FUNERAL MIST Maranatha (Norma Evangelium Diaboli) 2lp 35.00
This has to be one of the most anticipated black metal releases of the year, especially around here considering how much we LOVED the last Funeral Mist, Salvation, which managed to be blazing fast and technical but at the same time super heavy and well produced, none of the heft sacrificed for speed or buzz. Most definitely giving Deathspell Omega and Katharsis some serious competition. But Funeral Mist sort of dropped off the map, with mainman Arioch dedicating all his time to his other band, Marduk.
The with very little warning, word got out that there was a new Funeral Mist, and almost as quickly people started weighing in, most proclaiming Marantha to be shit, many bandying about words like 'nu-metal' to describe their sound, comparing them to Dimmu Borgir and Cradle Of Filth. Which more than anything had us dying to hear it.
We're happy to report, that while there's definitely a serious sea change in FM's sound, and they're definitely experimenting A LOT, they still destroy, and anyone who loved Salvation will most likely find much to dig here. Take record opener "Sword Of Faith": after some strange field recordings, a man screaming "It's the plague, it's the blood of Jesus!", tolling bells, strange beastly grunts, the band explodes into a burst of frenzied buzzing that to these ears sounds as good as anything on Salvation. Plenty of warped Deathspell style riffage, furious lightning fast drumming, some soaring Nordic style melody, the vocals seems to be the main difference, much louder in the mix, much gruntier and howly, less black metal shriek more guttural and almost hardcore sounding, the music around it sways and swells, slipping from doomy plod to insane lightspeed riffing, the band locked into intense mathmetal workouts, the whole sound dizzying and nearly overwhelming, the vocals getting a bit pirate-y here and there, but that just adds to the madness, if the whole record sounded like this, no one would be complaining, or at the very least they'd complain that the band hadn't progressed, but then comes "White Stone" and all bets are off.
Hard to even explain, the track begins with some tinny distorted riff, which gives way to a lurching dramatic doom, that sounds more Birthday Party or Swans than black metal, but then the guitars and the kick drum lock into a strange muted pulse, chugging away over near constant amp buzz, the vocals are WAY present, loud in the mix, backed up by weird chanting, the overall feel is gothic, almost industrial, but it's weird and twisted and black enough that it pretty much seals the deal for us. This record rules. Any black metal record that has the true grim hordes in an uproar must be doing something right.
But that bit of weirdness only lasts 4 minutes, and we're immediately thrust back into some seriously swirling sonic chaos called "Jesus Saves!", everything frantic and on the verge of total collapse, the vocals bizarre, almost Popeye-esque at times, growling over brief stretches of tranquility, sometimes slipping into hysterical howls, at one point the guitars actually get LOUDER, as in the sound of the whole record is suddenly bumped up making for some really strange dynamics, before the band slip back into some sort of brittle riffing, doomy drumming distant chanting and those monstrous growly vocals, and then inexplicably, the metal fades out, letting the last 3 minutes of the song play out as some strange almost looped sounding folk.
Minus that one track, it's really hard to see what people have been complaining about. This is some seriously twisted and heavy shit, the arrangements much more varied for sure, the vocals most definitely bizarre, but the music is just mindblowing, the riffs killer, with some awesomely fucked production, like during "A New Light" when the tape seems to melt leaving just the vocals, doused in some weird effects, making them sound like some sort of processed synth, before the song explodes again, only to slip into a weird plodding midtempo a few moments later, the drums beneath an angelic sounding choir while the vocals grunt and groan. Then there's "Blessed Curse", at nearly 12 minutes, all midtempo pound, and soaring minor key guitars, and trombone or trumpet part way through, making the band sound a bit like a blackened Beyond Dawn, the effect is awesome, haunting, ghostly, makes it seem less weird that Arioch's other band Marduk does a pretty killer Woven Hand cover. We can only imagine it sounds a little like this.
The last three songs offer up more of the same, that freaked out furious tangled blackness, rife with all sorts of what-the-fuck parts, some really bizarre almost Eastern pop sounding vocals dropped right into a swirl of black riffing, long stretches of gloomy almost new wave sounding trudge, Swans like riffing, tortured vocals, lots of creepy atmospherics, all culminating in a strange orchestral outro, timpani's and horns, dramatic and mysterious like some strange Bernard Hermann score.
Fuck the haters. The more we listen to this, the better it gets, and the weirder it gets, not just the riffs, but some of the fucked up parts and the weird effects have gotten stuck in out heads, this is some awesomely progressive, damaged and demented blackened genius, once we got into it, and sort of let it all sink in, we found ourselves practically unable to listen to anything else, so we're hereby declaring this as a contender for black metal record of the year. You have been warned.
MPEG Stream: "Sword Of Faith"
MPEG Stream: "White Stone"
MPEG Stream: "Jesus Saves!"

FUNERAL MIST Salvation (Norma Evangelium Diaboli) cd 16.98
One of our ALL TIME favorite black metal records finally repressed and available again!
It originally took us a good long while to get enough copies of Salvation so we could review it on the AQ list, and while we were super psyched to finally be able to turn every one on to this amazing disc, we were also a little freaked out, since suddenly we were faced with the prospect of trying to put into words just what it is that is so amazing about this record. And what it is we decided, is EVERYTHING, from the art to the songs to the production, just everything. It's been forever since we saw a record this beautiful and frightening looking, and so weird but utterly heavy sounding.
This is definitely black metal. Appropriately buzzing and grim, with fuzzed out riffs and blasting rhythms and death rattle shrieks, but unlike most other black metal records, this is HEAVY. No, we mean H E A V Y. We often joke about the majority of metal records that speed does NOT necessarily equal heaviness. Never has. In fact it's almost always the opposite. The faster you go, the more brittle the sonic palette, and from a drumming standpoint the softer you hit the drums (until you're forced to compensate with triggers). That's why a massive downtuned riff and a pounding caveman drummer is so completely and utterly heavy. And that's why most black metal is washed out and buzzy and droney, but that's definitely part of the appeal, so fast that everything becomes a hypnotic blur. But when a band comes along and manages to be lightning fast but still crush, with ultra dense guitars and HUGE drums and ridiculously hellish howls, well, it's hard not to be blown away. And of course the record also manages to be catchy (not 'pop' catchy, but surprisingly memorable riffs and parts you'll actually find stuck in your head!) And if that wasn't enough, the whole record rife with ambient interludes and ends up being a complex and harrowing journey through some hellish musical wasteland, Sure, the metal is heavy and the playing is furious and intense, but the production is so weird and creative (especially for a black metal record) and the songs (and the whole record) are peppered with all sorts of unlikely flourishes, that add all sort of bleak weirdness, and quasi-religious creepiness, and make Salvation one of the most chillingly grim and darkly evocative records we've ever heard. From strange lilting choral pieces, to haunting drifting old-timey ambience, to quasi religious chanting. It's all woven seamlessly together and along with the artwork, evokes some Lovecraftian otherworld, all rainy and dark and washed out in miserable greys, and where everything is dead or dying, and every step could be your last. The cover depicts one of the band members crucified next to to eviscerated malformed babies, also crucified, in an alcove in some satanic church. The rest of the booklet is equally as striking (and fucked up) as if Stephen O'Malley and Joel Peter Witkin got together to try and design the most beautiful, most dementedly damaged and disturbing black metal artwork ever. Crowns of thorns, grim reapers, malnourished and emaciated dead bodies, hooded skulls and dark riders, multi limbed and Siamese babies and fetuses, all beautifully laid out amongst lyrics and text printed in ancient-scroll style almost illegible olde English script. The whole booklet is muted black and white, fuzzy and washed out, and again evocative of your innermost fears and a truly horrible place (and sound). In fact the whole package is like some dusty artifact of ancient evil, discovered buried a mile beneath the earth, and since being brought to the surface has caused unspeakable evil and the tragic deaths of everyone who comes near it. Certain damnation to anyone who gazes upon it or lets the hellish sounds within reach of their ears. Too bad we can't stop listening to it....
MPEG Stream: "Agnus Dei"
MPEG Stream: "Breathing Wounds"

FUNERAL MOURNING Drown In Solitude (Nihilward) cd 13.98

FUNERAL PRESENCE s/t (Ajna) 10" 14.98
Described by the label as "obscure, superstitious, cold, uninviting, archaic black metal", and really, who are we to argue. This two song blast of raw grim blackness is the solo project of the awesomely named Bestial Devotion, he of doomy, dramatic black metal weirdos Negative Plane. And really the sounds here are not all that far removed from the Plane, the black metal sounds at least, there seems to be a lot more weirdness lurking just below the surface.
After a creepy church organ intro, FP launch directly into some blurred murk, the guitars angular and atonal, the vox a hissed whisper, the drums buried, the sound heavy on the echo and reverb, giving everything a sort of psychedelic tripped out sound, the track grinding and churning until out of nowhere, some seriously twisted wild psychedelic leads swoop in, and lock into these almost looped sounding squalls, almost harmonies, it's hypnotic and heavy, and while WAY unexpected turns this into something so much more than metal. The flipside starts things off with some warbly clean guitar, sounding almost like a garage rock intro, before the track shifts into some haunting horror doom, lurching and lumbering, eventually building to a midtempo pound, with droned out riffage, creepy clean vox, almost chantlike, very occultic and ritualistic, laced with occasional dense black blasts, but for the most part, more atmospheric and psychedelic than black and blasting. The last few minutes the sound shifts into something way more dynamic and is assembled around some seriously doomy anguished wails, the sound roiling and witchy and grimly ominous, before finishing of with a weirdly melodic tangle of clean guitar.
Obviously Negative Plane fans NEED this. But anyone with even a passing interest in black psychedelia and obscure outsider black metal psych, would do well to check this out.
Housed in super heavy silkscreened black and white sleeves.

FUNERAL PROCESSION s/t (Van) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in stock!
By now, avid readers of the AQ list should be well aware of German black metal horde Ruins of Beverast, responsible for one of our favorite black metal records EVER. Then of course there's Nagelfar, the band that came before RoB, who were responsible for another of the greatest black metal records of all time, Virus West. If that weren't enough, these guys also run an amazing record label, responsible for the RoB record, the Nagelfar reissue, the deluxe double lp version of the only release from SF's very own doomlords the Gault, and two brand new releases, the very Ruins Of Beverast-like debut from fellow Germans Kermania, a gorgeously epic chunk of moody melancholy black metal, and this: a soul shearing blast of super blazing Nordic style blackness from another German horde, Funeral Procession.
A fairly long running black metal institution at this point, having formed almost 12 years ago, this is strangely Funeral Procession's first full length, after a clutch of eps and demos, but it was well worth the wait. Fuzzy and blown out, mostly blasting, but with plenty of moody midtempo doomy breakdowns, killer shards of angular guitar, and loud distorted drums all making for strange interludes -- but when whipped into furious blasts, it's tough to beat. Epic and majestic, fast and buzzy, grim and black. It's easy to hear some Mayhem, some Emperor, some Immortal... the elite. And FP are channelling the frosty might of the BM elite through their own uniquely skewed German black filter, bits of creepy militaristic ambience, haunting keyboards, distorted vocals and crumbling soundscapes, moaning chantlike voices, but none of that stuff defines the sound, it's all merely moody window dressing for FP's relentlessly buzzing blast, each track a frosty forlorn squall of black buzz and jagged riffery, blasting beats and howled hellish vocals. Broken up by some depressive doomic plod, but for the most part fast and furious, and fucking great!
MPEG Stream: "Heavenlie Aeons Grimlie Torne Apart"
MPEG Stream: "When Moonshine Is The Only Light"

FUNERALIUM s/t (Total Rust) cd 13.98
This punishing slab of slow motion sickness is back in stock.
It's been a while since we've listed some seriously ultra sick, super abstract, funereal, hundred o'd doooooooooooom (imagine 88 more o's), but here we go, the latest from French doom merchants Funeralium, via Israeli label Total Rust, who in the past gave us the epic classic doom of Mourning Dawn (who share members with Funeralium) and Midwestern doomlords Wraith Of The Ropes. And while this has everything you black hearted, cursed souled lovers of all things slow and low desire, the 1 mph drum plod, the guitar tuned so low, it's like some black sonic glacier, the vocals that sound like a slowed down demon puking his guts out. It's all here, you love Moss, Khanate, Planet Aids, Bunkur, Catacombs, Otesanek, Monarch, Monument Of Urns, Nihill, Whitehorse, Stumm... well, you might as well add Funeralium to the list. This is some devastatingly slow, crushingly brutal, ultra doom. BUT...
These guys add some of their own peculiar flavor, the hysterical hellish shrieks become downright melodic at times, strangely lovely in fact (in a horrible hellish way of course), and the guitars occasionally bliss out, clean, minor key chordal strum, still slow and spread out, the drums an occasional thud, the vocals a tortured howl, but all draped over lilting slowcore strum, making it sound like Galaxie 500 or Low covering Khanate or something, in fact, the whole first half of "Let People Die" sounds like some super sad, gorgeous chunk of creepy blackened slowcore, and the whole of record closer "Nearly The End", minus the black metal vocals, could be mistaken for some gloomy minor key late night goth moodiness, but those moments are of course balanced out by the rest of the record, a glorious black sprawl of head caving, soul splitting trudge and pummel.
MPEG Stream: "Transcendance #26"
MPEG Stream: "Funeralium"

FUNERARY BELL The Coven (Undercover) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
By now we probably don't need to tell you know nuts we are for Finland. For whatever reason, the music that comes from Finland pretty much always blows our mind. And when it comes to black metal, hell, it's tough to think of a region the produces more bafflingly brilliant blackness. Aanal Beehemoth, Ride For Revenge, Will Over Matter, W.A.I.L., Jumalhamara, Circle Of Ouroborus, Horna, Dead Reptile Shrine, Beherit... Well, you can add Funerary Bell to that list, their debut full length, The Coven, another twisted black missive from Finland, and like many of their Finnish black metal brethren, classifying these guys as black metal, is a bit of a stretch, sure they blast and buzz with the best of them, but they spend just as much time, creeping, jangling, whispering, strumming, they're sorta tough to pin down.
Check out opener "Vision Of The Undead (World)", which is all clean guitar strum, whispered almost melodic vox, simple loping drums, and when the metal does kick in, it's more like classic old school eighties metal, chugging riffs, almost stadium rock sounding, minus the WAY up in the mix blasts of double kick, the song lurching from doomy (yet still melodic) plod to seasick sort-of waltz, back to that double kick laced power metal riffery. Right near the end the band do explode into a brief bit of blackened blasting, but then it's right back into melodic lope. And did we mention the bass, an instrument most often missing from most black metal, but here it's busy, offering up bloopy melodies and add a whole other dimension.
"Detachment" starts out similarly, all melodic and post rocky, then in swoops some Maiden-ish riffing, the vocals a growly grunt, and then there's that double kick again, at least twice as loud as the rest of the drum kit, adding some serious low end oomph.
And so it goes. Folks looking for grim buzz and frenzied blackened blast will be left wanting, but if you like your black metal to flit from crusty d-beat pound to synth laden swirly stumble, from melodic classic metal (via twisted Finnish blackness) to woozy harmonized guitar doom, and from almost indie jangle to melancholia Katatonia-esque melodic blackness, then this might just be your cup of demented druggy blackened Finnish tea!!
MPEG Stream: "Vision Of The Undead (World)"
MPEG Stream: "Detachment"
MPEG Stream: "The Coven Pt II"

FUNERARY CALL Fragments From The Aethyr (Crucial Blast) cd 13.98
Fragments From The Aethyr is the latest blast of caustic cinematic black ambience from this Vancouver based audio alchemist, although it's the first FC record to get reviewed on the aQ list, which is strange, since this is the sort of dense black mesmer that many of you can't get enough of. With a sound that lurks somewhere betwixt Gnaw Their Tongues, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Tenhornedbeast, MZ412 and Wolf Eyes, this band weave gristly sprawls of feedback drenched buzz, and keening high end squalls of swirling black psychedelia, the sound driven by what sounds like a violin, but a violin possessed, wreathed in effects and sent spiraling into the ether, a weird sort of droned out black folk drift, that manages to be lilting and lovely, even while being face meltingly brutal. The sound slips into a long stretch of haunting hushed shimmer, laced with chiming minor key harmonics, and lush rumbling drones, and oozes through clouds of blackened sonic murk, growing quite minimal, and almost modern classical sounding, the violin to the fore, soaring above the abyss, a harrowing bit of minimal modernism that broods ominously, and blossoms blackly into a gorgeous blackdrone cinematic epic, that ends up being far too short, even at nearly twenty minutes, before finishing off with a dense sprawl of echo drenched ritualism, processed vox and heavily layered tones, dubbed out and smeared into hazy blurs and almost liturgical sounding chants, seriously sinister and gorgeously grim.
Fans of abject minimal blackness and any of the above mentioned purveyors of sick sonic miserablism, heed the call.
MPEG Stream: "Libation"
MPEG Stream: "Fragments"

FUNEREAL MOON Funereal Moon Is Dead (Nexus Innspillinger) 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.
We were doing some Spring cleaning and discovered a little stash of these tucked away in a shadowy corner of the back room, a 2008 compilation from one of our favorite weirdo black metal hordes, Mexico's Funeral Moon, this compilation gathering up the group's In Communion With Satan ep, previously unreleased, and tacks on two also never before released live jams, recorded in Monterrey, Mexico in 1994.
For those who have yet to discover the twisted blackened glory that is Funereal Moon, just have a gander at what has to be THEE coolest corpsepaint we've seen, the inverted crosses over each eye, the pentagram on the forehead, the weird blackened old man lips, and strange demon veins, it's pretty striking, and was definitely what caught our attention when we first discovered these guys. But if you think the corpsepaint is weird, just wait til you get to the music. Funereal Moon Is Dead starts off with a tripped out intro, all woozy synths, and rumbling demonic vocal gurgles, all very nightmarish and carnivalesque, all set to a heartbeat like pulse, some seriously creeped out ritualistic sonic weirdness, some nightmarish cinematic black ambience, which leads directly into the first proper 'song', tolling bells and weird squiggly synths writhe and wriggle in a twisted tangle over stumbling programmed drum machine, and some creepy female spoken word, it actually sounds more like aQ outsider rock weirdo Fastest, a doomy synth heavy creep, the only signs of 'metal' are the super strange (and dramatically out of place) ultra distorted demonic vokills that surface about halfway through, and growl gutturally over the woozy druggy drift in the background. The final studio track is all crumbling buzzing synth drones, over which a deep vocal croaks and cackles, sounding a lot like aQ faves Ride For Revenge or Will Over Matter. Which is most definitely a good thing.
The actual metal doesn't happen until the live tracks, the sound appropriately lo-fi, the sound still all synthy and swirly, droned out and druggy, but here, the vocals are definitely raspy and black metal, the drums a pounding dirge, the riffs gnarled and downtuned, but the whole first track nearly swallowed up by some awesome thick low end pulsations, that transform any black metal into something much more psychedelic and tripped out. Finally, the record finishes off with a track that ends up sounding more meta than it was meant to, with the crowd sound cacophony almost as loud as the band, the band in full on buzzing black blast mode, but it's blurred into a twisted droned out thrum, that only occasionally transforms into a synth driven creepy black doom lope, and like the first live track, the whole thing seems to be wreathed in another pulsing low end throb. So weird, and so fucking awesome. Like all FM stuff, totally recommended, although very likely too weird/whatthefuck for more middle of the road metalheads...
LIMITED TO 666 COPIES, each one hand numbered, long out of print, we have about a dozen left and once they're gone these are gone for good.
MPEG Stream: "Demon Eyes"
MPEG Stream: "Night Cry"

FUNEREAL MOON Satan's Beauty Obscenity / Grim... Evil... (Autopsy Kitchen) cd 13.98
The first thing you notice about Funereal Moon, a long running black metal horde from Mexico City, is main man Impure Ehiyeh's amazing corpsepaint, each eye in the center of a black upside down cross, a pentagram in the center of his forehead, his nostrils painted huge and animal like, the mouth outlined like a dripping bat, the whole face lined with cracks, making him appear as some 100 year old demonic black metal ghoul. Which suits the music, as their sound is totally unhinged, a raw, lo-fi, fucked up grim black metal that has more in common with a band like Necrofrost than any of the classic Scandinavian elite, which is most definitely a good thing. Murky, mysterious, stumbling, damaged, the guitars washed out and muted, the vocals a raspy croak, the drums solid and simple, the whole sound twisted and off kilter, the sounds panned dramatically from left to right, so sometimes the band swerves back and forth making the music totally dizzy and unhinged.
This collection gathers up 4 newish tracks from 2007, and 5 more tracks from a 1996 demo. The first four tracks are, as described above, woozy, and gloriously fucked up, long stretches of Abruptum-like ambience get all tangled up in blasting black weirdness, giving way to droning plodding black doom, finally turning into some strange sort of spaced out abstract psychedelia, growled vox over noodly reverbed guitars and swirling spaced out effects. Weird, and so cool.
It's the older stuff where it gets REALLY weird. The guitars impossibly processed and lo fidelity, pulsing like some strange electronic transmission, the vocals even more croak-like, doused in echo, it's an intro of sorts, but maybe our favorite track here. The next track is more straight ahead, but again the production is insane, the vocals louder than anything else, the drums and guitars tumbling and roiling way down in the mix only occasionally exploding to the surface. It's all very droney and hypnotic and textural. And somehow it only gets weirder, culminating in a seriously amazing and fucked up two song finish, first, the tripped out "The Lust", with its stumbling tribal drumming, its droning electronic buzz in place of guitars, and haunting female spoken words, while a voice growls and grunts demonically in the background, and another female moans in ecstasy! And finally the 11 minute "I Came From Darkness To Conquer", a woozy synth drone, with some troll like vocals over the top, what sounds like programmed drums and flute (?), the vocals get weirder and weirder, high pitched and alien one second, growled and cookie monster like the next, finally the drums drop out, and the record closes out with synthesized strings and an orchestra of growls and grunts and howls, easily one of the most seriously fucked up ambient black metal rituals ever.
If you read this far we shouldn't even have to say it, but yet another essential record to add to your collection of freaked out, far out, damaged and demented, confusional and inspired genius black metal what-the-fuck. Which means ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL!
MPEG Stream: "The Last Prophecy"
MPEG Stream: "Black Sphere"
MPEG Stream: "Witchery"
MPEG Stream: "Forbidden Rites"

FUNGAL HEX s/t (Galerie Jeleni) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Fungal Hex is doom-lord Stephen O'Malley (of Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters) doing music for an art installation by Brooklyn artists which showed in the Czech Republic last year. His graphic design and guitar playing talents are both evident on and in this cd release, an "installation document with audio supplement". Musically, it's a 40-minute session of eerie drone and scrape, rather quiet and unsettling stuff, similar in spirit if not sound to the much heavier and more metallic output of O'Malley's band projects. The gallery in Prague printed only 500 of these discs to accompany the exhibit, and they're all gone now -- we've got just *four* copies, so act fast if you think you're gonna want one. (In other words, use the phone.)
RealAudio clip: "track 2"

FUNGAL HEX s/t (Aurora Borealis) 2 x picture disc lp 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
WOW! This has to be one of the best looking picture discs, we mean DOUBLE PICTURE DISCS, we've ever seen. Two nice thick full color lps housed in a lovely vellum sleeve.
We had a cd of this a while back which is long gone, but it hardly compares to how totally overwhelming and amazing this double lp set is. For those who don't know, Fungal Hex is doom-lord Stephen O'Malley (of Sunn 0))), Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters, etc) doing music for an art installation by Brooklyn artists which showed in the Czech Republic last year. His graphic design and guitar playing talents are both evident on and in this release, an "installation document with audio supplement". Musically, it's a 40-minute session of eerie drone and scrape, rather quiet and unsettling stuff, similar in spirit if not sound to the much heavier and more metallic output of O'Malley's band projects. The artwork is beautiful, a striking and super creepy closeup image of a mouth with tongue extended, each disc differentiated by the color of the mouth and which rune like symbol is placed on the tongue. Ewww. So cool. And the vellum sleeve is a gorgeous abstract swirl of blues and metallic silvers. So completely amazing.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, WE GOT 75 AND WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET MORE, SO IF YOU WANT ONE ACT FAST. ONE PER CUSTOMER!!!

FUNGI GIRLS Some Easy Magic (HoZac Records) cd 12.98
Record number two from these Texas teens, whose debut was a big favorite with some aQ-ers (even though it never made it onto the aQ list), and this record starts up right where the last one left off. A dizzying collection of nineties beholden psychedelic pop, that while having much in common with the current crop of garage poppers, definitely has it's own thing going on, owing as much to the early years of Slumberland and classic C86 pop bands as it does to the usual suspects.
The guitars jangle and crunch, slither and buzz, and occasionally twang, the bass is thick and distorted and has a definite Joy Division vibe, the drums pound and crash, the sound is raw and brash fuzzy and frenetic, the vocals laid back and buried in the mix. Everything is echo drenched and softly reverbed, the band pounding away, simple two and three chord jams that are totally hooky and hypnotic, dreamy and a little bit druggy. Folks into all things fuzzy and jangly and garage-y with lots of oooh's and aaah's will go nuts, especially if you have a soft spot for classic nineties indie pop, which this stuff tends towards way more than modern retro garage whatever, sounding like it could be some weird K Records cassette, or Slumberland demo that had been sitting in a drawer for decades. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Sabana Breeze"
MPEG Stream: "Honey Face"
MPEG Stream: "Some Easy Magic"
MPEG Stream: "Doldrums"

FUNGI GIRLS Some Easy Magic (HoZac Records) lp 14.98
Record number two from these Texas teens, whose debut was a big favorite with some aQ-ers (even though it never made it onto the aQ list), and this record starts up right where the last one left off. A dizzying collection of nineties beholden psychedelic pop, that while having much in common with the current crop of garage poppers, definitely has it's own thing going on, owing as much to the early years of Slumberland and classic C86 pop bands as it does to the usual suspects.
The guitars jangle and crunch, slither and buzz, and occasionally twang, the bass is thick and distorted and has a definite Joy Division vibe, the drums pound and crash, the sound is raw and brash fuzzy and frenetic, the vocals laid back and buried in the mix. Everything is echo drenched and softly reverbed, the band pounding away, simple two and three chord jams that are totally hooky and hypnotic, dreamy and a little bit druggy. Folks into all things fuzzy and jangly and garage-y with lots of oooh's and aaah's will go nuts, especially if you have a soft spot for classic nineties indie pop, which this stuff tends towards way more than modern retro garage whatever, sounding like it could be some weird K Records cassette, or Slumberland demo that had been sitting in a drawer for decades. Awesome.
MPEG Stream: "Sabana Breeze"
MPEG Stream: "Honey Face"
MPEG Stream: "Some Easy Magic"
MPEG Stream: "Doldrums"

FUNK & SOUL COVERS (Taschen) book 39.00

FUNKADELIC America Eats Its Young (Westbound) cd 19.98

FUNKADELIC Cosmic Slop (Westbound) cd 17.98

FUNKADELIC Cosmic Slop (Westbound) lp 16.98

FUNKADELIC Free Your Mind ... (Westbound) lp 23.00

FUNKADELIC Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow (Westbound) cd 14.98
The funk equivalent to the Stooges' "Funhouse"! Very very LSD etc. damaged funk-rock, weirder even than it is funky. The second album from the Funkadelic.

FUNKADELIC Free Your Mind, And Your Ass Will Follow (Westbound) lp 16.98

FUNKADELIC Funkadelic (4 Men With Beards) lp 17.98
1971 debut from Detroit's psychedelic freak-funk-rock army, led by chief funkateer George Clinton. Amazing, essential shit. Swampy, soulful, good ol' FUNK. If you need to find out more, well, track one is for you: "Mommy, What's A Funkadelic?"
MPEG Stream: "Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?"
MPEG Stream: "I'll Bet You"
MPEG Stream: "I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody's Got A Thing"

FUNKADELIC Let's Take To The Stage (Westbound) cd 14.98

FUNKADELIC Live (Westbound) cd 14.98
UK import of this early live P-Funk document. Live in Michigan, Sept. 12th, 1971. Of course, pretty great!

FUNKADELIC Maggot Brain (Westbound) cd 14.98

FUNKADELIC Maggot Brain (4 Men With Beards) lp 17.98

FUNKADELIC s/t (Westbound) cd 17.98
1971 debut from Detroit's psychedelic freak-funk-rock army, led by chief funkateer George Clinton. Amazing, essential shit. Swampy, soulful, good ol' FUNK. If you need to find out more, well, track one is for you: "Mommy, What's A Funkadelic?"
MPEG Stream: "Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?"
MPEG Stream: "I'll Bet You"
MPEG Stream: "I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody's Got A Thing"

FUNKADELIC s/t (Westbound) cd 14.98

FUNKADELIC Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On (Westbound) cd 14.98

FUNKADELIC Toys (Westbound) cd 14.98
What's that? A whole disc of unreleased vintage Funkadelic jams?? You don't gotta say that twice, we're on it like Michael Phelps on any passing bong. Yep, we were pretty excited when this showed up here, as Funkadelic are one of our favoritest bands ever. Early '70s psychedelic funk rock genius, y'know. If you're not already hip to the whole Parliament-Funkadelic "thang" (which we don't have room to properly enthuse over here), this wouldn't be the first disc of theirs to get, though it would certainly whet your appetite to hear more. If you want our advice, noobs should pick up Maggot Brain and Up For the Down Stroke and a few other "actual" P-Funk albums first, before getting Toys. For folks who are already fans, though, we heartily recommend this disc to y'all!!
Toys features four songs with vocals and five live-in-the-studio instrumentals, the best of which really let Funkadelic axemaster Eddie Hazel show off his Jimi Hendrix inspired wah-wah wailin'. There's alternate (slower, heavier, harder) versions of "You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure" (herein called "Heart Trouble") and "The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg" (sans vocals) which appeared on later Funkadelic and Parliament records, respectively. Other tracks, like the nearly 11 minute long "Slide On In", are total (and totally badass) improvs. Though not all are so extended, to wit the brief laidback goof "2 Dollars & 2 Dimes". Meanwhile, poppier, songi-er fare includes "Talk About Jesus" (a gospel-ly tune, duh) and "Stink Finger", a bright and sunny number, which you might not guess from its title. Now, we'll admit this buried treasure ain't all gold, one of the lesser tracks here to our ears would be the just a bit too straight jazzy "Magnifunk", though this keyboard-led jam does get wilder as it goes on. But Funkadelic's throwaways are still way better than most other bands' best stuff, of course.
Also this includes an alternate "karaoke" version of the throbbing freakfunk classic from Maggot Brain, "Wars Of Armageddon", the original of which probably inspired half of that Wicked Witch album we highlighted recently. And another reason to buy Toys is for the bonus mpeg video clip, a 16mm promo film shot for "Cosmic Slop" featuring the band in outlandish outfits frolicking in the streets of New York City circa 1971. Wow. It's about the coolest thing ever. What a bunch of groovy freaks!!
Can't imagine true Funkadelic fans not wanting this. We only wish could dig up even more from the Westbound vaults! And it's nicely packaged with colorful graphics, and lengthy, enlightening liner notes by P-Funk expert Peter Bowman.
MPEG Stream: "Heart Trouble aka You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure"
MPEG Stream: "Vampy Funky Bernie (3rd Tune Olympic)"
MPEG Stream: "Slide On In (2nd Tune Olympic)"

FUNKADELIC Toys (Westbound) lp 24.00
NOW ON VINYL!!! What's that? A whole disc of unreleased vintage Funkadelic jams?? You don't gotta say that twice, we're on it like Michael Phelps on any passing bong. Yep, we were pretty excited when this showed up here, as Funkadelic are one of our favoritest bands ever. Early '70s psychedelic funk rock genius, y'know. If you're not already hip to the whole Parliament-Funkadelic "thang" (which we don't have room to properly enthuse over here), this wouldn't be the first disc of theirs to get, though it would certainly whet your appetite to hear more. If you want our advice, noobs should pick up Maggot Brain and Up For the Down Stroke and a few other "actual" P-Funk albums first, before getting Toys. For folks who are already fans, though, we heartily recommend this disc to y'all!!
Toys features four songs with vocals and five live-in-the-studio instrumentals, the best of which really let Funkadelic axemaster Eddie Hazel show off his Jimi Hendrix inspired wah-wah wailin'. There's alternate (slower, heavier, harder) versions of "You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure" (herein called "Heart Trouble") and "The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg" (sans vocals) which appeared on later Funkadelic and Parliament records, respectively. Other tracks, like the nearly 11 minute long "Slide On In", are total (and totally badass) improvs. Though not all are so extended, to wit the brief laidback goof "2 Dollars & 2 Dimes". Meanwhile, poppier, songi-er fare includes "Talk About Jesus" (a gospel-ly tune, duh) and "Stink Finger", a bright and sunny number, which you might not guess from its title. Now, we'll admit this buried treasure ain't all gold, one of the lesser tracks here to our ears would be the just a bit too straight jazzy "Magnifunk", though this keyboard-led jam does get wilder as it goes on. But Funkadelic's throwaways are still way better than most other bands' best stuff, of course.
Also this includes an alternate "karaoke" version of the throbbing freakfunk classic from Maggot Brain, "Wars Of Armageddon", the original of which probably inspired half of that Wicked Witch album we highlighted recently.
MPEG Stream: "Heart Trouble aka You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure"
MPEG Stream: "Vampy Funky Bernie (3rd Tune Olympic)"
MPEG Stream: "Slide On In (2nd Tune Olympic)"

FUNKE, MAXINE Lace (Next Best Way) cd 14.98

FUNKEES, THE Dancing Time: The Best Of Eastern Nigeria's Afro Rock Exponents 1973-77 (Soundway) cd 16.98
Once again, hot on the heels of reissues by Edzayawa and Rob, international groove digging label Soundway come up with a winner! And since this Nigerian band is named The Funkees, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect already, right? Of course, if a band from around here, now, called themselves The Funkees, they would probably be terrible if they played funk - and probably still terrible if the name were ironic and they played, like, acoustic indie rock or floorcore dronemusic. But a band from Africa, back in the '70s, called The Funkees, reissued by Soundway? Yep, they're good. Good and funky. Good enough to become East Nigeria's number one band, and their region's closest competitors to Lagos-based big city contemporaries like BLO. And good enough to move to London, and score a record deal.
This "best of" anthology includes the tracks from all of The Funkees' early Nigerian singles, plus crucial selections from the two albums that they recorded in while England. 18 tracks total, packed with irresistibly groovy rhythms, energetic arrangements, jamming organ, and fuzz guitar excess. Heck there's actually even a song here titled "Acid Rock"! They also do an Afrofunk cover version of "Slipping Into Darkness" by War. Hell yeah, it's "Dancing Time" all right...
Packaged with full liner notes that include an interview with original member Sonny Akpan.
MPEG Stream: "Abraka"
MPEG Stream: "Point Of No Return"
MPEG Stream: "Dancing In The Nude"

FUNKEES, THE Dancing Time: The Best Of Eastern Nigeria's Afro Rock Exponents 1973-77 (Soundway) lp 26.00
Now on vinyl!
Once again, hot on the heels of reissues by Edzayawa and Rob, international groove digging label Soundway come up with a winner! And since this Nigerian band is named The Funkees, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect already, right? Of course, if a band from around here, now, called themselves The Funkees, they would probably be terrible if they played funk - and probably still terrible if the name were ironic and they played, like, acoustic indie rock or floorcore dronemusic. But a band from Africa, back in the '70s, called The Funkees, reissued by Soundway? Yep, they're good. Good and funky. Good enough to become East Nigeria's number one band, and their region's closest competitors to Lagos-based big city contemporaries like BLO. And good enough to move to London, and score a record deal.
This "best of" anthology includes the tracks from all of The Funkees' early Nigerian singles, plus crucial selections from the two albums that they recorded in while England. 18 tracks total, packed with irresistibly groovy rhythms, energetic arrangements, jamming organ, and fuzz guitar excess. Heck there's actually even a song here titled "Acid Rock"! They also do an Afrofunk cover version of "Slipping Into Darkness" by War. Hell yeah, it's "Dancing Time" all right...
MPEG Stream: "Abraka"
MPEG Stream: "Point Of No Return"
MPEG Stream: "Dancing In The Nude"

FUNKI PORCINI The Ultimately Empty Million Pounds (Ninjatune) cd 14.98
Punchy trumpets and groovy swing breakbeats attempt to keep up with Barry Adamson in the search for the perfect postmodern 70's cop show car chase theme music.

FUNKI PORCINI Zombie (Crippled Dick Hot Wax) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The cd reissue of the now-out-of-print single by Funki Porcini who remixed the 70s spy-thriller composer Jerry Van Rooyen, plus two new cuts of tongue-firmly-in-cheek trip hop grooviness. Pretty great.

FUNKMASTER FLEX 60 Minutes of Funk, Volume IV: The Mix Tape (Loud) cd 17.98

FUNKSTORUNG Acid Planet 11 (Acid Planet) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
4 re-releases of very early Funkstorung records which are much more of the AFX / Caustic Window variant of tracky 4/4 techno with acid squiggles and heavy distortion crunching the dense beats. Each limited to 100 copies.

FUNKSTORUNG Acid Planet 12 (Acid Planet) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
4 re-releases of very early Funkstorung records which are much more of the AFX / Caustic Window variant of tracky 4/4 techno with acid squiggles and heavy distortion crunching the dense beats. Each limited to 100 copies.

FUNKSTORUNG Acid Planet 13 (Acid Planet) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
4 re-releases of very early Funkstorung records which are much more of the AFX / Caustic Window variant of tracky 4/4 techno with acid squiggles and heavy distortion crunching the dense beats. Each limited to 100 copies.

FUNKSTORUNG Acid Planet 14 (Acid Planet) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
4 re-releases of very early Funkstorung records which are much more of the AFX / Caustic Window variant of tracky 4/4 techno with acid squiggles and heavy distortion crunching the dense beats. Each limited to 100 copies.

FUNKSTORUNG Additional Productions (Studio K7) cd 14.98
At first listen, Funkstorung has often tricked listeners into exclaiming, "Which Autechre album is this?" While the palette of fractured electro and delicate toy-piano-like melodies do share a striking resemblance to the duo from Manchester, the aesthetic distinction is found in the sporadic often spastic declination of the breaks from a midtempo beat to a grinding halt.
Additional Productions is a different take on the idea of a remix album and works infinitely better than the average remix full length. Instead of lots of other artists remixing Funkstorung, this is an album of Funkstorung remixing lots of vastly different artists... Bjork, East Flatbush Project, Finitribe, S'Apex, DJ Craze, Visit Venus, Various Artists (Chain Reaction), and Wu-Tang Clan (!?!). As can be imagined, all of these have been released as singles over the past few years... but are either out of print, not available on CD, or very hard to find. Regardless, this is a totally great record!

FUNKSTORUNG Appetite For Disctruction (Studio K7) cd 17.98
After all the attention garnered by the Funkstorung 'Additional Production' it's weird that only now, is Funkstorung's actual debut being released. Still cursed with the same sonic palette (or just the same software) as Autechre, Funkstorung surprise everybody and sloooooow thiiiings doooown. Especially surprising after the spastic electro crunch of their remix record. This could be Funkstorung's slow jam record. Dark and deep and skittery and hiccuppy. Sounds sort of like a long lost Tricky record being broadcast on shortwave. Then there's the vocals. Several of the songs feature guest mc's and end up sounding remarkably like AQ fave Fever. One song even features breathy female vocals that sound remarkably like Martika, furthering the Tricky comparisons. So I give this one a big thumbs up, although my compatriots are not so sure.

FUNKSTORUNG Disconnected (!7K) cd 17.98

FUNKSTORUNG Disconnected (!7K) 2lp 18.98

FUNKSTORUNG Multiple Grammy Winners (Studio K7) cd 7.98
"Multiple Grammy Winners" is a four tracks of Funkstorung mangling their "Appetite for Disctruction" album. The only remnant from the "Appetite" album is the stuttering slo-mo rhythmic vocal delivery, and even that has been hacked to bits on the timestretched chopping block. Funkstorung pushes IDM's electron stream much further from the arthritic Autechre sound (which was present on almost all of their previous outings) to something much closer to Sensational's abstract hip hop production, being almost devoid of melody.
On a really embarassing note:
At Sonar 2000, Funkstorung's MC called out to the audience that "Yo this is the real experimental shit! Come on don't you know who Funkstorung is? This crew remixed Bjork, you know who Bjork is?" when Stockhausen performed "Hymnen" just the night before.

FUNKSTORUNG Post Art (Chocolate Industries) cd 10.98
Funkstorung's percolating IDM rhythms and terse melodic episodes tend to result in constant comparisons to Autechre, as they sound VERY similar. Nothing wrong with that, it's made for some great tracks, and something that we can always recommend to Autechre fans! However, "Post Art" has progressed to form a sound which may be the sound which Funkstorung can claim as their own, separate from Autechre (although still recommended to fans of those guys). Rich washes of reverb drench the digitized post-electro breakbeats for sad, almost Joy Division-like, atmospheres.

FUNKSTORUNG Vice Versa (!K7) cd 17.98
Just like Funkstorung's previous album "Additional Productions," Vice Versa is a collection of their remixes of other people's work. But unlike "Additional Production" this albums isn't terribly good. Since the majority of the remix offers that Funkstorung has accepted haven't been very good to begin with (i.e. lite jazz saxophonist Nils Petter Molvaer, A Guy Called Gerald, Tocotronic, Jean Michel Jarre, Philip Boa, Notwist, and some other people who should have known better), it's hard to tell if Funkstorung is suffering from bad source material or if they've gotten stale. Either way, Funkstorung's production work has shifted away from the complex algorithms as Autechrish mimicry to super minimal back-to-the-basics hip hop breakbeats, which just replace the rhythmic tracks from the original. A disappointment to say the least.

FUNKSTORUNG Vice Versa (!K7) 2lp 19.98
Just like Funkstorung's previous album "Additional Productions," Vice Versa is a collection of their remixes of other people's work. But unlike "Additional Production" this albums isn't terribly good. Since the majority of the remix offers that Funkstorung has accepted haven't been very good to begin with (i.e. lite jazz saxophonist Nils Petter Molvaer, A Guy Called Gerald, Tocotronic, Jean Michel Jarre, Philip Boa, Notwist, and some other people who should have known better), it's hard to tell if Funkstorung is suffering from bad source material or if they've gotten stale. Either way, Funkstorung's production work has shifted away from the complex algorithms as Autechrish mimicry to super minimal back-to-the-basics hip hop breakbeats, which just replace the rhythmic tracks from the original. A disappointment to say the least.

FUNKY JUNCTION Plays A Tribute To Deep Purple (Kismet) cd 17.98
"Funky Junction are an exciting new group that has the pulse of today". All lovers of '70s classic rock & proto-metal, pay attention. This one's a bit of a curiosity, all right, but one that we'd been *very* curious aboutÉ Finally reissued, this obscure footnote to rock history: an album of Irish legends-to-be THIN LIZZY playing a bunch of DEEP PURPLE covers! Originally released on lp in 1973 by a budget label called Stereo Gold Award, this was what you'd call an 'exploitation' album, where a producer would get together a group of studio session musicians to try and capitalize on the success of a currently popular band, by putting out their own versions of said band's hits. In this case, it was none other than the young, not yet famous Thin Lizzy trio, who were recruited to record these Deep Purple tunes under a rather goofy pseudonym, 'round about the same time they made their Shades Of A Blue Orphanage album. But since Lizzy's husky-voiced frontman, bassist Phil Lynott, couldn't be expected to wail like Ian Gillan, they brought in the singer from another Dublin band, Elmer Fudd (that's the name of the band, not the singer!) who does a quite capable Gillian impression. Elmer Fudd's keyboardist also appears here, taking on the Jon Lord role. But for our purposes, the treat is getting to hear original Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell and drummer Brian Downey rip it up in the roles of, respectively, Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice.
They romp through these burly Deep Purple hits: "Fireball", "Black Night", "Strange Kind Of Woman", "Hush" (itself a Joe South cover DP did), and "Speed King". But there's also a handful of originals on here too, mostly instrumental psych jams full of wild soloing - in fact, "Dan" is primarily a Hendrixian guitar solo. Good stuff. They were probably all improvised in the studio, though one's based on "The House Of The Rising Sun".
For fans of Deep Purple & Thin Lizzy, obviously, and also those into the likes of Hell Preachers, Inc., The Purple Fox, and other such exploito-artifacts. Pretty neat. Of course, we'd have liked to hear what Phil would have sounded like singing these songs, but it's understandable why he didn't. If only they knew then what we know now.
Funny, they really don't make exploitation albums like this anymore - or, well, maybe today's equivalent are all those string quartet covers albums, like the String Quartet Tribute To Radiohead, The String Quartet Tribute to Bjork, The String Quartet Tribute To Slayer, The String Quartet Tribute To Tool, and A Baroque Tribute To Rush (and by the way, some of those are kinda cool!).
Now, if only someone would reissue the German-language covers of The Sweet that the Scorpions once didÉ
MPEG Stream: "Fireball"
MPEG Stream: "Dan"