PERSONAL AND THE PIZZAS Raw Pie (1-2-3 Go!) lp 14.98

PERSONAL BEST Issue #2 magazine 11.98
Second issue of this fanzine done by notorious Nordic noisician Lasse Marhaug (Jazzkammer, etc.). Super nicely put together (it looks like a "real" magazine), but definitely a fanzine in its enthusiams... Marhaug and a few friends go one-on-one in in-depth interviews with such interesting contemporaries/colleagues as Incapacitants, Earth, FNS, Attila Csihar, Don Dietrich (of Borbetomagus), and more...
80 pages or so, squarebound, color cover, color interior (with lots of cool photos/graphics), on a nice matte paper stock, kinda like a double-size, Marhaug-curated edition of The Wire, but the content is ALL interviews (well, and ads). And the interviews are quite interesting. And go in some strange directions...
A new fave 'zine!

PERSONS Attack The Scene (Black Bean & Placenta) cd 9.98
What starts off as an angular instrumental juggling act comprised of one part circus, one part surf, one part Talking Heads, and one part jazz, eventually becomes a much less interesting all parts punk pop. Perhaps they should have stuck with their much more promising and energetic original direction? At any rate, they're certainly not a long-winded bunch, taking care of business in less than twenty minutes. And y'know, it's not surprising that this found its way onto Black Bean & Placenta, a label that prides itself on covering a veritable mishmash of styles.

PERVERTS s/t (HBSP-2X) 7" 7.98
In a relatively short period of time, Ty Segall has developed a totally recognizable style of super blown out garage punk that we just can't seem to get enough of. And a lot of you must feel the same, cuz the records keep pouring out and selling like crazy.
So it was quite fitting that when we first played this in the store a customer immediately asked "So what Ty Segall project is this?" and he was right on, because even though the Perverts are even more in-the-red and fucked up and punk sounding than Segall's other records, it still has his immediately noticeable rad guitar playing and wild vocals all over it. We dig how Segall is following in the tradition of old school punk and the early days of vintage garage rock where folks would put out singles almost every month, and have a billion different side-projects. Lucky for us everything he's been doing is sounding so great so we say, go ahead and keep on being the hardest working man in blown out garage rock!

PEST Daudafaerd (No Colours) cd ep 13.98

PEST In Total Contempt (No Colours) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

PESTE NOIRE Ballade Cuntre Lo Anemi Francor (De Profundis / Rosenkrantz) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Pretty much as soon as we heard this, we knew it was going to be Record Of The Week, and not just black metal record of the week. In the past, Peste Noire seems to have always been unfairly categorized as an Amesoeurs / Alcest sideproject (we plead guilty of that as well) due not only to the presence of Neige, the mastermind behind both Amesoeurs and Alcest, but the seemingly shared membership between all three bands, and while Neige did no doubt contribute much to Peste Noire's sound, it seems Peste Noire was much more the brainchild of only remaining original member, Famine, whose other main musical outlet is the almost equally twisted Valfunde, and as if to prove the validity of the above claim, has assembled an almost entirely new lineup (although Audrey from Amesoeurs contributes some vocals) and cobbled together the most damaged, most fucked up, most gloriously bizarre Peste Noire record yet. Which if you've heard any of the other records is definitely saying something!
The record is weirdly arranged, five proper songs, with 2 minute or shorter song fragments and interludes, some that play like proper songs themselves, only truncated, others that act as intros or just totally tweaked unhinged sound experiments, but somehow, songs and non-songs alike hold together beautifully, and bafflingly, the band having created some sort of crusty, blackened, melancholy, depressive French folk flecked classic metal.
The intro begins with sizzling shimmering cymbals, simple percussion, eventually joined by beautiful ethereal female vocals, as well as some raspy blackened not-really-harmony vocals, then the riff comes in, and damn if it isn't a riff from Star Wars, but super distorted and blown out, pounding, crusty, epic and majestic, the rasped vocals over a haunting military sounding speech. And then straight into the first 'proper' track, which begins as some sort of sea shanty like French folk song, but with the addition of some hellish black vokills, you can almost imagine a table full of French soldiers, and one dripping slimy otherworldy beast, all singing along, glasses raised to the sky. Then in comes a very classic sounding metal riff, but the guitars muted and woozy, the tempo lurching and seasick, all manner of different vocals, crooning, shrieking, howling, then an awesomely weird squiggly bit of low end, super tripped out and psychedelic but somehow subtle and buried in the mix. Guitars soar and sing and jangle, wrapped around equally dramatic vocals, a total French folk crust anthem.
The follow up track begins all dark acoustic guitars and birdsong, martial percussion, eventually exploding into a super buzzy distorted march, pounding away, midtemp and melancholy, before returning to a super gorgeous, hauntingly depressive gothic crust almost-ballad, blackened and distorted, but also post rocky and strangely emotional and moving.
The 'interludes' include some warped and warbly haunted house piano, doused in hiss and crackle, ghostly female vocals drifting amidst the warm whir, sinister laughter, squalls of maniacal shrieks, dueling male / female vocals, almost operatic, soon joined again by that monstrous blackened croak, warm woozy calliopes, soundtracky keyboards and the sound of storms, tons of reverb and delay, tape hiss and softly crumbling distortion, all creating perfect segues between loping depressive midtempo blackened post metal lurch, super blown out in the red almost D-beat pounding buzz, those vocals transforming from hellish howl to deep moan, there's even some wheezing harmonica, all leading up to the final track, "Soleils Couchants", which begins with birdsong again, and an awesomely angular and beautifully twisted guitar part, paired up with a gorgeous minor key harmony, before slipping into a moody downtuned creep, complete with weird frog like vocals, and a looped bit of beeps and chirps, total post-doom weirdness, literally like nothing you've ever heard, it sounds a little like that first part of the Pirates Of The Caribbean ride at Disneyland, where you're just floating through the dark bayou, lit only but slivers of moonlight and the flickering light of fireflies, it's like a soundtrack to that, swampy and doomy and mysterious, until the band launches into a strangely melodic black doom midtempo jam, the guitars minor key, multiple vocals merging into raspy otherworldly harmonies, before breaking down into a long stretch of just guitars and vocals, the guitars twisted and spidery but still melodic, the voices tortured but super passionate, yet again infusing the fucked up twisted blackness with pathos and emotion, keeping it from being weird for weird's sake, this is something else entirely. What sounds like a child's voice joins in, twisted around that hellish vokill, all draped over a gorgeously catchy riff, reminding us a bit of Katatonia or Lifelover, before spiraling and sprawling into a seriously melodic blackened post rock jam, and then finally returning to the doomy lurch that began the song some seven minutes earlier.
Peste Noire have (again) managed the seemingly impossible, creating a record both totally twisted and damaged, but also lovely and moving and melodic, a record that ranks up there in our pantheon of most bizarre and fucked up black metal records ever, while somehow appealing to even the not so metal inclined, a confusional mix of black and crust and pop and folk, all twisted and tangled up and forced through Peste Noire's cracked musical sensibilities, the result, a record fucked up and fantastical, and this review not withstanding, almost impossible to describe.
MPEG Stream: "Neire Peste"
MPEG Stream: "La Mesniee Mordrissoire"
MPEG Stream: "Ballade Cuntre Les Anemis De La France"
MPEG Stream: "Soleils Couchants"

PESTE NOIRE Folk Fuck Folie (De Profundis / Rosenkrantz) cd 13.98
We have been totally obsessed with French black metallers Amesoeurs, from the second we first heard their debut ep (and only proper release), Ruines Humaines, absolutely one of our favorite black metal records ever, a disc of glistening, My Bloody Valentine like buzz rife with strangely melodic indie rock jangle and occasional female vocals, all wrapped in sonic spikes and buzzing guitars and blasting beats, a bliss pop disc in black metal clothing if there ever was one. In reviewing that disc we mentioned that there were various other related bands we were feverishly trying to track down, one was the even less metal, and more blissed out Alcest (whose debut cd is out of print, but whose brand new full length should be out soon) and the super demented, slightly more typically black metal Peste Noire. Now, when we say "slightly more typically black metal", it's all relative, by any other standards, and compared to any other BM bands, Peste Noire is anything but typical, but compared to the relative poppiness of Alcest and Amesoeurs, this stuff is as black as it gets.
We had been trying to track down their debut for ages, but since it took so long, a brand new full length dropped in the meantime, this disc right here, so we figured we oughta start with this and work our way back. We do have the first record in stock, and it's just as amazing and fucked up and freaked out and absolutely recommended as essential, so if you want this one, odds are you're gonna need that one too (so just ask), but just so you know what you're getting into, let's investigate the bizarre soundworld of France's Peste Noire....
The problem is, it's really hard to describe just what the heck Peste Noire sounds like. They are definitely black metal, but the arrangements are so bizarre, and often not very black, everything is fuzzy and off kilter and distorted, dizzying and haunting and creepy, stumbling and whatthefuck as often as heavy or buzzing.
Take the opening track, some sort of crumbling distorted soundscape, lots of fuzz and hiss, plenty of reverb and druggy murk, industrial percussion and washed out ambience, some super beautiful clean guitar, that fragments into fractured weirdness over which harsh blackened vocals howl and shriek, the guitars eventually growing more and more distorted and FX drenched, while all around swirl strange sounds and demonic voices. But then the second track kicks in and things settle down for the most part. A relentless black buzz, but not typical in any way, a sort of old school thrash, but all twisted and tangled, the guitars are all over the place, the background is a constant wash of fuzzy roar, while up front, the main riff is sharp and angular. The vocals are a hateful hissy howl, the drums a stumbling blast, but amidst all this chaos are bits of perfect poppiness, killer melodies, amazing (and unlikely grooves), super hooky and catchy, but in a way that seems impossible. Within three minutes, Peste Noire go from buzzy blast, to dreamy melodic drift to midtempo groove to lumbering doom, but always imbued with a strange pop sensibility and always wrapped in all manner of fucked up sounds and damaged production.
Some bands are obviously 'fucked', the drums a crumbling mess, the recording quality ultra shitty, the mix all over the map with LOUD drums or super inaudible guitars, we love that stuff, but Peste Noire is fucked in a completely different way, listening to this, you can tell these guys are amazing musicians, and have an absolutely solid idea of what they're trying to do, It's just that what they're trying to do would never occur to anyone in their right mind, Which is exactly what makes their music so compelling and so totally mind blowingly bizarre.
As with all music, metal in particular, it's all about the riffs, and thus the guitars, and the guitars here are fucking amazing, sometimes spun into crystalline melodies, delicate and sparkling, other times super dense downtuned buzz, occasionally weird and angular and super mathy, the quality of the guitar sound too is ridiculously varied, from clean and clear, to muddy and murky, often at the same time, and always in the same song. At some points it almost sounds like these guys were mad musical alchemists who took two different records and crammed them together creating some unholy sonic beast, poppy and catchy, but bleak and brutal and demented, an unnatural blackened buzzing freakshow of sound, but always as beautiful as it is fucked up.
The whole record is peppered with non musical weirdness too. The extended intro of "Maleicon", an extended rant in French, growled and spat out over a backdrop of moans and drones, or the brief "Extrait Radiophonique", which sounds like a crackly record of maniacal screams, tolling bells, and all sorts of slamming and banging, but somehow even those parts all essential to the demented and damaged vision that is FolkFuck Folie.
Definitely another contender for black metal record of the year!!
Includes a bonus track, an older track from a split with Finnish black metallers Horna (not out yet at the time of this list), which is way more black than the rest of the record, but is just as weird and amazing. Packaged with a huge booklet of lyrics, photos, liner notes, drawings and plenty of other strangeness.
MPEG Stream: "L'envol Du Grabataire (Ode A Famine)"
MPEG Stream: "Chute Pour Une Culbute"
MPEG Stream: "La Fin Del Secle"
MPEG Stream: "Paysage Mauvais"

PESTE NOIRE K.P.N. / La Sanie Des Siecles - Panegyrique De La Degenerescence (Transcendental Creations / De Profundis / Rosenkrantz) cd 13.98
A while back, it seemed like everyone, ourselves included, was totally obsessed with a French black metaller called Neige. Doesn't ring a bell? How about his shoegazey post-black metal outfit Alcest? Or his fuzzy black metal gone bliss pop combo Amesoeurs? His fracutured new wave black metal combo Valfunde? Or even his more 'traditional' black metal outfit Peste Noire? Yep, you got it now.
Been a while since we've heard from Neige, since then, he joined another 'dark metal' band, and he's also joined long time aQ faves Forgotten Woods. While that's pretty exciting, and we're always up for hearing more of what Neige has to offer. We also sort of wish he'd just cut down on the various side projects, so we wouldn't have to wait nearly as long for a new Amesoeurs, Alcest or Peste Noire record.
But while we wait patiently, we can now revisit the first Peste Noire full length, with the unwieldy title La Sanie Des Siecles - Panegyrique De La Degenerescence, finally reissued! We've been dying to list this, but until now we haven't been able to get enough. Above we call Peste Noire Neige's more traditional black metal group, but that designation is really relative, as the music of Peste Noire, while being black and buzzy and heavy and grim, is also totally tweaked, fractured and fucked up, rife with all manner of whatthefuck, from gorgeous sweeping melodies, to strange samples, so completely confusional arrangements, to bits of liturgical music mixed into the buzz, to some serious pop tendencies. But somehow it all works. That is if by works, you mean, constitutes one of the most awesomely fucked up lo-fi melodic outsider black metal records ever!! We raved about the latest Peste Noire a while back, the awesomely titled FolkFuck Folie, and everything we loved about that record (also just reissued) is present here as well, but if anything, all of those things are just, well, MORE. More fucked up, more freaked out, more melodic, more lo-fi.
Just take the opener, "Nous Sommes Fanes", begins with some record crackle, before the band lurches into a weird drunken waltz, sounding more like the Reeks And The Wrecks than any black metal. The guitars and drums swing woozily, the drums and cymbals super blown out, over the top, an ultra distorted guitar spins a web of damaged leads, before slipping into a strange moody post rocky drift, replete with big boomy reverb drenched chords. But then the second track kicks in, and we're back in more recognizable black metal territory, and even though it's buzzy and black, it is incredibly melodic, poppy almost, the melodies soaring and epic, the track is peppered with blasts of blasting grimness for sure, a bit of a crusty punk vibe all tangled up with the buzzing blackness, but even when the song is blasting blackly, close listening reveals all manner of melodic weirdness going on beneath the surface, and it doesn't stay below the surface for long, as the song shifts into loping minor key almost-dirge, before finish up how it started, with that strangely emotional super melodic soaring blackened buzz.
And so it goes, the band lurching from midtempo lope to roaring furious blast, to almost doomy plod, all strangely muddy and murky, the various parts twisted and gnarled into something totally unique. The guitars are incredibly varied, going from Ved Buens Ende like Slint-worship, to filthy Darkthrone-d crunch, to gorgeous almost folky finger picking, some serious moments of Opeth-y flutter peppered amidst the crusty blackness.
The second to last track "Dueil Angoisseus (Christine De Pisan, 1362-1431)" is all gorgeously bleak and buzzy, midtempo and melancholy, but then draped over the top is super clean, classical guitar, way up in the mix, that gives the track the strangest vibe, makes it sound strangely pretty. Finally, the disc finishes off with "Des Medecins Malades Et Des Saints Sequestres", which begins with a tangle of effects drenched hammer-ons, unfurling a haunting, off kilter melody, the drums a distant lo-fi pound, when the song kicks in, it's almost eighties metal, albeit filtered through a grim French black metal lens, but the riffing, so classic, and so cool sounding when cloaked in a filthy production and that demonic rasp. But this song too, shifts into some strange other space, and is suddenly
infused with what sounds like a wall of whirring organs, those hammer-ons return, and the song is some strange minor key doom pop epic, that flits back and forth between that eighties riffing, super distorted, and that sprawling metallic poppiness, before transforming into a blaze of super effected metallic chug, finishing off with a strange super distorted almost-jig (!), the drums huge and pounding, while the guitar plucks out a strange distorted melody, much like the opening track.
Needless to say (funny how we always say that after SAYing it for several thousand words), this is one of our favorite black metal records ever. Fucked up, but black and heavy, poppy and hook filled, but still grim and buzzy, if you loved FolkFuck Folie, you'll love this, if you dig Amesoeurs and Alcest but want to hear that sound dipped in filth and painted black, well then this will definitely do the trick. If this was brand new and had just come out, it would be, without a doubt, one of our records of the year (not just black metal either), but as it is, this is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL AND RECOMMENDED!
MPEG Stream: "Nous Sommes Fanes"
MPEG Stream: "Le Mort Joyeux "
MPEG Stream: "Laus Tibi Domine"

PESTE NOIRE K.P.N. / La Sanie Des Siecles - Panegyrique De La Degenerescence (Ahdistuksen Aihio / De Profundis / Rosenkrantz) lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
For a super limited time, the killer debut full length from these weirdo black metal masters (featuring members of Alcest, Amesoeurs and Valfunde) is available ON VINYL!!! Here's our review from when we first got it in last year:
A while back, it seemed like everyone, ourselves included, was totally obsessed with a French black metaller called Neige. Doesn't ring a bell? How about his shoegazey post-black metal outfit Alcest? Or his fuzzy black metal gone bliss pop combo Amesoeurs? His fractured new wave black metal combo Valfunde? Or even his more 'traditional' black metal outfit Peste Noire? Yep, you got it now.
Been a while since we've heard from Neige, since then, he joined another 'dark metal' band, and he's also joined long time aQ faves Forgotten Woods. While that's pretty exciting, and we're always up for hearing more of what Neige has to offer. We also sort of wish he'd just cut down on the various side projects, so we wouldn't have to wait nearly as long for a new Amesoeurs, Alcest or Peste Noire record.
But while we wait patiently, we can now revisit the first Peste Noire full length, with the unwieldy title La Sanie Des Siecles - Panegyrique De La Degenerescence, finally reissued! We've been dying to list this, but until now we haven't been able to get enough. Above we call Peste Noire Neige's more traditional black metal group, but that designation is really relative, as the music of Peste Noire, while being black and buzzy and heavy and grim, is also totally tweaked, fractured and fucked up, rife with all manner of whatthefuck, from gorgeous sweeping melodies, to strange samples, so completely confusional arrangements, to bits of liturgical music mixed into the buzz, to some serious pop tendencies. But somehow it all works. That is if by works, you mean, constitutes one of the most awesomely fucked up lo-fi melodic outsider black metal records ever!! We raved about the latest Peste Noire a while back, the awesomely titled FolkFuck Folie, and everything we loved about that record (also just reissued) is present here as well, but if anything, all of those things are just, well, MORE. More fucked up, more freaked out, more melodic, more lo-fi.
Just take the opener, "Nous Sommes Fanes", begins with some record crackle, before the band lurches into a weird drunken waltz, sounding more like the Reeks And The Wrecks than any black metal. The guitars and drums swing woozily, the drums and cymbals super blown out, over the top, an ultra distorted guitar spins a web of damaged leads, before slipping into a strange moody post rocky drift, replete with big boomy reverb drenched chords. But then the second track kicks in, and we're back in more recognizable black metal territory, and even though it's buzzy and black, it is incredibly melodic, poppy almost, the melodies soaring and epic, the track is peppered with blasts of blasting grimness for sure, a bit of a crusty punk vibe all tangled up with the buzzing blackness, but even when the song is blasting blackly, close listening reveals all manner of melodic weirdness going on beneath the surface, and it doesn't stay below the surface for long, as the song shifts into loping minor key almost-dirge, before finish up how it started, with that strangely emotional super melodic soaring blackened buzz.
And so it goes, the band lurching from midtempo lope to roaring furious blast, to almost doomy plod, all strangely muddy and murky, the various parts twisted and gnarled into something totally unique. The guitars are incredibly varied, going from Ved Buens Ende like Slint-worship, to filthy Darkthrone-d crunch, to gorgeous almost folky finger picking, some serious moments of Opeth-y flutter peppered amidst the crusty blackness.
The second to last track "Dueil Angoisseus (Christine De Pisan, 1362-1431)" is all gorgeously bleak and buzzy, midtempo and melancholy, but then draped over the top is super clean, classical guitar, way up in the mix, that gives the track the strangest vibe, makes it sound strangely pretty. Finally, the disc finishes off with "Des Medecins Malades Et Des Saints Sequestres", which begins with a tangle of effects drenched hammer-ons, unfurling a haunting, off kilter melody, the drums a distant lo-fi pound, when the song kicks in, it's almost eighties metal, albeit filtered through a grim French black metal lens, but the riffing, so classic, and so cool sounding when cloaked in a filthy production and that demonic rasp. But this song too, shifts into some strange other space, and is suddenly infused with what sounds like a wall of whirring organs, those hammer-ons return, and the song is some strange minor key doom pop epic, that flits back and forth between that eighties riffing, super distorted, and that sprawling metallic poppiness, before transforming into a blaze of super effected metallic chug, finishing off with a strange super distorted almost-jig (!), the drums huge and pounding, while the guitar plucks out a strange distorted melody, much like the opening track.
Needless to say (funny how we always say that after SAYing it for several thousand words), this is one of our favorite black metal records ever. Fucked up, but black and heavy, poppy and hook filled, but still grim and buzzy, if you loved FolkFuck Folie, you'll love this, if you dig Amesoeurs and Alcest but want to hear that sound dipped in filth and painted black, well then this will definitely do the trick. If this was brand new and had just come out, it would be, without a doubt, one of our records of the year (not just black metal either), but as it is, this is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL AND RECOMMENDED!
MPEG Stream: "Nous Sommes Fanes"
MPEG Stream: "Le Mort Joyeux "
MPEG Stream: "Laus Tibi Domine"

PESTE NOIRE L'Ordure A L'Etat Pur (Transcendental Creations / De Profundis / Rosenkrantz) cd 14.98
It seems like every time there's a new Peste Noire record we make it Record Of The Week. Which only seems strange until you actually hear it. And hear how fucked up and totally bafflingly brilliant it is. With every record Peste Noire seem to move further and further away from the grim black metal that birthed them, but to be fair, no one in Peste Noire has spent much time playing what anyone might consider 'typical' black metal, especially mainman Famine, now rechristened La Sale Famine De Valfunde, who used to play in Alcest. Though we should note he took extreme umbrage when we suggested that Alcest / Ameseours mainman Neige had anything to do with the music of Peste Noire, which is also surprising considering that one member of Alcest and one member of Ameseours are also members of Peste Noire and we assume do contribute musically. But really, none of that matters as much as the very very strange sounds these folks create, and the fact that metalheads still dig it. In fact, we're constantly perplexed by certain bands that for no good reason remain beloved to even the truest grimmest metalheads. To be fair, Peste Noire, for all their twisted sonic proclivities, are still masterful black metallers, it's just that those blasts of brilliant black metal are often separated by strange accordion driven French folk music or some twisted bit of confusional psychedelia. Which brings us to L'Ordure A L'Etat Pur, the latest, and yes, perhaps greatest from these French misanthropes. And as always, it only takes the first track, a shot across the bow, to reveal their true intentions, as twisted and unlikely as they may be.
The sound of wind and rain, of crashing surf, distant foghorns, underpinning some reverbed clean guitar, riffs ringing out over these sounds of the sea, a second guitar adds some melody, and there seems to be a wolf howling, or a voice imitating a wolf, there are tolling bells too, and the beginning of what sounds like it could be a jig, or some sort of gypsy folk, maniacal rambling vocals surface, the guitars growing more distorted, the sound tense and dramatic and growing moreso, before no not launching into furious black buzz, but instead some sort of shuffling post rocky groove, the vocals unhinged and maniacal, wrapped around a chugging riff, and some simple propulsive drumming, not so much metal as rock, and then the sound does erupt into a kind of blackness, soaring and droney but before full blackness is achieved, it returns to that sort of sea shanty that opened the proceedings, and the howling wolf returns. Some double kick drumming ups the ante, and finally, the song lurches into more metal territory, but again, more sort of blackened rock, like Khold than Darkthrone, with some seriously catchy riffs, and then, HORNS, moaning ominously, adding some cool texture, and giving the song a sort of "Tusk" vibe, until the metal peels away completely, leaving just horns and acoustic guitar, a sort of oompa oompa polka, with a trombone playing the main melody. Oh yeah, and some accordion. We're in full on French street music territory now, and then the metal guitars swoop back in, as do the vokills, but now they're playing a killer metallized version of that polka, with some strange trilled vocal harmonies and some weird droned out guitars, which suddenly stop, leaving just the sounds of what sounds like sword fighting, and the song shifts gears again, bursting into an almost ska sounding punkish sprawl, only to moments later shift again into a gnarled bit of noise rock, and it's right back into the oompa oompa metalized ska, the vocals transforming into a sort of goregrind gurgle, the music stopping briefly to reveal the sounds of a barnyard, all chickens and roosters, then when the music kicks back in, the vocals simulate the sounds of chickens, Famine singing variations of "Ba-kaaaw", before finishing off in a killer mathy tangle of dynamic chug and pound.
And that's just the first song. And fear not, we won't go through every song here part by part, although we could, and reading this without listening would make this new Peste Noire sound like thee most bizarre record EVER, and heck, maybe it is, but impossibly, it also sort of works, in a dizzying, whatthefuck sort of way.
The rest of the record does offer more surprises, as well as some more traditional black metal, but even at its most buzzy and blasty, the sound will splinter into some strange super distorted can-can, guitars will suddenly unfurl wild squiggles of high end, the sound suddenly devolving into a sort of effects heavy progged out swirl that then transforms into a pounding almost industrial crunch, wreathed in more moaning horns, or a fight will seem to break out in the middle of the song, shattering glass, sirens, all while the song continues to chug and churn, the sound slipping easily from dark, gnarled crusty pound to woozy meandery clean guitar post rock and then to glistening soaring sonic majesty, only to have a chorus of weirdly chanted vocals surface and totally change the vibe to more of a stein hoisting sing along. The blasting buzz here tends less toward the grim blur of classic black metal and more toward a sort of goofy gallop, but one that suits the band more than the other ever would, and amidst all this weirdness, PN can whip out a stretch of impossible beauty or extreme blackened bliss, the sort of parts you want to go on forever, but in the ADD world of Peste Noire, those moments are fleeting, and will soon be subsumed by some new, stranger sound. Elements of power metal abound, but like all of the other musics bastardized here, it becomes just another twisted / fractured facet of Peste Noire's bizarre musical universe. All culminating in the beautifully mournful slow core doom of closer "La Condi Hu", a creeping lament, heavy and distorted, but darkly melodic and melancholy, laced with clean hushed vocal harmonies, but then you couldn't have expected that to be all, in swoop some sad sad strings, some chugging guitars, building to a minor key bit of blackened post metal, and unlike the rest of the record, nothing gets super weird, the band remain heavy, the music tense and dramatic and emotional, continuing to build, the sound intense and moving, laced with mysterious proggy sections, cool female vocal harmonies, dense intricate drumming, there's even a cool wild sort-of-drum solo, with the drums spitting our an avalanche of beats, beneath spoken female vox, which leads right into a super gorgeous stretch of minor key, slithery bass driven heaviness, that any band would kill for, but these guys leave for last, letting the sound wind down, and displaying without a doubt, that there is some sort of method to Peste Noire's extreme and utter musical madness.
MPEG Stream: "Casse, Peches, Fractures Et Traditions"
MPEG Stream: "Cochon Carotte Et Les Soeurs Crotte"
MPEG Stream: "J'Avais Reve Du Nord 1"

PESTE NOIRE Lorraine Rehearsal + Phalenes Et Pestilence 2005 (Northern Heritage) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ever since we listed the Amesoeurs record a while back (and actually even before) we've been trying to track down records by two related bands, the equally blissed out black bliss combo Alcest, and the much more primitive and black Peste Noire. While we've been unable to track down either cd, we did manage to get a bunch of copies of this brand new Peste Noire lp, one side featuring 4 songs from a rehearsal, the actual versions of which will be on the upcoming full length, while the B-side is a sidelong black buzz epic recorded a couple years ago.
Nothing about Amesoeurs will prepare you for Peste Noire. There is a similar melodic sensibility, but beyond that, it's a whole different beast. The four new tracks are killers, and for rehearsal tracks sound amazing, so much so that most bands would be pretty happy with the versions here, loud and heavy and recorded super hot. The forthcoming full length on which these songs will appear is to be titled Folkfuck Folie just for a brief glimpse into the twisted minds behind the music. Things begin with a weirdly majestic and martial intro, with complex drums and strange arrangements, almost like some medieval carnival music, before bursting into full on furious blackness, buzzy and relentless, but even in the blasting things are slightly off kilter, damaged and demented sounding, and very very melodic, mathy and complex, super harsh vocals over the top but they can hardly disguise how utterly hooky these songs are. In fact, after hearing Amesoeurs and Peste Noire and Alcest, it seems to be these guys' M.O., write killer pop songs, amazing hooks, unforgettable melodies, then try to disguise them as best they can as buzzing black metal. It never works completely, which is why this stuff is so remarkable. Some of the songs have tons of syncopated chug, giving the songs an almost proggy vibe, almost like some weird mix of Emperor and Voivod. Blooping bass, cascading sheets of guitar and gorgeous minor key melodies. Can't wait for the new record. If these are only sketches, we can hardly fathom how freaked out and amazing the actual songs are gonna be.
The B-side is an older recording and is much more rough and lo-fi, raw and blown out. Lots of reverb and effects, but still rife with plenty of surprising melodic breakdowns, impossible catchy and lovely for something this black and raw. It gets even weirder near the end, with a long stretch of scratchy record crackle and monklike chants, and then a super pretty laid back acoustic outro. So amazing. Everything these guys touch turns to black gold!
Packaged in a super striking black and white sleeve, band photos and liner notes on the back, including the legend 'Hooligan Black Metal' that seems to make almost no sense when paired with the music inside...
Vinyl only, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!

PESTE NOIRE Mors Orbis Terrarum (Debemur Morti Productions) 2lp 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The super limited, and long out of print double cassette boxed set demo collection from French masters of twisted and fucked up blackness, Peste Noire, originally released in 2007, is finally available again, albeit for a limited time, as a super deluxe double gatefold lp!!! And deluxe it is. The jacket is super fancy and thick, the lps pressed on super heavy vinyl, housed in black sleeves, and just in case you need to be told again, LIMITED LIKE CRAZY!!! Here's what we had to say about this when we reviewed the cassettes last year:
Okay black metal freeks and fanatics. We've all been going apeshit for everything and anything from the super tangled and inbred French micro-scene that spawned Alcest, Amesoeurs, Mortifera, Valfunde and of course... the mighty Peste Noire.
We've reviewed pretty much everything we could get our hands on from these guys, their debut full length K.P.N. / La Sanie Des Siecles - Panegyrique De La Degenerescence, their second full length FolkFuck Folie and the Lorraine rehearsal lp, all of which were crammed with amazing, stumbling chaotic, filthy fucked up blackness, and these two lps are no different. If anything, they're more raw, and more gritty and blown out. Lo-fi and ultrablack. The first track is so fast it almost sounds like it was recorded at the wrong speed. But much like the records proper, the sound lurches from furious black blasts to stumbling midtempo buzz, to plodding almost-doom, but even on these early ultra lo-fi recordings, the mood and vibe is already in place, haunting and creepy, demented and freaked out, borderline psychedelic at times. Noisy as fuck, crumbling and super distorted, everything painted a washed out black, grime-y but at times weirdly melodic and blissy.
Mors Orbis Terrarum collects pretty much all of Peste Noire's recordings outside of their 2 proper full lengths and the rehearsal lp (including their problematically titled 2001 Aryan Supremecy demo, which seems out of character since according to Encyclopedia Metallum, their lyrical focus is on "Aesthetics of Evil, Medieval Demons and Decadent Poetry") including a couple unreleased bonus tracks. But probably, unless you're a crazy obsessed collector / trader, you haven't heard any of this stuff anyway.
Needless to say, WAY recommended, and again, probably super limited, so act fast.

PESTE NOIRE Mors Orbis Terrarum (self-released) 2 x cassette box 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Okay black metal freeks and fanatics. We've all been going apeshit for everything and anything from the super tangled and inbred French micro-scene that spawned Alcest, Amesoeurs, Mortifera, Valfunde and of course Peste Noire, and we had been trying to track down enough of these double cassettes to finally list, and obviously we did, but odds are these will FLY out of here, and as we're not sure how limited these actually are, and how long it will take to get more, if indeed we can, please be prepared to maybe be disappointed, or very patient as we try to get more.
We reviewed Peste Noire's second full length FolkFuck Folie a while back, and the Lorraine rehearsal lp, both were amazing, stumbling chaotic, filthy fucked up blackness, and these two tapes are no different. If anything, they're more raw, and more gritty and blown out. Lo-fi and ultrablack. The first track is so fast it almost sounds like it was recorded at the wrong speed. But much like the records proper, the sound lurches from furious black blasts to stumbling midtempo buzz, to plodding almost-doom, but even on these early ultra lo-fi recordings, the mood and vibe is already in place, haunting and creepy, demented and freaked out, borderline psychedelic at times. Noisy as fuck, crumbling and super distorted, everything painted a washed out black, grime-y but at times weirdly melodic and blissy.
Collects pretty much all of Peste Noire's recordings outside of their 2 proper cds and the rehearsal lp (including their problematically titled 2001Aryan Supremecy demo, which seems out of character since according to Encyclopedia Metallum, their lyrical focus is on "Aesthetics of Evil, Medieval Demons and Decadent Poetry") including a couple unreleased bonus tracks. But probably, unless you're a crazy obsessed tape trader, you haven't heard any of this stuff anyway.
Needless to say, WAY recommended, and again, probably super limited, so act fast.
Cool packaging too, two cassettes, laid side by side in a small printed black cardboard box, with two inserts, old demo covers on one side, liner notes on the other.

PESTEG DRED Years Of Struggle Against The Lies, The Stupidity And The Cowardice (Dark Entries) lp 15.98
Martin Hall appears to be the figure who defined the Danish New Wave scene, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence that any of the projects he worked in found much traction outside of Denmark. Ballet Mecanique was one such project, And Then Again was another; of course, there were a couple of solo outings too. Pesteg Dred was a very short-lived project, as the trio that revolved around Hall got together in 1981 with electronics wrangler Per Hendrichsen and vocalist Inge Shannon. During one weekend, the three landed in a studio and banged out an album but didn't have the ability to pay the bill. So the tapes sat until Hall could negotiate something with the owners of the studio. A cassette of the material surfaced as a bonus with an art magazine in 1985, but otherwise, the recordings languished while all three members went onto other projects. We've never heard of any of Hall's other projects; but if any were half as good as Pesteg Dred, they'd be worth the price of admission.
The dark storm of post-punk had certainly come to Denmark, with Hall admitting an early infatuation with Cabaret Voltaire and A Certain Ratio (well, he did name one his later projects And Then Again after an A Certain Ratio tune); but The Pop Group and The Ex must have made a big impact as well. The band is essentially a mutant rhythm section of rumbling, discordant funk basslines and unschooled percussive fills that showcase way more fury than skill, with a series of weirdly skittered electronics flushed between the rhythms with murky modular sweeps, distorted drones, and delay-rippled bloop. Inge's vocals are a cold monotone bellow that aren't too far from Bettina Koster of Malaria, making a perfect fit for the darkly, cacophonous agit-punk of Pesteg Dred. The lengthy "Light, More Light" is very much in the vein of the best A Certain Ratio, with breakneck post-disco rhythm, neck-strangling basslines, jittery guitars, and even some atonal blurts from a trumpet. Death disco? You bet!
Dark Entries scores yet again with a really great re-discovery on Pested Dred.
MPEG Stream: "Salt"
MPEG Stream: "Cold Impressions Of Perhaps"
MPEG Stream: "Almost"

PESTEG DRED / SS-SAY 1981-1985 I Have Seen You Through The Years, Worn By Different Faces (Optik) cd 15.98
Martin Hall appears to be the figure who defined the Danish New Wave scene, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence that any of the projects he worked in found much traction outside of Denmark. Ballet Mecanique was one such project, And Then Again was another; of course, there were a couple of solo outings too. Both Pesteg Dred and SS-Say were very short-lived projects in the early '80s. Pesteg Dred was a trio that revolved around Hall in 1981 with electronics wrangler Per Hendrichsen and vocalist Inge Shannon. During one weekend, the three landed in a studio and banged out an album but didn't have the ability to pay the bill. So the tapes sat until Hall could negotiate something with the owners of the studio. A cassette of the material surfaced as a bonus with an art magazine in 1985, but otherwise, the recordings languished while all three members went onto other projects.
The dark storm of post-punk had certainly come to Denmark, with Hall admitting an early infatuation with Cabaret Voltaire and A Certain Ratio (well, he did name one of his later projects And Then Again after an A Certain Ratio tune), but The Pop Group and The Ex must have made a big impact as well. The band is essentially a mutant rhythm section of rumbling, discordant funk basslines and unschooled percussive fills that showcase way more fury than skill, with a series of weirdly skittered electronics flushed between the rhythms with murky modular sweeps, distorted drones, and delay-rippled bloop. Inge's vocals are a cold monotone bellow that aren't too far from Bettina Koster of Malaria, making a perfect fit for the darkly, cacophonous agit-punk of Pesteg Dred. The lengthy "Light, More Light" is very much in the vein of the best A Certain Ratio, with breakneck post-disco rhythm, neck-strangling basslines, jittery guitars, and even some atonal blurts from a trumpet.
SS-Say released only one single in 1985, and that material rounds out the cd. Here, Hall is working again with Inge Shannon, for a more baroque, anthemic number wrought with Siouxsie-esque operatics and wah-wah guitar scratching above the catwalk disco rhythms. With its cocaine strung synths, "Care" is definitely the gem amongst the SS-Say tracks, which showcase much more polish as a Studio 54 / Batcave hybrid than Pesteg Dred, but with just as much post-punk bombast.
The Pesteg Dred material was reissued by Dark Entries on vinyl in 2010, and now it's available on cd for the first time with the SS-Say tracks that didn't appear on the lp reish.
MPEG Stream: PESTEG DRED "Salt"
MPEG Stream: PESTEG DRED "Cold Impressions Of Perhaps"
MPEG Stream: PESTEG DRED "Almost"
MPEG Stream: SS-SAY "Care"

PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS Depths (Seance) cd 14.98
Depths is the latest blast of grim melodic blackness from this Aussie black metal horde, and the first we've reviewed on the list. This came highly recommended by weirdo black metaller the Botanist, and for fans of dense blasting buzz infused with plenty of moodiness and melody, you'd be hard pressed to do better than these guys. Just check out the opening track, pretty much everything we love about black metal, the sound is dense and murky, the guitars are thick and buzzy, the drums pounding and furious, the vocals an anguished how buried in the mix, the arrangement constantly shifting, from the opening salvo, a face melting black blast, to the more midtempo majesty of the middle stretch, replete with soaring epic guitar melodies, to an abstract, clean guitar spacey interlude, an back again, PS infuse their furious blackness with a surprising amount of emotion, giving the impression that with the drums and guitars stripped away, this might sound like Godspeed or Explosions In The Sky, that same sort of brooding, slow building intensity, which sound even cooler here, wedded to thick black guitars, and churning buzzing heaviness.
The band do introduce some cool twists, surprising almost clean vocals, draped over some ultra melodic almost Katatonia sounding riffage at one point, and chugging pop flecked almost Khold style grooves here and there, but those elements are definitely not the focal point, there guys are all about blast and buzz, howl and crush, the sound is epic and massive and heavy and BLACK, a glancing listen, and you might think this was just a wall of furious buzz, but closer listening reveals all sorts of texture and melody, but without taking away from the power or ferocity, it's almost as if all that melody, and all that sonic moodiness, was unintended, a natural byproduct of this sort of buzz and blast, but it's too well crafted, and too much an integral part of PS's sound, which manages to totally transcend the typical grim buzz of most black metal, offering up something much more epic and melodic, and ultimately way more sonically rewarding.
MPEG Stream: "Lost Geists Of The Sunlight Sphere"
MPEG Stream: "Tribulations Of Man"
MPEG Stream: "Depths"

PESTKREUZ Perdition Discipline (Nihilward) cd 6.66
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A short sharp blast of buzzing grim blackness from Canada, from a horde known as Pestkreuz, whose sound is all classic buzz and blast, combining the sound of the early Norwegian greats with some of the more recent modern BM outfits. Think Funeral Mist and Katharsis via Satyricon and Immortal; while this may not be pantheon-worthy as any of those, it's definitely a pretty excellent chunk of orthodox black metal, one that should most certainly hit the spot for all of you who need a dose of furious, frenzied black buzz, there's even some passages that dip into the punkier side of BM, but for the most part, PK engage in the sort of corpse painted, Christ defiling, blast beating, tremolo picking, demonik vokill-ed heaviness, that we (and many of you) can't ever seem to get enough of.
MPEG Stream: "Night Movement"
MPEG Stream: "The New God Has Risen"

PET GENIUS s/t (Hydra Head) cd 11.98
The more we hear from Mr. Stephen Brodsky, frontman of the mighty Cave In, the more we're beginning to wonder if maybe his particular genius was wasted in the context of a sludgy metal band. Or perhaps it was specifically that weird pop genius that made Cave In such a bad ass proposition. And that should have had people more prepared for their eventual shift into bombastic progpop.
Regardless, we've got two Brodsky projects on this week's list, the psychedelic power pop of Brodsky's Octave Museum, and this brand new disc right here, that sounds like some weird hybrid between Elope, Queens Of The Stone Age, The Beatles, XTC, Kyuss and the White Stripes... If that's even possible, and on repeated listening
This disc is pretty all over the map, some tracks are jangly and dreamy, others are crunchy and super heavy, many are both. But it's the perfect pop songwriting that holds all of these disparate sounds together. And perfect pop they are.
We were pretty much sold 10 seconds in, the opener is a barnstormer, a killer riff, with a lurching stop start verse, and some Beatles-esque falsetto vocals, all wrapped around one of the most killer hooks ever! The second track is more blessed out, folky and very British sounding, with epic melodic swells, and more falsetto vocals, gentle acoustic strum and some playful vocal guitar interplay. But track three, "Walls Of Etiquette" is the gem here, and most likely the single, if records like this actually have 'singles', groovy and stoner, with a slithery riff, keening vocals, a super catchy melody, and a churning super intense grinding metallic refrain, and a chorus to die for. Very reminiscent of Queens Of The Stone Age back when they were AWESOME. A lot of this record reminds us of that amazing Open Hand record we raved about a few years back. "Man Of The Mountain" is another killer, beginning with a crunchy metal intro, before slipping into a dreamy folky drift, all poppy shimmer and irresistible hooks.
The rest of the record plays out in a pretty similar fashion, with Brodsky pitting his Beatlesy pop heart against his distorted desert axe, the results pretty tough to beat. And this is one of those records we just gave a cursory listen to, but soon found ourselves spinning it over and over EVERY day. No better recommendation than that...
MPEG Stream: "Doomsday"
MPEG Stream: "Walls Of Etiquette"
MPEG Stream: "The Visiting Dynamiter"
MPEG Stream: "Man Of The Mountain"

PETALS Away EP (Chaos Of The Stars) cassette 5.98
Petals is the long germinating shoegaze electronica project of former aQ-er Cameron "Edge Of Sanity" Octigan, a dark, dolorous set of songs that owe as much to the blown out noise pop of groups like My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus And Mary Chain as it does to the blurred bliss pop ambience of Gas and other minimal electronic technicians. The opening track here is very reminiscent of Gas, all hushed minimal melodies, a heartbeat like techno pulse, a muted throb buried in the murk, everything wrapped in a thick patina of gauzy whir and bleary shimmer, which quickly gives way to the first song proper, a warm murky dirge, thick swaths of crunchy low end, buried melancholy melodies, like a shoegaze jam stripped down to its bare components and recast as minimal electronica. Eventually the drums get a little bit busier, the melodies emerge from the murk, the sound seeming to crystallize and coalesce into an almost proper pop, and then the song splinters into a weird bits of synth pop, all careening dubbed out rhythms, squiggly synths, and those spectral voices, epic and so beautiful.
The rest of the tape is surprisingly varied, while managing to all link together as a strangely cohesive whole, "In Gathering" is a bit of blissed out woozy IDM, given a sort of dream pop makeover, those haunting vocals making a but here processed into haunting high end melodies, all over a whirling soft focus almost house music rhythm, "The Longest Mirror" is the first really beat heavy jam, with a hand clap rhythm draped over a thick buzzing bass, and some hazy dreamy synths, a twisted bit of house-y electro pop, that leads directly into the brief "Only A Thought", which also has a bit of a witch house feel, echoey handclaps hovering in fields if warped synths and electronic glimmer, the sound just drifting and gradually slowing down to a warbly dreamlike drag, until the tape closes with "Everyone's Longest Summer", another primo slab of washed out electro-gaze, but with a haunting ominous undercurrent, strange disembodied voices, a super skeletal high hat rhythm, the whole thing bleary and blissy, and gradually shedding various elements, until just that minimal beat, and then finally, that slowly fading low end buzz...
So great! We really can't imagine Petals will remain a secret for long, in fact, we're sort of shocked this tape is the first anyone will hear, and it's a bit of a tease at 17 minutes, but it has been getting massive repeat plays and definitely has us hankering for more!
MPEG Stream: "Always Far"
MPEG Stream: "Disappear In Every Way"
MPEG Stream: "Everyone's Longest Summer"

PETER BJORN AND JOHN Falling Out (A Hidden Agenda) cd 14.98
If you love the pop sounds of The Posies, the New Pornographers, Sloan and The Shins as we here at aQ surely do, well, we might all be needing to add a new band to our list o' tunesome faves. The band is Peter Bjorn And John, and yes, the three Swedish lads' names are indeed Peter (Moren), Bjorn (Yttling) and John (Eriksson). This is their second full length and it's pretty right on! Their vocals have that 'aw shucks' boyish kind of quality. Y'know, slightly bashful, slightly drowsy, slightly slouchy and totally endearing. In fact, they sorta reminded us of Crowded House and Badly Drawn Boy too. Check 'em out!
MPEG Stream: "Far Away, By My Side"
MPEG Stream: "Big Black Coffin"

PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block (Almost Gold) cd 13.98
This Swedish pop group's third release is finally available domestically and thank God for that as it topped many of our "best of" lists of 2006, By now you must have heard PB & J's infectious single with Victoria Bergsman from the Concretes, "Young Folks" with its catchy off-handed whistling and cute animated video that has been an internet sensation for the past few months. Well, the rest of the album does not disappoint in the least. This is some of the best pop music we've heard in a long time that sounds as fresh as when bands like Blur and Pulp first started garnering attention a decade ago. And they do it so effortlessly by scaling back the guitars in favor of more subtle, economic and hook-laden arrangements, and well-written songs about love and heartbreak that never sound clichˇd.
Taking turns on vocal and songwriting duties, the trio are at the top of their game, making Writer's Block a delightfully varied affair as it takes us on a twisted journey through the highs and lows of romance. At times the sound is effervescent as on "Let's Call It Off", at other times it's more brooding as heard on the downbeat synth-heavy "The Chills". This domestic release comes with a bonus second disc of some extra tracks, a couple of remixes and alternate versions of "Let's Call It Off" and "Young Folks", the latter played on sitar! Highly recommended!!!!!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Young Folks"
MPEG Stream: "Start To Melt"

PETER BROTZMANN GROUP Alarm (Atavistic) cd 14.98

PETER JEFFERIES Substatic (Emperor Jones) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Easily the very best stuff that Peter Jefferies has done since he collaborated with his brother Graeme in This Kind of Punishment and Nocturnal Projections back in the early 80's. Dark, beautiful, tense instrumentals with guitar, piano, drums, and drones that recall Joy Division at their bleakest.

PETER JEFFERIES/JONO LONIE At Swim 2 Birds (Drunken Fish) cd 12.98

PETER, BJORN AND JOHN Gimme Some (Almost Gold / Startime Int'l) cd 13.98
Peter, Bjorn & John have redeemed themselves bigtime with this new outing! Their last album Living Thing, really sounded flat to our ears and was such a letdown after the thrilling pop they delivered on their breakout album Writer's Block. Well with Gimme Some, these Swedes have returned to the top of their game and it looks like this is going to be a major contender for pop record of the summer and maybe even the year! Ultra catchy melodies and hooks that hit hard, exuberant and energetic, and best of all no filler in the mix, this is what a perfect pop record should sound like. It's a record that has so much zest and an effortless vibe, while also containing some surprisingly rocking moments, and that certain charm that makes the way they craft songs so damn addictive. Who else can incorporate cowbell into one of the best pop songs of the year like they do on "Second Chance"?! This is proving to be one of those pop records like the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart debut or Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. We can't wait to blast this all summer long and beyond!
MPEG Stream: "Tomorrow Has To Wait"
MPEG Stream: "Second Chance"
MPEG Stream: "(Don't Let Them) Cool Off"

PETER, BJORN AND JOHN Gimme Some (Almost Gold / Startime Int'l) 2lp 24.00
Peter, Bjorn & John have redeemed themselves bigtime with this new outing! Their last album Living Thing, really sounded flat to our ears and was such a letdown after the thrilling pop they delivered on their breakout album Writer's Block. Well with Gimme Some, these Swedes have returned to the top of their game and it looks like this is going to be a major contender for pop record of the summer and maybe even the year! Ultra catchy melodies and hooks that hit hard, exuberant and energetic, and best of all no filler in the mix, this is what a perfect pop record should sound like. It's a record that has so much zest and an effortless vibe, while also containing some surprisingly rocking moments, and that certain charm that makes the way they craft songs so damn addictive. Who else can incorporate cowbell into one of the best pop songs of the year like they do on "Second Chance"?! This is proving to be one of those pop records like the Pains Of Being Pure At Heart debut or Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. We can't wait to blast this all summer long and beyond!
MPEG Stream: "Tomorrow Has To Wait"
MPEG Stream: "Second Chance"
MPEG Stream: "(Don't Let Them) Cool Off"

PETER, BJORN, & JOHN Living Thing (Star Time International) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "Nothing To Worry About"
MPEG Stream: "Living Thing"

PETER, BJORN, & JOHN Living Thing (Star Time International) lp 24.00

MPEG Stream: "Nothing To Worry About"
MPEG Stream: "Living Thing"

PETERLICKER Last Slave (Editions Mego) cassette 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

PETERLICKER Nicht (Editions Mego) lp 21.00
Why the hell would you call your band Peterlicker? And even if you did give yourself such a terrible name, why would you keep it after you broke up over 20 years ago, especially when the band in question hardly even managed a couple of practices and maybe one gig? These are the important questions we ask here at aQuarius, and perhaps we can feel justified in asking these questions, since they themselves admit theirs is a stupid band name following the tradition of the Butthole Surfers and Throbbing Gristle.
So, with that discussion out of the way, here at last is the debut LP from Peterlicker, a monstrously good electro-doom-dirge-noise-rock quartet featuring Peter (Pita) Rehberg. While Pita's brain-drilling power electronics are a component of the crawling noise structures in Peterlicker, it's clearly not just his project. F. Hergovich is the vocalist in the band, whose ominous deepthroating vocalizations loom over the entire production, timestretched into undefinable gaping bellows and monstrous Lustmordian howls. C. Schachinger takes his cues from Swans' stalwart guitarist Norman Westberg, in his bent atonal screeches, gritty crackling of white-hot distortion, and dive-bomb arcs of noise that settle upon the ever crawling post-doom basslines of G. Weissegger. Pita and Weissegger fill in the gaps with plenty of crunched noises that buttress the grim arsenal of crusty noise. Imagine Godflesh, if Broadrick forgot to bring his drum machine to the studio, or Swans (circa Cop and Filth) with Gira even more amped up on amphetamines and taking his vocals on a really fucked godhead trip. Needless to say, Nicht is pretty fucking brilliant, regardless of what they chose to call the band.
MPEG Stream: "Always Right"
MPEG Stream: "C-Slide"
MPEG Stream: "Schleim"

PETERSEN, SCOTT Out of the Loop (Headache) video 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A documentary of the rise of the "Chicago Scene" featuring Steve Albini, The Jesus Lizard, Eleventh Dream Day, Red Red Meat, Die Warzau and lots more. Contains live footage.

PETERSON, GILLES Black Jazz Radio (Black Jazz Records) cd 16.98
Black Jazz was a record label based out of Oakland, California in the early seventies and focused on spiritual minded jazz with a community focus, often with funk and soul jazz overtones. We recently reviewed Calvin Keys' Shawn-Neeq record from 1971 and along with some of the recent Black Jazz reissues, there have been some DJ mixes released too, all mined from the label's extensive catalog. We weren't too psyched on the first mix by Japanese DJ Mitsu, but then we got this mix from esteemed BBC radio DJ, Gilles Peterson, and our opinion 180'ed. Peterson has the same reputation in British radio of soul, funk, jazz and international sounds as John Peel did with rock, punk, and post-punk, and his taste here is impeccable. He does do some mixing between songs, but he largely lets the songs go their own lengths without unnecessary intervention. In it, he creates an arc of the label's best sounds that range from exploratory soul jazz, rare groove funk, Latin-inflected rhythms and cosmic spiritual gems. The label was formed by pianist Gene Russell as an antidote to the more skronkier vibe coming out of the east coast, so the sound on Black Jazz has a smoother more melodic quality, but still quite beautiful and engaging with its own unique sound. Definitely the sort of deep sounds our pals at Groove Merchant Records in the Haight have been cultivating and turning people onto for many years. Artists include: The Awakening, Doug Carn, Roland Haynes, Walter Bishop Jr., Kellee Paterson, and Gene Russell, among others.
MPEG Stream: GENE RUSSELL "Black Orchid"
MPEG Stream: WALTER BISHOP JR.'S 4TH CYCLE "N'dugu's Prayer"
MPEG Stream: DOUG CARN "Higher Ground"
MPEG Stream: ROLAND HAYNES "Second Wave"

PETIT MAL A Sense Of Closure (Zenflesh) cd 11.98
Petit Mal is the work of Berkeley musician Jim Kaiser, who improvises through a post-Industrial context to arrive at deep hypnotic ambience marred by vocal samples, broken effects, and metallic scrapings. Dark murky drones dominate "A Sense Of Closure," often recalling the densely processed sounds of Troum or Cranioclast. Yet Kaiser is often much looser in his compositions than either of those references, allowing for distortion, misfirings, and analogue errors to accumulate within the overlapping washes of sound. "A Sense Of Closure" is at its best when Kaiser picks up an acoustic guitar to splutter textured strumming not unlike the groundswell of damaged avant-folk (i.e. Neil Campbell, Avarus, Dead Raven Choir, etc.) within the omnipresent dark ambience.
RealAudio clip: "Submergence"
RealAudio clip: "Retreat To Arcana"

PETIT MAL Absolution (self-released) 3" cd-r 5.98
Absolution is another missive of blackened ambience extracted by Bay Area denizen J.Kaiser (aka Petit Mal), once again mining his trusted electro-acoustic set-up of bicycle wheel, shortwave radio, tape loops, and effects. On the first cut "Passover," Kaiser begins with a subterranean gloom, built out of an excess of reverb applied to the metallic scrapes of his bowed bike wheel and incidental noise elements which grate against this mournful bellow that loops out of his reel-to-reel tape deck. Out of this sour atmosphere, Kaiser builds a menacing slab of noise through a series of concussion bomb blasts, thrumbing static from shortwave radio, and squealing divebombs of pierced feedback. The whole piece drips with leaden reverb that further sinks this malcontent set of noise into a depressive, apocalyptic dirge. The much shorter "Other Fields" is also much prettier, although most anything would be pretty next to the ashen bleakness of "Passover." Somber piano notes hang in space against a clatter of wooden objects being randomly tossed in an abandoned warehouse with some tape manipulation in the distance of undefined captured dialogue. File somewhere between Lethe, Anenzephalia, and The New Blockaders. Super limited.
MPEG Stream: "Passover"
MPEG Stream: "Other Fields"

PETIT MAL Ascetics (self-released) 3" cd-r 5.98
Ascetics is probably the best thing we've heard from Jim Kaiser's Petit Mal project or any of the various collaborations he's done with like-minded Bay Area improvisers and noise tacticians. There's long been a dourness to his junkyard concoctions, but that attitude really seems to click on this short program 3". An overlapping drone from what could be generated from Kaiser's ever-present bicycle wheel, which he has bowed and banged for many years now. The strategy here seems to be less banging and more bowing, or at least extracting the resonant hues from that commonplace object and working those sounds into a thickened drone. On the first piece, Kaiser couples this with a downtuned acoustic guitar strumming, which harkens back to those few records on which Zoviet France sent acoustic guitar chords through their mottled bank of tape delay mechanics. At the same time, there's something sorrowfully doom-y about this track. The second piece lightens things up, but only a little bit, as the predominant tone is of an oppressive haze congealed out of tape hiss, distant amplifier destruction, and traffic noise. On top of this, Kaiser situates a melancholy slow-motion score for piano for a much grittier re-interpretation of Brian Eno's classic Thursday Afternoon. Fantastic stuff here, and super limited to boot!
MPEG Stream: "Levitation"
MPEG Stream: "Optum"

PETIT MAL Liquid Dispersion: 2 April 2009, Live SF (self-released) 3" cd-r 5.98
This live recording from the East Bay denizen Petit Mal (aka J. Kaiser) is much better once removed from the performance space in which it was recorded. Not that there's anything wrong with the Luggage Store per se, but that these dark subterranean rumbles, distance bits of radio transmission, and echoes persisting in a damp gloominess contradict the Luggage Store gallery's crisp white walls and huge windows overlooking San Francisco's Market Street. It's better to consider this performance some apocalyptic ritual recorded out in the industrial wastelands elsewhere in the Bay Area, maybe out near Suisun Bay where the US Navy sends its old World War II era ships to slowly leach their heavy metals into the water and soil.
As on many of Kaiser's projects (NF Orchest, French Radio, and his collaborations with Angela Hsu), the sounds are generated through a reel-to-reel tape, a shortwave radio, and his well-worn bicycle wheel which he plays with a violin bow, achieving similarly dissonant bellows that Organum produced through an ensemble of bowed cymbals. Kaiser's work is more Spartan than Organum's, though with these mournful tones which emit through the metallic shimmer, drone, and scrape, resonating really as if they were transmitting through the hull of one of those rusting ships in Suisun Bay. Limited as is always the case with Kaiser's series of 3" discs.
MPEG Stream: "Liquid Dispersion: 2 April 2009, Live SF"

PETIT MAL Sensory Deprivation (self-released) 3" cd-r 4.98
Lately, Bay Area experimentalist Jim Kaiser offered us a couple of collaborative discs with violinist Angela Hsu; and now's he gotten around to releasing his own work under the moniker Petit Mal. As with his collaboration with Hsu, Kaiser's principle instruments for Petit Mal are the reel-to-reel tape machine and a collection of found metal. There had been a handful of obscurely published albums of mysterious drones and growling electronics that Kaiser issued as Petit Mal, but this is the first we've seen in quite a long time. Sensory Deprivation begins with a crawling rhythm of tape machine noise that seems to share a similar technique as Terry Riley's time lag accumulation devices, although Kaiser's roughly handled noises have the same brutalism as found in Wolf Eyes or Esplendor Geometrico. The next two tracks contain murky depressive drownings of sound, as if Kaiser's tape loops were pulled from the bottom of tar pit and forced through his machines, muck and all. Snippets of conversation pull away from the general torpor, with interjections of varispeed warbling and iron-clad screeches of bowed metal downcast in billowing clouds of sonic decay. Limited edition, of course!
MPEG Stream: "Desperation"

PETIT MAL Winter Solstice 2005 : Chapel Of The Chimes (self-released) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Perhaps it's the most unlikely place to see a performance or an art installation, but the Chapel Of The Chimes in Oakland is a columbarium (an institution that houses cremated remains) that has developed a reputation for hosting artist's installations and sound art events within the dignified, if Byzantine architecture of the space. On the 2005 winter solstice, a handful of Bay Area sound artists performed at the Chapel Of The Chimes dedicated to the "friends in New Orleans," presumably in rememberance of Hurricane Katrina victims. Jim Kaiser (aka Petit Mal) was one of the participants at that winter solstice event, presenting a semi-improvised droned-out atmosphere to meander through the numerous rooms of the Chapel Of The Chimes. Using an array of bowed metals, broken electronics, and effects, Kaiser (who has also recorded extensively as French Radio and NFOrchest) accumulated a variety of fluttered vibrations and scraped tones into a spectral minimalism which parallels the eccentric drone extravangazas of the Taj Mahal Travellers and the obscurant British post-industrial ritualists Metgumbnerbone. Kaiser's drones manage a wraithlike quality without appearing ghastly or terrifying, rather they solemnly hang as a poignant if bleak rememberence to one of the great disasters witnessed by this generation.
MPEG Stream: "Winter Solstice 2005"

PETIT, PHILIPPE Una Symphonia Della Paura (Utech) cd 14.98
Here's one of the 2 new releases from beloved experimental label Utech that we're listing this week, the other being by Suzuki Juzno. Now, before we heard this one, we expected it to be good, 'cause it's on Utech after all, but knowing it was by eclectic French composer Philippe Petite, we didn't know WHAT exactly to expect in terms of sounds - was it gonna be glitchy laptopped electronica? Noisy avant-rock? Droned out soundscapery? Something else? All of the above? Petit has done a lot of things over the years, running both the Pandemonium and Bip-Hop labels, most recently playing in dronesters Strings Of Consciousness... And this is perhaps the heaviest, harshest thing he's been involved with yet, and "all of the above" does just about cover it.
The very first track, "Murmurs", is a collaboration with Justin Broadrick of Jesu/Godflesh/Final/etc. infamy, and that sets the super dark, distorted tone for the whole disc, which consists of 45 minutes of groaning, grinding, grainy, atmospheric instrumental industrial sludge spread over 5 tracks, made with guitars, organs, turntables, percussion, electronic processing, backwards effects, etc... In other words, delightful! That is, if your taste in abstract abrasiveness is at all like ours, partial to passages of subterranean rhythmic skitter mixed with moments of sheer Merzbowian intensity.
The centerpiece of this "Symphonia" is the 16+ minute "Fear Has Fallen", with its martial drumming buried under a sinister miasmic muzz, but the whole disc is quite noisily satisfying throughout. The black clouds of the sleeve art are highly appropriate imagery. Highly recommended!!
MPEG Stream: "Murmurs"
MPEG Stream: "Fear Has Fallen"
MPEG Stream: "Diurnal Terror"

PETITE M'AMIE Girl Friend - Baby Doll (Tiliqua) cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The final installment in Tiliqua's Erotic Oriental Sunshine series of Japanese erotic music from the sixties and seventies (the fifth of five!). We reviewed Kokotsu No Sekai from Japanese sexy action heroine Ike Reiko a while back, Kuwabara Yukiko To Anata from Japanese "Play Girl" Kuwabara Yukiko not long after that, and then Modae No Heya from seventies bondage / S&M queen Naomi Tani, music recorded and released in 1979 to commemorate her retirement from the world of porn. And most recently Tokyo Emmanuelle Fujin - Amai Yoru No Tameiki from legendary porn actress Taguchi Kumi. The final installment is, according to the label, perhaps the rarest of the bunch, with original copies fetching thousands of dollars, and to our ears, it's also maybe the best of the bunch, certainly the weirdest.
For those just discovering the wonderful world of Iroke Kayoyoku for the first time, it's a sort of loungy exotica, equal parts Les Baxter and Ennio Morricone, a bastardized version of a more popular Asian music of the time, a funky, groovy, soulful soundtrack music, but sexed up with chanteuse like crooning, and most important of all, an amazing array of moaning and groaning and cooing and giggling, very playful and silly and sexy.
Originally released in 1971 (in keeping with Allan's 1971 music theory, see about a hundred other reviews...), Petite M'Amie was in fact the nickname of Mari Keiko, who could very well be responsible for the very first iroke record, which perhaps explains the relative lack of nudity on the sleeve, Girl Friend - Baby Doll was the seed, from which would sprout a whole genre of sexually depraved sounds...
As her nickname might have led you to believe, Keiko's schtick is innocence, the whole Lolita factor, and boy does she play it up, giggling and cooing, purring in the listener's ear, so sexy and sultry, but very 'little girl' like. The music is similar to the other installments, Morricone-ish spaghetti Western twang, smooth Lawrence Welk muzak, horns and strings, funky and jazzy in places, and on this disc maybe more than some of the others, a bit of psychedelia mixed in. As always, it's all about the vocals though, draped sexily over the strange musical backdrops, Keiko delivers her pitch perfect Lolita tease, culminating in the track "Shower", which is just the sounds of Keiko in the shower, the rushing water, splashing and sloshing, and her cooing and giggling all reverby from the shower's tile walls. Sexy for sure, but still very very strange.
Packaged in a super deluxe Japanese miniature gatefold style cd sleeve, with a printed obi, saucy non-nude photos of Keiko on the cover, and extensive liner notes in English and Japanese!
ULTRA LIMITED!!! Unlike the others in this series, this one was limited to only 500 copies, and is, yep, you guessed it, already out of print. We got a bunch, but if the other volumes were any indication, these will be gone in a flash!
MPEG Stream: "Girl Friend"
MPEG Stream: "Cry"
MPEG Stream: "Shower"

PETRACOVICH blue cotton skin (Red Buttons) cd 12.98
Petracovich's lilting ethereal female vocals and languid blend of acoustic and electronic instrumentation is very reminiscent of folktronic princess Beth Orton, the off-kilter drama of Jane Siberry and the spritely pretty side of Solex. Definitely sounding as though they took some cues from Massive Attack's Mezzanine and Portishead's Dummy, the deep fluid bass lines ooze around the layers of programmed beats, processed vocals, acoustic guitar and chimey electronics. Quite nice!
MPEG Stream: "Nighttime"
MPEG Stream: "Driving Home"

PETRACOVICH Crepusculo (Redbuttons Records) cd 12.98
This SF songstress (aka Jessica Peter) continues to make the sweetest of pop music that never topples overboard into the sugar bowl. Her graceful, bubbly piano and lovely voice draws the immediate attention. She can belt it out, or coo in a crystal clarity, or murmur out the merest whispery breath of a vocal. Check out the aching "You Are Perfect". Indeed unlike the dreamy airiness of her previous recordings, here she treads on somewhat darker terrain especially on the sumptuous instrumental interlude "Dark Woods". If you dig other awesome, crafty female singer/songwriters like Mirah or Mary Timony, take note!
MPEG Stream: "Miramar"
MPEG Stream: "You Are This Perfect"
MPEG Stream: "Sleep It Off / Lie Down"

PETRACOVICH We Are Wyoming (Red Button) cd 12.98
Petracovich's We Are Wyoming finds Ms Jessica Peters exploring some different avenues -- for one thing she's given her piano playing more of the spotlight -- but none that bring that fine state in the album title to our minds. This is much more other worldly or at least other timely, perhaps harking back to some old tyme saloon or cabaret... but mind you, not one filled with rowdy drunken louts, women of ill repute and much broken glass. No, this sounds almost as if she hopped aboard a time machine that transported her back so that she could sneak into the place long after closing time to sing and play their rickety old piano all by her lonesome. An accompaniment of glistening electronic textural clouds and shuffly stuttery rhythms magically takes shape out of thin air to swirl around her breathy vocals and warm piano. Much more airy and haunting than her debut Blue Cotton Skin (which leaned more heavily on electronics a la Beth Orton or Massive Attack), this dreamy sophomore release really shows Peter's coming into her own as a songwriter and finding her own voice. So darn lovely!
MPEG Stream: "Telephone"
MPEG Stream: "Paper Cup"

PETRONELLA, ANGELO Sintesi Da Un Diario (Die Schachtel) cd 18.98
Another Italian experimental composer (in league with the likes of Christa Pfangen, 3/4hadbeeneliminated, and Giuseppe Ielasi, who mastered this disc) presents an album on the always-intriguing Die Schachtel label. This belongs to their "Zeit" series documenting contemporary sonic artists and is packaged in a typically handsome digipack (thick matte cardboard, embossed cover design). The title Sintesi Da Un Diario means "abstract from a diary" and that does describe this somewhat: Petronella's music is certainly quite abstract (to use a different sense of the word), and his extensive use of everyday "field recordings" is suggestive of the "diary" angle. It's a detailed, mysterious sound bath indeed, featuring much in the way of rustlings and rumblings, electronic bleep and shimmer, tinkling percussion, obscured talking voices, children playing, clicks and crackle, and more... Petronella is credited with "acousmatics", a term that a little research tells us was coined long, long ago by Greek philosopher Pythagoras to mean "sound hidden from its visual source". Several 20th century composers in electroacoustics and musique concrete, like Pierre Schaeffer and Francois Bayle, have since talked of their work being "acousmatic", and the definition has developed in several directions, one of them having to do with the concept of "reduced listening", wherein the listener processes sound without making any mental/visual references as to the actual source, allowing that sound to exist in and of itself, heard only as timbre, texture, etc.... hmmm all very interesting. We'd have to say that while you certainly can't always tell what's making the sounds found on this particular disc, it's hard to keep your brain from trying to supply some ideas. We need more reduced listening practice! This would certainly be a pleasant way to go about that... or heck just go ahead and use your imagination to make pictures from these sounds, that's fun too.
MPEG Stream: "Voce E Macchina"
MPEG Stream: "Tratto 1"

PETRYCHOR Effigies And Epitaphs / Dryad (Khrysanthoney) 2cd 11.98
Latest from the always awesome Khrysanthoney label, who so far have given us killer records from Sleeping Peonies, Clair Cassis, Velvet Cacoon and Necktarium, as well as, in their previous incarnation as Starlight Temple Society, records by Lonesummer, Marsh, Schrei Aus Stein, Nightbringer, Temple Of NOT, Void Of Reveries, Hamnskifte and Roba El Khaliyeh, a pretty varied and musically elite lineup for sure, and yet this new group, a one man band with the cryptic monicker Petrychor, seems to be the perfect addition, another outfit that manages to appeal both to the true grim hordes, while pushing that sound to its very boundaries, creating in the process a distinctly original variant, which us why this stuff is so appealing to the sonically adventurous extreme music obsessives. It's definitely black metal. Frenzied and hyperspeed, blurred riffage, frantic blastbeats, this true grim blackness melded to avant experimental abstraction, conjuring up a sound like a more warm and less wintry, woozy and washed out Paysage D'Hiver, or a less crusty, more melodic Wrath Of The Weak, or even, perhaps more accurately and definitely less distinctly metal, like a drum machine driven, demonic vokill-ed Lovesliescrushing, with a sound that slips from delicate and haunting, all spidery steel string guitar, and what sounds like mandolins, to lush layered choral ambience, and mysterious droney drift, to full on dense blurry blackness.
But the sonic devil is most definitely in the details here. The pretty acoustic parts are not just run of the mill haunting minor key strum over creepy keyboards - it's obvious Mr. Petrychor is an incredible guitarist, unfurling what sounds like some Fahey style Appalachia one second, some wildly percussive, densely strummed Michael Hedges like mesmer the next, even some flamenco style workouts, the (im) perfect and unlikely foil for the heavy parts, which are super distorted, and strangely murky, with the drums weirdly produced, blown out and in the red, sometimes almost like a techno beat, the way they pulse and pound, clipping constantly and creating strange decayed rhythmic thuds that seems to drive the swirling chaotic sonic maelstrom, other times slipping into something that sounds like an IDM style electronic skitter, but buried beneath layer after layer of buzz and thrum and whir. Meanwhile, the riffs are less 'riffy' and more indistinct and amorphous, those 'riffs' seeming to ooze and smear into lush chordal swells, often wreathed in a swirling minor key haze, or roiling beneath warped, churning melodic tangles, rife with haunting synths and what sounds like strings, with a subtle gypsy folk vibe seeming to surface here and there, Petrychor's blast beat-ed whir and thrum less about black metal and more about some sort of abstract blackened ambient buzz, the fierce and obviously intense propulsive crunch deftly transformed into something almost dreamy, without losing any of it's grim energy and chaotic ferocity, culminating in the 14+ minute final track, that again finds blurred riffage, and swirling keyboards held together by a dense Teutonic techno sounding pulse, the sound growing more and more buzzy and murky, before splintering into a wild blacknoise buzzpsych crumble, before slipping into a lush, hushed ethereal outro.
SO incredible. We can definitely see this being our black metal record of the year (and maybe yours too!). The perfect balance of blackened heft and dreamlike shimmer, of buzzdrenched skull caving crush and thick blurry blissout.
And as if that wasn't enough, also included is a second disc, which contains Petrychor's first demo, Dryad, three songs, 23 minutes, a slightly rougher and more raw, but no less blown out and blissed out, version of Effigies And Epitaphs, the same sort of frenzied riffage, blurred swirly melodic heaviness wedded to haunting acoustic guitars and deep dense dronemusic, but the title track here might be the most epic and majestic of the bunch (both records in fact), sounding like a blackened Godspeed playing in triple time, the melodies seeming to spiral heavenward in thick churning clouds of buzz all wreathed in frantic wildly intertwining melodies, while the closer finishes the whole set off with gorgeous and downright creepy chunk of dense black rumble, a thick, undulating sprawl of tarpit blackdronedrift, underpinning haunting piano plinks and some incredible steel string strum, like some seriously sinister otherworldly cinematic black Appalachia.
LIMITED TO 400 COPIES!!!! Housed in a cool 6 panel full color eco-wallet style sleeve with printed insert. Also included is a link to a free download of a third record, a companion release called Artistry Of Exhaustion II.
MPEG Stream: "In Remembrance"
MPEG Stream: "Of Grandest Majesties"
MPEG Stream: "Dryad (I Make My Home)"

PETTERSON, TOBIAS & ULF HENNINGSSON The Encyclopedia Of Swedish Progressive Music 1967-1979 (Premium Publishing) book+cd 54.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ok, this item has a fairly self-explanatory title, eh? Also, here's the subtitle: "From Psychedelic Experiments To Political Propaganda". Interested? If so, then all that really remains for us to say is, yeah, you should seriously consider picking this up, it's really well done and a good value for the money. Physically, this is a gorgeous tome, and all signs point to it being quite accurate and thorough information-wise.
If you're at all like us you're aware that in recent years the spate of reissues from the Swedish psych / prog scene -- like for instance the whole amazing Parson Sound / International Harvester / Harvester / Trad Gras Och Stenar axis -- has been pretty thrilling. Having a guide to both the bands we've heard of and the many, many more that we haven't is pretty great. Also if you're like us you LOVE books full of pictures of record sleeves, wherever they're from and whatever they are. And this book's got tons of album covers, many of them psychedelically sensational, reproduced in full color!
Plus there's loads of factual info for those curious about the bands, or for record collector types trying to figure out what the original vinyl is worth. Each entry consists of info on the band's line-up, a descriptive paragraph discussing their music and history, as well as a detailed discography. Algarnas Tradgard, Arbete & Fritid, Aunt Sally, Charlie & Esdor, Bo Hansson, Kebnekajse, Life, November, Mikael Ramel, Pugh Rogefeldt, Samla Mammas Manna, Trettioariga Kriget, Turid... they're all here and of course plenty more we'd never heard of before.
In addition to this A-Z of bands, there's a band member index and label discographies as well, with that of the Silence label being the most impressive. And, there's also an introductory essay dealing with the political dimension shared by a lot of the music from the Swedish scene. Apparently, in Sweden there was a difference between "prog" with one g and "progg" with two g's, with the former referring as usual to progressive rock bands like ELP and Yes, latter being a distinctly Swedish concept of (not-necessarily virtuosic or complex) music that reflected the ideals of the left-wing Movement of the times.
All in all, very intriguing and tantalizing, leaving us to look at the those album covers and begin dreaming record collector dreams!
235 pages, hardback, 8 1/2" x 12". Full color EVERYWHERE, and lots of cool b&w photos too. A deluxe production indeed. And there's a bonus cd included as well, featuring the obscure jamming psych band Baby Grandmothers, with three previously unreleased live tracks from 1967 (different from the stuff on their archival Subliminal Sounds cd release also reviewed this list).
If only there was a book like this for EVERY cool musical scene past and present...
NB. mailorder customers, be aware that due to the size and weight of this book, it counts as more than one item for freight purposes -- so any order that includes this book will ship UPS at the 3+ items rate of $6.50 for shipping & handling.

PEVERELIST Jarvik Mindstate (Punch Drunk) cd 14.98
After a handful of killer 12"s, some of which were included on those awesome Skull Disco comps, comes the debut dubstep longplayer from Punch Drunk label head honcho Peverelist, a dark and moody collection of stutter and skitter, weirdly melodic in places, reminiscent of folks like Boards Of Canada or Autchre, but fused onto a dubbed out stripped down dubstep chassis, the opener is a low slung groover, but with a dizzying repetitive main melody and a wheezing chordal backdrop, while "Revival" finds Peverelist teaming up with Pinch, for some super blissed out, underwater dubstep drift, skeletal and spare, mysterious and haunting. The rest of the record sort of slips back and forth between the two, shifting from super melodic Warp style skitter, to clipped murky downtempo dub, dabbling in sounds more techno, throughout, culminating in the closer "Clunk Click Every Trip" that adds some Pop Ambience, and some retro synths that make it sound like some sort of John Carpenter dubstep remix. Cool.
MPEG Stream: "Revival (Featuring Pinch)"
MPEG Stream: "Bluez"
MPEG Stream: "Clunk Click Every Trip"

PEYTON, CAROLINE Mock Up (Numero Group / Asterisk) cd 14.98
The singer who sounded the most like Joni Mitchell on the Numero Group's excellent Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies Of The Canyon compilation, Caroline Peyton was far from a mere imitator. Thus the label gives her a more close-up inspection by re-issuing her debut private press lp, Mock-Up complete with bonus tracks of a live recording and three vocal cuts from The Screaming Gypsy Bandits, an acid rock and jazz outfit Peyton recorded with in 1972. While her songwriting, piano playing and occasionally acrobatic vocal delivery easily place her in the realm of seventies singer-songwriters, Peyton displayed an exploratory penchant for vocal experimentation that was far from the norm. The wordless vocalization of "Bill Monroe" reminds us of a less unhinged Patty Waters, while the Screaming Gypsy Bandit tracks reveal some eastern mystical jazz vibes that makes us want to pay deeper attention. If you're fans of Linda Perhacs, Collie Ryan and other obscure folk mistresses, then check this out for sure!
MPEG Stream: "The Sky In Japan Is Always Close To You"
MPEG Stream: "Engram"
MPEG Stream: "Bill Monroe"
MPEG Stream: "White Teeth"

PFFR United We Doth (Birdman) cd 12.98