LESSER / MATMOS / WOBBLY Simultaneous Quodlibet (Important Records) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

LESSER / ROB CROW split (Vinyl Communications) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

LETTER WHY, THE s/t (self-released) cd 14.98

LEVIATHAN A Silhouette In Splinters (Moribund) cd 14.98
Probably very little needs to be said about this. Previously available as a super limited lp, we sold out in a heartbeat, now long out of print, and finally available on cd, for the multitudes who missed out first time around, and all you turntableless holdout heathens.
A Silhouette In Splinters was the long in the works "ambient" record from Leviathan, originally released on Canadian label Profound Lore, which offered a glimpse into a side of Leviathan, that while an integral part of his sound, was often relegated to intros or outros or interludes, but here Wrest got to prove that he was as deft with long swaths of black ambience and haunting drones as he was with buzzing riffs and blasting beats. Which is probably obvious to anyone who considers themselves a fan, as a huge part of what makes Leviathan records so powerful and mesmerizing is Wrest's mastery of mood and ambience, and Silhouette is an entire album of bleak and depressive atmospheres. All as haunting and mysterious as anything we've heard from Wrest. But this is not pure ambient music, its ambience is only obvious when compared to the dense complex sound world of other Leviathan releases. This is not static ambience, not in the least, these are actual songs, not just creepy swooshings and simple drones. Silhouette is like an entire record made up of the best black metal intros ever, but here, each one is fleshed out into actual musical narratives. Skeletal guitar figures, drift and shimmer darkly over ominous swells of mournful minor key lament. What little percussion there is, hovers ghostlike beneath a wash of blackened swirl. The entire record is wrapped in a foggy cloak of starlit skies and murky underground passages. A haunting soundtrack to misery and horror, death and dying. Fucking genius.
MPEG Stream: "It Comes In Whispers Part: 2"
MPEG Stream: "A Silhouette In Splinters"

LEVIATHAN A Silhouette In Splinters (Profound Lore) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
These warnings are beginning to sound like mantras: THIS IS VERY LIMITED. THIS WILL MOST LIKELY ALREADY BE OUT OF PRINT BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS. WE GOT THE LAST 50 COPIES AND WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET MORE!! LIMITED LIMITED LIMITED!!! But like all good mantras, it pays to heed the sage advice contained within, and in this case the advice would be pick one of these up quick like before they're gone for good. A Silhouette In Splinters is the long in the works "ambient" record from Leviathan, released on Canadian label Profound Lore, lp only, pressed on thick red vinyl and as you may have surmised EXTREMELY LIMITED. Part of what makes Leviathan records so powerful and mesmerizing is Wrest's mastery of mood and ambience, so here he gets to explore an entire album of bleak and depressive atmospheres. But this is not pure ambient music, its ambience is only obvious when compared to the dense complex sound world of other Leviathan releases. This is not static ambience, not in the least, these are actual songs, not just creepy swooshings and simple drones. Silhouette is like an entire record made up of the best black metal intros ever, but here, each one is fleshed out into actual musical narratives. Skeletal guitar figures, drift and shimmer darkly over ominous swells of mournful minor key lament. What little percussion there is, hovers ghostlike beneath a wash of blackened swirl. The entire record is wrapped in a foggy cloak of starlit skies and murky underground passages. A haunting soundtrack to misery and horror, death and dying.

LEVIATHAN Demos - 2000 (OakenThrone / Blood Fire Death) cassette 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We just got another batch of these back in, the last EIGHT of these in existence!! So once these are gone, this is out of print FOREVER!
First off, this is indeed a CASSETTE. Second of all this is EXTREMELY LIMITED. Extremely. Originally intended to be released along with the most recent issue of Oaken Throne Magazine, due to some unforseen manufacturing delays, Demos - 2000 is now available all on its own. And for a tiny piece of plastic this tape packs a mighty blackened wallop. Culled from the same material as Leviathan's debut 2cd Verrater (now out of print), these early demos are just as dark and bleak and weird and amazing as his subsequent releases. Maybe a little murkier, a little more buzzy and lo-fi, but hell, this is a BLACK METAL TAPE after all!!! Limited to 500 copies, of which we got the last handful. There is a forthcoming cd of demos on Moribund, but these tracks are -exclusive- to this cassette, unless of course you're one of the lucky few with a secret stash of early Leviathan tapes and cd-r's. But since you're probably not, odds are YOU NEED THIS!! AS with all things Leviathan, absolutely essential black metal listening!

LEVIATHAN Howl Mockery At The Cross (Moribund) cd 14.98
Everyone wants a glimpse into the blackened Leviathan vaults, containing the legendary 20 or so cd-r's and cassettes recorded and released during the years 2000-2002, early demos that played more like full-on proper albums, hell they WERE full-on albums, highlights of which were released as the two disc Verrater (soon to be repressed!) on tUMULt a few years back. But Wrest from Leviathan has made it clear that those were then, and averaging a new release every few months, including full lengths and splits, is now. Well, that is, except for this. Probably your only chance, outside Verrater, to hear where it all began. Howl Mockery At The Cross is an essential shard of the mysterious obscured blackened history of Leviathan, and while sonically a bit rougher than the more recent records, it's still a dark and twisting, buzzing and howling serpentine trip through the black, bleak and brutal sonic world of Wrest and Leviathan. Some of these tracks were actually first choices to be included on Verrater, but at the time Wrest had planned on re-recording them. But with each new record, and after a few aborted attempts, the idea of going back to old songs seemed less and less appealing. So this is now the only place to hear those amazing tracks. Lots of that blackened buzz we love so much, but as with all Leviathan records, there are plenty of distinctly un-BM parts all over the place: dense mathrockisms, blissed out droning breakdowns, sludgy doom, bizarre times signatures, impossibly complex drumming, mournful minor key melodies, that immediately recognizable heavily affected demonic howl, all twisted into a gorgeously dark and demented, moody and murky blackened squall. Even includes a Death In June cover, properly drenched in buzz and blackness, so much so that it sounds like it could have been penned by Wrest himself. Striking metallic silver cover with the Leviathan upside down cross and dripping moon logo.
MPEG Stream: "Lycanthropus Rex"
MPEG Stream: "The Axis And Maw Of Inferno, Mine"

LEVIATHAN Howl Mockery At The Cross (Moribund) lp 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, LAST COPIES. This is already out of print. we managed to get 15 copies direct from Wrest himself. So if you missed out on these last time, this is your last chance...
Now available on vinyl for a super limited time. Only 500 copies made so act fast (and be aware that the vinyl contains 2 less tracks than the cd)!
Everyone wants a glimpse into the blackened Leviathan vaults, containing the legendary 20 or so cd-r's and cassettes recorded and released during the years 2000-2002, early demos that played more like full-on proper albums, hell they WERE full-on albums, highlights of which were released as the two disc Verrater (soon to be repressed!) on tUMULt a few years back. But Wrest from Leviathan has made it clear that those were then, and averaging a new release every few months, including full lengths and splits, is now. Well, that is, except for this. Probably your only chance, outside Verrater, to hear where it all began. Howl Mockery At The Cross is an essential shard of the mysterious obscured blackened history of Leviathan, and while sonically a bit rougher than the more recent records, it's still a dark and twisting, buzzing and howling serpentine trip through the black, bleak and brutal sonic world of Wrest and Leviathan. Some of these tracks were actually first choices to be included on Verrater, but at the time Wrest had planned on re-recording them. But with each new record, and after a few aborted attempts, the idea of going back to old songs seemed less and less appealing. So this is now the only place to hear those amazing tracks. Lots of that blackened buzz we love so much, but as with all Leviathan records, there are plenty of distinctly un-BM parts all over the place: dense mathrockisms, blissed out droning breakdowns, sludgy doom, bizarre times signatures, impossibly complex drumming, mournful minor key melodies, that immediately recognizable heavily affected demonic howl, all twisted into a gorgeously dark and demented, moody and murky blackened squall. Even includes a Death In June cover, properly drenched in buzz and blackness, so much so that it sounds like it could have been penned by Wrest himself. Striking metallic silver cover with the Leviathan upside down cross and dripping moon logo.
MPEG Stream: "Lycanthropus Rex"
MPEG Stream: "The Axis And Maw Of Inferno, Mine"

LEVIATHAN Massive Conspiracy Against All Life (Moribund) cd 15.98
We talk about 'long awaited' releases all the time, records we hear about well before their actual release date, forcing us to wait and wait and wait, but few records have been as eagerly anticipated, or generated so many emails from customers as this, the latest from SF black metal behemoth Leviathan. Especially considering the rumors circulating that this may indeed be the final recording from Wrest and his one man band, Leviathan. If it is indeed a swansong, it's hard to imagine a more fitting or more powerful farewell-and-fuck-off.
Even being a huge fan and voracious devourer of black metal, we would be hard pressed to tell lots of BM bands apart. It's the nature of the beast in some ways. But the second we threw this on, even if we hadn't known what was playing, there's no mistaking the sound of Leviathan, the guitar tone, those demonic croaked vocals, the dizzying lush black buzzscapes, the convoluted song structures, the weird mathy rhythms and the incredible riffs.
Massive Conspiracy is not a huge departure from the sound of Tentacles Of Whorror, if anything, it just takes all the elements of that record and pushes them just that much further out. The sound is a bit more dense, more epic, the drumming is amazing (especially after the switch from electronic drums to real drums) the compositions more sprawling and expansive in scope. Which is saying a lot since past Leviathan records were pretty dang epic and sprawling already.
The sheer hatred of the titles is certainly expressed in the music as well, this is some scathing, hateful furious sound.
The record begins with some strange static, hissing drone-like buzz, ominous ambience beneath it, a haunting melody, then Wrest's howl and the record explodes in a flurry of rapid fire riffing and relentless blasting, but only briefly, the song immediately switches gear into a lurching lope, then right back into the blast. The song is peppered with super dense squalls of high end buzz, streaks of ultradistorted skree, while beneath all sorts of murky melodies lurk, almost like some old 78 was left playing in the background, giving the track an incredible creepy vibe, the last half of the song wraps itself around a slithery downtuned staccato riff, a gorgeously grim dirge that pounds its way to a burst of black chaos at the finish.
The second track is all whirring drones, loping drums, and Wrest's gurgling growl, a weird skeletal ambient dirge that is soon swallowed up by keening high end guitars, crunching downtuned churn, and some super freaky almost operatic vocals, the middle of the song is all full speed freaked out intensity, before again, the song locks into a super riffy groove, much like the opener, before finishing off in another black blaze.
The rest of the record follows suit, weaving super elaborate soundscapes of black metal buzz, and moody mathy meandering, dense black ambience, and swirling low end drones, the tracks rife with parts and bridges and confusional changes, all masterfully wound up into dense convoluted blackened, that while on their own are strange enough, are also peppered will all manner of sonic weirdness, be it slippery peals of woozy, dizzying melody, garbled vocal fragments, soaring harmony guitar melodies, super obtuse dynamics,
All culminating in the final two tracks. "Vulgar Asceticism" is definitely the most fucked, and maybe most amazing song Wrest has ever recorded. Even the opening, with its muted riffing and murky bass throb, staccato riff, and weird Greg Ginn-ish scrape and grind, before the song takes off. And the main riff is super warbly, almost sounding like he's playing with a slide, the notes wavering and detuning, only to be yanked back in line, and then bent way out of tune again, the result a blurry seasick lurch, exacerbated by the dynamics, the riffs often slipping into strange start stop stutters, until the song reaches it's middle stretch, the bass and drums locked into a relentless midtempo blast, while layers of guitars, and various riffs slip and slide, waver and warble, a super dizzy expanse of funhouse mirror blackness that is as fucked up and far out as it is amazing and masterful.
The closer, "Noisome Ash Crown" is an appropriately somber end to Massive Conspiracy, maybe even Leviathan itself. The whole first half a funereal crawl, a bleak grim landscape of whirring thick black ambience, and strange squalls of processed vocals, squiggles of distorted guitar, the drums a solid framework for the drifting abyss above. A strange washed out, gauzy black ambient bridge, gives way to a crushing almost industrial dirge, the melodies majestic and sorrowful, the vocals harrowing and harsh, the drums furiously flailing before transforming into muted little tangles, the rest of the song following suit, a dark minor key outro that gives way to the same black static that started the record.
The first limited pressing comes in a red digipak, featuring some seriously twisted original artwork from Hildolf aka Draugar on the cover. Inside lurks a 12 page full color booklet, with more freaky drawings, lyrics and no liner notes.

MPEG Stream: "Vesture Dipped In The Blood Of Morning"
MPEG Stream: "Merging With Sword, Onto Them"
MPEG Stream: "Made As The Stale Wine Of Wrath"

LEVIATHAN Massive Conspiracy Against All Life (Moribund) 2lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL! Packaged in a super deluxe, full color, extra thick, gatefold sleeve, that makes Hildolf's (from Draugar) creepy cover art all the more striking. Pressed on clear red vinyl, each housed in a black inner sleeve. Includes a massive 12"x12" lyric / photo book, printed on cool textured paper, and LIMITED TO ONLY 500 COPIES!!! Here's what we had to say about the cd version when we reviewed it a few weeks back:
We talk about 'long awaited' releases all the time, records we hear about well before their actual release date, forcing us to wait and wait and wait, but few records have been as eagerly anticipated, or generated so many emails from customers as this, the latest from SF black metal behemoth Leviathan. Especially considering the rumors circulating that this may indeed be the final recording from Wrest and his one man band, Leviathan. If it is indeed a swansong, it's hard to imagine a more fitting or more powerful farewell-and-fuck-off.
Even being a huge fan and voracious devourer of black metal, we would be hard pressed to tell lots of BM bands apart. It's the nature of the beast in some ways. But the second we threw this on, even if we hadn't known what was playing, there's no mistaking the sound of Leviathan, the guitar tone, those demonic croaked vocals, the dizzying lush black buzzscapes, the convoluted song structures, the weird mathy rhythms and the incredible riffs.
Massive Conspiracy is not a huge departure from the sound of Tentacles Of Whorror, if anything, it just takes all the elements of that record and pushes them just that much further out. The sound is a bit more dense, more epic, the drumming is amazing (especially after the switch from electronic drums to real drums) the compositions more sprawling and expansive in scope. Which is saying a lot since past Leviathan records were pretty dang epic and sprawling already.
The sheer hatred of the titles is certainly expressed in the music as well, this is some scathing, hateful furious sound.
The record begins with some strange static, hissing drone-like buzz, ominous ambience beneath it, a haunting melody, then Wrest's howl and the record explodes in a flurry of rapid fire riffing and relentless blasting, but only briefly, the song immediately switches gear into a lurching lope, then right back into the blast. The song is peppered with super dense squalls of high end buzz, streaks of ultradistorted skree, while beneath all sorts of murky melodies lurk, almost like some old 78 was left playing in the background, giving the track an incredible creepy vibe, the last half of the song wraps itself around a slithery downtuned staccato riff, a gorgeously grim dirge that pounds its way to a burst of black chaos at the finish.
The second track is all whirring drones, loping drums, and Wrest's gurgling growl, a weird skeletal ambient dirge that is soon swallowed up by keening high end guitars, crunching downtuned churn, and some super freaky almost operatic vocals, the middle of the song is all full speed freaked out intensity, before again, the song locks into a super riffy groove, much like the opener, before finishing off in another black blaze.
The rest of the record follows suit, weaving super elaborate soundscapes of black metal buzz, and moody mathy meandering, dense black ambience, and swirling low end drones, the tracks rife with parts and bridges and confusional changes, all masterfully wound up into dense convoluted blackened, that while on their own are strange enough, are also peppered will all manner of sonic weirdness, be it slippery peals of woozy, dizzying melody, garbled vocal fragments, soaring harmony guitar melodies, super obtuse dynamics,
All culminating in the final two tracks. "Vulgar Asceticism" is definitely the most fucked, and maybe most amazing song Wrest has ever recorded. Even the opening, with its muted riffing and murky bass throb, staccato riff, and weird Greg Ginn-ish scrape and grind, before the song takes off. And the main riff is super warbly, almost sounding like he's playing with a slide, the notes wavering and detuning, only to be yanked back in line, and then bent way out of tune again, the result a blurry seasick lurch, exacerbated by the dynamics, the riffs often slipping into strange start stop stutters, until the song reaches it's middle stretch, the bass and drums locked into a relentless midtempo blast, while layers of guitars, and various riffs slip and slide, waver and warble, a super dizzy expanse of funhouse mirror blackness that is as fucked up and far out as it is amazing and masterful.
The closer, "Noisome Ash Crown" is an appropriately somber end to Massive Conspiracy, maybe even Leviathan itself. The whole first half a funereal crawl, a bleak grim landscape of whirring thick black ambience, and strange squalls of processed vocals, squiggles of distorted guitar, the drums a solid framework for the drifting abyss above. A strange washed out, gauzy black ambient bridge, gives way to a crushing almost industrial dirge, the melodies majestic and sorrowful, the vocals harrowing and harsh, the drums furiously flailing before transforming into muted little tangles, the rest of the song following suit, a dark minor key outro that gives way to the same black static that started the record.
MPEG Stream: "Vesture Dipped In The Blood Of Morning"
MPEG Stream: "Merging With Sword, Onto Them"
MPEG Stream: "Made As The Stale Wine Of Wrath"

LEVIATHAN Tentacles of Whorror (Moribund) cd 14.98
Summer may just have begun here in San Francisco, but with the release of this new album from local one-man black metal act Leviathan, it sure seems like winter time (plus you all know what Mark Twain said about summer in San Francisco anyway). Brrr. The frosty riffs and blood freezing atmospheres are warmed only by the blasting drums... But you know what, Leviathan hardly needs our attempts at cliched black metal hyperbole to stand proud amid the clutter of corpse-painted pretenders. Leave aside all that and listen: this is keenly crafted, weirdly artful, utterly uncompromising metal. From mathy mayhem to slow, doomy dirge, Leviathan displays unfettered creativity, immense musical skill, and intense emotional involvement in his art (those being dark emotions, if you have to ask). In the evolution of Leviathan, this brings in a torrent of old-school riffage (i.e. Celtic Frost and Slayer) and wired-for-Destruction song constructs while also slowing down more than even before to bathe in ambient weirdness and melody. Vocally, Leviathan's exhalations are like exhumations, the bringing forth of seemingly wordless death (though in fact, Leviathan has lyrics and they're so interestingly twisted). More proof, if any was needed, why Leviathan is in absolute fact one of not only our favorite black metal acts (enough so that Andee released the debut Verratter on his tUMULt label) but also considered so by many others across the globe. And is that some amazing Comus-ish cover art or what? It's by Dan Higgs of Lungfish, and its stark, disturbed violence and eccentricity perfectly captures this album's whorror.
MPEG Stream: "Heir To The House Of The Ghoul"
MPEG Stream: "Tentacles Of Whorror"

LEVIATHAN Tentacles Of Whorror (Profound Lore / Moribund) 2lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now on limited edition import double vinyl (blood red vinyl too!) -- with a vinyl-only BONUS TRACK! What we said when the cd version came out:
Summer may just have begun here in San Francisco, but with the release of this new album from local one-man black metal act Leviathan, it sure seems like winter time (plus you all know what Mark Twain said about summer in San Francisco anyway). Brrr. The frosty riffs and blood freezing atmospheres are warmed only by the blasting drums... But you know what, Leviathan hardly needs our attempts at cliched black metal hyperbole to stand proud amid the clutter of corpse-painted pretenders. Leave aside all that and listen: this is keenly crafted, weirdly artful, utterly uncompromising metal. From mathy mayhem to slow, doomy dirge, Leviathan displays unfettered creativity, immense musical skill, and intense emotional involvement in his art (those being dark emotions, if you have to ask). In the evolution of Leviathan, this brings in a torrent of old-school riffage (i.e. Celtic Frost and Slayer) and wired-for-Destruction song constructs while also slowing down more than even before to bathe in ambient weirdness and melody. Vocally, Leviathan's exhalations are like exhumations, the bringing forth of seemingly wordless death (though in fact, Leviathan has lyrics and they're so interestingly twisted). More proof, if any was needed, why Leviathan is in absolute fact one of not only our favorite black metal acts (enough so that Andee released the debut Verratter on his tUMULt label) but also considered so by many others across the globe. And is that some amazing Comus-ish cover art or what? Its stark, disturbed violence and eccentricity perfectly captures this album's whorror.
MPEG Stream: "Heir To The House Of The Ghoul"
MPEG Stream: "Tentacles Of Whorror"

LEVIATHAN The Blind Wound (Southern Lord) lp 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Before everybody has a big ol' black metal meltdown, this is NOT a brand new Leviathan record (although there is a new one coming soon). This is in fact the Leviathan half of the recent split with Sapthuran released on Battle Kommand Records a little while back. However, it is the first (and only) time these songs will be available all by themselves, and on vinyl! And what a gorgeous slab of vinyl it is. A brand new painting by Wrest, the man behind Leviathan, adorns the cover, and it is truly gorgeous and horrifying, some sort of shadowy horned thing, a nice thick sleeve with the text printed in reflective gloss over the image. Very striking. The vinyl is either half red / half green, or half green / half black, and no you can't specify which color you want. It's random. Which means DO NOT ASK for a specific color, you will get whichever one gets grabbed at random, and of course, it's super limited, so only one per customer. So now that that's all out of the way we can explain just why you absolutely NEED this record:
The mighty Wrest and his black metal behemoth Leviathan resurfaces once again, and once again Wrest does not disappoint. In fact if anything (and if it's even possible at this point) the Leviathan material on The Blind Wound is even more fucked up and out there than ever. That Leviathan sound is present and in full effect, a blurry swirling buzz of crazy riffs, impossible drumming, those insane vocals, and completely bizarre song structures, almost proggy at points, never hesitating to stop and start, stutter through some improbably complex series of time signatures or bliss out into some strange ambient soundscape. And as if Wrest's compositional style and playing weren't unique enough, every track is rife with all manner of weird parts, bizarre sounds and fucked up sonic detritus. From strange tripped out drone-ambience, angular almost Greg Ginnish guitar freakouts, impossibly tortured and affected vocals that go from guttural rumble to hellish howl, to creepy otherworldly keyboard like backgrounds, to sludgy almost doomlike breakdowns to full on krautrock / mathrock workouts, albeit slathered in plenty of buzz and fuzz. The final track finishes things off in a completely unexpected way, with a warm and fuzzy slow motion smear of gauzy muted My Bloody Valentine / M83 guitars and simple blown out drumming. As always, amazing!
MPEG Stream: "Odious Convulsions (They Are Not Worthy Of His Name)"
MPEG Stream: "Crushing The Proliapsed Oviducts Of Virtue"

LEVIATHAN The Speed of Darkness (Viva Hate) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A long while back we reviewed a split cd by SF black metal legend Leviathan and the Bathory worshipping Polish horde Iuvenes. As much as we may have dug the Iuvenes stuff, the Leviathan material was the real reason we all tuned in. So now Viva Hate have gone and taken just Wrest's half of the split and released it on vinyl (this is either the second or third, and supposedly final pressing), with all new art, printed inner sleeves, and pressed on INSANELY thick clear vinyl. Here's what we had to say about this stuff first time around:
Finally a little more Leviathan to hold us over until his next forthcoming full length, Tentacles of Whorror! This time around it's a split with European old schoolers Iuvenes who traffic in buzzy blurry black metal, Bathory style. But let's not kid ourselves, Leviathan is why we're here and Wrest does not disappoint. Grinding suffocating swarms of buzzing guitars, ultra creepy, deeply depressing ambience, completely and brilliantly fucked drumming, haunting Burzum-y keyboards, and that inhuman bowels-of-hell rasp that occasionally erupts into an utterly terrifying demonic shriek. But it's the songs, the songs are just so fucking good. So many black metal bands make all the right sounds, but can't actually write real songs. Wrest continues to explore and push the boundaries of black metal with Leviathan, exploring distinctly non-black metal sounds and ideas, but manages to stay grim and true the whole time. The songs here are punishing and crushingly dense, disturbing and evil as fuck, but days later, you'll find these riffs stuck in your head like a crown of thorns! Essential!
MPEG Stream: "I Miss Watching You Die"

LEVIATHAN The Tenth Sub Level Of Suicide (Moribund) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wrest and his one-man-black-metal-band Leviathan return, with the corpses of Christians and poseurs littering the bleak landscape evoked by his sonic barrage of inhuman vokills, majestic riffing, and punishing drums. Pure misanthropic musical mayhem. Surely you remember Leviathan -- Andee put out the debut double cd Verrater on tUMULt only nine months ago, and that's been a very successful release. But Verrater was only the tip of the blackened iceberg that is Wrest/Leviathan's ability and need to make intelligent and emotional extreme rock music. Hence, this suicidal statement spawned so soon. At AQ, we fancy ourselves connoisseurs of this kind of stuff, and believe us -- this guy is good (and evil)!! What we mean is, as raw as it gets, there's some intense talent on display here. Lots of San Francisco bands have gotten hyped recently, but here's one that really deserves worship. Chaotically complex, pitilessly crafted tracks like the nine-minute long "Sardoniscorn" somehow maintain this music's one-foot-in-the-grave old school spikes n' corpsepaint directive while simultaneously getting totally arty and out there with epic, prog, avant-garde elements. Doomy drone, weird downtempo percussive interludes, atonal piano, ambient psychedelia, extreme vocal unpleasantness, lots of distortion and feedback. Yes! So it's no surprise that tUMULt and Aquarius (and our customers) weren't the only entities to appreciate the grim genius of Leviathan, as Wrest's project has now been signed to multi-album deals with two black metal specialists, Moribund in the States and Drakkar over in Europe, this album being the first fruit of that deal. We even recently discovered that none other than pagan pop star and psych/krautrock maniac Julian Cope is a big Leviathan fan, recommending Verrater on his website! So, this is another one for both black metal freaks (who will find this worthy of keeping company with your Burzum, Satyricon, Immortal, etc. records) as well as any other adventurous music-lovers unafraid of dabbling in the weird and wretched...
MPEG Stream: "Fucking Your Ghost In Chains Of Ice"
MPEG Stream: "Sardoniscorn"

LEVIATHAN The Tenth Sub Level Of Suicide (Moribund) 2lp 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL! A SUPER LIMITED DOUBLE LP!!
Ultra deluxe double lp in a nice thick gatefold, limited to 500 copies worldwide!!! These will be gone before you know it...
Wrest and his one-man-black-metal-band Leviathan return, with the corpses of Christians and poseurs littering the bleak landscape evoked by his sonic barrage of inhuman vokills, majestic riffing, and punishing drums. Pure misanthropic musical mayhem. Surely you remember Leviathan -- Andee put out the debut double cd Verrater on tUMULt only nine months ago, and that's been a very successful release. But Verrater was only the tip of the blackened iceberg that is Wrest/Leviathan's ability and need to make intelligent and emotional extreme rock music. Hence, this suicidal statement spawned so soon. At AQ, we fancy ourselves connoisseurs of this kind of stuff, and believe us -- this guy is good (and evil)!! What we mean is, as raw as it gets, there's some intense talent on display here. Lots of San Francisco bands have gotten hyped recently, but here's one that really deserves worship. Chaotically complex, pitilessly crafted tracks like the nine-minute long "Sardoniscorn" somehow maintain this music's one-foot-in-the-grave old school spikes n' corpsepaint directive while simultaneously getting totally arty and out there with epic, prog, avant-garde elements. Doomy drone, weird downtempo percussive interludes, atonal piano, ambient psychedelia, extreme vocal unpleasantness, lots of distortion and feedback. Yes! So it's no surprise that tUMULt and Aquarius (and our customers) weren't the only entities to appreciate the grim genius of Leviathan, as Wrest's project has now been signed to multi-album deals with two black metal specialists, Moribund in the States and Drakkar over in Europe, this album being the first fruit of that deal. We even recently discovered that none other than pagan pop star and psych/krautrock maniac Julian Cope is a big Leviathan fan, recommending Verrater on his website! So, this is another one for both black metal freaks (who will find this worthy of keeping company with your Burzum, Satyricon, Immortal, etc. records) as well as any other adventurous music-lovers unafraid of dabbling in the weird and wretched...
MPEG Stream: "Fucking Your Ghost In Chains Of Ice"
MPEG Stream: "Sardoniscorn"

LEVIATHAN Verrater (tUMULt) 2cd 14.98
By now, pretty much every blackmetalhead who hasn't been lost in a grim and frostbitten forest for the last decade is well aware, and most likely a huge fan of the mighty Leviathan, which is just one man, Wrest, who along with likeminded outfits Xasthur, Draugar, Crebain and a handful of others have managed to reinvent and reinvigorate black metal in the last few years, while turning California into a land as grim and as black as the Norwegian clime that spawned the genre. But there was a time, when Leviathan hadn't released any proper records at all, outside of a handful of cassettes and home made cd-r's. This double disc collects the best bits from all of those releases and was the first glimpse many folks would get of the blackness that would come to define modern USBM.
Here's what we had to say about Verrater the first time around (with some minor updates and adjustments):
Those of you who live in San Francisco may have seen or even bought some of the many self released cassettes by the mysterious one man black metal band called Leviathan. Or some of you may have seen Andee or Allan sporting their Leviathan shirts, or you may have even seen Wrest, the man behind Leviathan lurking around AQ...regardless, Leviathan is the latest and certainly one of the greatest of the Bay Area black metal bands (Ludicra, Sangre Amado, Crebain, Draugar and the godlike Weakling [both also on tUMULt], etc...) who seem to exist in some sort of vacuum here while elsewhere, band after unoriginal band keep getting signed to huge labels and hyped to death even though most of them suck.
For this release Andee and Wrest went through the 13 full length Leviathan cassettes/cd-r's (as of the release of Verrater that number had leapt to 15!) Leviathan had recorded since 1998 to compile a good overview. But they couldn't whittle it down enough so one disc became two, with the first disc being the newer stuff, and disc two being the older, raw-er material.
Verrater is pure, primitive, cult, home recorded evil. Two discs, twenty two tracks, one hundred and forty three minutes of buzzing, howling, pummelling, black metal. Think Burzum, Darkthrone, Immortal, that sort of thing, but with all sorts of weird twists and sonic surprises. Yes, Leviathan is grimmer than grim metal that the frost & forest lords of Norway should bow down to, but it's also pure expression unfettered by genre restraints, although informed and inspired by them. Like Weakling, Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra, Caacrinolas, Ludicra, Potentiam, Enslaved, and some other AQ-championed black metal acts, this is not just one for fans of black metal only! It's dark, weird, noisy, disturbing art embodying one man's vision that should be heard by anyone into avantgarde, experimental, psychically and physically powerful rock music. From blasting howling fury to moody ambient blackness to off kilter weirdness to droning riffery to soul crushing heaviness. What's truly remarkable is that one man, playing all the instruments himself, and recording at home, can evoke such strong emotions and invoke such musical demons. Original, evil, hateful, misanthropic, bizarre and truly black metal.
MPEG Stream: "Courtship Of The Discarded"
MPEG Stream: "In This Slaveship"
MPEG Stream: "The Whole Of Deceit"
MPEG Stream: "Shed This Skin"

LEVIATHAN / IUVENES The Speed of Darkness / Live In Eternal Sin (No Colours) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Managed to get just a few more of these in stock! Direct from Wrest of Leviathan. And we are told these will be the last copies ever so don't miss out AGAIN. Here's what we had to say about this split when we first got it in:
Finally a little more Leviathan to hold us over until his next forthcoming full length, Tentacles of Whorror! This time a round it's a split with European old schoolers Iuvenes who traffic in buzzy blurry black metal, Bathory style. Really simple blast beats over superdistrorted riffs and growled gutteral vocals with squiggly leads buried waaaay doooown in the mix. Droning and repetetive and very hypontic. But let's not kid ourselves, Leviathan is why we're here and Wrest does not diappoint. Grinding suffocating swarms of buzzing guitars, ultra creepy, deeply depressing ambience, completely and brilliantly fucked drumming, haunting Burzum-y keyboards, and that inhuman bowels-of-hell rasp that occasionally erupts into an utterly terrifying demonic shriek. But it's the songs, the songs are just so fucking good. So many black metal bands make all the right sounds, but can't actually write real songs. Wrest continues to explore and push the boundaries of black metal with Leviathan, exploring distinctly non-black metal sounds and ideas, but manages to stay grim and true the whole time. The songs here are punishing and crushingly dense, disturbing and evil as fuck, but days later, you'll find these riffs stuck in your head like a crown of thorns! Essential!
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "I Miss Watching You Die"
MPEG Stream: IUVENES "Necromatron"

LEVIATHAN / SAPTHURAN split (Battle Kommand) cd 14.98
The mighty Wrest and his black metal behemoth Leviathan resurfaces once again, this time teamed up with fellow USBM outift Sapthuran. It's a good matchup in so much as Sapthuran sounds quite a bit like the current crop of West Coast black metal (Xasthur, Crebain, Draugar, etc.) which is definitely a good thing. Midtempo buzz and blur, with haunting clean guitar melodies in the background, that come to the forefront briefly on the second folky ambient track, only to be summarily obliterated by Sapthuran's closer, a dizzying blurry buzz of droning riffs buried vocal howl and splattery blast beats. Definitly need to hear more from these guys (we actually have Sapthuran's full length in stock, just ask).
But as always, Leviathan is the main event, the reason we all showed up, and once again Wrest does not disappoint. In fact if anything (and if it's even possible at this point) the Leviathan material on this split is even more fucked up and out there than ever. That Leviathan sound is present and in full effect, a blurry swirling buzz of crazy riffs, impossible drumming, those insane vocals, and completely bizarre song structures, almost proggy at points, never hesitating to stop and start, stutter through some improbably complex series of time signatures or bliss out into some strange ambient soundscape. And as if Wrest's compositional style and playing weren't unique enough, every track is rife with all manner of weird parts, bizarre sounds and fucked up sonic detritus. From strange tripped out drone-ambience, angular almost Greg Ginnish guitar freakouts, impossibly tortured and affected vocals that go from gutteral rumble to hellish howl, to creepy otherworldly keyboard like backgrounds, to sludgy almost doomlike breakdowns to full on krautrock / mathrock workouts, albeit slathered in plenty of buzz and fuzz. The final track finishes things off in a completely unexpected way, with a warm and fuzzy slow motion smear of gauzy muted My Bloody Valentine / M83 guitars and simple blown out drumming. As always, amazing!
MPEG Stream: SAPTHURAN "As A Tale Told By The Leaves And Whispered By The Wind"
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "Odious Convulsions (They Are Not Worthy Of His Name)"
MPEG Stream: LEVIATHAN "Crushing The Proliapsed Oviducts Of Virtue"

LEVY, ALISON FAITH My World View (Magnetic) cd 12.98
Strong material from this local lady with the powerhouse voice. Singer, songwriter and pianist Alison Faith Levy is assisted by several members of the late great Camper Van Beethoven, and the album is produced by Chris Xefos (King Missile). A straightforward voice-driven album, it reminds us of Carole King and Aimee Mann. Sure, it sounds pretty mainstream, but that's definitely not a bad thing when it's done by someone of Levy's talent and integrity. Why she isn't absolutely huge on the radio is a mystery to us.
RealAudio clip: "My World View"

LI XI Macro Garden (20 Sided) 7" 4.50
This is the first we've heard from this local synth pop combo, who manage to mix the lilting indie jangle of that Slumberland Records sound with old school classic eighties new wave into a sweet electro pop confection. Programmed drums, buzzing crackling synths, ethereal female vocals, occasional boy/girl harmonies, all sort of hazy and softly psychedelic. The sound is alternately crunchy and fuzzy and surprisingly aggressive, and wistful and dreamily shimmery. The A side title track is the A side for a reason, hooky as hell, and the sort of song former aQ staffer Irwin would claim would be just the thing to get your body moving. While the B side takes the same elements and crafts something a bit broodier, and almost ballad, that creeps and drifts darkly, but is peppered with bursts of wild squelching synths, and is laced with chiming melodies, reminding us a bit of Stereolab, and like minded retro-poppers. The included download adds another track, which fuses some seriously gristly rhythms, to acoustic guitars, and some wild, noisy synth splatter, but weaves it all into a driving electro-synth jam that's got some heft to it, while still managing to be dreamy and divinely poppy!
MPEG Stream: "Macro Garden"
MPEG Stream: "Red Spells"

LIAR BALL Now Even If You Are A Dolphin You Can Have Long, Beautiful Lashes (self-released ) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Liar Ball is a dandy collaborative project by AQ pal Wobbly and Ball 2000! Right from the get go, it's made perfectly clear that they're not gonna let you get all comfy listenin' to this disc. No, just when you think they might be settling into a followable rhythm or playful melody, a sonic bump in the road pops to toss you out of your smooth head-bobbin' roll, and sometimes they even derail completely. Sorta the musical equivalent of a shopping cart with a gimpy wheel... in the best possible way! But things aren't all off-kilter kookiness, by the fifth track "You Are A Dolphin", Liar Ball has transported the listener into darker, more mysterious territory, only to re-surface in funland for the closing two tracks. Note: don't be alarmed by the packaging... it appears that they recycled cut-out jewelcases (hence the melted nick in the spine) and festooned them with assorted stickers and labels.
MPEG Stream: "Long"
MPEG Stream: "You Are A Dolphin"

LICKETS, THE Here (On Earth) (International Corporation) lp 14.98
We talk all the time about not judging books by their covers, which for us often means bands by their band names, cuz really, the Flaming Lips, Bitchin Bajas, Bathtub Shitter (ok, that one's awesome), Cream Abdul Babar, Scrotum Poles, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, so many kick ass bands saddled with unfortunate monickers. NOT that we're lumping Bay Area duo The Lickets in with those outfits, but they do actually bring up another part of that whole book/cover, band/bandname situation, in that we never would have expected this sort of gloriously blissed out electronic psychedelic drift from a band called the Lickets. We were actually imagining this would be some sort of roots rock, or stripped down pop rock sort of thing, but this is anything but, The Lickets traffic in the sort of stuff aQ folks go nuts for: dreamy transcendental, glistening, textured kosmische psych folk drift of the highest order.
The tracks her merge billowy clouds of wispy chordal drift with constellations of subtle glitch, the edges worn away, the various sounds bleeding into one another, like the soundtrack to a time lapse film of two solar systems merging, hazy and spaced out, touching on the krautdrone of Expo 70, the gauzy melodic shimmer of Tim Hecker, the dreamlike drift of Pop Ambience, infused with little bits of classic krautrock. Acoustic guitars surface amidst swirling abstract pulsations, melodies melt and ooze, the tracks slowly expanding and evolving, occasionally slipping into something more overtly shoegazey, wrangling jangle guitars into vast smears of melodic blur, laced with tinkling chiming melodies, looped and layered into blustery soundscapes, while other tracks sound almost like old soundtracks to mysterious filmstrips about the emptiness of space, one track even shrugs off the hazy shimmer entirely, leaving just a sweetly lovely stretch of fluttery seventies style folk, replete with breathy vocals and wheezing accordion, before quickly returning to the bleary buzzy drift that defines the rest of the record. And as varied as the record is, the sounds are all held together by a lush, dreamlike melodic component that turns this set of songs into some sort of divine celestial songsuite. So good!
MPEG Stream: "Transpersonal Earth Spirals"
MPEG Stream: "The Intervals Between The Ordered Worlds"
MPEG Stream: "Here (On Earth)"

LIES, THE Resigned (Kill Rock Stars) cd 13.98
Local treasures The Lies know that on the one hand there's abject depression that's fun for no one including your audience, yet on the other hand there's the kind of romantic depression whose embodiment in musical form can be quite beautiful and delicate to behold. The latter is what The Lies excel in. This isn't the doleful folk downerisms perfected by Black Heart Trio; this is angular and bleak synth 'n guitar driven pop with a strong Joy Division / Talk Talk flavor. Dale Shaw's voice, while not as deep as Ian Curtis', is similarly heavy with a pale gravity that rings stark and true. The music is filled out with two guitars, sparse yet dramatic drumming, lush cello, wintry bare-trees-evoking piano, and utterly sadly melodic korg synth stylings. The Lies should cover "I Melt With You"! Recommended.
RealAudio clip: "Accident & Emergency"
RealAudio clip: "A Certain Surround"
RealAudio clip: "Sight & Sound"

LIES, THE Underdogs and Infidels (Kill Rock Stars) cd 11.98
A veritable local super group: Sadie and Sarah from the Bonnot Gang, Casey from Weakling, Tracy from Heavens To Betsy and Flying Tigers, and of course Dale, from Blood Sausage, the Bonnot Gang, the Cut Throats, and the video store across the street! Bleak and dark and hypnotic, like a dirgey garage band playing World of Skin, Tindersticks and Joy Division. Recommended.

LIFE COACH Alphawaves (Thrill Jockey) cd 17.98
Our pal Phil Manley (Trans Am, The Fucking Champs, Jonas Reinhardt, etc.) has done that thing where the title of his krauty, kosmiche, Schulze-y, synthy solo record from 2011, Life Coach, has now been made the name of his new band, Life Coach, a duo featuring Phil and drummer extraordinare Jon Theodore (Golden, The Mars Volta, Queens Of The Stone Age, etc.), both of 'em pictured cartoonishly on the disc's colorfully trippy cover. Guess Phil's really into the Life Coach concept, and we're into the music for sure, which does sometimes sound like it could be the background track on a New Age motivational speaker's VHS cassette, in a good way of course. And that's just sometimes, 'cause this rocks out a bit more than most real life life coaches could stand, harshing their ponytailed mellow with guitar riffing and pounding drums.
We'd always heard a lot about what a great drummer JT is, but it wasn't until we saw Life Coach play live a little while back that we really understood - man, he stole the show! No wonder everyone was always raving about his mad skillz. So, naturally, this Life Coach album is full of rhythmical radness, alongside the spacey guitars and synths of our man Manley. The results are fine listening indeed, as mood music and more. "Sunrise" serves as this album's intro, starting things off appropriately with lovely break-of-dawn, "Rites Of Spring" shimmer, prayer bells tinkling amidst quiet electronic drones, tambura strum, and gentle peals of electric guitar - but then, wham, Jon Theodore's drumkit kicks in with track two, the title cut, and it's all Trans Am bombast meets Michael Rother bliss now, a style of new agey krauty postrock that we'd be happy to enjoy for the duration, and while there's plenty of it throughout the album, Life Coach have a few surprises in store - with Isaiah Mitchell of Earthless/Golden Void dropping in for a couple guest guitar solos (he even appears, with his guitar, in that cover drawing), turning the track "Fireball" into a heavy rocker that sounds a LOT like the fuzzed out '70s-sounding California catchiness of Golden Void, easily a highlight here any devout Golden Void fan (like us) is gonna need to hear. There's singing on that one, by Phil we assume though it sounds much like Isaiah does in GV, but otherwise this album is a mostly instrumental affair, the other notable vocal track being the uptempo "Mind's Eye", lots of electronics swirling around the propulsive beats while Phil sings of inner consciousness, his words floating up above, and beyond. Good times, high times. "Ohm" winds things up with a lengthy wash of cymbals and synthesizers, a wonderfully droned-out finale to this varied and vibrant album.
Big thumbs up to Life Coach's brand of uplifting synth-splorations and stoner rock jamz!!
MPEG Stream: "Alphawaves"
MPEG Stream: "Into The Unknown"
MPEG Stream: "Fireball"

LIFE COACH Alphawaves (Thrill Jockey) lp 17.98
Our pal Phil Manley (Trans Am, The Fucking Champs, Jonas Reinhardt, etc.) has done that thing where the title of his krauty, kosmiche, Schulze-y, synthy solo record from 2011, Life Coach, has now been made the name of his new band, Life Coach, a duo featuring Phil and drummer extraordinare Jon Theodore (Golden, The Mars Volta, Queens Of The Stone Age, etc.), both of 'em pictured cartoonishly on the disc's colorfully trippy cover. Guess Phil's really into the Life Coach concept, and we're into the music for sure, which does sometimes sound like it could be the background track on a New Age motivational speaker's VHS cassette, in a good way of course. And that's just sometimes, 'cause this rocks out a bit more than most real life life coaches could stand, harshing their ponytailed mellow with guitar riffing and pounding drums.
We'd always heard a lot about what a great drummer JT is, but it wasn't until we saw Life Coach play live a little while back that we really understood - man, he stole the show! No wonder everyone was always raving about his mad skillz. So, naturally, this Life Coach album is full of rhythmical radness, alongside the spacey guitars and synths of our man Manley. The results are fine listening indeed, as mood music and more. "Sunrise" serves as this album's intro, starting things off appropriately with lovely break-of-dawn, "Rites Of Spring" shimmer, prayer bells tinkling amidst quiet electronic drones, tambura strum, and gentle peals of electric guitar - but then, wham, Jon Theodore's drumkit kicks in with track two, the title cut, and it's all Trans Am bombast meets Michael Rother bliss now, a style of new agey krauty postrock that we'd be happy to enjoy for the duration, and while there's plenty of it throughout the album, Life Coach have a few surprises in store - with Isaiah Mitchell of Earthless/Golden Void dropping in for a couple guest guitar solos (he even appears, with his guitar, in that cover drawing), turning the track "Fireball" into a heavy rocker that sounds a LOT like the fuzzed out '70s-sounding California catchiness of Golden Void, easily a highlight here any devout Golden Void fan (like us) is gonna need to hear. There's singing on that one, by Phil we assume though it sounds much like Isaiah does in GV, but otherwise this album is a mostly instrumental affair, the other notable vocal track being the uptempo "Mind's Eye", lots of electronics swirling around the propulsive beats while Phil sings of inner consciousness, his words floating up above, and beyond. Good times, high times. "Ohm" winds things up with a lengthy wash of cymbals and synthesizers, a wonderfully droned-out finale to this varied and vibrant album.
Big thumbs up to Life Coach's brand of uplifting synth-splorations and stoner rock jamz!!
MPEG Stream: "Alphawaves"
MPEG Stream: "Into The Unknown"
MPEG Stream: "Fireball"

LIGHTNING BUG SITUATION, THE s/t (self-released) cd 12.98
For those of you who enjoyed Bay Area band The Speakers' cd tribute to W.B. Yeats (Yeats Is Greats: The Speakers Sing The Poems of W.B. Yeats), here's something new from one half of that duo.
This cd is an audio family album or scrapbook of sorts, drifting through scenes and memories with recordings of family members speaking interwoven with collaged soundscapes. The liner notes focus on the recent birth of the artist's first child, and the impact of this new presence is palpable throughout the album. While we're sure this'll particularly be appealing to his friends and relatives, it makes for an offkilter warm fuzzy listen for absolute strangers too.
MPEG Stream: "Under Your Jacket"
MPEG Stream: "Message To Myself After Franny Was Born"

LILAC s/t (Omega) 12" 11.98
We're pretty lucky that some of our favorite records are recorded literally just a few blocks from the store. Such is the case with the vinyl debut (totally different recording and songs from their s/t cd-r we listed last year) from one of San Francisco's most promising new bands, Lilac.
Recorded at Different Fur studios, this slab of wax is filled with five great tracks of hazy psych-pop perfection. We love how it taps into that captivating moment of late '80s turning into early '90s underground rock, just before things got very shoegazey. Like early singles by My Bloody Valentine, the charged melodies of the Jesus And Mary Chain, the smokey seduction of Opal, the driving daydreams of Ride, and a more upbeat and rocking Mazzy Star. They take a Creation records blueprint and infuse their own mark as these songs are the sounds of a band we think (and hope) we'll be hearing from for a long time. Like their local buddies Girls, Lilac's take on pop is filled with such enthusiasm and undeniable spirit. You can tell this is a band who lives to play music, and this recording really does their sound and spirit so much justice. Pressed on white vinyl, and comes with a coupon for a digital download.

LILAC s/t (self-released) cd-r 3.98
Fuzzed-out, jangly garage-pop dreaminess from SF's Lilac, new project from guitarist of local favorites Bridez. Heavy hitting distorted guitars strummed under dual male/female vocals, distant organ haze fluttering about, amp melting leads sailing over bratty lyrics and pure punk rock attitude, all thrown together into a super catchy, blurred-out rock and roll bonanza.
MPEG Stream: "So Young"
MPEG Stream: "Cars"

LIMOSINE s/t (self-released) cd-r + poster 5.98
SF locals Limosine offer up their debut, a 5-song cd-r about 36 minutes long featuring much in the way of rumbling repetitive percussion, blown-out distortion, ceremonial atmospheres, squealing tape manipulations, droning doomic vocal chant, mad scientist bloops and bleeps, and indie-angsty vox... Limosine's layers of lo-fi loops are a sort of psychedelic DIY industrial musick that we imagine could appeal to fans of such disparate acts as Pain Teens, the Dead C, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, and Wildildlife. Weird stuff, we can say that! And we like it.
Track one, "Only Poise, Only Prizes" is the heaviest, most claustrophobic cut, with the next two "Stillborn" and "Lo And Behold" being much airier and (relatively) blissful, though then the final two songs here, "Weird Waver" and "Alrosa Villa" bring back more of the distortion and shambolic mayhem of the first track. Not that the spacious "Stillborn", in the course of its nearly 12 minute running time, doesn't get into some intense areas too.
The band is a trio, with Sarah Bernat on guitar and vocals, Grant Valley on vocals and acoustic guitar, and Bert Bergen on drums, electronics, and cassette tape loops. The one we know among 'em is Bert, and you can definitely hear him loud and clear here. He's also a visual artist, his work usual featuring fantastical crystalline patterns, bearded gurus, and innocent marine mammals, you've probably seen it around town on wheatpasted posters advertising rock shows and art gallery events. And he was the drummer (as well as what you might call artistic director) for the now-disbanded new age space rock outfit Ascended Master, which also featured former AQ staffer Lauren, as well as members of Crime In Choir. While we're sorry Ascended Master is no more, we're digging Bert's new ride, Limosine.
The way this is packaged, you could easily mistake it for a 7", but like we said it's actually a cd-r with a folded-up 21"x18" poster, a numbered, signed print featuring freaky art by Bert and Grant. Limited to only 59 copies!!
MPEG Stream: "Only Poise, Only Prizes"
MPEG Stream: "Stillborn"
MPEG Stream: "Weird Waver"

LIPMAN, ADAM Both Sundays (self-released) 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.
Following up on his 2006 Feathered Palm Trees cd-r, solo SF singer/songwriter Adam Lipman delivers another intimate batch of down to earth folksy numbers that expose an uncommon vulnerability, earnestness and heart. Once again his tender, youthful voice is joined by some pretty female vocal accompaniment. Those tunes are particularly sweet, engaging listens.
Whereas his last release came with a tiny tiny booklet, this lovingly homespun yet elaborate one comes coil-bound with photo foldouts and text. Ultra limited pressing of 30 (of which we only got a handful which are apparently the last remaining copies!), so act fast. We've been assured that a second (albeit less elaborate) version plus one on vinyl will be released shortly. We'll keep y'all posted!
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 3"

LIPMAN, ADAM Feathered Palm Trees (Folktale) cd-r 6.98
On occasion our dear aQ customers will grace us with their own music, and such is the case with this self-titled release by Mr. Adam Lipman. Soft spoken in person, he also sings in hushed tones with an unexpected youthful solemnity. The closest comparison would be with Owen Ashworth of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone... if he were an acoustic troubadour who is joined every so often by some dreamy female vocals. These ten intimate, barebones lo-fi songs also recall the earnestness of early Mountain Goats. Nice! The cd-r comes packaged in a digipak with a tiny 1.5" handmade insert booklet.
MPEG Stream: "Out Of Our Mouths"
MPEG Stream: "Feathered Palm Trees"

LIQUID COP The Clear Album EP (self-released) cd-r 2.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY. NOTE: This ep is now included on Liquid Cop's full length self-released cd-r called Data So Nice I Saved It Twice.
An all too brief seven tracks of delightfully collaged samples, guitar, vocals and digital gleeps 'n' meeps from this SF gentleman. Light and playful, they alternately take a sip of lounge-iness, dip their toes in glitch-y, down tempo electronics, and venture gently into other soundscape terrain. A wee detail I found a bit disappointing was the disc's abrupt end, the final cut just stops. It was like being jarred out of a 12 minute daydream. Nonetheless, this is a very very warm and pleasing introduction to Liquid Cop!
RealAudio clip: "Prissy Goes To Beauty School"

LIQUORBALL Break-n-Run Live (Feast Music) lp 11.98
Any fan of heavy psychedelic music should already be hip to the mighty Liquorball. If you don't own their Fuck The Sky record, find it, you will NOT be sorry. Or hell, let's start a petition to get all the LB stuff re-issued! Anyway, Liquorball are still in fact a going concern, and unlike lots of bands that continue on well past their prime, Liquorball still sound as sick, and heavy and psychedelic as EVER. This lp captures the group live, at 29 Palms, presumably in some dive bar, a couple years back, tearing it up and blowing the roof off. Two side long jams that DESTROY. Super distorted and loose as fuck, tripped out and druggy, pounding and howling epic psychnoise blowout of the highest order. Guitars unleashing wild tangles of frenzied psychedelia over a relentlessly pounding rhythm, like some sort of Fushitsusha / Burnt Hills tag team match, endlessly rocking and totally mesmerizingly EPIC. The first side/track never lets up, launching right into it and shredding the whole side to bits, while the second side is a bit darker, a little more dynamic, but is essentially part two of LB's live set single song infinite psych-space-drug jam blowout!
Needless to say, anyone into heavy psych, needs EVERYTHING from these guys, and if you're into the current crop of psychedelic space rock, give this a listen and watch the rest of your space psych records cower in fear and shame!
LIMITED TO 540 COPIES!!!

LIQUORBALL Fucks The Sky (Black Jack) lp 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not sure how many of you remember this Bay area band. But man it's a crime they weren't huge. This is liquored up (obviously), smacked out, dirty, trashy, buzzy, droney, chaotic, fully fuzzed out lightning bolt psych drone damage. Think Butthole Surfers playing Fushitsusha after drinking a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Or imagine slipping some speed into Bob Pollard's beer and watching a fried and freaking out Guided By Voices desparately try to work their way through the Hawkwind catalog. Or take equal parts Bunny Brains, Brainbombs, and Brainticket, add some acid and lock 'em in a dark and dingy basement. This is seriously damaged, outsider psych rock nirvana. Filthy and sloppy and just about the best thing we've ever heard. LP only, and these were a warehouse find, so not sure how many we'll be able to get. This is Allan's favorite LB record, a blurry buzzy drunken amp to the head, guitar to the groin, musical beer dumped over your head before a good ass whooping. VERY RECOMMENDED!

LIQUORBALL Hauls Ass (Black Jack) lp 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Not sure how many of you remember this Bay area band. But man it's a crime they weren't huge. This is liquored up (obviously), smacked out, dirty, trashy, buzzy, droney, chaotic, fully fuzzed out lightning bolt psych drone damage. Think Butthole Surfers playing Fushitsusha after drinking a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Or imagine slipping some speed into Bob Pollard's beer and watching a fried and freaking out Guided By Voices desparately try to work their way through the Hawkwind catalog. Or take equal parts Bunny Brains, Brainbombs, and Brainticket, add some acid and lock 'em in a dark and dingy basement. This is seriously damaged, outsider psych rock nirvana. Filthy and sloppy and just about the best thing we've ever heard. LP only, and these were a warehouse find, so not sure how many we'll be able to get. Hauls Ass is the yin to Fucks The Sky's yang. One is incomplete without the other. The sound of one hand clapping. Hauls Ass is the follow up to LB's classic debut and wallows in the same filthy, noisy, druggy, boozy swirl of demented garage-y psych rock genius! Again, SO RECOMMENDED!

LISA ALICE That Thing In Your Hand (Ridiculum) cd 14.98
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Throughout the greater part of her debut album, Lisa Alice weaves the sweetest of acoustic gal pop very much in the vein of the dreamy, wistful side of K Records - think the Softies, Gaze or Mary Lou Lord. However, on songs like "You Win" her vocal delivery also brings to mind more recent female indie singer/songwriters like Tegan & Sara, Bonfire Madigan or Emm Gryner who themselves possess degrees of the confidence and raw determination of the Difranco kind. Very down to earth, no frills, heart on your sleeve songs. If you've been seeking something of this variety, That Thing In Your Hand might be just the thing for your ears.
RealAudio clip: "Mother Time"
RealAudio clip: "You Win"

LITTLE FUZZY s/t (Little Fuzzy) cd 12.98
On their self-titled debut, Little Fuzzy do not unfurl what everyone expected from their name and album art -- that being bright fuzzy-wuzzy bouncy twee-pop. NO! Instead this SF quartet (whose membership includes former members of Mission neighborhood music vets Fantasy) bust out a highspirited, funky breakdown complete with much lighthearted silliness in lyrics and song titles. Sorta reminiscent of '70s Sunday morning variety show staples the Bugaloos or the Banana Splits but with a faux Prince falsetto vocalist.
MPEG Stream: "Smooth Mash Potato"
MPEG Stream: "Elevator Soft Parade"

LITTLE FUZZY Shimmy Up (self-released) cd 11.98
Shimmy up, down and all around! The first few playful bars of Little Fuzzy's sophomore album made us think we'd stumbled onto Sesame Street... but Sesame Street for grown-ups, mind you! This SF gang keep on rollin' out their pop infused groovy goodness. Hey folks try this one on for size... new genre: 'twee funk'! Little Fuzzy, we thusly dub thee.
MPEG Stream: "Love's Delightful Labours"
MPEG Stream: "Shimmy Up"

LITTLE WINGS Black Grass (Gnomelife) cassette 5.98
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LITTLE WINGS Made It Rain (Gnomelife) cassette 5.98
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LITURGY Renihilation (20 Buck Spin) cd 10.98
These guys sent us an lp a long while back, and somehow we totally slept on it. Not sure why, a 12" x 12" image of a cloudy sky, the sun glinting in the background, and the words "PURE TRANSCENDENTAL BLACK METAL" writ large in big black records across the front, and inside, just what the cover promised some seriously buzzing blazing blackness. It's not surprising these guys found there way to 20 Buck Spin, a pretty good fit for sure for this NY horde.
Unlike the blissed out blackened ethereal transcendentalism of the lp, back when Liturgy was a one man bedroom black metal band, Renihilation finds Liturgy expanded to a 4 piece, and the sound is much more raw and organic, still blown out and pretty blissy, goddamn soaring and epic in fact, but it sounds more like a proper rock band, although the drumming is still inhumanly fast, and the band lock into these cool, weird, and very un-black metal sounding high end trills, that only make the sound that much more mysterious and mystical. The band claim some unlikely non-metal influences, but as you get into Renihilation, it's easy to hear that there's way more going on here than Ulver or Darkthrone worship, the band slipping into lurching, almost mathy breakdowns, incredible dynamics, that almost sounds like Harvey Milk at 78rpm, the sort of stop start, sway and lumber, that only works if the band is tight as fuck.
These songs are not super long either, but they feel majestic, and sprawling, and never ending, in a good way, the guitars are frantic, the drumming relentless, the guitars seem to exist only in the upper registers, like wild psychedelic leads transformed into some sort of blackened tremolo picking, so instead of black metal, these jams almost sound like modern classical compositions, like Arvo Part composing for black metal band, when a song ends, you feel exhausted, and drained, like at the end of a long journey, but before you can even catch your breath, the band explode into action once again. And before you know it, they're locked into another high end blast of extreme tension, no let up, no slipping into acoustic interludes, it's almost like the musical version holding your breath, soaring as high and for as long as (in)humanly possible, so when the band does pause briefly, it knocks you on your ass, of when they switch gears and get all spacious and dynamic, it nearly blows your mind.
When we first got this, we only listened to it a couple times, and thought it was pretty cool, but on repeated listens it is proving itself to be truly transcendental, and unlike almost all of the other black metal out there, and is quickly becoming a contender for black metal record of the year.
MPEG Stream: "Pagan Dawn"
MPEG Stream: "Mysterium"
MPEG Stream: "Ecstatic Rite"

LIVE HUMAN Live (C.O.D.) cd 11.98
Live Human's previous albums never really did it for me, so this great album is a revelation. Here the groundbreaking trio of standup bass, drums, and turntables is *live*, recorded right here in their hometown of San Francisco at the Great American Music Hall in July 2001 (this after playing a sold out show at the Montreux Jazz Festival!) While they have been called "punk jazz" by some XLR8R reviewer on the back of this cd, you should know that there is nothing punk about the trio's sound -- although their deft improvisations have certainly been informed by the jazz tradition.
Live Human mixes warmly organic bass lines that are funky but not overly so, with percussion that is as breakbeat "funky drummer" style as it is carefully shuffling, staccato and delicate. The third equal element is hiphop DJ Quest's visionary turntablist style. While he does his fair share of athletic, textural scratching here (he even plays with the tense sound of a skipping cd, of all things), it isn't overdone, nor boring, nor predictable. He brings in just enough outside elements like women's voices, snippets of old hip hop classics, James Brown's "heuh!", etc., to prevent the "jazz" from imploding self-indulgently into itself, yet not so much that it becomes a sample-heavy smorgasbord. It is incredible how perfect Quest's instincts are for what is too much and/or not enough. I have to say that the turntablist skills demonstrated here are so seamlessly integrated with the bass and the drums that I can't help but think this is one of THE FINEST examples of turntablism I have ever heard -- he knows that the way to us listeners' hearts is not to showboat his virtuosic skills, but instead to bow to the demands of the music itself.
This is an awesome record that is completely worth your money. As if that wasn't enough, it is purposely being sold directly from the label to retailers for the express purpose of keeping the price down and, according to the liner notes, "cutting out many of the redundant music-industry middle-men that traditionally add nothing to the art but are happy to pocket more than their fair share of the profit (biiiiaaaatch!)."
RealAudio clip: "Fr-Fre-Fre-Fresshhhhhhh!"
RealAudio clip: "Breakbeat"
RealAudio clip: "Human til Inifinity"

LONELY HEARTS Make Yourself At Home (DIYOrElse) cd 4.98

LONG AGO AND RIGHT NOW AUDIOZINE (self-released) 2cd-r 9.98
Such an SF treat! Former Erase Errata Sara Jaffe and Melissa Klein have assembled a spoken word and music audiozine all about San Francisco called Long Ago And Right Now. Brimming with thirty candid on-the-street recordings of stories and songs from and about the Bay Area. Intimate and engaging. Handcrafted in the same fashion as her Erase Errata tour diary that we carried last year (machine-stitch bound and screenprinted).
MPEG Stream: STREET VENDOR "Street Vendor's Place"
MPEG Stream: JAFFE, SARA "Sea Song"

LONG, MERIC Dodo Bird (self-released) cd 6.98
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This long time big time aQ fave finally in stock once again!
This Dodo Bird is charming from the very first song! The other four gentle folk pop tunes with their effusive acoustic guitar and soft-spoken male vocals are pretty darn lovely too. The gent behind all of them is Meric Long, a singer/songwriter from right here in SF (fyi: he's recently performed under the moniker Dodo Bird). This is his impressive debut ep, and it's super confident and composed. Very much in the easygoing, engaging tradition of Simon And Garfunkel, Astrud Gilberto, and definitely recommended for fans of Iron & Wine, Kings Of Convenience and Elliott Smith. Can't wait for more!
MPEG Stream: "Notes"
MPEG Stream: "Fiends"

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).