Yay! We LOVE Aavikko. This would belong at the top of the list even if their name didn't start with two A's. It's been a long four years since Aavikko last entertained us, with 2009's Novo Atlantis, and we've been jonesin' for more of this trio's delightful Finnish synthbeat krautgroove "monkey-jazz" weirdness, or as they put it, "Synthesator Disco Muysic Finland". True, this new release is but a "mini-album", but it'll do. It'll do nicely. Six new tracks, totaling 27 minutes, of spacey synthy discofied burble from another planet - Planet Fun-Fun! Two of the tracks feature some vocal parts, a rarity from this usually-instrumental outfit, they're provided by guests including Swedish singer & "Pop-Sensation" Slobyn. With vocals or without, electronic synthesizer sounds whoosh and swoosh and zap and zip - and form catchy melodies - whilst precision drum beats percolate incessantly & infectiously. Those beats are of course provided by the "human metronome" known as Tomi Leppanen from those other Finnish aQ faves, Circle (he's also in Pharaoh Overlord, K-X-P, and a bunch of other bands too). Meanwhile, Tomi Kosonen and Paul Staufenbiel both man the synths, with Staufenbiel being the band's main songwriter - which is why he gets his bust on the cover, as if he were a classical composer, this bit of hubris merely an example of typical Aavikko absurdity. (Busts of the other two appear on the back cover.) Kosonen also plays the "electronic wind instrument", some kind of a synth-sax, adding an extra jazzy touch. There's some electric guitar on at least one track too, apparently for the first time ever on an Aavikko recording, from another guest, a guy from a death metal band we think (?).
All all it's what we want from Aavikko: quirky, poppy, synth-laden good times!! They mix together Moroder-esque Italo-disco, space age bachelor pad exotica, cosmic experimental electronics, skweee-like video-game funk, faux-classical motifs, and more into these fun-fun tunes that you'll be flipping over repeatedly (both you and the record we mean) as you play it again and again. Or so we assume you will, unless you a have a cold, serious heart of stone. And this might even fix that.
Limited-edition 12" vinyl only. Includes an mp3 download card, however!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Let's just say that the fictional filmscores of Godspeed You Black Emperor or Barry Adamson are meant to be played at 33 rpm, to capture all of the length, space, and time of their bleak work. With that absurd presupposition, Aavikko's music are those filmscores meant for 33, but played at 45. Manic twin casios wiggle out catchy tunes that could easily come from Martin Denny, if he had been composing for 60's spy thrillers. While T. Leppanen (Aavikko's human metronome) propels the casio madness with pseudo disco syncopations and hyper-active breakbeats. Bad Vugum has coined the term maniacal monkey jazz for Aavikko! Please note, we have carried their records from time to time, but always managed to sell out of them by the time this lists actually get sent out. So act fast, vigilant AQ customers!
****Mississippi Alert! Mississippi Alert! Mississippi Alert! Mississippi Alert!****
Another great archival collection of Greek Rebetiko music, this time songs by the fiery and tempestuous vocalist Rita Abatzi. Like a mix of the sultriness of Edith Piaf and the anguished urgency of Selda, Abatzi was one of the most popular Rebetiko singers of the thirties. You can hear every nuance of powerful emotion in these songs through her incredibly impassioned vocals. It doesn't matter that we don't understand the words. There's such a haunting feeling of longing and pain that we're totally swept away as we listen. Comes with a booklet of notes about her history and unfortunately short singing career. Incredible!
Another new addition to the steadily growing flock on the Bay Area's Dynamophone label (also see the new boxed 3" cdr by Curium on this list)!
The shimmering atmospheric piano dappled washes on their debut Something Like Nostalgia are a perfect fit. The Abbasi Brothers follow serenely in the formidable footsteps of granddaddies of ambient quietude Brian Eno and Philip Glass. Really really pretty.
A mere glimpse of things to come... this is a two song collaboration between the wonderful Calexico and Amor Belhom Duo, with whom they've toured and are now making an upcoming full length.
Attention Calexico lovers! Here's another collaboration between them and the Amor Belhom Duo. You better hop on it though 'cause this one's limited to 1000. UK import pressing.
What happens when you combine equal parts Calexico and Amor Belhom Duo? A darker, sparser sound than either of the two groups. Raw, uneffected guitar, deep, rich strings and accordion, some french lyrics. We got a mere hint at the melancholic conspirings of these four men on their 7" entitled "Elevator Baby" which is also the lead off track on this album. And on the other end, closing the cd is a very lengthy, atmospheric, almost sinister track. The unsettling sounds of a hot arid eve in Arizona (where, by the way, this was recorded).
This has just about everything we love in an electronica record. It's got enough melody and rolling rhythms to allow for serious high rotation listening but its the nuances and unique take on an almost kraut-techno like vibe that has made us fall so hard for Holkham Drones. This is turning out to be one of the most unique electronica records we've heard in a long time. As it's not just an easy fit into a certain specific all the rage sub-genre, but instead it really is the essence of what we thought IDM was supposed to be all about. Music that pulls from minimalism and cosmic kraut sounds yet also is so full of fractured color and a melting Technicolor warmth. Like Gui Boratto being remixed by Arp or Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never paired with Four Tet and given the task of reimagining tracks from Cluster's Zuckerzeit album. This is the kind of record that will draw in both fans of minimal techno and left-field electronica as much as it will fans of hypnogogic pop and washed out psychedelic weirdness. We've been blasting this so much in the store and in our headphones as it really is one of those records that is perfect for the imaginary warped and woozy dancefloor we have in our heads. So great!
We loved the Public Guilt label, who brought us so many amazing releases - from the occult rock of Aluk Todolo, to the glacial avant doom of Habsyll; from the noise-jazz of Zu, to the spaced out dronescapery of Destructo Swarmbots; from the experimental turntablism of Strotter Inst, to the alchemical folk of Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat, and so much more. We were bummed when Public Guilt decided to call it a day, but were super excited to discover that PG mastermind JR was back with a new label, one that maybe surprisingly is focused entirely on underground / outsider hip hop and club music, all 45rpm 7"s, and all pretty goddamn great.
First up is this blast of crunchy, distorted B-more noise-hop, courtesy of Abdu Ali, whose sound is all club music drum skitter, big distorted bass throb, some dubsteppy bass wobble, and a wild flow that had us imagining him toasting over a Bug track, and really, The Bug is not a bad reference, this is futuristic club music, hints of old school DHR, a little dancehall, definitely noisy, but groovy and funky as fuck, the sort of bangers that must send the dancefloor into a frenzy, and even if you're averse to actually making it out on the floor, strap on some headphones, and dig into the twisted, avant production, sounds swirl, beats fracture, melodies crumble, grinding, frantic, electro freak-outs that lurch from noisy funky stutter to almost cinematic sounding big beat bombast. Killer stuff. Definitely wanna hear more, and super duper psyched on JR's new label!!
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!
Local metal guitarist Leila Abdul-Rauf (Vastum, Hammers Of Misfortune, Amber Asylum, Saros, etc.) shows us a surprisingly different side to her talents with this vinyl-only solo debut! Here she's set herself up as a cinematic-style composer, working with brass and piano, and a little gentle singing, amongst other sonic elements woven into the dreary, drifty, droney soundscapery of Cold And Cloud, the title of the record and its music apparently (not that we doubt it!) inspired by summers in San Francisco (& probably winters too, just look out the window today...). You know the old saying attributed to Mark Twain, about the coldest winter he ever spent being a summer in San Francisco.
Ambient and intimate, this is probably something that those who know Abdul-Rauf from her work with chamber goth group Amber Asylum will likely be more into, than those who know of her as a six-string shredder in filthy deathmetallers Vastum or the progoperatic Hammers.
Album art by Tor Lundval.
Ohio stoner/doom/post-grunge metal band Abdullah return with their 2nd proper album, continuing (sort of, read on) their tradition of heavy Black Sabbathy guitars/riffs overlaid with melodic vocals, that kinda sound like those of Dax Riggs of Acid Bath/Agents of Oblivion/Deadboy and the Elephant Men. Songwise, Abdullah are a bit like a slightly doomier version of the late lamented Spirit Caravan (if you didn't hear, Spirit Caravan recently broke up -- but don't worry, Wino joined up with Victor Griffin in his band, Place of Skulls...dunno if that means Wino's a Christian now, but whatever...ok, back to the Abdullah review) but with some big twists this time out. Before we heard "Graveyard Poetry", we were a bit surprised to see that that Abdullah's European record label was comparing this release not only to doomsters like Trouble as we'd expect, but also to a bunch of obscure, traditional 80s metal acts, among them, local SF semi-legends Brocas Helm! Well, it's kinda true, at least on a few tracks anyway (like "Deprogrammed" and "They, The Tyrants"), wherein they leap from the moody, grungy doom style they established on their previous releases (and much of this one) into full-on rockin', quasi thrash metal territory. In this context, the vocals remind us a lot less of Dax Riggs and a lot more of the guy from Diamond Head!! I guess they've been listening to, if perhaps not Brocas Helm, at least some early Metallica and NWOBHM stuff!! Cool. A nice surprise. Although, while WE like the mixture, it might be a problem for some folks who will either dig the 60 percent doom content, or the 40 percent thrashin', but maybe not both.
Ohio stoner/doom band, with grunge leanings. Maybe not as doomy as one might hope, 'cause the drummer/vocalists Ozzy-ish voice makes one wish for more Sabbath, less Soundgarden. Good tho.
Nice cd booklet art/design, kind of a surprise coming from the usually aesthetically-impaired Meteor City...
We last heard from Sabbathy stoner rockers Abdullah back in 2002, when the Ohio-based quintet released their second album, Graveyard Poetry. Now they've reappeared on this split release in the company of Argentinian weirdos Dragonauta, whose previous full-length Luciferatu was justly celebrated 'round these parts when it came out last year. Celebrated by those of us at AQ who like eccentric, proggy doom metal, that is! It's nice to hear something new from both bands, and although they take differing approaches to the stoner/doom style, they both have a love of Black Sabbath in common and also aren't afraid to be, well, a bit different (in very different ways, we should add).
Abdullah serve up six new tracks of moody, dynamic rock/metal with what we've described before as having somewhat of a "grunge" flavor. But Abdullah are much darker and heavier than the average Seattle band of the '90s... For fans of Down, CoC (circa Blind or Deliverance), Alice In Chains, and Acid Bath, we'd venture to say.
After the relatively mainstream and melodic Abdullah, Dragonauta seem even less "normal" than they already are (aren't?). They offer three new studio cuts and two live tracks, all of 'em being creaky, spreaky, riff-freaked workouts marked by fat psychedelic guitar noodle and raspy, strangulated Spanish-language vocals. From headbanging gallop to mellow jazz chords, Dragonauta take their compositions to various unexpected extremes, wild-eyed and drunkenly metallic at all times (except for when they're not). They're a bit like Los Natas but with even more of a 'we're crazy and we don't give a damn, let's play!' attitude. As far as we're concerned, they're the main reason to get this split, even though we like the Abdullah stuff ok too. But Dragonauta are just plumb loco and that really floats our boat in their moat.
We were totally knocked out by the energetic blast of tropical punk on Abe Vigoda's full length from a few months back. So this follow up ep did throw us for a bit of a loop as much of what we loved from Skeleton seemed to be missing here. Much less angular and energetic, Reviver finds the band 'maturing' maybe a bit prematurely (if that's possible). Even the recording quality seems aimed at a much different kind of sound, more akin to TV On The Radio and Interpol than No Age or Brazilian post-punk. Sadly, to our ears most of the exuberance and energy that made us love Skeleton so much seems to have disappeared. Too bad...
Over the last few years Abe Vigoda have been creating quite a stir as latest in a long line of spirited bands from Los Angeles who have taken the sweaty spirit of punk rock and injected their own twists and turns and warped pop sensibility. Up until this point the band was always mentioned in the same breath as their fellow Los Angelinos No Age, whom they share a similar aesthetic and home turf all-ages venue of choice, The Smell. (This record was also released on a newly formed label run by one of the members of No Age.) But boy do they deliver the goods on Skeleton, so much so that it's just a matter of time until everyone starts freaking out and giving them some of the same sort of mass attention that No Age have enjoyed over the last couple years.
This is some seriously caffeinated and super charged now-sound. Sort of like Feels era Animal Collective but with an extra dose of angular punk and a big bottle of Jolt cola to wash it all down. There is also a really nice and subtle tropical vibe within much of the record, reminding us a little of some of that early '80s post-punk out of Brazil we dig so much. There couldn't be a more perfect month then August for our ears to latch onto this record as Skeleton is the perfect album to blast over and over as we try to hold on to the summer for as long as we can.
Free improv alto sax solos. For some folks, this is like having a brain-scrape without painkillers. But others will crawl within the sounds bleating from this guy's horn and bliss out. Here we have a cd reissue of one of thee rarest LPs in the discography of Japanese sax-blaster Kaoru Abe, a legendary, almost James Deanish icon of that nation's happening '70s free jazz scene, who made his recorded debut in 1970 but sadly died of a drug overdose before the decade was out, at age 29. Winter 1972 was originally a bootleg LP that came out in 1973 or '74 on Osaka's Sound Works label, and hasn't been offically reissued on cd until now, commemorating the 27th anniversary of Abe's premature passing.
In the past, we've reviewed some of Abe's reissued output in collaboration with free guitar great Masayuki Takayanagi, but he's got a lot of solo recordings too, and if you're interested in such things starting here would be a fine spot as any. Beautiful (to some) skree, so dark and emotional, sound and silence intensely entwined.
Really, what is it about Scotland that for years has fueled such a steady fountain of wonderful wispy folky pop (Belle & Sebastian, Camera Obscura, The Delgados, Heavenly, etc)? Scones? Cock-a-leekie soup? Haggis? Whatever it is, it's cemented their corner of the market. Now along comes this new band o' Scots with their debut album that's gone and knocked the needle clear off of our twee-meter! Broken the darn thing, dagnabit! Seriously tho' if your sugar tolerance is anywhere near 'low', you should probably steer very very clear of Aberfeldy. Even folks around here who have brawny sweettooths (uh, sweetteeth?) have been having a hard time with it. But for those of you who can't get enough perfectly precious twee pop a la the above mentioned bands, well, then by all means, this just may well be the perfect fit!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
With an album title like that, you can't go wrong, can you? These Austrian black metal gods return with their upteenth effort of expertly wrought epic evil. In league with the likes of Emperor, as well as Satan and His Quintessence.
The return of infamous Austrian black metal horde Abigor, after six years of near silence. The band broke up briefly in 2003, but reformed last year, with an almost entirely new lineup, but their sound continues pretty much right where their last full length Satanized left off. Abigor began life as grim epic buzz merchants, channeling the sound of classic Norwegian BM, but mixing it with raw primitivism and forest folkiness, all woven into a sound distinctly their own. Furious and chaotic, most songs blasting blurs of swirling blackness, peppered with confusional arrangements and epic flourishes. But on 2001's Satanized, the band changed direction, their sound becoming� more cold and clinical, more ultra technical and sci-fi, the same old buzz and blast but with a futuristic sheen...
Right out of the gate, Fractal Possession (even the title!) ups the future tech sci-fi blackness ante big time, after a brief industrial soundscape of space FX, and angular guitar, bits of metallic clatter and clang, electronic beats and weird snippets of dialogue, the band lurches into a crazy squiggly blast of super dynamic, tangled guitar squiggles and furious blast beats, like some strange Mick Barr / Orthrelm style guitarist got dropped into a stretch of futuristic black metal buzz. The band soon settles back into a more recognizable pattern of blasting fury and relentless hellish pound, but those angular shred guitars are still everywhere, soaring and slippery, serpentine squiggles in, around, over and under the various riffs and drum blasts. There are also all kinds of ultra brief interludes, short stretches of creepy ambience or some subtle folky strum, that barely have time to leave your speakers before the band buzz back into action, giving the whole sound a super seasick, start/stop ultra dynamic feel. The rest of the record follows a similar pattern, with some songs offering up gothy minor key melodies, Borknagar-like clean vocals, stretches of mathy blackened post rock, damaged chunks of bizarre effects drenched buzz, even some classic old school metal riffing here and there. It's a confusional combination for sure, but it works, it really sounds like it could be the black metal soundtrack to an Alfred Bester novel. Dramatic, mysterious, original, heavy, weird, plenty of awesome what-the-fuck moments, but some unbelievably kick ass riffing as well. Everything just oozing creepy alien otherworldly ambience...
If you can imagine some impossible (and improbable) crossbreeding experiment, where genes were taken from Emperor, Blut Aus Nord, Gorguts, Necrophagist, Orthrelm and Ved Buens Ende, then said genes were launched into space, where they were left to orbit some blackcloud shrouded planet, the genes gestating and mutating in the rays of an alien sun, returning to earth a hulking�buzzing blasting blackened alien sonic space creature, only to find the humans gone, the landscape a burning post apocalyptic wasteland of destruction and death, fire and fury, and of course, gloriously dense and complex black metal buzz.
Prolific (and very "cult") black metal act Abigor from Austria return with a 5-song ep, featuring two cover tunes (of Kreator and Slayer, both originally recorded for appearances on those ubiquitious Dwell-label tribute comps) and three other rare tracks, one from the "With Us Or Against Us" compilation and the others rehearsal or rough-mix versions of old stuff. So, more a disc for Abigor completists, but as we said, they're a cult band, and this will whet fans' appetites for their upcoming "Satanized (A Journey Through Cosmic Infinity)" album due out in 2001.
Lots of folks did not dig 2010's Time Is The Sulphur In The Veins Of The Saint, the ninth (?!) full length from Austrian black metal legends. They had already been moving away from their raw, primitive beginnings, but on Time Is The Sulphur, the group went all out, adding all manner of tripped out weirdness, tons of effects, the record had a sort of electronic black industrial vibe that we found pretty appealing, but definitely alienated lots of their fans. With this new record, last year's Leytmotif Luzifer, the band don't return to their roots, but they do reach back a bit, with a sound that to our ears sounds quite a bit like their 2007 masterpiece Fractal Possession. The sound is still pretty polished, and super produced, but it's also chaotic and dense, dizzyingly complex, and heavily layered, with moments of classic blackness, splintering into tripped out Deathspell worthy churn, the guitars too, flitting from furious insectoid riffing to wild, alien shreddery, and while not nearly as bewildering as the new Mastery, it does display a similarly avant bent, without losing sight of the black roots from which their sound was born. And while it's not as weird as some of their other material, it's still plenty fucking weird the band launching into some straight up classic metal crunch, unleashing twisted multi tracked shredding solos, the vocals suddenly erupting into a super dramatic bellow, some twisted minimal drift, some weirdly melancholic moodiness, even one track that sounds almost like Abigor gone power metal, right down to the weird ork-choral vox, and the final track that gets downright poppy and bombastic, reminding us a bit of Code actually, but Abigor's sound sound here is never far from another eruption of black metal madness, and mad it is...
So yeah, maybe don't be expecting Orkblut or Nachthymnen, but don't be scared off by the band's twisted sonic sensibilities, cuz it's that outsider, obtuse, modern take on black metal, that produces transcendent art like Leytmotif Luzifer. We have the super fancy A5 digibook, which comes with a huge beautifully printed booklet with lyrics and artwork, but like the Darkspace, it took forEVER to get these, so once we sell out, it might be a bit before we can restock, and we might not be able to get the digibook version again, which just means you should grab one now before they're gone.
Third disc from this great folk/black metal band.
Time-tested, probably not mother-approved: veterans Abigor are the definition of true cult black metal. Hailing from Austria, one of the few non-Scandinavian European countries to really boast an "infamous" black metal scene, Abigor have now released umpteen
We've loved Austrian black metal horde Abigor since we first heard them back in the nineties, their sound was total true kvlt blackness, every record, as grim and black as the last: Verwustung / Invoke the Dark Age, Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom), Opus IV, Supreme Immortal Art, Channeling the Quintessence of Satan, Satanized (A Journey Through Cosmic Infinity), every one of those a stone cold classic, at least to our ears, and then nothing for 6+ years, but something strange must have happened, because when they returned, with 2007's Fractal Possession, it was like a different band, with a new sound, a twisted, industrial avant blackness, that rubbed most black metallers the wrong way, tons of fans jumped ship, but not us, who expects a band to sound the same forever? Sort of how everybody seemed to hate the last 1349, it was too slow and experimental, people wanted more of the same. Well fuck it, folks who hated Fractal Possession are REALLY gonna hate Time Is The Sulphur In The Veins Of The Saint, and let em, cuz this is some serious fucked up, freaked out outsider electronic tinged avant black metal weirdness. It's hard to even describe, other than just going through the track part by part. Epic and sprawling and dizzyingly complex, a cacophony of voices and tangled melodies give way to some ambient drones, which in turn gives way to some pounding midtempo black metal, with weirdly effected vocals, TONS of weird effects, slipping into near silence, before exploding into some pumelling industrial blackness, but rife with wild squiggly leads, everything drops out except for those squiggles, some bizarre spoken word brings us right into what can only be described as a repeated almost hip hop style loop, before launching into some epic soaring power metal with harmonized lead guitars and blasting double kick, warbly basslines, arpeggiated melodies, thick synthesizer buzz, almost like dubstep, before the band spits out more churning chugging heaviness, and we're only halfway through the first song. Shall we go on?
Whirring black ambience leads into some Khold like midtempo metal, with minor key melodies, and super processed vox, finally exploding into some frenzied black metal freakout, before again blissing out into a haunting expanse of churning processed guitars, chant like vocals, some near silence, then some awesome stuttering grinding crunch, a sort of black metal but with deep crooned vox, and some weird industrial filigree not to mention wild warbly bass, fading out in a flurry of classic metal pound, only to then immediately launch into the second track / half of the record, which if anything is just s varied and far out and fucked up, the highlights being some super distorted buzzing blurscapery, some twisted almost punk sounding convoluted lurch and lumber, some incredibly dense and complex gnarled black metal blasts, culminating in a super trippy chanted vocal outro.
Fucking nuts, and totally genius, like mad metal scientist genius, not for the faint at heart, or the true grim hordes, this is for folks looking for the most twisted blackness they can find, technical, epic, and warped beyond all comprehension. Which in case you couldn't tell, means this is one of our new favorite records, and definite contender for weirdo black metal record of the year.
And while they last, we have the limited deluxe box version...
Probably the best thing about Abominable Iron Sloth is they sound EXACTLY how a band called Abominable Iron Sloth should sound. Simple, plodding, groovy, down tuned, crushing and heavy heavy heavy. Stripped down blown out caveman riffs over pounding doom drum thud and super harsh shrieked vocals. Chugging and churning and completely crushingly mesmerizing. A mid tempo dirge metal owing much to folks like High On Fire, Karp, Melvins, Floor, Cavity, Crowbar and Eyehategod while giving it their own particular slothlike spin. Plus we're suckers for goofy song titles: "Hats Made Of Veal And That New Car Scent", "A Hot Pink Shell Of My Former Self", "Parasite Hilton And Other Flaws Inherent To Wealth" and of course "A Distant Pond From The Rivers Of Human Limelight."
Features ex-members of Dead And Gone metalcore legends Willhaven.
Brand new record from these Italian post/avant black metallers, and their first record to get reviewed on the aQ list, which is kind of crazy, considering most of the aQ metalheads have been big fans ever since their debut in 1999. And since that debut, the band has continued to stretch the boundaries of their particular brand of black metal, culminating in this, the single song, ten movement electro black metal concept record that is Psychogrotesque.
Beginning with a bit of creaking industrial ambiance, the record soon launches into a twisted tangled bit of gnarled blackness, blasting beats, chugging riffs, and a swirl of squiggly lead guitars, not to mention little flurries of electronic crunch and glitch, all backed up by choral like voices, and some almost ravey synths, that weirdness is balanced by the croaking lead vocals, and the sinister, minor key melodies, the track swings from churning buzzing blackness, to melodic soaring majesty, to off kilter mathiness and back again. The second movement explodes with some frenzied black metal buzz, but it's swaddled in more synths, the electronic element making it sound alien and futuristic, before shrugging off the synths and delving into some frosty true grim blackness.
And the record just gets weirder and weirder from there on out. The synths competing with the riffs, the arrangements almost orchestral, but instead of woodwinds and brass and strings, it's whirling buzzing keyboards and programmed beats, the vokills are constantly transformed, occasionally becoming a deep dramatic croon, most noticeably in the sixth movement, when those vocals are paired with some Gerry Rafferty style way-out-of-place saxophone, and sure, there's plenty of straight ahead blackness, but there are also jams that sound like black metal Daft Punk, or some bizarre hybrid of the two, and then there's the epic final track that is impossibly epic and twisted, the black metal component furious and frenzied, the over the top electronic bits cranked all the way up, so tense and intense and heavy and twisted and totally bizarre, and be sure to stick around for the hidden final track/coda, strange sampled vocals, over hazy electronic shimmer, the sound gristly and gauzy and darkly mysterious, making us wish they would have kept it going well past its far too brief two minutes.
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Another awesome legendary archival release out of the NZ underground from Siltbreeze, this one the super obscure Above Ground, who existed for all of a single year back in 1983, and made this one record, originally released as a super limited cassette, only sold at gigs and local shops. And while the band name might not seem familiar, the band members probably will, legendary NZ musician Bill Direen (Vacuum, Builders) along with Carol Direen (his wife? sister?), Maryrose Crook from the Renderers, and Stuart Page from the Axemen (whose reissued lp we reviewed here a list or two back). That Axemen connection is definitely a hint as to what this stuff sounds like: murky, low fidelity pop, lots of organ, spidery guitars, the drums simple yet propulsive and really loud in the mix, the vocals a booming sung spoken croon, the vibe is dreamily druggy, droned out and hypnotic, definitely a Velvets vibe going on, but also some old school psych rock, the sound is loose and ramshackle, sounds very much like it was recorded live, but it's undeniably darkly groovy, mesmerizingly trancelike, with the organ slipping into freaked out squalls that threaten to overtake the whole song, but when the band lock in, it's super tight and hypnotic, a little bit jangly, occasionally borderline funky, the best tracks the murkier druggier jams, which do take up most of the record. Fans of all things Flying Nun, Xpressway and classic NZ underground, this is some essential archival radness.
A split cd between Christian Kiefer and Jeff Pitcher's project Above the Orange Trees. Both musicians add to the canon of super sad singer songwriters: Jeff Pitcher's completely heartbroken songs are lushly melodic and quietly epic, bringing to mind Joel Phelps (ex-Silkworm) and Talk Talk; while Christian Kiefer's tracks are even more anguished than Pitcher's (if that's even possible), similar to the stillness of Low, the warm earthiness of Mark Kozelek, and the macabre twang of Songs:Ohia and Will Oldham/Palace. The artists also each contribute a cover of one of the others songs. Depressing in a good way.
The latest offspring in Mille Plateaux's propagation of minimalist techno comes from Los Angeles graphic designer Dan Abrams, who continues the trend of elegeat glitch techno also heard from SND, Andreas Tilliander, Mikael Stavostrand, and Taylor Deupree.
The self-effacing title is an elaboration of a quote from the No Neck Blues Band's David Nuss, who stated that the first cd-r from the Abrasion Ensemble was "music for the same 50 people." Now the Abrasion Ensemble is thinking really big with that album's
Arrington de Dionyso of Olympia, WA's Old Time Relijiun goes all freakout, solo saxophone skronk over smooth jazz radio. Hot.
The soundtrack to this 'lost classic' soft core space movie is separated into 2 different movements, sort of. The tracks entitled 'Seli' of which there are 5, are cheesy and hippy shimmery vocal workouts ala many sixties/seventies low budget fantasy films. But
Four tracks 39 minutes 21 seconds of EVIL. That's what this so-long-awaited-it's-unexpected cd from Swedish black metal improvisors Abruptum provides. And if Abruptum aren't already your favorite black metal band they sure should be. One member is a dwarf (or so we thought, he may just be really REALLY short). And past releases have included a whole record made up entirely of field recordings of band members whipping themselves and howling in agony! When they do get down to actual metal, it's of the grimmest, vilest variety. And since we were kind of under the assumption that Abruptum were no more, this sudden return is pretty darn exciting. So in keeping with Abruptum's confounding and perplexing history, this new release is definitely not "metal". Still evil of course, but sonically it's much more of an experimental dark ambient drone record. And a great one at that! Press play...a distant, martial drum cadence underpins dark droning feedback, grinding tortured low end, haunting minor key chords and distant melodies buried under slabs of distorted crunch. It's like a blackened mix of Total, Der Blutharsch, Lustmord and Corrupted, perhaps. Sweet female vocals soon (barely) emerge from the murk...a heavily reverbed chorale, chanting, with tolling bells, all buried under a thick grimy layer of grinding grit. Like a Merzbow / Dead Can Dance mashup. Soon the vocals fade into the mist as the grinding throbbing low end begins to pulse and loop and shimmer, distant explosions crack through the darkened skies, the echoes spreading out like ripples in a pond, creating hypnotic almost-rhythms, while underneath it all weird little looped melodies scurry about looking for shelter from the throbbing malevolence. Imagine Philip Jeck, in spikes and full corpse paint, set up in the middle of the forest beneath a full moon, with a hundred turntables, all black and moss covered, playing the warped and slowed down records of Troum, Dead Can Dance, William Basinski, Skullflower and all manner of rumbling drones...
Now available as a super limited picture disc!
Four tracks 39 minutes 21 seconds of EVIL. That's what this so-long-awaited-it's-unexpected cd from Swedish black metal improvisors Abruptum provides. And if Abrupt aren't already your favorite black metal band they sure should be. One member is a dwarf (or so we thought, he may just be really REALLY short). And past releases have included a whole record made up entirely of field recordings of band members whipping themselves and howling in agony! When they do get down to actual metal, it's of the grimmest, vilest variety. And since we were kind of under the assumption that Abrupt were no more, this sudden return is pretty darn exciting. So in keeping with Abruptum's confounding and perplexing history, this new release is definitely not "metal". Still evil of course, but sonically it's much more of an experimental dark ambient drone record. And a great one at that! Press play...a distant, martial drum cadence underpins dark droning feedback, grinding tortured low end, haunting minor key chords and distant melodies buried under slabs of distorted crunch. It's like a blackened mix of Total, Der Blutharsch, Lustmord and Corrupted, perhaps. Sweet female vocals soon (barely) emerge from the murk...a heavily reverbed chorale, chanting, with tolling bells, all buried under a thick grimy layer of grinding grit. Like a Merzbow / Dead Can Dance mashup. Soon the vocals fade into the mist as the grinding throbbing low end begins to pulse and loop and shimmer, distant explosions crack through the darkened skies, the echoes spreading out like ripples in a pond, creating hypnotic almost-rhythms, while underneath it all weird little looped melodies scurry about looking for shelter from the throbbing malevolence. Imagine Philip Jeck, in spikes and full corpse paint, set up in the middle of the forest beneath a full moon, with a hundred turntables, all black and moss covered, playing the warped and slowed down records of Troum, Dead Can Dance, William Basinski, Skullflower and all manner of rumbling drones...
Returning from a long absence, here's a three song ep from Sweden's infamous improv-black metal band Abruptum. None blacker! The first track, dating from way back in 1991, starts with gothic keyboards and has a lot of Satanic screaming, but with its gothic
Ah Abruptum, how we've missed you. Nary a peep since 2004's killer black ambient masterpiece Casus Luciferi, which while an amazing gorgeously bleak slab of droning mystery, really barely scratched the surface, only hinting at the harsh, hateful, bizarre black metal beast Abruptum once was.
That's where Evil Genius comes in. And evil Genius is exactly what it is. A collection of old demos, it was originally released with an actual razor blade inside and a sticker instructing the listener to kill themselves. There were also loads of strange rumors surrounding the band, including the one about mainman It being a dwarf, who tortured himself in the studio, in order to capture true anguish. After all, Abruptum were, according to their own edict, "the pure audial essence of evil"... Who knows how much of that stuff was true (we like to think ALL of it), and ultimately it doesn't really matter, the proof is in the pudding, and in this case the pudding is a sludgy, filthy, crusty, primitive chunk of harsh, stumbling, lurching, distorted psychedelic black metal. Or maybe black doom would be more appropriate. There are no blast beats or blazing buzzing riffs, instead, Evil Genius is a confusional garbled outsider mess, but a glorious one, keyboards lurch in and out of the mix, usually atonal and off kilter, the drums plod and pound, tortured and strangled vocals howl and grunt, belching out strange black growls, tons of thick black ambience surround everything, seeping into every bit of music like some strange black mold, weird squeaks and groans, and all sorts of random sounds pepper the entire record, hard to say if they are footsteps or the cracks of a whip or creaking hinges, but they all sort of get sucked into Abruptum's dizzying blurry and buzzy soundworld. And guitars of course, lots of them, tuned way down, sometimes not tuned at all, occasionally spewing out some strange black shaped riff, but other times just buzzing or droning, roaring or squealing, often sounding less like a guitar than some sort of hellish demon speaking in tongues.
But as fucked up and bizarre as Evil Genius is, it's still eminently listenable, even catchy at times, almost pretty at others, but always, a totally baffling, fucked up and completely damaged way out black metal what-the-fuck blast of, well, EVIL GENIUS!!
All new artwork, with brand new liner notes from It, and while it's hard to tell for sure, we're led to believe that there is at least one extra track, as EG compiles the first two Abruptum demos ("s/t" and "The Satanist Tunes") as well as the "Evil" 7" and their track from the long out of print Tribute To Euronymous compilation cd (which we think is the bonus track).
So absolutely and utterly RECOMMENDED!!
It's another outing from the reunited Absolut Null Punkt, the Japanese industrial-noise-electronic-improv duo of Seijiro Murayama (ex-Fushitsusha years and years ago), and KK Null of Zeni Geva fame. It's kinda weird that there's been so many (3) ANP albums released in the past couple of years and so few (0) new ZG. Too bad, we'd like some ZG too. But the ANP stuff is cool if you're in the mood for even noisier, less conventionally rockin' fare. It's not the riff-bludgeoning metallic math-rock heaviosity of the Zeni Geva juggernaut, it's more like Null's experimental solo efforts, the extreme electronics of those in live collision with chaotic pipe-fighting percussion... a distorted, dramatic deathmatch of drum pummel, electric pulses, distant cries, shrieking guitar and garbled FX. It's very three dimensional, noises coming from all directions, up close and far away. A very active and abstract soundscape. You get the idea that if you were to somehow enter into it, to dare to step on stage with ANP, you'd be running and dodging for cover, it'd be like being trapped on some hellish battlefield with artillery barrages and sniper fire all around. So much better to listen from the safety of your earphones (though that's not safe either if you turn it up too much!). Yet for all the darkness and mayhem, the three long tracks here (1 hour total) all have distinct identity and structure. There's memorable moments, in the way of zaps and beats. If you drew a line at Merzbow, this would be to the 'music' side of that line, maybe, with many fierce forays into the nomansland of noise.
Absolut Null (as in Kazuyuki K. Null, of Zeni Geva fame) Punkt hasn't made too many records, and the ones they made are long gone. There were a handful of hard-to-find cassettes, LPs, and one cd recorded between about '84 to '87, before Zeni Geva came into being. But now the original ANP duo of Null and Seijiro Murayama, who was also the original drummer for Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha, have reunited for a live tour and this resultant cd release, 15 years at least after their last performance together. As they did back in the '80s, ANP play a kind of Industrial improv, ofttimes as heavy but way more freeform and abstract than the metal-prog rock dished out by Zeni Geva. With Null manipulating his guitar and "nullsonic" electronics and Murayama playing "drums, metals, tubes" this is some crazy, rhythmic electronic mayhem. Comparing it to the only previous ANP document we've heard (1993's posthumous Ultrasonic Action cd) we can certainly hear how the modern 'glitch' sounds that have crept into Null's solo works have now become a part of ANP's sonic arsenal. The six live tracks (from just over four minutes to more than 21 minutes in length) recorded at clubs in Tokyo and Osaka last year found here are ultra noisy and chaotic, processed and 'decomposed' to the max. Definitely for fans of Null's harsher side. (Hey, Important Records, if your releases are so important, how about a jewel case or a digipak or something next time? This is just packaged in a cardboard sleeve that's no different from all the cheap promos we get sent...)
Zeni Geva guitarist KK Null is back with two new cds on Important -- a new Absolute Null Punkt album, and another solo disc as well. (Hey where's the ZG releases, pal?)
After a 15 year hiatus, the '80s industrial improv duo of KK Null (electronics, electro-percussion, voice) and Seijiro Murayama (drums, tubes, voice) known as ANP got back together to do some shows, which resulted in a live album (Live In Japan, Important, 2004). Now they're at it again, going to Russia to record portions of these three tracks of hard-to-describe mayhem. It's another clanking, pipe-fighting, glitched-out, electronically damaged deluge of intense improv beats, drones, and spasms. Chaotic and claustrophobic, maybe even nightmarish. But cool if you've got any inclination towards Japan-noise stuff, amped up and rhythmic and sort of "rock".
And by the way, may we commend Important records for packaging this, and their other new KK title (Kosmista Noisea, also reviewed here), in normal jewel cases this time, rather than in the cheap-o cardboard sleeves that they used for the Live In Japan cd? Not only that, but they hired none other than SUNNO)))'s Stephen O'Malley to decorate these with his trademark fractured prismatic schematic artwork, in metallic inks on cool translucent vellum paper. Nice.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Our store is actually quite small, for folks who have never visited in person, so it always surprises us that stuff can get lost in the shuffle, and slip through the cracks, cuz when we talk about 'warehouse finds', we're really talking about the closet behind the counter where we store the backstock, or the back room where we do mailorder... But here we are again with another 'warehouse find', the only full length from Texas one man black metal horde Absonus Noctis, and it's a pretty fantastically fierce slab of buzzing USBM, the songs washed out and drenched in reverb, the riffing frantic, the melodies majestic and epic, the sound cavernous and a bit murky, the way underground bedroom black metal should be, the tracks slipping from dirgey pound to blazing blast, the guitars constantly shifting, gnarled almost DSO churn one second, blurred muddy Xasthur like fuzz the next, the sound heavily layered so one guitar will be spinning frenzied high end melodies, while another guitar chugs hauntingly, the songs peppered with occasional stretches of creepy abstract drift, smears of guitar buzz and anguished wails, or warm surprisingly melodic, pizzicato melodic interludes, and even the heavy parts are often underpinned by weird strum or spidery clean guitars, which gives the record a seriously twisted vibe, with many of the riffs and melodies slightly bent, a little atonal, again adding a serious sense of menace. The final track is a 17 plus minute epic, that begins as barely there clean guitar ambient drift, before transforming into heaving slo-mo dirge-droom crush, all woozy and melancholy, washed out and sort of doomily dreamlike.
We only have 3 or 4 of these left, and there's a good chance these will be the last copies we can get, so grab one before they're gone.
