[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 1301 through 1350 of 3202.

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

SORRY.

Forget about the multimedia / iPad formats of this new album via which Bjork originally released Biophilia, all that app stuff just gets in the way, and clouds the fact that this is one of the most emotionally intense, dark, and rewarding albums Bjork has crafted yet. Biophilia continues display what a rare vision Bjork has, making her undisputedly one of the most imaginative and original musicians of our time. Filled with haunting organs, primitive electronics, majestic harps, delicate bells, and of course one of the most commanding and mystifying voices we've heard. It's a record that shares the intimacy of Vespertine, the dark intensity of Medulla, and the focus and power of Homogenic. Much of Biophilia is filled with slower, brooding sounds. But the moments of ecstatic release that come on tracks like "Crystaline", "Mutual Core", and "Natura" are so perfectly paced, making us freak out and lose ourselves in the sound before returning to the heavy emotional essence of the rest of the record. When Bjork sings lines like 'craving miracles', you are reminded that she is one of the view artists who has the ability to truly create magic and miracles with her music. She continues to be steadfast in her vision and uncompromising approach to making music. These songs slowly crawl beneath your skin, recalling the best moments of records by Brigitte Fontaine and Robert Wyatt, yet so utterly modern, futuristic and timeless all at once. Brilliant!

MPEG stream: Crystalline
MPEG stream: Mutual Core
MPEG stream: Thunderbolt
MPEG stream: Nattura

Ooops, meant to list this last time with Homogenic and Post... Hey, have you heard of this newfangled technology? It's called a dualdisc. A CD on one side, a DVD on the other! Pretty good idea except you should be forewarned that these discs do not play on every cd player nor every dvd player. For one thing they are thicker than 'normal' cds and dvds. Yeah, we know these things aren't all that new, but we felt the need to elaborate a bit 'cause they do seem to cause some confusion and disgruntlement. Anyhoo, Bjork fans probably already own these just-released reissues of her early albums, right? And everyone else is to some degree or other probably pretty darn familiar with them too just by their omnipresence, eh? Sooo are introductions to these albums all that necessary? We will say that Bjork really got her post-Sugarcubes solo ball rolling on this one back in 1993, didn't she? Who'da thunk that over the years she'd roll it into such a Katamari Damacy-like colossal mammoth of a body of work (and if you don't know what that means, well then, you don't know FUN! Google it!). At times and often all at once, she's wickedly mischievous, sugary sweet, coyly sexy, quirkily charming, and elegantly sophisticated. Pushes all the right buttons! Continues to delight old fans and new listeners (if there are any left!) alike. What we will bring to your attention today though is that these dualdisc Bjork reissues are all subtitled 'Surrounded'. Why? Because a major feature on the dvd side of each one is a Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound version of the album. So why listen to this album 'just' in stereo, when you can have some "Big Time Sensuality" pulsating though your whole living room!? Of course, if you do want the stereo option, the cd side has that for ya too in a freshly remastered state. To sweeten the deal even further, there's also five of her deliriously delicious videos -- "Human Behaviour", "Venus As A Boy", "Play Dead", "Big Time Sensuality" and "Violently Happy" -- which are also in Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound. Swoon. Psst, we should add that for all of you SERIOUS Bjork fans there's also a deluxe seven dualdisc Surrounded boxset which includes her six studio albums plus the Drawing Restraint 9 soundtrack!

Bountiful new, rare and previously unreleased Bjork! Six cds totalling 35 tracks in all - five mini 3" cds and one full size - stunningly packaged in a cool pink tupperware-ish box with an embossed white slipcover. The first two discs are named "Roots". They exemplify how she drew from the Icelandic cultural and natural environment. Containing five tracks each including "Cover Me" and "Joga (Strings and Vocals)". The third "Beats" features four cuts of her experiments with electronic rhythms. The fourth and fifth are grouped together as "Strings" and contain nine tracks including alternate versions of "Cover Me", "Hunter" and "Bachelorette". The sixth is her "Greatest Hits" as selected by Ms Gudmundsdottir herself - not to be confused with the concurrently released single cd "Greatest Hits" which was compiled by fan vote on Bjork.com. In the process of assembling this extensive retrospective package, Bjork spent six months revisiting works from her past. The results are remarkable, revealing her awesome artistic evolution and leaving the listener eager to discover her next pursuits.

A hard-to-find import from Bjork who performs vocal jazz numbers entirely in Icelandic.

A guy came into the store the other day, pointed at this cd and said "How's this Bjork cd?" Uhhhh. What more can be said other than that it's her greatest hits - well, at least fifteen of 'em as chosen by her adoring masses (via a vote on her website)! Dedicated fans must already own all of the albums from which these songs originated, but in case you need the highlights all neatly gathered on one disc, this is for you. Needless to say, this is a truly luminous and fanciful array. A super bonus treat is the final, previously unreleased track "It's In Our Hands"! Prior to its appearance on this cd, the song was only exposed to the world at her live performances. Special note: a very different greatest hits collection is included in her 6cd boxset that was released simultaneously. How is it different? Well, the selection was chosen by Bjork herself.

Even weirder than her last record, with orchestrated stuff and more jazz/lounge crooning. Cover is a Photoshop masterpiece art-directed by Alexander McQueen that must be seen to be believed.

Hey, have you heard of this newfangled technology? It's called a dualdisc. A CD on one side, a DVD on the other! Pretty good idea except you should be forewarned that these discs do not play on every cd player nor every dvd player. For one thing they are thicker than 'normal' cds and dvds. Yeah, we know these things aren't all that new, but we felt the need to elaborate a bit 'cause they do seem to cause some confusion and disgruntlement. Anyhoo, Bjork fans probably already own these just-released reissues of her early albums, right? And everyone else is to some degree or other probably pretty darn familiar with them too just by their omnipresence, eh? Sooo are introductions to these albums all that necessary? Back in '97 we had this to say: Even weirder than her last record (Post), with orchestrated stuff and more jazz/lounge crooning. The cover image is a Photoshop masterpiece art-directed by fashion designer Alexander McQueen that must be seen to be believed. Pretty much the same can be said for the otherworldly music in all of its elaborate intricacies. What we will bring to your attention today though is that these dualdisc Bjork reissues are all subtitled 'Surrounded'. Why? Because a major feature on the dvd side of each one is a Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound version of the album. So why listen to Bjork's third full length Homogenic 'just' in stereo, when you can have her "Alarm Call" resonating though your whole living room!? Of course, if you do want the stereo option, the cd side has that for ya too in a freshly remastered state. To sweeten the deal even further, there's also five of her deliriously delicious videos -- "Joga", "Bachelorette", "Hunter", "Alarm Call" and "All Is Full Of Love" -- which are also in Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound. Swoon. Psst, we should add that for all of you SERIOUS Bjork fans there's also a deluxe seven dualdisc Surrounded boxset which includes her six studio albums plus the Drawing Restraint 9 soundtrack!

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

SORRY. 6 versions of Hunter spread over three cd singles, some featuring remixes by U-ziq and State of Bengal. Plus the absolutely great Funkstorung remix of "All if Full of Love", and the DJ Krust remix of "So Broken". We don't expect to be able to stock these again, and supplies are very limited.

Live DVD from Bjork's 1998 tour supporting "Homogenic" with the musical accompaniment of the Icelandic Octet and Mark Bell.

Live DVD from the 1997 tour in support of "Post". Previously available in VHS format.

We've had a couple of these in stock for a little while, hidden away on a shelf behind our front counter where nobody ever seems to see 'em (along with such other items as the giant Yahowah 13 disc box set, several of Cup's delightful Sog Mongeys, a 2cd reissue of Japan's Tin Drum, both Nuggets box sets, a weird video tape-in-a-bag-of-ephemera from the Japanese Augen label, and of course we can't neglect to mention the ZZ Top box set that looks like a Texas barbeque shack and comes with little cardboard standup ZZ Top figures, which Allan's gonna buy if nobody else does). So we thought at least a few of y'all would want to know about this Bjork box. Basically, it's one disc of songs from Bjork's Debut album performed live, one of songs from Post live, one from Homogenic live, one from Vespertine live, and a fifth bonus DVD disc of video footage. Plus a 36 page booklet all in a handsome lil' box with art and text in that cool Bjork font. Whoo-hoo! And if you want the ZZ Top box too, maybe we can work a deal...just kidding, Allan doesn't want anyone to buy it, so he can have it...

The conscious decision to use only the human voice in musical compositions is nothing new -- the unadulterated vocals of a cappella soul groups and barber shop quartets immediately spring to mind -- however, few mainstream artists have brought this approach to today's popular music (okay, we remember Bobby McFerrin). The choice to use only one 'instrument' initially seems to be potentially limiting, but of course Bjork's not limited at all. Her voice on its own has an arguably unsurpassed power and expressiveness. Now, add to that a number of other artists of her meticulous choosing (Mike Patton, Robert Wyatt...), and she can't be stopped. Granted Bjork also has the luxury of state of the art recording technology at her beck and call to mutate and accommodate any sound (directly from a human source or otherwise) into something altogether unrecognizably different (and decidedly non-human sounding) for her sonic pallette. Indeed, many of Medulla's tracks are stunning examples of a near-magical fusion of human vocal ability, composition and studio wizardry. You won't encounter much in the way of her deliriously wonderful pop songs here (not unexpectedly, this is something that seems to have already put off a few Bjork fan AQ customers upon their initial listens, but we'd recommend giving the album a little more time, and you might discover it sinking its non-pop hooks into you), instead you'll find what is perhaps her most challenging, otherworldly, abstract work to date. There's two versions of this available, digipack vs. regular jewel case. The high price digipak version differs from the normal jewel case version ONLY in that it is a digipak (duh) but also contains a small poster. Worth two extra bucks? You decide. Also realise that if you're the poster hanging type, all of the liner notes in this version are on the back of the poster, so you'll have to get a real good look at 'em before this goes up in your locker! So basically, we'd recommend opting for the regular jewel case edition...

MPEG stream: Where Is The Line
MPEG stream: Submarine

MPEG stream: Where Is The Line
MPEG stream: Submarine

Hey, have you heard of this newfangled technology? It's called a dualdisc. A CD on one side, a DVD on the other! Pretty good idea except you should be forewarned that these discs do not play on every cd player nor every dvd player. For one thing they are thicker than 'normal' cds and dvds. Yeah, we know these things aren't all that new, but we felt the need to elaborate a bit 'cause they do seem to cause some confusion and disgruntlement. Anyhoo, Bjork fans probably already own these just-released reissues of her early albums, right? And everyone else is to some degree or other probably pretty darn familiar with them too just by their omnipresence, eh? Sooo are introductions to these albums all that necessary? What we will bring to your attention today though is that these dualdisc Bjork reissues are all subtitled 'Surrounded'. Why? Because a major feature on the dvd side of each one is a Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound version of the album. So why listen to Post (originally released in 1995) 'just' in stereo, when you can have Bjork's "Army Of Me" completely engulf you in the privacy of your own home!? Of course, if you do want the stereo option, the cd side has that for ya too in a freshly remastered state. To sweeten the deal even further, there's also a half dozen of her deliriously delicious videos -- "Army Of Me", "Isobel", "It's Oh So Quiet", "Hyper-ballad", "Possibly Maybe" and "I Miss You" -- which are also in Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound. Swoon. Psst, we should add that for all of you SERIOUS Bjork fans there's also a deluxe seven dualdisc Surrounded boxset which includes her six studio albums plus the Drawing Restraint 9 soundtrack!

Can Bjork do no wrong? Well, her record label certainly can, by making $19 the suggested list price for this new 35 minute long (mini) album! Fortunately we're able to offer it for a little less, although our suppliers will probably jack up the price once our initial supply runs out... However, Bjork (and past Bjork collaborator, producer Mark Bell) have come up with a nice little disc here, the soundtrack (or at least, songs from soundtrack) to the eagerly awaited 'round these parts, Cannes film festival award-winning, Bjork-starring film by Lars Von Trier. It's certainly very "soundtracky" at first listen, super orchestral and all, but there's some very interesting technoish weirdness to be found here too. It seems that Bjork and co. have been listening to the the Raster school of clicks and cuts electronica (along with the Art of Noise and, Jim thinks, Gilbert & Sullivan). "Surface noise" crackle (a la Pole and, well, Portishead) and crinkly rhythm programming mixes nicely with That Voice on the track "Scatterheart". Yes, That Voice. When it comes down to it, even $19 wouldn't be too much to pay to hear this brilliant woman sing. We're hopeless Bjork fans, I guess, but "Selmasongs" is, as we expected, a joy, even if it isn't another "Homogenic". Can't wait for a real full-length Bjork album tho, one where she's free from the distractions of acting in a movie and constrained by cinematic convention / directorial needs. ...Oh, and we should mention that she duets with a few folks on this disc, among them Catherine Deneuve and Radiohead's Thom Yorke.

This is REALLY good. Rerecorded reinterpretations of songs from Bjork's Homogenic album, plus one brand new song. The people involved include Mark Bell (of LFO), The Brodsky Quartet, Tricky, deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie, Howie B., Dillinjah, and Talvin Singh. Ranges from dancefloor-ready techno to weird neoclassical sparseness to jungle. Wow!

If the more esoteric and abstract moments of Bjork's last full length Medulla tickled your fancy, you'll surely discover much to love on her new cd of film music for Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9. It's a series of eleven instrumental and vocal interludes that definitely bear the mark of Ms Gudmundsdottir. Alternately austere and elaborate, and steeped in the sounds and influences of Japan (particularly Noh theater). That is, with the exception of one rather insistent horn segment titled "Hunter Vessel" which surfaces midway through the proceedings. Performers include Zeena Parkins, Will Oldham, Akira Rabelais, Mayumi Miyata, Leila, Shiro Nomura, Tagaq, Mark Bell, among many others. Unfortunately not having seen the film, we can't comment on how they relate or interact with the visuals, but we can say that when taken solely an aural experience, it's mighty captivating.

MPEG stream: Gratitude
MPEG stream: Hunter Vessel
MPEG stream: Storm

More of the same from Mistress Bjork (thus, no disappointment). Making appearances are Herbert (Dr Rockit), Console, harpist Zeena Parkins and our pals from Matmos. One track has an Oval sample and Bjork sings some e.e. cummings lyrics. And one song is written

RealAudio clip: Pagan Poetry

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

SORRY.

Who else but Bjork could get the congotronics of Konono No. 1, the infectious production of Timbaland, the extraordinary drumming of Chris Corsano, the majestic kora playing of Toumani Diabate, the spastic noiserock of Brian Chippendale from Lightning Bolt and the emotionally charged voice of Antony (from Antony And The Johnsons) all together on one single record? Nobody else of course. This decade has found Bjork experimenting with a wide range of formats and modes of expression. With Vespertine she practically gave a how-to-exercise on infusing the laptop with warmth and personal poetry. Selmasongs reminded us that it's still possible to create a meaningful, sad and beautiful musical. Medulla, found her experimenting with the possibilities of the human voice and her collaboration with her beau Matthew Barney for The Drawing Restraint 9 allowed her to further explore her love of the avant-garde and the myriad of sounds found all over the world. In many ways Volta carries pieces from each of those projects and intertwines them in pop minded ways, some songs are dancey and charged, others dramatic and dripping with passion, and despite the wide variety of guests, it's still her singular voice and vision that holds everything together. She's one of those rare artists who manages to appeal to almost everyone, be they metalhead or popkid. The album starts with Bjork singing "We Are The Earth Intruders...", and we are thrilled to be included in that 'we', something we'd be hard pressed to say about any other artist. But when Bjork sings 'we' it's nearly impossible to resist joining in and being a part of her endlessly creative, colorful and inspiring world of sound.

MPEG stream: Earth Intruders
MPEG stream: The Dull Flame Of Desire
MPEG stream: Innocence
MPEG stream: I See Who You Are

For those who can't get enough Bjork (we know who you are) how about this, the two audio compact disc, two video dvd disc edition of Voltaic, the live companion to the eccentric Icelandic singer's latest album Volta! No, we're not reviewing it, really, just letting you know it's here... calling your name...

Funkstorung has previously made a name for themselves with a few singles for their Mask label (which could be seen as an anagram for Skam - who are certainly the origin for Funkstorung / Mask in terms of aesthetics). If you liked the last Autechre and Boards of Canada records, you shouldn't let this pass you by! Funkstorung fractures three different remixes from the last track from Bjork's Homogenic album that range from disjointed breakbeats to weird drum & bass.

Stoner rock's best known drummer, Mr. Brant Bjork (he's the former sticksman of both Kyuss and Fu Manchu) presents his second solo disc. In spite of the "and the Operators" part of the band name, this really IS a solo record, as Brant sings, drums, plays "Ain't nothing gonna stop the rock tonight...I got rock tonight...feeling good it's so right...I got the rock tonight...ain't nothing gonna stop the rock tonight." It's all knowingly dumb, good fun. I wasn't expecting much from this record, and as a result was pleasantly surprised and captivated by the catchy, summertime stuff Brant came up with here. The album closes with some dentist office funk to mellow you out after all the rock tonight.

RealAudio clip: Hinda65
RealAudio clip: My Ghettoblaster
RealAudio clip: Cheap Wine

Finally we're starting to be able to get records by Nordvargr on a regular basis. Many of us here have been totally obsessed with Nordvargr for ages but it's been so tough to get his records in with any regularity and never enough to list. For those unfamiliar, Mr. Nordvagr was a member of seminal black metal ambient drone outfit MZ412, and later went on to form the miltaristic drone folk ensembles Toroidh and Folkstorm, as well as releasing stuff under his given name. The Dead Never Sleep is Nordvargr's newest release and definitely harkens back to his days in MZ412. This is one of the darkest, bleakest most abject drone records ever. Super minimal and pitch black. A million shades of black and grey, all slowly and barely shifting. Vast expanses of slow motion reverberations and distant rumbles, the sounds of hearts beating and gongs shimmering and winds whipping and waves crashing but all heard through the tiny end of a mile long, black hole telescope. Planets imploding struggling to be heard through the deadness of space. A barely there smear of subsonic thrum, gorgeously serene, like a peaceful boat trip, drifting lazily down a river of black pitch, through the blackened caverns of the underworld. Definitely one of the most evocative, and brilliantly bleak collections of drone musick in recent memory!

MPEG stream: Algenon
MPEG stream: Noma Klaw

The newest release on AQ pal Uirajara's stellar Essence label, home to the awesome dark ambience of Wolfskin, the splattery noise onslaught of Merzbow's Sha Mo 3000, and soon to release the Brazilian version of Boris's most recent Mabuta No Ura, with completely different artwork and extra music, comes the latest in a recent spate of releases from Scandanavian dark ambient technician Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk, who also records as Folkstorm, Toroidh and began his journey down the darkened path with his black ambient outfit MZ412. This newest release is as dark and bleak and sonically terrifying as they come, which is quite odd considering Vitagen is dedicated to his daughter Indra (the dedication reads: Dedicated to Indra, the light which guides me through the darkness), the cover features all antique photos of little girls, and the super limited deluxe version (now out of print, so don't ask) even came with a handmade porcelain doll. But there is nothing loving or childlike here, unless of course it's meant to be the musical probing of the darkest recess of a child's mind, all monsters and nightmares, things that go bump in the night, shadows outside the window, demons waiting in the closet, all brought to life by disembodied rumbles, slow building industrial swells of shivering blackness, ominous smears of demonic minimalism, and occasional cracks and crashes, like brief bursts of lightning illuminating the terrors hidden in the night, just for a moment, but that moment is enough to fill your soul with dread as you are plunged back into utter darkness. And while the sound of Vitagen is definitely brutal and barren and hauntingly grim, it's also quite beautiful, and even soothing at times, with small stretches of tranquil ambience scattered here and there, melodies slowed down and pulled apart into dark shapes that sort of drift and hover, a nice balance between the hellishly malevolent and the soothingly serene. Beautifully packaged in a six panel, embossed cardboard sleeve.

MPEG stream: Steril
MPEG stream: Voidum

Black ambient terrorists MZ412 were and are the definition of "true Swedish black industrial" and were one of the first bands to successfully bridge the gap between dark ambience and black metal. The two main members never abandoned their vision, but instead, put MZ412 on hiatus while the two pursued and explored different sounds and sonic worlds. Nordvargr most prolifically in Toroidh, Folkstorm and under his own name, while Drakh began the Beyond Sensory Experience project. Recently the two reunited and released a brand new MZ412 record (to be reviewed here soon) and recorded a brand new Nordvargr / Drakh album (coming soon on Andee's tUMULt label). Somehow they also found time to collaborate with Japanese writer and sonic assassin Kenji Siratori (who also collaborates with Pendro elsewhere on this list) on Hypergenome666, a massive multiple disc, art book project that is breathtaking, not just visually (with incredible artwork and design courtesy of Paul McCarrol) but sonically as well, featuring some of the most caustic, heavy and frighteningly menacing black ambience and dark drones we've ever heard. Two discs, one features Nordvargr, the other Drakh and his Beyond Sensory Experience, each pitted against Siratori, whose main weapon is the word, both written and chopped and sliced and diced into strange verbal soundscapes. The Nordvargr disc just might be the darkest heaviest thing we've ever heard from him. Creepy and cavernous, huge ominous swells and crumbling industrial crunch drift amidst disembodied monstrous growls and keening distant melodies. Black clouds hover above, spewing forth grinding bursts of electrical discharge, interrupted occasionally by strange dreamlike interludes, epic and majestic horns, processed vocals, looped and chopped, treated and affected, crumbling crunchy rhythms, thick swaths of blown out distortion and expansive smears of whirring ambient buzz and thick streaks of minor key color. This is one of the scariest sounding discs ever. So deep and dense, so many layers, so much going on, it's the sound of being lost in the underworld, wandering alone forever. It's strangely beautiful too. The BSE disc finds Drakh also teamed up with (or against, hard to say) Siratori and that disc is nearly as sinister and bleak as Nordvargr's. A bit more rhythmic, with the voices and vocals pushed more to the fore, the rhythms a lurching framework for the various low end streaks, swirling and shimmering. The voices are transformed into alien black shapes and back again. Dense and thick, a crumbling world of delicate drones and thick slabs of grinding distortion. More blissed out and ambient, dreamy and soft focus, but no less threatening or evil sounding. The discs are similar enough that they could be collaborative, some lost MZ412 disc, or a new Nordvargr / Drakh, but different enough that they stand on their own, offering light where the other offers dark, or more accurately, offering more dark... The text and song titles and lyrics are all the work of Siratori and are dense and confusional, equal parts stream of consciousness, cyber punk and whatthefuck, "amorphous anthropoid, sympathy cell waves, acidhumanix, biocapturism..." it goes on and on, some impossible otherworld of reanimated corpses and time travel and cellular warfare and who knows what else. Dizzying and overwhelming and totally fascinating. The artwork somehow reflects that, at once modern and futuristic, classic and strangely surreal, naked figures, deformed babies, all sorts of religious iconography, corpses, genitals, industrial machinery, skulls, blood, welts, tentacles and tendrils... All housed in an oversized fold over slipcover, inside a folder with the discs mounted inside, full color postcards, and a perfect bound book of Siratori's bizarre text. While they last, we have the super limited version (only 300 copies!!) which includes two extra 3" discs. The first is Kenji Siratori - Sound Monologue : Hypergenome666, which features Siratori's spoken word, processed and tangled up into strange electronic soundscapes, skipping loops, and dense reverb drenched rhythms, all circling the haunting and mysterious words, grinding and blown out, super distorted and crumbling into strange shards of sound. The other is BSE vs. Nordvargr + Kenj Siratori - Tragedy Cell, featuring all three, collaborating, or battling, a glacial, frostbitten black wasteland, vocals swirl and are swallowed up, huge slabs of distorted low end blacken the sky, disembodied rhythms hover amidst whorls of whirring buzz, everything bathed in crackle and hum... So absolutely stunning in every way.

MPEG stream: Acidhumanix
MPEG stream: Corpse City
MPEG stream: Seed
MPEG stream: Amorphous Anthropoid

From the twisted mastermind behind outsider weirdo black metal one man band Cloak Of Displacement, comes this debut from the oddly monickered T. Bjorklund Quartet, a CoD offshoot of sorts, oddly named for several reasons, one, it's not a quartet as far as we know, and T. Bjorklund is not his name, but by now we should have come to expect that sort of whatthefuckness from Mr. CoD, which bleeds right over into the music here, which is a sort of abstract free jazz, black noise weirdness, imagine wild squalls of lo-fi super distorted shredding, like a more damaged Mick Barr, that matched by some wildly abstract 'free' drumming way off in the distance, not to mention some blown out, croaked alien vokills, everything wrapped in an insane amount of tape hiss, as if it were recorded on a 1950's dictaphone, the end result being like a Faxed Head jazz record, or some abstract black metal record melting down and going totally haywire. But for all the damaged shred and abstract fuckery, the sounds do become strangely hypnotic, murky and muddy and blurred. There seems to be some bass going on too, that surfaces part way through, but the weird thing is, it doesn't sound played, it almost sounds like another record is playing with just bass on it, and that's where it's coming from. The sound does swing wildly all over the place, from weird electrified ambience to full bore noise, to what sounds -almost- like black metal, our favorite bit maybe being near the end, where that strange bassline, thrums beneath a field of high end sine wave skree, while the vocals howl maniacally, the bass getting louder and louder, as if someone was jamming in another room, and just opened the door. Some seriously weird shit for sure. But if you've dug all the other Cloak records, or alternately are a jazzhead who somehow made it through this whole review, than check this out, we love it, but it's definitely on the 'difficult' side. Packaged in a hand pasted digipak style sleeve, LIMITED TO 20 COPIES, we have 15 of those, all hand numbered, with a hand written 'free jazz' insert.

MPEG stream: Excerpt

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

SORRY.

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

SORRY.

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

SORRY.

They're never gonna be our favoritest band, but we can't help but like 'em a lot. Why not an absolute favorite? 'Cause these guys and gals from Austin, Texas, are maybe just a little bit too safe, too obviously derivative in their sound. But then why do we like 'em so much anyways? No, not because they have a song here called "Mission District", but 'cause their sound is one we love, one built on bands that ARE our faves: Spacemen 3, Loop, Joy Division, and of course the Velvet Underground, from whom they copped their name ("Black Angel's Death Song" being a track from Velvet Underground and Nico, and The Black Angels make the connection explicit by naming their publishing company Death Song). The Black Angels sure do a good job of synthesizing and celebrating their influences, creating throbbing, druggy, hypnotically repetitive spaced out psychedelic pop, full of fuzzy guitars and swirling sitars, heavy and jammy, moody and melodic too. With floating female vocals that remind us not only of Nico, but also a bit of Siouxie and the Banshees. Directions To See A Ghost is this band's second album, the cd again packaged in a deluxe digipack, with a tactile, op-art cover design like their debut, Passover. And if you liked the music on that one, you'll like this too. What they lack in originality, they make up for in solid, sounds-like-something-we-already-know-and-love songwriting and soundmaking of the shoegazing variety. We'd especially recommend this to fans of Wooden Shjips, they definitely have something in common, a retro psych vibe with several shared inspirations. Though, the Shjips experiment more, while The Black Angels are content to emulate. That said, they do it well, and if you like what they like, this will be a satisfying listen indeed!

MPEG stream: You On The Run
MPEG stream: Deer-Ree-Shee

Got another lucky 13 tracks here of the gloomy garagey stonery jangle from Austin's Black Angels. Once again they deliver the retro moody psych pop, heavy on the fuzz and reverb and Farfisa organ, made more distinctive by the spooky, weary femme vox - shades of Nico (they're named after a VU song) and Grace Slick and Siouxsie. It's got some '80s sounds to it, they're definitely still into Spacemen 3 and all, and of course we're hearing '60s, lots of '60s stuff - makes sense they're from Roky Erickson's backyard. Their doomed out '60s vibes conjure The Doors and Jefferson Airplane even more than the Velvets. For more modern references, let's say Psychic Ills and Wooden Shjips and that sort of thing; fans of those bands may well want to wander in the bluish gloaming through the tall weeds of that imaginary meadow where The Black Angels are rockin'...

MPEG stream: Don't Play With Guns
MPEG stream: Broken Soldier
MPEG stream: I Hear Colors

Man is has this band been hyped to death. There are plenty of next big things, a new one very week, but we have been hearing about this band for ages without actually hearing them until now. And you know what? They're pretty good. Not sure if we'd necessarily include them in our personal list of 'next big things' but hell if this is the band with the golden ticket, the one that's getting the push and will end up all over MTV we could sure as hell do a whole lot worse. The Black Angels' very retro vibe definitely reminds us of the Raveonettes. But where the Raveonettes channeled that whole Spector girl group vibe, the 'Angels lean more toward a druggy shoegaze thing, taking much influence from Loop, Spacemen 3 and of course the Velvet Underground. Along with lyrical themes of '60s radical Vietnam-era politics, death and darkness, the Black Angels also do some musical time traveling with plenty of super sixties fuzz guitar, and that sort of jangly snare like it's attached to a tamborine, and some truly druggy tranced out vocals (that remind us quite a bit of Georgian garage rockers the Rock*A*Teens). At their most rocking there's even a hint of UK psych rockers the Heads, but for the most part this is warm and reverby, laid back and blissfully drugged out. We would be remiss if we didn't mention the fact that there are some moments when the vocals are wailing and dramatic and the sound veers dangerously close to U2 territory, but that's really a small complaint considering how gloriously druggy and droney the rest of the record is. We may not have been as gaga over the record as 99 percent of the music press, but we sure as hell are blown the fuck away by the packaging!! This disc comes in the most amazing digipack, an op-art pattern of black and white spirals, but all of the spirals are embossed, raised up, so it's nice to touch and the added third dimension makes the lines swirl and shimmer. It's like some crazy textured sixties mod popart carpet shrunk down and wrapped around a cd. WOW!

MPEG stream: The First Vietnamese War
MPEG stream: Black Grease

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

SORRY.

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

SORRY.

add to cart [/images/addtocart.gif]/af4105.html It was only a matter of time. There's been rap metal, and there's been funk metal, but as far as we know, nobody has combined black metal and dub, at least in a way that was at all palatable (we're definitely not counting the Bill Laswell produced Cradle Of Filth remix record or that abominable Tolkien-dub Prince Far Isengard record from a few years back). But now we've got the brilliantly monickered Black Ark Oaken Saw, a grim troupe of ganja smoking, washboard stroking, corpse painted Dandys in tight trousers. Huge swaths of murky buzzsaw guitars, howled demonic David Lee Roth-like vocals, wrapped in loads of reverb and delay, but instead of blast beats, or precise triggered drums, the dark abyss is framed by spare super blissed out, dubbed out echoplexed dub rhythms, snares crack and then repeat endlessly into the blackened void, while shrieks are snipped mid phrase and then recycled into haunting otherworldy echoes of blackened dub. Weird weird weird, it seems like this sort of thing wouldn't work at all, but surprisingly it's an absolutely perfect fit. Imagine Emperor with Sly and Robbie occupying the rhythm section or Lee Perry fronting Lugubrum. And we can't forget the un-named frontman who indeed plays the amplified washboard, but it too is run through a bank of effects and emerges a totally dubbed out barely recognizable version of itself. Hopefully, Hydra Head's interest in the fringes of black metal will continue to unearth more unholy treasures like the mighty Black Ark Oaken Saw!

MPEG stream: Haunting Halls of Hellfury (In Dub)
MPEG stream: Christpunching (In Dub)

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

SORRY.

We first heard these Portuguese psychedelic space rockers via their super limited Record Store Day release on Permanent this year, that we were never able to get enough of to review (although we might have a couple in the store still, if you want one, just ask!), so we were psyched to get this new one on Cardinal Fuzz, and on first listen we were actually reminded of Swedish afro-psych outfit Goat, the sound driven by thick buzzing bass and loping tribal drumming, over which, thick, distorted guitars soar and howl, not so much riffs, as thick gouts of sound, blurred arcs of psychedelia, shaped into strange Eastern melodies, the track spreading out over a whole side of the lp, eventually, a few minutes in, the drums exploding into something more rocking and propulsive, the guitar following suit, the result a wild, tranced out heavy psych groove that explodes into a wild squall of psychedelic heaviness, before settling into a stripped down drift, all spidery guitar melodies and that thick bass buzz, but now joined by jazzy sax, giving it a sort of jazz-psych vibe, which quickly builds to another Goat like psych-funk blowout, all dizzying guitar freakout, and churning hard psych heaviness, with the horns swooping back in for a kick ass, free jazz / hard psych finale. The flipside is another blast of groovy psych, the guitars blown out and gorgeously in-the-red, the bass again thick and buzzing, the drums loose-limbed and sort of funky, the band again, slipping easily from churning metallic crunch, to soaring, almost progged out majesty, to super melodic pop flecked jangle, to stripped down psych-funk, and then back to tranced out wild psych freakout. So good. And so absolutely recommended for fans of Goat and other spaced out psychedelic groovers... Like all Cardinal Fuzz releases, this is extremely limited, and we're one of the only places in the US carrying it, so these are likely the last copies we'll be able to get. Comes housed in a super swank full color jacket, pressed on clear red vinyl, with NO download.

MPEG stream: Africa II

Finally a release format massive enough to (only barely) capture the epic mammoth low slung downtuned brutal black beauty of Campbell Kneale's one man drone metal sludge combo Black Boned Angel. THREE full length cd-r's, that's over three hours of planet flattening slow motion guitar crumble and distorted doom crawl. A collage of sorts weaving together audience bootleg recordings recorded all over Europe as well as demos and studio rehearsals. All held over the fire and melted down into a thick viscous fluid, that is poured into both your ears until the inside of your head melts and all you can hear is black. Also included is the long out of print and never even seen by us until now "Heavens Blaze Forth the Death Of Princes" 2005 European tour cd. What are you waiting for? This is IT. What we've been begging for. Hours and hours of soul destroying heaviness, bleak minimal soundscapes of roiling downtuned guitars and 16rpm riffage, like Steve Reich playing the SUNNO))) songbook. Churning and lurching and grinding and flattening all drone rockers in its path, the Black Boned Angel has descended from the heavens amidst showers of blood and black storm clouds to pass judgment, to beat us over the head with an angelic army of guitars, to bury us in a deep pit beneath a mountain of damaged amplifiers, to damn our souls to eternal torment. AND WE LOVE IT! Packaged in the immediately recognizable CPsiP wallpaper packaging, with three printed inserts. ULTRA LIMITED!!! We only got 50 copies, and will probably not be able to get more, so don't snooze...

MPEG stream: Endless Coming Into Life
MPEG stream: The Sorrowful Mysteries

[ aquarius records catalogue — B ]