually and aesthetically, and we're lucky to even get any of these considering how ultra limited they are.
Which brings us to this, the latest piece of musical art from Time Released Sound, which comes to us from musician / field recordist Will Bolton, who here indulges in his interest in the industrial revolution in the UK, by setting his miniature epics in the Quarry Bank Mill, one of the largest and most important textile mills in the UK, and is again an actual functioning mill. Bolton made repeated trips to the mill to capture the sounds of manufacture, of looms and machines, all manner of industrial whir and clatter, rumble and hum, around which he weaves lush and lovely drones and drifty bits of soft focus psychedelic folk. We're reminded a bit of Rameses III, a sort of pastoral folk, but performed on the floor of some old functioning factory.
Little bits of acoustic guitar shimmer, shards of melodic filigree, looped and fragmented, layered and woven into the sounds of machinery, Bolton's own drones deftly blurred into those of the mill, until it's impossible to tell what is field recording and what is music, until the music gradually fades leaving just the sound of the mill, which is surprisingly musical on its own. A deft application of effects, and of manipulate samples, sound reversed and layered, truncated and stretched out, creating these darkly delicate lullabies, rife with music box tinkles and folky flutter, laid out in dreamlike swells, and draped over the sounds of that aged mill. So lovely.
And as always, the packaging is top notch, a printed, hand distressed, 6" square cloth bag, made from raw unfinished cotton, at the actual Quarry Bank Mill, there's also a hand distressed, printed and numbered tag, while inside, the disc is in a full color digipak, and is accompanied by a hand worked and sewn textured paper booklet, with liner notes, as well as images from and photos of the mill. So fantastic, and SO LIMITED. JUST 100 COPIES. We have a dozen and will most likely not be able to get more.
MPEG Stream: "Quarry Bank"
MPEG Stream: "Water Frame"
MPEG Stream: "A Black Mist"

BONE SHERIFF Huh Again (Diagnosis...Don't! ) 3"cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of three new 3" cd-r releases on the Grey Daturas' Diagnosis ... Don't! label, each super limited, and housed in cool hand made packaging.
Bone Sheriff is another sort of supergroup style match up (sort a like the Stumps, made up of members of Gate, Mrtyu, Sandoz Lab Technicians, Seht, Nether Dawn, With Throats As Fine As Needles) that should have AQ customers frothing at the mouth. One part Simon Taylor of Aussie dirge sludge combo Whitehorse and Rob Mayson of the Grey Daturas and Maggoted, teaming up to make some serious noise, armed with a seriously unlikely arsenal of soundmaking implements: cymbals, glass, contact mics, bass and keytar. The disc's centerpiece is a 13 minute + wall of densely layered guitardrone, crumbling and rumbling, bits of distorted melody spread out over an expansive stretch of rough raw chordal hum. Heavy as fuck, but kinda pretty at the same time. This glorious drone is surrounded on all sides by a handful of super short tracks, tiny jagged fragments of freaked out sound, from grinding Wolf Eyes like glitchy splatter, to Merzbow-ian splintering noise, to squealing sinewaves to barely audible extreme high/low Ikeda style minimalism.
Packaged in thick textured paper black mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "track 4"
MPEG Stream: "track 7"

BONE SHERIFF Moonee Ponds (Sabbatical) cd-r 8.98

BONE SHERIFF / 1/16TH HEADED split (self-released) 2xcassette 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Just a single copy of this in stock, a double cassette featuring Bone Sheriff, which just so happens to feature members of longtime aQ faves Grey Daturas and Whitehorse, sharing a split with the oddly named band 1/16th Headed, who we know nothing about.
Bone Sheriff do that blissed out heavy noisy guitar drone thing, no idea what 1/16th do, but we're guessing it's probably of a similarly noisy and droney ilk.
The packaging is super sweet. An oversized plastic case, silkscreened, with a sewn canvas pouch inside housing the two tapes, a silkscreened patch, and a printed cardstock insert. Nice. And the ONLY copy...

BONECLOUD Chrysalis 1951-1926 (Twonicorn) cassette 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another transmission from on high, channelled through the earthly vessel known as Bonecloud, a mysterious drone duo from Ireland, who share at least one member with equally beloved outfit Quetzolcoatl. Two twenty minute slow burning epics, wide open expanses of scrape and shimmer, looped and cyclical soundscapes of metallic shimmer and blurred melody, Taj Mahal Travellers playing a piece by Phill Niblock, reinterpreted by the Jewelled Antler collective and recorded by William Basinksi. Long stretches of shapeless vocals, wheezing chords stretched out forever, woven into some glistening sonic fabric, twisting and changing shape, and color, and texture, fuzzy and warbly, blurry and buzzy, washed out and smeared, gauzy and smoky, a super abstract, ephemeral raga. The sound of an old tape dubbed over and over and over, broadcast through rusted loudspeakers mounted on trees, listened to with eyes closed, wet grass against your back and warm wind and soft rain on your face...
As with all Twonicorn, gorgeously packaged, pro printed tapes, textured paper sleeves, and of course super limited, ONLY 100 COPIES!! Each tape hand numbered.

BONECLOUD Drawing Spirits In Crystals (DNT) 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.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Already out of print at the label. Once these are gone they are gone for good.
MPEG Stream: "Drawing Spirits In Crystals"

BONECLOUD s/t (2cd-r) (Haunted Trail) 2cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bonecloud sure is an evocative name. We can picture a big swirling black cloud cut a swath across the land lifting skeletons out of the ground, emptying graveyards, a sky full of re-animated bones, or some strange otherworldly beast that manifests itself on this plain as some sort of amorphous pile of skulls that can float skyward or crawl along the ground like some bony blob, or a grey cloud that covers a wasted landscape in soot-like dust, a huge billowing fog of ground up bones and vaporized skeletons, some sort of post apocalyptic fallout. All very creepy and haunting. Which pretty much perfectly suits the music of the Irish stoned drone ensemble that does indeed bear the name Bonecloud.
We first heard from these murk mongers on a split with Portland drifters Ghosting. And were instantly blown away. They took the droney drift of all our favorite abstract noise makers, and added a seriously ominous vibe, a hellish halo of Stygian gloom, mixing the usual subterranean shimmer with thick sick slabs of Lustmordian throb and Organumish rumble.
This is a self released double cd-r we got direct from the band and expands on the sound of the split, taking full advantage of the extra space to let their gloomy sonic sprawl as it was meant to. Huge expanses of muddled mire, a thick morass of ambient drift, drenched in a shower of grit and grime, allowed to slither and shift, a haunting glacial epic soundscape of darkness and drone. Like the Taj Mahal Travellers covering the Dead C, a disembodied noise rock, allowed to drift from speaker to speaker, floating above a barren wasteland, covering the Earth in shadow. So fucking awesome.
SUPER LIMITED... of course. Packaged between two thick pieces of cardstock, with a full color image affixed to each, all housed in an oversized plastic sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Drowning In The Tides Of Space"
MPEG Stream: "Sea Burial"

BONECLOUD s/t (3") (Diagnosis...Don't!) 3"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.
Finally, another new missive from Irish druid-drone collective Bonecloud, a brief but glorious ep, one of three new releases in the ongoing super limited 3"cd-r series on the Grey Daturas' Diagnosis...Don't label.
Featuring members of equally loved dreamdrone combo Quetzolcoatl, Bonecloud conjure up some gorgeously expansive and disorientingly otherworldly wide open expanses of shimmer and crawl, managing to create soundscapes that are at once murky and mysterious, yet strangely melodic and mesmerizing. Bonecloud are definitely the closest any of the modern breed of abstract ambient soundscapers have come to conjuring up the primal ur-drone magic of legendary seventies Japanese psych legends Taj Mahal Travellers. Sounds drift and float, like the band was set up on a rocky outcropping on some strange alien planet, sending their hymns skyward, sonic offerings to some cosmic deity, a timeless drone ritual, performed under a blackened moon (or moons) beneath a dense canopy of skeletal branches. Crackling fires, crashing surf, bird calls and the sounds of insects are sucked up into these glacial drones, and transformed into sonic smears adding more texture to Bonecloud's already densely layered whirs and rumbles. Awesome.
Packaged in thick textured black paper mini 3" sleeves, with a printed (band name, label info, liner notes) Japanese style obi. Nice.
And as usual, these are of course SUPER LIMITED, and we're pretty sure we won't be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: "This Heart Of Sand"
MPEG Stream: "Watching The Rock Erode For A Thousand Years"

BONECLOUD Teenage Lycanthropy (Leaf Trail) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's really hard to keep up with the ever expanding legion of prolific cd-r outfits, with bands often averaging a release every month or two, but in the case of Irish drone collective Bonecloud, it's well worth it. This is the 6th or 7th release we've carried from these guys, and no doubt we missed tons of super limited microreleases, but as with all the previous ones we reviewed, Teenage Lycanthropy is another breathtaking slab of deep organic dronemusic.
For those new to the sonic world of Bonecloud, a quick glance at the song titles should definitely clue you in as to what sort of vibe to expect from these guys: "Ecstatic Stabs Of Light", "Infinite Rain Prism", "Clouds Of Butterflies"É And that's sort of what the music of Bonecloud sounds like. We tend to always mention legendary Japanese seventies psychdrone outfit Taj Mahal Travellers, and it's still appropriate here. This is drone music, but it's quite musical, multilayered, organic, an organized chaos, shimmering clouds of abstract percussion and disembodied voices, all above a constantly shifting backdrop of subtle whirs, pulsing rumbles, bowed metals, all smeared and blurred and washed out, the tracks long slow indistinct blurs of sound.
"Sea Cave" is the surprise here, too bad it's only 3 minutes long, a thick cinematic orchestral loop, bathed in record crackle and settled on a sea of dense drones, sounding like it could have come straight off a Pop Ambient compilation. Thankfully, this 3 minute chunk of blurred ambient pop, is surrounded on all sides by Bonecloud's deliriously dreamy sonic drifts, fluttering and flickering, glimmering and sparkling, but beneath a soft focus patina of lo-fi murk and muted shimmer. Another practically perfect disc of late night drifting off mood musicÉ
Packaged in oversized full color sleeves, with color printed inserts.
MPEG Stream: "Ecstatic Stabs Of Light"
MPEG Stream: "Infinite Rain Prism Pt.2"

BONECLOUD XI:XI (Buried Valley) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A brand new brief burst of druidic drift from these Irish dronelords. The closest we've come to discovering the second coming of Japanese seventies psych drone legends Taj Mahal Travellers. Bonecloud seem to have tapped into the same primal sonic instinct, merging a knack for soft noise and dark drone, with a balance of subdued melody, of organic drift and pure mystic energy.
Every thing they touch turns to gorgeous murk, emitting dense clouds of dark black energy, that glows with some ineffable energy, it's like an alien sun wrapped in black gauze, a strange grey glow, with glimmers and glints of melody and rhythm occasionally surfacing amidst the constant swirl of shimmering sound. Incredibly dense and dreamy, like pop songs crushed and smeared into bits and pieces, buried in the earth, and allowed to slowly make their way to the surface, where they begin the slow shimmering ascent into the heavens.
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!! We only got a handful. The cassettes are hand painted and are housed in printed full color covers each one hand numbered.

BONES OF SEABIRDS Sacrament (Small Doses) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
First release from Bones Of Seabirds, aka Ryan McGill, and it's a deft blend of blown out free noise ambience a la Sunroof! and Birchville Cat Motel, dreamy soundscape drift and churning low end doomdrone.
The minimal liner notes inside credit Mcgill with strings and synths, and both, while in full effect, are blended and blurred into a sound less distinct, more ethereal and abstract. The opener is all gritty gristly high end, sheets of feedback, coruscating layers of buzz and glitch, all pulsing and throbbing, melodies buried within, strange harmonies, culminating in a wall of downtuned near static guitar buzz, a blackened blizzard of sound. The second track is a roiling lowendscape of rumbles and blurred drones, off in the distance bits of high end glimmer, shards of crackling grind and chordal whir, dense and ominous but still strangely pretty. The third track, is a haunting landscape of reverb drenched harmonics, long stretched out tones, mysterious melodies, softly heaving textures, bits of electronic tracery, whirring and shimmering, all wrapped in a skein of murk and blur.
And so it goes for the rest of the disc, the tracks dipping into those three sounds, blending and blurring and creating whole new sonic worlds from its constituent parts. Needless to say, most folks who like this kind of thing have already added this to their cart and moved on, but for the rest of you, fans of SUNNO))), Birchville, Vulture Club, Acre, and Tunnels among others, who are into all things that drone and rumble and whir and roil and swirl and shimmer and throb and grind and pulse and drift, will most likely want to pick one of these up PRONTO.
LIMITED TO 138 COPIES! Each one in a gorgeously handmade package, black ink printed on thick cardstock, housed in a hand cut full color vellum overlay, inside a printed vellum insert, with liner notes, each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Belial"
MPEG Stream: "Serpent"

BONG Bethmoora (Infinite Exchange) 2cd-r 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
LAST COPIES! We've got a half-dozen (they made a few more for us) but that's it... What we said before:
A new double disc of crushing slow motion space doom from UK doomlords BONG, and be warned, this thing is limited to maybe 100 copies, we tried to order half of those and ended up with more like a dozen. So normally we would highlight this, make a huge deal about it, and sell a ton, cuz this is exactly the format required to fully enjoy the epic glacial cosmic drift of Bong, 2 discs, 3 songs, an epic multi part blackened expanse of slowly unfurling low end doomdronesludge, spaced out and druggy, single riffs spread out to forever, meditative, mesmerizing, a sound somewhere between Electric Wizard, Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg and Bohren. Two originals on disc one, and the whole of disc two is filled up with an epic, ultra minimal cover of Pink Floyd's "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun", a surprisingly restrained, deep, dark, smoldering space rock slow jam, total late night chill out come down dream doom for sure.
So we won't make a big deal out of it, but grab one of these while you can, they're already out of print...
MPEG Stream: "Stone Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Bethmoora"
MPEG Stream: "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun"

BONG / GNOD split (Box) 7" + cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A split waiting to happen if there ever was one, both by name, and by sound, blissed out ambient soundscapers Gnod, best know for their split with White Hills, and beloved drugged out space rockers form the UK Bong.
The real bummer is that we tried to get a ton of these and only managed to wrangle TEN. Otherwise this would have been up with the highlights and the review would be about 10 times as long. But since odds are we'll probably get more orders for this than copies we actually have, we'll keep it brief.
Gnod offer up a warbly looped pianoscape, peppered with distant percussive rattles, draped over slow deep ambient swells, all building to a dense blackened rumble. Nice. Bong counter with more of that thing they do, rad tripped out FX drenched space rock, replete with sitar like buzz, kosmiche krautrock drumming, incendiary guitar buzz and deep chanted vocals, the sort of song that could, and probably should go on forever, but here fills up the side with gloriously dense hypnotic psychedelic heaviness.
The 7" comes with a cd-r, with over 50 minutes of extra stuff, one massive 30+ minute Bong jam, and three shorter Gnod tracks. Again we have less than ten, we really did try, all but the very quickest on the trigger, prepare to be disappointed.

BONG / QUTTINIRPAAQ split (Blackest Rainbow) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've been dying for more Bong. Ever since we got our ears around their long awaited debut lp a little while back, two side long tracks of crushing Sabbathy slow motion dooooooooom, we've been jonesing for another fix. Which has finally arrived, in the form of this split 12". Bong on one side, and fellow (new to us) doomlords Quttinirpaaq on the other.
Bong sound even heavier and more sluggishly propulsive than on their debut. Like space rock slowed waaaaaay down, Bong unleash a dark, dense roiling dirge drone doom, that slowly and gradually, and yes, druggily develops into something super rocking and ultra heavy. Crushing low end, lugubrious stoner doom riffs, pounding drums, and this time around some buzzing sitar (or at least it sounds like a sitar), adding a woozy Eastern vibe to the otherwise sludge-y proceedings. This is a total druggy lumbering stoned slow motion doom groove drug jam, channeling Monster Magnet, Black Sabbath, SUNNO))) and especially some Electric Wizard. The second half gets pretty rocking, seriously upping the churning downtuned chug, and upping the tempo from plod to rocking plod! It's heavy for sure, but still lo-fi and murky and muddy and mysterious - and that sitar, playing the same melody over and over and over the whole track gives it a super hypnotic and trancelike vibe. So good.
The flipside belongs to the impossible to pronounce Quttinirpaaq who counter with their own chunk of ultra low doom exploration. Beginning all blissed out and space-y and krauty and new age-y, with swirling effects and soft synths all shimmering and glistening over deep sweels of muted feedback, the band easily slip into some serious dronedoomdirge, kicking out a thick wall of downtuned buzz that will have SUNNO))) fans frothing for sure, and then the drums kick in, and the band lock into an impossible slow, ultra doom jam, the drums not so much a rhythm as occasional accents to the crushing crunch of guitars, beneath the surface, headphones reveal all sorts of weirdness going on, strange sonic events, mysterious voices, all churning and roiling underneath the layers of buzz and that impossible slow drum plod, think Khanate, Habsyll, Bunkur, Moss, that sort of thing, but more spaced out and abstract. Killer stuff for sure, and a perfect match for the mighty Bong!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!! Plain black sleeves with paste on red and black front cover.

BONUS Gosurorri (Jyrk) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We bet the guys in bonus regret their choice of band names. You know: Is this that Bonus disc? Did you get the Bonus cd? What Bonus cd? The NEW Bonus cd. WHAT BONUS CD? Hee hee. You could get a serious noise rock Who's On First going. Anyway, this is actually pretty darn fantastic, and as with all Jyrk cd-r's it seems, SUPER LIMITED, already out of print, and we have the last 30. So again, act fast if you want one of these.
Slow buliding otherworldly shimmer, the sort of gorgeously delicate drone you want to go on forever and ever. Not rumbly or subsonic, or keening high end, this is warm and rich and dense and wraps your head in a big pillow of soft shimmering sound. So lovely. Comes in a sharp looking had painted sleeve. And again, when these are gone, they are gone for good!
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

BONUS On Earth (Root Strata) cd 12.98
Finally, the first proper non-cd-r full length from these minimal dronesters and as you might expect it's more of the same, which is all we could possibly hope for. The same of course being thick coils of gloriously fuzzy drone, unfurling over the course of nine, twelve and fifteen minutes. Bonus are masters of the drone, but in their hands, the drone isn't something you just let drift, not some random sound object you create and then watch float weightlessly from your speakers. No, the drones of Bonus are living things, they have weight to them, they crackle with energy, squirming and twisting, thick frayed ropes of buzzing sound, like the sonic version of a downed electrical wire, or a hose with the water turned all the way up whipping wildly to and fro, spitting sparks, dangerous and unpredictable. The opening track is gorgeous, it's like Phill Niblock composing for heavy metal guitar, or like a SUNNO))) performance abandoned midway through, leaving just the guitars and amps to finish the show, letting gravity and temperature and air pressure determine the direction of the proceedings as much as the instruments or the volume or anything else. A strangely organic expression of distorted sound and sonic entropy. Awesome. The scond track is like a minimal stripped down version of the first, simple buzzing tones, muted and fuzzy, slowly shifting and beating against each other, a swirling static universe of colliding overtones. Like looking inside a drone, to see what makes it tick, millions of tiny Track 2's, shimmering and subtly reveberating, like microscopic little drone molecules. Track three goes even deeper, so all of those microscopic reverberations are viewed from the inside, a pulsing, throbbing, quivering forest of rapidly vibrating tendrils, trussed together into thick quivering bundles of drone, a swarming buzz, somewhere between the all out roaring buzz of the first track, and the minimal shimmer of the second. Absolutely fucking fabulous.
Totally gorgeous cover art too, Some super abstract Lichtenstein style carton art, printed in marron and black on a cool folding card stock sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"

BONUS s/t (Root Strata) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's hard to review a record by the mysterious Bonus without mentioning their dubious choice of band name. Did you get that Bonus disc? Um, what bonus disc? You know, the whole Who's On First thing. This has only been eclipsed by a band we heard about recently called Merch. Nuff said.
Anyway, such levity is totally out of place in a review of -this- Bonus disc, a massive roiling, churning miasma of thick malevolent, corrosive fuzzed out drones. Huge and dense and multilayered, pulsing and swelling like something alive. Like the endless lull of the surf, if the waves were made up of huge bass speakers, buzzy synths and undulating electronic osscilations. Like the clang and clatter of industrial machinery, the buzz of airplanes flying overhead, the rumbling of construction work down the block, all timestretched into a soothing, swaying, soporific drone. Think Troum covering Wolf Eyes, or Andrew Chalk plays the Throbbing Gristle songbook. Really great!
Packaged in a handmade, hand embossed, spray painted plastic sleeve. Each disc individually stamped and numbered.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES. WE ONLY HAVE 30!
MPEG Stream: "Two"

BOOKS, THE The Lemon Of Pink (Tomlab) cd 15.98
The follow-up to The Books' 2002 debut Thought For Food provides another dose of eclectic, playful, folky sound collages. Each track of the baker's dozen offered up on The Lemon Of Pink is a delightfully rumpled, snipped and reassembled sonic patchwork quilt of acoustic guitar, violin, banjo and lovingly embroidered samples. This time there's a distinct Asian feel to many of the tracks -- Japanese dialogue, koto-esque string plucks -- as well as more of a hushed spoken-sung vocal presence throughout than on their previous album (often very akin to Devendra Banhart). A highly enjoyable, loping, off-kilter journey.
MPEG Stream: "Tokyo"
MPEG Stream: "There Is No There"

BOOKS, THE The Lemon Of Pink (Tomlab) lp 14.98
NOW ON VINYL. The follow-up to The Books' 2002 debut Thought For Food provides another dose of ecclectic, playful, folky sound collages. Each track of the baker's dozen offered up on The Lemon Of Pink is a delightfully rumpled, snipped and reassembled sonic patchwork quilt of acoustic guitar, violin, banjo and lovingly embroidered samples. This time there's a distinct Asian feel to many of the tracks -- Japanese dialogue, koto-esque string plucks -- as well as more of a hushed spoken-sung vocal presence throughout than on their previous album (often very akin to Devendra Banhart). A highly enjoyable, loping, off-kilter journey.
MPEG Stream: "Tokyo"
MPEG Stream: "There Is No There"

BORBETOMAGUS Barbed Wire Maggots (Agaric) cd 13.98
Wow, Barbed Wire Maggots? Your filthiest black metal band would be proud of an album title like that. And this is from a record originally released back in 1983, the fourth long-player from what has become an outside/noise/skronk/free "jazz" institution, the one and only Borbetomagus! If you know Borbetomagus, you know what to expect: the frightening caterwaul of two saxophones and an electric guitar. Two long tracks (formerly vinyl sides) worth. Screeching and scratching and searing and sizzling. So it ain't black metal but it ain't easy listening either. No sirree. Imagine every "nasty" noise ever made by the horns of Coltrane or Ayler, times two, aided and abetted by a likeminded guitarist. Upset elephants and vaccum cleaners and rusty hinges and faulty connections have nothing on this. Unlike some of their later, even denser recordings, it's not always full-on cacophony but even the quieter, "jazzier" parts have a mood of menace, of impending mayhem. And if you've never heard Borbetomagus, but are curious, this cd reissue will provide a crash course in their brand of extreme improv. Not for everyone...
MPEG Stream: "track 2"

BORBETOMAGUS Buncha Hair That Long (Agaric) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Couldn't have an all-saxophones list (like we're doing this week) without Borbetomagus on it!! So we've found a couple copies of this out of print fave to review. Here's how we've described this New York noisejazz outfit before:
Take any crazy, noisy free jazz you've heard (minus the drums, but with extra feedback), multiply it by a thousand, and voila. We dare you to turn it up. Saxophonists Jim Sauter and Don Dietrich lock horns (literally) while Donald Miller's guitar grinds away in the lower registers, the trio together manufacturing a dense wash of drone-skree that will pleasantly numb your brain, if you're partial to this kind of noise/jazz/noise. Beautiful.
That's what we said about another album of theirs, but it applies to Buncha Hair That Long too, for sure. One of the first Borbetomagus discs to which we were first exposed, this 1992 release contains five long tracks of their dense n' intense squall, utterly enveloping and mesmerizing stuff. Two of the tracks were recorded at an art museum in Chattanooga, two of 'em in Cleveland, and the last one at CBGB's in NYC - and that one's a cover of Beatle George Harrison's "Blue Jay Way", believe it or not (and it's easy to not)! Includes liner notes by Peter Margasak of Butt Rag (remember that 'zine? One of our favorites ever!).
Important note: this cd is out of print as far as we know, it's a warehouse find we dug up at one of our local distributors the other day. And we only found two, that's right, TWO copies. So, act fast if you want one - and list an alternate just in case!
MPEG Stream: "Friendly Fire"
MPEG Stream: "Blue Jay Way"

BORBETOMAGUS Live In Allentown (Agaric) cd 14.98
There's two types of people in this world. People who like Borbetomagus, and those who don't. Probably there's many more of the latter. But for the former, each and every Borbetomagus album is pretty much a must have. Kinda the same way with the likes of Merzbow and Jandek, many of whose fans are doubtless shared.
So, for whom it may concern: here's a new album from the notorious New York wall of noise sax/sax/guitar improv trio! Well, not exactly new, this is actually a reissue (first time on cd) of a cassette originally released back in 1986, now including an entire bonus 22 minute second set, live in Allentown, Pennsylvania (home to renowned fantasy artist Boris Vallejo we just happened to randomly learn today as well).
The usual Borbeto-trio of Sauter/Dietrich/Miller is augmented here by the bass of Adam Nodelman and the electronics of Scott Legrath, as if they needed more noise-making help! Apparently this was upon the occasion of a "3rd annual Halloween extravaganza" 10/29/86 and in the pictures everyone's wearing weird masks and stuff.
The boasted-of "killer" sound is indeed pretty much so, every bit of sax blurt and guitar skree is ear-piercingly present and accounted for. Scary. As is the way with Borbetomagus, their squealing squall of sonic intensity shall soon send the appropriate sort of listener into rapturous trance. Stress on "appropriate" (see paragraph one).
MPEG Stream: "First Set"
MPEG Stream: "Second Set"

BORBETOMAGUS Live In Tokyo (Alchemy) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
On June 16th of last year, the noise-jazz gods Borbetomagus (sax, sax, guitar) taught Tokyo a lesson in skree, and here's the import cd to prove it. Another reason to buy this is if you have to have any album featuring a 43'45" track entitled "Pachinko Cadaver"...

BORBETOMAGUS Snuff Jazz (Agaric) cd 13.98

MPEG Stream: "track 2"

BORBETOMAGUS Songs Our Mother Taught Us (Agaric) cd 14.98
It's been a while, but Borbetomagus is back! This upstate New York sax/sax/guitar trio has been making ears bleed with their extreme free improv skronk for years, but haven't put out a record for a little while, so we all were eager to subject (what are now) our ear-nubs to this. Recorded live at The 13th Note in Glasgow and at The Spitz in London back in 1999, the three tracks on "Songs Our Mother Taught Us" are prime Borbeto. What do we mean? How 'bout the never-ending ecstatic death-cry of a million screaming meemies as they plunge into the abysssss...? Take any crazy, noisy free jazz you've heard (minus the drums, but with extra feedback), multiply it by a thousand, and voila. We dare you to turn it up. Saxophonists Jim Sauter and Don Dietrich lock horns (literally) while Donald Miller's guitar grinds away in the lower registers, the trio together manufacturing a dense wash of drone-skree that will pleasantly numb your brain, if you're partial to this kind of noise/jazz/noise. Beautiful.
MPEG Stream: "Aftershock"

BORBETOMAGUS Trente Belles Annees (Agaric) cd 13.98
Look out, here's the latest onslaught from the long running free improv unit Borbetomagus! It should tell you something that we found it difficult to review this 'cause we basically can't play it in the store without running the risk of driving out any customers present. That's not to say, though, that we don't have customers who would enjoy experiencing this mayhem in the comfort of their own homes.
The Borbetomagus trio (Donald Miller, electric guitar; Don Dietrich & Jim Sauter, saxophones) have been at it since the mid-to-late '70s, with their first album being released in 1980. This one, their 21st album if we're counting correctly, documents the final show of their 30th anniversary European tour, in Montreuil, France - hence the title - and proves that in 30 years, they haven't at all mellowed out! Play this loud at your own risk, a blanketing wall of sound consisting of distortion, noise, feedback, all in constant flux like writhing snakes of skree. One track, slightly over 46 minutes. A pleasant experience, once you've eased into it, like taking a hot bath.
By the way, we noticed that the database iTunes uses to identify cds seems to think that this one is called "Meditation For Heath And Healing" by some other, presumably new agey, artist. NOT.
Also, when we were (briefly) playing this in the store today, one AQ staffer came in and remarked, with irony: "What is this jubilant sound?" - meant in jest, but there IS a jubilant aspect to the noise of Borbetomagus. 30 more years!!!
MPEG Stream: "Trente Belles Annees"

BORBETOMAGUS & HIJOKAIDAN Both Noises End Burning (Victo) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Holy crap!!! Now that's a noise fest...

BORBETOMAGUS & SHAKING RAY LEVIS (Agaric) 10" 9.98

MPEG Stream: "track 2"

BORDEN / FERRARO / GODIN / HALO / LOPATIN FRKWYS Vol.7 (RVNG International) cd 14.98
This is the seventh installment in the ongoing Frkwys series of recorded collaborations, a series that focuses on teaming up contemporary artists with artists that perhaps influenced them, or as we described it in another review the old guard and the new wave. Past installments have included Julianna Barwick and Ikue Mori, Excepter and Carter Tutti (ex Throbbing Gristle) and Foetus, and more recently Blues Control and Laraaji. This one actually came out earlier this year, BEFORE the Blues Control and Laraaji, but is most definitely another winner in the series. We were kinda cautious at first, though, as we were worried about the risk of too many cooks, all comfortable in very different kitchens, cuz really, what could you get when you cross James Ferraro (ex Skaters), David Borden (Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co.), Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), Laurel Halo and Samuel Godin? Seems like it would probably be a crazy chaotic mess, but instead, they came up with something stunning, a gorgeous bit of soft focus new agey synth drift, long form dronemusic that manages to be both ethereal and dense, lushly layered and surprisingly ephemeral, kosmische for sure, but rooted is musics more terrestrial. The two part "People Of The Wind" is definitely the anchor of the record, the 12 minute opener a gorgeous hazy expanse of fluttering sun dappled drift, smoldering and softly shimmery, managing the impossible task of being serene and tranquil and hypnotic, but still in its own way, heavy, with a slightly dark edge. We would have been perfectly happy had they stretched that track out to be the whole album.
They do revisit the track via part two, a much more brief exploration, with a slightly darker cast, melodically at least, it's also much less buzzy and dense, and more infused with gentle melodies, the vibe much more pastoral and dreamlike. The other tracks drift in similar directions, with a slightly altered palette, still evoking the same sort of sonic wonder, a hushed sonic haze, but with "Internet Gospel Pt. 1" flecked with fluttery almost Native American sounding melodies, and muted dubbed out super minimal percussion, while "Internet Gospel Pt. 2", stretches part one out into a swirly sprawl of sci-fi glimmer, with swooping bleeps and bloops, draped over a woozy carnivalesque organ, and a warm shower of swirling effects, the whole track a slow build, eventually attaining a nearly Sunroof! like raga style buzz/blur. "Twilight Pacific" is more cinematic, a lush story in sound, darkly futuristic, rife with thick warm swells, and softly soaring string like shimmer, as well as muted softened steaks of upper register skree, the sound like laying on your back on a hill and watching the night sky, and finally, the record finishes with "Just A Little Pollution", which starts off hushed and serene, but soon blossoms into an effects wreathed pulsating and propulsive synthscape, with vocals for the first time, super effected and draped in synth buzz and melodic swirl, the whole thing sounding like the soundtrack credit sequence from some eighties VHS tape, definitely hinting at the musics of some of the individual players.
The vinyl version includes a full album download.
MPEG Stream: "People Of The Wind Pt. 1"
MPEG Stream: "Internet Gospel Pt. 1"

BORDEN / FERRARO / GODIN / HALO / LOPATIN FRKWYS Vol.7 (RVNG International) lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the seventh installment in the ongoing Frkwys series of recorded collaborations, a series that focuses on teaming up contemporary artists with artists that perhaps influenced them, or as we described it in another review the old guard and the new wave. Past installments have included Julianna Barwick and Ikue Mori, Excepter and Carter Tutti (ex Throbbing Gristle) and Foetus, and more recently Blues Control and Laraaji. This one actually came out earlier this year, BEFORE the Blues Control and Laraaji, but is most definitely another winner in the series. We were kinda cautious at first, though, as we were worried about the risk of too many cooks, all comfortable in very different kitchens, cuz really, what could you get when you cross James Ferraro (ex Skaters), David Borden (Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co.), Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never), Laurel Halo and Samuel Godin? Seems like it would probably be a crazy chaotic mess, but instead, they came up with something stunning, a gorgeous bit of soft focus new agey synth drift, long form dronemusic that manages to be both ethereal and dense, lushly layered and surprisingly ephemeral, kosmische for sure, but rooted is musics more terrestrial. The two part "People Of The Wind" is definitely the anchor of the record, the 12 minute opener a gorgeous hazy expanse of fluttering sun dappled drift, smoldering and softly shimmery, managing the impossible task of being serene and tranquil and hypnotic, but still in its own way, heavy, with a slightly dark edge. We would have been perfectly happy had they stretched that track out to be the whole album.
They do revisit the track via part two, a much more brief exploration, with a slightly darker cast, melodically at least, it's also much less buzzy and dense, and more infused with gentle melodies, the vibe much more pastoral and dreamlike. The other tracks drift in similar directions, with a slightly altered palette, still evoking the same sort of sonic wonder, a hushed sonic haze, but with "Internet Gospel Pt. 1" flecked with fluttery almost Native American sounding melodies, and muted dubbed out super minimal percussion, while "Internet Gospel Pt. 2", stretches part one out into a swirly sprawl of sci-fi glimmer, with swooping bleeps and bloops, draped over a woozy carnivalesque organ, and a warm shower of swirling effects, the whole track a slow build, eventually attaining a nearly Sunroof! like raga style buzz/blur. "Twilight Pacific" is more cinematic, a lush story in sound, darkly futuristic, rife with thick warm swells, and softly soaring string like shimmer, as well as muted softened steaks of upper register skree, the sound like laying on your back on a hill and watching the night sky, and finally, the record finishes with "Just A Little Pollution", which starts off hushed and serene, but soon blossoms into an effects wreathed pulsating and propulsive synthscape, with vocals for the first time, super effected and draped in synth buzz and melodic swirl, the whole thing sounding like the soundtrack credit sequence from some eighties VHS tape, definitely hinting at the musics of some of the individual players.
The vinyl version includes a full album download.

BOREDOMS Rebore Vol.2 (mixed by Ken Ishii) (WEA Japan) cd 34.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is volume 2 in the Boredoms remix series, and continues in much the same manner as volume one (which was an an U.N.K.L.E. mix), with a crazy, seamless 40 or so minute continuous mix of Boredoms mania. This mix is by Ken Ishii, and is quite nice, though it basically sounds like a Boredoms mixtape, which is not a bad thing. Can't wait to hear volume three though, mixed by DJ Krush!

BORFUL TANG Herd And Unherd (Gigante Sound) cd-r 7.98
At long last, a new release from the elusive and mysterious Borful Tang (for his head scratching back history, please refer to our reviews for his Root cd and On The Back Of A Dying Beast 2cd-r). A mischievous sound collagist, he's like some peculiar sonic macrame'd synthesis of Negativland, John Oswald's Plunderphonics, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and the Sun City Girls / Sublime Frequencies camp... but he doesn't stop there! He then can match immersive wits with the best of the dronologists too. At times Herd And Unherded is languidly lulling, at others it's a barrel of percolating loopiness, while still at others sinisterly possessed. Mr. Tang is clearly something of an obsessive collector of sound sources. He's amassed a vaultful of tapes and vinyl - field recordings, video game soundtracks, religious AM radio broadcasts and other disembodied voices to name just a few. He consults with them, meticulously pares and processes 'em, and the pieces are then refashioned into something which is altogether new, yet haunted by the eclectic phantoms of the past. Add to this sonic palette an arsenal of a homemade electronic gadgets, and you have something festooned with mad scientist goggles and soldering goo. Go on, give your ears a wild feast to munch on. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Xevious"
MPEG Stream: "Herd And Unherd"

BORFUL TANG On The Back Of A Dying Beast (Gigante Sound) 2cd-r 9.98
First things first, please don't let the dvd-style case fool you! Contained within are not one but two cd-rs by the cryptic entity known as Borful Tang. If you need this mysterious being's back story, please refer to our review of his last release titled Root from a couple years ago.
As a brief recap though, legend has it that Borful Tang is not an earthly being, and its human conduit is Bay Area man-of-many-hats Dominic Cramp. On The Back Of A Dying Beast zeroes in on a select few of the key passages of the previous release (sadly tho' they don't include his previous churning NoMeansNo-isms), and explores them thoroughly -- fleshing out what was only glimpsed fleetingly on Root.
Disc One floods the air with effects-heavy layers of BBC Radiophonic style analog synth wanderings, sporadic android chatter and sludgy lumps of drone. Disc Two on the other hand is far more spare, hushed and calm even.
We suspect that with the consumption of the right, ahem, 'enhancing' substances this could really take you places. Quite the transportive listen. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Juggernaut Soliloquy"
MPEG Stream: "The Tides Of Land"

BORFUL TANG Root (Snurp) cd 9.98
Who or what is Borful Tang? Well, according to the website of the delightfully named Snurp (the folks who released this cd), the mysterious 'it' is a 'he', and outcast from a distant place and time. Legend has it that Borful Tang was a hill herder who moved hills with sound. Still with us? Okay then, if you'd like to discover his lengthy full story for yourself you can find it where we did, but in the meantime here we have his cd Root -- his wildly eclectic music apparently having been transmitted to us via the conduit known as Dominic Cramp -- quite a multi-faceted gent in his own right (also recording under the monikers of Qulfus, Amazing Colossal Man and Modular Set). Borful Tang's music is trippy, out there, and particularly in the early part of this album, very NoMeansNo-ish in its propulsive tech-y bass lines. Heck, the first track is titled "Borful Tang Loves NoMeansNo"! And we think NoMeansNo samples may be the secret. The latter tracks feature collaged computer voice conversations (sourced from what we guess were English speech lesson tapes) and burbly analog electronics. We'll bet quite a broad range of strange music lovers will dig this... if the names Plunderphonics, Negativland, NoMeansNo, BBC Radiophonic Workshop tickle your aural funnybone!
MPEG Stream: "Borful Tang Loves NoMeansNo"
MPEG Stream: "John And Mary In: "The Restaurant""

BORG I (Phaserprone) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Borg is a suitably anonymous project based out of Brooklyn, which has released two albums to date on Phaserprone. This is the first album, which was originally released back in 2007 and was thought to be out of print until Phaserprone uncovered a small (and we mean small!) stash of these for Aquarius. Dark, very dark techno that sounds like Chain Reaction heroin house as played through the Wolf Eyes suitcases of analog electronics and industrial stomp rhythm machines. Spooky atmospheres and really creepy samples from horror movies seem to emerge behind every bassbin crushing beat and every stalking bassline. This one is even better than Borg's 2009 I:A album, due to the shroud of darkness that envelops Borg's electronics. Just buy it. You won't regret it.
MPEG Stream: "Nancy Sang"
MPEG Stream: "Space Flight"
MPEG Stream: "Borg Rage"

BORG I:A (Phaserprone) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Borg is a suitably anonymous project based out of New York, fusing occasionally blackened ambience with analog driven electronica. The first excursions that Borg released on Phaserprone crept through the Chain Reaction murk of heroin house as filtered through Wolf Eyes. On that debut, it was easy to take the Star Trek Next Generation reference to the Borg, a cybernetic absorption of everything into a dark pulsing mass; but for their / his / hers / its second release on Phaserprone, Borg take up a sound similar to our recent dark-electro crush Cold Cave. Here on I:A, Borg shifts things away from a drug addled techno and toward a skeletal electronic funk. There is something of a retrogarde reinterpretation of the Sheffield sound of Cabaret Voltaire and Hula crunched through Aaron Dilloway's suitcases of crusty gear while casting a longing gaze to the Ed Banger crowd of electro breaks and squiggliness. Sublimated melodies tumble in analogue glory across midtempo breakbeats that put a strangle hold on accompanying tribal rhythms and bass riffs. Haunted vibes from funhouse organ grinds underpin a couple of the tracks that otherwise might percolate alongside those Museum of Future Sound Skwee compilations.
Released on the Baltimore based label Phaserprone, known for the heavily embossed letterpressed artwork complimenting the hand-crafted brutality through noise and rhythm. Borg's I:A sticks out from the rest of the Phaserprone catalogue, as this album is certainly not brutal or purposefully ugly, even if it is monochrome in grey. Phaserprone sneers that "you will hate this." We think to the contrary. There's probably plenty of people who will love these beats 'n' synths, and maybe get sucked into the netherworld that is Phaserprone. Recommended? Oh, yes; and it's limited to a whopping 200 copies.
MPEG Stream: "1."
MPEG Stream: "2."
MPEG Stream: "6."

BORIS Akuma No Uta (Southern Lord) cd 14.98
Following heavy and hard on the heels of Southern Lord's now-deleted domestic picture disc vinyl version of this Boris album, comes the promised domestic cd release. If you resisted the lure of the limited edition vinyl (or plain ol' missed out) now you can grab the same music in the not-so-limited digipack cd format. It's quite a bit cheaper too than the Japanese import cd version we used to stock, and to add insult to injury also boasts a longer running time (now the same as the vinyl versions, restoring the full nine and half minute intro that was inexplicably shortened to two and a half on the Japanese compact disc) and has got the cool homage-to-Nick-Drake cover art that you had to get the vinyl for, before.
As we said when listing Southern Lord's vinyl version not long ago, for those reading the above with more curiousity than comprehension, here's some of what we wrote about Akuma No Uta when first released: Fans of the band that began as Japan's answer to the Melvins, and then took a wayback machine ride into the '70s, Boris, can start rejoicing now. Akuma No Uta's six songs offer up a smorgasbord of styles from past Boris albums, drawing from the heavier-than-thou rumble of Absolutego, the exquisite beauty of Flood, and the sheer jams-out-kickin' of Heavy Rocks. Starting off with an Earth-esque drone-metal intro, the record then slams into the riffed-out, noisy stormer "Ibitsu". Distorted, manic, tear-shit-up stuff. After another song in the same Hendrix meets the Stooges style psych-punk rawk vein, Boris switch gears again, for the album's centerpiece, a twelve-minute opus entitled "Naki Kyoku" that begins all super languid, quiet and pretty before building into a soaring psychedelic jam. The jams continue on the next track, another stoner rockin' blow-out. Finally, title track "Akuma No Uta" winds things up with a return to the immense sludge grind of track one, melded into a headbanging groove, ending the disc on an adrenaline high. I'm sure there's mulleted, pot-smoking high-schoolers in Japan scribbling Boris logos on their binders...or so we'd like to think. Now some American kids might get a chance to do the same (do Southern Lord releases make it into Wal Mart? dunno).
MPEG Stream: "Furi"
MPEG Stream: "Akuma No Uta"

BORIS Akuma No Uta (Southern Lord) picture disc 12" 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What is it about sheer heaviness and limited-edition vinyl pressings that combine to make certain people (you know who you are) just freakin' salivate with l-u-s-t? Whatever it is, it's not hurting business for our friends at Southern Lord, not to mention certain eBay sellers! Well, the Lord has allocated us enough of this new domestic picture disc vinyl version of Boris' Akuma No Uta to save maybe at least thirty of y'all from the rigors of the auction process. Of course, we've had Akuma No Uta on vinyl before, but the previous Japanese import version wasn't a picture disc and also was way more expensive. So if you didn't get it then (or are a true Boris obsessive, and why shouldn't you be?) here's your doubtless brief chance to nab this pic disc edition.
For those reading the above with more curiousity than comprehension, here's some of what we wrote about Akuma No Uta when first released: Akuma No Uta's six songs offer up a smorgasbord of styles from past Boris albums, drawing from the heavier-than-thou rumble of Absolutego, the exquisite beauty of Flood, and the sheer jams-out-kickin' of Heavy Rocks. Starting off with an Earth-esque drone-metal intro, the record then slams into the riffed-out, noisy stormer "Ibitsu". Distorted, manic, tear-shit-up stuff. After another song in the same Hendrix meets the Stooges style psych-punk rawk vein, Boris switch gears again, for the album's centerpiece, a twelve-minute opus entitled "Naki Kyoku" that begins all super languid, quiet and pretty before building into a soaring psychedelic jam. The jams continue on the next track, another stoner rockin' blow-out. Finally, title track "Akuma No Uta" winds things up with a return to the immense sludge grind of track one, melded into a headbanging groove, ending the disc on an adrenaline high. I'm sure there's mulleted, pot-smoking high-schoolers in Japan scribbling Boris logos on their binders...or so we'd like to think.
A couple of notes: we're told that Southern Lord will also soon be issuing a domestic digipack cd version as well, with the same Nick Drake homage cover photo and all the music found on the vinyl (which means it should have the full nine and half minute intro that was inexplicably shortened to two and a half on the Japanese compact disc). Also, there exists another Southern Lord issued, mail-order only picture disc version of Akuma No Uta with black and white alternate artwork -- Boris's take-off on the black metal band Venom's logo instead of the cover to Drake's Bryter Layter. But you'll have to check eBay for that one, sorry!
MPEG Stream: "Furi"
MPEG Stream: "Akuma No Uta"

BORIS Dronevil Final (Inoxia) 2cd 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It seems like every Boris release is more anxiously anticipated than the last. But somehow this is the one everybody's been waiting for. A double cd reissue of the previously vinyl only Dronevil. And just to ensure that Boris obsessives who already have the lp don't get off easy, the cd version adds two lengthy tracks to each disc and eliminates the pressing defect that plagued the lp release.
Dronevil is like the Japanese doom sludge version of the Flaming Lips' Zaireeka! Two discs, one drone, one heavy, intended to be played simultaneously on two separate stereos, but both equally listenable on their own.
The 'drone' disc is gorgeous, the first track is a shimmering swirl of sizzling cymbals, thick clouds of reverberating metal, sounding almost like some lost Organum track. Warm metallic swells, that undulate and subtly swing, layer upon layer of gorgeous high end sound. The second is a lugubrious trawl through some dimly lit cavernous underworld, thick tones swirl and drift, super minimal, like the slowed down sound of tolling bells, a slow motion ringing that shimmers and hums, like some distant soundscape viewed through thick panes of fogged up glass. The final drone track is another high end excursion, this time it's a whirl of densely layered tones, like sheets of feedback, played back at different speeds, creating strange tonal clusters and causing the various sounds to beat against each other producing subtle rhythms and streaks of upper register melody. Like a much more minimal Sunroof! or a Phil Niblock piece using Total outtakes as source material.
The sludgier disc (or the 'Evil' disc of the Dronevil pair) starts off with the 21 minute "Red", which starts off with some rumbling low end swells, mirroring the shimmering cymbals of it's ambient corollary on disc 1, then some abstract clean guitar, lots of space, about halfway through in come the keening distorted guitar feedback, streaks of psychedelic skree above the spacious abstract soundscape, finally about 15 minutes in the drums kick in, a simple post rock skitter, the clean guitars coalesce into a sort of Morricone-ish spaghetti western twang, above which some spare soulful leads drift and delicately soar, a slow loping groove like some strange slowcore hybrid of Codeine and Low. Dreamy and so good. The second track is where it actually gets heavy, a super distorted slow motion riff builds and builds until Boris are lurching along like some monstrous space rock behemoth, a sludgy trudge, thick walls of distorted guitar, simple pounding drums, all beneath wild psychedelic leads. Very Hawkwindy for sure. A brief near silent interlude sets us up for the hammer to fall, and it does, huge crumbling riffs dripping with filthy distortion, a sludgy black hole riff, and the wild psychedelic leads just keep getting more tangled and freaked out. So totally intense and heavy and super spaced out. The final track is another massive space doom workout. Heavy and thick and dense, but still somehow spacious and epic. Guitars grind and crunch but they also drift and hover weightless, the drums pound one second, and skitter jazzily the next, everything a huge swirling mass of psychedelic spaciness wrapped in massively thick guitars, ending in a barely there acoustic steel string coda.
Now when you play the two discs together it all makes sense. The heavy disc is so spare and spacey, because the first disc introduces all of these extra layers of sound, and the first disc is so abstract and minimal, because it's main purpose is to fill out the doom drenched space rock on disc two. But it barely matters. Together, the two discs perfectly meld into a killer postspacerock doom sludge record, heavy and dense and layered. Apart, you've got two amazing records, one super abstract free drone record, and one post slow core psychedelic spacerock record. You can't really lose either way.
And as always the packaging is absolutely breathtaking: a Japanese style mini gatefold, printed inside and out, black and light blue ink on thick textured brown cardstock, along the bottom a black and grey printed vellum obi, each disc in its own pocket and beautifully packaged with three circular plastic printed transparencies, all of the images combining with the printed image on the disc. WOW.
MPEG Stream: "The Evil One Which Sobs"
MPEG Stream: "Interference Demon"

BORIS Mabuta No Ura (Inoxia) lp / poster / picture cards 40.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Boris fans are definitely obsessive, most wanting to collect anything and everything the band puts out, whether it's the same record with different artwork, or a limited single, or the same record with 9 minutes of extra music or a different record with the same cover or whatever. The band don't really help matters much, wholeheartedly playing into this, releasing records in ridiculously limited versions and multiple versions, with different artwork or bonus tracks or both. But this new record Mabuta No Ura has definitely pushed all this multiple version collecting about as far as it can go. More on that at the end of the review -- and we definitely suggest you read that stuff before you buy! But hey, let's talk about the record. A soundtrack to a film entitled Mabuta No Ura, this is Boris at their most abstract, maybe even at their least heavy, but Boris has yet to disappoint, and they don't here. Although depending on your personal favorite style of Boris, whether it be the slow sludgy dirges, the minimal drones or the all out super distorted RAWK, you might have to readjust your thinking to get into Mabuta No Ura. There's only one actually 'heavy track', and some of you may already have it, or at least a version of it, as the track in question, "A Bao A Qu" was released as a super limited picture disc 7" not too long ago. "A Bao A Qu" finds Boris churning through a sludgy slab of crushing psych rock, the way only they seem to do it. The rest of Mabuta No Ura finds the band exploring much more contemplative moods, constructing simple, dreamy passages of finger picked guitar, and warm swells of moody ambience. Sometimes sounding a bit like Low, sometimes a little like Slint, the theme here overall does seem to be a brooding slow building post rock. There are variations of course, Eastern sounding melodies, hazy chanted vocals, shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle, tribal rhythms, hand claps, plaintive vocalising, stretches of Sunroof!-like free-noise ambience, blown out krautrock rhythms, but it all sort of hovers around that post rock sound we love so much, dark and moody and smoldering, occasionally bursting with dynamics, but more often than not chugging along all melancholy and contemplatively propulsive. Hard to imagine what sort of film Mabuta No Ura must be, but the songs and sounds here are quite evocative, and let our imaginations conjure up the appropriate images to go with these sumptuous sounds. Packaged in a gorgeous chipboard slipcover die cut sleeve, with a dozen cd sized photos, presumable from the film, with stories printed on the other sides, unfortunately all in Japanese.
So here's the complicated stuff. There are FOUR versions of this record. All of them slightly different. This is the ULTRA LIMITED Japanese lp version. 500 made, we got about 1/5 of those. Once they are gone they are gone for good. And since it's so limited, only one per customer. The deluxe lp version comes in a gateflod sleeve, with a big poster, and a dozen 12" x 12" cards with images from the film on one side and Japanese / English text on the other. We also have the Japanese cd version in stock, which comes in a cool diecut chiboard sleeve, has the same music as the lp, and is not limited. There will be another cd version, released by the Brazilian label Essence, and there will be two versions of that. A super deluxe boxed version, and a regular digipak version. The deluxe version is super limited. Only 120 copies made. We're getting half. Those will all be spoken for by the time we get them, so if you want one of those, pre-order it now. The regular Brazilian version is the same as the deluxe version just with less packaging. And is not limited.
Confused yet? Well, stick with us just a little bit longer. The Brazilian version has more music than the Japanese version. BUT, the Japanese version has music NOT on the Brazilian version. Okay. So if you just want to make sure you have ALL the music, you need both the Japanese version AND the Brazilian version. And since the Japanese cd and the Brazilian regular cd are not limited, you can easily pick up both. The lp and the deluxe version are just for those of you who need the fancy versions or feel compelled to collect them all. Finally, the Brazilian cd version won't be out until end of August or thereabouts, so orders WILL NOT be held for those! If you want both, we'll send you the Japanese cd or lp (or both!) now and the Brazilian version when they show up in a month or so. Phew!
MPEG Stream: "A Bao A Qu"
MPEG Stream: "The Slow Ripple Of A Puddle"
MPEG Stream: "It Touches"

BORIS Mabuta No Ura (Brazilian Version) (Essence Music) cd 21.00
We figured that since this list was so chock full of new Boris releases we oughta let folks know that we also got back in the Brazilian version of Boris' Mabuta No Ura soundtrack, so for those of you who somehow missed it last time around, check it out:
Finally! The Brazilian version of the Boris soundtrack Mabuta No Ura. And why is another version of a record you may already own so essential? Well, for the precise reason we all find Boris so enticing and simultaneously frustrating. This new version is SIMILAR, but NOT identical to the Japanese version. Obviously the packaging is completely different. But the music is too, which means all you Boris obsessives will need this as well as the Japanese version if you want all the Mabuta No Ura music there is. Some of the tracks here are -not- on the Japanese version, however, there are a few tracks on the Japanese version that are not found here. ARGHHHH. But thankfully Boris are so good, and Mabuta is so completely amazing, that it makes all this multiple version craziness go down just a little bit easier. But as we said before:
Boris fans are definitely obsessive, most wanting to collect anything and everything the band puts out, whether it's the same record with different artwork, or a limited single, or the same record with 9 minutes of extra music or a different record with the same cover or whatever. The band don't really help matters much, wholeheartedly playing into this, releasing records in ridiculously limited versions and multiple versions, with different artwork or bonus tracks or both. But this new record Mabuta No Ura has definitely pushed all this multiple version collecting about as far as it can go. But hey, let's talk about the record. A soundtrack to a film entitled Mabuta No Ura, this is Boris at their most abstract, maybe even at their least heavy, but Boris has yet to disappoint, and they don't here. Although depending on your personal favorite style of Boris, whether it be the slow sludgy dirges, the minimal drones or the all out super distorted RAWK, you might have to readjust your thinking to get into Mabuta No Ura. There's only one actually 'heavy track', and some of you may already have it, or at least a version of it, as the track in question, "A Bao A Qu" was released as a super limited picture disc 7" not too long ago. "A Bao A Qu" finds Boris churning through a sludgy slab of crushing psych rock, the way only they seem to do it. The rest of Mabuta No Ura finds the band exploring much more contemplative moods, constructing simple, dreamy passages of finger picked guitar, and warm swells of moody ambience. Sometimes sounding a bit like Low, sometimes a little like Slint, the theme here overall does seem to be a brooding slow building post rock. There are variations of course, Eastern sounding melodies, hazy chanted vocals, shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle, tribal rhythms, hand claps, plaintive vocalising, stretches of Sunroof!-like free-noise ambience, blown out krautrock rhythms, but it all sort of hovers around that post rock sound we love so much, dark and moody and smoldering, occasionally bursting with dynamics, but more often than not chugging along all melancholy and contemplatively propulsive. Hard to imagine what sort of film Mabuta No Ura must be, but the songs and sounds here are quite evocative, and let our imaginations conjure up the appropriate images to go with these sumptuous sounds.
The Brazilian version comes in a nice thick oversized mini lp gateflod sleeve, housed in a deluxe die cut slip case. Inside are mini reproductions of the inserts that came with the original lp. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "A Bao A Qu"
MPEG Stream: "The Slow Ripple Of A Puddle"
MPEG Stream: "It Touches"

BORIS Mabuta No Ura (Japanese Version) (Catune) cd 25.00
Boris fans are definitely obsessive, most wanting to collect anything and everything the band puts out, whether it's the same record with different artwork, or a limited single, or the same record with 9 minutes of extra music or a different record with the same cover or whatever. The band don't really help matters much, wholeheartedly playing into this, releasing records in ridiculously limited versions and multiple versions, with different artwork or bonus tracks or both. But this new record Mabuta No Ura has definitely pushed all this multiple version collecting about as far as it can go. More on that at the end of the review -- and we definitely suggest you read that stuff before you buy! But hey, let's talk about the record. A soundtrack to a film entitled Mabuta No Ura, this is Boris at their most abstract, maybe even at their least heavy, but Boris has yet to disappoint, and they don't here. Although depending on your personal favorite style of Boris, whether it be the slow sludgy dirges, the minimal drones or the all out super distorted RAWK, you might have to readjust your thinking to get into Mabuta No Ura. There's only one actually 'heavy track', and some of you may already have it, or at least a version of it, as the track in question, "A Bao A Qu" was released as a super limited picture disc 7" not too long ago. "A Bao A Qu" finds Boris churning through a sludgy slab of crushing psych rock, the way only they seem to do it. The rest of Mabuta No Ura finds the band exploring much more contemplative moods, constructing simple, dreamy passages of finger picked guitar, and warm swells of moody ambience. Sometimes sounding a bit like Low, sometimes a little like Slint, the theme here overall does seem to be a brooding slow building post rock. There are variations of course, Eastern sounding melodies, hazy chanted vocals, shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle, tribal rhythms, hand claps, plaintive vocalising, stretches of Sunroof!-like free-noise ambience, blown out krautrock rhythms, but it all sort of hovers around that post rock sound we love so much, dark and moody and smoldering, occasionally bursting with dynamics, but more often than not chugging along all melancholy and contemplatively propulsive. Hard to imagine what sort of film Mabuta No Ura must be, but the songs and sounds here are quite evocative, and let our imaginations conjure up the appropriate images to go with these sumptuous sounds. Packaged in a gorgeous chipboard slipcover die cut sleeve, with a dozen cd sized photos, presumable from the film, with stories printed on the other sides, unfortunately all in Japanese.
So here's the complicated stuff. There are FOUR versions of this record. All of them slightly different. This is the Japanese cd version. comes in a chipboard diecut sleeve and is NOT limited. In the next week or so we will be getting the vinyl version, which comes with a dozen 12x12 photo prints and IS limited. Only 500 were made and we're getting about a fifth of those, but as with all things Boris they will not last long. So if you want one, best to preorder it now. There will be another cd version, released by the Brazilian label Essence, and there will be two versions of that. A super deluxe boxed version, and a regular digipak version. The deluxe version is super limited. Only 120 copies made. We're getting half. Those will all be spoken for by the time we get them, so if you want one of those, pre-order it now. The regular Brazilian version is the same as the deluxe version just with less packaging. And is not limited.
Confused yet? Well, stick with us just a little bit longer. The Brazilian version has more music than the Japanese version. BUT, the Japanese version has music NOT on the Brazilian version. Okay. So if you just want to make sure you have ALL the music, you need both the Japanese version AND the Brazilian version. And since the Japanese cd and the Brazilian regular cd are not limited, you can easily pick up both. The lp and the deluxe version are just for those of you who need the fancy versions or feel compelled to collect them all. Finally, the Brazilian cd version won't be out until end of August or thereabouts, so orders WILL NOT be held for those! If you want both, we'll send you the Japanese cd now (lp when we get them) and the Brazilian version when they show up in a month or so. Phew!
MPEG Stream: "A Bao A Qu"
MPEG Stream: "The Slow Ripple Of A Puddle"
MPEG Stream: "It Touches"

BORIS Mabuta No Ura - Deluxe Brazilian Box Set Version (Essence Music) cd / box / cards / flowers 50.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The Deluxe Brazilian box set version of the Boris soundtrack Mabuta No Ura. And why is another version of a record you may already own so essential? Well, for the precise reason we all find Boris so enticing and simultaneously frustrating. This new version is SIMILAR, but NOT identical to the Japanese version. Obviously the packaging is completely different. But the music is too, which means all you Boris obsessives will need this as well as the Japanese version if you want all the Mabuta No Ura music there is. Some of the tracks here are -not- on the Japanese version, however, there are a few tracks on the Japanese version that are not found here. ARGHHHH. But thankfully Boris are so good, and Mabuta is so completely amazing, that it makes all this multiple version craziness go down just a little bit easier. But as we said before:
Boris fans are definitely obsessive, most wanting to collect anything and everything the band puts out, whether it's the same record with different artwork, or a limited single, or the same record with 9 minutes of extra music or a different record with the same cover or whatever. The band don't really help matters much, wholeheartedly playing into this, releasing records in ridiculously limited versions and multiple versions, with different artwork or bonus tracks or both. But this new record Mabuta No Ura has definitely pushed all this multiple version collecting about as far as it can go. But hey, let's talk about the record. A soundtrack to a film entitled Mabuta No Ura, this is Boris at their most abstract, maybe even at their least heavy, but Boris has yet to disappoint, and they don't here. Although depending on your personal favorite style of Boris, whether it be the slow sludgy dirges, the minimal drones or the all out super distorted RAWK, you might have to readjust your thinking to get into Mabuta No Ura. There's only one actually 'heavy track', and some of you may already have it, or at least a version of it, as the track in question, "A Bao A Qu" was released as a super limited picture disc 7" not too long ago. "A Bao A Qu" finds Boris churning through a sludgy slab of crushing psych rock, the way only they seem to do it. The rest of Mabuta No Ura finds the band exploring much more contemplative moods, constructing simple, dreamy passages of finger picked guitar, and warm swells of moody ambience. Sometimes sounding a bit like Low, sometimes a little like Slint, the theme here overall does seem to be a brooding slow building post rock. There are variations of course, Eastern sounding melodies, hazy chanted vocals, shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle, tribal rhythms, hand claps, plaintive vocalising, stretches of Sunroof!-like free-noise ambience, blown out krautrock rhythms, but it all sort of hovers around that post rock sound we love so much, dark and moody and smoldering, occasionally bursting with dynamics, but more often than not chugging along all melancholy and contemplatively propulsive. Hard to imagine what sort of film Mabuta No Ura must be, but the songs and sounds here are quite evocative, and let our imaginations conjure up the appropriate images to go with these sumptuous sounds.
This box set version is limited to 120 copies, 70 of which we got here. The normal Brazilian version of Mabuta is packaged insied a white painted and textured box, wrapped in white cord. Along with the cd inside you'll find dried flowere and flower petals as well as a ton of extra inserts, photos, and text. Really beautiful, ultra limited and most likely by the time you read this out of print.
MPEG Stream: "A Bao A Qu"
MPEG Stream: "The Slow Ripple Of A Puddle"
MPEG Stream: "It Touches"

BORIS The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked (Kult Ov Nihilow) 12" 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Okay, here we go AGAIN.... ULTRA LIMITED, VINYL ONLY RELEASE FROM THE MIGHTY BORIS. ALREADY OUT OF PRINT. WE HAVE (OR HAD) THE LAST 50 COPIES. EVEN THE LABEL IS SOLD OUT. NO PLANS FOR A CD VERSION. GORGEOUS PACKAGING, ORANGE VINYL! ONCE IT'S GONE. IT'S GONE FOR GOOD.
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, we can describe the actual record, although by the time most of you read this far, it might already be sold out.
The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked somehow manage to sound totally new, and like classic Boris at the same time. Side one is a two track one two slow motion punch, a creeping tarpit dirge, walls of warm rich guitar smeared into a fuzzy guitar glacier, slowly flattening everything in its path, like Earth or Sunn 0))) but with a sweet melody tucked safely inside. Eventually the guitars unhinge and erupt into a Haino like blast of psychedelic skree. Side two is one epic track that is even slower and sludgier than side one, slowly growing from a subsonic rumble to a planet splitting rrroooaaarr. No drums to be found either, making this all the more perfect for fans of Sunn 0))), Earth and all things dirgedoomdrone.

BORIS The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked Vol. 2 (Conspiracy) 12" 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Feels like only yesterday, that we reviewed Volume One, with this same proviso, but here we go AGAIN.... ULTRA LIMITED, VINYL ONLY RELEASE FROM THE MIGHTY BORIS. WE HAVE ABOUT 50 COPIES. GORGEOUS PACKAGING, SAME AS THE FIRST VOLUME. THICK ORANGE VINYL! ONCE THESE ARE GONE WE WON'T BE ABLE TO GET MORE!
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, we can describe the actual record, although by the time most of you read this far, it could very well be sold out.
Much like the first volume, Volume 2 of Boris' 3 part epic vinyl trilogy The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked somehow manages to sound totally new, and like classic Boris at the same time. Three massive tracks of freaked out droney psychedelic nirvana! The lp starts off with some of that glorious ultra distorted guitar crumble, which soon explodes into some insane Hendrixian / Santanian space psych freakout, all soaring leads and swirling reverbed ambience. Really noisy, but in a warm, soft, head in the clouds sort of way. The second track starts with some chugging Stooges-y sludge, that slowly loses momentum and trances out into some super druggy Hawkwinderful space bliss! Side two is a single twenty minute long track and sounds like the heaviest, noisiest most epic Boris track ever, but with all the structure melted away, leaving just a huge mind melting smear of growling glacial Merzbow / Skullflower style black hole wall of guitars. Awesome!

BORIS The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked Vol. 3 (Conspiracy) 12" 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Feels like only yesterday, that we reviewed Volume One, with this same proviso, but here we go AGAIN.... ULTRA LIMITED, VINYL ONLY RELEASE FROM THE MIGHTY BORIS. WE HAVE ABOUT 50 COPIES. GORGEOUS PACKAGING, SAME AS THE FIRST VOLUME. THICK ORANGE VINYL! ONCE THESE ARE GONE WE WON'T BE ABLE TO GET MORE!
Okay, now that we got that out of the way, we can describe the actual record, although by the time most of you read this far, it could very well be sold out.
Much like the first and more recent second volume, this third volume of Boris' 3 part epic vinyl trilogy The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked somehow manages to sound totally new, and like classic Boris at the same time. Four lengthy tracks of freaked out droney psychedelic nirvana!
The proceedings begin with a barely there microscopic drone, with soft Pink Floyd guitar swells, a washed out, staring at the night sky sort of ambient post rock dreaminess. Beneath, there is a slow bass throb, like a beating heart, while above a soft see through gauze of whispered high end guitar and gentle folky strum. The next track immediately tramples all over what ever dreaminess was still lingering with a pounding slow motion trudge slowly morphing into a torrent of high end feedback fallout and rumbling guitar grrr, with soaring guitar leads, drenched in reverb and bursting like fireworks in the sky, the framework provided by a simple clanging cymbal rhythm. Side two begins with a wallop, a face melting wall of guitar-against-the-amps dronedirge stun, a slow shuffling glacial grind of guitar crumble and amp growl, like SUNNO))) or Earth with even less riffery, very reminiscent of the Boris of old. Then, almost imperceptably, we've segued into the final track, that dronedirge gets more and more blown out, with the guitars getting hotter and hotter until they're absolutely blinding like sonic solar flares, white hot sheets of feeding back guitars, a churning, roiling, blinding, deafening swirl of glorious sludgey psychedelia! Wow.

BORIS / STUPID BABIES GO MAD Damaged (DIWPhalanx) 10" 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We took pre-orders on this ultra limited Boris rarity, but we managed to get a handful of extra copies, so for those folks who forgot to preorder, or folks who are only hearing about this now, here's your chance (however brief) to nab one of theseÉ
As with all Boris stuff, it's gorgeously packaged, a red and black pictured disc, printed to look like it's cracked into pieces, to go along with the title. It sits behind a piece of red vellum, with the band names printed lightly across the top so you can also see the picture disc through the vellum. Includes a DVD in a similarly 'damaged' packaging.
So the 10" matches up Boris with their more punk rock countrymen Stupid Babies Go Mad, both it seems paying homage to Black Flag's "Damaged" in their own way. Each apparently covering a song by the otherÉ
SBGM are up first and kick out the super aggro old school So-Cal punk rock jams, but way supercharged, with ultra distorted vocals, squealing feedback everywhere, super heavy and intense and very much in the tradition of the track and the band this is a tribute too. But it seems as if SBGM have jammed three tracks into one, the second two are sort of two parts of the same song, slightly more groovy but still pretty punk, a chunky main riff and seriously pounding drumming, and a cool minor key guitar harmony refrain that makes the band sound almost like a more punk rock Iron Maiden.
The flipside finds Boris doing their punk rock thing. Starting off in full on dirge mode, droning and downtuned, maybe channeling later era SST, huge slooooow riffing, monstrous drumming, feedback wrapped around crumbling distortion, until the band kicks it into gear, more aggro punk rock, Boris style, complete with squiggly leads, shouted vocals and an old school sing along chorus.
Included with the 10" is a 70+ minute dvd, capturing a live show by both bands. It begins with about one minute of awesome Boris footage, blown out and tinted red, in some huge venue, an extended psych blowout, the drums a chaotic swirl, the guitar and bass soaring and shriekingÉAnd then it stops, and suddenly we're watching Stupid Babies Go Mad, kicking out the jams big time in a furious 30 minute set, super high contrast, damaged film stock, a blazing live show, looks pretty amazing, wild and sweaty and boozy and brilliantÉ
Then it's back to Boris, on the same blown out red tinted film stock, doing some gorgeous tripped out slow psych, super in the red and heavy as fuckÉ until they launch into more rocking territory, a whole set packed with heavy, distorted garage psych freaked out jams, with lots and lots of gong action!!! And the band destroy, the sound is raw and ultra hot, distorted and really fierce, the band is definitely on fire, and the way it's filmed makes it seem even more wild and intense.
LIMITED TO 1500 COPIES. Once these are gone we won't be able to get more.

BORIS WITH MERZBOW Megatone (Inoxia) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
AQ faves Boris (masters of Melvins-esque slow-motion dirge metal) team up with sometime AQ fave Masami Akita (who as Merzbow basically invented 'noise' as a genre) to unleash this three track cd of monster drone! Both camps represent with some of their most gorgeous work. Boris contribute what sounds like the prettier more minimal stuff from their moody album Flood, with guitar only evident on one track, and even then it's slowed down, stretched out and buried under a thick blanket of Merzbow-y haze and Boris-y rumble. Akita keeps his noise side in check (although there are some truly caustic moments) opting instead for dark, processed low end with the occasional sonic flare. Created using guitar, e-bow, space echo, Powerbook and feedback conduction (!), Megatone finds itself situated closer to the drones of Coleclough or Karkowski than it does to the metallic pummel of the Melvins or the Corrupted. The opening track is a deep 20+ minute rumble, with white noise spread thinly above, while Akita's Powerbook gradually becomes more and more sonically intrusive and the processed guitars form subtle melodic overtones, throbbing and pulsing in ultra slow motion. The second track is constructed out of far away, psychedelic, Keiji Haino-esque guitar leads, buried under some Merzbowian ear piercing skree, allowing Akita to unleash some of that 'noise' he is so famous for. The final track lets the guitars do the talking one more time with huge walls of distortion, still heavily reverbed and distant sounding, but much more serene and almost ambient, with Merzbow's noise contributions much more complimetary and distinctly less harsh. A massive, gorgeous totally enthralling collaboration from two of the most exciting artists in music today!
RealAudio clip: "It Continues Waiting For A Headronefish"
RealAudio clip: "Encounter With The Inside Of The Wavemotion..."

BORIS WITH MERZBOW Sun Baked Snow Cave (Hydra Head) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Outside of being Japanese, and VERY VERY loud, one wouldn't necessarily think Boris and Merzbow had a whole lot to offer each other sonically. But as we know, that is most certainly not the case. Their first outing together was the legendary Megatone record, a stretched out doom drenched drone of mammoth proportions, sure there were guitars and basses and plenty of laptop fuckery and analog squiggle, but it was all smeared into a totally mesmerizing , incredibly dense drone record. Match up number two, the recent LP only 04092001, threw some people for a loop, especially folks all ready for the drone. Instead they were given what was essentially a Merzbow produced Boris ROCK AND ROLL set. Like their Heavy Rocks record, an energetic blast of overdriven, Stooges-esque sludge stomp RAWK, but for 04092001 mixed on a Fisher-Price mixing board, broadcast through a transistor radio stuck between stations. Cool for sure, but much more noisy and messy. So here we are with the awesomely titled Sun Baked Snow Cave, which finds Merzbow and Boris together again, and returning to a sound much like Megatone, but with a definite nod to Flood as well (our favorite Boris record btw). In fact we might go out on a limb and claim that this is the best (non-rock) Boris record since Flood!
Gorgeous ghostly guitars, simply strummed or delicately picked, each note and chord set adrift in a vast expanse of barely there sound, spare, drifting and languid. After about ten or twelve minutes the guitars are suddenly darkened by a slow building cloud of distant rumble and reverberant thunder, with lightning flashes of electronic grit, hiss and flicker. Then, about twenty minutes in, the bottom drops out (or IN) and the sky falls when a MASSIVE slab of super distorted downtuned guitar is laid out, a constant buzzing roar, over which Merzbow drapes all manner of glitch and stutter and crunch and crackle. A dizzyingly dense swirl of free noise drone, thick and slowly shifting, noisy, but in a muted controlled way. Eventually the storm passes, and the last twenty minutes of the record is one extended stretch of dreamy drift, surrounded by Merzbow at his most subtle, little smears of sonic haze, sort of like the audio equivalent of the afterimages you see when you stare at the sun. A haunting coda that gradually dissipates and fades to grey, and then black. Packaged in an exquisite Japanese style mini gatefold, with lovely black, white and blue metallic artwork by Stephen O'Malley.
MPEG Stream: "Sun Baked Snow Cave (excerpt)"