[ aquarius records catalogue — B ]

Showing results 751 through 800 of 3202.

BEFORE, AFTERs/t(Monorail Trespassing)cassette$ 6.98

Before, After is a collaboration between Mike Pollard (Pale Blue Sky, Treetops, the owner of Arbor Records), and Jon Borges (Pedestrian Deposit, Emaciator, the owner of Monorail Trespassing), the two working together bring to the table their mutual aesthetic appreciation for a world of post-noise dronescaping. In the cold oscillations of electrical hum and arcs of dual-tone ambience from all sorts of synths, pedals, and whatnot, it's easy to put these sounds in the orbit of Emeralds / Outer Space / Mist / etc. Pollard and Borges affix a fluctuating halo of electricity to all of their subtle oscillations, and all of this voltage, wattage, and ampage is somewhat threatening, but presented at a relatively safe distance. Sort of like a live wire that's been dropped into a pool of water. The thrum and glow is seductive, but deadly to the touch. This isn't to say these tones are the stuff of death ambient engineers, more just to marvel at the amount of electricity that has been wrangled, harnessed, and turned inward to provide a radiance that's somewhat beautiful, as captured in emergent, ethereal fluctuations and accretive drones swarming into a series of Jeck / Basinski loops. Another exceptional tape from what has become the preeminent cassette label in the US.

BEGG, MICHAEL / HUMAN GREEDDirt On Earth(ICR / Omnempathy)cd$ 16.98

Michael Begg offers us another magnificent piece of occluded ambience by way of his Human Greed project. As we mentioned before, Begg's name first came to our attention through Fovea Hex, a dreamy avant-folk project spearheaded by Clodagh Simonds and droned out by such heavyweights as Brian Eno, Colin Potter, and Andrew McKenzie alongside Begg. The Human Greed sound parallels Fovea Hex's arrangements with strings, guitar, piano, and field recordings blurred into arctic electronic symphonies, with Dirt On Earth being the best album we've heard so far from Human Greed. Half-remembered / half-forgotten melodies slip in and out of focus on the introductory track "An Innocent In The Aisles," floating thoughout Begg's hypnotic drone-centric composition. The following pieces adopt similar strategies but through the sharp tones from a bowed psalter that amass into dissonant swarms. Begg treats such sounds with harmonic shadows, echoes, and dopplegangers that twist the piece from being a gasping piece of minimalism and closer to the 'moon musick' of Coil's ritualized ambience. Cold rumblings, uneasy vibrations, and heavily processed bell tones intensify the proceedings of the aptly named "Invocation Of The Scottish Winter" which swells towards a grandiose crescendo of stretched and shifted drones. The pieces get longer and longer as the album unfolds, leading to the 20 minute conclusion of "Scenes From A Carefree Life" - a snowblinding piece of glistening tones, flecked with tone-bent flutterings and stratospheric droning arcs. A brilliant album that reminds us in equal parts of Andrew Chalk, Brendan Murray, and The Caretaker.

BEGG, MICHAEL / HUMAN GREEDHivernant(Omnempathy)cd$ 16.98

A very English sounding record, this Hivernant, oozing with dramatic dronescaping and cinematically empty ambience. In previous recordings and collaborations, Michael Begg has found himself in very good company alongside the likes of David Tibet, Colin Potter, Brian Eno, and Clodagh Simonds (amongst others), all of whom share a similar sense of melancholy and portent and resignation, as if it oozed out of the British sod and into their souls. Begg himself has stated that this album is the equivalent of watercolor sketches of a particular portion of Britain (East Lothian, to be exact), capturing the mood and psychic malaise which haunts that land through his darkened, impressionist compositions. Yet, these are most definitely not ephemeral vignettes. Begg carefully crafts the somber spaces with orchestrations of organ, piano, psalter, oboe, etc. that unfurl in and out of an electronic fog that has little in the way of the shoegazing reverberation of, say, Stars Of The Lid, though the arranged formalism and nocturnal pacing could find parallel there. His shimmering layers of sound will evolve into pure sonic forms of harmonically clashing drones only to dissolve into pools of melodic piano reminiscent of Eno's Thursday Afternoon or into a Tim Hecker-like tonal suspension of stained-glass sorrow, with the rather dramatic climax to be found on "Nana" that explodes with a sparse yet booming drumcorps. Hivernant is beautiful, haunting, languid, beguiling. Begg posits this a political album, though he admits an inability to articulate any specifics of these ideas. Yet, in the construct of an album that digs at the poetics of a very British sentiment without sinking into chest-thumping nationalism, his politics speak through the act of creation and not the polemics of division.

BEGGARSs/t(Lotus House)2cd$ 9.98

From the same label that brought us the blissed out raga ritualism of High Mountain Tempel, and elsewhere on this week's list, the psychedelic kosmische drift of Raagnagrok, comes something a little different, the first (only?) release from Beggars, a name you might not know, but odds are you know some of the players, Glenn Donaldson (Jewelled Antler, Skygreen leopards, etc.) and Steven R. Smith (Thuja, Hala Strana, etc.) as well as a member of Maquiladora. But before you go expecting some field recording flecked psychedelia, get ready for something a bit more mellow, and a lot more country. The opener "Ghost Coyote" is a twang flecked smolder, that sounds a bit like a slower, druggier, instrumental Mazzy Star, but then "Eureka, My Love", find the sound slipping into something closer to Townes Van Zandt, melancholic, sad sack country, rife with warmly organ, steel string strum, aching vocals, all reverie and softly echoey, the follow up reminds us a bit of stoner country geniuses Souled American, all druggy, and drowsy. Some of the tracks to get a little trippy, like the warmly angular melodies on "2-3-74 Floating", or the entirety of the nearly 23 minute countrified drone jam "Midget Decapitates Clown", which begins strum my and drifty, before mutating into something much more abstract and dense, tripped out and psychedelic, almost like the soundtrack to some strange psychological thriller from the seventies. But then the second disc gets right back into it, woozy, soft psych and countrified dream folk, shades of the Grateful Dead, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, that sort of thing, lazy, hazy country folk, back porch, sun dappled dreaminess, with subtle bits of experimentation here and there, but really, pretty much straight up psychedelic country folk, that while well removed from the Jewelled Antler sound of old, is still pretty nice. Double cd housed in a fancy full color digipak.

BEHEAD THE PROPHET N.L.S.L.I Am That Great And Fiery Force(Outpunk)cd$ 11.98

Back in stock! This 1996 release by BTPNLSL -- featuring members of Mukilteo Fairies, Noggin and Tight Bros From Way Back When -- still rocks hard as fuck in 2004. An ear-splitting cacophony - 20+ short, fast bursts of frenetic hardcore (average song length being about 45 seconds) combined with a thick wall-of-noise punctuated by evil violin scree, and unlike much modern noise / metal / whatever, completely sans irony. This stuff rocks hard. Seriously hard. While their namesake may have been a Deicide song, their music comes from the '90s school of chaotic, complex punk / grind that has given birth to bands like Heroin, The Locust, Antioch Arrow, Clickitat Ikatowi, although the vocals are way less growly and demonic and more wildly gutteral stuck-pig squeal. Aside from having their own string section (in the form of the violinist from Northwestern free noise mavens Noggin) they also manage to pull off the best hardcore-and-saxophone combination ("Zero Zero Night Vision") since Siege's '84 dirge "Grim Reaper." Brutal and unrelenting like the best of them, yet smart too... underneath the neo-satanic stylings you can see their twisted Olympia-style humor (campy metal interludes lifted from Ted Nugent and "Heavy Metal Parking Lot") as well as lyrics with political themes and references to gay sex. Hardcore fans, noise-rock enthusiasts, metal warriors, homopunk faithfuls -- all will gratefully bow before the mighty Prophet!

BEHEADINGSTrip Owl(self-released)7" square plexiglass lathe cut$ 19.98

A few lists back we reviewed a one sided 7" square plexiglass lathe cut from Death Cheetah, aka local visual artist / musician Kevin Taylor, and it was a doozy, a twisted mix of electro-black metal, all pounding drums and blooping synths, we found ourselves listening it over and over like crazy. Apparently, that was just the first in what is looking to be a series of super limited, handmade lathe cut 7"s, the latest being this, the first we've heard from a group called Beheadings, which comes complete with super illegible black metal logo, in a hand screened, hand numbered sleeve. The group, includes Taylor of course, but also Tim Cohen, he of The Fresh & Onlys and Amocoma (whose record is out on Andee's tUMULt label), and while they're not quite as metal as the Death Cheetah, this record is a pretty fantastically twisted slab of experimental sound, all pulsing synths, weirdly programmed drums, woozy twang flecked riffage, lots of cool effects, everything dubbed out and droney, the sounds panned and constantly shifting from speaker to speaker, some wordless vocals wrapped in reverb and left to drip in the background, some cool blasts of zoner guitar buzz, and wild effects drenched squiggles, dizzying backwards swoops... And then toward the last few minutes, things begin to go nuts, the vocals effected in real time, swooping and swirling, speeding up and splintering into crumbling shards, a second vocal yelping wildly over the top, while the music grooves and pulses, before everything seems to collapse in a swirl of dubbed out chaos. So cool. We want these guys to make a whole album of this stuff. But remember this is a lathe cut, so the above mentioned sounds are buried under a layer of crackle and hum, of buzz and rumble, adding a patina of hazy, gauzy washed out whir to the proceedings, that somehow makes it sound even cooler, all blurry and blissy and dreamily drugged out. And as mentioned above, it's LIMITED TO JUST 50 COPIES, each one hand numbered, in hand screened sleeves, we have about a dozen copies, but like that Death Cheetah lathe cut, these probably will go fast (though, we do have one or two of those Death Cheetahs left, if you're quick).

BEHEMOTHDemigod(Century Media)cd$ 14.98

BEHEMOTHSatanica(Avantgarde Music)cd$ 15.98

Amazing Polish black/death metal. Ultra heavy and brutal with twin guitar leads, really bizarre vocals and song structure, and all sorts of digital fuckery. Any band where the main man is credited with spiritual obsession, alchemic fantasies and star devouring(!) has got to be good.

BEHEMOTHThe Satanist(Metal Blade)cd+dvd$ 14.98

BEHEMOTHThelema.6(Avantgarde Music)cd$ 16.98

State-of-the-art black/death metal from these Polish superstars (who're apparently considered sell outs to their own scene, 'cause they're not "true black metal" anymore, but whatever, they're great). Brutality, melody, blasphemy, weirdness. A fine follow-up to their breakthrough "Satanica" opus.

BEHEMOTHZos Kia Cultus Here And Beyond(Avantgarde)cd$ 14.98

Satanic sci-fi metallic ritual enacted by a band led by a metalhead Brian Eno lookalike! The brutality and intensity (and weird, star-devouring vision) of Polish death/black metal masters Behemoth are unmatched. In the realm of extreme metal, they're a sure bet, and this lastest release only ups the ante. Fast n' furious, "Zos Kia Cultus" is a juggernaut ride through epic vistas, crammed with baroque detail. Are you (as you should be) a fan of the Mesopotamian majesty of mighty death metal kingpins Morbid Angel? Or their proteges Nile? And of the panache & extremity of black metal innovators Satyricon? Well you're probably a Behmoth fan then too! While supplies last, we've got the import digipak version w/ bonus cd-rom video track.

BEHEMOTHAURDarkcrystal(200mg)cd-r$ 8.98

It's funny that we mentioned the Dead C in describing the last blackened missive from the mysterious outfit known as Behemothaur, since we later discovered that there was in fact a definite New Zealand noise rock connection. Some very well know dudes from some very well known NZ outfits (well, at least around here) apparently spend their nights lurking in caves, and in dark woods, performing unholy blacknoise rituals, the latest of which is presented here in all it's filthy, hellish buzzing droning noisedrenched glory. While Behmeothaur is presented as a sort of outsider black metal project, they really hew closer to good old noise rock, or some sort of post industrial freerock. The darker dronier tracks sound a lot like the various members musical day jobs, soundscapes of rumbles and whirs, shimmering and throbbing expanses of crumbling low end, the sound that has become ubiquitous among cd-r labels. That said, these guys do add some blackness, some serious grimnity, their own take on the abstract drone is appropriately dense and heavy. Then there's the other side of the band, their more 'rock' side, more abstractly 'metal', and this is where the bands NZ noise lineage really shows. Huge grinding slabs of blown out, slightly blackened lurching noise rock, the guitars ugly filthy squalls, the bass a rib cage rattling throb, the drums blown out and chaotic, the entire sound so in the red, the production sounds like another instrument, the Dead C are of course an obvious comparison, so is Wolf Eyes, a massive crumbling noisy doomy dirge. The band do spit out a brief blast of buzzing blackness near the end of the disc, but even then it's so doused in fuzz and hiss the fidelity is so low, that again it ends up sounding like some super obscure nineties noiserock outfit, albeit with some definite blackened tendencies. Awesome stuff, just fair warning to black metallers to be prepared for some abstract noise, but the rest of you, who are into all that sort of cd-r style droning and bashing and buzzing, this will obviously, and summarily kick your ass. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! Packaged in a cool oversized screenprinted cardstock sleeve, with creepy red ink blood splatters all over the front, inside a 12 page printed black and white booklet packed with creepy images and some liner notes.

BEHEMOTHAURNecroglacial Enema(Faunasabbatha)cd-r$ 10.98

In a world full of tiny labels, it takes a lot to stand out, whether it's some amazing and mysterious sounds or super unique and hand made packaging. And if anything RuralFaune as shined in both respects, a crazy collection of some of the weirdest noisemakers in the world, and some seriously amazing, and in many cases, fragrant, packaging. Hand printed, painted, folded, pasted, held together with string or wire, often filled with branches or flowers, scraps of paper, seeds or bits of plant matter, many of them very strong smelling, all of them amazing. Well, Bruno, the man behind RuralFaune, was really getting into heavy music, and decided that maybe RuralFaune was not the place for such musics, so he started FaunSabbatha, a new label dedicated to heavy, creepy, dark music, metal, metallic, or just plain evil. Four new releases, each one outrageously limited, gorgeously hand packaged, and gone before you know it. The first in the series comes from the very strangely named Behemothaur, and their even more strangely named record Necroglacial Enema. With a name like Necroglacial Enema, you might expect this to be a joke, some sort of goofy pisstake on black metal, but there's nothing finny about these three songs. All three are dense and heavy and noisy and chaotic. The opener, the shortest of the three, clocking in at 8+ minutes, is the noisiest of the bunch, the drums blown out and in the red like a rehearsal recording, the guitars moaning and keening, lots of crumbling low end and squealing feedback, there might be riffs but if so, they're hard to follow, instead it sounds more like some noise rock blow out. Dead C, Harry Pussy, locking into stumbling jams, hurling cymbals, blowing speakers, all maybe wreathed in just a bit of murky blackness. The second track, clocking in at a whopping 21 minutes, is a strange looped guitarscape, coruscating angular chiming crunch, looped into grinding arcs of moaning guitar howl, like jagged shards of Keiji Haino blow outs hurled into an expense of noise rock sprawl, a furious roiling concoction of psychedelic skree and smoldering deconstructed riffage, that eventually gives way to a surprisingly serene stretch of murky whir. The closer is another downtuned noise rock murk fest. This one WAY heavier on the low end sprawl, lots of crashing percussion, splattery snare, cymbal sizzle, all draped over a slow lava-like crawl of doomy riffage, and all of THAT, wrapped in thick swirls of crumbling distortion. While this is definitely heavy, it seems like this stuff might be a bit abstract for most metalheads, but fans of stuff like Heavy Winged, White Heaven, Fushitsusha, Dead C and the like will most likely dig big time! SUPER LIMITED. ONLY 73 COPIES!!!! Packaged in a full color, oversized jacket, with a full color insert, housed in a plastic sleeve, with two crossed twigs like nature's crossbones!

BEHERITDrawing Down The Moon(Candlelight)cd$ 13.98

The AQ-list has seen its share of cds from the grim Nordic corpsepainted hordes, has it not? Almost every list nowadays has some new cult attraction for those already into black metal, or who are willing to take a chance. But there's plenty of now-classic BM that we've never written about, 'cause it came out before our store stocked as much of the blackened stuff. So the occasional blast from the past, the reissue of a '90s BM must-have, is worth mentioning we think! Sure, you should get all the Marblebogs and Striborgs and Wolds and Emits and Lorns and Negative Planes, but you shouldn't miss out on their less obscure precursors, the Satyricons and Immortals and Abigors, and (to get to the point) Beherit, whose Drawing Down The Moon from 1993 is THE album to get from these Finnish black metal maniacs... it was their full-length debut after a bunch of demos and eps. (Later Beherit albums are cool too, but quite different, more like industrial/ambient solo albums from band leader Nuclear Holocausto.) So simple and Satanic. Raw and underground. Plodding and droning. The spirit of Venom, Bathory and Hellhammer rendered even more fucked up and primitive and minimalistic by this bunch of sick Finns. It's not so much music, as it is the distorted, deviant belchings of Satan himself. If you don't 'get' Drawing Down The Moon, if songs like "Nocturnal Evil" and "Werewolf, Semen And Blood" don't speak to you... then, well, you're mom is probably happy about that. But if you really want to understand the appeal of real deal black metal, all you need is this, some beer, and no friends. Except Satan. Actually, listening to this now, we aren't surprised at all by the 'ambient' direction taken by the later Beherit incarnation. This is ambient too... ambient evil invocation. Even moreso than Abruptum.

BEHERITEngram(Spinefarm)cd$ 15.98

If you asked us at the beginning of the year what records we were anticipating the most, we wouldn't have mentioned anything from Finnish black metal pioneers Beherit, simply because their rebirth was really the last thing we expected. Following the band's super blasphemous and chaotic odes to Satan in the early '90s, leader Nuclear Holocausto took over the reigns to become Beherit's sole member, steering the project into dark ambient waters with nary a trace of metal remaining, eventually pulling the plug altogether in 1995. But here we are with Engram in 2009, and the big question is, duh, what does it sound like? After a brief glitchy noise, you are confronted by an accented voice that proclaims, "Because. I just fucking hate this world," and then we're off into the hate filled world of Beherit that we know and love best. These guys could certainly show the younger generations a thing or two, as it becomes immediately clear that Beherit has returned as a furious and totally unrelenting black metal force that retains plenty of what made the original band so great, but with enough surprises to show that there is plenty left to say. Joined by his longtime partner in crime Sodomatic Slaughter on the skins, as well as two new members, Nuclear Holocausto has created an album that serves Beherit's legacy quite well indeed. In terms of the actual fidelity, it would appear that Beherit has embraced modern recording technology, as they sound significantly beefier than on their earlier efforts, which essential as they are, generally sound a few steps below "piss poor". This album sounds burly as hell, with thick, super heavy riffs and classic black metal blasts, all topped off with Holocausto's croaking vocals and plenty of atmospheric synths adding an exciting and unexpected element to the songs. Like the classic Drawing Down The Moon album, Engram is full of weird, spaced out keyboards that, even today, put Beherit in a realm of their own. The way the keyboards go against the main riffs really bring things into psychedelic territories, and while there are plenty of super fast numbers here, some of our favorite moments are when the band take things down a notch, like on the monolithic 15 minute closer "Demon Advance", a doomy two chord juggernaut with strange oscillating noises and some of the most vile vocals we've heard in a while. Engram seems to have metalheads across the globe divided, but Beherit were never really an easy band to pin down. Of course, the use of synthesizers will always be an area of controversy when it comes to metal, but Beherit have always taken a unique approach with their electronics, venturing into spacey realms that most black metal bands don't even know exist. If you're willing to spit in the face of orthodoxy, and if you like hellish riffs, awesome puking vocals, and powerful drumming, Engram should be an obvious choice. It's good to have them back.

BEHERIT / ARCHGOATsplit(ISO666)cd$ 14.98

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

SORRY.

BEHEXENBy The Blessing Of Satan(Woodcut)cd$ 16.98

BEHEXENMy Soul For His Glory(Moribund)cd$ 14.98

Time to right another wrong. Finnish black metal horde Behexen are woefully under represented on the aQ site. One listing, no review. Bah! That is not right. So here we have the latest blast of sickness from these legendary buzzing black legions, and they sound as fantastic as ever. We love Finnish black metal, nearly as much as we love French black metal, ditto with Norwegian, there's just something so unique about the sound of Finnish black buzz. Like most black metal, heavily indebted to the Scandinavian elite, but they Finns make that sound their own, Horna, Ajattara, Satanic Warmaster, Clandestine Blaze, Baptism, Beherit, Barathrum, Azaghal and of course Sargeist, two members of which also do time in Behexen. The production is incredible: so heavy, the guitar so thick and dense; the riffs are amazing, buzzy and black but weirdly melodic, the band blast furiously one minute, slipping into a midtempo lope the next, the vocals a guttural howl, the arrangements cool and not at all typical, some bits of Khold-like groove here and there, deep clean vocals, almost chant-like, long drawn out sections of melancholy dirge that almost sounds like Katatonia, creepy haunting high end harmonics laced over blurred buzz beneath, all bookended by ultra sick, ultra grim blast and buzz. "O.O.O." is the weirdest of the bunch, and maybe our favorite, with just guitar unfurling a depressive minor key melody, while a deep vocal mumbles and murmurs, and the sound of what could be a knife being sharpened surfaces throughout, but there are strange unlikely bits all over the record, making it weird enough to keep it interesting, but not so weird that it doesn't remain true and grim and KVLT.

BEHEXEN / HORNAsplit(Morbid Moon)cd$ 14.98

BEHEXEN / SATANIC WARMASTERsplit(Hammer Of Hate)cd$ 12.98

BEHOLD THE ARCTOPUSArctopocalypse Now...Warmageddon Later(Epicene Sound Systems)3" cd$ 5.98

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

SORRY. The 3" cd format is perfect for this band's music, as their ultra-technical instrumental metal is so intense that it could easily compact itself into an "infinitely hot dense dot" and I guess a 3 inch cd is the next closest thing! Two songs, 11 minutes is plenty really 'cuz when it's over you'll just want to hit play again and again in order to absorb fully the head-jarringly complex and crazy compositional mayhem these guys crank through with seemingly effortlessness. The interestingly named Behold...The Arctopus is a trio featuring Colin Marston on "hyperfutureguitarbass" (or, the 12-stringed instrument otherwise known as the much maligned Chapman stick), Charlie Zeleny on "lead drums", and Mike Lerner playing the "nuclear yellow guitar" whatever that means. He sure knows how to play it anyway. We know Colin from his other band Infidel!/Castro? and here he proves that the hints of prog-metal we thought we heard in that rather more experimental, electronic group weren't just in our imagination! This is chopsy progressive metal taken to a ridiculous extreme, like Tony Macalpine vs. Melt Banana in a computer simulation of WWWIII. Definitely not for everyone, but if you know and enjoy such bands as Watchtower, Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan, Theory In Practice, and if GIT (Guitar Institute Of Technology) and PIT (Percussion Institute of Technology) aren't bad words for you, you'll probably consider the purchase of a Behold...The Arctopus disc to be six bucks well spent. It's the first in a series of 3" cds on the Epicene imprint devoted to "complex, difficult" music, and we imagine it's gonna be hard to top this one.

BEHOLD THE ARCTOPUSHorrorscension(Razor & Tie)cd$ 12.98

More teched-out uber-complex instru-metal madness from this celebrated math-metal unit, at last! Technically (and these guys are technical all right) this is only their 2nd full-length album, though they have released several densely-packed eps as well. But this is their first release in several years, following 2007's Skullgrid, about which we said: "chock full of their usual blazing fast fretboard acrobatics (on instruments with WAY more strings than most guitarists would want to contend with) and blasting superprogalistic complexpialidocious drumming." Well, after all these years, things haven't changed much in the BTA camp, except that they have the infamous Weasel Walter (Flying Luttenbachers, Hatewave, Burmese, etc.) on drums now, making 'em even scarier! He's the newest crazed cog in the chaotic clockwork of this trio, also featuring guitarist Mike Lerner (Direwolf) and Warr guitar maestro Colin Marston (who is also a member of technical black metal maniacs Krallice, alongside Mick Barr). So, slap this on, stand back, and prepare to be both blasted and boggled, via such dense, deathly, demented ditties as "Monolithic Destractions" and "Putrefucktion"... For fans of Electro Quarterstaff, Krallice, Melt-Banana, Meshuggah...

BEHOLD THE ARCTOPUSNano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning(Troubleman Unlimited / Vothoc)cd$ 14.98

First lesson you learn from these guys: you don't mess around with something like nano-nucleonic cyborg summoning. Leave it to the pros. It's dangerous, but that's what they're paid to do. Paid handsomely, in fact, as this $14.98 cd turns out to be only 17 minutes and 38 seconds long. But again, start cutting costs and those nano-nuke cyborgs could just get loose and wreak havoc. But the only havoc being wreaked here is all by the Behold The Arctopus guys, whom it will be remembered last blew our prog-lovin' minds with the instrumental tech-metal tour-de-force of their Arctopocalypse Now...Warmageddon Later 3" cd. Now that they've graduated to the 5" cd format, you can only imagine how much more insane their music has gotten! These musical nerd-athletes will bring a gleeful smile to the face of anyone into the extremes of technical complexity practiced by, say, Meshuggah or Melt-Banana. Headspinning stuff, recommended to all who think that the Chapman Stick is the under-utilized lead instrument that most other metal bands are lacking, and that somebody should do something about it -- that somebody being Behold The Arctopus' Colin Martson (also of Infidel!/Castro?, who have a new double cd coming soon on Crucial Blast by the way). Those for whom straightforward, 4/4, less than triple digit bpm drumming is a problem will also happily approve of this. So, again, sorry this is so relatively expensive for the length -- but for sure they do cram a fuck of a lot of music in those 1,058 seconds!!

BEHOLD THE ARCTOPUSSkullgrid(Metal Blade)cd$ 13.98

In the time it takes to read this review, your head would have spun around about 1000 times if you'd been listening to this album, instead. It's the latest tour de force from hyper technical math metal geeks Behold The Arctopus, and it's chock full of their usual blazing fast fretboard acrobatics (on instruments with WAY more strings than most guitarists would want to contend with) and blasting superprogalistic complexpialidocious drumming. Imagine a jazz fusion band called Melt-Meshuggah, with Eddie Van Halen sitting in to shred, that's kinda what BTA is all about. Whew! We can really only stop and stare at the stereo when these boys get going, though they do let up for some post-rock atmospheric bits too at times. It's all instrumental, also as per usual, with song titles like "Canada", "Scepters", "You Are Number Six", and the sorta Champs-ily named "Some Mist".

BEHOLD THE ARCTOPUS / ORTHRELMPaincave / Pithot 1(Crucial Blast)cd ep$ 7.98

Wherein these two bands try to outdo each other (and everyone else in the world) at being absolutely the most INSANE, frenzied, complex, technical-prog-metallic-masturbatory band ever. Good thing it's so short (two tracks, a little under nine minutes total for the disc) 'cause both bands (and listeners!) would be utterly exhausted if they went on any longer. In one corner, you've got Behold The Arctopus from New York, who have wanky prog gizmo the Chapman Stick in their instrumental arsenal. In the other, from right here in San Francisco, guitarist Mick Barr's Orthrelm, and Mick don't need no stinkin' Stick. Well, get this and you can judge who is the winner. Pretty clearly, fans of either or both bands need this for sure, and will additionally be tickled pink by the cool cover artwork, by none other than Voivod drummer Away (who's got an art book coming out on Troubleman sometime soon, we hear).

BEHOLD! THE MONOLITHDefender, Redeemist(Arctic Forest)cd-r$ 9.98

Second full length from these epic metal masters from LA. Their debut cd-r was a big hit with the metalheads around here (and we do have copies in stock), but for some reason never got around to reviewing them til now. But album number two is just as good. Fusing soaring epic true metal majesty with the lumbering bongsmoked doom of Sleep and Electric Wizard with the massive big arena riffing of Mastodon and the furious alcohol fueled metal of Motorhead and Venom. In fact, anyone who, like us, has been flipping out over the most recent record from Denver metalheads Speedwolf, might as well just add this to their cart right now, cuz this definitely pushes all the same buttons. Massive riffing, furious drumming, whiskey ravaged vokills, the songs heavy as fuck, catchy like crazy, this is the sort of classic headbanging shit they just don't seem to make anymore. Slipping easily from monstrous downtuned black doom crush, to NWOBHM style classic metal shreddery, to punked out metal pound, to Sabbathy stoner rock grooves, all somehow woven into a singular sound, one that we can NOT get enough of. For all the grim buzz and twisted damaged weirdness or filthy slo-mo sludge we obsess over, sometimes, when it comes to metal, real, true METAL is all you need. Just check out the sprawling 3 part nearly 14 minute epic "Cast On The Black / Lamentor / Guided By The Southern Cross", that begins all melodic doom, with harmonized guitar melodies, and a churning downtuned trudge, before slipping into some clean guitar drift, a haunting bit of spaced out dirgery, that leads into a blast of metallic crunch, which unfolds as a super melodic doom, all clean guitar melodies wedded to woozy loping buzz and fierce shrieked vox, the vibe almost eighties metal, especially when the heaviness is dialed back, and it's all drums and clean guitar, soaring synths, it gets downright proggy and so epic, before slipping right back into some heaving classic doom heaviness, rife with some killer leads, and an old school style fade out. Fuck Yeah! Just check out the samples, you'll be sold in no time! Killer futuristic robot bird dragon warrior cover art too.

BEHOLD! THE MONOLITHs/t(Arctic Forest)lp$ 13.98

On the last list, we reviewed the latest cd-r from LA metal masters Behold! The Monolith, and as we mentioned in that review, we had already had this self-titled debut of theirs for a while, and had been digging it big time, before we got the new one. And since the new one was such a hit, we figured we oughta go back and list the one that started it all. Our thumbnail description from that other review still definitely applies, we reference Sleep and Mastodon, Electric Wizard and Venom, Motorhead, epic metal mastery and big arena riffing, doomy stonery sludge and classic thrash, this record if anything is a bit more raw that the follow up. Opener "Battlestagg" the first we'd ever heard from these guys, so still in some way it's the defining song, with its churning metallic crunch, the raspy vokills, the massive drum pummel, not to mention the middle stretch where the distorted bass takes on the melody all on its own before the band kick back in. That's right, amidst all this metal pound, the band kick out some serious melody, and hooks galore, in fact, that sensibility, combined with the thick guitar tone, definitely reminded us of sludge poppers Torche too, albeit not nearly as poppy, and WAY more thrashing and metallic. "Battle For Balls Deep" is one of the two epics here, starting out with some misleadingly funky drumming, and some guitar scratch to match, the band soon explode into some dizzying mathiness and progged out heaviness that should have most weirdo metalheads in heaven, before the band launch right back into some serious Sabbathy dirgery, the track is all over the map, even slipping into some weirdly twangy country drift midway through, complete with some gorgeous sun dappled lapsteel, slowly building to what almost could be some sort of Mogwai / Godspeed slowbuild epic, before lumbering right back into some churning downtuned crunch, but managing to still retains some of that soaring melody and subtle poppiness, before finishing off with a wild psychedelic guitar freakout over a grinding churning metallic crush. The record finishes off with another epic, a 12 minute, three parter that starts out all post rocky, and deceivingly jangly, this record deviating from the group's metal core much more than the follow up, this song offering up long stretches of hooky sludge pop, of crunchy stoner metal pound, of woozy post rock lope, even some weirdly psychedelic wah wah guitar driven classical infused moodiness midway through, but with all that weirdness, they manage to sound heavy as fuck, the metal parts massive, and the whole sprawling dizzying multipart epic somehow falling together perfectly. Needless to say, if you bought the more recent record, you're gonna want this one too. And this might actually be an even better place to start, the sort of metal record that just might drag nonmetalheads over to the dark side, and alternately, the sort of heaviness that just might convince metalheads, that there's more to music than metal. Like the other record, totally bad ass fantasy cover art, this time some sort of axe wielding antler-ed gorilla riding a demon deer through a wall of hellfire. Fuck yeah!

BEHRENS, M.Contraction(Digital Narcis)cd$ 17.98

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

SORRY. After a handful of releases on Bernhard Gunter's label Trente Oiseaux, M. Behrens turns to the exceptional Japanese label Digital Narcis. Here his precessed environmental recordings take on a particularly artificial quality through a use of digital distortion and timestretching, altering the exaggerated microscopic striations and air-duct drones to otherworldly sounds, beyond the original sources of frogs, insects, and owls. 'This new Behrens is the best work I've heard from him to date!' - Vital Weekly / Staalplaat

BEHRENS, M.Elapsed Time(Intransitive)cd$ 14.98

For his "Elapsed Time" album, the German ultra-minimalist Marc Behrens uncovered a handful of his old cassettes of field recordings and compositions for analogue synthesizer, which he then ran through his current studio set up of digital signal Behrens' has done well to keep his original intent of manifesting a paranoid listening environment with the original recordings, but some of the recordings do show their age from time to time (especially the sporadically used but sorely out of place Arp synth). Certainly recommended to those fans of current ultra-minimalism who have a healthy appetite for the cut-up experiments from the Industrial Culture.

BEHRENS, M.Integracao(SIRR.ecords)cd$ 16.98

The title "Integracao" translates from Portuguese as "Integration," which is the title of a series of microsound performances by Michael Behrens, in various locations around Europe during the past couple of years. In each successive performance, he would add

BEHRENS, M.Security vs. Freedom(edition...)2x3"cd$ 14.98

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

SORRY.

BEHRENS, M.Transition(edition...)2x3"cd$ 16.98

As on the preceding album "Elapsed Time" for Intransitive Recordings, German composer M. Behrens has been digging through his archival recordings and digitally reworking them. Lately, Behrens has been veering away from the delicate minimalism of his

BEHRENS, MARC20 Zonen(Auf Aubwegen)cd$ 16.98

Marc Behrens is a sound artist who hasn't gotten a whole lot of attention around these parts, despite having released plenty of compelling albums of conceptually driven compositions abstracting various environmental recordings. It's not surprising that he's worked with Francisco Lopez and Achim Wollscheid in the past, but to see that he collaborated with Atom TM certainly raises an eyebrow or two around these parts. But here, Behrens is operating in the clinical vein of the phonographer. 20 Zonen was originally commissioned for a radio piece and features field recordings entirely collected from a particular neighborhood in the German city Darmstadt. The 40 minute composition mixes the sounds of heavy industry, high-tech precision devices, rustic soundscapes of bird twitter at various ponds, and a brass band here and there. Behrens is more than happy to cut-up and reconfigure the sounds; but even in doing so, he typically keeps the sounds easily recognizable. This is most true when he chops up various sounds from an equestrian club, so the snorts of horses become a recursive theme as does a solemn clomp of a slow horse trot. Some of the more compelling sounds of 20 Zonen come from the specialized devices used at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, whose whirring machines emit eerie, strange gaspings and radioactively crackling drones that would be the envy any number of radical sound destroyers. Behrens' contextualization of these sounds is where the art lies in 20 Zonen, and there is a mathematical precision to his craft that makes this such an interesting listen!

BEHRENS, MARC & PAOLO RAPOSOHades(And / OAR)cd$ 13.98

Sourced from recordings made aboard Lisbon ferries and at the quays of Cais do Sodre (one of the neighborhoods in the Portuguese capital), Marc Behrens and Paolo Raposo have constructed an allegorical set of compositions on Hades that intentionally mirror the mythological journey in crossing the River Styx. According to the ancient Greek beliefs, Styx was a border between the Underworld and Earth; and a ferry was the only means of transportation across the river. When put into a modern context of sound art and field-recording based collage, quotidian sounds sucha as the rumble of a diesel motor as it spews crusty exhaust and the creaking of the hull against the pier takes on a much more profound significance. Behrens and Raposo have done quite a good job in highlighting particular sounds, frequencies, and vibrations from the aquatic journey in traveling through Lisbon by way of boat, as a way of transforming that experience into a sombre event of mournful bellows and anguished sighs. Yet on occasion, Hades becomes agitated with rasping clatters of mechanical noise, alluding that the end of life is certainly not an easy journey. For an album about such a portentous subject as death, Behrens and Raposo do well to concentrate upon their sounds through the lens of a minimalist conceptual framework and allow the mythological and allegorical images to flow around their well-grafted sound.

BEHRMAN, DAVIDLeapday Night(Lovely)cd$ 14.98

BEIGEEin Konigreich Fur Eine Handgranate(Nonplace)cd$ 15.98

If it hasn't happened already, Beige is likely to receive accolades from somebody like ArtForum or some other dinosaur institution desperately seeking a connection with what's 'hip' by claiming allegiance with electronica. Beige makes electronica that should be

BEIGEI Don't Either(Leaf)cd$ 17.98

Fun, quirky, electronica from Germany ala the Mike and Rich album.

BEIRUTEast Harlem(Pompeii)7"$ 6.98

It's been couple years at least since we last heard from Beirut, and knowing the meticulous care that goes into each release, we imagined it would be well worth the wait, and were VERY excited to discover this brand new 7". Turns out that "East Harlem" while never recorded before, was written by Beirut boy wonder Zach Conden, when he was just 17 years old. An orchestral pop stunner on which he plays trumpet, ukulele, Hammond organ on top of his usual guitar and vocal duties. The B side is pretty dang great too, "Goshen" opens with somber piano and Conden's emotive vocals setting the stage for the perfect Sunday morning serenade. We hear bits of Rufus Wainwright, Antony, and Jeff Buckley in both these great tracks, and Conden has proven he belongs in that great league of amazing singers with equally stunning musical minds.

BEIRUTGulag Orkestar(Ba Da Bing)cd$ 13.98

It would be all too easy and short-sighted to draw up a musing comparison such as "if The Arcade Fire were a band of Balkan gypsy minstrels, they would be Beirut", but it might be a pretty accurate place to start. Now let's take into consideration that Beirut is one nineteen year old Albuquerque lad, Mr. Zach Condron. Quite a boy wonder, indeed he's been making music for a quarter of his life, and it's not been the usual crashing 'n' bashing about in the garage expected of restless youths nor is it just the regurgitative sounds of musical heroes. Condron finely crafts a remarkably broad spectrum of timeless music well beyond his years. His singing voice is reminiscent of Adrian Belew and David Byrne, and his lilting, often calypso-y melodies also bring to mind the offbeat, worldly elements that those two venerable artists have embraced in their music over the years. You can easily envision the brass instruments glowing in the light of oil lanterns as they emerge from the shadows bringing in tow a carnivalesque procession of accordion, mandolin, clarinet, piano, ukelele, cello and bustling percussion. It's not at all surprising that he's become comrades with Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trosk of the very like-minded A Hawk And A Hacksaw (both of whom assisted Condron in the studio). An utterly captivating listen. Recommended.

BEIRUTLon Gisland(Ba Da Bing)cd ep$ 6.98

Here's a new five song ep from Balkan gypsy music revisionists Beirut! Mainman Zach Condon has picked right up from where his luminous debut album Gulag Orkestar left off... and he's assembled a full band in the process! You might recall that A Hawk And A Hacksaw's Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trosk provided musical support on the album. This ep is comprised of four new songs and an alternate full band version of "Scenic World" (which originally appeared on the album). If you dig the abovementioned A Hawk And A Hacksaw, you're probably already familiar with their pals and collaborators Beirut (and vice versa). If not, what're you waiting for? Wonderful stuff!

BEIRUTMarch of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland(Pompeii Records)2cd$ 13.98

Previous Beirut records have taken the listener on a Gypsy tour of Europe, narrated by the croon of frontman/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Zach Condon. The first disc of this newest release, March of the Zapotec, takes us instead to Mexico, where Condon's instrumental proficiencies are utilized beautifully, though his vocals only really appear on one of the tracks. The first track is a thirty second field recording "of an unknown band" (so says the liner notes), which sets up the brevity and Mariachi-influence of the rest of the disc. Accompanying Condon on three of the tracks is Band Jimenez, a 19 person orchestra from Oaxaca. Needless to say, these tracks are even fuller and lusher than the fullest and lushest of any of Beirut's previous recordings. Though the cover of the record boasts of "new recordings from the state of Oaxaca," only 2.5 of the tracks were actually recorded there, our guess is because of the expense of flying all 19 members of Band Jimenez to Brooklyn. We find ourselves more drawn to the second disc, entitled Realpeople Holland, despite the lack of horns. It's full of muted electronic percussion and strange keyboard lines, with Condon's voice turned WAY up in the mix. Sometimes his lyrics betray his youth (the corny naivete of "And I believed her then, ohhhhhh..."), but his vocal tone adds beautiful layers, so we end up not really caring what he's saying. The keyboards sound like something out of an '80s sci-fi movie soundtrack with just a hint of flange thrown in for good measure. There's a bit of variation in the instrumentation too on the fourth track "The Concubine," where an accordion and a triangle revolve around a pulsing acoustic drum beat. This track sounds more like previous Beirut records than anything else on this disc, the other songs bearing more resemblance to Walter Carlos or the Magnetic Fields on an acid trip. Recommended.

BEIRUTNo No No(4AD)cd$ 14.98

At nineteen, Zach Condon (vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and mastermind behind Beirut) released a delightful solo album of Balkan folk music which sounded so far beyond his years. Now, almost a decade has gone by, allowing age and experience to lend themselves to his timeless craftsmanship on new album, No No No. The title track playfully starts off with a distant arcade game intro before diving into the round, harmonious vocals and type of bouncing arrangement we've come to associate with Beirut's ingenious style of pop. "As Needed" features the most whimsical, lilting strings and "Perth" follows with the warmest, most intimate horn interludes. The instrumental and vocal palette of the group's fourth full-length album is so wonderfully rich that at times their sound seems as though it has been lightly dipped in liquid gold. No No No is a romp, and while maybe nothing could truly make us want to roll around in a field full of daisies with our best childhood friend (hay fever is brutal!), Beirut has come damn close with this one.

BEIRUTThe Flying Club Cup(Ba Da Bing)cd$ 13.98

On Beirut's third album main man Zach Condon has shaken up their Balkan gypsy music-centric status quo with a baker's dozen less specifically Eastern European folk inspired numbers. Even with this unexpected, freshly broadened scope, Beirut still charms with a lushly beautiful, captivatingly otherworldliness. In fact Condon's transformed himself into something of a balladeer with a dramatic lilting croon that draws easy comparisons to Adrian Belew. Now living in France, you can hear the influence his new home is having on him. Check out the melancholic carousel waltz of "A Sunday Smile" and the deceptively titled sprightly paced "In The Mausoleum". It's like being privy to a stranger's vivid sepia toned memories of distant lands, lives and loves. As always, very recommended!

BEIRUTThe Rip Tide(Pompeii Records)cd$ 14.98

Zach Condon and his entourage are back for another album of lush, orchestral pop. Piano, pump organs, horns, keyboards, and more creating the rich tapestry for Condon's soaring and emotive vocals. Sure to please fans of the band, as this displays both their more subdued and melancholic side as well as their more bright and poppy leanings. Music that makes you want to head to the shore with nothing more then a blanket, a small bag of your most precious belongings and a bottomless bottle of red wine. Special deluxe packaging while they last, cloth-covered hardback sleeve, both the cd and vinyl (the latter of which comes with mp3 download code).

BEIRUTHHorizonte De Sucesos(Alone)cd$ 17.98

BEL, THOMASTo Dye Every Night(Invisible Birds)cd-r$ 11.98

We first came across the work of Thomas Bel through a compilation track he provided to the beloved ambient label Time Released Sound. This French musician has quietly hand-fabricated his own releases, an aesthetic that both TRS and Invisible Birds also share. To Dye Every Night is something of a personal soundtrack for an emotional landscape of melancholy and introspection. The materials are spare but wholly elegant - field recordings of a rain storm, guitar, and voice. That rain storm is recorded in such a way to capture the smacking textures of water and mud. So sharp are some of these aqueous plonks and drips that Bel gives the impression that these recordings were made at near freezing temperatures. Bel's elliptical guitar picking cycles through a desolate melody whose mood completely fits those rainy, miserablist field recordings, and the slow, funereal piece is more in keeping with the latter day Earth recordings although the melodies certainly align themselves with the Slint / Mogwai / Codeine sensibility. Very slowly, Bel's voice rises out of the rain and mud, presenting itself as a singular, tonal chord (obviously looped, unless he's mastered circular breathing to an extent that's beyond even Pandit Pran Nath and La Monte Young!). It's a beautifully lilting piece of maudlin, super stripped down mope-rock meets ambient soundscaping. Limited to just 100 copies and hand assembled by the fine folks at Invisible Birds.

BELABORISOnce Upon A Time...(Dark Entries)lp$ 15.98