FOR STARS It Falls Apart (Future Farmer) cd 14.98
For Stars have done it again -- improved on that which came before. Their third album unfolds gradually, both expanding on and refining the already wonderful lush pop melacholia of their last full length We Are All Beautiful People. Their mellowness is sounding at times a little more 'shoegazer' than 'slowcore' this time out. On each of the eight songs, they take a contemplative pace as if that's all they can muster under the weight of their collective heart's burdens, and they don't hesitate to add a dissonant tone here and there effectively building tension and atmosphere. Their soaring, lilting multi-part vocals and textural flourishes are in many ways very post-Radiohead's OK Computer, and Flaming Lips' Soft Bulletin. As well, the seventh song also brought to mind a more elaborate Guided By Voices, but they're by no means simple soundalikes. Their well-crafted achingly lovely songs glow in their own right.
MPEG Stream: "I Should Have Told You"
MPEG Stream: "If It Falls Apart"

FOR STARS We Are All Beautiful People (Future Farmer) cd 13.98
Wow. For Stars have always been a pretty cool band, playing a quietly melancholic brand of sadcore that pleases fans of Low and Nick Drake, etc. But on this third album their sound appears to have matured exponentially, developing into a newer better creature. Their songs now have a hushed majesty to them, with hookier (yet still minor key) melodies, and more dynamics, a lot like the precision Flaming Lips pieces that always have a musically logical reason for their loud-soft progressions (unlike the scores of Mogwai wannabes out there). Frontman Carlos Forrester's occasional warbly falsetto also reminds us of Flaming Lips, and the modestly ramshackle tone of the entire record will appeal to fans of Grandaddy. A really good record.
RealAudio clip: "Wires"
RealAudio clip: "The Astronaut Song"
RealAudio clip: "Only Star"

FOR STARS Windows For Stars (Future Farmer) cd 10.98
Honestly, the moment I heard the first few strains of the opening track of this album, I was transported back many a year to my childhood. Summer days spent listening to the radio, strains of Carly Simon or Bread. Not a bad thing... no, this album nudges you into bittersweet reminiscence with its slowly creeping, lonely melodies. Local slowcore, for fans of Smog and Palace; recommended.

FORBIDDEN PLANET (OST) (Small Planet / GNP Crescendo) cd 16.98
Released in 1956, Forbidden Planet was MGM's attempt to bring the science fiction genre into the main stream by pouring tons of cash into its production. Nominated for an academy award for special effects and featuring a robot cast member, Forbidden Planet was about as futuristic as one could get in the mid fifties. So it only followed that the score for such a lavish, futuristic science fiction film should be on par with Robby The Robot and the rest of the show. Louis and Bebe Barron were just a couple of upstarts in the burgeoning field of electronic music. As it happens, the score for Forbidden Planet is often touted as the very first to use no orchestral instruments. Indeed nothing but electronically synthesized sounds and tape manipulation are used, period. Knowing that the original working title for the film was actually "Fatal Planet" makes sense when one listens to the soundtrack sans film. The series of dark bellows, squeals, bleeps and farts that are the textural aural landscape of Forbidden Planet are as creepy at times as any horror film soundtrack or any release by Barron-contemporary Vladimir Ussachevsky. It was most certainly unlike anything any Hollywood film had ever used for a soundtrack and listening to it today, it remains a truly strange and wonderful anomaly in film music history. Highly recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Main Titles - Overture"
RealAudio clip: "Ancient Krell Music"
RealAudio clip: "Battle With Invisible Monster"

FORBIDDEN PLANET (OST) (Moving Image Entertainment) lp 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally available again on a GORGEOUSLY printed, gate fold LP edition. Released in 1956, Forbidden Planet was MGM's attempt to bring the science fiction genre into the main stream by pouring tons of cash into its production. Nominated for an academy award for special effects and featuring a robot cast member, Forbidden Planet was about as futuristic as one could get in the mid fifties. So it only followed that the score for such a lavish, futuristic science fiction film should be on par with Robby The Robot and the rest of the show. Louis and Bebe Barron were just a couple of upstarts in the burgeoning field of electronic music. As it happens, the score for Forbidden Planet is often touted as the very first to use no orchestral instruments. Indeed nothing but electronically synthesized sounds and tape manipulation are used, period. Knowing that the original working title for the film was actually "Fatal Planet" makes sense when one listens to the soundtrack sans film. The series of dark bellows, squeals, bleeps and farts that are the textural aural landscape of Forbidden Planet are as creepy at times as any horror film soundtrack or any contemporary release by Vladimir Ussachevsky. It was most certainly unlike anything any Hollywood film had ever used for a soundtrack and listening to it today, it remains a truly strange and wonderful anomaly in film music history. Highly recommended.

FORBIDDEN PLANET s/t (self-released) cd-r 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bay Area improv dude and Rastascan label owner Gino Robair (drums, "materials") teams up with AQ-fave Bjoern Eichstaedt (keys, voice) and fellow Germans Pit Schmidt (sax, tapes) and Thomas Maos (guitar, "mts modulation" whatever that is) for this live session, recorded April 15th 2000 at Club Voltaire, Tuebingen Germany. If you read our lists closely, you'll know Eichstaedt as a very creative and eclectic musician, responsible for solo electronic recordings, the Bunglized jazz/rock of Bretzel Killing Machine, AND the utter black metal weirdness that is Caacrinolas! Eichstaedt's new Forbidden Planet project incorporates his pal Robair's improv jazz sensibilities into a crazy half-hour-plus stew of everything from mellow noir-jazz to full-on Hendrix-style distorted guitar skree to sizzling electronic scrape-scapes to Patton-esque abstract vocal blurt. Quite a trip. Must have been a great show, although of course this was edited down from the raw recordings. It's a cd-r, numbered and limited to 100, packaged in an ever-popular *sandpaper* cover!
RealAudio clip: "Track 2"

FORBIDDEN ZONE (Hercules Films) dvd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Available for the first time on DVD, the Elfman brothers legendary 1980 film. Filmed on an incredibly low budget with a cast of family and devoted friends, Forbidden Zone has long been a cult classic. It all started from a D.I.Y. cabaret-esque stage troup -- The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo -- which Richard and brother Danny along with several friends had been schlepping around Los Angeles in the late 70's. As a final blowout to their ever more complex show, Richard decided to produce a film featuring the Mystic Knights and friends. Shot in black & white, Forbidden Zone is a surreal tale involving the sixth dimension -- run by King Fausto (Herve Villechaise of Fantasy Island) and his Queen Doris (Susan Tyrrell) -- and an unfortunate family of freaks that happen to fall into it one by one. Like an insane amalgam of Busby Berkeley intertwined with The Residents' Vileness Fats and imbued with an almost unhealthy scatalogical sense of humor, Forbidden Zone is a movie unlike any other. Handmade sets, costumes, music and more, the film is a product of its time and perhaps offers more than just a little insight into the workings of the soon to become famous Danny Elfman with his future post-ska new wave Oingo Boingo and hit film scores. Pay close attention when you watch this film to see if you can spot a young Willy Winant (Mr. Bungle, John Zorn, avant garde percussionist extraordinaire) dressed up in drag. The DVD comes packaged with a whole heaping of bonus material, including early footage of The Mystic Knights Of The Oingo Boingo's stage show, an extended discussion by director Richard Elfman with his brother and other key players in the film, an Oingo Boingo video ("Private Life"), deleted scenes, and more.

FORCE s/t (Howling Bull) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hyper fast, blazing growling death-grind/fast core from members of Hellchild. This record takes the fury of Hellchild, and ups the rpm. Essential.

FORCEFIELD Lord of the Rings Modulator (Bulb) cd 14.98
The second album from Providence Rhode Island art darlings Forcefield (the band who knits sweaters that they sell in art galleries for thousands of dollars, apparently, and who also performed at the Whitney Biennial!) is the second Bulb release we've noticed after the Mind Flayer album bearing a logo saying "Bulb Underworld" and a crude drawing of a twenty-sided die. Allan's D&D senses are tingling. Thus the following conversation in our office...
Allan: Hey this new Forcefield is a pretty cool, textural electronic noise record! It sounds like angry rats, squeaky balloons and exploding synths. Very listenable though. Wasn't their other album a herky jerky arty rock punk kinda thing though?
Andee: Yeah, I think so.
Allan: Well, I like this album.
Andee: Uh, I think the world's seen enough noise records...
Allan: But this one's called Lord Of The Rings Modulator!!
MPEG Stream: "track 2"

FORD & LOPATIN Emergency Room (Mexican Summer) picture disc 21.00
Yes, the Lopatin in this duo is in fact Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never fame - and Joel Ford was his partner in Games. For whatever reason, the duo have dropped the Games moniker, but they are still producing their earnestly reverential homage to '80s trashy electronic pop. This is the second of four singles, not sure what happened to the first one, as we never got that, but no matter as this one has all of the trappings of a Harold Faltermeyer production circa 1984 (you know "Axel F" from Beverly Hills Cop, or the score to Fletch). "Emergency Room" is all cocaine and legwarmers in its mid-tempo electro-funk groove built on sampled slap-basslines, vapid-but-catchy blorping melodies, vocoder vocals (augmented with modern day auto-tuning, mind you), and even an over the top LA rocker guitar solo thrown in for no real reason other than Harold Faltermeyer would have had an LA rocker at his disposal. The two B sides are from The Bug, who strips the song down to a slow motion crawl with lots of dubby atmospheres and little remaining but the vocals, and Gavin Russom, whose remix is a bubbly number that smoothes out many of the '80s references into a tumbling left-field techno number. Pressed as a picture disc with X-rays of spine and hands. Limited to 300 copies.

FORD & LOPATIN Snakes / Flying Dream (Mexican Summer) 12" 15.98

FORD + LOPATIN Channel Pressure (Mexican Summer) cd 13.98
Channel Pressure is a record that seems wholly devoid of irony, even though everything indicates that it should be dripping with it. Daniel Lopatin is the mastermind behind the polygon electronica of Oneohtrix Point Never, and together with Joel Ford, he recorded one hell of an electro-pop single as Games that could have been lifted from any club circa 1986. That sense of time travel is still being dialed in for Channel Pressure (authored by Ford + Lopatin, who have dropped the Games moniker for something more in keeping with Stock, Aiken, and Waterman, although their sound is firmly American). This album is completely unashamed of its mid-'80s electro-pop aesthetic, with many of the boyband falsetto vocals popping out of the slick, urban-pop productions like ghost-jams of forgotten MTV wannabes of that time period. The spry electronic rhythms and bent-synth melodies become all the more ridiculous with the hair-metal guitar solos that spring to life for no good reason other than because they could. Ford + Lopatin even managed to convince Mexican Summer to spring for them to record in Jan Hammer's studio. Yeah, the same Jan Hammer who scored the Miami Vice theme song! Where Oneohtrix Point Never expresses some dripping emotions through the mainframe of sci-fi computing, Channel Pressure has its head buried in a pile of cocaine, imagining itself as a sci-fi lovestory with robots and super-computer, but comes across more as a pretty straight homage to the production styles of Nile Rodgers and Harold Faltermeyer. A new New Jack Swing awaits.
MPEG Stream: "Emergency Room"
MPEG Stream: "Joey Rogers"
MPEG Stream: "Break Inside"

FORD + LOPATIN Channel Pressure (Mexican Summer) lp 16.98
Channel Pressure is a record that seems wholly devoid of irony, even though everything indicates that it should be dripping with it. Daniel Lopatin is the mastermind behind the polygon electronica of Oneohtrix Point Never, and together with Joel Ford, he recorded one hell of an electro-pop single as Games that could have been lifted from any club circa 1986. That sense of time travel is still being dialed in for Channel Pressure (authored by Ford + Lopatin, who have dropped the Games moniker for something more in keeping with Stock, Aiken, and Waterman, although their sound is firmly American). This album is completely unashamed of its mid-'80s electro-pop aesthetic, with many of the boyband falsetto vocals popping out of the slick, urban-pop productions like ghost-jams of forgotten MTV wannabes of that time period. The spry electronic rhythms and bent-synth melodies become all the more ridiculous with the hair-metal guitar solos that spring to life for no good reason other than because they could. Ford + Lopatin even managed to convince Mexican Summer to spring for them to record in Jan Hammer's studio. Yeah, the same Jan Hammer who scored the Miami Vice theme song! Where Oneohtrix Point Never expresses some dripping emotions through the mainframe of sci-fi computing, Channel Pressure has its head buried in a pile of cocaine, imagining itself as a sci-fi lovestory with robots and super-computer, but comes across more as a pretty straight homage to the production styles of Nile Rodgers and Harold Faltermeyer. A new New Jack Swing awaits.
MPEG Stream: "Emergency Room"
MPEG Stream: "Joey Rogers"
MPEG Stream: "Break Inside"

FORDE, MARIA A Cautionary Calendar About Junk Food zine calendar 4.00
We've sad it before and we'll say it again. We love Maria Forde. She can draw anything. Famous directors, zombies, vegetables, and eventually, she's gonna draw all of us! You'll be able to see all the various AQ folks rendered in Maria's inimitable style.
But until then, you can count down the days with this bad ass Maria Forde calendar. A Cautionary Calendar About Junk Food you can hang on your wall, small enough to keep in your bag or even your pocket, and packed with awesome drawings. And it's not just the drawings, it's the subject matter. Just like her various series of directors, actors, her choices are unlikely but so so perfect.
So here we have a year's worth of images, legends and misfires of the junk food world: the inventor of Dubble Bubble (originally called Blibber Blubber!), Hostess cupcakes, Frosted Flakes, Lik-M-Aid, the man who invented the process of freezing McDonalds French fries, and helped create Cheez Wiz, the inventor of sliced bread, Baby Ruth bars, one of the possible inventors of the TV dinner, the inventor of Mountain Dew, Gene Hackman as Willy Wonka and more!!!
We're having a snack attack already!

FORDE, MARIA Read This To Get Your Enjoys magazine 4.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
You may remember us pimping our pal Maria Forde's artshow a list or two back, featuring sketches of veggies and things. And if you live in the neighborhood, you for sure have seen her bad ass drawings and paintings of various classic movie stars and starlets, as well as some wicked zombie drawings, which have found their way onto shirts and buttons. We're even discussing having here do a series of AQ employees and AQ favorite records!! She also even painted a portrait of our very own Andee which you can see on the very out of date staff page on the AQ website.
We've had random bits of here art here in the store over the years, she's still quite partial to the zine, and heres are always amazing, super detailed, ultra personal, intimate and funny, fun to read and packed with awesome drawings and weird shapes and ideas.
Read This To Get Your Enjoys is the latest from Forde and her merry band of like minded collaborators, various writers and artists. Packed with stories, and drawings, comics, photos, with gorgeous colored pencil full color front and back, inside and out covers, the front even has a little pocket with a stick of gum for you to chew on while you curl up and dig in. The back cover has a little pocket too, that one has a little tiny mini zine in there, to check out once you've worked your way through. We'd tell you more, but you should just buy it, and discover all the special hidden things inside for yourself. Limited to only 50 copies, each signed and hand numbered, and a total STEAL at only four bucks...

FORDE, MARIA Read This To Get Your Enjoys 2 (self-released) zine + cd-r 8.98
One of our favorite local artists returns with volume two of her Read This To Get Your Enjoys zine. The first one was a huge hit around here (we still have a few left, just ask), killer art, funny stories, even a piece of gum! Local folks might know Maria Forde from her drawings of movie stars and directors that have graced walls, shirts and buttons, across the street at video shop Lost Weekend, her art an impossible blend of playful childlike wonder, super technical focus, and poignant whimsy for sure.
This time around, for number two, everything is a little bit bigger and better. Full color covers, inside and out, lots of contributors, an extra full color mini-zine insert, and even a cd-r mix tape.
And just like mixtapes, we never get tired of zines, super personal and intimate, cleverly laid out, creatively designed, sometimes super sleek and smooth, other times more scribbly and lo-fi, found letters, photos, doodles, elaborate illustrations, it's easy to tell from looking at Read This... that Maria and her crew love the form and are helping it to thrive and flourish. We could describe each piece and part, but it's sort of pointless, if you're into zines, and cool art, and like us don't get nearly enough small press bliss, pick this up. Funny, weird, sad, melancholy, goofy, playful, earnest, heartfelt, beautifully drawn, and lovingly assembled. Plus a bad ass disc, in a little pocket inside the back cover, filled with killer hip hop from one of the zine's contributors, part of his answer to the question posed to him as to why he makes hip hop. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a song must be worth a million.
Just like the first issue, WAY recommended.

FORDELL RESEARCH UNIT Repetition (Basses Frequences) cd-r 10.98

FOREIGN CINEMA Monochromatic (Vibraphone Records) lp+cd-r 11.98
A couple years ago, San Francisco minimal-wave / shoegaze outfit Foreign Cinema handed us a 4 song ep - Non-Synchronous Sound - which quickly became a staff favorite around here, with its wintery atmospherics wrapped around sublime songs that reminded us of The Cure (circa Faith / Seventeen Seconds), Slowdive, and Crystal Stilts. With just four songs, we did keep on wondering (sometimes aloud to the band when they dropped off more and more copies of Non-Synchronous Sound), when a full album would come out. While we're totally stoked that the band has finished a full album, we're still somewhat scratching our heads why Foreign Cinema hasn't caught the attention of somebody like Sacred Bones, Captured Tracks, or hell 4AD for that matter. Yeah, they really are that good!
Anyway as for Monochromatic, the spatiousness and spectral songs which we loved so much on Non-Synchronous Sounds continue here. The songs all have a complexity that along with those earlier references seem to meld the artful tumble of Wire with the post-rock dynamics of Bark Psychosis. Rolling basslines that slide out of noir-tinged melodies into a low-slung, darkened dub countering the synth and drum machines, all given a good old Martin Hannett style production. The spindly guitars of Dave Han leap out of the songs with a simple, graceful sadness to match his distantly mixed, minor key vocals. For all of the referecnes to darkened atmospheric pop, Foreign Cinema conjure a sound that is pretty much all their own. We'll be ballyhooing this one as much as we did the earlier ep, until they sell out of the 300 copies they pressed up for the lp, which also comes with a cd-r of the entire album.
MPEG Stream: "Airport"
MPEG Stream: "Palace Of Fine Junk "
MPEG Stream: "Vampire Empire"

FOREIGN CINEMA Non-Synchronous Sound (Parallax Sounds) cd ep 5.98
You can probably imagine that we get lots of bands sending and dropping off their cd's for us to check out. As painstaking and time consuming as it can be, we really do try to listen to every single thing that ends up in our hands, even though it sometimes takes us forever to do so. But damn we've been reminded why all that listening is worth while, as buried deep in a stack of cd's to check out from months ago laid this absolute shoegaze gem from a local San Francisco duo who deserve to get some major attention with this stunning ep.
Reminding us in equal parts of Slowdive and The Cure circa Faith, these are songs to get lost to, bathing the listener in a perfect seductive daze. We've got to say we've become big fans of ep's as of late, a format that requires the musician make the most of every single moment, as the four songs/twenty minutes of music on Non-Synchronous Sound are all absolutely hypnotic and satisfying. Reminding us of the heyday of Sara records or a more shoegazey Pains of Being Pure At Heart joining forces with a less rock minded and more blissed out Crystal Stilts.
Slumberland, Matador, 4AD, Captured Tracks, if we were your A&R reps we would be begging you to sign this duo, as this is a band who deserves to get their music out to a way wider audience. Totally stunning!
MPEG Stream: "Ice Machine"
MPEG Stream: "Arbitrary Map Mode"
MPEG Stream: "Lovers And Killers"

FOREIGN CINEMA Palace Of Fine Junk / Velvet Sky (Vibraphone) 7" 6.00
Foreign Cinema's debut ep was a huge hit around here, about a year ago when we finally realized it had been sitting in a box of cds to check out for way to long, we put it on and were totally blown away. In fact it's become one of those cds that pretty much gets played in the store every week at some point. It's just so perfect in its shoegaze, daydream perfection. They seem to be taking their time crafting a proper first full length (The Soft Moon were equally wise in releasing a handful of 7"s before their first album). These two new songs show there's plenty of wonderful, dark and breezy shoegaze pop to come from this awesome duo in the near future (we hope). We gotta give them extra props for naming the A side "Palace Of Fine Junk" after our favorite random junk/thrift store in the Tenderloin. In fact listening to Foreign Cinema is a lot like taking a dazed and hazy late afternoon walk through this city. "Velvet Sky" may be on the B side, but damn if it's not one of the most seductive and sensual slow burners of the year!
Beautifully packaged, hand stamped, and limited. So grab one while you can.

FOREIGN LEGION Kidnapper Van (Insiduous Urban Records) cd 14.98
Subtitled: "beats to rock while bike-stealin'." ...Hey don't steal my bike!

FOREIGN TELEGRAM Skin Jobs (Concrete Music) cd 10.98

MPEG Stream: "Proto"
MPEG Stream: "Joy Powder"

FORENSICS Hogback Mountain Sessions Vol.1 (Magic Bullet) cd 8.98

FORENSICS Things To Do When You Should Be Dead Anyway (Magic Bullet) cd 14.98
This record is so Aquarius it almost feels like they made it just for us. And you of course! Taking all sorts of crazy stuff that we love and stuffing it all into a single band. Ostensibly, Forensics are a metal band, a really heavy, metal band. But their peculiar brand of metal includes, extended hypnotic bass-heavy post rock work outs, dreamy dark ambience, full on fuzzed out stoner rawk (think Boris' Heavy Rocks), crushing minimal sludge and mathy spazz rock. But somehow it all fits together perfectly. Like Neurosis, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Codeine, Bastro, Dazzling Killmen and Old Man Gloom all got together to jam, and this is what came out. Super dramatic and epic, lengthy super repetetive jams that give way to squalls of metallic fury that then give away to creeping minor key slowcore. Chaotic bursts of grinding spastic metal bookended by Slint-ish hypnorock. Huge blackened slabs of glacial riffage that decay into pusling minimal krautrock. A massive, crushingly heavy, emotionally compelling cinematic soundscape. I swear if I was a film maker I would be getting bands like this to score my films for sure. Features members of Burning Airlines, Corn On Macabre, Pg.99, Trial By Fire, and Waiffle.
MPEG Stream: "Sidewinder Passage"
MPEG Stream: "Did You See What God Just Did To Us, Man?"
MPEG Stream: "Circling Bloody Animal Tracks"

FORENSICS Things To Do When You Should Be Dead Anyway (Magic Bullet) lp 9.98
Now available on vinyl. Packaged in a super deluxe woodcut looking chip board sleeve!
This record is so Aquarius it almost feels like they made it just for us. And you of course! Taking all sorts of crazy stuff that we love and stuffing it all into a single band. Ostensibly, Forensics are a metal band, a really heavy, metal band. But their peculiar brand of metal includes, extended hypnotic bass-heavy post rock work outs, dreamy dark ambience, full on fuzzed out stoner rawk (think Boris' Heavy Rocks), crushing minimal sludge and mathy spazz rock. But somehow it all fits together perfectly. Like Neurosis, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Codeine, Bastro, Dazzling Killmen and Old Man Gloom all got together to jam, and this is what came out. Super dramatic and epic, lengthy super repetitive jams that give way to squalls of metallic fury that then give away to creeping minor key slowcore. Chaotic bursts of grinding spastic metal bookended by Slint-ish hypnorock. Huge blackened slabs of glacial riffage that decay into pulsing minimal krautrock. A massive, crushingly heavy, emotionally compelling cinematic soundscape. I swear if I was a film maker I would be getting bands like this to score my films for sure. Features members of Burning Airlines, Corn On Macabre, Pg.99, Trial By Fire, and Waiffle.
MPEG Stream: "Sidewinder Passage"
MPEG Stream: "Did You See What God Just Did To Us, Man?"
MPEG Stream: "Circling Bloody Animal Tracks"

FORESHADOW No. 3 magazine + 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.
Attention doomsters! Doom metal alert! From Poland, one of the doomiest of all doom magazines we've ever seen. Interviews with and articles about Esoteric, Mournful Congregation, Spiritus Mortis, Swallow The Sun, Pantheist, My Shameful, Runemagick, Nadja, Until Death Overtakes Me and loads more! The best thing about this is that there's lots of cd-r and demo reviews of bands even we have never heard of, but now have to try and track down. Thankfully this 'zine also comes with a double cd-r (packaged in a DVD style case) with tracks from Moss, Skepticism, Swallow The Sun, Mournful Congregation, Mirror Of Deception, Unsilence, Dark Embrace, Chamber Of Sorrows, Cambian Dawn, Centurions Ghost, Nadja, Dysperium, Enoch, Forever Autumn, Stone Wings, The Gates Of Slumber, Tefra, Until Death Overtakes Me, Souls Entwined, Solicide, and Troglodyte Dawn (great name!).

FOREST As A Song In The Harvest Of Grief (ISO666) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More Russian blackforestbuzz!!! Another legendary, and long out of print AQ black metal classic gets the deluxe reissue treatment. All time AQ faves Forest's As A Song In The Harvest Of Grief, back in print, back in stock, and available again for a limited time.
We were particularly enamored of Forest's Burzum-meets-Jewelled Antler s/t debut, and while this is heavier on the Burzumy buzz, it's still pretty mind blowing. Here's what we had to say about it when we first reviewed it way back when:
Yes, buzzing black metal fiends, there IS another cd from Russia's Forest that we hadn't yet reviewed, so here it is at last. The poetically-titled As A Song In The Harvest Of Grief was Forest's fourth and final album, recorded in 1999. At this point in their history, the band had made themselves masters of raw, primitive black metal done the ye olde Nordic way, carrying on the black-burning torch of Darkthrone and Burzum, whilst sometimes allowing their own experimental and improvisatory tendencies to surface amidst the fuzz-drone.
This album is no deviation from the Forest path. Opening track "Into The Mouth Of Breath" (?) sounds like a swarm of bees interpreting some minor-key piece of classical music. Then the ceaseless pounding of drums and throat-torn terror begins, each track a distorted and monotonous (in a good way, mind you -- this is black metal) lament, with melodic lines to stab the heart, the tempo of the drums quickening even as the overall mood of the music becomes almost static, dismal. Sheer trance agony fueled by fuzz, gorgeous fuzz. And, as always with Forest's cds, it's not over 'til it's over: there's a bonus track! For fans of Darkthrone, Weakling, Eikenskaden, etc.
MPEG Stream: "Into The Mouth Of Breath"
MPEG Stream: "As A Song In The Harvest Of Grief"

FOREST Foredooming The Hope For Eternity (ISO666) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yet another disc of glorious blackened woodland buzz from AQ faves Forest gets the reissue treatment. A grim Russian horde, Forest captured our shriveled black hearts with their Burzum-meets-Jewelled Antler debut. As they progressed, the clattery forest ambience receded, and the black buzz took over, but on Foredooming The Hope For Eternity, there was still plenty of non-black weirdness to balance the blazing buzz.
Foredooming is finally back in print, back in stock, and available again for a limited time. Here's what we had to say about it when we first reviewed it way back when:
Not to be confused with the *other* band also called Forest, a much folkier entity, here we have one of several releases by the entity that we usually refer to as the black metal Forest, who hail from Russia. You may recall us praising this Forest's self-titled album a while back, likening it to a blend of the primitive Darkthrone/Burzum/Weakling style of black metal and the Jewelled Antler psych-improv-folk-drone aesthetic. Foredooming The Hope For Eternity dates from 1998 and it's certainly also a trance-inducing Darkthroneathon. Raspy screams, buzzing guitars, drums beating a constant, almost static thwap-thwap-thwap. Forest's minor key laments make a virtue of monotony. I love it at low volumes, as a purely background drone...or, playing it loud, it becomes an all-encompassing sonic cocoon. And that would be good enough to sate our raw, old-school black metal needs. But, being Forest, there's more... two lengthy unlisted tracks at the end of the disc which contribute something a little different to the proceedings. The first is a sort of an extension of the last listed track, with the drums receding in the mix, revealing a beautifully majestic strummy drone, sounding not unlike Earth gone black metal! That's followed by another ten minute bonus track that adds moaning, wordless vocal chant. "Ah-aaah..." So very epic, and almost Swans-ish, looping more distortion and folkiness. Definitely an interesting, effective band within (and sometimes without) the confines of the tradition to which they aspire.
MPEG Stream: "Unfinished Song Of These Woods"
MPEG Stream: "The Bolverk Spirit"
MPEG Stream: "bonus track #1"

FOREST Forest / Full Circle (BGO) 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A release we've had before, but not for a while, 'cause it's been hard to get -- but recently Allan & several of his friends really really got into Forest, so he managed to track down and order a bunch (though, probably not enough...).
This double cd contains Forest's entire output -- two albums, one from 1969 and one from 1970 -- and should definitely be of interest to anyone into that whole '60s British folk-psych vibe. Y'know, if you liked the Tony, Caro & John or Fairport Convention reissues we've recently listed, or dig that excellent current interpreter of the genre, P.G. Six (or that other modern psych-folkster guy, Greg Weeks, who is heavily into Forest).
Forest were a trio of hippie musicians (Martin, Dez, and Adrian) from the town of Walesby in Lincolnshire. All three of 'em are responsible for the quite excellent male vocals that help make these albums the amazing lost treasures they are, along with their strong songwriting, and their adept and varied instrumental backing (mostly acoustic, with guitars, harmonium, mandolin, pipes, cello, electric harpsichord, organ, percussion, etc.). Their vocal harmonies recall the folkish stuff on those great early Wishbone Ash albums. Their songs and lyrics are rural, pastoral, lovely -- with titles like "A Glade Somewhere", "Rain Is On My Balcony", "Bluebell Dance", "Lovemaker's Ways" -- and darker too ("The Midnight Hanging Of A Runaway Serf", "Famine Song", "Graveyard"). But, while 'folky,' this is by no means trad folk; they are down with prog rock moves that remind us as much of Pink Floyd as the Incredible String Band. They can be sunshiney and twee a la Tyrannosaurus Rex, but also have a pagan, dark aspect as we said, coming pretty close to Comus territory at times (with the song "Fading Light", for one). Yep, 'folky' but not folk -- the ruined castles and fairy folk that inhabit the forests and fields of Forest's world exist, shadow-like, in the present day (well, Forest's England of thirty years ago), so it's not surprising when a song like "Hawk The Hawker" has kind of a Lou Reed/VU vibe, for instance. Their music is informed by the ancient British ballads, but you can tell that Martin, Dez, and Adrian were three young long hairs sleeping in a van, no matter how idyllic their songs sometimes sound.
This double cd reissue includes John Peel's original liner notes from the first album -- they're quite silly, but accurate at least in his closing comment "It would be nice for the Forest if you purchased these results of their lives and labours -- but nicer still for you." Definitely one of those "this is SO good why didn't these guys get famous??!" listens.
RealAudio clip: "A Glade Somewhere"
RealAudio clip: "Fading Light"
RealAudio clip: "Gypsy Girl & Rambleaway"
RealAudio clip: "Graveyard "

FOREST Like A Blaze Above The Ashes (ISO666) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Cult...Russian...black...metal. That's the real raw, primitive, Darkthroned stuff y'know. For/by persons who really *believe*. Forest you may recall is the black metal band whose mastery of the fuzz-filled Norse black metal style and weird forest-dark ambient atmospheres have caused us to draw comparisons to such strange bedfellows as Burzum and Avarus. Ok, mostly they're along the lines of Mayhem or Burzum (not a bad thing) but sometimes they'll venture into areas that sound more like the Swans or a Jewelled Antler band or something, more folky or droney than expected.
Their second album Like A Blaze Above The Ashes (released on cassette circa 1997, and on cd only recently) falls chronologically between their 1996 self-titled recording and 1998's Foredooming The Hope For Eternity that we reviewed a few lists back. And like those discs it provides both blasting buzzing attacks and more atmospheric vistas. The centerpiece to this four song, 44'33" album is the nearly 17 minute epic of distortion and majesty, "To The Fiercest Frost". But we're also much taken with album closer "Obscurity", a wordlessly chanted Viking lament that trudges for twelve minutes through a misty vale of near-acoustic melody and sadness.
MPEG Stream: "By The Roar Of Hammers Call"
MPEG Stream: "Obscurity"

FOREST s/t (Radioactive) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The time is definitely right for this ('though, *any* time would be right for this since it's such a great album). The whole acid-folk revival of which we're sure you're aware -- heck we've done our part to plug albums by Six Organs Of Admittance, Skygreen Leopards, Espers, P.G. Six, Tower Recordings, and the like -- of course owes a lot to the genuine old timey hippie British acoustic psychedelic folk scene back in the '60s and '70s. Originators like the Incredible String Band and Tyrannosaurus Rex and Fairport Convention... and Forest. Who were never a famous band, but definitely cult favorites. And AQ favorites. So we're happy that at long last this is back in stock. Actually when we reviewed this before, it was with Forest's second album Full Circle as a double cd two-fer. But now it's been re-re-issued as it's own cd (with Full Circle to follow later on), remastered at Abbey Road where it was originally recorded back in 1969, with the participation of former Forest-er Martin Welham. And no longer being packaged as two-fer means the wonderfully pagan cover art gets the whole front of the cd booklet instead of appearing thumbnail-sized!
Forest were a trio of hippie musicians (Martin, Dez, and Adrian) from the town of Walesby in Lincolnshire. All three of 'em are responsible for the quite excellent male vocals that help make their albums the amazing lost treasures they are, along with their strong songwriting, and their adept and varied instrumental backing (mostly acoustic, with guitars, harmonium, mandolin, pipes, cello, electric harpsichord, organ, percussion, etc.). Their vocal harmonies recall the folkish stuff on those great early Wishbone Ash albums. Their songs and lyrics are rural, pastoral, lovely -- with titles (we're gonna mention tracks from both of their albums here) like "A Glade Somewhere", "Rain Is On My Balcony", "Bluebell Dance", "Lovemaker's Ways" -- and darker too ("The Midnight Hanging Of A Runaway Serf", "Famine Song", "Graveyard"). But, while 'folky,' this is by no means trad folk; they are down with prog rock moves that remind us as much of Pink Floyd as the Incredible String Band. They can be sunshiney and twee a la Tyrannosaurus Rex, but also have a pagan, dark aspect as we said, coming pretty close to Comus territory at times (with the song "Fading Light", for one). Yep, 'folky' but not folk -- the ruined castles and fairy folk that inhabit the forests and fields of Forest's world exist, shadow-like, in the present day (well, Forest's England of thirty years ago), so it's not surprising when a song like "Hawk The Hawker" has kind of a Lou Reed/VU vibe, for instance. Their music is informed by the ancient British ballads, but you can tell that Martin, Dez, and Adrian were three young long hairs sleeping in a van, no matter how idyllic their songs sometimes sound.
This reissue boast new liner notes and photos, but also still includes John Peel's original liner notes from the first album -- they're quite silly, but accurate at least in his closing comment "It would be nice for the Forest if you purchased these results of their lives and labours -- but nicer still for you." Definitely one of those "this is SO good why didn't these guys get famous??!" listens. We look forward to bringing you the reissue of their other, equally essential album Full Circle (1970) when it too gets reissued, and we also hear that vinyl is in the works. Plus, we've heard from Martin Welham himself that not only are there plans for the release of some vintage live Forest recordings on another UK label hopefully sometime in the next year, he also has a *new* band called The Story who'll be putting out a record soon, and also doing a split LP with none other than Santa Cruz folksters Whysp this summer. So lots of excitement for Forest fans for sure -- get this and become one.
MPEG Stream: "A Glade Somewhere"
MPEG Stream: "Fading Light"
MPEG Stream: "Do You Want Some Smoke?"

FOREST s/t (ISO666) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally, one of our all time favorite black metal records, out of print forever, is available again for a limited time. For those of you who somehow missed out on Russian black metallers Forest the first time around, they struck a particularly AQ chord with their impossible Jewelled Antler meets Burzum sound, and if Burzum-meets-Jewelled-Antler is not enough to get your black metal knickers in a twist, then there is something seriously wrong with you. Absolutely at the top of AQ's essential black metal listening list. Here's what we had to say about Forest when we first reviewed it way back when...
Ok, this is a black metal band, but non-metallers into the improv-drone sounds of the Jewelled Antler collective, Richard Youngs/Simon Wickham-Smith and the like should keep reading!
Not to be confused with the other Forest we've raved about (the psychedelic British folk band from thirty years ago), *this* Forest is a Russian black metal outfit, and a pretty good one belonging to the raw, primitive, corpse-painted end of the genre. The first four tracks on here consist of blasting, frozen Darkthrone worship, keeping alive the cult spirit that so few bands today still possess -- maybe because those tracks were actually recorded in 1996. Malevolent, majestic pagan metal full of Burzumic mayhem. Fans of this vein of true, trancey black metal darkness will be pleased. And if that was all that was on this disc we'd think it was cool. But then comes the fifth and final track, a surprise twenty-minute opus called "Winter Howl" taken from a 1994 rehearsal tape. Suddenly Forest isn't so obviously black metal at all, they've entered a psych-drone realm that's more akin to the aforementioned Jewelled Antler stuff (Thuja, The Birdtree, etc.) or Taj Mahal Travellers or Reynols or Amon Duul's krautrock jams, still as forest-y and primitive as the preceding metal songs though. A wavering whispy wordless vocal winds over a bed of lost, primal percussion and haunting washes of mild feedback. Simple melody lines on guitar wander through the increasing haze, with deeper vocals providing additional layers of drone. If you really heard this in a forest you'd be mesmerized and scared, but it's really nice and pretty (in a damaged way) when heard at home...pretty to us anyway, dunno if Kaldrad and Dagorath meant it to be so! The vocals, until they get a little more metal-ly, totally remind us of the bliss-out singing by British folk experimentalist Richard Youngs or Jewelled Antler's pop soul Jason Honea. If Finnish avant-forest-folk folks like Avarus and Kemialliset Ystavat or the Jewelled Antler collective decided to make black metal, this is what's we'd imagine it would sound like! Meanwhile, on the black metal side, fans of Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Caacrinolas, Potentiam, and other weird ones should dig this track, along with Forest's other more typical black metal sounds. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Enburnst The Christians"
MPEG Stream: "Winter Howl (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Winter Howl (excerpt 2)"

FOREST s/t (Phoenix) cd 17.98
This has been out of print for a while, but now has been re-reissued by another label. We're happy 'cause Forest is an all-time fave 'round here, as British acid folk rock albums go. Here's the review we wrote a few years back about the previous edition:
The time is definitely right for this ('though, *any* time would be right for this since it's such a great album). The whole acid-folk revival of which we're sure you're aware -- heck we've done our part to plug albums by Six Organs Of Admittance, Skygreen Leopards, Espers, P.G. Six, Tower Recordings, and the like -- of course owes a lot to the genuine old timey hippie British acoustic psychedelic folk scene back in the '60s and '70s. Originators like the Incredible String Band and Tyrannosaurus Rex and Fairport Convention... and Forest. Who were never a famous band, but definitely cult favorites. And AQ favorites. So we're happy that at long last this is back in stock. Actually when we reviewed this before, it was with Forest's second album Full Circle as a double cd two-fer. But now it's been re-re-issued as it's own cd (with Full Circle to follow later on), remastered at Abbey Road where it was originally recorded back in 1969, with the participation of former Forest-er Martin Welham. And no longer being packaged as two-fer means the wonderfully pagan cover art gets the whole front of the cd booklet instead of appearing thumbnail-sized!
Forest were a trio of hippie musicians (Martin, Dez, and Adrian) from the town of Walesby in Lincolnshire. All three of 'em are responsible for the quite excellent male vocals that help make their albums the amazing lost treasures they are, along with their strong songwriting, and their adept and varied instrumental backing (mostly acoustic, with guitars, harmonium, mandolin, pipes, cello, electric harpsichord, organ, percussion, etc.). Their vocal harmonies recall the folkish stuff on those great early Wishbone Ash albums. Their songs and lyrics are rural, pastoral, lovely -- with titles (we're gonna mention tracks from both of their albums here) like "A Glade Somewhere", "Rain Is On My Balcony", "Bluebell Dance", "Lovemaker's Ways" -- and darker too ("The Midnight Hanging Of A Runaway Serf", "Famine Song", "Graveyard"). But, while 'folky,' this is by no means trad folk; they are down with prog rock moves that remind us as much of Pink Floyd as the Incredible String Band. They can be sunshiney and twee a la Tyrannosaurus Rex, but also have a pagan, dark aspect as we said, coming pretty close to Comus territory at times (with the song "Fading Light", for one). Yep, 'folky' but not folk -- the ruined castles and fairy folk that inhabit the forests and fields of Forest's world exist, shadow-like, in the present day (well, Forest's England of thirty years ago), so it's not surprising when a song like "Hawk The Hawker" has kind of a Lou Reed/VU vibe, for instance. Their music is informed by the ancient British ballads, but you can tell that Martin, Dez, and Adrian were three young long hairs sleeping in a van, no matter how idyllic their songs sometimes sound.
This reissue boast new liner notes and photos, but also still includes John Peel's original liner notes from the first album -- they're quite silly, but accurate at least in his closing comment "It would be nice for the Forest if you purchased these results of their lives and labours -- but nicer still for you." Definitely one of those "this is SO good why didn't these guys get famous??!" listens. We look forward to bringing you the reissue of their other, equally essential album Full Circle (1970) when it too gets reissued, and we also hear that vinyl is in the works. Plus, we've heard from Martin Welham himself that not only are there plans for the release of some vintage live Forest recordings on another UK label hopefully sometime in the next year, he also has a *new* band called The Story who'll be putting out a record soon [2008 update: The Story has 2 records by now, and they're both great], and also doing a split LP with none other than Santa Cruz folksters Whysp this summer. So lots of excitement for Forest fans for sure -- get this and become one.
MPEG Stream: "A Glade Somewhere"
MPEG Stream: "Fading Light"
MPEG Stream: "Do You Want Some Smoke?"

FOREST s/t (Radioactive) lp 27.00
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 time is definitely right for this ('though, *any* time would be right for this since it's such a great album). The whole acid-folk revival of which we're sure you're aware -- heck we've done our part to plug albums by Six Organs Of Admittance, Skygreen Leopards, Espers, P.G. Six, Tower Recordings, and the like -- of course owes a lot to the genuine old timey hippie British acoustic psychedelic folk scene back in the '60s and '70s. Originators like the Incredible String Band and Tyrannosaurus Rex and Fairport Convention... and Forest. Who were never a famous band, but definitely cult favorites. And AQ favorites. So we're happy that at long last this is back in stock. Actually when we reviewed this before, it was with Forest's second album Full Circle as a double cd two-fer. But now it's been re-re-issued as it's own cd and lp (with Full Circle to follow later on), remastered at Abbey Road where it was originally recorded back in 1969, with the participation of former Forest-er Martin Welham. And no longer being packaged as two-fer means the wonderfully pagan cover art gets the whole front of the lp sleeve instead of appearing thumbnail-sized!
Forest were a trio of hippie musicians (Martin, Dez, and Adrian) from the town of Walesby in Lincolnshire. All three of 'em are responsible for the quite excellent male vocals that help make their albums the amazing lost treasures they are, along with their strong songwriting, and their adept and varied instrumental backing (mostly acoustic, with guitars, harmonium, mandolin, pipes, cello, electric harpsichord, organ, percussion, etc.). Their vocal harmonies recall the folkish stuff on those great early Wishbone Ash albums. Their songs and lyrics are rural, pastoral, lovely -- with titles (we're gonna mention tracks from both of their albums here) like "A Glade Somewhere", "Rain Is On My Balcony", "Bluebell Dance", "Lovemaker's Ways" -- and darker too ("The Midnight Hanging Of A Runaway Serf", "Famine Song", "Graveyard"). But, while 'folky,' this is by no means trad folk; they are down with prog rock moves that remind us as much of Pink Floyd as the Incredible String Band. They can be sunshiney and twee a la Tyrannosaurus Rex, but also have a pagan, dark aspect as we said, coming pretty close to Comus territory at times (with the song "Fading Light", for one). Yep, 'folky' but not folk -- the ruined castles and fairy folk that inhabit the forests and fields of Forest's world exist, shadow-like, in the present day (well, Forest's England of thirty years ago), so it's not surprising when a song like "Hawk The Hawker" has kind of a Lou Reed/VU vibe, for instance. Their music is informed by the ancient British ballads, but you can tell that Martin, Dez, and Adrian were three young long hairs sleeping in a van, no matter how idyllic their songs sometimes sound.
This reissue boast new liner notes and photos, but also still includes John Peel's original liner notes from the first album -- they're quite silly, but accurate at least in his closing comment "It would be nice for the Forest if you purchased these results of their lives and labours -- but nicer still for you." Definitely one of those "this is SO good why didn't these guys get famous??!" listens. We look forward to bringing you the reissue of their other, equally essential album Full Circle (1970) when it too gets reissued, and we also hear that vinyl is in the works. Plus, we've heard from Martin Welham himself that not only are there plans for the release of some vintage live Forest recordings on another UK label hopefully sometime in the next year, he also has a *new* band called The Story who'll be putting out a record soon, and also doing a split LP with none other than Santa Cruz folksters Whysp this summer. So lots of excitement for Forest fans for sure -- get this and become one.
MPEG Stream: "A Glade Somewhere"
MPEG Stream: "Fading Light"
MPEG Stream: "Do You Want Some Smoke?"

FOREST s/t (Werewolf) 2lp 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our all time favorite black metal records EVER, now available on vinyl, in a super deluxe, totally gorgeous gatefold sleeve.
For those of you who somehow missed out on Russian black metallers Forest the first time around, they struck a particularly AQ chord with their impossible Jewelled Antler meets Burzum sound, and if Burzum-meets-Jewelled-Antler is not enough to get your black metal knickers in a twist, then there is something seriously wrong with you. Absolutely at the top of AQ's essential black metal listening list. Here's what we had to say about Forest when we first reviewed it way back when...
Ok, this is a black metal band, but non-metallers into the improv-drone sounds of the Jewelled Antler collective, Richard Youngs/Simon Wickham-Smith and the like should keep reading!
Not to be confused with the other Forest we've raved about (the psychedelic British folk band from thirty years ago), *this* Forest is a Russian black metal outfit, and a pretty good one belonging to the raw, primitive, corpse-painted end of the genre. The first four tracks on here consist of blasting, frozen Darkthrone worship, keeping alive the cult spirit that so few bands today still possess -- maybe because those tracks were actually recorded in 1996. Malevolent, majestic pagan metal full of Burzumic mayhem. Fans of this vein of true, trancey black metal darkness will be pleased. And if that was all that was on this disc we'd think it was cool. But then comes the fifth and final track, a surprise twenty-minute opus called "Winter Howl" taken from a 1994 rehearsal tape. Suddenly Forest isn't so obviously black metal at all, they've entered a psych-drone realm that's more akin to the aforementioned Jewelled Antler stuff (Thuja, The Birdtree, etc.) or Taj Mahal Travellers or Reynols or Amon Duul's krautrock jams, still as forest-y and primitive as the preceding metal songs though. A wavering whispy wordless vocal winds over a bed of lost, primal percussion and haunting washes of mild feedback. Simple melody lines on guitar wander through the increasing haze, with deeper vocals providing additional layers of drone. If you really heard this in a forest you'd be mesmerized and scared, but it's really nice and pretty (in a damaged way) when heard at home...pretty to us anyway, dunno if Kaldrad and Dagorath meant it to be so! The vocals, until they get a little more metal-ly, totally remind us of the bliss-out singing by British folk experimentalist Richard Youngs or Jewelled Antler's pop soul Jason Honea. If Finnish avant-forest-folk folks like Avarus and Kemialliset Ystavat or the Jewelled Antler collective decided to make black metal, this is what's we'd imagine it would sound like! Meanwhile, on the black metal side, fans of Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Caacrinolas, Potentiam, and other weird ones should dig this track, along with Forest's other more typical black metal sounds. Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Enburnst The Christians"
MPEG Stream: "Winter Howl (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Winter Howl (excerpt 2)"

FOREST CREATURE Frustrated Analogue - 7 Edits From 2009 (Blackest Rainbow) cd 16.98
Apparently, this UK duo, Ben Moon and Richard Sides, aka Forest Creature, have dabbled in all manner of noisemaking in their brief existence, creating huge crushing walls of speaker shredding brutality, or super glitched out psychedelic beat heavy crunch, or howling, live, drum driven psychnoise freakouts, and while traces of those sounds are still present, we have to say, we're pretty partial to the twisted noise captured here, a seeming distillation of those disparate sounds, into something much more refined and focused, perhaps equally varied sonically, but somehow still strangely cohesive, and epic 'song' suite, due in no small part to the editing and sequencing as the actual music making itself.
The label drops names like Black Dice, Fuck Buttons, Animal Collective, Autechre, and those all do pretty much apply, but to our ears, there seems to be much more to Forest Creature than just aping their influences, we hear the ominous cinematic synthiness of Goblin, the intense late night noir buzz of recent aQ faves D.A., the murky swirl and shimmery out-of-time new age-y drift of the recent crop of pop hypnogogists, but here, those influences, as well as a handful of purloined sounds, are all reimagined, reinterpreted and all tangled up into constantly squirming and unraveling soundscapes, that skitter from almost kraut-like mesmer, to nineties style IDM, to looped woozy minimal synth wave, to gorgeous haunting murky heroin house, but no matter what the sound, or where the songs seem to be headed, Forest Creature mold all those elements into something truly original, lush, and deep, and dark, sometime super chaotic and hyper rhythmic, other times hushed and ominous. "Edit 4" begins as a foreboding minimal slow burning drone, but eventually builds to a warped synth loop, that gets more and more crunchy and buzz, the low end billowing out like a black cloud, the effects eating away at the original loop, super intense and totally mesmerizing. "Edit 5" is all rumbling low end whir, a distant beat, buried way down in the murk, looped and skittery, hovers below a black ambience that seems to swirl and shimmer in slow motion. "Edit 3" might be the prettiest of the bunch, beginning with a skeletal high end looped rhythm, which is soon joined by some warm warbly synths way off in the distance, the rhythm remains steady, but that low end grows thicker, and buzzier, creating thick warm slabs of chordal hum, playing out a gorgeous melancholy slowcore melody, a haunting depressive slow pop crawl, run through with that skeletal skitter, until both the buzz and the beat, begin to crumble, and intensify, until the song is transformed into a noise drenched psychedelic swirl.
So awesome. And a little bit surprising coming from Blackest Rainbow, whose past releases have tended more toward groups like Jazzfinger, Barn Owl, Bong, Starving Weirdos and the like. Frustrated Analogue is some fantastically twisted, blissed out, synth heavy electronic psychedelia, repetitive, hypnotic, spaced out, warped and glitchy, drone-y and rhythmic, moody and mysterious, a dizzying melding of This Heat, Goblin, John Carpenter, old Warp Records 12"s, early Chain Reaction, modern synthdrone, early analogue synth music, and the groups we mentioned up top (Fuck Buttons, Black Dice, Animal Collective, etc.). Way way recommended. Easily one of our new favorites...
MPEG Stream: "Edit 1"
MPEG Stream: "Edit 2"
MPEG Stream: "Edit 3"

FOREST OF STARS, A The Corpse Of Rebirth (Transcendental Creations) cd 13.98

FOREST SILENCE Winter Ritual (Panik Terror Musik) cd 22.00
Just found a few of these stashed in our closet! A 2010 release by this quite effective Hungarian ambient black metal act. Nominally an ep, but it's over 40 minutes long, containing five tracks of plodding, atmospheric metal, that definitely sounds wintery and ritualistic as per the title. This disc is truly a slow, cold creepy crawl, with so much grim buzz fuzz to it.
The head-noddingly, near-dubby echoing intro to opening track "The Symbol" sets the tone. Other crucial elements here are the eerie keyboard coloration, and rasping almost-an-instrument-itself-in-the-abstract vokills. Also, the rhythmic base of Burzumic, Filosofem style electronic beats, most prominent on the penultimate track "I Feel The Claws Of Darkness". That one's followed by a chill-out, come-down track, fittingly titled "Silence" though it's not in fact, just mellow and quiet and mesmeric, with some whispered vocals and echoing guitar.
Glad we finally located and listened to these! We just have a couple copies we found, not sure if we'll be able to get more...
MPEG Stream: "The Symbol"
MPEG Stream: "Winter Ritual"

FOREST STREAM Tears of Mortal Solitude (Earache) 2cd 12.98

FOREST SWORDS Dagger Paths (No Rain In Pop) cd 14.98
How could we NOT make a record described as 'drone-step' our Record Of The Week? Well, we couldn't. Not. We could not. So we did. We made the lp version of Dagger Paths, the full length debut of drone-steppers Forest Swords, our Record Of The Week back in March. And now it's been released on cd, with TWO bonus tracks to boot, so it seemed like a no brainer, another chance for folks who may have missed it the first time around, for the turntable-less, and for the folks who can't get enough drone-step, here it is again, aQ Record Of The Week, second time around...
It was only a matter of time. If Forest Swords hadn't done it, someone definitely would have, but hard to imagine it could have sounded as good as this. DRONESTEP. That's what they call it. A fusion of dark post-rock ambient drone music and skittery spaced out dubstep. Warm languid guitars, brooding atmospheres, and laid back downtempo grooves. In the wrong hands it definitely could have been lame, but Forest Swords nailed it, the result so organic and warm and mesmerizing, odds are the last thing you'll be thinking about is what to call it. Instead you can just sit back, and let these lush droned out grooves carry you off.
Had this not been on Olde English Spelling Bee, it certainly wouldn't have been out of place on some upstart dubstep 12" label, it definitely has the same sort of lugubrious soporific feel as Burial or Kode9, murky, washed out, muted, muddy and bass heavy, but instead of being sample based, guitars unwind, spidery melodies all tangled up in clouds of hazy reverb, vocals drift in and out all spectral and ethereal, in fact if anything, it's like some awesome, nineties slowcore jam, Codeine, or Seam, or someone like that, remixed by Portishead, transformed into a different kind of slowcore, a bleak, moonlit, forest dancefloor slowcore, everything bathed in dark blues and soft blacks, smokey and gauzy, the beats skeletal and minimal, the guitars chiming, glistening and glimmering, the bass, rumbling and throbbing, a rib cage rattling hum, samples woven into the mix, but doused in effects, so vocals becomes little swirling clouds of truncated melody, and melodies drift heavenward like wisps of grey smoke. Every track here is a smoldering late night blur, a bleary ear-ed slither and skitter through some soft focus soundscape, dreamlike and hypnotic.
The cd bonus tracks are more of the same, the first track a dense sprawl of thick swirling murky chordal thrum, distorted melodies, tripped out FE drenched dubby drums, reverbed guitars, clipped vocal samples, wheezing organs, low slung bass grooves and a little soulful crooning, while the second drapes some reverbed Morricone-ish twang over lazy shuffling drumming, bits of disembodied vocals drift by in clouds of echo and delay, the main melody so darkly melancholy, everything hazy and washed out and hypnotic, groovy and super cinematic.
So good. And gorgeously dark, otherworldly, warmly mysterious, and still damn close to being our favorite new record this year...
Matt's addendum: "Late to the party on this one, but glad I finally got there! This is some real dark beauty; tarnished and haunted hypnodub with Dead Man style guitar shit and minimal haunted vocals. Deep Dustbowl Dead Dreamz Vibez!"
MPEG Stream: "Miarches"
MPEG Stream: "Hoylake Misst"
MPEG Stream: "Rattling Cage"

FOREST SWORDS Dagger Paths (Olde English Spelling Bee) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It was only a matter of time. If Forest Swords hadn't done it, someone definitely would have, but hard to imagine it could have sounded as good as this. DRONESTEP. That's what they call it. A fusion of dark post-rock ambient drone music and skittery spaced out dubstep. Warm languid guitars, brooding atmospheres, and laid back downtempo grooves. In the wrong hands it definitely could have been lame, but Forest Swords nailed it, the result so organic and warm and mesmerizing, odds are the last thing you'll be thinking about is what to call it. Instead you can just sit back, and let these lush droned out grooves carry you off.
Had this not been on Olde English Spelling Bee, it certainly wouldn't have been out of place on some upstart dubstep 12" label, it definitely has the same sort of lugubrious soporific feel as Burial or Kode9, murky, washed out, muted, muddy and bass heavy, but instead of being sample based, guitars unwind, spidery melodies all tangled up in clouds of hazy reverb, vocals drift in and out all spectral and ethereal, in fact if anything, it's like some awesome, nineties slowcore jam, Codeine, or Seam, or someone like that, remixed by Portishead, transformed into a different kind of slowcore, a bleak, moonlit, forest dancefloor slowcore, everything bathed in dark blues and soft blacks, smokey and gauzy, the beats skeletal and minimal, the guitars chiming, glistening and glimmering, the bass, rumbling and throbbing, a rib cage rattling hum, samples woven into the mix, but doused in effects, so vocals becomes little swirling clouds of truncated melody, and melodies drift heavenward like wisps of grey smoke. Every track here is a smoldering late night blur, a bleary ear-ed slither and skitter through some soft focus soundscape, dreamlike and hypnotic.
Gorgeously dark, otherworldly, warmly mysterious, and darn close to being our favorite new record this year...
Comes with a download coupon as well...

FORESTIER, LOUISE Avec Enzymes (Unidisc Music) cd 13.98
Here's one of several Unidisc Music reissues that aren't necessarily new, but are new to us here at AQ, and we've found them to be quite intriguing and enjoyable listens.
Avec Enzymes was originally released back in 1970. Now, on the language side of things, unfortunately we're not multilingual to the point of being able to tell the difference between Quebecois-French and France-French (although we wish we were!), so please don't think we're simply generalizing when we say that stylistically there are many parallels between the francophone music of Louise Forestier and Brigitte Fontaine. Much like that of chanteuse Fontaine, French Canadian actress/singer Forestier's music might initially strikes you as being fairly standard French Pop performed by seemingly straight-laced studio musicians, however listen closer / further and you'll discover that's it's considerably more challenging and theatrical, at times drifting off into subtle eccentricities and some downright bizarre tangents. I mean, just check out the album's title! A little odd, doncha think? She didn't stick to any one genre either, dabbling in rock, folk, pop and even rock opera! So campy and cool!
MPEG Stream: "California"
MPEG Stream: "Tzagadou"

FORGETTERS s/t (TSTF) 2x7" 9.98
***Jawbreaker alert!!!****
Man we haven't been able to utter those words in a long while, and as you might know by now all things Jawbreaker related strike our interest right away as they were really one of our favorite bands from the '90s. After they called it quits lead man Blake Schwarzenbach emerged with a new band called Jets To Brazil whose debut still holds as one of the best moments of that whole emo sound, a sound that would become big business for so many others in years to follow. With his new band Forgetters, he's joined by former Against Me! drummer Kevin Mahon as well as unknown to us bassist Caroline Paquita. The sound of Forgetters is much more urgent and punkish then Jets To Brazil, in fact it recalls early Jawbreaker in such pleasing ways. Scharzenbach's vocals are as impassioned and honest sounding as ever and his lyrics continue to be so poignant and poetic. Four great songs sure to please fans of Jawbreaker, as it's totally hitting the spot for us!
Comes with a coupon for a digital download of all the tracks.

FORGOTTEN PATH Issue #2 - 2009 Winter magazine 11.98
Finally issue number two of Forgotten Path, one of the very few metal mags going that's focussed almost exclusively on the grim, the kvlt and the obskure. This long in the works issue features a handful of faves, as well as a whole mess of new-to-us groups that will no doubt require further investigation.
1349, Abigor, Skyforger, Angantyrm, Besatt, Blood Stained Dusk, Chthonic from Taiwan, Impiety, Hekel, Berserk, Fearbringer, should be enough for most metalheads, but then there's Pagan Heritage, Har Shatan, Paroxysmal Descent, Black Messiah, Argus Megere, Argharus, Niroth, Linvsnekad, Elhaz, Hellbox, Bloodthirst, Krater, Thygrim and more!
Super thick, glossy cover, tons of reviews too (300+ of shows, records, festivals) and of course as with all things grim and kvlt, it's LIMITED, each copy hand numbered!

FORGOTTEN PATH Issue 1 2007 magazine 9.98
Sure there are plenty of metal magazines, Terrorizer, Decibel, Metal Maniacs, etc. But there are very few that focus on the true grim kvlt underground. Oaken Throne obviously, and now Forgotten Path, from Lithuania, which has both of its cloven hooves planted firmly South of Heaven.
In this first issue, there are interviews with AQ faves Woodtemple, Finnish legends Horna, the slightly more mainstream Agalloch, as well as way more obscure groups like: Absonus Noctis, Imperium Dekadenz, Nae' Bliss, Mordhell Stutthof, Nocturnal Depression, as well as a bunch of bands we had never heard of including Forest Of Fog, Andaja, Aaskereia, Godless Cruelty, Nebular Mystic.
In addition to all that, tons of demo reviews, album reviews, loads of killer photos, the whole thing nicely laid out, on thick glossy paper, slightly oversized we've had issue one for a while now, and we're still working our way through it. And as with all magazines like this, you know they're on to something, when we already have a list of new bands and records to track down. Can't wait for issue two!

FORGOTTEN PATHWAYS s/t (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
It's raining Ormolycka releases this week! One of our favorite tape labels has sent us a massive box of tapes, restocking a bunch of old favorites that we can barely keep in stock they sell out so fast, and FIVE new releases, including this one, a mysterious outfit called Forgotten Pathways, the cover looking very metal, and the sound inside, well not metal, but still very 'metal'. A sprawling chunk of weird ambient synthscapery, medieval and moody, with swirling soaring synths, dark and dramatic, and primitive programmed drum machines, stumbling and lurching, warped and warbly, and plenty ominous, rife with bursts of thunder, and super creepy raspy whispered vox, and the occasional blast of twisted drum chaos, which sounds like suddenly multiple drumlines started playing on the drum machine. The sound ends up somewhere between Mortiis, creepy carnival music, Ukrainian medieval ambient soundscaper Dark Ages, weirdo local outsider genius Fastest and aQ faves and tUMULt recording artist Varghkoghargasmal. Sounds like a fucked combo and it is, but that's precisely what makes this so good. And so fantastically twisted. Fans of that whole weirdo synthguitar/outsider metal axis that we've raved about over the years (Shevelreq, Xynfonica, Gluttony, Thursar), will probably consider this essential, as might fans of primitive doom duo Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg and Lovecraftian ritualists Ungl'Unl'Rrlh'Chchch.
Needless to say, on the Ormolycka whatthefuck scale, this definitely ranks way up there, and considering some of the warped genius craziness they put out, that's saying something for sure. WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Darkened In Caverns Deep"

FORGOTTEN PATHWAYS s/t (Ormolycka) cassette 5.98
It's raining Ormolycka releases this week! One of our favorite tape labels has sent us a massive box of tapes, restocking a bunch of old favorites that we can barely keep in stock they sell out so fast, and FIVE new releases, including this one, a mysterious outfit called Forgotten Pathways, the cover looking very metal, and the sound inside, well not metal, but still very 'metal'. A sprawling chunk of weird ambient synthscapery, medieval and moody, with swirling soaring synths, dark and dramatic, and primitive programmed drum machines, stumbling and lurching, warped and warbly, and plenty ominous, rife with bursts of thunder, and super creepy raspy whispered vox, and the occasional blast of twisted drum chaos, which sounds like suddenly multiple drumlines started playing on the drum machine. The sound ends up somewhere between Mortiis, creepy carnival music, Ukrainian medieval ambient soundscaper Dark Ages, weirdo local outsider genius Fastest and aQ faves and tUMULt recording artist Varghkoghargasmal. Sounds like a fucked combo and it is, but that's precisely what makes this so good. And so fantastically twisted. Fans of that whole weirdo synthguitar/outsider metal axis that we've raved about over the years (Shevelreq, Xynfonica, Gluttony, Thursar), will probably consider this essential, as might fans of primitive doom duo Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg and Lovecraftian ritualists Ungl'Unl'Rrlh'Chchch.
Needless to say, on the Ormolycka whatthefuck scale, this definitely ranks way up there, and considering some of the warped genius craziness they put out, that's saying something for sure. WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Darkened In Caverns Deep"

FORGOTTEN TOMB Negative Megalomania (Avantgarde) cd 14.98
Found just a few of these lurking in our closet, that we hadn't listed, though they've been here since 2007. It's this mournful but rockin' Italian band's most recent release, though, and if you're looking for some sheer blackened doomic metal this disc is still quite potent. 58 minutes, 5 songs of dark depressiveness that quite befits the name Forgotten Tomb, their songwriting taking a variety of twists and turns along the way. Sounding like a black n' roll Katatonia at the start, they then experiment with some more avant-garde Slint-y bits on other tracks, and also allow vocalist "Herr Morbid" to switch between the wretched raspings typical of black metal to a clean vocal style for some of these songs. Fans of Lifelover could do well to check this out, it's in a similar vein, perhaps deliberately so.
MPEG Stream: "Negative Megalomania"
MPEG Stream: "Blood And Concrete"

FORGOTTEN TOMB Under Saturn Retrograde (Agonia Records) cd 16.98
Originally purveyors of grim depressive blackness, their sound abject and hateful and suicidal, this Italian horde has gradually been moving toward a sound more melodic, and by extension more accessible, and on Under Saturn Retrograde, they seem to have moved about as far away from that early blackness as possible before becoming an altogether different band.
Folks who don't dig melody or poppiness in black metal, will have no doubt given up on these guys a long time ago, but for the rest of us, this stuff is pretty great, the sound is thick, and heavy, a little bit gothic, seriously poppy, think Khold, Katatonia, Lifelover, Alcest, the band occasionally dipping into some buzzing blackness, but for the most part, crafting hooky blackened epics, the vocals still harsh and hellish, the riffs still gnarled and minor key, but all wound into sprawling depressive buzz drenched black pop jams, which lope along for the most part, but do occasionally explode into furious blasts or stutter through weirdly dynamic mathy arrangements.
The title track is split into two movements, the first about as grim as it gets here, epic and intense, blasting and black, but then the second part is all acoustic guitar, martial snare, and a final burst over super melodic guitar harmonies, soaring and majestic. "You Can't Kill Who's Already Dead" sounds like the perfect fusing of Lifelover and Katatonia, while "Spectres Over Venice", is a killer pop flecked bit of churning blackened heaviness, before finishing off with some pure heavy pop, all super epic chords, tangled guitar harmonies and soaring clean vocals, a weird finish, to a record that while poppy is still pretty black metal, but not nearly as weird as FT's fairly straight forward, slightly blackened version of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog", which sounds pretty great actually, the guitars a little bit more blackened and minor key, the vokills appropriately harsh, some wild frenzied drumming, but otherwise pretty true to the original.
We dig this a LOT, but can definitely understand how old fans would be disappointed, but anyone into the above mentioned bands, should definitely check this out.
MPEG Stream: "Reject Existence"
MPEG Stream: "Shutter"
MPEG Stream: "Downlift"

FORGOTTEN WOODS As The Wolves Gather (No Colours) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally back in stock!
Oh how we love the mighty Forgotten Woods, supreme Norwegian black metal weirdos! Their new record, Race Of Cain, reviewed recently, was a mind blower, and their three cd collection of older stuff is an all time AQ best seller. For those of you vinyl freaks who have been holding off, well you are finally in luck, Forgotten Woods' As The Wolves Gather, their 1994 full length, and disc one in the Baklengs Mot Stupet triple cd set, has finally been reissued as an lp! It's super limited of course, we got a handful but they won't last long. Here's a slightly altered version of our review of As The Wolves Gather from the triple cd set:
So...what's the big deal you ask, why are these Forgotten Woods so unforgettable? Well, first off, and at first listen, this will definitely appeal to the whole raw, old-school, Nordic forest black metal necrocrowd. Really good grim stuff in the unholy spirit of classic Darkthrone and Burzum, but with that extra kinda inept, Benighted Leamsish fuckedupedness to it that of course makes us love it all the more. And, additionally and importantly, there's also always a strange, unexpected sort of poppiness underlying everything.
As a friend (who also likes this band, and is a member of Thuja, the Blithe Sons, Buried Civilizations, the Skygreen Leopards and a bunch of other Jewelled Antler acts) put it, "man it's good...completely inept, like they're barely pulling it off, total 13-year-old-metal-kid-in-the-basement drums."
A classic, but a 'damaged' outsider BM classic as far as we're concerned, this is definitely raw and necro and kvlt and grim, buzzing and black, but it also struggles and stumbles, is blown out, lo-fi and weird as fuck. As with all Forgotten Woods, WAY recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Eclipsed"