TREPANERINGSRITUALEN Deathward To The Womb (Black Horizons / Merz) cassette 9.98
The second of two new tapes from Black Horizons this week, this one a split with another rad local tape label Merz Tapes, a kick ass cassette reissue of a long out of print 10" originally released on the now defunct Release The Bats label, a soul searingly menacing, ultra grim black industrial ritual from this Swedish outfit, all slow motion churning blackness, creeping bleak ambience, and demonic processed vox. This demonik invokation was inspired by the late '40s Babalon Working conducted by rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons (along with none other than L. Ron Hubbard!!), a series of magic ceremonies designed to conjure up the physical manifestation of the divine feminine archetype. Needless to say, this is some haunting, atmospheric, gorgeously pitch black stuff. Deep rumblings, ominous scrapings, all blurred into a heaving, roiling expanse of sonic malevolence, and all underpinning some intense vocalizations, a harrowing speaking in tongues, wreathed in effects, heavily processed, drifting from bestial gurgle to anguished almost black metal shriek, but smeared into something way less focused, and more impressionistic, the whole thing simultaneously tranced out and mesmerizing, chilling and downright disturbing.
Like all Black Horizons tapes, fantastically and elaborately packaged, this time the J-card, transformed into a deluxe mini-booklet, aping the package of the original 10" screen printed on thick cardstock and printed in metallic silver ink. LIMITED TO 200 COPIES!!

TREPANERINGSRITULAEN Konung Domaldr Vid Upsala Hangd (Merzbild / Merz Tapes) cassette 8.98
Latest chunk of blackened cinematic industrial ambience from this Swedish one man band, whose sound continues to explore the darkest recesses of some hellish subterranean underworld, like the last tape of his we reviewed Deathward To The Womb, the sound here is equally uplifting (read: sarcasm), a creeping militaristic pound, over wheezing synth shimmer, wreathed in a mysterious crackle, in the distance what sounds like anguished voices blurred into smears of softly undulating texture, and over the top, a demonic voice, oozing malevolence, delivers some sort of arcane incantation, chilling and harrowing, the voice dripping with menace, the background sounds appropriately ominous, but strangely, for all it's grim intensity, it's also quite melodic, sans the voice, it could be a more dreamy bit of dark ambience, but the vocals manage to transform it into something downright chilling.
The rest of the tape is not so melodic, instead slipping into an ultra abject minimalism, that almost sounds like some hellish set of field recordings, all creaks and groans, distant thumps, faraway pulses, industrial clatter muter and blurred, as if heard through a wall, or from below ground, the sounds coalescing into deep dense swells, washing over the listeners like some fetid black tide, the sounds building to intense washed of black sound, peppered with garbled voices and buried barely there rhythms, and just as often slipping into near silence, a creeping hushed drift, that in it's minimalism, exudes just as much malevolence as the heaving swells of black noise.
Housed in a printed vellum tray card with several small inserts. And yeah, VERY VERY LIMITED.

TREPANERINSGRITUALEN Roi Perdu (Black Horizons) cassette 8.98
Latest from local label comes this reissue from the before now unknown to us Trepaneringsritualen, who hail from Sweden, and who most definitely sound Swedish, unfurling a sort of bleak black ambience, a drifting Cold Meat Industry style grim malevolence, underpinned by woozy snake charmer melodies, muted skeletal rhythmic pulses, croaked, FX heavy vokills, all over a washed out shimmery haze, this is the sort of ritualistic soundscapery that relies more on texture that sheer power, but in that respect, it manages to conjure up something more more harrowing, a haunting, hypnotic chunk of blackened tribal psychedelia, sounding a bit like No Neck or Sunburned Hand if they were on Cold Meat, but for every bit of tripped out, pulsing, abstract krautrock flecked black mesmer, there's a churning sprawl of low end thrum, or a dense layered stretch of blurred soft focus ambience. Those sounds more often than not mixed and matched, fused in strange, and fantastically disturbing combinations.
LIMITED TO 150 COPIES!! Packaged in beautifully silkscreened gold inked three panel J-cards.

TREPHINE Some Sound Tracks (Heimliquor) cd 14.98
Math rock meets almost Blue Oyster Cult inspired metallic weirdness in this instrumental Baltimore outfit. Long, complex, heavy jams with lots of time changes, dashed with the occasional vocal sample. For fans of Mr. Bungle and Stinking Lizaveta.

TRES CHICAS Bloom, Red & The Ordinary Girl (Yep Roc) cd 16.98
Bloom, Red & The Ordinary Girl is the second album by Tres Chicas, and we have to say, it sounds a lot like those gorgeous singalongs that take place when Neko Case, Kelly Hogan and Carolyn Mark get together. Of course, they by no means invented the old country female trio, but they've certainly brought it back into the spotlight in recent years. Anyways, no, that trio of chicas are not these Tres Chicas. These three chanteuses are themselves well-respected musical vets Caitlin Cary (formerly of Whiskeytown), Tonya Lamm (ex-Hazeldine) and Lynn Blakey (of Glory Fountain). This is a warm, earthy, passionate follow-up to their 2004 debut which was titled Sweetwater and it features a guest appearance by Nick Lowe! An absolute pleasure! Now, just imagine if these three ladies got together with the three abovementioned ladies... now that would be seis senoras fabulosas!
MPEG Stream: "Drop Me Down"
MPEG Stream: "Shade Trees In Bloom"

TRETTIOARIGA KRIGET Glorious War (Mellotronen) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Maybe you've heard of this '70s Swedish prog rock band, maybe not. We did review a reissue of their 1974 self-titled album a while back. They were kind of a math-rock, jazzed-out version of Uriah Heep or something, kinda heavy and certainly complex. Pretty cool if you're a prog fiend like some of us here. This disc is a newly unearthed collection of early recordings by the band, dating from their high school days circa '70-'71, meant for LP release at the time but never picked up by a label. Probably 'cause it's a little on the free-form, far-out side, definitely not commercial at all. Seemingly influenced by everything from Swedish folk to classical music to Hendrix and 'Purple, these youthful but talented prog-rock experiments range from romantic sounding piano-based compositions to pastoral, jazzy psych-pop, with interludes of abrasive guitar improv. Not bad for some 17 year old kids just getting started in the prog biz. At the time they had two drummers, and some melancholic, longwinded songwriting habits. It's different from their later stuff, but good too. In a gorgeous digipack -- that cover pic of the band members posing in a sun drenched autumnal forest scene is enough to make someone like me buy a copy!
MPEG Stream: "Amassilations"
MPEG Stream: "From Your Streets"

TRETTIOARIGA KRIGET Krigssang (Mellotronen) cd 23.00
'70s prog of the harder, mathier variety here. Mellow grooves too. We've already turned some of you on to this Swedish band's first, eponymous album (also now back in stock in a new, upgraded edition) but this is the first time we've reviewed Tettioariga Kriget's second album (well, third if you count Glorious War as their first, actually) from 1975.
How to describe 'em? Uriah Heep meets Goblin??? No that's not it... but they are a band that mixes the bombast of Heep with the darkness and '70s synth kitschiness of Goblin, creating their own unique atmosphere.
Krissang ("War Song" in English) may remind some customers of a progged-out version of Dungen, due to the Swedish language vocals and intellectual Genesis-like aspects. The tracks here go from extremes of gentle melodicism and jazzy grooves to bombastic, jagged progginess, across the album -and- often within a single track. Odd time signatures are abundant. And though initally we were attracted to this band due to their displays of frantic, hard rockin' proginess -- screaming guitars, barking fat bass, hard-hitting drums -- we now appreciate 'em as much or more for their gentle side. There's simply some gorgeous songs on here.
This new edition comes packaged in a handsome digipack, with liner notes by lyricist Ollie Thornvall along with photos and lyrics and three bonus tracks in the same mold as Krigssang, including one ("Moln") that almost out-progs anything on the album proper!!
MPEG Stream: "Krissang"
MPEG Stream: "Mitt Mirakel"

TRETTIOARIGA KRIGET s/t (Mellotronen) cd 23.00
Back in stock, along with its previously un-listed by AQ follow-up Krissang. Both albums are among our biggest obscure prog faves, and they've now been reissued in sturdy, swank digipacks by the Mellotronen label, looking quite spiffy and boasting a bunch of bonus tracks as well! Here's what we said about this one, when we reviewed it before:
When Byram heard this, his first reaction was: Allan, dude, this has you written all over it! And it's true, *both* of AQ's resident prog-heads (proudly, Allan and Andee) are way into this band and this album -- that's why we ordered a few from overseas to share with our likeminded customers. On this, their 1974 debut album, Trettioariga Kriget (aka Thirty Years War) dish out jazzed-up but also kinda heavy '70s prog rock from Sweden, boasting some over-the-top falsetto vocals worthy of Amon Duul II's Renate Knaup or the guy from Flower Travellin' Band. Mathy, King Crimson-esque hard rock, that's also (in context of this sort of thing) quite catchy, actually. Vocal hooks coexist with the math jazz rock instrumental display and noisy skronk. Recommended, especially if you're among the many (?) AQ customers happy with our prior obscure prog suggestions (Il Balletto di Bronzo, Osanna, etc.)
Now even more recommended, nicely packaged with liner notes, lyrics, photos and (best of all) over twenty minutes of extra, previously unreleased music added!
MPEG Stream: "Kaledoniska Orogenesen"
MPEG Stream: "Fjarilsttityder"

TREY TOLD 'EM Super Epic Thrill Jockey Mega Massive Anniversary Mix (Thrill Jockey) cd 9.98
Originally released way back in 2007, and available only to attendees of the two Thrill Jockey 15th Anniversary shows in Chicago and London, we're listing this now 'cause one of our distributors got a handful of these killer mixes, a collaborative DJ mix from Girl Talk and Trey Told 'Em, constructed exclusively of tracks culled from the Thrill Jockey archives, and including a couple of mega mixes which make the whole thing kind of essential.
The proper mix includes tracks from Bobby Conn, Gaunt, Pit Er Pat, Eleventh Dream Day, Giant Sand, Dolomite, Trapist, John Parish, Nobuzaku Tekemura, The Fiery Furnaces, Califone, Chicago Underground Duo, Mouse On Mars, Freakwater, Frequency, Sam Prekop, The National Trust, Extra Golden, Arbouretum, Radian, The Sea And Cake, Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake, Lithops, Directions In Music, Aki Tsuyuko, Howe Gelb, Tunng, Isotope 217, Archer Prewitt, The Zincs, Sue Garner & Rick Brown, Adult., Exploding Star Orchestra, Brokeback, Town And Country and Microstoria (what, no A Minor Forest?!). And it's not just the song selection, the way they're mixed, results in an awesome, ever shifting soundscape, that is so good, we found ourselves even digging the tracks that we didn't think we liked. Out of context, some of the songs here have us all fired up to revisit some of the groups we may have ignored or just missed.
But if that wasn't enough, there are three megamixes, the record opens with a killer Trans Am mix that reminds us why we love those guys so much, and then finishes with a Tortoise megamix, and then an Oval megamix, that purports to contain EVERY single Oval song ever recorded. Pretty cool. And crazy limited. Only 4000 copies made way back in 2007, and we only got a tiny handful, so act fast if you want one.
MPEG Stream: "Trans Am Megamix"
MPEG Stream: "Oval Megamix"

TRI-PINNACLE Diagnol Ryme Garganchula 2.0 (Antipop Recordings) 12" 6.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

TRIANGLE Anthologie 1969/74 (Magic) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Some early '70s French psych-rock here, not so much on the proto-metal side of things but still totally groovy, and from the get-go not failing to rock the cowbell (well, the opening track on this 22 song collection, "Peut-etre Demain", is the number one cowbell culprit, gotta love it). We first heard of Triangle some years ago thanks to the amazing, AQ-fave six-cd Igor Wakhevitch box on Fractal (now, sadly, out of print). Wakhevitch was an avant-garde, electronic composer whose first few albums enlisted the fuzzed guitars of Triangle as part of their surreal soundscapes. So we'd been always curious to hear Triangle's own music. Of course it's not as far out as the Wakhevitch stuff, they're basically a pop band, tres commercial, yet with a freaky side to 'em. This disc, as the title reveals, collects some of their crucial cuts from '69 through '74... a lot of upbeat numbers with DJ-friendly beats, symphonic prog moves, catchy choruses, and swingin' horns. Really, judging from this disc, Triangle were all over the place, from synth-laced proto-disco to placid piano ballads to bubblegum hard rock. If you like stuff of the "B-music" persuasion (like the Prog Is Not A Four Letter Word comp), or that Total Freakout collection on Mucho Gusto, or rad '70s "library music" and things like that, we figure you'll dig these Triangle tunes.
This digipack includes pictures of all of Triangle's original 33 and 45 rpm record sleeves, which are nice to have -- the first album's got a piano engulfed in flames on it, the second has Triangle lined up for a firing squad, also comprised of the band members. But there's no liner notes to speak of, so we don't know a heck of a lot more about 'em, other than that they recorded three albums and a bunch of singles, had some hits, went on to back up pop singer Papillon on a solo LP of his (three tracks from that album, including their cover of Bowie's "Starman" en Francais, are to be found here).
MPEG Stream: "Peut-etre Demain"
MPEG Stream: "Les Brumes De Chatou"
MPEG Stream: "Mama, Tu Ne Sais Pas"

TRIANGLES s/t (Moikai) cd 14.98
There's very little that we can discern about who Triangles are. The purposefully crappy drawing on the cover (by Leif Elgrenn and Kevin Drumm!) could be portraits of God Albino from the Hawd Gankstuh Rappuhs and Phil Manley from Trans Am... but I wouldn't put any money on this reading of the shitty drawing being correct. Since Triangles are on Jim O'Rourke's Moikai label, there's a good bet that he has something to do with it. Anyway, this album opens with whirring computer blips (see 12K or Raster) but as if Matmos were creating them with all sorts of crunchy acoustic fragments that slowly filter down into glistening digitized dronescapes which gradually build from miniature high frequency shimmers into deep gaping tones. After some quick musique concrete edits, Triangles move into a rustic guitar sound -- first with Dead C acoustic splutter, and then with a quiet sittin'-by-the-campfire strum. If Gastr del Sol continued down the more adventurous musique concrete route that was hinted at on "Upgrade & Afterlife" instead of going for a Red Krayola imitation, it might have ended up sounding like Triangles... but this is way better than Gastr Del Sol.

TRIBE 8 Roadkill Cafe (Alternative Tentacles) 7" 3.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
7"=2 songs, cd single=4 songs.

TRIBE 8 Roadkill Cafe (Alternative Tentacles) cd single 4.98
7"=2 songs, cd single=4 songs.

TRIBE 8 Snarkism (Alternative Tentacles) cd 10.98

TRIBE 8 Snarkism (Alternative Tentacles) lp 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

TRIBES OF NEUROT 60¡ (Neurot Recordings) cd 14.98
Tribes Of Neurot began as a means for Neurosis to explore ideas and musical forms that existed outside of the signature parameters of Neurosis: hammering tribal rhythms, thick slow motion grind/metal, and an apocalyptic urgency. Often referred to as Neurosis' ambient side project, Tribes of Neurot explores the more spiritual and ethereal concepts of a broader tribal atavism. "60¡" is a collection of compilation tracks, rare vinyl-only pieces, and unreleased material that has been organized into an excellent album that doesn't sound like a crappy collection of throw-away pieces. Bleak isolationist washes, hypno-drone guitars & bass, creepy horror filmscore piano tinklings, female vocals in the throws of agony and/or ecstacy, and occult bells make for quite an exceptional record.

TRIBES OF NEUROT Adaptation And Survival (Neurot) 2cd 17.98
I've always been into the concept of Tribes Of Neurot. The concept of a band starting another related band that experiments and expands on their original sound seems kind of cool. And ToN are cool, but their sound/visual/art/ambient onslaught has never translated especially well to record. Sure, if you're in that dusty old warehouse, sprawled out on the floor, looking up at the crazy shifting projections, letting the rumbling waves of low-end wash over you, putting you in a trance, then yeah, it's perfect. But on record Neurot always bordered on ambient/new age, without the viscera of the wild images and the sweaty bodies and the skull rattling vibrations. So we're happy to report that Neurot's latest high concept sound piece succeeds where the others may not have. The concept of insects, and their abilty to adapt, survive, and outlast virtually all other species is the foundation of this gorgeous piece of drone work. Originally released as a super limited set of vinyl records, disc one collects all of those records. A swarming, buzzing, whirring, vibrating, pulsatingly alive piece of manipulated found sound, wherein the sounds of insects are stretched and twisted and reshaped into dynamic washes of anthropomorphic hum. Truly breathtaking. Ominous but somehow serene at the same time. The idea behind the different vinyl records was to play several at once creating completely unique mixes, everytime you listened. Disc two contains one possible mix, and the liner notes suggest you play both the source disc and the mix disc for even more possibilities. An ambitious project that manages to hit the mark, both musically and conceptually.
RealAudio clip: "Adaptation And Survival 3"
RealAudio clip: "Adaptation And Survival 4"
RealAudio clip: "Adaptation And Survival Mix"

TRIBES OF NEUROT Grace (Neurot Recordings) cd 14.98
Tribes of Neurot is the ambient, ritualistic side-project of mighty metal legends Neurosis. Grace is intended to be played simultaneously with the latter band's recent Times Of Grace album. So the doomily atmospheric drones and spoken words of this disc meld in with the hypnotic tribal chug of that one. A formidable combination! However, it's a fine listen all by itself (so don't fret if you don't have two cd players). Mixed by Tribes Of Neurot along with Dustin Donaldson of I Am Spoonbender and Neurosis' longtime sound engineer Dave Clark. Recommended!

TRIBES OF NEUROT Meridian (Neurot) cd 14.98
'Tis more instrumental drifting drone from thee Tribes Of Neurot, in the "ambient outerspace backwards transmissions from the planet of feedback" genre. Meridian is a little bit harsh, a little bit lovely. We can imagine that if these guys weren't so well known (as an experimental side-project of the mighty metallers Neurosis), and if this was released as a limited edition cd-r in handmade packaging on some New Zealand label, there'd be dark drone fans in droves going gaga. But although they're not that obscure, they sound like it. Recognizable elements (piano, guitar, and what we're guessing is a bowed cymbal) and less-distinct sound sources (all manner of whooshing and whirring, and also something we know is not a purring cat, but must be some sort of electronic simulation) are all a part of these ten, interestingly varied tracks, several of which include some actual "music" moving in and out of the mix, amid the pulsing drones, spectral washes, and sun-arising synth-scapes. The only drawback is that this is perhaps a bit too "active" for those that like their drones purely as background, falling-asleep music.
MPEG Stream: "Displaced"
MPEG Stream: "Wave Upon Wave"

TRICK DADDY Thug Matrimony (Slip-N-Slide) cd 17.98
This record rules. Big dumb and fun. A little bit crunked, these jams will have your head nodding, you ride bouncing and your system booming. The track to get this for is of course "Let's Go", a massive party jam, where the main loop is the riff from "Crazy Train" complete with Ozzy's "Eye eye eye eye eye...". So fucking cool!
MPEG Stream: "Let's Go"

TRICKY Angels With Dirty Faces (Island) cd 14.98
Perhaps his best album? While he is credited as the founder of "trip-hop" with Portishead and Massive Attack, there is little to be found of the tropes of that genre here. Instead, broken hip hop beats are filtered through his dub infused production... But what makes the album, as with all of his albums, is the dualism between his voice and that of his female vocalists (one of which is PJ Harvey), which evolves into a increasing psychosexual tension.

TRICKY Blowback (Hollywood) cd 16.98
When we first put this on, Jim and Jeff immediately thought to themselves "Hey! This sounds just like later period Einsturzende Neubauten!" And that it does, Blowback is also a highly polished smooth electronic downtempo funk record guested by the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cyndi Lauper and Live's Ed Kowalczyk. Need we say more? Should we tell you that one song sounds like middle of the road alternarock ala Crash Test Dummies? You probably already know if you need this. Nevertheless, it's certainly no "Maxinquaye".

TRICKY Juxtapose (Island) cd 16.98

TRICKY Maxinquaye (Island) cd 16.98

TRICKY Mission Accomplished (Anti) cd ep 11.98
Four long awaited new songs from everyone's favorite trip hop icon. Dark drama not unlike Barry Adamson's recent work, with urgent beats made to enjoy with martinis and a sense of foreboding. One wishes the music was more challenging, instead of so obvious, cos Tricky's got the talent to do better. Anyway, each to his own -- many of you are certainly fans, so here's a sound sample for you to decide for yourself
RealAudio clip: "Mission Accomplished"

TRICKY Pre-Millenium Tension (Island) cd 16.98

TRICKY Vulnerable (Sanctuary) cd 17.98

TRICLOPS! Cafeteria Brutalia (Sick Room) cd ep 11.98
A savage proggytrippypunkasfuck megablast in the form of Triclops!' Cafeteria Brutalia ep. This four song rager is the perfect blend of post-Jesus Lizardy mathy fucked up punk and spacey effects-riddled shreddyness. Hailing from right here in the bay area, Triclops! featuring John Geek From local punk heros The Fleshies on vocals, piece together a super interesting combination of weird rock elements. One moment angular and furious, while another blissy and tripped the hell out, and still at another just plain super rocking! The vocals are processed and effected, the guitar is furious and fierce, and the rythym section is just about as tight as can be, churrning out an ever-changing, multi-metric pummelfest of pure rock brutality. All the songs on this way too short document are great, to be sure, but the ONE for us is definetly the 10 plus minute epic, "Bug Bomb". Within this track, all the disparate elements that makes this band awesome perfectly coalesce. Super proggy acid-punk to begin with, breaking down into some suprisingly melodic pop, before getting heavy and crazy to round it out. Excellent! Triclops! are also one of the best local live acts we have here in SF, and they seem to play all the rad shows around these parts. In fact, most of us discovered them earlier this month at the killer Circle show at Bottom Of The Hill, which they opened. All in all, a really great ep! For anyone thats been missing that old 90's Touch and Go / Amrep sound, or people that just love proggy flipped out PUNK RAWK, this is definetly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Bug Bomb"
RealAudio clip: "Salton"

TRICLOPS! Cafeteria Brutalia (Sick Room) picture disc 12" 14.98
A savage proggytrippypunkasfuck megablast in the form of Triclops!' Cafeteria Brutalia ep. This four song rager is the perfect blend of post-Jesus Lizardy mathy fucked up punk and spacey effects-riddled shreddyness. Hailing from right here in the bay area, Triclops! featuring John Geek From local punk heros The Fleshies on vocals, piece together a super interesting combination of weird rock elements. One moment angular and furious, while another blissy and tripped the hell out, and still at another just plain super rocking! The vocals are processed and effected, the guitar is furious and fierce, and the rythym section is just about as tight as can be, churrning out an ever-changing, multi-metric pummelfest of pure rock brutality. All the songs on this way too short document are great, to be sure, but the ONE for us is definetly the 10 plus minute epic, "Bug Bomb". Within this track, all the disparate elements that makes this band awesome perfectly coalesce. Super proggy acid-punk to begin with, breaking down into some suprisingly melodic pop, before getting heavy and crazy to round it out. Excellent! Triclops! are also one of the best local live acts we have here in SF, and they seem to play all the rad shows around these parts. In fact, most of us discovered them earlier this month at the killer Circle show at Bottom Of The Hill, which they opened. All in all, a really great ep! For anyone thats been missing that old 90's Touch and Go / Amrep sound, or people that just love proggy flipped out PUNK RAWK, this is definetly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Bug Bomb"
RealAudio clip: "Salton"

TRICOLI, VALERIO & THOMAS ANKERSMIT Forma II (Pan) cd 16.98
When Thomas Ankersmit performed in San Francisco a few years back while opening for Phill Niblock at 23five's Activating The Medium festival, he stood behind a Serge Modular Synth housed in a modified suitcase. At a rapid-fire pace, he tugged at the nest of patch cables before him, plucking just the right one that he would then move to a different input. Despite this frenzy of activity, Ankersmit mustered an intense, blossoming swarm of electrical noise, thrum, and buzz. We had known of his long-standing collaborations with Phill Niblock, as the stalwart minimalist had employed Ankersmit's circular breathing techniques on the saxophone for a number of performances and compositions; but this electronic side of Ankersmit certainly piqued our interest.
This collaborative album with Valerio Tricoli (of 3/4hadbeeneliminated) finds Ankersmit in this electronic framework. Ankersmit and Tricoli have been making the rounds of the European festival circuit, making this album the refinement of their live presentations - working with that aforementioned modular synth, laptop trickery, overdubbed sax-driven minimalism, and some rather obtuse field recordings as well. Compositionally, Tricoli and Ankersmit adopt the decentering approach to structure that the Hafler Trio mustered on his most complex collage works, although Tricoli and Ankersmit give the impression that their jaggly spliced electronics could have been generated in a live setting. Eerie passages of dissonant tones crackle with electromagnetic static and puretone chirpings of vibrating signals, shifting from insectoid chorales to spluttering polyphonic bloop circa 1965. When the sax comes out, Ankersmit molds longform, harmonic drones into metallic planes of shifting timbres and tonal dissonance, much more in keeping with his work with Niblock than anything normally sourced from a sax. But especially when it comes to the electronics, there is a sophistication to all Tricoli and Ankersmit's arsenal of noises that's miles beyond so many of today's retrogarde synthesists, and Forma II is all the better for it! One of the best electro-acoustic records to come along in quite some time.
MPEG Stream: "Zwerm Voor Tithonus"
MPEG Stream: "Brent Mini"
MPEG Stream: "Takht-E Tavus"

TRIFID PROJECT s/t (Vacuum) cd ep 14.98
Crunching clicks, beats and blips form the varied (noisy to noir-ish) setting over (or, under) which French female vocals sometimes reach our ears. Formed by formerly metal- now ambient/experimental- guitarist James Plotkin (OLD, Flux, Joy of Disease, Romance, many many collaborations) and some French friends, including the guy from Celluloid Mata. Dark electronic "surf" music? Six tracks, twenty two and a half minutes of mysterious electronica that Plotkin fans (like us) will enjoy.

TRIGGER MAN / THE ROOST (JEFF GRACE) OST (Moviescore Media) cd 8.98
We've been on a bit of a soundtrack kick here at aQ recently, listing Child's Play and White Dog last time, The Lion In Winter before that, etc. As we've learned, you don't have to have seen a movie to enjoy the soundtrack, in fact, you don't even have to have ever heard of the movie or care if it got thumbs up from the critics or not. Which brings us to to this list's soundtrack selection, a disc featuring scores to two recent indie thriller/horror films we're unfamiliar with by director Ti West, composed by Jeff Grace - whom we hadn't previously heard of either, though upon further research he gets some cred in aQ-land 'cause the Blackest Rainbow label apparently released a 10" of another of his soundtracks, we'll have to look for that now.
Anyone into classic fright flick soundtracks, particularly the stuff Death Waltz has lately been reissuing on vinyl, ought to check this out. The first score, for a film called Trigger Man, is a moody, unsettling creep out, understated and atmospheric, the tracks unified by the composer's brilliant decision to utilize pretty much ONLY solo cello and echo-effects (and some percussion). The suspensefully echoing pulsations of the droning, sawing strings can be strangely lovely and captivating, while clearly leading to, eventually (in the movie) Something Bad Happening. Which, on the soundtrack, remains "off screen", so this is an enjoyable, abstract avant-classical inflected piece of music, suitable for late-night listening, which weirdly reminds us a bit of some of free jazz saxophonist Evan Parker's electronically processed collaborations with Lawrence Casserley, to bring up an obscure and oblique reference. There's plenty of calm yet ominous twilight moments, giving way to more agitated string-scrabble and rhythmically propulsive drives into heart-pounding terror. These eight tracks of this kind-of "chamber-dub" are fantastic enough, but wait, there's more - included here also is Grace's soundtrack to another film, The Roost, another twelve tracks done in explicit homage to the most classic style of B-grade Hollywood horror film soundtracks of decades past, starting off with plenty of spooky oooky theremin and much morbid organ chording in the old school, Carnival Of Souls style! So good. A very well done pastiche, with tremulous strings, urgent orchestral buildups into frenzied crescendos, heartbeat percussion, and eerie drones suddenly silenced, always sounding like some crazy killer with a knife is about to step into the shower with you!! While it starts out deliberately hokey, pretty soon The Roost's score will get under your goosebumped skin and become rather intensely scary indeed, demonstrating why the type of music being so effectively emulated here was used for vintage horror films in the first place. In fact, the string quartet music of The Roost ends up almost in an avant-garde, Zornified territory (of terror) by the end. Now we want to see both Ti West movies to see if they live up to these excellent soundtracks!
So glad we discovered this, and at a bargain price too by the way - we only have a few, not too sure if we can get many more or not.
MPEG Stream: "Opening Titles"
MPEG Stream: "Warning "
MPEG Stream: "The Factory"
MPEG Stream: "Our Host"
MPEG Stream: "Zombie Attack"
MPEG Stream: "Run For Your Life"

TRIGGER RENEGADE Destroy Your Mind (Black Top Fade Records) cd 8.98
From the same folks who brought us deliciously sleazy discs from Jet Fuel and Sinnerjizm, here's the debut album from LA's Trigger Renegade, a pretty potent heavy rockin' band in their own right. Trigger Renegade don't wander into the territories of kaleidoscopic psychedelia, bubblegum pop, or dusted glam metal, taking a much more workmanlike approach to the art of hard rockin'. The fist-pumping swagger from the grittiest elements of the NWOBHM is certainly where Trigger Renegade is drawing their inspiration; and Destroy Your Mind certainly succeeds in getting at sex, drugs (although beer and whiskey seem more appropriate) and of course rock 'n' roll. Musically, Trigger Renegade push forward a relentless backbeat of high-octane rhythms that might have a locomotive relentlessness complete with non-stop blastbeats on one track and then a blues-rock boogie on the next. On top of the rhythms, Trigger Renegade intertwine plenty of dynamic, twin guitar / Thin Lizzy-ish leads and alternating vocal styles between gravel throated barks and screeched falsettos ala Rob Halford. With plenty of nods to Cheap Trick, The Damned, Iron Maiden, and Witchfinder General, had Trigger Renegade been around some 25 years ago, they could have been huge.
MPEG Stream: "Damage"
MPEG Stream: "Robbin' Trains"

TRIGGER RENEGADE Destroy Your Mind (Black Top Fade Records) lp 9.98
From the same folks who brought us deliciously sleazy discs from Jet Fuel and Sinnerjizm, here's the debut album from LA's Trigger Renegade, a pretty potent heavy rockin' band in their own right. Trigger Renegade don't wander into the territories of kaleidoscopic psychedelia, bubblegum pop, or dusted glam metal, taking a much more workmanlike approach to the art of hard rockin'. The fist-pumping swagger from the grittiest elements of the NWOBHM is certainly where Trigger Renegade is drawing their inspiration; and Destroy Your Mind certainly succeeds in getting at sex, drugs (although beer and whiskey seem more appropriate) and of course rock 'n' roll. Musically, Trigger Renegade push forward a relentless backbeat of high-octane rhythms that might have a locomotive relentlessness complete with non-stop blastbeats on one track and then a blues-rock boogie on the next. On top of the rhythms, Trigger Renegade intertwine plenty of dynamic, twin guitar / Thin Lizzy-ish leads and alternating vocal styles between gravel throated barks and screeched falsettos ala Rob Halford. With plenty of nods to Cheap Trick, The Damned, Iron Maiden, and Witchfinder General, had Trigger Renegade been around some 25 years ago, they could have been huge.
MPEG Stream: "Damage"
MPEG Stream: "Robbin' Trains"

TRIMBLE, BOBB Harvest of Dreams (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98
Maybe you don't know it yet, but (IF you buy these Bobb Trimble albums) you have just been handed the key to a secret realm, an alternate rock n' roll universe of dark despair, fragile hope, and gossamer beauty, a haunting personal soundworld that will always stay with you, within you... these two albums are reissues of exceedingly rare, DIY pop-psych-prog holy grails from the unlikely time and place of early '80s suburban New England. Bobb Trimble is singer-songwriter and would be (shoulda been) rock star from Worcester, Massachusetts. Born in 1958, he was in his early 20s when he recorded the two self-released albums that constitute his obscure discography, and which over the years have developed a small but devoted cult following among those lucky enough to have encountered these gems. There's been bootlegs of one of them (Harvest Of Dreams), and a hard-to-find anthology that came out 12 years ago drawing material from both Bobb LPs, but now Secretly Canadian, bless 'em, have at long last brought out legit reissues of both amazing Trimble records, on compact disc and vinyl (unfortunately, the vinyl went pretty quick, we only have a couple copies of each LP left in stock at the moment, though we're told there will be a second pressing sometime soon, hopefully). As far as we're concerned, this is one of the most significant musical events of 2007!
Influenced by the Beatles (on the back of his debut LP, he politely asks if he can someday become the 5th Beatle), Bowie, Pink Floyd and other psych and prog rock of the '60s and '70s, Bobb boldly brought that sound into "a world he never made", the malaise days of the late '70s and the new wave Reagan '80s, creating homemade timeless tracks that could just as easily have been recorded today, or tomorrow, too. We're reminded of those artists, yes, and also the disparate likes of Ariel Pink, Antony & The Johnsons, Richard Youngs, Ed Askew, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Roy Harper... but Bobb Trimble's music is also like nothing else we've ever heard.
Both albums are highly recommended... though weird enough to perhaps not be for everyone, we'll admit. If you like 'em at all though, chances are you'll LOVE them. It's about time they were reissued, we expect that they'll do MUCH better today than they did when they were first (barely) released. The world, or at least the indie-rock scene, is finally ready for Bobb's unsung outsider genius, and it's nice he's getting a second shot at recognition now. And also especially nice for the new audience that's gonna flip out over this music (we predict).
This record, 1982's Harvest Of Dreams, is the one with a grainy photo of Bobb pondering what appears to be a unicorn-goat on the cover, apparently found at some RennFaire petting zoo. Looks a bit like a Jandek album cover, doesn't it? It certainly is a wonderful indication of the magical mysteries and sheer oddity of the album's musical content. Of Trimble's two LPs, Harvest is where his dreamy visionary aesthetic reached its absolute pinnacle (at age 23!). Bobb has his helpers on various tracks here, several of 'em recorded with The Kidds -- a bunch of 12-year-olds from his neighborhood he befriended and taught to play! So maybe he felt there was more hope for the future. The mood here isn't quite so dark as side one of Iron Curtain Innocence, though certainly a continuation of that style, and just as emotional and moving, moreso even... Bobb, his high fragile pixie voice (one reason for the Ariel Pink comparison) caressing like fairytale kisses, takes you by the hand and leads you into his heart, on this masterpiece of bedroom recorded lovelorn proggy psychedelic weird gentle beauty. Track two, "If Words Were All I Had" is likely to be one of the best songs you'll hear all year. One of the most aching, affecting love songs ever, actually. It could make you cry. "Armour Of The Shroud" is another highlight. A nearly 8 minute epic woven from Bobb's angelic voice, chiming bells, guitar strum, a bed of electronic swirls, and such droning "environmental" sonic textures as a beeping disconnected dial tone and falling rain. It's not all as mellow as that -- for instance an outburst of distortion and swearing at the end of the otherwise lovely "Selling Me Short While Stringing Me Long" leads into the backwards-effected intro of this album's biggest anomaly, "Oh Baby", a primitive garage-punk number sung by one of the Kidds, with lyrics that seem to reference the Saturday Night Live character Mr. Bill. Backwards effects and children's voices are in fact all over the place here on this densely-layered disc, along with swirling psych guitar, distorted electronics, and Bobb's heartfelt lyrics and melodies. Yep, definitely there's an Ariel Pink vibe, also we're even reminded of the folky pagan weirdness of Comus at times, & also the damaged new wave psych of the Happy Dragon-Band, if you've ever heard them.
Urgh it's hard to do this justice in a mere review. Words are all we have... This is the sort of album that it really seems that someone (a better writer than any of us here) could, should write a whole book about. Like one of those 33 1/3 volumes. It's that deep, that unique, that compelling.
This reissue again includes enthusiastic, enlightening liner notes, this time from Florent Mazzoleni. And more vintage photos, including another one of Bobb sitting with the spooky unicorn-goat from the cover, this time serenading it with an acoustic guitar. And on this cd there's also another three bonus tracks of unreleased songs!! Nicely put together, way better than any bootleg version of course! So, again, both albums are highly recommended (obviously, as we made 'em both Records Of The Week) but if you're gonna buy just one, maybe start with Harvest Of Dreams... but we'd say get both!
MPEG Stream: "If Words Were All I Had"
MPEG Stream: "Premonitions Boy - The Reality"
MPEG Stream: "Oh Baby"

TRIMBLE, BOBB Harvest of Dreams (Secretly Canadian) lp 14.98
When we made these two Trimble reissues Records Of The Week last year, we weren't able to list the vinyl 'cause they were pretty much already all gone. Thankfully it's finally been repressed, and we can say, now on vinyl!
Maybe you don't know it yet, but (IF you buy these Bobb Trimble albums) you have just been handed the key to a secret realm, an alternate rock n' roll universe of dark despair, fragile hope, and gossamer beauty, a haunting personal soundworld that will always stay with you, within you... these two albums are reissues of exceedingly rare, DIY pop-psych-prog holy grails from the unlikely time and place of early '80s suburban New England. Bobb Trimble is singer-songwriter and would be (shoulda been) rock star from Worcester, Massachusetts. Born in 1958, he was in his early 20s when he recorded the two self-released albums that constitute his obscure discography, and which over the years have developed a small but devoted cult following among those lucky enough to have encountered these gems. There's been bootlegs of one of them (Harvest Of Dreams), and a hard-to-find anthology that came out 12 years ago drawing material from both Bobb LPs, but now Secretly Canadian, bless 'em, have at long last brought out legit reissues of both amazing Trimble records, on compact disc and vinyl (unfortunately, the vinyl went pretty quick, we only have a couple copies of each LP left in stock at the moment, though we're told there will be a second pressing sometime soon, hopefully). As far as we're concerned, this is one of the most significant musical events of 2007!
Influenced by the Beatles (on the back of his debut LP, he politely asks if he can someday become the 5th Beatle), Bowie, Pink Floyd and other psych and prog rock of the '60s and '70s, Bobb boldly brought that sound into "a world he never made", the malaise days of the late '70s and the new wave Reagan '80s, creating homemade timeless tracks that could just as easily have been recorded today, or tomorrow, too. We're reminded of those artists, yes, and also the disparate likes of Ariel Pink, Antony & The Johnsons, Richard Youngs, Ed Askew, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Roy Harper... but Bobb's music is also like nothing else we've ever heard.
Both albums are highly recommended... though weird enough to perhaps not be for everyone, we'll admit. If you like 'em at all though, chances are you'll LOVE them. It's about time they were reissued, we expect that they'll do MUCH better today than they did when they were first (barely) released. The world, or at least the indie-rock scene, is finally ready for Bobb's unsung outsider genius, and it's nice he's getting a second shot at recognition now. And also especially nice for the new audience that's gonna flip out over this music (we predict).
This record, 1982's Harvest Of Dreams, is the one with a grainy photo of Bobb pondering what appears to be a unicorn-goat on the cover, apparently found at some RennFaire petting zoo. Looks a bit like a Jandek album cover, doesn't it? It certainly is a wonderful indication of the magical mysteries and sheer oddity of the album's musical content. Of Bobb's two LPs, Harvest is where his dreamy visionary aesthetic reached its absolute pinnacle (at age 23!). Bobb has his helpers on various tracks here, several of 'em recorded with The Kidds -- a bunch of 12-year-olds from his neighborhood he befriended and taught to play! So maybe he felt there was more hope for the future. The mood here isn't quite so dark as side one of Iron Curtain Innocence, though certainly a continuation of that style, and just as emotional and moving, moreso even... Bobb, his high fragile pixie voice (one reason for the Ariel Pink comparison) caressing like fairytale kisses, takes you by the hand and leads you into his heart, on this masterpiece of bedroom recorded lovelorn proggy psychedelic weird gentle beauty. Track two, "If Words Were All I Had" is likely to be one of the best songs you'll hear all year. One of the most aching, affecting love songs ever actually, it could make you cry. "Armour Of The Shroud" is another highlight. A nearly 8 minute epic woven from Bobb's angelic voice, chiming bells, guitar strum, a bed of electronic swirls, and such droning "environmental" sound textures as a beeping disconnected dial tone and falling rain. It's not all as mellow as that -- for instance an outburst of distortion and swearing at the end of the otherwise lovely "Selling Me Short While Stringing Me Long" leads into the backwards-effected intro of this album's biggest anomaly, "Oh Baby", a primitive garage-punk number sung by one of the Kidds, with lyrics that seem to reference the Saturday Night Live character Mr. Bill. Backwards effects and children's voices are in fact all over the place here on this densely-layered disc, along with swirling psych guitar, distorted electronics, and Bobb's heartfelt lyrics and melodies. Yep, definitely there's an Ariel Pink vibe, also we're even reminded of the folky pagan weirdness of Comus at times, & also the damaged new wave psych of the Happy Dragon Band, if you've ever heard them.
Urgh it's hard to do this justice in a mere review. Words are all we have... This is the sort of album that it really seems that someone (a better writer than any of us here) could, should write a whole book about. Like one of those 33 1/3 volumes. It's that deep, that unique, that compelling.
This reissue again includes enthusiastic, enlightening liner notes, this time from Florent Mazzoleni. And more vintage photos, including another one of Bobb sitting with the spooky unicorn-goat from the cover, this time serenading it with an acoustic guitar. And on this cd there's also another three bonus tracks of unreleased songs!! Nicely put together, way better than any bootleg version of course! So, again, both albums are highly recommended (obviously, as we made 'em both Records Of The Week) but if you're gonna buy just one, maybe start with Harvest Of Dreams... but we'd say get both!
MPEG Stream: "If Words Were All I Had"
MPEG Stream: "Premonitions Boy - The Reality"
MPEG Stream: "Oh Baby"

TRIMBLE, BOBB Iron Curtain Innocence (Secretly Canadian) cd 14.98
Maybe you don't know it yet, but (IF you buy these Bobb Trimble albums) you have just been handed the key to a secret realm, an alternate rock n' roll universe of dark despair, fragile hope, and gossamer beauty, a haunting personal soundworld that will always stay with you, within you... these two albums are reissues of exceedingly rare, DIY pop-psych-prog holy grails from the unlikely time and place of early '80s suburban New England. Bobb Trimble is singer-songwriter and would be (shoulda been) rock star from Worcester, Massachusetts. Born in 1958, he was in his early 20s when he recorded the two self-released albums that constitute his obscure discography, and which over the years have developed a small but devoted cult following among those lucky enough to have encountered these gems. There's been bootlegs of one of them (Harvest Of Dreams), and a hard-to-find anthology that came out 12 years ago drawing material from both Bobb LPs, but now Secretly Canadian, bless 'em, have at long last brought out legit reissues of both amazing Trimble records, on compact disc and vinyl (unfortunately, the vinyl went pretty quick, we only have a couple copies of each LP left in stock at the moment, though we're told there will be a second pressing sometime soon, hopefully). As far as we're concerned, this is one of the most significant musical events of 2007!
Influenced by the Beatles (on the back of his debut LP, he politely asks if he can someday become the 5th Beatle), Bowie, Pink Floyd and other psych and prog rock of the '60s and '70s, Bobb boldly brought that sound into "a world he never made", the malaise days of the late '70s and the new wave Reagan '80s, creating homemade timeless tracks that could just as easily have been recorded today, or tomorrow, too. We're reminded of those artists, yes, and also the disparate likes of Ariel Pink, Antony & The Johnsons, Richard Youngs, Ed Askew, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Roy Harper... but Bobb Trimble's music is also like nothing else we've ever heard.
Both albums are highly recommended... though weird enough to perhaps not be for everyone, we'll admit. If you like 'em at all though, chances are you'll LOVE them. It's about time they were reissued, we expect that they'll do MUCH better today than they did when they were first (barely) released. The world, or at least the indie-rock scene, is finally ready for Bobb's unsung outsider genius, and it's nice he's getting a second shot at recognition now. And also especially nice for the new audience that's gonna flip out over this music (we predict).
This one, Iron Curtain Innocence, with a striking photo-studio shot on the cover of Bobb armed with both an electric guitar and a Tommy gun, was his debut, a private pressing in an edition of just 300 copies! Side one, credited to Bobb Trimble with The Violent Reactions, was recorded in 1980 and represents the darker, more apocalyptic material on the album, the songs dramatic, melancholic, and laced with much mysterious sound FX. The very first track, "Glass Menagerie Fantasies", starting off with some shortwave static, establishes Bobb's special talent for fragile and melodic otherworldliness, utilizing weird "glitch" textures long before electronica made that a rock-crit term. His multitracked vocals, ranging high, are of translucent beauty throughout this record, yet so much of the musical mood is one of dread and psychosis, lyrics touching on fears of WWIII, the gothic likes of "When The Raven Calls" heavier with sizzling synth drones and volume-cranked psych guitar.
Side two, designated Soliloquize, was recorded two years earlier, in 1978, and features what Bobb considers the more "straight" songs on the record, simpler perhaps, but with Bobb's vocals just as delicate and the mood just as melancholic... and definitely of psychedelic bent, note ferinstance the backwards guitar on "Through My Eyes (Hopeless as Hell: D.O.A.)". On side one Bobb is accompanied by a drummer and bassist, on side two just a drummer, Bobb handling vocals, guitar, and all other instruments, credited also with "interference patterns" and "hope".
Hope? Maybe. Bobb dedicates this album "to a children of a dynasty destined to ruins who build their dreams on the darkness they buy... and steal." You can see where he's coming from, his despairing musical mood. It's fairly certain that back in 1980 he could have never imagined that his music would be being re-released in 2007, not just because such lasting "success" seemed elusive but also 'cause it seemed doubtful, in those days preceding the Ronald Reagan vs. "Evil Empire" face-off at the height of the Cold War, that world would survive this long. Thankfully, it has, but sadly, though, times haven't really changed that much regarding this civilization's and this planet's long-term prognosis, Mutual Assured Destruction replaced with global warming and WMD and another Evil Empire (ours, or Islamofascism, take your pick), so Bobb's sentiments on Iron Curtain Innocence still seem unhappily relevant as ever... but this reissue is also a token of hope, since we, Bobb and this music are are still here.
This reissue also includes three bonus tracks, reverb-drenched solo demo versions of songs from side one, recorded by Bobb in his parents' basement. The cd booklet contains extensive liner notes by Eric Weddle, as well as lots of photos and a newspaper clipping of a review in the local newspaper at the time.
MPEG Stream: "Glass Menagerie Fantasies"
MPEG Stream: "When The Raven Calls"
MPEG Stream: "One Mile From Heaven (short version)"

TRIMBLE, BOBB Iron Curtain Innocence (Secretly Canadian) lp 14.98
When we made these two Trimble reissues Records Of The Week last year, we weren't able to list the vinyl 'cause they were pretty much already all gone. Thankfully it's finally been repressed, and we can say, now on vinyl!
Maybe you don't know it yet, but (IF you buy these Bobb Trimble albums) you have just been handed the key to a secret realm, an alternate rock n' roll universe of dark despair, fragile hope, and gossamer beauty, a haunting personal soundworld that will always stay with you, within you... these two albums are reissues of exceedingly rare, DIY pop-psych-prog holy grails from the unlikely time and place of early '80s suburban New England. Bobb Trimble is singer-songwriter and would be (shoulda been) rock star from Worcester, Massachusetts. Born in 1958, he was in his early 20s when he recorded the two self-released albums that constitute his obscure discography, and which over the years have developed a small but devoted cult following among those lucky enough to have encountered these gems. There's been bootlegs of one of them (Harvest Of Dreams), and a hard-to-find anthology that came out 12 years ago drawing material from both Bobb LPs, but now Secretly Canadian, bless 'em, have at long last brought out legit reissues of both amazing Trimble records, on compact disc and vinyl (unfortunately, the vinyl went pretty quick, we only have a couple copies of each LP left in stock at the moment, though we're told there will be a second pressing sometime soon, hopefully). As far as we're concerned, this is one of the most significant musical events of 2007!
Influenced by the Beatles (on the back of his debut LP, he politely asks if he can someday become the 5th Beatle), Bowie, Pink Floyd and other psych and prog rock of the '60s and '70s, Bobb boldly brought that sound into "a world he never made", the malaise days of the late '70s and the new wave Reagan '80s, creating homemade timeless tracks that could just as easily have been recorded today, or tomorrow, too. We're reminded of those artists, yes, and also the disparate likes of Ariel Pink, Antony & The Johnsons, Richard Youngs, Ed Askew, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Roy Harper... but Bobb's music is also like nothing else we've ever heard.
Both albums are highly recommended... though weird enough to perhaps not be for everyone, we'll admit. If you like 'em at all though, chances are you'll LOVE them. It's about time they were reissued, we expect that they'll do MUCH better today than they did when they were first (barely) released. The world, or at least the indie-rock scene, is finally ready for Bobb's unsung outsider genius, and it's nice he's getting a second shot at recognition now. And also especially nice for the new audience that's gonna flip out over this music (we predict).
This one, Iron Curtain Innocence, with a striking photo-studio shot on the cover of Bobb armed with both an electric guitar and a Tommy gun, was his debut, a private pressing in an edition of just 300 copies! Side one, credited to Bobb Trimble with The Violent Reactions, was recorded in 1980 and represents the darker, more apocalyptic material on the album, the songs dramatic, melancholic, and laced with much mysterious sound FX. The very first track, "Glass Menagerie Fantasies", starting off with some shortwave static, establishes Bobb's special talent for fragile and melodic otherworldliness, utilizing weird "glitch" textures long before electronica made that a rock-crit term. His multitracked vocals, ranging high, are of translucent beauty throughout this record, yet so much of the musical mood is one of dread and psychosis, lyrics touching on fears of WWIII, the gothic likes of "When The Raven Calls" heavier with sizzling synth drones and volume-cranked psych guitar.
Side two, designated Soliloquize, was recorded two years earlier, in 1978, and features what Bobb considers the more "straight" songs on the record, simpler perhaps, but with Bobb's vocals just as delicate and the mood just as melancholic... and definitely of psychedelic bent, note ferinstance the backwards guitar on "Through My Eyes (Hopeless as Hell: D.O.A.)". On side one Bobb is accompanied by a drummer and bassist, on side two just a drummer, Bobb handling vocals, guitar, and all other instruments, credited also with "interference patterns" and "hope".
Hope? Maybe. Bobb dedicates this album "to a children of a dynasty destined to ruins who build their dreams on the darkness they buy... and steal." You can see where he's coming from, his despairing musical mood. It's fairly certain that back in 1980 he could have never imagined that his music would be being re-released in 2007, not just because such lasting "success" seemed elusive but also 'cause it seemed doubtful, in those days preceding the Ronald Reagan vs. "Evil Empire" face-off at the height of the Cold War, that world would survive this long. Thankfully, it has, but sadly, though, times haven't really changed that much regarding this civilization's and this planet's long-term prognosis, Mutual Assured Destruction replaced with global warming and WMD and another Evil Empire (ours, or Islamofascism, take your pick), so Bobb's sentiments on Iron Curtain Innocence still seem unhappily relevant as ever... but this reissue is also a token of hope, since we, Bobb and this music are are still here.
This reissue also includes three bonus tracks, reverb-drenched solo demo versions of songs from side one, recorded by Bobb in his parents' basement. The cd booklet contains extensive liner notes by Eric Weddle, as well as lots of photos and a newspaper clipping of a review in the local newspaper at the time.
MPEG Stream: "Glass Menagerie Fantasies"
MPEG Stream: "When The Raven Calls"
MPEG Stream: "One Mile From Heaven (short version)"

TRIMBLE, BOBB The Crippled Dog Band (Yoga) cd 14.98
Wonders never cease. About four or five years ago, the Secretly Canadian label did a big favor to obscure music lovers everywhere and brought out deluxe, at long last legit reissues of the two rare private press albums that obscure DIY psych pop genius Bobb Trimble released in the early '80s. We love those two so much, we made both reissues Records Of The Week. Trimble's Iron Curtain Innocence (1980) and Harvest Of Dreams (1982) are timeless, cult artifacts, of which we said: "...you have just been handed the key to a secret realm, an alternate rock n' roll universe of dark despair, fragile hope, and gossamer beauty, a haunting personal soundworld that will always stay with you, within you...", and favorably compared to everyone from Lennon/McCartney to Pink Floyd to Roy Harper to Marc Bolan to Richard Youngs to Ariel Pink.
Well, we had no idea that those two albums weren't the entirely of Trimble's discography. But now, happily we learn that there was a THIRD even rarer Trimble lp, and it's just been reissued as well!!! And it too is a doozy.
Turns out that a year or two after Harvest Of Dreams was released into an uncaring world, the 20-something Trimble teamed up with a local Worcester, Massachusetts gang of teenagers (some of whom we think had been in the even younger group, The Kidds, who are heard on some songs on a song or two on Harvest Of Dreams) called The Crippled Dog Band, named after the three-legged dog seen on the cover of this album, presumably. Who doesn't love a three-legged dog? Together, they played shows - and, better yet, for us today - made an album, this one, in '84, which captures the outsider psych-pop brilliance of Trimble's songwriting in exuberant collision/collusion with youthful rock n' roll energy.
Yeah, compared to Trimble's two "solo" albums, this could be considered to be more rockin', more "punk", more band-like. And more '80s as well, if only 'cause of the sci-fi video arcade game sounds that appear here on the intro and outro tracks! The songs, while typically Trimble-poppy (and graced with his delicate, high and whispy vox) are also often loud and raucous and awash in feedback and FX. At times we're kinda reminded of The Dickies.
Most are in the 2-3 minute range, though they do a version of one of our favorite Trimble songs, "Armour Of The Shroud", that stretches out for over six minutes, as per the epic original that appeared on Harvest Of Dreams. They also do "Galilean Boy", a demo of which appeared as a bonus track on SC's reissue of HoD. The other "cover" here is a reinterpretation of The Beatles' "All Together Now", which Trimble and The Crippled Dog Band really make their own, converting it into a theme song of sorts, near the beginning of the album: "Singin' the Crippled Dog anthem / ruff ruff / ruff ruff!"
There's something so wonderfully charming about that, eh? And the teenage spark of Trimble's cohorts here is infectious, the band tearing it up, gritty garagey psych stomp style across much of this disc. Ferinstance, there's the distortodelic Eastern vibe of "Camel Song", and "Angel Eyes" is another that offers up some pretty heavy-duty, driving psych gunk for your earholes. And those are only a few of the punked up Pepperisms to be found on this delightful disc. Some songs are darker ("Undercovers Man"), others, pure fun ("Poker Game Of Life").
Apparently, the story goes, The Crippled Dog Band came to an end shortly after this was recorded, for whatever reason, and with no hope of selling 'em, almost all of original pressing of 500 lps was unceremoniously disposed of by Bobb in a dumpster! Good grief. Thankfully, the actual recordings weren't lost, and this reissue has finally arrived to allow The Crippled Dog Band to be heard again - it's certainly getting a lot of play here at AQ! Recommended, ruff ruff!!
MPEG Stream: "All Together Now"
MPEG Stream: "Live Wire "
MPEG Stream: "Angel Eyes"

TRIMBLE, BOBB The Crippled Dog Band (Yoga) lp 16.98
Now in stock on vinyl too!!
Wonders never cease. About four or five years ago, the Secretly Canadian label did a big favor to obscure music lovers everywhere and brought out deluxe, at long last legit reissues of the two rare private press albums that obscure DIY psych pop genius Bobb Trimble released in the early '80s. We love those two so much, we made both reissues Records Of The Week. Trimble's Iron Curtain Innocence (1980) and Harvest Of Dreams (1982) are timeless, cult artifacts, of which we said: "...you have just been handed the key to a secret realm, an alternate rock n' roll universe of dark despair, fragile hope, and gossamer beauty, a haunting personal soundworld that will always stay with you, within you...", and favorably compared to everyone from Lennon/McCartney to Pink Floyd to Roy Harper to Marc Bolan to Richard Youngs to Ariel Pink.
Well, we had no idea that those two albums weren't the entirely of Trimble's discography. But now, happily we learn that there was a THIRD even rarer Trimble lp, and it's just been reissued as well!!! And it too is a doozy.
Turns out that a year or two after Harvest Of Dreams was released into an uncaring world, the 20-something Trimble teamed up with a local Worcester, Massachusetts gang of teenagers (some of whom we think had been in the even younger group, The Kidds, who are heard on some songs on a song or two on Harvest Of Dreams) called The Crippled Dog Band, named after the three-legged dog seen on the cover of this album, presumably. Who doesn't love a three-legged dog? Together, they played shows - and, better yet, for us today - made an album, this one, in '84, which captures the outsider psych-pop brilliance of Trimble's songwriting in exuberant collision/collusion with youthful rock n' roll energy.
Yeah, compared to Trimble's two "solo" albums, this could be considered to be more rockin', more "punk", more band-like. And more '80s as well, if only 'cause of the sci-fi video arcade game sounds that appear here on the intro and outro tracks! The songs, while typically Trimble-poppy (and graced with his delicate, high and whispy vox) are also often loud and raucous and awash in feedback and FX. At times we're kinda reminded of The Dickies.
Most are in the 2-3 minute range, though they do a version of one of our favorite Trimble songs, "Armour Of The Shroud", that stretches out for over six minutes, as per the epic original that appeared on Harvest Of Dreams. They also do "Galilean Boy", a demo of which appeared as a bonus track on SC's reissue of HoD. The other "cover" here is a reinterpretation of The Beatles' "All Together Now", which Trimble and The Crippled Dog Band really make their own, converting it into a theme song of sorts, near the beginning of the album: "Singin' the Crippled Dog anthem / ruff ruff / ruff ruff!"
There's something so wonderfully charming about that, eh? And the teenage spark of Trimble's cohorts here is infectious, the band tearing it up, gritty garagey psych stomp style across much of this disc. Ferinstance, there's the distortodelic Eastern vibe of "Camel Song", and "Angel Eyes" is another that offers up some pretty heavy-duty, driving psych gunk for your earholes. And those are only a few of the punked up Pepperisms to be found on this delightful disc. Some songs are darker ("Undercovers Man"), others, pure fun ("Poker Game Of Life").
Apparently, the story goes, The Crippled Dog Band came to an end shortly after this was recorded, for whatever reason, and with no hope of selling 'em, almost all of original pressing of 500 lps was unceremoniously disposed of by Bobb in a dumpster! Good grief. Thankfully, the actual recordings weren't lost, and this reissue has finally arrived to allow The Crippled Dog Band to be heard again - it's certainly getting a lot of play here at AQ! Recommended, ruff ruff!!
MPEG Stream: "All Together Now"
MPEG Stream: "Live Wire "
MPEG Stream: "Angel Eyes"

TRINACRIA Travel Now Journey Infinitely (Season Of Mist) cd 15.98
Members of Enslaved and Fe Mail doing Neurosis-y avant metal!!!!?

TRIO MATAMOROS China En La Rumba (Tumbao) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This cd is a broad spanning collection of recordings - made from 1928 to 1951 - by Miguel Matamoros' most resilient of groups. Consisting of Miguel Matamoros (voice, guitar), Ciro Rodriguez (voice, maracas, claves) and Rafael Cueto (guitar, choir), it was this ensemble with which "Miguel was successful in combining to perfection all the melodic and rhythmic elements that the eastern son contained, and he brought to it the very typical charms of the purest 'creole' flavor." It is this genre that is the national pride of Cuba and it is this ensemble that impressed many young aspiring musicians including Compay Segundo of Buena Vista Social Club fame.

TRIOSK MEETS JAN JELINEK 1+3+1 (Scape) cd 15.98

TRIP, JUAN Consolation (Citizen Records) cd 17.98

TRIPLE BURNER s/t (Madrona) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "The Wherewithal"
MPEG Stream: "Roundabout"

TRIPS FESTIVAL: THE MOVIE (self-released) dvd 25.00
Woodstock, Altamont and the Summer of Love's Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park seem to get all the sixties hippie group-festival nostalgia attention, but before all that, there was the Trips Festival in 1966. Over three days in January at The Longshoreman's Hall in the Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco (why this isn't still an active venue here is a mystery to us as this place is still there and looks totally rad!), 10,000 people converged for this multimedia event of bands (Grateful Dead and Big Brother and The Holding Company), lightshows, and group theater. Organized by Ken Kesey, Stewart Brand (Founder of the Whole Earth Catalog) and Bill Graham (in his very first festival organizing role!) with support from The San Francisco Tape Music Center associated people providing the lightshows, film projections and electronic tape music (they even used an original Buchla Box!), and The Open Theater and The Merry Pranksters offering absurdist LSD-induced performance interludes, this event provided the blueprint for all drug-centric group celebrations to come from raves to Burning Man. This documentary contains interviews with everyone involved and tangentially segues into the multiple factors of how hippie culture evolved in San Francisco in the early sixties, as well as what the organizers ended up doing afterwards. What truly makes this essential, however, is one of the bonus features, a vintage nine minute film by Ben Van Meter, one of the original lightshow creators. With lots of layered lights and imagery from the event and a cool electronic music score, this is by far the trippiest bit, and truly feels like what it must of been like to be there in person. We wished it lasted for hours!

TRIPTYKON Eparistera Daimones (Prowling Death / Century Media) cd 13.98
Celtic Frost is dead, long live Triptykon! Yes, this is the debut disc from the new project of Celtic Frost and Hellhammer mainman Tom G. Warrior (aka Thomas Gabriel Fischer), a band he formed after the recent implosion of Celtic Frost. It's billed as an "official" continuation of the CF legacy by other means, and it's even got an H.R. Giger cover painting to prove it. Well, that's not all that proves it, just listen! This album contains several songs originally written for CF's aborted followup to their 2006 highly-regarded comeback album Monotheist, and is much in the tradition of that excellent album: an oppressively heavy juggernaut of black/doom metal mastery with avantgarde elements. Parts are speedier than Monotheist, though others trudge with riffage on the slower side... While a long way from the raw primitive dirge of Hellhammer so many years ago (the subject of a lavish new book by Tom G., also reviewed this list), Triptykon IS plenty dirgey, just not so "garagey", with high tech production. And all Celtic Frost and Hellhammer fans will be relieved to know that Tom's trademark death grunts made the transition to Triptykon intact, along with his more gothic and guttural, spoken/sung/chanted vocal style. Furthermore, just like when we saw him on Frost's final US tour, he's still wearing that knit hat pulled down to just over his raccoon-painted eyes...
The nine, mostly long songs on Eparistera Diamones (which means, uh, what's it mean?) are proof that even 28 years after Hellhammer's formation, and 26 after Celtic Frost's, Tom G. is still relevant to today's "extreme metal" scene, matching anyone out there for relentless density, negative expressivity, anti-religious artistry, and sheer heaviness. If we have to cite his previous band(s) as a reference point, that's no surprise. If CF didn't exist, or all we had ever heard was Triptykon, maybe we'd be comparing 'em to Neurosis or something. Heck, the female vox and classical grand piano that appear on track 7 "Myopic Empire", and the similarly moody experimentation that continues onto the entirely un-heavy, atmospheric track 8 "My Pain", is not only worthy of latter-day, trip-hopped Ulver, but in its Teutonic seriousness could be Tarwater or something, yet is followed by the pounding "You shall perish I shall live" metallic affirmation of "The Prolonging" (which also lives up to its title by being almost 20 minutes long!), ending the album leaving nobody wondering about Triptykon's place in the hierarchy of hell.
Reverently packaged with a thick cd booklet that includes not only more sexy/scifi perverted alien H.R. Giger art, but also portraits of each band member by another equally disturbed artist, as well as lyrics to each song AND personal liner notes from Tom G. about each track too. While in these the sometimes self-important, self-absorbed nature of the whole Celtic Frost thing is evident, so is Tom's artistic torment and sincerity (if you're read his autobiography, Are You Morbid?, which we recommend, you know what we mean). Hail!
MPEG Stream: "Goetia"
MPEG Stream: "Abyss Within My Soul"
MPEG Stream: "Myopic Empire"

TRIPTYKON Eparistera Daimones (Prowling Death / Century Media) 2lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Celtic Frost is dead, long live Triptykon! Yes, this is the debut disc from the new project of Celtic Frost and Hellhammer mainman Tom G. Warrior (aka Thomas Gabriel Fischer), a band he formed after the recent implosion of Celtic Frost. It's billed as an "official" continuation of the CF legacy by other means, and it's even got an H.R. Giger cover painting to prove it. Well, that's not all that proves it, just listen! This album contains several songs originally written for CF's aborted followup to their 2006 highly-regarded comeback album Monotheist, and is much in the tradition of that excellent album: an oppressively heavy juggernaut of black/doom metal mastery with avantgarde elements. Parts are speedier than Monotheist, though others trudge with riffage on the slower side... While a long way from the raw primitive dirge of Hellhammer so many years ago (the subject of a lavish new book by Tom G., also reviewed this list), Triptykon IS plenty dirgey, just not so "garagey", with high tech production. And all Celtic Frost and Hellhammer fans will be relieved to know that Tom's trademark death grunts made the transition to Triptykon intact, along with his more gothic and guttural, spoken/sung/chanted vocal style. Furthermore, just like when we saw him on Frost's final US tour, he's still wearing that knit hat pulled down to just over his raccoon-painted eyes...
The nine, mostly long songs on Eparistera Diamones (which means, uh, what's it mean?) are proof that even 28 years after Hellhammer's formation, and 26 after Celtic Frost's, Tom G. is still relevant to today's "extreme metal" scene, matching anyone out there for relentless density, negative expressivity, anti-religious artistry, and sheer heaviness. If we have to cite his previous band(s) as a reference point, that's no surprise. If CF didn't exist, or all we had ever heard was Triptykon, maybe we'd be comparing 'em to Neurosis or something. Heck, the female vox and classical grand piano that appear on track 7 "Myopic Empire", and the similarly moody experimentation that continues onto the entirely un-heavy, atmospheric track 8 "My Pain", is not only worthy of latter-day, trip-hopped Ulver, but in its Teutonic seriousness could be Tarwater or something, yet is followed by the pounding "You shall perish I shall live" metallic affirmation of "The Prolonging" (which also lives up to its title by being almost 20 minutes long!), ending the album leaving nobody wondering about Triptykon's place in the hierarchy of hell.
Reverently packaged with a thick cd booklet that includes not only more sexy/scifi perverted alien H.R. Giger art, but also portraits of each band member by another equally disturbed artist, as well as lyrics to each song AND personal liner notes from Tom G. about each track too. While in these the sometimes self-important, self-absorbed nature of the whole Celtic Frost thing is evident, so is Tom's artistic torment and sincerity (if you're read his autobiography, Are You Morbid?, which we recommend, you know what we mean). Hail!
MPEG Stream: "Goetia"
MPEG Stream: "Abyss Within My Soul"
MPEG Stream: "Myopic Empire"

TRIPTYKON Shatter (Century Media) cd ep 11.98
Tom G. Warrior is definitely BACK. First there was the successful (until they broke up, again) Celtic Frost reunion. And then, the debut from his new act, Triptykon, also almost universally praised by metal critics and CF fans alike. Now, not so long after that full-length, Tom & Co. bring us a new ep, Shatter, featuring 3 new songs plus two bonus live recordings, running close to about a half an hour total time. The new songs are in the vein of Eparistera Daimones: dark, doomy, disturbed, with a slight gothic/industrial vibe. The first two are both chunky, sluggish to mid-tempo offerings of Teutonic heaviosity, with the opening, title track offering up a tad more melody, while the lengthier "I Am The Twilight" is an epic, heads down grind, that kinda bridges the likes of Isis with black metal. Tom's vocals switch between angrily gargled vokills and a Type-O Negative croak, accompanied on "Shatter" by female vox as well, in a sort of Hammers Of Misfortune mode. Those two are followed by the other new song, "Crucifixus", a quietly haunting, ambient metal (mostly-) instrumental. Eerie and engaging enough, that if Triptykon were to do an entire extended album of just that sort of thing, we'd surely sell a bunch, it could maybe be released on Miasmah or Editions Mego!
Then there's the live tracks. Not just any live tracks, but Triptykon versions of two old Celtic Frost classics, "Circle Of The Tyrants" and "Dethroned Emperor", recorded at Holland's Roadburn festival earlier this year. Death grunt in full effect. And, there's a special guest Nocturno Culto of Darkthrone singing on one of 'em! Hey wait a sec - Allan was at Roadburn, caught part of Triptykon's set, but doesn't remember seeing that. Must have gone off to see another band on another stage. (Kicking self....)
MPEG Stream: "I Am The Twilight"
MPEG Stream: "Crucifixus"