[ 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 1601 through 1650 of 2272.

MPEG stream: Brainstorm
MPEG stream: Teddy Picker
MPEG stream: D Is For Dangerous
MPEG stream: Balaclava

Not entirely sure why we never reviewed the Arctic Monkeys' Favorite Worst Nightmare, considering how much we flipped for their debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, that second one was good too, but here we are at record number three, Humbug, and their sound has definitely taken a strange turn. It still sounds like THEM, but it's much darker, more brooding and crunchy, less kinetic and snotty and wild. Could be lots of things, musical maturity, regular maturity (after all they were all in their teens when they recorded that first record), lots of people are blaming Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme, who handled most of the production, but maybe 'blaming' is the wrong word, cuz as far as we're concerned, there's no blame to be assigned, if anything Humbug is just a grower. On first listen, nothing stood out single wise, like the first record. But then "Crying Lightning" caught our ear big time, with its big drums and fuzzy bass, and spidery guitar lines, it only took a few listens and BANG, heavy rotation. And so it went with the rest of the record, track by track, blossoming into a new favorite, the sound definitely beefier, heavier, more crunchy, that we can give Homme some credit for, but as for everything else, blame the band, at least for making another killer record of super catchy crunchy new wavey post punk pop. Dig it!

MPEG stream: My Propeller
MPEG stream: Crying Lightning
MPEG stream: Dangerous Animals

Arctic Monkey's 2006 debut, the awesomely titled Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, remains one of THEE best pop records of this new millennium, snarly, and crunchy, snotty and catchy as fuck, every song was a blast of youthful vigor and pop chops at odds with the bands' youth and the fact that Whatever was their debut. Subsequent records Favourite Worst Nightmare and Humbug showed the band toning down the snotty pop in favor of something much more measured, polished and refined, and while in some ways, that shift was a disappointment, it also revealed the group as something much more than an overhyped blogworthy flash in the pan. Which brings us to their most recent, record number four, Suck It And See, which based on the title, we imagined might even signal a return to the snotty swagger of their debut, but if anything, the opposite is true. Easily the most 'mature' record yet, with the opening track, sounding almost like it could be some lost Supergrass or Oasis jam, brooding, and majestic, hooky and total classic Britpop. Which is pretty much where most of the record situates itself. But unlike Favourite and Humbug, this one is not a grower - it doesn't have to be, this one is hooky as hell right out of the gate, mixing in a bit of Weezer power poppiness into their distinctly British pop sound, the guitars jangle and chime, the rhythm section is tight and unobtrusive, the vocals are much more smooth and croony, than snarly and snotty, and like we said, the songs are to die for. Probably won't supplant Whatever as out favorite Arctic Monkeys record, but of the other three, it's rapidly becoming our number two...

MPEG stream: She's Thunderstorms
MPEG stream: Black Treacle
MPEG stream: Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair
MPEG stream: Love Is A Laserquest

Okay, yeah, we know. Who really gives a shit about the Arctic Monkeys? Oh, you mean besides the British press and the band's thousands of friends on MySpace and every hipster in tight pants who is "so over" the Killers and Interpol and Franz Ferdinand? We weren't even going to review this. In fact we were prepared to hate. A band with that much hype before they even have a record out can never be a good thing. British new music mag NME voted the Arctic Monkeys one of the 50 best British bands OF ALL TIME!! I'd be afraid to see numbers 51 through 100, the ones who were bumped to make room for a band who at the time had only released a single. But, and it's a BIG BUT, this record is awesome. Really. It does pain us to admit it, but this is one of the best new records we've heard in ages. Wouldn't go so far as top 50 British bands ever, but shit man, we can't stop listening to this. Seriously, every day. So waht's it sound like? Well, it definitely fits comfortably right there amidst the Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Maximo Park, Kaiser Chiefs, Cup thinks they sound just like Hot Hot Heat for that brief moment when they were really really good. Not so much channelling 'new wave' but more sort of reimagining the sound of the Fall, but where Pavement turned the fall into ironic indie slouch rock jangle, the Arctic Monkeys twist it into some impossibly hooky dancey drunken night out at the pub. Angular guitars, sort of scrape-y and edgy and scrappy and jagged, super kinetic almost funky rhythms, killer melodies, bouncy tempos, lots of shuffle and start stop jangle and roar. And killer keening vocals, a little bit whine-y, but scruffy and capable of wailing when necessary. And the most amazingly thick Scottish brogue, ya know when the word "scumbag" sounds like "skoooombeg". And let's not forget the songs. By now most of you have heard the excellently titled "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor", a perfect blast of bubbly snotty bouncy dance punk. But then there's tracks like "When The Sun Goes Down" with its moody sad boy intro all sweet sad vocals and minor key clean guitars that explode into a pounding kick ass chaotic rocker, with a killer riff and a totally impossible to resist groove. And the thing is, every song on here is just as good. So while the band will probably end up disappearing, breaking up or calling it quits after this record, I mean, how impossible is it to live up to all the critical accolades (imagine being held up alongside bands like the Clash and the Jam, all before the age of 20) but for now, you might as well believe the hype.

MPEG stream: When The Sun Goes Down
MPEG stream: The View From The Afternoon
MPEG stream: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

Arcturus was a "black metal" supergroup featuring members of Ulver, Mayhem, Covenant, Borknagar, and Ved Buens Ende. They've broken up, but rumors abounded about a remix album still to come. Of course, the last Arcturus record, La Masquerade Infernale, was so bizarre for a metal record (containing Weill-esque cabaret music, drum 'n bass, trip hop, industrial, etc.) that it already seemed like someone had taken a "regular" Arcturus record and remixed it. So imagine someone taking said record (already sounding remixed), and remixing *that*. Well, here you go. Arcturus break down their already decidedly unmetal sound even further, adding more beats and stretching out their industrial soundscapes. Techstep, gangsta rap (!), classical string ensemble sounds, etc.--it's insane. One of our customers who bought this emailed to say "listen to track 7--now I've heard *everything*!" A good companion to the strange new Ulver double cd (reviewed here last time), and even better methinks. What's really interesting is thinking of someone, a drum n' bass fan for instance, first encountering Arcturus with this record, and then moving backwards through their catalog to the rawer, actually metal blackness of their earlier works and related bands! Will that happen, and what will they think?

Two disc remastered reissue of this out of print cd as well as two out of print/super limited eps from one of our favorite black metal bands, before they got all 'weird'. This is Arcturus at their black metal prime, before they discovered techno and Mr. Bungle and circuses and rapping. Fast and majestic Nordic black metal more along the lines of Dimmu Borgir and the like with lots of keyboards, soaring baritone vocals (sounding remarkably like Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan and hinting at their future direction perhaps) inhuman shrieks, blazing double kick drumming as well as orchestral/melodic breaks. Totally melodic but still pretty brutal and fierce, and kinda "prog" too, but not nearly as prog as they ended up getting... A lot of you probably already have the original, but this double disc is remastered and includes the tracks from their 1991 7" and a 1994 promo only cd.

RealAudio clip: To Thou Who Dwellest In The Night
RealAudio clip: Wintry Grey

THE weird, Mr. Bungle-ized Norwegian black metal album of the millennium, featuring Garm of Ulver and Hellhammer of Mayhem. "Rewind" from the start of the first song to hear the hidden bonus trip hop track!

MPEG stream: Hibernation Sickness Complete
MPEG stream: Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer
MPEG stream: Nocturnal Vision Revisted

They'rrrrre back! Norway's archetypal artsy "post-black metal" supergroup, featuring members of Ulver, Mayhem, and more. We thought they'd broken up after 1998's peak of bizarreness, "La Masquerade Infernale", as all we'd heard from them since then was a One of the main figures in Arcturus (you may know) is Garm from Ulver (he's also boss of the amazing Jester label, current home to Ulver, When, Rotoscope, Bogus Blimp, Single Unit, Origami Galaktika, etc.) who is responsible for "voices of ghosts and monkeys and general manipulation" and lyrics. His songwriting partner Steinar Sverd Johnsen handles keyboards and composes the music. Out of the rest of the Arcturus lineup, "Lords of Chaos" readers will also recognize Hellhammer (of Mayhem and about a million other Nordic metal outfits) on "drums and flames". The band is rounded out by "high guitar rider" Knut M. Valle and "low guitar driver" Dag F. Gravem. Emperor's Ihsahn contributes "spitting voice" on one track as well. Together these guys meld majestic keys, blasting drums, soaring vocals, melodic piano runs, rasping screams, and electronic atmospheres into what can only be described as Arcturus music. It's similar to "La Masquerade", but what seems new is how catchy and poppy some of this is. But, at the same time it's also quite metal indeed. Dark and heavy, not allowing the keyboards to overpower the guitars. And, after the gangsta rap and drum and bass remixes found on "Disguised Masters", this record seems almost normal! That is, if you can consider bombastic sci-fi metallic prog pop 'normal'. I guess it is, in the more advanced universe Garm and company inhabit. Brilliant!

RealAudio clip: Kinetic
RealAudio clip: Nightmare Heaven
RealAudio clip: Ad Absurdum

Italian "International Popular Group" Area were a '70s prog rock band. But they went far beyond the ELP/King Crimson/Yes worship of many of their peers. Area's music incorporated avantgarde jazz improv, new electoacoustic composition, dramatic and bizarre This handsome box contains three cds of Area recorded live at their peak circa 1976, in Paris, Lisbon, and Milan. The latter concert takes up two whole cds, and features avant-jazz guests Steve Lacy (sax) and Paul Lytton (percussion). Area perform many of their signature tracks from such albums as "Crac!", "Maledetti", "Caution Radiation Area", and "Arbeit Macht Frei", plus several live-only improvs. Disc three also includes two bonus solo tracks by Area singer (and John Cage collaborator) Demetrio Stratos. Inside the box, the cds are packaged in miniature lp style sleeves, and are accompanied by a booklet featuring photos, notes, lyrics, and a discography. Definitely a worthy package for fans of Area, but probably too daunting a place to start for those unfamiliar with the group!

RealAudio clip: Arbeit Macht Frei
RealAudio clip: Lobotomia
RealAudio clip: L'abbattimento dello Zeppelin

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

SORRY. More crazy radical jazzy Italian prog than you can handle! The first four albums by the amazing Area all in one handy box set: Arbeit Macht Frei, Caution Radiation Area, Crac, Are(A)zione. Next to Magma, one of Yoshida from the Ruins favorite '70s prog acts.

We listed Area C's debut release on Last Visible Dog a few lists back (and we're relisting it on this list for those of you who missed out), so we were psyched to discover this amazing hand made quadruple 3" cd-r set, which is limited to FORTY COPIES a bunch of which we managed to get direct from the band himself. That's right, HIMself. This is all the work of one man, but it sure doesn't sound like it, instead, it sounds like the work of some strange rock band, a band concerned more with texture and mood than actual rocking, guitars are looped and smeared, rhythms pulse and lope, a dreamy ambient post rock world of darkness and mystery. Crafted almost entirely from guitars, chopped and looped and processed, these 4 discs are each a puzzle piece, a tiny part of a grander, expansive, rich sonic soundworld. Looped guitars slither and sway, constructing dark melodies and simple propulsive rhythms, almost like a more minimal abstract Tortoise, but beneath THOSE guitars, are still more guitars, weaving elaborate backdrops of sparkling shimmer and barely audible clouds of sound. Elsewhere, tracks explode into super distorted blown out krautrockscapes, others meander lazily, slow moving and strange almost mechanical sounding melodies, over abstract industrial frameworks. But at the heart of it all, is the guitar, and a dreamy moodiness that suffuses every sound on all four discs. And as if the sounds here weren't captivating enough, the packaging is completely gorgeous and deluxe. All hand made and assembled, the four discs are housed in an oversized thick cardboard sleeve, held shut with a Japanese style obi. Inside, each disc comes in its own elaborate sleeve, housed in its own little plastic pouch affixed to the inside of the sleeve. Disc one comes in a sleeve like a folded map, with part of it cut away to reveal the disc inside, the second and third disc are each wrapped in a transparent full color vellum sleeve, alongside a tiny square of actual wood, and the fourth disc is also a vellum sleeve, but printed with an austere winter landscape over a folded square of thick textured paper. So completely amazing. And as we already mentioned these won't last, because of the labor and time involved in assembling these sets, it is limited to 40 COPIES!!!

MPEG stream: Blue Underwater / Brown Underground
MPEG stream: Catchment

Another one we first heard on that massive Invisible Pyramid: Elegy box set that Last Visible Dog put out a few months ago (Mudboy was the other Providence, RI drone artist that we discovered via the IP box). And now, like Mudboy, Area C has their own cd release on LVD. Actually a one-man guitar loops and effects (and other things besides, like farfisa organ) effort, Traffics + Discoveries starts out very blissful and calm, ambient like Eno perhaps...and as the disc goes along it stays quite beautiful but gets edgier and darker and more nervous-making. We like it quite a bit. Chalk another one up for both Providence and LVD, in the everybody-wins competition for who's got the best drones around!

MPEG stream: Squall (2)

Sounding something like a hybrid of Lustmord and Dopplereffekt, Trans Plutonian Transmissions is a long lost album from Brian Lustmord's one-album side project Arecibo, released back in 1994 through the Dark Vinyl imprint Atmosphere. This offshoot of its more seminal dark ambient / post-industrial main label was something of a conceit to the blossoming ambient techno scene of the early '90s, spiralling out of labels like Emit, Fax, and Reflective. Lustmord is best known for his quintessential dark ambient work of subterranean drones and deep space isolationism on the timeless and existentially bleak albums Heresy and The Place Where The Black Stars Hang. In fact, Trans Plutonian Transmissions was recorded about the same time as Black Stars, and draws from the same conceptual pool by sourcing the universe itself albeit to different ends. The dark matter and occluded hues of that album resound in Trans Plutonian Transmissions but with the major addition of stalking downtempo rhythms and acidic 303 basslines. Plenty of NASA communications with astronauts and reclaimed data from NASA research into pulsars, quasars, and black holes embue this album with paranoid aesthetic paralleling the X-Files; and those pointilistic squiggles and squelches dropped into minor key chords and judiciously bathed in blackening reverberation further those metaphors. The one Arecibo record had a few contemporaries, including the Patashnik album from Biosphere, the Pete Namlook / Richie Hawtin collaborations as From Within, as well as the early Pan Sonic and Mono Junk recordings of icey post-techno out of Finland, all from the mid '90s. The album is a product of its time, but is certainly no worse for the wear because of it. Lustmord's production touch is impeccable as always, lending that steely gaping quality to every sound, as if it were slowly getting injested by a galaxy crushing black hole. Recommended.

MPEG stream: 3C147 (Beyond The Heart Of Space)
MPEG stream: NGC 5427 (Anomalous Intermittent Radio Source)
MPEG stream: 3C295 (Pulse Burst Decryption)

There's two new tapes from UK tape label the Tapeworm on this week's list; this one's from Uruguayan composer/soundscaper Gaston Arevalo, who takes traditional instruments like viola and guitar, along with all manner of abstract samples and field recordings, and somehow melts all of these sounds down into a haunting ethereal brew, the various sounds smeared into warm swirling swells, and deep lush rumbling whirs. The result a stunning series of hushed gauzy softly symphonic soundscapes, definitely reminding us of The Caretaker, or like something you might expect to hear on Type or Miasmah, that same sort of subtly ominous, blissfully bleary ambient drift, a dreamily nocturnal bit of gristly chordal thrum, rife with buried melodies, and constantly shifting layers, there's definitely a new age vibe, but that's blended with a blackened almost pop ambience, and then wreathed in starfields of crackle and hum, and washed out billows of lush shimmer, a practically perfect collection of late night, rainswept, cinematic, dreamdronedrift lullabies.

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

SORRY.

In response to the incendiary buzzes and periodic electrified gasps of sharp noise emanating from the stereo at the front of the store, Andee had to wonder if Aquarius had unbeknownst to him started offering free tattoos with every purchase. Unfortunately, Yau opens the procedings with a muscular application of the Carsten Nicolai / Mika Vainio glitch, as jagged static cracklings collapse into low end rumblings and nervous electrical tones. Arford's follow-up incorporates similarly tense cracklings, but releases them into expansive swells of grey noise. Gradually the record's tension disperses and the lines between whose sound is whose dissolve, as the electrical hissing previously mentioned as replicating the rapid machinations from a tattoo gun slowly take over, softening further into hypnotic vibrations. Very impressive.

RealAudio clip: Realia
RealAudio clip: Drift Counter

Operating in the legendary Cyclone warehouse space near Hunter's Point in San Francisco, 7hz has functioned as one of the few SF venues that is exclusively dedicated to experimental sound art, and also has served as the live / work spaces (in the truest sense of the term) for Scott Arford (aka Radiosonde), Randy Yau (23five), and Michael Nine (aka Death Squad). During the fall of 2002, 7hz took their show on the road, as Arford, Yau, and Nine embarked on a European tour. This disc is essentially the tour support album, offering an exclusive sampling of each artist's work. Arford's sonic reconstitutions of video static have made for stunning audio / visual performances (almost unheard of in the visually sterile realm of laptop composition). Here, his contributions spit forth digitally corrosive bits of static and noise (which resemble remote control / shortwave detritus) along mechanized grids. Altogether, Arford's tracks resemble the pained electric noise of those collaborations between Zbigniew Karkowski and Pita Rehberg. Yau defines his work as an "action concrete," in which recordings of impromptu vocal outbursts have been dissected and reanimated through a number of electro-acoustic techniques, often sounding like a mutation of Robert Ashley's classic "Automatic Writing" with far more jarring and confrontational results. Michael Nine's work comes out of the Whitehouse / Con-Dom approach of primitive noise assaults as transgressive theater. All in all, an excellent introduction to these San Francisco artists.

RealAudio clip: Zero Point
RealAudio clip: Praemonere
RealAudio clip: 5150

Besides having possibly the coolest, and most illegible metal logo ever, these Knoxville Tennessee blackened doomlords unleash some seriously sick sludge, that is after an extended stretch of ominous ambience, more than a quarter of the opening 12 minute track. It begins with a dark swirl of field recordings, the sound of the forest, or the swamp, insects, splashing water, all underpinned by an ominous low end rumble, the sound getting more industrial and noisy as it goes, with strange percussion, looped fractured rhythms, all over a churning collage of layered nature sounds, the whole thing seriously psychedelic... The track finally settles into a hushed stretch of clean guitar shimmer, before erupting into what is essentially slo-mo black metal, lumbering, and downtuned, the sound then shifting from that blackened buzz, to some seriously knuckle dragging doom-ic crush, eventually building to something a bit more frenzied and propulsive, the same creeping riffage, but with wilder, more chaotic drumming, before the guitars amp up too, the band getting sort of chugging and almost math-metally for the last couple minutes, finishing off with some shrieked, feedback drenched, FX-flecked, Eyehategod-worthy ultra-doom. Whew! The second track begins with some furious fast pick riffing, sheets of feedback, and then the sound explodes into some blasting blackness, a murky, noisy, chaotic black buzz blowout, rife with gnarled riffage, some true metal chug, plenty of noise, and some seriously tangled arrangements. The third track, the shortest of the bunch, again starts off with some soaring, almost Orthrelm style black-shred, before being swallowed up by another cloud of shrieking feedback, erupting into a final furious sprawl of frantic black buzz and harrowing hellish howl.

MPEG stream: I
MPEG stream: II

As metal band names go, Argile has got to be the least scary one since Chinchilla! (Yes, there's a German band on Metal Blade called Chinchilla). These guys -- the duo of S.A.S. de l'Argilere and Jean-Jacques Moreac -- are from France, actually, but the band Argile reminds us of the most, in spirit and in sound, is Swiss: the legendary Celtic Frost, eccentric and adventurous. Jean-Jacques and S.A.S. play technically proficient, weirdly baroque, darkly dark, black but melodic metal, with plenty of those over-the-top Children Of Bodom -style keyboard flourishes we love. Like their name and album title, a bit absurd, but never admitting to any overt humorous intent. And Argile even do a cover of "In The Shadow Of The Horns" by Norwegian black metal stalwarts Darkthrone, showing that despite their proggy, avantgarde tendencies, they appreciate the more primitive powers of metal as well. Despite their odd name (or perhaps because of it) we can't help but like this a lot.

RealAudio clip: Satanic Music

2nd album from these Pennsylvania epic trad doom metallers, featuring bellowing "Butch" Balich, ex-Penance. We dug the twin axe attack and majestic melodies of their first album, released by Shadow Kingdom, now they've moved on up to new label Cruz Del Sur, but their sound is still plenty cult and underground in the old school Shadow Kingdom style. If you want both heaviness and harmonies in yr metal, Argus has got the goods for you. They have some prog/technical tendencies, and are well versed in classic heavy metal mastery, with echoes of Iron Maiden amidst their modern day doom. Fans of Candlemass and Grand Magus (hey where's the domestic release of their latest??) and Slough Feg, too, also ought to enjoy, as we're reminded of all of 'em, as well.

MPEG stream: A Curse On The World
MPEG stream: Wolves Of Dusk
MPEG stream: Durendal

Shadow Kingdom Records are apparently on a quest to rule the cult heavy metal underground, snapping up a lot of cool bands lately in the true metal/trad doom genres. This list we have the debut full-lengths of two of 'em, Argus and Sinister Realm. Both happen to hail from Pennsylvania, which isn't that odd since the Pittsburgh-based Shadow Kingdom would of course wish to conquer nearby territories. Franklin, PA's Argus are named after that classic Wishbone Ash album, and although they don't sound anything like Wishbone Ash, they do run with the dual guitar thing that band pioneered back in the early '70s, and the guitar harmonies and solos are definitely the main draw here for us. Their tasty twin guitar work is lashed to ponderous riffage and weighty grooves, over which the commanding vocals of "Butch" Balich (ex-Penance) cry out in anguish and anger. With those vocals, and the chugging metalness of it all, we're reminded of the more recent output of Sweden's Grand Magus. Furthermore, fans of the twin axes wielded by Hammers Of Misfortune, for instance, who'd like to hear that sort of thing in an epic doom context, should check this out. PS this band also features members of stoner rockers Abdullah and the awesomely named thrashers Oh Shit They're Going To Kill Us.

MPEG stream: Bending Time
MPEG stream: From Darkness Light

On his recent trip to San Francisco, Ariel Pink made time not only for a secret gig at one of our favorite dives but also for a trip into AQ with his colorful entourage. He not only came to shop, but he also just so happened to come armed with this ultra-limited one-sided 12", a record none of us knew even existed. Everyone remembers where they were on Sept 11, 2001, and somehow it didn't surprise us to find out where Ariel Pink was on that monumental day, inside his bedroom with his four track right at his side. In his own words this record is: "An epic 17-minute prog-pop suite, literally recorded September 11th, 2001, inspired and addressing the hot-off-the-press adrenaline rush of our nation in shock, caught in real time." And we have to say that this is pretty much everything we would have hoped for. Classic Ariel Pink stretched out and laced with maximum paranoia. Fuzzy lo-fi pop with spazzed out instrumental passages that's so in its own world you can't help but want to join Mr. Pink in there too. We only have a handful of these left and once they are gone they are gone for good, so good luck!

At the top of this week's list, you'll find that one of our Records Of The Week, is a brilliant and beautiful lost DIY soul/funk/pop oddity by a couple kids named Donnie and Joe Emerson who recorded an amazing album in the late seventies, an amazing and obscure collection of soulful fuzz funk and groovy reverby yacht rock balladry, a true crate digger's holy grail, that has eluded any sort of mass popularity for decades, but which found its way into the collections of a handful of music nerd obsessives, who held it in the highest regard. One of those nerds being none other than outsider pop weirdo Ariel Pink, who is partially responsible for the current surge in interest in Dreamin' Wild, and that record's standout single, the smooth and dreamy ballad "Baby", which AP covers on his forthcoming full-length. That cover version had been making the rounds these last few weeks, leading up to Light In The Attic's long overdue reissue of Dreamin' Wild, and now Ariel Pink's interpretation is available as a single sided teaser 12" for his new album. And while you might expect AP to fuck up the original, douse it druggy FX and freak it the fuck out, nothing could be further from the truth. AP's version is uncannily similar to the original, a reverential homage that on first listen, sound EXACTLY like the original. In fact when we were just playing it in the store, two aQ-ers thought it WAS the original. Sure, it's a little tweaked, some extra reverb here, some tinny lo-fi production there, AP's voice a bit raspier, but otherwise it's a dead ringer. We imagine the likely scenario is that AP considered the original song simply too perfect to mess with, and was perhaps worried about what the Emerson brothers would think hearing a more typically AP'd up reinterpretation, and instead chose simply to revel in the joy of playing one of his favorite songs and paying tribute to a should-have been classic jam. Housed in a plain black 12"s sleeve with embossed lettering. Probably limited too...

What a long strange trip it's been for Ariel Pink. Going from total outsider weirdo pop secret to the man pretty much single handedly responsible for inspiring a legion of like minded left-field pop peddlers like Kurt Vile, John Maus, Gary War, Blank Dogs, Wavves, Ducktails, Brian Glaze, Night Control, Neon Indian, and on and on. Now finally, after all these years, AP's finally enjoying the respect and attention he deserves, and he's been rewarded with his first big time and widely distributed release, on 4AD, of all labels!! Anyone who has seen him and The Haunted Graffiti play lately know that while there is still a total weird and warbly vibe to their sound, they are a much more song based outfit, and way more straightforward than their way more fractured and fucked up earlier sound. Not to fear though, Before Today is not some glossy makeover of the Ariel Pink we all know and love, but it is for sure the most coherent, produced and focused album he's created. From glam-like '70s rockers, to yacht rock on acid, to super colorful fuzzy pop bliss, this is a record that explores so many different sonic territories. It's also, by far, the 'breeziest' record he's made, the sounds often has us feeling like we're swirling in pink tinged clouds while a '70s soft-rock radio soundtrack bleeds into something a bit more subversive, and all the while, candy coated cereal comes raining down from the skies. AP's been at it for about a decade now, way beyond the lifespan of most 'bands', carving out his completely singular idiosyncratic voice, and it really makes sense, that more and more people are embracing his twisted sound, and showering him with the love and praise he's been getting from folks like us for years... (By the way, there is vinyl of this too, we ran out and when we tried to restock, the label was temporarily out... might have something to do with the fact that one of the lps we did get, turned out to have a Christina Aguilera record inside it, not the AP one! Almost seems like something AP would do on purpose... we'll keep you posted.)

MPEG stream: L'estat
MPEG stream: Round And Round
MPEG stream: Revolution's A Lie
MPEG stream: Reminiscences

If you were one of the lucky few to snag a copy of Ariel Pink's self released 2002 cd Scared Famous, when it came with an extra disc, well, this was it, Fast Forward, a collection of AP's earliest recorded songs from '00-'01, and if you DID manage to get one of these, well, then you know how damn great and bizarre this is. Sadly that pressing went out of print in a flash so chances are most of you and most of us don't actually have these songs. So it's cool that Gloriette is giving them their well deserved, first ever vinyl pressing. It's a little crazy to think that just a little while ago, Ariel Pink was in town opening for The Flaming Lips and then took off on a co-headlining tour with Os Mutantes, cuz when we first heard these songs almost a decade ago we were pretty sure he would remain this really amazing secret of the damaged left-field pop underground. Luckily sometimes the world catches up and catches on, and Ariel has leaped out of the fringe and into the limelight as one of the most original musicians of the last decade, influencing a whole wave of bands and labels along the way, all of whom have tapped into his primitive style of recording and creating damaged pop. Fast Forward shows just how out there and fucked up his recordings were from the get go yet still always filled with layered pop prettiness that if lifted from the layers of lo-fi hiss would be any slick pop band's dream songs. So stoked that this is finally available and on vinyl to boot. Best grab one quick as the world of Ariel Pink vinyl tends to be quite fleeting.

Snagged these from Ariel himself on his recent swing through town. Four brand new songs that find him and his Haunted Graffiti continuing to push the boundaries of their outsider pop orbit. "Flashback" is almost like their would-be arena-pop hit somehow infusing their warped world into a Cheap Trick like anthem gone so wrong it's right, and we can't help but love the over the top hair metal feel that runs throughout. While the other song on the 'a' side also has an almost party-vibe to it the two songs on the 'b' side have much more of a melty and drugged out feel. These have been flying out of here since we got them in the store so we only have a handful left and when they are gone, we'll do our best to get more but sadly that's probably all she wrote....

"I'm just a rock n' roller from Beverly Hills / My name is Ariel� Pink!" Well, okay. Sing it, Ariel! Peculiar popsmith Ariel Pink and his Haunted Graffiti are back, and as absurdly delightful and infectiously catchy as ever. Hella amusingly weird too - just check out the damaged Beach Boys vibe of, uh, "Schnitzel Boogie". Oh, and of course AP couldn't resist titling a track here, "Pink Slime"! Like his previous album for 4AD, 2010's Before Today, this one displays AP's "new" sound, one that's (slightly) less fucked up, (somewhat) more slickly produced than his pre-4AD output. It took us little while to adjust to the not as lo-fi, not quite so shambolic AP, but now we're fully into it. And really it's not that big of a change anyway. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti still traffic in a twisted take on sunshiney psychedelic '60s/'70s AM radio pop, and '80s synth stuff, blended with darker, more drug addled fare, like the fuzz filled "Early Birds Of Babylon" with its propulsive, "driving at night" postpunk vibe... Thus, Mature Themes has been on heavy rotation here in the store ever since we got it in, and never fails to bring big smiles to our faces with its mix of dreamy, cotton candy colored melodies, bizarre lovelorn lyrics, and quirky elaborate vocal arrangements (that make us think Ariel is probably a big Sparks fan). Those grins start right from the get-go, when the song "Kinski Assassin" opens the proceedings with lyrics that include (repeatedly) the lines "Who sunk my battleship / I sunk my battleship", delivered in a mopey voice over a hiccupping beat. Love it! The whole record is full of treats, we're pegging "Only In My Dreams" for a hit (and yeah, they made a goofy video for that one) but there's lots more, every track has its charms. Maybe our favorite is the one from which the lines quoted at the top of this review come, "Symphony Of The Nymph", which is indeed a symphonic prog-pop opus of sorts, with lots of parts, that comes across like a collaboration between eccentric '60s pop producer Joe Meek and equally eccentric "song-poem" composer Rodd Keith, thanks to its echoes of Meek's space age hit "Telstar" and the strange, singsong rhyming lyrics. If that's not a recommendation, we don't know what is. Also, the way Ariel Pink squeaks out his name in a high voice kills us every time. Also gotta mention the smooth and soulful album closing ballad "Baby", with help from DamFunk on vocals, which we already reviewed when it came out as a pre-album single a few weeks back; it's a cover of a song by Donnie & Joe Emerson, from their 1979 album Dreamin' Wild, that we made a Record Of The week recently when it was reissued. The AP version amazingly sticks pretty close to the original, not noisily messing with it or anything, which points up how wonderfully warped AP's own songs still sound, despite the slightly higher fidelity, cleaned-up production we mentioned above. Like we said, we've been playing this album a lot, and are probably gonna keep playing it over and over until somebody makes us stop. Just can't get enough of the Ariel Pink sound, and it IS a sound of his own; gotta hand it to him, he's already (a while ago) reached that point where, as shorthand, we describe lots of other artists, many of whom were influenced by him, as sounding like Ariel Pink.

MPEG stream: Only In My Dreams
MPEG stream: Symphony Of The Nymph
MPEG stream: Pink Slime

Wow! Ariel Pink is on a hot streak! Just this year alone we've fallen for his limited edition and now out of print Latitudes series cd, his new project Holy Shit and now this new 7" which features some of the best Ariel Pink songs we've heard yet! A totally tasty Smiths cover on the 'b' side and pretty much warped pop perfection dripping from each groove. This is why we still love 7"s so much. So fun to pick up the needle and hear Ariel Pink take us to a wonderful world of Kodachrome bliss over and over again. We're still so smitten...

Long before we were drooling over the damaged pop sounds of folks like John Maus, Night Control, Gary War and Blank Dogs there was the AM radio gone haywire sound of Ariel Pink and his Haunted Graffiti. No one really knew what to do with his songs when they first starting appearing on wax and disc but it didn't take long for people to realize that something pretty special was at work in this mysterious outsider's approach to making warped and hazy fucked up pop. While you look consider folks like R. Stevie Moore as clearing the way for weirdoes like Ariel Pink, but what makes Ariel's output so interesting is that it's not just that it has an 'outsider' aesthetic but that the songs are so fucking good! This is a collection of odds and ends (hence the title) recorded from 1997-2004 and it ranks right near the top of his recorded oeuvre. This record is just so fantastic, the sort of record that's perfect to have spinning in your bedroom or living room on those days you just wanna lay around all day and get lost in the alternate universe in which these songs swim and splash and frolic. We were only able to grab a handful of these from Ariel himself when he passed through town recently so snag one fast because when we run out it might take us a while to get more...

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

SORRY. It took some of us a while to come around to the mad, maddening, drug addled defect pop world of Ariel Pink. We were convinced it was all an act, a put on, but it soon became apparent that Mr. Ariel Pink is indeed INSANE, and his music suddenly became less of a complicated art project and more a tantalizing glimpse inside the mind of a seriously fucked up musical madman. Pedestrian Pop Hits is 15 minutes of freaked out, psychedelic effects laden, dementedly catchy otherworldly pop. This is definitely not pop for the faint of heart, this is twisted and dark, like pop from an alternate dimension, where pop song hooks are chopped up and flung to the ground and stomped on in wild musical temper tantrums, rhythms careen wildly from in time to not even remotely toe tappable, sweet guitar melodies get dunked chorus first into deep vats of jabbering lyrical nonsense and blooping burping synthesizers, the whole thing run through forty delay pedals and broadcast through the speaker on a passing ice cream man's truck. Somehow, with all this damage and what-the-fuck going on, these songs (or this song) manages to sound pretty lush, and impossibly catchy. Imagine Brian Eno on Mescaline or listening to AM radio after a full frontal lobotomy. Wow! A testament to the mad genius of Ariel Pink for sure. Comes packaged in a super intricate hand screened die cut fold over sleeve with a full color insert. Each copy hand stamped and numbered. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide, 500 of which made it to the United States, about 50 of which made it here. So you know what that means!

MPEG stream: Pedestrian Pop Hits 1
MPEG stream: Pedestrian Pop Hits 2

Ariel Pink is back! He and his Haunted Graffiti gang continue to mess round with a barrel of nutty effects and other ramshackle fun! The results are sorta like when you've reached that half fucked-up point of the evening when you realize everything's more than slightly 'off'. Faces and voices start to slide into distorted grins and grimaces. Multiple layers of helium balloon vocals, bristly electric guitars, willy-nilly keyboards, and other noise making gizmos seem to all be following someone else's lead. In fact, Scared Famous sounds like the kid brother of Ween's Pure Guava album. Warped, weird and scratchy like an old woolen argyle sock in a mud puddle, Ariel Pink's broken melodies are at once endearing and maddening.

MPEG stream: Are You Gonna Look After My Boys?
MPEG stream: Scared Famous
MPEG stream: Inmates Of Heartahe

More Ariel Pinkness for you and yours. There's definitely been a change of heart 'round these parts regarding the virtues of idiosyncratic LA indie-pop singer-songwriter Ariel Pink and his Animal Collective-approved, damaged DIY take on R&B/noise/folk/electronics. Originally only a few of us dug him, but now with repeat exposure even grumpy ol' Andee kinda likes the guy (or at least -this- record). So it's nice that Paw Tracks has reissued AP's Worn Copy, another sprawling set of transmissions of eccentric, retro-referencing lo-fi weirdness that can't obscure (and maybe enhances) his genuine pop genius. The stream of consciousness psycho-babble about getting credit at the pawn shop, something truly bizarre about peninsulas, the triumph that is ZZ Top, and of course his orgiastic sexual escapades are things that give someone like Devendra Banhart a run for his money on sheer weirdness factor, and then there's tons of strange references to early '80s cheez-ball bands like Journey and Loverboy smeared underneath a mess of lo-fi production and baffling idiosyncracies. Maybe get The Doldrums first, if you haven't checked out Ariel Pink (and his Haunted Graffiti) yet. But if you're a fan, chances are your copy of Worn Copy soon will be. Cd version includes a bonus video, btw.

MPEG stream: Credit!
MPEG stream: One On One
MPEG stream: Cable Access Follies

Few records in recent memory have provoked such a breach of unanimity here at Aquarius. Some of us (Andee, Cup, Byram) are the naysayers who feel that the artist's eccentricities ring rather hollow -- i.e, fucking around rather than genuinely fucked up. Meanwhile Jim and Allan lean towards the positive on this one. (Aw heck they'll come right out and admit it: they like the Ariel Pink.) And it hasn't helped (or has it?) that several of our friends have come out as big Ariel Pink supporters. You know how that is. Either you want to jump on the bandwagon (Allan?) or you want to be the contradictory one (Andee?). So if you come into the store and ask somebody here about this record, you'll surely get an impassioned opinion, but who knows on what side it will be. So what's the deal with Ariel Pink anyway? perhaps you're now wondering. Well he's this young dude from LA and he makes lo-fi fucked up pop music, his heavily effected falsetto vocal stylings drifting out from damaged electronics and naive guitar fumblings. The Animal Collective heard a demo and fell in love with it (you see, Ariel Pink is a love or hate propostion, we think) and had to release this new album on their label Paw Tracks. It kinda sounds like fey '80s Brit-pop, all melodic and swoony, being broadcast via a static-y radio signal, for that far-away, timelost vibe. And then, even more weirdly, there's an element of '70s soul/R&B too! A strange mix...visiting the Fall's dubby adventures...or channelling an adolescent Bowie...and catchy as all get out. Beneath all the orchestral samples and looped beats and layered vocals and generally warped warbliness of this, lies some solid songwriting. Yessir, what might seem at first listen like home-taped half-assedness reveals depth and feeling and...we'll even say talent. Reveals to those of us that like it, that is. So what did it take for Jim and Allan to get into this? Well our Jewelled Antler buddies Loren and Glenn helped to convince us, 'cause they're fans...and also, Allan went and saw Ariel Pink live at the Hemlock a few weeks ago, and though it was a technically disastrous show, it was also one of those completely enjoyable, amusing, so-bad-it's-good experiences. Charismatic chaos. The show seemed to prove that AP is the real deal, not a poser but a genuine, authentically fucked up (drug-addled?) musical wonder. So now the album has grown on Allan quite a bit. And you know what? Even Andee is now admitting that Ariel Pink is at least "stupidly charming."

MPEG stream: Among Dreams
MPEG stream: Don't Think Twice (Love)

MPEG stream: Among Dreams
MPEG stream: Don't Think Twice (Love)

After the idiosyncratic pop of Ariel Pink had been uncritically applauded by everybody who had been slathering praise on the Animal Collective (after AC discovered the Los Angeles song-sorcerer), there's been a bit of a backlash in the "indie" press directed toward House Arrest. What the fuck? House Arrest is just as imbalanced and peculiar an album as The Doldrums and Worn Copy. So why pick on this record? It makes no sense. Throughout his brief career, Airel Pink has never been easily digestible thanks to production standards stuck in the mud and a trainwreck approach to multi-tracking rhythms; but out of the sonic dreck, Pink has always exhibited a knack for conjuring uncanny pop hooks that tap into the collective consciousness of anybody who grew up in the late '70s and early '80s listening to AM radio where the quintessence of heaviness would be Night Ranger or Journey. House Arrest liberates the pop hooks (some of which have been shamelessly lifted) from one-hit wonder jangle, disco-lite pop, white soul crooning, and schmatzy power ballads through his chemically deranged yet free-spirited aesthetic. It could be that nobody really likes Ariel Pink all that much to begin with; and we can't really blame anybody as Ariel Pink's nostalgic pastiche is far more challenging to listen to than the next garage-rock band or the next band cashing in on the Factory Records revival kick. But seriously, if you liked either of those aforementioned records, then House Arrest will totally hit the spot.

MPEG stream: Hardcore Pops Are Fun
MPEG stream: Interesting Results
MPEG stream: Alisa

Recorded back in 2001-2002, Loverboy was originally released as a bonus second disc with the first pressing of the House Arrest album. Later pressings did not include this record, and led many folks to freak out and obsess and do everything in their power to track it down! So it should come as a delight to outsider pop lovers and Ariel Pink fans everywhere to discover that Loverboy is finally getting a proper release, as a super deluxe double lp. It's the one Ariel Pink record that features the most musical input from his buddy and bigtime AQ favorite John Maus, who co-wrote a few of the tracks and whose instantly recognizable deep croon can be heard on a few other tracks as well. AP also gives a much deserved nod to one of his idols, R. Stevie Moore, kicking out a cover of "Hobbies Galore", and on top of all that, it's also the record where we first got a sneak peak what would become the Holy Shit record that AP would make with Matt Fishbeck, as the track "I Don't Need Enemies" from that record first appeared here. Like a boy-man running wild in a bedroom filled with demons and a busted 4-track, Loverboy is that boy-man's warped take on AM radio if it was programmed by drugged out visionaries from another planet. Loverboy has some of our favorite Ariel Pink songs to date, and definitely displays AP's range, from the absurd to the profound, hinting at his true potential. Like most Ariel Pink vinyl we're never sure how long these will stay in print, so best act fast if you want to get one of these for your collection.

Looks like we still have a small handful of these limited transparent orange singles that we got back in January, but forgot to list then! Apparently the song on the A side had its origins in anything-goes jam sessions amongst these three LA based pals, but basically sounds like an Ariel Pink track, super laid back and spaced out and poppily pleasant, with his deep druggy croon surfacing amidst dreamy abstract textures and ticky Geiger counter rhythms. The flipside features a remix, which if anything is better than the original, bringing in some strange samples. Nice one for AP fans/collectors. 500 copies made.

The world-wide search for RARE PSYCHEDELIC GEMS bears fruit yet again, with this cd reissue of an impossible-to-find LP from Indonesia, originally released in 1973. Beautiful, groovy stuff, that blends Western psych and prog stylings with a definite homegrown Indonesian touch (there's only one song sung in English, the rest in their native tongue). Much more light than heavy this is, but there's no lack of wailing guitar. Imagine, maybe, if you will (if you can!), Santana meets The Steps... The music of Ariesta Birawa provides plenty of yearning vocals, gentle flute, ethnic percussion, melancholic fragility, and sunshiney melodies that we figure any fan of the further-flung installments in Shadoks' Love, Peace & Poetry psychedelia compilation series should enjoy. Likewise for those who dig the Cambodian Rocks and Thai Beat comps...

MPEG stream: Si Ompong
MPEG stream: Will Never Die

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: The Raven King
MPEG stream: The Battle

'Tis definitely one of Howe Gelb's less strange musical outings, but a few of his trademark slightly disorienting eccentricities still pop up here and there. Arizona Amp & Alternator takes him and a bunch of his musical friends loping down a long dark country road. Mind you, despite the name their travels mostly wound their way through Modesto and Denmark with very brief stops in Gelb's hometown Tucson, AZ. His collaborators this time include M. Ward, Scout Niblett, Arcade Fire's Jeremy Gara and members of Grandaddy. The second song, a duet with Danish vocalist Marie Frank, ventures quite close to the fine recordings he did with the Calexico boys and Lisa Germano under the moniker OP8 a number of years ago. Further down the line on the album's fifth song, Frank's vocals bring to mind a haunting cross between Bjork and Jolie Holland. 18 songs total. As usual, top notch and heartily recommended!

MPEG stream: Where The Wind Turns The Skin To Leather
MPEG stream: Man On A String

Popular Swedish rock act The Ark, whom we were disappointed didn't sound more like Dungen...

[ aquarius records catalogue — A ]