G*PARK Reuters (Tochnit Aleph) lp 25.00
It's unfortunate that we've not listed any G*Park recordings until now; but it's certainly better late than never. G*Park is the work of Marc Zeier who has been quietly generating some of the most evocative musique concrete / electro-acoustic whatnot / broken drones / softened noisejunk since the mid '80s. These recordings had mostly been on cassette back in the day, with a couple of discs appearing over the past decade thanks to Blossoming Noise and the defunkt Zabriskie Point label. He's also an auxiliary member of the aktionist Schimpfluch collective, although his work shares little of their scatological hyper-violence of smeared fish guts, vomit, and bloodletting. Yet, the G*Park recordings mirrors the sinister vibe of Schimplfuch through his delicately disfigured field recordings and tape-cut manipulation. Zeier presents a masterful collage of disjointed repetitions from handcranked mechanisms that rupture with bellowing drones and aqueous gurglings. Elsewhere, air raid sirens explode through the laser-whipsnap recoil of cellphone tension wires being struck, and the reverberation of prepared piano abuse slams against densely packed drones into thunderous punctures. These pieces are clinical studies of decay amplified from a microscopic order; and considering that Zeier's occupation is a plankton fisherman (seriously!), perhaps these are the birth pangs and death throes of those tiny creatures. A very highly recommended piece of sound art!

G-FRENZY Eel Creek (Pseudo Arcana) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Pseudoarcana website describes G-Frenzy as "White trash hip hop and drunken country." Don't let that turn you off though, this is actually quite a cool weird record. Weird lo-fi rhythmic pop, with lots of samples (mostly 'borrowed' from other Pseudoarcana releases!). Think Sebadoh, slowed waaaaay down, buried in a hole for a month, then dug back up and slapped on the tape machine, dirt and worms and all. Mumbly, wavery, distorted vocals step hesitantly through a series of sonic backdrops, from gentle piano riffs smothered in ambient noise, to loping fuzzy rhythms and warm gauzy atmospheres. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "From The Stars"
MPEG Stream: "Black Goat Of The Wood"

G.A.T.E.S, THE Total Death (DIWPhalanx) cd 21.00
Black cover, gothic font, song titles like "Long Live Evil", "Filth" and "Demon Crusade". Some scary metal, what? Yep, brought to us by the DIW Phalanx label, home to Boris, Green Machine and Church of Misery. And indeed it's members of Japanese doom merchants Church of Misery in The G.A.T.E.S, allowing their love of '80s thrash and, especially, Motorhead full reign on this slayin' side project. 'Tis ass-kicking thrash n' roll, full of pounding, prowling intensity. And weirdly/awesomely enough, the heavy stoner-rock guitar of CoM still somehow bursts out in this assault. Y'know how Boris has morphed the Venom logo into their own for T-shirts and picture discs? Well this sounds like what the imaginary Boris version of Venom might sound like... Heavy as heck, classically-riffed, and rockin' at speed -- complete with a Lemmylike gargle for vocals. Gives Japan's other '80s metal worshipping throwbacks Metalucifer/Sabbat a run for their money.
This import cd combines all the tracks from two rare The G.A.T.E.S releases (the High Society Satanic Rock 12", that we're told was limited to 300 copies and the Demonliction 1 demo cassette, limited to 77) plus a bonus track -- the disc's raging closing cover of Motorhead's "Overkill", appropriately enough. If High On Fire's latest Blessed Black Wings gets (rightly) tagged as doom metal meets thrash meets Motorhead, this slots right in there too, and is a purer, more basic, in yr face distillation of said influences. Play loud, headbangers!
MPEG Stream: "G.A.T.E.S"
MPEG Stream: "Sacrifice"

GAAHLSKAGG Erotic Funeral (No Colours Records) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Very fucked up black metal nastiness from members of Gorgoroth (so if you thought *they* were fucked up, wait 'til you hear this evil noise).

GAINSBOURG, CHARLOTTE 5:55 (Because / Vice) cd 15.98
5:55 is one of those chance musical meetings that end up sounding just oh so perfect. With music written and performed by Air, Jarvis Cocker penning the lyrics, Nigel Godrich (Radiohead) twisting the knobs and helping create a gorgeously warm and spacey atmosphere, Charlotte Gainsbourg brings all these elements together with her effortlessly beautiful voice, as dreamy as it is breezy. Having spent much of her life struggling to get out from the long shadow cast by her legendary father (Serge) and mother (Jane Birkin) her recent streak of great acting (The Science Of Sleep, Happily Ever After, Nuovomondo, etc.) and this, her most assured and rewarding recording to date, have helped her come into her own. While she sings primarily in English, there is a sole French track that is a soft melty treat that recalls the musical elegance and seduction of her parents' generation. An extra treat for Air fans of course as this plays out like a great Air record, which just so happens to feature Charlotte on vocals throughout. Finally available domestically at a much lower price then the sky high import and with some pretty great bonus tracks to boot. Very nice!
MPEG Stream: "5:55"
MPEG Stream: "The Songs That We Sing"

GAINSBOURG, SERGE Aux Armes et Caetera (Mercury) 2cd 34.00

GAINSBOURG, SERGE Comic Strip (Mercury) cd 15.98
This is the delightful pop themed volume of the fine retrospective compilation series of legendary French vocalist Monsieur Gainsbourg's extensive catalog. Recommended!

GAINSBOURG, SERGE Confidentiele (Philips) cd 22.00
Originally issued in 1964, Confidentiel takes on a new sound for Gainsbourg, stripping down the musical backing to simply electric guitar and upright bass (Eleck Bacsik and Michel Gaudry, respectively). Wonderful and relaxed jazz sounds here.

GAINSBOURG, SERGE Confidentiele (Philips) lp 16.98
Originally issued in 1964, Confidentiel takes on a new sound for Gainsbourg, stripping down the musical backing to simply electric guitar and upright bass (Eleck Bacsik and Michel Gaudry, respectively). Wonderful and relaxed jazz sounds here.

GAINSBOURG, SERGE du Chant a la Une! (Philips) cd 16.98
The first Gainsbourg album, originally issued in Sept. of 1958. Vocal jazz-pop, many tracks here were featured on the Du Jazz Dans le Ravin compilation (the bulk of said comp were actually culled largely from his first and fourth albums as well as the Confidentiele LP, some of which spilled over onto the Couleur Cafe compilation, which in turn was mostly taken from his second album and the Percussions LP!) Orchestrated by Alain Goraguer, also known for his brilliant score of La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet)!

GAINSBOURG, SERGE Du Jazz Dans Le Ravin (Mercury) cd 15.98
Another great volume in the retrospective compilation series celebrating the work of legendary French crooner Serge Gainsbourg. This time it's jazzy Very recommended!

GAINSBOURG, SERGE Gainsbourg Percussions (Philips) cd 16.98
The sixth Gainsbourg album, originally released by Philips in 1964. A return to Alain Goraguer’s orchestration and the wonderful sounds produced on his second LP. Extremely lively and playful, this record definitely lives up to its title, as drums and percussion are the driving force behind the music here. Taking the Mambo influence of No2 and bringing forth other worldly influences from African and Latin cultures, Gainsbourg Percussions is a beautiful record, rich in sounds!

GAINSBOURG, SERGE Initials B.B. (Philips) cd 16.98
This is a collection of non-LP singles released between 1965-1968. Featuring many of the tracks which make up the Comic Strip collection released here in the States. Classics include: "Bonnie and Clyde" & "Comic Strip" (both with Brigitte Bardot), "Ford Mustang", "Qui est In’ Qui est Out’", "Bloody Jack" and "Docteur Jekyll et Monsieur Hyde", among others. Not necessary for those who already own the Comic Strip collection, but definitely essential Gainsbourg!

GAINSBOURG, SERGE L'etonnant (Philips) cd 16.98
Third album, again orchestrated by Goraguer. Originally issued in April of 1961. Strangely enough, barely any of these tracks made it onto any of the American comps, save for "Les Amours Perdues", which made an appearance onto Couleur Cafe. Another Gainsbourg classic, "La Chanson de Prevert" appears here alongside many other whimsically beautiful songs perfect for Spring.

GAINSBOURG, SERGE Les Annees Psychedeliques 1966-1971 (Le Smoke Disques) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If you have any way to listen to vinyl, you should definitely buy this, like right now! Very few items in our store require such minimal convincing that they are absolutely essential, as we've seen this flying off of our shelves as soon as we got them. What more could you want to know: Serge Gainsbourg! Psychedelic Years! Double vinyl! Totally Affordable!
Ok, Ok, some of you need some further convincing. Probably some of you have some Serge in your collections and want to know what exactly is on here, and it's good to know because it's not really that obvious. The title says "Psychedelic Years", but this isn't a greatest hits collection, and probably only a couple of songs will be familiar to casual Gainsbourg fans ("Bonnie and Clyde" and "En Melody" from Melody Nelson). The bulk of the tracks are from French films and TV soundtracks between 1966-1971 and are arranged by either Jean-Claude Vannier (Histoire de Melody Nelson) or Michel Columbier (Initials B.B.), two of Gainsbourg's greatest collaborators. Each providing smoky and stony grooves, some with sexy femme backing vocals, for such films as Cannabis, Anna, Le Pacha, Vidocq, Manon 70, Ce Sacre Grand-Pere, La Horse, Mister Feedom and Si J'etasi Un Espion. Three tracks even contain bonus beats for you record heads. There is not one bad cut on here. So don't miss out as we're not sure how long this will be available. Did we say that THIS IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GAINSBOURG, SERGE Mauvaises Nouvelles des Etoiles (Mercury) 2cd 34.00

GAINSBOURG, SERGE No. 2 (Philips) cd 16.98
The second, untitled Gainsbourg album, originally issued in June of 1959. Brilliantly orchestrated by Alain Goraguer, with playful Mambo flair which dominated the style found on the Couleur Cafe compilation! Features a hilarious take on the American Western musical (think Oklahoma), "Jeunes Femmes et Vieux Messieurs"! Wonderful and lively.

GAINSBOURG, SERGE No. 4 (Philips) cd 16.98
The fourth Gainsbourg album, originally issued by Philips in May, 1962. Orchestrated once again by Alain Goraguer. No4 is a bit slicker in production and slightly darker in tone than Gainsbourg's previous efforts -- just a taste of what's to come. Many tracks here were featured on the Jazz and Couleur Cafe collections.

GAL Relisten (Intransitive) cd 14.98
Bernhard Gal is an Austrian sound artist involved in the process of extrapolating and dissecting the sound of everyday life to offer new insight into those noises which we take for granted everyday. Unfortunately, Gal stumbles horribly with the pretentious introduction to this album with a clumsy vocal cut-up recalling bad New Media art from the '80s. Things pick up nicely with increasingly tense collages of beehives, rushing cars, and the clatter of train tracks. While Gal has pushed these sounds into something that is quite engaging to listen to, he is a bit too obvious and heavy handed in getting his point about the ubiquity of mass transit across. You get the feeling that he's come up with a well constructed thesis and forced all of his sounds to fit within his arguments, rather than actually listening to the sounds to see what they have to say.
RealAudio clip: "57A"

GAL*IN_DOG s_nd (self-released) cd 11.98
Guillermo Galindo dons a diverse array of musical hats -- experimental, electro-acoustic, electronic, sound art installations and opera! He even wore a modified helmet during his performance at last year's SF Electronic Music Fest! This is the first we've heard from Gal*In_Dog, his atmospheric soundscape chapeau. The six slowly shifting vaporous tracks stretch out over the course of 69 minutes. Occasionally the sound fades to often barely-there drones, sometimes more tactile prickles and swarms of hiss, once in a while giving way to the surprise of nature bird songs. A quite nice record of electronic experimentalism, dark and mysterious, dense but still quite lovely.
MPEG Stream: "Xecatl"
MPEG Stream: "Benux"

GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER #6 (Drag City) magazine + 2cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Plastic Crimewave's immense, amazing psychedelic music zine (almost also a comic book 'cause it's all hand lettered and drawn, and does indeed include some underground comix, as well as a feature on "psychedelic superheroes"), the one and only Galactic Zoo Dossier, returns with issue number six!! This time, you'll find interviews with quite an odd/interesting assortment of folks: Vanilla Fudge, Keith Rowe (ex-AMM), John Renbourn, and Pip Proud. Plus features and bits on psychsters old and new and heavy and obscure including Acid Mothers Temple, Debris, Stackwaddy, Rodriguez, Edgar Broughton, Uriah Heep, The Lemon Drops, Exuma, The Outsiders, etc.
And, beyond the 'zine, you get the second set of Crimewave illustrated "Damaged Guitar Gods" trading cards -- including John DuCann (Atomic Rooster), Michael Yonkers, Wally Gonzalez (Juan De La Cruz), Davy Graham, Dorothy & Helen Wiggins (The Shaggs), Erik Brann (Iron Butterfly), Erkin Koray, BoAnders Persson (Trad Gras Och Stenar) and dozens more. Pretty darn cool. Plus, that's not all: there's also a freakin' double cd compilation entitled Ascension Days When We Rise: Ultra-Rare Avant/Psych/Garage 1960's-1990. It features Acid Mothers Temple, The Heads, Six Organs Of Admittance, Miminokoto, The Hototogisu, Oneida, Michael Karoli, and a bunch more, some we've never heard of before but are eager to check out. This 'zine is just such a "turn on" regarding the underground sounds obsessed about within. Something about everything in the magazine being handwritten not only gives it more of an organic, '60s psych vibe but also utterly underscores how much of a labor of love this is, just how incredibly ENTHUSIASTIC Plastic Crimewave and Co. are about this stuff. Right on.

GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER #7 (Drag City) magazine + 2cd 15.98
Yay! It's another gigantic, illustrated issue of Galactic Zoo Dossier, all hand-drawn and lettered, always a treat for those into psychedelic rock and weird folk and underground comix and that whole scene, which is like, most AQ customers. The 100+ pages include interviews with the Incredible String Band's Clive Palmer, Ed Askew, Gary Panter, Kevin Coyne, Mammatus, Residual Echoes, etc.
Also features on The Stooges, Chicago funk mob Rasputin's Stash, psychedelic soul, The Nice, hippie horror flicks, Giorgio Moroder, the British acid blues underground, Sonny Bono, Tiny Tim and tons more... and a hall of fame of "Dark Psychedelic Classics" including LPs by Crushed Butler, Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come, and Billy Joel's Attila (yes!).
Plus, several more sheafs of GZD's trademark trading cards, 72 cards in all, this time divided between "Astral Folk Godesses" such as Brigitte Fontaine and Kim Jung Mi and "Damaged Guitar Gods" (Set Three), examples being Vincent McAllister and Martin Pugh...
AND, this comes with not one but TWO bonus cds as the soundtrack to this issue. One of 'em, entitled Teenage Meadows Of Infinity, is stuffed with "rare psychs and stomps" from both bonafide psychedelic heroes and unknown obscurities of the past, among them The Stooges, Blossom Toes, Gollum and Teska Industrua. The other disc, From The Ashes Perfect Attainment Shall Be, consists of "modern freaked sounds" from the likes of Vincent Black Shadow, Acid Mothers Temple, Plastic Crimewave, Ed Askew, Devendra Banhart, Charalambides, and more!
Good grief. Mindblowing.

GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER Compendium (Drag City) magazine + cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Chicago-based 'zine Galactic Zoo Dossier proclaims itself "America's Leading Journal Of The Psychedelic Underground". Could be. The 'zine obviously has fans at Drag City, 'cause they've just issued this massive "Compendium" compiling the first four out-of-print issues of GZD along with bonus stuff. It's a full sized, perfect-bound, 144 page tome chock a block with articles, art and interviews. You can read about Silver Apples, Tyrannosaurus Rex, The Electric Prunes, Funkadelic, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Simply Saucer, Ash Ra Temple and much much more... Done by fans with the aim of enlightening others about the music they love, it's really very educational. There's history lessons here about everything from "pedal steel and fuzz guitar" to "early drone-rock" and even "psychedelic jerk-offs". Be aware, ALL the text is hand written, with comic book style art. Kinda looks like a cross between Cometbus and a psychedelic coloring book. Pretty cool, tho for me personally, my advice for future issues would be to get a computer or typewriter or something. The handwriting is totally legible but it still makes me tired reading it just 'cause I can't help thinking of how hard it would be to write all that stuff out!
AND there's a cd with tracks collected off of the magazine's Galactic Zoo cassettes, containing tracks by a crazed collection of psychonauts, among them Fursaxa, Plastic Crimewave, Magnog, Un, and...uh...well we haven't heard of many of these, though I think quite a few are related to the magazine's editor and friends. 25 tracks in all.

GALAS, DIAMANDA Defixiones, Will And Testament (Mute) 2cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of two double disc sets from Diamanda Galas, Defixiones, Will and Testament is the song cycle that Galas has performed around the world, set to texts from various poets, rembetika singers, and blues musicians. As with her infamous trilogy of release, the Plague Mass, Litanies of Satan, and The Masque of The Red Death which focused upon horror of AIDS, Defixiones takes up another deadly serious topic, genocide. Galas offers her own definition of genocide, as "an attempt to brutally crush and erase a civilization by any means necessary in its entirety. Also, this work concerns those who must live in exile as a means to escape and the desire to document one's existence -- to leave behind proof of life." For these recordings, Galas sings to those forgotten in the Armenian, Assyrian, and Anatolian Greek genocides which occurred between 1914 and 1923. With minimal arrangements of piano and windswept electronic tones, Galas belts out her highly stylized demonic shrieks, operatic falsettos, and tortured blues, always pointing towards the pain and suffering of her subjects.
MPEG Stream: "The Desert (part 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Birds of Death"

GALAS, DIAMANDA La Serpenta Canta (Mute) 2cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Diamanda Galas' La Serpanta Canta is a collection of live recordings from 1999 - 2002 that celebrates her numerous influences, a veritable Diamanda songbook, tunes by Hank Williams, Ornette Coleman, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and John Lee Hooker. Each song is hammered out on the lower regions of the piano's keyboard, with her incredibly stylized vocalizations churning out shrill falsettos and diabolical growls. Compared to the conceptually grim Defixiones album released at the same time, La Serpenta Canta opens up to a slightly wider range of emotional expressionism. Diamanda's own ragtime ditty "Baby's Insane" is a notably comic moment (intentional or otherwise), where her comparably uptempo, spry piano chords drive her faithful vocal rendition of a standard blues progression. Yet, the declarations of damnation and vocal gymnastics caught in the grieving process are more typical of many works found on La Serpenta Canta.
MPEG Stream: "Baby's Insane"
MPEG Stream: "My World Is Nothing Without You"

GALAS, DIAMANDA Schrei X (Mute) cd 16.98
The Village Voice says: "[Galas] possesses the most powerful, versatile and disciplined instrument of any vocalist in the new music, and her new piece ...is more than anything else a showcase for it."

GALAX Never Ending Space Trackin' (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's rare that we're ever able to get stuff on aRCHIVE back in. That stuff flies out of here and then seems to go straight out of print. So we leapt at the chance to get a little handful of these back in. Already out of print, last copies ever...
A glorious spaced out druggy FX drenched sonic trip to the outer reaches of the galaxy from the aRCHIVE label (Nadja, Goslings, Astral Traveling Unity, Alasehir, Jack Rose, Khanate, Keiji Haino, LSD-March, Growing, Bardo Pond). The perpetrator of said sonic space trip is Hiroshi Hasagawa, who spends most of his time doing similarly druggy business in C.C.C.C. and Astral Traveling Unity, on synth and ring modulator, and Keichi Miyashita (from Mandog) on guitar and tape echo. Needless to say, everyone who bought that ATU on aRCHIVE is definitely gonna want this.... 
Three extended improvised freaked out ultra mega blown out drifting space jams. Swirling clouds of whoosh and bleep and bloop and shimmer and schhhhhhhhwwwwwwwwooooooooooooooooossssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh. Peppered with glistening sonic sparkles, a sky full of blinking twinkling melodic shards. Very laid back and meditative at times, a pulsing throbbing hypnotic krautrock like Tangerine Dream or Popol Vuh, but occasionally exploding into full on blistering acid fried psychedelic chaos. If you loved that Astral Traveling Unity, or Space Machine, or the above mentioned krautrockers or Acid Mothers Temple at their most unhinged and free (one track even features AMT's Hiroshi Higashi on extra synth) then this will surely hit the spot. 
Like all aRCHIVE releases, beautifully packaged, this time a glossy psychedelic 6 panel fold out sleeve with the cd affixed to the inside. 
LIMITED TO 600 COPIES.
MPEG Stream: "Acid Forest in the Space Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Mysterious Smile of a Buddhist Image"

GALAXIE 500 Copenhagen (RykoDisc) cd 16.98
A previously unreleased live performance, December 1990. We also have their other albums, now individually re-issued, for those who didn't want to go for the whole box-set.

GALAXIE 500 Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste: 1987-1991 (Plexifilm) 2dvd 28.00
Thirteen years after the band's demise, patient Galaxie 500 fans receive a treasure trove of visual delights. This double dvd set features their four music videos, a television appearance, and live pro and fan footage from seven of their shows (Cambridge MA, Boston MA, Hollywood, Atlanta GA, London UK, and two here in San Francisco). The live clips were all hand-picked by the bandmembers, and we should note that there is repeat performances of some songs, but there's also a couple of unreleased numbers too. It's all topped off with a booklet packed with plentiful photos and a band interview with Yo La Tengo's James McNew.

GALAXIE 500 On Fire (RykoDisc) cd 12.98

GALAXIE 500 Peel Sessions (20 20 20) cd 10.98
Whoa, this really takes us back! Seminal dream pop band Galaxie 500 were as dreamy as ever when they stopped by John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show for these sessions back in 1989 and 1990. These eight tracks were compiled from those two visits -- the first four were recorded 10/30/90 and the second were from 09/24/89. Included are a few tasty covers of tunes by Young Marble Giants ("Final Days"), Buffy Sainte-Marie ("Moonshot") and Jonathan Richman("Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste").
MPEG Stream: "Final Day"
MPEG Stream: "Moonshot"

GALAXIE 500 The Portable... (RykoDisc) cd 15.98
A selection of twelve of Galaxie 500's finest recordings, gathered from their four albums and the Galaxie 500 box set... & the CD-rom track is the video of "Blue Thunder".

GALAXIE 500 This Is Our Music (RykoDisc) cd 12.98

GALAXIE 500 Uncollected (RykoDisc) cd 14.98
It sure is a great season for fans of Galaxie 500! Hot on the heels of the fine double-dvd retrospective "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste: 1987-1991" comes the individual cd release of Uncollected (originally compiled for the G500 box set). It's a 14-song rarities collection that includes their loving covers of songs by Jonathan Richman, Young Marble Giants, The Rutles and The Beatles as well as the added attraction of their "Blue Thunder" video. Uncollected serves as a great overview for newcomers to the enduring, wonderful, shimmering dream pop songs of these short-lived, long-disbanded, indie rock deities.
MPEG Stream: "Final Day"
MPEG Stream: "I Can't Believe It's Me"

GALBRAITH / NEILSON / YOUNGS Belsayer (Time-Lag) lp 23.00
Totally mind blowing collaboration between three masters of drone / raga / free / folk / noise. New Zealander Alastair Galbraith is a long time AQ fave as is the UK's Richard Youngs. Alex Neilson while not an instantly recognizable name in his own right, has played on oodles of amazing records (including some by Matt Valentine, Taurpis Tula) and you may recognize his name due to the fact that he and Mr. Youngs were the back up band for Jandek at his first ever live performance! None of that has very much to do with this, two sides of incredibly dreamy modern folk raga. Lighter than air swirls of falsetto vocals drift and shimmer, harmonies slowly shifting, all over a long slow drawn out ur-drone, constructed from buzzing steel strings, bits of percussion, warbling synthesizers, spaced out effects, electronic buzz and glitch, strummed guitars get stretched into fuzzy blurs, melodies float by in the distance, chimes tinkle and sparkle, almost the whole disc is made up of languorous, lazy stretches of dreamlike sound, EXCEPT for the opening and closing tracks on side 2, when some wild drumming is introduced, and the FX levels get pushed all the way into the red, and what was once tranquil bliss, is transformed into a snarling, chaotic super tripped out space rock.
Packaged in beautiful simple full color offset printed and debossed sleeves, with deluxe debossed inserts, LIMITED TO 900 COPIES, each insert has the record's number debossed along with of the liner notes, pressed on 180 gram virgin vinyl!

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR Cry (Emperor Jones) cd 14.98
The fourth solo album from New Zealander Alastair Galbraith is a stunner. Rarely has music this experimental been so ACCESSIBLE. But that's genius at work, folks, right here. "Cry" mixes pastoral folk drones with muted electric guitar outbursts, ominous organ rumblings, and Alastair's sung poetry. It's super pretty and quiet and haunting and we highly recommend it. Even if you've never heard this veteran of the Kiwi music scene's records before, this is a fine, fine place to start.
RealAudio clip: "Bellbird"

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR Head Soup Dream/From the Empire (Crawlspace) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Limited to 200 numbered copies, this is two new instrumentals from New Zealand's respected experimentalist.

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR Mirrorwork (Emperor Jones/Trance Syndicate) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Mr. Galbraith spent two years recording these buzzing lo-fi songs onto a four-track reel-to-reel. Haunting. Those of you who loved his set at Terrastock will enjoy this cd, it sounds the closest of all his albums to what he did at that wonderful show.

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR Morse / Gaudylight (Table Of The Elements / Xeric) cd 16.98
No, I (Jim) was not working at Aquarius when the shop was cozily tucked away in Noe Valley about a decade ago; but as an avid customer at the 24th Street shop, what I recall was the small corner of the store dedicated to all things New Zealand. Of course, somethings change (like Aquarius' location), but somethings stay the same (the fascination with the sounds and noises from that antepodean island). When I would dig through the old New Zealand section, there would be plenty of colorful pop from Flying Nun records, any number of Graeme Jeffries projects, whatever Michael Morley was doing at the time, and perhaps my favorite of the lot, Alastair Galbraith. Morse was Galbraith's first full album, released back in the early '90s on Siltbreeze after he had been stomping around the New Zealand scene and producing a couple of recordings in the bands The Rip and Plagal Grind. Nevertheless, Morse has now been reissued once again; first a few years ago through Emperor Jones and now through Table Of The Elements, with both reissues coupled with the Gaudylight 7" and now with some extra bonus material dating back to The Rip and Plagal Grind days of celebratory punkadelic rock 'n' slop. On both Morse and Gaudylight, Galbraith offers a stunning array of home-recordings, fragmented folk songs and meandering shanties as if sung by a morose / non-wacky Syd Barrett. Galbraith is the the obvious precursor to everything that fellow New Zealander Antony Milton has done (Nether Dawn, AM, etc.) in terms of conjuring a warmly intimate atmosphere for songs that are undeniably dark in theme. Galbraith grounds his loosely composed songs on acoustic guitar strum, accelerating crank organ drones, and his lilting violin melodies -- all of which attain a mottled hiss through the 4-track production. Some of the songs on Morse were recorded with the full Plagal Grind line-up, and had those tracks been released today, Galbraith would inevitably garner the acid folk tag and would be gallivanting around the globe with Devendra and Vetiver. It just shows that beautiful music can come from anywhere in the world and from anytime.
MPEG Stream: "Marcacite Lace"
MPEG Stream: "Bone Idle"
MPEG Stream: "Comic Books (with The Rip)"

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR Orb (Nextbestway) cd 16.98
Oh Alastair, how we have missed you. Although there have been a handful of reissues, a collaboration here and there, and those incredible long wires discs, there's something magical about the strange world Galbraith is able to conjure up give a whole record to work with. A dizzying blend of folky freaky lo-fi experimental pop, handmade instruments, ambience and noise, all held together by some ineffable magic that very few possess, but some, like Galbraith have mastered and seem to unfurl effortlessly.
Orb is the first proper solo record in years and also marks the re-activation of Galbraiths Xpressway label, now called Nextbestway. And once again, we're transported to some mysterious glade, where a strange man is hunched over a small arsenal of sound making devices, and like some sort of mad scientist is assembling an endless series of perfect little sonic gems.
The opening track is so immediately warm and recognizable, with it's warped warbly organ, and Galbraith's haunting multi tracked vocals, reminding us once again, that long before Neutral Milk Hotel, Galbraith was shaping similarly powerful little spiritual pop songs, and "Here Not There" is no different. Less than two minutes, but in that brief span, he's able to lull and soothe, trip out and transport. The second track is even shorter, less than a minute, but it's a killer chunk of billowy krautrock drift that finishes in a flurry of digital skipping.
Galbraith has a sort of Guided By Voices thing going, giving us tantalizing glimpses of incredible hooks, cool moody riffs, fluttering bits of sweet folk, but then nips them in the bud, songs that could very well stretch on for hours, slip away after minutes, sometimes seconds, creating these brief magical flourishes that have us returning over and over to sample briefly, always wanting more.
Like all Galbraith discs, the sounds are disparate, but interconnected, clattery feedback drenched Dead C style noise rock, with crumbling distortion and fuzzy sheets of synth, murky detuned folk ramblings, keening scarping strings, high end skree and metallic reverberations, utterly heartbreaking perfect pop, stretches of field recordings overlaid with soft shimmery drones, wheezing organs and delicate plucked strings, thick swaths of dense guitar buzz and super distorted vocals, black metal via NZ noise rock, meandering abstract Appalachia draped over soft swells of mumble and drift, warm warbly guitar and every possible combination in between.
So lovely, so magical and so totally mysterious. Galbraith is truly a bard from beyond, a songsmith who transcends genre, perhaps even time and space. And we're so glad to have him back.
MPEG Stream: "Here Not There"
MPEG Stream: "One Direction"
MPEG Stream: "Lost"
MPEG Stream: "Bird Ghost Viola"
MPEG Stream: "Short Dream FOr Fire Organ"

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR Rivulets (Camera Obscura) 7" 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Some of the finest new material we've heard in a long while from this solo Kiwi musician, who composes beautiful songs from fragments of melody, treated voice, and guitar etc.

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR Talisman (Table Of The Elements) cd 16.98
AQ favorite, New Zealand experimentalist Alastair Galbraith has redesigned Syd Barrett style folk/psychedelia for acoustic guitar, violin, and his voice... with lots of backwards masking, tape loops, and hints of his other project A Handful of Dust. Outstanding bedroom recordings, originally pressed on his own Next Best Way Label, and now issued through Table Of The Elements.

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR W/ PIPP PROUD Me & Gus (Emperor Jones) 7" 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our favorite iconoclastic New Zealanders accompanies his idol Pipp Proud, an older Aussie who writes quiet, heartfelt songs.

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR / DEMARNIA LLOYD (Roof Bolt) 7" 3.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Both Kiwis, Alastair strums the guitar while Demarnia sings all breathy-like.

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR / MATT DE GENNARO From The Dark (South Island) (Xeric / Table Of The Elements) cd 16.98
This is volume two of one of our favorite records EVER, Long Wires In Dark Museums, a sound installation from a few years back where New Zealand underground legend Alastair Galbraith teamed up with American musician Matt De Gennaro and strung long metal wires, some as long as 100 feet, between the walls of the performance space, and thus proceeded to scrape and bow and coax huge reverberant drones and groans from the wires, creating huge metallic dronescapes, informed by the works of Harry Bertoia and the long string experiments of Ellen Fullman. the cool thing about these Long Wires In Dark Museums, is that when the wires are excited they don't actually produce the sound, it's the points at which the wires are affixed to the space, the vibrations run up the wall, or through the windows, turning the whole space into a natural resonator, where the architecture of the space, the shape of the rooms, the makeup of the walls determine the tone and timbre of the sound. These performances occur in utter darkness as well, so the ears become the only sense that matters.
The sounds these two, and their building of choice create is magnificent, massive, the sort of sound that not only resonates within the space, but also in our ears, in your bones. It's like the idea of bowed metal, the glorious warm sound that makes, expanded and stretched out into a sound at once so natural, but so alien, that it's impossible to not be drawn in and completely mesmerized. It almost sounds like huge violins, or a cello the size of a barn, being tuned and tinkered with. Long notes stretched out for minutes, letting the microtones and sonic subtleties gradually reveal themselves. These metallic drones shift and shimmer, each long strecth of sound full of subtle colors and layer after layer of strange texture. This is seriously deep listening. Very very recommended, as is the first volume.
MPEG Stream: "Archenar"
MPEG Stream: "Matariki"

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR / MATT DE GENNARO Long Wires In Dark Museums (Vol. 1) (Emperor Jones) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Despite the designation as being "Volume 1," "Long Wire In Dark Museum" is the second documentation of the long thin wire music of New Zealand's multi-talented violinist Alastair Galbraith and American composer Matt De Gennaro, following their previous recording on Corpus Hermeticum (the main difference being that it was recorded in a bank, not a gallery). Galbraith and De Gennaro are simply bowing very long piano and violin wires which had been mounted throughout darkened art galleries, creating hypnotic acoustic drones that draw from Lucier's minimalist masterpiece "Music For A Long Thin Wire," though retain far more textural scrapes and dissonant overtones than found within Lucier's monotonal purity. This is a beautifully spartan album quite similar to the bowed cymbal work of Organum and Andrew Chalk.
RealAudio clip: "Autahi"

GALBRAITH, ALASTAIR AND CONSTANTINE KARLIS Radiant (Emperor Jones) cd 13.98
This is the first we've heard from Alastair Galbraith since a couple years ago, when he teamed up with Matt De Gennaro for an album of Ur-drone we absoultely loved, gorgeous bowed piano and violin strings, shimmering and shuddering. Really dreamy and mesmerising. And it seems like Galbraith is continuing even further in his trajectory away from song based forms and toward more free and abstract sound. And we couldn't be happier. While we love everything this man does, our hearts belong to the drone. For these two lengthy tracks, Galbraith teams up with fellow Kiwi legend Constantine Karlis, drummer for High Dependency Unit, to craft delicate and spidery abstract soundscapes of buzzing, scraping and keening violin, treated guitar loops, and scattered free drumming. The result is absolutely divine. Spare and spacious, the violin occsionally hints at eastern sounding ragas, playing almost-melodies, before slipping back into wavery drones, squeaky and swaying, while the huge, cavernous sounding drums are splattered throughout, sometimes a basic primal rhythm, sometimes barely-there flourishes, and sometimes a full on squall of percussive brutality. At it's free-est it's a bit like Angus Maclise or Tony Conrad backing up a free jazz drummer, when proceedings get a little more structured, you can almost imagine Damon Che of Don Caballero or...maybe even...ME (I tried to think of another drummer but Allan made me put me, Andee Connors), drumming for Lamonte Young or John Cale. So highly recommended. A new favorite late night record for the drone-prone among us.
MPEG Stream: "4 Orbits"

GALLHAMMER Gloomy Lights (Goatsucker / Diablos) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hmmm... This band should be an easy sell, really. Start with this: DOOM. A la Hellhammer (Tom G. Warrior's adolescent pre-Celtic Frost outfit that helped pioneer death/doom metal from a basement in Switzerland back in the early eighties), Eyehategod, and maybe Corrupted too. They're Japanese (so we can make more Corrupted comparisons). And this trio consists entirely of girls. One of our distros described Gallhammer thusly: "All female Japanese Hellhammer worship Band. Not ugly girls doing ugly, ugly music!". The high-contrast black and white photo on the back cover of band members Mika Penetrator (guitar/vocals), Vivian Slaughter (bass/vocals), and Risa Reaper (drums) reveals that "not ugly" comment apparently to be correct, with some vaguely corpse-paint-like mascara adding to their sex appeal. Not that that should be the selling point. After all, listening to this, you'd have *no idea* they were female. Throaty, demonic screams belch forth amidst pummelling drum battery and distorted, feedbacking guitar. Female? Male? They don't even sound human, really. Though the emotions expressed are all too human. Nihilistic bleak hateful depressive stuff. It's raw, primitive doom that captures that Hellhammer vibe by following a similar learning curve as those guys did back in the '80s -- Gallhammer's offical bio on their website states: "Feburary 2003: We start Gallhammer" followed by "Feburary 2003: Each member start to play instrument." And then Gloomy Lights was recorded in 2004. Yep, what Gallhammer does is simple and effective: heavy, plodding music and rough, croaking vocals, with plenty of ominous ambience in the breaks and build-ups. There's eight grim and spooky tracks here culminating in the 10-minute "Color Of Coma", which features a great deal of atmospheric drone. Think Hellhammer meets Angelblood, perhaps.
Look out for a new Gallhammer album this year to be released by Peaceville.
MPEG Stream: "Crucifixion"
MPEG Stream: "Endless Nauseous Days"

GALLHAMMER Ill Innocence (Peaceville) cd 16.98
May as well re-list the cd while we're at it (the brand new import vinyl version is being listed nearby).
Ok, hopefully all of you into dooooooooooooooooom have heeded our recommendations in the past ("best band EVER" we may have said, in a moment of infatuation) and are already well acquainted with this cult Japanese band who exude a magnificently miserable mixture of slow, atmospheric doominess and crusty black metal thrashing, inspired by the likes of Celtic Frost/Hellhammer (natch), Amebix, and Corrupted. This is their 2nd full-length studio album, following 2004's Gloomy Lights debut and last year's The Dawn Of Gallhammer demos n' live cd+dvd collection. That's the one where we busted out the Simpsons Comic Book Guy impersonation in our review, but it's this album that really seals the deal, when it comes to Gallhammer's position in the pantheon of most depressive doom bands ever, anyway. They're up there, no doubt about it, as is proved by this collection of ten tracks, each one of 'em often (but not always) a slow-motion trudge through the depths of emotional bleakness in the form of monotonously massive low-end guitar riffage, wretched cookie monster screams, and simple, gloomy melodies. Several of the song titles are quite indicative of their sound: "Long Scary Dream", "SLOG", "Ripper In The Gloom"... Many of these varied tracks feature a dynamic combination of knock-you-over-with-a-feather soft n' sad prettiness setting you up for some smash-you-with-a-hammer heaviness, or even manage both at the same time. It's the former element, this band's almost post-rock instrumental mesmeric moodiness, for which we think Gallhammer should be best noted. Not that it has any of post-rock's usual complexity, this is raw and primal and ritualistic, perfectly encapsulated by the way the stark, repetitive slowcore acoustic guitar part at the start of "Ripper In The Gloom" suddenly, shockingly gives way to a full-on punk rock assault.
It also seems possible that Gallhammer, along with their interest in underground '80s doom-crust, also shares some of the Velvet Underground fixation displayed by their contemporaries from the Japanese psych-rock scene, like LSD-march and Doodles. Heck, track one, the nearly eight minute "At The Onset Of The Age Of Despair" seems to have echoes of VU's "Venus In Furs"... If one of Gallhammer's songs wound up on a PSF Tokyo Flashback comp someday we'd be surprised, yes, but only a little. Though it sure wouldn't be a track like "Killed By The Queen" or "Blind My Eyes", two of the punked out, filthy metal blitzes on here, the latter of which throws in some uncharacteristic Melt-Banana style yelping, dogwhistle vocals along with the usual guttural grunting and growling.
Hey, we made it all the way to the end of this review without mentioning Gallhammer's major non-musical selling point... we said they're a "cult" band above, but were tempted to say "cute", as this trio just happen to all be attractive young Japanese ladies, their looks further enhanced by the tasteful application of gothy corpsepaint makeup. No this fact doesn't make Gallhammer's music sound any better (or worse) but it's, um, interesting. Happily, though, Peaceville isn't using Gallhammer's sex appeal to sell this album, there's not even any pictures of the band at all included in this classy-lookin' white-and-silver digipack. Recommended nonetheless!
MPEG Stream: "SLOG"
MPEG Stream: "Killed By The Queen"
MPEG Stream: "Ripper In The Gloom"