STAFRAENN HAKON Ventill / Poki (Resonant) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Well it says right on the shrinkwrap sticker that this is "mellow, instrumental post-rock so freaking lovely...Sigur Ros move over". Hmm, can't really argue with that since it's quote from the Aquarius review of one of this Icelandic one-man-band's other albums! He's now back with his third Resonant label full-length, and if you liked the gentle sounds made previously by Stafraenn Hakon (aka Olafur Josephsson) you'll undoubtedly swoon for this disc as well, especially if you thought his music should be even more sweet and lush and blissful, 'cause that's where he's going with this. But there's a certain sadness inherent in his compositions that keeps them from ever getting too treacle-y. Gauzy ambient shimmer melts over organic instruments and some shuffling, vaguely glitchy electronic beats, as this album-length lullaby drifts by, pleasant and glorious. Though it may seem like this artist has cranked out a lot of releases lately, this is actually his first 'new' material recorded in two years! We're glad to see he's still in top form.
MPEG Stream: "Unnar"
MPEG Stream: "Gorecki Magnus"

STAIANO, MOE The Lateness Of Yearly Presentations (Amanita) cd 11.98
This here is the second solo album by Mr. Moe Staiano aka Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's found percussionist. Frantic, dizzying and cacaphonous, but not without its elements of structure surfacing every now and again to make the explosions of mayhem all the more impactful. Hyper spurts of music boxes, food pans, oil barrels, sheet metal, brake drums, plastic horns, slide whistles and numerous other objects (yes, including a kitchen sink!) as well as the more conventional guitars, cellos, bass, thumb pianos, contrabass, vibraphones, drum machines, clarinets, musical saws, theremin and drums. There's some seriously twisted yet totally tight rhythmic interludes going on here - just as we've come to expect from Sleepytime G.M. not to mention their previous spectacular incarnation Idiot Flesh. Other slower, more haunting/haunted moments that take place deeper into the album brought to mind Nurse With Wound and Mr. Bungle. These tracks were actually recorded back in 97/98, but are just now seeing their release. However, Staiano does acknowledge this tardiness in his liner notes: "This is a Late album. It is dedicated to those who wait." A wonderfully bizarre listen.
MPEG Stream: "Al Capone Died Of Syphilis"
MPEG Stream: "Encompassed"

STAIANO, MOE! The Absolute Tradition Of No Traditions (PsychForm) cd 10.98
Moe! Staiano (former member of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) is one heck of a dynamic avant percussionist and soundscaper who exercises restraint in both composition and performance, but he's an uncorkable fountain of recordings (as not only a solo artist, but also a collaborator and in his improv ensemble Moe!kestra). He's so prolific that it's hard to keep up with all of his activities. We're trying our best tho'!
Inspired by the Dada and Surrealist movements, Staiano's music incorporates found object percussion instruments be they pots, pans, pipes, cooking utensils, industrial machinery or children's toys. Recorded in two separate sessions, this is his first album of purely solo improvisations. Over the course of this sixty two minute long album, Staiano moves deftly through cacophonous, sonically crowded spaces into stark, serene minimalism and back again.
MPEG Stream: "Three Legs"
MPEG Stream: "Forfeit Breathing"

STAIANO, MOE! / MOE!KESTRA 2 Rooms Of Uranium Inside 83 Markers: The Second Volume Of Conducted Improvisations (Edgetone Records) cd 11.98
Second album from Moe! Staiano's improv orchestra Moe!kestra. Ear and mind-bending performances!

STAIANO, MOE! / MOE!KESTRA! An Inescapable Siren Within Earshot Distance Therein And Other Whereabouts - Two Compositions For Large Orchestras (Amanita) cd 12.98
In case you couldn't deduce from the album's lengthy title An Inescapable Siren Within Earshot Distance Therein And Other Whereabouts - Two Compositions For Large Orchestras, this is quite possibly Moe! Staiano's stormiest and most expansive release to date. The album commences with the three part Piece No. 7 (2001-2003), a gradual unfolding of delicate cymbal washes peppered by fleeting squeals and peals. By the third stage the skies have darkened. One by one, tumultuous deep crescendos overtake the pianissimo passages. At that track's eleventh minute a frail bell sounds almost as an emergency alarm's last gasp that's soon to be drowned out by a swell of all instruments pushing forth at once. Horns and strings fall in shrieks, as the sonic bulldozer levels all that remains. Quite cleansing. Staiano then picks right up with the second piece which is also a triptych. No. 5 (1998) is infused with a bit of carnivalesque levity, but is no less turbulently dynamic.
MPEG Stream: "excerpt from track 1"
MPEG Stream: "excerpt from track 6"

STALAG Dernier Cri (Memoire Neuve) lp 29.00
More super limited vinyl-only, French reissue goodness from the folks at Memoire Neuve, the same label that brings us the mighty Soggy LP reissue featured elsewhere on this list! Stalag are rumoured to have been the first punk band from Bordeux, and Denier Cri tracks their recorded works from their inception in 1978 to their break up in early 1982. Included is the band's one and only release (the hyper-limited 1981 single "Date Limite de Vente" b/w "Secrets," which has become something of a grail among French punk aficionados) as well as unreleased studio tracks and a few live recordings.
Stalag deliver an appealing mix of earnestness, melodicism and snottiness that fits nicely with the recent Perfect Un-Pop and Rubble collections of DIY power pop scrappiness. Picture Buzzcocks/Damned-style punk swagger mixed with a touch of Gallic, cold wave cool and you're in the ballpark. Denier Cri is limited to 500 copies worldwide and we have less than 10 in stock. Once they're gone, they're gone, so act fast! Allons-y!

STALK FORREST GROUP St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings (Rhino Handmade) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is one of those releases that used to only be available online from the Rhino Handmade website...but I guess they didn't sell enough 'cause a little while ago they started selling 'em to stores. So, we had to get a few copies of this, one of Allan's favorite Rhino Handmade titles (his absolute favorite is of course the long-gone Stooges' Complete Funhouse Sessions boxset). It's the unreleased album (plus many more unreleased tracks) by the Stalk Forrest Group, a band who later changed their name to the much better known, more successful Blue Oyster Cult! If you like the early BOC records (which were reissued, and reviewed here, a few years ago) then you may well want this. All the early-daze hippie jamming psychedelic aspects of the band revealed on those albums are definitely to the fore here, from back when "heavy metal thunder" was but a line in a Steppenwolf song and big arenas weren't on these guys concert schedule -- instead they played gigs like a "swinger's nudist party at an off-season summer camp in the Catskills" according to the extensive liner notes that Rhino Handmade, in their usual deluxe fashion, have included in this cd's booklet. Guitarwise, though, they show off the skills that later made them the subversive semi-heavy metal icons they became. Even if they'd never made it as BOC, this record made by a gaggle of absurdist New York college boys into West Coast ballroom style acid rock (including hints of Byrdsian country stylings) would be a minor classic... (We've just got a few, and aren't really sure if they're really still available or not, so if we run out please don't get mad.)
MPEG Stream: "Donovan's Monkey"
MPEG Stream: "A Fact About Sneakers"

STALWART Torment Nonplus (BV2 Productions) cd 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bad Vugum is back! Under the name BV2, the crucial noise rock / avant pop / weirdo punk label from Finland has unleashed a new batch of genius for us to, in turn, unleash upon you all. Starting with Stalwart.
From rigid beats to utterly lovely folky guitars, the boys of Stalwart range far and wide within the five tracks, 23 minutes of music offered up on this, their debut ep. Surf guitar twang coexists with metallic chug, and organ jamming meets up with angular riffs, in songs that can be headache-hammering and/or exquisitely melodic. Yet somehow everything holds together, Stalwart being a droning, repetitively rhythmic beast that's definitely very "Circular" in sound... hmm, well that's probably 'cause these Finns are in fact members of Circle, Ektroverde and Kuusumun Profeetta! Maybe you can kind of imagine a more discordant, metallic Circle, with occasional distorted vocals and off-time drumming, veering into Bastro territory? Stalwart also sound a bit like another Finnish band, the menacingly industrialized Paine, with whom we believe they share some members. But Stalwart's songs allow a lot more light and weirdness in. We eagerly await a full-length!
MPEG Stream: "Kindergarten Trad"
MPEG Stream: "Central Sandras On Black Paint Porch"

STANDARD, THE August (Touch & Go) cd 14.98
A darkly simmering second album (their first for Touch & Go). These five Pacific Northwest lads bring together quite an array of styles and sounds: lushly orchestrated rock (a la Radiohead, Coldplay, Doves), slow to mid tempo post-rock (like the loud/quiet bass, tumbling chimes, piano and gentle guitars of Tristeza or Sonna), occasional electronics, processed rhythm tracks and slightly new wave-ish / post-punk synths (but please don't be mistaken, this is definitely not another retro-80s dance record... no way! the synths add textural elements rather than melody). Over top it all is a wearily angstful male voice that swoops from a frail whisper to a hollered yelp (the latter really reminded me of that Canadian band Tragically Hip) - high on both dramatics and dynamics. This album can be somewhat dreary and creeping at times, somberly intriguing and nicely detailed at others... depending on your mood, I s'pose.
RealAudio clip: "A Year of Seconds"
RealAudio clip: "The Five-Factor Model"

STANDING NUDES Ghost Story (True Panther) cd 11.98
Yes, they do make solid quirky rock like they used to! Standing Nudes latest full length is the proof! You might recall their last release, a punchy post punk-y vinyl 7" from earlier this year. Since then they've kept the energy level up and their wah pedal well-oiled, but tailored their sound into something that's still weird and angular, but maybe a little more direct and emotive. The moody female vocals and overall tone of the album is quite reminiscent of Throwing Muses actually. Still the guitarist is allowed free rein on a lot of the record, including the fifth track, "Fight Song" (featured on the aforementioned 7"), and he noodles up a trippy storm! All and all an excellent psyched out, fuzzed up POP record. Solid song writing with enough freaked guitar weirdness to make it a more delicious bon-bon out of the musical bon-bon box where most of the bon-bons are kind of good but not as good as the really good one. This is one delectable bon-bon! There's also some summer of love, Nuggets type of shit in operation here among the general angular jangle, which is a combo that works out quite well. Killer jams to be sure!
MPEG Stream: "Another Kind Of Lover"
MPEG Stream: "Rita"

STANDING NUDES Ghost Story (True Panther) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Now available on limited edition clear vinyl!
Yes, they do make solid quirky rock like they used to! Standing Nudes latest full length is the proof! You might recall their last release, a punchy post punk-y vinyl 7" from earlier this year. Since then they've kept the energy level up and their wah pedal well-oiled, but tailored their sound into something that's still weird and angular, but maybe a little more direct and emotive. The moody female vocals and overall tone of the album is quite reminiscent of Throwing Muses actually. Still the guitarist is allowed free rein on a lot of the record, including the fifth track, "Fight Song" (featured on the aforementioned 7"), and he noodles up a trippy storm! All and all an excellent psyched out, fuzzed up POP record. Solid song writing with enough freaked guitar weirdness to make it a more delicious bon-bon out of the musical bon-bon box where most of the bon-bons are kind of good but not as good as the really good one. This is one delectable bon-bon! There's also some summer of love, Nuggets type of shit in operation here among the general angular jangle, which is a combo that works out quite well. Killer jams to be sure!
MPEG Stream: "Another Kind Of Lover"
MPEG Stream: "Rita"

STANDING NUDES When I Arrive / Fight Song (True Panther Sounds) 7" 5.98
This 7" is a gem! Standing Nudes are a really great poppy post punk band from Brooklyn who craft wonderfully catchy songs with just the right amount of weirdness. The A Side, "When I Arrive" is tipped further towards the pop side of things with a catchy melody, some wah wahness and a really noisy ring modded guitar solo. The B Side, "Fight Song" is slightly more bombastically rocking. Pounding toms and shredding guitars. Both songs are amazing and deserve many repeated listens. Angular, hooky, weird and ultimately catchy as hell.

STAPLES, STUART A. Leaving Songs (Beggars Banquet) cd 14.98
The solo album from Stuart Staples -- aka the singer for Tindersticks -- sounds very much like an album from... the Tindersticks. Granted his voice is pretty much the trademark of the band's sound and he is their central songwriter, but even still we might've anticipated that Staples would veer a little farther from their well-worn yet still utterly captivating path of somber melancholic chamber pop. Are we complainin'? Hell no. Sure to please his band's legions of devoted fans and dour romantics everywhere.
MPEG Stream: "One More Time"
MPEG Stream: "That Leaving Feeling"

STAPLETON, STEVEN & TONY WAKEFORD Revenge Of The Selfish Shellfish (Robot) 2cd 24.00
Over 30 years, Steven Stapleton has worked with countless musicians, miscreants, and madmen in the brilliantly surreal Nurse With Wound, and occasionally he's stepped beyond Nurse to engage in fully collaborative projects. His long-standing friendship with Current 93's David Tibet brings the most prolific non-Nurse collaborations (both with Current 93 and as Stapleton / Tibet pairings); but in 1992, a curious one-off project between Stapleton and Tony Wakeford (Sol Invictus, ex-Death In June) was released. The Revenge Of The Selfish Shellfish is certainly not a Nurse With Wound record, but it's also not a Sol Invictus record. The album finds itself in one of those unique locations that really exists on its own, but also manages to perfectly hybridize the aesthetics of both artists.
It's unfortunate that we've not posted much on Tony Wakeford, and for those not aware of his work, here's the brief synopsis. After working with Douglas Pearce in the anarcho-punk trio Crisis and later forming Death In June, Tony Wakeford's personal aesthetic took up a very dark, occultish take on British folk, even darker and more malcontent than those apocalyptic recombinations of Current 93. His vocal style was never terribly polished, with his mumbling delivery and blue-collar brogue probably serving the punk snarl of Crisis better than the stoically minimal arrangements of Sol Invictus. While some of the Sol Invictus records could be pretty painful to listen to, a few are downright classics, Trees In Winter and Against The Modern World being the two strongest.
We seem to recall Stapleton quipping somewhere that he felt Tony Wakeford's music was too po-faced and that his collaborative project was his own way of subverting Wakeford's agenda. The two genuinely seemed to enjoy each other's company, as the liner notes from both artists can attest; but one has to wonder if the flipside was true as well that Wakeford felt Stapleton's collages were too silly from time to time.
The atmosphere of the album is somber from the onset, with slashing drones not dissimilar to the Nurse album Soliloquy For Lilith, but situated into a gentle melody surrounded by gasping noises and eventually giving way to melancholy piano chords bounce off of oscillating drones. These collages of semi-melodic drones continue until a frenzied noise burst gives way to a quick interlude of Perez Prado inspired mambo shimmy. This leads to the albums centerpiece: a song-based diptych of "Lucifer Before Sunrise" and "Walk The White Ghost" (a haunting remix of the former), both of which center upon an archetypal Wakeford song of grim folk tunes that Stapleton twists to their profound benefit. The album concludes with an dubbed collage of spectral noises juxtaposed with more of that mambo grooviness that could only come from Stapleton.
For the reissue of the Revenge Of The Selfish Shellfish, there's a bonus disc with material unused from the original album, plus a series of remixes from irr. app. (ext.), Andrew Liles, and Brian Conniffe.
Very nice to have this record in stock again!
MPEG Stream: "The Frightening City"
MPEG Stream: "Lucifer Before Sunrise"
MPEG Stream: "Sea Slug (Unused Mix)"

STARCHASER NETWORK s/t (Tarot Productions) cd 14.98
'80s retro sci-fi sexiness from these would-be Teutonic (actually Texan) clubgoin' droids known as Starchaser Network... two thirds of whom (Equitant and Proscriptor) are also key members of cult black metal thrash masters Absu!!! Actually that's not so strange, really, since we're already familiar with other Absu side projects that displayed far-from-black-metal tendencies. Absu drummer Proscriptor's solo recordings had their art-rock and new wave elements -- he even did covers of both Flock Of Seagulls and the Art Bears! There also has been two unusual offerings of Electro pastiche from Absu guitarist Equitant. Definitely if you dug those Equitant discs, you should check out Starchaser Network, whose influences are similar: Eno, Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys, Egyptian Lover, Detroit Techno, etc.... yeah, apparently these guys were listening to more than just thrash back in the '80s. Thus all the darkly poppy, spacey-synthy, computer-grooved stuff here, with its decadent/deviant discotheque vibe.
We'd recommend skipping track one, "Sintro", though, as it is by far the weakest, mainly due to some unfortunately cringeworthy vocals. They should have left it off, rather than putting it first! The rest of the disc is better, and while much of this may quite well be a bit tongue-in-cheek, only on that first track does it seem like "the joke's on them". We wish that they would have included instead their rumored cover version of the theme from the the '80s TV show Knight Rider (which should give you some idea about where they're coming from conceptually!).
MPEG Stream: "Midnight Prowl"
MPEG Stream: "Nachricht"

STARE CASE Lose Today (De Stijl) lp 19.98
Yet another Wolf Eyes offshoot/side project, and it's another good one, and another unexpected sonic detour, this one ditching all of the harsh noise, and much of the industrial crunch of the WE mothership in exchange for a sort of creepy, bass driven minimal psychedelia, a tripped out psychedelic blues maybe? It's actually quite hard to describe, an obvious comparison would be Jandek, but filtered through a more cracked Midwestern noise rock filter, albeit with much of the noise and most of the rock removed. It's all about the blooping basslines, the bleating horns, fluttering woodwinds, the streaks of hiss and whir, the weird bits of blurred noisiness that add color to these super skeletal sketchy dirges, the vocals a lazy drawled moan, it's almost like Spacemen 3 if they took WAY too many drugs (if that were possible), and were forced to stumble through a set of abstract psychedelic blues, the same sort of druggy mesmer, and hypnotic haziness. The band do gain some momentum on a few of the tracks, but it's still a druggy stumble, with instruments all lurching in fits and starts, the rhythms more a sort of looped repeated stutter buried in a cloud of swirled grey thrum, and when the band do lock in tight, there are some serious stretches of dark droned out hypno-dirgery that manage to be truly haunting and mysteriously abstract, imagine some impossible collaboration between Wolf Eyes, No Neck Blues Band and Jandek, and you wouldn't even be close.
Strange and surreal, wonderfully dour, hauntingly lovely and occasionally chaotic, an unlikely new favorite for sure.

STARES, THE Spine To Sea (Web Of Mimicry) cd 13.98
Debut recording from Seattle, Washington's Stares. While a quartet at their core, the group is handsomely lined out into an eleven-piece with French horn, viola & violin, English horn, oboe, celeste, vibes, flute, bass clarinet and cello all playing a part in their lush sound. The "orchesral" arrangements were scored by none other than tha Pacific Northwest's bow wielding wunderkind and Sun City Girls collaborator Eyvind Kang (who plays both the violin and viola on the tracks here). The wonderfully lugubrious tempos of their songs will no doubt remind listeners of the Radar Brothers. Like the Radar Brothers, but maybe also equally similar to Radiohead's OK Computer, the Stares lyrics (the singing duties are split equally between the male and female members) have a similar bleakness of outlook that's just thinly veiled by a warm blanket of opiate-like music. A further note must be made to Kang's orchestral arrangements, which are perhaps the most tasteful we've heard used with a rock band yet -- not burdensomely pretentious like many indie-chamber-rock attempts have been. The songs on Spine To Sea are often breathtakingly beautiful and eerily reminiscent of another era. This is another similarity the group shares with the Radar Brothers, albeit in a different way. For example, there's more than one instance on Spine To Sea when we're certain that the Stares are referencing (or channeling?) Eric Carmen's 70's superhit tear jerker "All By Myself". Creepy, beautiful, and recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Disconnected Again"
MPEG Stream: "1 2 3"

STARFUCKERS Brodo Di Cagne Strategico (electric eye helter skelter) 12" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The best release yet from this amazing Italian band who boldly live up to the description of their sound as "Funhausen" -- Stockhausen mixin' it up with Funhouse.

STARFUCKERS Infinitive Sessions (DBK Works) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
On this new disc, the Starfuckers do a song called "Eternal Soundcheck", demonstrating an awareness of what most people are going to think about 'em...and it's true, most folks just aren't gonna get this. But, we urge you, give it a chance!
Italy's Starfuckers, if you're not familar with 'em, play an abstract, sparse, and totally unique brand of what they term 'rock concrete', something that kind of sounds like This Heat falling down the stairs, but trying to be really quiet about it. Percussive and full of near-silences, their almost-randomly-improvised-sounding music uses guitar, drums, and electronics to take the 'glitch' aesthetic out of the laptop arena and into that of the live band. It's as if they played 'normal' songs, then removed about 70 percent of the music, and shuffled the remaining sounds around. It's counter-intuitive, disjointed stuff, yet every dissonant chord played on the guitar, every bassy electronic rumble, every drum hit seems to have meaning, unknowable meaning. Attentive listening will reveal compelling rhythms and structures. If you dig the likes of US Maple, Supersilent, Kevin Drumm's solo guitar stuff, or that last guitar-less Fushitsusha record, you'll enjoy the Starfuckers. Indeed, you probably already do.
Ok, let's talk about "Infinitive Sessions": the first three tracks ("Blues Off", "Drive On", and "Off Blues") seem to follow on pretty directly from the stuff on their previous album "Infrantumi", kinda being more of the same (which is fine, 'cause there's not nearly enough of this stuff wethinks). One difference though: "Infinitive Sessions" is wholly instrumental, there's none of the Italian spoken in sinister whispers that cryptically caressed your ears on their prior releases, which perhaps is a pity.
Then the aforementioned "Eternal Soundcheck" ups the crackly drone quotient quite nicely for the next 12 minutes, before the final two tracks ("Funked X" and "Vamped X") reveal that the Starfuckers have gotten into a new and unexpected 'funk' bag! Not funk in any accepted form, of course, just the suggestion of funk via a 'funky' guitar sound. This caused their label to compare this record to The Contortions, Big Flame, and James Brown, but that's going way too far. They're MORE 'no wave' than The Contortions, and if the JBs ever laid down 'grooves' like these, The Godfather of Soul would have fined them, fired them, rehired, then fined and fired them again. Maybe a jazz cat like Miles Davis coulda gotten into this 'funk', but even he never took THIS much drugs. These tracks sound a bit like "Rated X" from Miles' "Get Up With It" turned into a 'Glitches' Brew' of funk fuckery.
We've never liked the term 'post-rock', as applied to such bands as Mogwai, Slint, A Minor Forest, and Shellac, however it seems to us that what the Starfuckers play is trully 'post-rock', in a very literal sense, and apparently that's the idea. The Starfuckers website (www.nanananan.it/starfuckers/) features the following statement from one Henry Clitus Colagetti, the President of something called CAMC (the Commitee for Abolition Of the Middle Class): ROCK IS DEAD, WHAT DRAGS ITSELF FOR MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS IS NOTHING ELSE THAT ITS CORPSE CONTINUOUSLY EXHUMED BY CULTURAL INDUSTRY.
ROCK IS DEAD IN 1975 WHEN LOU REED PUBLISHED "METAL MACHINE MUSIC" THAT DECREED THE END OF ROCK MUSIC.
"INFRANTUMI" BY STARFUCKERS IS THE FIRST ROCK ALBUM AFTER "METAL MACHINE MUSIC".
THE NEW ROCK, RESPECTING THE BASIC ELEMENTS THAT CONSTITUTE WHAT WAS ROCK MUSIC - REPETITION AND SIMPLICITY OF PLAYNG - RISES AGAIN BASING ON THE PRINCIPLES OF ASYNCHRONY, UNTUNING AND NEGATION OF EGO.
FUTURE IS ALREADY BEHIND YOU.
He's talking about "Infrantumi" but the sentiment applies to this new release as well, of course.
Best band ever? Well, WE rate these guys with Reynols, the Thai Elephant Orchestra, Fushitsusha, Faust, and few others in the pantheon of fucked but totally original and brilliant musical units.
RealAudio clip: "Drive On"
RealAudio clip: "Eternal Soundcheck"
RealAudio clip: "Vamped X"

STARFUCKERS Metallic Diseases (Holy Mountain) lp 15.98
Wow, exciting times at our shop. Even several of the Starfuckers' biggest fans here at AQ had never heard THIS before, this crucial Italian band's debut lp originally released in 1990. As promised in our Record Of The Week review of the Starfuckers' Ordine '91-'96 collection just a few lists ago, the Holy Mountain label (who know their secret history of rock and roll all right!) has now done a reissue of this early Starfuckers platter, a dark slab of Stooges worship containing a dirty dozen tracks so trance inducingly raw n' powerful we can only imagine the entire band were stripped shirtless, bare torsos smeared with peanut butter, Iggy Stooge style, whilst recording this. The blurry black and white cover photo suggests as much, though the peanut butter is not visible...
If, at our recommendation, you picked up the Ordine cd (which is out of stock at the moment - we have more copies coming from Italy soon, never fear) then you have already heard a handful of early Starfuckers rockers from before they went totally gonzoid experimental. The six songs from the band's 1991 Brodo Di Cagne Strategico mini-lp included on Ordine demonstrated that despite their ultimately unique, counter-intuitive, almost "anti-rock" sound for which we consider the band geniuses, they surely had their roots in "actual" rock and roll, very much Stooges influenced (hence the "Funhausen" tag that Holy Mountain head honcho JW likes to apply to 'em). If you liked the Brodo Di Cagne Strategico stuff, then Metallic Diseases is for you. And anyway, how can it not be great with that title?
Relentless punked out noiserock riff repetition that's fuzz laden, feedback filled, with drawling English language vox all sneered and snotty, and song titles like "Dead Metal City Blues", "Western Man", "Cold White Cancer", and "U.S.A.". Godly garagey stuff for sure, loud and pounding. There's maybe a jangling, poppier side to some of it ("Shake Off" in particular), and that's a real cool time too, but what you've got mainly here is a down on the street death trip, Starfuckers on a search and destroy mission to be your dog... this left hand path eventually leads them to the inclusion of some Funhouse style saxophone squawk, skronk, squall on the penultimate track "Flower Lover", and thence to the seven and a half minute final cut, "Grado Zero", the only song sung in Italian, and heavily laced with wiggy electronic FX, which of the trax here most strongly foreshadows the Starfuckers' later experimental direction, it could have appeared on Sinistri alongside "Ordine Pubblico" for sure.
So, it's as if the Starfuckers guys got together in 1990, and decided, ok, sure, we'll make rock and roll, yeah, let's channel the Stooges, 'cause we want to START at the END, and then push past those limits. So, once they had manifested themselves as the apotheosis of "rock" at its punkest and rockest, on Metallic Diseases and Brodo Di Cagne Strategico, they then moved on to the next phase of their career to utterly DECONSTRUCT "rock" on the Sinistri album and beyond... Why they did this, how they decided these things, what happened? We don't know, we can only wonder.
But, while cool and interesting and all, that doesn't even matter. Let's put it this way, if Metallic Diseases was the only record that the Starfuckers ever did, its reissue would/should still be hailed as the discovery of a long lost gem of timeless Stoogified psychedelic ugly-noise-punk-rawk that belongs up there with the output/outbursts of such acts as Union Carbide Productions, The Heads, Spacemen 3, High Rise, Brainbombs, and (more recently) Vincent Black Shadow. That it was only the beginning of the Starfuckers' sonic explorations, a program of experimental rock n' roll reinvention that took them somewhere that no other band has ever gone, makes it even more special...
Totally recommended, as if you couldn't tell. Sadly for those of us who happen to prefer cds, this reissue is vinyl-only, although it does include a download code for mp3's, including the aforementioned "Grado Zero" which as it turns out is a bonus track, not on the actual vinyl (whoops, wrote this review away from the turntable!).
MPEG Stream: "Love You"
MPEG Stream: "Dead Metal City Blues"
MPEG Stream: "(I'm) Alive!"
MPEG Stream: "Grado Zero"

STARFUCKERS Ordine '91-'96 (Sometimes Records) cd 15.98
There are very few bands we can think of who have so fully and utterly invented a sound for themselves, sounding like nothing else on earth before, and possibly since. Italy's Starfuckers are such a band. And it's a sound that fascinates us. Unique, true originals. One of our favorite bands (and by "our" we mean us, and anyone who belongs to the secret club of possibly demented Starfuckers lovers). Which goes a long way to explaining why we're making this Record Of The Week, a disc by a band with such incongruous and impolite name, and a perhaps problematic sound as well, for some. This disc consists of a reissue of their best / most definitive albums, 1994's Sinistri, and a never-before-on-cd mini-lp that preceded it, plus other, extra rare tracks. 16 tracks in total, almost 70 minutes of music. Or since it's the Starfuckers, should we say "music"? One definition of music is organized sound, and this stuff is organized in its seeming DIS-organization. Deconstructed music. Counter-intuitive rock n' roll. Genius. Here's what we've said about 'em before, in a review of their final album, 2002's Infinitive Sessions, currently out of print:
"Starfuckers...play an abstract, sparse, and totally unique brand of what they term 'rock concrete', something that kind of sounds like This Heat falling down the stairs, but trying to be really quiet about it. Percussive and full of near-silences, their almost-randomly-improvised-sounding music uses guitar, drums, and electronics to take the 'glitch' aesthetic out of the laptop arena and into that of the live band. It's as if they played 'normal' songs, then removed about 70 percent of the music, and shuffled the remaining sounds around. It's counter-intuitive, disjointed stuff, yet every dissonant chord played on the guitar, every bassy electronic rumble, every drum hit seems to have meaning, unknowable meaning. Attentive listening will reveal compelling rhythms and structures."
Yes, indeed, but that's only part of the story, and why this disc is THEE Starfuckers disc to get, if you're ever gonna get any Starfuckers, and you should. We said they established their own sound, but they built up to it from a more familiar basis. The earlier tracks here demonstrate that, while the Sinistri stuff is the best example of the special qualities of Starfuckers alluded to above.
Those earliest tracks, the first 6 here, come from the band's 1991 mini-lp, Brodo Di Cagne Strategico. They're indicative of the band's roots in all things Stooges-y, being totally badass, driving, dark post-punkish numbers laced with shards of noisy, "out" guitar and free jazz saxophone squall... This is the sort of Starfuckers splooge that our pal JW, now head of the Holy Mountain label, once so succinctly dubbed "Funhausen" (i.e. the Stooges' Funhouse meets experimental composer Karlheinz Stockhausen). Spacemen 3 fans should dig as well. And that avant-garde, Stockhausen side of the equation comes more and more to the fore as this disc progresses...
The Bordo Di Cagne Strategico tracks are followed by two compilation appearances, both "covers". You get their utterly unrecognizable (what did you expect?) version of the Beatles' "Dear Prudence" from a cd that came with Bananafish magazine #11, and also their appropriately monomaniacal take on "Mechanical Man", from a Charles Manson tribute upon which they appeared alongside the likes of Skullflower, Controlled Bleeding, and Eugene Chadbourne, among others. We'd like to think that John Lennon would have dug the Starfuckers (if any Beatle would, Yoko Ono's husband would). Maybe Charlie would too, he's crazy enough.
Then, tracks 9-15 are from Sinistri. The main course. The masterpiece. The Starfuckers aesthetic, fully realized, celebrates 'asynchrony' and minimalism, and that's what you get here. Are you ready? It's a mysterious, compelling soundworld, one that stokes the imagination and seems somehow unassailable in its avant garde gravitas. Serious stuff, but still somehow rock n' roll. In spirit, more than anything else. Anti-rock too (with the slogan printed here: "new music means destruction of ego"). These songs/sounds are quite curious, cryptic... Blats and bursts of chiming, chunking guitar. Blips and bloops of eerie electronics. Sudden percussion, sudden silence. Feedback. Suspenseful rhythmic passages. Much moody rumble and hiss. Bassy detonations, chaotic jumbles of piano. And, crucially, the calm, semi-spoken vocals, deadpan declamations in Italian, like we're being poetically lectured by one of the Starfuckers while the rest of 'em disassemble rock n' roll as we know it. How can we describe the Starfucker's Sinistri further? We don't even understand it. But we love it.
Oh, towards the end, Sinistri's got the Starfuckers "hit single" (as far as we're concerned!), the song "Ordine Pubblico", also released on a Drunken Fish 7" back in the day... harking back to the Brodo Di Cagne material, "Ordine" is a sinister, cyclic, claustrophobic rock song, the brilliant last gasp of their Stooges-ness, hypnotic and handclap driven, with subversive lyrics that go something like this: "Criminale / Comunisti / Vagabondi / Terroristi / Prostitute / Extremisti / grazie / grazie..." You don't need to know Italian to know what he's saying.
That's all followed by Sinistri's final track, "Macrofoneie Ia", which sounds like what might happen in the studio after the musicians had all gone home or passed out, if the machines then started "playing" themselves. Clicks and buzzings, as of patch cords being unplugged, or plugged in. Or, you could say it takes the Starfuckers "Eternal Soundcheck" (a song title of theirs on another album) notion to an extreme, as if you recorded not the soundcheck at a show, but the band just setting up beforehand, in near silence but for when electrical connections are being made. Then, the disc ends with a previously unreleased track from 1996 that certainly wouldn't have been out of place on the original issue of Sinistri.
Hearing Starfuckers for the first time isn't just like hearing music you haven't heard before. It's also like hearing an IDEA of music that you've never had before. And, better yet, listening to Starfuckers for the 100th time, it remains fresh/strange, you still are piecing together the hidden structures of what's going on...
While we said that they sound like no-one else, we HAVE referenced 'em in various reviews, to say that other bands maybe remind us a bit of them, usually due to their fractured and confusional compositional ways... Radian, US Maple, Supersilent, Sim+Otomo, even Tony Tears, have all garnered comparisons by us to Starfuckers for some reason or other, but still none of 'em (and nobody) really does what the Starfuckers do. Or ever will.
If you've never heard Starfuckers, and are at all curious (you should be, if we're doing our job) this is the disc to get, as we said. And even if you are a fan, who already owns the long out of print Sinistri cd, you probably need this anyway for all the other rare tracks included. Record Of The Week? Reissue Of The Year! Well, maybe not for everyone, but those select few who 'get it' will really be grateful. And this, with the inclusion of their earliest, most rockin' material, is the most 'accessible' Starfuckers we could suggest.
Italy's Sometimes Records (who were thrilled that we appreciate the Starfuckers as much as they do), have packaged this with a cd booklet containing everything we could expect in the way of photos, graphics, credits, lyrics, and liner notes... the latter in Italian, though we glean references to the Stooges and Demetrio Stratos of '70s Italian proggers Area, possibly another inspiration to them.
FYI, btw, Holy Mountain will soon be doing a vinyl reissue of the Starfuckers rare 1990 debut lp Metallic Diseases, so watch out for that as well!
MPEG Stream: "Saturazione"
MPEG Stream: "Freddo Cancro Bianco"
MPEG Stream: "Mechanical M."
MPEG Stream: "Derivazione/Attesa"
MPEG Stream: "Mutilati"
MPEG Stream: "Ordine Pubblico"

STARFUCKERS Sinistri (Undercover) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is a great record from a band recently profiled in the last issue of Bananafish magazine (and they cover "Dear Prudence" on the accompanying cd, remember?). For those who didn't happen to read that, the Starfuckers are an Italian group who combine krautrock, Stooges and experimental new music influence into a radical new aesthetic. As AQ-mascot John Whitson succinctly dubs them: "Funhausen."

STARGAZER'S ASSISTANT, THE Shivers & Voids (Utech) cd 14.98
This side project from members of UK dark prog acts Guapo and Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses presents a second album, following one from last winter on Aurora Borealis, and it's quite aptly titled: Shivers and Voids. That's what this sounds like. Creepy, soundtracky, dramatic droned out weirdness under the stars... stirring and sinister stuff, with martial drums and ominous keyboards. Stargazer's Assistant takes much more of an abstract, soundscapey approach to "prog" than do either Guapo or Miasma, though you will certainly hear some similarities.
This disc, which clocks in at just under 25 minutes all told, consists of 3 tracks but it may as well just be one long, programmatic piece, beginning with the nine minutes or so of "Night Soil", a seductive nightmare that finds the listener sleepwalking on a ghostly, imaginary battlefield somewhere, with explosive detonations and snare rolls violently sundering the heavy-drone-gloom that undergirds the track, making it even scarier. The title track then provides a 4 and a half minute interlude of clanking chains, acoustic guitar, and melodic, monkish chant, heavily layered and effected, delving a bit into Richard Youngs experimental folk territory, quite nice... And then "Dream Kingdom", at 11 minutes long this disc's truest epic, also serves up its most baleful bombast.
Should appeal to fans of the aforementioned acts, as well as the likes of Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat, Darsombra, and anything else you can imagine that would mix field recordings and doomy organ and electronic noise and droning loops... in other words, right up our alley, obviously!
MPEG Stream: "Night Soil"
MPEG Stream: "Shivers And Voids"

STARK REALITY Now (Stones Throw / Now-Again) cd 16.98
Here's a weird one. Imagine a late-sixties jazz-funk combo playing fucked up versions of children's songs written in the 40s and 50s by Hoagy Carmichael. Actually, you don't have to imagine that, if you just listen to this disc. 'Cause that's what's happening here. The first eight tracks on this cd were orginally released in 1970 as "The Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop" LP. Dunno what kids thought of it, but the heads must have loved it, unless it tripped 'em out too much. The idea (hatched by Hoagy's son Bix, who worked at Boston's WGBH public TV station with musican Monty Stark, the leader of The Stark Reality) was to psychedelize ol' Hoagy's music for hippie youngsters. The result were these awkwardly funky, severely distorted (in every possible way), jazzed-out cuts, featuring Stark's crazily atonal fuzz-equipped vibes and bizarrely straight singing/rhyming. The music appeared in a WGBH kid's show, then was released on LP. That LP is apparently quite an expensive rarity these days, with those that have heard it either thinking it brilliant or insane or both. The LP track "Rocket Ship" was one of Windy's favorite cuts on Peanut Butter Wolf's recent "Jukebox 45" mix cd, and he has now reissued the whole album on his Stones Throw label, so we all can judge its merits, along with several non-Hoagy bonus cuts. The thorough liner notes do their best to explain the whole deal, and indicate that more than one lucky beat-diggin' hip hop DJ has made this their secret weapon.
It's utterly ridiculous yet oddly compelling. You'll either have to turn it off after two minutes or it'll become an all-time fave, that's the sort of record this is! Easily the most warped, heaviest jams ever on subjects like basic musical notation, remembering the number of days in each month, and recipes for cooking stew. I mean, some of this makes Sun Ra's wiggiest solos sound normal.
MPEG Stream: "Junkman's Song"
MPEG Stream: "All You Need To Make Music"

STARK REALITY Now (Stones Throw / Now-Again) 2lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Also, now available on vinyl! Reviewed last time here on cd, as follows: Here's a weird one. Imagine a late-sixties jazz-funk combo playing fucked up versions of children's songs written in the 40s and 50s by Hoagy Carmichael. Actually, you don't have to imagine that, if you just listen to this disc. 'Cause that's what's happening here. The first eight tracks on this cd were orginally released in 1970 as "The Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop" LP. Dunno what kids thought of it, but the heads must have loved it, unless it tripped 'em out too much. The idea (hatched by Hoagy's son Bix, who worked at Boston's WGBH public TV station with musican Monty Stark, the leader of The Stark Reality) was to psychedelize ol' Hoagy's music for hippie youngsters. The result were these awkwardly funky, severely distorted (in every possible way), jazzed-out cuts, featuring Stark's crazily atonal fuzz-equipped vibes and bizarrely straight singing/rhyming. The music appeared in a WGBH kid's show, then was released on LP. That LP is apparently quite an expensive rarity these days, with those that have heard it either thinking it brilliant or insane or both. The LP track "Rocket Ship" was one of Windy's favorite cuts on Peanut Butter Wolf's recent "Jukebox 45" mix cd, and he has now reissued the whole album on his Stones Throw label, so we all can judge its merits, along with several non-Hoagy bonus cuts. The thorough liner notes do their best to explain the whole deal, and indicate that more than one lucky beat-diggin' hip hop DJ has made this their secret weapon.
It's utterly ridiculous yet oddly compelling. You'll either have to turn it off after two minutes or it'll become an all-time fave, that's the sort of record this is! Easily the most warped, heaviest jams ever on subjects like basic musical notation, remembering the number of days in each month, and recipes for cooking stew. I mean, some of this makes Sun Ra's wiggiest solos sound normal.
MPEG Stream: "Junkman's Song"
MPEG Stream: "All You Need To Make Music"

STARLIGHT MINTS Dream That Stuff Was Made Of (See Thru Broadcasting) cd 13.98
Dave Sardy of Barkmarket continues to surprise us with the remarkably lush pop that he's been putting out on his See Thru Broadcasting label. First he picked up AQ's beloved Radar Brothers, and now this. The most ultimately jangly bubble-gum, Brit-pop/Latin-psych, ornamented with violin, cello, trumpet and super-sweet vocal harmonies.

STARLIGHT MINTS Drowaton (Barsuk) cd 14.98
We had never cared much about the Starlight Mints in the past but after listening to Drowaton for about the MILLIONTH time, we are kicking ourselves big time. In fact we're not just kicking, we're hitting and punching and just generally beating the crap out of ourselves. How could we have missed a band this cool and this weird? Even Allan, who has VERY particular pop tastes, just came over to see what was playing.
As with all great pop records, it's sort of difficult to describe exactly what makes Drowaton so goddamned good. Sure it's catchy, but not obviously so, it takes a few listens before the hooks really catch, but when they do, you'll NEVER get 'em out. Almost every single person who works here hears something different: David Bowie, the Kinks, the Monkees, Bread, but it doesn't sound that retro at all, there are bits of Iron And Wine, Neutral Milk Hotel, New Pornographers, Arcade Fire, Nada Surf and stuff like that too.
Probably if we had to come up with a concise description, or find a genre that best describes Starlight Mints it would be something like psychedelic indie pop. Or dark poppy jangle psych. Something like that. Cuz it really is pretty darn psychedelic, lots of fuzzy synths, warped backwards electric guitar, strange falsetto trills, cool little sonic filigree, plenty of strange instrumentation, "tralalala" vocals, soaring strings, horns, heavily strummed acoustic guitars, some whistling, hand claps, all wrapped up into bursting-at-the-seams perfect pop songs. It's mostly the vocals that remind us of Bowie, a lazy sexy drawl that can swing smoothly into a wild croon before swinging right back again, but the heady psychpop stomp beneath already had us swooning. Hooky guitar crunch collides with effervescent keyboards, sixties pop shimmer gets all tangled up with indie downer bedroom folk, huge swaths of jubilant pop pomp hovers just above slithering swirls of moody piano and warm washes of synthesizer, pounding piano rides atop an unlikely horn section, simple shuffling drums pulse and pound underneath squalls of FX-drenched guitars and clouds of sweet vocal swoon. Wow. So so so good. All of you who dug the Nada Surf we made record of the week a while back will probably love this too. And anyone into ANY sort of killer off kilter pop should for sure give Drowaton a listen!
MPEG Stream: "Pumpkin"
MPEG Stream: "Torts"
MPEG Stream: "What's Inside Of Me?"

STARLITE DESPERATION Show You What A Baby Won't (Gold Standard Laboratories) cd 12.98
Recently made the move from San Francisco to Detroit... quite a fitting new homebase for this lanky trio who know the power of a well turned pout or cold stare. This is dark 'n' slinky "new rock". The Starlite Desperation also know how to manoeuver the rock'n'roll edges and curves to their advantage honing a sound that bands such as The Vue or The Go are also cruising towards. Please note: this is not their most recent release. No, that would be "Go Kill Mice" on Flapping Jet Records. This is however the cd version of their previously-only-on-vinyl LP which came out a couple years ago on the excellent G.S.L. label.

STARLITE DESPERATION, THE Violate A Sundae (Cold Sweat) cd ep 7.98
Welcome back Starlite Desperation! Having split back in 2001, they've risen again like a hot-wired phoenix with this fierce six song EP! It's a raunchy high octane rock'n'roll affair that gives ample nods to the Detroit rawk stomp of the Stooges and MC5. The gritty guitars buzz like a swarm of rabid bees while Dante Adrian sneers and howls his vocals which are more than a little reminiscent of The Cult's Ian Astbury. Very kickass!
MPEG Stream: "The Thing"

STARS Do You Trust Your Friends? (Arts & Crafts) cd 16.98
Here we have the latest, a remix record, from Stars. The band's statement in the liner notes to this aptly titled record asks: "Do You Trust Your Friends?/Would you let them redecorate your apartment?/Would you let them buy your clothes or groceries?/ And if you did, what would they change?/ If you made a pop record, and then gave it to them to make again, what would they do to it?" We suppose it depends who your friends are and where their skills lie. You might ask your interior designer friend to redecorate your apartment, and you might want your fashion forward friend to help you pick out an outfit for the big date, but you might not ask these same friends to remix your record - that's a whole 'nother deal! Luckily for Stars, their friends seem to include an all-star cast of music-minded folk, including: Junior Boys, The Stills, Montag, The Dears, and Apostle of Hustle.
DYTYF strays a bit from what we traditionally think of as a remix record. The friends you'd expect to do electro remixes did, but the rest are not electronic at all, instead, reimaginings of the original tracks. Hence the remix may be subtly felt (or possibly not at all) for those unfamiliar with Stars' music, which brings us to the supposed motivation of this record. If you were to ask someone to redecorate your apartment or provide wardrobe tips, it may be that you think they could do a better job than you could yourself...or, as is Stars motivation with this record, it may be exciting to see how things change. Stars are a great band who have put out several great pop records, and while their friends remixes are equally great, none are necessarily better than the originals (remix records rarely are). They do seem to stand apart from the original songs as simply great songs in their own right. Same pop song, different sensibilities. Thus, Stars conclude their declaration of motivations stating: "Friends are good for that. Inside of them is everything you would be if only you could be different."
MPEG Stream: "Sleep Tonight"
MPEG Stream: "What I'm Trying To Say Pt. 2"

STARS Do You Trust Your Friends? (Arts & Crafts) 2lp 21.00
Here we have the latest, a remix record, from Stars. The band's statement in the liner notes to this aptly titled record asks: "Do You Trust Your Friends?/Would you let them redecorate your apartment?/Would you let them buy your clothes or groceries?/ And if you did, what would they change?/ If you made a pop record, and then gave it to them to make again, what would they do to it?" We suppose it depends who your friends are and where their skills lie. You might ask your interior designer friend to redecorate your apartment, and you might want your fashion forward friend to help you pick out an outfit for the big date, but you might not ask these same friends to remix your record - that's a whole 'nother deal! Luckily for Stars, their friends seem to include an all-star cast of music-minded folk, including: Junior Boys, The Stills, Montag, The Dears, and Apostle of Hustle.
DYTYF strays a bit from what we traditionally think of as a remix record. The friends you'd expect to do electro remixes did, but the rest are not electronic at all, instead, reimaginings of the original tracks. Hence the remix may be subtly felt (or possibly not at all) for those unfamiliar with Stars' music, which brings us to the supposed motivation of this record. If you were to ask someone to redecorate your apartment or provide wardrobe tips, it may be that you think they could do a better job than you could yourself...or, as is Stars motivation with this record, it may be exciting to see how things change. Stars are a great band who have put out several great pop records, and while their friends remixes are equally great, none are necessarily better than the originals (remix records rarely are). They do seem to stand apart from the original songs as simply great songs in their own right. Same pop song, different sensibilities. Thus, Stars conclude their declaration of motivations stating: "Friends are good for that. Inside of them is everything you would be if only you could be different."
MPEG Stream: "Sleep Tonight"
MPEG Stream: "What I'm Trying To Say Pt. 2"

STARS Heart (Arts & Crafts) cd 15.98
Oh Canada! The land of such wonderful pop music! Toronto-based band Stars weave the dreamiest grand pop gems. Very much in the swirling orchestral electronic vein of Saint Etienne crossed with the sugar twee bliss of Belle & Sebastian with very sweetheart boy/girl vocals much like Postal Service (particularly on the title track). Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell sing atop a swelling sea of gorgeous strings, horns, woodwinds, keyboards and theremin. Fans of any/all of the above will surely welcome this into their... uh, heart. So lovely!
MPEG Stream: "Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Elevator Love Letter"

STARS In Our Bedroom After The War (Arts & Crafts) cd+dvd 14.98
Romance always seems to be in the air when this Canadian band is around! Though it can occasionally get a bit doe-eyed and squishy, the music of Stars is sweetheart pop that never loses its head. In Our Bedroom After The War is by far their most composed and lush album to date. Oftentimes, their more soft-jazz inflected pop is quite reminiscent of Sea And Cake or The Style Council (circa "My Ever Changing Moods"). Both breezy and brainy.
Note: We currently have the limited edition cd version which comes with a bonus dvd (featuring a 55 minute documentary with interviews and tour footage from their jaunts across Europe and North America in support of their last album Set Yourself On Fire).
MPEG Stream: "The Beginning After The End"
MPEG Stream: "My Favourite Book"

STARS Nightsongs (Le Grand Magistery) cd 14.98
Finding their home on the more than appropriate swanky pop label Le Grand Magistery (Momus, Kahimi Karie, etc) are this Montreal-based group who reveal a definite penchant for high drama. Light'n'fluffy but heavy in melancholia. They even deliver a cotton candy cover of The Smiths' "This Charming Man". Soft baby doll boy/girl vocals over sugar-frosted electronic beats and skitterishness. If you like Momus, St. Etienne and Magnetic Fields, and are looking for more clever, electronic chamber pop sweetness, look no further!
RealAudio clip: "This Charming Man"
RealAudio clip: "International Rock Star"

STARS Set Yourself On Fire (Arts & Crafts) cd 16.98
Aaah, first things first! Please note: DO NOT confuse this band with Andee's '70s pop-metal faves Starz (reissues to be reviewed on the next list). This is a situation where one letter can denote such a difference! I mean, heck, you only need to hear the first few strains of Set Yourself On Fire to realize this is a whole 'nother monster... a nice big fuzzy one carrying a giant bouquet of flowers rather than a spandex'n'denim-clad, axe-wieldin' one!
If you like your pop music to be on the lush and pretty side but with a little bit of an edge to it, this new Stars album might be your new favorite... really! More often than not on their third full length, this Canadian band have captured that perfect balance of the bittersweet heartache, the chamber pop elegance, the infectious hook and the energetic punch. Their swirling orchestral arrangements and dreamy soft sensitive boy/girl vocals are fully entwined with the crunchy electric guitars, woozy keyboards and solid rhythm section. Now we're not trying to just lump all the smartie-pop Canadians together, but Stars do seem like the gentler, prettier cousin of the more obtuse and swaggering Arcade Fire (Young & Sexy and Metric also come to mind as like-minded Canucks). One marked detour is the tenth song "He Lied About Death" which -- with its effected spoken-sung male vocals, stuttery beats, swells of distortion and piano key strikes -- is oddly reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails' '90s hit "Closer". Nonetheless (that song included), we can say Set Yourself On Fire is comprised of a baker's dozen pop treasures that'll surely sweep fans of the Delgados, more recent Belle & Sebastian, and maybe Postal Service too right off their feet. HOORAY FOR STARS!
MPEG Stream: "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead"
MPEG Stream: "Calendar Girl"

STARS Set Yourself On Fire (Arts & Crafts / City Slang) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL!
Aaah, first things first! Please note: DO NOT confuse this band with Andee's '70s pop-metal faves Starz. This is a situation where one letter can denote such a difference! I mean, heck, you only need to hear the first few strains of Set Yourself On Fire to realize this is a whole 'nother monster... a nice big fuzzy one carrying a giant bouquet of flowers rather than a spandex'n'denim-clad, axe-wieldin' one!
If you like your pop music to be on the lush and pretty side but with a little bit of an edge to it, this new Stars album might be your new favorite... really! More often than not on their third full length, this Canadian band have captured that perfect balance of the bittersweet heartache, the chamber pop elegance, the infectious hook and the energetic punch. Their swirling orchestral arrangements and dreamy soft sensitive boy/girl vocals are fully entwined with the crunchy electric guitars, woozy keyboards and solid rhythm section. Now we're not trying to just lump all the smartie-pop Canadians together, but Stars do seem like the gentler, prettier cousin of the more obtuse and swaggering Arcade Fire (Young & Sexy and Metric also come to mind as like-minded Canucks). One marked detour is the tenth song "He Lied About Death" which -- with its effected spoken-sung male vocals, stuttery beats, swells of distortion and piano key strikes -- is oddly reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails' '90s hit "Closer". Nonetheless (that song included), we can say Set Yourself On Fire is comprised of a baker's dozen pop treasures that'll surely sweep fans of the Delgados, more recent Belle & Sebastian, and maybe Postal Service too right off their feet. HOORAY FOR STARS!
MPEG Stream: "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead"
MPEG Stream: "Calendar Girl"

STARS The Comeback (Le Grand Magistery) cd ep 11.98
Twinkling electronic pop (oops, no pun intended) from Montreal, PQ. Charming and romantic a la The Cardigans, Kahimi Karie or St. Etienne. Wispy vocals murmur these five lullaby-like songs with an air of fluffy innocence. A scattering of minimal piano, horns and guitar lines add a bit of warmth to the proceedings.

STARS AS EYES Important Youth Movement / People Kill People (Tigerbeat6) 7" 4.98
A couple of very brief encounters with the electronic duo known as Stars As Eyes (aka Steve Ferrari and Craig Four). One is oh so dreamy and pretty, the other a little more dissonant and unsettling. If you liked their album Freedom Rock this certainly will not let you down. Very lush and atmospheric, it leaves you wishing it was a 12" instead of a 7".

STARS AS EYES Loud New Shit (Tigerbeat6) cd 10.98
Stars As Eyes traverse through such varied musical terrain on their new cd that it almost sounds like a compilation of a bunch of different bands. Well, it actually is! Perhaps they've been drawing inspiration from their vast array of Tigerbeat6 labelmates (psst, check out the label's recent bargain-priced compilation Open Up And Say...@<%_|^[!] for a thorough sampling of their roster)? Actually this is more of a remix collection than an album proper. Of the dozen tracks, one third are new, and over half are remixes... which probably factors in greatly to the diversity of the track selection. It all starts familiarly Stars As Eyes-y. That is, chiming, airy electronic dreaminess (track 1 "Some Life"), then things darken and churn somewhat into something akin to 'industrial-lite' (track 2 "Rotten"). But wait! Let's not get all gloomy! Party down with some disco punk a la The Rapture, Outhud (track 5 "Falling Picture - Shy Child Remix"), and lighten back up with more soothing melancholic-tronica (track 9 "Our Light - Casino Versus Japan Remix"), then brood, brood, brood into some very moody Brit rock-ish songs (track 10 and 11 "La Methode Francaise - Dwayne Sodahberk Remix" and "Resistance Days - Mum Nostalgia"). Delightfully eclectic or puzzlingly wishy-washy, you decide.
MPEG Stream: "Falling Picture - Shy Child Remix"
MPEG Stream: "La Methode Francaise - Dwayne Sodahberk Remix"

STARS OF THE LID Avec Laudenum (Sub Rosa) cd 14.98
Ssshhhh...you might miss this one, if you're not quiet. Formerly on the Kranky label, these Texan drone rockers manifest more of their trademarked shimmering ambience from guitars and four track experiments. Exactly the sort of music we wanna listen to at the end of a hectic day.

STARS OF THE LID Music For Nitrous Oxide (Sedimental) cd 14.98
Before there were a million 'drone' records, before every other person had their own cd-r drone music label, before anyone with a computer and a cd burner had their own 'drone project', and well before all it took was holding down a few keys on a keyboard or leaning a guitar against an amplifier to become an underground sensation, there was Stars Of The Lid. Armed with little more than a couple guitars, some effects and a four track, the duo of Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie were capable of crafting incredibly lush and expansive dronescapes unlike anything we'd ever heard. Quietly channeling the druggy drift of Spacemen 3, the blissful ambience of Brian Eno and the processed guitar based landscapes of post-Loop project Main, the duo conjured up long sprawling expanses of near static guitar drift, crumbling distortion and shimmering feedback sculpted into billowing stretches of soft swirling sound. Sites set high, even their early works aspired to the modern minimalism they would eventually master, but well before the group enlisted extra players and string sections and incorporated flutes and pianos and began crafting multi movement minimal epics, equal parts Arvo Part and Morton Feldman, the band's sound was much more raw and immediate, much more lo-fi, but somehow managing to sound lush at the same time, music so perfectly crafted it seemed to transcend its source. A gorgeous, living organic world of sound, evocative and cinematic, dark and brooding, soft and utterly beautiful.
Originally released way back in 1995, Music For Nitrous Oxide was the very first Stars Of The Lid release, and it's sound can be summed up by one of the song titles: "Tape Hiss Makes Me Happy". Apparently, so did strange samples, bizarre snippets of dialogue, and most importantly, thick smears of distorted guitar. Total bedroom ambient bliss, but light on the 'ambient', the music on Nitrous Oxide is anything but ambient, it moves and flows and buzzes and howls, the sound is not smooth, it's raw and rough, distorted and warped, the production low on fidelity, but heavy on hazy, gauzy, washed out shimmer. This is almost like the sound of old SUNNO))) records, with all the distortion removed. Slow motion riffage, unfurling lazily into thick tendrils of dark melody, textures and timbres stretched and smeared and smoothed and blurred, tape hiss everywhere, but instead of an impediment, the hiss is alive, swirling and undulating, another layer of warm whir, giving the sounds more texture and more grit. There is percussion, but it sounds like someone tapping on the body of the guitar, then slathering it in reverb and delay. The sounds of trains and cars driving by surface here and there, as do bursts of radio and short wave interference, but the core of all these pieces is delicately and perfectly arranged bits of guitar, whether they be looped streaks of whispery high end, or deep rumbling slabs of crumbling low end, the guitars are looped and repeated and all tangled up with other complimentary loops, allowed to spread out, to expand, to fill up the speakers and overflow, or to trickle out like a summer stream.
The sound shifts from hushed whisper to thick dense almost chaotic swirl, often in the same song. Deep bell like tones drift in wide open expanses of dreamily dramatic soft focus buzz, thick, super distorted guitar buzz is wound around a simple barely there drum beat, cymbals sizzle in a thick roiling black sea of disembodied and fragmented riffage, while elsewhere rubbery low end warbles beneath strange creaks and scrapes, swallowed whole by the occasional wash of blurred distorted buzz, and finally the sound of rainfall surrounds deep lush rumbling chords as they create an almost choral drone for perhaps one of the most moving pieces of drone music ever, certainly an impossibly perfect way to end the record.
Captivating, mesmerizing, one minute soft and shimmery, the next dense and heavy, but always perfect, always personal and intimate, always mysterious and utterly magical. The name Stars Of The Lid comes from the strange images you see when you close your eyes, electrical impulses, mysterious shapes and textures, and never has a name so perfectly reflected the sound of the band so named, and rarely, has band so perfectly represented something so ineffable in sound. Practically perfect. And absolutely essential.
MPEG Stream: "Adamord"
MPEG Stream: "Tape Hiss Makes Me Happy"
MPEG Stream: "Goodnight"

STARS OF THE LID The Ballasted Orchestra (Kranky) 2lp 19.98
Not really sure how we managed to not ever review this, the third record from dreamdrift duo Stars Of The Lid, especially considering they're a long time aQ fave, and rank up there for some of us as one of our favorite groups ever. But this gorgeous chunk of haunting spectral guitar drone ambience, originally released way back in 1997, has just been reissued on vinyl, which makes this the perfect time to right that wrong.
For those who are new to Stars Of The Lid, in the early days of the list, anything that was lush and brooding, ambient and beautifully atmospheric, Stars Of The Lid was the comparison we would most often make, the duo of Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie, channeled the spirit of Arvo Part and Henryk Gorecki through two guitars and a four-track, contemporaries of groups like Labradford and Jessamine, but way more minimal, the duo approached their songs like classical compositions, modern minimal epics, sweeping movements, in places lush and majestic, but in others, hushed and meditative. While the group would later go on to incorporate piano and strings, their early records were mostly created with treated guitars, deftly arranged and lushly layered, the Ballasted Orchestra being the perfect example. Longform compositions that unfurl like somnambulant ragas, starlit reveries, the sounds pulsing and drifting, subtle overtones ringing out like ripples in a pond, at times sounding like a super stripped down Spacemen 3, that sort of druggy pulsing buzz that defined that group's sound, but here slowed to a crawl, and spread way out.
A few of the tracks here gain some forward momentum, "Fucked Up (3:57 AM)" definitely has some dark twang and swoonsome drift, brooding and haunting, softly pulsing, a hypnotic slo-mo trance, all lush guitar thrum, and buried minor key melody, not to mention some heaving low end rumble off int he distance. And then there's the two part "Music For Twin Peaks Episode #30", which is indeed a hearfelt tribute to the show, and it's not hard to imagined these sprawling swirls of burnished chordal hum as the backdrop to that classic surreal program, and even on their own, free of any visuals, the sounds evoke all sorts of dark drama, especially part two, which adds some field recordings, and more haunting twang. The final track might be the loveliest of the bunch, a lush landscape of dark dreamy swells, of softly swirling swoonsome melodies, of smeared soft focus shimmers, all blurred into a hazy expanse of sweet sound, drifting off into the endless night.
Such a fantastic album, from an incredible group. Most definitely a precursor to bands like Barn Owl, newer Earth, Fear Falls Burning, FNS, RV Paintings, Slaves, and many of the current crop of dark sonic soundscapers, and yet as good as many of those groups are, few have come close to eclipsing Stars Of The Lid.
The reissue vinyl finds one of the tracks that was edited for the original cd release restored to its proper length, as well as the bonus track, "24 Inch Cymbal", from the original lp release!
MPEG Stream: "Central Texas"
MPEG Stream: "Sun Drugs"
MPEG Stream: "Taphead"
MPEG Stream: "Fucked Up (3:57 AM)"

STARS OF THE LID Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid (Kranky) 2cd 16.98
Epic double cd masterpiece from Austin, Texas' kings of the lullaby drone. Stars of the Lid's sound, while similar to past efforts, has undergone some pretty dramatic changes. Their multi-layered 4-tracked guitars are still present in all their serene beauty and dark tranquility, but the sound is more lush and more detailed, with treated strings, organs, backwards tubular bells and field recordings adding even more depth to this already layered and impossible-to-grasp-in-one-listen recording. 'Tired Sounds...' is easily the Stars' most obviously melodic record, thanks in no small part to the addition of strings, horns and piano. Dreamy nocturnal slow motion drones are the glorious backdrop to the ebb and flow of dark sonic swells and soaring strings. While lots of 'drone' music sounds sinister and threatening, and often clinical and cold, the Stars manage to imbue their minimal soundscapes with warmth and humanity, and a sort of hope and joy. When the mood does change, it's more melancholic, lost, maybe lonely, never evil. Really human, organic emotions brilliantly conveyed through sound. So much avant / experimental music is technical and electronic, but the shimmering ambience of the guitars and the grit and grime of the recording, as well as the perfect arrangements make this music transcend its contemporaries, filling your ears with thick slow sound, until it slowly spreads through your whole body. Think Angus Maclise, Terry Riley, Brian Eno, Low, Alan Lamb's wire recordings, Pauline Oliveros' deep listening recordings, a more pastoral Skullflower, a more idyllic Total, John Cale, Godspeed You Black Emperor, the harmonium works of Hermann Nitsch, or Tony Conrad. But mix in those magic (non-academic) ingredients (rock background, songs, melodies) and you have probably one of the most beautiful recordings we have ever heard.
RealAudio clip: "Requiem For Dying Mothers part 1"
RealAudio clip: "Broken Harbors part 1"
RealAudio clip: "Austin Texas Mental Hospital part 1"

STARS OF THE LID Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid (Kranky) 3lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Epic double cd masterpiece from Austin, Texas' kings of the lullaby drone, now on triple lp. Stars of the Lid's sound, while similar to past efforts, has undergone some pretty dramatic changes. Their multi-layered 4-tracked guitars are still present in all their serene beauty and dark tranquility, but the sound is more lush and more detailed, with treated strings, organs, backwards tubular bells and field recordings adding even more depth to this already layered and impossible-to-grasp-in-one-listen recording. 'Tired Sounds...' is easily the Stars' most obviously melodic record, thanks in no small part to the addition of strings, horns and piano. Dreamy nocturnal slow motion drones are the glorious backdrop to the ebb and flow of dark sonic swells and soaring strings. While lots of 'drone' music sounds sinister and threatening, and often clinical and cold, the Stars manage to imbue their minimal soundscapes with warmth and humanity, and a sort of hope and joy. When the mood does change, it's more melancholic, lost, maybe lonely, never evil. Really human, organic emotions brilliantly conveyed through sound. So much avant / experimental music is technical and electronic, but the shimmering ambience of the guitars and the grit and grime of the recording, as well as the perfect arrangements make this music transcend its contemporaries, filling your ears with thick slow sound, until it slowly spreads through your whole body. Think Angus Maclise, Terry Riley, Brian Eno, Low, Alan Lamb's wire recordings, Pauline Oliveros' deep listening recordings, a more pastoral Skullflower, a more idyllic Total, John Cale, Godspeed You Black Emperor, the harmonium works of Hermann Nitsch, or Tony Conrad. But mix in those magic (non-academic) ingredients (rock background, songs, melodies) and you have probably one of the most beautiful recordings we have ever heard.

STARSAILOR Love Is Here (Capitol / Hollywood) cd 10.98
We've had a minor flurry of requests for this UK quartet, who follow very much in the path and style of Coldplay or a less experimental Radiohead, and enjoy just as much hype from the British media. "Best new band"? I'm not so sure of that. Clearly the fuss over Coldplay was well deserved as they rose to the challenge of escaping the "flavor of the month" tag - creating some beautiful, complex, resonant music (check out their shimmering song "Trouble" for instance), but I don't think Starsailor are quite there yet. Nevertheless if you're looking for a bit more along those lines - lushly lulling and melancholic - you just might wanna check them out too...
RealAudio clip: "Fever"
RealAudio clip: "Lullaby"

STARTER s/t (Dark Entries) lp 15.98
Starter were a Swiss synth-pop outfit, founded by the fashion designer Francis Foss with Jet Harbour and Grauzone's Claudine Chirac. They released one album back in 1981 of super minimal arrangements for synths, drum machine, and Foss' androgynous vocal stylings that would alternate between a rockabilly croon and a theatrically cabaret snarl. His voice is not all that dissimilar to Bettina Koster of Malaria with its Teutonic biting delivery; and musically, the band takes after Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, and the Neue Deutsche Welle sound in an electronic pastiche of poppy rock action, with a new wave twist of course. The album's opener "Lunapark" is a pretty simple rock-chord progression marched out on synths, video game sound effects, and Foss' amphetamine-laced pogo-pop vocals. "Is This Love" is a colder affair with sci-fi synth percolations. "Baby" is almost a Roy Orbison torchsong, with Foss crooning above the simple synth lullaby. This track has got to be a tongue-n-cheek parody in the style of Nina Hagen, given how overwrought Foss delivers the vocals and how toy-like and simple the synths are. This lp comes with an extra track "Victim" produced in 1985 when Starter reformed with just Foss and synth programmer Gary Grey, working in more of an Italo-Disco vein by way of Yello's "Bostich." As with all of the Dark Entries reissues, the production quality through the mastering and the artwork reproduction is top notch!

STARVING WEIRDOS Harry Smith (Root Strata) 12" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Latest in the slow flow of dreamy sounds from this Humboldt County duo, who not counting their 20 or so unreleased full lengths, have gradually built up an amazing body of work, most unfortunately super limited, this new lp no exception.
Released on Tarentel's Root Strata label, Harry Smith is a single side long track, a slow burning cinematic wonder, a huge buzzing field of charged particles, run through old beat up guitars and a table full of FX pedals and broken toy instruments, alchemically changed from lead into a gold.
A sitar-like buzz, submerged in reverb and wrapped in dense overtones, spreads out like a melting glacier, constantly shifting and changing shape, above that drift huge washes of metallic shimmer, effulgent yet muted and murky, a subdued sonic glare, warm and wistful. These dreamlike expanses are punctuated by ghostlike pulses, bells or chimes smeared into indistinct tones, let loose and allowed to fade into the subtly churning sonic backdrop. Very dark and dramatic. And oh so lovely.
This is a one sided lp. The flip side has black and white artwork pasted right on the vinyl, housed in a clear plastic sleeve. And of course super limited...
ONLY 300 COPIES PRESSED!!!

STARVING WEIRDOS Rolled In The Midst Of Never-Ceasing Currents Flowing Without A Rest Forever Onward (Bo Weavil Recordings) lp 26.00
The Starving Weirdos (and their handful of off-shoots) have made the rounds of pretty much all the cool labels around the world... Olde English Spelling Bee, Blackest Rainbow, Root Strata, Not Not Fun, Helen Scarsdale, Weird Forest, Amish, etc. Now, they return to Bo Weavil, a label mostly known for their outsider folk recordings, although the Weirdos certainly fit nicely next to the hillbilly ragas of Henry Flynt, who's got a couple of his scratchy pieces of minimalism on Bo Weavil as well. Out of the foggy constructions from primitive horns blurting prolonged atonal blasts and creeping VHS-horror melodies, the Weirdos kick out a rolling, mid-tempo breakbeat to gird their psychedelic minefields and delay-crusted clatter. It almost sounds like a witch-house track, but rendered with an apocalyptic ritualism that would have fit right into a Psychic TV jam circa Unclean or Dreams Less Sweet. A similarly creepy atmosphere is cast on "Flowing Without Rest, Forever Onward" through the intertwining loops of slasher noise, cracks of thunder, squalls of feedback, more horror-score minor key melodies, and tumbling drum fills. If Godzilla were ever to wreak havoc on the Eureka Bay in Humboldt county, the Weirdos have already mustered the perfect soundtrack. A blinding transcendence of squalid hums and suspended atonal mutterings emerges from the junkyard Tuvan throatsong of "Contemplation Of The Setting Sun," before descending into a far more mysterious rattling of chains, bellowing horns, and synthetic notes clashing at the bottom of some murky catacomb. This dark trip is limited to 350 copies, all housed in silkscreened covers.

STARVING WEIRDOS Spirit Activity (Root Strata) cassette 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Brand new release from Humboldt County's finest sons, the Starving Weirdos. And their very first tape release. LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES, we got about 15, so we won't go into too much detail, as SW stuff generally flies out of here anyway, so odds are these will be gone in a flash.
As if to commemorate their first tape, the band offer up a whole new sound. Well not a -new- sound exactly, instead, they take the subtle free jazz filigree that infused many of their other releases and shove it kicking and screaming to center stage. On the opening track, the band unleash some seriously freaky out-jazz, as free and chaotic as it gets, wild squalls of horns, the drums in full on kit-down-the-stairs mode, a swirling whirling dervish of sound. Some seriously off kilter speaker shredding jazz fury for sure. But after that opening salvo, things settle down a bit and get back to a more recognizably ramshackle SW sound, long stretches of abstract percussion, disembodied fractured folk strum, high end shimmer, rumbling industrial drones, moaning minor key melodies, chaotic tangles of soaring strings, plenty of abstract ambience and druggy drone-y floorcore, but with echoes of that opening track surfacing here and there, bits of skronk, woozy horn harmonies, but all deftly woven into the constantly shifting and swirling back drop.
Beautifully packaged, pro pressed and printed red cassettes housed in super thick multi panel offset printed sleeves. And again, LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES. We have 15 of those. You no doubt know what that means by now...
MPEG Stream: "Days Before Panic"
MPEG Stream: "Van Duzer"

STARVING WEIRDOS, THE B/P/M Series 1 (Blackest Rainbow) lp 21.00
Aracta's one and only avant-drone duo the Starving Weirdos are back with a brand new lp on UK's Blackest Rainbow. After delivering yet another impressively far-out full length on Bo' Weavil a few months back, the weirdos offer up some new ideas on B/P/M Series 1. Since both Brian Pyle and Merrick McKinlay have spent time recording the legendary Humbolt based pianist Darius Brottman, they've decided to take a break from their usual musical formula to use these recordings as source material for this new lp. Each side features a different reworking of Brottman's recordings, all arranged and cut up to reveal two distinctly unique sides of gorgeous piano bliss. Though both sides exhibit that distinct production style of all Weirdos recordings, they each uniquely reiterate the virtuosity of Brottman's playing. Side A opens with brief, straightforward piano before more layers of tones and clinks build into a signature Weirdos wall of sound type composition. Side B starts on the more psychedelic side of things, all at once erupting in a sea of reversed loops, chaotic, vigorous piano and reverberating tones. Really great stuff, both sides completely hypnotic and wonderful, like being caught in some orchestral dream world or being lost on acid in a giant piano shop. Beautifully housed in a pro-printed lp sleeve adorned with the psychedelic artwork of Mick Wiggins, this one is limited to 500 and will be gone in no time.