[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 1151 through 1200 of 2272.

Full length number two from this Portland guitarist, whose debut The Golden Hour was a huge hit around here, and who delivered a truly stunning instore performance a couple years back. A modern master of classic Appalachia, Anderson is of course beholden to the greats: Fahey, Kottke, Basho, etc. As we mentioned in our review of her debut, should really be getting the same sort of accolades as her modern post-Fahey peers like Richard Bishop, Jack Rose, James Blackshaw, and the rest. Anderson is perfectly capable of aping Fahey, but usually chooses to forge her own sonic path, her take on Appalachia remains more psychedelic, more loose and noisy and a bit experimental, Mercury, like The Golden Hour, almost plays more like a collection than an album proper, the songs and sounds so all over the map, as if these records were just a sampling of what Anderson is capable of, which appears to be quite a bit. Lush distortion drenched melodies unfurl into spare twang flecked drift, folky campfire blues blossoms into dense frantic picking, the sound gets jazzy at times, psychedelic at others, spare and hushed one moment, brooding and slow building the next. Some of the songs here seem informed by distinctly non-Appalachian sounds, at least one track sounds like Fahey via Godspeed, which is as cool as it sounds, while elsewhere, Anderson gets dirgey and distorted, adding slippery slide, letting notes ring out, rife with tension and pathos, woozy, dreamy psychedelia is transformed into spare, spacious dream folk drift, before slipping effortlessly into some vintage sounding classic Appalachia. A near perfect mix of modern and classic sounds, interpretations and variations of each, that are uniquely Anderson's. Gorgeous! And so totally recommended. Housed in fancy old school tip-on style sleeves. On Mississippi!

The Golden Hour originally came out on Mississippi Records, a fantastic disc of improvised solo guitar from a Portland based guitarist named Marisa Anderson. We dug it so much, we had her perform like at aQ a couple days ago, and WOW. Not only was she super cool, but seeing her play live was even more impressive, and got us newly obsessed with the record. And while she was here, she also left us some cds of The Golden Hour, which she released herself. And if for some reason you've yet to hear it, do yourself a favor and pick one up! You won't be sorry. Here's what we had to say about The Golden Hour when we first reviewed the lp (which is why the intro is about Mississippi, even though the cd is self released, but it's relevant, really!): We usually hate when reissue labels put out something contemporary, often it's some modern band that's making music in a similar vein, even more often it's a friend of the label, done out of obligation, and in both cases, most of the time, said release sticks out like a sore thumb. There are exceptions, and labels with great taste, can be trusted to make exceptions when they're called for. And Mississippi is definitely on of those labels we implicitly trust. In the past, they've peppered their mind blowing catalog of killer reissues with records by Spooky Dance Band (post Reeks And The Wrecks), PDX punk rockers Sad Horse, longtime aQ fave Mirah, and now a Portland based guitarist named Marisa Anderson. Anderson plays guitar and lap steel, and offers up a dozen gorgeous tracks of her own particular brand of Appalachia, from the noisy, reverbed, chaotic and crunchy, almost psychedelic sounding "Drop Down", to the more traditionally folky "The Night Before Last", her playing is fluid and emotional, dexterous and original, channeling the spirits of the past (Fahey, Kottke, etc.) but infusing them with the spirit of today, and her own soul and feeling, and the results are indeed really quite nice. So lovely, sun dappled back porch guitar music, with the occasional foray into something a bit darker and stormier, WAY recommended. And you can now add Anderson to the elite roll call of Post-Fahey guitar gods (and now GODDESSES!) along side James Blackshaw, Jack Rose, Richard Bishop, Ilyas Ahmed, Matt Baldwin, and the rest.

MPEG stream: The Night Before Last
MPEG stream: First Light
MPEG stream: In The Valley Of The Sun
RealAudio clip: Drop Down

One of our favorite musicians considered part of the new wave of modern Appalachia / guitar soli, has to be Portland guitarist Marisa Anderson, who manages to take that classic sound, and essentially transform it into something all her own, which is no small feat, considering how many modern guitarists try. It's even more impressive here, a record, as the title makes clear, of traditional and public domain songs, like "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic", "Will The Circle Be Unbroken", et cetera. Anderson played an instore a while back and we were all spellbound, her playing fluid and lyrical, able to conjure up aching melodies, as well as dense noisy squalls, and here, these classic songs are given new life. Anderson's version of "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" is the perfect example, it's somehow faithful to the original, while being almost unrecognizable, in fact those unfamiliar with the song, could easily assume this was one of Anderson's originals, which is true of all of the tracks here. Anderson's guitar, warmly distorted, fuzzy, and pulsing hypnotically, weaving together lush layers of melody, and unfurling delicate dreamlike instrumentals, some surprisingly fierce and almost psychedelic, others hushed and minimal, spare and spacious. So great. And so pleased that she's finally getting so much well deserved attention, with this lp, as well as the recent reissue of her Mercury record on Important. These are extremely limited, so be warned that if we run out, it may take us a while to restock, assuming we can get any more at all! (Though fortunately, there will also be a cd version upcoming.)

Pretty insanely catchy cock rock, super anthemic and dumb, as only the Bulb label (and now, we're told, Rick Rubin's American label!) can provide. Skull art on cover, tight pants, greasy hair, songtitles like "We Want Fun" and "Music or Die". Somewhere

RealAudio clip: Girls Own Juice

Ah, Andrew W.K... Hard rockin' heartthrob. Vice Magazine mascot. Crushworthy object of Windy's adoration and Andee's guilty 'rock' pleasure. Bloody-faced and beeyootiful. Though we don't have a date on the domestic issue of this, his debut full length, we've got a precious few copies of the import version. Andrew plays pretty insanely catchy cock rock: super anthemic, major key, kickass and dumb (in a good way). He lies somewhere between the Ramones, Rocket from the Crypt, and Van Halen. And yeah, all the sounds are variations on a theme -- he basically writes the same song over and over with the same three chords, but what a song! This will have you air guitaring all over the place and bouncing in your seat.

RealAudio clip: Party Hard
RealAudio clip: Girls Own Love

The latest dose of super high energy power-chord-laden music has dropped from the sexy Andrew W.K.. If you haven't heard this guy before, try the soundclips -- it's ridiculous how anthemic, epic and positive such ultra-simple exhortations like "you're doing all right", "don't ever give up", "tear it up all night", "I love music", etc etc can be! It's kind of amazing that his message lies more with the positivity his music makes you *feel*, rather than lyrics that are about anything in particular (cos, um, they're not). More keyboard driven than previous efforts, this is a ridiculously fun listen, if a little dumb, er, in a good way. There's even a full-on lighters-aloft love ballad. Party.

MPEG stream: Long Live the Party
MPEG stream: Really in Love

MPEG stream: I Shot Killer Pussy
MPEG stream: Screwface
MPEG stream: Multiple Stab Wounds

From the same label that just reissued John Carpenter's Escape From New York soundtrack, comes this deluxe, 140 gram vinyl version of Michael Andrews' score for the 2001 film Donnie Darko, which finds the score remastered, and re-packaged with original artwork by Tom French, along with an A2 sized poster, also with French's artwork. Here's a slightly altered/updated version of our review of cd version, when we first listed it way back in 2002: Easily one of, if not THE, best movies of 2001. Dark and beautiful and sad and haunting and creepy as fuck. A gorgeously surreal, sort-of-horror film, sort-of-coming-of-age-film, with tender awkward teen romance, family tragedy, alienated youth, and with some time travel and a giant demon-faced bunny thrown in for good measure. So delicate and tender, but genuinely frightening at the same time. And much of the mood is owed to the amazing score. A dark mix of rumbling drones and melancholy piano, wispy minor key song fragments, atonal musique concrete, and a totally soul stirring, heartbreaking, and eerie version of Tears For Fears' eighties classic "Mad World" (you know the one: "...the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I ever had..."). Much of the soundtrack proper (separate from the score) is made up of songs by Tears For Fears, Joy Division and Echo And The Bunnymen, Duran Duran and others, but the score itself is something much darker, and is the perfect balance to those eighties pop tunes, and the reworked "Mad World" is sort of the perfect mix of the two. Also includes an alternate mix of "Mad World" with skittery lo-fi drum machine that actually works pretty well, giving it a sort of Portishead vibe. Like the movie, WAY recommended. The lp version includes liner notes by director Richard Kelly and artist Tom French.

RealAudio clip: Mad World
RealAudio clip: Gretchen Ross
RealAudio clip: Ensurance Trap
RealAudio clip: The Artifact and Living

Wonderful! Hand On String is the solo debut album from this man-of-many-hats who composed the scores for the thinking teen's movie Donnie Darko (yes, he's the one responsible for the cover of Tears For Fears' "Mad World") and Miranda July's acclaimed film Me And You And Everyone We Know as well as music for the beloved (but sadly defunct) TV series Freaks And Geeks. All signs certainly point to a reserved seat in AQ's favorites zone, and after a first spin of his first solo outing, we can say he doesn't disappoint. Although those film/tv soundtracks were definitely rife with 70s/80s/90s pop culture references, Hand On String steers clear of hip fads and ironic touchstones. This is a much more personal and timeless work that not only sets itself apart from Andrews' filmwork but also his other musical pursuits (namely in the Greyboy Allstars). Andrews' achingly sensitive vocal delivery has stirred comparisons to that of Elliott Smith, Robert Wyatt or Pink Floyd. Warm and gentle and slightly on the verge of collapse. Ah yes, very good. Plus as an added treat, the digipak and accompanying paperback book come festooned with quirky watercolor paintings by Geoff McFetridge. Psst, if you need more of Andrews' music, we've also just received the soundtrack cd to the abovementioned Miranda July film!

MPEG stream: See Me Plain
MPEG stream: Sweeping, Cleaning And Organizing

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

MPEG stream: Peter And Sylvie
MPEG stream: 5 On A Joyride

The robots are coming, indeed! And their latest invasion (released with much thanks and gratitude to our favorite record label of late, Japan's EM!) takes the form of this sexy electronic pop concept duo, The Android Sisters. Originally created by ZBS studios, a nonprofit audio production company from upstate New York whose purpose was to raise consciousness through media, namely via new-age-tinged sci-fi inspired radio plays, The Android Sisters began life in the early eighties as the house band in the radio series, Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe. Taking cues from Bruce Haack's electronic children's records from the '60s and '70s, The Sisters perform satirical "speak-songs" in a polyphonic monotone that goofily riff off of everything from Philip K. Dick inspired silliness ("Electronic Sheep") to Old McDonald ("Down On The Electronic Farm"). They soon developed their own cult following, so an album was released on Vanguard in 1984 called Songs of Electronic Despair. Using wonky keyboards, funky beats and spacey synthesizer passages, The Sisters frequent use of terrible puns and android-inspired humor didn't quite fit in with the wry detachment of the New Wave music of the time and has since been relegated to the realms of pop oddity, occasionally resurfacing as samples in trance, techno and hip-hop ("Ray-Dee-Oh", Sss-x Minus One"). But as radio-plays they are highly entertaining and engaging, silly and goofy for sure but as The Android Sisters themselves say, "Dumb is Fun! " Includes 48 page booklet with song lyrics and illustrations for each song.

MPEG stream: Invasion
MPEG stream: Robots Are Coming
MPEG stream: Dumb Is Fun
MPEG stream: Sss-X Minus One

Chrome meets The Slits!

Swedish melodic death/prog metal, featuring the sort of over-the-top guitar and keyboard wizardry that makes people either love or hate the similarily-inclined Children of Bodom. The former (first) vocalist of Darkane does a bit more actual singing on here than he did in his previous band.

*Acid Mothers Temple Alert!* *Acid Mothers Temple Alert!* *Acid Mothers Temple Alert!* Also... it's a *Space Machine Alert!* as well. Andromelos is a new Japanese psychedelic "supergroup" making their debut on the Ektro records label run by Jussi from Circle. It consists of guitarist Kawabata Makoto, drummer Okano Futoshi, and electronics wizard Yamazaki Maso. Kawabata is best known as the bearded high priest of the Acid Mothers Temple (and other bands like Mainliner, Musica Transonic, Nishinihon, Toho Sara, Seikazoku, etc. etc.). Sticksman Okano is/was a member of Nishinihon, Ghost, and Subvert Blaze. And in addition to being none other than notorious noisician Masonna, Yamazaki is also a member of Christine 23 Onna -- but more pertinent to his contribution to Andromelos, though, is his project Space Machine, which takes its inspiration from '70s cosmic analog synth masters like Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream. Early TD could certainly be a model for Andromelos, indeed. Freaky, waaay out spacey kosmiche kraut-lovin' soundscapes with percussive drive, gobs of electronic FX, ambient drift, and some wonderfully fried guitar fuzz. But if you're familiar with Acid Mothers Temple or Space Machine we probably could omit that description and you'd guess as much anyway! It sounds like just what you'd think, just like what you'd want. If we add that there's just two looooong tracks, totaling 72 minutes, you'll be even more in the ballpark with your imaginings of Andromelos' blasted and blissed out charms. The tracks are titled "Tea Breaks Are Under Attack From 2300000 Light Years" parts 1 and 2, and we've got to say, for once a title on a Kawabata album that really makes sense!! That totally IS what this sounds like. Well, give it a listen n' see if you agree...

MPEG stream: Tea Breaks Are Under Attack From 2300000 Light Years Part.1
MPEG stream: Tea Breaks Are Under Attack From 2300000 Light Years Part.2

A friend of aQ has been travelling / living in China, and recently sent us some records by bands he discovered and dug and thought we would dig too. Elsewhere on this list you'll find the noisepop shitrock duo Pairs, who we've sort of flipped for, and then there's this, a demo from a group called Androsace, who while based in China, actually boast an international membership, with their co-ed ranks made up of musicians from China, as well as Italy and France, and their sound, well, the band actually describe it as 'minority grunge' (not sure whether they're joking or not), but it's maybe not that far off the mark, the music sinewy and yeah a bit grungy, the band's most distinctive feature being the female lead vocals, a sultry, witchy croon, that slips into a fierce raspy and abrasive wail, the guitars usually following suit, getting downright metallic, and yeah, grungy, we're reminded of groups like Dickless, and L7, although the band definitely have some punk rock / garage rock going on. But the grunge thing is undeniable, especially when they whip out the wah wah, and it's like some lost Sub Pop single from the nineties, which as far as we're concerned is most definitely a good thing. We also saw a review online that described them as sounding like a female fronted Motorhead, and while that sounds pretty appealing, not sure it's totally accurate, but once in a while it does come close, it is heavy, and metallic in places, and for sure noisy, and when the band erupt into grinding distorted punk, kick out the metal jams, we can see why they're one of the more hyped underground bands in China... Packaged in nice homemade screened, folded brown paper sleeves, with all the song titles and other info written on each and every one by hand.

MPEG stream: Warm Pee
MPEG stream: Mr. Laughter

Full length number two from Jonathan Lee, a member of big time aQ faves Souvenir's Young America, and the man behind Anduin, after two killer collaborations, one with Svarte Greiner (that track is included here!), the other with Jasper TX, which should definitely give you an idea of the sort of sound to expect from Anduin. Dark and dreamy and dolorous, Anduin creates warm swirling rhythmic ambience, dark drones, and haunting soundscapes. Abandoned In Sleep includes many contributors either via sample contribution or live collaboration, Jasper TX again, Gareth Davis, Stephen Vitiello, Xela and a handful of others, but there's no doubt that Lee is the sonic alchemist here, taking sounds and samples, live performances, and pre-recorded works, and molding them into darkly gorgeous soundworks. Field recordings drift in and out of soft clouds of hushed shimmer, thick slabs of deep rumble are laid atop strange percussive pulses, warm whirring low end drifts beneath subtle horns, minimal rhythms skitter around slowly collapsing buzzscapes, long slow tones stretch out into disembodied harmonies, all bathed in a lush golden chordal wash, the harmonica makes an appearance, and helps turn a track into something distinctly Morricone-esque, huge subterranean drones are laced with the sound of footsteps, and creaking doors, distant machinery, and finally, horns moan and bleat in a field of delicate drones and muted rhythmic pulses. The vinyl includes a cd, that features all the songs on the lp proper as well as three extra tracks, including the live collaboration with Svarte Greiner, all deep blackened shimmer, soft swells of feedback, dark rumbling pulsations, bleak and austere, laced with shards of high end melody, and softly grinding whirs. Apparently, Abandoned In Sleep took the better part of a year to create, and listening to it now we can safely say it was well worth it!

MPEG stream: The Equal Of God
MPEG stream: Content Of A Black Box
MPEG stream: Into Abandon

Better known (or perhaps more realistically, not really known at all) as the man behind aQ faves Souvenir's Young America, Jonathan Lee steps out on his own, trading in his brooding harmonica flecked metallic post rock, for something a little less post rock, a lot less metallic, but no less brooding OR harmonica flecked. The thing with SYA that really set them apart from so many others in the ever expanding army of Neur-Isis clones, is that they approached their sound from a pretty unique direction, of all those bands they are definitely the least metal, instead infusing their sound with plenty of dusty Morricone-isms (due in no small part to the harmonica) and a desert-y almost soundtracky vibe akin to Scenic or Calexico. It's still dynamic and epic and sweeping, but with more twang, more subtle shading, slide guitar, just more evocative in general. The opening track of Lee's first solo foray starts out right away with harmonica, maybe the same harmonica as on the SYA record since the liner notes explain that those harmonica's are sampled, but the result is much the same, the instrumentation may be different, a slow whirling churn of textured low end, and buried muted melodies, but that mournful harmonica over the top brings it right back to some barren windswept street, the sky overhead clear, the sun beating down, everything cloaked in a layer of dust. This is drone music, or dark ambience, but Lee demonstrates his unique sonic approach expands well beyond his rock band. The second track eschews the harmonica, but is no less cinematic, weird melodic fragments, drift on thick swells of low end, a strange melody is twisted and draped over the top, the track peppered with strange sounds, like buttons being pushed, or tapes being rewound, or splashing water, hard to say what, but it adds a strange haunting texture to the already mysterious soundscape. The harmonica returns one track later, and we're once again transported right back to that lonely stretch of desert. This time though, there is some skittery rhythm, and another layer of low end, all rubbery and warbly, shimmering beneath the surface. The rest of the record wanders similar paths, exploring equally haunting soundscapes, crumbling distorted guitar, smeared into a soft drone beneath a lilting minor key melody, lurching processed rhythms floating in stretches of hiss and shimmer, deeeeeeep bass rumbles and pulses, peppered with fragmented melodies, one track transforms into a sound not that far removed from the Souvenir's mothership, slow motion guitar grind, skittery drums, moaning distant melodies, all wound into a super tense slow burning epic. Two tracks here feature guests, the first is a name most aQ customers are probably familiar with by now, Jasper TX, whose contribution is quite subtle, adding extra low end, introducing some subtle textural chop and shuffle, adding a bit of an Oval vibe to an already murky underwater drift, the other is another aQ fave, Xela, aka Type records head honcho John Twells, who does a serious number on his track, adding all manner of shortwave interference, warm smears of hiss and static, haunting disembodied vocals, thick distorted crumbling guitars, verging on a Nadja vibe partway through, before slipping back into the mesmerizing moodiness of the rest of the record. Definitely not a run of the mill drone, or ambient record. Anduin definitely puts about 90 percent of cd-r floorcore dronemusic to shame, this drone approached like songs instead of sounds, this is the sort of record that blossoms with more listens, headphones are mandatory, dig deeper, get lost, let the sounds swallow you whole, carry you off. ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED. Packaged in a beautiful handscreened sleeve, and includes a cd as well (not a cd-r) for your iTunes or Discman.

MPEG stream: For Francis Bacon (Part 1)
MPEG stream: For Francis Bacon (Part 2) ((Xela Mix))

It's been a while since we've heard from Anduin, the solo project of Jonathan Lee, he of late great longtime aQ faves Souvenir's Young America, whose distinctive harmonica flecked metallic post rock we we dug big time. But in Anduin, Lee focused more on the minutiae of sound, crafting lush, haunting soundscapes, that buzz and drift, smolder and shimmer. the sounds more along the lines of groups like Jasper TX or Machinefabriek, and with a distinctive cinematic flair, the sounds at once epic and majestic, while at the same time subtle and introspective. Apparently this new record is the result of a burglary at Lee's house, which resulted in the loss of years and years worth of recordings (hence the title), and perhaps also the darkly spectral sound, infused with a deep melancholia, a spare, ghostly sonic landscape that manages to fuse field recordings, deep dronemusic, lumbering slowcore, downtempo electronica, and plenty of horns, into something soundtracky and sinister, brooding and ominous. The record seems to spend most of its time rumbling and whirring through a sea of softly churning low end and dense layered whirs, but Lee has a delicate touch, whether it's introducing the aforementioned jazzy horns, or echo drenched flute flutter, the sounds of children playing, or a skeletal programed skitter, it transforms this dronemusic into something much more sprawling and engrossing, almost a sort of chamber music, a dark classical drone that slips easily from weirdly spaced out sci-fi shimmer, to bleak, bottomless pit mesmer, from almost new age drift to slowjazz creep, the songs all woven together into one epic songsuite, one that most definitely speaks to loss, and not just the loss of the stolen sounds, but a loss that's deeper and more personal. Powerful and haunting. Gorgeous stuff for sure. Super swank packaging too, both the lp and the cd come housed in hand drawn, hand screened sleeves, with more hand drawn, handscreened prints inside!

MPEG stream: Behind The Voyeur's Wall Of Glass
MPEG stream: I Come From Mockingbird States
MPEG stream: Irene

What a perfect record, two of our favorite crafters of elegant ambience together for the first time, weaving an entrancing sonic spell, a lush, slow burning, sprawling expanse of burnished soft focus dronemusic. Anduin, for those who don't already know, is the experimental ambient side project of Jonathan Lee who fronts aQ metallic post rock faves Souvenir's Young America, and of course Jasper TX, is the work of Dag Rosenqvist, whose sound is a gloriously murky drift, and whose debut I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You we made a Record Of The Week way back in 2006, and we've loved everything we've heard from him since. The two mesh perfectly together, impossible to tell where one ends and another begins, and the resulting sound manages to not tip too far in either direction, instead, the duo have crafted a sublime collection of dark mystery, from thick, humid rumbles, to swirling layered bliss, to sun dappled dreamlike drift, to hushed minimal shimmer, to sizzling raga like buzz, to washed out woozy Pop Ambience, every track on The Bending Of Light is ripe for immersion, thick slow shifting fields of sound that just beg to envelop, perfect for listeners to get lost in, to let go, and to drift off on soft sonic clouds, sinking deeper and deeper into these sprawling soundscapes of warm deeeeep melodic warmth and woozy, bleary ambient blur. So so so nice. Fans of all things drifty and droney will be enthralled and entranced. Pressed on extra thick vinyl, housed in thick silkscreened cardstock jackets, also includes a cd (not a cd-r) with the same music, only digital.

MPEG stream: A Beam Of Light Bends Back Upon Itself...
MPEG stream: Everything Disappears In A Tunnel Of Light...

Pandemonium, home of AQ faves Hint, Double Nelson, and Guapo come through again with the curiously named Andy's Car Crash. Seriously fucked mix of musique concrete, jazz, noise and post rock. Lots of hypnotic rocking, lots of click and pop and buzz, lots of super intense weirdness. Recommended.

Six extended dancehall mixes of Horace Andy from 1982. This is an excellent collection of recordings and is highly recommendable to those who picked up -- and enjoyed -- the "Nice Up The Dance" comp we listed a little while back. Though the cuts aren't quite as lengthy as those on "Nice Up The Dance", most clocking in around 7 minutes, each has a good long dub bridge in the middle with

RealAudio clip: Money Money

Another excellent, albeit quite possibly not entirely authentic, collection of dubs from Jamaican Recordings (please see description of King Tubby's "Lost Treasures" also reviewed on this list for more on this.) Featuring Bunny Lee's house band the Aggrovators (in this case Sly & Robbie on drums and bass, Earl Smith on guitar, Winston Wright on organ, Augustus Pablo on keyboards, Tommy McCook on saxophone and Bobby Ellis on trumpet) the backing tracks on this album were recorded at Randy's, Channel 1, King Tubby's, and Harry J's between 197 and 1976. There are some excellent dubs of some great Horace Andy tracks including Skylarking, My Guiding Star (a Heptones original), Just Say Who, Love of A Woman, Money Money and more. Like all Jamaican Recordings releases the CD version includes bonus tracks not available on the vinyl.

RealAudio clip: Zion Dub
RealAudio clip: Use This Dub

Plain white sleeve 10" from Jamaican Recordings' forthcoming full length collection of Horace Andy dubs. Dub Larking obviously is a dub of Skylarking, Dub Ah Fulfil is a rare dub of "Serious Thing" (and will only be available on the CD version of the full length when it's released in the near future.)

After Massive Attack revived Horace Andy's career with his beautiful cameos on "Mezzanine," Horace Andy presents his first solo recordings in quite a long time (a decade or two?). Recorded with Clive Hunt at Tuff Gong in Kingston, Jamaica, "Living In The Flood" has a rather dry modern reggae sound, probably to emphasize Horace Andy's warbly, delicate voice which is a beautiful thing, but the music (often with sappy 80s anglo-jazz overtones) tends to detract from his overall ability.

MPEG stream: If I Wasn't A Man
MPEG stream: Freedom

Low priced double disc anthology of vocalist Horace Andy, apparently a part of a series of anthologies of Jamaican artists being released by Recall. Each collection comes with a fair amount of biographical notes on the artist and generally make good starting

RealAudio clip: Love Is A Treasure

Not to be confused with the 1997 release of the same name on Massive Attack's Melankolic label (basically a best of that included some Massive Attack tracks.) Skylarking was Andy's first album, produced by Coxsone Dodd and released in 1972. Along with the

RealAudio clip: Where Do The Children Play?
RealAudio clip: Skylarking
RealAudio clip: Don't Cry Little Girl

A couple of excellent, albeit *completely* different, tracks extracted from the archives of Bronx's now legendary Wackies label & recording studio. The A-Side is a super sweet discomix of Horace Andy's "Musical Episode" from 1982. Clocking in at 6 minutes it's one of the nicest cuts I've heard come out of Wackies, replete with pounding kumina drumming even; so it's all the nicer that it's extra long. The B-Side is equally great, but such a polar opposite that it's amazing they grace the same slab. Legend has it, that this 1979 track was Lloyd Barnes' (a.k.a. Bullwackie) only attempt at breaking into hip hop. On it three kids, apparently young Jamaican emigrees to the U.S., give their all in true Sugarhill Gang form, doing their best to imitate the New York patois with their stream of consciousness lyrics which go on endlessly. What's better is that the version offered here was the B-Side to the original single, so about half way through it gets totally fucking dubbed out, with drums and bass dropping in and out, echo bounced off the vocals -- which sounds totally strange on frenetic hip hop delivery, as opposed to a slow reggae track -- and kooky electronic sounds. The total length of the track is almost 11 minutes, putting it up there as one of the longest hip hop tracks ever. For those without access to a turntable, fear not, these two tracks are a preview to a full length compilation being released by Dis-Joint.

RealAudio clip: Musical Episode
RealAudio clip: Wack Rap

Two stalwarts of the industrial underground team up on this split cassette from Black Horizons. There is a vinyl version too of this album on Peripheral Records out of the UK. Sadly, we don't have the vinyl. Cassette, we do have - at least, for the time being. This Dismal World is an apt title for these death-industrial maelstroms of suffocating blackness, malcontent noise, and hammer-smashed rhythms. The German outfit Anemone Tube graces us with "Threnody For The Dejected" whose two tracks are lumbering representations of dread and horror through ashen clouds of hiss and pitch-black synth tones. The first track rises and falls with the dying breath of a leviathan beast fully aware that its next existential moments may simply be its last or perhaps worse be trapped in infernal damnation. Hardly could this be described as pleasant listening; but those infatuated with SPK, Lustmord, and Anenzephalia should take note. Japan's Ichiro Tsuji (aka Dissecting Table) has long specialized in apocalyptic orchestrations of bone, throat, and steel; and there's no shortage of slowly bashed scrap-metal and guttural utterances here. His monotone ritualized incantations at the beginning of this track are consumed by the aggregate white noise from reverberant klang and overblown distortion with blood-garbling screams and bellows emanating throughout. It's as if Tsuji is drilling into his own skeleton, embedding machined technology and armored plates creating his own cybernetic reinterpretation of the human form, all done without the benefits of anesthesia. Early Neubauten? Missing Foundation? Yes!

It's pretty difficult to avoid being forever obsessed with a band whose debut record we described as "quite possibly one of the scariest records we have ever heard." And we weren't kidding. We were barely even engaging in hyperbole. Noehaem by Anenzephalia is literally a collection of sounds as terrifying as is physically possible. The sonic representation of utter horror and hopelessness. But beautiful and entrancing in its absolute musical negativity. And thus we haven't avoided it, not in the least. We have remained obsessed. Waiting patiently for some new transmission from whatever hellish pit this band or person called Anenzephalia calls home. And finally our patience has been rewarded. Not a new record, but archival recordings from 1992-1995, but just as gorgeously malevolent and hatefully dark as the records proper. For those of you who have yet to bear witness to the bleak abject sonic doom of Anenzephalia's Noehaem record, or either of the other two full lengths we've reviewed here in the past, the liner notes to Ephemeral Dawn should definitely set the tone: Here the Dream Dies! Dominated by obsession of power and lust, led by unwritten rules from clinical birth to clinical death. Ask the epithet of God! It still is deception. No ideology, no progress; NO THING. The world smothered in absurdity. Then how about the booklet of photos, a crucifix, Sadam Hussein, a decomposed skull, a man being set on fire, the same crucifix inverted� as visually dark and creepy as the music inside. And the music inside is indeed gloriously insidious. A world of crawling pitch black drones, of smeared slabs of grinding industrial whir, of disembodied voices, clouds of hiss, bits of warble and muted chimes, weird grit and abstract distortion, dense fields of clanging clattery machinery, machinelike rhythms, thick swarms of insect like static, robotic vocals, crumbling distorted melodies, murky black pools of delay drenched sound fragments, collaged voices and melodies, all churned into an unrecognizable black mass (pun intended), viscous and caustic, slow moving and glacial� Black ambience is probably the neatest descriptor for the world Anenzephalia has conjured up from the dark, but in the act of conjuring these sonic spirits it becomes so much more than ambient music. There is some internal propulsion, sometimes rendered in actual beats, other times, in a subtle yet impossible to resist forward momentum, as if some dark force was dragging you to your doom. A gorgeously dreary, and epically miserablist world of blackened industrial drones, muted martial beats, abstract shimmer and drift, corrosive grind and soft focus low end flutter, all woven into a divine end of the world threnody for the black hearted and soulless.

MPEG stream: Beneath The Shroud
MPEG stream: Regime
MPEG stream: Kachexie

Limited stock on this singles collection from Anenzephalia, one of our favorite Industrial noise projects. We had the good fortune of coming across the first Anenzephalia 7" here at the shop. Packaged in an oversized sleeve, the design featured a handwritten death certificate and supposedly various medical tools attached to the cover. Forceps, speculum, surgical scissors, razor blades, etc. were the reported objects that could have been included; but this copy of the single was missing that piece of medical ephemera. Such an object d'art came straight from the industrial culture of SPK's Information Overload Unit, complete with autopsy photos, low-rent pornography, and ghastly war footage. Anenzephalia's unsmiling plod of death-industrial orchestrations is hardly what could be considered singles fodder, yet here it is - the Anenzephalia singles collection. That medical tool single "Lyse" is featured alongside three other, long out of print singles. Anenzephalia harvests the fields of horror film design with a bloody scythe, with intermingled shortwave radio transmissions and megaphone barked vocals as the unreliable narrator of your own death and salvation, spluttering amidst lugubrious electronic crawls of heavy-as-fuck low-end throb and the creeping torpor of radioactive blood infusions, deliberately septic treatments, and other maladies of medical procedures gone horribly, horribly wrong.

MPEG stream: Induratio Penis Plastika
MPEG stream: A Tribute...
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An abundance of decaying noise has long weighed heavy on Anenezephalia's poetics of despair, blight, and horror, culminating in some of our favorite death-industrial albums that continue to terrify us years after their original release. On Kaltwelt, Anenzephalia returns with another monstrous electronic sermon of hellfire and brimstone, delivered in B. Moloch's signature of dehumanized coldness over nihilist industrial arrangements. The ideals and aesthetics for Anenzephalia are that of the classic industrial agenda, when Throbbing Gristle would hold up a mirror of death for the rest of society to see or when SPK would subject their audience to a barrage of squalid tone, autopsy footage, and porn or when Lustmord would open the gates of hell to allow the suffocating sound of damnation to reverberate throughout his subterranean drones. Anenzephalia may have come years after B. Moloch's influences, but his work is no less effective; and in many ways, the obsessive continuation of that aesthetic has honed his work into an even more potent language. A sinister atmosphere hangs about the entire album with B. Moloch's vocals appearing on about half the tracks, at times appearing as a detached Charon character, clinically describing the horrors of the world to his passengers and other as a consummate naysayer, condemning anything and anybody to a life of misery and disease. "Bodies Of Gold" girds a caustic, claustrophobic noise onto a squelchy, deconstructed rhythm that could almost reflect the brooding, blackened dub of Raime, but B. Moloch dispenses with any fantasies of dancing to a track like this thanks to his grimly mechanize, distorted monotone vocals. The intensity of the dread and discomfort is increased on "Mind Kalvary" through the robotic churn of Schnitzler meets Andromeda Strain step sequences. As bleak and hypnotic as ever.

MPEG stream: Aes
MPEG stream: Bodies Of Gold
MPEG stream: Mind Kalvary

We described Anenzephalia's 2004 release Noehaem, as "quite possibly one of the scariest records we have ever heard", and it really was. Some sort of a imaginary soundtrack to a movie so scary no one could see it without dying of fright. Drones, and strings, and creaking ambience, some impossible mix of Ligeti and Lustmord. We'd been anxiously awaiting a new full length when we discovered this live cd-r. We ordered as many as we could, but only managed to get 10 copies. Which of course means these will be gone in a flash, but at least ten of you will get to partake in this dark and dangerous live action. Live Anenzephalia is a much different beast. A much noisier beast. A glowing red eyed, hunchbacked black shape, hunkered down beneath a pile of electronics, unfurling coruscating clouds of noxious black fog and processed megaphone vocals. Streaks of white hot feedback, snippets of old speeches, grinding rhythmic distortion, disembodied voices, old folk songs, white noise, shortwave interference, buzzing glitched out electronics and super distorted buzz, all ground into one huge lumbering abstract blacknoisebeast. Still pretty damn scary, but now extra noisy to boot! Packaged in a weird shaped booklet, containing all kinds of creepy images, drawings and diagrams. Each disc is hand numbered on the cd. SUPER LIMITED. ALREADY OUT OF PRINT. WE HAVE THE LAST 10 COPIES, SO ACT FAST...

MPEG stream: Life Penalty
MPEG stream: Savak Chair

This is quite possibly one of the scariest records we have ever heard. It's occasionally pretty, occasionally noisy, but always haunting and pregnant with the possibility of tragedy. Not sure how or why this particular record evokes such a strong reaction, but this most recent record by German ambient noise terrorists Anenzephalia pushes all of those buttons. Feeling like you're being followed, sensing you're about to die, knowing that there is nothing you can do about anything...powerful stuff. First there are rumbling strings, reverberating in vast expanses of near silence. Like a twentieth century classical score to a horror movie, Lustmord plays Ligeti, with a dark sweeping romanticism tempered by slight unease. Soon, we're subsumed by a dense field of distorted crackle, over a simple militaristic clunk, like a mysterious stranger trudging up a flight of rickety stairs, while a super distorted voice buried in the shortwave struggles desperately to reach across from the other side. The record continues on in a similar fashion, a hair raising, lugubrious crawl through massive washes of low end throb, surrounded by a cracking field of interference, wth random distant clanks and clatter, all coalescing into a barely discernable rhythmic pulse, that mesmerises and leads you deeper. This sounds like the soundtrack to the scariest haunted house ever, but unlike normal 'haunted house records', Noehaem would have the neighborhood children having coronaries, soiling themselves, and sent soon afterwards to asylums to live out the rest of their catatonic days. This is some dark and doomy, creepy and dreary, and gorgeously frightening stuff.

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We described Anenzephalia's 2004 release Noehaem, as "quite possibly one of the scariest records we have ever heard", and it really was. Some sort of a imaginary soundtrack to a movie so scary no one could see it without dying of fright. Drones, and strings, and creaking ambience, some impossible mix of Ligeti and Lustmord. Live Anenzephalia is a much different beast. A much noisier beast. A glowing red eyed, hunchbacked black shape, hunkered down beneath a pile of electronics, unfurling coruscating clouds of noxious black fog and processed megaphone vocals. Streaks of white hot feedback, snippets of old speeches, grinding rhythmic distortion, disembodied voices, old folk songs, white noise, shortwave interference, buzzing glitched out electronics and super distorted buzz, all ground into one huge lumbering abstract blacknoisebeast. Still pretty damn scary, but now extra noisy to boot! This is a super limited vinyl reissue of a super limited edition cd-r "Live At Karlsruhe" that we had stocked back in the day. Restocks are unlikely.

MPEG stream: Life Penalty
MPEG stream: Savak Chair

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

Four song debut 12" from Oakland's DJ Aneurysm. Side one features dark, aggressive digital destruction that would be right at home beside your DHR and Ambush records. Side two is more dance-y and melodic, with distorto beats and (unfortunately outdated and cheesy) spoken voice samples.

Been meaning to list this for while now, and unfortunately it's now out of print, and we now have the last ten or so copies, never to get more. So as always in these cases, don't dawdle. From the same label that has brought us some of the most crucial underground black metal of the last few years (Xasthur, Nortt, The One, Blodulv, etc.) comes a new (to us) Danish outfit, who specialize in that sound we love so much: ultra grim, ultra frigid, buzzing mostly midtempo black metal, a la Graveland, Nargaroth, Woodtemple, with high end fuzz-drone distortion, mosquito-like minor key melodies, simple galloping drum beats and that from-hell, paint peeling death rasp, all smeared into a buzzing mesmerizing blackened blur. Totally hypnotic and drone-y. Halfway through there's a gorgeous ten minutes of muted, melodic ambience, as dreamy and subtly beautiful as any of our favorite drone records. Followed by a truly bizarre melodramatic piano driven ballad, that's interrupted sporadically by ultraviolent squalls of sandblasting black metal buzz. Weird. And quite cool! And again, LAST TEN COPIES! ONCE THEY'RE GONE THEY'RE GONE FOR GOOD!

MPEG stream: Portene Abnes
MPEG stream: Intethedens Larm
MPEG stream: I Der Knaeler I Ynk

Record number two from this amazing Danish black metal one man band, the one man being the same fellow responsible for Make A Change... Kill Yourself and Holmgang. Ultra grim, ultra frigid, buzzing mostly midtempo black metal, with high end fuzz-drone distortion, mosquito-like minor key melodies, simple galloping drum beats and that from-hell, paint peeling death rasp, all smeared into a buzzing mesmerizing blackened blur. Fucking awesome! Comes in a swank full color digipak.

MPEG stream: Portene Abnes
MPEG stream: Intethedens Larm
MPEG stream: I Der Knaeler I Ynk

Those unfamiliar with the Danish black metal band Angantyr, might be surprised to find out that the man responsible for Angantyr, is the very same man who sonically slit his wrists and bled out the brilliantly depressive Make A Change� Kill Yourself discs, as well as being the dark soul who conjures up the grim old school buzz of Holmgang. And while our black and broken hearts may belong to Make A Change� Kill Yourself, out head banging, spike encrusted, grim kvlt souls bow before the buzzing black Lord Angantyr. Here, Angantyr forms a sinister sonic alliance with mysterious Swedish duo Nasheim, and the two offer up some seriously awesome blasting and frosty grimness� Angantyr offer up three tracks, nearly a half hour of classic Scandinavian style old school black metal, furious bursts of scalding blackness, as well as loping midtempo Burzumic dirges, massive swaths of washed out buzz, harsh howled vocals, mournful minor key melodies draped over spikey blackened crags, plenty of MACKY's miserablism finds its way into Angantyr's mysterious black world which is a very good thing. The final track is live, and super lo-fi, but ultra intense, thrashing and brutal, you can almost hear the sweat and blood, and fire and brimstone. So great. Nasheim counter with a single 25 minute track, an epic journey through a buzzing black soundworld, beginning with simple swooning folky strum, the tranquility shattered by a black wall of sound, a thrashing buzzing burst of gnarled guitars, hyperspeed drumming, and strange strangled howls, before retreating once again to a gentle little sonic glade, which is immediately laid flat by a colossal riff and an avalanche of pounding drum crunch, which gives way to a killer extended blackpsych jam, sounding almost like Opeth, with arpeggiated acoustic guitar under a relentless buzz, a killer melodic lead, and a loping waltz-like tempo. The rest of the record veers back and forth between variations of both, lurching at one point into a strange, almost Amrep sounding part, before resuming its epic journey, all soaring majestic guitar harmonies and chaotic drumming, finishing off with a stretch of almost Viking sounding blackness. It's sort of hard to describe such a massive and sprawling slab of sound in such a small space, needless to say, the black and buzz obsessed will not be disappointed. So many parts, so many styles and various shades of black, all deftly arranged into a single symphony of depressive buzz.

MPEG stream: Arngrims Haevn
MPEG stream: Sovande Mjod Vill Jag Tomma

New issue of this wonderful little experimental/electronica 'zine out of Texas. Interviews and features this time include: Matmos (yay!), Carl Stone, Plastikman, Matthew Thomas, Thomas Brinkmann, Japan's Zero Gravity label, Germany's Kreisel label, heroin house, and lots more! There's even an essay by Terre Thaemlitz about his new Gary Numan piano interpretation project. A great issue, except maybe for the part where the editor calls AQ-faves The Champs awful crap. Except for that minor lapse in judgement, tho, this rules...

The intermittent project Angel might become something more prolific, now that Pan Sonic has decided to terminate its mission leaving Ilpo Vaisanen to pursue other matters. Since 2000, Vaisanen has collaborated with Dirk Dresselhaus of Schneider TM under the guise of Angel to produce a peculiar set of electro-acoustic abstractions, often finding them working with the avant-cellist Hildur Gudnadottir. On thie new album for Editions Mego, 26000, Angel can come across like an even more plodding and menacing Supersilent attempting to remove all of its jazz references, leaving weird squiggles and gestures within a cavernous dank reverberation offset by crystalline electronics and found object manipulation. Such events were not uncommon in the narcoleptic sound collages that Pan Sonic would wander into at the end of some of their records. Gudnadottir's cello (and something called a "halldorophone" that sends a controlled feedback loop into the strings of a modified cello) appears on the glacial finale of the album "Paradigm Shift" with isolationist passages and radiotone flicker. All of this is set in contrast with the monstrous form destruction of "Before The Rush" composed with the help of BJ Nilsen. Here, Angel takes up the sheer hellish miasma torch with an explosion of digital abuse bracketed by leaden seas of grey drones and all sorts of post-Tudor scabrous noises and nervous scratches.

MPEG stream: Before The Rush
MPEG stream: In
MPEG stream: Paradigm Shift

Pan Sonic's Ilpo V. and partner in crime Dirk from Schneider TM return with another Angel-ic recording, their follow up to last year's excellent and epic Kalmukia, which we likened to both KTL and Earth circa Hex. This time around they're not quite so much in that digitaldoomdrone mood... There's still plenty of digital glitch and distortion, and the 20-minute "Mirrorworld" is a loud n' lovely, humming white noise dronewerk, as is the shorter and sparser "Unsymmetric Distance", for instance, but many of the 10 tracks on Hedonism indulge in electronic noise and clatter that's a lot more active and buzzing. The broken rhythms, grinding textures, and piercing pulses of tracks like "Holding Loose" and "Dropping The Ego" contrast with the more contemplative nature-sounds field recordings heard in the mix towards the end of the album, for a much more varied listen than Kalmukia.

MPEG stream: Adrenaline Strike
MPEG stream: Mirrorworld
MPEG stream: Dropping The Ego

Oooh, moody. Ilpo Vaisanen of Pan Sonic and Dirk Dresselhaus (aka Schneider TM) have recorded as Angel before, exploring the realms of noise and drone with discs on the Bip-Hop and Oral labels, bringing in guest cellist Hildur Guonadottir for the latter. Now they're officially a trio, and offer up a fantastic third album, released on Editions Mego, where this four part, hour long, totally epic album fits in nicely alongside the digitaldoomdrone likes of O'Malley and Rehberg's KTL. Kalmukia opens with the evocative "Bones In The Sand" which definitely has a desert-y feel, the wide open spaces, barren badlands. Desolation. Dunno about you, but it had us immediately thinking Earth (Hex-era and after Earth), with cavernous slide guitar riffs echoing forth across the wastes... The tremulous electric humming of the title track is next, nearly 20 quietly mysterious minutes long, graced with droning cello on the edge of feedback. The creepy loveliness continues on through "Effect Of Discovery", which builds up into a shimmering drone laced with metallic electronic whip-cracks and waverings. Full on distorted rumble is kept in reserve, hinted at throughout the thick buzzing beauty of album-closer "Aftermath: The Mutation", which is also filled with delicate percussive chimings and some of this album's most melodic moments. Packaged all fancy-like in an oversized rectangular sleeve, this is definitely one that fans of the most abstract/ambient side of Southern Lord's output (Oren Ambarchi for instance) should appreciate, along with those into Pan Sonic, KTL, etc. Satan was an angel, once, too.

MPEG stream: Bones In The Sand
MPEG stream: Aftermath: The Mutation

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MPEG stream: Rock And Rollers
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[ aquarius records catalogue — A ]