MAHAPATRA, ASHIS Orange Of (True-False) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Perhaps the following situation may be a bit foreign to those of you who don't work in the music industry but we'd bet that some version of this happens to everybody now and again. Every once in a while, I (Jim) will meet somebody whose best friend is in a band or I'll re-acquaint with an old high-school or college pal who has recently discovered GarageBand; and inevitably the conversation sways to "Oh, you work at a record store? You should really check this record out! You'll love it." It's then that the misanthropist in me wishes I was wearing Andee's tUMULt t-shirt which elegantly proclaims, "I hate your band," as the music proffered inevitably falls between the twin pillars of musical mediocrity: Dave Matthews and Hootie & The Blowfish. Instead, there's usually a smile, a nod, and the non-critique, "oh, that sounds nice!" hoping the conversation will turn to other matters.
So when Ashis Mahapatra contacted me a while ago about his newfound love with digital synthesis, I was a bit nervous. Here's a genuinely great person who I hadn't been in touch with since college; fortunately, his record is FUCKING AWESOME, so I really didn't have to worry about dancing around the subject of a crappy record. Enough of that for a protracted introduction. Onto the meat of the record... Orange Of is an album that fans of Fennesz, Tim Hecker, and Keith Fullerton Whitman will drool over, densely packed with guitars blurred, fizzled, and refracted through the polygon abstractions of Max/MSP techniques. A beautiful shimmer of tapped guitar tones hovers above a thick pool of drone harmonics at the album's beginning, slipping and sliding through micro-glissandos before erupting in a dense Kevin Shield's explosion of narcotic distortion and tone-bending half-melodies. Mahapatra doesn't allow the computer to do too much of the talking for him, as he's certainly keen on grounding this album on the fundamentals of songwriting as swaying instrumental waltzes and elegant melodic phrases nestled in Mahapatra's vast oceans of post-shoegazing digitality. A highly recommended release from one code-slinging guitarist whose bound for great things.
MPEG Stream: "Track One"
MPEG Stream: "Track Two"
MPEG Stream: "Track Four"

MAHARAHJ Repetition (Now or Never) cd 12.98
Canada finally throws their hat into the metal core ring with Maharahj, a whirling maelstrom of drop-d riffage, blazing blast beats, howled vocals, mangled melodies, bits of black metal mayhem and totally fucked and hyper complex songs. Relentless and furious, Mahrahj barely let up, and if they do it's just to sit you back and set you up for the crushing blow that's about to come. Melodies are buried under monstrous chugging guitars and squealing feedback and the rhythm section just adds insult to injury. Fans of Heaven Shall Burn, Caliban and the like will eat this up.
RealAudio clip: "Sleep"
RealAudio clip: "Time And Death And God"
RealAudio clip: "An Insect"

MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA Apocalpyse (Columbia) cd 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**

MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA Between Nothingness & Eternity (Columbia) cd 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**

MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA The Lost Trident Sessions (Columbia/Legacy) cd 15.98
An entire studio album lost for 25 years!" the cover blurb proclaims. From 1973, this would have been John McLaughlin & Co.'s third album, but for some reason they put out a live record instead (with, I believe, some of the same compositions found here). Understandably though, this album remained a "Holy Grail" for jazz-fusion heads, and now, here it is, in 20-bit digitally remastered glory even. The true follow-up to "Inner Mounting Flame" and "Birds Of Fire", and a seemingly worthy one at that. You have to laugh when the cover blurb goes on to trumpet "Fiery, Ultimate Chops!" but that don't mean it's not good!

MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA Visions Of The Emerald Beyond (Columbia) cd 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ Blues Du Jour (Geographic) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The unique underground Japanese group Maher Shalal Hash Baz -- a mostly untrained ensemble that plays simple, psychedelic pop songs with child-like innocence and imprecison -- recently performed a pair of shows here in the Bay Area. I caught the one over in Oakland, and it was amazing. Beautiful, shambolic, jazz-flecked primitive pop groove. The weirdest thing, was that they tried REALLY HARD to play the songs 'correctly'. Leader Tori Kudo even stopped the band on several occasions to instruct the bass player (his wife, I believe) on how to play a song's bass line properly. It was a bit uncomfortable, actually, but I'm not totally sure it wasn't intentional. After all, the impact of their naive novice musicanship is lost when the whole audience expects it -- so why not throw everyone off balance by making it seem like it's NOT supposed to sound so warped and damaged, even when it is?? Brilliant. Even the parked car that was set on fire down the block during the show couldn't compete. So, it's nice now to get these two new Maher documents. Blues Du Jour is the full length, and by that we mean it's got 41 tracks on it! Some are full songs, ballads, others short sketches, interludes, cryptic and lovely. Sweetly retarded horns and jangling guitars wearing innocent smiles, music that's cute and quaint but also serious and heartfelt. You'll hear hints of Ghost, the Beatles, Faust, Syd Barrett... Wrong never sounded so right. Meanwhile, they're also released an ep called Open Field that includes four songs from the full-length plus one special mix that features Bill Wells and members of The Pastels. Get it if you can't handle the full 41 tracks or you need everything with Bill Wells on it...
MPEG Stream: "White Dream"
MPEG Stream: "What's Your Business Here Elijah?"

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ Blues Du Jour (Geographic) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The unique underground Japanese group Maher Shalal Hash Baz -- a mostly untrained ensemble that plays simple, psychedelic pop songs with child-like innocence and imprecison -- recently performed a pair of shows here in the Bay Area. I caught the one over in Oakland, and it was amazing. Beautiful, shambolic, jazz-flecked primitive pop groove. The weirdest thing, was that they tried REALLY HARD to play the songs 'correctly'. Leader Tori Kudo even stopped the band on several occasions to instruct the bass player (his wife, I believe) on how to play a song's bass line properly. It was a bit uncomfortable, actually, but I'm not totally sure it wasn't intentional. After all, the impact of their naive novice musicanship is lost when the whole audience expects it -- so why not throw everyone off balance by making it seem like it's NOT supposed to sound so warped and damaged, even when it is?? Brilliant. Even the parked car that was set on fire down the block during the show couldn't compete. So, it's nice now to get these two new Maher documents. Blues Du Jour is the full length, and by that we mean it's got 41 tracks on it! Some are full songs, ballads, others short sketches, interludes, cryptic and lovely. Sweetly retarded horns and jangling guitars wearing innocent smiles, music that's cute and quaint but also serious and heartfelt. You'll hear hints of Ghost, the Beatles, Faust, Syd Barrett... Wrong never sounded so right. Meanwhile, they're also released an ep called Open Field that includes four songs from the full-length plus one special mix that features Bill Wells and members of The Pastels. Get it if you can't handle the full 41 tracks or you need everything with Bill Wells on it...
MPEG Stream: "White Dream"
MPEG Stream: "What's Your Business Here Elijah?"

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ C'est La Derniere Chanson (K) 2cd 13.98

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ Faux Depart (Yik Yak) cd 10.98
San Francisco's Yik Yak label is kindly trying to assure that nobody misses out on any goodness from Japan's Maher Shalal Hash Baz, hence this re-release of Maher's Faux Depart album, recorded at Olympia's Dub Narcotic studio in 2003 with members of Deerhoof sitting in. And fitting in, too, that's for sure! The wonderfully naive psych weirdness of Maher Shalal Hash Baz is well displayed here, with 22 great examples of their mix of woozy, gone-wrong cocktail jazz and soft lullaby indie-pop, the band's instrumentalists coloring outside the lines, their "paints" blurring like watercolors spilled across a canvas but still making such a pretty picture, the kind you'd be proud of if your child brought it home from school to brighten your day.
If you missed this before... you know the drill.
Note: ep price, full-length cd!
MPEG Stream: "A Will"
MPEG Stream: "Lightning #2"

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ From A Summer To Another Summer (An Egypt To Another Egypt) (Geographic) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the Glasgow label run by the Pastels comes the first widely-available collection of music by long-running cult Japanese folk-psych duo Maher Shalal Hash Baz. With 27 shambolic tracks, widely ranging in style, recalling everything from '80s/'90s lo-fi indie-pop like, well, the Pastels, to '60s Japanese psych a la The Jacks to the mellowest, folkiest Albert Ayler freedom jazz jams! Should appeal equally to fans of Belle & Sebastian, {k} Records, and Ghost/PSF stuff. Lovely and fragile, seemingly innocent yet seemingly ancient.
Stephen of the Pastels, who loves Maher Shalal Hash Baz so much that he started the Geographic label _specifically_ to release this collection, says:
"When you consider how rare it is that you actually hear something that is startlingly different from other music in any given year, or even in a decade (I just tried and could only think of Aphex Twin, a couple of hip-hop productions, and the lyrics of Belle & Sebastian and Silver Jews) it feels such a privilege to be working with people you consider to be actual visionaries." (And terrorists, too, if the stories in Stephen's larger article are to be believed. Let us know if you want to see it!)

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ From A Summer To Another Summer (An Egypt To Another Egypt) (Geographic) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the Glasgow label run by the Pastels comes the first widely-available collection of music by long-running cult Japanese folk-psych duo Maher Shalal Hash Baz. With 27 shambolic tracks, widely ranging in style, recalling everything from '80s/'90s lo-fi indie-pop like, well, the Pastels, to '60s Japanese psych a la The Jacks to the mellowest, folkiest Albert Ayler freedom jazz jams! Should appeal equally to fans of Belle & Sebastian, {k} Records, and Ghost/PSF stuff. Lovely and fragile, seemingly innocent yet seemingly ancient.
Stephen of the Pastels, who loves Maher Shalal Hash Baz so much that he started the Geographic label _specifically_ to release this collection, says:
"When you consider how rare it is that you actually hear something that is startlingly different from other music in any given year, or even in a decade (I just tried and could only think of Aphex Twin, a couple of hip-hop productions, and the lyrics of Belle & Sebastian and Silver Jews) it feels such a privilege to be working with people you consider to be actual visionaries." (And terrorists, too, if the stories in Stephen's larger article are to be believed. Let us know if you want to see it!)

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ L'Autre Cap (K) cd 14.98
27 new tracks (well, newer when this came out in January, we LOVE this band but can't always get to reviewing everything as quickly as we'd like) from Japanese songwriter/bandleader Tori Kudo and his long-running, deliberately amateur-sounding ensemble Maher Shalal Hash Baz. As always, it's a magical, melancholic mishmash of lilting indie-pop, innocently sweet vocals, lovelorn lyrics, little big band (dis-)arrangements, woozy horns, percussive pitter patter, gently jazzy guitars, bassoon bass lines, and dysplastic Farfisa, all performed with unique, shambolic charm. Fans will be happily aware of what they're getting into here. Those unfamiliar with the band, we suspect you'll also enjoy the unsteady but friendly hugs Kudo and crew are doling out to your ears (and wish you could squeeze 'em back). That is, unless you're particularly hard of heart and/or uptight about musicians not "coloring outside the lines" as it were.
Like their previous effort Faux Depart, this was recorded over here in the USA at Dub Narcotic Studios with the help of several guests from Olympia's music scene, including members of Old Time Relijun.
MPEG Stream: "Suspended Season"
MPEG Stream: "Kamakura"

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ L'Autre Cap (K) lp 13.98
27 new tracks (well, newer when this came out in January, we LOVE this band but can't always get to reviewing everything as quickly as we'd like) from Japanese songwriter/bandleader Tori Kudo and his long-running, deliberately amateur-sounding ensemble Maher Shalal Hash Baz. As always, it's a magical, melancholic mishmash of lilting indie-pop, innocently sweet vocals, lovelorn lyrics, little big band (dis-)arrangements, woozy horns, percussive pitter patter, gently jazzy guitars, bassoon bass lines, and dysplastic Farfisa, all performed with unique, shambolic charm. Fans will be happily aware of what they're getting into here. Those unfamiliar with the band, we suspect you'll also enjoy the unsteady but friendly hugs Kudo and crew are doling out to your ears (and wish you could squeeze 'em back). That is, unless you're particularly hard of heart and/or uptight about musicians not "coloring outside the lines" as it were.
Like their previous effort Faux Depart, this was recorded over here in the USA at Dub Narcotic Studios with the help of several guests from Olympia's music scene, including members of Old Time Relijun.
MPEG Stream: "Suspended Season"
MPEG Stream: "Kamakura"

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ Live 1984-85 (Kunitachi Kibun) (PSF) cd 22.00
If you thought that recent recordings by Japanese shambolic psychedelic pop outfit Maher Shalal Hash Baz sound full of simple, child-like naivety, imagine the even less-trained, even more-Shaggsy charm of this band back, say, twenty years ago! Well you actually don't have to imagine 'cause now PSF has provided us with this disc of archival live recordings, from performances in 1984 and 1985. That's truly delving into Tori Kudo's troupe's earliest years (he started the band in '83). In fact, the 1984 performance documented here was in fact their FIRST EVER gig, opening for High Rise and Kousokoya! May have been High Rise's first show too... (hmm, does that mean PSF has tapes of their sets as well?). Their entropic sound was much like it is today, though. Not-quite-jazz horns bleat out distressed melodies over stumbling beats, gentle vocals hold your hand as guitars are strummed with more feeling than finesse. The recording quality is suitably lo-fi and tape-hissy and makes this even more of a warm blanket of softly sunny clangy jangle and blissful pop chaos, so wrong it's right. Ariel Pink's got nothing on this. With interesting liner notes about these early daze from Kudo, translated into English by Alan Cummings.
MPEG Stream: "Unknown Happiness"
MPEG Stream: "View From Midheaven Of Itami Airport"

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ Live Aoiheya January 2003 (Chapter Music) cd ep 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The willfully naive charm of Japanese cult pop act Maher Shalal Hash Baz is hard to capture in words. You kinda have to experience it. And even then you might not 'get it'. But if you do, you've got a new favorite band. Here's a nice chance to have that "experience" -- a cd ep featuring an entire live Maher Shalal Hash Baz performance from 2003, five tracks, a little over 26 minutes in length. And playing live -- raw and spontaneous -- is the MSHB modus operandi. Mournful horns and innocent vocals, no overdubs, it's the MSHB experience all right. After over 20 years in the biz, band leader Tori Kudo is still all about recruiting totally untrained musicians into the MSHB ranks, allowing their barely-rehearsed playing to teeter-totter wonderfully, tilting somehow inevitably towards fragile beauty though it seems like a musical mess should result. You'll hear 'em taking chances on this disc, and much emotion is revealed, much loveliness as well, from a woozy, droning, plinking instrumental called "Asahana" to the jazzy melancholia of "Gratitude"... Short but oh so sweet.
MPEG Stream: "Asahana"
MPEG Stream: "When I Die"

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ Maher On Water (Geographic) cd ep 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After the lengthy collection (Geographic's From A Summer To Another Summer) that introduced this Japanese band to Western audiences, here's a fifteen-minute quick listen from Tori Kudo's project Maher Shalal Hash Baz. Kudo wields recorder, sweetly-picked guitar and directs various "water"-y sounds made on percussive toys etc. Sing-song vocals, gentle clarinet, warm cello, purposeful organ all are used for maximum sweetly shambolic naive pop. This is released on Stephen Pastels' label, and the Pastels are an apt comparison in terms of sharing melodic styles and a stripped down, lo-fi indiepop aesthetic. Eccentric, playful, sweetly childlike. If you liked their From A Summer collection, this will please you too, and if you've never heard them before, this is a lower-priced way to do so.
RealAudio clip: "Good Morning"

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ Maher On Water (Geographic) 10" 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After the lengthy collection (Geographic's From A Summer To Another Summer) that introduced this Japanese band to Western audiences, here's a fifteen-minute quick listen from Tori Kudo's project Maher Shalal Hash Baz. Kudo wields recorder, sweetly-picked guitar and directs various "water"-y sounds made on percussive toys etc. Sing-song vocals, gentle clarinet, warm cello, purposeful organ all are used for maximum sweetly shambolic naive pop. This is released on Stephen Pastels' label, and the Pastels are an apt comparison in terms of sharing melodic styles and a stripped down, lo-fi indiepop aesthetic. Eccentric, playful, sweetly childlike. If you liked their From A Summer collection, this will please you too, and if you've never heard them before, this is a lower-priced way to do so.

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ Open Field (Geographic) cd ep 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
See the review of Maher Shalal Hash Baz's Blues Du Jour album for information.

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ / THE CURTAINS Make us two crayons on the floor. (Yik Yak) split 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 wonderful, willfully naive Japanese indie-pop psychedelic ensemble Maher Shalal Hash Baz takes the first half of this split cd with a live performance recorded in Scotland. Honking sax, wayward vocals, sad-sack percussion, helpless guitar, plinking piano, and even skipping rope make it into the mix. Somehow, it's gorgeous, in a melancholy off-kilter way that few bands could pull off. Following Maher Shalal Hash Baz's seventeen tracks there's ten more by San Francisco outfit The Curtains, who likewise manage to make a virtue out of simplicity and spontaneity, their technical abilities (or lack thereof) never hampering their expressiveness. A good pairing indeed. The Curtains are noisier and more 'plugged-in' than MSHB, with electronic keyboard sounds forming some of their most striking moments. With both bands, what's improvised and what's not is hard to suss out, but experiencing the results can be quite pleasant either way if you don't demand much precision from your 'pop'. To us, these 27 tracks are a pleasant jumble worth experiencing.
MPEG Stream: MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ "Medicine For Melancholia"
MPEG Stream: THE CURTAINS "Bummer With Cakes"

MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ W/ MASAMI SHINODA s/t (PSF) dvd 27.00

MAHIKARI s/t (Birdman) lp 14.98

MAHOGANY BRAIN With (Junk-Saucepan) When (Spoon-Trigger) (Mellow) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Horde Catalytique Pour La Fin, Jacques Berrocal, Semool, Fille Qui Mousse, Jean Guerin, and (this one) Mahogany Brain: there's been a spate of reissues recently of stuff originally released on the Futura label, who were some sort of French version of NYC's avant-garde ESP-Disk, based on this evidence. Mahogany Brain's 1971 debut consists of a dozen head-scratching tracks of outside art skronk rock blurt, completely freeform and loose (but more messy and mellow than nasty or noisy, although they can be that way too). You'll get into their primitive underground vibe if you dig random blues licks, free jazz spazz, and wandering dada vocals. Considered a classic, but only by those who find the likes of Captain Beefheart and the Godz to be a little too "straight". We're told this was "very influenced by drugs" and believe it.
RealAudio clip: "Hot Milk Elbow (part 1)"

MAIA, TIM Nobody Can Live Forever (Luaka Bop) cd 16.98
Every installment in Luaka Bop's World Psychedelia series has been an across the board aQ favorite. From Os Mutantes, Shuggie Otis, the great African psych compilation, Love's A Real Thing, and now we have this great introduction to the post-Tropicalia funk of the great Tim Maia.
But the music is just one part of the story, the man's life is filled with interesting twists and turns including multiple marriages, prison sentences and an avid role in a UFO-obsessed religious cult, all of which have been the subject of a best-selling biography, tv show and hit musical in Brazil. How could we not love this?!
Combining a unique twist on Brazilian popular music along with copious American soul influences have made Maia's seventies recordings long sought after and excepting a couple of pricey imports, we have never been able to find any substantial release of his early musical output. After a decade of legal wrangling and coinciding with what would have been Maia's seventieth birthday (he died in 1998 of a heart attack while performing onstage), it's great to see this 15 track compilation realized and we're loving it more with each listen.
Mixing the Latino funk of Mexican-American groups like Malo and El Chicano, the cool urban sophistication of Steely Dan (yes, we went there, and we're not apologizing!) and the soulful vocals of Jorge Ben and Gilberto Gil. Maia's music has a fervent infectious energy that is totally engaging and sexy. He's often been compared to Barry White in the fact his music celebrates love over politics, but really Maia's music made the joyous acceptance of love and life a political statement and has long endeared him to legions of fans worldwide.
The cd is housed in a mini-hardbound cd-sized book, the lp in a deluxe full color gatefold, both with extensive notes and details of his extraordinary life. And this compilation comes of course, highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Que Beliza"
MPEG Stream: "O Caminho Do Bem"
MPEG Stream: "Quer Quiera, Quer Nao Quiera"
MPEG Stream: "Over Again"

MAIA, TIM Nobody Can Live Forever (Luaka Bop) lp 25.00
Every installment in Luaka Bop's World Psychedelia series has been an across the board aQ favorite. From Os Mutantes, Shuggie Otis, the great African psych compilation, Love's A Real Thing, and now we have this great introduction to the post-Tropicalia funk of the great Tim Maia.
But the music is just one part of the story, the man's life is filled with interesting twists and turns including multiple marriages, prison sentences and an avid role in a UFO-obsessed religious cult, all of which have been the subject of a best-selling biography, tv show and hit musical in Brazil. How could we not love this?!
Combining a unique twist on Brazilian popular music along with copious American soul influences have made Maia's seventies recordings long sought after and excepting a couple of pricey imports, we have never been able to find any substantial release of his early musical output. After a decade of legal wrangling and coinciding with what would have been Maia's seventieth birthday (he died in 1998 of a heart attack while performing onstage), it's great to see this 15 track compilation realized and we're loving it more with each listen.
Mixing the Latino funk of Mexican-American groups like Malo and El Chicano, the cool urban sophistication of Steely Dan (yes, we went there, and we're not apologizing!) and the soulful vocals of Jorge Ben and Gilberto Gil. Maia's music has a fervent infectious energy that is totally engaging and sexy. He's often been compared to Barry White in the fact his music celebrates love over politics, but really Maia's music made the joyous acceptance of love and life a political statement and has long endeared him to legions of fans worldwide.
The cd is housed in a mini-hardbound cd-sized book, the lp in a deluxe full color gatefold, both with extensive notes and details of his extraordinary life. And this compilation comes of course, highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Que Beliza"
MPEG Stream: "O Caminho Do Bem"
MPEG Stream: "Quer Quiera, Quer Nao Quiera"
MPEG Stream: "Over Again"

MAIA, TIM s/t (Sam Livre) cd 19.98
Early seventies singer from Brazil.

MAIDEN VOYAGE / AMARANTHINE TRAMPLER The Journey Embarks / As The Colour Of Love Flows From My Shattered Teeth (Endless Desperation) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We find stuff all the time, tucked away in the close, in the backroom, copies of records that somehow slipped through the cracks, record we hoped to eventually get more of, but eventually forgot about, it's pretty exciting to (re)discover these mysterious releases, even more exciting when we can't for the life of us remember where they came from, who ordered them, or when we actually got them.
Which is the case with this killer split of ultra heavy funereal doom metal, which we've had for almost 5 years, but only just now realized we had never listed. Which is a shame, cuz both these bands are pretty incredible.
Maiden Voyage are from the UK, and traffic in some seriously extreme miserablist doom, not crushingly heavy, as much as depressive and dark, reminding us a bit of Esoteric, that same sort of weird production, spaced out and a little bit brittle, making the sound more druggy and psychedelic, the guitars are still thick and fuzzy, the riffs glacial, the rhythms a snail's pace pound, the vocals a belched demonic grumble, but the melodies are skeletal, and the songs seem to dissipate into near ambience, the riffs ringing out, leaving just ghostly traces of spidery psychedelic guitars, it's actually more like some sort of doom-d slowcore, than any sort of true doom, which is what makes it so cool. Haunting, and creepy and atmospheric and a little bit damaged.
Maiden Voyage are teamed up with another UK funeral doom combo, the awesomely monickered Amaranthine Trampler, whose sound is strikingly similar, which makes sense, as both bands are one man bands, and than one man is THE SAME GUY! Amaranthine Trampler offers up another weirdly lo-fi bit of lumbering bleak misery, the vocals a bit more chantlike, the vocals a little bit more caustic, but overall, still moody and miserable, a bit ambient and abstract, thick swaths of chugging, some almost groove, giving way to grim funereal crawls, and like Maiden Voyage, those spidery psychedelic melodies and the weirdly lo-fi vibe and doom-ed slowcore feel.
Needless to say, if you're a fan of haunting mysterious outsider doom, and depressive ambient grimness, twisted drugginess and damaged black psychedelia, all spread into thick swaths of downtuned creep and crawl, then best snag one of these before they're gone...
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, each one hand numbered, but since this came out close to 5 years ago, odds are it's undoubtedly out of print by now. We only have 4 or 5 copies, so if you want one, you'll have to move a little faster than either of these guys...
MPEG Stream: MAIDEN VOYAGE "Opaline Waterfalls"
MPEG Stream: AMARANTHINE TRAMPLER "Autumn Is Dying - Winter Is Dead"

MAIN Ablation (Editions Mego) cd 16.98
Now here on cd too!!
It's been a very long time since Robert Hampson has released a Main album and an even longer time since he's produced a *great* Main album. Ablation changes that, although those who would be expecting the deconstructed hypno-rock of Motion Pool or Hydra-Calm will be disappointed; but those who had followed Hampson's trajectory starting with the last few Main records about a decade ago into spatialized electro-acoustics only to rediscover his infatuation with the drone which finally brought him back to the guitar as a principle instrument will certainly understand where this record is coming from. Hampson is still working at the storied GRM studios in Paris, and there is an infusion of the classic aesthetic of what came out of GRM within Ablation (notably Parmegiani and Ferrari), but at the same time he does link it back, if in a subtle way, to the mesmerism which girded the Main productions in the '90s. That said, any connections to his former group, Loop would be quite a stretch indeed.
On Ablation, Hampson has recruited Stefan Mathieu - a brilliant drone technician in his own right whom we've not heard from in ages - and the pairing works seamlessly, even as it clearly slants towards Hampson's vision of a cold disconnection dispensed in overlapping hissing layers and hypnotic patterns of abstracted sound. The percussive klank of a prepared piano on "I" is a bit of a red herring for what's found throughout Ablation especially on "II" and "III", is a series of slow ellipses of churning guitar drones and golden tonal coronas drifting with all of the uneasy beauty of an android's dream. The closing track "IV" bends along a radiophonic arc with ether crackle and metallic rasping and slow motion pixelations from a sharply rendered synth that forms the coda to the album. Organic. Liquid. Electric. Motorized. Bleak. Holy. All of those adjectives apply to this fantastic album. Welcome back, Main!
MPEG Stream: "II"

MAIN Ablation (Editions Mego) lp 22.00
It's been a very long time since Robert Hampson has released a Main album and an even longer time since he's produced a *great* Main album. Ablation changes that, although those who would be expecting the deconstructed hypno-rock of Motion Pool or Hydra-Calm will be disappointed; but those who had followed Hampson's trajectory starting with the last few Main records about a decade ago into spatialized electro-acoustics only to rediscover his infatuation with the drone which finally brought him back to the guitar as a principle instrument will certainly understand where this record is coming from. Hampson is still working at the storied GRM studios in Paris, and there is an infusion of the classic aesthetic of what came out of GRM within Ablation (notably Parmegiani and Ferrari), but at the same time he does link it back, if in a subtle way, to the mesmerism which girded the Main productions in the '90s. That said, any connections to his former group, Loop would be quite a stretch indeed.
On Ablation, Hampson has recruited Stefan Mathieu - a brilliant drone technician in his own right whom we've not heard from in ages - and the pairing works seamlessly, even as it clearly slants towards Hampson's vision of a cold disconnection dispensed in overlapping hissing layers and hypnotic patterns of abstracted sound. The percussive klank of a prepared piano on "I" is a bit of a red herring for what's found throughout Ablation especially on "II" and "III", is a series of slow ellipses of churning guitar drones and golden tonal coronas drifting with all of the uneasy beauty of an android's dream. The closing track "IV" bends along a radiophonic arc with ether crackle and metallic rasping and slow motion pixelations from a sharply rendered synth that forms the coda to the album. Organic. Liquid. Electric. Motorized. Bleak. Holy. All of those adjectives apply to this fantastic album. Welcome back, Main!
MPEG Stream: "II"

MAIN Mort Aux Vaches: Exosphere (Staalplaat) cd 19.98
Exosphere is Main's second contribution to the ongoing series of VPRO radio commissions, following a three way split with Flying Saucer Attack and White Winged Moth. Robert Hampson launched the Main project over a decade ago, after jettisoning the blackened hypno-rock of his incredible ensemble Loop in favor of a droning deconstruction and ambient isolationism that he qualified as 'drumless space.' A few years after the drums left and Main's structures became more and more abstract, Hampson set his guitar down to collect dust for good, as Main has now become entirely about digital fragmentation with a parallel aesthetic to Janek Shaeffer, Roel Meelkop, and Ekkehard Ehlers. For Exosphere, Hampson began with the recordings of those elements of a journey that are typically uninteresting and often forgotten, such as the taxi cab to the airport or the time waiting at the train station. With all of his DSP filters run amok, very little of those field recordings retain their original banality; instead, they acquire a dynamic expressivity with shivering digital textures, anxious time-stretching ripples, and monolithic drones that have more in common with the holy minimalism of Phil Niblock and LaMonte Young than the digital aersolization of Fennesz. Staalplaat continues their unique packaging of the Mort Aux Vaches series with a single piece of trifolded paper, holding the disc in place with a winged-brad. For Exosphere, Staalplaat cleverly recycles the waxy cardboard from orange juice containers.
MPEG Stream: "Part 2"
MPEG Stream: "Part 3"

MAIN Tau ((K-RAA-K)3) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When Robert Hampson began exploring "drumless space" through his digitally tricked-out guitarscapes under the guise of Main back in the early '90s, those initial records ("Motion Pool" in particular) were compelling albums of circular hypno-rock riffs spiralling through bleak, ominous drones. On one hand, Main had signified the birth of post-rock alongside other hybrid electronic / rock bands such as Seefeel and Disco Inferno (a couple years before the term got lumped onto Tortoise); yet on the other, Main had inspired the isolationist aesthetic where jack-booted industrialists and grizzled metallers tried their hands at grim ambient constructions. Since then, Main's influence has waned, as people like Jim O'Rourke and Fennesz have upstaged his guitar radicalism; and also as Main's albums have become increasingly more hermetic and less interested in the ideals of rock.
This last reason is obviously why Main got dropped from a sweet deal on Beggars Banquet; but, such opened up a number of possibilities to collaborate with Janek Schaeffer and Antenna Farm, as well as to produce this fine piece of electronic abstraction for (K-raa-k)3. On "Tau," very little is left of anything even closely resembling the timbres, harmonics, and actions of a guitar. It could be quite possible that there is in fact no guitar on this album. Nevertheless, Hampson calmly describes a sonic narrative through discrete samples which recall the alien tonalities of Morton Subotnik's work with the Buchla synthesizer. Loaded with MAX / MSP filters, these individual sounds amass into an icy soundtrack of microphonic detailing.
RealAudio clip: "Mirror"
RealAudio clip: "Heuristic"

MAIN Transiency (Tigerbeat6) cd ep 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The evolution of Robert Hampson's career has employed a steady skeletonization of the guitar -- possibly to the point that he doesn't even play guitar anymore on any of his records, but at least to the point where he's producing nothing that resembles a guitar. After dissolving his first band (the incendiary hypno-rock group Loop) and fronting Main, Hampson first dropped all drum tracks, then removed the bass, and gradually shifted towards sampling technologies over the guitar itself. "Transiency" is a short 20 minute EP, released by longtime Main / Loop / Hampson fan Kid 606 on the Tigerbeat 6 label. True to the last couple of releases, Hampson offers studied compositions of electronic minimalism and concrete flourishes that have been clipped against gaping voids of quiet spaces.
RealAudio clip: "I"
RealAudio clip: "II"

MAIN / FENNESZ split (Fat Cat) 12" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's been a while since Fat Cat offered anything from their outstanding series of split 12" singles, and the much ballyhooed release from laptop-guitarists Main and Fennesz has been well worth the wait. Main -- now solely under the propriety of Robert Hampson -- offers an exceptionally well done set of granular synthesis applied to the source material purported to be guitar drones, bowed cymbals, and homebuilt stringed instruments. Little of the textural sounds of the original remains within Hampson's compositions, which become sterile investigations of microscopic sounds fluctuating with digital crackle. Similarly, Fennesz relies upon digital manipulation to reveal trace elements of guitar driven avant-pop amidst the dominant masses of warm buzzings and electric fractures.

MAIN / WHITE WINGED MOTH / FLYING SAUCER ATTACK Mort Aux Vaches (Staalplaat) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Staalplaat continues their "Mort Aux Vaches" series of commissioned radio broadcasts with this split release between Main, White Winged Moth, and Flying Saucer Attack. These recordings find all three experimental guitarist artists at their quietest and on their best behavior. Flying Saucer Attack gets the most attention with 4 softly played acoustic guitar tracks that are buried underneathe a building wall of reverb -- sort of like the mellower pieces on FSA's recent album "Mirror". Main offers a 15 minute track for treated guitars that is quite active by the standards of Robert Hampson's increasingly inaudible outfit. Tiny samples of malfunctioning guitar cables and soft scrapes on the strings repeat throughout the composition along with a bell like tonal drone. White Winged Moth (aka New Zealander Dean Roberts) also presents a 15 minute piece, with his humid guitar drones. Altogether this is an excellent compilation of work.
RealAudio clip: FLYING SAUCER ATTACK "#2"
RealAudio clip: MAIN "Counterglow"

MAIN ATTRAKIONZ 808s & Dark Grapes II (Type Records) 2lp 27.00

MAINLINER Imaginative Plain (PSF) cd 22.00
The "Psychedelic Solid Free Attack Group" from Tokyo return on the legendary Psychedelic Speed Freaks label with five scorching new tracks. Mainliner this time around are bassist/vocalist Nanjo (High Rise, Toho Sara, etc. etc.), guitarist Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple, Musica Transonic, etc.), and newcomer Shimura on drums. Not as dynamic as their previous outings when Yoshida (Ruins) was in the lineup, "Imaginative Plain" just delivers what you'd expect from Nanjo -- overdriven psychedelic rawk guitar freakout! Crushing fuzz insanity! Primal and oh-so-satisfying. Mainliner/High Rise fans will not be disappointed.
RealAudio clip: "Static"

MAINLINER Mainliner Sonic (Charnel Music) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Nanjo, Kawabata and Yoshida return, with another blast of High Rise-style psychedelic riffery. Turn it up past, like, "2", and give your stereo speakers a few final thrilling moments before they fry.

MAINLINER Mainliner Sonic (Assommer) lp 17.98
CLEAR VINYL! Limited release!!
Back in '97, when this utterly distorted slab of Japanese psychrock was originally released on compact disc, we were perhaps a little bit more succinct in our reviews than we are now, saying simply in two sentences:
Nanjo, Kawabata and Yoshida return, with another blast of High Rise-style psychedelic riffery. Turn it up past, like, "2", and give your stereo speakers a few final thrilling moments before they fry.
Still true! Perhaps, for those just tuning in, we should add that Asahito Nanjo is the bassist from legendary PSF-label psychedelic speed freaks High Rise, Makoto Kawabata is of course the hairy bearded "motor psycho" guitarist from the beloved Acid Mothers Temple, and Tatsuya Yoshida is the eight-armed drummer from Magmoid prog duo Ruins, just to mention the primary crucial underground Tokyo acts these cats have been involved in. Mainliner Sonic was the trio's 3rd album, give or take a cd-r or cassette or two, if we've got the chronology correct. And it's just one of two Mainliner efforts with Yoshida on the drums, a lineup that happened to be identical to that of another, more spazzed out band, Musica Transonic.
At a little more than a half hour in length, these five tracks represent a typical in-the-red session of Mainliner's more Les Rallizes Denudes than thou loud garage psych improv groove mayhem. Really, you've heard of "fuzz monsters"? This is, like, fully 94 percent fuzz, almost like a blast of Merzbowian noise, with some crashing drums and raucous riffing and squiggly soloing buried beneath. Totally trance inducing. All the noisiest garagiest bands today PLAYING AT THE SAME TIME might not be able to top this. For fans of Acid Eater for sure!!!
The cd version has been out of print for years (though we hear rumors of a reissue on a Chinese label...) so it's even awesomer to have this vinyl edition on new label Assommer (run by one of the guys from the LA psych band OGOD, currently on tour in the USA with Acid Mothers Temple).
MPEG Stream: "Tsukisasaru"
MPEG Stream: "Mainliner Sonic II"

MAINLINER Mellow Out (Riot Season) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
At last, a reissue of the debut album from Japanese heavy psych trio Mainliner. It came out on Charnel Music in '96, but has been out of print for a long while now and with its unavailability has grown in stature. Of course, it's a great record, the one that Acid Mothers Temple were trying to emulate on their recent "Electric Heavyland" set. And yep, it does feature AMT's Kawabata Makoto on 'motorpsycho' guitar, along with free jazzer Hajime Koizumi on drums and bassist Nanjo Asahito of the legendary High Rise. Mainliner always was just a slight variant on the High Rise template (themselves a variant on the Les Rallizes Denudes template it seems), formed originally by Nanjo 'cause his High Rise bandmates were averse to touring and he wanted to take his rock on the road, or so the story goes. Anyway, this disc was Mainliner's first and best, all players outdoing themselves in the realms of psychedelic heavy garage improv distortion overload. So, if you missed it the first time around, now's your chance to experience this classic. It's nice to have it back in just 'cause now we're listening to it again and we'd forgotten how great it is. Rock!
MPEG Stream: "Black Sky"

MAINLINER Mellow Out (Riot Season) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now, for the first time, on vinyl! Yes, in addition to reissuing the debut cd from Japanese heavy psych trio Mainliner, Riot Season have gone and pressed it on wax. A pressing probably not long for this world, however... Here's what we just wrote about the cd version: It came out on Charnel Music in '96, but has been out of print for a long while now and with its unavailability has grown in stature. Of course, it's a great record, the one that Acid Mothers Temple were trying to emulate on their recent "Electric Heavyland" set. And yep, it does feature AMT's Kawabata Makoto on 'motorpsycho' guitar, along with free jazzer Hajime Koizumi on drums and bassist Nanjo Asahito of the legendary High Rise. Mainliner always was just a slight variant on the High Rise template (themselves a variant on the Les Rallizes Denudes template it seems), formed originally by Nanjo 'cause his High Rise bandmates were averse to touring and he wanted to take his rock on the road, or so the story goes. Anyway, this disc was Mainliner's first and best, all players outdoing themselves in the realms of psychedelic heavy garage improv distortion overload. So, if you missed it the first time around, now's your chance to experience this classic. It's nice to have it back in just 'cause now we're listening to it again and we'd forgotten how great it is. Rock!
MPEG Stream: "Black Sky"

MAINLINER Psychedelic Polyhedron (Fractal) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The new cd from Japanese psychedelic power trio MAINLINER is actually a reissue of their previously vinyl-only Psychedelic Polyhedron LP from back in '97, which was MAINLINER's second album, though a lot of folks never saw it. At last it's now on cd for all you MAINLINER fans who missed out on that long-gone import vinyl. Huh? No, I'm not shouting at you. It's just that putting MAINLINER in all-caps seems like a fitting way to indicate how loud and distorted and blown-out and in-the-red these guys are. But you know that already. Alongside bassist Asahito Nanjo's other band High Rise these guys are the kings of Japanese garage acid fuzz speedfreak heavy psych, pretty much. Though, actually, on this record, the original two side-long cuts, "Show The Cloven Hoof" and "Cardinal Virtues", were slightly less bludgeoning than usual Mainliner fare, being dark, meandering improvs closer to another of Nanjo's projects, Ohkami No Jikan, than to the pedal-to-the-metal rock insanity of, say, Mainliner's perversely titled debut Mellow Out. But compared to almost anything else they're certainly over-the-top. And this compact disc reish includes a bonus third track also from '97, a riffier ten-minute rocker called "Solid Static" if somehow you need an adrenaline kick after those first two 20 minute tracks. In case you're curious, the line-up for this particular Mainliner album is the same as yet another of Nanjo's bands, Musica Transonic, the trio consisting of Nanjo with guitarist Makoto Kawabata (Acid Mothers Temple) and drummer Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins)!
MPEG Stream: "Solid Static"

MAJESTICONS, THE Beauty Party (Big Dada) cd 17.98
Not sure why this record is so appealing, but it just is. It's big and dumb and fun and crazy and silly. Fairly sure it's a send up of the current MTV party hip hop sound, from bumping big beats, to slow jams to Mariah Carey sort of stuff. But it's so perfect it could easily fool fans of the real thing. Which I suppose is the point. Reminds me a lot of the N.E.R.D. record, all relentless driving beats and buzzing synth lines with goofy singing/rapping. Kind of lo-fi but you can tell it would sound bumpin' in your boomin' system. A big wild party, a big messy sloppy mix of all sorts of sounds: Missy Elliot, L'Trimm, Miami bass, two step garage, Vanity 6, and all sorts of crap. There's even a sort-of-cover of the Pet Shop Boy's 'Opportunity'. Weird. And the lyrics are so goddamn funny. The slow jams do get a bit much as the record progresses, but there's a couple wicked tracks that make the whole thing pretty worth while. I'm functioning completely under the assumption that this is all a perfectly calculated/executed joke, but if it's not a joke, it's almost even funnier.
MPEG Stream: "Piranha Party (Gentrification Party)"
MPEG Stream: "Fader Party"

MAJEURE Solar Maximum (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 14.98
Prepare to be soothed and elated. Here's the second album from Majeure, aka A.E. Paterra, one half of Zombi. (FYI, the other half of Zombi, Steve Moore, also has a new solo album out, Light Echoes on Cuneiform, that we'll hopefully have reviewed for you next time around!)
Any longtime aQ customer knows we're big Zombi fans, and of the duo's respective solo work too. In fact, the first Majeure album, Timespan, was a Record Of The Week. So this new one, well, it's great, that's a given really. But beyond that, we're have a hard time coming up with stuff to say about it. What to add to what we've said already about Majeure's brand of propulsive, synth-laden, spacey instrumentals? (Of Timespan, we wrote: "Sprawling spaced out sci-fi electronic minimal kraut disco epics of the highest order. Fusing the creepy film music of Vangelis and John Carpenter with the pulsing hypnotic minimalism of Steve Reich or Philip Glass, even some propulsive motorik Can style krautrock, all woven into sprawling spaced out psychedelic futuristic retro faux film music, layered synths, looped melodies, and a killer mix of programmed rhythms and live drumming".) This new disc is a bit less sprawling, with only one of the six songs breaking into the double-digits duration-wise. And the mood is perhaps lighter and lovelier. But otherwise, what? We will stress that A.E. Paterra really knows what he's doing. (Moore too, on his discs.) This is well-crafted, retro cosmic shimmering synth bliss with some groove, yeah. We're lovin' it. It's like New Age disco music, and we mean that in a good way.
Ok, why not let's list all the gear Paterra is credited with playing on this: "drums, Moog Source, Moog Voyager OS, Kawai SX-240, Korg Lambda, Korg Polysix, Roland Alpha Juno 2 + Roland PG-300, Arp Omni II, Ursa Major Space Station, Mu-Tron Bi Phase, and an old German plate reverb". You don't even have to know what all that stuff is to get an idea about what this album is like. But gadgetry aside, what's more important is, like we said, Paterra knows how to use all those synths to make truly mesmeric music, that sounds both authentic and enjoyable.
Majeure's retro-vision isn't limited to the music - the art and graphic design is nostalgically spot-on. In fact, while there will be a vinyl lp release of this (which was bumped back a bit), the compact disc is the way to go anyway, on account of how they've replicated the '80s look, including the text explaining the superior performance of the Compact Disc Digital Audio System, and how to care for your new cd ("If you follow these suggestions, the Compact Disc will provide a lifetime of pure listening enjoyment"), which proudly bears the DDD code meaning a digital tape recorder was used for recording, mixing and mastering. At the same time, the cover looks like it's been reduced down from an lp-sized original, everything in tiny type, the tracklist divided between a side 1 and side 2. Nice.
MPEG Stream: "Maximum Overture"
MPEG Stream: "Solar Maximum"
MPEG Stream: "Extreme Northern Lights"

MAJEURE Solar Maximum (Temporary Residence Ltd.) lp 22.00
NOW ON VINYL!!
Prepare to be soothed and elated. Here's the second album from Majeure, aka A.E. Paterra, one half of Zombi. Any longtime aQ customer knows we're big Zombi fans, and of the duo's respective solo work too. In fact, the first Majeure album, Timespan, was a Record Of The Week. So this new one, well, it's great, that's a given really. But beyond that, we're have a hard time coming up with stuff to say about it. What to add to what we've said already about Majeure's brand of propulsive, synth-laden, spacey instrumentals? (Of Timespan, we wrote: "Sprawling spaced out sci-fi electronic minimal kraut disco epics of the highest order. Fusing the creepy film music of Vangelis and John Carpenter with the pulsing hypnotic minimalism of Steve Reich or Philip Glass, even some propulsive motorik Can style krautrock, all woven into sprawling spaced out psychedelic futuristic retro faux film music, layered synths, looped melodies, and a killer mix of programmed rhythms and live drumming".) This new disc is a bit less sprawling, with only one of the six songs breaking into the double-digits duration-wise. And the mood is perhaps lighter and lovelier. But otherwise, what? We will stress that A.E. Paterra really knows what he's doing. (Moore too, on his discs.) This is well-crafted, retro cosmic shimmering synth bliss with some groove, yeah. We're lovin' it. It's like New Age disco music, and we mean that in a good way.
Ok, why not let's list all the gear Paterra is credited with playing on this: "drums, Moog Source, Moog Voyager OS, Kawai SX-240, Korg Lambda, Korg Polysix, Roland Alpha Juno 2 + Roland PG-300, Arp Omni II, Ursa Major Space Station, Mu-Tron Bi Phase, and an old German plate reverb". You don't even have to know what all that stuff is to get an idea about what this album is like. But gadgetry aside, what's more important is, like we said, Paterra knows how to use all those synths to make truly mesmeric music, that sounds both authentic and enjoyable.
MPEG Stream: "Maximum Overture"
MPEG Stream: "Solar Maximum"
MPEG Stream: "Extreme Northern Lights"

MAJEURE Timespan (Temporary Residence Ltd.) 2cd 16.98
Majeure is the drumming half of electronic sci-fi prog synth duo Zombi, and explores similar territory on his 3 song debut. A measly 3 songs you say? Yeah, but 3 songs in 42 minutes! That's right, sprawling spaced out sci-fi electronic minimal kraut disco epics of the highest order. Fusing the creepy film music of Vangelis and John Carpenter with the pulsing hypnotic minimalism of Steve Reich or Philip Glass, even some propulsive motorik Can style krautrock, all woven into sprawling spaced out psychedelic futuristic retro faux film music, layered synths, looped melodies, and a killer mix of programmed rhythms and live drumming, the vibe is ominous and epic, so evocative, it's impossible not to imagine some sort of insane fight in zero gravity, jump suited androids grappling amidst a strange neon latticework, or some futuristic car chase, through dimly lit streets, a grim crumbling futureworld, where the outcome of said chase will determine the fate of humanity.
The opener, the awesomely sci-fi named "The Dresden Codex", is a total future space disco kraut jam, the first half a throbbing mesmerizing krautdronesynthscape, eventually, bass drifts in as does awesomely fuzzy bass synth, the melodies dramatic and epic, a slow build that gets more and more intense before fading out into a stripped down moody bit of synthy drift, before exploding back into action, the live drums going nuts, suddenly it sounds a bit like a way more sci-fi Trans Am too, with a little M83 fuzz thrown in for good measure. "Teleforce" is all afternoon special straight to video science fiction, with its throbbing low end synth, and simple drumming, but the sound quickly gets thicker and more dense, and all ominous and intense, thick layers of rumble and whir over that machinelike pulse, then in come soaring strings, and after a brief bit of tension building Carpenter like spaced out minimalism, a lazer battle ensues, the track churning and chugging amidst a sky full of swirling effects and lazerblast-like pyew-pyew-pyew's...
Finally, the album finishes off with the 18+ minute "Timespan", beginning with a cloud of rumbles and whirs, before the sky fills with flecks of synth and space-y FX, a haunting bit of Logan's Run ambience, before the track slips right back into some groovy eighties sci fi synth disco, and for the next 10+ minutes, we're careening though a neon lit future world, battling on dancefloors, soaring between strange obelisk like structures, dodging lazer fire, running for our lives from lumbering robots, and finally destroying the mainframe and liberating the human race, all to the strains of some of the coolest, retro sci-fi sounds since, well, since these sounds weren't really retro at all.
Making an awesome album even awesomer, the cd version (but not, sadly, the vinyl) comes with a bonus remix disc (reissuing an out of print 12"), featuring reinterpretations of the album tracks by Steve Moore (the other half of Zombi), Justin Broadrick of Jesu, and Black Strobe. Moore takes "Timespan" and roughs it up a bit, giving it a more bruised, darkened and ominous cast, still an eighties soundtrack, but this time it's some dark foreign film, death more imminent, the end of civilization a foregone conclusion, but this is the sound of a ragtag group of survivors, hurling themselves into the void, on a desperate quest to save the universe, all to the strains of a pulsing Goblin / Carpenter score. Broadrick takes "Teleforce", and does something to it, hard to say exactly what, but suddenly it sounds like a warped Moroder post rock remix 12" spinning off kilter, warbly and hypnotic, eventually blissing out, more and more minimal and skeletal and softly psychedelic, before a bad ass dubby last few minutes, thumping muted rhythms, underpinning eighties new wave synths, and clouds of M83 style haze, a fucking killer groove that would seal the deal had the deal not already been WELL sealed. And finally, Black Strobe rework "The Dresden Codex" into something much more house-y and minimal, a sort of gleaming late night futuristic drift through mysterious silvery danceclubs, and exclusive penthouse parties, everything prismatic and blurred by a space age cocktail of psychotropics, a night spent cavorting in your gleaming surrogate body, your consciousness painting the town red, while your physical form sits safely in stasis at home, this is the sound of that soul shearing, head spinning rush, as an entire night's debauchery is downloaded in a 17 minute timelapse sonic injection, a heady, hypnotic, burst of electronic color. So rad.
The double compact disc comes in a super fancy, oversized mini lp style gatefold sleeve. And the vinyl version, also gatefold packaged, includes a digital download so you can iPod it.
MPEG Stream: "The Dresden Codex"
MPEG Stream: "Teleforce"

MAJEURE Timespan (Temporary Residence Ltd.) 2lp 16.98
Majeure is the drumming half of electronic sci-fi prog synth duo Zombi, and explores similar territory on his 3 song debut. A measly 3 songs you say? Yeah, but 3 songs in 42 minutes! That's right, sprawling spaced out sci-fi electronic minimal kraut disco epics of the highest order. Fusing the creepy film music of Vangelis and John Carpenter with the pulsing hypnotic minimalism of Steve Reich or Philip Glass, even some propulsive motorik Can style krautrock, all woven into sprawling spaced out psychedelic futuristic retro faux film music, layered synths, looped melodies, and a killer mix of programmed rhythms and live drumming, the vibe is ominous and epic, so evocative, it's impossible not to imagine some sort of insane fight in zero gravity, jump suited androids grappling amidst a strange neon latticework, or some futuristic car chase, through dimly lit streets, a grim crumbling futureworld, where the outcome of said chase will determine the fate of humanity.
The opener, the awesomely sci-fi named "The Dresden Codex", is a total future space disco kraut jam, the first half a throbbing mesmerizing krautdronesynthscape, eventually, bass drifts in as does awesomely fuzzy bass synth, the melodies dramatic and epic, a slow build that gets more and more intense before fading out into a stripped down moody bit of synthy drift, before exploding back into action, the live drums going nuts, suddenly it sounds a bit like a way more sci-fi Trans Am too, with a little M83 fuzz thrown in for good measure. "Teleforce" is all afternoon special straight to video science fiction, with its throbbing low end synth, and simple drumming, but the sound quickly gets thicker and more dense, and all ominous and intense, thick layers of rumble and whir over that macth and space-y FX, a haunting bit of Logan's Run ambience, before the track slips right back into some groovy eighties sci fi synth disco, and for the next 10+ minutes, we're careening though a neon lit future world, battling on dancefloors, soaring between strange obelisk like structures, dodging lazer fire, running for our lives from lumbering robots, and finally destroying the mainframe and liberating the human race, all to the strains of some of the coolest, retro sci-fi sounds since, well, since these sounds weren't really retro at all.
Making an awesome album even awesomer, the cd version (but not, sadly, the vinyl) comes with a bonus remix disc (reissuing an out of print 12"), featuring reinterpretations of the album tracks by Steve Moore (the other half of Zombi), Justin Broadrick of Jesu, and Black Strobe. Moore takes "Timespan" and roughs it up a bit, giving it a more bruised, darkened and ominous cast, still an eighties soundtrack, but this time it's some dark foreign film, death more imminent, the end of civilization a foregone conclusion, but this is the sound of a ragtag group of survivors, hurling themselves into the void, on a desperate quest to save the universe, all to the strains of a pulsing Goblin / Carpenter score. Broadrick takes "Teleforce", and does something to it, hard to say exactly what, but suddenly it sounds like a warped Moroder post rock remix 12" spinning off kilter, warbly and hypnotic, eventually blissing out, more and more minimal and skeletal and softly psychedelic, before a bad ass dubby last few minutes, thumping muted rhythms, underpinning eighties new wave synths, and clouds of M83 style haze, a fucking killer groove that would seal the deal had the deal not already been WELL sealed. And finally, Black Strobe rework "The Dresden Codex" into something much more house-y and minimal, a sort of gleaming late night futuristic drift through mysterious silvery danceclubs, and exclusive penthouse parties, everything prismatic and blurred by a space age cocktail of psychotropics, a night spent cavorting in your gleaming surrogate body, your consciousness painting the town red, while your physical form sits safely in stasis at home, this is the sound of that soul shearing, head spinning rush, as an entire night's debauchery is downloaded in a 17 minute timelapse sonic injection, a heady, hypnotic, burst of electronic color. So rad.
The double compact disc comes in a super fancy, oversized mini lp style gatefold sleeve. And the vinyl version, also gatefold packaged, includes a digital download so you can iPod it.
MPEG Stream: "The Dresden Codex"
MPEG Stream: "Teleforce"

MAJEURE Timespan Remixes (Temporary Residence Ltd.) 12" 16.98
Recently reissued as a bonus disc accompanying Majeures's Timespan full length, these three tracks were originally available as a 12", featuring reinterpretations of the album tracks by Steve Moore (the other half of Zombi), Justin Broadrick of Jesu, and Black Strobe.
Moore takes "Timespan" and roughs it up a bit, giving it a more bruised, darkened and ominous cast, still an eighties soundtrack, but this time it's some dark foreign film, death more imminent, the end of civilization a foregone conclusion, but this is the sound of a ragtag group of survivors, hurling themselves into the void, on a desperate quest to save the universe, all to the strains of a pulsing Goblin / Carpenter score. Broadrick takes "Teleforce", and does something to it, hard to say exactly what, but suddenly it sounds like a warped Moroder post rock remix 12" spinning off kilter, warbly and hypnotic, eventually blissing out, more and more minimal and skeletal and softly psychedelic, before a bad ass dubby last few minutes, thumping muted rhythms, underpinning eighties new wave synths, and clouds of M83 style haze, a fucking killer groove that would seal the deal had the deal not already been WELL sealed. And finally, Black Strobe rework "The Dresden Codex" into something much more house-y and minimal, a sort of gleaming late night futuristic drift through mysterious silvery danceclubs, and exclusive penthouse parties, everything prismatic and blurred by a space age cocktail of psychotropics, a night spent cavorting in your gleaming surrogate body, your consciousness painting the town red, while your physical form sits safely in stasis at home, this is the sound of that soul shearing, head spinning rush, as an entire night's debauchery is downloaded in a 17 minute timelapse sonic injection, a heady, hypnotic, burst of electronic color. So rad.

MAJOR LAZER Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do (Mad Decent / Downtown Music) 2lp 21.00
NOW ON VINYL!!
We love dancehall, the beat, the rhythms, the toasting especially, the lurching hypnotic groove of it, but what we, and lots of other folks have always had trouble with, was the lyrical content, the whole scene in fact, rife with violence, and homophobia and misogyny, much like American hip hop, but even more fucked up and seriously unpalatable.
So much so that plenty of folks around aQ land who might otherwise dig dancehall big time, have sworn off it completely. UNTIL NOW.
Diplo and Switch, bring their twisted and tweaked approach to beats and grooves, and whip up one the wildest, craziest dancehall records EVER. And what better way to thumb their noses at traditional dancehall than by getting a whole gaggle of female rappers and toasters to team up with the more well know male Jamaican dancehall vocalists, often verbally sparring back and forth in the same song. The sound is supercharged, electrifying, the beats banging, the samples bizarre but perfect, a tangled technicolor musical backdrop over which the vocalists do their THANG.
Morricone-esque guitars, the clip clop of horse hooves, ringing cell phones, horse whinnies, dizzying looped rhythms, a killer stuttery beat, tons of woozy low end, everything chopped and hiccuppy, an awesome deep growly bit of toasting, and some cool looped Santigold vox, before she gets to spit her own bad ass verse, and that's just the first song.
The whole disc destroys though, relentless non stop hip shaking head bobbing sweaty sexy speaker destroying musical magic, some tracks bliss out into some sunshiney reggae grooviness, all laid back, infused with some awesome smoky sultry vox, other tracks get raw and rough, with buzzing guitars and fuzzed out bass lines, plenty of clatter and crunch, others are fizzly and festive, with vocodered vocals and skittery beats, and still others are dense tightly wound jams, drenched in effects and tangled up with rollicking block rocking beats and squiggly melodies. Even as an instrumental record, this would kill, but the vocalists push it over the top, tongue twisting flows all over the place, lightning fast sputters, growly drawls, head spinning back and forth and of course plenty of whoops and whooooooos...
Summer dancehall party record of the year for sure, with awesome Major Lazer cartoon cover art, very reminiscent of the classic old Scientist albums!! So recommended. Every time we play this in the store, someone comes up to see what the heck it is!
MPEG Stream: "Hold The Line"
MPEG Stream: "When You Hear The Bassline"
MPEG Stream: "Can't Stop Now"

MAJOR LAZER Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do (Mad Decent / Downtown Music) cd 15.98
We love dancehall, the beat, the rhythms, the toasting especially, the lurching hypnotic groove of it, but what we, and lots of other folks have always had trouble with, was the lyrical content, the whole scene in fact, rife with violence, and homophobia and misogyny, much like American hip hop, but even more fucked up and seriously unpalatable.
So much so that plenty of folks around aQ land who might otherwise dig dancehall big time, have sworn off it completely. UNTIL NOW.
Diplo and Switch, bring their twisted and tweaked approach to beats and grooves, and whip up one the wildest, craziest dancehall records EVER. And what better way to thumb their noses at traditional dancehall than by getting a whole gaggle of female rappers and toasters to team up with the more well know male Jamaican dancehall vocalists, often verbally sparring back and forth in the same song. The sound is supercharged, electrifying, the beats banging, the samples bizarre but perfect, a tangled technicolor musical backdrop over which the vocalists do their THANG.
Morricone-esque guitars, the clip clop of horse hooves, ringing cell phones, horse whinnies, dizzying looped rhythms, a killer stuttery beat, tons of woozy low end, everything chopped and hiccuppy, an awesome deep growly bit of toasting, and some cool looped Santigold vox, before she gets to spit her own bad ass verse, and that's just the first song.
The whole disc destroys though, relentless non stop hip shaking head bobbing sweaty sexy speaker destroying musical magic, some tracks bliss out into some sunshiney reggae grooviness, all laid back, infused with some awesome smoky sultry vox, other tracks get raw and rough, with buzzing guitars and fuzzed out bass lines, plenty of clatter and crunch, others are fizzly and festive, with vocodered vocals and skittery beats, and still others are dense tightly wound jams, drenched in effects and tangled up with rollicking block rocking beats and squiggly melodies. Even as an instrumental record, this would kill, but the vocalists push it over the top, tongue twisting flows all over the place, lightning fast sputters, growly drawls, head spinning back and forth and of course plenty of whoops and whooooooos...
Summer dancehall party record of the year for sure, with awesome Major Lazer cartoon cover art, very reminiscent of the classic old Scientist albums!! So recommended. Every time we play this in the store, someone comes up to see what the heck it is!
MPEG Stream: "Hold The Line"
MPEG Stream: "When You Hear The Bassline"
MPEG Stream: "Can't Stop Now"

MAJOR LAZER Lazers Never Die (Interscope) cd ep 4.98
Most of us were big fans of the Major Lazer full length from last year, but even those of us who didn't totally fall in love with with it are going crazy about this new ep of remixes especially the banging new track with M.I.A. that leads it all off. Major Lazer is the blasting, dance inducing, dancehall influenced project of master producers Diplo and Switch and with folks like Buraka Som Sistema and Thom Yorke giving them the remix treatment this is start to finish adrenaline pumping, body moving blasts of ecstasy. If we were hired as party planners for someone looking to put on a rager that we would want to lose our minds at we would urge them to blast this so loud loud followed by other smoking new releases from M.I.A., Omar Souleyman, and maybe that Shangaan Electro compilation of killer new South African dance jams. Maybe part of the magic is that it's an ep which makes this so perfect, there is no overkill or filler or duds. Every single second hits so damn right. And as cheap as it's priced this one is a no brainer!
MPEG Stream: "Sound Of Siren (Feat. M.I.A. & Busy Signal)"
MPEG Stream: "Jump Up (Thom Yorke Remix)"
MPEG Stream: "Bruk Out (Buraka Som Sistema Mix)"