LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Qal'at Abd'al-Salam / O Parladoiro Desamortuxado (Asellus) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Francisco Lopez's monumental catalogue of field recordings, ultra minimalism, and Zen-like barely modulating pure tone recordings is a daunting one to step into. This cd collects two distinct bodies of Lopez' work with "Qal'at Abd'Al-Salam" (a loosely connected collection of field recordings of public spaces) and "O Parladoiro Desamortuxado" (fragments of highly textured noise pieces set against ultra quiet passages).

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Technocalyps (Alien8) cd 14.98

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Temizlemek (Linea Alternativa) 2cd 22.00
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In answer to the first question... yes, you can hear this Lopez record. When the often inaudible Francisco Lopez gets audible, the results are some of more interesting manipulations of field recordings (along with L. Chasse, John Hudak, and Giancarlo Toniutti). And this double cd may be the best work that we have encountered. Slow burning drones layered from undefined yet organic source material lull beautifully within all of the disperate textures. Recommended.

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Untitled #180 (Alien8 Recordings) cd 13.98
For well over two decades now, Francisco Lopez has defined his impressive body of electro-acoustic composition and manipulated field recordings as "absolute concrete." Through the bulk of his recordings, he has so thoroughly abstracted the source materials (some of which he has named, some of which is unspecified) that it often realizes itself as monumental slabs of imposing rumbles and grey static steadily progressing through effectively simple compositions. In many ways, Lopez' "absolute concrete" parallels the definition of acousmatic compositions, whereby the source material is hidden from the audience to present sound in its pure form away from any visual distractions. Curiously enough, this recontexualization away from the original object is pretty much the strategy employed by Hollywood sound designers; and this course of logic is one that must have crossed Lopez' mind, as Untitled #180 culls its sound from a dozen or so Hollywood blockbusters. Given that those blockbusters so thoroughly enhance each and every sound to maximize the dramatic impact of the scene, the sounds from Untitled #180 are monstrously loud crashes often quickly cutting to yet another sound. It ends up much more of a cavalcade of thrum and crush as if Pierre Henry were to hand over some scores to Brian Lustmord (a Hollywood sound designer by day FYI). A bit of an detour for Lopez, but well worth the trip.
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 180"

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Untitled (1981-83) (Staalplaat) cd 7.98
This 3" cd represents the field earliest recordings from Francisco Lopez, although Lopez did remaster them in 1998 - pushing original tapes (which probably found the recordings well within the audible range) into incredibly quiet volumes. Water, radiators, and air ducts appear to have been his earliest fascinations (and ones that I believe he still seeks out, although his recording techniques have certainly improved to capture a lot of the low end from such sources). This may certainly be indicative of his earliest work, but it isn't nearly as expressive as his latest outut.

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Untitled (1993) (Staalplaat) cd 15.98
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Some time back, AQ prankster Andee thought it funny to put a empty jewel case out on the shelves with a tag stating that the audio content was so minimal that it didn't even exist. Little did we know that this high art/bad joke concept was paralleled by the very first Reynols record -- which was a 'dematerialized' cd. With that lengthy precursor, we are happy to say that this Francisco Lopez record is NOT another in the continuum of sub-audible recordings. Rather "Untitled (1993)" is a collection of live collaborations between Lopez and a handful of guests (John Hudak, Michael Gendreau, Michale Northam, Gen Ken Montgomery, Steve Peters, and Zan Hoffmann). Lopez manages to corral all of the diverse aesthetics of these artists into the more audible spectrum of his own sound of lengthy environmental drones. Like all of the records you actually can hear by Lopez, "Untitled (1993)" is pretty fantastic.

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Untitled (2006-2007) (Monochrome Vision) 2cd 17.98
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The first published work in Francisco Lopez' ongoing Untitled series was Untitled 74, released on Table Of The Elements in 1998; and in less than a decade that number of untitled compositions has bloated to well above 200. With this Russian release, Lopez collects many of the Untitled recordings, dated from 2006 and 2007, giving some credence to his numbering systems. Perhaps, he didn't just start with #74 and jump around; rather he's constantly making field recordings, composing new works, and considering raw material from various collaborators, with too much work to get everything released.
It's been a while since we had to cautiously approach the work of Francisco Lopez with the concern that he might be issuing an inaudible or near-inaudible record, and even those long periods of silence which do pop up on some of his records are completely done away with on this collection. The reason for this is that each track is a discrete composition of repurposed environmental sound, stretched, blurred, occluded into magnified hiss, aerated drone, grotesquely exaggerated texture, and industrial hum snapped against the sounds of the Amazon and the Costa Rica rainforests, whose rich bird and insect life chatter in polyphonic choruses. Source material on a couple of tracks was provided by Rapoon and Lawrence English; and there's a piece that Lopez composed for an avant-garde chamber ensemble, that certainly presents an ominous atmosphere of piano stabs against agitated strings and rumbling double bass, very Zeitkratzer. As a whole, this 2cd set is Absolute Lopez near his absolute best!
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 193"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 194"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 202"
MPEG Stream: "Untitled 203"

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Untitled 104 (Alien8 Recordings) cd 14.98
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I kid you not. This is the album where Lopez goes metal. Not the recording of sheet metal resonance, not the amplified vibrations of metal molecules, not even the inactivity of two pieces of sheet metal thoughtfully sitting alone in a room with nothing to ponder but their own existential (in)audibility. The normally sedate Lopez goes metal like Emperor, Slayer, or Cradle of Filth.
If anybody has recently witnessed the cascading power of Lopez's recent live shows, then "Untitled 104" is certainly not a surprise. Of course, Lopez sets everything up with 4 minutes of his usual silence, before a tumultuous assault of sampled metal blast beats destroys any semblence of serenity. Lopez layers wave after wave of rhythmic clatter that reveals an incredible amount of textural noise. One blast beat takes the aural center stage, and you find yourself asking "Huh? Is this Cannibal Corpse? Or was that last one from Morbid Angel? I don't know." (Actually, we suspect that all the samples are from one band, but even the metal minds here at AQ haven't confidently guessed which one.) Lopez could have unwittingly devised the ultimate trivia contest for metalheads to name the sample. 35 minutes pass (35 head spinning, if not head banging minutes) and then the metal rhythms stop. Ten more minutes of silence provide the coda.
While this record is really fucking good (indeed, it's one of Jim's favorites of the year along with Reynols' "Blank Tapes"), it is also another example of the academic / art world colonization of metal. Like Matthew Barney's awe-inspiring image in "Cremaster 2" of Dave Lombardo hammering at his drum kit behind the sound of swarming bees, Lopez's "Untitled 104" effectively translates the pure masculine power of metal to an audience who may not care for the, uh, aesthetics of metal. Fortunately, it appears that Lopez and Barney do not approach metal with a snobbish irony (like Harmony Korine's reprehensible photo-enlargements of black metal album covers that sold for tens of thousands of dollars), but such appropriation nevertheless marginalizes metal as nothing more than a texture or an attitude, far from the vibrant and deviant culture that it is.
Rant aside, if this record causes one fan of Bernhard Gunter to get into Burzum, then, as far as Aquarius Records is concerned, Lopez has succeeded. Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Untitled 104 (excerpt)"

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Untitled 123 (Alien8 Recordings) cd 14.98
Like almost all of the Francisco Lopez recordings, silence introduces the album, with the intention of forcing the listener into a state of mind for attentive listening. Of course, with a couple of his records being so barely audible as to render them practically empty, the staging of silence can makes us nervous that this record too is practically empty. Thankfully, we can announce that "Untitled 123" is not silence, and like those Lopez records that are audible, this one too is worth checking out!
In 2000, [the user] undertook an daunting installation of transforming an abandoned grain silo in Montreal into a gigantic instrument that could be accessed by anyone around the world via the internet. Since anybody could play the Silophone (by sending real audio files to a computer which broadcast those sounds into the huge resonatings space of the silo, which in turn were bounced back in the form streaming digital audio), it's a little unclear if the sounds that Lopez used were his own or if they included random elements from other people using the Silophone. But it does appear that Lopez was actually recording these sounds while in the space itself, and not just pulling off the net.
Anyway, I mentioned that Lopez began this album with silence, but this is disturbed by a distant grey sound which gradually increases in volume. It is not a stationary sound, but one that whips and fluctuates as if caused by moving air, but these do not sound like wind recordings. Lopez then unexpectedly jolts his composition with a series of rhythmic static bursts that are quite unusual for the normal Lopez recording and sound somewhat like the Hafler Trio's early '90s dyptic of sexually explicit recordings, "Fuck" and "Masturbatorium." These tones abruptly stop and the process begins again with another set of grey sounds emerging from the distance; these slightly more nervous with several tightly modulating vibrations extending outward from the silence. This in turn gets louder and louder, with lots of overdubbing sounds of hurricane force blasts of white noise that has all of the transcendent energy of Keiji Haino, but with none of the chords being audible. Again, this comes to an abrupt stop and the album concludes where it started with an extended period of silence.

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Untitled 150 (Antifrost) cd 15.98

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Warszawa Restaurant (Trente Oiseaux) cd 16.98
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"Warszawa Restaurant" was one of the first albums to be released from the ultra-minimalist Francisco Lopez back in 1995, though he provides hints that he has an immense amount of work that predates this album and has yet to be released. This is mostly from his ongoing "Untitled" series which begins with "Untitled 74" (one of his most unsuccessful works which happened to be released on Table of the Elements). Anyway, "Warszawa Restaurant" fits into Lopez' ideas of manipulated any given acoustic space with the intrusion of increasingly powerful drones culled from environmental recordings. Air conditioning ducts, wind, the ambient din of a city, rainforests, run out grooves for vinyl, and of course death metal blast beats ("Untitled 108") have been some of sources for the textural recordings that Lopez has manipulated into his dynamic compositions that blur the boundaries between silence and sound. For the most part, Lopez doesn't wish his source material to be known... and "Warzawa Restaurant" delivers in the mystery department. Bleak swells of grey sounds slowly breathe and fluctuate out of periods of silence, with very little direct references to the world around us. Instead, this album forces the listener to concentrate on their auricular surroundings in an attempt to make us aware of his belief that the world itself is the most extravagant instrument known to man.
RealAudio clip: "Warszawa Restaurant 4"

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO Wind [Patagonia] (And/OAR) cd 13.98
Wind [Patagonia] is the third in a series of recordings from Francisco Lopez which also included Building [New York] and the universally acclaimed La Selva, all three of which are raw field recordings in the Chris Watson vein of sleight edits rather than Lopez' typical strategies for acoustmatics. As you can imagine, Wind is a collection of wind recordings; and as you could probably also gather, Lopez captured these sounds in the southern regions of Argentina. Lopez himself describes this as "relentless environment of sonic strength;" and yeah, these field recordings do hold a dynamic abrasion heard in most noise records, yet the sounds are all of winds whipping across the Patagonian landscape.
MPEG Stream: "excerpt"

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & XABIER ERKIZIA Elektra Bidasoa (Ferns) cd 15.98
So, Andee just asked the perennially valid question, when it comes to Lopez recordings at least, after coming up to the front of the shop and seeing this new cd on the counter, yet hearing 'nothing' coming from the speakers: "Are you actually listening to this right now?" With a sizable portion of Lopez' nearly 300 compositions being sub-audible at best, it is in fact not always a bad idea to pose that question. It should be stated that the above query was made between tracks one and two, when Lopez was enjoying some downtime; but aside from this brief moment, Lopez is much more forthright in presenting a goodly amount of immersive sound.
For Elektra Bidasoa, he and Xabier Erkizia (better known as half of the AQ-endorsed noise-rock outfit Billy Bao!) slogged down the Bidasoa River in Spain, making recordings from the various hydroelectric plants located on that waterway. Earlier in 2011, the two presented an installation of their findings intermeshing the two sets of recordings; but here, their findings are presented in parallel. While both Lopez and Erkizia were drawing from the same source material - industrial hum, hiss, drone, and klank - they arrive at considerably different compositions. For Lopez, the whorl of the turbine, the hum of the circuit board, and the hiss of the cooling unit all become sustained elements in a gradually evolving composition of dehumanized activity. Such pneumatic and automated systems can function rightly on their own, seemingly independent of the human hand; and Lopez speaks to the engineered functionality as an aestheticized language - a poetry of the sterile and antiseptic.
Erkizia is far more in awe of those machines than Lopez', presenting his recordings with considerable dynamic force. Along with the machined drones that Lopez uses, Erkizia occasionally turns his microphones to the water which drives those dams, at times sloshing at the riverbank and at times roaring through the massive concrete sluices that guide the water through the turbines themselves. This contrast from the bursts of activity from either source, poses a threat of electrocution. Coupled with the intense explosions that Erkizia uses in his concrete-styled composition, this work can be downright scary at times.
MPEG Stream: FRANCISCO LOPEZ "Untitled 226"
MPEG Stream: XABIER ERKIZIA "Bidasoa, Presak"

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & ZAN HOFFMAN Concert For 300 Magnetic Tapes (The Tapeworm) cassette 8.98
Yet another chunk of awesome audio weirdness from UK cassette label The Tapeworm (along with three other releases reviewed elsewhere on this week's list). They had us with the title, Concert For 300 Magnetic Tapes. We were maybe envisioning something more like Reynols' Blank Tapes, a composition of the hiss and noise from playing back unrecorded audio tapes, this is Francisco Lopez after all, whose compositions offer border on the absolutely inaudible. But instead, Lopez and Zan Hoffmann solicited tapes from various musicians and artists in the international home recording 4 track cassette tape underground, and embarked on a tour, during which the two would add some of their own sounds, to a glorious cacophonous collage of the various contributions. In this wall of taped sound, impossible to tell what is pre-recorded, or what is being performed live (this recording was culled from various performances in 1994), but a hazy, washed out, softly noisy swirl of voices, and sonic snippets, truncated melodies, lots of grinding and buzzing and hissing, everything layered and tangles, often a confusional mess, but just as often coalescing into something strangely composed sounding, tinkling melodies over a heaving wall of crumbling distortion, or some distant lilting dreaminess, underpinned by jagged shards of chaotic crunch, fuzzy radio broadcast like voices swathed in gritty swirls of static, bits of guitar twang surface occasionally, before slipping back into the grey wash of constantly shifting sound. Really cool. And maybe one of the coolest compositions/performances we've heard from Lopez!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO & ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI Whint (.absolute.) 2cd 19.98
Another of Zbigniew's many projects, this time recorded in cahoots with the equally prolific minimal (often barely audible!) composer Francisco Lopez. On "Whint" these two experimental electronic superstars collaborated in creating shared "sound materials" and then produced separate pieces (Lopez on one disc, Karkowski on the other) that draw on these same sound sources -- what was originally plain old white noise before this duo got their hands on it. Now it's dynamic, whooshing, rumbling, hissing white noise, punctuated with stretches of near-silence on the Lopez disc. The extremes of volume alone make this a scary listen. Note: packaged in a clear jewelcase with no booklet or other artwork, just the cds, a la so many other experimental/electronic discs these days. What is it with that aesthetic? For $20 you ought to get some packaging!

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO / AMY DENIO Belle Confusion 00 (Absolute) cd 14.98
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Even through his collaborations (as seen here on Belle Confusion 00 with Amy Denio), Francisco Lopez has successfully resisted procedures, craftsmanship, and semantics. What's left behind are paradoxically both ominous and serene compositions of open ended droning mysteries to be researched and investigated by the audience as they see fit. While Belle Confusion 00 uses Denio's voice (no saxophone) as the basic sound material, Lopez and Denio have built a haunted gray drone from the complex harmonics of a human voice that never utters anything except its own somatic textures. Their collaboration begins with a mirage-like sound of undefinable yet delicate fluctuations, then a silence, followed by a slow rumble of similar sounds as the first interlude but much less friendly, and then another silence. I find myself thinking that Lopez has stretched out two brief syllables from Denio's voice over the course of an hour.
RealAudio clip: "Belle Confusion 00"

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO / MICHAEL NORTHAM Belle Confusion 0247 (Absolute) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Francisco Lopez's Belle Confusion 0247 with fellow field recording artist Michael Northam is certainly one of the strongest recordings to come from Lopez's encyclopedia of 'absolute concrete music' which in the past, has included investigations of the physicality of silence, the swarming sonic tapestries of South American rainforests, and the textural intricacies of death metal blastbeats. Northam and Lopez began an exchange five years which resulted in Northam's appearance on Staalplaat's release of Untitled (1993). For this album, the two apply a considerable amount of pressure to their processed field recordings which gradually increase from near silence to roaring floods of metallic noise and gives way to a hovering buzz from an indeterminant timestretched echo, striated by almost imperceptible tinklings of wooden objects. Very nice.
RealAudio clip: "Belle Confusion 0247"

LOPEZ, FRANCISCO / SCOTT ARFORD Solid State Flesh / Solid State Sex (Low Impedence) 2cd 16.98
Perhaps it took Scott Arford winning honorable mention at the 2005 Ars Electronica to get this split release with Francisco Lopez to come out. These two pieces were originally recorded back in 2002 and had been slated for release by a couple of different labels, until Low Impedence had the sense to finally just do it. Curiously enough, this is one of several releases to come pouring out of Arford's 7hz studios after a couple of years of silence. Electricity appears to the source material and subject matter for the two composers on Solid State Flesh & Solid State Sex. The latter is the work of Mr. Arford who has always had a penchant for hard, blistered noises and cacophonic feedback squallor; and those sounds are heavily featured here punctuating the deadened buzz of smoldering electricity. It's hard to think of this as being sexy music or even sexual music given the electrocutionist throb of Arford's sounds, thus lending to plenty of transgressive readings if you're so inclined. On the slightly more voluptuous Solid State Flesh, Lopez expands the monotone of 60 cycle hums and the hissing buzz of electrical static through his signature compositional strategy of slow-burning tumult which abruptly halt and annouce a prolonged passage of inactivity. Unlike some of his Belle Confusion pieces, Solid State Flesh adds a considerable menace to his self-professed absolute concrete, but nevertheless is very well done and an excellent companion to Arford's work.
MPEG Stream: SCOTT ARFORD "Discharge"
MPEG Stream: SCOTT ARFORD "Strange Attractor"
MPEG Stream: FRANCISCO LOPEZ "Solid State Flesh"

LOQUAT Before The Momentum (Builder / Devil In The Woods) cd 4.98
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Following their very well-received Penny Drop 5-song ep, Loquat issue forth a slightly longer 7-song cd of equally pretty pop that once again brings to mind that fine British pop combo The Sundays. Wide-eyed, wistful, girlish vocals from Ms Kylee Swenson with a subtle, hushed backing of gentle piano, guitar and drums that tip toe gracefully around her voice. Be forewarned if you already have the ep, four of those five songs make a reappearance here (the final song "Band-Aid Queen" didn't make the cut), however they do deliver a sweet rendition of The Smiths' "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". Should tide fans over until their soon-to-be-released debut full length. FYI: this is the third in Devil In The Woods Magazine's delightfully low priced Builder series.
MPEG Stream: "Friends Without Thumbs"
MPEG Stream: "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"

LOQUAT Fall (Dreams By Degrees) 10" 9.98
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For those of you who gobbled up the wistful, pretty pop stylings on Loquat's recent Penny Drop cdep, here's another similarly tuneful offering. Four mellow songs in all (including an alternate version and a remix of "Swingset Chain" from the ep) that come in the form of a 10" record that's part of a Bay Area artists series from the Dreams By Degrees label. Rounding out the other three seasons are Colophon (spring), Sappington (summer), and Coastal (winter).

LOQUAT It's Yours To Keep (Jackpine) cd 14.98
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Jackpine Records is home to many fine Bay Area artists' releases (Kelley Stoltz's Antique Glow, Parchman Farm's self titled debut, Oranger's Shutdown The Sun, as well as the compilations paying tribute to Joe South and Kris Kristofferson). Now they welcome a new member to the family... Loquat! You might already be fondly familiar with this SF band's sweet brand of smooth pop from their two cdeps (Penny Drop and Before The Momentum) and one 10" which we've carried in the past. If so, you'll probably be quite pleased with their latest offering, and if not, then this should make for a very pleasant introduction. If you like female fronted, lilting pop bands such as The Cardigans, The Cranberries or The Sundays, Loquat might be your new crush. Lead singer Kylee Swenson's voice continue to be a deadringer for that of The Sundays' Harriet Wheeler.
Please note: some of the songs from their previous releases reappear here. The ninth song "To The Floor" was originally on their debut Penny Drop cdep and their song "Swingset Chain" has been included on every cd release thus far. Yeah it's a great song, and yeah it was on a WB TV show, and yeah this is a freshly recorded version, but c'mon Loquat don't milk it to death! We know you've got plenty more where that came from.
Okay, enough grousing, but we just thought we should alert you to all of that, in case you were expecting a completely new album. Anyways, the sun is shining brightly today, and Loquat is taking its cue, beaming out warm, wonderful, well-crafted pop songs. Dreamy!
MPEG Stream: "Slow, Fast, Wait & See"
MPEG Stream: "It's Yours To Keep"

LOQUAT The Penny Drop EP (Loquat Music) cd 8.98
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With their sweetly lilting female vocals and pretty mid tempo pop songs, Loquat's Penny Drop EP slips very gracefully in alongside the music of the Sundays or early Cranberries. Simply put, this SF quintet make very well-executed, warm and dreamy pop music. Pretty darn polished and radio-ready! Shuffling drum beats, synthy strings, and understated piano and guitar melodies swirl around the lead vocals of Kylee Swenson and the kindly male back-ups which come to think of it, also really brought to mind the loveliness of Emma Pollock from the fabulous Scottish band the Delgados. Soft but with a little twist of wryness in it.
RealAudio clip: "Swingset Chain"
RealAudio clip: "To The Floor"

LORD BUCKLEY The Royal Court Of Lord Buckley (El Records) cd 16.98

LORD FOUL Killing Raping Burning / The Devil's Advocate (Forever Plagued Records) cd 8.98
This document of raw and primitive American black metal also available on cd!!
This Kentucky one man band recorded only two cassette demos, between 1993 and 1994, only one of which was ever released. Originally thought to be a joke, the liner notes in this new edition state explicitly that "the hatred radiating from these recordings is real!", and while the man behind these sounds was known as Roach back in the day, he now goes by the name James Brown III, and is a member of LA black metallers Harassor (and is responsible for the awesome Moon Knight tape we reviewed a while back)!
Eleven blasts of blasting, pounding blackness, primitive and raw, fierce and feral, the guitars buzz maniacally, the drums super lo-fi, boomy and rehearsal space sounding, the vokills so awesome, a sick demonic croak, all woven into short sharp bursts of true black metal grimnity, the songs slipping from mid-tempo plod to furious blast and back again, the sound fantastically lo-fi, blown out, murky and muddy, buzzy and black.
MPEG Stream: "Rising Beast"
MPEG Stream: "False Messiah"
MPEG Stream: "My King"

LORD FOUL Killing Raping Burning / The Devil's Advocate (Dais) lp 21.00
This document of raw and primitive American black metal has been resurrected and reissued on vinyl by the Dais label. An unlikely choice, considering the rest of the Dais catalog, but in its own way, this collection of outsider blackness is a pretty good fit. This Kentucky one man band recorded only two cassette demos, between 1993 and 1994, only one of which was ever released. Originally thought to be a joke, the liner notes in this new edition state explicitly that "the hatred radiating from these recordings is real!", and while the man behind these sounds was known as Roach back in the day, he now goes by the name James Brown III, and is a member of LA black metallers Harassor (and is responsible for the awesome Moon Knight tape we reviewed a while back)!
Eleven blasts of blasting, pounding blackness, primitive and raw, fierce and feral, the guitars buzz maniacally, the drums super lo-fi, boomy and rehearsal space sounding, the vokills so awesome, a sick demonic croak, all woven into short sharp bursts of true black metal grimnity, the songs slipping from mid-tempo plod to furious blast and back again, the sound fantastically lo-fi, blown out, murky and muddy, buzzy and black.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Each one hand numbered, incredible packaging, black matte finish sleeves, with red metallic foil stamped artwork, the lp is one sided, with a cool satanic etching on the B side, inside is a huge 12"x12" booklet with lyrics, photos, and two interviews with Lord Foul from way back in 1994.
MPEG Stream: "Rising Beast"
MPEG Stream: "False Messiah"
MPEG Stream: "My King"

LORD HIGH FIXERS The Beginning of the End (In The Red) cd 13.98
I love In The Red Records. They are one of the few labels that continues to put out great punk rock records. The Lord High Fixers were from Austin, TX and featured both Tim Kerr (of the Big Boys and Monkeywrench) and Mike Carroll (of Poison 13). 'The Beginning Of The End' just happens to be this band's swan song released posthumously. It's jam-packed with covers, many of them old blues and soul classics: Curtis Mayfield's classic "People Get Ready" with a surprise appearance of slide trombone, Booker T's "Stop And Think It Over", a suitably raunchy cover of Mudhoney's "You Got It" as well as "One Way Ticket" by the Morlocks. A wild collision of garage, blues, punk, and even some free jazz skronk! Scattered between the songs are brief spoken word clips from the likes of Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, Angela Davis and Woody Guthrie. A gorgeously raw and gritty goodbye to these garage rock heroes.
RealAudio clip: "Godzilla Vs King Baby"
RealAudio clip: "You Got It"
RealAudio clip: "One Way Ticket"

LORD LOVES A WORKING MAN s/t (self-released) cd 11.98
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Don't know why it should be any different for this genre than for any other, but it strikes us that it's gotta take some major cojones to tackle the badass stylings of Stax! That said, L.L.A.W.M. do so, and they do it admirably well. These folks clearly have a genuine gritty love of old soul music. These days every style of music has made its way into both the indie and mainstream circuits, hasn't it? Guess it was only time before this goldmine was tapped. Good times.
MPEG Stream: "You Threw Out Your Lifeline"
MPEG Stream: "Yuba City Breakdown"

LORD LOVES A WORKING MAN s/t (2011) (self-released) cd 11.98

MPEG Stream: "Better Off Being Alone"
MPEG Stream: "Stronger Next Time"
MPEG Stream: "Broken Heart"

LORD MANTIS Pervertor (Candlelight) cd 14.98
Full length number two from this Chicago sludge metal supergroup, featuring folks from a whole bunch of other aQ metal faves, Nachmystium, Von, Amichi and Indian, and really if you did do some weird metal math, and combined those various bands, you'd probably come out with something like this, a furious, roiling sprawl of blackened sludge metal churn, the riffs, thick and dense and downtuned, the drumming fierce and pummeling, the vocals slipping from intense blackened rasp, to demonic screech, to monstrous death metal bellow, with those vox sometimes spiralling into clouds of psychedelic FX and blurred reverb. But this is definitely not your run of the mill sludge, it's not all creep and slither, instead the band chug and pound and blast furiously, but all of that energy seems to go towards density rather than propulsion, the songs tranced out and almost looped sounding, the actual tempos slow, but within those slow tempos, the drums flail wildly, explosive blasts of tribal frenzy, the guitars unleash dizzying tangles of riffage, and wild squiggles of melody, the sound slipping from gnarled Deathspell like blackness, to pounding grunted goat metal, and from tripped out psychedelic heaviness to death metal dirgery, and more often than not, some gloriously twisted combination of all of the above. A new favorite for sure with the metalheads around here.
Killer grim artwork courtesy of aQ pal Justin Bartlett.
MPEG Stream: "Pervertor Of The Will"
MPEG Stream: "Septichrist"
MPEG Stream: "Vile Divinity"

LORD OF DOUBTS s/t (Sekt Ov Gnozis) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If not utterly impossible, it would certainly still be silly to write a review of this debut by Russian dope n' doom trio Lord Of Doubts without mentioning that they sound a heck of a lot like UK stoner doom titans Electric Wizard. In fact, those two words would easily do for a brief review of this: ELECTRIC WIZARD! You could almost leave it at that, really. Citing a few of their song titles would work well too: "Temple Of The Riff", "Satan's Magic Smoke", "Heavier Than Universe". You get the idea, eh?
Of course, this list, we're highlighting the domestic release of EW's latest slab of psychedelic sonic Satanism, Black Masses. But if you're still jonesin' for more of an Electric Wizard fix, here you go. Lord Of Doobies, whoops, we mean Lord Of Doubts, deliver the same brand of bong-smoke-shrouded, slow n' low riffage that Electric Wizard fans are hooked upon. Drugula obviously put the bite on these Russians too. Their riffs are as massive and mesmeric. The rhythm section likewise a pounding, lurching throb. And, clinching it, the vocals are similarly a ragged, wretched, wasted drawl. It's total EW worship, no doubt about it. We can't imagine they'd deny the Electric Wizard influence, but original or not (and EW themselves of course owe something to predecessors Black Sabbath), Lord Of Doubts do what they do quite well. It's not just the *sound* that they emulate, but they also prove themselves capable of writing worthy riffs, so rather than a rip-offs, we regard them as talented acolytes, and possible heirs to the Dopethrone when and if EW ever pack it in. Seriously, we were a bit skeptical about this before we first put it on, but soon found ourselves utterly hypnotized by the heaviness, and how can you argue with that?
MPEG Stream: "Temple Of The Riff"
MPEG Stream: "Endless Slumber"

LORD OF DOUBTS The Gates Of Doom (Sekt Ov Gnozis) cd ep 11.98
Many moons ago, we gave a plethora of positive hand signals (thumbs up, devil horns, 'hang loose'...) in written review form to the debut disc by a Russian stoner doom band, this one, Lord Of Doubts, who impressed the hell out of us both -despite- and -because- of their uncanny resemblance to those aQ (and everyone's) fave stoner doom metal mongers, Electric Wizard. Nothin' original about 'em, no doubt about it, Lord Of Doubts were (and are) Electric Wizard worshippers, but sometimes that's ok. When done right. Which they did. Basically, it's about the sound AND the riffs. If you got 'em, you got 'em. We declared Lord Of Doubts "heirs to the Dopethrone" and there was high demand for that disc, which unfortunately was somewhat limited and went out of print all too soon...
But now, we've learned of a NEW opus from LoD, well an ep at least, which we just ordered direct from the Russian Federation. Ensconced in a handsome digipak, this golden disc contains a brief introduction, and then two longer, bonged-out songs, "The Gates Of Doom" and "Kali Ma - Black Mother", over 20 minutes total. Once again, damn if they don't sound just like the Electric Wizard... Crushing riff repetition. Crashing cymbals. Gnarled vocal chant. Everything slowly pulsating in a dense druggy haze. But, now it's as if Electric Wizard, in the tradition of the Beatles, travelled to India to get high with their guru... Maybe it's the cover art, and the droning chants of "Kali Ma", and the buried, distorted dialog samples from some Hindi movie... but Lord Of Doubts do seem to bring an Eastern ceremonial vibe to these lugubriously heavy, sprawling psych proceedings! Electric Wizard and The Temple Of Doom, anyone?
MPEG Stream: "The Gates Of Doom"
MPEG Stream: "Kali Ma - Black Mother"

LORD OF THE GRAVE Raunacht (The Church Within Records) cd 15.98
Lordy. From the same label that brought us Lord Vicar, comes another doom metal act with Lord in the name, Lord Of The Grave! They like their Lords over there at The Church Within.
So yeah, of course this is some doomy stuff. This Swiss power trio plays raw doom metal along the lines of Sleep, Electric Wizard, and Eyehategod. Slow and low, but not quite glacially ultradoomic, though definitely on the sludgy side of Sabbath, with swinging, swaying, repetitive riffs pounding themselves pleasantly into your (possibly) stoned skull. Simple but effective! The relentless blown-out riffage sometimes segues into spacey, nod-scene atmospherics (where they really begin to sound like Om, approaching that style of psychedelic metal minimalism).
There's five tracks here, none of 'em short, most around 7-10 minutes long and the final number clocking in at 17:33 (a track long enough, and with enough tripped out guitar soloing, to draw comparisons to Earthless). Any one of 'em though seems like they could (or should, or maybe even do) go on forever, lumbering along heavily and hypnotically. Adding to the mesmeric vibe are the rhyming incantations of the singer, his voice a hoarse holler, or sometimes a spoken-sung stoned mumble, buried in the mix. Again, we're reminded of Sleep/Om.
Not much else to say, you either like this sort of stuff or you don't. And if you do, we probably don't even need to mention that the first track is entitled "Holy Vitus", do we?
MPEG Stream: "Holy Vitus"
MPEG Stream: "Lord Of The Grave"
MPEG Stream: "Bardo"

LORD TANG s/t (Gigante Sound) cassette 5.98
Live performance and touring (especially internationally) does much to sharpen the chops, expand the scopes and get the creative juices flowing for most artists, and it certainly appears so in the case for one Mr. Dominic Cramp. It seems the many journeys on the road performing as keyboardist and sound shaper for Carla Bozulich's group Evangelista have spurred him - already a very prolific music maker for many years - to stretch his limbs a bit, and push the boundaries of his music-making comfort zone into some fresh but not altogether foreign territory.
Lord Tang is definitely the brethren of Cramp's other musical personas (particularly Borful Tang, but also Vulcanus 68, Qulfus et al), and those familiar and fond of his Bay Area indie label Gigante Sound will surely geek to this too, but what sets Lord Tang apart are the new influences and inspirations Cramp has drawn upon, and the incorporation of more conventional song foundations (at least comparably so when placed next to his alter egos' more loosely structured soundscapes). However, he does not remain within those confines. As always, his music is free roaming. His soundscapes creep along, build, dissipate, and shapeshift like the cloud formations referred to in the opener. At once, both dense and vaporous, the tracks may linger on a note sequence or beat pattern for a spell then moving on, occasionally returning to revisit a theme in cyclical fashion.
In previous works and incarnations, Cramp scavenged, sculpted and collaged together the structures and narratives from existing samples (field recordings, tapes, and such). In Lord Tang, the elements (most notably melodies and rhythmic passages) are much more composed from scratch, and the sounds are built, shaped and performed on instruments (we detect a gaggle of analog synths, drum machines and digital effects processors among them). That said, although his creative processes may have diverged somewhat from his usual path, the resulting tracks aren't too alienatingly different to the ear. As with many of his instrumental recordings, this one oozes, lurches and seeps its way into your ear canals. Moody with a dark whimsy. We envision a subterranean being clawing its way up to the Earth's surface to eavesdrop on the city dwellers. Curiosity piqued by their daily routines and mundane dialogues, the churning rhythms of traffic reverberating down into his dank sunless world.
MPEG Stream: "Fog"
MPEG Stream: "Slumberer"

LORD TANG s/t (Gigante Sound) cd-r 7.98
Live performance and touring (especially internationally) does much to sharpen the chops, expand the scopes and get the creative juices flowing for most artists, and it certainly appears so in the case for one Mr. Dominic Cramp. It seems the many journeys on the road performing as keyboardist and sound shaper for Carla Bozulich's group Evangelista have spurred him - already a very prolific music maker for many years - to stretch his limbs a bit, and push the boundaries of his music-making comfort zone into some fresh but not altogether foreign territory.
Lord Tang is definitely the brethren of Cramp's other musical personas (particularly Borful Tang, but also Vulcanus 68, Qulfus et al), and those familiar and fond of his Bay Area indie label Gigante Sound will surely geek to this too, but what sets Lord Tang apart are the new influences and inspirations Cramp has drawn upon, and the incorporation of more conventional song foundations (at least comparably so when placed next to his alter egos' more loosely structured soundscapes). However, he does not remain within those confines. As always, his music is free roaming. His soundscapes creep along, build, dissipate, and shapeshift like the cloud formations referred to in the opener. At once, both dense and vaporous, the tracks may linger on a note sequence or beat pattern for a spell then moving on, occasionally returning to revisit a theme in cyclical fashion.
In previous works and incarnations, Cramp scavenged, sculpted and collaged together the structures and narratives from existing samples (field recordings, tapes, and such). In Lord Tang, the elements (most notably melodies and rhythmic passages) are much more composed from scratch, and the sounds are built, shaped and performed on instruments (we detect a gaggle of analog synths, drum machines and digital effects processors among them). That said, although his creative processes may have diverged somewhat from his usual path, the resulting tracks aren't too alienatingly different to the ear. As with many of his instrumental recordings, this one oozes, lurches and seeps its way into your ear canals. Moody with a dark whimsy. We envision a subterranean being clawing its way up to the Earth's surface to eavesdrop on the city dwellers. Curiosity piqued by their daily routines and mundane dialogues, the churning rhythms of traffic reverberating down into his dank sunless world.
MPEG Stream: "Fog"
MPEG Stream: "Slumberer"

LORD TIME Black Hole At the End Of The Tunnel (Universal Consciousness) cassette 8.98
Another blast of nekro-black "morbid dead metal" filth from this aQ fave, the solo project of Andorkappen, the drummer of LA black metal trio Harassor. And like the previous tape on Universal Consciousness, this is some dark, sinister, hateful heaviness, the sound raw and primitive, filthy and crusty, the sound lo-fi, but still somehow weirdly lush and LOUD, buzzing guitars, pounding practice space drumming, and some seriously sick demonic croak vokills. The sound is all over the map, slipping from super brittle and tinny, to murky and muddy and sludgey, the songs too, dirgey ritualistic creeps, frantic lightning speed blasts, pounding punkish d-beat blowouts, the sounds not at all typical, with clean effects laden guitars and warped FX, wild tangled psychedelia, field recordings, all woven into this twisted black epic. 36 minutes, 20 brief blasts, plus a super creeped out almost 20th century sounding piano dirge outro, spare and abstract, percussive and darkly ominous. The whole track repeats on both sides. The label describes this as "primitive devotional caveman soul music" and who are we to argue.
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Packaged in super deluxe, embossed, heavy textured metallic paper J-cards, each one hand numbered and sealed with a sticker, each copy marked with Mr. Lord Time's actual blood!
MPEG Stream: "Black Hole At the End Of The Tunnel (excerpt)"

LORD TIME Forgotten Future (Universal Consciousness) cassette 8.98
A brief blast of grim nekro blackness from this offshoot of LA's black metal mavens Harassor, Lord Time offers up 4 tracks of punked out, super raw heaviness, with a sound that alternates between weirdly melodic bursts of frenzied black blast and churning murky d-beat crush, the vocals a bizarre alien croak, the drums buried in the mix, but the guitars, gloriously blown out and buzz drenched, managing to sound thick and heavy even with some seriously lo-fi production, the songs twisted and tangled into convoluted arrangements, lurching from frantic demonic fury to pulverizing punkish pound and back again, often fading out into tripped out psychedelic ambience or blackly droned out drift before lurching right back into it again. And while it may be on the short side, the whole program repeats on the flipside, but with significantly different mixes and arrangements, the B side sounding distinctly more distorted and lo-fi, but at the same time laced with seemingly more stretches of psychedelic black ambienceÉ
LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, each tape smeared with actual blood, and housed in gorgeous letterpressed #'d J-cards (also smeared with blood!), printed on sparkly reflective gold paper.

LORD VICAR Fear No Pain (The Church Within Records) cd 15.98
Supergroup - or as Julian Cope would put it, stuporgroup - doom action here folks! Even before we heard it, we were chuffed about Lord Vicar's debut full length. We'd already had a taste of the Vicar via their 7" last year on I Hate Records, and so as soon as we heard there was an album out we HAD to have it... we made contact with the label in Germany directly, and now some weeks later here they are. Even if we hadn't heard that 7", this is a no-brainer for anyone (like us) into traditional doom metal, just based on the heavyweight pedigree of the band's members. From Sweden, singer Christian Lindersson aka Lord Chritus, former frontman for Count Raven, Terra Firma, and (on the album after Wino left the band) the legendary Saint Vitus! From Finland, guitarist Peter Inverted formerly Peter Vicar, of Reverend Bizarre (R.I.P.) as well as VDGGish progsters Orne. From England, drummer Gareth Milsted of Centurion's Ghost. Also from Finland, there's bassist Jussi "Iron Hammer" Myllykoski who is not from any band we know of, but makes up for it by having a cool nickname. And then, giving this even more cult cred, there's a guest guitar solo on one song by Don Angelo Tringali of Slough Feg and Cold Mourning from the USA.
If any of these names mean anything to you, you know you're gonna be well and truly doomed when you put this on. There's slo-mo, mouldering witchburning riffs played on loud, fuzzed out axes, hand in cloven hoof with the weepy, whiney, sometimes effected and always affecting vox of Lord Chritus, extremely Ozzy-esque yet utterly distinctive. Anything with these guys is gonna be steeped in Sabbath-iness. And as Peter Inverted's post-Reverend Bizarre project, this basically sounds a lot like his old band (and thus also like Sabbath, and Sleep, and Cathedral...) but with a few new wrinkles. The songs on Fear No Pain range from the super sludgy to a plodding swing to even more uptempo ("The Last Of The Templars" is in the rockin' mode of "Cromwell" by RB for sure). In addition there's some morosely folky parts that also remind us of Witchcraft, Lord Vicar certainly having supped from the same '70s folk-prog nectar-filled chalice as those Swedish retro doom sensations. Especially on this album's last track, the truly epic 14 and a half minute "The Funeral Pyre" which begins all acoustic-guitary before eventually unleashing monumental riffage (echoing Sabbath's "Lord Of This World" perhaps), all of which is graced by Chritus's most raw and lachrymose performance, almost a la Paternoster, ending this album with a heavy '70s prog vibe indeed...
For fans of all the bands abovementioned, no doubt, also the likes of Witchfinder General, Electric Wizard, Solstice... heck you get the idea. Highly recommended to all doomhounds.
MPEG Stream: "Pillars Under Water"
MPEG Stream: "Born Of A Jackal"
MPEG Stream: "The Funeral Pyre"

LORD VICAR Fear No Pain (The Church Within Records) 2lp 39.00
DISCOUNTED PRICE (was $48), 'cause the copies we have (last ever) all arrived a bit bent on the corners...
NOW ON VINYL! IN SUPER DELUXE, SUPER LIMITED EDITION PACKAGING!! It's a oversized hardback book-jacket style double LP gatefold thing with a folio of 12"x12" photographs bound into it, 24 pages of color and b&w pictures of this cult band dooming it up live, in all their hairy glory, amidst smoke and fog... Needless to say we only got a very small handful and when they're gone they're gone. Here's our review of it from when we highlighted the cd version a few months back:
Supergroup - or as Julian Cope would put it, stuporgroup - doom action here folks! Even before we heard it, we were chuffed about Lord Vicar's debut full length. We'd already had a taste of the Vicar via their 7" last year on I Hate Records, and so as soon as we heard there was an album out we HAD to have it... we made contact with the label in Germany directly, and now some weeks later here they are. Even if we hadn't heard that 7", this is a no-brainer for anyone (like us) into traditional doom metal, just based on the heavyweight pedigree of the band's members. From Sweden, singer Christian Lindersson aka Lord Chritus, former frontman for Count Raven, Terra Firma, and (on the album after Wino left the band) the legendary Saint Vitus! From Finland, guitarist Peter Inverted formerly Peter Vicar, of Reverend Bizarre (R.I.P.) as well as VDGGish progsters Orne. From England, drummer Gareth Milsted of Centurion's Ghost. Also from Finland, there's bassist Jussi "Iron Hammer" Myllykoski who is not from any band we know of, but makes up for it by having a cool nickname. And then, giving this even more cult cred, there's a guest guitar solo on one song by Don Angelo Tringali of Slough Feg and Cold Mourning from the USA.
If any of these names mean anything to you, you know you're gonna be well and truly doomed when you put this on. There's slo-mo, mouldering witchburning riffs played on loud, fuzzed out axes, hand in cloven hoof with the weepy, whiney, sometimes effected and always affecting vox of Lord Chritus, extremely Ozzy-esque yet utterly distinctive. Anything with these guys is gonna be steeped in Sabbath-iness. And as Peter Inverted's post-Reverend Bizarre project, this basically sounds a lot like his old band (and thus also like Sabbath, and Sleep, and Cathedral...) but with a few new wrinkles. The songs on Fear No Pain range from the super sludgy to a plodding swing to even more uptempo ("The Last Of The Templars" is in the rockin' mode of "Cromwell" by RB for sure). In addition there's some morosely folky parts that also remind us of Witchcraft, Lord Vicar certainly having supped from the same '70s folk-prog nectar-filled chalice as those Swedish retro doom sensations. Especially on this album's last track, the truly epic 14 and a half minute "The Funeral Pyre" which begins all acoustic-guitary before eventually unleashing monumental riffage (echoing Sabbath's "Lord Of This World" perhaps), all of which is graced by Chritus's most raw and lachrymose performance, almost a la Paternoster, ending this album with a heavy '70s prog vibe indeed...
For fans of all the bands abovementioned, no doubt, also the likes of Witchfinder General, Electric Wizard, Solstice... heck you get the idea. Highly recommended to all doomhounds.
MPEG Stream: "Pillars Under Water"
MPEG Stream: "Born Of A Jackal"
MPEG Stream: "The Funeral Pyre"

LORD VICAR The Demon Of Freedom (I Hate Records) 7" 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK!!!
Another chunk of classic old school style doom from Sweden's I Hate Records. This time from a band called Lord Vicar, whose name should give you a clue as to what they're all about. From Reverend to Vicar? That's right, Reverend Bizarre's axeman Peter Vicar has joined up with vocalist Christian Lindersson of Count Raven, Terra Firma and St. Vitus to craft some total Sabbath worshipping heavy doom. And it is pretty excellent. Killer loping tempo, druggy doomy guitar, wailed almost Ozzy-ish vocals, think Pentagram, Pagan Altar and the likeÉ fans of that sort of classic doom will dig this big time. There is some surprising folkiness to be found here and there, but it never takes long for the band to lurch back into full on doom groove destruction. Lord Vicar also include in their ranks members of Centurions Ghost, While Heaven Wept and Revelation for extra doom cred, if any more were needed!
LIMITED TO 700 COPIES! Packaged in a thick matte sleeve, pressed on heavy vinyl, with a color insert with lyrics and liner notes.

LORD WIND Atlantean Monument (No Colours) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MPEG Stream: "The Temple Of Harmony"
MPEG Stream: "Valleys Of Forgotten Tombs"
MPEG Stream: "Shining Eyes Of Misty Witch"

LORD, MARK Tachyon Firing Squad (Phaserprone) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

LORD, MARK / MORGAN EGG Last Chance In Heaven / Discontinue Stardust (No Label) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN STOCK!!!
Ah, the second release from the Mimaroglu Music Sale sponsored "No Label" which probably will stick as a name, when it really was meant to be a private imprint with the absence of a label name. No matter, though as this split LP from Mark Lord (the pseudonym of Christopher Forgues) and Morgan Egg (who we know next to nothing about). Forgues has previous work under the Whitehouse inspired project Kites with blistering pierced noise surrounded by shock-horror tactics; and that sensibility has been tempered under the Mark Lord moniker. The only semblance of that former self appears in an appropriated dialogue of a '70s porn, buttressed by some fantastic retro-garde / minimal wave electronics. These looping synth modulations arpeggiate and expand along linear pulsations dappled by circuit bent twiddle and scrags of cheap noise. Sort of like a more progressive take on the Units without so much of the punk overdrive; or conversely, more of an Oneohtrix / Emeralds synth vibe jacked up a bit. The final cut "Warpath" tops the drum machine propulsion with an almost charmingly playful melody to the counter the insistent synth bass pulse. Really great stuff!
Morgan Egg's snarled drone tempests declares their influences from the classic Italian industrial work by Maurizio Bianchi and Giancarlo Toniutti. Washes of grey static and revolving chunks of leaden distortion meld into the grim atmospheres that Egg laces with oscillating electronics and curiously languid bell tones. Quite a departure from the Mark Lord side, but just as incredible.
Less than 300 copies in print!

LORD, MARY LOU Baby Blue (Rubric) cd 12.98
Yup, she's back, and she hasn't changed a bit -- her unmistakable achingly honeysweet voice and jangle-crunch guitar in hand. What seems to have seldom been addressed in the past is that, although she was trumpeted as an indie folksy singer/*songwriter*, what Mary Lou Lord did and still does best is sing other people's songs. Sure she got a lot of attention for writing a bunch of songs about Kurt and Courtney, but when that inkwell ran dry, her other wells proved less juicy. You may recall that many moons ago she was a busker. She clearly knew that one of the best ways to lure an ear for a dime in the streets 'n' subways is to target the familiar in the form of well-executed cover versions. She's kept that wisdom close to heart. In particular, it's when she sings the songs of Bevis Frond's Nick Salomon that she truly shines... and that's exactly what she wisely does on this album. He wrote nine of the album's fourteen songs, they collaborated on three, and the other two are covers of songs by Pink Floyd and Badfinger!
MPEG Stream: "43"
MPEG Stream: "Fearless"

LORD, MARY LOU Got No Shadow (Work aka Sony) cd 14.98
#1 lame aspect to Ms. Lord's major label debut: "Includes Internet Access" (via AOL to add insult to injury). Nice songs, the majority of which were written or co-written by the Bevis Frond's Nick Saloman...

LORD, MARY LOU / SEAN NA NA Mary Lou Lord/Sean Na Na (Kill Rock Stars) cd 7.98
This six-song split cd includes Mary Lou Lord performing, as she often does, a song by Nick Saloman of the Bevis Frond. Also, the other half of this cd features Sean Na Na doing Andee's new favorite Pacific Northwest indie-rock hit: "Princess and the Pony". A nice surprise.

LORDI The Arcockalypse (The End) cd+dvd 14.98

LORDS OF BUKKAKE Desorden Y Rencor (Total Rust) cd 13.98
Not to be confused with the Master Musicians, these LORDS Of Bukkake are Spanish, and specialize in a particularly twisted, sick, sludgey, electronic flecked ultradoom. The label describes their sound as Iron Monkey meets the Swans meets Godflesh meets Esoteric meets Eyehategod, and while something like that may be too good to actually exist, this definitely comes close. The first few minutes set the stage with a squall of wild glitched out electronics, swirling squiggles of damaged effects, mewled maniacal vox, before quickly slipping into a low slung almost twangy groove,a ll super busy drumming, and spidery reverbed guitars, not to mention more swirls of weird effects, dubby reverb and whatnot, and the drums are so bizarre super chaotic and all over the place, soon some chiming guitars come in, but it still sounds more tripped out and abstract and psychedelic than specifically doomy. It's not until about 4 minutes in, when out come the big guns, and by big guns we of course mean, crushing downtuned, super distorted riffage, and then the vocals, holy shit. Like Burning Witch but even MORE fucked up and freaked out, raspy and alien and sick, like some cartoon supervillain, perfectly matched to the sort of twisted psych doom these guys lay down.
The second track is another sprawl of slo-mo doom trudgery, all downtuned glacial guitaring and octopoidal caveman drumming, this time peppered with stretches of droned out layered high end, but again, it's those vocals, seriously freaky and haunting and EVIL.
The last two tracks continue on in much the same way, lacing the sick black doom with squalls of effects, of warped wah wah drenched psych guitars, swirling spaced out atmospheres, the final track especially, starts out all total hazy psych rock before the guitars drop out completely, leaving just the drums and some insect like buzzing electronics, suddenly sounding like Geronimo or Bastard Noise, before finally launching back into some doom, this time though, the tempo is cranked up and it's almost groovy, a little stonery, a LOT Sabbathy, but corrupted by those awesomely damaged vokills, and then finally the song collapses into yet another sun baked stretch of shredding washed out psychedelia, the only thing keeping it from total druggy psych rock bliss out, those vox, turning it instead into something wholly other.
Twisted, sick, heavy, slow and low, psychedelic and totally gloriously fucked. It's almost like someone whipped this up just for the aQ weirdos out there, a seriously WAY recommended batch of what-the-fuck avant psychedelic outsider doom sludge radness!
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "Llagas"
MPEG Stream: "Alucarda"

LORDS OF FALCONRY s/t (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98
This has a lot going for it. First off, they're called Lords Of Falconry, which is kinda cool. Lordly, even. And this, their debut full-length, comes to us via the also quite lordly Holy Mountain label, who have a pretty stellar track record as far as we're concerned. In fact, Holy Mountain probably has had a higher number of AQ Records Of The Week per capita than almost any other label. Furthermore, our discerning pal JW who runs Holy Mountain tells us that THIS is precisely the sort of thing he's always wanted to release on his label. So far, so good. Our appetites are whetted. And then, there's the music. ULTRA fuzzed, freaked out, high energy, heavy psychedelic guitar jams, to put it plainly. Can't complain about that, no siree. But (you knew there had to be a but), we do have one minor caveat for you potential emptors... it concerns the vocals. If this was all-instrumental, there'd be no hemming and hawing. But, some of the vocal stylings struck some of us as, well, a little bit goofy. Self-consciously "rawk" or something. You may not mind a bit, and we actually don't much either.
Anyway, it's hard to be picky about the vocals when Lords Of Falconry's guitars are blasting jet-engine like, turning the air into cottage cheese they way they used to do back in Blue Cheer's daze, the wild FX and throbbing distortion turning yr head inside out so your brain is being caressed and cudgeled by these riffs and rhythms without any help from your ears.
Recommended to folks who get off on bands like Julian Cope's Braindonor, DMBQ, Midnite Snake, The Heads, Hawkwind, High Rise, and other fuzz-laden, pedal-stomping, heavy-duty psychedelic throwbacks. And by the way, though Holy Mountain didn't tell us this, we're pretty sure that one of these Lords Of Falconry is in fact none other than guitarist Steven Wray Lobdell of Davis Redford Triad, Sufi Mind Game, and Faust fame! If true (it is), that explains a lot about this. The other dude in the band we believe to be one Sammy Adams, formerly the drummer for Fireballs Of Freedom. Talk about a power duo. So, despite a slight case of what we might call the Scissorfight syndrome, this gets a solid recommendation from us!
MPEG Stream: "Doomsday Legislation"
MPEG Stream: "Osirion"
MPEG Stream: "Scottish Chords"

LORDS OF FALCONRY s/t (Holy Mountain) lp 14.98
This has a lot going for it. First off, they're called Lords Of Falconry, which is kinda cool. Lordly, even. And this, their debut full-length, comes to us via the also quite lordly Holy Mountain label, who have a pretty stellar track record as far as we're concerned. In fact, Holy Mountain probably has had a higher number of AQ Records Of The Week per capita than almost any other label. Furthermore, our discerning pal JW who runs Holy Mountain tells us that THIS is precisely the sort of thing he's always wanted to release on his label. So far, so good. Our appetites are whetted. And then, there's the music. ULTRA fuzzed, freaked out, high energy, heavy psychedelic guitar jams, to put it plainly. Can't complain about that, no siree. But (you knew there had to be a but), we do have one minor caveat for you potential emptors... it concerns the vocals. If this was all-instrumental, there'd be no hemming and hawing. But, some of the vocal stylings struck some of us as, well, a little bit goofy. Self-consciously "rawk" or something. You may not mind a bit, and we actually don't much either.
Anyway, it's hard to be picky about the vocals when Lords Of Falconry's guitars are blasting jet-engine like, turning the air into cottage cheese they way they used to do back in Blue Cheer's daze, the wild FX and throbbing distortion turning yr head inside out so your brain is being caressed and cudgeled by these riffs and rhythms without any help from your ears.
Recommended to folks who get off on bands like Julian Cope's Braindonor, DMBQ, Midnite Snake, The Heads, Hawkwind, High Rise, and other fuzz-laden, pedal-stomping, heavy-duty psychedelic throwbacks. And by the way, though Holy Mountain didn't tell us this, we're pretty sure that one of these Lords Of Falconry is in fact none other than guitarist Steven Wray Lobdell of Davis Redford Triad, Sufi Mind Game, and Faust fame! If true (it is), that explains a lot about this. The other dude in the band we believe to be one Sammy Adams, formerly the drummer for Fireballs Of Freedom. Talk about a power duo. So, despite a slight case of what we might call the Scissorfight syndrome, this gets a solid recommendation from us!
MPEG Stream: "Doomsday Legislation"
MPEG Stream: "Osirion"
MPEG Stream: "Scottish Chords"

LORELLE MEETS THE OBSOLETE Corruptible Faces (Captcha) cd 11.98
We already loved this Mexican duo based entirely on the name, even more so when we discovered that it wasn't just a band name. Lorelle sings, plays guitar, bass and organ. The Obsolete plays drums, percussion, bass, Casiotone, organ, synth, piano guitar and also sings. Not sure if they're a proper couple, but they should be, so we're just gonna assume they are. And they do in fact make beautiful music together. A sort of psychedelic krautrock, noise pop, garage rock. In a way, they remind us of another recent fave Liminanas, but where that band channeled French pop, Lorelle Meets the Obsolete seem to be drawing their influence from something much more noisy and raw, psychedelic and dark. Sure it's jangly and poppy in places, but they lock into seriously hypnotic grooves, fans of outfits like the Moon Duo will be utterly enthralled for sure. They also have a bit of swaggery twang, reminding us at times of Crystal Stilts, and at others a little bit of Stereolab, albeit a much rougher low fidelity version.
The sound here is lush and warm, woozy and hypnotic, druggy and dreamy, tracks like "The December Riots" sound like the Dum Dum Girls slowed down to a gloriously murky crawl, slo-mo girl group bliss out, while tracks like "Art For Free", add some new wave to the group's garage pop crunch. All the songs here though at their core are jangly and catchy, Lorelle and her partner delivering them in varying states of decay, and varying states of tranced out drugginess. At their poppiest, this is the sort of thing fans of Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees and Mikal Cronin will flip over, and at their droniest and druggiest, it's a sort of lysergic dirge that should appeal equally to fans of old school drug drift mesmer a la Spacemen 3, and more modern psychedelic noise purveyors like Carlton Melton. Although really, this is just some noisy krauty fuzzy pop, and we LOVE it. A new favorite for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Tales From A High Line"
MPEG Stream: "The In-Between"
MPEG Stream: "The December Riots"
MPEG Stream: "Art For Free"