[ 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 1051 through 1100 of 3202.

Fans of the late great beer guzzling, punk rock, riff slinging metalheads Karp must now rejoice, as Big Business are a dead ringer for those metal miscreants, which of course makes plenty of sense as the CEO of this particular Big Business is none other than Karp frontman Jared! So if you loved Karp, you're obviously gonna love this. And if you don't know Jared / Karp / Big Business, think relentless riffing, powerhouse drumming, shouted vocals, goofy but sort of brilliant lyrics, a supercharged AC/DC filtered through a beer soaked haze, a mild obsession with Judas Priest and a desire to kick much ass. Not hard to imagine legions of white belted, tight pants-ed irony-metal bands being rounded up by the true metal police and beaten into submission while protesting the true rock of Big Business which threatens to make their joke metal obsolete, all beneath the towering Marshall stack shapped monolith of Big Business, while Jared and his board of directors sit in their penthouse, twenty stories above hurling riff after riff after motherfucking riff at the cowering crowd below, laughing maniacally and rocking relentlessly!

MPEG stream: O.G.
MPEG stream: Focus Pocus

MPEG stream: Just As The Day Was Dawning
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Big Business had always sounded a bit like the Melvins, which made perfect sense, as the drums and bass duo also function as 2nd bass and 2nd drums in the Melvins. But they always had their own thing going on, a sound that while still heavy and obtuse, was weirdly melodic, a sort of metallicized fractured pop. We meant to review last year's Here Comes The Waterworks, a totally classic chunk of hooky heaviness, equal parts heaving metallic heft, and twisted melodicism, but somehow it slipped through the review-writing cracks here, whoops. We were mostly expecting more of the same on Mind The Drift, but holy shit, it's even better than Waterworks. Way more epic and sprawling and proggy, showtunes is probably not the best word to use to describe the songs here, but that was definitely our first thought, not cheesy showtunes like your parents made you listen to in the car on long trips, no, BB's tunes could be the soundtrack to to some otherworldly Broadway musical jam packed with twisted carnivalesque epic songsmithery, smoke and streamers and flames and leering demonic faces, twisted shapes, colors psychedelic and kaleidoscopic, but more than anything, the songs are incredibly catchy, the vocals soaring and dramatic, a huge development from the punk rock howl of their earlier recordings, the instrumentation is lush, fleshed out by a guitarist, and the arrangements are impossibly complex, lots of stop / starts, amazing vocal interplay, some of the most incredibly irresistible melodies ever, all woven into super tight, dense mini-epics. It's not metal, it's not punk, it's not post rock, it's bits and pieces of all of those, but cobbled together into something completely jaw droppingly over the top, but not ostentatious, the songs might feel grand and majestic, but it also feels like these guys could just reel off a new song at the drop of a hat and it would sound as good as any of these. The band do get rough and raw, and rock out a bit, but they shine on those aforementioned numbers, where they kick out the sprawling dramatic soundtracky post punk show tune jams, like some impossibly rad mix of the Melvins and Meat Loaf (circa Bat Out Of Hell). Our favorite track is probably "Gold And Final" (although it seems like every time we listen to this we discover a new favorite), with its super tense brooding verse, the little looped effected stutter before a devastating chorus, and an insane hook. We've been humming this song nonstop since we got this. Just listen to the sound sample, totally timeless, like some classic rock jam transported forward in time several decades, but picking up all sorts of detritus in the process and growing gradually slightly more warped and twisted. So good. Could be a contender for record of the year. Really. Incredible packaging too, done up like found vintage postcards, the song titles and credits worked into mysterious missives, all the images washed out, complete with a Big Business post mark and everything.

MPEG stream: Found Art
MPEG stream: Gold And Final
MPEG stream: Cats, Mice.

An awesome recording of Japanese and Chinese sound artists - some of whom you should know and some of whom you probably don't - gathering inside a massive oil container and mustering all sorts of acoustic noises in response to the huge amount of natural reverb within that space. Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M are the two big names from Japan, and Yan Jun is the most well known of the Chinese artists, although he's accompanied by a half-dozen other artists as well. While this might seem like a pretty large assortment of people making a racket inside the giant oil drum, the recording is suitably restrained with many of the bangs, scrapes, and prolonged vocalizations thoughtfully responding to the industrial reverb. It would be very easy to confuse some of these episodes with one of the fictional subterranean realms of Lustmord or Thomas Koner, but here all of that expansive isolationist reverb is in fact recorded live. Cracks of wood upon the thick metal walls give way to a coordinated chorale of sustained vocal bellowing that's not too far from ritualized chants of the Tibetan or Gregorian variety, with small eruptions, clatterings, and rustlings of various objects presumably found within. When the activities diminish and some chiming metals are struck, the length of the echo seems to last close to 15 seconds before finally decaying to nothing, allowing resonance from outside to intrude. It's very clear that all of those within the space know a thing or two about improvisation, knowing that shutting the hell up is just as important as making the right sound. But it's the space itself - the Big Can - that is the real massive presence throughout the recording.

MPEG stream: Big Can

MPEG stream: Faith Healer
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The first thing that is immediately striking about Big Eagle's debut record is the outstanding musicianship. The twangy pedal-steel guitar floats like a dream and might bring salty tears to an eyeball or two; the subtle bass lines never overstep or outshine the lead melodies; the drums hold the songs' foundations with elegantly simple beats. And the vocals! Robyn Miller (formerly of The Peels) does what all the greatest country singers have done: write and sing beautiful songs about death, lust and hopelessness with a grace and dignity unavailable to most human beings. She not only channels Lucinda Williams, though: consciously or not, there's definitely some Chan Marshall and maybe a bit of Joanna Newsom thrown in. Like Cat Power's album The Greatest, Willow Creek walks the fine line between indie rock and traditional roots music. Even in the titles of the songs, there's a strong dose of Americana: "Colorado," "Mississippi," "For Sale." "Broken Heart" mines the classic theme of heartbreak and has some excellent slow banjo work. "Colorado" is a short requiem, the pedal steel guiding you through the fragments of the best dream you ever had. "For Sale" has a bit more humor, with some clever lyrical wordplay and a playful guitar solo that lasts almost the entire song. The last track, "Bill Robinson's Run," might be the best on the record. The guitar and the banjo spar back and forth, the Hammond organ screams, the breaks are catchy and clever. A truly outstanding record from start to finish. Highly recommended!

MPEG stream: Anywhere The Wind Blows
MPEG stream: Broken Heart
MPEG stream: Bill Robinson's Run

The influence of the folk music of the British Isles (especially via it's '70s hippy interpreters), and Appalachian American folk as well, continues to filter into the indie-rock realm of today. Getting into the act now is Drew Nelson, bassist from post-rockers Sonna, who offers up a project named for an Incredible String Band album. It's mellow and maybe a bit mopey, featuring mostly originals with a few traditional tunes like "Bonnie Boy" thrown in. Drew sings and plays various instruments including guitar, banjo, dulcimer, and is joined by a few other folks on accordion, ukulele, and percussion. So if gentle, old-timey, acoustic folky stuff sung in an tenuous tenor warble -- trying to be Cat Stevens or perhaps Jeff Mangum or Will Oldham -- is your thing, then you could check this out, it might go on your discman or iPod as a pleasant afternoon coffee shop soundtrack.

MPEG stream: Harbor To A Hill
MPEG stream: Atop A Secret Mountain

Double (cd-r) disc from SF's favorite wild and wooly, rambunctious, foot stomping, bar fighting, beer drinking bluegrass outift, the Big Meat Combo, featuring Chewy Marzolo of Hammers Of Misfortune on drums. These two discs collect some live shows and some random studio recordings, that perfectly capture the playful drunken abandon of these guys. Songs about drinking, and fucking, and fighting, Tourette's Syndrome, Guns, and so much more. Steel strings, thumping tubs, harmonica, and harmony vocals, all snarled up in a chair smashing guns in the sky, musical bar brawl. Includes some unlikely covers: theme from Dukes Of Hazzard, "Working In A Coal Mine", "Fat Bottomed Girls", the Jungle Book theme and more. Fans of Bloodshot country, Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Jon Wayne, Waco Brothers, Split Lip Rayfield and the like will definitely dig!

MPEG stream: Lowdown
MPEG stream: Fat Bottomed Girls
MPEG stream: If I Were King

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

SORRY.

NOW ON VINYL!!! We were a bit surprised the first time we heard The Big Pink from the UK. We assumed the band was named after the famous record by The Band, so we were expecting something more rock or rootsy, but instead were treated to some awesome droned out druggy gothy smeary shoegazey electro pop. Weird enough to appeal to folks into all that strange shit, but catchy and hooky enough to end up on 4AD and be a super hyped next big thing. And we're cool with that for sure. If there's gonna be a next big thing, it might as well be these guys. It's like a way poppier, more commercial version of some badass hybrid of Suicide, Depeche Mode, M83, My Bloody Valentine, Interpol, a little noisy, WAY poppy, a bit eighties, a lot nineties, a little new wave, there's some Pixies in there for sure. The Big Pink are a duo, but have an extended band that weirdly enough includes a member of aQ prog faves Guapo, not that you'd mistake this stuff for prog, but it does hint that there might be something more going on than just another band looking toward the pop charts. And all the backward looking pop these days, the coldwave revival, new wave seeping into everything, seems like a good time for these guys, not to say that if you love Cold Cave and Former Ghosts and Zola Jesus and the like that you'll dig this, but you just might, and if you like Interpol and M83 and dig lots of synths and drum machines and catchy choruses and washed out guitars and big beats and warm feedback, but on a bigger, stadium sort of scale, then check this out, it's pretty addictive stuff....

MPEG stream: Crystal Visions
MPEG stream: Too Young To Love
MPEG stream: Count Backward From Ten

We were a bit surprised the first time we heard The Big Pink from the UK. We assumed the band was named after the famous record by The Band, so we were expecting something more rock or rootsy, but instead were treated to some awesome droned out druggy gothy smeary shoegazey electro pop. Weird enough to appeal to folks into all that strange shit, but catchy and hooky enough to end up on 4AD and be a super hyped next big thing. And we're cool with that for sure. If there's gonna be a next big thing, it might as well be these guys. It's like a way poppier, more commercial version of some badass hybrid of Suicide, Depeche Mode, M83, My Bloody Valentine, Interpol, a little noisy, WAY poppy, a bit eighties, a lot nineties, a little new wave, there's some Pixies in there for sure. The Big Pink are a duo, but have an extended band that weirdly enough includes a member of aQ prog faves Guapo, not that you'd mistake this stuff for prog, but it does hint that there might be something more going on than just another band looking toward the pop charts. And all the backward looking pop these days, the coldwave revival, new wave seeping into everything, seems like a good time for these guys, not to say that if you love Cold Cave and Former Ghosts and Zola Jesus and the like that you'll dig this, but you just might, and if you like Interpol and M83 and dig lots of synths and drum machines and catchy choruses and washed out guitars and big beats and warm feedback, but on a bigger, stadium sort of scale, then check this out, it's pretty addictive stuff....

MPEG stream: Crystal Visions
MPEG stream: Too Young To Love
MPEG stream: Count Backward From Ten

Don't be expecting the awesome droned out druggy gothy smeary shoegazey electro pop of The Big Pink's A Brief History Of Love debut we raved about a while back, cuz this is not in fact a new Big Pink record, instead, it's a killer mix tape those guys compiled, that is very reminiscent of the recent F*>k Dance, Let's Art comp, a killer collection of witch house, nu-gaze, glow-wave, weirdo electronica and all the other twisted microgenres we've been digging lately. And like all good comps, a handful of familiar faces, and a bunch of new bands that we are now dying to hear more from. Witch house is definitely heavily represented, which is cool since, most of the witch house stuff has only been available on super limited cd-r's or as downloads, up first is GrillGrill (although typed properly the 'i's are little asci crosses), who unfurl a creepy stripped down slithery bit of slowcore electronic creep, with haunting atmospheres and weirdo sped up vox, Balam Acab's witch house anthem "See Birds" shows up, a fuzzy, almost dubsteppy bit of gently glitchy gauziness, with angelic vocals, wreathed in reverb, drifting over swirling industrial loops and shimmering synths, an old out of print Salem jam pops up too, a gloriously murky slow-mo shoegaze hip hop cough syrup doom pop crawl, there's also "Mumbai" by oOoOO, another witch house anthem, a slithery Portishead-y skittery downtempo drift with sped up vocal snippets, and super distorted synths. There's also Gang Gang Dance, who do a spaced out psychedelic Kate Bush meets the Boredoms sort of ethereal jam, dubstepper Joker chops up soul vocals and creates a super witchy stuttery dubbed out groove, the Big Pink do show up, with a heavily remixed (by Gang Gang Dance) slab of fuzzy synths, looped samples and tribal rhythms, Actress unfurl some super minimal laid back murky psychedelic techno, the Xx get all moody and sultry and smokey and dreamy, and that's about it for the names we know. But almost all of the tracks here are pretty great: Love Distance, Active Child, Henry Moan, Sewn Leather, Yusuf B, Light Asylum, Horse Macgyver, No Bra, the sounds ranging from looped swirling collaged sampledlic easy listening, to shoegazey eighties style new wave electropop, to fuzzy distorto hip hop creep, to fractured anthemic rhythmic indie pop, to various shades of what to these ears sounds very witch house-y, and on and on. Definitely anyone who dug that F*>k Dance comp will dig this too, but really, anyone with a voracious appetite for new sounds, who has been digging these latest strains of twisted electronica and warped electro pop, this is probably the mixtape you wished someone would make you!

MPEG stream: Slow Dancing
MPEG stream: Snake Eater
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A wonderful end-of-summer album. If there's something you know you can always count on, it's a wonderful beach blanket good time with Big Sandy. Slow dance under the stars to such surf dream instrumentals as "In The Steel Of The Night". Or shake a tail feather to more upbeat numbers like "Hey Lowdown!" All powered by some great steel guitar stylings by Lee Jeffries.

Big Search is one man from L.A. His name is Mr. Matt Popieluch. While he is also in two other bands (Foreign Born and Ceramic Isles), he finds time to make music all by his lonesome too... with a little bass and drum assistance from his pal from The Papercuts, Mr. Jason Quever. Mysticism Vs. Classicism bears the fruits of his solo endeavors. These are his no frills 'studio in a garage' recordings from 2003/03 which are now seeing the light of day courtesy of young indie label Grand Gallop Music. Eight strummy, breezy and laidback folk pop numbers with vocals that are soft'n'sensitive with a subtle cabaret-ish flair that brings to mind both Rufus Wainwright and Robyn Hitchcock. Limited pressing of 300 copies packaged in hand-screened brown cardstock sleeves.

MPEG stream: Coastal Authority
MPEG stream: I Long For You

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

SORRY. The first two records of Alex Chilton's seminal kick ass pop band now available on one cd. With the exception of the two songs written by bassist Hummel everything here is a gem. One summer I drove across the mid-west and nary could remove my tape of these two albums from my car stereo. Crucial!

Big Star's legendary third lp (duh) also called Sister Lovers, finally released on vinyl for the first time since 1978 with the original cover art, including complete liner notes as well as the original mixes and the original track listing. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl and mastered from the original tapes. But why should you care? Because 3rd is one of the greatest pop records of all time. In fact the first three Big Star records, #1 Record, Radio City and 3rd, are like the ultimate classic pop triumvirate. There's not a real power pop band in the last 30 years who would have or could have existed if it wasn't for Big Star. And lord knows there would never have been a Replacements! Unlike the first two Big Star records though, 3rd replaced their glistening perfect pop with ragged rock, tortured angst and a serious experimental streak, all exacerbated by frontman Alex Chilton's fragile mental state and the fact that 3rd is almost just a Chilton solo record, with the other two Big Stars just backing him up. But that's the kind of tension and just the sort of uncomfortable personal dynamics that make for intense, dramatic, and moving music. And 3rd is without a doubt all of those things. So chock full of killer tunes, dark and rocking and weirdly haunting, check out "Big Black Car", "Kangaroo", "Holocaust"... Some of the most gorgeously catchy and emotionally harrowing pop you'll ever hear!

Holy smokes, a new Big Star album?! Yes, it's true, well, kinda. With surprisingly little fanfare, the band who inspired countless other AQ fave pop bands -- The Posies, The Shins, Teenage Fanclub, New Pornographers and many more -- has returned with their first studio full length in 27 years (not counting 1993's Columbia: Live At Missouri University). Mind you, it's a new-ish incarnation of the band, but needless to say theirs is a sound we adore, and hence we were pretty darn excited to see this show up the other day. Happy to report that they do not disappoint! The first few songs particularly bring out the sunshine and smiles. By the way, do you recognize some of the voices singing those wonderful soaring harmonies? Joining elder members Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens in this incarnation are the immensely Big Star influenced gents from The Posies, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow. So this actually comes across as less a distinctly classic Big Star sounding album, and in a sense more like a Big Star influenced collaboration.

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MPEG stream: Lady Sweet

If you've never heard Big Star before, and you've got $80 to burn, buy this NOW. You could probably buy the three records proper on their own for way less, but odds are, once you dig in to Big Star, you're gonna become obsessed, and want everything you can get. They're that kind of band, and these songs are just so goddamn good. Even if you're not familiar with Big Star, you are almost for sure familiar with about a million bands who owe everything they are to this legendary Southern power pop band. And we're not talking bubblegum pop, Big Star wrote dark and serious songs, emotional and super personal, able to rock with the best of them, but also able to weave gorgeous minimal intimate tales of love and loss and death. You've no doubt heard some of these songs before, even if you didn't realize it was them. Keep An Eye On The Sky includes some of their best tracks from all three of their records, but also tacks on FIFTY TWO unreleased tracks, demos, alternate takes, live tracks, as well as the only existing film footage of the band. The packaging is deluxe and gorgeous and expansive, a huge fold out book jammed with liner notes and photos, this is a great introduction to the band for sure, and is of course absolutely ESSENTIAL if you're already a super fan. And how could you not be?! These are such seminal, lifechanging sounds, and this is such timeless music. Big Star are most definitely, one of THE all time great rock bands. Up there with the Stones, the Beatles, the Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin. Really. And really essential.

Demos and rarities.

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

SORRY. 23 tracks in all -- including 5 demos done for Elektra in 1977, 7 songs from a '74 radio session rehearsal, outtakes from Alex Chilton's "Flies on Sherbert" and more. Note the label -- this may or may not be the most legal of releases but the quality is very good and well... it's Big Star!

Another giant issue of Jack Rabid's wonderful magazine that's been covering an incredibly wide range of music for years and years. This time out The Decemberists grace the cover and inside nestled amidst 228 pages there are interviews with and features on Sonic Youth, Fiery Furnaces, Jello Biafra, Hidden Cameras and lots more!

It's a battle between order and chaos in this split release from Big Techno Werewolves, featuring Crack: We Are Rock's King Riff, and Caroliner offshoot Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet. Big Techno pits guitar pickin', pie-ana plinkin' and gutter blues against total tape loop annihilation, while in Hans Grusel's world, creepy organ requiems occasionally surface beneath electronic noise in a portrait of circuit-driven madness deep in the black forest. Cd packed in a big velvety black dvd case.

RealAudio clip: Star Mystic
RealAudio clip: Kranker Tans Suite

While Joe Pernice's recent work as Chappaquiddick Skyline and Pernice Brothers explored his singular take on lush, layered orchestrated Pop, this new album calls to mind the more plaintive and twang-inflected albums he made as part of the (stellar) Scud Mountain Boys. Pernice's hushed vocal delivery (think David Gates/Bread) is so intimate it seems as if he's sitting right in front of you, strumming a guitar, telling it like it is. That voice of his carries everything along with it: delicately plucked mandolin, rhodes piano, sweetly coo-ing lap steel, etc. This is a lovely album of perfectly crafted songs from a perennially overlooked genius.

RealAudio clip: Bum Leg

We know very little about this band Big Troubles, but damn, the four songs on this 7" are totally kicking our asses. Reminding some of us of being stoned in a dorm room in the '90s listening to Unrest, Guided By Voices, Sentridoh, and The Pastels, all at their most DIY and primitive. With a fucked up lo-fi and reverb filled sound, Big Troubles do have a similar aesthetic as so many of the recent wave of lo-fi pop peddlers like Woods, Blank Dogs and Best Coast but they also tap into that cool C86 sound that the Art Museums explored earlier this year. But there is something a bit more scrappy and fucked up indie rock sounding about these jams. The 7" starts off with a guitar sound reminiscent of the opening to My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything, and then proceeds to slip into a more rudimentary rocking sound. We've loved so much of what Olde English Spelling Bee has put out (Ducktails, Rangers, Julian Lynch, Forest Swords, James Ferraro, etc.) and we're stoked to see them entering the world of 7"s now as this is the label's debut in this format.

Big Troubles' recent Sad Girls 7", reviewed on our previous list, marked a big sonic change for this aQ beloved weirdo pop combo, one that we were loathe to embrace. Our experience is that typically, when bands 'mature' and their sound changes, becoming less weird and less idiosyncratic, in most cases the band also essentially becomes less GOOD. So we feared the worst, word was Big Troubles had shed much of their warped quirkiness and were headed for jangle pop central with an about to pop new album on Slumberland. But we need to fear anything, cuz while we may lament the band's old sound, much of the pop core, that made them so awesome in the first place, still remains, just cleaned up a little. And as they say, these boys sure do clean up nice. And the new Big Troubles are a perfect fit for Slumberland, a dreamy mix of modern fuzz pop and classic nineties indiepop jangle, the A side of the aforementioned single is here, and as we descirbed it before, it "sounds like a classic slab of nineties Britpop, all big soaring fuzzy guitars, hazy dreamy vocals, shimmery, glimmering and hooky as all get out, a huge hit in a perfect world, but since this is not, it will remain an underground perfect pop gem." Which really applies to most of the record. While "Sad Girls" might be the obvious single, opener "She Smiles For Pictures" is a close second, with its cool quirky main riff, its sweetly melancholy melody, warm muted jangle and the lush dreamy vox that slip easily into a soaring falsetto, there's even a couple brief squalls of psychedelic noisiness, but they are brief and deftly woven into the group's perfect pop. And pretty much perfect is what it is, any one into other Slumberland bands who maybe found Big Troubles too weird, just might find themselves with an unlikely new favorite band. We've been listening to this non stop (along with Slumberland's Veronica Falls record, also reviewed on this week's list), and we can't stop listening to either, total pop heaven bliss!

MPEG stream: Sad Girls
MPEG stream: She Smiles For Pictures
MPEG stream: Misery
MPEG stream: Make It Worse

With an impending full length on dream pop label Slumberland, and a new, surprisingly poppier, and less warped and warbly sound, our first impulse might have been to write off Big Troubles completely, and lament the loss of another quirky fucked up outsider pop combo, but the thing is, these two new songs might be the best things BT have ever recorded. Sure some of the twisted woozy weirdo effects are gone, but they're hardly missed, cuz these songs are pretty much PERFECT. We always knew they had it in them, even on past jams, no amount of effects and fractured production could disguise the pure pop that lurked underneath. That pop lurks no more. Instead it shines brightly, the A side here sounds like a classic slab of nineties Britpop, all bit soaring shimmering guitars, hazy dreamy vocals, shimmery, glimmering and hooky as all get out, a huge hit in a perfect world, but since this is not, it will remain an underground perfect pop gem. Or hopefully maybe not! The flipside takes another stab at classic nineties British pop, this time channeling Swervedriver, the sound heavier and grungier, shoegazey with a melody infused fuzz, some seriously crunchy buzzy guitars, and pounding rhythms all beneath the same soaring dreamy vox as the A side, resulting in a blissed out chunk of heavy dreamy shoegazy fuzzpop that is tough to beat. This might just be our new favorite single, and definitely has us dying to hear the new full length.

First single from Big Troubles' most recent full length, one of our favorite pop records in recent memory, even more remarkable for the fact that BT had transformed from lysergic noisy warped weirdo pop into straight up jangly un-ironic eighties beholden classic pop, and it truly suited them. The A side here is on the record proper, a fantastic slab of fuzzy dream pop, with a quirky main riff, a sweetly melancholy melody, warm muted jangle and lush dreamy vox that slip easily into a soaring falsetto. The B side though is worth the price of admission alone, hard to imagine why they left it off the record, as it's easily as good as anything else on the full length, in fact, in some ways it sounds even bigger, almost like Teenage Fanclub or something, all fuzzy and jangly, with a killer chorus and hooks for days. If you LOVED the full length, this is definitely worth picking up for the extra track, or if you just want to get a taste of Big Troubles, this will definitely do it, and very likely whet your appetite for more.

We hadn't heard anything from these New Jersey retro poppers other than a brief 4 song 7", but that's all it took to convince us that these guys were more than capable of pushing all our musical buttons, fuzzed out drum machine driven new wave flecked shoe gaze garage pop of the highest order, a modern take on iconic John Hughes soundtrack indie rock, Simple Minds filtered through M83, jangle pop bliss all ramshackle and fuzz drenched and oozing hooks and melody. The 7" reminded us of Unrest, Guided By Voices, Sebadoh, the Pastels, as well as more modern practitioners of the same sort of sound, Woods, Best Coast, Blank Dogs, but Big Troubles definitely have their own masterful take on the whole C86 pop sound, meshing rudimentary stumble pop, with massive speaker melting squalls of shoegaze shimmer, and crunchy DIY lo-fi pop, into a stunningly varied selection of songs, from dense and driving to skeletal and simple, from hazy and haunting to lush and summery, the thread holding them all together is a weird pop vibe that seems to instantly evoke memories of young love and misspent youth, of wandering aimlessly before the shackles of adulthood and responsibility had truly taken hold, transporting the listener to an age of youth, that vibe and emotion rendered in fuzz guitar, propulsive rhythms, cascading sheets of blurred distorted guitars, buried vocals, perfect melodies, every song major mixtape material, which is about the highest praise we can imagine.

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: Plantation Rhymes (Southern Hospitality Mix)
MPEG stream: Silver Back Mountain King

MPEG stream: Energy Harvester (Swallow The Sun)
MPEG stream: Orbital Mechanics

Utter obsession with a particular artist or style of music is, of course, something we're familiar with... and fully in favor of. In the case of the oft-praised by us Holy Mountain label, such obsession has lead to some quite amazing discoveries and reissues in the field of Japanese psychedelia, for instance, among other Holy Mountain specialties. This release, too, is the result of obsession, and it's been 10 years in the making. We remember way back, when Holy Mountain head honcho JW, before he had his label (he used to work at one of our suppliers), would rave about the vinyl-only 12"s of French "shuffletime" techno producer Fred Bigot (pronounced Bee-joe we assume). According to JW, Bigot's electronic tracks were in fact utterly psychedelic. And they were. Fuzzed out, raw and repetitive, hypnotic with their shuffle (schaffel) rhythms. We never forgot 'em, and neither did JW/Holy Mountain, who now finally presents the 4 cuts from Bigot's two 12" singles circa 1999 and 2000 on compact disc, along with 4 more tracks, one of 'em from a 2001 comp, the other 3 presumably previously unreleased. Definitely a bit of a 'dream come true' for Holy Mountain. You may also know Bigot in his -other- guise of Electronicat, who has put out a lot of records we also like. But while Electronicat provides a playful dose of T-Rex style glam and glitter, and even rockabilly, with campy vocals and wah-wah guitars making appearances, upping the glam angle immensely, in comparison these tracks under Bigot's own name are stripped down, minimalistic, and without the more bubblegum elements. Imagine instead Pan Sonic, but with more of the synth-psych spirit of Christine 23 Onna. On the original 12" cuts, it's all about the mesmeric shuffle throb, the distorted crunch and scrunch, the almost drone-like repetition. (We like repetition. We've said it before, we'll say it again.) Definitely good headphone listening, or to be cranked LOUD on your home stereo. And then some of the tracks here, not from the 12"s, aren't even beat-oriented at all. For starters, there's the intro sine-whine of opener "Chant", pretty abstract and clinical. Then, it's shuffle time, as that's followed by the one-two punch "Mono" and "Stereo" from Bigot's first 12", both tracks crude 8+ minute throb-a-thons, like followed by the equally effective cuts from his second 12", "Binary" and "Ternary", which adds glammy handclap sounds into the mix. Seeing as how getting those two crucial 12"s on cd is worth the price of admission alone, hitting repeat and playing those four tracks over and over again is certainly an option, but when you do continue on with the disc, there's further treats to be found. Next up, a change of pace with the void-ian atmospheres of the windily desolate "Extinction", full of spacey rumble. Then, bang, "Lr-Yz" is another monomaniacal, mesmeric cruncher in the tradition of the 12"s. Following that is "Outside", a 10 minute track suggestive of field recordings, with electronic sounds like crickets chirping, something like Ryoji Ikeda conducting a nighttime nature sounds symphony, but one that speeds up nervously if that's wasn't enough. And then, "Symmetriad" ends the disc, combining the distorted throb of the 12" cuts with the more haunted ambience of the likes of "Extinction" and "Outside". So it all kind of appropriately comes together, and for a collection of tracks not originally intended as an album, this actually adds up into one surprisingly well, a unified vision with a bit of variety. Maybe 'cause all the tracks, recorded in Paris and Berlin, were made with the following only: "Roland TR808 + Rat distortion + Waldorf filter + Sherman filter + Lexicon Jamman". We don't know... but we do like it, can't get enuff. Big ups to Holy Mountain for bringing these Bigot tracks back!! That old obsession never let go we guess, and pays off for all of us now.

MPEG stream: Mono
MPEG stream: Binary
MPEG stream: Extinction

Despite their band name, we wonder if a more appropriate mode of transportation for Bikeride might be a horse-driven circus cart or enchanted flying carpet. Their fifth album The Kiss is a kaleidoscope of minstrel folk and psychedelic pop, very much in the dreamy delirious tradition of the Elephant Six collective (particularly Olivia Tremor Control and The Minders). Check out "The Mystery Of Magnet Power". The band alternately waltzing through the carnival, the cabaret and the open desert plain. Pretty darn tootin' good!

MPEG stream: Your Lips And You
MPEG stream: The Mystery Of Magnet Power

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

SORRY. Another sparkling, snarling single to make you and me feel GOOD.

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

SORRY.

[ aquarius records catalogue — B ]