[ aquarius records catalogue

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 1201 through 1250 of 2272.

MPEG stream: On The Rocks
MPEG stream: Don't Leave Me Lonely
MPEG stream: Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore

Angel is the work of Pan Sonic's Ilpo Vaisanen and Dirk Dresselhaus (aka Schneider TM); and Hildur Gudnadottir is an Icelandic cellist whose resume is dotted with numerous collaborative projects through the Reykjavik based arts collective Kitchen Motors. Back in 2004, the three musicians collaborated at the Club Transmediale in Berlin, sparking not only this album but also an ongoing collaboration between Pan Sonic and Gudnadottir. It's Gudnadottir's cello that takes the center stage on this guttural drone album of languorous acoustic scrapings and sustained monotone, with the two other gentlemen augmenting the cello drones with Kosmische electronic sweeps, nervous sinewave aggregates, and bellowing gasps of noise.

MPEG stream: In Transmediale (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: In Transmediale (excerpt 2)

Yay! The welcome return of this great all-girl Japanese psych band. Now a power trio, Angel 'In Heavy Syrup still produce the beautiful, trippy sounds that made their previous three discs AQ-faves. Guitar-heavy psych rock, often evoking triumphant, epic soundtrack themes to Western movies, but with delicate, lovely vocals drifting into the mix. Hopefully this release means that the band will be coming to the States to play some shows again, sometime soon. Recommended.

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

SORRY.

Angel 'In Heavy Syrup were an all female Japanese psychedelic rock trio who flourished in the '90s, as you may know. We were always big fans, and a bunch of us here still consider ourselves lucky to have seen these girls live at the Kilowatt in SF, when they came over to play in the US one time in the mid '90s - an amazing show. The group released 4 albums, plus a "best of" compilation, but we had only ever reviewed their last one, IV, 'cause their other three albums proper pretty much predated our aQ list. And we thought they were all out of print, most of 'em having been released by the now sadly defunct Japanese label Alchemy. But, recently we discovered that one our suppliers still has copies - while they last - of the 1992 domestic US edition of Angel 'In Heavy Syrup's self-titled debut!!! Good news for any fan of the band who's been looking for it for years, but also good news for ANYONE who would enjoy some absolutely gorgeous, melodic and moody tripped out psych rock. It's a mix of dreamy balladry and all-out storms of distortodelic heaviness, breathy female vocals and swirling psych-guitar solos. The Angel 'In Heavy Syrup girls had their melancholic, timeless sound dialed in from the get-go, and there are two (uncredited) covers on here that help illuminate some of their vintage influences - the first a pretty one called "Why Don't You Take A Sight-Seeing Bus With Me?" written by Japanese folk chanteuse Morita Doji (familiar to fans of Angel 'In Heavy Syrup / Hijokaidan / Subvert Blaze side project Slap Happy Humphrey), the other being "Underground Railroad" by great US sixties garage psych act The Lollipop Shoppe (aka Fred Cole's band long before Dead Moon!). This US version of Angel 'In Heavy Syrup's debut also comes with a lengthy bonus track not found on the original 1991 Japanese Alchemy edition, the nearly 12 minute epic "Crazy Blues", taken from Taste Of Wild West 3, an incredibly rare 1990 compilation that also featured the Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba, Solmania, Hijokaidan, Incapacitants, and UFO Or Die. A highly recommended find, for sure! (Also - interesting to note how much more seemingly solid and sturdy both jewel cases and compact discs themselves were made 20 years ago, compared to nowadays.)

MPEG stream: S.G.E (Space Giant Eye)
MPEG stream: Why Don't You Take A Sight-Seeing Bus With Me?
MPEG stream: My Dream

Another awesome sonic document from Angel Eyes, one of our favorite of the new breed of metallic post rock outfits, a la Pelican, Isis, Minsk, Conifer etc... This latest two song ep, gives us more of what we loved about their debut Something To Do With Death, long (two tracks that sound like movements of a bigger whole, one 16+ minutes, the other 10 minutes) slow building epics, spacious and expansive, dark brooding drifts that grow into roiling crashing chaotic heaviness. Whereas a lot of these sorts of band seem to have begun drifting one way or the other, ditching much of the metal in favor of a more ambient dark post rock sound, or alternately ditching a lot of the atmospherics and getting more and more metal, these guys still manage to deftly combine the two. The slow builds are super intense, gorgeously shimmering, the guitars fuzzy blurs, the drums a distant shuffle, the heavy parts are HEAVY, the guitars churning and downtuned and distorted, the vocals an anguished metallic wail, but even when Angel Eyes are at their heaviest, their sound is still streaked with gorgeous melodies, and sweeping cinematic heft, like Neurosis scoring the denouement of some amazing epic adventure film, it's almost impossible to not envision huge walls of flame engulfing whole cities, or a skyline gradually collapsing, or a planet crumbling and drifting apart, so totally evocative and intense and moody and emotional, just the way it should be. And the slow parts are gorgeous, brooding and darkly dreamy, a bit of Morricone twang, a bit of Calexico, a bit of Scenic, Godspeed of course, the various spidery melodies seeming to transform and become entangled before our very eyes, like the soundtrack to a time lapse film of the end of the world. The second 'movement' is the more intense, like a more metal Explosions In The Sky, only allowing the listener a few brief respites between soaring sonic dramatics, the guitars keening and wailing over shimmering fields of sizzling cymbals and dense squalls of tribal pound, the melodies haunting and emotional, all woven into the roiling metallic swirl, eventually fading into a droning whirring fade out... Packaged in a cool fold over ecopak, all hand silkscreened, the lyrics printed on the inside.

MPEG stream: Untitled 1

Angel Eyes are another band ready to make their mark in the blossoming post rock / sludge metal scene, and manage to do just that with Something To Do With Death, making -that- sound completely their own. So much so that upon hearing this disc we freaked out and immediately got in touch with the label and got a bunch of copies for the store. The general vibe is one we've come to love, the slow building brooding moodiness, a creeping post rock slow burn, minor key guitar, distant droney shimmer, simple martial percussion, building in intensity, the opening track could be Mogwai or Godspeed, with its understated majesty and about-to-explode urgency. Track two, the awesomely titled "By The Time He Was My Age, Orson Welles Had Made Citizen Kane", starts off with more loping post rockiness, but quickly lurches into some seriously fierce Neurosisy sludge, but within the roiling churning downtuned brutality, lurks plenty of mournful melody and subtle sonic shadings. Making this more than just heavy, more a an emotionally loaded ferocity. In fact each song is a expansive and beautifully convoluted journey, from massive pummel, to dreamy shuffle, to tribal ambience, to blown out guitarnoise and back again. So fucking good. Obviously, anyone who digs Isis, Pelican, Godspeed, Tides, Conifer, Minsk, Mouth Of The Architect, Rosetta, Minsk or any of the current crop of postrockmetal outfits NEEDS THIS NOW!

MPEG stream: Two Too Many
MPEG stream: By The Time He Was My Age, Orson Welles Had Made Citizen Kane

Bands should really label the side of their records. Especially if it's a split and the band they're sharing the split with has a somewhat similar sound. Similar to how bands that sound like SUNNO))) or Nadja should definitely label the speed a record is meant to be played at, since it often sounds equally good at both (or all three!) speeds. So we were super psyched to finally get a new record from one of our favorite post rock metal combos, Angel Eyes, and we threw it on, and while it definitely sounded similar, it seemed like a lot had changed. The sound was a strange constantly shifting melange of loping metallic post rock, lurching caustic grind and skittery jazziness. We were pretty sure we had mistakenly put the other band's side on, when they shifted gears and kicked out some seriously epic blackened screamo-y Neur-Isis style jams, and then we weren't so sure. Eventually we did figure it out, especially once we laid our ears on the side long single track epic on the flipside, but we did decide that we did indeed dig this crazy band with the crazy name A Fine Boat, That Coffin!, who definitely take the post rock metal thing and tangle it all up with screamo and grind, although we could do without the bits of jazziness, thankfully those are brief. But for sure, heavy and chaotic and epic good stuff. But flipping the record over, we suddenly felt right at home again (boy are we gonna feel dumb after all this if that side WAS in fact Angel Eyes), with a sound both warm and lush, heavy and crushing, brooding, pounding minor key melancholic slow building heaviness, epic and majestic, anguished howled vocals over super melodic metallic crush, monstrous and pummeling and almost orchestral at times, laced with cool expanses of shimmery, dreamlike low end guitar, streaks of glistening feedback, chiming bell like melodies, eventually slipping into a super minimal drift, all reverby and echoey, a woozy soft focus slowcore sprawl, that eventually builds and builds and explodes into a super epic emo metalpsych blow out finale. These guys are so good. One of the few bands, amidst the many who now practice this sort of thing, that should have the big boys shaking in their boots. Cool gatefold sleeves, a bit confusing which band is on which side, but you'll figure it out, and both bands kick ass, but Angel Eyes' sidelong track is worth the price of admission. LIMITED of course, we got our copies direct from the band, their LAST copies, which means when we run out we'll have to get more from the label in Europe, so if that happens, please be patient while we wait for more to arrive from overseas, and needless to say (but since that's the way we roll we'll say it anyway) ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY RECOMMENDED!

Woah. Just when you thought all the "long lost" bands have already been unearthed, something like this comes along and knocks you flat on your ass. Most of us first read about Angel Face in a great article in Ugly Things a few issues back. Other than that and a piece on the band on Julian Cope's Head Heritage site, the only other meager info that we could find about these guys was in French. Which makes sense, as Angel Face were indeed French. The band's confusing history began in 1974 with the core lineup of the Regoli brothers, Pascal (bass) and Julian (guitar), as well as one Riton Angel Face on guitar. Their biggest inspiration is undoubtedly the Stooges, but unlike every other band to rip off Ann Arbor's finest, Angel Face were in fact swimming in the same primordial waters as their heroes. It makes sense to assume that these guys probably dug "L.A. Blues" and "We Will Fall" as much as any of the Stooges' tunes, because Angel Face clearly understood that "heavy" isn't just about volume and power chords (not that those aren't here in spades), but also about pure noise and total chaos. In addition to this, one can detect a considerable Hawkwind influence, as well as heavy doses of krautrock. While other bands at this time were more likely to incorporate the latest sounds of punk's first wave, Angel Face kept things sounding firmly pre-1977. The end results are pretty mindblowing, tense and aggressive pieces that lock into a groove and pound the hell out of it for the entirety of the song with guitars that sound like sonic flamethrowers. Trying to piece together a timeline here is quite difficult (the liner notes are in French), and the band never even released anything in their lifetime, so what you have here on the first disc are demos and live tracks from sometime between 1975 and 1978 (originally released in 1984 on lp as A Wild Odyssey), strung together to form one surprisingly cohesive whole. We're pretty sure the first tracks feature the singer named Eric Tendz, who was described by the other band members as nothing more than a disreputable Iggy clone. And yes, there will be no mistaking Iggy's influence, but Tendz delivers things so perfectly and frantically that we can't complain one bit. His vocals are often punctuated by shrill little shrieks which seem humanly impossible, and his drunk sounding delivery makes it impossible to tell what language he's singing in (though we think it's English). Other tracks on the first disc are comprised of live recordings which predate the Tendz songs, pieced together in a very Faust-ian way with the band's preferred vocalist Henri Flesh (again, we think). These songs are more loose and unhinged, no doubt due to the guitar prowess of Julian Regoli, whose early presence in the band kept things psychedelic to the highest order. There are also a few tracks that feature just Riton Angel Face and Pascal, on guitar/vocals and synth, respectively. While stripped to their bare essence, these songs come off as strangely powerful and complete sounding. One can only wonder what possibilities might have existed for this amazing band. Unfortunately, there was little working in their favor, and it is easy to imagine scores of idiot punk rockers not knowing what to make of a band of long haired guys with aviator sunglasses. The story didn't end there, however, and in the '80s Angel Face reformed under the leadership of Riton and Pascal. The biggest change was the decision to add a female vocalist, Kim Nguyen. Truthfully, these songs are a bit of a letdown after the pure rock n' roll fury of the first disc, but mainly in comparison. The songs are pretty good, but just a little more straightforward, and the '80s production certainly doesn't help anything. Likewise, disc 3 is made up of some shoddily recorded live tracks and radio stuff from different eras. Some of this stuff appears to be from the first era and is quite good, but the songs don't benefit from the unfortunate sound quality. So, you have no doubt noticed the hefty price tag on this beast, and we realize the above paragraph may hold some people back.... BUT we seriously can't recommend the stuff on disc 1 enough, for folks into the likes of Soggy (anther long lost French band of Stooges worshippers) and of course The Stooges themselves. Check out the first four sound clips to see what we mean, and just keep in mind only 1,000 of these were pressed up - and of the dozen we ordered, we've already sold 10 on account of "tweeting" about it, so right now we've got 2, yes TWO - and we may not be seeing them again any time soon...

MPEG stream: Wolf City Blues
MPEG stream: 12 1/2
MPEG stream: Endless Road (Cut Up Songs)
MPEG stream: I Don't Care
MPEG stream: Secret Town
MPEG stream: Precious Urban Nasty Kid

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

SORRY. Everything this band ever recorded, before they became the celebrated VSS.

I (Allan) have been trying to regularly review some classic old hard rock and metal albums, reissues of stuff that we as a responsible record store -should- have on our website. Some have gotten better customer responses than others. I did a whole bunch of KISS reviews and those were sorta hit or miss. And then a few lists ago I reviewed Def Leppard's debut, On Through The Night, to small avail. New Wave Of British Heavy Metal gem Loose N' Lethal by Savage did far better, perhaps 'cause its more obscure. But here's something, well let's put it this way: I know for sure that not everybody out there already has this album. So we should expect to sell quite a few of these, ok? Like the two albums named above, this is a bona fide NWOBHM classic. And one perhaps more aligned with the Sabbathy doom/occult vibe that we so adore here at AQ, from bands both old and new. And this, their 1980 debut, is Angel Witch's finest platter. Believe me, we don't have room here to discuss the ups and (mostly) downs of Angel Witch's ill-fated on-and-off career after this album. Better to imagine that this disc (including all the bonus tracks of equal vintage) was all they ever did, and allow it to shine from its pedestal of NWOBHM perfection, just a brilliant concoction of heavy riffs, ripping solos, melodic vocals (with some badass shriekin' upon occasion), and dark, mystic atmospheres. It's catchy, too. They had a way with memorable, stick-in-your-head choruses - once you've heard the song "Angel Witch" itself, it's always gonna seem familiar, ferinstance. Angel Witch, as an exemplar of the NWOBHM, are indeed very British, with quite the Hammer Horror vibe. We'd think so even if one of the bonus tracks wasn't an instrumental called "Dr. Phibes". Speaking of bonus tracks, this reissue, the "25th anniversary edition", not only sports a "nice price" but also features even more extras than earlier Castle pressings, bringing the total of tracks on the disc to 20. There's six tracks from 7" and 12" singles and the Metal For Muthas comp, several of which are gems equal to the best of those on the album proper, plus an additional four live BBC radio broadcast recordings! Highly recommended to any headbanger worthy of the name, being a macabre NWOBHM essential in league with Diamond Head, early Iron Maiden, and Witchfinder General - indeed, we must say that any fan of WG should be aware of this 'witch as well!

MPEG stream: Angel Witch
MPEG stream: Gorgon
MPEG stream: Loser

Been wanting to list this Sheffield UK band's debut four-song ep for a while now, finally got a few in stock so here goes... Angela Valid (name of band, not a person) plays improv instrumentals, a skittery post-rock stitching together of all kinds of glitch and drone, whirring and clatter and feedback, dealt out with guitars, drums, electronics (synths, drum machines, effects...) and violin. Angela Valid's music is very textural, displaying both caution and conviction. We're reminded of the likes of This Heat. Tarentel. Sinistri. A (the Italian band A). Radian. Or, Tortoise + Wolf Eyes as someone else has suggested. At times it's like there's someone building something in the next room, or doing construction work upstairs, banging tools about. But at the same time there's constant jazzy rhythmics buried beneath it all as well. If you like this sort of stuff (we sure do) these four tracks are all very satisfying and leave us wanting to hear more...

MPEG stream: Terry's Incantation
MPEG stream: Ocean Ceiling

We have to admit that Angelblood intrigued us just a little bit more back when we thought they were actually a group made up of some Shaggs-like, weird teenage girls from Texas into paganism, making their own brand of fucked up psychedeli-metal, somewhere between Amon Duul and The Need. However, that was too good to be true. How would Japanese label Captain Trip ever have discovered them? As was later revealed, Angelblood actually have an (admittedly cool) hipster pedigree, featuring both NYC artist Rita Ackerman and No Neck Blues Band drummer David Nuss among others. And, on this, their third cd (kind of an mini-album, it has a 25 minute running time) they are joined by guitarist Mick Barr, the guy from Crom Tech and Orthrelm and others. His squiggly speed-metal guitar stylings are just another weird flavor stirred into Angelblood's dark brew, making them even more quirkily metal (and The Need-like) than before.

MPEG stream: Bellowed From Risen
MPEG stream: Fire On The Mountain

It's been a while since we've heard from mysterious tribal, psychedelic, what-the-fuck outsider metal outfit Angelblood. But they've returned, with a vinyl only blast of damaged metallic skree that sounds as fucked up and tripped out as ever. When we first heard Angelblood, we assumed, because of their sound, and the fact that their record was a Japanese import, that they were some mysterious all girl Japanese metal troupe. We only later discovered that Angelblood was in fact Dave Nuss from the No Neck Blues Band and artist/musician Rita Ackerman. While some of the mystery was gone, it wasn't enough to stop us from diggin their crazy sound. So now here we are years later, with a brand new missive from Angelblood, a stumbling, chaotic, drug addled, metallic transmission from some weird otherworld, that produces feral voiced majestic metal. Or whatever this stuff is. It's definitely metal, at least some of the time, although it spends a lot of time sprawled out in strange stumbling streaks of droning ambience, the vocals, a Yoko Ono-ish wail, washing over the shimmering dronescapes in the background. The opener is a free rock psychedelic trip out, the guitar spending more time swirling and humming than actually riffing, the vocals mewling and howling, the guitars gradually becoming more and more riff-like, eventually launching into some eighties style metal riffing, but the metallic vibe is wrapped around an ethereal drift, and strange loping groove, that eventually falls to pieces, the vocals dancing wildly atop an avalanche of drums and crumbling guitars. The second track is where things get heavy. As in heeeeavy man. A blown out proto metal riff looped hypnoticall beneath the wild banshee wails, and over the course of the track swinging from that metal riffing, to a more proggy rhythmic workout. Minus the vocals this could be some lost Italian hard rock classic, but the vocals turn it into some insane avant psychmental freakout. Our favorite track is probably "Edward's Call", a damged off kilter take on power metal, with some killer grinding start stop riffage, freaky leads, super convoluted song structures and more wild unhinged vocalizing. The whole record is so haunting and tripped out, heavy and cracked, catchy and insane. Imagine Hammers Of Misfortune if they got lost in some massive black forest, eventually went feral and were adopted by a tribe of Yeti's, the tribe's forest rituals eventually seeping into the metal psyches of the band. Years later, the bearded and filthy Hammers begin making sounds, a primal primitive forest metal band, the tales of their tribe told in wails and whoops and hollers, all over a stumbling metallic ritual. That's sort of what this sounds like. But not quite� Needless to say, this is essential listening for outsider metal freaks, and even prog nerds and weirdo krautrockers with a taste for the truly demented might be able to get into Angelblood's far out psychmetal damage. Awesome.

MPEG stream: Edward's Call
MPEG stream: Bellowed From Risen

This is the second album from NYC-based female rock trio Angelblood (featuring ultrachic artist Rita Ackermann and fashion designer Jess Holzworth). Musical styles on "Masses Of The Daggers" vary from riff-laden rockers (topped off with falsetto vocals

RealAudio clip: Daggers
RealAudio clip: Rat-Tail
RealAudio clip: Terrorist Bang Bang

Angelblood, with their vaguely black metal name and packaging (the gothic logo/typeface, forest images), immediately confuse. They are actually an all-girl trio of primitive psych jammers from Texas! Seemingly inspired by Amon Duul I, Yahowah 13, and the No Neck Blues Band (well, the latter two have Captain Trip releases that are featured on this disc's obi!), it does make sense that the Japanese kraut/psych worshippers at Captain Trip HQ would want to put this out, although how Angelblood got hooked up with them is a story I'd like to hear (well, artist Rita Ackermann is a member of the trio, so maybe it was her connections that did it). Considered by Forced Exposure to be "easily the most vital non-reissue release from Captain Trip to date." Dunno about that, but this does have a Shaggs-on-acid sort of charm, as the label suggests.

The return of one of our favorite purveyors of blissed out metallic dream doom, The Angelic Process. There is a brand new album on Profound Lore, which we do have in stock, so feel free to order that one too. We'll review that one on the next list. But we figured we oughta list this one first. ...And Your Blood Is Full Of Honey was originally released on Crucial Blast way back in 2001, in a run so limited we never even saw one. Now the band has decided to reissue all their old recordings and release them on their own Decaying Sun label, starting with this one... The Angelic Process' M.O. was much the same here as on the incredible Coma Waering, released on Paradigms back in 2006, slow burning metallic drone epics, the guitars effulgent and blown out, woven into huge washes of dreamy bliss, over simple machinelike rhythms, with soaring emotional vocals buried and lost in thick ropy swells of sound. Everything run through some sort of amazing vacuum cleaner effect that wraps all the sounds in thick swirls of foggy whir. It's like M83 and My Bloody Valentine And Jesu blended up and mixed with some Godflesh and Neurosis, a gorgeously monstrous plodding doom, smeared into blackened shadows that somehow glow warmly from within. It's not really metal although it is most definitely heavy, it's not really pop either, even though there are hooks galore buried within the murk, it's not industrial, although it is intense and mechanical sounding at times, and it's not really doom, although it is heavy and sooooo sloooooow. It's somehow all of those things at once, yet none of those things, a constantly mutating sound that manages to also mix in tranquil ambient interludes, drawn out stretches of keening guitar and smoldering drone, and wild bursts of full on amp crushing, speaker melting noise. It's like the sonic equivalent of being doused in molten metal, every track a thick, viscous flow of sound, pouring from the speakers in black torrents, melting everything within reach, turning all to ash. So good.� Includes two bonus tracks not on the original releases.�Packaged in slimline cases, with full color artwork, professionally printed cd-r's, each one signed by both members of the band! Probably limited, these things always seem to be, so even though we got a bunch, not sure how long they'll be around...

MPEG stream: Welcome To Oblivion
MPEG stream: ...And Your Blood Is Full Of Honey

A new slab of glacial metallic beauty from Paradigms, one of our new favorite labels. In the past, they've brought us the drone dirge of Hjarnidaudi (an aQ Record Of The Week), the chamber gloom of Amber Asylum, the cult black metal of Throne Of Katarsis, the druggy prog of Blueprint Human Being, and now two new releases, a grim slab of icy pagan Canadian black metal from Utlagr (reviewed elsewhere on this list) and this, the newest release from dirge doomists the Angelic Process. Described as slow motion doom drone, The Angelic Process are so much more. This is not just some series of cromagnon metal riffs slowed down and turned into 'art', nor is it a monochromatic wash of rumble and whir, not that there's anything wrong with that, we love that stuff, but the Angelic Process are more of a proper band, with songs, vocals, drums, parts, choruses, verses, all that normal band stuff. They craft simple, swoonsome dream rock, like M83 or Spacemen 3 or Cyann & Ben, albeit a lot more dark and ominous, but it's what they do with that rock, with those songs, that makes this record so special. And so mind meltingly heavy. Each of these songs is buried under a sea of warm sonic swirl. Where a normal band would kick on a distortion pedal for the chorus, The Angelic Process kick on a thousand, and it sounds like they maybe also have 30 or 40 extra guitarists standing at attention just waiting to dump a monstrous mass of churning thick blown out guitar fuzz all over everything. Closer reference points might be Jesu or My Bloody Valentine. The songs are moody plods, droney dirges, but within these songs, and beneath all the murk and fuzz and buzz, there are buried epic swells, heart rending melodies, soaring beneath the gauze and haze, it's like Low or Godspeed being backed up by Earth, performing live with Glenn Branca's guitar orchestra and produced by the Teenage Filmstars. Or maybe Swans if they made a record for French blisspop label Gooom. One of those extremely rare records that manages to be as breathtakingly lovely as it is crushingly heavy. The best blown out blissed out space rock drone guitar record since Loveless! SO RECOMMENDED! Limited to 750 copies, packaged in a mini lp style sleeve wrapped in a hand stamped brown paper outer sleeve.

MPEG stream: My Blood Still Whispers
MPEG stream: The Sun In Braids
MPEG stream: Crippled Healing

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: Sigh
MPEG stream: Trance To The Sun

We went from discovering what we believed to be the only recording from this Southern blissed out doomdrone duo, to suddenly being inundated with a bunch of recordings, old AND new. We're not complaining, cuz if you're anything like us, you can NOT get enough of this sort of My Bloody Valentine metal, epic swaths of blown out beautiful heaviness that drifts and shimmers as much as it pounds and pummels.� It's hard to know what to say about�We All Die Laughing that we haven't already said about all of the other Angelic Process records, if you're a fan of stuff like Jesu, Nadja, Hjarnidaudi, odds are you're already hip to the gorgeous sounds of the Angelic Process. In iTunes, the genre comes up as 'new age' which in a way it sort of is, but it's OUR sort of new age, blissy and dreamy and washed out and soft focus and blurry and abstract, but also heavy as fuck, massive and crushing and completely overwhelmingly intense.�We All Die Laughing is no exception, from the first track, which begins with a simple machinelike rhythm, and swirling ambient swells, a barely there guitar, before an avalanche of guitars drops from above, obliterating everything, somehow at once dense and heavy, yet so completely beautiful and packed with melody. Which is pretty much how the whole record stacks up, there are long stretches of low end shimmer, and simple tribal drumming, bits of ambient whir and fragmented melodies, but these are just breathers between the crushing black holes of sound, the million vacuum cleaners tuned to 'E' roar of their impossibly heavy sonic crush. You can read more of our AP gushing in any of the other reviews, but what more do we need to say, if you want it heavy, and want it beautiful, it really doesn't get more beautifully heavy than the Angelic Process.� Packaged in slimline cases, with full color artwork, professionally printed cd-r's, each one signed by both members of the band!�

MPEG stream: We All Die Laughing
MPEG stream: Bleedbeliever

What can we say that we haven't already said about this dynamic dronedirgedoom duo? Seriously, have a look at any of the other reviews we've written about The Angelic Process, and see us gush like crazy, what's not to love? Gorgeous swirling black ambience, massive crushing metallic pummel, soaring majestic melodies, the sound somehow heavy and brutal, but washed out and gauzy, a thick My Bloody Valentine haze draped over everything, voices drift amidst the buzz like paper angels dropped into a roaring fire. Everything glistening and sparkling, glimmering and shimmering, then roaring and grinding and washing over you like some suffocating black tide.� All�of their records are fantastic, each feels and sounds like a continuation of the one before it. As if they were all movements in some metallic black hole symphony, with each record, each movement, offering up its own subtle twist on the AP's black buzzing sound world. This latest might be the most sonically varied of the bunch. It's been out for a while now, but we had been working our way through the older titles first. The overall sound like the others is warped and warbly, a slow crawl though an alien world, like every note and melody is being twisted and bent, tangled up into shapes that confuse and confound, the distortion so thick and viscous it seems to be able to alter the natural order, to use gravity as just another effect, ton-of-bricks downtuned guitars don't fall forward like an avalanche, they seem to drift like billowy black clouds somehow, slabs of low end fall upward, guitars slither in reverse, vocals twist inside out, a gorgeous multidimensional swirl of sound, that occasionally coalesces into a roiling propulsive thunderstorm of blissed out doom. Songs grow�from whispers into roars, a black doom Godspeed, but the heavy parts aren't just heavy, they're unearthly, unreal, melodies are pulled apart into sparkling notes that spin and soar, dancing atop a churning miasma of crush and crunch. The sound is an impossible blend of light and dark, evil and good, beauty and utter and complete horror. Like Katatonia broadcast through a wall of clothes dryers, doom metal performed by a symphony of leaf blowers tuned to drop-D, pop songs composed using cement mixers filled with gold bricks, a DJ spinning My Bloody Valentine over diSEMBOWELMENT, Winter remixed by Tim Hecker, all nestled amidst dreamy drifts of hushed shimmer and soft focus ambience. We could go on and on and on and on and on and on.... needless to say, an absolutely essential slab of blissed out dreamdronedoooooooooooooooooooooooooom...

Reissued on ultra limited vinyl! Here's what we had to say about the cd: A few years back, Michael Gira dissolved the Swans, and effectively split his band's aesthetic in two, with the soiled ambient project Body Lovers / Body Haters on one side, and the orchestrated songs of Angels of Light on the other. "How I Loved You" is the second Angels of Light album and, as could be gathered from the title, is a collection of love songs. The album begins speaking of love with elation, as in "Evangeline," where Gira pleads to his object of desire with the wistful innocence of a school boy. The following "Untitled Love Song" is a strolling duet between Gira and ex-Pain Teen's singer Bliss Blood, both of whom seem uncharacteristically full of sweetness and light. With those being the most benevolent images of love that he has to offer, Gira then guides the album down a steep slope of sexual dependency, perverse lusts, and a gristled despair in which Gira's body continuously betrays his mind's wishes to never fuck again. From there on, each track from "How I Loved You" begins with a simple languid melody that could easily be mistaken for anything from the recent Low record but steadily builds in complexity, driving into deeper, darker, and more intense realms. So nice!

Now on vinyl! Right after the dissolution of Swans in 1997, Michael Gira released two albums of haunting psychoacoustic music as The Body Lovers and The Body Haters, and apparently gave up writing songs. Fortunately, this hiatus was merely temporary, as Gira delivers a new collection of acoustic guitar based songs as The Angels of Light. At times lush in orchestral swells of strings and vibraphone, at others angular and tense, New Mother is quite good indeed. Lovely reissued as double LP by Broken Sparrow in conjunction with Important Records and limited to 500 on black vinyl.

The fourth album from Michael Gira's Angels Of Light is the most easily digestible album that Gira has produced to date with pleasant folk-rock orchestrations built from Gira's simple acoustic guitar structures and unmistakably bold baritone delivery. Having heard that his protege Devendra Banhart has left Gira's Young God Records for greener pastures, it's hard not to hear a sense of bitterness in Gira's delivery of "The Kid Is Already Breaking;" similarly, most of songs tend to be portraits of specific people in Gira's life. In comparison, most of the songs that Gira wrote for the Swans dealt with the weighty metaphors of God, power, money, and sex, where as the songs of Other People are much more personal and fragile. Guest appearances from Gira's newly discovered acid-folk collective, Akron/Family.

MPEG stream: Lena's Song
MPEG stream: The Kid Is Already Breaking

As harrowing and depressive yet magical and luminous as ever, Michael Gira returns with his fourth proper Angels Of Light record, We Are Him. Recorded with his buddies the Akron Family, the overall feeling of this record is hypnotic and repetitive... It's tough for us to write an objective review, we're basically really big Michael Gira fans and have dug most everything he's done. He always manages to get awesome musicians, and his records sound really great, always. That being said, We Are Him is definitely different from all his other releases, maybe a little more angular rhythmically speaking, a bit more prog, even jangly almost at times. One of our favorite elements of Gira's music is most definitely his lyrics. They have a kind of universal quality, dealing with more existential themes, and less of personal emotional type stuff, which is rare in the world of song-writing. Akron Family are amazing as well and their unique musical contributions have much to do with the unique sound of the record. Stark and a bit abstract, stripped down, but still lush, and of course haunting and beautiful. And just really fucking great. Another great album in a long line of great albums. If you liked the other Angels Of Light albums, you'll probably dig this one too. It's certainly a development, and there are lots of subtle differences, but it manages to maintain the eternal quality of all Gira's work. Yeah, it's really beautiful, there are awesome brass parts too, the lyrics rule, the textures are evocative, GREAT ALBUM! That's all we need to say.

MPEG stream: My Brother's Man
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With the third Angels Of Light album "Everything Is Good Here / Please Come Home," Michael Gira has succeeded in severing the major ties to his former Swans, a band which admittedly underwent several distinct stylistic shifts in its 15 year lifespan. A few strands obviously remain, as Gira's voice is still central to his music, a proud and defiant baritone responding to the catastrophes of Gira's world, self-created or otherwise. Beyond his voice, fleeting reflections of the hypno-rock grooves of Swans' mid period albums "White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity" and "Love Of Life" manifest themselves in the self-described 'lonesome angry cowboy productions' of The Angels Of Light. As powerful and magnificent as the Swans were in the '80s and '90s, the suffocating abjection of those albums rendered them a climactic exaggeration of spectacle and theatricality. Don't get me wrong, "Filth" and "Children Of God" are still two of my most treasured (if that's the right word) albums. It's just that in Angels Of Light, Gira has eased up on some of the control tactics and allowed for his emotional core to speak unrestrained by the artistry of his productions. While continuing to express his aggression and rage, he has recognized the need to expose his weaknesses and his ignorance. For in those human traits, there is the possibility of profound beauty and tender wisdom. And I think it's fair to say that he's found an honest way of articulating those emotions on this album. At the same time, Gira allows for himself to take a backseat on occasion to the Angels Of Light, the band that he happens to be in. Throughout "Everything Is Good Here..." elliptical patterns of post-country / western motifs cycle and flutter with the motorik hypnosis of German krautrock. Another incredible, dignified release from M. Gira.

RealAudio clip: All Souls' Rising
RealAudio clip: Nations
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Cult cinema buffs might recall The Films Of Kenneth Anger: Volume One and Volume Two, a pair of dvds that we carried a couple of years ago. They were amazing and highly coveted documents of the filmmaker's works, not only because his films had been so elusive (and when they were found the prints and VHS dubs had seen better days), but also because Fantoma did such a beautiful job with the presentation (dvd digipak with slipcover and 48-page booklet). Feel free to check out our reviews for them if you want to "read and weep". Sadly their lifespan was fleeting, and those dvds are both now out of print. However, all is not lost because Fantoma has just released a new double dvd set to take their place. It compiles Anger's Magik Lantern Cycle... or in other words, his films circa 1947 through 1981: Fireworks, Puce Moment, Rabbit's Moon (both the 1950 and 1979 versions), Eaux D'Artifice, Inauguration Of The Pleasure Dome, Scorpio Rising, Kustom Kar Kommandos, Invocation Of My Demon Brother, and Lucifer Rising. Plus the extras include the Rabbit's Moon outtakes that were included on Volume One, and Anger's 2002 film about Aleister Crowley's art among other goodies. While you don't get the deluxe packaging of its predecessors, you do get all of the restored films in one spot at a nicer price!

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

SORRY. Such a momentous occasion! Renegade American filmmaker and (oc)cult figure Kenneth Anger's early works have finally been released on dvd! Fans and disciples, you need squint through fuzzy faded VHS and 16mm copies no more. The five shorts were meticulously restored by the UCLA Film Archive, and the dvd features crisp, high definition transfers. Anger's films haven't looked this vivid in decades. Stunning! Works include Anger's debut Fireworks (a sailor fantasy / nightmare gay cinema classic from 1947); Puce Moment (a 1949 short which exudes the absolutely giddy glamour of early Hollywood); Rabbit Moon (a mesmerizing black and white dream from 1950) - the original 16-minute long version could easily be imagined as an alternate-universe mime scene from Marcel Carne's 1945 cinematic masterpiece Children Of Paradise; the mystical garden stroll of Eaux D'Artifice (1953); and last but not least Inauguration Of The Pleasure Dome (dripping with garish colors and bizarre bacchanalia, this film from 1954 was Anger's filmic launch point into the rites and mysticism of Aleister Crowley). The dvd extras include extensive, frank commentary by Anger and rare outtakes from Rabbit's Moon. Indeed, Anger has long been known to go in and tweak his films years after their 'completion' -- changing music, re-editing scenes, adding, subtracting. Ardent, eagle-eyed fans will probably notice a few such cases on this dvd. And if that's not enough for you, there's also a big 48-page book filled with rare photos, stills, storyboard sketches, and an introduction penned by Martin Scorsese.

As varied as they can be, Kenneth Anger's films are pretty unmistakable. This Volume Two dvd set is just as stunning as its predecessor. The restorations are immaculate, the soundtrack vibrant. Details pop out that we were never able to distinguish on our old grainy vhs dubs. From the seemingly random assemblage of the Technicolor hued magickal aesthetics as seen in 1969's Invocation Of My Demon Brother (which incorporated pieces of an aborted version of his film Lucifer Rising as well as footage of a staged ritual deeply inspired by Anger's hero Aleister Crowley and featuring a cameo by Anton LaVey and a Moog synth soundtrack by Mick Jagger) to the pastel powder puffed homoerotic hotrod dream of 1965's Kustom Kar Kommandos to the bikers'n'black leather homoerotic motorcycle club dream of 1964's Scorpio Rising (shot like a documentary, it captures the period's dark visceral energies, the cultural and consciousness explosion, the social rebellion -- arguably the beginnings of protopunk); from the fiery Egyptian golden luminescence of 1981's Lucifer Rising (complete with soundtrack composed and recorded by Bobby Beausoliel in his prison cell) to the 1979 version of Rabbit Moon with its unexpectedly well-suited rock song soundtrack (an earlier version appeared on Vol.1)... Really, what's not to drool over? Through Anger's gaze objects, symbols, songs and people are fetishized to an intoxicating state. Even to those without an interest in avantgarde film, a schooling in esoteric knowledge, or an affinity with fringe communities, the images are nothing short of spellbinding, especially taking into consideration the time period in which they were made. The lone disappointment we found was in Anger's commentaries which come across as surprisingly uninspired, often vague and less than informative. Best to let the films speak for themselves -- a delicious visual feast!

Angle Of Repose's My Escaping Shoes is comprised of a dozen ominous, looming downtempo hip hop tracks laced with samples of dialogue, horns and a little flute too -- very much in the DJ Shadow Endtroducing camp. If there's to be any escaping to be done by this Bay Area artist, it'll be a sneaky creep through the shadows, not a mad frenzied run-for-it. Limited pressing of 100.

MPEG stream: Children Of Phoebus
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Seems like not a list goes by without a new release on local label Time Released Sound. And for this we are truly grateful. And once again, TRS does not disappoint, with this fantastic double disc from the oddly monikered The Angling Loser, who is in fact a fella by the name of Lee Anthony Norris, whose debut double cd The Author Of Twilight, seems to have a sort of fishing focus, hence the name, and the packaging (more on that in a moment), but really, it's not so much about the fishing, as it is, the setting, warm, summer afternoons, sun dappled trees and slow moving shadows, softly rippling water, and the gentle sway of the boat, or the hypnotic sound of the water on the shore, imagine those images created in sounds, and that's The Author Of Twilight. Softly swirling synths, billowing softly beneath mesmerizingly trance-like guitar figures, everything wreathed in field recordings, chirping birds, chittering insects, the lapping of water, the vibe is truly tranquil and dreamy, and most definitely fits perfectly with TRS's sonic aesthetic. A few of the tracks seem softly blown out, the sounds crumbling and blurring into indistinct smears of sounds, with almost a Caretaker vibe, while others are hushed and haunting. There's definitely an Appalachian vibe too, but it's an Appalachia in a much more verdant setting, green grass, and thick foliage, deep blue water, and clear cloudless skies, but always with shadows, lurking just out of site, the threat of impending darkness, and of the shadows always looming, gives the music a dark, slightly sinister tinge that imbues the sound with even more emotional heft. As with all Time Released Sound releases, there are two different versions, there's the deluxe, which in this case, is LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, and comes in a square, hand stamped green translucent envelope, inside a hand sewn flip book, antique fishing photos and postcards, a page from an antique angler's journal, and a printed, two sided insert. Each envelope is also tagged with a hand stamped vintage fishing cigarette card, and each one comes with an actual vintage fishing lure! Then there's the standard version, which comes in the same green envelope, and includes the insert, but leaves out all the rest. As always, WAY recommended.

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Folks have been chomping at the bit for this one and now it's finally here. A double lp collecting older demo material from French black metal horde Angmar and AQ faves, and current black-metal-bliss darlings Alcest. And after the most recent Alcest full length, the barely metal�Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde, and with the first ep being out of print and unavailable, a new Alcest record, even if it's an -old- new record, is enough to get the AQ black metal faithful, all in a frenzy... Angmar, who we have yet to feature on the AQ list but who we most definitely dig, offer up a handful of demos and rehearsals spanning the years 1998-2003. All the usual adjectives apply, this was long before the band streamlined their sound, so these tracks find the band raw and grim and frosty. Cold buzzing riffage, blast beats and some seriously creepy atmospheres. Every track a relentless burst of black fury, primitive and lo-fi, but all the more intense and blackened for it. The tracks are sprinkled with gorgeous bits of lilting folkiness, short stretches of dark ambience, one whole track of creepy shimmer, a gloomy piano / guitar duet, but it's the blasting buzz that define these guys, and they do it well, burning a black mark on the pale flesh of all that is holy with their beastly racket. Awesome stuff.� But Alcest is really the reason everyone wants this so bad, and rightfully so. Neige might not be a household name, unless you live with a bunch of black metalheads in France, but it sure should be, and probably will be soon, as Neige is the man behind Alcest, the equally brilliant Ameseours, as well as a member of weirdo black buzzers Peste Noire. The Alcest lp half of this split double, is one sided and features a 2001 demo in its entirety. And for those of you whose only exposure to Alcest is�Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde, you just might be shocked to discover that Alcest were indeed a real buzzing black metal outfit at one time. This demo definitely proves it. It also demonstrates, that even way back then, Neige had a melodic flair that could just not bee denied. The insane thing is that all of this music was written when Neige was all of 15 years old. Holy shit. What were we doing at 15? Definitely not composing legendary slabs of grim melodic black metal. But that's precisely what this is, an epic slab of buzzing blackness, run through with irresistible pop melodies, streaks of jangle and shoegazey bliss, but all merely as filigree for a seriously intense black metal buzz. Howled vocals, furious blasting rhythms, jagged black riffs, all woven into long stretches of midtempo moodiness, epic and minor key, and grim grim grim. But amazingly, without ever losing that mysterious melodiousness that would come to define Alcest's constantly evolving sound. Gorgeously packaged. Super thick, full color deluxe gatefold sleeve, pressed on nice thick vinyl. And extremely limited. ONLY 500 COPIES PRESSED,�each record hand numbered on the spine. We got about 30 and it's unlikely we'll be able to get more...

Killer underground black metal battle to the death between the Finns and the Italians, released on Finnish cult metal label Bestial Burst. Angmar, from Finland (not to be confused with the French Angmar) offer up some fuzzy plodding blackness, dirgey and primitive, ultra lo-fi and buzzy, with simple drumming, and super anguished vocals. A sort of buzzing black thrash with some old school Celtic Frost moments here and there. The True Endless from Italy counter with their own black blast, some serious buzzing black Mayhem worship. Lightning fast swirls of thick fuzz guitar, manic riffing and blurry blast beats. Two tracks of completely blown out Norwegian style classic blackness, bookending a gorgeously depressive doomic dirge, with sludgy guitars, plodding glacial drumming and howling guttural vocals. Slightly sexist (sexy?) aside: The True Endless also feature on bass, Soulfucker, quite possibly the hottest corpsepainted lady we've ever seen!

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A couple years back we flipped for a record by the oddly monikered Angst Skvadron, a side project from one of the guys in Urgehal and Beastcraft, but unlike those more traditionally black hordes, Angst Skvadron trafficked in something more proggy and spacey and psychedelic, still sort of black metal, but mostly something else entirely. Armed with a battery of vintage synths and Mellotrons, Angst Skvadron whipped up what was probably our favorite weirdo whatthefuck sort of black metal record of 2010. The strange thing was that that record, Sweet Poison, was in fact their second album, and somehow, the debut had disappeared before we ever got a chance to list/review it. Thankfully, both have now been reissued, Sweet Poison, which is reviewed again elsewhere on this week's list, and this one, Flukt, which we're finally able to review after all these years. Originally released in 2008, Flukt definitely hints at what would come on Sweet Poison, and while not nearly as far out as the follow up, it is sort of the perfect gateway from the more grim black buzz of Urgehal and Beastcraft, to the tripped out black prog of Sweet Poison. Flukt is still essentially a black metal record, but it's a weird one. Lots of woozy guitars, tangled melodies, strange vocals, the vibe is super Voivod-y much of the time, mathy and melodic, a bit sci-fi for sure, and way proggy. The record is rife with strange moments, the disembodied lo-fi guitar drift that closes "Silent Light, Alien Night", the creepy horror movie theremin melodies all over "A Song To The Sky", there's the awesomely titled "The Asteroid Haemorhoids And The Drunken Sailor", a super distorted chugfest, rife with cool sixties style exotic melodies, that sounds like some sixties spy movie, black metallized, or the woozy acoustic guitar laced lope of "Slaves Of Mental Distortion", which finishes with some warped sliced and diced sampling. There's plenty of rad psychedelic leads, and loads of atmospheric weirdness, but all of that is woven into some killer buzzing blackness, minor key and midtempo, striking a perfect balance between classic black buzz and warped blackened weirdness.

MPEG stream: Silent Light, Alien Night
MPEG stream: A Song To The Sky
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Trondr Nefas, aka T.B., is probably better known in black metal circles for fronting Norwegian heavyweights Urgehal and Beastcraft, among others, but odds are that might be about to change with Angst Skvadron, a blackened bastard offspring, that while still black metal is so much more. This is record number two from this post black metal trio, whose sound, if we had to describe it, would be something more like post space black prog. And were this easier to get, don't doubt that this would have been a shoo-in for Record of The Week. For some of us it's already Record Of The Year! Employing the usual instruments, but with an incredible arsenal of vintage and classic keyboards and synths, even a Mellotron, to add all sorts of texture and weirdness to their grim black sound. Did we mention ghostly female vocals? Yeah, these guys are a strange proposition, but have maybe catapulted themselves right to the front of the line, that line being our favorite new black metal bands. Just take record opener "Valium Holocaust" (great title), opening with a cloud or reverbed piano rumbles, before launching into a lumbering midtempo dirge, equal parts Ved Buens Ende, Khold and Voivod at 16 rpm, the guitars warped and crumbling, the riffs woozy, the rhythm peppered with toiling bells, and laced with little glimmering tangles of melody, and super melodic basslines, and of course some haunting female vocals, that make the track either sound like some black metal Argento soundtrack, or some blackened version of Hundred Sights Of Koenji, gorgeous and creepy and far out and spacey and totally mesmerizing. The whole record is so close to NOT being black metal. The riffs are gnarled and not at all typical, sounding almost grungy at times, like a way more grim black Skin Yard, which is definitely a good thing. There are moments of blackness for sure, but even then, the band seem dead set on subverting any sort of true kvlt cred they might otherwise be developing, by twisting the songs all up, whether it's adding Mellotron strings, and creating weird carnivalesque slowcore, or adding all sort of strange crooning vocals, or taking an otherwise black blast beat, and transforming it into a mathy stutter. The slow atmospheric bits are incredible, not just randomly quiet for a minute or two like most BM bands, these are fully formed bits of minimal moodiness, with lush tangled melodies, ghostly harmonies, thick wheezing organs, often giving way to spaced out blackened krautrock, all clean guitars, hazy clouds of reverb, rubbery Joy Division basslines, some full on whatthefuck post industrial lumber and crunch, with thick buzzy bass riffs, and streaks of static and hiss, all wound around some incredible black metal grooves, some of the best riffs we've heard in ages, that in other hands could be the basis for perfect pop songs, but here just infuse the blackness with a weirdly irresistible pop element, that helps make these songs totally weird, totally catchy, and completely genius. The record finishes off with an unlikely three song salvo, some warm almost sunshiney softly strummed minimal pop, all brushed snares, soaring strings, major key melodies, a lush gauzy dream pop dronescape, that gives way to possibly the most mathy and convoluted track on the record, all super tangled riffage, octopoidal math rock drums, serpentine basslines, super heavy and harrowing, with tortured super effected tripped out vocals, culminating in heaving doomic crush, before finally finishing off with the weirdly melodic title track, a wistful minor key dirge, all clean chiming guitars, simple spare drumming, strings and flutes (or at least the Mellotron version), gorgeous and dreamy and softly psychedelic, an appropriately unlikely finish to one of the most unlikely 'black metal' records in recent memory. And quickly becoming our favorite...

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Here comes the sizzle! We have been totally seduced by this steamy, dubby delight of a record, which pairs the detached, sexy & haunting vocals of Anika with the production and musical mastermind of Geoff Barrow from Beak and Portishead. Together they make a perfect match in creating a hypnotic, sensual sound that invokes in the listener a dangerously dazed and drugged out state of mind. Anika's vocals are like Nico's, but paired with a stripped down post-punk sound. Or like Kim Gordon singing for The Slits. The music is so spot on in its classic minimalism transporting us right back to the early '80s, bands like ESG, Gang Of Four, and A Certain Ratio, but Anika and Barrow turn the sound into something much more detached, smoky and sensual. We also hear a hints of French cold-wave pioneers, like Ruth, and the way underrated dubbed out project of This Heat's Charles Bullen, Lifetones. For all the records that have come out in the last couple years desperately trying to capture a cold wave, or now witch house sound, Anika stands well above that crowded scene as there is something so much more impactful and singular about her vision, that's just so entrancing and mesmerizing....

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We're always talking about how much we love '70s Italian horror soundtrack prog maestros Goblin. If you share our passion, then we've got a(nother) band for you! Not too long ago, we highlighted a cd-r by an artist called Umberto, who did a highly synth based, DIY take on the Goblin / giallo soundtrack sound. Everyone dug that one so much, we figured we'd also better list this, something else we just discovered, a band from England called Anima Morte who are obviously in love with Goblin too. Like Umberto, this is laced with plenty of buzzing, sinister synth. But unlike Umberto, Anima Morte are an "actual" band, a four-piece, and as such has a bit more of a proggy, rock sound, with guitars that are almost metal in parts. It's almost entirely all instrumental, with (synthesized?) vocal choirs wordlessly haunting the proceedings now and then. There's calm, delicate moments, with placid piano melodies and electronic drone, and other parts that are a lot more frantic, driven by busy bass and mathy yet grooving drums, getting almost into Magmoid, "Zeuhl" territory. Fans of the likes of Guapo, Zombi, and especially Crime In Choir - as well as Goblin - should be interested! Now, anyone familiar with the sort of soundtrack music that this is inspired should know that there's often a grandiose & romantic, perhaps slightly cheesy element to it that's also part of the charm, and Anima Morte don't shy away from incorporating that aspect of their influences too. After all, Goblin wasn't really "scary" music all the time, or at least they demonstrated that '70s discofunk can be as suspenseful as more obvious atmospheres of gloom! But in any case, Anima Morte are more creepy than kitschy, though of course the two can go together. While Anima Morte might not be making the most original music on this week's list, it's very enjoyable, if you're into the same spooky stuff they revere. It's done with plenty of verve and sincerity all right, and boy does it sound like the real deal, some lost soundtrack to a '70s Argento or Fulci flick.

Anima Morte make their home in the frosty Swedish North, but you'd never know it from listening to 'em. There's no cavernous old school death metal here, and there sure ain't no glistening electropop. Instead, Anima Morte deals in the grisly trade of Italian style instrumental horror prog. The Nightmare Becomes Reality is actually their third full length, and it was released way back in 2011 on cd, but we only just found this vinyl version. In fact, Anima Morte have been dabbling in their own brand of epic blood-soaked prog rock since 2007, which by our calculations puts them right at the forefront of the current Giallo slasher revival craze that we here at aQ HQ can't get enough of. The album opens with a brief wall of droning skittery back alley synths, barely masking the disembodied weeping, whimpering and agonized screams hiding underneath, but this is one of the few moments of relative reprieve on the record, and soon we've entered into a surreal realm of nightmarish groove and technicolor terror. The plucked dissonance of acoustic guitars chime like the monstrous bell of some crumbling ghostly church. Dizzying haunted pipe organs send the listener spiraling helplessly into a sweat-soaked lightless nether realm. Blood curdling stabs of hypnotic cyclical piano slice their way to the forefront like a straight razor gleaming in the moonlight. With its groovy bass, shuffling drums and moments of bright melodic spaciousness, the majority of this record sounds like Goblin at their most progged out, syncopated and heavy. And while the band also list progressive heavyweights like ELP, King Crimson and Rick Wakeman as influences (and justifiably so), the clean modern production almost give the album the feeling of a more contemporary group like Astra or latter-era Opeth funneled through hours of twisted video nasties and low grade slasher flicks. The more overtly gothic flourishes even recall the theatrical Transilvanian madness of a band like Notre Dame. And it almost goes without saying: if stalking the city streets in the dead of night with only the dread sounds of Blizaro, Orne or Tony Tears oozing from your headphones for company is your idea of a pleasant night out, then you should definitely check this out. Music to be murdered by indeed!

This has gone in and out of print a few times since its initial release in 2003, but it's been repressed yet again. A good thing too, since it's a pretty cool record. Also a smart thing, since the Animal Collective is soooooo popular these days, and while Campfire Songs was first billed as a separate incarnation of that group, there is no need now to carry on with such distinctions! Here's what we wrote about it way back on list #160: A really nice surprise from the mysteriously monickered Campfire Songs. Featuring members of Avey Tare And Panda Bear and the Animal Collective to which they apparently belong. Unlike the fractured electronic glitchery and damaged pop of Avey Tare and the costume rock buffoonery of many of their contemporaries, Campfire Songs is more akin to the murky Fahey-on-qualuudes of World (Of Dreams) reviewed way back on list #81, or the dreamy, strummy ambient blur of Scott Tuma, but with a way more washed out, late night free-folk feel. Which makes sense since this was recorded late at night, live to three minidiscs, on a screened in porch in rural Maryland. Very repetitive and hypnotic, with lots of Sunroof!-ish shimmer and plaintive vocals, rhythmic strumming, and field recordings of the surrounding forest. Equal parts sixties hippy folk, nineties ambient free noise and deconstructed indie rock twang. Good stuff.

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For a while there, it seemed like everyone loved Animal Collective. And heck, we were right there with 'em in the beginning, but then for whatever reason, we sort of stopped caring so much. Pretty sure they didn't start to suck, but we definitely started paying less attention, probably in part because of the endless hype, which as is often the case, tends to make us NEVER want to hear whatever it is being hyped to high heaven. And we do fight it, or try to, and we have plenty of super popular stuff we all love, but for some reason the AC thing was different and it sort of soured us, but holy shit, this new one is KILLER. And so goddamn weird. And we mean really weird. Our first response is to be super excited that something this warped and tripped out can be so popular, the idea of some random person on the way to Bonaroo or some other festival, to see Vampire Weekend, might be jamming "Moonjock" at deafening volume in their car, fills us with no small amount of joy. Our second response is to go back and revisit the last few AC records, and do a little catching up. Apparently this record is special, in that either it's the first record in a while with the original lineup, and maybe also the first with someone singing, or real drumming, whatever it is, it might just be what is making this so good. Check out the aforementioned "Moonjock", the opening track, that is sorta pop, but a wild strain of acid soaked whatthefuck electro noise pop, the opening actually sounds a bit like Lightning Bolt, in fact much of this record had us coming up with band math like Lightning Bolt + Phoenix = Animal Collective! Anyway, when the vocals swoop in, it gets poppier, but no less warped, the sound swirly and psychedelic, and seriously fucking catchy. We're tempted to proclaim "Moonjock" pop jam of the year, but it's at least gotta be top ten. Wild and chaotic and hooky and FUN, this is the sort of pop song that we can imagine going nuts over live, the sort of pop song that deserves some kind of pop-pit. No higher praise. When we first got this, as is often our way, we ONLY wanted to listen to this one song, over and over. And while nothing else on the record is quite as good, plenty of em come close. "Today's Supernatural" is definitely a close second, woozy and warped and like "Moonjock" CRAZY catchy, with a twisted arrangement, and a lush tweaked sound palette, that definitely makes this whole record amazing sounding. And to be honest, the more we listen to this, and the deeper we dig into the record, the more we're digging this, ALL of it, so fuck all the hype, this is definitely a new favorite...

MPEG stream: Moonjock
MPEG stream: Today's Supernatural
MPEG stream: Rosie Oh
MPEG stream: Applesauce

While we may not drool uncontrollably over Animal Collective like so many do, there's really no denying what a force and influence they have become. If imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery the boys in AC couldn't be more flattered, we've lost count of the bands who have sprung up trying to jump on AC's the multilayered infectious and ambitious psychedelic pop bandwagon, but few come close to that magic sound that these guys really have perfected over the years. Fall Be Kind is a perfect year end ep follow up to their full length Merriweather Post Pavilion. Almost thirty minutes of high in the sky romantic and epic soaring pop that infuses indie rock with electronics, loops, repetition and vocal harmony to create the sounds and songs that seem to seep into your subconscious. Pretty rad that they are the first band ever to get official clearance to sample the Grateful Dead as they do on the ep's catchiest track "What Would I Want? Sky". But it's the track that follows, "Bleed", that we keep playing on repeat as it's one of the most simple and haunting AC tracks we've heard in ages. And the record closes with "I Think I Can" which would have sounded right at home on Panda Bear's excellent solo album Person Pitch, with its enthralling Terry Riley meets Brian Wilson in a rainbow prism sound. Fans of the band are sure to love what they hear on Fall Be Kind. So while we may not worship, we definitely dig, and there is no denying how great these guys are!

MPEG stream: Graze
MPEG stream: What Would I Want? Sky
MPEG stream: I Think I Can

Hey, have the ever-evolving Animal Collective gone all rock'n'roll or what?! The first song on their new album damn near jumps into "Ballroom Blitz" territory. Okay, maybe not quite, but get a load of that feisty drumbeat! Hmmm, art-folk goes glam? Actually the first few songs also brought to mind the rollicking off-kilter pop sounds of Canadian combos Arcade Fire or Hidden Cameras and perhaps a bit of the psych-trippiness of Flaming Lips too. This indeed seems like their most accessible, rousingly pop excursion to date. Later in the album, things settle down briefly into more familiar ephemeral swirls on the song "Bees", but the band soon returns to downright rousing choruses a la Polyphonic Spree taking the good feelings straight through to the closing number "Turn Into Something". If you're already an Animal Collective fan, you won't wanna miss this! If you dig any/all of the bands mentioned above, you just might dig Feels too. We sure do!

MPEG stream: Did You See The Words
MPEG stream: Bees

A special treat for Animal Collective fans! The audio portion of this cd/dvd combo offers up the super buoyant tune "Grass" from their last album Feels, and accompanies it with a more abstract "Fickle Cycle" and a third number titled "Must Be Treeman" which is sorta like an Animal Collective microcosm encapsulating their catchy poppiness and more bizarre musical behavior in one track. The dvd features videos for "Grass" (European tour footage from last year presented in washed out negative), "Who Could Win A Rabbit" (a 'bad trip' starring humans in fucked-up bunny and turtle costumes), "Fickle Cycle" (the most artsy fartsily layered of the bunch -- footage shot while they were recording, grainy segments of a guy shaking his head furiously, projections on a guy's head wrapped in a sheet, hazy close-ups of an eye and with a soda pop product placement) and another live one of "Lake Damage" from a 2004 tour.

MPEG stream: Grass
MPEG stream: Must Be Treeman

Who is this gathering called The Animal Collective? Why it's noneother than these fine artists Geologist, Deaken, and -- perhaps most familiar to AQ customers -- Avey Tare and Panda Bear. With the help of Carpark Records, they've started up their own label on which this very album appears. Animal Collective throw everything into their sonic cauldron: prog, jazz, techno, noise, krautrock, punk rock and psych -- making for some intriguing ramshackle dissonance. Sometimes you'll get one, sometimes you'll get all at once. Faint melodies barely take shape and drift away. Raw percussive clatterings start and stop. Almost gutteral chants and barks materialize to keep time with the rhythms. This is some very 'out-there', unpredictable music... perhaps not for everyone, but we certainly dig it!

MPEG stream: Native Belle
MPEG stream: Slippi

No, friends, this is not the new Animal Collective album, but keep reading... This reissue of live recordings and WFMU radio performances from 2001 made before their first U.S. tour with Black Dice has only ever been available as an ultra limited handmade lp that needless to say has had an expensive afterlife on eBay. So it's nice to see it finally available and affordable. The tracks on Hollindagain, ramshackle pastoral field songs punctuated by pan-rhythmic acoustic guitar strums, echoed hollers, distorted electronics and ecstatic sonic bursts, show AC at their most sublimely primitive. In the 10-minute opener, "I See You Pan", the seemingly random sound of the band shuffling around their gear and setting up slowly develops into a static-y electrical build-up before becoming the backdrop for a slow lyrical-invocation-with-synthesizer that recalls Popol Vuh's Affenstunde reworked by Om. Marked by periods of hushed restraint and pummeling chaotic reverie, Hollindagain documents a raw but fertile period in the development of Animal Collective's unique sound. Fans of AC's early releases, Here Comes The Indian and Dance Manatee, in particular will find lots to like here.

MPEG stream: I See You Pan
MPEG stream: Forest Gospel
MPEG stream: Tell It To The Mountain

[ aquarius records catalogue — A ]