[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 2601 through 2650 of 3202.

The first new recordings from Brighter Death Now in how many years? The monsterous collection Very Little Fun tracked material up until 2005, but wasn't released until 2011; so it was probably 2007 when BDN published the blacknoise assault 1890. Brighter Death Now, of course, is the solo black-ambient / death-industrial project for Roger Karmanik, the founder of the seminal imprint Cold Meat Industries. Karmanik closed down CMI in late 2013 / early 2014 as he was suffering mentally and physically from the drain of running the label. The terminus of the label, however, brought focus back on his own work which had been dormant for so long. By the end of 2014, Karmanik had fully immersed himself within the shroud of Brighter Death Now, completing this album and announcing the birth of his new label Familjegraven whose sole purpose is to release his own projects, including rarities, reissues, and new recordings. With Promises Of Death begins with a burst of power electronics might and fury of Swedish / English sloganeering blurting above a vertiginous torrent of thrummed black noise and deafening reverberation. It's somewhat atypical for BDN to encroach into the territories of Con-Dom or Grey Wolves, as is the locomotive noise-futurism of "Hate Is For Beginners." The raw-nerve intensity of poorly grounded electronics cycling a diabolical hum collapses amidst the signature BDN collages of true crime / confessional dialogue buried deeply in the mix; and by the end of the album, Karmanik has slowly shifted to those engulfing shadows and fear-mongering orchestrations of coal-black monotone. It's all so deliciously morose, this Brighter Death Now.

MPEG stream: Promises Of Death
MPEG stream: The Cover-Up
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Psychedelic Pig has had a great track record of uncovering wonderful and rare recordings of avant-esoterica. The first PP reissue was the Metgumbnerbone album which found The New Blockaders' Richard Rupenus working with a bunch of occultishly minded individuals for a fantasticly creepy ritual music for found percussion and Tibetan horns. Then, there was the unreleased material from the idiot-savant-garde ensemble Die Todliche Doris; but now, they've chosen to dig up this album from the Dadaist realm of the Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa. It's unclear who Brigitte is but supposedly she had worked with H.N.A.S. at sometime, and the Hansen Experience does feature the H.N.A.S.' mainstay Achim P. Li Khan. Let's just say that if you like H.N.A.S. then you'll love this album, as it sounds very similar to The Book Of Dingenskirchen and Kuttel Im Frost with lots of asynchonous tape loops whirling sickly in elliptical patterns, prog-rock basslines, fumbled drum-kit workouts, and a ubiquitous delay pedal that casts every sound in the pedestrial, Experimental 101 atmosphere of ECHO, Echo, echo, e-c-h-o, ECHO, Echo, echo, e-c-h-o, etc. If you're simply curious about how Surrealism and Dadaism can be applied to sound, look to Nurse With Wound and irr. app. (ext.); otherwise this is mostly for adventurous listeners and H.N.A.S. fans / completists.

MPEG stream: Meine Abende Im Haupquartier
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This is a vinyl reissue of a rare-ass 1975 private press LP from Baltimore that anyone who digs, say, Michael Yonkers should perk up their ears at. It's that sort of outsider psych obscurity. Guitarist/vocalist George Brigman, a teenager at the time we're pretty sure, was definitely into such underground (back then) influences as The Stooges and the Velvet Underground. This record consists of fierce, fuzz-fueled punk rockers, lo-fi blues, and VU-inspired melancholia -- a downer vibe typified by such songs as "It's Misery", "Worrying", and "I'm Married Too". There's more of the latter so don't get the idea that this is Raw Power part II or anything. But the Stooges moments, like the killer title track, ARE super Stoogey. So imagine an unholy, amateur, low-budget blend of Iggy, Lou Reed, and some Nick Drake too. Sounds good don't it? It is pretty great. Very soon a cd reissue on the Bona Fide label should also be arriving in our shop, but for the vinyl-enabled among you, Anopheles has the goods right now, on clear vinyl, mastered from the original tapes.

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Last list we had the deluxe reish of Baltimore guitarist George Brigman's long-lost Jungle Rot album, a self-released obscurity from '75 that seemed to be one man's tribute to The Stooges and the Velvet Underground. Fuzz-punk-blues-psych from way underground. Well, turns out that as a blues guitarist, George Brigman's biggest influence was probably Tony McPhee of British blues rockers The Groundhogs. So his late '70s outfit was called Split for a reason -- it's the name of (imho) the best Groundhogs album. And Brigman's blues bag is bigger on Split's 1977 album for sure. But if you've been diggin' Jungle Rot like we have, you might want to check this out too. We can't say it's quite as good, but it surely has its moments and many fans of Jungle Rot will like it too. The messed up downer punk attitude, and the fuzz, of Jungle Rot is prevalent here as well. At its worst, decent bar band blues rock with a great guitarist. At its best, really freaking awesome and weird bar band blues rock with a great guitarist. 19 tracks, some previously unreleased bonus cuts included.

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We've been smitten with these local ladies ever since their first couple 7"s released a few years back. We predicted back then that they should/would end up on Slumberland, and we're happy that our prediction came true, as they really are a band that represents the best aspects of Slumberland's awesome legacy and reemergence as one of the best labels around to trust for indie-pop done right. On Again And Again, Brilliant Colors have created their most free flowing set of songs, each one capable of being a pull-away single, but each track leading right into another with such carefree ease. The kind of album you want blasting in your car as you take to the coast to soak up some sun and dip your feet into the sea. It's got a kind of driving breeze to it that makes for such infectious repeated listening. Still channeling the influence of greats gone by like The Shop Assistants, Heavenly, Velocity Girl and Black Tambourine, as well as groups like Tsunami, Veronica Lake, and Butterglory, but continuing to flex their own vision, and undeniable integrity. There is such a cool DIY spirit to so much of what Brilliant Colors do. Their handmade flyers, the all-ages shows they play in super unique places, in fact the record release party for this album is going to be held in a tiny hair saloon just a few blocks from our shop. Even though their sound isn't "punk" you can tell that they've got a punk ethos, and that classic post-punk bands really helped influence their sound. If they lived in D.C. rather than SF, they no doubt would be on Dischord. We've been blasting this on repeat ever since it arrived in the store, as its become a major contender for our favorite summer album of the year!

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We've been loving everything we've heard from this fairly new Bay Area female trio but we were too slow to snag enough copies of their first 7" to list, but luckily we've got this great new single with two new brand new songs that are sure to show the world that these gals belong in the new league of great garage popsters like the Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, Thee Oh Sees, etc. There is a really cool early '80s minimalist garage pop aesthetic to Brilliant Colors that reminds us a bit of Young Marble Giants, The Raincoats, the heyday of Flying Nun records or some song by an obscure band on a Messthetics compilation that you would want to play over and over. It's much smarter then run of the mill garage rock, but it's also smart enough not to let their brains get in the way of their simple stripped down songs that sound better and better each time we lay the needle in the groove.

We knew it was only a matter of time before San Francisco's Brilliant Colors broke out of the Bay and into the ears and hearts of listeners across the globe, and it makes such perfect sense that Slumberland is the proud label to get to release their debut full length. After a couple amazing 7"s, we knew the time was ripe for Brilliant Colors to make a big splash with their energetic, raw and super charged garage pop, gloriously drenched in feedback and soaring amplification. They really are like a modern day version of Black Tambourine (the awesome short-lived early '90s band who just had their Complete Recordings reissued by Slumberland). Part pop, part garage, part punk, all coming together in such perfect alignment. BC belong near the top of the list of awesome bands who have emerged in the last few years very much influenced by the likes of The Vaselines, Shop Assistants, Talulah Gosh, Jesus & Mary Chain, Pastels, etc. Alongside folks like Grass Widow, Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls, and Pens, Brilliant Colors have injected a much needed blast of full throttle female energy into the post-punk scene and this debut full length picks up where their great singles left off, adding even more intensity and uncompromising tenacity to their delivery.

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Another awesome slab of wax from San Francisco's Brilliant Colors. A bit more poppy than their full length, this is pretty much perfect post-punk with a distinctly lo-fi vibe and a timeless quality that connects the dots between folks like Black Tambourine, Chin Chin and The Vaselines to the present day. Both these songs find these ladies in absolute top form, in fact we think this may be our favorite release from them yet. Finding a way to a more melodic and even jangly feel yet sounding fuzzier and more free then ever. Cool to see that these songs were recorded by their pal Ty Segall who knows a thing or two about bringing together fuzz and melody. One of those amazing 7"s where you won't be able to decide which side is better, as both these songs are smoking!

Ok, make that not one but two new awesome 7"s from San Francisco's Brilliant Colors. Like the other reviewed BC 45 this week, these two new burners were also recorded with their pal Ty Segall and find the band reaching even higher. The band definitely seem to be coming into their own with their songwriting, finding such a great way to combine their lo-fi post punk sensibilities with such great hooks and incredible melodies. We hope it's just a matter of time before these ladies get the widespread attention and praise they deserve as their songs as just as infectious and raw as folks like Dum Dum Girls, Vivian Girls and Golden Triangle. Make-A-Mess releases tend to disappear quickly so best to snag one of these before it's too late!

Along with the new batch of Our Love Will Destroy The World cd-r's (4 in total, the first listed elsewhere on this week's list) came this mysterious little disc, the work of some group called Brilliant Swords, seven songs in thirteen minutes, and not at all what you might expect from Campbell Kneale's Don't Fuck With Magic Label. Instead of thick clouds of abstract free noise, or twisted dronescapes of blown out loops and buried rhythms, Brilliant Swords are a pop band. Yep, a pop band. Fuzzy and noisy for sure, but this is totally buzz drenched noise pop, and it's pretty goddamn great. A little bit Husker Du, a little bit nineties indie rock, the guitars are super distorted, the vocals super melodic, the songs are short sharp and hooky as hell, the longest clocking in at 2:53, the shortest at :58, but pop music like this doesn't need any more than that. We couldn't find out anything about these guys, or this guy, the liner notes simply state that each song was written, recorded and mixed in less than two hours, and heck it sounds like it, which is not a bad thing, the songs are super intense, passionate, catchy bursts of fuzzy lo-fi power pop, we hear some My Dad Is Dead, Hard Ons, Buffalo Tom, a little Nova Scotia jangle (Eric's Trip et al), all wound into some seriously kick ass pop. The sort of pop that if it found its way from a super limited release on an obscure micro cd-r label to the right ears, these guys could definitely be huge, or could have 15 years ago. Either way, we're loving this a LOT. It's short, but that just means we've been listening to it over and over. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES! We're the only source for these in the US and we only got 20 copies, so once those are gone, that's it.

MPEG stream: Don't Believe Anymore
MPEG stream: We Can Be Friends
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SORRY. Digipak. Brimstone play melodic, Hammerfall-style metal with raspy black metal-style vocals.

Another gem from Spain's psychedelic past! We've been getting some very interesting reissues of Spanish stuff lately (Agamenon, Tapiman, Eduardo Bort, Smash, The Spanish Trip comp, etc.) and this Brincos disc is one to add to that list. From 1970, this is psych-pop with a bit of a prog bent, especially on the album's ambitious lead-off / title track, "Mundo Demonio Carne", which clocks in at over twelve minutes long and is a real psych odyssey. Fuzzed out rockin' morphs into gentle folky melodicism and back into dramatic prog soundscapery. Worth it almost for this track alone, though happily the rest of the album is equally excellent and eclectic, from blues rock workouts to handclapping pop to fake raga ("Kama-Sutra"). There's lots of groove, and lots of lush, infectious melodies -- the kind that make you hit 'play' over and over again. Some comparisons we could make, which may only make sense to those well versed in the pop/prog/psych obscurities of the era: Los Dug Dug's meets The Millenium? Aphrodites Child + Os Mutantes + Kak?? Well, if you know who some/all of those bands are you're probably the sort of person who would enjoy Brincos -- though that's not to say that if you've never heard of any of 'em you wouldn't like Brincos. Far from it. This is some appealing stuff that anyone with an ear for colorful, poppy psychedelia should dig... This import from Spain is World Devil Body's offical reissue version and includes both Spanish and English language versions of many of the album's tracks.

MPEG stream: Mundo Demonio Y Carne
MPEG stream: Esa Mujer

When recording under the pseudonym Ester Brinkmann (a name taken in homage to his dead sister), Thomas Brinkmann leans away from his trademarked techno minimalist tendencies in favor of conceptual abstraction. As with the previous Ester Brinkmann recording

RealAudio clip: La Tour
RealAudio clip: Totografia
RealAudio clip: Trans

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SORRY. Recording under the name of his dead sister, Thomas Brinkmann sets up a number of looping mechanical situtaions in which the grooves on shuffling techno singles are literally cut with a blade for the needle to fall into endless locked grooves. As these records are often played on altered turntables with twin tone arms, Brinkmann's rigid rhythms percolate and warble with a seasick motion that strangely sounds like Can's "Future Days". Blixa Bargeld makes an uncredited vocal appearance on the first track of the album.

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SORRY. We've already made the claim that the 20' to 2000 series is to be listened to sequentially as an aurally cohesive unit. And this is no exception. Brinkmann's contribution, as the seventh in the monthly series counting down to the year 2000, picks up the pace from Senking's analogue complexities, with dueling turntables that build shuffling, yet entirely soul-less house beats, for an alienated dance music for sub-atomic particles.

Thomas Brinkmann offers more of a schizophonic single with his "46 Valentino" ep. The A side favors his more club friendly techno sounds with a twin tone-arm reconstruction of Richie Hawtin (I'm guessing it's the old "Train Trac" single by F.U.S.E.) and with some Depeche Mode references as well. The flipside features more of an much more adventurous track in "Monomexico" with a Steve

We recently made Thomas Brinkman's Klick Revolution an AQ Record of the Week, and have been listening to it pretty much non stop. So much so that we almost forgot that we had previously reviewed his first "Klick" record from 2000, which while maybe not some strange tribute to pinball, still manages to be a glorious collection of clicks and pop and whir and hiss. Anyone who has been digging Klick Revolution will definitely want to pick its precursor up as well. Here's what we had to say about it when we first listed a while back: On Klick, Thomas Brinkmann borrows Christian Marclay's technique of literally slicing the grooves of his records with a razorblade to add some new elements to his sterile techno minimalism. While this may be Brinkmann's most sonically unsettling record, it manages to retain his trademark techno structuralism, albeit sounding as if the needle is struggling through a thick layer of grime. The erratic glitches of surface noise and the lulling stutter of run out grooves stand much more in the forefront of Brinkmann's Klick than on previous works. His sterile dub techniques dissolve fragments of surface noise into ghostly decay and generate a delicate flutter much like distant helicopter blades or the choral chatter of locusts. All in all, this is a successful departure for Brinkmann, one that takes him outside of the cold rigidity of most techno minimalism and into the sloppiness of the natural world. Fans of Philip Jeck will definitely appreciate.

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Click. Pop. Buzz. Fuzz. Whir. We are suckers for all the sounds that most other folks hate. So much care is spent mastering records perfectly, desperately trying to keep lps from getting dusty or scratched. When most of the time we hear a record and think how much better it would sound with some record crackle, or pops and clicks. We could literally hear the same record, recorded in a state of the art studio, and then on a handheld tape recorder in the forest during a thunderstorm, and we're pretty sure you can guess which one would have us flipping out. In the past we've discovered dreamy drone records just drenched in fuzz and record static, L. Chasse even recorded a record dedicated to our very own Allan, that emulated the sound or record crackle. You could say we're obsessed. There's something about that sound, it's so raw and pure and beautiful sounding. It may be an unwanted byproduct to most, but to us it's one of the most beautiful sounds in the world. This new record from Thomas Brinkmann, Klick Revolution, is an entire record of super minimal, skeletal techno, constructed completely from the static and buzz of needle on vinyl. At least it sounds like it. And the sleeve is adorned with the garage sale center labels of all the lps ostensibly used in the making of this record. The strange thing is, Brinkmann has always seemed very clinical, his sounds dry and clipped, as if his records were made in a lab, so it's exciting to hear, a very crisp, clipped sounding record made out of the very opposite sort of elements. Organic analog distortion and inconsistencies transformed into cool digital clickery. The other strange thing is that Klick Revolution seems to be Brinkmann's tribute, or homage to the pinball machine, a very convoluted concept concerning the inclined plane in a locked box and Sisyphus playing pinball with a rolling stone... Not sure we get it, but we do LOVE pinball, and by now it should be obvious how much we love record crackle, so needless to say THIS RECORD RULES. Based on live performances utilizing turntables and locked groove records, these pieces are definitely reminiscent of Pierre Bastien, Strotter Inst. and other modern avant turntablists, but the sound is definitely all Brinkmann. Hypnotic rhythms, a super skeletal techno, a symphony of Geiger counters, the kick drum is a pop, the shuffling snare is a tiny clipped burst of static. So completely hypnotic. He incorporates longer snippets from the records too but only briefly, introducing bits of melody, weird textured sounds, creepy cinematic elements, each surfacing for a moment before fading out. Strangely impossibly gorgeous and lush considering how barebones and skeletal this is. Somewhere between heroin house, Pop Ambient and maybe even haunted house, a strange and wonderful world where sound is measured in clicks and skips, buzz and fuzz, snap, crackle, pop and very little else. Click. Pop. Buzz. Fuzz. Whir. Click. Pop. Buzz. Fuzz. Whir. Click. Pop. Buzz. Fuzz. Whir...

MPEG stream: Geschlossene Kiste/Initiation_locked Box
MPEG stream: Die Schiefe Ebene_Inclined Plane

Lucky Hands is album number 13 for German techno producer Thomas Brinkmann, happily marching down his own path of idiosyncratic minimalist techno. He's at his best when the rhythms pick up the tempo quite a bit as on the first couple tracks on Lucky Hands, when his taut slightly dubbed basslines propel the percolating synths. "Drops" is one such number, venturing beyond post-disco revisions of tech-house thanks to Brinkmann's unmistakable style. He follows this up with "Work" which sounds a bit more like T. Raumschmiere recycling Deep Purple guitar licks as he drops a fantastically stupid anthemic melody on top of his motorik rhythm. Brinkmann slows things down a bit, veering toward Tarwater's sultry / icy monotone with a couple of tracks in the middle of the record including an unrecognizable cover of The Smiths' "The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get" with vocals from Tusia Beridze.

MPEG stream: Work
MPEG stream: The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get

"Rosa" compiles a handful of the singles that Thomas Brinkmann released on Max Ernst of tracks that were titled with women's names. The tracks from this series shift away from his techno utilitarianism to incorporate a greater sensitivity to melody and texture. His technique of razor blading locked grooves into vinyl appears to remain the same as elements of Plastikman's "Consumed," Mouse On Mars' "Vulvaland," and any number of Wolfgang Voigt tracks have been mashed into these terse techno grooves.

Brinkmann's "Row" is another selection of tracks from the MaxErnst vinyl catalogue, with a couple of tracks being revisions of those vinyl cuts. Unlike the gritty texturalism of "Klick," this collection finds Brinkmann returning to the classic Profan sound that the Voigt brothers had been producing out of Cologne a couple years back. This is a smooth, precise techno with a simple yet very effective monophunk groove punctuated by low-key melodies. "Mexico" is one of the detours from the techno trax with a looping vocal sample phased into a Steve Reichian repetitive pattern before kicking into a nifty techno shuffle. Alongside "Mexico" which came from (max.E.8), Brinkmann's included "Corvette" (from max.E.10), "N.M.Q.P. (from Fragmente, Swiss vinyl), "maxE.3" (new version), "max.E.3" (another new version), "max.E.4" (new version), "isch" (from the limited Oral CDR), "Loplop" (from max.E.6), "'ribosom" (from SupposÈ 170), "toothpaste" (unreleased). A really collection album from one of electronica's finest!

RealAudio clip: Loplop
RealAudio clip: Mexico

Jim O'Rourke has never been shy in announcing who is the primary muse for each of his multi-faceted musical adventures. There was Bad Timing, which pretty much appropriated wholesale John Fahey's idiosyncratic bluegrass style; his Eureka record tapped into the '70s AM radio sounds of Steely Dan and Bread; and then there was the often overlooked Brise-Glace, now reissued. Around the time that he formed the tape-spliced avant-rock project Brise-Glace, O'Rourke released a collaborative album with KK Null entitled A New Kind Of Water, which also happens to be the name of a mighty fine This Heat song. Couple that reference with the name Brise-Glace also being the title of a composition of musique concrete by Luc Ferrari, and you might have a pretty good idea of where O'Rourke's mindset was during the recording of When In Vanitas. Then living in Chicago, O'Rourke gathered together Darin Gray of Dazzling Killmen and Dylan Posa & Thymme Jones of Cheer-Accident in crafting a muscular buzz-saw field of sound that O'Rourke radically cut up (with a razor blade!) into the math-rock structures found on When In Vanitas. So yeah, Brise-Glace does sound a lot like This Heat especially in the tense, angular riffs, balanced with plenty of languid strumming pointing back to Slint; but more often than not, Brise-Glace eeriely predates the jagged art-rock epics of Laddio Bollocko. Originally released back in 1994, When In Vanitas remains the only record from Brise-Glace, although O'Rourke did also produce a similar project with similar people (including members of Zeni Geva) called Yona Kit, again released on Skin Graft and currently out of print as far as we know. But thankfully, Skin Graft have been wise enough to at last reissue this, one of the very best records in their back catalogue.

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British Sea Power's recent Krankenhaus? (their question mark not ours) cdep revealed the band as a musical entity with a scope and prowess far beyond that of its fellow early-'00s dance rock Brits. Sure they can still kick out a right-on rollicking anthem like "Atom", but they can also execute a remarkably epic and grand passage filled with dynamics and nuance that gives Sigur Ros, Radiohead or Godspeed You Black Emperor a run for their money. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the picture, doncha? And they don't stop there. Nope, they go ahead and expertly dish out the smooth dreamy number "Open The Door" that's equal parts The Go-Betweens and Yo La Tengo. Really really good and recommended!

MPEG stream: The Great Skua
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Here's a preview of what's to come on British Sea Power's forthcoming 2008 album! Krankenhaus? features a two song peek plus three more and a live video and film! This band has consistently proven themselves to possess a broader scope than many of their early '00s post-post-punk '80s influenced contemporaries, so we were pretty excited when this arrived. happy to report that it doesn't disappoint! Their slouchy yet punchy jangle rock gets anthemic on the opener "Atom". Then, they just keep on unveiling alter egos. The third song "Straight Down The Line" presents an unexpectedly sensitive and prettier side to the band, while "The Pelican" brings out the space rock in them. Can't wait for the full length!

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Wow, this band keeps on evolving in wonderful ways! British Sea Power's latest musical outing is a soundtrack for the classic 1934 documentary Man Of Aran by explorer / filmmaker Robert Flaherty. Somberly foreboding, these mostly instrumental passages could easily seem like they were torn from the dramatically atmospheric books of Godspeed You Black Emperor! There are some really gorgeous, gloomily grey stretches that balance cloudy drones with delicate melodies played out on guitar, piano and strings. Nice. The rock band in British Sea Power only really surfaces a few times ever so fleetingly - midway through the proceedings on "Boy Vertiginous", then on the rugged number "Spearing The Sunfish", and on the finale "No Man Is An Archipelago" - but it fits effectively and doesn't seem incongruous. An added bonus: the cd is accompanied by a dvd that features the film with its new score!

MPEG stream: Woman Of Aran
MPEG stream: Spearing The Sunfish

For their second album, British Sea Power remain totally 'British', decidedly less 'Sea'-faring (does that make them more landlubbing!?), and we've yet to determine quite where they're at on the 'Power' side of things. They've roamed from their initial sailing theme concept in pursuit of new paths to explore -- a wise move, we think, so as to not slip into mariner schtick-dom. Instead of the predictable 'Open Seas', we get 'Open Season', but who's huntin' whom? Heh heh! Lead singer Yan (nope, still no first names in sight) continues to brood and croon like a cross between David Bowie and Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler singing for Echo & The Bunnymen. Noble's guitar tone on the lead-off track is a deadringer for the Bunnymen circa "Bring On The Dancing Horses". And as far as the whole band's sound goes, the past comparisons to Interpol certainly still hold true, perhaps even more so than on their last album. Whereas Decline Of British Sea Power was a darkly tumultuous affair, Open Season is much more even (albeit gloomy) tempered. There are plenty of moments on this album that stir mega-twinges of nostalgia for '80s Brit rock. Really, BSP execute this music style amazingly well with such suave aplomb. In fact, while "Please Stand Up" was playing, it had Andee believing he was in Sixteen Candles or Pretty In Pink. Oh Ducky!

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RealAudio clip: Please Stand Up

What does it mean when Interpol are compared to Joy Division, and you are compared to Interpol (by numerous other reviewers) *and* David Bowie (by me, Cup) and Joy Division (again, by other reviewers)? Hmmm, perhaps it means youïbeam withïthe youthful vigor of the former andïexude a healthy senseïof nostalgia for the glammy drama and aging torment of the latter? Such seems to be the case with this UK band who indeed have beenïheld up to the same light as that of those other artists.ïIndeed, folks who dig Interpol but who are seeking something a little more tense, unstable and aggressive, might wanna give British Sea Power a spin. You mustn't be mislead by the leadoff track "Men Together Today" - a boiling point rocker filled with throbs and spasms that drew instore comparisons to Queens Of The Stone Age - the rest of the album paces itself at a more weighty, brooding British postpunk step. I dig this a lot, especially the lengthy tenth song "Lately" which effectively encapsulates the album as a whole. Heck, the sixth "Fear Of Drowning" is a mighty fine standout too. Already gaining quite a reputation for their live shows in which they do indeed dress as naval officers, British Sea Power - ahem - set sail with an impressive debut filled with stormy charisma. Recommended.

MPEG stream: Fear Of Drowning
MPEG stream: Lately

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SORRY.

Finally managed to snag a few copies of this recent retro-doom obscurity from last year, the debut album by a band masterminded by one Howie Bentley, the guitarist of an equally obscure power metal outfit from the '90s called Cauldron Born. Lyrically and atmospherically, it's inspired by classic Hammer horror films and Sheridan Le Fanu's gothic vampire novel Carmilla, along with an assortment of other weird fiction and poetry. Musically, it's all about chugging doom RIFFS, total Black Sabbath/Witchfinder General/Pagan Altar worship, heavy guitars thick with fuzz... Vocal duties are handled by Phil Swanson, whom AQ customers may know as the voice of Hour Of 13 and Seamount, among other stoner/doom acts. His depressive Ozzy-ish delivery fits the arcane, Sabbathy vibe quite well, this sounding something like a more "cult" Hour Of 13. Bentley himself takes over the mic for the album's last and most lengthy track, the 13 and a half minute "Karnstein Castle", and his much deeper voice, droning away, only increases the doom factor. Old school occult-metal obsessives should check this out while we've got 'em... Gotta mention the band photos, each band member pictured individually, out in the winter woods someplace. We find 'em amusing, in that it kinda looks like all three of the trio could be the same person in different stages of life...

MPEG stream: Carmilla
MPEG stream: A Meeting In The Woods
MPEG stream: Karnstein Castle

It's been two long years since Broadcast singer Trish Keegan's tragic untimely passing, and we're finally getting to hear some of the material the band was working on before she died. There have long been rumors of a posthumous Broadcast record proper to someday be released, but until that album is ready, we have this soundtrack to a British psychological thriller called Berberian Sound Studio to keep us company. Unlike Broadcast's previous album with the Focus Group, Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age, which played like an imaginary soundtrack for the most incredible horror movie never made, Berberian Sound Studio comes across like a proper soundtrack that follows a visual plot, with repeating themes in various moods that are lilting, atmospheric and tense, but also including creepy foley sound effects of bloodcurdling screams, sinister prayers, as well as short haunting library music cues. The film, about a British sound engineer's devolving mental state while working on a giallo-like exploitation film in the mid '70s at Italy's famed Berberian Sound Studio, harkens back to the days of heralded Italian movie composers Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai working on films by Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. Originally conceived as the soundtrack for the film within the film, called The Equestrian Vortex, director Peter Strickland soon decided to use Broadcast's music cues to underscore what was happening outside of the interior film as well, so that there is a lovely blurring of reality and fantasy, intensified by the various sonic cues included from the film that overall make this soundtrack stand up on its own. Of course adding to the haunting quality of the music is the ghostly but minimal presence of the late Keegan's voice, that appears mostly in near background like famed Morricone singer, Edda Dell'Orso, in lilting sing-song and wordless choruses. The question remains unanswered if that is her voice heard praying or screaming. Coincidentally, we've recently become obsessed with a similar sounding soundtrack by Polish composer Andrzej Korzynski for the eighties cult horror film, Possession (something, we are hopefully going to be able to list one of these days!) and the two have been interweaving a strange musically cinematic and terrifying spell throughout the store. Highly Recommended!

MPEG stream: The Equestrian Vortex
MPEG stream: The North Downs eDimension
MPEG stream: Teresa, Lark of Ascension
MPEG stream: Found Scalded, Found Drowned
MPEG stream: The Sacred Marriage

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

SORRY. At last, the highly anticipated follow-up to The Noise Made By People has arrived! Cup totally adored their pre-album Pendulum cdep, and after giving the HaHa Sound a first listen she feared that this sophomore effort's brightest highlights might've been packed onto that lil' ep. For instance, the ep's title track bursts forth as the second song on the album and is clearly one of its standouts. It's undeniably irresistible! Thoroughly taken with that song as well as the gloriously obtuse, bloopy electronic instrumentals, she initially found herself somewhat disoriented with the rest that followed (as you might be able to tell 'cause she's speaking about it in the third person), but then she gave it a second spin... and the album blossomed before her very eyes/ears! Vocalist Trish Keenan murmurs and sings in her wistful, lullaby-perfect voice that nears the clarity and sweetness of Karen Carpenter or Julee Cruise. It's the perfect foil for the fizzing and churning backdrop of analog synths, guitars, bass and percussion created by Roj Stevens, Tim Felton, James Cargill and Steve Perkins - tipping their collective hat to '60s Brill Building girl groups, the grand sentimental lovey-dovey-ness of Bacharach, and Esquivelian space age bachelor pads everywhere. Broadcast skillfully craft glistening, starry-eyed music that swirls and creaks like an old carousel, but just as ably veer off into more eccentric, trippy territory a la Bruce Haack, Raymond Scott and Joe Meek (psst, this contrast is perfectly exemplified at the meeting between songs 7 and 8 - "Lunch Hour Pops" and "Black Umbrellas" - check 'em out!). Perhaps the time has come that the occlusive "Stereolab Jr." tag they've been saddled with (granted, quite aptly so) may be tossed in the trash. Very recommended!

MPEG stream: Lunch Hour Pops
MPEG stream: Black Umbrellas

At last, the highly anticipated follow-up to The Noise People Make has arrived and in two different packaging selections! If you're a big Broadcast fan you might wanna scoop up this special (very Radiohead-ish) book edition. Making its appearance slightly in advance of the regular ol' jewelcase version, it's not really a book at all, but more of a cd-sized hardback book cover with lyrics and liner notes printed on 2 fold-out cardstock pages. Okay, now that we've got the packaging commentary out of the way, onwards to the music... Cup totally adored their pre-album Pendulum cdep, and after giving the HaHa Sound a first listen she feared that this sophomore effort's brightest highlights might've been packed onto that lil' ep. For instance, the ep's title track bursts forth as the second song on the album and is clearly one of its standouts. It's undeniably irresistible! Thoroughly taken with that song as well as the gloriously obtuse, bloopy electronic instrumentals, she initially found herself somewhat disoriented with the rest that followed (as you might be able to tell 'cause she's speaking about it in the third person), but then she gave it a second spin... and the album blossomed before her very eyes/ears! Vocalist Trish Keenan murmurs and sings in her wistful, lullaby-perfect voice that nears the clarity and sweetness of Karen Carpenter or Julee Cruise. It's the perfect foil for the fizzing and churning backdrop of analog synths, guitars, bass and percussion created by Roj Stevens, Tim Felton, James Cargill and Steve Perkins - tipping their collective hat to '60s Brill Building girl groups, the grand sentimental lovey-dovey-ness of Bacharach, and Esquivelian space age bachelor pads everywhere. Broadcast skillfully craft glistening, starry-eyed music that swirls and creaks like an old carousel, but just as ably veer off into more eccentric, trippy territory a la Bruce Haack, Raymond Scott and Joe Meek (psst, this contrast is perfectly exemplified at the meeting between songs 7 and 8 - "Lunch Hour Pops" and "Black Umbrellas" - check 'em out!). Perhaps the time has come that the occlusive "Stereolab Jr." tag they've been saddled with (granted, quite aptly so) may be tossed in the trash. Very recommended!

MPEG stream: Lunch Hour Pops
MPEG stream: Black Umbrellas

At last, the highly anticipated follow-up to The Noise People Make has arrived! Cup totally adored their pre-album Pendulum cdep, and after giving the HaHa Sound a first listen she feared that this sophomore effort's brightest highlights might've been packed onto that lil' ep. For instance, the ep's title track bursts forth as the second song on the album and is clearly one of its standouts. It's undeniably irresistible! Thoroughly taken with that song as well as the gloriously obtuse, bloopy electronic instrumentals, she initially found herself somewhat disoriented with the rest that followed (as you might be able to tell 'cause she's speaking about it in the third person), but then she gave it a second spin... and the album blossomed before her very eyes/ears! Vocalist Trish Keenan murmurs and sings in her wistful, lullaby-perfect voice that nears the clarity and sweetness of Karen Carpenter or Julee Cruise. It's the perfect foil for the fizzing and churning backdrop of analog synths, guitars, bass and percussion created by Roj Stevens, Tim Felton, James Cargill and Steve Perkins - tipping their collective hat to '60s Brill Building girl groups, the grand sentimental lovey-dovey-ness of Bacharach, and Esquivelian space age bachelor pads everywhere. Broadcast skillfully craft glistening, starry-eyed music that swirls and creaks like an old carousel, but just as ably veer off into more eccentric, trippy territory a la Bruce Haack, Raymond Scott and Joe Meek (psst, this contrast is perfectly exemplified at the meeting between songs 7 and 8 - "Lunch Hour Pops" and "Black Umbrellas" - check 'em out!). Perhaps the time has come that the occlusive "Stereolab Jr." tag they've been saddled with (granted, quite aptly so) may be tossed in the trash. Very recommended!

MPEG stream: Lunch Hour Pops
MPEG stream: Black Umbrellas

Presenting a much more feisty, energetic Broadcast than on their last album The Noise People Make. There's only six songs here, but they're mighty fine ones. Mighty, indeed! Four of them ring with that familiar dreamy Broadcast sound - shades of their Cardigans/Stereolab leanings still linger but only faintly. They're definitely more fired up these days. Just check out that tight, harder-hit drumming and heavier overall sound. Actually this brings their recorded work more in line with their rockin' live performances. And what about those other two songs? Well, they deserve their own mention that's for sure: the wonderfully incongruous third track "One Hour Empire" and the sixth "Minus Two". It truly sounds like they hopped a time machine back to the '70s and hijacked the BBC Radiophonic Workshop! The former's an eccentric jazzy bleep-bloop exotica number that's plenty entertaining all by itself. The latter begins as a spaced-out robotic spazz-fit that's eventually muscled over by more frantic drumming and melodic female sighs. Actually if the last few Add N To (X) albums have left you rather disgruntled and disappointed (as they have us) and if this new EP is any indication, you might want to switch over to the Broadcast team! Recommended.

MPEG stream: One Hour Empire
MPEG stream: Pendulum

Ooooh soooo gooood! As seems to be the case with each new Broadcast album, a couple of listens is all it takes to get Tender Buttons hooks into ya! The effects of Broadcast's pop intoxicants aren't as immediate nor as obvious here as those of 2003's The HaHa Sound, but they're no less potent. Broadcast continue to melt their sound into the ultra-pretty sounds of '60s girl groups. In doing so, they perfectly showcase lead vocalist Trish Keenan's unbelievably lovely vocals which occasionally take on a more somber tone here than they did on the airier HaHa Sound. Despite the undeniable sweetness of Keenan's voice, the band always gracefully sidestep excessive syrupiness with the counterbalance of heavier guitars, a propulsive groovy rhythm section and a broad spectrum of hefty analog synth melodies and textures. A luminous dreamboat with a tiger in its tank. Swoon!

MPEG stream: America's Boy
MPEG stream: You And Me In Time

An absolute delight from start to finish! Like a big ol' box of Crayolas, The Future Crayon is a collection of Broadcast rarities. The eighteen tracks are compiled from singles, eps, and compilations dating back to 1998. They effectively remind us that while this UK band is perhaps best known for their plush synth-driven pop, their musical spectrum stretches far beyond that into jazz, space age, exotica, krautrock, prog, and the science fair even! Needless to say, your ears will surely find that they're so much more delicious than those waxy coloring implements. They're more like the aural equivalent of a fifty scoop sundae -- towering in dream pop yumminess comprised of soft creamy sherbet (Trish Keenan vocals! sigh!), occasional bloops of marshmallow cream and hot fudge (their analog synthesizers!), a sprinkling of nuts and sugary bits (the snappy often jazzy percussion as well as those synths again!). It's all perfectly summed up in the cd's sixteenth and seventeenth numbers "Minus Two" and "Violent Playground", both taken from their 2003 EP Pendulum. Fantastic! Yes, recommended!

MPEG stream: Illumination
MPEG stream: Test Area
MPEG stream: Minus Two

Yes! The Broadcast vinyl reissues are finally here and it can't be overstated how much we love this band and everything they ever released, especially since as a band they are no longer with us with singer Trish Keegan's untimely death in 2011. We won't go into our usual fan-gush prose and write paragraphs about how wonderful these albums are (we mean we can go on and on about them!) since we just got a handful of each one, apart from the first singles compilation, Work And Non-Work, which is already awaiting a repress. In fact all of these might be being repressed, we think they sold out on preorder, but we have a few, come in this weekend and try and grab 'em! Over four full lengths and two single collections, Broadcast has traversed a dreamy retro-futurist sound that may have started from the same kaleidoscopic pop spark as bands like Stereolab and Pram, but has since become something fully their own. We will eventually relist all of them as soon as we get enough copies to list. Broadcast's debut full length, The Noise Made By People, released in conjunction with Tommy Boy back in 2000, was a dark and cinematically dreamy departure only hinted at from the early singles. Early and lazy mis-characterizations of the band just being another Stereolab copy (which we might have though ourselves), couldn't be farther from the truth. Keegan's thoughtful and psychically focussed lyrics and delivery were a far cry from Sterolab's vocals as rhythm instrument approach. Instead, typified by the opener "Long Was The Year" much of the sound was largely and selectively lifted from electric psychedelic bands from the '60s like United States of America and White Noise where ring modulators and synthesizers transport female voices into environments of psycho-acoustic dream states with an infectious pop moodiness. While their albums like Tender Buttons and The Ha Ha Sound have a more popular following and rightfully so since each album is its own particular gem, we believe their debut is equally potent, underrated and probably the best place to start for the uninitiated. Highest Recommendation!!

MPEG stream: Long Was The Year
MPEG stream: Come on Let's Go
MPEG stream: Echo's Answer

Yes! The Broadcast vinyl reissues are finally here and it can't be overstated how much we love this band and everything they ever released, especially since sadly as a band they are no longer with us due to singer Trish Keegan's untimely death in 2011. Work and Non-Work was the first introduction of the group to a larger audience, collecting their first two singles and an ep previously released on the labels Wurlitzer Jukebox and Stereolab's Duophonic imprint between 1995 and 1996. Their songcraft, which would be honed and evolve over their next four albums, arrived nearly fully formed, though they do wear their influences most outwardly on this collection than any other release. Staking a firm spot between Stereolab's retrofuturism and Portishead's emotively sonic trip-hop formalism, while also mining altered-consciousness music from the margins of sixties psychedelia, like United States of America, White Noise and Elephants Memory. In fact, "The World Backwards" is nearly a remake of Elephants Memory's "Old Man Willow", a song most famously heard in the druggy party scene in the movie Midnight Cowboy. But Broadcast never tried to hide their influences always exposing a narrow-trodden path for listeners to find little known treasures from the past. Leading the way for bands like Death and Vanilla, The Sound Carriers and Jane Weaver to carry the torch into the future. A perfect place to start for the uninitiated.

MPEG stream: Message From Home
MPEG stream: The World Backwards
MPEG stream: Lights Out

Crystal balls, dark mirrors, Ouija boards, seances, creepy knocking, music boxes that play themselves, creaking doors, and distorted kaleidoscopes are just a few of the fascinating hauntological associations mined in the latest collaborative effort by long time aQ faves, Broadcast, and new to us electronic outfit, The Focus Group, run by Ghost Box label head Julian House (who also designed all of Broadcast's record covers). We've been trying to carry the Ghost Box label stuff for years but haven't found a feasible distributor, and with this release, it has become quite clear what we've been missing out on. Billed as a mini-album (23 tracks across 50 minutes), Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of The Radio Age is all at once a mesmerizing sound collage, a mind-warping concept album, a reimagined soundtrack to some chilling psychological cinema (we're thinking of films like Dead of Night, Secret Ceremony, The Ballad of Tam Lin, Persona, Angel, Angel Down We Go, or Simon, King of The Witches), as well as an homage to the obscure left-field psychedelic electronic music and sounds of the sixties and seventies that have influenced Broadcast over the years. Bands like White Noise, The Animated Egg, Basil Kirchin, United States of America, British Library Music and of course the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. So as you probably guessed from the description above, this is not a typical Broadcast release, but a experimental detour while we await for their next official full length. Fans of their full lengths may be less immediately satisfied by this, as it's not designed to be enjoyed as a pop record. It often requires either deep listening, or having it on while working on a solitary activity, such as painting or knitting, or better yet tarot card reading. While Trish Keenan's lush and dreamy singing is heard through out, there is only one typical Broadcast song, opener "The Be Colony", a woozy lullaby that hearkens back to the dreamy melodies from the HaHa Sound album, and even that is thrown in the delirious blender of The Focus Group, who took recordings made by Broadcast for this project and cut them up in a method to suggest automatic writing under a deep hypnosis. Disembodied voices, blowing wind, flashes of jazz drumming, eerie squeeches and electronic bloops, radio dials shifting, whining puppies, crows cawing, mysterious choirs and echo-y playground rhymes. Very ghostly, and sometimes beautifully creepy. It's the kind of strategy that may sound like it could get tedious after awhile, but the collage is so delicately and carefully constructed with just enough structured melodies that it wonderfully forms an intriguing narrative, of course aided by suggestive song titles like "Reception/ Group Therapy" , "Ritual/ Looking In", "Libra, The Mirror's Minor Self..." and "Drug Party". We think that people who are less inclined towards Broadcast's pop albums and into spectral sounds, occult music compilations, electric voice phenomenon, experimental electronic music or music on the Type or Miasmah labels should definitely give this a listen. We haven't been so spellbound by a record in quite a while. Fantastic!

MPEG stream: The Be Colony
MPEG stream: Mr Beard, You Chatterbox
MPEG stream: A Seancing Song
MPEG stream: Drug Party
MPEG stream: Ritual / Looking In
MPEG stream: Royal Chant
MPEG stream: Let It Begin / Oh Joy

By now, most metalheads know all bout Encyclopedia Metallum, pretty much the ultimate online resource for all things metal. Need to know what member of some band is in another band, what year some demo was released, what a band's particular lyrical themes are, it really is pretty amazing. Like a heavy metal Wikipedia. But unlike Wikipedia, bands and entries have to be approved by the moderators before they make it onto Encyclopedia Metallum, and there are some rules. Which ends up producing some pretty heated and amusing flame wars, mostly by bands who were rejected for one reason or another, usually for not being metal enough! We stumbled on one such exchange regarding this record right here, but the strangely named Brobdingnagian. Who according to the Metallum head honchos were just not metal enough. Too noisy, too droney, to be honest, it all seems a bit arbitrary, cuz to our ears, this is pretty fucking black, and pretty goddamn heavy, and most definitely metal. That said, much of this ep is pent not blasting or buzzing, but droning, and rumbling, and crashing industrially, which as far as we're concerned is pretty excellent. Think Abruptum, Emit, that sort of thing, but injected with the occasional blast of furiously blasting blackness. The opening track begins with soft sheets of feedback, rumbling downtuned doom guitar, mysterious voices buried in the mix, the feedback creating truly creepy textures over the lumbering plod, before the band launch into a frenzied blown out super raw black metal freakout, buzzing guitars, harsh vox, blasting drums, eventually petering out leaving another long stretch of deep droning ambience. The second track is way more abstract, and a bit industrial, a harsher Wolf Eyes, tons of feedback and high end buzzing, a crunchy machine like rhythm, that sounds like trucks being dropped from a crane, clouds of hiss and glitch, almost like a lo-fi noise rock Khanate. The title track offers up another sprawling expanse of doomy minimalism, buried beneath a sea of glistening crackles and campfire buzz, thick corrosive rumbles, and more harsh hellish vocals, until the track stumbles back into another raw blast of super primitive black metal fury, and the closer is almost all lasting buzz, off kilter and freaked out, heavy and black, and be sure to stick around for the hidden bonus track, where the band take on a cover that should for sure prove their metal meddle.

MPEG stream: Smeared Face In The Ruins
MPEG stream: Harvester Of Disease

Man, is it just me (Allan) or is Brocas Helm the best band ever?? Don't answer that...I know the answer. They are. If true old school cult fantasy heavy metal rock and roll is your thing, you might even agree. We listed the reish of their 1984 debut Into Battle last list, now here's further proof of their mastery (or my insanity), 1347's, no, I mean, 1988's Black Death! It's been on cd before, but this new reissue is a superior version, adding five bonus tracks from their 1989 demo Helm's Deep and also a bonus mpeg video clip of "Prepare For Battle" being played live with (extra guitar craziness) at an unspecified date in the early '80s. They've been described as "Iron Maiden on acid" (by Martin Popoff) and that's a good call. Especially on this album, wherein Brocas Helm's mighty medieval metal is cloaked in a miasma of spaced-out psychedelic effects, a claustrophobic production courtesy of their own home studio "The Caverns Of Doom". Brocas Helm's frantic yet majestic songs claw through the mists, guitarist/vocalist Bobbie Wright's over the top guitar shred and faux-British enunciation always triumphant, forevermore... I'm serious. Maybe you have to see 'em to really understand. But they one of the best metal bands ever. If you don't believe me, just ask the guys in Slough Feg. Ok, maybe they're biased, since if they'd started 15 years before they did they'd BE Brocas Helm... but Brocas are gods. That is my faith, and Black Death a holy relic.

MPEG stream: Black Death
MPEG stream: The Chemist

At long last, two new tracks on wax from these San Francisco metal legends! If you're into '80s metal, you need to know about Brocas Helm. Their first album came out in '84, their second in '88, and we're still waiting for their third! But, despite their glacially slow pace of releases, this new single now exists. Melodic, rough edged vocals, lots and lots of guitar, bass and drums,

You'd half-expect to have to venture to a far off foreign land and besige the walls of a lofty, mist-enshrouded castle in order to obtain metal this "true", but the legendary Brocas Helm hail from here in San Francisco and bring these discs straight to us. It did, however, take them SIXTEEN years to release this, their third album, the long awaited follow-up to 1988's Black Death! That's right. And the wait was indeed worth it, for fans like myself anyway. After all, it's got some of my (Allan's) favorite metal songs *ever* on it, like "Time Of The Dark"! A simply classic galloping metal steed, of which there's a whole herd here. If you're lucky enough to live in SF and smart enough to go see these guys, you'll already be familiar with some of the songs on this disc (like that aforementioned favorite) -- likewise if you're a fan who possesses their last two rare 7" singles or decade-old demo tape. But there's also stuff here too I'd never heard before, all living up to the Brocas Helm standard of questing metal might. Although recorded, as always, in their home studio the Caverns of Thunder, this IS certainly their best sounding release...but being polished and tight and up-to-date is not what these guys are about anyway. They're on their own planet, where '80s metal reigns supreme but someone put drugs in the drinking water. Speaking of drinking,there's two songs about drinking on here: one's a not very PC, hopefully tongue-in-cheek tune called "Drink and Drive" (one of the lyrics goes: "Drink and drive/drink and drive/got mothers against me/but I'm still alive"). The other is a grandiose metal statement entitled "Drink The Blood Of The Priest"! Silly and/or Satanic, sure, but damn I like 'em. Anyway that should give you an idea of the sort of punkish eccentricity the Brocas Helm troops muster. I probably can't really convey how good these guys are, and how metal...they have years of experience, unconquerable enthusiasm, and basically just know how the heck to ROCK. This was self-released for reasons known only to the band, as there were no dearth of dedicated cult metal labels in Greece and Germany who'd have loved to put this out...no matter, though the self-release does LOOK self-released too, which perhaps gives it more of an appropriately '80s underground vibe anyway. Y'know, old Manowar, Cirith Ungol, Omen, Manilla Road. So as you might guess, this is probably ESSENTIAL for any fan of The Lord Weird Slough Feg. By some cosmic coincidence, they just happen to live in the same city, and had a lot of the same influences...and are equally insane. Really it's absurd how alike they sound (and though they're fans of one another, they both already sounded the way they did long before having a metal rendezvous here in SF). So any 'Feg fan ought to get this for sure. And here's hoping that we won't have to wait another 16 years for more from these guys (I might be too old for this by then!)...

MPEG stream: Ghost Story
MPEG stream: Defender Of The Crown
MPEG stream: Time Of The Dark

Brocas Helm! Brocas Helm!!! BROCAS HELM!!! That's the crowd chant that automatically sings in our brain as we behold this, a deluxe double vinyl collection of this cult San Francisco true metal band's several mighty demo tapes from over the years - thirty years! A labor of love on the part of the Buried By Time And Dust label, in honor of one of the best heavy metal bands ever to walk the Earth (so sez Allan, go read his other Brocas Helm reviews for further hyperbole!). NWOBHM-ish, triumphant, (literally) fantastic, old school metal mastery here. Eccentric medieval metal whose closest contemporary comparison would be (much younger) brothers-in-arms Slough Feg, so its very much recommended to fans of that band. "Iron Maiden on acid" also isn't far off the mark. What you get here is as follows - Side A: Into Battle demo (1983), Side B: Black Death demo (1987), Side C: Helms Deep demo (1989), Side D: Ghost Story EP (1994). There's 19 tracks in all, all of 'em killer, including the raw original versions of faves like "Ravenwreck", "Into the Ithilstone", and "Time Of The Dark". All but one of these songs later appeared on Brocas Helm's three full-length albums - Into Battle (1984), Black Death (1988), and Defender Of The Crown (2004) - and since these represent some of the best tracks on 'em, this double lp then functions sort of like a Brocas Helm "Best Of". It's obviously meant for those who are already dedicated fans of the band, but since their albums are now hard to come by, anyone who can dig some underground '80s heavy metal at its utmost in galloping, guitar shredding glory might just wanna pick this up. This LIMITED vinyl release comes with an 8 page booklet with full demo artwork, lyrics, pictures, old fliers, etc. plus a vintage gig poster reproduction. Brocas Helm! Brocas Helm!!! BROCAS HELM!!!

MPEG stream: Ravenwreck (demo)
MPEG stream: Beneath A Haunted Moon (demo)

[ aquarius records catalogue — B ]