J CHURCH Altamont '99 (Au-Go-Go) cd 11.98
Rarities, B-sides, and other anomalies from SF's punk ensemble whose lovable Lance Hahn is slightly upset with "the fuckers who released this domestically."

J CHURCH Meaty, Beaty, Shitty Sounding (Honey Bear) cd 13.98
We've dearly missed our daily visits from J Church mainman Lance Hahn since he moved away from SF to Texas, but we're pleased as punch to see he's been keeping healthy and busy. Released on his label, Meaty, Beaty, Shitty is subtitled "Singles and shit from '96 to '00". So, where's the shit, Lance? The only thing wrong with this J Church cd singles retrospective is that our own Andee Connors is slighted by not being mentioned in the credits for his awesome playing and innovative contributions. -sniff- -sniff- Regardless, this very thorough collection exemplifies the hard work put in by J Church from 1996 through 2000 with varying levels of recording quality, guest appearances (vocals by Manda Rin of Bis and Kelly Green of PEE to name but two) and some awesome covers (not one, but five great ELO tunes, plus a song each by Seam and Neil Young -- and Kelly sings a song from "Grease"!). Pop punk goodness indeed.
RealAudio clip: "Tightrope"
RealAudio clip: "Telephone Line"

J CHURCH One Mississippi (Honest Don's) cd 13.98
Long awaited fifth full-length from these SF pop-punk stalwarts J Church. Prior to its release, there were rumours that this cd was possibly going to be a double album, but nope, they fit all 26 songs on one cd. This time around taking their time recording at Lucky Cat Studios, Lance, Adam and Jeff are taking it a bit more laidback -- leaving more room for the melodies to shine through. Whether this shift in pace is due to a very alarming health scare or new love, who knows? J Church are back and sounding fresh and in high spirits. Adding to the light springy air of this record are the sweet vocals of the lovely Kelly, formerly of SF's PEE. Particularly key tunes: "Anybody" and "The Track". Great stuff.

J CHURCH Palestine (Honey Bear) cd 13.98
The resilience, strength and determination of Lance Hahn of pop-punk vets J Church are unquestionable. He's soldiered forth in the face of much adversity - health problems and a fire that consumed his home and Honey Bear Records headquarters. This new collection follows their Meaty, Beaty, Shitty Sounding (2001) and their great One Mississippi (2000), but actually was intended as a follow-up to 1996's Drama Of Alienation which preceded One Mississippi. Still with me? Needless to say, JC's Lance Hahn is super prolific, a tireless songwriter and road warrior. This cd displays his honest, no-frills, capture-the-moment recording processes. It was recorded whenever and wherever worked for them - both budget and timewise. In fact, many of these recordings were done years ago, and due to a number of obstacles, are only now seeing their release. That said, there are some rough spots, unfixable flaws, and downright murky moments in these recordings, but fans of J Church know full well what the band's all about, and that's doing the best with what's at hand and maintaining a sense of immediacy. Lance's lyrics address both the personal and political. Thus, to further encourage the grassroots exchange of ideas, he also includes a suggested reading list along with the lyric sheet in the liner notes. That list includes works by Nagisa Oshima, Hans Richter, Paul Avrich among others.
RealAudio clip: "Star Of The Show"
RealAudio clip: "Not Proud Of The USA"

J CHURCH / STORM THE TOWER Split CD (Honest Mike's Broken Rekkids) cd 14.98
Maybe it's just 'cause we miss our ol' pal Lance Hahn, ever since he moved off to Austin, TX a little while back, that reviewing this release by his melodic, energetic pop-punk band J Church just makes us all nostalgic, thinking about when we could count on seeing Lance almost everyday hanging out here at Aquarius. But of course we're happy he's happy over there in Texas, and we're also happy to report that J Church is as vital as ever. This split teams five tracks performed by Lance Hahn's new Texan J Church lineup with four cuts by another Austin-based band, Storm The Tower, who play a Black Flagish, vaguely metallic style of hardcore. Their side is no let down, while J Church's half adds five fine new songs to the vast J Church discography, ranging from galloping pop punk anthems to explorations in guitar noise texture. Opening track "Terror Or Love" we almost thought was '80s metal before Lance's distinctive, earnest, diy vocals kicked in on the chorus!
MPEG Stream: J CHURCH "Terror Or Love"
MPEG Stream: STORM THE TOWER "Feeding The Filth Eater"

J DILLA Jay Dee Donuts (Stones Throw) cd 15.98
It has taken us awhile to list this, because we've had some difficulty getting it in (for those that don't know Jay Dee recently passed away, and you know when that happens, everyone suddenly wants to hear what the fuss was all about, so the records have been sold out everywhere). Finally we have enough to list, and here is what we say about it:
Man, we're suckers for a good sample inventively used, and this one keeps 'em coming! Chock full of soulful vocal snippets, sloppy edits and stony melodic breaks. This is like a worn mix-tape of short buttery sonic collages culled from the cream of bad thrift store records: trashy R&B, mid-70s jazz, and easy listening, and peppered with more pedigreed takes from the likes of the Three Degrees, Esther Philips and Raymond Scott. The beauty of Jay Dee's production is the unconventional way he pulls the sounds together, exposing instead of polishing the rough edits and scratchy recordings. Delicious and catchy, these "donuts" will keep you humming all day long. This sublime record of hip hop instrumentals is made sadder by Jay Dee's recent untimely death at the age of 32. For DJ's, fans of Jay Dee and Stones Throw records, purchasing this is a no-brainer: It's essential! For those of you who may not know the mad production skills of J Dilla, there is no better introduction than this. Totally Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Workinonit"
MPEG Stream: "Mash"
MPEG Stream: "Two Can Win"

J DILLA Ruff Draft (Stones Throw) 2cd 16.98
Ruff Draft is a deluxe 2-disc reissue of a 2002 self-released EP that captured a sea change in the late MC/producer's career. Having had two major works shelved by his embattled label MCA, and with his regular group, Slum Village, on extended hiatus, JayDee formed his own record label, changed his moniker to J Dilla and 10 years into a career as an MC and top producer for major labels went completely DIY. Attempting to get back to a direct, from-the-street feel, he made all the tracks "straight from the mother-fucking cassette" and brought back into play his favorite childhood pastime of making laborious looping tape edits from samples culled from his enviable record collection and multi-tracking the loops together and rapping over them. But it's in his choices of loops and edits that make him unique. Serpentine piano flourishes, backwards psych guitar, sci-fi keyboard crescendos, snippets of phrases, all glossed with reverb and stoner beats guaranteed to hook even the most casual of listeners. It's this alchemically charged attention to sound building that would lead to Donuts, his finest work to date. Since the original Ruff Draft was a limited vinyl only release that was little heard outside Detroit, it's nice to see it get the full deluxe treatment, even if the extent of the material is a bit slight (each disc is under 30 minutes). The first disc is the original 8-song EP with 2 bonus tracks, one of which is "Wild" featuring a kid hilariously singing Slade's "Cum On Feel The Noize". The second disc is the instrumental versions, which is a smart move to affordably package these together instead of releasing them separately. Those unfamiliar with Dilla's MC style, it's true he's a stronger producer, but to his credit, his style does not detract from any of the cuts (although we could've used less "Ruff Draft y'all's") and there are tracks here that work better on the vocal versions such as "Nothing Like This" featured recently on the Stones Throw's Chrome Children compilation, and "The $", whose loop is almost too brash and sketchy to enjoy on its own. As for the instrumental versions, it's nice to hear the closing loop of "Shouts" which makes us think of a hip-hop Steve Reich or Terry Riley's early tape loop repetitions. We could seriously listen to this track for hours uninterrupted and be totally happy. While posthumously credited as Dilla's lost masterpiece, it's more of an exciting document of a defining moment that might appeal more to folks already in love with his later production style than to new converts unfamiliar with his history. But definitely a worthwhile and satisfying listen!
MPEG Stream: "Nothing Like This"
MPEG Stream: "The $"
MPEG Stream: "Reckless Driving (Instrumental)"
MPEG Stream: "Wild (Instrumental)"

J DILLA Ruff Draft (Stones Throw) 2lp 16.98
Now On Vinyl!!!! This is a three-sided double LP but WITHOUT the Instrumentals.
Here is what we said about the CD:
Ruff Draft is a deluxe reissue of a 2002 self-released EP that captured a sea change in the late MC/producer's career. Having had two major works shelved by his embattled label MCA, and with his regular group, Slum Village, on extended hiatus, JayDee formed his own record label, changed his moniker to J Dilla and 10 years into a career as an MC and top producer for major labels went completely DIY. Attempting to get back to a direct, from-the-street feel, he made all the tracks "straight from the mother-fucking cassette" and brought back into play his favorite childhood pastime of making laborious looping tape edits from samples culled from his enviable record collection and multi-tracking the loops together and rapping over them. But it's in his choices of loops and edits that make him unique. Serpentine piano flourishes, backwards psych guitar, sci-fi keyboard crescendos, snippets of phrases, all glossed with reverb and stoner beats guaranteed to hook even the most casual of listeners. It's this alchemically charged attention to sound building that would lead to Donuts, his finest work to date. Since the original Ruff Draft was a limited vinyl only release that was little heard outside Detroit, it's nice to see it get the full deluxe treatment, even if the extent of the material is a bit slight (a bit under 30 minutes). This is the original 8-song EP with 2 bonus tracks, one of which is "Wild" featuring a young kid hilariously singing Slade's "Cum On Feel The Noize". Those unfamiliar with Dilla's MC style, it's true he's a stronger producer, but to his credit, his style does not detract from any of the cuts (although we could've used less "Ruff Draft y'all's") and there are tracks here that work better on the vocal versions such as "Nothing Like This" featured recently on the Stones Throw's Chrome Children compilation, and "The $", whose loop is almost too brash and sketchy to enjoy on its own. While posthumously credited as Dilla's lost masterpiece, it's more of an exciting document of a defining moment that might appeal more to folks already in love with his later production style than to new converts unfamiliar with his history. But definitely a worthwhile and satisfying listen and DJ essential!
MPEG Stream: "Nothing Like This"
MPEG Stream: "The $"

J DILLA The Shining (World's Fair) cd 16.98
We have the feeling that even though Jay Dee is gone from this world that we will continue to see new releases of his work. Sort of like a hip-hop Arthur Russell, or a hip hop... umm... Tupac? Anyway, the man was a mad alchemist, constantly working and experimenting. We predict that even earlier records he produced such as A Tribe Called Quest's Beats Rhymes, and Life and De La Soul's Stakes Is High -maligned when they were originally released- will soon be greatly reconsidered in the context of Dilla's finally much-respected legacy.
And that's a good thing, because we'd hate to think that The Shining would be viewed as Jay Dee's crowning achievement. Working on this at the time of his death, his friend Karriem Riggins stepped in to finish the job, and while there is some great production work, it feels like more of a tribute record than a proper album. A number of A-list rappers including Common, Busta Rhymes and Guilty Simpson guest on most of the tracks too. While we like this less than we liked Dilla's previous effort, Donuts, (largely because it was instrumental) we think fans of Jay Dee will find much to love on The Shining.
MPEG Stream: "Baby (Featuring Madlib & Guilty Simpson)"
MPEG Stream: "Over The Breaks"

J DILLA The Shining (World's Fair) 2lp 17.98
We have the feeling that even though Jay Dee is gone from this world that we will continue to see new releases of his work. Sort of like a hip-hop Arthur Russell, or a hip hop... umm.. Tupac? Anyway, the man was a mad alchemist, constantly working and experimenting. We predict that even earlier records he produced such as A Tribe Called Quest's Beats Rhymes, and Life and De La Soul's Stakes Is High -maligned when they were originally released- will soon be greatly reconsidered in the context of Dilla's finally much-respected legacy.
And that's a good thing, because we'd hate to think that The Shining would be viewed as Jay Dee's crowning achievement. Working on this at the time of his death, his friend Karriem Riggins stepped in to finish the job, and while there is some great production work, it feels like more of a tribute record than a proper album. A number of A-list rappers including Common, Busta Rhymes and Guilty Simpson guest on most of the tracks too. While we like this less than we liked Dilla's previous effort, Donuts, (largely because it was instrumental) we think fans of Jay Dee will find much to love on The Shining.
MPEG Stream: "Baby (Featuring Madlib & Guilty Simpson)"
MPEG Stream: "Over The Breaks"

J DILLA The Shining (Instrumentals) (Bbe) cd 14.98
Now this is how J Dilla's final project was meant to be heard! Ok, maybe that's not true, but around here some of us are just not big fans of guest rappers clogging some kick ass production with a bunch of rhymes. That may seem strange, but as they (we?) say, the proof is in the beat. Every time we play these instrumentals, customers are always coming up to us to see what's playing, which wasn't necessarily true of the rap version. Maybe we just got so hooked on Donuts that we never wanted to hear ANYTHING other than over Dilla's perfect productions ever again. Is that so wrong?
MPEG Stream: "Love Jones"
MPEG Stream: "Body Movin'"
MPEG Stream: "Won't Do"

J DILLA The Shining (Instrumentals) (Bbe) 2lp 15.98
Now this is how J Dilla's final project was meant to be heard! Ok, maybe that's not true, but around here some of us are just not big fans of guest rappers clogging some kick ass production with a bunch of rhymes. That may seem strange, but as they (we?) say, the proof is in the beat. Every time we play these instrumentals, customers are always coming up to us to see what's playing, which wasn't necessarily true of the rap version. Maybe we just got so hooked on Donuts that we never wanted to hear ANYTHING other than over Dilla's perfect productions ever again. Is that so wrong?
MPEG Stream: "Love Jones"
MPEG Stream: "Body Movin'"
MPEG Stream: "Won't Do"

J-LIVE All Of The Above (coup d'etat) cd 16.98
I've been fretting over what to say about this not-so-newly released record, so let's keep it simple. This is a straight-up, totally solid album of unassuming but great hip-hop, classic style. Long delayed in official release and boasting production from DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and Prince Paul, this one comes highly recommended.
RealAudio clip: "All Of The Above"
RealAudio clip: "Do That Shit"

J. K. & CO. Suddenly One Summer (Sundazed / Beatrocket) cd 12.98
Self-described by J.K. himself, Suddenly One Summer "was actually a spiritual realization through LSD." Certainly a dark psych album with hazy morose, Moby-Grape-style vocals that sound as if they're being uttered by a cosmic being somewhere beyond the next galaxy... or, in real life, a fifteen year old musical prodigy who journeyed from Vegas to Vancouver to make this album in 1968. J.K. was reportedly obsessed with the Beatles, and the record's got all your standard late '60s stylish accessories: sitar, a 30-second spaced out intro to "get you in the mood" as the acid kicks in, a sprinkle of backwards guitar, etc. Nice, if a bit underwhelming, given that we'd heard amazing things about this before actually hearing it. First time this album has been available since its release in '68.
RealAudio clip: "Little Children"
RealAudio clip: "The Times"

J.B.'S Pass The Peas: The Best of the J.B.'s (Polydor) cd 11.98
The best of the James Brown's J.B.'s, now available for a low price. If you're into the funk, you've gotta have some J.B.'s, and this is a nice collection of essentials.

JABLADAV 3K Hum (Epicene Sound) cassette 5.00
Hot on the heels of the recent Black As Pitch record, one man band Jabaldav returns with a much more abstract outing... Whereas BaP, and the previous release Dead As Duck, were both homages of a sort to SF black metal legends Weakling, albeit filtered through some Black Flag damage and some fucked up black studio magic, 3K Hum sounds basically like what the title would lead you to imagine. Longform drones, drawn out expansive low end soundscapes, still black and haunting, brutal in their own way, but more hypnotic, more trancelike, owing more to SUNNO))) and Niblock than Immortal and Ildjarn. 
The opening track is nearly 15 minutes of digital burble, tape hiss and amp buzz, woven into a slow simmering stretch of glitch pocked shimmer, like strange malfunctioning machinery, floating  along a slow flowing black river, sputtering and struggling to make more than buzzes and bzzzt's, immersed in a deep resonant sonic flow. Eventually, a riff enters the fray, but it's soooo slow, and weirdly digitized, it's more like a dense cloud of overdrive tone, thick and roiling, keening and white hot, before drifting off again, leaving nothing but a strange Morse code sort of Raster-Noton click and buzz ambience...
The second track is much more smoothed out, a gorgeous languorous sun baked crawl, long distorted notes stretched way out, flecked with sharp bits of overdriven buzz, a lazy metallic minor key threnody, burning hot but slowly, smoldering and intense, very alien, but warm and hauntingly emotional. The tape finishes off with a brief series of Close Encounters like tones, that occasionally overheat and become super distorted swells, before reverting again to gentle drifting harmonics. So lovely... (btw: there are two extra tracks on the cd-r, one 44 minutes long!)
The tape is packaged in a cool full color fold out sleeve.
LIMITED TO ONLY 50 COPIES!!!! Each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Translucent Sails"
MPEG Stream: "3K Hum"

JABLADAV 3K Hum (self-released) cd-r 7.98
Hot on the heels of the recent Black As Pitch record, one man band Jabaldav returns with a much more abstract outing... Whereas BaP, and the previous release Dead As Duck, were both homages of a sort to SF black metal legends Weakling, albeit filtered through some Black Flag damage and some fucked up black studio magic, 3K Hum sounds basically like what the title would lead you to imagine. Longform drones, drawn out expansive low end soundscapes, still black and haunting, brutal in their own way, but more hypnotic, more trancelike, owing more to SUNNO))) and Niblock than Immortal and Ildjarn. 
The opening track is nearly 15 minutes of digital burble, tape hiss and amp buzz, woven into a slow simmering stretch of glitch-pocked shimmer, like strange malfunctioning machinery, floating along a slow flowing black river, sputtering and struggling to make more than buzzes and bzzzt's, immersed in a deep resonant sonic flow. Eventually, a riff enters the fray, but it's soooo slow, and weirdly digitized, it's more like a dense cloud of overdrive tone, thick and roiling, keening and white hot, before drifting off again, leaving nothing but a strange Morse code sort of Raster-Noton click and buzz ambience...
The second track is much more smoothed out, a gorgeous languorous sun baked crawl, long distorted notes stretched way out, flecked with sharp bits of overdriven buzz, a lazy metallic minor key threnody, burning hot but slowly, smoldering and intense, very alien, but warm and hauntingly emotional. This is followed by a brief series of Close Encounters like tones, that occasionally overheat and become super distorted swells, before reverting again to gentle drifting harmonics, before the 'bonus track' (which is NOT on the cassette), a massive 44 minute epic, a gorgeous washed out drift, shades of Tim Hecker, Philip Jeck, and other masters of soft focus blur, like the soundtrack for some weightless drift through space, distant glimmers, barely there melodies, soft warm melodic swells, little shards of FX, like lost transmissions from some dying satellite, slipping effortlessly from ominous and dark, to dreamy and hopeful, this track all on its own is like an entire record in and of itself, but of course manages to be the final part in 3K Hum's multi part epic... So lovely...
And also on the cd (and not on the tape), is a brief coda, a weird robotic blur of buzzing tones and crumbling distortion, haunting and speaker shredding, but again in its own black buzzing way quite pretty...
The cd is packaged in a DVD case, with full color cover, and two full color inserts.
LIMITED TO ONLY 50 COPIES!!!! Each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Translucent Sails"
MPEG Stream: "3K Hum"

JABLADAV Black As Pitch (self-released) cassette 4.50
Record number two from this strangely monickered black metal one man outfit, borne out of a mighty love for dead and gone SF black metallers Weakling. And who can blame Mr. Jabladav? Of the modern breed of black metal, Weakling hewed closest to the spirit of the legendary Norwegian BM royalty, while still managing to create something completely unique, off kilter and beautifully and brilliantly fucked. Pity they only managed one record, but what a record it was...
Where as the first Jabladav disc, Dead As Duck (note the Dead As Dreams like title) mixed outright Weakling worship, frosty grim riffage, furious blast beats, epic arrangements, with a distinct post rock / math rock vibe and some seriously twisted and damaged Greg Ginn-ish Black Flag like gnarled guitars, the new one Black As Pitch (hmmm...) while still rooted in the epic buzz of Weakling and the bands that came before, expands the scope and the sound of the first one, in a big way. The core is still a grim black buzz, but even at its most black metal, the arrangements are completely convoluted and confusional, with long stretches of abstract riffing, bursts of chaotic free-black-metal, if there is such a thing (and if there's not there sure as hell should be), but the BM here is still troo and completely amazing, the guitars are super hot, in the red, blown out and WAY up in the mix, the drums too, loud as fuck, the double kick sounds (and feels) like someone pounding on your chest with both fists. Thick swaths of creepy alien keyboard sometimes drift over the black blasts, and often the blackness dissipates leaving gorgeous stretches of rumbling drone or shimmering ambience, the vocals are reverbed and sound like they must be samples or snippets from some movie, giving the songs an even creepier vibe.
Then there's the 14+ minute "Vinter Meditation", an extended chunk of cinematic ambience, all strange synths and creepy sounds, mysterious voices, and random abstract sonic disturbances, but the whole song is peppered with furious bursts of black metal, the engulf everything, saturating all the surrounding sounds with thick viscous blackness, before drifting off just as suddenly, leaving more haunting ambience, minor key melodies, the sounds of wind and thunder, soft billowing bits of chordal drift.... The rest of the record is filled out with more conventional length black blasts, except for the 31 minute drone epic "St. Philip Episcopal Church", which begins as a muted whir, a distant drone, layers shifting and overlapping, until thick grinding crumbling guitars swoop in, adding a caustic layer of fuzz over the top, and the track continues like that, sort of seesawing back and forth, from minimal shimmer, to corrosive drone, that distorted guitar changing shape constantly, from prickly buzz, to pulsing Spacemen 3 like whir to FX drenched outer space swirl, to brutal black drone. That piece alone would constitute a whole release on any one of our favorite modern abstract noise cd-r labels, but here it's just part of the bigger sonic picture, the songs short and long, black and beautiful, are all tangled up, sonically and thematically, the ambience balances the buzzing blackness and vice versa.
The record closes with an Ildjarn cover, a brief blown out black stomp, relentless and furious, the guitar still way blown out, the vocals louder than ever, the riff simple and almost punk rock, primitive and furious and fierce. Somehow it seems like the perfect way to finish off, after all the extended experimental ambience and super mathy black metal weirdness, a good old fashioned, primitive, old school, spiked, leather clad, corpse painted, church burning bloody axe attack!!
The cds are limited to 100 copies, each one hand numbered, the cassettes are numbered to 150 copies, each of those hand numbered as well.
MPEG Stream: "Ater Sicut Nox"
MPEG Stream: "Darling "Filia Noctiluca""
MPEG Stream: "Vinter Meditation"

JABLADAV Black As Pitch (self-released) cd-r 9.98
Record number two from this strangely monickered black metal one man outfit, borne out of a mighty love for dead and gone SF black metallers Weakling. And who can blame Mr. Jabladav? Of the modern breed of black metal, Weakling hewed closest to the spirit of the legendary Norwegian BM royalty, while still managing to create something completely unique, off kilter and beautifully and brilliantly fucked. Pity they only managed one record, but what a record it was...
Where as the first Jabladav disc, Dead As Duck (note the Dead As Dreams like title) mixed outright Weakling worship, frosty grim riffage, furious blast beats, epic arrangements, with a distinct post rock / math rock vibe and some seriously twisted and damaged Greg Ginn-ish Black Flag like gnarled guitars, the new one Black As Pitch (hmmm...) while still rooted in the epic buzz of Weakling and the bands that came before, expands the scope and the sound of the first one, in a big way. The core is still a grim black buzz, but even at its most black metal, the arrangements are completely convoluted and confusional, with long stretches of abstract riffing, bursts of chaotic free-black-metal, if there is such a thing (and if there's not there sure as hell should be), but the BM here is still troo and completely amazing, the guitars are super hot, in the red, blown out and WAY up in the mix, the drums too, loud as fuck, the double kick sounds (and feels) like someone pounding on your chest with both fists. Thick swaths of creepy alien keyboard sometimes drift over the black blasts, and often the blackness dissipates leaving gorgeous stretches of rumbling drone or shimmering ambience, the vocals are reverbed and sound like they must be samples or snippets from some movie, giving the songs an even creepier vibe.
Then there's the 14+ minute "Vinter Meditation", an extended chunk of cinematic ambience, all strange synths and creepy sounds, mysterious voices, and random abstract sonic disturbances, but the whole song is peppered with furious bursts of black metal, the engulf everything, saturating all the surrounding sounds with thick viscous blackness, before drifting off just as suddenly, leaving more haunting ambience, minor key melodies, the sounds of wind and thunder, soft billowing bits of chordal drift.... The rest of the record is filled out with more conventional length black blasts, except for the 31 minute drone epic "St. Philip Episcopal Church", which begins as a muted whir, a distant drone, layers shifting and overlapping, until thick grinding crumbling guitars swoop in, adding a caustic layer of fuzz over the top, and the track continues like that, sort of seesawing back and forth, from minimal shimmer, to corrosive drone, that distorted guitar changing shape constantly, from prickly buzz, to pulsing Spacemen 3 like whir to FX drenched outer space swirl, to brutal black drone. That piece alone would constitute a whole release on any one of our favorite modern abstract noise cd-r labels, but here it's just part of the bigger sonic picture, the songs short and long, black and beautiful, are all tangled up, sonically and thematically, the ambience balances the buzzing blackness and vice versa.
The record closes with an Ildjarn cover, a brief blown out black stomp, relentless and furious, the guitar still way blown out, the vocals louder than ever, the riff simple and almost punk rock, primitive and furious and fierce. Somehow it seems like the perfect way to finish off, after all the extended experimental ambience and super mathy black metal weirdness, a good old fashioned, primitive, old school, spiked, leather clad, corpse painted, church burning bloody axe attack!!
The cds are limited to 100 copies, each one hand numbered, the cassettes are numbered to 150 copies, each of those hand numbered as well.
MPEG Stream: "Ater Sicut Nox"
MPEG Stream: "Darling "Filia Noctiluca""
MPEG Stream: "Vinter Meditation"

JABLADAV Dead As Duck (self-released) lp 15.98
This AQ fave awesome slab of Black Flagged grim and tangled black metal Weakling worship gets the super deluxe vinyl treatment. Gorgeous full color sleeves, thick black sleeves for the lp, both numbered and signed in metallic silver ink. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!
For a band that didn't exist for very long, only had one record and who have been broken up for years now, SF's mighty Weakling still cast a pretty long shadow. We still sell Dead As Dreams like crazy, more and more people are professing their undying love for Weakling's black grandeur every day, and band after band, some more subtly than others are displaying in their music, some serious Weakling worship. Wolves In The Throne Room are a recent example, they obviously expanded on the sound but there are moments where WITTR are a dead ringer for Weakling. Then there is Jabladav, who almost come off as a sort of Weakling homage, what with the very Dead As Dreams-ish title, the album artwork, and of course Weakling topping the thanks list, which also includes Burzum, Darkthrone, Black Flag, Ildjarn and Wolves In The Throne Room. But Jabladav, seem to approach metal from a distinctly non-metal background. It's subtle, but noticeable. Black Flag in the thanks list should give you some indication. Not that this isn't black and buzzy, heavy and thrashing and brutal, it is, one man, just guitar bass, mellotron and drums, but there is a distinctly post rock, punk rock vibe that permeates much of Dead As Duck. Take out some of the thick swaths of dramatic keyboards and insane bursts of double kick drumming, and sometimes you're left with some very Greg Ginn-ish angular metallic post punk. But when all is said and done, Jabladav whip up some serious black skree, with buzzy crunchy guitars dominating the mix, some murky drumming, bits of bass here and there, a little keyboards, mostly instrumental, but when there are vocals, they are a haunting croon, much like the madman in Urfaust. There are even some dreamy folky interludes. Fucking awesome stuff for sure. We've been playing this like mad since we got it. So if you dig any of the aforementioned bands (we might even include in the list Earl Shilton, Carcass, even the Champs maybe) you'll definitely love this!
And again, LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each sleeve hand numbered and signed, these will be gone in no time...
MPEG Stream: "Dead As Duck"
MPEG Stream: "Waiting For A Winter's Decention"
MPEG Stream: "Zarqawi Mortus"

JABLADAV Dead As Duck (self-released) cassette 3.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For a band that didn't exist for very long, only had one record and who have been broken up for years now, SF's mighty Weakling still cast a pretty long shadow. We still sell Dead As Dreams like crazy, more and more people are professing their undying love for Weakling's black grandeur every day, and band after band, some more subtly than others are displaying in their music, some serious Weakling worship. Wolves In The Throne Room are a recent example, they obviously expanded on the sound but there are moments where WITTR are a dead ringer for Weakling. Then there is Jabladav, who almost come off as a sort of Weakling homage, what with the very Dead As Dreams-ish title, the album artwork, and of course Weakling topping the thanks list, which also includes Burzum, Darkthrone, Black Flag, Ildjarn and Wolves In The Throne Room. But Jabladav, seem to approach metal from a distinctly non-metal background. It's subtle, but noticeable. Black Flag in the thanks list should give you some indication. Not that this isn't black and buzzy, heavy and thrashing and brutal, it is, one man, just guitar bass, mellotron and drums, but there is a distinctly post rock, punk rock vibe that permeates much of Dead As Duck. Take out some of the thick swaths of dramatic keyboards and insane bursts of double kick drumming, and sometimes you're left with some very Greg Ginn-ish angular metallic post punk. But when all is said and done, Jabladav whip up some serious black skree, with buzzy crunchy guitars dominating the mix, some murky drumming, bits of bass here and there, a little keyboards, mostly instrumental, but when there are vocals, they are a haunting croon, much like the madman in Urfaust. There are even some dreamy folky interludes. Fucking awesome stuff for sure. We've been playing this like mad since we got it. So if you dig any of the aforementioned bands (we might even include in the list Earl Shilton, Carcass, even the Champs maybe) you'll definitely love this! LIMITED TO TWENTY COPIES, each cassette hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Dead As Duck"
MPEG Stream: "Waiting For A Winter's Decention"
MPEG Stream: "Zarqawi Mortus"

JABLADAV Dead As Duck (self-released) cd-r 7.98
For a band that didn't exist for very long, only had one record and who have been broken up for years now, SF's mighty Weakling still cast a pretty long shadow. We still sell Dead As Dreams like crazy, more and more people are professing their undying love for Weakling's black grandeur every day, and band after band, some more subtly than others are displaying in their music, some serious Weakling worship. Wolves In The Throne Room are a recent example, they obviously expanded on the sound but there are moments where WITTR are a dead ringer for Weakling. Then there is Jabladav, who almost come off as a sort of Weakling homage, what with the very Dead As Dreams-ish title, the album artwork, and of course Weakling topping the thanks list, which also includes Burzum, Darkthrone, Black Flag, Ildjarn and Wolves In The Throne Room. But Jabladav, seem to approach metal from a distinctly non-metal background. It's subtle, but noticeable. Black Flag in the thanks list should give you some indication. Not that this isn't black and buzzy, heavy and thrashing and brutal, it is, one man, just guitar bass, mellotron and drums, but there is a distinctly post rock, punk rock vibe that permeates much of Dead As Duck. Take out some of the thick swaths of dramatic keyboards and insane bursts of double kick drumming, and sometimes you're left with some very Greg Ginn-ish angular metallic post punk. But when all is said and done, Jabladav whip up some serious black skree, with buzzy crunchy guitars dominating the mix, some murky drumming, bits of bass here and there, a little keyboards, mostly instrumental, but when there are vocals, they are a haunting croon, much like the madman in Urfaust. There are even some dreamy folky interludes. Fucking awesome stuff for sure. We've been playing this like mad since we got it. So if you dig any of the aforementioned bands (we might even include in the list Earl Shilton, Carcass, even the Champs maybe) you'll definitely love this! LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each disc hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Dead As Duck"
MPEG Stream: "Waiting For A Winter's Decention"
MPEG Stream: "Zarqawi Mortus"

JABLADAV Drunk As Duck (self-released) cd-r 4.98
Not one, but TWO new releases from this one man, Weakling worshipping black metal misanthrope, known as Jabladav, but maybe this one doesn't count, as it was recorded under the influence, HEAVILY under the influence, and thus is a bit of a stumbling, lurching mess. But what a glorious mess it is. If it wasn't called Drunk As Duck (a reference to the debut Jabladav record Dead As Duck) and if it didn't have a cover image of discarded corks from (presumably) bottles drunk, and if there wasn't an apology in the liner notes asking the listener to listen with a sense of humor, if NONE of that were present, we probably would have just assumed this was some super wacked, freaked out, damaged lo-fi black metal record, and we would have loved it just as much as we do now, maybe even more.
Take the normal sound of Jabladav, lower the dexterity level, slow things down a bit, make it a bit doomier, a bit murkier, add a bit more stumble, a bit more warble, and fuck, if your not left with something truly deranged and warped.
Way less mathy and complex than Jabladav proper (due, we assume, in no small part, to inebriation), the sound on Drunk as Duck, is a lurching doomic black metal, which at times reminds us a bit of Xasthur, or more specifically, the legion of Xasthur influenced black buzzers, with it's murky miserablism, it's stumbling rhythms, but a little hooch isn't enough to remove all of Jabladav's instrumental prowess, so plenty, of that tangled riffing, and Greg Ginn like gnarled guitar freakouts still surface here and there, but they tend to be draped over murky buzzing plods, or funereal dirges. When the tracks do occasionally burst into blast mode, instead of sounding shitty, or bad, or amateur, it just sounds, well, weird, chaotic, confusional, often splintering into abstract freakouts, or meandering black jams, but that stuff sounds amazing. We wouldn't dare say we like this better than Jabladav proper, but damn if we don't like it almost as much.
There seems to be a lot more keyboards going on too, adding a definite moody creepy vibe to the proceedings, but what can we say, even wasted, this guy can craft some truly demented black brilliance.
LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES! Each one hand numbered.
MPEG Stream: "Light Has Died"
MPEG Stream: "Burzum La Chimay"
MPEG Stream: "Thangoraium"

JABLADAV Entisaikainen Herra Hihkasis Atilaa Menna Pilver (self released) cd-r 2.98
Mysterious one man band Jabladav has proven that he is much more than just a Weakling tribute, offering up his admitted Weakling inspired black buzz infused with strange gnarled Greg Ginn-ish guitaring, and furiously fucked up post rock mathed out weirdness. Grim and buzzy, but also damaged and seriously and gloriously freaked out. He also proved he could drone with the best of them on the recent 3K Hum release, a slab of deep dark dense dronology that definitely holds its own amongst the legends of drone.
So in the spirit of 3K Hum comes this latest Jabladav release, limited to only 50 copies, so we won't get too in depth, needless to say, we were pretty much sold when Mr. Jabladav emailed us to tell us about this new release, and wrote "I've never heard a Buddha Machine sound so evil." Well, heck, what else did we need to hear? Nothing in fact.
So we got as many of the 50 as he could spare and here it is!
Recorded live, using a Buddha Machine, a piano, a Casio and a handful of effects, Jabladav has created a doomy and dark ominous drift. The Buddha Machine's loops transformed into creeping lowend sprawl, bits of distortion and decay lace these long tones, a subtle throb, a deep resonant pulse, murky and muddy and sinister, spaced out, but blurred and smeared into dark dreamlike drones.
LIMITED TO ONLY 50 COPIES!!! We got way less than that. Packaged in a slim dvd style case, full color artwork and booklet, each disc signed, and numbered, the booklet signed and the insert numbered too.
MPEG Stream: "Entisaikainen Herra Hihkasis Atilaa Menna Pilver (Excerpt)"

JABLADAV Primland (self-released) 2cd-r 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What began as an homage to legendary SF black metallers Weakling, and maybe even a joke (not a ha ha joke, more of a fucking around, we're bored so we might as well record some grim black metal joke) has pretty rapidly morphed into a serious black metal contender amongst weirdo black metal aficionados.
Jabladav is a one man band who owes as much to Weakling as they do to Black Flag. Their first release, Dead As Duck, was a gnarled Greg Ginn-ified blast of intense blackness, blown out guitar buzz, insane blasting drums, some killer riffing and huge heapings of black atmosphere, channeling Weakling through all sorts of random not-that-black business, drone, post rock, math rock, no wave, and yeah Black Flag. The thing was, whatever inspired it, was soon eclipsed by how fucked up and far out the finished product was. A baffling and fucking genius collection of convoluted black buzz. Hot on the heels of the debut, came a second disc, Black As Pitch, which was like part two of Dead As Duck, but expanding the sound, making it even more metal, more chaotic, the songs got longer, and way more complex, even introducing some intensely blackened ambience. Which led to the next record, 3K Hum, a mostly ambient affair, huge stretched out slabs of glacial blur, massive roiling low end rumble, shimmering black ambience, hypnotic and mesmerizing, and while ambient, still extremely dense and heavy.
As if that weren't an exhausting spurt of creativity, now, not all that much later, comes the latest from Jabladav, the even more expansive and sprawling 2 cd-r set Primland, two hours of incredibly tangled black riffing, super blown out buzz drenched production, creepy keyboards, and deep dark ambience, super mathy drums, demonic vocals, all wound into super extended black jams, shot through with head spinning Ginn-ish squiggly leads, stop start riffing, but all strangely melodic, a moody mournful undercurrent beneath the roiling black heaviness. And the drums, shit, the drumming is insane, WAY up in the mix, louder than the guitars even, mathy and calculus complicated, like the guy was sitting at the top of a concrete stairwell in a 40 story building, each landing mic-ed, and then proceeded to hurl drum kit after drum kit into the black abyss, only in such a way that the resulting crash and clatter coalesced into impossibly deranged black rhythms.
But then out of nowhere, there'll be a track, all murky and muddy, lo-fi and practice space style, that sounds like it could be some lost nineties BM demo. EXCEPT, it's Jabladav, so even those tracks, are layered with slow doomy tones, deep rumbling chimes, and raspy vocals, threatening to swallow up the thrashing blackness below.
The tracks are definitely tweaked, and damaged, and a little bit spaced out and acid fried, druggy and mathy, but at their core they are pure black, the riffs are blown out, recorded so loud and in the red, the chords threaten to crumble. The record careens wildly from stumbling doomic Burzum style lope, to manic crazed thrashing black blasts, often both in the same song, the strange production only adds to the mood and weirdness, the songs on Primland even more epic and far out and convoluted and fucked than any of the Jabladav we've heard before, which is saying a lot. WAY recommended black metal weirdness/brilliance.
While they last, we have the ULTRA LIMITED, wax sealed wooden box version. If it's too pricey for you, hold off and we'll relist the normal version once these are sold out, but c'mon, this music deserves more than a jewel case. These are hand assembled, hand stained wood boxes, with a removable lid, that slides out, inside are the two cd-rs, in jewel case, and a printed color insert. The box is sealed shut with a silver wax seal. Each box signed and numbered on the bottom. But be warned, these are not had crafted keepsakes, the kind on a glass shelf at your grandma's house, no, they look grim and ancient, like the music within, weathered and worn, they're beautiful, but they look like they were unearthed from some cursed tomb, left on a shelf in a locked room, in an abandoned house, where they were discovered years later. Meaning that they are not perfect, the coloring is different on each, as is the wax seal, and the seal is quite fragile, so no matter how carefully packaged, the seal might crumble, or come off in transit, but you have to remove the seal anyway if you want to listen to the music.
You have been warned...
MPEG Stream: "Black Snow"
MPEG Stream: "Lodona"
MPEG Stream: "Vin Den Orden Jag Levandre"

JACK ROSE & SILVESTER ANFANG split (Funeral Folk / AIM) 7" 6.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Most aQ customers will merely need to see the two bands sharing this split to know they need this. Then consider the fact that it's already out of print and we got the last 25 copies. We won't go into too much detail as these will most likely be gone in a heartbeat.
One side is Jack Rose, the modern master of neo-Appalachia, a demon with a slide guitar, which he demonstrates on the first track, an awesome Fahey cover. Elegant and effortless, the slide slippery and swooping, so smooth it almost makes it sound like the speed of the record is being altered. The second track is another cover, just as striking, this one a wicked bluegrass breakdown, all rapid fire fingerpicking and melancholy twang.
The flipside is one long track from Belgian funeral folk avant ambient doom collective Silvester Anfang, and it's a beauty, sounding like it could have come right off their recent Kosmies Slachtafval full length. Creepy and abstract, scattered percussion, haunting vocals, buzzing steel strings, little flurries of drumming, ominous chordal swells, building and building to a fever pitch. Some pagan musical ritual performed in a black forest in the middle of nowhere.
Cool creepy woodcut style cover, thick vinyl, and again, SUPER LIMITED, ONLY 250 COPIES and ALREADY OUT OF PRINT AT THE LABEL!

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER America Mystica (Very Friendly) 2cd 19.98
Massive collection of four epic live performances from the ever shifting Jackie O Motherfucker collective. Recorded in various venues and conditions, live on stage, live in the studio, live on the radio, with various guests and collaborators present. All four tracks are epic in length, the shortest nearly 20 minutes, each one a long and winding road that meanders through pretty much ever sonic nook and cranny the band have ever explored. And all four tracks some of the prettiest and creepiest stuff we've heard from these guys.
Raw stripped down blues guitar, abstract free folk flutter, drones everywhere, buzzing strings, and simple scattered percussion, mysterious vocals, strange samples and lots and lots of turntable. In fact, more than any JOMF recording we can remember, the turntable is one of the main elements, mostly maintaining a rich textural backdrop, but just as easily spitting out some Paul Hardcastle style stuttered loops, or offering up all manner of slippery scratchy rhythms. All very subtle and smoothly integrated into the ever shifting whole. Epic and cinematic, dark and dramatic, it sounds a bit like a dream jam between the No Neck Blues Band and Godspeed You Black Emperor mixed by DJ Shadow. When the guitar enters the fray on the second track is sounds like some slowcore post rock band suddenly decided to sit in. But it fits perfectly. The third track recorded live in Minneapolis, is the heaviest and most 'rocking', a cacophonous blast that ends up sounding like some long lost Krautrock jam, revived and brought back to life right there on stage, while the final twenty minute piece, recorded in the UK, unfurls lazily, bringing the nearly two hours of America Mystica to a close, with an epic spaciousness, underpinned by murky synths, fuzzy psych guitar buzz, splattery disembodied drumming, and a strangely funky fade out.
MPEG Stream: "Hudson Dragonfly"
MPEG Stream: "Ah Sunflower"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER America Mystica (Very Friendly) 2lp 33.00
Massive collection of four epic live performances from the ever shifting Jackie O Motherfucker collective. Recorded in various venues and conditions, live on stage, live in the studio, live on the radio, with various guests and collaborators present. All four tracks are epic in length, the shortest nearly 20 minutes, each one a long and winding road that meanders through pretty much ever sonic nook and cranny the band have ever explored. And all four tracks some of the prettiest and creepiest stuff we've heard from these guys.
Raw stripped down blues guitar, abstract free folk flutter, drones everywhere, buzzing strings, and simple scattered percussion, mysterious vocals, strange samples and lots and lots of turntable. In fact, more than any JOMF recording we can remember, the turntable is one of the main elements, mostly maintaining a rich textural backdrop, but just as easily spitting out some Paul Hardcastle style stuttered loops, or offering up all manner of slippery scratchy rhythms. All very subtle and smoothly integrated into the ever shifting whole. Epic and cinematic, dark and dramatic, it sounds a bit like a dream jam between the No Neck Blues Band and Godspeed You Black Emperor mixed by DJ Shadow. When the guitar enters the fray on the second track is sounds like some slowcore post rock band suddenly decided to sit in. But it fits perfectly. The third track recorded live in Minneapolis, is the heaviest and most 'rocking', a cacophonous blast that ends up sounding like some long lost Krautrock jam, revived and brought back to life right there on stage, while the final twenty minute piece, recorded in the UK, unfurls lazily, bringing the nearly two hours of America Mystica to a close, with an epic spaciousness, underpinned by murky synths, fuzzy psych guitar buzz, splattery disembodied drumming, and a strangely funky fade out.
MPEG Stream: "Hudson Dragonfly"
MPEG Stream: "Ah Sunflower"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Candyland (Candyland) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Limited lp only collection of live performances and radio broadcasts, all woven together into one lengthy buzzy free psych jam. A sitar sounding guitar (or is that a sitar?) unwinds lazily into a lengthy sun baked raga, all buzzing and slowly shifting, lazy, washed out guitars, a meditative soundscape, slow and sleepy and syrupy. This bliss eventually drifts directly into a West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band cover, with sweet hushed female vocals over barely-there instrumentation, a gentle reverbed hush, while beneath a soft pulse and distant lilting whirs. The second side is a single sidelong track, a mumbled murky psych jam, starting off like a way more shambolic Can before quickly dissipating into long stretches of guitar shimmer, far away percussion, manipulated turntables, a mesmerizing druggy and dreamlike drift, all whisper and warble. So nice.
Packaged in a brown chipboard sleeve with a metallic silver sticker affixed to the front.

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Change (Textile) cd 16.98
This album came out a couple of months ago, but some problems in distribution from France (where the Textile lable is located) kept us from getting this until now. Nevertheless, "Change" is the much anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed pair of Jackie-O Motherfucker albums "Liberation" and "Magick Fire Music." This fluctuating ensemble of musicians have made a few minor alterations to their psychedelic improvisations channelled through the mythologies of Appalachian folk music; but for the most part, "Change" isn't that much of a prophetic title for this work. Jackie-O Motherfucker lets loose a vast array of instrumentation (guitars, violins, cellos, sax, reeds, vibes, and percussion) to explore any number of divergent paths of improvisation, while attempting to hold generalized themes which at times reference an Easter snake-charming vibe and at others a Huck Finn laziness. The latter is exemplified by Tom Greenwood's nasally vocals which wistfully meander through a couple of tracks like Gibby Haynes on even heavier sedation than usual. Jackie-O is at their best when structuring this sprawling aesthetic in a post-rock expansiveness (i.e. Tarentel, Pajo, Sonna, etc.) in which repeated guitar riffs reign in all of the other instruments as ornamentation. Yet, more frequently on "Change" than previous outings, Jackie-O allows for a Knitting Factory-style noodle jazz to be invoked through a plethora of solos.
The CD has three tracks not featured on the LP.
RealAudio clip: "Sun Ray Harvester"
RealAudio clip: "Fantasy Hay Co-Op"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Change (Textile) lp 16.98
This album came out a couple of months ago, but some problems in distribution from France (where the Textile lable is located) kept us from getting this until now. Nevertheless, "Change" is the much anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed pair of Jackie-O Motherfucker albums "Liberation" and "Magick Fire Music." This fluctuating ensemble of musicians have made a few minor alterations to their psychedelic improvisations channelled through the mythologies of Appalachian folk music; but for the most part, "Change" isn't that much of a prophetic title for this work. Jackie-O Motherfucker lets loose a vast array of instrumentation (guitars, violins, cellos, sax, reeds, vibes, and percussion) to explore any number of divergant paths of improvisation, while attempting to hold generalized themes which at times reference an Easter snake-charming vibe and at others a Huck Finn laziness. The latter is exemplified by Tom Greenwood's nasally vocals which wistfully meander through a couple of tracks like Gibby Haynes on even heavier sedation than usual. Jackie-O is at their best when structuring this sprawling aesthetic in a post-rock expansiveness (i.e. Tarentel, Pajo, Sonna, etc.) in which repeated guitar riffs reign in all of the other instruments as ornamentation. Yet, more frequently on "Change" than previous outings, Jackie-O allows for a Knitting Factory-style noodle jazz to be invoked through a plethora of solos.

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Fig. 5 (Road Cone) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Jackie-O Motherfucker's sound is not the aggro fury the name might imply. Rather this Portland/New York/Baltimore ensemble prefers freeminded improvisational stylings that delve into the meandering Americana of Souled American, but with the psychedelic pastoral jazz freakouts of the No Neck Blues Band or the Sun City Girls. Through delicate plucks of banjo, melancholic slide guitars, and creaking violin, Jackie-O Motherfucker wanders through avant garde deconstructions of what could be folk standards - 'Amazing Grace' makes an appearance with only a single sax riff betraying its presence.

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Fig. 5 (ATP) cd 15.98
Another long out of print JOMF gem gets the deluxe reissue treatment. Here's our review from the first time around:
Jackie-O Motherfucker's sound is not the aggro fury the name might imply. Rather this Portland/New York/Baltimore ensemble prefers freeminded improvisational stylings that delve into the meandering Americana of Souled American, but with the psychedelic pastoral jazz freakouts of the No Neck Blues Band or the Sun City Girls. Through delicate plucks of banjo, melancholic slide guitars, and creaking violin, Jackie-O Motherfucker wanders through avant garde deconstructions of what could be folk standards -- "Amazing Grace" makes an appearance with only a single sax riff betraying its presence. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "Analogue Skillet"
MPEG Stream: "Native Einstein"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Flags Of The Sacred Harp (ATP Recordings) cd 15.98
We never would have expected this sort of record from the always difficult Jackie-O-Motherfucker. A downright pretty folk record. And no, not psych folk, or new weird America folk, just gorgeous and dreamy, lilting and delicately lovely folk. A bit of droney strum, a little shimmery atmosphere, male and female harmony vocals, a lush instrumental backdrop of double bass, cello, pedal steel, reeds, occasional slow burning post rock rhythms, rich and lush and really quite lovely. Some of the old JOMF surfaces toward the end of a few of the tracks, and on some of the longer tracks, where the floating folk implodes and becomes a sort of abstract free rock meander, with hiccuping turntables, snippets of spoken word, warbly melodies, all drifting in a woozy soundscape of drone and shimmer. But for the most part this is definitely the most song-oriented, and loveliest JOMF record to date. Probably has a bit to do with the fact that four of the seven tracks are traditionals. But even when the songs are being stretched and twisted and pulled apart, it's never harsh, instead it's all warm and muted, lush and dense, lilting and hypnotic, a deep, rich gorgeous sound world of dark and dreamy folk, washing over you and filling your ears with sweet soft sounds.
Cool bandana cover art too!
MPEG Stream: "Nice One"
MPEG Stream: "Rockaway"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Liberation (ATP) cd 15.98
Finally, this out of print gem gets the deluxe reissue treatment. Here's our review from the first time around:
In spite of their punk-as-fuck name, Jackie-O Motherfucker is a Portland avant-rock ensemble that draws much more from the inter-connectivist logic of Harry Smith (the curator of Smithsonian's Anthology of American Folk Music, amongst other things), than the political rhetoric of Ian MacKaye and the like.
Liberation is Jackie-O's seventh album and continues their explorations into the psychedelic recombinations of traditional American folk and the non-linear agendas of free-jazz. Rather than utilizing the approach of the like minded No Neck Blues Band's squalid lack of structure, Jackie-O smartly plays patterned composition and free improvisation off of each other. "Ray-O-Graph" is a solid example of such a strategy, with its cheap but unwavering beatbox and a twangy guitar that repeats its bent notes at an unhurried pace, while the rest of the massive ensemble makes itself known with a quiet racket. Yet, just when the erosion and upheaval of form starts to make sense, Jackie-O issues forth an honest-to-God song in "Something on Your Mind," a backwoodsy ballad complete with Southern drawl and front porch stomp. For all of its sonic complexities, Liberation lives up to its name as an album content in the disorienting freedom to allow oneself to wander.
MPEG Stream: "Peace On Earth"
MPEG Stream: "Ray-O-Graph"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Our Nakedness Was Our Picket Sign (Europe 2002) (Cast Exotic) 2cd 19.98
Finally available again!
Northwestern psychedelic space/free/avant rockers Jackie O Motherfucker return from a massive European tour and all we got was this lousy live double cd. Just kidding. It's hardly lousy. In fact, this may be one of our favorite JOMF recordings to date. Which makes sense, since live is where a large improvisatory ensemble can let loose and do what they do best. Improvise. Wander. Meander. Get lost. And explore. Mantra like, barely-there-vocals, guitars buzzing like sitars, subtle shuffling percussion, warm drones, occasional sputters and half melodies from the turntables, guitars and basses melt into the background, blending into the sonic foliage, while everything rustles and shimmers, breathes and stretches. Like free jazz filtered through a thick haze of painkillers and potsmoke. Lethargic, lugubrious, cinematic and at times almost nightmarish. Really nice! Includes a West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band cover, of all things...
MPEG Stream: "2"
MPEG Stream: "3"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER The Magick Fire Music (Ecstatic Peace) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When this showed up at Aquarius, I made a stupid comment to a customer who was curious about this record. I said that Jackie-O Motherfucker were somewhat of a Tom Sawyer / Huck Finn communal project featuring a bunch of random No Neck Blues Band style "pipe fighting" and jazz improv. I did mention to him that I hadn't listened to it and was basing my opinion on the free-jazz / Americana-folk stylings of Jackie-O's previous outing "Fig. 5."
Now that I've actually cracked the duct-tape seal which encases the two records and immersed myself in the wonders of "The Magick Fire Music," I must gladly admit that I was very very wrong. There certainly is a rustic Tom Sawyer / Huck Finn aspect to the Portland ensemble's sound, but there is much less of the expected jazz element. Instead, Jackie-O Motherfucker has carved out a sound that is emotively quite similar to the post-rock melancholia of Godspeed / Sigur Ros but with none of their overly dramatic orchestrations.
The album opens with a buried collage of shortwave radio heterodyning and disconnected voices, but emphatically steps forward with a guitar duet between a saddened David Pajo-esque riff and an intertwining effects-laden chimed tone. After the clunky twang of Jew's harps on "Bone Saw," Jackie-O returns to the evocative, spacious, and cinematically Western riffs (especially on the breathtakingly melancholy "The Cage"), as an effective means of transcribing sound into a psychic landscape that is strangely similar to the aforementioned Godspeed. While Godspeed brackets their tight orchestrations around a social pessimism that eventually leads to cathartic enlightenment about how shitty the world is around us, Jackie-O Motherfucker settles back into a drugged stupor of oddly psychedelic grooves, something I prefer. A very, very good record!

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER U Sound Volume 2 (usoundarchive) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Run by Tom Greenwood and Josh Stevenson, both from Jackie-O Motherfucker, the U Sound series documents lost, hidden and forgotten musical history. Volume 2 features excerpts from two live Jackie-O Motherfucker shows in Portland and Vancouver back in 2000, showcasing the collective in both free-jazz freakout mode with constant saxophone squiggliness and non-rhythmic drum patter; as well as a couple of tracks of Appalachian folk scrambled into Parson Sound / Harvester druggy trances, the sound that made their recent "Liberation" album so engaging. Nicely recorded through a minidisc with binaural microphones and released as a CD-R.
RealAudio clip: "Charms Of The Viper (Live)"
RealAudio clip: "Ray-O-Graph (Live)"
RealAudio clip: "The Pigeon (Live)"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER U Sound Volume 3 (usoundarchive) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
More live recordings from the Portland improv collective Jackie-O Motherfucker from 2001 from shows in Portland and Vancouver. This document opens with their often squiggly saxophone mellowing out into sultry almost snake charmers' slinkiness, fronting lots of vibraphones and random drum fills. Jackie-O continues through a couple of similar tracks until the rhythm section kicks into a laid back frontporch jig and the sax solo takes a backseat to tranced out ringing guitar chords. Again, nicely recorded through a minidisc with binaural microphones and released as a CD-R.
RealAudio clip: "Pray (Live)"
RealAudio clip: "She Cuts Heart Shapes (Live)"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER U Sound Volume 4 (usoundarchive) cd-r 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Again, ESP-style revisionist jazz kicks off these two sets from Jackie-O Motherfucker from live shows in their native Portland and Seattle. Of all of the U Sound archives of Jackie-O live shows Volume 4 is the most free-jazz oriented, even their amazingly cinematic orchestration "The Pigeon" almost doesn't actualize itself because almost everybody's doin' their own thing. Again, nicely recorded through a minidisc with binaural microphones and released as a CD-R.
RealAudio clip: "Pigeon (Live)"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Valley Of Fire (Textile) cd 15.98
Valley of Fire finds Jackie-O Motherfucker settling down a bit, and that's not a bad thing.
There have been more bands and more releases embracing the type of song-writing that K Records and Bloomington punx have been quietly working on for years than we could possibly try to count. Part of what's punk about it is that you really only need to know a few major-key progressions, maybe a major scale or two, and you're good to go. But sometimes it's nice to see more developed artists play with the tension between folk and the avant garde. So basically, this release seems to have increased focus on song-writing, less on noisy freak-outs or improvisation -- although here's still some, and a whole lot more vocals. Maybe this record is more for the uninitiated trying to get to the bottom of Jackie-O, or those hesitant to commit to some of their longer, stranger works. Still, somewhat hesitantly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "The Tree"
MPEG Stream: "We Are / Channel Zero"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER Wow / Magick Fire Music (ATP Recordings) 2cd 19.98
Finally back in print, although unfortunately at a slightly higher price. But it's still worth it! What a great record!
The one-two punch that proves Jackie O Motherfucker just might be capable of edging out their more hyped contemporaries, the No Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand Of The Man, in the bid to rule the world of US-underground-free-psych-folk-weirdness.
There certainly is a rustic Tom Sawyer / Huck Finn aspect to this Portland ensemble's sound, but there is much less of the expected jazz element. Instead, Jackie-O Motherfucker have carved out a sound that is emotively quite similar to the post-rock melancholia of Godspeed / Sigur Ros but with none of their overly dramatic orchestrations.
The album opens with a buried collage of heterodyning shortwave radio and disconnected voices, but emphatically steps forward with a guitar duet between a sad David Pajo-esque riff and an intertwining effects-laden chimed tone. After the clunky twang of Jew's harps on "Bone Saw," Jackie-O returns to the evocative, spacious, and cinematically Western riffs (especially on the breathtakingly melancholy "The Cage"), as an effective means of transcribing sound into a psychic landscape that is strangely similar to the aforementioned Godspeed. While Godspeed bracket their tight orchestrations around a social pessimism that eventually leads to cathartic enlightenment about how shitty the world is around us, Jackie-O Motherfucker shrug their shoulders and settle back into a drugged out, dreamy drawly musical stupor of oddly psychedelic grooves which somehow seems way more appealing.
MPEG Stream: "Bone Saw"
MPEG Stream: "The Cage"
MPEG Stream: "Jugband 2000"

JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER / MY CAT IS AN ALIEN split (Very Friendly) cd 14.98
This is volume three in My Cat Is An Alien's series of split lp's/cd's. The lps are limited to 100 copies and contain original MCIAA artwork, but sell out immediately and more importantly cost over $100 so we wisely passed on those since the cds are way more nicely priced. And sound exactly the same! For volume three, MCIAA is joined by Jackie-O Motherfucker, who offer up a twenty minute musical joyride, equal parts tribal clatter, vocal experimentation, music concrete, skittery free jazz, ambient drone, studio fuckery / tape splicing / turntable weirdness and found sound collage. Sounds like it could be a mess, but it somehow works. A chaotic convoluted sonic freakout that's more mesmerizing than maddening. Quite cool actually. For their half of the split, MCIAA deliver a keening wash of glistening ambience, with lots of space-y swoosh and futuristic bleeps and bloops, that slowly morphs into an almost nursery rhyme like ditty with affected vocal melodies, simple chimes, and reverberating steel string shimmer.
MPEG Stream: JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER "Breaking"
MPEG Stream: MY CAT IS AN ALIEN "Blank View"

JACKIE-O-MOTHERFUCKER Freaker Pipe (Uzu Audio / Unity Sound Archive) lp 22.00
We managed to get a super limited number of these, a killer live album, vinyl only, from Northwestern psych / drone / improv / whatever collective Jackie-O-Motherfucker. Three tracks, recorded in Italy, San Francisco and Buffalo over the last few years, housed in a super striking hand made sleeve. Full color, psychedelic gatefold, hand screened, the inside is cut out so you can see the vinyl inside, the lp is housed in a trippy printed plastic sleeve, also included is a strange mini insert, each one is hand numbered, limited to 1000 copies.
The whole of side one is the NY show, and is an extended shimmery cinematic soundscape, distant swells, abstract percussion, and haunting female vocals that go from crooning to wordless mumbling to wildly speaking in tongues. Guitars warble and waver, everything is drifty and woozy and gorgeously dreamlike.
The SF show is all creaking moans and deconstructed blues, detuned guitars and bleating horns, muted and rumbling with lots and lots of low end. It sort of sounds like some busted old jazz record being spun manually with your finger on the turntable as slow as you can.
And finally, the Italian show is more of a sort of hypnotic ur-drone, like Sunroof! crossed with No Neck Blues Band, with a bit of that Finnish Forest Folk thrown in. A dronelike hum, a muted buzzing skree, horns moaning in the distance, cymbals sizzling and drums an abstract clatter.
All three sets are on the soft and tranquil side. Even at their most animated, they still seem dark and dreamy and subtly tripped out. Quite lovely and haunting.
Again, AMAZING packaging, and crazy limited. We got maybe 15 copies left, and once they're gone, we most likely will not be able to get moreŠ

JACKMAN, DAVID Edge Of Nothing (Die Stadt) 10" 21.00
David Jackman originally released Edge Of Nothing on an untitled cassette back in 1983 through his own Aeroplane imprint. This cassette was a tiny edition of 5 copies and recycled the archaic C7 tapes used in some computing systems as a means of storage. All of those copies were sold through the Rough Trade Shop in London; and supposedly, one customer actually used the cassette for computer storage and destroyed the music. Later that year, Edge Of Nothing re-appeared on the Elephant Table Album compilation alongside Chris & Cosey, Nurse With Wound, SPK, Legendary Pink Dots, Coil, etc. Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound remarked that Jackman's enigmatic work was "a cherry on a pile of vomit." While that compilation is actually quite good, Jackman's dissonant composition is an eerie anomaly amidst the rest of the albums disjointed electronics and semantic inversions of power. All of the sounds from Edge Of Nothing came from a 14" splash cymbal that Jackman bowed, scraped, looped, and played back in reverse. Jackman admits that he found this cymbal in the street, and it had previously been used for BB-gun practice. Regardless, the slightly overblown multi-tracked sounds from that cymbal have been the basis for the best Jackman recordings, both solo and with his 'group' Organum.
Jump two decades, and find Jackman returning to that same material to sculpt two tracks of the exact same length (6'29"). Edge Of Nothing is so dense and so lacking in any recognizable signposts within the mass of buzzings and raspings that it's hard to say if in fact Jackman has simply put the same track on both side. If one is to believe Die Stadt, then the pieces are indeed different.

JACKMAN, DAVID Eisen (Die Stadt) 10" 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Eisen" is another installment in a series from Organum ringleader David Jackman, who consistently offers a disturbing body of work with undeniable references to the atrocities of World War II. This piece is an extended collage built from an eerie repetition of a Wagnerian theme as played by a German marching band circa 1940. Jackman handles this piece with such masterful attention to detail that the mechanical machine gun noise and grimly triumphant horn loops almost become transparent to the intrinsically problematic overtones of the source material. Yet, Jackman leaves a huge semiotic void underneath his pristine surface of sound that brings any investigation into his work back to what's referenced by his source material. While Jackman hasn't stated his intentions regarding this piece, this series appears to be an obtuse reinterpretation of historical sound... As with everything that Jackman releases, "Eisen" is first and foremost, a fascinating sound recording, but is destined to be a collector's item, limited as it is to 500 copies.

JACKMAN, DAVID Flak (Die Stadt) 10" 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the first of four 10"s to be released through Die Stadt within the next year. The A-side will certainly appeal to Organum fans, an impressive collage of acoustic drones from scraped metals. This is as good as any of the best Organum recordings, although only a mere 6 minutes long. The B-side is a straight field recording of birds and airplanes, also with a very brief program of 6 minutes or so. Limited to 500 copies.

JACKMAN, DAVID Machine Gun Fighting (Die Stadt) 10" 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
David Jackman is the enigmatic mastermind behind the drone ensemble Organum, who are known for their textural explorations into the acoustic properities of bowed metals. Jackman, under his own name, has released several amazing records completely unlike Organum. "Machine Gun Fighting" is a reworking of archival sound recordings from the Imperial War Museum in London, and continues in a series of war related collages that Jackman has made from those recordings. Using the rapid hammer fire of machine guns as the sole sound source, Jackman builds a surprisingly droned-out but nerve-wracking collage. While certain circles of right-wing post-industrialists still conjure the images of World War II to invoke the power of horror, Jackman's intentions appear less than clear and may simply be based on the sonic quality of these machines rather than their significance as implements of destructions.

JACKMAN, DAVID Up From Zero (Robot) cd 14.98
After a spell of expensive releases both solo and as Organum that held a paltry amount of material, David Jackman has finally provided a new album where the dollar per minute ratio is less than one! In other words, you get 35 minutes of aggregate sound collage for a mere $14.98. Though a reissue, essentially nobody has really heard these recordings before as Up From Zero was one of the very first cassettes that Jackman put out on his Aeroplane Records back in 1982 in an edition of just 30 copies. There's also an extra track dating back to 1980, a collaboration with the underappreciated Philip Sanderson. While his strongest work has clearly been his Organum project which concentrates on timbral accumulations of bowed gongs and scraped metals into epic drones and minimalist constructions, Jackman's solo work has a considerable amount to offer. Up From Zero is a particularly dynamic suite distinguished by the easily recognizable samples which riddle Jackman's compositions. A screeching loop of a car crash interrupts the burbling of a placid stream; deep rumbling drones situate behind the seasick motion of scraped metals and smashed glass; and bowed guitar echoes toward infinity. These sounds are much more obvious than most Organum / Jackman sounds, but never quite articulate themselves as the Surrealist epiphanies of Nurse With Wound. It may have been that these early works experimented with various sounds before he hit on the signature of Organum. Nevertheless, another very strong piece of work from one of the great minimalists of the contemporary era.
MPEG Stream: "Ways To The Sea"
MPEG Stream: "Threshold"
MPEG Stream: "Up From Zero"