SCHULZE, KLAUS Blackdance (Revisited) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
You never know quite what you're going to get with a Klaus Schulze record. Well, you know you 're gonna get long and alienlike synthscapes, but you never know where or how Schulze's particular eccentricies are going to manifest themselves. Not sure if Blackdance was reissued out of chronological order or we are just reviewing it late but after having reviewed Irrlicht, Cyborg and Timewind, we jump back a year before Timewind to 1974. Maybe this makes sense because out of the four, Blackdance is the most different, it's slightly warmer, more playful and there is much more weird stuff happening. Of course the tracks are still epically long, but beneath the synth-drones we find a lot more rhythms, bongos and drums, acoustic guitars, a lot more propulsive phasing, electronic squiggles and just in general much more movement than the previously reviewed records. By the third track, we hear some Gregorian chanting before some pulsing and clicking rhythms appear to duel with the church-y organ cycles. But it's the two bonus tracks that set this release apart from the rest. "Foreplay" has a sci-fi epic-ness to it as it sounds like the arrival of a giant spaceship preparing to battle backed by choir like synth-voices and explosive rumblings. And the strangely titled "Synthies Have (No) Balls?" is full throttle heavy organ drone with pitch-shifted synth phases and spectacular drumming that is Schulze's most rocking outing we've heard yet. Pretty awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Ways Of Chances"
MPEG Stream: "Voices of Syn"
MPEG Stream: "Synthies Have (No) Balls?"

SCHULZE, KLAUS Cyborg (Revisited) 2cd 23.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Well, it's about fucking time. The quintessential space-drone-komische-psychedelic headtrip has finally been reissued. Cyborg is one of those albums like the first couple Os Mutantes albums or Comus' First Utterance or Amon Duul II's Yeti that should NEVER go out of print, yet due to negligence or contractual issues or what have you, there have occasionally been times where those sorts of record do disappear, which then forces us to hop up on our soap boxes and holler until somebody makes it right.
Curiously enough, Klaus Schulze began his musical escapades as a drummer, first in Ash Ra Tempel and then communing in the early incarnations of Tangerine Dream; but his solo work is solely electronic. Moogs, mellotrons, and all types of synthesizers became part of his increasing arsenal for his sprawling electronic compositions; but in many ways, Schulze's best work was composed through simpler means. Cyborg, like its equally impressive predecessor Irrlicht, is a relatively sparse affair of floating electronic patterns, tones, and drones, without really hiding Schulze's admiration of Wagner's compositional grandreur and weighty moods. In framing the album about technology infiltrating the human condition, Schulze alternates between a sense of wonder, heralded by technology's promise of progress, and a sense of horror, with technology absorbing humanity within that drive for progress, whatever that may mean. It's an emotionally dynamic yet ultimately sinister record, and one that clearly has influenced hundreds if not thousands of electronic musicians since it's original release back in 1973. Brian Eno, Pete Namlook, Omit, Wolfgang Voigt, and Troum would be the artists we could cite as being hugely influenced by Schulze's work.
With the reissue of Cyborg with its four sprawling tracks of electronic scintillation, Schulze has fleshed out this double cd with a fantastic bonus track that's well over 50 minutes long! Even without that hefty bonus track, Cyborg was brilliant back then, and it's still brilliant today.
MPEG Stream: "Chromengel"
MPEG Stream: "Synphara"

SCHULZE, KLAUS Irrlicht (Revisited) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wow! We are so excited that this has been put back into print. Klaus Schulze has an extremely extensive back catalog, and sometimes it can feel a bit overwhelming as to how to navigate it and where you should begin. With Irrlicht once again available we say that answer becomes a little easier. This was his very first solo album which he recorded in 1972 shortly after he left his stint drumming for legendary Krautrockers Ash Ra Tempel (he was also was the drummer in the earliest and maybe greatest incarnation of Tangerine Dream.) After stepping away from the drum-kit Schulze found where he really was most comfortable, and that was behind his elaborate setup of keyboards. With the advent of the Moog, and his mastery of the organ, Schulze was interested in making a new kind of music. Electronic music that was oozing with atmosphere, tension and sensuality. When Schulze was making this record he was heavily under the influence of Musique Concrete along with some other things we are sure! He had a damaged amplifier at the time which would break out into internal feedback when he turned up its volume control. He also went to a large classical orchestra in Berlin where we was allowed to attend a rehearsal that he recorded and then played backwards throughout Irrlicht. For an artists who would go one to make so many more records this still stands as one of, if not his greatest (even though it actually pre-dates his adoption of the Moog synth as instrument of choice!). Along with Cluster, Eno and Kraftwerk, Schulze stands as one of the fathers of electronic music as we know it. What's also so amazing about this record is how you could imagine so many of our favorite black metal bands hearing this and it seeping its way into the more moody/damaged elements of their records. The eerie ambiance of many Burzum and Striborg records can be heard in the totally intense undertones of Irrlicht. Thanks in part to many of the limitations that he was facing back then, there is an eerie and majestic presence to this album. Sometimes beat up organs, messed up amplifiers, and youthful enthusiasm stand the test of time. Especially when the person behind the controls had this amazing knack for creating eerie, haunting otherworldly sounds.
This reissue comes in a nice digipack with liner notes in both German and English, some in the form of an interview with KS himself. And, there's a 24 minute long bonus track called "Dungeon"! It's not necessarily from the Irrlicht sessions, in fact no-one seems to know exactly when or where it's from (other than somwhere in Europe, early '70s), but it's agreed that it's more early Klaus Schulze dronework that needs to be heard...
MPEG Stream: "Satz: Ebene"
MPEG Stream: "Dungeon"

SCHULZE, KLAUS Picture Music (Spalax) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SCHULZE, KLAUS Timewind (Revisited) 2cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Well, here is yet another monumental two cd Klaus Schulze reissue from Revisited who have previously reissued Irrlicht from 1972 and Cyborg from 1973. This time around we'll spare you Schulze's back story as you can read more about it in the above mentioned reviews.
Klaus Schulze's fifth album Timewind, his 1975 debut for Virgin Records has long been considered, in some circles, his masterwork. Yet quantifying Schulze's immense output in such a way is a difficult and slippery task. Surely signing to Virgin introduced him to a wider audience, but Timewind is hardly any more "accessible" than his prior output nor is it the kind of precedent to New Age music that you would expect from the label who released Tubular Bells. Dedicated to Richard Wagner, Timewind's two sidelong pieces further explore Schulze's fascination with starkly sensual and droning soundscapes, where icy synth pulsations converge with long tonal organ flights until these overlapping rhythms simultaneously gain and decrease in momentum becoming slowly bubbling Moog passages with shimmering electric washes. Like a windy barren landscape on some depopulated planet, Schulze's compositions read like epics of a post-human technological future. Included is a second bonus disc of two long unreleased tracks recorded around the same time and one recently recorded track that harkens back to a sound more affiliated with the late seventies output of Schulze's former band-mates in Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel, which means it's awesome!
MPEG Stream: "Bayreuth Return"
MPEG Stream: "Solar Wind"

SCHWERMUT FOREST Sort of (Kollaps/Kitty Yo) cd 16.98
From the scene that brought us Village of Savoonga, Tied and Tickled Trio, Couch, and Tarwater comes Schwermut Forest. Very similar in feel to their musical scenemates, but with a much lighter feel. Some vocals in German, but mostly Tortoise-y instrumentals.

SCIANKA Statek Kosmiczny (Obuh/Biodro) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Scianka is a Polish group whose name as 'spaceship'... A fitting name as the singer for Scianka clearly learned how to sing (and speak English) by listening to Elvis Costello and Iggy & the Stooges, and fronts a band who blatantly rips off riffs from Zeppelin and the Stones only to have them obliterated by totally weird mutant polka and hyperactive carnivaleseque moments worthy of Uz Jsme Doma! So jarring that Allan got up from his desk in the back office 4 or 5 times in disbelief that this was still Scianka blaring from our humble stereo.

SCIENCE FICTION DANCE PARTY (AKA THE SCIENCE FICTION CORPORATION) Dance With Action (B-Music / Finders Keepers) cd 15.98
It's pretty obvious why the folks at B-music (like DJs Andy Votel and Dom Thomas) dig these particular collectible exploito obscurities so much, and why they're so excited to be reissuing 'em in their new "Germanic Miner" series dedicated to "krautsider music"! What could be more B-musical than these two faux soundtracks concocted in the late sixties by a couple of creative German producers, operating at the weird, wacked out intersection of kitschy library music and freaky krautrock? One's a slice of slinky, sorta-scary "horrotica", the other a spaced out sci-fi fest for the Barbarella set. Both are delirious, demented party-pleasers.
The Vampires Of Dartmoore and their Dracula's Music Cabinet conjures a sexy frightmare of hip swinging, bloodsucking sounds. "Mord Im Ohio Express (Murder In The Ohio Express)" seems kinda surfy, but mostly this is about groovy porno lounge music, with smoky horns and jazzy percussion, interwoven with screams and creepy sound effects, moaning and groaning, dogs barking and something going boing boing boing... It's a very NON-academic application of musique concrete technique, noises worked into the songs, such as the rumbling explosions that punctuate "Eine Handvoll Nitro (A Handful Of Nitro)". The mix is fairly chaotic, stuff fading in and out, levels up and down. If this WAS a movie soundtrack, it would have been a pretty crazy movie. Tracks reference Hitchcock, Dr. Caligari, and Frankenstein's monster. And sex. Definitely sex.
Equally bizarre, if less R-rated, is the Science Fiction Dance Party. Again, it's groovy, jazzy, sometimes fuzzy "instro-hipster" style stuff, laced with loads of goofy outer space sound effects and rocketship radio drama theatrics. It sounds like music for a cocktail party and/or acid test on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. You can imagine Robbie the Robot getting down to this. Distorted alien and/or computer voices abound, song titles include "Visitors Of A.D. 2022", "The Whistling Astronaut", and "Hit Parade In The Light Year 25" (which doesn't even make sense, don't they know that light years are a measure of distance?). As well as whistling, there's some screams here too, as spacemen are presumably being zapped with rayguns, but the music remains jaunty. Even the song "Death Rays Out Of The Universe" is inexplicably upbeat. So, it's all very silly, but a lot of fun.
Both albums feature bonus tracks (2 previously unreleased "Petting Party" jams on Vampires, 4 extra tracks on Science Fiction that come back to earth to delve into disco and Eastern exotica instead). The slipcased cds of these are now domestic releases (we waited instead of getting the expensive imports) but the LP versions remain imports.
MPEG Stream: "Monster On Saturn 1"
MPEG Stream: "Murder In The Space Station"
MPEG Stream: "Death Rays Out Of The Universe"

SCIENCE FICTION DANCE PARTY (AKA THE SCIENCE FICTION CORPORATION) Dance With Action (B-Music / Finders Keepers) lp 29.00
Also available on (import only) vinyl!
It's pretty obvious why the folks at B-music (like DJs Andy Votel and Dom Thomas) dig these particular collectible exploito obscurities so much, and why they're so excited to be reissuing 'em in their new "Germanic Miner" series dedicated to "krautsider music"! What could be more B-musical than these two faux soundtracks concocted in the late sixties by a couple of creative German producers, operating at the weird, wacked out intersection of kitschy library music and freaky krautrock? One's a slice of slinky, sorta-scary "horrotica", the other a spaced out sci-fi fest for the Barbarella set. Both are delirious, demented party-pleasers.
The Vampires Of Dartmoore and their Dracula's Music Cabinet conjures a sexy frightmare of hip swinging, bloodsucking sounds. "Mord Im Ohio Express (Murder In The Ohio Express)" seems kinda surfy, but mostly this is about groovy porno lounge music, with smoky horns and jazzy percussion, interwoven with screams and creepy sound effects, moaning and groaning, dogs barking and something going boing boing boing... It's a very NON-academic application of musique concrete technique, noises worked into the songs, such as the rumbling explosions that punctuate "Eine Handvoll Nitro (A Handful Of Nitro)". The mix is fairly chaotic, stuff fading in and out, levels up and down. If this WAS a movie soundtrack, it would have been a pretty crazy movie. Tracks reference Hitchcock, Dr. Caligari, and Frankenstein's monster. And sex. Definitely sex.
Equally bizarre, if less R-rated, is the Science Fiction Dance Party. Again, it's groovy, jazzy, sometimes fuzzy "instro-hipster" style stuff, laced with loads of goofy outer space sound effects and rocketship radio drama theatrics. It sounds like music for a cocktail party and/or acid test on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. You can imagine Robbie the Robot getting down to this. Distorted alien and/or computer voices abound, song titles include "Visitors Of A.D. 2022", "The Whistling Astronaut", and "Hit Parade In The Light Year 25" (which doesn't even make sense, don't they know that light years are a measure of distance?). As well as whistling, there's some screams here too, as spacemen are presumably being zapped with rayguns, but the music remains jaunty. Even the song "Death Rays Out Of The Universe" is inexplicably upbeat. So, it's all very silly, but a lot of fun.
Both albums feature bonus tracks (2 previously unreleased "Petting Party" jams on Vampires, 4 extra tracks on Science Fiction that come back to earth to delve into disco and Eastern exotica instead). The slipcased cds of these are now domestic releases (we waited instead of getting the expensive imports) but the LP versions remain imports.
MPEG Stream: "Monster On Saturn 1"
MPEG Stream: "Murder In The Space Station"
MPEG Stream: "Death Rays Out Of The Universe"

SCIENCE OF YABA Don't Panic (Frenetic) cd 11.98

SCIENCE OF YABBA Check The Sound (Frenetic) cd 9.98

SCIENTISTS Sedition (ATP) cd 15.98

MPEG Stream: "Swampland"
MPEG Stream: "Burnout"
MPEG Stream: "Solid Gold Hell"

SCIENTISTS This Is My Happy Hour (Cherry Red Phonograph) lp 33.00

SCIENTISTS This Is My Happy Hour (Cherry Red Phonograph) lp 33.00

SCIENTISTS, THE Frantic Romantic (Agitated Records) 7" 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Originally released on Record Store Day, this little Aussie power pop / post punk gem is now available again, in a non Record Store Day version, it's a repress of the original debut 7" from legendary Australian punks The Scientists, originally released in 1979, this still sounds as great as ever, and more shockingly, it really shines a light on the current crop of retro poppers and how beholden they really are to what came before, and how what came before is SO MUCH BETTER. These two jams KILL, the A side is a timeless chunk of swaggery punky pop, snarly vox, big crashing guitars, surprisingly buys drums and some drop dead hooks, the B side too, a little bit glammier, but still snarly and swaggery and totally untouchable.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "Frantic Romantic"

SCIENTISTS, THE Pissed On Another Planet (Sympathy For The Record Industry) cd 16.98

SCIENTISTS, THE Rubber Never Sleeps (Bang! Records) 2lp 33.00
Holy crap, this long circulated bootleg, originally released in the early eighties as a crazy limited unofficial cassette, has now been remastered and reissued as a super deluxe double lp. Capturing a classic period in the early years of these Aussie post punks, four sides of swaggery, snarly, swampy garage punk action, the sound delivered in varying degrees of fidelity, it was bootleg after all, but all the tracks here rule, loose and ramshackle, sloppy and wild, unhinged and fuzzed out and catchy as hell, a bunch of cool covers too, Alex Chilton, Chuck Berry, the Troggs, some rarities but also some Scientists classics. All recorded between the late seventies and early eighties, and sounding way better than any of the versions you might have dug up on some blog.
Pressed on 150 gram vinyl, housed in a thick full color gatefold sleeve (with printed innersleeves), featuring lots of rare photos, and extensive liner notes from various Scientists, all telling wild tales of back in the day!
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!!

SCISSOR GIRLS Staticland (Load) 10" 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Snappy new ep from female Chicago no-wave band often described as the Raincoats meet Melt Banana.

SCISSOR SISTERS Night Work (Polydor) cd 12.98
The Robert Mapelthorp cover art is our favorite part.

SCISSOR SISTERS s/t (Universal) cd 15.98
The current flavor of the day in the music scenester hype parade seems to be the Scissor Sisters, and they're definitely receiving the love 'em / hate 'em reception around AQ (more so the latter actually). The lovers aren't going to give a poop what we say, and likewise, the haters. Nonetheless, here's our take on this album...
An ultra party affair, a mishmash of already mishmashy genres such as faux soul, glammy rock, disco drag, and poncy new romantic! The album as a whole sorta made many of us think it was a 2004 remake of the Flashdance soundtrack complete with a "Maniac"-style aerobics class-ready track (see "Music Is The Victim"). Think of Scissor Sisters as plugging into a similarly contrived, irony-heavy, nostalgic vein as the combined excessively stylized and slickly produced forces of The Darkness and Fischerspooner. Sound good to you? Will probably be filed in many record libraries under "guilty pleasure".
MPEG Stream: "Laura"
MPEG Stream: "Music Is The Victim"

SCISSORS FOR LEFTY Bruno (self-released) cd 5.98

SCISSORS FOR LEFTY Underhanded Romance (Eenie Meenie) cd 14.98
Take a healthy dose of the Brit rock swagger of Pulp, some Canadian earnest buoyancy a la Hot Hot Heat and a bit of the New York rawk slouch of The Strokes, mix well. Then give'r all a blast of Bay Area sun-kissed breeziness and you might find yourself cuttin' a rug with Scissors For Lefty. Unlike many of their contemporaries whose dance rock tunes are simply one dimensional repetitions of a so-so melodic line that rely heavily on the button-pushing 4/4 thump to do all the work for 'em, Scissors For Lefty's equally dancefloor worthy tracks are full-fledged songs that actually go somewhere, following charmingly witty story arcs. If they ever remake the movie Valley Girl, the album's ninth song "Got Your Moments" should be first in line to appear on the soundtrack! Fun!
MPEG Stream: "Nickels And Dimes"
MPEG Stream: "Got Your Moments"

SCORCHED EARTH POLICY Keep Away From The Wires (Medication) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If Belle & Sebastian went bad, had a penchant for petty arson, fist fights, and heavy drinking, and wrote some downright mean pop songs, they would have been New Zealand's Scorched Earth Policy. "Keep Away From The Wires" collects the handful of the recordings made during the tumultous career of the band which only lasted from 1982 - 1986 after which the band dissolved to focus on other projects like The Terminals, The Pin Group, and The Renderers.

SCORPIONS Lonesome Crow (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.
Ok. Go to YouTube and watch this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=8nTGTCSGj30&mode=related&search=
Now, buy this album.
What, you need more???
Ok, but don't think we won't try that ploy again.
So, if'n you don't know, 1972's Lonesome Crow was the first ever album from Germany's Scorpions, a band later to become worldwide heavy metal hitmakers. Here, though, their not-so-humble beginnings are in the realm of heavy, hippie, progressive KRAUTROCK. Of course. In fact, this Conny Plank produced debut was the first ever release in the legendary Brain label 1000-series, catalog number Brain 1001 (and thus it's now getting a nice digipack cd reissue via the Revisited label, along with classic krautrock albums by Klaus Schulze, Eroc, Novalis, and others). It's fully psychedelic heaviness, seriously Sabbathy in spots, featuring the glorious fly-you-to-the-rainbow vocal stylings of a then-bearded and not-yet-balding Klaus Meine and, on virtuoso lead guitar, Michael Schenker, the 16 year old brother of rhythm guitarist Rudy! Young Schenker would soon split the Scorps for what at the time were greener pastures in England's UFO, but since his replacement was the godly Uli Jon Roth, the Scorpions saw no slacking in the dep't. of axe mastery. Still, this first album is definitely sits on its own lonely throne amongst all the amazing early Scorpions records (up thru the last one with Uli, 1977's Taken By Force, you can't really go wrong!).
So fans of the psychedelic proto-metal and krautrock too should check this out...no, it's not like they sound like Can or Faust... but it's not too far off from some Amon Duul II, Lucifer's Friend, Nektar, or even Necronomicon. The title track clocks in at over 13 murky, majestic minutes (that's prog!). And the riffs, well the riffs definitely are Hendrix-Cream-Sabbath influenced, on the road to true metal, sorta an earlier parallel to the evolution of another great '70s metal act, Judas Priest, whose first album was also on the druggy, psychedelic side.
MPEG Stream: "It All Depends"
MPEG Stream: "In Search Of The Peace Of Mind"

SCORPIONS Lonesome Crow (Hip-O) cd 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
We listed the Scorps' Taken By Force last time as a $5 sale cd, turns out that's not the only one they're puttin on sale - amongst others (Lovedrive, Blackout, Animal Magnetism, Love At First Sting) you can also get their early '70s, psych/prog debut Lonesome Crow for that bargain price too. We reviewed it a few years back, so if you missed it then, grab it now, it's only five bucks!
Our review:
Ok. Go to YouTube and watch this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=8nTGTCSGj30&mode=related&search=
Now, buy this album.
What, you need more???
Ok, but don't think we won't try that ploy again.
So, if'n you don't know, 1972's Lonesome Crow was the first ever album from Germany's Scorpions, a band later to become worldwide heavy metal hitmakers. Here, though, their not-so-humble beginnings are in the realm of heavy, hippie, progressive KRAUTROCK. Of course. In fact, this Conny Plank produced debut was the first ever release in the legendary Brain label 1000-series, catalog number Brain 1001. It's fully psychedelic heaviness, seriously Sabbathy in spots, featuring the glorious fly-you-to-the-rainbow vocal stylings of a then-bearded and not-yet-balding Klaus Meine and, on virtuoso lead guitar, Michael Schenker, the 16 year old brother of rhythm guitarist Rudy! Young Schenker would soon split the Scorps for what at the time were greener pastures in England's UFO, but since his replacement was the godly Uli Jon Roth, the Scorpions saw no slacking in the dep't. of axe mastery. Still, this first album is definitely sits on its own lonely throne amongst all the amazing early Scorpions records (up thru the last one with Uli, 1977's Taken By Force, you can't really go wrong!).
So fans of the psychedelic proto-metal and krautrock too should check this out...no, it's not like they sound like Can or Faust... but it's not too far off from some Amon Duul II, Lucifer's Friend, Nektar, or even Necronomicon. The title track clocks in at over 13 murky, majestic minutes (that's prog!). And the riffs, well the riffs definitely are Hendrix-Cream-Sabbath influenced, on the road to true metal, sorta an earlier parallel to the evolution of another great '70s metal act, Judas Priest, whose first album was also on the druggy, psychedelic side.
MPEG Stream: "It All Depends"
MPEG Stream: "In Search Of The Peace Of Mind"

SCORPIONS Taken By Force (Hip-O) cd 5.00
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Just realized that this '70s metal essential was now available at a bargain price - we've got 'em for only five bucks, while they last! From 1978, long before their MTV fame in the '80s, this was the last studio album by the Scorps to feature the guitar playing of Hendrix-obsessed genius-in-his-own-right Uli Jon Roth, and it features one of Uli's most classic compositions: "The Sails Of Charon", a truly majestic metal milestone. The whole album is a metal milestone, really, 'cause it's one on which you can actually hear "proto-metal" giving way to pure metal metal, the kind that would give rise to the NWOBHM, Metallica, speed metal, thrash, etc., etc., via straight up galloping metal steeds, like "Steamrock Fever" and "He's A Woman - She's A Man". The Scorps, who got their start in the '60s, are still sorta psychedelic on Taken By Force, but so heavy and dark and speedy and gothic. Groovy hippie acoustic strum slams into utter heavy howling headbanging epic riff mania all over the place here. Uli, "The Sails Of Charon" aside, is responsible for most of the hippie stuff, of course, contributing "Foxy Lady" like rocker "I've Got To Be Free" and the beautiful (with bongos!) "Your Light", some majestic jangle there all right. And having mentioned Uli, we should also mention vocalist Klaus Meine, whose performance here also kills, whether screaming his head off, or singing a delicate, tearful ballad (with strings) like album-closer "Born To Touch Your Feelings".
For the longest time, this was a difficult Scorpions disc to come by, we remember searching out expensive import copies, so if you're just picking it up now you're lucky to get it so cheap! And it'd be well worth it at thrice the price, or more, anyway. We can't really do it justice in this brief review. '70s Scorps rules!
Remastered, this edition including two bonus tracks, the cowbell-heavy "Suspender Love" and a live version of "Polar Nights" (but the latter's from Tokyo Tapes, so not such a bonus if you already have that).
MPEG Stream: "The Riot Of Your Time"
MPEG Stream: "The Sails Of Charon"
MPEG Stream: "He's A Woman - She's A Man"

SCOTCH EGG, DJ Drumized (Load) cd 15.98
Another manic blast of freaked out 8-bit jams from this curiously monickered purveyor of blown out video game gabber. The sound of Scotch Egg is a bit hard to describe, the closest we can get is, maybe imagine being in an arcade, playing your favorite eighties video game, when inexplicably, lightning strikes the arcade, and the electricity surges through the wiring and right into the video game you're playing, suddenly, the machine freaks out, shooting sparks, the characters on the screen transform into weird shapes and start doing unspeakable things, and the sounds, oh the sounds, that music you grew up with, the soothing lullaby of primitive computer melodies, gone totally haywire, exploding into squalls of utter 8-bit chaos, the rhythms fast and furious tangled and chaotic, flurries of tones, melodies become gnarled and dizzying.
You know that part in Galaga where the mother ship comes down and captures one of your men so you can shoot id down later and have a dual shooter? The sound it makes when it sends out its green and blue tractor beam? Now imagine that sound stretched into a whole song, with the dude from Hella going apeshit on the drums in the background. That perfectly describes one of the songs here. Some of the other tracks sound like the Boredoms if they were transported back to the eighties and tapped to do music for Dig Dug and Mr. Do. Or maybe imagine Venetian Snares, zapped Tron style and beamed into a video game, and these are his desperate musical cries for help. Sound wacked? Well, it is, WAY wacked.
The sounds are all over the map, many you'll recognize as being purloined from some of your favorite video games, but here, they're just tiny parts of a ear pummeling barrage of sound, from Melt Banana style video game grind, to weirdly intense 8-bit drones, all the 'death' music from video games stretched out into actual songs, There are some real drums here and there, some guitar, some fucked up vocals, some tracks even sound like damaged video game free jazz, while others sound like creepy computer math rock, but for the most part it's just frenzied electronic gabber video game lo-fi 8-bit freak out dancefloor destroying mayhem and we LOVE it. Be sure and stick around for the final track, a weird looped groove assembled from what sounds like a tape recorded video game, all lo fi and muddy, but here looped and assembled into some druggy repetitive almost krautrocky drone jam.
MPEG Stream: "Wwwww"
MPEG Stream: "Drumized"
MPEG Stream: "Scotch Stoner"

SCOTT, ROBIN Woman From the Warm Grass (Sunbeam) cd 16.98

SCOTT, SIMON Bunny (Miasmah) cd 16.98
Simon Scott produced one of the best records of 2009 with Navigare, an album whose shoegaze dronemusic was dotted with radioluminescent dream-pop numbers. It was hardly a surprise to us when we learned that he was the drummer of Slowdive way back when. Since then, Scott has produced a single for Immune and a collaboration with Jasper TX, both equally fantastic. For his second proper record, Scott makes a slight detour; but one that is well suited to everything else that's been released by the hauntologically leaning Miasmah records. The album opens with a languid series of smoke and mirror abstractions flickering above a nocturnal jazz rhythm that gives way to a Caretaker-esque melody of disembodied historicism amidst subterranean clatter and eerie scrapings. A walking bassline follows this as the only constant to the next track "Betty" whose distant cacophonous guitars slide into audibility through a dense fog of reverb, with a trip along the drumkit taking one tempestuous fill before succumbing to Scott's omnivorous reverb, sounding not all that far from Supersilent at their grooviest and some of those bleached Crescent instrumentals, if anybody remembers that Bristol outfit. With the breathtaking "Radiances," Scott relives his shoegaze past with a song directly out of the Slowdive playbook: a halo of guitar ambience brightens a classic Brit-pop maudlin rhythm section, where the droning slipperiness of the guitar is perfectly countered by the easy pace of the bassline. It really does sound like "Albatross" off of the Blue Day album by Slowdive, and we mean that as quite a high complement. Scott reprises this dream-pop sensibility on the equally deft "Drilla," with electro-static crackling and plenty of ephemeral drone-guitar work to fill in the blanks.
MPEG Stream: "Betty"
MPEG Stream: "Radiances"
MPEG Stream: "Drilla"

SCOTT, SIMON Bunny (Miasmah) lp 22.00
Simon Scott produced one of the best records of 2009 with Navigare, an album whose shoegaze dronemusic was dotted with radioluminescent dream-pop numbers. It was hardly a surprise to us when we learned that he was the drummer of Slowdive way back when. Since then, Scott has produced a single for Immune and a collaboration with Jasper TX, both equally fantastic. For his second proper record, Scott makes a slight detour; but one that is well suited to everything else that's been released by the hauntologically leaning Miasmah records. The album opens with a languid series of smoke and mirror abstractions flickering above a nocturnal jazz rhythm that gives way to a Caretaker-esque melody of disembodied historicism amidst subterranean clatter and eerie scrapings. A walking bassline follows this as the only constant to the next track "Betty" whose distant cacophonous guitars slide into audibility through a dense fog of reverb, with a trip along the drumkit taking one tempestuous fill before succumbing to Scott's omnivorous reverb, sounding not all that far from Supersilent at their grooviest and some of those bleached Crescent instrumentals, if anybody remembers that Bristol outfit. With the breathtaking "Radiances," Scott relives his shoegaze past with a song directly out of the Slowdive playbook: a halo of guitar ambience brightens a classic Brit-pop maudlin rhythm section, where the droning slipperiness of the guitar is perfectly countered by the easy pace of the bassline. It really does sound like "Albatross" off of the Blue Day album by Slowdive, and we mean that as quite a high complement. Scott reprises this dream-pop sensibility on the equally deft "Drilla," with electro-static crackling and plenty of ephemeral drone-guitar work to fill in the blanks.
MPEG Stream: "Betty"
MPEG Stream: "Radiances"
MPEG Stream: "Drilla"

SCOTT, SIMON Navigare (Miasmah) cd 15.98
Ah, Miasmah! After the likes of Elegi, Jacazek, and Kreng, we're pretty much automatically interested in any new release on Norway's Miasmah label. Like this one. Add in some bits of trivia, like that Scott was once the drummer for shoegazers Slowdive, and that this disc features a guest cameo from another Miasmah artist we love, Jasper TX, and we're already pretty intrigued. We also weren't at all surprised, but certainly pleased, by the gentle swells of ambient sonics that seep sleepily from the speakers when one hits play. The first two tracks, "Introduction Of Cambridge" and "Under Crumbling Skies", are blissfully replete with quiet hum and shimmering textures, forming into and out of drifting diaphanous melodies, blurry and melancholic. Some sparse, slowed down drum skitter adds a touch of Bohren to the proceedings in the first track, while the second employs a glorious chorus of angelic drones, that graces one's ears again and again throughout the disc.
Then, suddenly upping the volume, the third track "Flood Inn" seemingly enters into a subterranean realm full of soft fuzzy distortion. Quasi-industrially rhythmic, with a distant tolling bell heard amidst the crackle, this is ambience of the heavier (but not harsh) variety, almost like something from a Nadja or Jesu album.
Having given warning of a more sinister side, the disc continues on, with seven tracks more, being a beautiful blend of dreaminess, drone and distortion. There are almost pop songs hidden here, with buried rhythms and barely-there vocals (in one instance contributed by 12K's Sanae Yamasaki, aka Moskitoo), electronic treatments rendering the sound sources (guitar, sitar, violin, cello, flute, field recordings, voice, ???) all one lush, hushed, beautifully bleary, gorgeous warm bath of song-like drone...
It's a moodier, shoegazier take on Pop Ambient perhaps, certainly something that fans of Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Final, Jasper TX, and of course those other Miasmah wonders should check out!
MPEG Stream: "Introduction Of Cambridge"
MPEG Stream: "Flood Inn"
MPEG Stream: "Ashma"

SCOTT, SIMON Navigare (Miasmah) lp 19.98
Now available on vinyl!
Ah, Miasmah! After the likes of Elegi, Jacazek, and Kreng, we're pretty much automatically interested in any new release on Norway's Miasmah label. Like this one. Add in some bits of trivia, like that Scott was once the drummer for shoegazers Slowdive, and that this disc features a guest cameo from another Miasmah artist we love, Jasper TX, and we're already pretty intrigued. We also weren't at all surprised, but certainly pleased, by the gentle swells of ambient sonics that seep sleepily from the speakers when one hits play. The first two tracks, "Introduction Of Cambridge" and "Under Crumbling Skies", are blissfully replete with quiet hum and shimmering textures, forming into and out of drifting diaphanous melodies, blurry and melancholic. Some sparse, slowed down drum skitter adds a touch of Bohren to the proceedings in the first track, while the second employs a glorious chorus of angelic drones, that graces one's ears again and again throughout the disc.
Then, suddenly upping the volume, the third track "Flood Inn" seemingly enters into a subterranean realm full of soft fuzzy distortion. Quasi-industrially rhythmic, with a distant tolling bell heard amidst the crackle, this is ambience of the heavier (but not harsh) variety, almost like something from a Nadja or Jesu album.
Having given warning of a more sinister side, the disc continues on, with seven tracks more, being a beautiful blend of dreaminess, drone and distortion. There are almost pop songs hidden here, with buried rhythms and barely-there vocals (in one instance contributed by 12K's Sanae Yamasaki, aka Moskitoo), electronic treatments rendering the sound sources (guitar, sitar, violin, cello, flute, field recordings, voice, ???) all one lush, hushed, beautifully bleary, gorgeous warm bath of song-like drone...
It's a moodier, shoegazier take on Pop Ambient perhaps, certainly something that fans of Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Final, Jasper TX, and of course those other Miasmah wonders should check out!
MPEG Stream: "Introduction Of Cambridge"
MPEG Stream: "Flood Inn"
MPEG Stream: "Ashma"

SCOTT, SIMON Traba (Immune) lp 15.98
Yay! More from the UK dronester with two first names, who was once upon a time the drummer for shoegazers Slowdive, but only really recently came to our attention via his full-length for the Miasmah label last year, entitled Navigare. We loved, loved, loved that record, as we do most things Miasmah, and compared it to everything from Nadja to Jesu to Jasper TX to Tim Hecker... Now Scott is back with a four-song mini-lp follow-up for the Immune imprint, a vinyl-only 12" that comes with an mp3 download coupon. It's 24 minutes or so of of shimmering, shifting, sometimes sombre, dense drone bliss. Consisting of calm crackle, haunting hum, and buried melody, these abstract soundscapes are immersive, Pop Ambient drift that's physical, yet soothing. Originally begun during the Navigare sessions, but completed later, we're told, these tracks certainly share much in common with Navigare in terms of mood and method (they're apparently, though not that obviously, constructed from digitally processed acoustic instruments, and field recordings, among other sound sources). Mysterious though they may be, we're somehow not surprised when we're further told that certain of Scott's inspirations for these songs include a bout of tinnitus he once suffered, and the sad fate of an alcoholic submariner relative of his.
We wish we had the language - the poetry - to say more about this, to really put into words what this sounds like, but maybe that's not necessary anyway. Those of you appreciative of music like this, addicted to music like this, hopefully already have an inkling that this is for you from what we've already said (or what you've already heard), to which we'll only add our typical, but meaningful, "Nice".
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES.
MPEG Stream: "She Came From The Sea"
MPEG Stream: "Lamina"

SCOTT-HERON, GIL AND JAMIE XX NY Is Killing Me (XL) 12" 6.98

SCOTT-HERON, GIL AND JAMIE XX NY Is Killing Me (XL) 12" 6.98

SCOTT-HERON, GIL AND JAMIE XX We're New Here (XL) cd 13.98

SCOTT-HERON, GIL AND JAMIE XX We're New Here (XL) cd 13.98

SCRABBEL 1909 (reissue) (Three Ring ) cd 15.98
We dug this album the first time it crossed our path in 2004. Now it's been reissued by those fine folks at Three Ring Records, and in the process it's acquired a delightful new song (a cover of +/-'s "Yo Yo Yo") and a mastering treatment!
Here's what we said about it last year: Hurray! SF indie pop craftin' Scrabbel (formerly a duo now the solo project of Dan Lee with some help from his musical pals) didn't keep us waiting for their second full length (the way they did for their first... just kiddin'!). Ever so gentle and contemplative, the album's much less spritely and more melancholic than its predecessor. Some of their song titles suggest an ending of things ("Last Train", "Out Of Time" and their cover of The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset"), and the music itself gradually makes it way into your heart with a well-placed wistful ache or two. Dan's vocals are at times quite reminiscent of Death Cab's Ben Gibbard, and when combined with his friend Natalie's, the overall sound is like what we'd imagine comin' from Yo La Tengo's younger cousins. They start things off with the very Big Star-y harmonious "Sena Song". Other songs seem tossed together in a carefree, meandering fashion, but it's definitely not disorganized nor messy. There's a subtle order to their loosely woven gauzy pop arrangements of acoustic guitars, strings and organs. This is particularly the case on their soaring Beatles-esque finale "Riot Series". Their songs alternately take you for a dreamy stroll beneath the shade of weeping willow trees or reach out sweetly like a tentative hand to hold. Recommended!
MPEG Stream: "Last Train"
MPEG Stream: "Riot Series"

SCRABBEL s/t (Kittridge) cd 9.98
We've been waitin' so long for these folks' to bring copies of this in. They dropped off a copy for us to check out many months ago, to which we swiftly said "yes, please!". At last it's here and just in time for summer, and y'know what? That's the perfect season for Scrabbel's debut! These two pals of the Aislers Set (actually Dan Lee is the new keyboardist for the 'Set, while Becky Baron can also be found behind the drumkit for the band #Poundsign#) fit well alongside A.S., exuding a youthful sing-song air that also made me think of a less hyper, acoustic Apples In Stereo - perhaps in part due to their girl/boy buttercream icing vocals and strummy guitars. However, they do throw their own tasty twists and shimmies in there: a mellow loungey organ melody, a lo-fi drum machine beat, an assortment of kitschy samples and various other noisemakers (horns and kazoos!). Delightful.
MPEG Stream: "Pillowmint"
MPEG Stream: "San Francisco"

SCREAMERS In A Better World (Extravertigo / Xeroid) 2cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally got more of these back in! Re-pressed after being out of print for ages! And again, as much as we hope they'll be around for a while, we just can't be sure how long we'll have them. So if you missed out last time, don't snooze and lose again!! Amazing seminal punk group the Screamers hailed from Seattle/LA and, amazingly enough, never released any official recordings, but that has not deterred rabid fans from picking up bootlegs on eBay for hundreds of dollars a pop. In the late '70s they became on of LA's biggest club bands, and, according to the press release, "were so far ahead of their time in doing away with electric guitars in aggressive rock music that they were called 'techno-punk' back in 1978"! This double cd features over two hours of recordings of four live shows, some demos, and even a radio spot. Also includes liner notes and a bunch of cool photos! Bravo to the Extra Vertigo and XeroID labels for getting the re-pressed and available again!
MPEG Stream: "I Wanna Hurt"
MPEG Stream: "122 Hours Of Fear"
MPEG Stream: "If I Can't Get What I Want, I Don't Want Anything"

SCREAMERS Live in San Francisco Sept. 2nd 1978 (Target Video) dvd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Much like the equally amazing Cramps Live At Napa State Mental Hospital video, for years this live footage of the Screamers' seminal synth-punk action has been circulating in increasingly grainy, on the verge of disintegrating VHS copies. Not anymore! This must-see legendary video document has finally been dvd'd! Hallelujah! Hell yeah!

SCREAMIN' MEE-MEES Complete Singles and EPs Collection (Gulcher) cd 13.98

SCREAMING TREES Clairvoyance (Hall Of Records) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Orange Airplane"
MPEG Stream: "Standing On The Edge"

SCREAMING TREES Ocean Of Confusion: Songs Of Sreaming Trees (Epic) cd 13.98

MPEG Stream: "Nearly Lost You"
MPEG Stream: "Dollar Bill"
MPEG Stream: "Ocean Of Confusion"

SCRITTI POLITTI White Bread Black Beer (Nonesuch) cd 17.98

MPEG Stream: "The Boom Boom Rap"
MPEG Stream: "No Fine Lines"
MPEG Stream: "Snow In The Sun"

SCROTUM POLES Auchmithie Forever (Dulc-I-Tone) lp 15.98
We first heard the Scrotum Poles on one of those Messthetics collections, and obviously we were intrigued by the name, though weirdly enough, their sound didn't live up the puerile promise (threat?) of their band name, instead the 'Poles trafficked in some seriously hooky punkish pop, way more pop than punk, similar to say the Television Personalities or even the Go-Betweens at times. This long in the works reissue compiles a load of unreleased home and studio recordings from these Scottish punks, and they're pretty fantastic, catchy, hooky, stumbly, the sound ultra lo-fi, murky and muddy, but the dodgy recording suits the songs, which range from solo acoustic rave ups to pounding punkish jams, pure power pop to sloppy super rocking indie jangle, and several shades in between. After only a handful of listens we've been finding ourselves with lot of these tracks firmly lodged in our heads, which pretty much says it all.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Packed with photos and lyrics and liner notes, and housed in a thick fold out sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "It Just Ain't Fucking Funny"
MPEG Stream: "Just Another Number"
MPEG Stream: "Be No More"
MPEG Stream: "Pick The Cats Eyes Out"
MPEG Stream: "On The Streets Where You Live"

SCROTUM POLES Revelation (Dulc-I-Tone) 7" 5.98
We first stumbled upon Scrotum Poles (sounds painful!) about a year and a half ago with the Auchmithie Forever anthology, knowing not much else other than their contribution to one of those cool Messthetics comps and the fact that they owned one of the best AND worst band names of all time. Hey, that's a start.
Scrotum Poles sprang to life in the late 1970s in a sea of similarly shambolic punk bands forming all over the UK and the rest of the world, though the sound is also quite similar to what's happening in the indie realm here in 2011. Jangly, scuzzy, snotty, and catchy as all hell, you would be forgiven if you mistook these guys for a bunch of young upstarts on Siltbreeze or Woodsist. Or, ya know, the Dulc-I-Tone label itself. But this five song 7" is in fact from 1980, and if you dig Television Personalities (who the band professes their love of on the sleeve), Orange Juice, and 14 Iced Bears (on uppers), then Revelation should find a nice home on your shelf. Side 1, the "Sad Side" begins with "Why Don't You Come Out Tonight?", a jangling minor key number with sort of Zombies-ish vocals, as sung by a crazy art punk. It's a great way to kick off the record and much more serious than you would expect from a band counting Burt Spurt and Smeg Pole among its members. "Night Train" is an ominous plodding number, very much in the vein of Wire. The "Happy Side" begins, happily enough, with "Pick The Cat's Eyes Out". For a band with a firm grasp on super catchy jangle pop, Scrotum Poles' nihilistic side still cuts through the bullshit, and boy does it sound fun. "Helicopter Honeymoon" is another frenzied number teeming with snotty energy, and the record closes with "Radio Tay", the punkest moment on here. It's funny, after taking in all those awesome Crass reissues, we find ourselves more and more interested in the crazy skiffle influenced origins of punk rock, and this tune flows with a similarly herky jerky abandon.
Another welcome archival reissue that's made us want to find out more about whatever the hell made these guys tick.

SCUD MOUNTAIN BOYS Massachusetts (Sub Pop) cd 12.98
More mature and full-sounding than Dance the Night Away, this is the album that ought to earn Scud Mtn Boys a place in heaven *and* a place in yr sad heart, preferably the one vacated by American Music Club now that Mark is writing 'jazz' (well he called it that himself but as long as he's happy then we're happy you know). Not that Scud Mtn Boys sound anything like AMC; they're much closer to the Eagles and Gram Parsons' slow songs. Lyrics so plaintive, plain, stark, beautiful. Highly recommended.

SCUD MOUNTAIN BOYS The Early Year (Sub Pop) 2cd 16.98
This double-cd set reissues the out-of-print Pine Box (never before on cd!) and Dance The Night Away albums by this AQ-all-time-favorite band. As if the Eagles were melancholy, introspective nerds. So many beautiful, sad, lovely songs!

SCUMROCK (OST) (New York City) cd-r 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The soundtrack to Jon Moritsugu's latest award-winning independent film - this one about the tangled struggles of indie filmmakers and indie bands - is just as packed with friends of AQ as the film itself. The film has Dustin from I Am Spoonbender playing the bad-ass Church, his IAS bandmate Cup and J-Church's Lance Hahn make cameo appearances as eager film students, and Windy's bitchin' Trans Am even has a guest spot! The soundtrack features ample doses of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and J-Church, as well as Moritsugu and Amy Davis' own band Toni Ann. Good, raw, lo-fi fun!