HOT SNAKES Audit In Progress (Swami) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hot Snakes' second release on Swami Records is finger lickin' good! Yow! Rick and John (both ex-Drive Like Jehu) have enlisted a new drummer, Mario Rubalcaba (ex-pro-skateboarder and ex-Clickitat Ikatowi) since former drummer Jason left for the Burning Brides. Hot Snakes also now feature San Diego rock luminary Gar Wood (Beehive and the Barracudas) on bass. Man this band totally kicks ass!!! What else can we say? Imagine the Godlike Drive Like Jehu, but stripped down to its garage rock bare bones, but sacrificing none of the fury or intensity or musical chops. Raw and catchy and makes you want to just jump up and down and bang your head and wiggle like crazy. The recording of Audit In Progress awesomely captures their fired-up energy and offers an accurate taste of their live show. I saw them recently here in San Francisco -- all types of new HS fans and older Jehu fans were going totally bananas. This album and their live show will kick you in your face and you'll be begging for more! Plus it's always nice when bands actually produce their own artwork instead of just stealing someone else's, or hiring some crappy graphic designer. Rick Froberg, HS's singer/illustrator/animator is an incredibly talented and respected artist in addition to being a wicked rock frontman. The last Hot Snakes record was so perfect who would have thought the ante could be upped. But upped it has been...it's been upped...well, you know what we're saying. This record rules! And this band just keeps getting better and better. Buy this now!
MPEG Stream: "Braintrust"
MPEG Stream: "Hi-Lites"

HOT SNAKES Automatic Midnight (Sympathy For The Record Industry) cd 14.98
Hot Snakes is the long awaited reunion of John Reis (Rocket from the Crypt) and Rick Farr, who made some of the most amazing and kick ass post punk guitar rock as Drive Like Jehu. While John's one man band, the Back Off Cupids (recently released on Drunken Fish), is more of a lo-fi home recording instrumental experiment, the Hot Snakes is definitely carrying the Jehu torch. Heavy and rocking and bristling with energy, it's almost like a weird mix of both Rocket and Jehu; the voice and the sound is unmistakenly Jehu, but the songs aren't nearly as complex and ultra-precise. Instead they opt for a looser, noisier, wilder sound. People have been referencing the Wipers, and Black Flag, but basically, it just sounds like a dumbed down Drive Like Jehu (which is essentially what Rocket From the Crypt is too), which is not a bad thing at all.



MPEG Stream: "No Hands"
MPEG Stream: "Past Lives"

HOT SNAKES Automatic Midnight (Swami) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hot Snakes is the long awaited reunion of John Reis (Rocket from the Crypt) and Rick Farr, who made some of the most amazing and kick ass post punk guitar rock as Drive Like Jehu. While John's one man band, the Back Off Cupids (recently released on Drunken Fish), is more of a lo-fi home recording instrumental experiment, the Hot Snakes is definitely carrying the Jehu torch. Heavy and rocking and bristling with energy, it's almost like a weird mix of both Rocket and Jehu; the voice and the sound is unmistakenly Jehu, but the songs aren't nearly as complex and ultra-precise. Instead they opt for a looser, noisier, wilder sound. People have been referencing the Wipers, and Black Flag, but basically, it just sounds like a dumbed down Drive Like Jehu (which is essentially what Rocket From the Crypt is too), which is not a bad thing at all.

HOT SNAKES Peel Sessions (Swami) cd ep 6.98
Here's a little four song cd ep for those of you who don't have the inclination to pick up the 7" version of this on eBay. Since Swami only pressed a few hundred of em, they're fetching "hype-induced" prices on ye ol' auction internets thingy, so here's your chance to buy em cheap and digital-like. Includes their rockin "Automatic Midnight" and "This Mystic Decade" tunes plus two others recorded in November of 2004 at the BBC, with that wonderful recorded-at-the-BBC sound.
MPEG Stream: "Automatic Midnight"
MPEG Stream: "This Mystic Decade"

HOT SNAKES Suicide Invoice (Swami) cd 14.98
Undoubtedly very eagerly anticipated by Drive like Jehu, Rocket From The Crypt and of course, Hot Snakes fans everywhere, the second full length has arrived. So the question is raised: How could Hot Snakes possibly match their blisteringly hot first album Automatic Midnight? Well, Suicide Invoice provides the answer: Sort of. It's kind of hard to compare the two. 'Suicide Invoice' is way more toned down, and way less frantic than the first Hot Snakes. A lot of folks here were totally diappointed, and thought it was dull and uninspired. But it seems more to me like just a new direction. Instead of doing the same thing all over again and making 'Automatic Midnight 2', they've stretched out and kind of dialed back the P U N K and tried to craft more studied songs, more intense, serious and more listenable as opposed to just crazy jump in the pit, ride your skateboard, fuck shit up furious punk rock action. I'm not slagging 'Automatic Midnight'. Fuck no!!! I love that record. We all did. The new record is just different, not really better or worse, just different. If you're in the mood to ROCK OUT, pull out your old beat up copy of 'Automatic Midnight'. But if you're in the mood for some cool moody rocking post punk goodness, and miss the late great Drive Like Jehu or maybe you just miss Rick Farr's high pitched wail then throw this on and let it sink in.
RealAudio clip: "I Hate The Kids"
RealAudio clip: "Paid In Cigarettes"

HOT SNAKES Suicide Invoice (Swami) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Undoubtedly very eagerly anticipated by Drive like Jehu, Rocket From The Crypt and of course, Hot Snakes fans everywhere, the second full length has arrived. So the question is raised: How could Hot Snakes possibly match their blisteringly hot first album Automatic Midnight? Well, Suicide Invoice provides the answer: Sort of. It's kind of hard to compare the two. 'Suicide Invoice' is way more toned down, and way less frantic than the first Hot Snakes. A lot of folks here were totally diappointed, and thought it was dull and uninspired. But it seems more to me like just a new direction. Instead of doing the same thing all over again and making 'Automatic Midnight 2', they've stretched out and kind of dialed back the P U N K and tried to craft more studied songs, more intense, serious and more listenable as opposed to just crazy jump in the pit, ride your skateboard, fuck shit up furious punk rock action. I'm not slagging 'Automatic Midnight'. Fuck no!!! I love that record. We all did. The new record is just different, not really better or worse, just different. If you're in the mood to ROCK OUT, pull out your old beat up copy of 'Automatic Midnight'. But if you're in the mood for some cool moody rocking post punk goodness, and miss the late great Drive Like Jehu or maybe you just miss Rick Farr's high pitched wail then throw this on and let it sink in.
RealAudio clip: "I Hate The Kids"
RealAudio clip: "Paid In Cigarettes"

HOT SNAKES Thunder Down Under (Swami) cd 14.98
John Reis and Rick Froberg were responsible for one of the best and most copied rock bands of the '90s, Drive Like Jehu. While Jehu only left the world with two full lengths, Reis continued pouring his soul into Rocket From The Crypt as well as his many side-projects. He also started his own label, Swami, and began doing an amazing radio show in San Diego. Answering the prayers of so many Jehu fans across the globe Reis and Froberg reunited to form a new band together. Hot Snakes are a much more straight ahead affair then the intricate near prog bombast of Jehu but the guts, fire and passion ring just as loud and true. Back when I (Irwin) was living in Southern California my old radio station KSPC put on an amazing concert series. One of the highlights was when the Hot Snakes were to embark on their first tour playing only a handful of shows across the states and ended up playing at a show I helped book! A dream come true. They completely tore apart the basement where the show took place and we all felt so sorry for the other bands that opened since once the Hot Snakes started playing, every trace of the opening band, every memory was blown clear out of everyone's heads before the end of their first song. This release captures Hot Snakes in all of their sweaty and hard rocking live glory, during one of their last shows in Australia, reminding us of what a joy it was to get to see these guys live. Sounding just as perfect, adrenalized, and spot on as they did in the studio. This last incarnation of Hot Snakes was rounded out by the great drumming of Mario Rubalcaba (Clikitat Ikatowi, RFTC) and the so totally underrated guitar stylings of one of San Diego's unsung treasures Gar Wood (Tanner, Beehive & The Barracudas) proving that Hot Snakes were indeed hands down one of the best live bands on the planet.
MPEG Stream: "Retrofit"
MPEG Stream: "Suicide Invoice"

HOTGUITARS Duets, Duels & D.I.Y.'s (Kevyt Nostalgia) cd-r 9.98
From the same little Finnish label that brought us Kemialliset Ystavat's Varisevien Tanssi / Silmujen Marssi LP comes... Hotguitars! Hotguitars? That's Teemu Korpipaa and Jyrki Laiho, both men members of Circle (Jyrki currently, Teemu formerly). Not that this sounds anything like Circle. It's a home-made abstract improv instrumental noise kind of thing, with titles like "Gamelan Sausage" and "Thurston Does Something Jazz". Just Teemu and Jyrki screwing around with guitars and a four-track...though they're both credited with other instruments, like mandolin and 'banjolin', what I hear, mostly, is guitar noise. A la Japanese noisician Solmania. Or Mitsuru Tabata. Or Merzbow, not that he uses guitars that much. It's sometimes quite pleasant noise though. And actually occasionally there's some structure, beats and melodic content...what you could almost call 'song'! But a lot of this is washy, textural, droney, abstract, varied guitar-splurge. Imagine two distorted electric guitars that were actually animals, let loose in your home, running rampant, scurrying about, leaping up on the furniture, tumbling down the stairs, getting trapped in the dryer, sneaking into the kitchen and knocking over the cookie jar... They're really nice animals, really they are, but maybe too wild and not suitable as pets even though they're so cute. Of course this cd-r is quite limited, we've got 15 and that's it. For ever. Nice full-colour covers by the way.
MPEG Stream: "In The Sound Of Magnificence"
MPEG Stream: "Labor Lapse"

HOTOTOGISU Pale Fatal Sister (Important) 2lp 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
There's really no point in beating around the bush anymore, Hototogisu are in fact a noise band. Before the cd-r boom, and the micro-label explosion, Hototogisu would have been releasing records on RRR. Not that there's anything wrong with being a noise band, but the duo that make up Hototogisu get described as drone, and free-rock, and black ambient, and all manner of descriptors, but basically this is in fact noise music. Soft noise for sure, and pretty noise almost certainly, but the drone and ambient elements are just that, elements of the big thick layered noise these two can make.
Marcia Bassett of Double Leopards and GHQ, Matthew Bower of Skullflower and Sunroof!, together fuse all of their various sonic proclivities into one huge heaving organic whole. That while drone-y and dreamy and ambient and shimmery, will be a tough sound to get lost in if you don't have at least a tiny soft spot for noise.
But the key here is the way the noise is shaped and crafted, this is now power electronics or face melting Japanoise, instead, this is a dense brew mixing the blurred crush of Total, the upper register ur-drone of Sunroof! and a big ol' chunk of swirling free guitar psych, a bit like a room full of Keiji Hainos jamming wildly, but slowed way down and layered and layered into a whirring buzzing howling free psych drone noise blur.
Like much music of this ilk, a glancing listen will reveal nothing but sound, a wall of deconstructed guitar noise, sheets of feedback, all garbled and chaotic and intense, but listen close, climb right in there, and you'll find yourself in a soundworld alive with melodies and rhythms, textures and harmonies, swirling skies of overlapping overtones, of crunchy buzzy anti-riffing, of warm whirring psychedelic ambience, a sounds as hypnotic and as mesmerizing as records much more mellow and subdued. Sort of like how the buzz of black metal can lull the listener, this caustic 4 sided slab of abstract guitarscapery, this heady and heavy blown out psychedelic din, can be strangely soothing and dreamy, while somehow miraculously managing to be noisy and abrasive and brutally blown out at the same time!
Gorgeous, super deluxe matte finish gatefold sleeves, and of course ULTRA LIMITED. ONLY 700 COPIES!

HOTOTOGISU & BURNING CORE STAR s/t (Yik Yak) lp 14.98
This collaboration could have gone one of two ways, both equally appealing, blissed out and drone-y like the Burning Star Core albums that we've made records of the week in the past, or noisy and chaotic like most of the Hototogisu records we've reviewed. And while here and there this definitely falls somewhere right in between, for the most part, this falls squarely on the noisy side of things. Which is to be expected, guitars, electronics, voices, drums, percussion violin, Moog, objects (!), acoustic appraiser (!!), it would be no small feat to tie all that stuff up into something droney and composed. But then these folks excel at letting loose, unleashing sounds, unfurling huge clouds of blurred buzz, sending streaks of high end sparking into the atmosphere, conjuring up all manner of sonic demons with these slow shifting ur-drone rituals.
The drums are mostly scattered and abstract, but when they do lock into a groove, the sound briefly transforms into a sort of krautnoise jam, before coming loose again and drifting heavenward, sprawling out and raining sonic debris upon the swirling sea of abstract clatter and pulsing buzz drenched hum below.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!!

HOTOTOGISU / HIVE MIND split (Not Not Fun) 7" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

HOUSE OF LOW CULTURE Edward's Lament! (Neurot) cd 14.98
Aaron Turner should win some sort of award or something. He's not only the leader of post-rock metalcore masters Isis, and also one of the contributors to the genius of both Old Man Gloom and Lotus Eaters, but he also runs the excellent Hydra Head label, AND never fails to buy stacks of stuff here at Aquarius whenever he's in town. Not only that, but his art and graphics have graced some of our other favorite releases of late. So of course we're happy to present this new 2nd album from House of Low Culture, another outfit featuring Aaron and friends, including other members of Isis, Old Man Gloom and Lotus Eaters. HoLC is in fact probably closest to the droned-out ambient sounds of Lotus Eaters. Unsettling, illusory soundscapes, haunted and desolate. Edwards Lament! starts off in a realm of industrial, boiler room drone, before ghostly strummed guitars infiltrate the mix. Their distorted, slowly unfolding melodies are buried in shallow grave of reverb, accompanied by backwards-tape-fuckery, low-end rumble, echoey effects, dragging chains... You'll hear some voices, but this remains a mostly instrumental affair, and an extremely sombre one. We don't know who Edward is, or what it is he's lamenting, but this does sound sad. Weirdly, while not overtly 'Americana' or at all 'country', somehow this still does keep making us think of an abstract, phantom echo of Woven Hand or Souled American. Maybe Edward counts Blind Joe Death among his friends.
MPEG Stream: "On The Upswing"
MPEG Stream: "Edwards Lament"

HOUSE REVERENDS s/t (Monofonus Press) lp 17.98
This record by the oddly monikered House Reverends was shrouded in secrecy when we first got copies, subtle hints as to the membership, references to obscure UK groups / collectives, never mentioned by name, and when we did find out who was behind this twisted slab of lo-fi outsider weirdo RnB, we have to say we never would have guessed. We thought about leaving everybody in the lurch, but this is in fact, a sort of Shit And Shine offshoot, featuring at least one member of that multiple drummered noise rock crew, but don't be expecting ANYthing like $&$ here. Instead, this is a collection of old cassette jams, improvised and recorded onto a 4-track using just drum machine, synthesizer, sampler and vocoder, and given those ingredients, it could have gone either way, totally tripped out avant psychedelia, or THIS, a warped, but still pretty straight, crooned RnB. Sounds scary, but give it a chance, you just might like it. Warbly organs, vocodered vox, minimal programmed beats, a twisted electro pop with vocals that sound like an alternate universe Justin Timberlake, albeit a much more raw and low fidelity JT, all over squelchy bass, stuttery grooves, pulsing beats, those croony vocals slipping occasionally into almost cookie monster like gurgles. But fear not, peppered throughout are some sweet experimental jams, like the skittery low rider groove of "Hype", with it's rad stuttery pitch shifted samples, or the sped up soul of "Close And Personal", which sounds like Burial at 78, and really, that's what a lot of the record sounds like, a less murky, muted Burial, but the same sort of roots in classic soul, just filtered through lots of underground murk.
There's plenty more going on too, eighties style electro, funky handclap rhythms, John Carpenter-like synth grooves, and a super beautiful almost choral sounding closer, that is easily the prettiest thing here, but for the most part, the House Reverends are all about the lo-fi electro soul murky RnB weirdness, and we dig it!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!! Housed in super swank hand screened sleeves.

HOUSTON, PENELOPE On Market Street (Glitterhouse) lp 19.98

HOVERCRAFT Experiment Below (Mute) cd 14.98
Easily the best album from this Seattle psyche-rock outfit, as their new drummer adds a far more propulsive element to the incendiary psychedelic guitar freakouts.

HOW TO DRESS WELL Ecstasy With Jojo / Take It On (Transparent) 7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

HOW TO DRESS WELL Love Remains (Lefse) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This just might be the coolest, weirdest sort-of-soul record EVER. It took us a while to check this out though, because once again, we found ourselves being overly resistant to popular consensus, our first impulse when super hyped records are concerned, is to assume that for whatever reason, people have been fooled into digging something due to above mentioned extreme hype, hell we've definitely fallen for that before. Or at the very least, we sometimes think, whatever record it is, it's probably not nearly as good as people are making it out to be. Cuz really, how super original and interesting and fucked up and far out could something be and still manage to appeal to folks not normally into things fucked up and far out? Apparently plenty. And that said, we LOVE to proven wrong, and boy should we have checked this out sooner. This is a gloriously mysterious and murky collection of druggy, psychedelic, slow-mo soul, long expanses of crackly drones, and what sounds like R&B 45's spinning at 16rpm, wheezing synths, reverbed shimmer, deep sinister basslines, hazy ambience, crumbling distortion, stuttery loops, stripped down skeletal beats, and some gorgeously washed out soulful vox. All wrapped in thick swaths of gauzy hum and shimmer, blurred and smeared and washed out, totally ghostlike and spectral, but still so goddamn soulful.
Similar to the soul infused dubstep of Burial, HTDW create these gorgeous little chunks of soulful slow motion drift, those heavily effected and distorted falsetto vox hovering over warped and warbly bits of muted melody, female vox offer up plenty of oooh's and aaaah's, the voices choral and angelic, seeming to fade into a softly roiling swirl muted blackness in the background, swaths of mumbled low end throb and pulse and undulate dreamily, there are bits of piano, haunting and elegiac, the arrangements are delicate, the sound impossibly lush, alien and otherworldly, but so darkly familiar and emotional and intimate, the sound equal parts Antony And the Johnsons, Pop Ambience, the warped warble of witch house, the twisted popsmithery of folks like Ariel Pink, the deep stuttery soulfulness of Burial and other likeminded dubsteppers and of course classic old time soul, all melted down into a thick sonic morass, that oozes and flows, a glacial, sun dappled, moonlit, lysergic soulful psychedelic murk, that while indeed muted and muddy and blurry and bleary, still manages to glow, and pulse, emitting rays of sonic light, this is not miserable music, for all its ghostly abstraction and mysterious darkness, the music of How To Dress Well is gorgeous, and romantic, and full of life, and energy, and emotion.
MPEG Stream: "You Hold The Water"
MPEG Stream: "Ready For The World"
MPEG Stream: "My Body"
MPEG Stream: "Suicide Dream 2"

HOW TO DRESS WELL Love Remains (Lefse) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This just might be the coolest, weirdest sort-of-soul record EVER. It took us a while to check this out though, because once again, we found ourselves being overly resistant to popular consensus, our first impulse when super hyped records are concerned, is to assume that for whatever reason, people have been fooled into digging something due to above mentioned extreme hype, hell we've definitely fallen for that before. Or at the very least, we sometimes think, whatever record it is, it's probably not nearly as good as people are making it out to be. Cuz really, how super original and interesting and fucked up and far out could something be and still manage to appeal to folks not normally into things fucked up and far out? Apparently plenty. And that said, we LOVE to proven wrong, and boy should we have checked this out sooner. This is a gloriously mysterious and murky collection of druggy, psychedelic, slow-mo soul, long expanses of crackly drones, and what sounds like R&B 45's spinning at 16rpm, wheezing synths, reverbed shimmer, deep sinister basslines, hazy ambience, crumbling distortion, stuttery loops, stripped down skeletal beats, and some gorgeously washed out soulful vox. All wrapped in thick swaths of gauzy hum and shimmer, blurred and smeared and washed out, totally ghostlike and spectral, but still so goddamn soulful.
Similar to the soul infused dubstep of Burial, HTDW create these gorgeous little chunks of soulful slow motion drift, those heavily effected and distorted falsetto vox hovering over warped and warbly bits of muted melody, female vox offer up plenty of oooh's and aaaah's, the voices choral and angelic, seeming to fade into a softly roiling swirl muted blackness in the background, swaths of mumbled low end throb and pulse and undulate dreamily, there are bits of piano, haunting and elegiac, the arrangements are delicate, the sound impossibly lush, alien and otherworldly, but so darkly familiar and emotional and intimate, the sound equal parts Antony And the Johnsons, Pop Ambience, the warped warble of witch house, the twisted popsmithery of folks like Ariel Pink, the deep stuttery soulfulness of Burial and other likeminded dubsteppers and of course classic old time soul, all melted down into a thick sonic morass, that oozes and flows, a glacial, sun dappled, moonlit, lysergic soulful psychedelic murk, that while indeed muted and muddy and blurry and bleary, still manages to glow, and pulse, emitting rays of sonic light, this is not miserable music, for all its ghostly abstraction and mysterious darkness, the music of How To Dress Well is gorgeous, and romantic, and full of life, and energy, and emotion.
MPEG Stream: "You Hold The Water"
MPEG Stream: "Ready For The World"
MPEG Stream: "My Body"
MPEG Stream: "Suicide Dream 2"

HOW TO DRESS WELL Total Loss (Acephale) cd 14.98

HOWARD HELLO s/t (Temporary Residence Ltd.) cd 13.98
Given the bands the two Howard Hello guys have been or are currently in, you wouldn't think that they'd come up with a record like this. The duo is comprised of Kenseth Thibideau (multi-instrumentalist who has wielded the bass for local mathrockers Rumah Sakit and pop darlings Thingy) and Marty Anderson of local introspective indierockers Dilute. Something of an alchemical reaction has occurred here: the Howard Hello album is a gem.
First you hear Kenseth's very warm and pretty John-Fahey-ish fingerpicked guitar. Then, almost imperceptibly, the folksiness gradually, in Marty's fine hands, starts looping onto itself, or running glissandos between notes, or sounding like it's skipping. The glitches are very carefully handled, so they call less attention to themselves and more to the texture of the music they're effecting. On later tracks the studio (laptop?) treatments are more pronounced, batting the notes around like ping pong balls while a layer of organs and bass anchor the tracks in ever-present lushness.
As occasional embellishments there is the lilting, heavenly voice of Wendy Allen (also heard on Tarentel albums), Marty's keening falsetto, and the welcome sounds of traffic and the outside world, reminding you there's a world out there outside the velvet ethereal one this record conjures in your head. You might consider this a perfect meeting of Fahey and Fennesz, if that had ever been accomplished (which it hasn't, but this comes close.)
Bonus: The cover art by the truly amazing local artist Jeremiah Maddock, who presented his work here in 2001, the most popular art show AQ has ever hosted.
RealAudio clip: "Television"
RealAudio clip: "Belief"
RealAudio clip: "America"

HOWE, CATHERINE What A Beautiful Place (Numero Group) cd 16.98
The Numero Group label starts 2007 on the softer side of things with this obscure British gem from singer Catherine Howe. For those of you who enjoyed the Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies Of The Canyon compilation, that the Numero Group released last year, then this might just be up your alley. Mellow and melancholic, Howe has a soulful voice that's similar to Dusty Springfield or Bobbie Gentry, underscored by soft orchestral jazz arrangements (courtesy of Bobby Scott) that remind us of early A&M records or John Cameron soundtracks like Kes. In fact this seems more like the kind of soft British album Trunk records would have re-issued, but that goes to show what an unpredictable label Numero Group really is. Recorded for Reflection Records in 1971, What A Beautiful Place sank into obscurity when the label folded shortly thereafter. While we have never heard of her before this, Howe recorded two more albums after this one and has recently started recording again. This is a perfect record for a rainy day or Sunday morning with a nice hot cup of tea.
MPEG Stream: "Up North"
MPEG Stream: "What A Beautiful Place"

HOWELL, PETER & JOHN FERDINANDO Tomorrow Come Someday (Acme) cd+dvd 17.98

HOWLIN RAIN When The Morning Comes / Collage (Agitated) 7" 9.98

HOWLIN' MAGIC s/t (Azul Discografica) cd 12.98
Wow... A shit storm of fuzzed out psychedelic excess, distortion-to-the-death stomping and tromping over everything in sight. And that's just track one, of ten that are equally intense.
"Howlin' Magic" though?? Hmm, we're not too stoked on the name. But...wow. On second thought, maybe the name works, Howlin' Magic, sure, that makes us think of a psychedelic wizard who has released energies almost beyond his/her control, multicolored fireballs backblasting in an outrageous sorcerous snafu. Quite the fireworks display. Survive or not, it's a spectacle indeed. Yeah, it fits their sound, wherein feedback shards carve clarity from the sheets of white noise amp abuse. We can only imagine an orgy of effects pedals, coupled in polymorphous perversity. The band isn't scaling the mountain, they're making the mountain. A mountain of abused amps and battered guitars. The sticker on the front proclaims Howlin' Magic's affinity with the Japanese scene of garage psych madmen like High Rise, Mainliner, and Acid Mothers Temple at their most extreme. In the red, blown out insanity. Further comparisons could be made to such acts as the Dead C, Comets On Fire, The Heads, Grey Daturas, Aufgehoben, Shit and Shine, Residual Echoes, White Hills, Burnt Hills, Wolf Eyes, Midnight Snake, and others who ought to be required to file an environmental impact statement before they plug in their amps and guitars...
MPEG Stream: "Superpower"
MPEG Stream: "Acid Lightning Strike"
MPEG Stream: "Spacetime"

HOWLIN' MAGIC The Dreaming (Lal Lal Lal) cd 16.98
Santa cruz via Finland blown out blues noise action, back in stock again!
Record number two from Howlin' Magic, and it's all about more howlin', more magic too if you're as enchanted by this brand of blown-out blooze as we are. Lo-fi and lovin' it. Is this the first non-Finnish release on the Lal Lal Lal label? Well Howlin' Magic fits right in with the usual Finnish weirdness even though they're just from just down Santa Cruz way, and by they we mean he, 'cause Howlin' Magic is a one man band. Imagine ol' Hasil Adkins playing stuff that sounds more like old Comets On Fire. Such insane all-instrumental shambolic stomp, with a mystic sci-fi hippieish vibe reflected in such song titles as "Voltron", "Quantum", and "The Universe Is Love". As with the first album from Howlin' Magic (not to be confused with Howlin' Rain, by the way!), this is for those who love psychedelic geetar excess, a la everything from Acid Mothers Temple to Michael Yonkers... freakin' recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Thanaton III"
MPEG Stream: "Mac And Bloo"
MPEG Stream: "Lord Jagannath"

HOWLIN' RAIN Magnificent Fiend (Birdman / Def American) cd 12.98
Not as good as the first one, and we weren't too wild about that one either. We prefer Ethan in Comets On Fire, but maybe that's just us...

HOWLIN' RAIN s/t (Birdman) cd 14.98
It would seem that the idea behind Howlin Rain, featuring members of Comets On Fire (guitarist/vocalist Ethan Miller) and Sunburned Hand Of The Man (drummer John Moloney), is to be a total California-style hippy throwback rural rock n' roll band, like from the late '60s or early '70s. Think Creedence, Quicksilver, Crazy Horse, and The Dead. They do a pretty good job of it -- these sprawling songs are all full of strummin' sunshine and scented smoke and even some swingin' saxophone. Ethan's raggedy whiskey voice (very Rod Stewart, actually) sounds just perfect for this, whilst the band choogles authentically. Or gets mellow, very mellow.
But don't worry, just when you think maybe they're just getting a little bit -too- laid back and melodic, Ethan will unleash some truly fucked, utterly obliterating noisy psych guitar to remind you that he's the dude from Comets On Fire after all. Those fuzzy guitar freakouts are really what makes this work for us, actually, and keeps this from being, uh, just an underground Black Crowes. We're reminded (to make a reference probably not too many folks will be familiar with, sorry) of Slap Happy Humphrey, the Japanese band that combined acoustic '70s folk with blasts of Japanoise guitar mayhem courtesty Jojo Hiroshige of Hijokaidan. This isn't -that- extreme but it's the same general idea, as also applied by Japanese psych acts like Nagisa Ni Te and Shizuka. Howlin indeed.
MPEG Stream: "Calling Lightening With A Scythe"
MPEG Stream: "The Hanging Heart"

HOWLIN' RAIN The Russian Wilds (American Recordings) cd 13.98

HOWLING HEX 1-2-3 (Drag City) cd 14.98
This here's an album for folks who dig swampy music that's fucked up, off its ass, played by and for folks who're sooooooo hiiigh. Actually this sounds as though Neil Michael Hagerty with electric guitar and broken drum machine in hand has finally smoked himself retarded. In fact, it's easy to imagine that the title is an indication of the limits of his counting capabilities these days. Really, these recordings seem excessively unravelled even by Hagerty's standards. For one thing, the volume levels of the vocals and instruments are all willy-nilly (too loud guitar atop barely audible vocals and vice versa). Personally we dug the You Can't Beat Tomorrow album far more than this one. It was fucked-up and weird in a good way. That album only just came out in November which makes us think that maybe Hagerty should've let this one brew (or stew?) a bit longer.
MPEG Stream: "If You Can't Tell The Difference, Why Pay Less?"
MPEG Stream: "Where's The Party At , Peaches And Cream? (It's Been A While) "

HOWLING HEX All-Night Fox (Drag City) cd 14.98
Yeah! Howling Hex is the new gig for Mr. Neil Michael Hagerty (formerly of ye old greats Pussy Galore and Royal Trux). A great band name most befitting his usual bad boy yowl, don't ya think? Heck, he thought was a perfect album title back in 2003, why not reuse it?! As per the Hagerty norm, this is a murky garage-y rawk affair, but the man's presence aside, it's the ladies (or maybe it's just a single lady... we really can't tell 'cause unfortunately the backing vocals are uncredited) who take center stage in Howling Hex... and they are awesome! The mysterious female vocals have that old sassy yet womanly quality you might associate with the likes of Nancy Sinatra or Shirley Bassey, and they're the perfect foil for Hagerty's vocals which here are boyish and wheezy. All-Night Fox? Alright!!!
MPEG Stream: "Instilled With Mem'ry"
MPEG Stream: "Pair Back Up Mass With"

HOWLING HEX Nightclub Version Of The Eternal (Drag City) cd 14.98
(Deep radio announcer's voice) Neil... Michael... Hagerty... in what is quite possibly his most melodically straight-forward album to date! Gasp! Shock! Oh my! While his last couple of Howling Hex releases have left us with the mental image of the former Royal Truxer fumbling to press the 'record' button while being completely baked out of his mind -- those were some seriously rad, fucked-up records! -- Nightclub Version Of The Eternal comes across as almost completely sober... which actually makes it even more bizarre in the whole scheme of Hagerty's trademark off-kilter swampy bluesy cheez-tinged tunes. Keepin' us all on our toes. Recommended for fans of the poppier, sunnier side of Royal Trux!
MPEG Stream: "Hammer And Bluebird"
MPEG Stream: "This Planet Sweet"

HOWLING HEX XI (Drag City) cd 14.98

HOWLING HEX, THE You Can't Beat Tomorrow (Drag City) cd + dvd 14.98
Not one to rest on his rump, Mr. Neil Michael Hagerty (yeah, y'know him... ex of Pussy Galore and Royal Trux) delivers a second Howling Hex album in 2005! You Can't Beat Tomorrow picks up right where All-Night Fox left off back in February in its all-out freewheelin' strangeness. Aha, a pattern? One was released a month from the beginning of the year and the other one released a month from the year's end with a dvd. Are we scrutinizing trivialities? Makin' a mountain outta a molehill? 'Kay, we'll just move along to the music then, shall we? First things first, if you dug All-Night Fox, this ain't anything like that. Perhaps, it's the influence of his You Can't Beat Tomorrow backing band o' Texans, the very rootsy Theater Fire? Perhaps, it's just a result of Hagerty tryin' another 'something new' as he is wont to do. Unfortunately, he ditched the female vocals that made All-Night Fox so right-on, but if you're a Hagerty fan you'll find plenty to love in his newest rough-hewn eccentricity-laden path. Still bluesy, still rockin', but with more of a moonshine-drenched swampy hillbilly feel. Hmmm, it almost veers into quirksome Quintron or Ween (circa Pure Guava) cheezy territory with its weeny electric guitar lines, rudimentary drumming, funky basslines, woozied-up horns and murky vocals.
The dvd features The Howling Variety Show by noneother than Neil Michael Hagerty. It's a just-over-half-an-hour, haphazard and decidedly lo-fi program of music, animation and sketches (!), and is apparently a pilot episode... so there very well might be more where that came from.
Far be for us to tell you what to do, but we'd strongly suggest lightin' up a big fatty prior to hitting 'play'. With or without 'refreshments', it's an all-around entertaining hoot!
MPEG Stream: "Cobra Heart"
MPEG Stream: "You Can't Beat Tomorrow"

HOWLING WOLF ORCHESTRA Speedtraps For The Bee Kingdom (Rockathon Records) cd 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Number 9 in the 'Fading Captain' series of Bob Pollard / Guided By Voices related projects. And what more do you need to know? Well, okay, this one is actually a little weirder than your normal Pollard / GBV fare: a rickety framework of spaced out ambience, rhythmic sort-of-retarded drumming and general lo-fi randomness, all supporting some pretty cool not exactly GBV sounding pop songs.

HOYRY-KONE Huono Parturi (Ad Perpetuam Memorium) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of the absolute standout tracks on the recent "Slave To The Power" double cd Iron Maiden covers collection was the version of "The Trooper" by an obscure Finnish chamber-rock combo called Hoyry-Kone. It was certainly the weirdest inclusion on the comp, as they were the only band to pay tribute to Maiden with trombone, cello and saxophone! We'd never heard of them before, but resolved to find out more. Now we've tracked down this reissue of their second album, from 1997. Hopefully their upcoming third album won't take 'em too much longer, 'cause this one is pretty great! They play an eclectic sort of progressive rock, starting the disc off with a lulling, beautiful, quasi-religious six-minute mostly-vocal piece that suggests Nordic folk influences, before erupting into a hard-hitting classical rock attack that combines Naked City-style dynamics with "Eleanor Rigby" strings. From there, we hear echoes of everything from prog greats King Crimson and Area to cabaret music and even a little metal riffing (hence their interest in Maiden I guess)... For fans of Uz Jsme Doma, Samala Mammas Manna, Borknagar, Bondage Fruit, Arcturus, and other international exemplars of complex, melodic, progressive, and (last-but-not-least) *bizarre* rock. Recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Laahustaja"

HOYSTON, JENNY Isle Of (Latitudes / Southern) cd 14.98
Last year one of our favorite records was one of those limited edition Latitudes eps from Paradise Island. Sadly that great ep is now out of print but luckily Jenny Hoyston, who is Paradise Island, and a member of the great Erase Errata has unleashed her first full length solo recording, sonically similar, just now under her own name.
Isle Of is everything we've come to love about Jenny's music. It's eccentric, impassioned and so fully engaging. From anthemic blood rushers like "Spell D-O-G" and "Bring Back Art" to twangy numbers like "Even In This Day And Age" and "Send The Angels" to the Mary Timony/Helium like "Novelist" to late-night burners like "Ruff Ruff/Rainbow City," Isle Of is a record filled with unpredictability but with a common thread of honest delivery and colorful expression. While most people treading such wide ground would most likely trip up at some point, Jenny is able to get all those sounds and songs to make perfect sense. Her range and great taste comes shining through brightly, bringing the same kind of intensity that she's perfected in Erase Errata, yet without any of the usual band boundaries.... We love the free and loose sounding Jenny, singing any kind of song she wants, and doing so with a conviction and flare that's impossible not to fall for. Liberating, exciting and totally infectious. Isle Of is highly recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Spell D-O-G"
MPEG Stream: "Novelist"
MPEG Stream: "Break Apart, Reattach"

HOYSTON, JENNY AND WILLIAM WHITMORE Hallways Of Always (Southern) cd 11.98
As if she's not already plenty busy with Erase Errata and Paradise Island, Ms Jenny Hoyston has joined forces with William Elliot Whitmore. Not sure if this is a one-off, but we sure hope not 'cause they make such a great duo, and this six song ep ends all too soon! Their voices compliment each other wonderfully as they weave their earthy tales in true country folk tradition. Yes, we could go on and on lavishing praise, but how 'bout we just cut to the chase and give this a hearty "Recommended!"
MPEG Stream: "Feast Of A Thousand Beasts"
MPEG Stream: "Marrow"

HRSTA Ghosts Will Come And Kiss Our Eyes (Constellation) cd 15.98
Ominous, heavy and despairing, Hrsta's third album really reminded us of the most recent Carla Bozulich album Evangelista on which she collaborated with many of the Godspeed You Black Emperor kindred spirits. It definitely solidifies their position as a mighty stand-out amongst the many Godspeed branches. Ghosts Will Come And Kiss Our Eyes opens with a deep wheeze of an accordion that almost imperceptibly melds with main man Mike Moya's distinct guitar work that glides like a theremin in and around heavy-lidded drones from harmonium and organ. Loosely structured despairing vocal passages vanish into absolutely beautiful glistening drone scapes out of which acoustic guitar and voice re-emerge. Wonderful.
MPEG Stream: "Beau Village"
MPEG Stream: "Tomorrow Winter Comes"

HRSTA Ghosts Will Come And Kiss Our Eyes (Constellation) lp 15.98
Ominous, heavy and despairing, Hrsta's third album really reminded us of the most recent Carla Bozulich album Evangelista on which she collaborated with many of the Godspeed You Black Emperor kindred spirits. It definitely solidifies their position as a mighty stand-out amongst the many Godspeed branches. Ghosts Will Come And Kiss Our Eyes opens with a deep wheeze of an accordion that almost imperceptibly melds with main man Mike Moya's distinct guitar work that glides like a theremin in and around heavy-lidded drones from harmonium and organ. Loosely structured despairing vocal passages vanish into absolutely beautiful glistening drone scapes out of which acoustic guitar and voice re-emerge. Wonderful.
MPEG Stream: "Beau Village"
MPEG Stream: "Tomorrow Winter Comes"

HRSTA L'Eclat Du Ciel Etait Insoutenable (Fancy) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Is your Godspeed You Black Emperor antenna tingling? Yup, this is yet another project from the fertile Montreal scene, featuring Mike Moya, a GSYBE! founding member. He's also in Set Fire To Flames and Molasses. Hrsta (say "Hursh-tah") is his solo debut, featuring vocals, guitar and a lot of background creepiness. His dark and mournful vocal moments bring to mind Nico with the Velvet Underground or a drugged out Violent Femmes doing Leonard Cohen songs!
RealAudio clip: "Lime Kiln"

HRSTA Stem Stem In Electro (Constellation) cd 14.98
Hrsta is the project of Godspeed You Black Emperor co-founding member Mike Moya (also of Set Fire To Flames and Molasses). he's assembled a full band for this, the follow-up to his first solo album L'Eclat Du Ciel Etait Insoutenable, and it's a beauty. The first song draws back the heavy curtain on a darkened stage with a droning chorus of shadowy faceless chanted vocals which immediately drew comparisons to the Italian ensemble Larsen's fine album Rever which was an AQ Record Of The Week a couple of years ago. In fact, we'd venture a guess that much like that mysterious group, Hrsta also draw deep inspiration from Swans and Michael Gira. Weighted by an immense emotional gravity, Moya's music is a heady, hypnotic force -- half dream, half nightmare. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "...And We Climb"
MPEG Stream: "Une Infinite De Trous En Forme D'Hommes"

HRSTA Stem Stem In Electro (Constellation) lp 16.98
Now on vinyl. Hrsta is the project of Godspeed You Black Emperor co-founding member Mike Moya (also of Set Fire To Flames and Molasses). he's assembled a full band for this, the follow-up to his first solo album L'Eclat Du Ciel Etait Insoutenable, and it's a beauty. The first song draws back the heavy curtain on a darkened stage with a droning chorus of shadowy faceless chanted vocals which immediately drew comparisons to the Italian ensemble Larsen's fine album Rever which was an AQ Record Of The Week a couple of years ago. In fact, we'd venture a guess that much like that mysterious group, Hrsta also draw deep inspiration from Swans and Michael Gira. Weighted by an immense emotional gravity, Moya's music is a heady, hypnotic force -- half dream, half nightmare. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "...And We Climb"
MPEG Stream: "Une Infinite De Trous En Forme D'Hommes"

HRVATSKI / SIGHTINGS split (Ache Records) 7" 5.98

HTRK Eat Yr Heart / Sweetheart (Ghostly International) 12" 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

HTRK Marry Me Tonight (Blast First Petite) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
When was the last time anyone made a Sisters Of Mercy reference and meant it as a wholehearted compliment? Well, that's definitely the case for HTRK (pronounced Haterock, FYI) as this Melbourne trio adopts a bleaker than black stance through their psychosexual dirges. With slinky Goth basslines, ghostly coldwave electronics, and skeletal slow-mo drum machine pulses, HTRK's arrangements mirror those that the Sisters Of Mercy produced for The Reptile House EP (which found them at their slowest, creepiest, and most anti-pop). But instead of Andrew Eldritch and his affected baritone, the singer for HTRK is Jonnine Clementine Standish whose comatose droning is seductive and compelling in its own right. She adopts the roles as the co-dependent, the broken-hearted, the addicted, the master, the servant, and the lonely, all delivered in Lydia Lunch's "I Fell In Love With A Ghost" dispassionate, zombified mantra. On the track "Rent Boy", Standish breaks out of that montone delivery, bellowing this dark ballad that comes across more like PJ Harvey than before. We have to wonder if the title is a reference to the These Immortal Souls track "Marry Me," penned by the former Birthday Party guitarist Roland S. Howard who happens to have produced this record and has sprinkled his narcotized swamp rock guitar throughout. No matter if it is or if it isn't, Howard's voodoo production for HTRK certainly gives them that Birthday Party feel. Great, very dark stuff for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Ha"
MPEG Stream: "Rent Boy"
MPEG Stream: "Fascinator"

HTRK Nostalgia (Fire) cd 15.98
Once known as the Hate Rock Trio, this Australian-born / London-based ensemble shortened their name down to HTRK (which the band still insists on pronouncing Hate Rock). Unfortunately, in the spring of 2010, the bassist Sean Stewart committed suicide. The remaining members - Jonnine Standish and Nigel Lee-Yang - look to continue making music, although that may seem a difficult proposition given that Stewart's low-slung basslines really drove HTRK's doom and dirge songwriting approach. The Birthday Party, Sisters Of Mercy, and PJ Harvey came together within HTRK's very impressive 2009 album Marry Me Tonight, produced by Roland S. Howard who really emphasized the skeletal, haunted aspect of HTRK's sound. That's quite different from what you'll hear on their 2007 debut Nostalgia, which still had a very strong Birthday Party sound especially with Stewart's recapitulation of Tracy Pew basslines, but the band has buried Standish's exhausted / exasperated vocals, Lee-Yang's swampy guitars, and the minimalist electronic programming in a huge bath of reverb. The spectral morass of all of the reverb really casts as a abjectly narcotic to the feel of these songs. Where on Marry Me Tonight which pushed Standish's vocals to the foreground to dramatic effect, she's lurking around the corners of these songs, howling and yelping deep into the night. It should be noted that a couple of songs from Nostalgia do reappear on Marry Me Tonight, although the difference in production really does change the the outcome. "Look What's Been Done" has become "Ha". "Look At That Girl" reappeared as "Rent Boy" and "I'm All Broke Up" turned into "Disco." Really fantastic.
MPEG Stream: "Look What's Been Done"
MPEG Stream: "Look At Her"
MPEG Stream: "I'm All Broke Up"

HTRK Work (Work, Work) (Ghostly International) cd 12.98
It's a bleak world for HTRK, as tragedy and death has surrounded this outfit which has only been around for a couple of years. In 2010, the band's bassist Sean Stewart committed suicide and the producer of their haunted album Marry Me Tonight, Rowland S. Howard died of cancer a year earlier. All of these elements make a connection to The Birthday Party almost inevitable, especially given their historical mirroring in relocation from Melbourne to Berlin and the manifestation of the id through a very raw sound. But where The Birthday Party was an expression of violence, HTRK are in constant search of desire, occasionally finding it only to have it frustratingly fizzle out before anything ecstatic can be achieved. As a result, HTRK's sensual bleariness is in an emotional feedback loop that never can spiral beyond the longing for sex, love, a relationship, etc, without anything ever attained. HTRK's existential portraits of being trapped by one's own desires are in direct opposition to the hedonism found in most electronica. Here on Work (Work, Work), the band parallels some of the horror-affected reverberation of the flash-in-the-pan Witch House crowd; but instead of drawing on unremembered memories of the forgotten '80s, HTRK has profound pain to draw upon... and they want their audience to feel that too.
The band had been shifting their sound even before Stewart's death, with a greater reliance on electronics and subharmonic tones girding the spindly guitar work from Nigel Yang and the self-composed breathiness of Jonnine Standish. They were moving away from the rock trio and towards a miasma of voice, guitar, bass, and electronics with boundaries between these sounds far more permeable. The closest references to HTRK's sound would be Ike Yard and Dome, although HTRK are much more interested in building tension with their teasing melodicism through their droning electronics. The first track on the album features a weird collage that Stewart had made of late nite TV sex ads in Berlin amidst slow-motion sighs caught in a half-melodic drone and crawling drum machine pulse. "Eat Yr Heart" ramps a quarter-speed Giorgio Moroder sequence above heroin paced rhythm with Jonnine crooning a sultry melody counterpointed by breathy exhalations. Sexually charged yes, but more of a downward spiral into dejection rather than release. "Poison" is more in keeping with the bass and guitar structures found on Marry Me Tonight, with Sean Stewart's bass clearly present next to the twilight flickering drone-riffs from Yang. "Body Double" overhauls Suicide's classic sound of metallic synth / drum interplay with undulating melodies that stretch into a magnificent coda of cascading melancholy for what amounts to a masterful album. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Ice Eyes Eis"
MPEG Stream: "Eat Yr Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Poison"
MPEG Stream: "Body Double"

HTRK Work (Work, Work) (Ghostly International) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
It's a bleak world for HTRK, as tragedy and death has surrounded this outfit which has only been around for a couple of years. In 2010, the band's bassist Sean Stewart committed suicide and the producer of their haunted album Marry Me Tonight, Rowland S. Howard died of cancer a year earlier. All of these elements make a connection to The Birthday Party almost inevitable, especially given their historical mirroring in relocation from Melbourne to Berlin and the manifestation of the id through a very raw sound. But where The Birthday Party was an expression of violence, HTRK are in constant search of desire, occasionally finding it only to have it frustratingly fizzle out before anything ecstatic can be achieved. As a result, HTRK's sensual bleariness is in an emotional feedback loop that never can spiral beyond the longing for sex, love, a relationship, etc, without anything ever attained. HTRK's existential portraits of being trapped by one's own desires are in direct opposition to the hedonism found in most electronica. Here on Work (Work, Work), the band parallels some of the horror-affected reverberation of the flash-in-the-pan Witch House crowd; but instead of drawing on unremembered memories of the forgotten '80s, HTRK has profound pain to draw upon... and they want their audience to feel that too.
The band had been shifting their sound even before Stewart's death, with a greater reliance on electronics and subharmonic tones girding the spindly guitar work from Nigel Yang and the self-composed breathiness of Jonnine Standish. They were moving away from the rock trio and towards a miasma of voice, guitar, bass, and electronics with boundaries between these sounds far more permeable. The closest references to HTRK's sound would be Ike Yard and Dome, although HTRK are much more interested in building tension with their teasing melodicism through their droning electronics. The first track on the album features a weird collage that Stewart had made of late nite TV sex ads in Berlin amidst slow-motion sighs caught in a half-melodic drone and crawling drum machine pulse. "Eat Yr Heart" ramps a quarter-speed Giorgio Moroder sequence above heroin paced rhythm with Jonnine crooning a sultry melody counterpointed by breathy exhalations. Sexually charged yes, but more of a downward spiral into dejection rather than release. "Poison" is more in keeping with the bass and guitar structures found on Marry Me Tonight, with Sean Stewart's bass clearly present next to the twilight flickering drone-riffs from Yang. "Body Double" overhauls Suicide's classic sound of metallic synth / drum interplay with undulating melodies that stretch into a magnificent coda of cascading melancholy for what amounts to a masterful album. Highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Ice Eyes Eis"
MPEG Stream: "Eat Yr Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Poison"
MPEG Stream: "Body Double"

HUBBS, STAN Crystal (Companion / Gloriette) lp 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We can always count on local reissue label Companion Records to foster the kind of rare hidden musical gem that perhaps won't appeal to everyone, but will get a select group of enthusiasts very excited over the discovery of someone's sincerely unique, but oftentimes misguided musical vision. Companion's specialty has always been cd reissues of vintage private press vanity releases, such as the Luie Luie, Charlie Tweddle, Marc Mundy, and New Creation records, and for their first foray into vinyl, have given us two quite amazing but very different musical visionaries: the spirited orchestral lounge stylings of Michael Farneti (reviewed elsewhere on this list) and the latent stoner mope-psych of Stan Hubbs.
Released in collaboration with Gloriette Records (Nite Jewel, Ariel Pink, and Puro Instinct), Stan Hubbs' 1982 recording Crystal is more out of its time than ahead of it. Recorded in his rural Sonoma County living room, it seems like the band almost can't decide if they're latent hippie stoner boogie-folk, eighties shred-guitar rock or progressively disaffected mope wave, which makes for an unusually intriguing sound that is hard to pin down. Hubb's vocals sometimes sung in a near monotone with female singer Kriss O'Neil can sound as much like a downer Fleetwood Mac as it can resemble some of today's gloomy pop found in Beach Fossils or Crystal Ships. But it's Larry Doyle's kitchen sink electric guitar approach that makes it really out of sync in an amazing way. Using lots of psychedelic effects and sounding like he's eager to show off his shredding licks to anyone who comes along, Doyle shows just barely enough restraint not to overstep the hazy vibe the singers and keyboards are laying down. Imagine if Simply Saucer did a cover of America's "Tin Man", and you'll sort of get the idea. But this is regionalism at its best, taking lots of big musical ideas from different popular styles and making something completely home-brewed, a bit oft-kilter and super genuine. Limited to 500 copies, comes with a full reproduction of the 16 page booklet of lyrics and drawings that came with the original release. Hot Damn!
MPEG Stream: "Joe and Gina"
MPEG Stream: "Let's Go On Back To Camp"
MPEG Stream: "Golden Rose"
MPEG Stream: "Seems Like It's A Rich Man's World"

HUDSON MOHAWKE Butter (Warp) cd 16.98
For fans of Dam-Funk , Flying Lotus and James Pants. Neo-Electro funk with lots of cheesy eighties synth patches and wobbly beats!