[ aquarius records catalogue — B ]

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BLK JKSMystery(self-released)cd ep$ 6.98

BLKHRTSDead Drops Vol. 1(Deathbomb Arc)heart-shaped 12"$ 33.00

Another batch of releases from weirdo LA hip hop label Deathbomb Arc, the latest being from experimental rap crew BLKHRTS, who sonically find themselves positioned right between classic hip-pop (hooky hip hop that you might hear on the radio), and more exotic/experimental flavors, like Ho99o9, Death Grips, Abdu Ali and the like. Although the experimental aspect is definitely balanced by some serious songsmithery, cuz goddamn tracks like "Trillex" are catchy as fuck, killer beats, woozy, synthy, loops, and both rappers totally on point, one sort of smooth and swaggery, the other, raspy and growly, the track replete with a wicked hook and some sweet female background vocals. "Coathangers" is a bit more chaotic and noisy, distorted and practically punk, but when the noise is dialed back for the verse, poppiness again rears it's not so ugly head, and makes for a killer combo. The kind of shit that sounds wicked blasting from a booming system but will also get a punk-as-fuck pit whirling and swirling. Definitely need to hear more from these guys, cuz as it is we've had these tracks on non stop repeat! Also we have very limited copies of this, AND it's pretty pricey, mostly cuz it's swanky black heart shaped vinyl (get it??)!!!

BLOChapter One(Mr. Bongo)lp$ 30.00

Here's a vinyl reissue of the first album from Blo, a great seventies psych/funk band from Lagos, Nigeria. Chapter One originally was released in 1973, and as we've said before, it's on the "bong-ier" side of Blo's discography, as their earlier material like this was quite laidback, stoned, and super fuzzed out. The trio of musicians in this group were previously part of the band Salt, formed by drummer Ginger Baker from Cream during his residency in Lagos in the early '70s. Striking out on their own as Blo, they effortlessly melded Afro-beat funk with trippy Western garage psych choogle. Afro-American influences, the likes of both Jimi and the JB's, are certainly heard here also. Wah wah fuzz guitars, sunny melodies, spaced out vocals, and rhythms from hand percussion, clanking chains and bells, all coexist here in blissful grooviness. Gatefold sleeve, obi.

BLOChapters And Phases: The Complete Albums 1973-1975(RPM)cd$ 17.98

Years ago the Strut label wowed us with a collection of tracks from this band from Lagos, Nigeria. The disc was called Phases 1972-1982, touching upon Blo's output from their early psychedelic rock tracks to their later more disco dance stuff. As we put it in our review, first you'll pick up your bong, then put it down and put on your roller skates. Well, that's out of print, but now RPM has released this disc, compiling the band's first two albums, Chapter One from 1973 and Phase II from 1975. It's on the "bong-ier" side of Blo's discography, definitely, their earlier material being quite laidback, stoned, and super fuzzed out, especially the stuff from their first record. The trio of musicians in this group were previously part of the band Salt, formed by drummer Ginger Baker from Cream during his residency in Lagos in the early '70s. Striking out on their own as Blo, they effortlessly melded Afro-beat funk with trippy Western garage psych choogle. Afro-American influences, the likes of both Jimi and the JB's, are certainly heard here also. Wah wah fuzz guitars, sunny melodies, spaced out vocals, and rhythms from hand percussion, clanking chains and bells, all coexist here in blissful grooviness. If you dig those Sound Way comps like Nigeria Rock Special (on which Blo appear, in fact) or other recent Afro-rock reissues like Ofege and Chrissy Zebby Tembo, you'll probably be into Blo! And, if you already have that out of print Strut collection of Blo stuff we mentioned, it only includes 7 of the 15 tracks here, so if you liked the earlier half of that comp you then need/want this too.

BLOPhase II(Strawberry Rain)lp$ 25.00

Here's a vinyl reissue of this Nigerian band's second album, as you may have guessed from the title, originally released in 1974. As we've said before, the first two albums from this Afro-funk outfit are on the "bong-ier" side of their discography, with more stoned '60s psych fuzz stuff going on - though we also like their later, more discofied direction too, as displayed on the also recently reissued & reviewed Step Three lp from just a year later. Phase II is maybe just beginning to cross over into that dance-boogie roller-rink worthy territory, but their idea of a groovy love song here is called "Whole Lot Of Shit"! Afro-beat funk is melded with with trippy Western garage psych choogle. Wah wah fuzz guitars, sunny melodies, spaced out vocals, and rhythms from hand percussion all coexist here in blissful grooviness.

BLOPhases 1972-1982(Afro Strut)cd$ 16.98

Funky afro-rock from this '70s Nigerian band. This compiles tracks from their four albums, and ranges from the mellow psychedelic rock (in a West Coast mode) of their early stuff to a much more dance-oriented, disco-inflected groove later on, that you could

BLOStep Three(Hot Casa)cd$ 17.98

Nigeria's Blo were one of the very first '70s Afro-funk-rock bands we ever encountered, some years ago when their now out of print Phases 1972-1982 compilation came out. And they're one of the best. Their early stuff, from their first two albums Chapter One (1973) and Phase II (1974), is generally more mellow psychedelic rock, sounding super stoned and fuzzed out. But then gradually the funk took over, their grooves got a lot more uptempo and energetic, and on their next couple records later in the '70s, Blo went disco! Which is really cool too. Step Three was of course their third album, from '75, and the tracks on it are definitely meant for getting sweaty, and up close and personal with the opposite sex, on the dancefloor (er, not to imply that same-sex couples wouldn't enjoy this too!). The little cartoon drawings found on this album's artwork, of a guy and a gal with big Afros and bellbottoms, doing a sexy dance, is basically the pictographic owner's instructions for what you're supposed to do with the music on this record. Also both cute and sexy is how the singer talks to a girl about the first time they made out, in the intro to the second song, "Rhythm Of Love". And although this is infectiously disco-fied, it also rocks, the chicka-chicka funk guitars with a fuzz edge, and plenty of sizzling fat synth all over the place. The JB's had to be a big influence on 'em. Also, despite what we had assumed, NONE of these tracks appeared on that Phases 1972-1982 comp, which for some crazy reason skipped over this album entirely. So it's great to hear 'em now. It makes for quite the party platter to spin, recommended to fans of other recent Afro-funk-disco reissues by The Funkees, Marijata, Edzayawa, the Lijadu Sisters, etc...

BLOC PARTYA Weekend In The City(Vice)cd$ 15.98

Yep, this one is sure to have the Vice Magazine scene frothing at the mouth! And in this case, it's not just for love of irony, shock and grossout. This is a mighty fine album! Hopefully the anti-Vice crowd won't be dissuaded from checking it out... Anyhoo, much like a number of their hyped-to-the-moon hipster dance rock contemporaries of a couple years ago, Bloc Party have wisely shifted their focus and expanded their sound since their hot shit Silent Alarm debut. The band has risen to the challenge of shedding the decidedly one-dimensional '80s fueled dance punk trappings, but unlike many of those same contemporaries, they haven't desperately transformed themselves into something alienatingly unrecognizable. Although we did pause for a moment of uncertainty during the first song to make sure that this was indeed Bloc Party, as the album progresses the familiar voice of Kele Okereke rings through. On A Weekend In The City Bloc Party are definitely not in it for the vacuous, line cutting party time. Although the infectious, driving insistence of tracks such as "Hunting For Witches" and "Uniform" definitely getcha up and bring to mind The Faint and Pulp respectively, the shadowy, heady swoon of songs like "The Prayer" aligns them more with TV On The Radio. Darker, moodier, heavier, sturdier and above all else more deeply personal, Bloc Party are aiming for so much more than a one night stand, and they succeed enormously. Pretty great!

BLOC PARTYIntimacy(Atlantic)cd$ 14.98

BLOC PARTYSilent Alarm(Vice / Dim Mak)cd$ 12.98

There's a bizillion bands right now (and surely many more to come) that sound *exactly* like this (Maximo Park, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand and Futureheads to name a few of the ones some of us here prefer). Y'know, young bands whose members grew up hearing their older brothers' and sisters' records by The Fall, XTC, The Clash, Gang of Four and Duran Duran. Yelped, emotive vocals strained through their Danish accents atop an electric guitar blend of furious strumming and effected chime-y picked notes, a punchy drum beat and a seeming after-thought addition of a synth line to give it that very 'now' 80s sound. No deep listening allowed, just fun fun fun! So the task at hand is to sift through the cookie cutter redundancy to find the really stand-out stuff (or you might say, the packaging style you prefer -- sharkskin suit? well-worn denim?). Even so, each band's album only seems good for at least one or two totally awesome solid pop songs with the rest of it serving as filler comprised of inferior versions of the same idea. Such just might be the case with Bloc Party's debut full length -- although no single song has jumped out and made us exclaim, "Hot damn!!!" like Maximo Park's "Apply Some Pressure" did. That said, this record could just be a slow grower, as the more it gets played, the more we're digging it. Which is a good thing too, since you might as well get used to this Silent Alarm 'cause much like other 'buzz bands' whether you like it or not you're not going to be able to escape hearing more than your share of this band in the next few months. But strangely, no matter how much we're digging this record, it still just makes us want to pull out Pulp's Different Class album and blast it at full volume! Funny that.

BLOC PARTYSilent Alarm Remixed(Vice)2cd$ 15.98

We might as well stop denying it, we love this stuff. Maximo Park, Interpol, Kaiser Chiefs. How can you not. Modern twisted takes on stone cold classics, Gang Of Four, XTC, the Clash. Sure it's not entirely original, but so what, it sounds fan-fucking-tastic. And Bloc Party fits right in there, reanimating their own favorite postpunk corpses and getting them (and us) dancing like crazy. So a popular band, a popular record, you know what that means. The dreaded REMIX RECORD. Once in a while however, whether it's the choice of bands, the song selection, pure luck, a remix record totally and completely blows away the original record. This is most definitely one of those cases. You know, when you hear a band cover another bands song, like say a metal band covering a Cure song, and you think "Why aren't there bands that just sound like that, a metal Cure? How cool would that be?" Or "Why aren't all that band's songs this good?" Substitute any band or any song, you know what we're talking about. A totally boring band can shine like a diamond when it's taking on a killer tune. Sometimes it reflects poorly on the band, demonstrating how weak their songs actually are when held up to some 'real' songwriting. But in the case of a remix record that eclipses the original, more often, it's a case of the remix record being so much weirder and varied and all over the map, while still retaining that connective thread that is the sound of the original record. Such is the case with Silent Alarm Remixed. A couple of these tracks showed up as bonus tracks on the import version, and were SO good that it got many folks we know to shell out the extra $$ for the 2 or 3 extra tracks (and who are now kicking themselves since those tracks are included here) but here, surrounded by a whole records worth of interpretations, makes us wish that this was Bloc Party's record proper. M83 offer up a buzzy, dense wall of fuzz, with layered vocals, thick synthesizers and just a HUGE sound. Four Tet's track is a smeary, shimmery, drone-y, dreamy, cloudy drone, that eventually kicks into a more jangly reverb drenched blur. Mogwai turn Bloc Party into moody post rock, their track a churning, slow building, pulsing epic. And the rest of the record follows suit, stretching Silent Alarm into strange new shapes: Ladytron turn their track into blissy electronic pop like Postal Service or Styrofoam, Whitey give their song some strummy post pock bounce, Blackbox give their version a bit of eighties new wave sheen with some aggro, angular post punk swagger, the Engineers' turn their Bloc Party into a super murky sexy dirge. Woah. Now, if someone had given us this Bloc Party record, we would have been completely blown away thinking this was the sound of one band, but maybe that's just too much to hope for. So what? Well, we like the remix record more than the record being remixed? Makes perfect sense to us. And for those of you who found Silent Alarm to be just a tiny bit too boring and predictable, this might just do the trick.

BLOC PARTYTulips(Dim Mak)cd single$ 5.98

Here's a new super-shortie CD from Bloc Party. It includes three renditions of their song "Tulips" -- the original version, a 'club version' remixed by Minotaur Shock and a video version. Gotta say I don't think I'd want to be at the club that plays the club version... it's a little too mopey melancholic... or maybe I just wasn't playing it loud enough and Lord knows our store stereo system doesn't pump out the boomin' bass of a nightclub, so who knows?! 'Though it could also be that the song sounds like Morrissey style lyricism over sped-up computer-krafted Brit pop. Hmmm, definitely more of an end-of-the-night wind-down song, and much less of the lively party atmosphere than we've come to expect from the Bloc kids. A new supposedly kick ass full length drops in a week or two!

BLOCK, OLIVIA & KYLE BRUCKMANNTeem(Either/OAR)cd$ 13.98

It's unfortunate that we've not reviewed any of the material from electro-acoustic composer Olivia Block. She had begun making music in Austin in the early '90s, having started a guttural shoegaze project called The Marble Index, but shelved that project upon meeting Michael Northam, John Grzinich, and Seth Nehil. Those three had begun their explorations with field recordings, electrical vibration, found object ruminations, volatile drone, and organized decay, and it was this sensibility that inspired Block to leap into piles of rubble armed with little more than a contact microphone. While all four of these artists emerged from a similar aesthetic, each has wandered down his or her own path, with Block taking more of a musique concrete approach, often bringing in various instrumentalists to provide a particular timbre to accompany her tape machinations, not unlike the early Jim O'Rourke compositions Tamper, Scend, and Disengage. One of those chamber musicians who Block had employed was Kyle Bruckmann. The two had met in Chicago in the late '90s, with Bruckmann contributing to almost all of Block's compositions since 1999. Bruckmann, now based in San Francisco, has quite the career in the realms of avant-jazz / new music / classical-experimentation / whatnot. Despite their decade long collaboration, Teem marks their first proper collaborative body of work. At the beginning of the record, a scrabbling of small metallic objects builds upon a spiralling drone from Bruckmann's circular breathing through the oboe, followed by a series of descending, purposefully off-kilter melodic phrases from that same oboe. As painterly as this piece is, the second track uses Bruckmann's circular breathing for a far more atonal, bruitist attack through a head-throbbing elongated blurt, that recalls those Hermann Nitsch symphonic noise assaults or Penderecki's scabrous crescendos. Block's sensibility speaks more on this track through the oblique noise attack and transitions into passages of concrete noises from various pre-industrial machines struggling to get started. Glowing drones of feedback hang upon a muffling passage of woodwind errata, eventually building through jittery abrasions again reprising that Nitsch-like howl.

BLOCKS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE UNBROKEN CONTINUUMs/t(Sound 323)book+dvd$ 90.00

We here at Aquarius Records can be proud that we have an audience who is just as passionate and devoted as we are to a broad spectrum of musics. As much as we would like to, we just can't completely cover every amazing genre, sub-genre, regional dialect, and radical enclave of the world's musical community. We definitely try our best, but just imagine if we did somehow manage, those biweekly email lists would easily triple in size with our fingers spread even further than they already are. While it would be nice to expand our little aesthetic fiefdom, we have to admit that there are plenty of shops around the globe that fill in the gaps. One of those is London's Sound 323, whose niche market emphasizes all things dealing with academic composition, free improv, electro-acoustics, and in particular the pristine aspects of what has been dubbed the "New London Silence." In fact, one of chief protagonists of this London circle of Feldman-esque composers is Sound 323's proprietor Mark Wastell. He along with The Wire's scribe Brian Marley are the editors of a brick of a book published by Sound 323, handsomely designed as an art edition monograph and filled with articles by David Toop, Clive Bell, Brian Marley, Dan Warburton, Andy Hamilton and Will Montgomery as well as texts expounding upon the eroding distinction between improvisation and composition from the likes of Otomo Yoshihide, Bernhard Gunter, Phil Durrant, Steve Roden, Jerome Noetinger, Mattin, and many many other. The book also features a DVD of concert footage from the likes of Keith Rowe, Evan Parker, John Tilbury, Tetuzi Akiyama, Eddie Prevost, John Butcher, and more. Hmm, curious that all of the latest members of AMM make appearances, but no footage from the ensemble that pretty much started the whole push toward the decentered notion of what is composed beforehand and what is created in the moment. With sound art becoming more and more of a cultural force in the art world (perhaps that should be art with a capital 'A'), Blocks Of Consciousness And The Unbroken Continuum is bound to be one of those historically important documents, detailing one particular cultural phenomenon as it happens by those who are making it happen. At 350+ pages bound in a hefty hardcover book, this is no easy tome to digest; but is well the effort you'll put into it.

BLODULVII(Knightmare)cd$ 13.98

This slab of black metal grimnity was originally unleashed upon the world by Sweden's Total Holocaust label. After being out of print for some time, it's now reissued in a digipack by a new label. Our prior review: I know we talk about buzzing, primitive, grim and frosty black metal all the time. What can we say? We love that stuff. But this Blodulv record is sooooo grim and ridiculously frosty and utterly primitive. And buzzing! Don't forget the buzz! The guitars are just a swarm of buzzing metal mosquitos, filling your ears with hellish blackness. The tempos are mostly mid, even the blast beats remain just on the edge of midtempo, and the vocals are hyper distorted, to the point of sounding like modulated white noise. And the riffs! The riffs hum and whir and drone, like some sort of devilish lullaby, a hypnotic siren's song that lulls you into a trance like state, all the easier for their satanic message to sink in. For fans of Burzum, Darkthrone, and all manner of ravishing grimness.

BLODULVIII - Burial(Eerie Art)cd$ 15.98

Blodulv just continue to get more grim, more frosty, more creepy and blackened. How that's even possible at this point is beyond us. The last record, appropriately titled II, was about as grim as it could reasonably get, and yet their sound gets more and more impenetrably dense and buzzy. And we love it. This is most definitely not blazing fast black metal, this is more of the Burzum midtempo hypno-drone-buzz school. A doomy dirgey thrashy blackness, pulsing and throbbing, loping along with occasional stretches of grime-y vitriolic tarpit sludge. The vocals are recorded so hot and so blown out it sounds like the singer is standing right there in your face, shrieking with all his might, showering you with spit and sweat and blood (eww). So intense and so intensely black and heavy.

BLOGGSMusic For Multiples(Frenzel Lensone)cd$ 13.98

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

SORRY. Solo experimentalism from Joe Bloggs, (rhBand, ex-Ralph Haxton Collective). In keeping with rhBand's drone/krautrock intent, Bloggs utilizes metal bowls, contact mics, woodwinds, harmonium, pvc pipe, and more to create some lovely, repetitive, organic sounds.

BLONDE REDHEAD23(4AD)cd$ 13.98

While we were listening to this new Blonde Redhead we found ourselves musing about how they'd probably do a really great theme song for a James Bond or David Fincher movie. Dark, brooding and mysterious with a seriously palpable tension, 23 finds the band cementing its place at the meeting point between Sonic Youth and Radiohead. With a production that sounds much more sleek in a modern rock sort of way, there is no denying that despite the new gloss and freshly polished suit of sonic armor there still lies utterly great songs at the core of Blonde Redhead's sound. There are some moments where the band explores some totally new directions, like on the track "Silently" which sounds a lot like Abba covering the Four Seasons' "Too Good To Be True"... which is of course a very good thing! But overall, all the ingredients that made Blonde Redhead such a great band are still present. The swirling melodies, the sensuality, the lush arrangements. So while we still kind of wish Guy Piccoto (Fugazi) had worked his production magic on 23, we still can't help but be in head over heels in love with the sweepingly epic music of this amazing trio. Comes with a ltd. edition 7" while supplies last!

BLONDE REDHEADBarragan(Kobalt Label)cd$ 14.98

When we kept reading bad reviews for the latest Blonde Redhead record, one that comes after of a four year hiatus, we were curious to hear how bad it could possibly be. Or actually was. But you know what? We took one listen and didn't find it that bad at all, in fact we ended up liking it quite a bit and have been listening to it a lot. Ok, perhaps some of us here are indifferent, but there is nothing here that is so outright horrible that we feel warrants the level of dismissive vitriol we've read about it. After the bright drum machine-driven pop of Penny Sparkle, Barragan is a much more nuanced and textured affair, elegant, subtle, sexy, and beautifully sad. We suppose it's the slow burning reveal of it, the sparse arrangements, the late night world it embraces, filled with mysterious sounds and instrumentation of flutes, harpsichords and acoustic guitars, that perhaps leave folks with not enough to immediately grab onto sonically. But that is exactly why some of us like it. It's actually a lovely record that harkens back to their moodier atmospheric albums like Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons or Misery Is A Butterfly...

BLONDE REDHEADFake Can Be Just As Good(Touch & Go)cd$ 14.98

Fake Can Be Just As Good is Blonde Redhead's third album. Despite the title, oddly enough this is the band's most genuine sounding release to date. They've scaled down from a quartet to a trio, and also almost symbollically this release marks their jump from Steve Shelley's record label Smells Like over to Touch & Go. They're definitely coming into their own. That said, their former Sonic Youth-y New York art school-ish pretensions still leak through here and there, but they're backed up by some solid, lean compositions sculpted with effective tension, mood and texture.

BLONDE REDHEADIn An Expression Of The Inexpressible(Touch & Go)cd$ 14.98

The Japanese/Italian trio's last album Fake Can Be Just As Good should have been the album Sonic Youth made right after Daydream Nation. Fortunately, their latest album proves that they are no longer a Sonic Youth rip-off band. And for that matter, what they've grown into is quite something to behold. On In An Expression Of The Inexpressible, the band's fourth full length, lead female vocalist Kazu Makino has honed her pipes into a distinctly expressive wonder... taming its former shrillness into something very childlike and otherworldly. Noisy melodies of angular guitars, modest keyboards, and a tight rhythm section come across as desperate yet beautiful epics. Very highly recommended.

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BLONDE REDHEADLa Mia Vita Violenta(Smells Like Records)CD$ 13.98

Here's Blonde Redhead's second full length. Their Sonic Youth worship still lingers in these ten songs, but they're showing some signs of developing a sound of their own -- encorporating mathy elements and crisper dynamics, rather than relying on feedback squalls to get their message across. They take more advantage of the contrasts between loud and quiet, abrasive and soft, acoustic and electric.

BLONDE REDHEADMelodie Citronique(Touch & Go)cdep$ 8.98

Blonde Redhead follows their strangely catchy "Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons" album with an EP that features non-English language versions of two of the tracks from that album. As Kazu's vocals lack decipherability anyway, the translations of these songs into Italian or French seem quite arbitrary. Regardless of language, "In Particular" and "Hated Because Of Great Qualities" are two of the better tracks reflecting Blonde Redhead's new, non-Sonic Youthist sound. Blonde Redhead fills out the EP with a dubbed-out Serge Gainsbourg cover and a Third Eye Foundation remix of "Four Damaged Lemons."

BLONDE REDHEADMelody of Certain Damaged Lemons(Touch & Go)cd$ 14.98

As of their last record, In An Expression Of The Inexpressible, Blonde Redhead had finally begun to shed the Sonic Youth-isms that plagued them over the course of their early recordings. Comparisons to the Cardigans or even Radiohead might not be far from the mark in terms of a bittersweet songwriting replacing their previous purposefully avant angularity. This is an album full of sad piano driven ballads, midtempo disco grooves (played on a drum kit, mind you), and Kazu Makino's voice which has matured beyond the high pitched bark to achieve actual vocal melodies. Blonde Redhead doesn't really appear comfortable with their new sound, as if they're wearing some fancy French suit when they clearly prefer a pair of grimy jeans. Is that the point?

BLONDE REDHEADMisery Is A Butterfly(4AD)cd$ 14.98

Is misery really a butterfly? That's quite the non-consensus take on the usual butterfly metaphor. This record is good enough, though, that it could convince you. And butterflies bring up the subject of metamorphosis, which you could say Blonde Redhead has gone through. In the past, this band was often compared to (or vice versa): Sonic Youth, Polvo, Deerhoof. Guitar dissonance with distinctive vocals. This one is a bit different, following on from their last album Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons, the one where they veered away from their Sonic Youthisms of yore and embraced a poppier, less angular demeanor. With Misery Is A Butterfly, their Lemons remain Damaged, Certainly. I guess it wasn't just a phase. Blonde Redhead are still making "desperate yet beautiful epics" as we once said of their In an Expression of the Inexpressible album, but gone are the "angular guitars" and "noisy melodies" that were once their trademark. This time, what's new? In a nutshell, it's Blonde Redhead with STRINGS. All lush and orchestrated. It's as if Eleanor Rigby joined the band. (Actually they got help from violinist Eyvind Kang among others.) The resultant album has got an Italian soundtrack sort of feel to it. Also a bit of a Stereolab feel. Very 'of another time'. Melancholic, dreamy. It's a progression from their earlier works, maybe even a perfection in a way. The signature sound that remains are the vocals of Kazu: high, breathy, accented (Japanese but it could just as easily be French), sometimes dueting with her male counterpart Amedo, who also sings high, but with a voice less pure, a bit like the Flaming Lips guy. He sings a few songs all on his own but our ears prefer Kazu. With her at the mic, Blonde Redhead are sooo nice. We know this is gonna be a popular album, and it should be!

BLONDE REDHEADPenny Sparkle(4AD)cd$ 14.98

Some bands just have the ability to reach high levels of excellence in everything they do. From their beginnings Blonde Redhead hit the scene as one of the most impressive and charismatic in a long run of Sonic Youth inspired bands, but it didn't take long for them to carve out and create their own totally unique and instantly recognizable take on that sound. Over the years they have released one great record after the other, as well as being one of the most consistently sizzling live bands around. In the last several years there has been a shift in their sound, eventually bringing them to Penny Sparkle, which is by far their most synth-y, steamy and sleek outing yet, all drenched in a certain kind of sweet sadness they've always reached for but never achieved, until now... It would be so easy for a band who has achieved the levels of success that BR has to just rest on their laurels and make the same record again and again, but instead they continue to challenge themselves as well as being so true to their inner vision. And you can tell listening to Penny Sparkle that this vision for Blonde Redhead is very much about feeling loss, the deep burn of missing someone dear to you, and the realization that things might never be like they used to be. Certain bands have earned the right to gain our trust through any and all twists and turns they take. Blonde Redhead is one of them. Penny Sparkle is not so much about immediately catchy songs but instead it's an album that creates a gloriously sensual, dazed and languid mood that melts with such a sensational slow burn. That's what's really the big deal here, not that they're using a drum machine. For a limited time, we have the deluxe version of the cd, which comes in a fancy printed canvas sack, inside a fancy printed box...

BLONDE REDHEADs/t(Smells Like Records)CD$ 13.98

This was Blonde Redhead's debut album, produced by Steve Shelley and released on his label Smells Like Records. Back then (1995) the band were a foursome whose Noisy guitar feedback-laden sound was quite reminiscent of Mr. Shelley's band, y'know Sonic Youth... no, really the resemblance was downright unbelievable! Mid-90s Blonde Redhead was so very different from the band that we now know and love (and that they first showed signs of evolving into by their third album, Fake Can Be Just As Good).

BLONDY, FREDERIC & DJ LENARPlays Mauricio Kagel(Populista)cd$ 15.98

BLONK, JAAPVocalor(Staalplaat)cd$ 16.98

To qualify Jaap Blonk as the intellectual sound poet equivalent of Jim Carrey may be an odd analogy... but don't be put off by it as this record features amazing dynamism from carnivalesque humor to dadaist terror to fluxus-inspired sound poets! This is all voice, no electronics have been used on it. Encroyable!

BLOOD & TIMEAt The Foot Of The Garden(Neurot)cd$ 14.98

Slo-mo country-folkish atmospherics from members of Neurosis (Scott Kelly and Noah Landis, plus two non-Neurosis dudes). Gloomy and low key, with Scott's Lou Reedish vocals dragging raw over the proceedings. Neurosis fans into Scott's previous solo outing Spirit Bound Flesh or the similar solo works of Steve Von Till ought to dig this disc of desolate 'rock' music. Non-Neurosis fans too! Gruff yet weepy.

BLOOD AND TIMEUntitled (Latitudes 0:12)(Southern)cd$ 13.98

Yet another in Southern's Latitudes series, there are two this week in fact, one from Guapo satellite Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses, and this one, the latest from Blood & Time, aka Scott Kelly from the mighty Neurosis. But don't be expecting any sort of metallic bombast, or grinding riffage, pounding percussion, nope, Blood & Time is a much darker, quieter proposition, moody and melancholy, mysterious and ultra personal. Centered around Kelly's whispered baritone, a rumbling Michael Gira-like croon, which hovers above reverbed piano, simple acoustic guitars, drifting electronics, a spare, sparse, haunting soundworld. Fans of stuff like Swans, Angels Of Light, Sixteen Horsepower, Woven Hand, and other doom laden apocalyptic folk with be mesmerized by Blood & Time's grim countrified doom. The guitars unfurl like black clouds, the melodies like thorny brambles, in the background, the rich warm whir of an organ, and over the top, dripping like black tar, Kelly's woeful tales of sadness and loss, death and misery. It's hard not to think of Woven Hand, this stuff is so sonically similar, dark and apocalyptic, dramatic and menacing. Kelly's voice also reminds us a bit of Mark Lanegan, which is not a bad thing at all. We loved the last Blood & Time, but this ep is even better, his voice sounds amazing, the songs sound better than ever, the production is lush and expansive, and the fleshed out lineup (featuring other folks from Neurosis) has made a world of difference. Comes packaged in a super intricate hand screened die cut fold over sleeve with a full color insert. Each copy is hand stamped and numbered. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide, 500 of which made it to the United States, we got about 20 copies...

BLOOD BOXFuneral In An Empty Room(Power & Steel)cd$ 14.98

On Funeral In An Empty Room, Michael Hensley locates his dark ambient project Blood Box somewhere between the spectral impressionism of Troum and the black voids of Lustmord. Of course, this is a very good place to be for all things grim, subterranean, and droning. Hensley is half of Yen Pox, whose death-head imagery and gaping drones inform where Blood Box might be coming from. It has to be said that none of Hensley's projects are terribly prolific, far from it when compared to pretty much every ambientdronenoise practitioner over the past decade. Yen Pox just released a 10" in 2010, some 10 years after their last release; and Blood Box's previous album on Eibon was released in 2004. While Hensley is a consumate composer of dark ambience, Funeral In An Empty Room is comparatively psychedelic when situated next to his earlier studies of depressive, claustrophobic reverberations that would give Brighter Death Now a run for his money. Yes, Hensley does ground many of his pieces on thrumming gasps of demonic drones and low-end vibration which are archetypal of dark ambience at large; but cosmic, dreamtime washes of synth and guitar blossom out of these shadowy sounds like 1970s renderings of what a black hole might look like with arms of radiant space dust getting sucked into an event horizon. As earthen and introspective as the title may seem, the album is a deep-space vortex of smears, swirls, and swells that still holds onto the desire for unease and dread.

BLOOD BOXThe Iron Dream(Eibon)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. Blood Box is a project of Michael Hensley whose work in the terrorist ambient ensemble Yen Pox we have praised before. On his own, Hensley strikes a more menacing pose; where Yen Pox conjures a narcotic numbness laced with the imagery of fear, death, and horror, Blood Box places you directly in the midst of a tragic aural nightmare. Snarling beasts and whispering demons haunt the nether regions of bleak reverberating dronescapes, giving way to majestic swells of minor key orchestral fragments. Later on, claustrobophia from The Iron Dream's sonic catacombs open into expansive forests, ominously crackling and creaking in the wind. At the same time, subtle musical gestures punctuate the wash and din, offering a hint of optimism to this otherwise oppressive album. On the Iron Dream, Hensley brings together the shadowy ambience found on Burzum's Filosofem, the soul-crushing depression of Anenzephalia, the darkly shimmered elegance of Maeror Tri, and subterranean terror of Lustmord. Morose, creepy, and gorgeously frightening.

BLOOD BROTHERSBurn Piano Island Burn(Artist Direct)cd$ 12.98

Now on cd! The Blood Brothers are from Seattle and play a sort of hardcore/avant garde punk. This is their major label debut. This is some crazy, rad, chaotic stuff. Their live shows are said to change one's life. Judging by this release, they are another example of a band signing to a major label yet retaining their dignity, style and control. I (Sadie) totally love this band, they know the history of punk and proudly deconstruct and destroy what's been done over and over. So good. MPEG Download: "Burn" [/audio/bloodbroburn.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Burn" [/audio/bloodbroburn.m3u]

BLOOD BROTHERSBurn, Piano Island, Burn(Second Nature)lp$ 13.98

The Blood Brothers are from Seattle and play a sort of hardcore/avant garde punk. This is the vinyl version of their major label debut, which comes out on March 18th. This is some crazy, rad, chaotic stuff. Their live shows are said to change ones life. Judging by this release, they are another example of a band signing to a major label yet retaining their dignity, style and control. I (Sadie) totally love this band, they know the history of punk and proudly deconstruct and destroy whats been done over and over. So good.

BLOOD BROTHERSCrime(V2)cd$ 11.98

In totally oversimplified terms, Blood Brothers' latest album, Crime, sounds like Les Savy Fav had a baby with Mars Volta and swaddled the vocals in flanger and compression. The entire album is a sonic assault in similar tone to LSF's debut album 3/5, and it doesn't let up in a Volta kind of way, almost perpetually all-out riffage. The wailing vocals are also similar to Cedric's (singer from Mars Volta) but more acappella. Overall, it's an overwhelmingly visceral wall of sound, the recording of which seems inspired by an Albini-esque everything up as far as it can go approach. There's a lack of dynamicism here within songs and from song to song, but if you love the sound of incessantly hitting that visceral wall, this will totally be your jam.

BLOOD BROTHERSLove Rhymes With Hideous Car Wreck(V2)cd ep$ 6.98

More splattery screamo action from the Blood Brothers! This new 7-song EP spews forth a bunch of rare and previously unreleased stuff by these five Seattlites including two alternate versions, a remix of a Gang Of Four's "Anthrax", a live recording plus a video for "Hideous Car Wreck".

BLOOD BROTHERSMarch On Electric Children(Three One G)cd$ 14.98

New abrasive sounds from the predominantly abrasive San Diego label run by The Locust's Justin Pearson. Severe punk-thrash ranting and clawing. Their music is a highly volatile substance that spits out caustic, barbed tentacles aimed at your vital organs. Time

BLOOD BROTHERSRumors Laid Waste(Luckyhorse Industries)cd$ 10.98

Jordan Blilie and Johnny Whitney, taking turns at the mic with guitarist Cody Votolato, drummer Mark Gajadhar, bassist Morgan Henderson are the Blood Brothers. BB joined forces in 1997 in Seattle, while still in high school. They've been dubed the next big thing, and got some crazy budget to record their forthcoming major label release. We wish them luck. We would love to live in a world where The Blood Brothers were REALLY the next big thing. Arty nervous energetic hardcore, and even though that isn't always my thing, I still love this band. They play the familiar qualities of punk loud craziness but in their own fucked up distorted way. This is a compilation of all their previous 7"s.

BLOOD BROTHERSYoung Machetes(V2)cd$ 14.98

There was a time when the kind of youthful angsty fury of bands like the Blood Brothers and The Locust wouldn't have been touched with a ten foot pole by major labels. My how times change. Seems the virulent noise those kids make is pretty darn marketable these days. Think a band of razor-wielding temper tantrums. Amid the squelchy scratch-yer-eyes-out vocalizations lurk little operatics a la Mars Volta's Cedric Bixler. Well, with the exception of the seventh track "Spit Shine Your Black Clouds" which falls more in line with the danceable post-punk groove of The Rapture...er, Gang Of Four. For fans of At The Drive-In, The Locust, The Mars Volta, and Nation Of Ulysses.

BLOOD CEREMONYLiving With The Ancients(Metal Blade)cd$ 14.98

This Canadian doom-psych-prog-metal band's 2008 debut was a big fave 'round here, we likened their female-fronted n' flutey, Hammond organ driven occult heaviness to "Electric Wizard given a medieval, madrigal makeover" and compared 'em to a hypothetical Atomic Rooster + Jacula + Jex Thoth hybrid. So, stoked are we to announce the arrival of a brand new Blood Ceremony, still damp and crimson, and damn good! There's a few ways, we figure, a band like this could go: get darker and more extreme metal (a la Wooden Stake), or lighten up and develop more in their prog direction (we could imagine 'em sounding something like Curved Air in that case). Or, of course, they could provide more of the same, which would elicit no complaints from us. And that's what Blood Ceremony pretty much opted for, this album coming off like a continuation / perfection of their debut, nine more songs of vintage '70s sounding, witchy rockarolla. With plenty of rollicking Hammond organ and swinging retro riffery, they deliver the progged-out proto-metal goods like it's 1971 and they've just come from getting stoned with their groovy coven. Complete with a flute happy instrumental ("The Hermit"). And definitely, with a lot hinging on the dramatic, stagey, sometimes soft, sometimes soaring, vocals of Alia O'Brien. Again, VERY much in the vein of Jex Thoth. O'Brien and Blood Ceremony are almost the Burning Saviours to Jex Thoth's Witchcraft, if you follow that doom-nerd analogy. Another would be Black Sabbath with a sex change, and Deep Purple or Uriah Heep's keyboards hired on... as Sabbath's actual keyboardy stuff, courtesy caped wonder Rick Wakeman on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath ferinstance, was a lot more "synthy" sounding than the classic Hammond vibe heard here, played in kick ass fashion by O'Brien by the way, a triple threat talent who's also the band's flautist, flaunting it indeed, what would they do without her? Not that the guitarist, for one, doesn't get to shine as well, in the riff department, and dueling leads with the organ, like during the swirling, surging tour de force of the epic "Oliver Haddo" (the album's second longest song, not quite beating out the 10 minute plus closer, "Daughter Of The Sun", another extended, involved rite, all right). This time, produced by Sanford Parker (Pelican, Yob, Zoroaster, Samothrace, The Gates Of Slumber, etc.), which perhaps accounts for some of the added thickness/heaviness we sense here, though the debut was heavy too. He also supplies some Moog. This disc's too-dark cover photo of the band is about the only disappointment, whereas the cover painting for their first album, by fantasy artist George Barr, was something to look at. But for listening, this is indeed the answer to your prayers to the Great God Pan. So good, we simply can't get enough of this, and if you too are truly in the mood for some beauteous and bombastic, rockin' pagan prog heaviness, then it's time to begin Living With The Ancients!

BLOOD CEREMONYThe Eldritch Dark(Rise Above)cd$ 14.98

Come, come to the sabbat!! It is now upon us, The Eldritch Dark, album number 3 from one of our top favorites amongst the burgeoning new wave of female fronted occult rock bands, Toronto's Blood Ceremony. And there's a LOT of good bands in that "scene", a bunch of 'em on the same label(s), Rise Above/Metal Blade. Blood Ceremony are a bit heavier than their UK compatriots/competition, Purson, reviewed last list, but a heck of a lot more folky and Comus-y than The Devil's Blood (RIP - that band's final release comes out next week). While vocalist/flautist/keyboard player/witchy woman Alia O'Brien is once again the star of the show, there are evocative male vocals on here too, from bassist Lucas Gadke, first noticeable on track 3, the semi-acoustic "Lord Summerisle" - that's right, a reference to the Wicker Man movie there, hardly a surprise, considering their inspirations. All the songs are about black masses, dark woods and witchery, dontcha know. And capture a '70s Britfolk, Wicker Man vibe for sure, being both catchy and atmospheric, total progged-out pagan hoedown material, full of not just flute but fiddle too. Plus synth and Hammer Horror organ as well, and of course some seriously doomy guitar riffage, that you can dance a reel too (but you'll halfway expect to get a sacrificial dagger in your heart at some point in the fun). Obviously recommended without reservation to fans of the aforementioned bands, also Jex Thoth, Jess And The Ancient Ones, and their non-female fronted psych-folk-doom godfathers Pagan Altar. We should also mention Jethro Tull and Black Sabbath here just to be complete!

BLOOD CEREMONYs/t(Rise Above / Candlelight)cd$ 13.98

Been looking forward to this one! The debut album from this seemingly time-lost Toronto band, the latest in the current spate of retro-proto-doom-metal bubbling up from the underground. All the heavy '70s Sabbath/Pentagram riffs -and- occult vibe of a band like Witchcraft, with soaring female vox and a thick coating of vintage Hammond organ, spooky and bombastic. It's an equation along the lines of Atomic Rooster + Jacula + Jex Thoth, maybe. Yeah, we're down with this. And that's just after hearing the first song. Then track two kicks in with some proggy flute! With LOTS more flute to follow on the rest of this album. So now they've added some Jethro Tull to the mix... Black Widow, Uriah Heep, Rainbow, and a mess of other more obscure '70s acts could also be cited as references too, along with the much more recent likes of the aforementioned Witchcraft and Jex Thoth. Now, if you hate Jex Thoth's singing, you might have a similarly tough time with Blood Ceremony, but we found that the lady here isn't quite as polarizing a proposition. And it's her dramatic vocals that gives Blood Ceremony their special sound, along with her flute playing. She's also the organist. But let's not forget the guitars... it's tough not to grow your hair long and sprout bellbottoms when exposed to these lumbering, loping riffs, all of 'em seemingly from the school of Sleep's Sabbathier-than-thou classic "Dragonaut"! Or imagine Electric Wizard given a medieval, madrigal makeover. And the lyrics... "I see witches in the sky, flying toward the quaalude eye"?? Ok. These guys and gal are definitely "smoking black drugs from Satan's bong" (I think that's what they said). Speaking of witchcraft, the dark arts of pagan ritual are of course Blood Ceremony's main subject matter, on tracks like "Into The Coven". The grooviest black mass we've attended in a while, right here. After spinning this for a while, if you find toads hopping about near your stereo, we wouldn't be surprised...

BLOOD CULTMidwestern Occult(Illinoisan Thunder)cd-r$ 8.98

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

SORRY.

BLOOD CULTWe Who Walk Behind The Rows(Rusty Axe)cd$ 9.98

Blood Cult are as far as we know, the only purveyors of Redneck Black Metal around, or maybe more accurately the only ones who admit to it. And Blood Cult are damn proud of being BM rednecks, as their apparent theme song "Redneck Black Metal" proves (oh, and it's printed in huge letters along the spine of the cd!). This is the first proper release from this Illinois horde after a slew of cd-r, cassettes and demos. Definitely their best -sounding- record by a long shot, equal parts splatter rock, crossover, early black metal, NWOBHM, and thrash. Think Venom, D.R.I., the Accused -- primitive and thrashy, noisy and chaotic, with some killer riffs n' some splattery chaotic drumming. They're definitely a little tongue in cheek for sure with some of the lyrics and song titles ("The Moweaqua Coal Mine Disaster", "Cheap Guitars", "Illinoisan Thunder", etc.). This boasts some killer catoony artwork too, from the same label that brought us Enbilulugugal!!

BLOOD DIAMONDSPhone Sex(4AD)12"$ 0.00

BLOOD DUSTERCunt(Relapse)cd$ 14.98

Never much cared for Blood Duster. Sort of a bad joke turned into a band. And not a whole lot has changed. Fairly generic grind, with occasional groovy '70s metal bits thrown in with lots of stupid between song samples. A look at the song titles should tell

BLOOD ESCUTCHEONBlack Sunset(KV&GR/Recs)cd-r$ 6.98

We first heard from Blood Escutcheon, aka Thaniel Lee, on a recent split cassette with weirdo black metal aQ faves Cloak Of Displacement, BE's modus operandi then was a blurred and blackened soundscape of blacknoise and grimdrone, which seems to continue here, with Lee weaving epic expanses of feedback wreathed low end thrum, big billows of metallic buzz drifting through abject, almost industrial wastescapes, like a more metallic Wolf Eyes, the same sort of post apocalyptic, blackened skies, end of days sonic vibe. But like the split, just strap on some headphones and sink into the abyss, and the whirring vacuum cleaner like buzz blossoms upon closer inspection, the sounds softening, the edges blurring, the sound much prettier, and warmer than on first listen. A softly roiling world of layered tones and swirling overtones, of buried melodies and constantly shifting textures, it's noise, but soft noise, dreamlike noise, the sort of noise that lulls and mesmerizes, a hypnotic sprawl of otherworldly soft focus dreamlike chaotic drift, that in some realms would be the perfect music to sleep to. A gorgeously gauzy stretch of grim black mesmer, that should appeal to dronelords as much as metalheads. LIMITED TO ONLY 20 COPIES!!!! We have 15 of those! Each one is hand numbered, and housed in a hand spraypainted sleeve, with a photocopied insert.

BLOOD FARMERSHeadless Eyes(Resurrection Productions)cd$ 14.98

Appropriately enuff, back from the dead it would seem. Bear witness to the long, long awaited return of psychedelic doomsters the Blood Farmers! After almost twenty years, the cult is alive. Still unhealthily obsessed with Z-grade schlock horror films - we'd love to dig into the the insane VHS collection we figure these guys must have - this NYC stoner/sludge/doom trio hit us here with only their second proper full-length album since their self-titled debut from 1995! (There's been just one other Blood Farmers cd, Permanent Brain Damage, previously reviewed by us, containing an earlier demo + live tracks). It's been worth the wait, for those of us who love fuzzed-out downer psych trudgery with oodles of heavier-than-thou atmosphere, yep. Not much has changed over the years, Blood Farmers still sounding beholden to Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, and that aforementioned vintage VHS collection - this album's title track, ferinstance, is inspired by the 1971 film The Headless Eyes, about a one-eyed, eye-gouging serial killer/artist. Fans of some bands that have become popular more recently, like Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, definitely ought to check this out, they'll appreciate the synthesis of '70s exploitation cinema subject matter and Sabbatherian riffery that Blood Farmers dish out here. Part psych, part metal, it's a stripped down, garagey, lumberingly groovy sort of sound they have, embellished with some sinister synths, and the use of samples from the old movies they reference. Imagine The Heads, jamming with Electric Wizard. Or early Monster Magnet, but much more doom, with a huge horror vibe. There's plenty in the way of moody, spaced/nodded out, almost-ambient interludes betwixt the more punishing fare, lots of this largely instrumental - however, the deep voiced holler of singer Eli Brown (often treated with underwatery FX) is definitely heard from, alongside the slo-mo six-string wizardry of guitarist Dave "Depraved" Szulkin, whose blown out riffs and acid rock leads have a hypnotic effect, abetted by the thumping rhythms of drummer Tad Leger (formerly of '80s technical thrashers Toxik, not that that has much to do with anything you'll hear here, nor does the further trivia that he also played with The Great Kat too at one time). Blood Farmers do an amazing job of creating a heavy MOOD as well as making heavy sounds, a mood in keeping with their cinematic inspirations, but actually much more affecting and less ridiculously kitschy than a lot of those low-budget movies actually are. Speaking of mood, one of our favorite tracks here is the final one, an especially doomed-out cover of a beautiful song called "The Road Leads To Nowhere" from the David Hess soundtrack to The Last House On The Left (the vinyl reissue of which was reviewed by us not loo long ago). It's real nice, taking that song and turning it (after an acoustic guitar intro) into a heavy rock track, quite different from the original, but retaining the melodiousness of it, Eli's vocals also more restrained and melodious here as well. We're really digging that song, and the rest of this, A LOT, and just hope they don't take another 19 years to make their next album! FYI, vinyl folks, an lp version is planned for release on the Patac label in the (hopefully) near future...