24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE (SOUNDTRACK) (London) cd 26.00
This is the companion disc to the film "24 Hour Party People" which is a narrative telling of the Factory Records saga and the Manchester sound, and which premiered at Cannes. Most of you are probably already familiar with the signature sound of the era (and if you aren't then this is a nice sampler to jumpstart with), so we'll skip the basics to ask the questions we're all thinking: "Who the heck is going to play Ian Curtis? Is there going to be a Mark E. Smith impersonator?"
With 17 classic tracks from Happy Mondays, Joy Division, New Order, 808 State, Durutti Column, Buzzcocks, and more. Besides the tried and true (which have all been released before, but still sound amazing!), there's also one new song by New Order (it's the first soundclip below) and a ill-advised Moby mix of a live version of Joy Division's "New Dawn Fades" played by New Order, the Chili Peppers' John Frusciante and Smashing Munchkins' Billy Corgan. Pages and pages of liner notes written by Factory co-founder / Hacienda club co-owner Tony Wilson himself.
The website for the film is pretty interesting, lots of interviews and articles exclusive to the site: http://217.204.45.80/main.php.
RealAudio clip: NEW ORDER "Here To Stay"
RealAudio clip: JOY DIVISION "Love Will Tear Us Apart Again"
RealAudio clip: DURUTTI COLUMN "Otis"

5000 FINGERS OF DR. T, THE OST (El / Cherry Red) cd 15.98
There's been a spurt of awesome old film soundtracks for awesome old films coming through our door in the last while -- Daisies, Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, Blood On Satan's Claw, Bedazzled, The Hindenberg, and now this one! The 5000 Fingers Of Dr. T! Not MR. T, mind you, as one customer thought! Hahaha, that would be a whole 'nother bizarre thing, wouldn't it? Nope, this is a children's movie musical from 1953, but it's one of the most enchantingest dream AND disturbingest nightmare kids' films ever. Makes total sense when you discover that the man behind it was noneother than Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss!!!).
Quite prim and tame by today's standards, but there's still some stretches that are downright disturbing and bizarre. For those unfamiliar with it, long story short, the tale centers around a young boy learning to play piano. As one might expect, the soundtrack is quite heavy on the tickling of ivories, but you'll also be swept up in sumptuous '50s orchestral and marching band numbers as well as parts of the storyline sung in loopy Dr. Seussian rhymes. Don't miss the "Elevator Song" and "Dressing Song Do-Me-Do Duds" (you might recall The Simpsons' Mr. Burns doing a rendition of that one!). A deliriously twee delight that's not just for kids.
MPEG Stream: "Ten Happy Fingers"
MPEG Stream: "We Are Victorious"

8 MILE (OST) (Interscope) cd 19.98
Here's the soundtrack to 8 mile, Em's new hit, semiautobiographical movie. I have yet to see it, but even our pickiest friends liked it and it made something crazy like 54 million the first weekend at the boxoffice. Eminem donated three new songs to this soundtrack, Lose Yourself is the first on the disc and is already all over the radio, a totally great song. He also produced much of the album, which includes Gang Starr, Jay-Z, Rakim, Nas, Xzibit, D12 and Macy Gray. Em's Shady Records signees 50 Cent and Obie Trice are featured throughout. Obie was on Eminem's song "Drips," from The Eminem Show album. 50 cent is a New York artist who Dr. Dre and Eminem co signed to their labels. He's been self promoting with mix tapes, and apparently has cred in NY. Eminem says he wrote these three songs through his character "Rabbit's" voice. Comes with Shady / Aftermath artist sampler.
RealAudio clip: EMINEM "Lose Yourself"
RealAudio clip: EMINEM/OBIE TRICE/ 50 CENT "Love Me"

A MIGHTY WIND: THE ALBUM (OST) (Sony) cd 17.98
Throughout their beloved mockumentary movies Spinal Tap, Waiting For Guffman, Best In Show and now A Mighty Wind, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and co. have done a smashing job faithfully replicating musical styles right down to the most miniscule detail. You might even say that quite often it puts the 'real' thing to shame. Pssst... if you've yet to see AMW which focuses on three very different fictitious embodiments of folk music - the squaresville upstart New Main Street Singers, veteran trio The Folksmen and beloved duo Mitch & Mickey - what the heck are you waiting for?! Perhaps one of their most astute skills is in knowing when to apply humor (either subtle or over-the-top) and when to play things totally straight. They locate just the right moment to give your funny bone a wallop or tug gently at your heartstrings. The latter is so fully realized in Mitch & Mickey's bittersweet duet "A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow". Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara's voices ring so clear and true as the former sweethearts. Sigh! It makes our ol' softie Ms Cup get all misty eyed. Of course, this is a must-have for those of you who've seen (and re-seen) the movie and/or the fabulous live production that came to the Warfield recently. Recommended!!!
MPEG Stream: "A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow"
MPEG Stream: "Never Did No Wanderin'"

ABRIL & MARCELLO GIOMBINI, ANTON GARCIA ...4..3..2..1...MORTE (GDM) cd 16.98
The soundtrack to this 'lost classic' soft core space movie is separated into 2 different movements, sort of. The tracks entitled 'Seli' of which there are 5, are cheesy and hippy shimmery vocal workouts ala many sixties/seventies low budget fantasy films. But the tracks entitled '4.3.2.1...Morte! (seq 1-10)" of which there are 10 (obviously) are the reasons to pick this up. Haunting (but still hippy) and chilling and spooky and goofy sounds of love and space and terror and romance and space again. Weird. Definitely not essential, but if you like this sort of thing, it's definitely a keeper.
RealAudio clip: "Seli (Main Title)"
RealAudio clip: "4.3.2.1...MORTE! (Seq.3)"

ABRIL & MARCELLO GIOMBINI, ANTON GARCIA ...4..3..2..1...MORTE (GDM) lp 14.98
The soundtrack to this 'lost classic' soft core space movie is separated into 2 different movements, sort of. The tracks entitled 'Seli' of which there are 5, are cheesy and hippy shimmery vocal workouts ala many sixties/seventies low budget fantasy films. But the tracks entitled '4.3.2.1...Morte! (seq 1-10)" of which there are 10 (obviously) are the reasons to pick this up. Haunting (but still hippy) and chilling and spooky and goofy sounds of love and space and terror and romance and space again. Weird. Definitely not essential, but if you like this sort of thing, it's definitely a keeper.

ADAMSON, BARRY As Above So Below (Mute) cd 15.98
Adamson's previous records have intentionally been film scores for films that never existed, blueprints for him to explore the issues in his life, not the least of which is his biracial ethnicity. In his fifth solo album, the former bassist for the Bad Seeds and Magazine unveils his most song-oriented album. The trademark apocalyptic noir swing and murky production are present but with a sinister application of Leonard Cohen-style vocals. There's a point in the middle of the album (Here I Stand) where all of the ghosts and demons are scared up to intense peaks of aural chaos... and it sounds so good!

ADAMSON, BARRY Moss Side Story (Mute) cd 15.98
Mute U.K. has finally seen fit to reissue this: hallelujah! This is his first soundtrack (of 4, 3 of which are for films that don't exist). Brilliant album from one of my favorite musicians in the whole world. The cd version adds 3 songs unavailable elsewhere, including the truly essential theme from the Sinatra-as-junkie film The Man With The Golden Arm. "In a black & white world, murder adds a touch of colour." Get this album first!

ADAMSON, BARRY Moss Side Story (Mute) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Mute U.K. Has finally seen fit to reissue this: hallelujah! This is his first soundtrack (of 4, 3 of which are for films that don't exist). Brilliant album from one of my favorite musicians in the whole world. The cd version adds 3 songs unavailable elsewhere, including the truly essential theme from the Sinatra-as-junkie film The Man With The Golden Arm. "In a black & white world, murder adds a touch of colour." Get this album first!

ADAMSON, BARRY The Murky World of... (Mute) cd 15.98
A "best of" collection from Barry Adamson's five solo albums outside of his work from the Bad Seeds and Magazine... filmic scores of very dark and moody jazz, rumble-ass basslines, brassy outbursts, and post-punk pop.

ALLAN, DAVIE & THE ARROWS Devil's Rumble: Anthology '64-'68 (Sundazed) 2cd 28.00
Awesome! You can always count on Sundazed to do retrospective compilations right! Here's a super comprehensive collection of Davie Allan's music. You might already be unknowingly familiar with him 'cuz he did countless songs for numerous '60s biker b-movie soundtracks. Some of them even treat you to a rumbling motorcycle intro. His fantastic guitar sound comes tearing outta your speakers with a fierce energy. Who can resist "Blue's Theme"? You can almost smell the gas fumes and feel the bad guys closin' in behind ya. Most of the tracks are pretty straightforward surf garage instrumentals, but there are a few that are more abstract and trippy (such as the piano-laced "The Ghost Story" that brings the first disc to a close) as well as one with vocals too (the woozy "Glory Stompers" on the second disc). Forty badass tracks in all! Killer!
MPEG Stream: "Blue's Theme"
MPEG Stream: "The Ghost Story"

AMERICAN SPLENDOR (OST) (New Line Records) cd 16.98
Soundtrack to this great film about Harvey Pekar. Only two of the tracks here are what would be considered the "original score", composed by Mark Suozzo, the rest are the -- mostly -- jazz cuts featured throughout the film (undoubtedly some of Pekar's faves). Along with a couple tracks by close friend and collaborator Robert Crumb (with his Cheap Suit Serenaders) there are some rare and not-so-rare tracks by John Coltrane, Joe Maneri, Lester Young & Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Marvin Gaye and more. The collection is annotated with liner notes by Harvey himself -- how could it be otherwise, right? Also included on the disc, for those of you with computers (and I know one or two of you out there have one), is a collection of comic book covers, screen savers, instant messenger icons, desktop wallpaper, and an exclusive comic you can print out. Cool.
MPEG Stream: JOE MANERI "Paniots Nine"
MPEG Stream: MARK SUOZZO "Time Passes Strangely"

AMORES PERROS (SOUNDTRACK) (Universal) 2cd 23.00
I was waiting to review this soundtrack until I had seen the movie, which finally happened last week, and all I have to say is MAN IS THAT FILM AWESOME OR WHAT. I'm not going to review the movie here or give too much away, but suffice to say that in the same way that the movie mixed up three quite different stories into one seamless whole, the soundtrack has been brilliantly compiled and tracked in such a way that many different kinds of music work so well together. There's Cypress-Hill-style hip hop (very sassy and hard hitting), traditional Latin stuff (Celia Cruz), super earnest man-with-acoustic-guitar songs, The Hollies (? but it works), weirdo electronic alt-rock, some contributions from the popular rock group Cafe Tacuba, and the whole thing is held together with interspersed soundscapey incidental interludes courtesy Gustavo Santaolalla. Very, very well done... and there's two whole discs! Well worth your money.
RealAudio clip: GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA "Tema Amoera Perros"
RealAudio clip: CONTROL MACHETE "Si Senor"
RealAudio clip: LOS DEL GARROTE "La Cumbia del Garrote"
RealAudio clip: CONTROL MACHETE "de Perros Amores"
RealAudio clip: CAFE TACUBA "Avientame"

ANAND, VIJAYA Dance Raja Dance (Luaka Bop) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Stellar compilation of South Indian film music. A great, complex hybrid of western pop and Asian classical & pop. A barrage of genres meet in beautiful and confounding ways. Sweet, perfect voices singing love songs -- translations provided. This is an absolutely essential, ALL TIME FAVORITE here at Aquarius.

ANDREWS, MICHAEL Me And You And Everyone We Know - Original Film Score (Everloving) cd 14.98
You loved the movie in the theater, now you can love the soundtrack in your car, living room or anywhere! Yup, here's the soundtrack to Miranda July's acclaimed film Me And You And Everyone We Know featuring a score composed by Michael Andrews (who also scored Donnie Darko and Freaks And Geeks!). Even without visual accompaniment it's a dreamily contemplative listen. Perfect if you're seeking something that will evoke a sense of calm in your surroundings. A spoken word piece by Ms July opens the proceedings, but from that point on it's primarily an instrumental work. Warm, smooth tones from a full spectrum of instruments drift, waft and float languidly for a spell, then dissipate. It's not until the sixth track that a human voice resurfaces. The mellow Cody Chesnutt sung "5 On A Joyride" could easily be mistaken for one of Money Mark's sensitive guy pop songs. After that, the soundtrack maintains the soothing pace with additional occasional verbal and non-verbal vocal interludes ("Peter And Sylvie" is particularly lovely!). Rounding off the album's sixteen tracks are a couple by Spiritualized (their very Jesus And Mary Chain-esque "Any Way That You Want Me") and Virginia Astley.
Psst, if you need more of Andrews' music, we've also just received his new solo album cd/book set Hand On String!
MPEG Stream: ANDREWS, MICHAEL "Peter And Sylvie"
MPEG Stream: CHESNUTT, CODY "5 On A Joyride"

AQUARIUS BUTTONS 2 x 1" buttons 1.00
Spread the word! Show the world your true aQ colors! COOL COOL COOL aQ buttons, in 5 different colors. TWO FOR $1!!! Colors are random, but buy enough and you'll be guaranteed to get 'em all! All 5 feature our spiffy James Gang style logo!!

ARTEMIEV, EDWARD Solaris, The Mirror, Stalker (Electroshock) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Russian electronic music composer Edward Artemiev is certainly best known for his film soundtrack work, especially his scores for famed director Andrei Tarkovskiy's weird and beautiful, avant-garde sci-fi films like Stalker and Solaris from the 1970s. Artemiev's synth music & orchestrations are appropriately moody, ranging from blissful and serene to the quite eerie and ominous... Previously his soundtracks were available as very expensive Japanese imports (now super hard to find, if not entirely out of print), so we were happy to be able to finally track down and stock this Russian disc compiling music from three of Artemiev/Tarkovskiy's most sought-after scores. Four tracks from Stalker, seven from Solaris (including a Bach piece arranged by Artemiev), and one from Mirror. Plus, the composer's grandiose 1989 "Dedication to Andrei Tarkovskiy" is the final, nine-minute track on this disc. Late news: Byram is convinced that these are re-recordings of the original film scores done by Artemiev in the late '80s, not the original (presumably lost) tapes. Still, quite nice.
RealAudio clip: "Stalker - Theme"
RealAudio clip: "Stalker - Train"
RealAudio clip: "Solaris - Station"

BADLY DRAWN BOY About A Boy (Original Soundtrack) (XL Recordings) cd 16.98
Once Byram brought it to my (Cup's) attention that Mr. Damon Gough sounds remarkably like a rather chipper Elliott Smith, I couldn't hear these songs as being sung by anyone but! Check out the songs "Something To Talk About" or "River Sea Ocean" if you wanna hear for yourself what I'm talking about. So if you've been craving something new from either of these gifted songcraftsmen, this soundtrack might be calling your name. It's all here! Rollicking do-do-dododo's, sweeping string and horn swirliness, sweetly strolling acoustic guitar melodies, lush female backing vocals... oh yes, and of course, his scruffy, knit-capped, sensitive guy voice. He *is* a lot more happy then Elliot Smith, though, and the music sounds that way too. Oh and one more lil' observation, the second track sort of swerves in and out of Sanford and Son tv show theme song-ness. Strange, but aside from that oddness, this impressive soundtrack will certainly not disappoint Mr. Gough's many admirers, will certainly win him a batch of new ones, and will tide everyone over until the next BDB album proper.
RealAudio clip: "Something To Talk About"
RealAudio clip: "River Sea Ocean"
RealAudio clip: "Walking Out Of Stride"

BANGS Call And Response (Kill Rock Stars) cd 11.98
Ahhh. The Bangs are back with this cd ep of high energy, guitar riffin, punk rockin', high pitched yipping, sweet and sweaty Sleater Kinney-ish RAWK! The Bangs definitely sound like Olympia girl rock, big time. And Sleater Kinney comparisons are unavoidable; they also remind us of the Go-Go's but with a '70s rock edge. Cool stuff.
RealAudio clip: "Call And Response"
RealAudio clip: "Kinda Good"

BARGELD, BLIXA Recycled (Rough Trade) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I'd really like the press kit to say "Blixa Bargeld, the frontman and singer of Einsturzende Neubauten, is well acquainted with the music of film and theater, having seen numerous films himself." But it doesn't.

BARIGOZZI GROUP Optical Sound (Easy Tempo) cd 16.98
Smooth jazzy guitar, horn and keyboard melodies float over a sexy, Italian Charlie's Angels soundtrack.

BARRY, JOHN The EMI Years Volume One: 1957-1960 (Scamp) cd 14.98
John Barry's pioneering rock'n'roll and instrumental music recorded prior to his James Bond film scores. The Wire says: "John Barry is the toast of the Easy Listening revival...[His music] has inspired a generation of musicians, from Portishead to John Zorn...In-your-face electric guitar, surging big band swing and cool minor key 'anxiety' harmonies." 37 tracks, over 75 minutes of music, illustrated booklet.

BATES, TYLER The Devil's Rejects - Original Motion Picture Score (La-La Land / Lion's Gate) cd 16.98
Some of you may be tired of us going on and on about that Devil's Rejects movie (we listed the Banjo And Sullivan and the killer soundtrack recently). Well tough luck! We finally got the score in and it's amazing, even if you didn't see the movie. A dark and droney, rumbling creep fest, that if you weren't paying attention you might just mistake for a Lustmord record! We kid you not. Don't know too much about Tyler Bates, other than he has a deft hand at composing a scary score, albeit a hand dripping with viscera and blood! Slow building stretches of rumbling shimmering drones, creaking and crackling, splintering into shards of high end, slow heart beat like pulses, all ominous and oozing with dread, occasionally interrupted by blasts of pulsing teutonic crunch, chaotic rhythms stumbling wildly over tangles of atonal melody and and swirls of keening noise. There are moments of obvious soundtrack-ness, where the music was required to dictate some on screen action, a snippet of bump and grind funk, a brief passage of dizzy goofy circus music, but for the most part, each track is a dense black hole of musical misery and dark drones, that should totally hit the spot for all you dark ambient doom drone creatures of the night.
MPEG Stream: "Tiny And His Girl / Police"
MPEG Stream: "Official Clown Business"
MPEG Stream: "Staples"

BATTIATO, FRANCO ZA (Artis) cd 16.98
Minimalist avant piano and voice from 1970s Italy. This composer, we've been told, is much beloved by the Chicago Tortoise crowd. We will also soon be restocking his Jukebox which is a lovely, soaring soundtrack to an older Italian TV movie.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA 25th Anniversary Edition Original Soundtrack (Geffen) cd 14.98
25 years? Oh my god. Well, if you're at least that old you'll remember the movie/TV show Battlestar Galactica, a Mormons-in-space allegory that gave the world those Cylon baddies and inspired George Lucas' even more successful Star Wars cycle of films. Oh, ok, maybe it was the other way around. Ahem. Anyway, here (at last) is a remastered cd reissue of the soundtrack, which proves to be a pretty fine faux-classical bit of work composed by Stu Phillips and performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Play it for your hoity-toity symphony goin' friends and tell 'em it's a rare 20th century classical thing from Russia or a new Jonathan Bepler Cremaster score or something... then see what they think when the bonus track, the *Disco Version* of the main theme, comes on at the end! Lotsa fun. And the cover art bears mentioning: it's hard to believe this was the actual movie poster, but it was -- it looks so much like you'd imagine the Mad magazine parody to look like. I mean, that's a caricature of Lorne Greene, not a proper portrait, right?
MPEG Stream: "The Cylon Trap"
MPEG Stream: "Theme From Battlestar Galactica (Disco Version)"

BAXTER, LES The Lost Episode (Dionysus) cd 13.98
Previously unreleased. From an old tv show.

BAXTER, LES The Lost Episode (Dionysus) 10" 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Previously unreleased. From an old tv show.

BEAUSOLEIL, BOBBY Lucifer Rising Original Soundtrack (White Dog Music) cd-r 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yes, it's a cd-r, but we're stoked to have it -- it's the only way to get a hold of this, the rare soundtrack to cult underground director and Crowley-ite Kenneth Anger's film Lucifer Rising (begun in the mid-'60s, completed in 1980). Originally Jimmy Page was supposed to do the score, but he bowed out and the music was instead handled by another cult figure, the musical visionary and imprisoned killer Bobby Beausoliel, who composed and performed this spacey psychedelic opus with his Freedom Orchestra (presumably all fellow prisoners with Bobby).
Bobby and the Freedom Orchestra play electric guitars, Fender Rhodes electric pianos, some synths and bass...there's two drummers, and a trumpet player. The result is a sometimes sinister, sometimes blissful, always beautiful and "cosmic" drifting soundscape. Gurgling old-school electronics blend with propulsive rock drumming, while psychedelic guitar soloing tears across the sunset horizon created by the synths...The combination results in what you might imagine an early '70s Tangerine Dream/Ennio Morricone collaboration might have sounded like. It's indeed a lost classic. And the composer's life story is at least as weird and interesting as the music...
In the late Sixties, Bobby was a rising star in the LA rock-pop scene, hanging with Zappa, the Beach Boys, and Love. But then a drug deal went bad and he was sent to death row for murder, arrested 3 days before the Manson killing spree. Fortunately for him, his sentence was eventually commuted, but he's spent like the last 30 years in jail. He's been a model prisoner, pursuing his talents in music and art despite his incarceration, and you'd think that the parole board would have let him out by now (he's been paying his debt to society longer than anybody else has for a similar crime, we're told) but sadly for Bobby, he's got to deal with his association with the notorious Charles Manson. While never a member of Manson's Family (a common misconception), he did play in a band with Manson, and the media hype surrounding anything to do with Manson hasn't helped Bobby's case, as you might imagine! (At least that's the way Beausoleil tells it. But the more one delves into the story of "Lucifer Rising", the weirder things get -- for instance, apparently Bobby was supposed to PLAY the role of Lucifer in the original 1966 version of Anger's film, but the two had a falling out and Bobby allegedly stole the footage and buried it in Death Valley! How this jibes with him later writing this soundtrack, we don't know.)
Yet, not being one to simply sit in his cell and rot, Bobby has, as we said, kept quite busy within the clutches of the California Penal system.
And now, with his wife Barbara dealing with business on the "outside", he's started the White Dog label to release his music. So far they've put out this soundtrack and also a couple of Bobby's newer compositions, stuff more in the New Age vein. They haven't yet made the jump to "real" cds, but their cd-rs are professionally duplicated and printed, with computer art by Bobby himself.
Although for obvious reasons Bobby wouldn't probably approve of the use of the word to describe himself and this soundtrack, in the Aquarius Records' musical context it's quite appropriate: Cult!
RealAudio clip: "track 1"
RealAudio clip: "track 5"

BEAUSOLEIL, BOBBY Lucifer Rising Sessions (Qbico) picture disc 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We were able to get Bobby Beausoleil's legendary Lucifer Rising soundtrack on cd for a brief time, but it seems to be unavailable again, so for now, this super limited picture disc may be your only chance to hear this awesomely freaked out music. Side A was recorded live in San Francisco in 1967, and features a killer live version of "The Magick Powerhouse of Oz". The B side is a different version recorded a decade later, in Tracy State Prison where Bobby and and least one other Manson family member was doing time. Here's a truncated version of our review for the now out of print cd version to give you more background on Beausoleil and the Lucifer Rising soundtrack:
The rare soundtrack to cult underground director and Crowley-ite Kenneth Anger's film Lucifer Rising (begun in the mid-'60s, completed in 1980). Originally Jimmy Page was supposed to do the score, but he bowed out and the music was instead handled by another cult figure, the musical visionary and imprisoned killer Bobby Beausoliel, who composed and performed this spacey psychedelic opus with his Freedom Orchestra (presumably all fellow prisoners with Bobby).
Bobby and the Freedom Orchestra play electric guitars, Fender Rhodes electric pianos, some synths and bass...there's two drummers, and a trumpet player. The result is a sometimes sinister, sometimes blissful, always beautiful and "cosmic" drifting soundscape. Gurgling old-school electronics blend with propulsive rock drumming, while psychedelic guitar soloing tears across the sunset horizon created by the synths...The combination results in what you might imagine an early '70s Tangerine Dream/Ennio Morricone collaboration might have sounded like. It's indeed a lost classic. And the composer's life story is at least as weird and interesting as the music...
In the late Sixties, Bobby was a rising star in the LA rock-pop scene, hanging with Zappa, the Beach Boys, and Love. But then a drug deal went bad and he was sent to death row for murder, arrested 3 days before the Manson killing spree. Fortunately for him, his sentence was eventually commuted, but he's spent like the last 30 years in jail. He's been a model prisoner, pursuing his talents in music and art despite his incarceration, and you'd think that the parole board would have let him out by now (he's been paying his debt to society longer than anybody else has for a similar crime, we're told) but sadly for Bobby, he's got to deal with his association with the notorious Charles Manson. While never a member of Manson's Family (a common misconception), he did play in a band with Manson, and the media hype surrounding anything to do with Manson hasn't helped Bobby's case, as you might imagine! (At least that's the way Beausoleil tells it. But the more one delves into the story of "Lucifer Rising", the weirder things get -- for instance, apparently Bobby was supposed to PLAY the role of Lucifer in the original 1966 version of Anger's film, but the two had a falling out and Bobby allegedly stole the footage and buried it in Death Valley! How this jibes with him later writing this soundtrack, we don't know.)
Although for obvious reasons Bobby wouldn't probably approve of the use of the word to describe himself and this soundtrack, in the Aquarius Records' musical context it's quite appropriate: Cult!

BECKER, JIM & COLLEEN BURKE Interkosmos: A Film By Jim Finn (Shrug) lp 21.00
Awesome soundtrack to some strange low budget film about the failed East German space program. Haven't seen the movie yet, but the soundtrack definitely has us curious. Especially considering the players, Jim Becker of Califone, Jim White from the Dirty Three, and lots of other folks who have backed up indie luminaries like Smog, Bright Eyes and more...
Beginning with some creepy shortwave radio, and some spoken German (Conet Project anyone?) the record quickly switches gear and launches into some awesome (Turkish style?) fuzz psych, blown out and wildly rocking, but with the strange addition of mandolin over the top. Ends up sounding like Calexico meets Erkin Koray!!
But like any soundtrack, the music is dictated by the scenes on the screen, so the sound are all over the place. That said, they gel surprisingly well on their own, it helps that many of the tracks are linked by strange radio broadcasts, mysterious German voices, and other distressed broadcast sounds. The rest of the music is a blast, from soft rock big band jams with horns, albeit imbued with a strange buzzy steel string element, to lonesome strings and wheezing accordion, shuffling percussion, a full on free-jazz drum solo that gives way to a primitive Logan's Run space rock synth drone, laid back blues rock, weird off kilter pop, and near the end, that opening blast of fuzzy psych gets revisited, this time with vocals, and it's even cooler.
Pressed on 180 gram swirled pink cotton candy vinyl, housed in an amazing jacket, an oversized matchbook style sleeve, screen printed and letter pressed, black and metallic silver ink on thick brown paper, liner notes printed on the attached inner sleeve, quite striking.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!!

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN Storytelling (OST) (Matador) cd 9.98
If you've been following the adventures here at AQ for some time now, you probably already know that there are definitely strong pro- and anti-B&S folks here, but it should be noted that our Jim (who usually sides with the latter team) has said this is perhaps the only B&S album he can take. Cup (who hasn't seen the movie, but does like B&S) thinks the music's lovely (especially the title track), but the dialogue samples are somewhat intrusive. All of that said...
Hopping aboard the film music train (along with the recent likes of Badly Drawn Boy's About A Boy and Stephin Merritt's Eban & Charley), Belle & Sebastian combine their trademark lush folk with dialogue snippets from Todd Solondz's film Storytelling. Unlike BDB's soundtrack which can almost be taken on its own as his second full length, B&S's film music is more distinctly a soundtrack like that of Mr. Merritt. At times this sounds like a '70s Afterschool Special score (in a good way), or the Bugaloos (particularly on "Scooby Driver") or like a Charlie Brown/Peanuts cartoon with its Vince Guaraldi-esque piano moments. Upliftingly sweet and lovely compositions with strings that soar and plink, guitars that jingle jangle, and shakers that keep perfect chika-chika-chika time. Oh yes, and of course gracing the six new B&S vocal songs are those familiar velvety soft voices of Stuart Murdoch, Stevie Jackson and Isobel Campbell (who, fans will undoubtedly be crushed to hear, makes her final B&S appearance on this release).
RealAudio clip: "Fiction"
RealAudio clip: "Storytelling"
RealAudio clip: "Wandering Alone"
RealAudio clip: "Scooby Driver"

BELLE AND SEBASTIAN Storytelling (OST) (Matador) lp 9.98
If you've been following the adventures here at AQ for some time now, you probably already know that there are definitely strong pro- and anti-B&S folks here, but it should be noted that our Jim (who usually sides with the latter team) has said this is perhaps the only B&S album he can take. Cup (who hasn't seen the movie, but does like B&S) thinks the music's lovely (especially the title track), but the dialogue samples are somewhat intrusive. All of that said...
Hopping aboard the film music train (along with the recent likes of Badly Drawn Boy's About A Boy and Stephin Merritt's Eban & Charley), Belle And Sebastian combine their trademark lush folk with dialogue snippits from Todd Solondz's film Storytelling. Unlike BDB's soundtrack which can almost be taken on its own as his second full length, B&S's film music is more distinctly a soundtrack like that of Mr. Merritt. At times this sounds like a '70s Afterschool Special score (in a good way), or the Bugaloos (particularly on "Scooby Driver") or like a Charlie Brown/Peanuts cartoon with its Vince Guaraldi-esque piano moments. Upliftingly sweet and lovely compositions with strings that soar and plink, guitars that jingle jangle, and shakers that keep perfect chika-chika-chika time. Oh yes, and of course gracing the six new B&S vocal songs are those familiar velvety soft voices of Stuart Murdoch, Stevie Jackson and Isobel Campbell (who, fans will undoubtedly be crushed to hear, makes her final B&S appearance on this release).
RealAudio clip: "Fiction"
RealAudio clip: "Storytelling"
RealAudio clip: "Wandering Alone"
RealAudio clip: "Scooby Driver"

BEPLER, JONATHAN Cremaster 2 (Bepler) cd 18.98
Glacial drones, beautifully sung songs by/about a notorious killer, thousands of buzzing bees and a death metal cameo...all are elements of this gorgeous and bizarre soundtrack to one of the weirdest and biggest budget art/film projects ever, Matthew Barney's million-dollar "Cremaster 2".
We were lucky enough to get a hold of some copies of the rare soundtrack composed by Johnathan Bepler. For the most part, Bepler layers multiple atonal church organ chords with varying effects that tweak the underlying sound. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir makes an appearance as does some digitally bent country twang. But the mindblowing highlight (both here on the cd and in the film) is the massive blastbeat provided by ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo as Morbid Angel's bass player and vocalist Steve Tucker sings into a phone while cloaked in bees, who also contribute much buzzing to the wall of sound.
Barney's "Cremaster" series is arguably the most important work to emerge from the artworld in the past decade. To discuss in depth Barney's convoluted symbolism and bizarre Lynch / Cronenberg / Greenaway imagery would take up far too much space even for this increasingly verbose new arrivals list, but we'll attempt a brief introduction for the uninitiated: Barney's sound / film / installation pieces are poetic and difficult allegories, centered on the growth of human sexuality and its psychological implications. "Cremaster 2" is actually the fourth in a five part series (the order went 1, 3, 5, and then 2), and is, quite crassly put, a really good dick joke. More critically put, Barney abstracts the life & times of the serial killer Gary Gilmore to portray an archetype for a pre-linguistic male figure who lacks the super-ego control over the id's proclivity for sex & violence.
Music has always played an important part in the Barney work, and Jonathan Bepler's score for "Cremaster 2" certainly does its best to support Barney's complex visual elements. If you haven't seen the film, this soundtrack will make you want to.

BEPLER, JONATHAN Cremaster 3 (Bepler) 2cd 23.00
Without getting too much into the meta-narratives of Matthew Barney's masterpiece "Cremaster 3" which loosely has something to do with the history of Freemasons, the Guggenheim Museum, macho-minimalist Richard Serra hurling vaseline, a punk battle of the bands between Murphy's Law and Agnostic Front, video games, and multiple references to Chrysler (both the car and the building). However, we can get a little worked up about the "Cremaster 3" soundtrack composed by Jonathan Bepler (who scored the two preceding films "Cremaster 5" and "Cremaster 2.") Yes, the numerical sequencing of this series is supposed to be out of order, merely one of many convolutions of logic. As in "Cremaster 2," Bepler masterfully constructs his soundtrack out of pre-existing musical genres and recognizable codifications of sound. Gaelic bagpipes blurt a dissonant stream of polyphonic notes, theremins sadly pull a solitary croon from the ether, violins glide through sustained tones, lurid artnoir grooves further corrode Barry Adamson's dark application of be-bop, and the drones, oh the drones. Much like the Alan Splet score for David Lynch's "Eraserhead" and even some of the later Ligeti chorale pieces, Bepler dissolves all of these references into pools of droning sound which allow him to fluidly work in and out of the huge pastiche. As before, Bepler's work is totally amazing.
RealAudio clip: "Chrysler Chorale Overture"
RealAudio clip: "Initiate's Serenade"
RealAudio clip: "Crown's Overture"
RealAudio clip: "Rainbow Girls Idyll"

BEPLER, JONATHAN Cremaster 5 (BMG) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
So many folks were enthused about the soundtrack to "Cremaster 2" that we thought we should also stock the soundtrack to Matthew Barney's "Cremaster 5", from a few years back. Unlike the soundtrack to "Cremaster 2", which featured speed metal drummer Dave Lombardo and other weirdness along with the classical elements, this one (released on a mainstream classical music label) is more of a straight classical styled piece, appropriate because "Cremaster 5" was conceived as a Hungarian opera, set in various locations around Budapest. The plot is loosely based on Shakespeare's "Prospero's Book," with the Prospero character (played by Barney) split into three distinct figures each representing the Freudian trilogy of the mind: ego, super-ego, and id (named by Barney as Diva, Magician, and Giant). The object of Prospero's desire is the Queen of Chain, played by the magnetic Ursula Andress. As with everything in the "Cremaster" series, it gets a hell of a lot more complex than this description can accurately convey.
Anyway, Barney employs Jonathan Bepler (who was responsible for the incredible score of "Cremaster 2") to score quite a melodramatic, tragic opera to be performed by the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra. Like all operas, you really go to "see" the opera -- not just hear it. Quite lovely for an opera, but without the context of Barney's vaseline 'n' prosthetic imagery, Bepler's music loses a great deal of power. Still Bepler/Barney fans may well want to add it to their collections.

BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (OST) (Harkit) cd 21.00
It's been so long since I saw this movie I can barely remember the plot. I do know it had something to do with an all female rock band and the decadence and wacky hijinx that of course ensued when said rock band headed out west to hit the big time. The best part of the story is that the screenplay was written by old fuddy duddy Roger Ebert with help from the king of sleaze Russ Meyer! I wonder how the old ladies of middle America would feel as they were being told by Roger Ebert to go see the latest Hollywood schmaltzfest if they knew that this respectable man they trust to not lead them astray had directed an X RATED FILM! I for one feel a little bit better. This soundtrack/score is awesome, and made me want to run right out and rent this again. From soaring Morricone-ish dramatic flourish, to cheesy sixties girl group campiness to loungy exotica, to crunchy sixties twangy rock (courtesy of the Strawberry Alarm Clock) to riffy almost-hard rock, to funky porno sleaze. Plus, I just now discovered that the song Look On Up At The Bottom, which I always assumed was by pop gods Redd Kross, was actually a cover from BTVOTD! This soundtrack has it all. This could very well be the grooviest, campiest, wickedly wild party record you'll hear this year! Limited too so be quick.
MPEG Stream: "Main Title Sequence"
MPEG Stream: "Come With The Gentle People"
MPEG Stream: "Look On Up At The Bottom"

BHOSLE, ASHA Best of Asha Bhosle (Manteca) cd 14.98
What with all these Bollywood soundtrack compilations coming out it's about time that there was a disc that features the work of one of the all-time greats in the genre. Asha Bhosle is, as stated in the liner notes, the "indisputed Queen of Bollywood." With over 20,000 recorded songs to her credit she is second only to her sister, Lata Mangeshkar, who holds the Guiness Book of World Records title for most recorded songs by a singer (at 25,000)! Born in 1933, Asha got her start in films in 1949, when she was only 16 and has been singing the songs -- which are the very backbone of Indian films -- for 50 years since. Given her lengthy and prolific career, this compilation of a mere 14 tracks is a paltry representation of her life's work. But as paltry as it is in scope it's still quite a great collection. The tracks here are taken mostly from films made during the 60's and 70's and feature all those things about Indian film music we love: beautiful string arrangements with all manner of additional instrumentation (east and west), be it electric guitar, organ, orchestral bells, harp, vibes, you name it, it's probably on here. There are a couple of disappointing things about this collection however; one is that a couple of tracks here -- most likely ones from the late seventies -- are a little heavy on the synth action, the other is that if you already own the excellent "Bollywood Funk" comp on Outcaste than you're getting a bit of redundancy, as two tracks overlap on both discs. You'd think that for someone with so fecund a recorded output, Manteca records wouldn't have managed to pick two gems that weren't also released on another collection the same year! But then again, one of 'em is one of the best, most infectious Bhosle tracks we've heard ("Dum Maro Dum" from the soundtrack to Hare Rama Hare Krishna)... regardless, it's still a grand sampling of great Indian film music, featuring a superb singer to boot.
RealAudio clip: "In Aankhon Ki Masti"
RealAudio clip: "O Mera Sona"
RealAudio clip: "Lekar Ham Diwana Dil"

BIG BAD LOVE (OST) (Nonesuch) cd 17.98
The soundtrack for this Debra Winger produced, Arliss Howard directed film features the weathered, soulful voices of Tom Waits, R.L. Burnside, and Steve Earle, as well as Tom Verlaine and Kronos Quartet (together), T-Model Ford, Junior Kimbrough, Robert Belfour, Asie Payton and Kenny Brown. Film connections aside, this album is an impressive collection of the many sounds of whiskey drenched, sun-scorched blues ranging from the gritty smoulder of R.L. Burnside to the rollick'n'holler footstomp of T-Model Ford to the slow creepin' slink guitar of Tom Verlaine "Sleepwalkin'".
RealAudio clip: R.L. BURNSIDE "Come On In (Live)"
RealAudio clip: TOM WAITS "Long Way Home"
RealAudio clip: STEVE EARLE "Goodbye"

BISHOP, RICHARD SIR God Damn Religion (Locust) dvd+cd 21.00
Those surviving Sun City Girls are always up to something. Travelling the world, probably. But also releasing stuff. Alan Bishop regularly wows us with amazing field recordings on his Sublime Frequencies label. In the case of "Sir" Richard Bishop we tend to expect his usual guitar improv ragadelica. But what about... a motion picture!?! That's what we have here, a dvd disc containing director SRB's half hour EPIC cinematic bad trip entitled God Damn Religion. It's a colorful, kaleidoscopic, sometimes stroboscopic collage of imagery drawn from the darker side of the human religious experience from around the world, ancient and modern, western and "primitive"... Pretty intense stuff. Frightening, frenzied. An overwhelming procession of sex and violence, hellish tortures and ribald pleasures. Demons and devils. Multilimbed Hindu gods and fallen Christian angels. Suffering sinners. Savage rites. All these gratuitous graphics crammed together like a flip book succession of details from Sun City Girls album covers. A segment (one of many) devoted to depictions of leering, long-tongued devils in the European tradition is followed by footage from a shrine of overgrown sculptural phalluses in Bangkok... Elsewhere SRB drops in scenes of witches and devils cavorting taken from the '20s silent film Haxan, as well as examples of "Buddhist torture paintings" he photographed in Southeast Asia.
We'd guess, rated R. Definitely not for kids, epileptics, or the impressionably Christian. The rest of us should find it quite fascinating, maybe even hypnotic. Maybe you'd even GET religion after being exposed to this, though presumably the idea is to make you sick of it. It's certainly a psychedelic visual experience, like a rapid fire glimpse into the Sun City Girls' graphic archives, and is excellently edited. The soundtrack music by SRB is of course an effective component too...
And in fact as a bonus, the first edition of this dvd comes with an extra disc, a cd version of the previously vinyl-only 2006 SRB album Elektronika Demonika, which is as scary as it sounds, four long tracks of claustrophobic ethno-industrial rhythmic, droney weirdness!! Pretty trippy, a funhouse flying saucer of a noisefest that itself would likely twist your mind even without the disturbing, sexually and demonically-charged visuals that it accompanies as a portion of the soundtrack to the God Damn Religion dvd...
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 3"

BJORK Selmasongs: Music From The Motion Picture 'Dancer In The Dark' (Elektra) cd 16.98
Can Bjork do no wrong? Well, her record label certainly can, by making $19 the suggested list price for this new 35 minute long (mini) album! Fortunately we're able to offer it for a little less, although our suppliers will probably jack up the price once our initial supply runs out... However, Bjork (and past Bjork collaborator, producer Mark Bell) have come up with a nice little disc here, the soundtrack (or at least, songs from soundtrack) to the eagerly awaited 'round these parts, Cannes film festival award-winning, Bjork-starring film by Lars Von Trier. It's certainly very "soundtracky" at first listen, super orchestral and all, but there's some very interesting technoish weirdness to be found here too. It seems that Bjork and co. have been listening to the the Raster school of clicks and cuts electronica (along with the Art of Noise and, Jim thinks, Gilbert & Sullivan). "Surface noise" crackle (a la Pole and, well, Portishead) and crinkly rhythm programming mixes nicely with That Voice on the track "Scatterheart".
Yes, That Voice. When it comes down to it, even $19 wouldn't be too much to pay to hear this brilliant woman sing. We're hopeless Bjork fans, I guess, but "Selmasongs" is, as we expected, a joy, even if it isn't another "Homogenic". Can't wait for a real full-length Bjork album tho, one where she's free from the distractions of acting in a movie and constrained by cinematic convention / directorial needs. ...Oh, and we should mention that she duets with a few folks on this disc, among them Catherine Deneuve and Radiohead's Thom Yorke.

BJORK The Music from Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9 (One Little Indian) cd 16.98
If the more esoteric and abstract moments of Bjork's last full length Medulla tickled your fancy, you'll surely discover much to love on her new cd of film music for Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9.
It's a series of eleven instrumental and vocal interludes that definitely bear the mark of Ms Gudmundsdottir. Alternately austere and elaborate, and steeped in the sounds and influences of Japan (particularly Noh theater). That is, with the exception of one rather insistent horn segment titled "Hunter Vessel" which surfaces midway through the proceedings. Performers include Zeena Parkins, Will Oldham, Akira Rabelais, Mayumi Miyata, Leila, Shiro Nomura, Tagaq, Mark Bell, among many others. Unfortunately not having seen the film, we can't comment on how they relate or interact with the visuals, but we can say that when taken solely an aural experience, it's mighty captivating.
MPEG Stream: "Gratitude"
MPEG Stream: "Hunter Vessel"
MPEG Stream: "Storm"

BLACK GESTAPO, THE (OST) (Bryanston) lp 16.98
Soul/funk/wah soundtrack to this 1975 blaxploitation flick, reissued on vinyl complete with full size movie poster insert! That by itself may be the reason to get this. It's a pretty insane painting -- Black Power Nazis??! ...However we haven't cracked one open yet so 1) we can't vouch for the quality of the music and 2) we can't guarantee that their definition of "full size poster" is what you and I think it is... let's hope so!

BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW (WILKINSON, MARC) OST (Trunk) cd 16.98
Another underrated early seventies British horror soundtrack is brought back to life by Trunk Records, and this one is a doozy. Pastoral and creepily menacing, Marc Wilkinson's score for this 1971 Piers Haggard film is like a lost companion to The Wicker Man soundtrack or Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. Features the unusual instrumentation of the Ondes Martenot, one of the first electronic instruments, which provides the fiendish swoops and off-kilter tonal colors and the Cimbalom, an eastern European piano type instrument that's played with mallets providing the spine-tingling creep. The liner notes mention that the descending chromatic scale which features throughout the score omits the perfect fifth and therefore highlights the diminished fifth also known as the Devil's Interval! Truly spooky, and the gothic pics of ritual blood and female nudity make us all dying to see this film re-released. Obscure horror is what Trunk Records does best!!
MPEG Stream: "Fiend Discovered and Titles"
MPEG Stream: "Rosalind's Madness"
MPEG Stream: "Kathy's Rape and Death"

BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW (WILKINSON, MARC) OST (Trunk) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another underrated early seventies British horror soundtrack is brought back to life by Trunk Records, and this one is a doozy. Pastoral and creepily menacing, Marc Wilkinson's score for this 1971 Piers Haggard film is like a lost companion to The Wicker Man soundtrack or Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. Features the unusual instrumentation of the Ondes Martenot, one of the first electronic instruments, which provides the fiendish swoops and off-kilter tonal colors and the Cimbalom, an eastern European piano type instrument that's played with mallets providing the spine-tingling creep. The liner notes mention that the descending chromatic scale which features throughout the score omits the perfect fifth and therefore highlights the diminished fifth also known as the Devil's Interval! Truly spooky, and the gothic pics of ritual blood and female nudity make us all dying to see this film re-released. Obscure horror is what Trunk Records does best!!
MPEG Stream: "Fiend Discovered and Titles"
MPEG Stream: "Rosalind's Madness"
MPEG Stream: "Kathy's Rape and Death"

BORIS Mabuta No Ura (Japanese Version) (Catune) cd 21.00
BACK IN STOCK! This is the Japanese version, we're still waiting for the variant Brazilian version that frustratingly contains slightly different music (which should be out in another month or so).
Boris fans are definitely obsessive, most wanting to collect anything and everything the band puts out, whether it's the same record with different artwork, or a limited single, or the same record with 9 minutes of extra music or a different record with the same cover or whatever. The band don't really help matters much, wholeheartedly playing into this, releasing records in ridiculously limited versions and multiple versions, with different artwork or bonus tracks or both. But this new record Mabuta No Ura has definitely pushed all this multiple version collecting about as far as it can go. More on that at the end of the review -- and we definitely suggest you read that stuff before you buy! But hey, let's talk about the record. A soundtrack to a film entitled Mabuta No Ura, this is Boris at their most abstract, maybe even at their least heavy, but Boris has yet to disappoint, and they don't here. Although depending on your personal favorite style of Boris, whether it be the slow sludgy dirges, the minimal drones or the all out super distorted RAWK, you might have to readjust your thinking to get into Mabuta No Ura. There's only one actually 'heavy track', and some of you may already have it, or at least a version of it, as the track in question, "A Bao A Qu" was released as a super limited picture disc 7" not too long ago. "A Bao A Qu" finds Boris churning through a sludgy slab of crushing psych rock, the way only they seem to do it. The rest of Mabuta No Ura finds the band exploring much more contemplative moods, constructing simple, dreamy passages of finger picked guitar, and warm swells of moody ambience. Sometimes sounding a bit like Low, sometimes a little like Slint, the theme here overall does seem to be a brooding slow building post rock. There are variations of course, Eastern sounding melodies, hazy chanted vocals, shimmering washes of cymbal sizzle, tribal rhythms, hand claps, plaintive vocalising, stretches of Sunroof!-like free-noise ambience, blown out krautrock rhythms, but it all sort of hovers around that post rock sound we love so much, dark and moody and smoldering, occasionally bursting with dynamics, but more often than not chugging along all melancholy and contemplatively propulsive. Hard to imagine what sort of film Mabuta No Ura must be, but the songs and sounds here are quite evocative, and let our imaginations conjure up the appropriate images to go with these sumptuous sounds. Packaged in a gorgeous chipboard slipcover die cut sleeve, with a dozen cd sized photos, presumable from the film, with stories printed on the other sides, unfortunately all in Japanese.
So here's the complicated stuff. There are FOUR versions of this record. All of them slightly different. This is the Japanese cd version. comes in a chipboard diecut sleeve and is NOT limited. In the next week or so we will be getting the vinyl version, which comes with a dozen 12x12 photo prints and IS limited. Only 500 were made and we're getting about a fifth of those, but as with all things Boris they will not last long. So if you want one, best to preorder it now. There will be another cd version, released by the Brazilian label Essence, and there will be two versions of that. A super deluxe boxed version, and a regular digipak version. The deluxe version is super limited. Only 120 copies made. We're getting half. Those will all be spoken for by the time we get them, so if you want one of those, pre-order it now. The regular Brazilian version is the same as the deluxe version just with less packaging. And is not limited.
Confused yet? Well, stick with us just a little bit longer. The Brazilian version has more music than the Japanese version. BUT, the Japanese version has music NOT on the Brazilian version. Okay. So if you just want to make sure you have ALL the music, you need both the Japanese version AND the Brazilian version. And since the Japanese cd and the Brazilian regular cd are not limited, you can easily pick up both. The lp and the deluxe version are just for those of you who need the fancy versions or feel compelled to collect them all. Finally, the Brazilian cd version won't be out until end of August or thereabouts, so orders WILL NOT be held for those! If you want both, we'll send you the Japanese cd now (lp when we get them) and the Brazilian version when they show up in a month or so. Phew!
MPEG Stream: "A Bao A Qu"
MPEG Stream: "The Slow Ripple Of A Puddle"
MPEG Stream: "It Touches"

BROKEN FLOWERS (OST) (Universal) cd 17.98
This new Jim Jarmusch film and its soundtrack will undoubtably do for Mulatu Astatke and the Ethiopiques compilation series (as well as Ethiopian music in general) what Ghost World did for Mohammed Rafi (and Bollywood film music soundtracks in general), that is, expose it to a broader audience. Although the music's inclusion in the film itself seems rather incongruously stuck on and hipster-point-seeking, it is pretty great to hear this music outside the confines of underground circles. Just the other day, while we were playing a volume of Ethiopiques, a customer said to his friend, "Oh this is the music from that Bill Murray movie." Of course, it's soooo much more than that, but if you've had your interest piqued by the film's soundtrack by all means you'll wanna nab this soundtrack. From there, we'd highly recommend heading directly for Ethiopiques Volume 4 (a particular AQ favorite!). Groovy, sultry, funky and soooo awesome!
The ultra eclectic soundtrack also features The Greenhornes with Holly Golightly, The Tennors, Marvin Gaye, Oxford Camerata, Brian Jonestown Massacre, plus other AQ faves Dengue Fever and Sleep!
MPEG Stream: ASTATKE, MULATU "Yegelle Tezeta"
MPEG Stream: DENGUE FEVER "Ethanopium"

BROWN BUNNY, THE (OST) (Vincent Gallo) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

BRUMIT, JON Vendetta Retreat: Motion Picture Soundtrack (Edgetone Records) cd 10.98
Jon Brumit's last audio outing was a a sonic tour through the city dump, a dark delirious soundscape of found sounds, rickety malfunctioning equipment, all manner of scratched records and discarded tape decks, broken down computers, all cleverly and gorgeously woven together into one of the coolest weirdest records we've heard. On Vendetta Retreat, the soundtrack to a yet to be released film, Brumit seems to have honed those already impressive organizational and compostitional skills, resulting in a record that had both Allan and Andee running to the front of the store to see what the heck was playing. In fact everytime we play this in the store everyone wants to know what we're playing as well. Vendetta Retreat starts off as a super minimal slab of "skipping cd" style plunderphonia, a super intense and spare soundscape of ultra brief fragments of found record, bursts of electric guitar, the briefest snatch of a vocal line, tiny frgaments of record crackle -- not sure if Brumit's sound source is still the junkyard, but it definitely sounds like maybe it is. These sparse musical fragments create a strange disembodied melody, jagged and compellingly imprecise. Eventually, the empty space behind these bursts and shards fills up with a darkly propulsive electronic framework, minimal and murky, a distant framework for the Brumit's strange Jeck-style broken turntable workout.
The second track takes the rough edit sound collage of the first track and fills it out with wild octopoidal tribal drumming, massive swells of cymbal sizzle and percussive bombast and wave after wave of layered drones, guitars thick with distortion and other effects, hiccupping loops buried beneath, barely audible, adding more texture than anything else, a huge swirl of rumble and whir like a noisier more abstract Growing, or Finnish hypnorockers Circle at their most unhinged and densely ambient. The final track is the logical extension of the track before, taking a dense swath of droney dirge as its fundamental loop, a repeating hypntotic stuttering krautrocky groove, that goes on and on and on (and if we had our way would keep going on and on forever). Imagine your favorite Circle record or some classic Faust track, with a scratch right in the middle, so it skips repeatedly, an unintentional loop, the perfect pulsing hypno riff, the best chunk of hazy repetitive riffing you can imagine, then over the top drape bits of gentle guitar filligree and clouds of disembodied notes. So amazing. One of those tracks that need never stop, we'd be happy to just drift off and bliss out until the end of time. The track evenutally falls apart, the riffs fade and dissipate, the jagged bursts of sound fragments return, this time even more strangely obtrusive, and wreathed in dense halos of echo and delay that send those shards reverberating into the ether, while underneath, the original minimal groove returns, also a bit more affected and damaged, until the whole thing fragments into its constituent parts before finally blinking out with one final blast of disembodied sound. Wow. Can't wait to see the film. And actually the film will be a compilation of clips and shorts collected over the next year, there's information on how to submit footage inside the cd. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
MPEG Stream: "Invisible / Hu / Man"
MPEG Stream: "Geography / Nowhere"

BUDD, ROY Vigilante! Roy Budd Cult Film Soundtracks 1971-1977 (Discotheque) cd 19.98
We all know (or should know) Roy Budd for his amazing score to Michael Caine's classic Get Carter, with its haunting reverbed sitar theme and funky throbbing groove. But among his other 50 or so film scores were the cult classic Diamonds, Charles Bronson's The Stone Killer, and loads of others including a bunch of other awesome Michael Caine movies. This collection, put together by the gent who used to run Strut records, and thus knows his funky jazz from his jazzy funk, is chock full of amazing goodies. The Get Carter theme is included of course, but it's a remixed version as are a couple others, a little more acid jazz with much more dancefloor friendly beats. The rest of the Budd tracks however are left as they were. Practically perfect. Mission Impossible style orchestral stabs, jungle percussion, wah guitars, soaring strings, groovy psychedelic ballads, warm Hammond organs, epic disco-flecked funk workouts, Morricone-ish western motifs, dreamy lounge, wailing diva soul and lots of pure seventies goodness.
MPEG Stream: "Get Carter - Main Theme"
MPEG Stream: "The Stone Killer - Black Is Beautiful"