US SAUCER My Company Is Misery (Amarillo) lp 9.98
These two long out of print early nineties gems back in stock, but who knows for how long. As far as we know, these in fact remain out of print, but one of the band members bequeathed us a tiny handful, so we figured some of you more adventurous folks out there, might appreciate an earful of these SF avant slo-mo country weirdos, who over these two records (and a few more after), created a warped, dark, idiosyncratic drummerless country music, that drifts and creeps, moodily and murkily, the music, hushed and spidery, mostly just guitar and viola (provided by Brian Hageman of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282), the vocals super melodramatic and definitely an acquired taste, backed by Margaret Murray's more hushed, almost whispered croon, the songs loose and ramshackle, drowsy and druggy, but ultimately strangely lovely.
The second record is even weirder, noiser, the guitars buzzing more wildly, Murray's vocals more present, sometimes a wild caterwaul, other times locked into dreamy harmonies with USS main man David Tholfsen, the music, slipping easily from hushed moody brood, to angular Jandekian blooze, both of these records, had they been instrumental, would sound that far removed from the stoner country sprawl of aQ faves Souled American, but the vocals definitely transform this into an even wilder strain of outsider lo-fi country, one that sounds just as good today as when we first heard theses records two decades ago.
Fans of Songs:Ohia, Palace Brothers, and other country outliers should easily fall under U.S. Saucer's dark hypnotic spell.
MPEG Stream: "Best Wet Curse"
MPEG Stream: "Scold Mourners"
MPEG Stream: "Forgone Hormone"

US SAUCER Tender Place Come From Nothing (Amarillo) cd 12.98
On the last list, we reviewed the lp version of this long out of print early nineties slowcore outsider country masterpiece, having gotten copies directly from the band. We also managed to get an handful of cd copies as well, which includes three bonus tracks NOT on the lp version!
Tender Place Come From Nothing was the 1994 sophomore release from these SF avant slo-mo country weirdos, who over the course of four years/records, conjured up a warped, dark, idiosyncratic drummerless country music, that drifts and creeps, moodily and murkily, the music, hushed and spidery, mostly just guitar and viola (provided by Brian Hageman of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282), the vocals super melodramatic and definitely an acquired taste, backed by Margaret Murray's more hushed, almost whispered croon, the songs loose and ramshackle, drowsy and druggy, but ultimately strangely lovely.
Unlike their comparatively more mellow debut, this record is even weirder and noisier, the guitars buzzing more wildly, Murray's vocals more present, sometimes a wild caterwaul, other times locked into dreamy harmonies with USS main man David Tholfsen, the music, slipping easily from hushed moody brood, to angular Jandekian blooze, and had it been instrumental, the sound here wouldn't be that far removed from the stoner country sprawl of aQ faves Souled American, but the vocals definitely transform this into an even wilder strain of outsider lo-fi country, one that sounds just as good today as when we first heard theses records two decades ago.
Fans of Songs:Ohia, Palace Brothers, and other country outliers should easily fall under U.S. Saucer's dark hypnotic spell.
MPEG Stream: "Cowboy Song"
MPEG Stream: "Frail"
MPEG Stream: "Hold On Dear Brother"

US SAUCER Tender Place Come From Nothing (Amarillo) lp 9.98
These two long out of print early nineties gems back in stock, but who knows for how long. As far as we know, these in fact remain out of print, but one of the band members bequeathed us a tiny handful, so we figured some of you more adventurous folks out there, might appreciate an earful of these SF avant slo-mo country weirdos, who over these two records (and a few more after), created a warped, dark, idiosyncratic drummerless country music, that drifts and creeps, moodily and murkily, the music, hushed and spidery, mostly just guitar and viola (provided by Brian Hageman of Thinking Fellers Union Local 282), the vocals super melodramatic and definitely an acquired taste, backed by Margaret Murray's more hushed, almost whispered croon, the songs loose and ramshackle, drowsy and druggy, but ultimately strangely lovely.
The second record is even weirder, noiser, the guitars buzzing more wildly, Murray's vocals more present, sometimes a wild caterwaul, other times locked into dreamy harmonies with USS main man David Tholfsen, the music, slipping easily from hushed moody brood, to angular Jandekian blooze, both of these records, had they been instrumental, would sound that far removed from the stoner country sprawl of aQ faves Souled American, but the vocals definitely transform this into an even wilder strain of outsider lo-fi country, one that sounds just as good today as when we first heard theses records two decades ago.
Fans of Songs:Ohia, Palace Brothers, and other country outliers should easily fall under U.S. Saucer's dark hypnotic spell.
MPEG Stream: "Cowboy Song"
MPEG Stream: "Frail"
MPEG Stream: "Hold On Dear Brother"

USPUTUSPUD Liturgical Alcoholik (White Lodge Tapes) cassette 4.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Available again! The debut cassette release from our very own Matt's (of Wildildlife) Usputuspud project. New improved version with slightly altered artwork and hand painted cassettes! Here's what we had to say about it the first time around:
Our very own mailorder underlord Matt just got back from a month long US tour with his band Wildildlife, hope you got to catch them live. We grabbed a bunch of this tape that Matt was selling on tour, a recording of his solo project, the bizarrely titled Usputuspud. When he's not shirtless and flailing wildly on stage with a bloodied and battered guitar, he's apparently holed up in a dark corner of some basement with some tapes, a 4 track, a different guitar and a harmonica (!). That's right, harmonica. But fear not, these aren't a bunch of back porch blues jams, this is some seriously dark and droney ambience. Deep resonant swells, drift and shimmer, melodies are pulled apart, the constituent notes allowed to float freely along the mysterious black tide, dramatic, melodic and strangely cinematic, you can almost imagine some vocalist like Nick Cave, crooning over the top, some hellish end of the world balladeering. Mysterious and mystical, a muted mumbly soundscape of rumble and shimmer, a gauzy low end smear, through which all sorts of subtle sonic colorings are visible, everything druggy and subtly psychedelic, an ominous creeping crawl into some dark pit of sound, glowing red, lit from below by some mysterious fire below. Essential for fans of all things slow and low, but wouldn't be entirely out of place in your tape case, next to your Yellow Swans, Skaters and Quetzolcoatl cassettes...

V/A A Benefit For Our Friends (DMBQ Benefit CD) cd-r 15.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
By now, we're sure most of you heard about the horrible accident that claimed the life of DMBQ drummer China, and left the rest of the band as well as their booker / tour manager (and AQ pal) Michelle injured and hospitalized. And as is always the case with situations like these, most musicians are uninsured, and need all the help they can get to help pay their medical bills and try to recover, regroup and make it home.
So this here comp is one way you can help. 100 percent of the proceeds goes direct to the band to help them get back on their feet. And as if helping out a bunch of cool folks and a kick ass band to boot wasn't enough, you also get this killer comp out of the deal. New and exclusive tracks from Comets On Fire. Paik, Trans Am, Lightning Bolt, Burmese, Fucking Champs, Ezeetiger, Ludicra, No Doctors, Nate Denver's Neck, and more!!! And if you want to do more, you can donate via Paypal to this address: dmbqpanache@lovepumpunited.com or by mail to this address: Lovepump United, PO BOX 3241, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603.
And again our condolences to the band and friends and family for the loss of China, and our best wishes for speedy recoveries all around.
MPEG Stream: COMETS ON FIRE "Wolf Eyes (Middle Version)"
MPEG Stream: LIGHTNING BOLT "Exitebike"

V/A Ace Of Spades - Best of 2004/2005 (El4 Records) cd 13.98
For those of you who've been keepin' track of the Ace Of Spades limited edition cd-r series of monthly live acoustic performances at Oakland's Mama Buzz Cafe by various Bay Area rootsy folksy musicians, here's the final release! It's a limited edition 'best of' compilation cd (not a cd-r), and it features a single track each from seventeen different artists including Rogue Wave, The Moore Brothers, Sean Hayes, Black Bear, Dave Gleason's Wasted Days, Alela Menig, The Lonely Hearts, Jason Webley, Paul Panamarenko, Mandrake, Black Bird Stitches, Laura Weinbach, Audio Out Send, Etienne De Rocher, Brian Glaze, Bart Davenport, and Paula Frazer.
And for extra warm fuzzies, it's a benefit cd with for the Little Kids Rock Foundation supporting children's music education.
MPEG Stream: ROGUE WAVE "Be Kind & Remind"
MPEG Stream: FRAZER, PAULA "Waiting For You"

V/A Affairs Online (Voltaire) 12" 11.98
Local label Voltaire does it again. First it was the Publicist Keep It Off The Record 12", a killer slab of propulsive robotic cyber funk grooviness from the alter ego of one of the guys in Trans Am, now it's Affairs Online, a new compilation, and a fantastic collection of retro psychedelic disco-prog Euro-synth electro, and introduces us to five new artists (one of which is in fact Steve Moore of Zombi in disguise), hailing from all over the globe, Sweden, Japan and the US, but what they all have in common is their slavish worship of vintage Eurodisco and old school electro and synthwave, and whereas lots of other artists dabbling in the same sort of sounds twist them all up, add some modern twist, the sounds here are perfect replications of songs that could have been, soundtracks to some obscure eighties softporn VHS, or the score to some rare Argento giallo, the sounds here are all swirling synths, groovy beats, vintage analog buzz, and that hazy eighties production.
Lovelock, aka Steve Moore, offers up a track that sounds like the soundtrack to the Loveboat or Hart To Hart or some other classic TV show, a little disco-y, a lot funky, with warm synths, and soaring faux strings, tense and dramatic and melodic, evoking the lazy after school TV watching afternoons of our childhood as much as some futuristic Eurodisco. Loose Shus gets all Logan's Run with his track, creepy pulsing synths, and percolating sci-fi melodies, before the song kicks in with some discofunk bass and lots of handclaps. Narctrax is a little ethereal, but that swirling groovy haze is wrapped around some pulsing rhythms, more handclaps and a big fuzzy bassline that would have Daft Punk in a tizzy. Le Pimp is total eighties Eddie Murphy movie soundtrack, slap bass, synth stabs, a woozy electrofunk that would work in a dance-off as well as a chase scene, and finally, Erik Artur offers up a brief bit of washed out squiggly swirly electro synth melancholia rife with swoops and bloops and swirls and bleeps.
So awesome. And obviously anyone into the current crop of retro futurist synth wave Goblin/Carpenter revivalists will dig this BIG time.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, each one hand numbered! And check out these amazing videos that were created to accompany some of the songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evEG1j1kvV4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqc2hZFsoTc
With more to come!!
MPEG Stream: NARCTRAX "Unweave The Rainbow"
MPEG Stream: LOVELOCK "Champagne"
MPEG Stream: LE PIMP "BTTB"

V/A Alone in a Room -1-,-2-,-3- (Devil In The Woods) 7" 3.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Three volumes of a locally produced single series. Each features four artists who contribute a song and describe their musical processes and interests in a cute little self-designed insert, so you get a nice feel for the musicians beyond the songs themselves. Vol. 1 features folks from Dumptruck, Caterwaul, Snowmen (Cole Marquis), and Bob Reed of Overwhelming Colorfast. Vol. 2's got people from Grandaddy, Morella's Forest, Dart, and Shove. Vol. 3: Gaze, Lunchbox, Sunset Valley, and Jenhitt.

V/A Anticon Label Sampler 1999-2004 (Anticon) cd 7.98
For those of you who somehow missed the Anticon boat, and maybe even for those of you who need to fill said boat with every release and extra track you can get your hands on, here's a massive 33 track sampler from the Anticon label, funny, funky, idiosyncratic, bizarre and musically adventurous, home of the off kilter indie hip hop of Sole, Themselves, Odd Nosdam, Alias, Why?, Restiform Bodies and loads more. This comp has it all old tracks, new tracks, soon to be released tracks and of course, some UNRELEASED tracks. 33 tracks mixed seamlessly into one big ol chunk by Odd Nosdam, featuring all of the above folks as well as Passage, Sage Francis, Deep Puddle Dynamics, Controller 7, Dosh and Jel. All for a measly seven bucks. Nice!
MPEG Stream: THEMSELVES "Dark Sky Demo"
MPEG Stream: PASSAGE "Poem To The Hospital"
MPEG Stream: THEMSELVES "Good People Check (Hrvatski Remix)"

V/A Azadi!: A Benefit Compilation For RAWA (Fire Museum / Electro Motive) 2cd 14.98
Longtime supporter of the rights of Afghani women, AQ-customer Steven Tobin has produced benefit shows and now this double disc benefit cd -- and what a comp it is. The musical choices are all over the genre map yet it works nicely as a sit-down listen, and it will certainly introduce you to many groups you've never heard. Includes experimental indie rock (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Deerhoof, Zmrzlina, The Intima), ethnicky female vocal theatrics (D'yara, Charming Hostess, Jou Jou, Samsara), avant electronics (Blevin Blectum, Bran, Planetsize, Zeek Sheck), quirky weirdness as only East Bay bands can do it (Spezza Rotto, Charming Hostess, Faun Fables, Mono Pause), world-class improvisers (Dave Slusser, Saadet Turkoz, Miya Masaoka), underground hip hop (DeepDickCollective), and much more. All proceeds benefit RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, an organization founded in 1977. Pick this up, feel great about it, and get a genuinely good listen to boot.
MPEG Stream: GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR "George Bush Cut Up While Talking"
MPEG Stream: THE INTIMA "The New Savage"
MPEG Stream: DEERHOOF "Bring Down the Nutritious Pigs"

V/A BART: Bay Area Retrograde (Vol. 1) (Dark Entries) lp 17.98
A few years back, Minimal Wave offered some choice crate digging collections of nearly forgotten darkwave and post-punk electronics through their Lost Tapes and Found Tapes collections, highlighting the differences between the European and American models of underground new wave. Dark Entries produced this anthology in that same tradition, focusing even more tightly on the geography of the Bay Area. As Johnny Ray Huston so rightly points out in the liner notes, San Francisco in the '80s had its own unique crucible of local events that shaped the Bay Area's particular sound (e.g. the assassination of Harvey Milk, the growing AIDS epidemic and the fear surrounding the disease, etc.). While there's none of the art-damaged abstraction filtered from The Residents, Snakefinger, or Tuxedomoon in an obvious lineage to the artists featured here, BART (named after the subway that connects Oakland, Berkeley, and other parts of the East Bay to San Francisco) is a great collection of quirky minimal wave electronics, with a fair amount of unreleased material from obscurant Bay Area new wave bands.
Nomimal State opens the compilation and was from the suburban hamlet of Danville, recording this demo 1983 with a militantly uptempo drum machine and urgent synth lines. It's a track that easily fits next to the likes of The Units and Nervous Gender in terms of manic, punkish use of electronics. Speaking of The Units, they round out the compilation in contributing their sci-fi pop anthem "Mission," which is still bitchin' after all these years! Voice Farm is the other 'big name' to appear on this compilation, contributing a sinewy darkwave number from their 1982 album "The World We Live In." Batang State, Quiet Room, and Necropolis Of Love offer more Joy Division / Wire / Kraftwerk atmospheric post-punk number with considerable panache. The Wasp Women were a crossdressing trash-punk outfit, whose demo featured a wastoid lo-fi number and had appeared in the 1982 film "What Ever Happened To Susan Jane." Danny Boy & The Serious Party Gods offer a fabulously campy disco number with suitably over-the-top raunchy lyrics that ramble on and on against anthemic synths. If there's one track that you need to hear from this compilation it's this one! But the whole collection is very well done, and comes highly recommended as with everything that Dark Entries releases.
MPEG Stream: NOMINAL STATE "Middle Class"
MPEG Stream: UNITS "Mission"
MPEG Stream: DANNY BOY & THE SERIOUS PARTY GODS "Castro Boy"
MPEG Stream: VOICE FARM "Voyeur"

V/A Bay Area Funk 2 (Luv N' Haight) cd 16.98
Oh yeah! With so many great collections of golden-era soul/funk coming out in the last couple years chronicling the wonderful sounds that came out of scenes in different parts of the country and abroad it makes perfect sense that there should be some collections detailing the amazing soul & funk that came out of our very own backyard, right here in San Francisco and throughout the bay-area during the '60s and '70s. Like their great collection of soul & funk from Michigan on the Searching For Soul comp, Luv N' Haight have once again hit solid gold with a totally stellar collection of should have been big time hits that mostly slipped under the radar on a more national scale. From the heartbroken soul of Mary Love, the always reliable Sugar Pie DeSanto, the tripped out funk of San Francisco T.K.O.'s, the charismatic hip shaking sounds of Little Denise Stevenson and the gut wrenchingly gritty funk of Primevil, this collection is pretty much super solid from start to finish. We can't get enough of the raw good stuff, from a time when Soul & Funk was done so totally right. Fans of the Eccentric Soul series and of all vintage soul & funk, this is a definite must have!
MPEG Stream: MARY LOVE "Born To Live With Heartache"
MPEG Stream: LITTLE DENISE STEVENSON "Hip Breakin'"
MPEG Stream: PRIMEVIL "Stop Look Listen"

V/A Berkeley Guitar (Tompkins Square) cd 14.98
The Tompkins Square Label focuses its spotlight locally on the next generation of Northern California acoustic guitarists -- Sean Smith, Matt Baldwin and Adam Snider. Hailing from Berkeley, where John Fahey's label Takoma was (as well as where Windham Hill first began to blossom), these three young and very talented players have been playing in local clubs and cafes for a few years now. Sean Smith, whose stunning debut on Isota we reviewed a few list back and was also featured on the second Imaginational Anthem compilation, is the "elder" of the group, while Baldwin and Snider have their recording debuts here. Lovely and melancholy with beautiful cover art by John Baizley of Baroness (which looks remarkably Pushead-like), this is a great introduction to the local acoustic guitar scene.
MPEG Stream: SEAN SMITH "Die Until Tomorrow, Sleep"
MPEG Stream: ADAM SNIDER "Swamp Angel"
MPEG Stream: MATT BALDWIN "She was a Girl, She Was In Love"

V/A Berkeley Guitar (Tompkins Square) lp 14.98
The Tompkins Square Label focuses its spotlight locally on the next generation of Northern California acoustic guitarists -- Sean Smith, Matt Baldwin and Adam Snider. Hailing from Berkeley, where John Fahey's label Takoma was (as well as where Windham Hill first began to blossom), these three young and very talented players have been playing in local clubs and cafes for a few years now. Sean Smith, whose stunning debut on Isota we reviewed a few list back and was also featured on the second Imaginational Anthem compilation, is the "elder" of the group, while Baldwin and Snider have their recording debuts here. Lovely and melancholy with beautiful cover art by John Baizley of Baroness (which looks remarkably Pushead-like), this is a great introduction to the local acoustic guitar scene.
MPEG Stream: SEAN SMITH "Die Until Tomorrow, Sleep"
MPEG Stream: ADAM SNIDER "Swamp Angel"
MPEG Stream: MATT BALDWIN "She was a Girl, She Was In Love"

V/A Bomb Anniversary Collection 1991-2001 (Bomb Hip Hop) 4cd 28.00
Ten years of groundbreaking hip hop releases celebrated in one package -- $28 for *four* discs, over 60 tracks spanning the entire Bomb Hip Hop catalog, and including unreleased stuff as well. This is the label run by SF's own David Paul, who with the Return of the DJ compilations that way early-on featured such now-famous folks as Z-Trip, DJ Faust, Shortee, the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, RJD2 (Def Jux), DJ Craze, Peanut Butter Wolf, DJ Static (Sweden), Knightz of Bass (German electro) etc. You can't go wrong, there's insane hip hop here, electro, turntablism, etc.
RealAudio clip: Z-TRIP "Rockstar part II"
RealAudio clip: INVISIBL SKRATCH PIKLZ "Invastion of the Octopus People"
RealAudio clip: KNIGHTZ OF BASS "KB-4"

V/A Brotherhood Of Light (Brotherhood Of Light) cassette 5.98
After a handful of killer releases (Sunchariot, Svetovid, Surt, Lascowiec, Gnieu, Uruk-Hai) comes this long in the works compilation from local black metal tape label Brotherhood Of Light, which gathers up a handful of rare and unreleased tracks from some of those same groups, as well as a bunch of others in BoL's underground orbit.
Up first is local BM duo (trio?) Lascowiec, who unfurl a gorgeous bit of super lo-fi, pastoral psychedelia, that gradually expands into a buzzing black cloud of washed out buzz wrapped around soaring majestic melancholic melodies, stumbling murky drum lope, and some seriously fierce bellowed vokills. Surt deliver a dreamy bit of piano laced drift, haunting and spectral, more of a sonic fragment, but quite lovely, like some lost Caretaker B side all fuzzy and hazy and dreamlike. The oddly named Vinland Special Services layout some strange industrial soundscape, all sampled voices, weird buzz, creaks and clatter, a sprawl of abstract collaged noise, the sound constantly shifting, and eventually splintering into a woozy bout of primitive turntablism, all warbly melodies and warped voices, before slipping back into more strange blackened industrial ambience. Finally, the A side is closed out by Uruk-Hai, and whose sounds is a mournful, depressive black metal drift, that's almost dreamy, with the guitars soaring majestically, the busy bassline providing a woozy melody, the vocals appropriately harsh, but otherwise, it's very Alcest like, all shoegazey and shimmery.
The B side starts off with Sunchariot, whose recent tape was a big hit around here, and is a new unreleased track from a forthcoming full length a blurry, bleary washed out avalanche of crumbling buzz, buried drums, muted melodies, and anguished vokills, super bizarre production, definitely can't wait to hear the full length. Up next is Cosmic Breath 88 who deliver a sort of abstract blackened industrial blowout, all flanged guitars, processed vox, and blacknoise buzz. Then there's a super raw, lo-fi chunk of primitive black buzz from USBM outfit Lord Foul, brittle guitars, the sound woozy and warped, almost looped sounding, tranced out and hypnotic. Aryan Art unfurl some surprisingly melodic black buzz, everything washed out and almost dreamy, a little bit shoegazey and blissed out, the vocals super anguished and WAY up in the mix, jarring at first, but then it sorta makes sense. The music gets very folky and medieval, even at its most furious it's sort of warbly and darkly dreamy. And finally, Svetovid finish things off, with some fuzzed out drum machine driven black buzz, laced with inhuman croaked vox and some super fuzzy dreamy melodies, again a weird mix of harsh and pretty, but it makes for a pretty compelling listen.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!! Each one hand numbered, and housed in full color J-cards.
MPEG Stream: LASCOWIEC "Ulfhetnar"
MPEG Stream: SVETOVID "Blood On The Ground"
MPEG Stream: SURT "Deeper Into The Void"
MPEG Stream: VINLAND SS "Anticommunist Minutemen"

V/A Burn My Eye (BME) dvd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Super low priced video document of the current "San Francisco Scene", heavy on the Extreme Elvis (you've been warned). Let me explain. AQ pal Virgil Porter had a cable access show called Burn My Eye, and this here DVD collects the greatest most memorable bits, including: A sweaty swaggering house show from garage rock trio The Coachwhips with random testimonials from some CW fans. An awesome high energy performance from Deerhoof -- watching the drummer, seated on a milk crate and pounding on his ramshackle 2 piece kit is totally mesmerising and pretty impressive. An interview with SF's very own Extreme Elvis, who is kind of like GG Allin trapped in the body of (fat) Elvis, as well as a sort-of Extrem Elvis greatest hits reel -- the candy cane in the ass, the pissing on the flag, the head shaving break up, the cum drinking. Wow. Some raw live footage of The Locust, as well as a backstage interview with them by Extreme Elvis that gets a little out of control. Noiseniks the Lowdown destroy it live at a house party and in a backyard. The Numbers get an interview and some live action. And Total Shutdown are naked in a park, and bursting eardrums at legendary local watering hole Bottom Of The Hill. Secret extras include a Numbers video as well as some live mayhem from local faux-gay-leather-techno boys Zeigenbok Kopf.

V/A Children's Music For Adults Volume 1 (Daft Alliance) cd 13.98
Hey all you grown-up kiddies, the nice folks at Daft Alliance don't want you to feel left out! Joining the other fine child-oriented releases that have come through our door recently is this Children's Music For Adults Volume 1 compilation. And despite the title, we can report that there's plenty on it for most age groups and attention spans. From the get-go, it's a lively listen. The most obvious appeal is not that these songs were 'made for children', but that many of them were playfully created with the sounds from a child's world (toys, tv shows, etc). It ends up becoming a name-that-toy puzzle of sorts! That said, it is definitely more than a one-time-listen novelty. Most tracks are thoroughly engaging and amusing, but the fifth and seventh songs are particular stand-outs. They're Bad Dudes' "Dawn of the Dudes" and hey willpower's "Janet and Aggie" respectively, seeming very inspired by the nuttier spastic moments of Mr. Bungle. The Bay Area-centric compilation also features tracks from Concentrick (Tim Green of the Fucking Champs), Open City, Sarge, M. Kourie, Comainu, Bookmobile, Final Cut To, Hell Hound (on my trail), Circadia and three from Tomo! If you like what you hear, keep in mind that this is just the beginning -- the first of a three volume series.
MPEG Stream: BAD DUDES "Dawn Of The Dudes"
MPEG Stream: HEY WILLPOWER "Janet And Aggie"

V/A Clit Stop (Swezlex Recordings) cd 9.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Collection of recordings made live at San Francisco's Clit Stop. 38 tracks from such notables as: Kit Clayton, Three Day Stubble, No Neck Blues Band, Deerhoof, Zeek Sheck, Rubber O Cement With Karla Lavay, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, and much more.

V/A Clouds Carved The Mountains (self-released) 2 x cd-r 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Better act fast on this one, super limited, as in ONLY SEVENTY COPIES, and it's a pretty killer sampling of some of the best SF bands around, all exclusive tracks, from a bunch of our favorites, and a whole bunch of bands we'd never heard of before.
Barn Owl, Lucky Dragons, Tussle, Pale Hoarse, Ascended Master, Snowblink, Drumz and so many more. Two discs, nearly 2 hours, of spaced out drone, groovy abstract rhythms, dark swilring ambience, woozy drum machine driven lo-fi pop, pounding low slung post rock, and lots of stops in between.
All of the tracks were recorded live in the Fall of 2007, during Drew Bennett's collaborative Clouds Carved The Mountains Installation / Sound Series at the Triple Base Gallery, here in SF.
Beaufiul hand assembled and hand silkscreened cover, with a printed insert, of the seventy copies we only got a handful, so grab one quick before they're gone...
MPEG Stream: BARN OWL "Untitled"
MPEG Stream: TUSSLE "Untitled"
MPEG Stream: ASCENDED MASTER "Untitled"
MPEG Stream: DRUMZ "Untitled"

V/A Crying Man Free Festival August 19, 2000 (Accidente Feliz) cd-r 6.98
A document of the SF experimental noise underground answer to Burning Man that took place this past August. Featuring Satosonic, Symplx and Planet-Size: Clit. Plenty of tangled wires, creative circuitry, and fire hazards.

V/A Death Before Disco (Princehouse) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The title for this compilation of gloom 'n' groove bands, "Death Before Disco" is a loaded historical allusion dating back to the late '70s, when rock purists held an irrational, fascistic antagonism toward the culture of euphoria and leisure that disco offered as a legitimate alternative to the American hegemony of straight, white-boy rock'n'roll. Well, with Princehouse themselves claiming that this compilation "represents where Princehouse is coming from and what we're into" (i.e. electro-punk dance bands who often exhibit plenty of disco slipperiness), "Death Before Disco" is an ill-fitting title to an otherwise good (and well-timed) compilation of mutant, death disco with tracks by Adult., I Am Spoonbender (previously unreleased, a reinterpretation of the song "Me And Me Rhythm Box" from the film Liquid Sky), The Pattern, The Numbers, The Vanishing, Ghost Orchids, Gogogoairheart, A Tension, Hint Hint, Dance Disaster Movement, The Pleased, The Lovemakers, Broker / Dealer, Paradise Boys, and Kill Me Tomorrow. Most all of the tracks had been featured on other albums, giving it a sort of K-Tel feel; but the curatorial decisions work well enough in favoring the infectiousness of rhythms dolled up with black eyeliner and plenty of artworld / designer-drug attitudes, typified by the excellent cuts from The Vanishing and Dance Disaster Movement. The compilation noticeably detours with two blue collar rock'n'roll cuts from The Pattern and The Pleased, the latter sounds *exactly* like The Strokes. Those strange additions aside, "Death Before Disco" is worthwhile medicine for those waiting for another fix of Fischerspooner or The Rapture.
MPEG Stream: VANISHING "Black Umbrellas"
MPEG Stream: DANCE DISASTER MOVEMENT "C'est La Vie"

V/A Dielectric Records Volume 1 (Dielectric Records) cd 10.98
A few months ago, we presented the debut quartet of releases from AQ-pal Drew(cifer) Webster's new record label Dielectric. Four stylishly packaged 12" vinyl eps from four diverse, mostly-unknown but excellent sonic architects. Now those four are back, together on this cd, each contributing four tracks apiece -- a total of ten new cuts along with one or two tracks per artist that already appeared on the eps. The disc starts of with Akta Ebtekar aka Sote, who prior to his Dielectric release had already gained some attention with a disc on Warp. Actually two of Sote's cuts are credited to Virgox, Ebtekar's collaboration with Safar Bake. Sote/Virgox produce crunching, stuttering beats and computer melodies -- it's like dance music constructed from the sampled sounds of a mad scientist's laboratory. Definitely in the vein of much Warp/Rephlex/Tigerbeat6/Ambush label material.
Next up is wunderkind Carson Day, operating in an electonica realm not far from that of Sote, but more mysterious, mellow, and pretty -- less house, more home (with headphones). His broken beats, distorted melodies, and digital fuckery meet up with some hiphop flavor on the standout track "Get Hurt" which makes good use of a vocal sample repeating the title phrase. On the evidence of Carson's four cuts here (only one comes from his 12"), he's a match for the likes of Chris Clark, Matmos, and Lesser...
The next four tracks are from Die Elektrischen, the man we know better as Drewcifer. Sure it's his record label, but his music dispels all ideas of a vanity production. It's good stuff. Like Sote and Carson, he brings the beats too, but is much more on the percussive-distorto-drone-extreme side of things. Crinkle, crackle, crumple. There's hints of Merzbow beneath the surface, yet this remains quite musical. Early Scorn meets Philip Jeck meets DJ Scud? Well deserving of his nifty black metal styled Die Elektrishen logo designed by Wrest of AQ black metal faves Leviathan.
Last up is Karen Stackpole, perhaps the most left field entry of these four -- she's no laptop or turntable jockey. Her first track is entitled "Gong and Cello #2" which will give you an idea of the sound: percussion and string drone. We could throw around some descriptive catagories like experimental, Mills College, academic, 20th century avant garde, improv... or we can just say that her stuff is really, really nice. Creepy yet lovely.
Basically, this a great comp, programmed perfectly -- Stackpole's tracks make for fine wind-down at the end after all the electronic/elektrik tracks. If you've already got the vinyl eps you need this too for all the new cuts. If you don't have the 12" records, get this, and if you like what you hear and you have a turntable, then you'll know what to do! We're definitely looking forward to hearing more from these artists -- are full lengths in the offing? -- and to future Dielectric discoveries as well. And we're definitely not saying all this just 'cause Drew's our friend, he'd be the first to tell you that'd be unlikely. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: CARSON DAY "Get Hurt"
MPEG Stream: DIE ELEKTRISCHEN "Kurenai"
MPEG Stream: VIRGOX "Yummy"
MPEG Stream: KAREN STACKPOLE "Gong and Cello #2"

V/A Dis-Jointed (Dis-Joint) cd 14.98
About a year ago we wrote about a 12" split of a couple of Wackie's tracks that were both amazing in their own ways. The A-Side was Horace Andy's "Musical Episode", an extended 12" mix which is probably one of the best disco mixes we'd ever heard and the B-Side was an absolutely bizarre extended mix called the "Wack Rap" from 1979 and featuring some completely off kilter impersonations of the Sugarhill Gang. Well, Dis-Joint records, the fellas who released that 12", have put together a nice compilation of tracks featuring the aforementioned along with several singles -- new and old -- that their label has released. Now the vinyl-ly challenged can also join in on the enjoyment of these two tracks and then some. There's quite a few rare tracks here, including an instrumental mix of Ronnie Gee's "Raptivity" from 1980, Zap Pow's reggae homage to Kool & The Gang "Lottery Spin" recorded at Dynamic Sounds way back in 1976, plus some new dance floor cuts inspired from the old school by the likes of DJs Cool Chris & Romanowski, Ben Cook & Deep Fuzz, Dub Diablo and more.
MPEG Stream: HORACE ANDY "Musical Episode"
MPEG Stream: SOLID C., BOBBY D. & KOOL DROP "Wack Rap (Version Mix)"
MPEG Stream: HUMAN RACE "Human Race"

V/A Don't Let The Bastards Get You Down - A Tribute to Kris Kristofferson (Jackpine) cd 14.98
The first of two Kris Kristofferson tribute albums to come out in this here year 2002, Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down was put together by local man about town Nick Tangborn. Like a Dwight Yoakum of his day, Kris Kristofferson was equally involved with acting AND music. Yep, he wrote "Me and Bobby McGee"! And "Sunday Mornin' Coming Down" (which, if you can find it, was once covered by Hank Ballard stunningly well)! Anyway, except for a jarring track by Dart, whose synthesized drums stick out like a sore thumb, the whole album is uniformly melancholy and slow. So, y'know, the Low and Red House Painters fans amongst you might even like it. Highlights include renditions by Paul Burch, John Doe (a gravelly "Me and Bobby McGee"), Jon Langford & Chip Taylor (doing the theme from Allan's favorite movie, Fat City -- "Help Me Make It Through the Night"), and Kelly Hogan (crooning "Why Me" with Edith Frost harmonizing). Strong entries also from: the deep-voiced local favorite Chuck Prophet, Tom Verlaine, and Hannah Marcus with Mark Kozelek of Red House Painters. Rounding out the collection with (in our opinion) forgettable versions are bands like Polara, Oranger, Mother Hips, and Mover. And there's more, 17 tracks in all.
RealAudio clip: JOHN DOE "Me and Bobby McGee"
RealAudio clip: KELLY HOGAN "Why Me"

V/A Embryo 4: Homemade Music By Bay Area Musicians (Cubby Control) cd 8.98
Bay Area indie band The Cubby Creatures make home-spun crafty pop music, and their homebase label Cubby Control run by bassist/vocalist Brian Weaver also puts out compilations of other likeminded Bay Area and beyond artists. This is the fourth and final volume of the series which began back in 1997 as a celebration of 4-track home recordings. This volume differs from its lower-fi predecessors in that it is comprised of twenty completely exclusive tracks by exclusively Bay Area artists. There's quite a variety of styles from acoustic folk to funk-a-booty, from loopy psych-pop to minimal dub-tronic, from an off-kilter carnivalesque theme to a more urban soundscape. A charming lil' something for everyone! The participants include Thee More Shallows, The Slow Poisoner, Dax Pierson, Jai Young Kim, The Andy Peters Show, Mos Eisley, Thee Druggles, Brian Weaver and The Cubby Creatures or course.
MPEG Stream: THEE MORE SHALLOWS "Phineas Bogg"
MPEG Stream: THE ANDY PETERS SHOW "La Chanson De Jacky"

V/A Embryo Compilation: 03 Adventures In Homemade Music (Cubby Control) cd-r 8.98
An assortment of tracks by 19 very disparate SF indie artists. The most odd is probably the inclusion of Lower Forty-Eight, who contribute a rumbling stoner rock track that bursts forth amid the much more abundant, low-key melodicism. The other 18 songs range from percolating electronic whirs to folky acoustic to perky pop. Highlights: the soothing "De Quel Planete Es tu?" by Brian Weaver (the man behind this compilation and member of mish-mash popsters The Cubby Creatures), Minmae's "Bluebird" a shadowy Howe Gelb/Giant Sand-ish track, the shifting soundscape of "The Aerialist's Tiara" by That Hideous Strength (aka Benjamin Tinker), and the young moody post-rock combo known as Shackleton (now sadly defunct).
RealAudio clip: SHACKLETON "Yo, Terminator... Meet The Album That Killt Me"
RealAudio clip: BRIAN WEAVER "De Quel Planete Es Tu?"

V/A End of Days (20 Sided Records) 2cd 9.98
Holy crap! An epic, double cd, FORTY THREE band, label sampler from local label 20 Sided Records (who recently released the awesome new Trainwreck Riders album!), featuring a bunch of bands from right here in SF, but also LA, Fresno, Santa Cruz, Long Beach, Oakland, and as far away as Seattle, Bellingham, Spokane, Phoenix, Portland and Denver. The really crazy thing, is that of those 43 bands, we actually had only even heard of 5 or 6, and more than half of those are from right here!
So this is a pretty awesome introduction to a whole bunch of new bands, a list of which we would imagine wouldn't mean much, since odds are you probably wouldn't know most of these groups either, but there's definitely some good stuff, the sounds super varied, heavy on the indie rock and variations thereof, but still all over the map: crunchy, fuzzed out twee pop, jangly Pavement style indie rock, Ramones-y garage punk, chugging math metal, blown out shoegazey Built To spill sounding indie pop, bluesy garage stomp, rollicking chaotic garage stomp a la Thee Oh Sees, dreamy echo drenched folkiness, brooding slow build epic post rock drift, and that's just a tiny taste, and heck, screw it, here's a list of the bands, the ones we know: Blank Tapes, Slow Trucks, Ugly Winner, Hazel's Wart, Ash Reiter (who has a new full length on 20 Sided!), Trainwreck Riders, and the ones we don't: Sci-Fi Caper, The Suicides, Quiet Americans, High Horse, Wild Pack Of Canaries, Saything, The Hoot Hoots, Mosshead, Big Mittens, Future Space And Time, The Palisades, Smalls, One Hundred Percent, Eureka California, Myth Ship, Rosa Grande, The Fay Wrays, San Joaquin Steamers, Vows, Fpod Bpod, Li Xi, Rubedo, Cannons & Clouds, Sugar Candy Mountain, Pony Village, The Cat From Hue, Pro Wings, Street Pyramids, Upstairs Downstairs, The Wild Kindness, Excited States, One F, Candysound, Animal Eyes, Former Friends Of Young Americans, Owl Paws and Speak Friend. Phew! It almost reads like one of those Robert Pollard / Guided By Voices box sets, where every song is credited to a different made up band! And usually we're pretty wary of comps where most of the bands are names we don't know, but lots of this stuff is pretty great, and odds are if you dig all the strains of indie/garage/fuzz pop/rock/punk, there's lots to love here!!
MPEG Stream: SCI-FI CAPER "Broken Sleep"
MPEG Stream: SLOW TRUCKS "I, You, We"
MPEG Stream: SAYTHING "The Same Device"
MPEG Stream: SMALLS "Label The Huns"
MPEG Stream: THE FAY WRAYS "Cars"
MPEG Stream: SAN JOAQUIN STEAMERS "Melvins Toast"

V/A Fame Whore (Apathy Productions) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Soundtrack to Jon Moritsugu film features 2 previously unreleased Barbara Manning pieces (she made me cry during "The Arsonist's Song" at Terrastock), 2 previously unreleased Emily's Sassy Lime songs, and others by No No Boy, Dub Narcotic Sound System, and Dixieland.

V/A Fascination: The Bowie Show book w/ cd 19.98
In 2002, Gallery 16 here in San Francisco exhibited The Bowie Show, which collected art, writing, and music that takes David Bowie as inspiration. This is an arty, spiral bound, full color, glossy-paged book with a cd and nicely embossed cover. Contributors include Rick Moody, Jason Mecier, Michelle Tea, Doug Coupland, Cliff Hengst, Scott Hewicker, Ann Magnuson, etc. And the (all exclusive!) tracks on the cd are each covers of a song off Bowie's Low album. The music runs the gamut from Matmos' slinky electronics on "A New Career in a New Town" to Troll's simmering Talk-Talk-meets-Nina-Simone take on "Warszawa". Other musical participants include Glenn Donaldson of local faves Thuja), Wayne Smith of Aero Mic'd, The Sadnesses, Tom Recchion and more.
RealAudio clip: FOIBLES "Sound and Vision"
RealAudio clip: TROLL "Warszawa"

V/A Fever Pitch Music & Magazine Presents Just Drums II Project (Fever Pitch) 2cd 11.98
If you or someone you know has a penchant for percussion, holy smokes, have we got just the cd for you or him or her! Moe! Staiano (of Moe!kestra, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and formerly Idiot Flesh) brought these in for our drum delight. It's a double cd compilation containing 36 tracks by more dextrous drummers than you can shake a (drum)stick at! The second disc is particularly notable as it includes the stellar likes of William Winant (whose performed with John Zorn, Sonic Youth, Kronos String Quartet, Secret Chiefs 3, Mr. Bungle, Oingo Boingo to name just a few), Trey Spruance (of Asva, Secret Chiefs 3, Faxed Head, Mr. Bungle, etc), Ches Smith (Secret Chiefs 3, Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle among others), Karen Stackpole and Mr. Staiano himself. Released by Fever Pitch Music (which is also the label of DJ Jester and which is also a magazine from Wisconsin).
MPEG Stream: DRURY, ANDREW "Rain, Followed By Shadows"
MPEG Stream: SPRUANCE, TREY "Feather Dance Of The Deathless Lord"

V/A Fortune Cookies (Fortune) cd 8.98
A new San Francisco music compilation that totally runs the gamut style-wise. Comprised of tracks by 16 diverse artists including Twenty Minute Loop, Etienne De Rocher, John Vanderslice, and Ian Brennan.

V/A Friends and Lovers: Songs of Bread (Badman) cd 13.98
If you think you don't know Bread's music, think again. It might just be that you don't know the name of the artist behind that old tune you know and love so well. Many of Bread's songs have become so much a part of the day-to-day (let alone Musak'd ad nauseum), that song credits are seldom mentioned.
Who doesn't know the '70s tear-jerkers "If", "The Goodbye Girl", "Everything I Own", "Make It With You" or the puzzlingly titled "Baby, I'm A Want You" by this band? Do you remember, as Cup does, that there was even a non-Muppet puppet performance set to that song on the Muppet Show!? Well, it seems there's plenty of other folks who have a fond Bread memory or two or three too. '70s nostalgia is here with a -- albeit gentle -- vengeance, and Bread were definitely a soft rock staple of that decade. Sure those songs that we heard on AM radio back then were as vanilla as can be, but you have to admit the popcraft is still the sweetest something to behold. Main songwriter David Gates skillfully captured the weepy lows of love lost or unrequited. Oh so much yearning and heartache! This tribute kicks off with Josh Rouse doin' his best Gates impersonation on "It Doesn't Matter To Me". Following him are much less faithful but still very respectful covers performed by Kings Of Convenience's Erland Oye ("Friends & Lovers"), Call And Response ("Baby, I'm A Want You"), Oranger ("Make It With You"), Paula Frazer ("Everything I Own"), The Moore Brothers ("Look At Me"), Parchman Farm's Eric Shea with Bart Davenport ("Goodbye Girl"), Mojave 3's Rachel Goswell ("If"), Emily Sparks ("Too Much Love"), Cake ("The Guitar Man"), Holy Sons ("The Last Time"), Dambuilders' Dave Derby ("I Use The Soap"), and the Posies fellas Jonathan Auer and Ken Stringfellow doin' one song each on his own ("Games Of Magic" and "Down On My Knees" respectively). If you're too young to have experienced these songs firsthand, you might still wanna give this comp a listen 'cause it offers shining examples of fine pop artists present coming together with fine pop songs past.
MPEG Stream: FRAZER, PAULA "Everything I Own"
MPEG Stream: SHEA, ERIC & BART DAVENPORT "The Goodbye Girl"

V/A Frisco Freakout I (10-11-08) (self-released) cassette 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The annual all-day Frisco Freakout psychedelic festival has happened on two occasions so far, most recently earlier this month and also back in October of '08. Perhaps you were there! You shoulda been, it was a great show, both years. Co-sponsored by KUSF radio, Arthur Magazine, and yours truly Aquarius Records, and organized in part by Ripley from Wooden Shjips, the Frisco Freakout benefits Creativity Explored, a worthy cause right here in the Mission, where developmentally challenged adults get to express themselves artistically (and make amazing art they do!).
This year at the festival, there was a limited edition compilation cassette for sale featuring a selection of live performances recorded at the first Freakout. We scored a few copies - and are selling 'em for what we paid for 'em, $5 each, all of which goes to Creativity Explored. They only made 100 tapes and we of course just have a handful, when they're gone they're gone, so first come first served, and sorry if you don't get one.
There's songs here from Crystal Antlers, Art Lessing, Wooden Shjips, Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, Ascended Master, The Bad Trips, Greg Ashley, Sequin Trails, and Earthless (who's track is an excerpt 'cause of course an entire Earthless jam would have probably filled a whole side of this tape!).

V/A Frisco Styles (Deitch Projects) 2cd 13.98
You know that guy with the Grizzly Adams beard you're always seeing skating down Valencia 'n dumpster diving outside Ti Couz? That would be the world famous artist that AQ knows as nice Mr Chris Johansson, who has single handedly released this double disc set featuring almost 50 of his favorite Bay Area rockscene bands (many of the tracks live). Everyone from Coachwhips to Caesura, Touched By a Janitor, Vetiver, Mr and Mrs Evil, Tarentel, Veronica Lipgloss, Trackstar, Total Shutdown, Quails, Troll, Erase Errata, A Tension, Tussle, Virginia Dare, Zmrzlina, Aislers Set, Tommy Guerrero, Crack W.A.R., Sonny Smith, Zeigenbock Kopf, Deep Throats, and so many more.
As with most comps meant to survey a local scene, this is a mixed bag, but there's tons more good stuff here than bad, and it's a real good way to taste what the local scene has to offer if you're not one of those folks that goes out to hear live music all the time. An exciting listen.
Double disc foldout digipack features artwork by local artists Jo Jackson, Chris Corales, Tony Cox, Dave Schubert, many more, but not, as far as I can tell, any of Johansson's stuff.
MPEG Stream: COACHWHIPS "Prisoner 119"
MPEG Stream: AISLERS SET "Emotional Levy"
MPEG Stream: MR AND MRS EVIL "Ballad of Big Lurch"

V/A Gold Record Studio: Live At Laney Flea Market (Edgetone Records) 2cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK! Record collectors, check it out: in a sense, this is a compilation of tracks from some of the rarest records EVER -- even though they were just recorded last year! That's cause they only existed in editions of, like, one. Ok, this is gonna require some explanation. The Gold Record Studio is the latest contraption/conception from our man Jon Brumit (whom we first met when he brought us field recordings from the San Francisco dump!) and colleague Lisa Mezzacappa... Basically a set-up where one-of-a-kind vinyl records were pressed on-the-spot with an antique record cutter for folks who recorded live (and impromptu) in an open-air, homebuilt studio at a local flea market! This was totally free of charge, with instruments and even guest musicians provided, and apparently proved very popular. This took place over several weekends last spring at the Laney College Swap Meet over in Oakland... the City of Oakland actually ponied up some arts-funding money to help make it happen. And it seems like a pretty cool thing, for both the participants (the "recording artists") and now listeners who get to check out the diverse array of talent (and otherwise) who made records at the flea market, the best (and worst? no such distinctions really being made) have been compiled onto this sprawling double disc set. There's contributions from folks of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities. Some musical pros show up (including a couple Serbian prog rockers, and the DJ from the Ghetto Boys!), but also many total amateurs, young kids n' senior citizens. Lots of surprises in other words!
This man-in-the-street, instant-gratification, no-rules recording project really let some folks get, shall we say, expressive. And creative. And downright weird. Portions of this do come off like a rather dubious talent show, or drunk mom karaoke -- but lots of tracks could be some really underground, experimental cd-r fodder, too. As a whole, it's almost like a hypothetical installment of the Sublime Frequencies series dedicated to the sounds of why-be-normal urban America, jumping from track to track with ADD abandon. For instance, among the many tracks of disc one, you've got a woozy improv session with a barking dog factored in, followed a few tracks later by a version of "My Favorite Things" recast conversationally (and humorously) between teenage girls. There's also a pretty badass blues rock guitar instrumental, some crazy scat singing, and a song that sounds to us a lot like The Shitty Listener! And much much more... It's mind-boggling and exhausting and pretty darn special. Even the recognizable tunes that people try (for good or ill) are enhanced in our ears by the bustling flea market field recording happening in the background.
And then, there's a whole 'nother disc. 50 cuts on disc two, starting off with some very lovely solo guitar from "Sam"...which is followed by a much more maniacal track with a shouting child... and then some guy singing "Let It Be"... a super-distorted rap by a teenage girl... and on and on and on. There's definitely some Gong Show moments, which are good for a laugh or can be taken as something maybe unintentionally avant-garde. We really like the more "damaged", confusional tracks (of which there's plenty), where it sorta sounds like the people you hear DON'T know they're being recorded, or at least seem unaware of where the microphone is, or when the song is supposed to start or stop.
Even in the age of mp3 and MySpace, this Gold Record Studio project has taken the democratization of the "music industry" a step further, down to street level! There's just something really joyful about it, possibly due to the serendipitous social interaction happening right then and there at the point of creation. You're getting a glimpse at the inner musical burgeonings of people who until that fateful day they were wandering around the flea market, probably never ever ever dreamed that they would so soon be the proud owners of a physical vinyl artifact with their own singing/rapping/playing/barking/whatever on it, whether silly or serious. And that's pretty cool.
Also, if you get this, you'll definitely have some good material to put on your outgoing answering machine message for months to come... file it with stuff like MSR Madness anthologies of song-poem recordings, or Jacob Smigel's Eavesdrop disc of found sound recordings, although this takes its own unique place in that array of oddity...
MPEG Stream: "Lee, Jon, Suki, Brian, Tom, Jesse"
MPEG Stream: "Emily, Amara, Lucio"
MPEG Stream: "Sam"
MPEG Stream: "Birana, Tanaya, Shelley, Micha"

V/A Golden State Funk (BGP Records) cd 19.98
With the Bay Area Funk comps that Luv N Haight put out in the last few years we were reminded of what a lot of spirited funk and soul was busting out of the Bay Area during those golden years. Golden State Funk digs even deeper as it mines the dancefloor burners and gritty shakers that were recorded inside Leo Kulka's Golden State Recorders studio here in San Francisco in the late '60s and early '70s.
Many of the twenty tracks on this all hits and no-misses collection were never released before. It's making us want to try to get our hands on anything and everything by the likes of Jeanette Jones, 87th Off Broadway, The San Francisco TKOS, Ramona King, and loads more. These are songs that could hold their weight right next to more well known hits by big names like Ike & Tina, Sly & The Family Stone and Curtis Mayfield. So cool that a recording studio operated by a Czech native which started in LA recording folks like Frank Sinatra and Little Richard really came into its own when it moved to San Francisco in 1965 on Harrison Street and found magic in the soul and funk scene that was about to explode here in the Bay Area. Packed with really interesting and informative liner notes. This is not just an amazing historical document but a record filled with super tasty grooves and deep hitting funk!
MPEG Stream: 87TH OFF BROADWAY "Can't Get Enough"
MPEG Stream: JIMMY BEE "Vida Blue Pt 1"
MPEG Stream: JEANETTE JONES "I'm Glad I Got Over You"

V/A Goode Tyme Jhamboree (Planet Pimp) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Featuring David Nudelman of Three Stoned Men singing about how he hates vegetables, Gomez, MC Terror T with Nardwuar (the Human Serviette), Man...Or Astroman?, the Hi-Fives, etc. The highlights of this record are the phone calls "Comfy Jones" (Neil Hamburger?) places to the Original Car Thieves. I would like to know how Outpunk, Pansy Division, and others feel about this saga; but here's how it's been recounted to us: Sven of Planet Pimp called up the Car Thieves and said he liked 'em & wanted to release a 7" record. They said 'Great! And you can do the cover art... "Just don't make it too gay." Sven, righteously disgusted, designed the entire package, songtitles and artwork to portray the band as hot leather boys. The Car Thieves reaction? On this compilation, 'Comfy Jones' calls up the band to tell them how happy he is that they're out and proud and that he can't wait for them to play San Francisco. The bandmembers, who are apparently not too bright and thus don't get that they're being ridiculed, protest that they're not gay and that Sven is just making fun of...homosexuals.

V/A Got Howls (Pish Posh Of North America) cd 9.98
Killer three way split from three local modern hip hop / electronica outfits, one of which, the awesomely titled Lazer Sword, just so happens to include our very own Antaeus. So let's start with the Lazer Sword, who of the three are probably our favorites, and we're not just saying that cuz of Antaeus, nope, we're saying that, cuz of the three, LS are the hardest and the grittiest, with fierce beats, and crazy hidden hooks, each of the three tracks are full on looped, stuttering, skipping dancefloor fillers, with big beats that shuffle and pound, vocals chopped up into strange hiccuping rhythms, buzzing synths and throbbing bin rattling bass, angular alien melodies, everything sharp and grinding, but warm and thick at the same time. We definitely hear some Justice in there, and boy would Lazer Sword be right at home on one of those Ed Rec comps. But just because Lazer Sword are our favorites, doesn't mean the other two bands don't 'rock' just as hard, cuz they do, only differently.
Ghosts on Tape is a bit groovier, a little more laid back, "Mogadishu Night Life" has a definite dancehall vibe, with Eastern melodies, and rhythms chopped and looped into some strange circusy hip hop jam, "Port Moresby" is rife with more block rocking beats, weird swooping FX, robotic and machinelike, some cyborg freaked out future funk for sure, and their last track, "Scraped Up", is muted murky slither, complete with a super recognizable sitar sample, but smeared into a blur of fuzzy synths, thumping beats and blown out buzz.
Finally, Hours Of Worship deliver three tracks of swooshy fuzzy pop ambient techno, the beats simple pulses beneath dense clouds of looped vocal samples and swirls of dense FX, strangely propulsive chill out music, minor key melodies, and a bit of cinematic epic-ness, that over the course of their three tracks, drifts from four on the floor pound (but a soft and shimmering pound), two mumbly almost heroin house, to the closer, a dreamy, eighties style slab of New Order-y new wave, complete with rainy day melody and a blurry washed out M83 sheen over the whole thing. So good.
All we have to say to dance music dorks is fuck Europe, people better start looking to the US (and maybe to SF in particular) for the new breed of dancefloor destroyers, cuz they're right here...
MPEG Stream: LAZER SWORD "Street Scooby"
MPEG Stream: LAZER SWORD "Gucci Sweatshirt"
MPEG Stream: GHOSTS ON TAPE "Mogadishu Night Life"
MPEG Stream: HOURS OF WORSHIP "Visions"

V/A Group Flex II: Son Of Flex (Castle Face) 6xflexi 7" 29.00
We made the last Group Flex flexi-disc book thing Record Of The Week back in 2011, and for good reason, visually and design wise it was about the coolest thing we'd ever seen, a cool little book, where each page was a fricking record, and you just put the whole book down on the turntable and let it spin! Besides how goddamn cool it was as an object, it also featured exclusive tracks from some of our favorite outfits: Thee Oh Sees, Blasted Canyons, Fresh & Onlys, Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin.
So a few months back we got word from Oh Sees mainman / Castleface head honcho John Dwyer that there was another installment of Group Flex brewing, and it was gonna be even better than the first. And true to his word, when it showed up, we were sorta blown away. This time around, the book is entirely transparent, with crazy, surreal, psychedelic artwork on the various pages, so when the book is closed, the multiple pages, and strange shapes and creatures, form a sort of 3D visual, little Strawberry men with guns, weird demons holding maces, a creepy scribbly purple mountain, tree-cats, bloody brick walls, snake headed skull doctors all woven into a dizzying tableau that sort of reflects the warped music within. Once again, plenty of faves: Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, The Mallard, Sic Alps, White Fence, Mikal Cronin, The Fresh & Onlys, Kelly Stoltz, Blasted Canyons, as well as a few surprises: Burnt Ones, Warm Soda, Running. And like the first installment, anyone into ANY of these groups is basically gonna need this. Warm Soda might be the biggest surprise of the bunch, their track "Lost For Words" definitely has us hankering for more, a super catchy lo-fi power pop, that sounds like some strange mix of Guided By Voices and the Shoes. Thee Oh Sees deliver a cool broody, fuzzed out garage pop dirge, spare and swaggery. Ty Segall's "Fucked Up Motherfucker" is a super distorted blast of howl and pound laced with plenty of horns and sax bleat, while Mikal Cronin's "King" is all druggy, droned out organ, and drifting acoustic guitar strum, washed out and gloriously woozy.
The Mallard are all lo-fi jangle and crunch, while Running prove themselves to be another new band to look out for, one that most definitely fits in with the rest of the Castle Face crew, sounding like The Oh Sees' snotty little siblings. The Fresh & Onlys drift through some laid back, softly psychedelic classic pop, Kelly Stoltz's "Double Exposure" sounds like some lost slab of seventies/eighties new wave power pop, and White Fence gets even further out, super spaced out, tripped out, space pop weirdness, lots of FX and crumbling distortion, echo drenched vox, and warped production, and somehow in there, some crazy catchy melodies.
Former Record Of The Weekers Blasted Canyons kick out the jams on a short sharp burst of warm, blown out fuzz drenched jangle pop, before Sic Alps do the same, infusing the same sort of garage-y pound, with some expansive psychedelic classic pop-isms, before Burnt Ones finish things off with a super trippy chunk of processed guitar chug and swirling psych pop, crazy catchy, and like Warm Soda, has us wanting more more more!
As you might imagine, CRAZY LIMITED! The whole thing comes in a thick, screen printed PVC sleeve, also clear, adding to the 3D-ness, includes a download code for all the tracks, as well as instructions for playing and care of your Son Of Flex flexi-disc book. Each one unique, everyone slightly different. So cool. And so absolutely recommended.
MPEG Stream: WARM SODA "Lost For Words"
MPEG Stream: THEE OH SEES "Always Flying"
MPEG Stream: TY SEGALL "Fucked Up Motherfucker"
MPEG Stream: MIKAL CRONIN "King"
MPEG Stream: BURNT ONES "Strawberry Tomb"

V/A Hyphy Hitz (TVT) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Living in the Bay Area, we've obviously been hearing all about Hyphy for about a year now, a distinctly Bay Area sound, not all that dissimilar to Crunk or the chopped and screwed sound of the Dirty South, but with a vibe that was distinctly, well Hyphy (a mix of hyper and fly btw). A sound that supposedly just sort of sprouted up in the beginning of 2006. We'd heard tracks by all the main movers in the scene, Keak Da Sneak, Mac Dre, E-40, and while we dug it, it didn't really sound all that different from the Bay Area hip hop we'd been hearing for years, and it sort of smacked of the great hype machine, coming up with a catch phrase to make something old and tired sound new and fresh again. But maybe we weren't hearing the right tracks, cuz we got our hands on this comp, featuring all the best Hyphy bangers from the first year, and HOLEEEEEEEEE SHIT, is this stuff amazing. Fucked up and funny, funky and fun and so totally over the top. Absolutely irresistible. In fact we sold one to a customer, who called us from his car ten minutes later FREAKING OUT about how great it was, and how every track was so good, he'd skip to the next one, expecting it to be a dud, only to discover it was even better. We had the exact same experience. We listened to a few minutes of each track, constantly skipping forward, not believing that every track could be that fucking great. But they were, and they are!
We've been freaking out about grime for ages, a killer UK hybrid of hip hop and jungle (Dizzee Rascal, Lady Sovereign, Wiley...), we can't get enough of that grimey sound, so fucked up with killer beats and weird loops, and some of the funniest freaked out flows we've ever heard, dense and tongue twisting. With our new found love of grime, we had been lamenting the sad state of US hip hop, the same beats, the same boring gangster rap, the same glossy MTV stuff, but damn if these tracks don't push the exact same buttons that grime does, sounding fresh and thrilling all over again.
But what does Hyphy actually sound like? It's kind of hard to pinpoint, it may be about location as much as sound, the scene as much as the music, but most of the tracks have some common elements. Synths for one. Lots of synths, thick and fuzzy, often the main hook is just a massive buzzing synth melody over a shuffling laid back rhythm. And the rhythms, they don't bang and pound as much as sort of slink. And the rapping, some seriously strange flows, from marble mouthed mumbles, to urgent whispers to Lil' Jon style hollerin' but it's not just the delivery, it's the actual words, a confusional mix of Hyphy slang that has you scratching your head as often as laughing out loud. Check out "I Got Grapes", the main lyric being a wailed "I got graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapes" over a super stripped down beat. Or "Yadadamean" where the main hook is a strangely affected "Yadadamean" repeated over a weirdly epic cinematic synth line. WTF?!? So amazing.
I wish we could describe it more explicitly, but you just gotta hear it. If you're anything like us, you'll be grabbed in the first 30 seconds and won't be able to stop. Normally we're pretty skeptical of 'hits' collections like this, but it's hard to argue with a comp this jam packed with stunners, and we're not about to. Did you dig the B'more Music comp? The Science Faction: Grime comp? The Rio Baile Funk comps? The Warrior Dubz comp? The Razor X Productions comp? Well, you just might have a new favorite. THE dance party record of the year. Whether you're slow rolling with the top down, cranking it through the headphones, or bumpin' and sweatin' up the dancefloor, this disc is THE ONE.
MPEG Stream: THE A'Z "Yadadamean"
MPEG Stream: MESSY MARV "Get On My Hype"
MPEG Stream: NUMP "I Got Grapes"
MPEG Stream: THE TEAM "Hyphy Juice"

V/A In A Cloud II: New Sounds From San Francisco (Secret Seven) lp 12.98
The second volume in local label Secret Seven's SF underground rock primer lp series, and like the first, it's jam packed with tons of aQ faves, including the Ty Segall Band (whose recent Slaughterhouse album we made our Record Of the Week), Tim Cohen of the Fresh & Only's and Magic Trick, Wymond Miles also from the Fresh & Only's, Paula Frazier of the late great Tarnation, Sonny & The Sunsets, Hannah from Grass Widow, Kelly Stoltz, the Papercuts, Vetiver, as well as a few new to us names including Bad Backs and Lucky Eyes. And while there are no huge sonic surprises here, that's not what this series is all about, it's either an introduction to a thriving scene for the uninitiated, or a killer mixtape of exclusive tracks from a who's who of SF indie rock combos.
And again, like the first volume, plenty of gems to be found, Vetiver's "Any And All" might be one of our favorites from them yet, sounding like some lost Kinks B side, all lilting jangle and twang pop chorus, Ty Segall offers up a bruising guitar heavy chunk of garage pop crunch. Papercuts deliver some hazy washed out slowcore blissiness, Hannah from Grass Widow offers up one of the best tracks here, a heady, home brewed bit of reverby slo-mo dream pop balladry, all multi-tracked vocals, and lush layered lo-fi loveliness. Bad Backs combine organ drive garage rock fuzz pop with classic power pop songsmithery that definitely has us wanting to hear more (which is not surprising once we'd discovered BB features Andrew from SF pop punk heroes Ovens!), and Lucky Eyes too are a nice surprise, their track a strange harmony vocal-ed dirge pop creep.
And there's more more more more, and like all good comps, will have you scrambling to pick up anything and everything you don't have already by all of these artists! Packaged in a swank full color sleeve with a printed insert.
MPEG Stream: VETIVER "Any And All"
MPEG Stream: TY SEGALL "Swag"
MPEG Stream: BAD BACKS "Center Of The World"
MPEG Stream: HANNAH LEW "Octopus Via"

V/A In A Cloud: New Sounds From San Francisco (Secret Seven) cd 8.98
Finally on cd, this killer comp of mostly exclusive jams from some of the best SF bands around, a seriously kick ass primer on the San Francisco underground indie rock scene. Most folks won't need to know much more than the list of bands contributing new and in most cases exclusive tracks:
THEE OH SEES, TY SEGALL, THE FRESH & ONLYS, SONNY & THE SUNSETS, KELLY STOLTZ, TIM COHEN, THE SANDWITCHES...
But there's way more, there's also Hannah And Raven of Grass Widow, the Trainwreck Riders, the Exray's, Paula Frazier (of Tarnation), Dylan Shearer, Jacques Butters, and Donovan Quinn + The 13th Month (he of the Skygreen Leopards), a pretty stellar collection, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Sonny & The Sunsets' offer up some warm summery jangle, the Fresh & Only's get all new wave with a song that sounds at first like Devo's version of "Working In A Coalmine", before getting all twangy and reverby, Thee Oh Sees track is a twisted garbled-vocal sixties shuffle / murky Monster Mash groove, Tim Cohen offers up a bit of classic Beatles-esque pop, haunting and stripped down, the Ty Segall track is a snotty noisy garage rock dirge that RULES, and we could go on...
Needless to say, fans of any or all of the above outfits are gonna want this, and it just might introduce you to some other local combos that could very well become new favorites...
MPEG Stream: SONNY & THE SUNSETS "Heart Of Sadness"
MPEG Stream: FRESH + ONLYS "You Owe Your Life To The Streets"
MPEG Stream: THEE OH SEES "Contraption"
MPEG Stream: TY SEGALL "Hey Big Mouth"

V/A In A Cloud: New Sounds From San Francisco (Secret Seven) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Killer new collection jam packed with aQ faves, a vinyl only primer on the San Francisco underground. Most folks won't need to know much more than this:
EXCLUSIVE TRACKS FROM THEE OH SEES, TY SEGALL, THE FRESH & ONLYS, SONNY & THE SUNSETS, KELLY STOLTZ, TIM COHEN, THE SANDWITCHES...
But there's way more, there's also Hannah And Raven of Grass Widow, the Trainwreck Riders, the Exray's, Paula Frazier (of Tarnation), Dylan Shearer, Jacques Butters, and Donovan Quinn + The 13th Month (he of the Skygreen Leopards), a pretty stellar collection, and it sounds as good as you might imagine. Sonny & The Sunsets' offer up some warm summery jangle, the Fresh & Only's get all new wave with a song that sounds at first like Devo's version of "Working In A Coalmine", before getting all twangy and reverby, Thee Oh Sees track is a twisted garbled-vocal sixties shuffle, a twisted murky Monster Mash groove, Tim Cohen offers up a bit of classic Beatles-esque pop, haunting and stripped down, the Ty Segall track is a snotty noisy garage rock dirge that RULES, and we could go on.
Needless to say, fans of any or all of the above outfits are gonna want this, and it just might introduce you to some other local combos that could very well become new favorites...
MPEG Stream: SONNY & THE SUNSETS "Heart Of Sadness"
MPEG Stream: FRESH + ONLYS "You Owe Your Life To The Streets"
MPEG Stream: THEE OH SEES "Contraption"
MPEG Stream: TY SEGALL "Hey Big Mouth"

V/A Interference: Supplemental Text I / Sampler I (self-released) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Interference is a nicely varied local compilation filled with text and sounds that run the mellow gamut from washy electronics to airy atmospheric folk. Nothing too raucous nor abrasive. Draws plenty of queries whenever it gets played in the store. Nice!

V/A Irreplaceable Hand: A Benefit CD For Dax Pierson (Pink Bandana) cd 15.98
Back in February 2005, the eccentric, Anticon hip-hop outfit Subtle was on Interstate 80 in Iowa while touring the mid-west, when their van hit black ice and flipped over several times. The band members emerged from the wreckage bruised but unharmed, except for one: Dax Pierson had broken his neck. Since then, Dax has undergone extensive physical therapy; and while his insurance has covered his medical expenses (hooray for small businesses who give their employees health benefits!), there's plenty which his health insurance does not cover. As a result, there has been an international campaign to aid in Dax's recovery. Dax is a man who has touched many people's lives, inspiring them not only with his incredible musical talents but also with his generosity and jovial nature. For those who have lived in the Bay Area, tribute concerts for Dax have been occurring regularly throughout the spring and summer of 2005 often spear-headed by Anticon itself but also by many of the Dax's co-workers at Amoeba Records in Berkeley; and this compilation continues in these efforts. Curated by Amoeba's Andy Way and Jim Kaiser, the Irreplaceable Hand may speak more to their affinity for the oddball things that float through their experimental section, but this nonetheless speaks to the numerous people whose hearts have opened for Dax. Nurse With Wound, Matmos, Odd Nosdam, irr. app. (ext.), High Volture (aka Bruce Anderson of MX-80), Moe! Staiano, and Petit Mal are some of those who have contributed to the Irreplaceable Hand. A.C. Way opens the album with a track of nightmarish ambience with Lustmordian overtones and a persistently unnerving squiggle. High Volture quickly changes gears with a splatter of post-Derek Bailey improv. The always impressive irr. app. (ext.) offers a piece of bowed metal dissonance and drone bristling with post-surrealist aural fragments. Matmos' quirky collage of re-engineered vocal samples and Moe! Staiano's all-fists on the organ keyboard stand out as moments of comic relief against the rather dark atmosphere that this comp. As one could image, the highlight of the album is the Nurse With Wound track, as Stapleton moves from ominous drones similar to those heard on the Angry Eelectric Finger sessions and slowly introduces a pretty groovy breakbeat, perhaps an indication of how a NWW hip-hop record might sound.
Of course we can't resist mentioning that there's of picture of Dax shot by Matt Waldron of irr. app. (ext.) while the two where shopping here at Aquarius! For information about Dax and his progress, please check out www.daxpierson.com.
MPEG Stream: NURSE WITH WOUND "Moaner Whisper Drums"
MPEG Stream: IRR. APP. (EXT.) "Knit, Semble, Straighten and Mend"
MPEG Stream: ODD NOSDAM "Perfectly Pink Path"

V/A Live From The Complex 3 (Entartete Kunst) cd 7.98

V/A Live From The Complex II (Entartete Kunst) cd 7.98

V/A Live From The Complex Vol. 1 (Entartete Kunst) cd 7.98

V/A Matter 10.2007 (Tape Of The Month) (self-released) cassette 5.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Back in September we got the first installment in what was meant to be a sort of tape of the month thing organized and recorded by two local guys, one who you all might know from his weirdo black metal band Amacoma (he also plays in Black Fiction and 3). It was a huge hit (we do have a few copies left if you missed it) and so they immediately got to work on the October installment. So we know what you're thinking, but it wasn't all our fault, just mostly. We got the October tape, right at the end of the month, but then stuff got crazy and we're only now getting around to reviewing it and it's December! But fuck it, just imagine that ten is a twelve and we'll be fine, it's just as cool and weird and varied as the first volume, with each dude taking a side of the tape, and this one like the first is essential for lovers of weirdo black metal as there's a brand new Amocoma track!
And it's a doozy, worth the price of admission alone. So buzzy and washed out, it's barely even black metal, it's more like some cavernous black ambient epic, the riffs more like throbbing pulses, the vocals hissy clouds of static, grim and fuzzed out, but because of the extreme blur and smear it's almost like black metal pop ambient. Here and there, the riffage does coalesce into extreme blackness, or splinters off into some spare clean guitar slither, but it always returns to the blossoming avalanche of black buzz.
There's a track by a band called Hash Hashish, that's a serious slab of gorgeous distorted dreampop, with some weird almost death metal vocals mixed in as well as some circusy keyboards and a dense wall of My Bloody Valentine blur. The 3 Leafs song is an awesome stretch of super spaced out druggy ambience, all whirling FX and disembodied voices, percussive thud and dark rumbling whir.
The flip side is packed with sonic weirdness, it's hard to differentiate which is which (ah, good old tapes!), but there are two tracks by Debre Damo, and two by Atom Eve, they all sort of blend into each other, but it's all awesome. Abstract electronic experimentation, bleeps and bloops, whirs and shimmers, very musiq concrete, woven into dense tripped out garagey space rock with thick guitars and pounding drums and of course lots and lots of FX. Weird alien guitar experiments are stretched out into crumbling glitchy ambience, it seems like maybe the names are just to keep it interesting as the whole side plays like a single piece.
As always, dying to hear more from all of these outfits, and keep listening to that Amocoma track over and over...