WATERS, PATTY The Complete ESP-Disk Recordings (ESP-Disk) cd 17.98

WATERS, PATTY You Thrill Me (Water) cd 15.98

WATERY LOVE Two Thrills (Negative Guest List) 7" 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Never heard of these guys, apparently they're from the US and are another band that sound like they should be on Siltbreeze, or maybe on AmRep circa 1995, they have that Aussie swampy noise rock blues vibe (a la Lubricated Goat or King Snake Roost), which is even further driven home by the A side, which is a Cramps cover, and after a squall of guitar squiggle, they erupt into a churning swampy groove, all detuned riffage and yelped vox, pounding caveman drums, some seriously rad wah wah guitars, the whole thing loose and heavy and noisy and very live sounding.
The B side is more of the same, churning, chuggy primitive sludge punk dirgery, loads of feedback, sung/spoken vox, tangled melodies, some killer riffing, all leading up to a crashing chaotic outro. The sort of jam we would expect to discover via Brian Turner's radio show on WFMU, which of course means this rules!

WATKINS, ZACHARY JAMES Black Spirituals (The Tapeworm) cassette 7.98
One of two new strange sonic artifacts this week from the seemingly bottomless vaults of The Tapeworm, a UK tape label trafficking in the strange, the mysterious and the bizarre, this right here, an interesting bit of sound art based on the concepts of race and gender and sex and politics, and how those inform the works of artists, and what's at stake for artists as they try to push the boundaries and strictures of art, especially in terms of the above powerful themes. These references are however not so obvious on a purely musical level, Watkins weaves a slowly undulating dronescape, of deep sonic swells and muted electronic buzz, utilizing analog synths, guitars, drums and percussion, cassette, Casio, bass, and of course SuperCollider(!). Those deep swelling drones, grow more and more corrosive, the buzz intense and crumbling, building to a SUNNO))-like squall, but shot through with streaks of glitch and crunch, all draped over swirling clouds of hiss, and haunting undulating melodies before slipping back into a more tranquil stretch of deep resonant dronemusic. The piece is somehow based on a cassette tape Watkins found of a lecture by scholar and musician Bernice Reagon, a member of vocal group Sweet Honey On The Rock, which Watkins sometimes incorporated into live performances, though we don't hear it here. Definitely recommended for all the drone lovers out there, had this been a super limited cd-r, in mysterious black packaging, with some name like Blackened Blood Sphere, all you grim heavies would be all over this, so maybe that's actually what the dripping oozing crucifix cover is all about, and the title, cuz these are indeed some seriously grim black sonic spirituals. And are thus, as with pretty much all Tapeworm stuff, totally recommended.
LIMITED TO 250 COPIES. With cool dripping crucifix cover art by Savage pencil.

WATSON, CHRIS Cima Verde (Sound Threshold) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Curious that this disc is not on Touch, but the lack of the Jon Wozencroft design stamp does not detract from another impeccable recording from the world's premier field recordist - Chris Watson. A founding member of both Cabaret Voltaire and The Hafler Trio, Watson turned his attention in sound to the natural world in the late '80s, having worked on countless documentaries for the BBC. We've long been taken by his ability to present and contextualize the humble field recording as a magnificent piece of art, much in the way that great photographers - say, Richard Misrach - can present all of the details of a landscape with no discernable tricked out production and make it sublime. Cima Verde is a document of the alpine landscape in Northern Italy, primarily focusing upon the diversity of bird life, although the rushed blur of the first track seems to be a collision of atmospheric events reminiscent of his work with BJ Nilsen. The blurting caws of ravens introduces us to avian life, made more ominous than mischievous by a thrumbing of wires agitated by the wind. Watson then spends a considerable amount of time with the grouse - first the gentle cooing of a black grouse and then the dramatic mating dances of the wood grouse (aka the capercaillie). This latter recording with its erratic flapping and odd growls is one that seems oddly familiar to us - perhaps we are just getting this confused with one of those Sitelle field recordings disc; but it sounds great nonetheless. Watson does include some water recordings - a very nice underwater recording of a stream and some cold cold rain; but the final recordings on Cima Verde return to the birds in two dawn choruses, one of which begins with the mellifluous song of a nightingale eventually overtaken by the rest of the riparian creatures, waking from their slumber in ecstatic chirping. Of course, it's amazingly recorded with details popping directly through Watson's microphones into our speakers. Very highly recommended!
RealAudio clip: "Track 2"

WATSON, CHRIS El Tren Fantasma (Touch) cd 15.98
This awesome Watson disc, now repressed and back in stock!
Preeminent field recordist Chris Watson returns with a bit of a twist on El Tren Fantasma. Pretty much all of his work up to this point (outside of his contributions to Cabaret Voltaire and The Hafler Trio way back when) has been audio verite. Even such albums as Weather Report, which edit field recordings from the African savanna (for example) into a condensed journey, are pristine, realist documents codified through the exquisite, lush details in Watson's environmental sounds such as that of a lion panting after a successful hunt. El Tren Fantasma is much more engineered, imagined, and processed than anything else in his solo career; and this fictionalized Watson is no less compelling, no less dramatic, and no less awesome.
El Tren Fantasma - The Ghost Train - traces a now-defunct passanger rail line which ran from the Pacific Coast of Mexico to Veracruz on the Atlantic Coast. Watson had the opportunity to make this journey while working as a sound recordist for the BBC for their Great Railway Journeys. His compositions work with extracts from that excursion travelling across Mexico along with archival recordings whose origins are not specified. As he's stopping throughout the Chihuahuan Desert, Watson does capture the stunning chorales of chirping frogs, buzzing insects, and the blaring call of a California Quail (whose syllabic chortle is often mnemonically transcribed as "chi-CA-go" as if it were seeking a more temperate climate); but it the train's power and mass that provides so much of the impact for Watson's album. By the fourth track "El Divisidaro," Watson captures a series of loops of the train - with the bellowing horn pitched back and forth into a sustained symphonic tone and the clatter of the train's engine becoming an ersatz rhythm track, which in turn gets tricked out with some Martin Hannett styled, phasing delay work. It's easy to get lost in the majesty of this track, much like the expressive electronica that Wolfgang Voigt produced on Konigsforst as Gas. What a brilliantly simple transformation executed to perfection! "Mexico D.F." reprises this strategy with rhythmic churns building out of the grinding brakes and the roiling tumult of steam blasting through the train's pipes, becoming an almost militant thump on a lone drum. The train's horn drifts suitably in a cloud of reverberation at the end of the album, dissolving into the ghostlike apparition Watson intended it to be. As brillliant as this work is, we should also point out that Watson is not alone in composing such fictionalized scores purely through environmental sound. We would be remiss if we failed to point out the work of Australian composer Tarab, whose deft psychogeographical albums share the scope and execution with Watson's El Tren Fantasma. So great!
MPEG Stream: "Sierra Tarahumara"
MPEG Stream: "El Divisidaro"
MPEG Stream: "Mexico D.F."

WATSON, CHRIS El Tren Fantasma: The Signal Man's Mix (Touch) 12" 12.98
El Tren Fantasma was Chris Watson's amazing, imagined excursion across Mexico released in 2011, tracing a now-defunct passenger rail line which ran from the Pacific Coast of Mexico to Veracruz on the Atlantic Coast. Watson had the opportunity to make this journey while working as a sound recordist for the BBC for their Great Railway Journeys, and the resulting album was constructed using those field recordings. Unlike so much of Watson's previous field recording albums, El Tren Fantasma sported a quite a bit of processing and production work, transforming the rhythmic chug of the train into an electronica backbeat. The two mixes on this single further those propulsive aspects, especially on the album's highlight "El Divisidaro," where Watson captures a series of loops of the train - with the bellowing horn pitched back and forth into a sustained symphonic tone and the clatter of the train's engine becoming an ersatz rhythm track, which in turn gets tricked out with some Martin Hannett styled, phasing delay work. It's easy to get lost in the majesty of this track, much like the expressive electronica that Wolfgang Voigt produced on Konigsforst as Gas, expanded through glassine tones and deeper rhythms. "Veracruz" is certainly a bricolage, but pulls back on the rhythmic interlocking considerably, with chunks of locomotive noise surging against the backdrop of the harmonic train horns. Fantastic!

WATSON, CHRIS Oceanus (Touch) 7" 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Brand new two track 7" from sound recordist extraordinaire Chris Watson. Having done time in both the Hafler Trio and Cabaret Voltaire, Watson deals now almost exclusively in unadulterated field recordings, mostly of nature and wildlife. Past full lengths have been huge hits around here, and this single is just as compelling. Demonstrating that, it takes much more than a tape recorder and a microphone to capture magical field recordings. It takes an amazing ear, and a bit of technical savvy, one listen to these two tracks, recorded underwater around the Galapagos Islands, make that abundantly clear.
Two tracks, each recorded at a different depth, both dense and deep, rife with all manner of unexpected sonic subtleties. The first at 3 meters, is gorgeous and clear, it sounds nearly the same underwater as above, the sounds of the boat, and the water lapping against it, sea gulls, what sound like stones knocking against one another, all of these sounds wrapped in that haunting undersea shimmer, and captured perfectly, crystal clear and so vibrant.
The flipside finds us dipping down to 10 meters and the sound changes dramatically, deeper and more resonant, all the sounds more warbly and indistinct, burbling and languid, muted and softly glimmering, all naturally smeared into a warm soft focus soundscape of underwater drones, and muted sonic events. So lovely. And both sides end with gorgeously hypnotic locked grooves, which were so nice, we ended up letting both play for a long time before realizing they were looping...
Thick vinyl and a super striking Jon Wozencroft sleeve.

WATSON, CHRIS Outside The Circle Of Fire (Touch) cd 15.98
Chris Watson's amazing second album of field recordings. Super up-close and personal intimate recordings of wildlife and insects. Essential.
When it comes to the art of field recordings, Chris Watson is in a realm all of his own. As much as we love the Sittelle series (i.e. The Inaudible World - A Sound Guide Of The French Bats, Rutting Red Deer, and Pastoral Bells), Watson still stands quietly alone, so unique in what he is able to do with a microphone in a natural setting. So great is his work that the acclaimed naturalist Sir David Attenborough sequested Watson for recording on his breathtaking BBC series The Life of Birds and Life in the Undergrowth. Watson's history also separates him from many naturalists who have come to field recording or engineers who like being out in the woods, as Watson began his career as a founding member of Cabaret Voltaire and later established The Hafler Trio with Andrew McKenzie. In both cases, the provocative use of sound required a considerable fastidiousness in order to express the convoluted ideas (especially for The Hafler Trio) through the ephemerality of sound. It's been said that Outside The Circle Of Fire was the best electro-acoustic record that was never made, and that's a fair assessment. This album was Watson's second solo recording made back in 1998 and has recently been repressed. This features 22 recordings of various animals in their indigenous locales. The opening track of a cheetah purring is a sublimely intimate recording, in which the rasping ur-drones can easily be mistaken for the bowed minimalism of Taj Mahal Travellers or Organum expect for the fact that these sounds originate from an animal that wouldn't think twice about killing you. Similarly, the male capercallie display could be confused for a musique concrete piece by Pierre Henry or Luc Ferrari with its dynamic movement and expressive bouts of noise. Other notable creatures that Watson records are the Hippopotami (which make sounds as cute as the animals are large), a southern right whale surfacing off the coast of Argentina, and curious clatter from deathwatch beetles. Quite simply stunning.
MPEG Stream: "Adult Cheetah Resting By Beobab Tree"
MPEG Stream: "Male Capercallie Display"
MPEG Stream: "Spider Monkeys Moving Through Tree Canopy"

WATSON, CHRIS Stepping Into The Dark (Touch) cd 15.98
Awesome Touch debut from one of our favorite field-recordists in the world, who travels the world, recording environmental sounds. Super recommended.

WATSON, CHRIS Sunrise In The Sukau Rainforest (Framework) audio dvd-r 30.00
Two and half hours of a continuous, unedited recording from Chris Watson, the field recordist who should need no introduction! The Sukau rainforest is found in Borneo along the Kinabatangan River and is a dense primary forest with little access to the forest floor with the exception of a decaying boardwalk that meandered from the lodge where Watson was staying deep into the heart of the rainforest. One morning in October 2011, Watson followed this path several kilometers to the furthest point and lashed his microphones to a tree in order to record the growing dawn chorus of the birds, monkeys, and insects as their activities increased with the rising sun. At the beginning of the recording, Watson gives a brief description of the environment around him before he quietly retreats and lets the forest do the talking. He is quick to point out that the watery sounds are not of rain but of the huge amounts of moisture captured on the vegetation, tumbling down on the forest floor. As daylight approaches, the frequency of the cicadas and buzzing insects seems to increase ever so slightly and the bird calls tend to become more vibrant if a bit more spread apart. It's so easy to get lost in these beautifully rendered sounds of the forest; and Chris Watson's trademark of quality is stamped all over this recording.
If you might be balking at the price of a dvd-r, the Framework Seasonal discs are only available to the donors supporting the Framework Radio series and Resonance FM. Patrick McGingly - the producer of Framework - made one exception in allowing aQuarius to be the only shop carrying these discs. So, yes they are expensive, but they are certainly going toward a worthy cause and Chris Watson's recording is well worth the price of admission!
MPEG Stream: "Sunrise In The Sukau Rainforest (excerpt)"

WATSON, CHRIS Weather Report (Touch) cd 15.98
Oooh. We're super pleased to get this new Chris Watson field recordings album (see note below). He's one of our favorites in the realm of just going out in the world, shutting up, and listening. With really good equipment and recording skills, that is. In the past he's brought us up close and personal with a variety of African wildlife, as well as the fauna os a lot of weather phenomena in the mix.
There's three long tracks, each providing an aural portrait of a location over time. Kinda like time-lapse film, but the action is not sped up here, just carefully edited together. They're all natural environments, not urban, the first ("Ol-Oloool-O") taking you on a virtual expedition into the wilds of Kenya's Masai Mara, one day in October 2002. The next, "The Lapaich" compresses four months of sound from a Scottish highland glen in the fall and winter. Lastly, "Vatnajokull" closely examines the slow flow of a glacier in Iceland, which sounds like drone piece from our experimental section. From animals, birds and insects to washes of wind and rain to quiet, creaking ice, this is all pretty darn magical. Newcomers to Watson's work should note that there's no processing of the sound to make it "experimental music", it's a straight-up documentary with no additions or interference (aside from the neccessary edits). Then again, I suppose it is "music" in the John Cage 4'33'' sense. And it's wonderful sound. Amazing, vibrantly real stuff that'll fire your imagination. If you've seen that amazing new documentary movie "Winged Migration" you've got a filmic analogy to the kind of thing Watson captures here.
NB. You know, it's a bit embarrassing, but we've never listed this man's releases in our database before, aside from the "Star Switch On" disc of remixes and his contribution to Hazard's "Wind".
Whoops! Dunno how that happened, 'cause we're all really big fans of his work. So, at least we can offer a timely review of this, his third proper release on Touch, and perhaps retroactively review his previous efforts "Outside The Circle Of Fire" and "Stepping Into The Dark" on a future list.
MPEG Stream: "Ol-Olool-O"
MPEG Stream: "Vatnajokull"

WATSON, CHRIS & BJ NILSEN Storm (Touch) cd 15.98
Wind and rain, birds and waves. Ok, that sounds a little bit like a clock radio you can get from the Sharper Image catalog. But if you're into field recordings of nature sounds, you know there's more to this than just white noise to help you sleep. On a full-length "audio documentary" such as this, your ears can aid your imagination, allowing you to "experience" far places and phenomena in a way much more immersive than a Discovery Channel program. And here, you're in the hands of two of the best field recordists around -- the UK's Chris Watson and Sweden's BJ "Benny" Nilsen (also known for his work as Hazard and his exquisite duets with Stilluppsteypa entitled Vikinga Brennivin and Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna) should be familiar to fans of field recordings, both of whom being responsible for some of our favorite releases on the Touch and Ash Int'l labels, including several prior collaborations on Hazard's albums. We're always thrilled to get a new release from either of them, documenting where/what/when/how they've been listening to (in) the world. The aptly-titled Storm finds the duo capturing heavy weather over the North Sea, from opposite shores. There's three long tracks, the first and last solo recordings done by Watson and Nilsen, respectively, the middle track a synthesis of recordings made by both gentlemen. In Watson's words, here's more of an explanation of the genesis of this disc: "During December 2000 several significant storm fronts developed across the North Sea and Scandinavia. Benny remarked to me that he had recorded some of these on the Baltic coast and proposed a collaborative CD project based around our mutual interests in the rhythms and music created when the elements combine over land and out to sea. We spent the next few years gathering recordings on our respective coastlines and islands during the very active weather windows during the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. This was focused around our following one particular cyclonic system, which veers over Snipe Point on Lindisfarne to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth, and finally descends upon Oland and Gotland where Benny listened in with a favorite pair of Sennheiser omnidirectional microphones."
We're not really clear on how the edits were done, other than artfully! Through the tumult of thunder and crashing surf, and the calm of gurgling water and cawing gulls, they've seamlessly stitched together 50 minutes of wondrous audio, allowing you to stay warm and dry in the comfort of your own home and enjoy the sounds of these storm-wracked coasts.
MPEG Stream: "No Man's Land"
MPEG Stream: "SIGWX"

WATSON, CHRIS & MARCUS DAVIDSON Cross-Pollination (Touch) cd 15.98
It's not entirely clear why these two pieces were bundled together, other than they're awesome, and they're both by Chris Watson, he formerly of electronic legends Cabaret Voltaire, now composer and field recordist, the first half of this here two-fer, is in fact, a processed field recording, but not processed in the way we're used to, where found sounds are mutated into new sounds, no, what Watson has done is recorded 12 hours (sunset to sunrise) of South Africa's Kalahari Desert, the hidden nighttime symphony that is the world of the nocturnal animals and insects, but that whole 12 hour recording, compressed into a mere 28 minutes. The cool thing is, it doesn't actually sound strange or processed, it's not a barrage of overlapping sounds, instead, Watson has deftly created a half hour glimpse of the desert at night, the trill of crickets, the high pitched whine of other insects, the whipping wind, chirping birds, some of the sounds identifiable, but many of them downright alien sounding, the whole thing in some ways playing out like some abstract experimental 20th century electronic tape music, only as always done better by nature. A gorgeous, haunting listen.
The second piece by Watson for a festival called PESTival focusing on "insects in the arts and the art of being an insect" (we definitely need to check that out!), and composed and arranged by Marcus Davidson using recordings by Watson, exploring vocal harmonies between humans and bees, a choral piece woven into the sound of buzzing bees, the result is pretty stunning.
A warm summery afternoon, replete with wildly chirping birds, is underpinned by the deep thrum of buzzing bees, over which the choir sings long tones, creating lush harmonies, and mysterious overtones. At first, it's more vocals, the bess way down in the mix, but as the track progresses, the buzz of the bees grows more prominent, the human voices more hauntingly liturgical, building to an intense operatic crescendo culminating in a squall of blurred smeared sound, sounding neither animal or human, before fading back into the insect chorale, the human voices drifting dreamily over the lovely low end hum of buzzing bees, that buzz, growing murkier and muddier until for the last few minutes it's just a warm washed out thrum. So lovely.
MPEG Stream: CHRIS WATSON "Midnight At The Oasis"
MPEG Stream: CHRIS WATSON & MARCUS DAVIDSON "The Bee Symphony"

WATSON, DOC Best Of The Vanguard Years: 1964-1968 (Vanguard) cd 15.98
Great 23-track collection by the bluegrass guitar master. Includes 4 previously unreleased cuts.

WATSON, DOC Watson Family, the (Smithsonian Folkways) cd 15.98

WATTS, ALAN OM: the Sound of Hinduism (Infinite Zero/Warner) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE. SORRY
Reissued by Henry Rollins' (major) label. Alan dispenses wisdom over what has been described as a totally high-grade psych freakout.

WATTS, ALAN This Is It (Locust) cd 14.98
Babbling bongos, Batman! This reissue of a 1962 album by famed counterculture Zen master Alan Watts and friends demonstrates a somewhat less-than-calm side to his Zen practice. Rather than meditative bliss, this record is all about joyous cacophony. A "spontaneous musical happening" amongst like-minded friends, done for its own sake (not for the sake of art and/or an audience). An experience of improvised and in-the-moment insanity. They treated their unsuspecting neighbors in Sausalito, California to a session of out-of-their-heads noise-making glee, full of yelping, nonsensical vocalisms, growling mayhem, primal groans, manaical laughter...congas, piano, French horn, marimba! And some electronic fx in the mix as well. But it's not noisy like Merzbow or anything like that -- indeed the faux-Eastern wailing gets downright lovely at times. There's seven tracks, each different but sharing the same free-form approach. Pretty freakin' far out for 1962, that's for sure. Cromagnon's and Amon Duul's and Yoko Ono's LPs all came later, and even the Nihilist Spasm Band wasn't around in '62. Today's freeform noiseniks like Reynols, NNCK, AMT, Black Dice, etc. probably owe something to the mindset loosened up and let loose by Watts and co. on this here disc... And of course it's true that you could do this yrself. But when has that ever stopped you from buying a record? Plus the original LP seemed intended as an inspiration for listeners' own experiments in sound-making spontaneity. Dunno if it's really a classic ("a psychedelic holy grail" says the cover sticker) or just a curio but it's pretty cool nonetheless...you're probably not gonna find one at a garage sale so it's nice Locust did this reissue.
MPEG Stream: "Love You"
MPEG Stream: "Fingernail Poem"

WATTS, MARZETTE s/t (ESP / Aretina) cd 14.98
Another in the recent spate of ESP reissues and easily my favorite of the bunch. Recorded in 1966 and featuring a large ensemble (8 players) on flute, clarinet, cornet, trombone, vibes as well as the mighty Sonny Sharrock on guitar. Much more laid back and a bit less skronky than a lot of stuff on ESP, Watts favors rich mid-range runs instead of Ayler-ish squeals and weaves a dense wash of melodies, rhythms and riffs with wild vibes, dueling horns, shuffling percussion and Sharrock's unmistakably wild, muted guitar runs. Completely hypnotic and amazing!
RealAudio clip: "Backdrop For Urban Revolution"

WATTS, MARZETTE s/t (ESP / Get Back) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another in the recent spate of ESP reissues and easily my favorite of the bunch. Recorded in 1966 and featuring a large ensemble (8 players) on flute, clarinet, cornet, trombone, vibes as well as the mighty Sonny Sharrock on guitar. Much more laid back and a bit less skronky than a lot of stuff on ESP, Watts favors rich mid-range runs instead of Ayler-ish squeals and weaves a dense wash of melodies, rhythms and riffs with wild vibes, dueling horns, shuffling percussion and Sharrock's unmistakably wild, muted guitar runs. Completely hypnotic and amazing!

WAVERLY HILLS The Nurse (Faunasabbatha) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
ANOTHER BACK ROOM FIND! Last copies ever...
In a world full of tiny labels, it takes a lot to stand out, whether it's some amazing and mysterious sounds or super unique and hand made packaging. And if anything RuralFaune as shined in both respects, a crazy collection of some of the weirdest noisemakers in the world, and some seriously amazing, and in many cases, fragrant, packaging. Hand printed, painted, folded, pasted, held together with string or wire, often filled with branches or flowers, scraps of paper, seeds or bits of plant matter, many of them very strong smelling, all of them amazing.
Well, Bruno, the man behind RuralFaune, was really getting into heavy music, and decided that maybe RuralFaune was not the place for such musics, so he started FaunSabbatha, a new label dedicated to heavy, creepy, dark music, metal, metallic, or just plain evil. Four new releases, each one outrageously limited, gorgeously hand packaged, and gone before you know it.
Any band that thanks funeral doom horde Rigor Sardonicous is alright by us. Especially if RS are one of the only four entities thanked. One being the label, the other being one of the other bands featured amidst this recent spate of Faunasabbatha releases, Sorc'Henn.
So what comes of an unhealthy love/obsession with Rigor Sardonicous, how about a creepy, ultra sick, noise drenched slow motion doom crawl? Downtuned, and lurching, stumbling and heavyheavyheavy. After a brief intro, all mournful windblown twang, a spidery latticework of spare, sorrowful melodies, plucked out over a whirling expanse of emptiness, comes the filthy, crusty, noisy multiple o'd doom. But sonically, Waverly Hills don't so much resemble funereal doom, as they do, modern noise rock, or Japanese ultra psych. The guitars are caustic coruscating streaks of blurred buzz, unleashed in heaving waves, while much of the band's time is spent crawling doomlike through a field of sonic broken glass, the guitars spend most of their time erupting in squalls of near white noise that sound like Keiji Haino fronting the Dead C. Thick clouds of whirling buzz, deconstructed riffage, super abstract percussion, the vocals a subsonic rumble, a blurred low end gurgle (except when it's a haunting ghostlike falsetto!) underpinning the soaring and drifting slabs of buzz overhead. Imagine doom metal being pulled apart, the notes and chords and riffs being rent asunder, the resulting squall still dark and doomy, by way more tripped out and damaged.
So yeah, you doooooooomlords will definitely dig this, especially if you lean toward stuff like Moss and Khanate and Bunkur and of course Rigor Sardonicous, but it might be even more appealing if your cup of tea is abstract psychedelic noise a la Sunroof!, Total, Dead C, White Heaven, etc...
LIMITED TO 74 COPIES, hand numbered on a tattered, torn piece of cloth, with the Faunasabbatha logo stamped on there as well, in a paper sleeve held shut wit a piece of metal wire.
MPEG Stream: "The White Plague"
MPEG Stream: "In The Hallways"

WAVVES Afraid Of Heights (Mom & Pop) cd 12.98
Holy shit is this great! We knew Wavves were capable of some serious pop genius, but this new one seals the deal. You can sometimes forget how good a band is, when nonmusical stuff overshadows the actual music. Relationships, breakdowns, tour drama, whatever. It had been a while since the last Wavves record, which we LOVED, but ever since, most of our exposure to the band has been via tabloid stuff, and little blurbs here and there, about cancelled shows and tantrums, and then Wavves mainman Nathan Williams was on the cover of one of the last issues of Spin, with his girlfriend Bethany from Best Coast, and it wasn't so much about their bands, as their romance, which definitely rubbed folks the wrong way (and made it less of a surprise when Spin folded). But like we said, we loved the last Wavves, and pretty much every one before, but this one is some seriously next level fuzz pop genius. Granted, the band have gradually been shedding much of their scrappiness, the days of snotty lo-fi garage punk blowouts and rough edged hook heavy stumble pop are gone for these guys, this new record firmly establishes them as the sort of band that could, should and probably WILL give Weezer a run for their power pop money. Seems like Jeff The Brotherhood recently made the same leap, their last record was a game changer for them, transforming their scrappy two piece metallic punk pop into big riff crazy catchy stadium rock, but we saw them open for Best Coast at a huge beautiful theater, and while the songs may have been polished and poppy, the band were still willfully bratty, their set up a little ramshackle jumble in the middle of a massive stage, and after a handful of killer noise pop, the treated the crowd of Best Coast fans to 10 minutes of squealing feedback. Similarly it's hard to imagine this won't be the record that does if for Wavves, and it's equally hard to imagine that they won't continued to be the same noise pop punks they always were, just trafficking in something way more polished and radio ready. Not that they weren't already huge, but this record is definitely leaps and bounds past the last one. And sure there are plenty of weird bits here and there, and some programmed drums, some psychedelic bits, and they still have a definite lo-fi experimental bent, and lyrically, lots of swears that would have to get beeped on the radio, but almost all of the songs here are classic power pop anthems in the making, fuzzy and rocking, hooky and heavenly, even the slow brooders, are gorgeous dark ballads, replete with female vocal harmonies, and warm chordal swirls, but in-between all that stuff, are some of the most kick ass indie rock noise pop jams we've heard in AGES.
Might be too polished for the punks, but they're just missing out. If you dig Weezer, Jeff The Brotherhood, The Ovens, Redd Kross, Male Bonding, Sloan, Surfer Blood, all that big hook heavy pop, this could very well be your new favorite record. It just might be ours...
MPEG Stream: "Sail To The Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Demon To Lean On"
MPEG Stream: "Mystic"
MPEG Stream: "Lunge Forward"

WAVVES Afraid Of Heights (Mom & Pop) lp 25.00
Holy shit is this great! We knew Wavves were capable of some serious pop genius, but this new one seals the deal. You can sometimes forget how good a band is, when nonmusical stuff overshadows the actual music. Relationships, breakdowns, tour drama, whatever. It had been a while since the last Wavves record, which we LOVED, but ever since, most of our exposure to the band has been via tabloid stuff, and little blurbs here and there, about cancelled shows and tantrums, and then Wavves mainman Nathan Williams was on the cover of one of the last issues of Spin, with his girlfriend Bethany from Best Coast, and it wasn't so much about their bands, as their romance, which definitely rubbed folks the wrong way (and made it less of a surprise when Spin folded). But like we said, we loved the last Wavves, and pretty much every one before, but this one is some seriously next level fuzz pop genius. Granted, the band have gradually been shedding much of their scrappiness, the days of snotty lo-fi garage punk blowouts and rough edged hook heavy stumble pop are gone for these guys, this new record firmly establishes them as the sort of band that could, should and probably WILL give Weezer a run for their power pop money. Seems like Jeff The Brotherhood recently made the same leap, their last record was a game changer for them, transforming their scrappy two piece metallic punk pop into big riff crazy catchy stadium rock, but we saw them open for Best Coast at a huge beautiful theater, and while the songs may have been polished and poppy, the band were still willfully bratty, their set up a little ramshackle jumble in the middle of a massive stage, and after a handful of killer noise pop, the treated the crowd of Best Coast fans to 10 minutes of squealing feedback. Similarly it's hard to imagine this won't be the record that does if for Wavves, and it's equally hard to imagine that they won't continued to be the same noise pop punks they always were, just trafficking in something way more polished and radio ready. Not that they weren't already huge, but this record is definitely leaps and bounds past the last one. And sure there are plenty of weird bits here and there, and some programmed drums, some psychedelic bits, and they still have a definite lo-fi experimental bent, and lyrically, lots of swears that would have to get beeped on the radio, but almost all of the songs here are classic power pop anthems in the making, fuzzy and rocking, hooky and heavenly, even the slow brooders, are gorgeous dark ballads, replete with female vocal harmonies, and warm chordal swirls, but in-between all that stuff, are some of the most kick ass indie rock noise pop jams we've heard in AGES.
Might be too polished for the punks, but they're just missing out. If you dig Weezer, Jeff The Brotherhood, The Ovens, Redd Kross, Male Bonding, Sloan, Surfer Blood, all that big hook heavy pop, this could very well be your new favorite record. It just might be ours...
MPEG Stream: "Sail To The Sun"
MPEG Stream: "Demon To Lean On"
MPEG Stream: "Mystic"
MPEG Stream: "Lunge Forward"

WAVVES California Goths (Fat Possum) 7" 4.98

WAVVES King Of The Beach (Fat Possum) cd 13.98
The bands that you really end up loving and having life long relationships with are often the bands who you follow through all their incarnations, from their most primitive and noisy to when they flesh out and refine their sound, removing all the extraneous layers and creating something seemingly far removed from that first chunk of raw sound, but in reality, to you, it's just another side of that amazing artist. And it's the bands who you love in all their various sonic shadings and with all the twists and turns that become the ones who are the soundtracks to our lives. Guided By Voices, Pavement, Jawbreaker, all bands who we have loved from their sloppiest and most raw incarnations to their most poppy and catchy outings.
Wavves seem to be on the way to joining that elite crew. After unleashing two smoking records of way blown out garage pop burners, Nathan Williams has returned with a much more refined, up front and catchy gem of a pop record. As much as we loved the sound and aesthetic of the first two Wavves records we knew that the reason it struck such a chord with us was because we could tell this was a kid who had the gift of writing memorable and catchy pop songs, no matter how obscured those songs were by fuzz and crunch.
King Of The Beach ditches most of the blown out distortion and trades it in for even more colorful hooks, addictive melodies and songs that will be stuck in our heads for the rest of the summer and beyond. It's not like it's all totally slick or overproduced, in fact there is a really cool washed out sound that glides through much of the record, but instead of it being about going all into the red, it flows more freely, creating a perfect beachside vibe of an album. Williams is still singing about boredom, girls, the betrayal of friends, being a fuck up, etc., all long standing ingredients for some of the best mischievous pop of all time.
It hit us the other day why we love this record. It reminds us so much of so many of our favorite bands who injected punk spirit into such memorable pop songs. Bands like The Descendents, Screeching Weasel and Lifetime, who represented the great possibility of pop-punk. There is that same kind of impassioned, snotty, smart and spirited side to King Of The Beach that's been making us jump up and down in pure wide eyed grinning joy when we listen to it blasting as loud as it can.
The record also offers up the most varied collection yet of Williams' recordings, songs that evoke '50s girl groups, hand clapping head shaking ecstasy and stoned and whirling garage pop ravers. Start to finish this is an undeniably great pop record. Total contender for record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "King Of The Beach"
MPEG Stream: "Post Acid"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Say Goodbye"

WAVVES King Of The Beach (Fat Possum) lp 14.98
The bands that you really end up loving and having life long relationships with are often the bands who you follow through all their incarnations, from their most primitive and noisy to when they flesh out and refine their sound, removing all the extraneous layers and creating something seemingly far removed from that first chunk of raw sound, but in reality, to you, it's just another side of that amazing artist. And it's the bands who you love in all their various sonic shadings and with all the twists and turns that become the ones who are the soundtracks to our lives. Guided By Voices, Pavement, Jawbreaker, all bands who we have loved from their sloppiest and most raw incarnations to their most poppy and catchy outings.
Wavves seem to be on the way to joining that elite crew. After unleashing two smoking records of way blown out garage pop burners, Nathan Williams has returned with a much more refined, up front and catchy gem of a pop record. As much as we loved the sound and aesthetic of the first two Wavves records we knew that the reason it struck such a chord with us was because we could tell this was a kid who had the gift of writing memorable and catchy pop songs, no matter how obscured those songs were by fuzz and crunch.
King Of The Beach ditches most of the blown out distortion and trades it in for even more colorful hooks, addictive melodies and songs that will be stuck in our heads for the rest of the summer and beyond. It's not like it's all totally slick or overproduced, in fact there is a really cool washed out sound that glides through much of the record, but instead of it being about going all into the red, it flows more freely, creating a perfect beachside vibe of an album. Williams is still singing about boredom, girls, the betrayal of friends, being a fuck up, etc., all long standing ingredients for some of the best mischievous pop of all time.
It hit us the other day why we love this record. It reminds us so much of so many of our favorite bands who injected punk spirit into such memorable pop songs. Bands like The Descendents, Screeching Weasel and Lifetime, who represented the great possibility of pop-punk. There is that same kind of impassioned, snotty, smart and spirited side to King Of The Beach that's been making us jump up and down in pure wide eyed grinning joy when we listen to it blasting as loud as it can.
The record also offers up the most varied collection yet of Williams' recordings, songs that evoke '50s girl groups, hand clapping head shaking ecstasy and stoned and whirling garage pop ravers. Start to finish this is an undeniably great pop record. Total contender for record of the year!
MPEG Stream: "King Of The Beach"
MPEG Stream: "Post Acid"
MPEG Stream: "Baby Say Goodbye"

WAVVES s/t (Woodsist) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've got ourselves a new obsession! We knew very little about Wavves before we put this disc in but oh my god once we did we became so instantly addicted. This is some TOTALLY BLOWN OUT beach party crusty pop that's as bombastic as it is so totally catchy. We think they're from San Diego and that makes perfect sense, cause these songs just make you want to skate and hang out by the ocean getting baked by the sun and throwing caution to the wind. Imagine No Age and Thee Oh Sees collaborating together or what it might sound like to play the Beach Boys and JFA at the same time. This is some seriously gritty grimey pop that makes you glad you still have that shitty car stereo, as this was meant to be blasted in the most lo-fi blown out way possible, while driving around getting lost in these sun soaked washed out anthems. Filled with such contagious youthful exuberance it's making us feel like we're 19 again, in the best possible way.
There is such a bold urgency to this record, it grabs your attention and never lets go and we never want it to. As soon as it's over we pretty much only want to listen to it over and over again. We're reminded a bit of Holy Shit, Abe Vigoda, and the great and often overlooked 90's noise-pop outfit Further. But what makes Wavves so addictive is that they aren't a one trick pony, the few atmospheric electronic interludes and slower spacey tracks are just as potent as their wide eyed and full throttle jams. We've got a feeling there is a great future ahead for Wavves and what a totally awesome way for it to start. So rad!!!
MPEG Stream: "California Goth"
MPEG Stream: "Wavves"
MPEG Stream: "Spaced Raider"
MPEG Stream: "Side Yr On"

WAVVES s/t (Woodsist) lp 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
NOW ON VINYL!
We've got ourselves a new obsession! We knew very little about Wavves before we put this disc in but oh my god once we did we became so instantly addicted. This is some TOTALLY BLOWN OUT beach party crusty pop that's as bombastic as it is so totally catchy. We think they're from San Diego and that makes perfect sense, cause these songs just make you want to skate and hang out by the ocean getting baked by the sun and throwing caution to the wind. Imagine No Age and Thee Oh Sees collaborating together or what it might sound like to play the Beach Boys and JFA at the same time. This is some seriously gritty grimey pop that makes you glad you still have that shitty car stereo, as this was meant to be blasted in the most lo-fi blown out way possible, while driving around getting lost in these sun soaked washed out anthems. Filled with such contagious youthful exuberance it's making us feel like we're 19 again, in the best possible way.
There is such a bold urgency to this record, it grabs your attention and never lets go and we never want it to. As soon as it's over we pretty much only want to listen to it over and over again. We're reminded a bit of Holy Shit, Abe Vigoda, and the great and often overlooked 90's noise-pop outfit Further. But what makes Wavves so addictive is that they aren't a one trick pony, the few atmospheric electronic interludes and slower spacey tracks are just as potent as their wide eyed and full throttle jams. We've got a feeling there is a great future ahead for Wavves and what a totally awesome way for it to start. So rad!!!
MPEG Stream: "California Goth"
MPEG Stream: "Wavves"
MPEG Stream: "Spaced Raider"
MPEG Stream: "Side Yr On"

WAVVES Wavvves (Fat Possum) cd 13.98
In the few months since we first gushed about our new found obsession, a weird little buzzy noise pop band called Wavves, it seems like a ton of other folks have been feeling the same way about the urgent, catchy, blown out and energetic sounds this young lad from San Diego has been whipping up. Already following up the great Woodsist debut is a new record on the bigger Fat Possum label, but not to worry the sound is still way blown out and in the red, and the songs still make you wanna sweat and jump and play with your friends in the burning sun. What makes Wavves so great is that they really are drawing from such classic sources yet infusing new life and energy into those sounds. Imagine the best parts of the Beach Boys, the Ramones and the Misfits, all channeled into some buzzy lo-fi shredder and you begin to understand the world Wavves calls home. Since we still have the debut on heavy rotation it caught us a bit off guard to find a brand new full length already, and another self titled one, but we get the feeling that Nate Williams (just 22 years old) is at one of those special creative peaks where songs are just bursting forth with no end in sight. And heck, we're not complaining, not one bit, cause when the songs are this damaged and catchy and kick ass, he can keep cranking them out FOREVER. Here's to a THIRD self titled record, BRING IT ON!!
MPEG Stream: "So Bored"
MPEG Stream: "Beach Demon"
MPEG Stream: "Summer Goth"

WAVVES Wavvves (Fat Possum) lp 16.98
NOW ON VINYL!!!!!
In the few months since we first gushed about our new found obsession, a weird little buzzy noise pop band called Wavves, it seems like a ton of other folks have been feeling the same way about the urgent, catchy, blown out and energetic sounds this young lad from San Diego has been whipping up. Already following up the great Woodsist debut is a new record on the bigger Fat Possum label, but not to worry the sound is still way blown out and in the red, and the songs still make you wanna sweat and jump and play with your friends in the burning sun. What makes Wavves so great is that they really are drawing from such classic sources yet infusing new life and energy into those sounds. Imagine the best parts of the Beach Boys, the Ramones and the Misfits, all channeled into some buzzy lo-fi shredder and you begin to understand the world Wavves calls home. Since we still have the debut on heavy rotation it caught us a bit off guard to find a brand new full length already, and another self titled one, but we get the feeling that Nate Williams (just 22 years old) is at one of those special creative peaks where songs are just bursting forth with no end in sight. And heck, we're not complaining, not one bit, cause when the songs are this damaged and catchy and kick ass, he can keep cranking them out FOREVER. Here's to a THIRD self titled record, BRING IT ON!!
MPEG Stream: "So Bored"
MPEG Stream: "Beach Demon"
MPEG Stream: "Summer Goth"

WAX DAVE WATSON'S THE Wax And Wane (Doctor Jim's) cd 14.98
An Australian import, but although band leader David Watson is from that corner of the globe, the other players on here are generally to be found Downtown, New York City...Andrea Parkins, Kato Hideki, Ikue Mori, and others. Japanese turntable genius Otomo Yoshihide also appears. What makes this stand out from any other bunch of NYC all-star avant-jazz improv jams? Well, Mr. Watson's main instrument is the bagpipes! The result: totally great, unusual bagpipe, um, squeezing, in a "free-rock" context. Recommended.

WAX FONDLER Black Market Snuff Braxe (Death Style/Dirt Style) lp 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A subsidiary of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz Dirt Style imprint, this is beats and breaks for DJs only.

WAX IDOLS All Too Human b/w William Says (Hozac Records) 7" 5.98
Brand new 7" from one the Blasted Canyons (that would be Heather, once a Bare Wire as well), their Castle Face debut was our Record Of The Week on last week's list, and weirdly enough, they're also on the quintuple flexidisc-book that is one of THIS week's Records Of The Week, needless to say we have mad love for Heather and all of her various projects, including now this one, Wax Idols, a solo project (although there was a proper live band briefly), and Wax Idols' sonic apple doesn't fall far from the Bare Wires / Blasted Canyons tree, which is just fine with us. The sound here is a little more sixties girl group though, a fuzzed out retro garage rock, but not as sunshiney and jangly as lots of those groups, more muscley, a little dark, and a little new wave-y, crunchy guitars, powerful echo drenched vox, snarly and sassy, over pounding drums and laced with glistening Cure like melodies. And hooks galore. Oh and that sixties girl group thing, we're not talking poodle skirts and sweaters, no we're talking leather jackets, ripped jeans and switchblades, in fact, it sorta sounds like the kind of band Pinky and Leather Tuscadero would start if they time travelled to the present day.
The B side gets even murkier and more new wave, the sound washed out and distorted, more plodding and dour and darkly gloomy. Really great. Definitely psyched to hear more...

WAX IDOLS Discipline & Desire (Slumberland) cd 12.98
The title Discipline & Desire refers to Wax Idols' Hether Fortune's day-job (or rather night-job) as a dominatrix, before her tenure in the San Francisco garage-punk scene. In other words, fuck with her at your peril. Fortune's also to be found in the beloved distorto-punk-pop trio Blasted Canyons, whose two albums on Castle Face have long been favorites around these parts. With the first Wax Idols record on Hozac, Fortune didn't wander too far from what she was doing in Blasted Canyons with the short barked punk numbers; but on Discipline & Desire, she's painting her nails black and digging out the old Bauhaus t-shirts from back in the day, for a much darker, death-rock vibe. As such, she's continuing in a line of strong-willed, goth-inflected female fronted bands from San Francisco over the past couple of decades. Obviously, one can look all the way back to Romeo Void and The Avengers, but also more recently to Veronica Lipgloss, Subtonix, and The Vanishing. The songs are driven by Fortune's ice-queen demeanor through which she bellows impassioned tales of lust and fury on top of the buzzsaw drones and primitive rhythmic propulsion. Think X-Mal Deutschland, early Siouxsie, and Killing Joke's Night Time... and you're getting pretty close. Wax Idols also got some production assistance from Marc Burgess of The Chameleons, adding some true black-clad cred to the album. It's a record that's been on pretty heavy rotation here at aQuarius.
MPEG Stream: "Sound Of A Void"
MPEG Stream: "When It Happens"
MPEG Stream: "The Cartoonist"

WAX IDOLS Discipline & Desire (Slumberland) lp 14.98
The title Discipline & Desire refers to Wax Idols' Hether Fortune's day-job (or rather night-job) as a dominatrix, before her tenure in the San Francisco garage-punk scene. In other words, fuck with her at your peril. Fortune's also to be found in the beloved distorto-punk-pop trio Blasted Canyons, whose two albums on Castle Face have long been favorites around these parts. With the first Wax Idols record on Hozac, Fortune didn't wander too far from what she was doing in Blasted Canyons with the short barked punk numbers; but on Discipline & Desire, she's painting her nails black and digging out the old Bauhaus t-shirts from back in the day, for a much darker, death-rock vibe. As such, she's continuing in a line of strong-willed, goth-inflected female fronted bands from San Francisco over the past couple of decades. Obviously, one can look all the way back to Romeo Void and The Avengers, but also more recently to Veronica Lipgloss, Subtonix, and The Vanishing. The songs are driven by Fortune's ice-queen demeanor through which she bellows impassioned tales of lust and fury on top of the buzzsaw drones and primitive rhythmic propulsion. Think X-Mal Deutschland, early Siouxsie, and Killing Joke's Night Time... and you're getting pretty close. Wax Idols also got some production assistance from Marc Burgess of The Chameleons, adding some true black-clad cred to the album. It's a record that's been on pretty heavy rotation here at aQuarius.
MPEG Stream: "Sound Of A Void"
MPEG Stream: "When It Happens"
MPEG Stream: "The Cartoonist"

WAX IDOLS No Future (HoZac) cd 12.98
Finally, a full length record from Heather Fedewa, aka one woman psychedelic jangle pop new wave garage rock combo Wax Idols, which seems to have been expanded to what essentially amounts to a full band for this full length. Fedewa is a member of aQ beloved recent Record Of The Week honorees Blasted Canyons, and she was a former Bare Wire as well of one of the punx in Hunx & His Punx, so with a pedigree like that it didn't really take a genius to figure out that we'd dig Wax Idols, and dig it we do, the first single we reviewed a while back was a big hit around here, with a fuzzed out garage rock girl group sound that didn't stray too far from the sound of her old band The Bare Wires, which was just fine with us, although as we mentioned in that review, the sound tended to be a bit darker, with more crunch, more murk, a definitely gloom pop vibe, although we have to say, none of that is present on the opening track here, which is fuzzy and crunchy and jangly, with plenty of tough girl swagger, reminding us a bit of the Runaways, especially with Fedewa's snarled echo drenched yelp on the chorus, although the rest of the song is pretty fuzzy and dreampoppy. "Hitman" too, could almost be Best Coast, or the Dum Dum Girls, raw and urgent, fuzzy and crunchy, with chiming guitar melodies over the fuzzy riffage, but then something strange happens, the chord progression of the chorus has this weird turn right at the end that's a little bit sour, and makes the hook have just a little bit of edge, which is probably a good description of this whole record, fuzzy, jangly, a little new wavey, but with just a little bit more bite than other sonically similar bands. In fact, if there was a girl group battle of the bands, that was in fact an actual battle, all of those other bands would get their asses KICKED. Just check out "Dilno", super rocking, blown out and fuzzy, distorted, rollicking and rocking, with some weird vox and a super dynamic stuttery chorus.
As the record progresses, the songs seem to get a bit more moody, the sound stretching out into gloom pop territory, which totally suits the songs, and balances the more sunshiney numbers nicely. And then the record finishes off with maybe the poppiest jam here, all echo drenched vocals, warm shimmery strum, and sweetly melancholy minor key melodies, but even there, the song has plenty of dynamics, the multiple guitars weaving a lush almost shoegazey haze over the second half, but not enough to obscure Wax Idols' fuzz pop perfection.
Fans of Bare Wires, Blasted Canyons, Thee Oh Sees, Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, Best Coast, Girls At Dawn, Grass Widow, etc. this just might be your new favorite record.
MPEG Stream: "Dead Like You"
MPEG Stream: "Hitman"
MPEG Stream: "Gold Sneakers"

WAX IDOLS No Future (HoZac) lp 14.98
Finally, a full length record from Heather Fedewa, aka one woman psychedelic jangle pop new wave garage rock combo Wax Idols, which seems to have been expanded to what essentially amounts to a full band for this full length. Fedewa is a member of aQ beloved recent Record Of The Week honorees Blasted Canyons, and she was a former Bare Wire as well of one of the punx in Hunx & His Punx, so with a pedigree like that it didn't really take a genius to figure out that we'd dig Wax Idols, and dig it we do, the first single we reviewed a while back was a big hit around here, with a fuzzed out garage rock girl group sound that didn't stray too far from the sound of her old band The Bare Wires, which was just fine with us, although as we mentioned in that review, the sound tended to be a bit darker, with more crunch, more murk, a definitely gloom pop vibe, although we have to say, none of that is present on the opening track here, which is fuzzy and crunchy and jangly, with plenty of tough girl swagger, reminding us a bit of the Runaways, especially with Fedewa's snarled echo drenched yelp on the chorus, although the rest of the song is pretty fuzzy and dreampoppy. "Hitman" too, could almost be Best Coast, or the Dum Dum Girls, raw and urgent, fuzzy and crunchy, with chiming guitar melodies over the fuzzy riffage, but then something strange happens, the chord progression of the chorus has this weird turn right at the end that's a little bit sour, and makes the hook have just a little bit of edge, which is probably a good description of this whole record, fuzzy, jangly, a little new wavey, but with just a little bit more bite than other sonically similar bands. In fact, if there was a girl group battle of the bands, that was in fact an actual battle, all of those other bands would get their asses KICKED. Just check out "Dilno", super rocking, blown out and fuzzy, distorted, rollicking and rocking, with some weird vox and a super dynamic stuttery chorus.
As the record progresses, the songs seem to get a bit more moody, the sound stretching out into gloom pop territory, which totally suits the songs, and balances the more sunshiney numbers nicely. And then the record finishes off with maybe the poppiest jam here, all echo drenched vocals, warm shimmery strum, and sweetly melancholy minor key melodies, but even there, the song has plenty of dynamics, the multiple guitars weaving a lush almost shoegazey haze over the second half, but not enough to obscure Wax Idols' fuzz pop perfection.
Fans of Bare Wires, Blasted Canyons, Thee Oh Sees, Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, Best Coast, Girls At Dawn, Grass Widow, etc. this just might be your new favorite record.
MPEG Stream: "Dead Like You"
MPEG Stream: "Hitman"
MPEG Stream: "Gold Sneakers"

WAX POETICS #1 magazine 6.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Wow! An extremely well-done new magazine for hip hop heads, rare grooves collectors, and just appreciators of fine culture everywhere. Highly recommended!
Gorgeous looking, perfect-bound, printed on thick paper in full color and just BEAUTIFULLY designed. Not only that, but you get articles on Bobbito (super famous hip hop radio DJ), cult-fave book The Humument, AQ-fave hip hopper Scotty Hard (with great photos of all of his vintage recording gear), an interview with DJ Shadow and the Cut Chemist, a profile of David Axelrod, cult-fave drummer Idris Muhammad (with full color photos of his entire discography), Lootpack beatmaker Madlib, blaxploitation films, and some long overdue nice 'n' detailed instructions on how to make your own LP shelving for about $10 per cube (that holds 85 records apiece).

WAX POETICS #13 Summer 2005 magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
I love looking at color pictures of old LP covers. Doesn't even really matter if they're rad rare soul/funk/jazz gems. But if they are, so much the better. Wax Poetics magazine is definitely a good place to find articles illustrated with such cover pics. And lots of other cool photos too. And the reading is fine as well, if you're into old-school hip hop, '60s and '70s jazz-funk, today's hip underground producers, that sort of thing. This ish: The Meters, Lyn Collins (RIP), the Wu-Tang's Mathematics, Eric B. & Rakim, Sharon Jones, King Jammy, and lots more...including a run-down on some obscure "left field Americana" LPs, the story of the DJ who first rocked the Skull Snaps break, and a feature about South Bronx hip hop photographer Joe Conzo, illustrated with lots of his pics from back in the day.

WAX POETICS #14 Fall 2005 magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
You love music or you wouldn't be reading our list, and it's probably pretty likely that you love the records that music comes on, too. (Or used to, and still does, some of the time). Well then Wax Poetics is the magazine for you. Lots of in-depth reading here on subjects that could be of interest to anyone into DJ/vinyl culture, this issue featuring stuff on David Axelrod, Mulatu of Ethiopia, Danger Doom, Blowfly, Jazzy Jay, early '80s Bronx hip-hop club Disco Fever, '70s Brooklyn Afro-jazz organization the East, and lots more. And there's plenty of what we especially love: full-color reproductions of record covers to look at, all set to stoke the imagination of your ears. And although it says Hip-Hop, Jazz, Funk, & Soul on the cover, that doesn't stop 'em from, for instance, sneaking in a Charalambides album amidst considerations of reggae, rap, and soul/gospel classics.

WAX POETICS #15 Feb/Mar 2006 magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another fine issue of this magazine for funk/jazz/hiphop/soul crate-diggers, both armchair and active... This ish features all sorts of stuff by/for/about musicians, producers, and djs: part 2 of WP's David Axelrod feature, interviews with DJ Cash Money, Skull Snaps, Bobbi Humhrey, and the Mizzell Brothers, and more. Including of course lots of photos and vintage album covers galore (which is the thing we love the most about this 'zine!!). Lots of lost gems are pictured and discussed, including a run down on a bunch of British avant jazz and Brazilian tropicalia treasures.

WAX POETICS #16 Apr/May 2006 magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bill Withers ("Ain't No Sunshine") is the cover star on this latest installment of Wax Poetics, the magazine of hip-hop, jazz, funk, & soul for those of us who appreciate all that good old music (and how it factors in to all the cool new stuff we're hearing). The art and design of how that music was packaged back in the day is also celebrated by Wax Poetics, with tons of vintage photos and album graphics reproduced. Besides the cover story on Bill Withers, stuff in this issue ranges from a colorfully-illustrated article about Blaxploitation cinema lobby cards to an interview with Cut Chemist to a look back at Herbie Mann's career to a really cool feature on "mom's record collection" -- a bunch of well known producers like Peanut Butter Wolf, Hank Shocklee, and Prince Paul, talking about the records they heard their mothers playing when they were kids! Always a good read, and visually appealing as well.

WAX POETICS #17 June/July 2006 magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another great ish of Wax Poetics, the magazine devoted to "hip-hop, jazz, funk, & soul" whose pages (138 this time) are stuffed with articles, reviews and interviews covering tons of badass and often obscure music. And of course there are loads of graphics and pictures, tons of photos and plenty of full-color album cover repros!
This time, it's the "Hip-Hop Issue" (more than usual, that is), and it's got two different, random covers: one's got the late Jay Dee on it (to go with various rememberances found in the magazine), the other Public Enemy in their heyday ('cause there's an oral history of Hank Shocklee and the Bomb Squad production team inside). Lots more of course...we should just mention that there's an article about Bay Area hip-hop history wherein you'll find out just what "hyphy" is if you didn't already know.

WAX POETICS #18 August / September 2006 magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Just when you thought that an issue of this magazine of hip-hop, jazz, funk & soul, couldn't get any better than the last one, the drop this Special Parliament-Funkadelic Issue on us! Pages and pages of individual articles/interviews devoted to the various funkanauts who've manned the Mothership, from George Clinton to Bernie Worrell to Gary Shider to Bootsy Collins to Billy "Bass" Nelson to felt-tip warrior, LP cover artist Pedro Bell... Wax Poetics is known for lots of colorful vintage album graphics and cool photography, so of course there's plenty of amazing images from the P-funk realm for them to incorporate here! There's some other stuffs n' things in this issue too, but if you aren't down for the upstroke and ready to make a mothership connection, keep your mind and your ass away from this.

WAX POETICS #19 October / November 2006 magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Our favorite magazine of hip-hop, jazz, funk and soul both old and (sometimes) new is back with another great issue. "Boogaloo Bad Boy" Joe Bataan makes the cover. There's articles on early drum machines, the albums of Richard Pryor, Baltimore club music, and DJ Food's favorite cut-and-paste albums...among much much more. As always, a pleasure to look at as well as read.

WAX POETICS #20 Dec/Jan 2007 magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
On the cover: Lee "Scratch" Perry. Inside, also: Lloyd "Bullwackie" Barnes, Motown guitarist Dennis Coffey, Andy Votel, Eric Monte (creator of TV's Good Times!), an obit for Dewey Redman, The Soul Syndicate, a discussion of magnetic tape, stuff about graffiti, and more more more, including of course all the great vintage photography and mouthwatering rare vinyl porn you'd expect...

WAX POETICS #21 Feb/Mar 2007 magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Who else for the cover of this new issue of our favorite magazine of "hip-hop, jazz, funk, & soul" than the late great James Brown? Inside, a remembrance of Brown from his friend Alan Leeds, and a 2004 interview with the Godfather himself.
Plus, features on Terry Callier, Minnie Ripperton, Chess Records, and "the story of Planet Rock" among other grooviness... as usual, lots of amazing photos and awesome album covers too...

WAX POETICS #23 magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Funklord Rick James sure looks badass on the cover to this, the latest issue of the best hiphop/funk/soul/jazz magazine know, Wax Poetics. The feature is about his 1981 album Street Songs. Also inside: DJ Shadow, Chico Hamilton, Arthur Russell, Bunny Lee, DJ Spinna, Black Milk, and much more... If you haven't checked out Wax Poetics yet, you should. If you have, you'll what know to expect: porn for diggers. Vintage photos and album cover graphics all over, in gorgeous full-color. And you can read it for the articles too.

WAX POETICS #24 Aug/Sept 2007 magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What supercool, snazzy, 138 page magazine has Mandrill on the cover this month? Wax Poetics of course. Featuring in-depth articles and tons of cool photos (lots of rare record covers to drool over especially) all about the best of '60s, '70s, '80s and on up to today in the realm of hiphop, jazz, funk and soul, Wax Poetics is pretty much a must if you're into that sort of stuff. This issue will also hip you to Brazilian legend Marcos Valle, DJ Andy Smith, old school rap MC Eddie Cheba, producer Kenton Nix, jazz cat Joe Sample, "boogie king" Leroy Burgess, Winstons drummer G.C. Coleman, and LOTS more. Especially rad: a feature (full color illustrated of course) all about James Brown playbills/programs.

WAX POETICS #25 Oct/Nov magazine 7.99
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One thing we love about this magazine of hiphop, jazz, funk and soul is the photography, and guess what, this is The Photo Issue! With Miles Davis staring out at you from the cover, and an article inside about his improvisational funk years... Also featured: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, East Bay funk, Peruvian funk, The Dragons, the Beastie Boys's Check Your Head album, and much more. Being the photo issue, many of the 186 pages of here are eyeball-pleasin' photo-essays, taking you into the early days of hiphop and other cool places.