GUIDED BY VOICES The Who Went Home And Cried (Rockathon) dvd 18.98
A pretty dire film, unfortunately, with footage of the band both live and on someone's front porch. The sound quality is terrible and there's just no insight into the group. Save your money and instead rent our copy of Banks Tarver's *wonderful* GBV documentary Watch Me Jumpstart!

GUIDED BY VOICES Tigerbomb (Matador) 7" 3.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
6 songs.

GUIDED BY VOICES Under the Bushes, Under the Stars (Matador) cd 14.98

GUIDED BY VOICES Under the Bushes, Under the Stars (Matador) 2lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

GUIDED BY VOICES Universal Truths and Cycles (Matador) cd 15.98
Allan just pointed out that the second song, "Skin Parade", on GBV's new album sounds just like "Cat Scratch Fever". That's a good thing! And you know, this is a good album. I keep waiting for Robert Pollard to start sucking, but he doesn't suck yet. He's writing songs by himself, he surrounds himself with powerful, bright musicians who animate his songs with punch and vitality. And his songs are strong and lovely -- each one tweaks the GBV shambolic power pop formula enough to not get boring; some piano here, some strings there, tenderness and crashing noise butted up against one another. A fine album. Buy without fear.
RealAudio clip: "Zap"
RealAudio clip: "Skin Parade"
RealAudio clip: "Christian"

GUIDED BY VOICES Universal Truths And Cycles / Beg For A Wheelbarrow (Fading Captain Series (#23)) 7" 4.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We're not gonna bother trying to convince you one way or the other about a new Guided By Voices release. Let alone 4 releases. By this time, after 10+ albums and 50 side projects and thousands of songs, you probably know whether Pollard and Co.'s lo-fi Beatles / Kinks / classic Brit-pop filtered through American indie rock schtick is your cup of tea or not. If you're anything like me (Andee), you find yourself ready to dismiss every new GBV project with cries of 'Quality Control!' but ultimately find yourself digging almost everything Pollard comes up with. These four 7"s are no different. Each single's A side is a track from their forth coming full length, while the B sides are all exclusive to these here 7"s. And they're all pretty darn good, with a couple gems even ranking up with some of the best GBV songs ever. Vinyl only. And limited of course.

GUIDED BY VOICES Vampire On Titus (Scat) cd 12.98

GUIDED BY VOICES Watch Me Jumpstart (Matador) video 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Surprisingly excellent, heartwarming and not-at-all-smarmy documentary about Guided By Voices, made by local filmmaker Banks Tarver, who has directed most of their video clips (also included here). Most hilarious are interviews with Pete, GBV's Manager For Life, and the episode where GBV disses the supremely dis-able Picasso Trigger.

GUIDED BY VOICES We Won't Apologize For The Human Race (Matador) 7" 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

GUILLOTINE KYODAI`ACDFW1`AQ Viva Guitar (Creativeman Disc) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Japanese avant-rock duo Guillotine Kyodai enlist a who's who of underground Japanese experimental guitarists to play a kind of "pass it along" game: each track features two guitarists dueting on an initial theme, which mutates as it is passed from guitarist to guitarist. Axemen include members of Ground Zero, Boredoms, Melt Banana, Solmania, Optical*8, Altered States, Bondage Fruit, and Kirihito. Not only conceptually interesting, this is good listening and probably essential to anyone who owns more than two records by the bands listed above.

GUILTY PARTY It Doesn't Hurt (Evil Eye) cd 13.98
The Guilty Party keep their music in the shadows of night, lacing it with a slight goth and cabaret edge. On this full length follow-up to their 2004 Five Songs debut ep, the Bay Area foursome's brooding drama is more defined and recalls that of early '90s Northeastern U.S. rock bands such as Come or Versus, or more recent likeminded Westcoasters such as Duchess or Whysall Lane. Woozy and intoxicated / intoxicating, their troubled torment ramps up sharply as the album progresses, not unlike a rapid unravelling of emotions and nerves. The spotlight is wisely centered on the powerful throaty vocals of Angelica Maze. The potency of her pipes totally hold its own next to the imposing swagger of the guitars and driving rhythm section. Together they pack quite a wallop. Check out the eighth track "Switch Away" in which the band injects a little Sonic Youth-y art/noise rock dissonance at the end. Very cool. Recorded and produced by SF rock maestro Doug Hilsinger (of the very like-minded but more rural Waycross and Enochestra, they of the 'Taking Tiger Mountain revisited' project) who's also been known to play a little drums and guitar with the band too.
MPEG Stream: "Switch Away"
MPEG Stream: "The Prom Song"

GUILTY PARTY, THE Five Songs (self-released) cd-r 6.98
Five Songs is the debut release of this Bay Area moody rock band. What you first notice when you put this EP on for a spin is the contrast between the low, druggy female voice and the high pitched slinking guitar. The vocals and guitars sit prominently atop a bed of slow-boil bass guitar and drums. Shadowy, smoldering and more than a little bit gothy. Mixed by Doug Hilsinger (Waycross, Enorchestra).
MPEG Stream: "View From A Closet"
MPEG Stream: "Hit You"

GUINEA WORMS Smiles (Columbus Discount) 12" 15.98
Record number two (?) from these Ohio psychedelic spaced out garage rock knuckle draggers, and another glorious collection of stumbling, blown out, super distorted swagger, big and dumb metallic garage-punk riffs wrapped around drawled vocals and ridiculous lyrics, buried way down in the mix. The drums a Neanderthal pound, everything angular and atonal, noisy and off kilter, the sound slipping easily into crunchy grooves, but just as easily collapsing into seriously bent free-form garage-psych chaos, usually falling awkwardly between the two. It's dirgey, and noisy, and barring one track that sounds like a Residents sea shanty, it's a nonstop barrage of buzzing garage rock heaviness and warped psych jam blissouts. The whole thing sounds a bit like a more garage-sludge version of The Spits, but take The Spits' obsession with the Ramones, and replace the Ramones with the Stooges and Hawkwind, but somehow filtered though Liquorball or Faxed Head. Fuck yeah.

GUINEA WORMS Sorcererers Of Madness (4rd Year In A Row!) (Columbus Discount) 2lp 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We had never heard of these guys, which kinda makes sense seeing as up until now they've flown pretty far under the radar, having released a bunch of cd-r's and only one proper 7", but hell they're called the Guinea Worms, the record is brilliantly titled "Sorcererers Of Madness (4rd Year In A Row!), and yeah, you read that right, SORCERERERS, multiple 'er's, and 4RD, not 4th, plus they came highly recommended by a loyal longtime customer, who besides being a great guy with impeccable taste, also used to play in a certain band of spacelord motherfuckers, which makes any recommendation of his even more worthy of serious consideration. Plus c'mon, they're from Ohio and their first record is a massive 22 song double lp!! Did we mention they totally rule too???
But what do they sound like you're probably wondering by now? Well, sort of like a drunken and damaged, drugged out and demented, super noisy, stumbling, chaotic, metallic, garage rock combo, with awesomely ridiculous lyrics, delivered in a super distorted howl, over blown out fuzz drenched Stooges style riffery, pounding brickbat drumming and some wild psychedelic flourishes, but that's only part of their sound. These fuckers are seriously far out, goofy, ridiculous, and as likely to bust out with some heavy crunch and chug as some silly fuzzed out sing along, or some twisted drugged out blues dirge, the lyrics are totally and brilliantly dumb, reminding us just a bit of Breathilizor, but the sounds here are all over the map, every song totally different, "Drunk In Yr Uggs" is a "Hey Mickey" style call and response, but with a killer woozy bluesy main riff, and some awesome female vocal harmonies on the chorus, "Accidental Space Tourist" is all low slung drunken garage blues, "Lounge Waltz" is angular and twisted, as it lurches and lumbers, "Kick In The Door" is a fuzz drenched garage rockified country hoedown, "Come Here Baby" is a thick slab of psychedelic dirgery, "Afternoon Party" is total Hawkwind worship, but way more damaged and dumb, "Never Giving Up" is a killer slithery jam that gradually erupts into something much heavier and darker, the vocals definitely reminiscent of Nomeansno, but the music much more like some bastard mix of Liquorball and Warlock Pinchers (minus the hip hop), or Bunny Brains crossed with Brainbombs as reimagined by fellow Ohioans Guided By Voices? Tough to describe for sure, but then the coolest weirdest things usually are.
You definitely need to have a pretty high tolerance for goofball dumbshittery, cuz there's lots of that, all over the place, and yeah, normally that stuff might drive us nuts, but it just suits these guys, they're funny as fuck, and can thankfully back up their goofy puerile sense of humor with some serious chops. Our favorite jams are the fuzzy distorted psychedelic numbers, which do make up a pretty good chunk of the tracks here, but somehow, if you took those tracks on their own, it wouldn't be the same, the dumb songs would be more dumb, and the killer songs would be way less killer, but together, it's pretty goddamn perfect. Absolutely recommended. Especially if you dig stuff like Liquorball, Breathilizor, Bunny Brains, Faxed Head, Half Japanese, Happy Flowers and other purveyors of ridiculous and brilliant whatthefuck weirdness.
We're pretty sure we've got the last few copies they had at the label, so when they're gone, they're gone.
MPEG Stream: "Bugged"
MPEG Stream: "Drunk In Yr Uggs"
MPEG Stream: "Accidental Space Tourist"

GUISHER Hide Your Cold Dome (self-released) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We weren't sure what to expect from a Scantily Clad side project, but it certainly wasn't this! But we like it. In fact we sort of LOVE it. Unlike the cosmic synth drone of Scantily Clad, Guisher specializes in a dizzying, short attention span collection of home brewed lo-fi cut and paste, slice and dice, collaged, sample heavy, hyper rhythmic loopscapes. Sped up soul samples, snippets of songs off the radio, are slathered in crumbling distortion, then assembled into strange stuttery beatscapes, waves of white noise swallow up the proceedings, only to spit out fragmented shards of pop on the other side.
The sound is awesomely raw and primitive, like some caveman Art Of Noise at times, but the structures and rhythms are often surprisingly complex, and downright groovy at times, while pulverizingly noisy at others. The sound is pretty fantastic, slipping from DJ Shadow like moody skitter to weird world music collage to barely there short wave static in the same track, only to weave some sort of analog assembled electronica on the next track, all lumbering rhythm surrounded by flurries of tangled melodies, and weird swooping backwards effects. And so it goes, a head spinning kitchen sink concoction, a blast of crunchy electric guitars, shards of yacht rock, blasts of static and slowed down voices one second, warm and warbly, shuffling sort-of-electronic woozy rhythmic groovescape the next. So great! And apparently all recorded while on prescription drugs, which definitely might explain everything...
SUPER SUPER LIMITED. ONLY 55 COPIES, partially because the packaging is so deluxe, an oversized photocopied booklet with tons of fold out pages, secret panels, a little multi paneled triangular booklet in the middle, and a foldout poster, all in a plastic bag, each one individually sewed shut with multi-colored thread.
MPEG Stream: "Cuddle Consent"
MPEG Stream: "Chewed Popcorn"
MPEG Stream: "Spine Bottom Dimples"

GUISHER Spiked Urn (self-released) 12" 14.98
Record number two from this offshoot / sideproject of cosmic synth drone combo, Scantily Clad, and in a way it's a continuation of the wildly chaotic cut and paste collaged weirdness of Hide Your Cold Dome cassette, which we compared to a caveman Art Of Noise, but this time around, it seems like the chaos was reeled in a bit, the sounds more measure and melodic, still fractured and fragmented for sure, but more warm and melodic, in fact tracks like "Tiger Spa" remind us of the whirling underwater sound of Oval, albeit a bit more home brewed and low fidelity. For every streak of soft focus shimmer, there's a little flurry of wild rhythmic skitter, or a cascade of weirdly chopped and screwed melodies. "Jetsam" is another one that displays the 'new' sound, all woozy, crumbling swells, slo-mo rhythms, the vibe more Philip Jeck, a dizzying time lapse sonic drift, lots of gristle and crunch, the sounds raw and rough around the edges, but somehow blurred and smeared into something more more soothing and mesmerizing, the jagged chaos of the first record transformed into a more controlled chaos, which Guisher has swaddled in all manner of lush, soft focus shimmer. Super nice.
Killer packaging too, the lp housed in a reflective anti-static sleeve, that sleeve adorned with a full color paste on track listing, that all wrapped in a super DIY photocopied jacket, and housed in a peach colored plastic sleeve.
LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!

GUITAR Tokyo (Onitor) cd 15.98
We'd venture a guess that Guitar aka Michael Luckner is not a man of many words. He chose the name of the common musical instrument as his moniker, and makes uncommonly dreamy instrumental music from a broad palette of processed guitar sounds that offer a healthy nod to My Bloody Valentine. On his latest album which he's titled simply with the name of a major Japanese city, he's got Japanese vocalist Ayako Akashiba adding some honey-sweet murmurred vocals to three of the tracks. The music has a hazy translucence as if each track (vocals included) were painted in watercolor with a smattering of heavier brushstrokes applied with koto and programmed beats. Lovely!
MPEG Stream: "Red & White"
MPEG Stream: "Tokyo Memory"

GUITAR MAGAZINE / LEADERS split (Classic Bar Music) 7" 5.50

GUITAR MAGAZINE / LEADERS split (Classic Bar Music) 7" 5.50

GUITAR WOLF Jet Generation (Matador) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Billed as "the loudest cd ever recorded"! Guitar Wolf, Bass Wolf and Drums Wolf don their leather and shades and kick out the jams for yet another blast of the distorted-all-to-hell garageabilly that this Japanese trio is known for. Only Guitar Wolf could get away with doing yet another version of "Summertime Blues"...

GUITAR WOLF Jet Generation (Matador) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Billed as "the loudest cd ever recorded"! Guitar Wolf, Bass Wolf and Drums Wolf don their leather and shades and kick out the jams for yet another blast of the distorted-all-to-hell garageabilly that this Japanese trio is known for. Only Guitar Wolf could get away with doing yet another version of "Summertime Blues"...

GUITAR WOLF Jet Satisfaction (Guitar Wolf Records) 10" 16.98

GUITAR WOLF Rock'N'Roll Etiquette (Narnack) cd 12.98
Ohmigod. This sounds like it was dubbed off a cassette tape a million times. And then mastered at, like, 11, man. Guitar Wolf's Rock'N'Roll Etiquette features a cover of "The Way I Walk" originally made famous by Robert Gordon and then covered again by The Cramps as an extra track not found on the Japanese version. Another machine-gun blast of Japanese garage-rock glory. Start your day off right! Listen to RRE with (or in place of) your first cup of coffee. Yeaoww!!!
MPEG Stream: "God-Speed-You"
MPEG Stream: "Toiletface"

GUITAR WOLF UFO Romantics (Narnack) cd 16.98
The first domestic release from garage greats Guitar Wolf since 1999. These sexy men from Japan can be commended for their stick-to-it-ive-ness, and consistency of style. Raw old school garage taken to an almost avant-garde level of noise and ridiculousness. This record is more of the same, really fast and punk. Released on Narnack, that same label that put out the Coachwhips album, this is their eighth full length record!! Bands so often go through different phases and genres, changing with the times, and that's fine and all but I'm happy to see Guitar Wolf hasn't changed. Playing their fucked up, feedback-filled, punked-out, hair-slicked-back garage rock n' roll.
RealAudio clip: "Fire Ball Red"
RealAudio clip: "After School Thunder"

GULTSKRA ARTIKLER Kasha Iz Topora (Miasmah Recordings) cd 15.98
A Russian fairytale about a man with an axe who makes "flying porridge"?? Huh? Supposedly that's what this gorgeous album is "about" though since it's mostly instrumental and/or in Russian it's hard to say for sure, in any case it's certainly creepy and bizarre enough to be the soundtrack to such a story, and makes for a fine follow-up to Gultskra Artikler's record for Lampse last year, Pofigistka. That one was one of the strangest and most "actively" melodic or songlike of that label's ambient treasures but went quite well with Jasper TX and Machinefabriek, just as this fits in with Gultskra's new Miasmah labelmates Elegi for instance.
Kasha Iz Topara iz over an hour long, one track flowing into the next, the whole thing a continuous crackling soundscape of darkly dreamy textures, creaking sound FX, ominous chords, fractured and folky guitar, glitchy electronics, and sinister strings... among other things... a mix of haunting cinematic instrumentation, old time Eastern European tradition, and mysterious field recordings. What's not to like?? Axeman, bring more flying porridge please. Definitely for fans of Finnish forest freaks Kemialliset Ystavat, the aforementioned Elegi, and Miasmah label head Svarte Greiner, amongst others.
MPEG Stream: "Po Derevne"
MPEG Stream: "Medicinski Rabonik"

GUM BLEED / THE FLUX / CHEAP STUFF / RKS Fuck Society (Genjing) 2x7" 4.98
Chinese punk!! In folded silkscreened poster packaging that's probably all stuck together...

GUM TAKES TOOTH Silent Cenotaph (Tigertrap) cd 14.98
This recent Record Of The Week, BACK IN STOCK!!
Imagine a band that sounded like a bastard mix of UK-via-Texas, multiple drummered noise rockers Shit And Shine, grinding bass and drum duo Lightning Bolt and legendary weirdo drug rock combo Butthole Surfers. Then imagine the sort of din such a band could and would kick up and mix in all manner of mangled and freaked out electronics. Finally, imagine all of that noise being conjured up essentially by a single drum kit. And thus you have UK duo Gum Takes Tooth, which is essentially a drummer, whose drums are wired up to a dizzying array of home brewed electronics and tone bent circuit boards, with a second member tweaking and fucking with the sound in real time. 43 minutes of electronic-ed drumming might not sound that appealing to some folks, but don't make the call until you get an earful of the sounds these two whip up. Sure at times it's raw and rhythmic, noisy and chaotic, but the sounds here are all over the map, from super charged This Heat style rhythmic workouts, to blasting almost grind metal like blow outs, minimal FX fueled ambient drifts, to tripped out sci-fi psychedelia, murky, meandering distorto slow-core to frenzied noise drenched prog and pretty much every conceivable stop inbetween. Add in some Merzbow style noise, a little Psychic Paramount drum heavy post rock heaviness, some world music like tribalism, and stir it all up, and voila.
Opener "Young Mustard" is a pretty good sampling of what these guys are capable of, offering up a wild frenzy of tribal drum pound, weird processed vox, swirling electronics and FX, which eventually explode into some seriously aggro Lightning Bolt style, blast beat driven, downtuned grind, only to blossom into some Six Finger Satellite like synth-drum craziness, before the whole thing devolves into a abstract stretch of minimal clatter, random bloops and bleeps, swirling electronics, all beginning a slow build, the tribal drums swooping back in, slowly goring more distorted and intense, until finally fracturing into what sounds a bit like the Ruins crossed with Man Is The Bastard, thick blown out buzz low tones, pounding drums, howled processed vox, all woven into a seriously crushing electro-dirge.
"Tankjott" is another good one, starting out with some rapid fire kick drums, some gurgly vox, some squiggly electronics, building to a lurching, stuttery groove, soon more electronics, and more of that heavy bass buzz swoop in, and it's some sort of metallic krautpsych groove, with all manner of buzzes, strange twisted vocals, electronic pulses, before exploding into another fried and buzz drenched rhythmic workout, sounding to us like a way more chaotic / noisy / electronic version of MITB offshoot Geronimo, definitely the heaviest track here, sounding almost metal, but via Hawkwind and This Heat and Melt Banana and all blurred into some impossibly mesmerizing electrometal krautgroove, WAY too short at 7+ minutes.
And in between those two tracks, plenty of hypnotic, cyclical, rhythmic noise, progged out heaviness, stuttery drum heavy buzz and psychedelic noise rock, usually all at the same time, "Strychnine Motive" probably the most traditionally song sounding, but it's really relative, while "The Earth's Mantle Colonised" takes that same sort of sound and trips it WAY out into some sort of psychedelic space rock, the vocals chopped and processed, plenty of spacey squiggles and weird chanted vocals, the whole thing still drum driven big time, "Nomad/Monad" sounds like some bastardized gamelan orchestra, or a punk rock electronic noise version of Konono No.1, all looped thumb piano like melodies, tangled up and barraged by all manner of strange sounds, and then finally, record closer "Hermaphrodite And Nourishment" which does in fact feature a member of Shit And Shine on second drum kit, and while we were expecting a super frenzied drum heavy blowout, instead, it might be the pretties song on the record, all moody and loping and melodic, laced with ringing Tibetan bowls, crooned softly distorted vocals, squalls of feedback, and the cool thing is it never really explodes or freaks out, instead, it's just gorgeously mesmerizing and hypnotic, droned out and tribal, the perfect sort of sonic come down at a record that spends much of its time at a serious musical fever pitch.
Probably one of our most exciting recent musical discoveries (thanks Jason P.!), and with every listen this record continues to confound and delight and reveal more of the weird shit that seems to constantly be going on just below the surface, and odds are if you like any/some/all of the above mentioned bands, imagine them all mashed together and distilled into some wildly and gloriously twisted hybrid, and we imagine you'll probably be as knocked out as we were.
MPEG Stream: "Tankjott"
MPEG Stream: "The Earth's Mantle Colonised"
MPEG Stream: "Young Mustard"
MPEG Stream: "Strychnine Motive"

GUNGE Feel It (Frantic) cd 17.98
'60s Cali teenage garage punk band, Gunge not Grunge! Pretty cool archival release.

GUNSLINGERS Manifesto Zero (World In Sound) cd 23.00
Now this is what we're talkin' about. The return of France's Gunslingers, not too long after their amazing No More Invention album and the cd release of frontman Gregory Raimo's equally awesome solo endeavor as GR & Full-Blown Expansion. How does one go about describing a band like this? If you had to simplify things, you might call them a psychedelic punk band with krauty inclinations. It is also interesting to note that the rhythm section is comprised of dudes from black metal behemoths Diamatregon and weirdo occultic post rockers Aluk Todolo, not that this sounds anything like either. Gunslingers possess plenty of what we all know and love - crazy psych-surf riffing, a frantic rhythm section that manages to be both tight and sort of drunk sounding, and GR's unhinged vocals, which we accurately described as a cross between Johnny Rotten and Mark E. Smith, or better yet, the Trashmen's singer on the infamous "Surfing Bird". But the truth is, Gunslingers don't fit so easily into any categories. They are a crazy sounding bunch, capable of whipping up songs that are frenzied and totally demented, but also catchy and fun. And unlike many bands attempting this type of thing, Gunslingers avoid falling into the "retro" category, sounding, if anything, more like the true extension of the wild sounds of the late '60s/early '70s. So if this band HAD existed 40 years ago, you wouldn't be too surprised, but Gunslingers sound so self-aware that they seem to exist out of time, a quality we always appreciate.
The band kicks in right away with "The Spectre's Sinister Commandment," a firebreathing number that lurches forward menacingly with awesome sounding bass, melodic riffing, and some ride heavy drumming as GR's crazed vocals will make you wonder what the hell is going on in France these days. Without really letting up, Gunslingers go right into their strange world once again with "Coupe-George", a dense hurricane of fucked up biker psych mayhem heavy on the treble. "Stub Of Fortune" is another monster with super distorted guitars that seem to recall SST's glory days, all twisted, atonal, and jagged but strangely melodic at the same time. The album ends on a sort of upbeat note with the winding riffage of "Condor's Radiant Spawn", with the drums providing a super tight bounce that will make you feel like your heart will explode at any second. In a good way, of course.
Manifesto Zero is another highly welcome entry from a band we simply can't get enough of, which is why some of us will be heading down to the Hemlock tonight to check this shit out in the flesh if we can get done with the list in time! (That's right, they're on a US tour right now, go see 'em!!)
MPEG Stream: "The Spectre's Sinister Commandment"
MPEG Stream: "An Eye For A Knife"
MPEG Stream: "Condor's Radiant Spawn"

GUNSLINGERS Manifesto Zero (World In Sound) lp 28.00
Now this is what we're talkin' about. The return of France's Gunslingers, not too long after their amazing No More Invention album and the cd release of frontman Gregory Raimo's equally awesome solo endeavor as GR & Full-Blown Expansion. How does one go about describing a band like this? If you had to simplify things, you might call them a psychedelic punk band with krauty inclinations. It is also interesting to note that the rhythm section is comprised of dudes from black metal behemoths Diamatregon and weirdo occultic post rockers Aluk Todolo, not that this sounds anything like either. Gunslingers possess plenty of what we all know and love - crazy psych-surf riffing, a frantic rhythm section that manages to be both tight and sort of drunk sounding, and GR's unhinged vocals, which we accurately described as a cross between Johnny Rotten and Mark E. Smith, or better yet, the Trashmen's singer on the infamous "Surfing Bird". But the truth is, Gunslingers don't fit so easily into any categories. They are a crazy sounding bunch, capable of whipping up songs that are frenzied and totally demented, but also catchy and fun. And unlike many bands attempting this type of thing, Gunslingers avoid falling into the "retro" category, sounding, if anything, more like the true extension of the wild sounds of the late '60s/early '70s. So if this band HAD existed 40 years ago, you wouldn't be too surprised, but Gunslingers sound so self-aware that they seem to exist out of time, a quality we always appreciate.
The band kicks in right away with "The Spectre's Sinister Commandment," a firebreathing number that lurches forward menacingly with awesome sounding bass, melodic riffing, and some ride heavy drumming as GR's crazed vocals will make you wonder what the hell is going on in France these days. Without really letting up, Gunslingers go right into their strange world once again with "Coupe-George", a dense hurricane of fucked up biker psych mayhem heavy on the treble. "Stub Of Fortune" is another monster with super distorted guitars that seem to recall SST's glory days, all twisted, atonal, and jagged but strangely melodic at the same time. The album ends on a sort of upbeat note with the winding riffage of "Condor's Radiant Spawn", with the drums providing a super tight bounce that will make you feel like your heart will explode at any second. In a good way, of course.
Manifesto Zero is another highly welcome entry from a band we simply can't get enough of, which is why some of us will be heading down to the Hemlock tonight to check this shit out in the flesh if we can get done with the list in time! (That's right, they're on a US tour right now, go see 'em!!)

GUNSLINGERS No More Invention (World In Sound) cd 23.00
Woah. What a surprise! See, the German psych/prog/kraut specialists at World In Sound have been responsible for a lot of cool '60s/'70s reissues and comps (Cold Sun, Modulo 1000, Psychedelic Minds Vol.1...) but they also have released some unfortunately not-so-hot cds by a bunch of modern prog and stoner rock bands doing the retro thing, and well, we haven't reviewed any of those based on the old "if you don't have anything nice to say..." principle. Just not worth bothering. BUT, that was until this disc came along. Like we said, a surprise. This Julian Cope approved (Record Of The Month for August '08 on his Head Heritage website) band has come up with a doozy of debut (?) here, a real humdinger from these Gallic guitarslingers. Featuring Matthieu Canaguier on "thunderbass", Antoine Hadhoannou on "prophetic drums", and most importantly, badass-in-chief Gregory Raimo on "guitar & guitar lighter, yaya preach, feedback", this trio's No More Invention sounds something like the French answer to The Heads, or White Hills, or even Mainliner. Utter aggro over the top distortodelic geetar excess. Frickin' savage. SAVAGE.
Nope, not at all what we'd have expected from World In Sound. Not only have they found a current signing that's good, in fact great, said signing are also a lot more punk than we'd have thought. Heck we bet these guys grew up on Metal Urbain, maybe even Soggy! The rabid vocals are somewhere betwixt Johnny Rotten and Mark E. Smith, babbling indecipherably. They also remind us a bit of the guy from The Trashmen (if "Surfin' Bird" was a raving, epick 12:50 long biker/garage meltdown blowout kraut jam called "Lighter Slinger Festival", ferinstance). Some other song titles, just to whet yer sick appetites: "Into The Garage", "The Beheaded Motorbiker's Head", "Black Dwarf Man", "Gigolo Albinos", and (uh-oh) "Auschwitz Boogie". Nothing holy here. Simply full tilt, fucked up, freaking out-out-out. Don't come looking to Gunslingers for songs and melodies and suchlike. Come looking for the blinding white lighting of FX overloaded, speed freak amp-sploitation, and the rhythm section rough-and-tumble of mainlined rock action energy, and you'll find it. Timeless stuff, heck if this WAS a '70s acid-punk reissue we would be less surprised. Gunslingers could do battle with the likes of Gaseneta, based on what we're hearing here. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Lighter Slinger Festival"
MPEG Stream: "Black Dwarf Man"

GUNSLINGERS No More Invention (World In Sound) lp 28.00
NOW ON VINYL!! Woah. What a surprise! See, the German psych/prog/kraut specialists at World In Sound have been responsible for a lot of cool '60s/'70s reissues and comps (Cold Sun, Modulo 1000, Psychedelic Minds Vol.1...) but they also have released some unfortunately not-so-hot cds by a bunch of modern prog and stoner rock bands doing the retro thing, and well, we haven't reviewed any of those based on the old "if you don't have anything nice to say..." principle. Just not worth bothering. BUT, that was until this disc came along. Like we said, a surprise. This Julian Cope approved (Record Of The Month for August '08 on his Head Heritage website) band has come up with a doozy of debut (?) here, a real humdinger from these Gallic guitarslingers. Featuring Matthieu Canaguier on "thunderbass", Antoine Hadhoannou on "prophetic drums", and most importantly, badass-in-chief Gregory Raimo on "guitar & guitar lighter, yaya preach, feedback", this trio's No More Invention sounds something like the French answer to The Heads, or White Hills, or even Mainliner. Utter aggro over the top distortodelic geetar excess. Frickin' savage. SAVAGE.
Nope, not at all what we'd have expected from World In Sound. Not only have they found a current signing that's good, in fact great, said signing are also a lot more punk than we'd have thought. Heck we bet these guys grew up on Metal Urbain, maybe even Soggy! The rabid vocals are somewhere betwixt Johnny Rotten and Mark E. Smith, babbling indecipherably. They also remind us a bit of the guy from The Trashmen (if "Surfin' Bird" was a raving, epick 12:50 long biker/garage meltdown blowout kraut jam called "Lighter Slinger Festival", ferinstance). Some other song titles, just to whet yer sick appetites: "Into The Garage", "The Beheaded Motorbiker's Head", "Black Dwarf Man", "Gigolo Albinos", and (uh-oh) "Auschwitz Boogie". Nothing holy here. Simply full tilt, fucked up, freaking out-out-out. Don't come looking to Gunslingers for songs and melodies and suchlike. Come looking for the blinding white lighting of FX overloaded, speed freak amp-sploitation, and the rhythm section rough-and-tumble of mainlined rock action energy, and you'll find it. Timeless stuff, heck if this WAS a '70s acid-punk reissue we would be less surprised. Gunslingers could do battle with the likes of Gaseneta, based on what we're hearing here. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Lighter Slinger Festival"
MPEG Stream: "Black Dwarf Man"

GURU GURU Essen 1970 (Garden Of Delights) cd 21.00
Here's an excellent live soundboard recording from this classic Krautrock power trio, performing at their early, uber-heavy peak. It's all drugged-out, mostly-instrumental cosmic stoner guitar jams, of course. You get versions of "Stone In" and "Der LSD-Marsch" from their spacey first album UFO, and "Bo Diddley" from their anarchic second album Hinten (which hadn't yet been released with this concert took place). Fans won't be disappointed -- it all sounds pretty great considering that these tapes were never originally meant for release, and the Garden Of Delights packaging job is superior as always, with a thick booklet of notes and photos.
Guru Guru have always been one of our favorite '70s German groups, definitely among the heaviest and freakiest in their early days, as documented here. Former free jazzers Mani Neumeier (drums, lots of drums) and Uli Trepte (bass), together with ex-Agitation Free axeman Ax Genrich, went on some heavy psychedelic improv trips yet to be exceeded. Perhaps Caspar Brotzmann heard these guys whilst but a toddler, years before he began his Massaker trio?
RealAudio clip: "Stone In"

GURU GURU Hinten (ZYX) cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
2nd album from these heavy krautrock freaks.

GURU GURU Hinten (Captain Trip) cd 27.00
What it is exactly that constitutes "Krautrock" is definitely up for debate. It seems often largely construed to be the insistent, motorik pulses of Neu! and Can. But to limit the genre to just that would be a mistake. Bands like Guru Guru and Ash Ra Tempel were also present, bringing some of the heaviest psychedlia ever recorded. Hinten is the former band's second album, and a classic. Free range guitars grazing on open, organic jams. It is more evidently structured than their debut, UFO, while still retaining an improvisational feel that is as playful as it is crushingly acidic. This is one of both Allan and Cameron's favorites within the genre. Halfway between killer rock riffs and complete psychedelic blow-out. Essential, though an expensive Japanese import in its current incarnation.
MPEG Stream: "Electric Junk"
MPEG Stream: "The Meaning of Meaning"

GURU GURU Hinten (Wah Wah) lp 29.00
This Krautock essential, available on vinyl again for a limited time...
What it is exactly that constitutes "Krautrock" is definitely up for debate. It seems often largely construed to be the insistent, motorik pulses of Neu! and Can. But to limit the genre to just that would be a mistake. Bands like Guru Guru and Ash Ra Tempel were also present, bringing some of the heaviest psychedlia ever recorded. Hinten is the former band's second album, and a classic. Free range guitars grazing on open, organic jams. It is more evidently structured than their debut, UFO, while still retaining an improvisational feel that is as playful as it is crushingly acidic. This is one of both Allan and Cameron's favorites within the genre. Halfway between killer rock riffs and complete psychedelic blow-out. Essential, though an expensive Japanese import in its current incarnation.
MPEG Stream: "Electric Junk"
MPEG Stream: "The Meaning of Meaning"

GURU GURU Kanguru (Revisited / Brain) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
After a few years of unavailability, now this krautrock classic has been reissued again, as a domestically priced digipak on Revisited, as part of their Brain label reissue campaign. This was the 3rd album from Guru Guru, recorded in 1972 with producer Conny Plank, and it was the the last of theirs to really be about the power trio heavy rock (as opposed to the lighter, jazzier stuff they got into later on), and boy do they let it rip on a lot of this. At the same time, Guru Guru's goofier tendencies are also to the fore, as you can see from the picture on the sleeve of a leaping, why-be-normal Mani Neumeier (the drummer), which despite being on the back cover has become one of the iconic krautrock album art images, along with Kraftwerk's traffic cones, Faust's X-ray fist, and Amon Duul II's Shrat-the-reaper...
There's four long songs on Kanguru, none under 10 minutes, one of 'em over 15. And you'll quickly hear why, for instance, Makoto Kawabata and all the Acid Mothers Temple folks are so into this band. Psychedelic freakiness that's HEAVY, yet playful. "Oxymoron" is a trippy groove, featuring treated vocals chanting "smelled like shit, but it wasn't it" (presumably a drug reference). High or not, guitarist Ax Genrich gets let loose to slay it up on his axe, Hendrix-like. "Immer Lustig", "Baby Cake Walk" and "Ooga Booga" also all feature plenty of complex, burnin' guitar/bass/drums interplay, with the latter boasting the doomiest fuzz riffage. Wild stuff, it must have been a blast to see these guys play!
Guru Guru's previous album, Hinten, had a track called "Bo Diddley". Kanguru's songs are also suggestive of primal '50s rock n' roll influences - although stretched waaaaay out, and given a hippified, improvisatory, drugged-up makeover! Hmm, have you ever seen the live video of early Black Sabbath covering "Blue Suede Shoes" on a European TV show? Maybe the Guru guys had seen that too and it got 'em thinking...
MPEG Stream: "Oxymoron"
MPEG Stream: "Ooga Booga"

GURU GURU Moshi Moshi (EFA) cd 14.98
Neumeier's legendary krautrock band returns with a new record for '98, the Japan-themed Moshi Moshi...not a whole lot like their stuff from the early seventies, but inventive and rockin' nonetheless--similar to 1995's Wah Wah.

GURU GURU UFO (Spalax) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Heavy 1970 debut from this Krautrock power trio. Caspar Brotzmann was probably into this band when he was a baby... Very freaky ("Der LSD Marsch") and heavy. One of Allan's all-time Krautrock must-haves.

GURU GURU UFO (Captain Trip) cd 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What it is exactly that constitutes Krautrock is definitely up for debate. It seems often largely construed to be the insistent, motorik pulses of Neu! and Can. But to limit the genre to just that would be a mistake. Bands like Guru Guru and Ash Ra Tempel were also present, bringing some of the heaviest psychedlia ever recorded. UFO is the former band's debut effort. Fans of heavy psych, German rock of the '70s, and free improv jams will consider this absolutely essential. And chances are, those fans already own this, or they simply haven't found a copy yet... here's the currently in print, Japanese mini-LP sleeve version. Repetitive, hypnotic, transcendent. And at the same time jarring. This is a fist full of mushrooms being shoved through the speakers. Embrace it.
MPEG Stream: "Stone In"
MPEG Stream: "Der LSD - Marsch"

GURU GURU UFO (Lion Productions ) cd 14.98
The last time we reviewed a cd reissue of this classic krautrock record, it was an expensive Japanese import. Now, however, it's been given a domestic release by Lion Productions, so now's the time to turn on to it if you haven't already. And if you did spent like $30 for the import, you know the music was worth it. After all, Guru Guru's 1970 OHR label debut UFO is in many ways THEE ultimate in uber heavy druggy freaked out krautrock. A power trio indeed, powered by LSD...
If you're into the heavy freeform psych sounds of bands nowadays, from Earthless to Bardo Pond to Wooden Shjips to Comets On Fire to Acid Mothers Temple (who not long ago actually did an album with Guru Guru's maniac drummer, who's still going strong), then chances are this is one of your favorite records without you maybe even knowing it yet. The distortodelic jamming of Guru Guru's debut provides the template for so much to follow, and does it better than most! If you're like us, you've got a record collection full of stuff from Japan alone that owes a ton to the hirsute heaviness and musical madness of these three German hippies. Indeed, LSD-march takes their name from the last track here, "Der LSD-Marsch". Though they themselves of course owed a debt to Jimi Hendrix...
Guru Guru were acid rock band playing free jazz or vice versa, conjuring a storm of utter amped up whale call guitar feedback and loose lumbering bass-heavy riffage over an exploding minefield of splattering drum-detonations. Plus, trippy electronic interludes, soundscapes constructed with contact mics, tapes, and FX... in fact, the ten and a half minute title track is ALL droning subsonics, noise, scrape, and skree, and could be something by the Dead C, even. Thus, to use a little hyperbole, this album makes Blue Cheer's Vincebus Eruptum sound like a sugary pop sneeze!
Of the original three Guru Guru discs (UFO, Hinten, Kanguru) when they held to the power trio format, this one is the most raw, dense, doomy and destroyed, without so much of the overt humor that lightened up their later releases. Extreme enough to be considered both proto-metal, maybe, and also proto-noiserock. Like we said about this before: "Repetitive, hypnotic, transcendent. And at the same time, jarring. This is a fistful of mushrooms being shoved through the speakers. Embrace it."
Lion, as we have come to expect, does this reissue right, including a thick booklet of liner notes. There's a band history, and also an essay about OHR's Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, complete with extensive discography (from which we hope Lion selects even more records to reissue).
By the way, does anyone have info on who exactly "P. Hinten" is or was? He's quoted on the sleeve here saying "Soon the Ufos will land and mankind will meet much stronger brains and habits. Let's get ready for that." And Guru Guru's second album was titled Hinten. Obviously a big inspiration for these guys, but who is Hinten?
MPEG Stream: "Stone In"
MPEG Stream: "Next Time See You At The Dali Lama"
MPEG Stream: "Der LSD - Marsch"

GURU GURU UFO (Wah Wah) lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This legendary krautrock jam finally available again on vinyl!!!
What it is exactly that constitutes Krautrock is definitely up for debate. It seems often largely construed to be the insistent, motorik pulses of Neu! and Can. But to limit the genre to just that would be a mistake. Bands like Guru Guru and Ash Ra Tempel were also present, bringing some of the heaviest psychedelia ever recorded. UFO is the former band's debut effort. Fans of heavy psych, German rock of the '70s, and free improv jams will consider this absolutely essential. And chances are, those fans already own this, or they simply haven't found a copy yet...
Repetitive, hypnotic, transcendent. And at the same time jarring. This is a fist full of mushrooms being shoved through the speakers. Embrace it.
MPEG Stream: "Stone In"
MPEG Stream: "Der LSD - Marsch"

GURU GURU Wiesbaden 1972 (Garden Of Delights) cd 21.00

GURUH GIPSY s/t (Shadoks Music) lp 48.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

GURUMANIAX Psy Valley Hill ( Bureau B) cd 17.98
Like a blast from the krautrock past, Bureau B brings us the debut album from Gurumaniax. But, unlike a lot of the German label's releases, this ISN'T a reissue - it's a brand new album featuring the two surviving members of krautrock legends Guru Guru, drummer Mani Neumeier and guitarist Ax Genrich. Hence the name, GuruManiAx, get it? Sadly, original bass player Uli Trepte passed away last year, so the trio is rounded out by new bassist Guy Segers from veteran art proggers Univers Zero (with guest Mario Engelter performing bass duties on two of the tracks as well). The final track here is entitled "For Uli T." but it's as if the whole thing is dedicated to his memory, doubtless he'd approve 'cause Gurumaniax is about the closest thing to ye olde Guru Guru as could be imagined, really it sounds like they went way back to the earliest albums by the original trio for inspiration (UFO, Hinten, and Kanguru, circa 1970-72). Dunno if they dropped some acid too, to get into the mood, we wouldn't be surprised...
It's card-carrying krautrock all right, freaky and psychedelic, meandering and mesmeric, mostly instrumental. Psy Valley Hill is full of lengthy, pulsating jams and drifting, echoing FX, with just enough (but not too much) of Guru Guru's trademark goofiness / weirdness (ferinstance, "Telefonladies", with the voices of telephone operators mixed into the music). Much of it is super spacey, with swirling electronics in all the nooks and crannies. Their MO seemingly involves lots and lots of improvisational freedom, yet each song finds structure and identity. Results range from the jauntily spaced-out free-rock-abilly of "Voodoo Touch" to, on the very next track, the chain-rattling abstract soundscape of "Electrosaurus", that could be something by Absolut Null Punkt.
Gurumaniax are good natured and generally mellowed out, but still venturesome, traipsing to the edge of the void and sometimes beyond. The splatter of Mani's percussion and the echoed unfurling of Ax's axe is often slow and steady, even somnolent or sedate, but elsewhere utterly urgent and agitated... Quite obviously, these guys know what they're doing, heck it was about 40 years ago they first started making these sort of sounds, now the bread and butter of bands like LSD-march, Circle, and of course Acid Mothers Temple, with whom the ever-energetic Neumeier has collaborated. And, speaking of Circle, we're really reminded of that Scandinavian band by track four, "Ghost Of Odin", a lazy almost dubbed-out jam, blissfully hypnotic, with occasional quirky vocal mutter, eventually building to a loud, distorted climax... nice!!
Mani is always making records, but it's especially exciting to hear again from Ax, whose last solo album back in 1995, Wave Cut, was quite fine. It's commendable that, without T., they decided not to officially bill this as a Guru Guru reunion. But, listening to it, they certainly could have. Gurumaniax is the real deal. Recommended! And not only to krautrock heads, but also to post rock types who like Tortoise and stuff like that, check this out and see if it's not too hippy for you!
MPEG Stream: "Drumoroto"
MPEG Stream: "Spaceship Memory"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost Of Odin"

GURUMANIAX Psy Valley Hill ( Bureau B) lp 17.98
Like a blast from the krautrock past, Bureau B brings us the debut album from Gurumaniax. But, unlike a lot of the German label's releases, this ISN'T a reissue - it's a brand new album featuring the two surviving members of krautrock legends Guru Guru, drummer Mani Neumeier and guitarist Ax Genrich. Hence the name, GuruManiAx, get it? Sadly, original bass player Uli Trepte passed away last year, so the trio is rounded out by new bassist Guy Segers from veteran art proggers Univers Zero (with guest Mario Engelter performing bass duties on two of the tracks as well). The final track here is entitled "For Uli T." but it's as if the whole thing is dedicated to his memory, doubtless he'd approve 'cause Gurumaniax is about the closest thing to ye olde Guru Guru as could be imagined, really it sounds like they went way back to the earliest albums by the original trio for inspiration (UFO, Hinten, and Kanguru, circa 1970-72). Dunno if they dropped some acid too, to get into the mood, we wouldn't be surprised...
It's card-carrying krautrock all right, freaky and psychedelic, meandering and mesmeric, mostly instrumental. Psy Valley Hill is full of lengthy, pulsating jams and drifting, echoing FX, with just enough (but not too much) of Guru Guru's trademark goofiness / weirdness (ferinstance, "Telefonladies", with the voices of telephone operators mixed into the music). Much of it is super spacey, with swirling electronics in all the nooks and crannies. Their MO seemingly involves lots and lots of improvisational freedom, yet each song finds structure and identity. Results range from the jauntily spaced-out free-rock-abilly of "Voodoo Touch" to, on the very next track, the chain-rattling abstract soundscape of "Electrosaurus", that could be something by Absolut Null Punkt.
Gurumaniax are good natured and generally mellowed out, but still venturesome, traipsing to the edge of the void and sometimes beyond. The splatter of Mani's percussion and the echoed unfurling of Ax's axe is often slow and steady, even somnolent or sedate, but elsewhere utterly urgent and agitated... Quite obviously, these guys know what they're doing, heck it was about 40 years ago they first started making these sort of sounds, now the bread and butter of bands like LSD-march, Circle, and of course Acid Mothers Temple, with whom the ever-energetic Neumeier has collaborated. And, speaking of Circle, we're really reminded of that Scandinavian band by track four, "Ghost Of Odin", a lazy almost dubbed-out jam, blissfully hypnotic, with occasional quirky vocal mutter, eventually building to a loud, distorted climax... nice!!
Mani is always making records, but it's especially exciting to hear again from Ax, whose last solo album back in 1995, Wave Cut, was quite fine. It's commendable that, without T., they decided not to officially bill this as a Guru Guru reunion. But, listening to it, they certainly could have. Gurumaniax is the real deal. Recommended! And not only to krautrock heads, but also to post rock types who like Tortoise and stuff like that, check this out and see if it's not too hippy for you!
MPEG Stream: "Drumoroto"
MPEG Stream: "Spaceship Memory"
MPEG Stream: "Ghost Of Odin"

GURUS, THE Are Here! (Sundazed) cd 16.98
Does this sound familiar? Middle Eastern tinged psych rock laden with electric oud circa 1967? From Greenwich Village? Sounds like an album we wrote about some years back that we totally creamed over. Cream, as in Disraeli Gears, as in Felix Pappalardi, as in Devil's Anvil. You wanna know something weirder? The Gurus, who's seminal Are Here! album was shelved the same year as the Devil's Anvil's, also got their start at the same cafe in The Village: Cafe Feenjon. Unlike the Devil's Anvil, who were an existing band that was retrofitted through the brilliance of Pappalardi, The Gurus were, in a way, more of a contrivance by Feenjon co-owner Bob Englehardt and music lover at heart, jeweller by trade Ron Haffkine. And while their album Are Hear! might not reach the levels of sonic brilliance of Hard Rock From The Middle East -- none of the members of the Gurus were actually of Arabic decent, merely "fakin' it" -- it's none the less a great album, demonstrating the natural ease with which Eastern melodies fuse so nicely with rock. Along with the sonic resemblance to The Devil's Anvil, The Gurus' sound is peppered with shades of The Monks, and Love, and other good '60s stuff.
MPEG Stream: "Come Girl"
MPEG Stream: "Cry Cry"
MPEG Stream: "Louie Louie"

GUS GUS This Is Normal (Warner Bros.) cd 15.98
In Iceland maybe.

GUSTAFSSON, MATS / SONIC YOUTH Hidros 3 (Smalltown Supersound) cd 14.98
Ok, you know what? Let's just keep this review real short and nuts n' bolts. One line about the line-up: improv sax player Mats Gustafsson, who composed this piece dedicated to Patti Smith, teamed up with Steve Shelley, Lee Ranaldo, and Thurston Moore (all on guitar) plus also Loren Connors (guitar, naturally) and David Sackenas (more guitar) and Lotta Melin (audiobox, whatever that is) and the voices of Kim Gordon and Linda Kallerdahl, all live mixed by Mr. Jim O'Rourke. Ok, and another line about the music: arty, noisy, spastic, skronky, electronic, disturbing. Verdict? We especially like the fuzzy fog-horn drone sounds (that's Mats' horn of course) and all the dense guitar textures, but unfortunately we weren't so keen on Kim Gordon's half-way-to-spoken-word-poetry singing, but that's nothing new (and the Patti Smith dedication would make less sense without her contributions). Anyone who likes the really experimental/jazz side of Sonic Youth (including Kim's vocals) oughta dig.
MPEG Stream: "track 3"
MPEG Stream: "track 6"

GUTHER Sundet (Morr Music) cd 16.98
Why hello there! This is something a little different for the usually very dreamy pop-tronica focused German label Morr Music. The Berlin duo of Julia Guther and Berend Intelmann make glistening golden honey pop with nary a pulse, glitch nor click within earshot. Instead the two play it all on guitars, keyboards and drums. What charms the listener most however is Julia Guther's vocals. Her breathy singing reminded us of their labelmates Lalipuna. Fresh, sweet, softly floral, and oh so nice.
MPEG Stream: "Still In This Town"
MPEG Stream: "Trick Or Treat"