[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 801 through 850 of 2272.

All-Time Quarterback is a quirky side project of Death Cab For Cutie, which picks up Trio's knack for factory presets and a more naive song writing approach. In the end All-Time Quarterback's imminently more bizarre behavior ends up being catchier than the majority of the Elephant Six bands.

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

MPEG stream: Blue's Theme
MPEG stream: The Ghost Story

Never really thought we'd ever see anything from Allegory Chapel Ltd ever again. This was the project of one very dark soul named Elden M, who resided in the Bay Area throughout the '80s and '90s, lurking about the experimental / noise / industrial crowd and working in the dank warehouse at Subterranean Records. He released a dozen or so cassettes during that time period, of bombastic, synth and sample heavy noise that lumbered between the sewer-dwelling of Factrix and the dystopian electronics of Dissecting Table, with plenty of more noise filling in the gaps. Much of his cassettes were self-released, though the work was also published by G.R.O.S.S., Sound Of Pig, and Charnel Music. By 1996 though Elden shifted his attention to the realm of black metal, running the label / distro site blackmetal.com. Some 18 years later, we have the return of Allegory Chapel Ltd. - on a cassette of course! Resurrection is an apt name, but only in terms of the ACL reboot. Aesthetically, this has a very different bent with Elden eschewing midi-based lattice works of rhythm and melody and focusing instead on the dynamic interplay between several streams of aggressive noise. Tone pulse monstrosities trudging through toxic blooms of asbestos dust, long dive-bombing arcs of atom-smashed noise gliding in and out of blackdrone morass, and a fraught psychic energy that equivocates between nihilist torpor and vehement antagonism. One could think of the more mature works of Grey Wolves or Consumer Electronics, if mature and power electronics could cohabitate in the same descriptive arrangement. Wholly recommended, regardless.

MPEG stream: Creeping Marrow
MPEG stream: Colony Collapse Disorder

Here's the expensive import, for those that can't wait 'til this comes out domestically, in January we believe... At the crossroads of Kylie Minogue, Bebel Gilberto, Puffy Ami Yumi and Lady Sovereign sits this lady Ms Lily Allen. What does that mean? Sleek girlish fun, of course! Have to say though that the cover art made us a bit wary. With all the bling, lightning bolts and boomboxes it looks like it fell out of the pages of Vice Magazine. This is a candy-colored, gleeful tilt-a-whirl of an album! One weird listening moment came during the intro to the eighth song. We actually were expecting her to break into a little Cat Stevens, but she didn't. The tune "Littlest Things" does seem suspiciously infused with "Wild Life"-ness. It's almost as though she removed Stevens' vocals and lyrics and dropped her own over top. That oddness aside, ya gotta stick with her 'cause the flouncin' final track "Alfie" just might be the best! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

MPEG stream: Alfie
MPEG stream: Littlest Things

As usual, Smithsonian-Folkways has gone all out and put together a handsome reissue. Though singer / guitarist Red Allen has remained a little known figure outside of bluegrass circles, his importance within the genre is much underscored in this

RealAudio clip: Somebody Loves You, Darling
RealAudio clip: Are You Afraid To Die?
RealAudio clip: Christian Life

Excellent recording of longtime bluegrass collaborators Red Allen (guitar / vocals) & Frank Wakefield (mandolin / vocals) made at Red Allen's Hyattsville, Maryland home in 1963 by David Grisman. The non-studio environment for this session adds to the off the cuff, relaxed quality of these tracks. Especially wonderful is their absolutely haunting rendition of "Down In The Willow Garden." Highly recommended.

Wow! This is on fire! While Tony Allen will always be best known for being the amazing drummer in Fela Kuti's band, he is responsible for some totally great and inspired body moving music of his own. This collection collects four of his best albums onto two discs for a nonstop offering of Afro-Beat perfection! These records, which all originally came out in the 1970's, share a very similar sound and spirit to the work that Fela Kuti was doing when Allen was in his band. So it makes a lot of sense that three of them were produced by Fela. Long, stretched out passages filled with the kind of grooves that work their way right into your body and soul. While there is certainly nothing wrong with being known as the drummer in Fela's legendary group as well as more recently a member of the Damon Albern led supergroup The Good, The Bad & The Queen, we think this release could help make it plain to those who don't know already, that Tony Allen is a legend in his own right! Every time we play this in the store immediately people start asking what we're listening to moving their bodies up and down and all around. Highly recommended!

MPEG stream: Hustler
MPEG stream: Ariya

Finally a domestic, single disc reissue of the first two albums Tony Allen released under his own name in 1975 and '77. Legendary drummer for Nigerian visionary Fela Kuti's band Afrika '70, Allen has often been called a co-founder of Afrobeat (along with Fela). In fact Allen's drum parts were often the only element that Fela did not pre-score. These records swing and stutter and groove and majorly kick ass, stretching themselves out often to 15 minutes or more (and you never want it to end anyway). In addition to the saxophones, trumpets, congas, bass, maracas, the extraordinary standout guitar work is very hooky to these western ears, which is mostly why I like it so much, especially on the song "Jealousy", and there are lots of drum solos, more than on the Fela records. Really great -- listen to the soundclip and know there's more where that came from. Essential to any Afrobeat collection, and also a great place to start!

RealAudio clip: Jealousy

So nice to hear a master of their craft! Even nicer when it's new material from someone who has been releasing records since the '70s and it still ranks close to the top of anything he's put out. While he will always get mentioned in the same breath as Fela Kuti (he was part of Fela's band back in the day) Tony Allen should certainly be looked upon as one of the leaders of the Afro-beat movement, not just a kick ass sideman (although he was that too!) What's so impressive is that even after all these years he still sounds passionate and filled with fire and the music totally reflects that. When we put this on for the first time we thought for sure it had to be a reissue as the sounds were as captivating and groovy as all the great '70s Afro-beat records he and Fela recorded together. But closer examination revealed it to be a brand new release and he again demonstrates that just because so many others burn out, fade, that doesn't mean he's gonna... 'cause this album is still a totally funky kick ass outing... and be sure to hang in for the closer 'cause it's the album's sole instrumental and it's totally on fire!

MPEG stream: Awa Na Re
MPEG stream: Gbedu

Here's a project with some connections to AQ-fave band Village of Savoonga, featuring the original compositions of Munich's Michael Heilrath (Couch, Blond) written as the score for a 1920 silent film version of Hamlet. The fractured rhythms of Markus Acher (VoS, Tied and Tickled Trio, Notwist) are juxtaposed with dramatic string arrangements while tasteful post-rock styled guitar, bass and drums round out the mediatative loops.

We love Drone records. And their series of ultra limited, hand assembled 7"s. There's even a forthcoming 2cd on Andee's tUMULt label collecting a handful of the early long out of print 7"s. We can only ever manage to get a tiny handful of these singles since they're so limited, but when we do we try to list them, and it's definitely lucky for the tiny handful of you who are quick on the buy-it-now trigger. Some of the best drone and dark ambient music around. Allfang Mit Pferdekopf unveil, very slowly, a super minimal shimmer and glisten, with a barely there glitch and click percussive filigree. Slightly metallic reverberations with high pitched overtones shifting and drifting. Side 2 is much thicker, and much more active, a thick crust of sonic grit over haunting industrial chimes, ringing out in a slow motion sorrowful melody, very grim and cinematic. First edition. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES! Marbled lime green vinyl, in a hand painted abstract water color sleeve with liner notes and insert.

I (Sally) loooooove Ellen Allien. When I bought her album Thrills a coupla years ago, I was busting out dance moves for weeks in my bedroom that I didn't even know existed inside of me. When I'm at a dance party/club, I can catapult the DJ from all right to great (in my head) in a matter of seconds if they throw on Ellen. Her presence was a gift to collaborator Apparat on "Orchestra of Bubbles." Her music is electronic perfection as far as I'm concerned -- seemingly simple, yet complicated and hella sexy. Though all of Allien's records are incredible throughout, I've found that there are always one or two songs I could listen to on repeat for days. On Thrills it was "Magma" and "The Brain Is Lost," and on Orchestra of Bubbles I couldn't get enough of "Way Out." Following suit with Fabric 34, a remix record, "Harrowdown Hill" (Thom Yorke) alone makes this record worth every cent. Allien has achieved exactly what you hope for in a remix -- she's taken a nearly perfect song and pushed it over the edge to absolute perfection. Overall, Fabric 34 tends to be a bit more ultra-loungy than her previous works, but she manages to still throw in the special stuff that really makes her music stand out.

MPEG stream: The Sun Can't Compare (Remix)
MPEG stream: Harrowdown Hill (Remix)

This is Ellen Allien's new mix cd and she throws down some electronic dance hotties like Apparat (whose "Cheap Thrills" makes for one of the high points in this set, along with the track that follows it "Numb" by Tomas Andersson), Step Time Orchestra, and Plaid as well as tossing in a few of her own, but she stumbles near the starting gate with a track by Dr FeelX called "Relax Your Body". A deep male (we assume it's the doctor's) voice proclaims the message in the music... it is indeed to "relax your body". He also commands you to "move your body", and then continues on with some truly painful rhymes. He does his best (worst?) Schwarznegger, deadpanning aerobicize lyrics like "you may be happy / or you may be sad / don't worry about your problems / just get into the groove." Ouch. Fortunately once you've passed that track, things take a turn for the (much) better.

MPEG stream: Cheap Thrills
MPEG stream: Numb

There is a pensive urgency to this new collaboration between Ellen Allien and Sascha Ring (aka Apparat) that is hard to pin down. While most tracks seem prime for the dancefloor, they aren't without apprehension. It seems to come from the mutual understanding that the best tracks on a Giorgio Moroder soundtrack are the chase themes. Moodily energetic yet indescribably threatening, like trying to concentrate on a math test when you know the school bully is going to beat you up after class. The collaborative process also prevents the music from getting either too electroclash/techno house on Allien's part or too idm/glitchcore on Apparat's part, striking a nice balance between both extremes. If Giorgio Moroder did a record on Kompakt, we suspect it would sound a lot like this!

MPEG stream: Turbo Dreams
MPEG stream: Way Out

A veritable turntablist super-group featuring the likes of Invisibl Skratch Pikl A-Trak, Craze, Develop, Infamous, J-smoke & Spictakular. The Allies are here to school the world with their turntable wizardry and demonstrate how the turntable might replace the guitar.

The big book of GG Allin, letters from prison.

Europe is the debut full length from this dreamy UK jangle pop combo, who besides sounding like the perfect Slumberland band, also are distinctive for the fact that they feature the ukulele pretty prominently! That said, if we didn't know we might not have picked out the ukulele, it sounds a bit like another guitar, although at times, you can hear that distinctive strum beneath the group's glistening summery sunshine pop. And really, it's hard not to love this sort of dreamy jangle, there's nothing weird or outsidery, even the ukulele can't make Allo Darlin's sound anything but perfect girl pop loveliness. Softly fuzzy, super melodic and twee, simple and sweet, with hooks galore, the vocals soaring over a warm bed of lush pop mesmer, definitely beholden to the classic age of nineties indie pop / college rock, Sarah Records, K Records, Heavenly, Velocity Girl, etc. So great!

MPEG stream: Neil Armstrong
MPEG stream: Europe
MPEG stream: Northern Lights

For some reason, this is the first thing we've reviewed from this ukelele fronted UK jangle pop combo, who sound right at home on Slumberland. This is the third single from their second album, and fans of Slumberland style dream pop and sixties girl group style twee pop jangle will fall in love for sure. Lilting and softly fuzzy, effervescent and wistfully washed out, both tracks here are sweet slab of simple summery pop, with shuffling rhythms, gorgeous vocals, subtle hooks and a classic nineties indie pop sound that we still never get tired of. Pressed on orange vinyl!

MPEG stream: Northern Lights

The Blackbean & Placenta label are certainly not pinning themselves down genre-wise what with artists like Reynols, Orange Cake Mix and this pretty Swedish combo Alma holding court. Gentle, folky female vocals bringing to mind a Cowboy Junkies-like flourish into three part harmonies. They're joined by subdued banjo, lap steel and flute. A very nice end-of-summer record.

"Depli" marks the first CD release of the little known French composer who had spent time working with Bernard Parmigiani at INA-GRM as well as in radio aproductions with Andre Breton and Jean Genet. "The three pieces on this album span a fourteen year period of Almuró's recent musical production: 'Le Troisème Oeil' (1991) is a 28 minute dynamic and deceivingly cosmic piece for clashing and screeching electronic bodies... 'Terrae incognitae' (1978) is a 36 minute eerie and ritualistic tour-de-force for sixty-member chorus, recorded live at its animated and scandal-stirring premier in the Notre-Dame Church in Caen. 'Boomerang, Prelude' (1979) is a dark and brooding 12 minute electronic composition also performed live surrounded by iron fences and road cones, big standing mattresses and a whole tree hanging upside down."

Another fantastic obscurity rescued by the fine folks at Medical Records, this one from a German duo called Aloa, who were part of the Neue Deutsche Welle movement, and whose only record from 1982, this one actually, has been a long sought after rarity. Hearing this now it's easy to see why. A darkly dramatic electronic krautrock/new wave hybrid, with robotic programed rhythms, pulsing synths, playful melodies, sci-fi FX, and some super dramatic, almost over the top vocals, the opening track here an almost campy sounding electro-kraut cabaret. But it hardly defines their sound, which is really all over the map, from brooding futuristic electro, to strange spaced out minimal post punk, from fuzzy, dirgey, glammy cold wave, to synth, cinematic weirdness, replete with wild vocal ululations, it's a pretty twisted collection of Germanic electro cabaret weirdness and experimental synth pop for sure, sounding at times like some weird hybrid of the Residents and the Human League, or maybe Felix Kubin crossed with Roxy Music? Sounds weird, and cool, and it is definitely both. It's easy to see why upon its original release it was misunderstood and overlooked, cuz it's pretty damn far out, but it's also really cool, a dark gloomy avant synth wave gem, that we're seriously tempted to proclaim as one of the weirdest Medical reissues yet. And fast becoming one of our faves. Pressed on 180 gram green vinyl, housed in a heavy full color jacket, includes insert with liner notes and interviews.

MPEG stream: Weisser Wal
MPEG stream: Deutsche Begegnung
MPEG stream: Banane Zitrone
MPEG stream: Lebedndig Und Vital

Record number two from the acclaimed Norwegian duo. Alog's Eide and Haugan discreetly tiptoe their way through a plethora of styles, as on their debut "Red Shift Swing". "Duck-Rabbit", however, was mostly inspired by ideas and themes created through

RealAudio clip: Duck-Rabbit
RealAudio clip: Objects Began To Appear From The Future

"Raindrops streaking down the car window music", complete with a mechanical windshield-wipers sounding beat, music that possesses a feeling that is blurred and melancholy, pretty and abstract, just like the way lines of rain water coursing across window-glass through which one is lazily viewing a passing landscape can be... that's our assessment of this new disc from Norwegian electronic 'pop' duo Alog. Minatures is their third album for Rune Grammofon, and we must say it's quite nice indeed. It's a very organic sound Alog have, each piece a shimmering, droning, rhythmic steady-state with decorative sonic, melodic embellishments. The Alog moniker comes from a combination of digitAL and anaLOG (we're told, seems likely) so it's no surprise that one track, or part of a track, here might sound like it could only come from the inside of a computer, while another part might be an ambient field recording from nature. And 'regular' instruments (guitar, cello, etc.) are also employed, to construct these Steve Reich-like, blissful (but sometime suspensefully tense) minimalist minatures. As per the title, which was apparently inspired by Turkish minature paintings, an artform that holds to certain strict rules, one of which apparently requires that they depict "only pure radiant coloured objects configured in mysterious patterns". Which is as good as any as a description of Alog's lovely music on this album (along with our visual rain-window notion). PS. We'll try to get the recent Phonophani album Oak Or Rock reviewed soon, that's one-half of Alog and also on Rune G., and in stock too.

MPEG stream: Severe Punishment And Lasting Bliss
MPEG stream: St. Paul Sessions II

Funny to discover a project from San Francisco by way of LaGrange, Georgia; but that's the way it goes some times. Aloonaluna is the one-woman project of Lynn Fister who landed her first cassette of thoroughly drugged-out drone-pop on the thoroughly drugged-out imprint Hooker Vision (run by Grant and Rachel Evans, of Nova Scotia Arms and Motion Sickness Of Time Travel respectively), and it's a warped gem of twisted psychedelic lullabies that seem to bridge the damaged tape resurgence with a Jewelled Antler style miasma of half-dreamt songs and half-remembered drones. She loops bells, guitars, field recordings, gristly synths, her own voice, and whatever else she can find into hazy, atmospheric songs that turn inward on many tracks (a la Grouper) but at times like on "Watercolor Rabbit" she breaks out a punchy drum machine to turn her somnambulant, stumbling songs into giddy, lo-fi dance numbers (sorta like Kwjaz remixing Julee Cruise). "Antarctica" could almost be her homage to Richard Pinhas' "Iceland" in terms of coldwave synth propulsion. Twelve tracks in all over this 45 minute tape. Nice stuff, but unfortunately this tape is already sold out at the source... so what we got now is all we'll ever get!

Alp is the work of Roger Horberry also known for his participation in the ethno-ambient affairs of O Yuki Conjugate. Here, Horberry engages the far more ubiquitous sounds of boiling water, fax machines, furnaces, and other household items which emit teeny-tiny sounds lost in the excess noise of everyday life. After contact miking these objects, Horberry has amplified and processed the whirring drones into an extraterrestrial arena of reverberating washes with a particularly digital clarity. A solid deep listening project not far from Toy Bizarre or even some of the later Zoviet France recordings.

Had to list this. As old favorites go, they don't get much older, anyway. I was into this record when I was a little kid and my parents had a cassette (or was in an 8-track?) of it... You've probably heard it a million times. Tracks like "A Taste Of Honey" and "Whipped Cream" (written by Allen Toussaint) are imbedded in our cultural conciousness aren't they? Certainly the "racy" album-cover shot of the lady wearing all the whipped cream sure is -- Soul Asylum thought so anyway. Trumpeter Herb Alpert and his Tijunana Brass (LA studio musicans, not real Mexican mariachis) were a '60s pop sensation, and this hit 1965 album was one of Alpert's best. Oh so swank instrumental jazzed up pop, Alpert's arrangements demonstrating his knack for mixing stick-in-the-head melodies with south-of-the-border exotica. You've got your bombastic, toe-tapping numbers, your Latin-tinged party-pleasers, your lush romantic themes, and a Tijuana-ized version of "Love Potion #9". Now, as part of a "Herb Alpert Signature Series", this classic has been reissued on cd in a digipack, all deluxe-like, complete with two bonus tracks, a booklet full of photos and liner notes, and a poster of that cover. Can't always be listening to new wave rock, glitchy electronica, droning dirge, and avant-garde jazz now can we? Dated but delightful.

MPEG stream: Bittersweet Samba
MPEG stream: Whipped Cream

Ok, while I don't think we're gonna stock and review EVERY entry in Shout! Factory/A&M's new "Herb Alpert Signature Series", we did just list the reissue of the all-time classic Whipped Cream & Other Delights by Herb and his Tijuana Brass (and sold a bunch to some happy customers) so we'd be remiss then if we didn't also give some attention to this other classic Tijuana Brass album, Whipped Cream's follow-up Going Places. Also from 1965, this LP sported a bandolier of boppy south-of-the-border styled instrumental pop hits like "Tijuana Taxi" and "Spanish Flea" (which will ring bells with some of your for sure from its use on the old TV game show the Dating Game). Then there's the sweet "More And More Amor" and the lush va-va-va-vooom of "Mae". Also: Herb's Tijuana version of surf nugget "Walk Don't Run" alongside other familiar tunes like "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You", "Zorba The Greek" and the "3rd Man Theme". It's hard to keep a smile off the face while listening to this, really! Sunny fun from a pop world very different from today's.

MPEG stream: Tijuana Taxi
MPEG stream: Walk Don't Run

"Jazzy trip-hop" that's great for making out. The first release on Massive Attack's new label, Melankolic.

If Roy Montgomery didn't noodle so much within his excessive delayed psychedelia and laid down very simple chords for the effects to work their magic, it would sound pretty close to what this side project of Our Glassy Azoth sounds like. Totally trippy.

Intense, intentional hiss and distortion masking a lovely, minimalistic folk music is what we have here. Or, on some tracks, gentle acoustic folk derived from Welsh tradition, and on others, purely piercing tones and grating electronic drones. This split release from inter-related outfits Alphane Moon and Our Glassie Azoth is haunting and gorgeous, but not for those whose ears aren't also in the mood for some isolationist noisescapes... Seemingly on the same (distorted) wavelength as fellow pastoral experimentalist Richard Youngs, the Wales-dwelling duo of Ruth and Daf are both AM and OGA (which the liner notes admit "have always naturally been mixed up"). This cd brings together previously unreleased material as well as music that has appeared before only on comps or limited vinyl releases. The first half of the disc (tracks 1-5) are the work of AM, the "folkier" of the two groups perhaps -- one of their selections is a traditional Welsh number, "Cyngor Y Biogen" ("The Magpie's Advice"), whose delicate vocals and acoustic guitar stand in contrast to the noisier textures found elsewhere... Like, on the disc's 2nd half (tracks 6-8) which is dominated by OGA's 26 minute "The Magican's Heavenly Chaos", more of an industrial, sci-fi soundscape.

MPEG stream: Experimenting With An Amen
MPEG stream: Further
MPEG stream: Isca

NOW ON CD!!! As regular readers of the aQ list no doubt know by now, the current underground indie rock scene is China is blowing up, tons of amazing bands, in both Shanghai AND Beijing, killer record labels, so many incredible records, loads of shows and tours (in fact, Carsick Cars, White+ and others are touring the US right now!), but there are also a ton of American, European and Australian ex-pats in the scene, who have popped up in some aQ faves like Pairs, and now Alpine Decline, two Americans from Los Angeles now living in China, and making some sweet sounds as Alpine Decline. Hard to say where they fit in sonically, but it's definitely a sound we dig. Sort of hazy and druggy, a bit like a slo-mo shoegaze slowcore, loping, droned out noise rock ballads, wreathed in gristly distortion, simple motorik drumming, and wasted zoner vox, ethereal and drifty, the songs slipping from hushed creep, to swirling explosive psychedelia and back again. Just give a listen to opener "Mid-Level Functionary In A Criminal Syndicate", a gorgeous heavy brooder, that should definitely appeal to fans of True Widow and the like, dark and hypnotic, hushed and dreamy, but laced with some dense tripped out noisiness. Some of the tracks are a bit more propulsive, sounding a bit like old Sonic Youth, or some lost Homestead / Touch And Go band, a little bit gloomy and gothy, the guitars jagged and angular, swirling synths underpinning the urgent crush of these brooding jams, the vocals buried in the mix, and doused in reverb and delay, plenty of swagger too, the sound shifting from churning noise rock crunch, to woozy slowcore drift, to spaced out, dream-drone ambience (check out the gorgeous "Hang Around The Creases"), to fuzzy krautpop ("The Transmission Comes Apart"), with plenty of stops in between. We hear hints of other pretty disparate influences too, like Animal Collective, the Wipers, Galaxie 500, a weird concoction, but one that works, and makes AD a good fit with their newly adopted Chinese underground rock brethren, while displaying a distinctly American sonic lineage, that goes all the way back to some of the darker nineties stuff that we loved back then, and still love now. Includes a download code!

MPEG stream: Mid-Level Functionary In A Criminal Syndicate
MPEG stream: The Visions Run
MPEG stream: Walk With Mask
MPEG stream: Hang Around The Creases

One of two new releases recently from Wierd Records, the other reviewed last list, the long awaited new one from Xeno & Oaklander, and then there's this, the debut from Los Angeles one man dread-dance coldwave synth wrangler Frank Alpine, aka Rich Moreno, an LA punk scene veteran, who channels all that pink energy into a bit of synthwave that's surprisingly grim and grimey, evoking images of the gritty LA streets, of squalor and filth, the sound shadowy and dark and sinister. The opening track has to be THEE synth jam of the year, all creepy crawly, but weirdly melodic, the synth sounds buzzy and thick, cool weird handclap rhythms and all manner of mysterious sonic embellishments. It actually reminds us of a cold wave reinterpretation of The Specials' "Ghost Town", that same sort of haunting moodiness, but wedded to a sound that's weirdly danceable. We've probably listened to that track about 20 times so far, and besides it being a great song, couldn't quite figure out why it resonated with us so much, until we learned a little bit more about Mr. Alpine, who apparently only uses consumer Casio synths to create the harshest, most lo-fi sound possible, which is exactly what that ineffable thing is, other cold/synth wave outfits sometimes sound like they went to Guitar Center and just charged a bunch of cool gear, but these tracks, you can imagine Alpine with a bag full of crappy synths, trudging down the Sunset strip, head down, middle of the night, headed for his dank basement of a practice space, where he creates THESE sounds. The rhythms are immediately recognizable, as those brittle skeletal beats, but hear, wreathed in synth buzz, and woven into gristly shadow epics, they become a weirdly propulsive pulse, driving these grim late night anthems. Just might be our favorite thing on Wierd yet, and definitely the best thing to emerge from this new wave of new (cold/synth/dark) wave in ages... Packaged in a super striking red and black mini lp style jacket (or not so mini, in the case of the actual lp version).

MPEG stream: No Exit
MPEG stream: Heart Is Grey
MPEG stream: Painted Eyes

In the wake of The Alps recent full length, III, comes not one, but two lengthy cd-r eps culled from the same recording sessions that produced III. Mostly improvised, those sessions for III found the trio expanding their sprawling abstract free folk into a sound much more spacious and druggy, New Age-y and blissed out, and in the process they ended up with more music than would fit on a single record. The good news is, that since the music was all improvised, and was all recorded during the same sessions, these two eps play like sides 3 and 4 of III, had it been expanded to a double album. Which is most definitely a good thing. Both of these discs, A Path Through The Sun, and A Path Through The Moon, are limited to 100 copies, of which we have 30, and those will most likely disappear in a flash. So act fast if you don't want to miss out on these. And needless to say (although we will anyway), everybody who dug III will absolutely need these. As we mentioned in our review of III, The Alps have retained much of their free folk sound, yet have managed to incorporate more krautrock, more new age, even more space rock into that sound, creating a hybrid that manages straddle the underground cd-r scene, and something much more expansive and epic. A Path Through The Moon, is cut from the same cloth as the sunnier Path, but offers up some krautrocky folk drift right out of the gate, reverbed guitar floats on clouds of cymbal sizzle, while a super spare rhythm holds it together, the whole track swaying woozily, the guitars laid back and softly psychedelic, the drums more of a subtle pulse than a driving force. The second track is all glistening sun baked guitar drone, the strums and picking allowed to melt into each other, creating a hazy web over the constant shimmer below, a distant rhythmic throb barely audible, very washed out an bleary eyes and lovely. The track after that sticks out a bit, a brooding low end rumble, riff with buzz and random room noise, a slow burner for sure, that at one point incorporates wailing female vocals (sampled we assume), some hip hop (!) and what sounds like random dialog buried beneath the churning buzz and rumble. The band quickly shift back to folkier climes, offering up two chunks of glimmering steel string Appalachia, the first gorgeously sun dappled and lush, albeit peppered with bits of buzz and feedback near the end, the second much moodier and murkier, the guitar drifting through a field of soft hiss and washed out shimmer, before dropping out completely and leaving those background sounds to fade out until the end. And finally, the band finish up with a 9+ minute epic that is all over the place, starting out as a warm whirring drone, shifting to a sax flecked free jazz drift, then veering into a piano driven krautgroove, then a Reichian looped piano jam flecked with reverbed steel strings and zither like percussion, finally finishing off with a spacious stretch of free folk, minor key chords drifting through long stretches of near silence. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Packaged in a plain chipboard sleeve, the liner notes pasted on one side, a printed insert showing through a diecut on the other side.

MPEG stream: The Coming Tide
MPEG stream: Breaking Clouds

In the wake of The Alps recent full length, III, comes not one, but two lengthy eps culled from the same recording sessions that produced III. Mostly improvised, those sessions for III found the trio expanding their sprawling abstract free folk into a sound much more spacious and druggy, New Age-y and blissed out, and in the process they ended up with more music than would fit on a single record. The good news is, that since the music was all improvised, and was all recorded during the same sessions, these two eps play like sides 3 and 4 of III, had it been expanded to a double album. Which is most definitely a good thing. Both of these discs, A Path Through The Sun, and A Path Through The Moon, are limited to 100 copies, of which we have 30, and those will most likely disappear in a flash. So act fast if you don't want to miss out on these. And needless to say (although we will anyway), everybody who dug III will absolutely need these. As we mentioned in our review of III, The Alps have retained much of their free folk sound, yet have managed to incorporate more krautrock, more new age, even more space rock into that sound, creating a hybrid that manages straddle the underground cd-r scene, and something much more expansive and epic. A Path Through The Sun begins with a lush layer of distant shimmer, over which steel strings shimmer and layers of background buzz swoon and swell, sounding not unlike James Blackshaw or Jack Rose, but soon the background builds unto a churning wall of distorted guitars, and the song is transformed into something wholly other. The following track is a longform near static drone, but densely layered and subtly colored with all manner of details, streaks of overlapping high end laid over a sea of rumbling overtones, laced with delicate spidery guitar melodies. Track three is the first hint of the bands more kraut side. Buzzing metallic guitars swirl over a stripped down Can like bass and drums groove, that stays solid, as those guitars twist ands turn, creating psychedelic clouds of sound over that motorik groove. The last two tracks find the band returning to a more dronefolk sound, a brief stretch of moaning bowed steel strings, glistening high end harmonics, and tinkling chimes gives way to a warm wheezing outro, guitars unfurl fragmented melodies over a slow swaying harmonium drone, lilting, and sun dappled and so dreamy. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Packaged in a plain chipboard sleeve, the liner notes pasted on one side, a printed insert showing through a diecut on the other side.

MPEG stream: Instant Light
MPEG stream: Lunar Mansions

Latest from these sunshiney new age krautfolk drifters, a trio featuring our very own Scott Hewicker, along with Jefre Cantu (Tarentel, Root Strata) and Alexis Georgopoulos (Arp), The Alps' Easy Action is record number five if you're keeping track, although it's not in fact exactly a proper full length, instead, it's a bit of a collaged inbetweener, a gorgeous, surprisingly noisy at times, druggy and deliriously delightful hodgepodge assembled from various sources, old tapes from past sessions, unused takes from their last record Le Voyage, a handful of new recordings, as well as various other sounds, all meticulously assembled in the studio into a pretty fantastic record. As mentioned above, the sound here is not nearly as laid back and soft focus as Le Voyage. That record definitely found the band in full on meandering mode, the guitars were jangly, the rhythms subtle and minimal, when there were rhythms, the noise was kept to a minimum, it was all about tone and timbre, ambience and atmosphere, the propulsion seemingly an afterthought, the band happy to let the songs drift lazily, but if a rhythm did surface, the band would just let that rhythm guide them, until it eventually wound down, leaving the band to drift ever onward. But here, the sound is actually a bit fierce, and a little dark. The opener starts with a cloud of swirling textures and hushed effects, muted melodies, and little flecks of buzz and glitch, but it's not long before a black cloud of grinding distortion and hissing electronics threaten to swallow up the other sounds, the song is transformed into a swirling bit of soft noise chaos, culminating in a strange stuttery glitched out finale. Wow. As if that weren't enough, the second track too delivers some powerful drumming, laid over some tangled steel string guitar, and some buzzing psychedelic guitar, a guitar that gets wilder and noisier as the track progresses before everything drops out leaving just the guitar unwinding a swirling cloud of FX heavy freakout. And so it goes, "Pink Orange" is more of a interlude, a looped bit of processed guitar, but then "For Isabel" drifts in with its seventies folk guitar, but then suddenly glitches out, as some strange bits of studio buzz swoop in, the gorgeous looped guitar figure wreathed in a cloud of hiss and buzz, and rapidly expanding crunch, good stuff for sure, just surprisingly intense. "Loves Of A Blonde" is a sprawling bit of abstract droney drift, some steel string buzz, some muted percussion, more crunchy distorted guitar noise, a sort of abstract raga, underpinned by dark piano chords, everything wreathed in gristly bits of static, eventually, all the noise fading out, leaving just some sitar like buzz and some echoey piano, the prettiest stretch on the record thus far. The title track dabbles in some dub, adding a little reggae inflection to a loping slo-mo krautrock groove, the guitars warm and shimmery, the bass sinewy and melodic, but even here, the band lay a thick bit of crunchy, lo-fi guitar fuzz over the otherwise tranquil proceedings, which we quite like, and definitely adds a needed edge to the otherwise placid drift underneath. The rest of the record unwinds similarly, with the band taking the more serene and melodic elements and fusing them to strange studio misfires, and random, but fantastic bits of noisiness, tinkling looped melodies, that seems to fluctuate wildly within a field of hyperactive static, transforming a shimmery sleepy loop into a mysterious bit of crumbling crunch. They take a break on the hushed and crystal clear solo guitar outing "Reflections For Peter Green", only to slip right back into it with the nearly 10 minute "Instant Light" which was previously released on the super limited Root Strata cd-r A Path Through The Sun), a track that builds slowly, lush steel string strums drifting beneath whirling bits of distant ambience, definitely channeling the spirit of Le Voyage, but the band pile on some lush, effulgent guitar buzz, and some keening layered guitardrones, filling the sky with warm sonic streaks, while underneath the sound continues to drift along melodically, a practically perfect balance between the dreamy old and the more abrasive new, before finishing off with a brief 2 minute swirl of whirling, swirling, blurred and smeared, echo drenched new age shimmer. So good. And a bit of a sonic surprise. Which has us wondering if their next proper studio full length will find the band incorporating some of this new found, more 'difficult' audio experimentation. We sure hope so! Super limited, and packaged in a super elaborate fold out psychedelic pyramid sleeve, designed by artist Tauba Auerbach, that is easily one of the coolest things we've seen. Includes a download code as well.

MPEG stream: Today & Tomorrow
MPEG stream: Spray
MPEG stream: Pink Orange
MPEG stream: Easy Action
MPEG stream: Until Tomorrow

The latest from Bay Area new-kraut-folk-age combo Alps, finds the band sounding more�high fidelity than ever, and more kraut than folk, which in both cases suits them big time. For those new to Alps, a rundown of several members should help give you an idea of where their sound is coming from: our very own Scott Hewicker (Troll), Alexis Georgopoulos (Arp, formerly of Tussle) and Jefre Cantu (Tarentel, Colophon, J.C. Ledesma). But Alps is definitely more than the sum of its parts, their sound is quite varied, expansive, even epic at times, but simultaneously, they manage to craft a sound simple and solid, based as much on rhythm and texture as on song and melody. On past releases, Alps were a much more ramshackle concern, which at the time was definitely a big part of their sound, and thus set them firmly amongst the lo-fi cd-r drone folks scene, their sound a sort of ghostly Appalachia, mixed with longform drone music, muddy muted ambience, minimal soundscaping and plenty of lo-fi buzz and hiss much of the record mired in a corrosive murk, that only added to their dark dronelike vibe. The move to Type Records, coincides, perhaps not coincidentally, with a sonic shift, where once was abstract and low fidelity, is now rhythmic, and propulsive, looped and repetitive, and most importantly, glistening and glimmering, the sound crystal clear, and this time the dreaminess doesn't come from poor recording, it comes from the compositions, and the arrangements, and a super nice sounding recording courtesy of Phil Manley of the Champs and Trans Am. The core members of Alps also have a keen interest in new age music. Not the Deep Breakfast sort of schlock that most seem to equate with the genre, but instead more the sort of inner space, dreamy drift of Tangerine Dream, Deuter, Steve Hillage and the like. And those sounds are all over III as well. The opener is a gorgeous looped soundscape of repetitive guitar figures, and glistening chimes, almost like a dreamfolk Steve Reich, bits of Appalachia, big buzzing synths, strummed zithers, a gorgeous melancholy melody played out over the course of five and a half minutes. The second track finds the band getting their kraut on, channeling Neu! Or Agitation Free but through a much more washed out and weary space rock, like Hawkwind gone new age. Distant drifting vocals, all manner of layered buzz, distorted guitars buried in the mix, space-y FX, very tranquil and mesmerizing. The follow up "Cloud One" finds Alps revisiting their folk roots, taking strummed acoustic guitars, and simple piano, and draping them over a woozy melody and a super spare abstract rhythm. "Trem Fantasma" is a barely there whisper of spaced out dronemusic, Gloriously wreathed in musical mystery, drifting piano, fragmented guitars, some soft sixties 'ladada' vocals, another dreamy drifter that threatens to spirit the listener away to some sun dappled green grassed knoll. "Labyrinths" is another new age / krautrock meander, washed out and shimmery, the drums the only thing keeping the rest of the song from just floating away, playful melodies, that sound like Perry and Kingsley rendered in shades of grey. The next few tracks are more abstract, sounds swooping in and out, rhythms, if there are any, buried beneath soft layers of sound, everything hushed and minimal, until album closer, "Into The Breeze", which sounds just like the title would have you imagine, breezy, soft focus, the drums, simple and stripped down, shimmering steel string guitar, that ever present piano, the melody wistful, the production hazy and a little woozy, effects swirling in the background, the drums gradually becoming more and more tripped out, before fading out completely, leaving just the guitar and the piano to drift heavenward, through a field of soft shimmer and the glistening afterglow of the sounds that came before. The more we listen to III, the more obvious the new age-isms become, which is not a bad thing at all, it wraps the proceedings, no matter how krautrocky or folky or droney, in a sweet swirl of moonlit dreaminess, turning each song into its own sort of otherworldly mesmer. LIMITED TO ONLY 400 COPIES ON VINYL!!!!! (& the compact disc version is coming soon, but not out yet...)

MPEG stream: A Manha Na Praia
MPEG stream: Hallucinations
MPEG stream: Cloud One

From the looks of the felt pen scrawled disc artwork you might be expecting some Wolf Eyes, Black Dice or Lightning Bolt sweaty dirge-noise bursts, but The Alps go in the opposite direction, offering up glistening meditative soundscapes well-suited to gazing at frosty mountain peaks such as those of their namesake. Makes more sense when you discover that The Alps are Scott Hewicker (Troll), Alexis Georgopoulos (Tussle) and Jefre Cantu (Tarentel, Colophon, J.C. Ledesma), doesn't it? Squeaky clarinets and alien flute toots melted into whirls of swish and whoosh, all laid over ominous drones and instrument hum and tape hiss. Quite beautiful. And as with many cd-r releases, quite limited!

MPEG stream: Tintinnabulations

[ aquarius records catalogue — A ]