[ aquarius records catalogue

BUCKNER, RICHARDDevotion + Doubt(MCA)cd$ 12.98

Hurrah! A new album of Mr. Buckner's gorgeous, shadowy americana. In fact, it's his first full collection of original material in four years! In that time his debut was re-issued and he released The Hill which was his interpretation of Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. Impasse, the newest album, is another winner. His strong honeydripping voice, laden with grit and sincerity, is melting, especially when accompanied by chiming chords strummed on acoustic guitar. A few songs even veer into Fleetwood Mac-ky soft rock shuffling tempos... in a *very* good way, methinks. No, he's not just another singer/songwriter -- Buckner's good. Springsteen, move over.

RealAudio clip: hoping wishers never lose
RealAudio clip: ... and the clouds've lied
RealAudio clip: impasse

Sharing just one track with Rick Buckner's upcoming full length, Impasse-ette is a li'l ole pre-album teaser (albeit not with a li'l pricetag). Buckner, as you may already know, is a big fave here at AQ. His big, juicy, impossibly dextrous and emotive voice is pretty irresistible, especially when accompanied by chiming chords strummed on acoustic guitar. No, he's not just another singer/songwriter -- Buckner's good. In addition to his trademark dusty bittersweet sound, there's a track here that combines a private press recording of a woman discussing prayer, heavy with sincerity and laced with record static.

RealAudio clip: Born Into Giving It Up
RealAudio clip: It's Still '56

We've got a couple of new albums from two ol' reliable, looongtime aQ faves -- Bonnie Prince Billy (his latest full length is The Letting Go) and this gent, Mr. Richard Buckner. Like a visit from an old friend, there's a good deal of comfort that comes in their solid songwritin' and storytellin'. Yeah, it might seem a little strange to find such solace in both artists' well-worn melancholia, but we do! This is Buckner's terrific follow-up to his equally terrific Dents And Shells album of 2004. Comparisons have frequently been drawn between Buckner and American Music Club's Mark Eitzel as well as Son Volt's Jay Farrar, and they're still very applicable here -- all of them mighty fine singer/songwriters who probably have a few fans in common.

MPEG stream: Lucky
MPEG stream: The Tether And The Tie

Third album from SF's own Rick Buckner, the man with the juicy velvet voice. Previous efforts' dark twang is even less evident here, where he tempers his melancholia with help from Syd Straw, Tortoise's John McEntire, David Grubbs, Dave Schramm, etc.

Ex-San Franciscan (and longtime AQ-favorite) Richard Buckner, he of the juicy, resonant, trembling voice that gets under your skin, traveled to Tucson, Arizona, to record this single track, 34-minute album with John Convertino and Joey Burns, better known as Calexico. It's a fresh, bright take on road music, filled with rollicking neo-americana twang and intense backwoods vocals, at once John-Prine-style folk and intensely personal Springsteen-style singer songwriter fare, but always recognizably Buckner. Lovely. Oh, we shouldn't forget the literary connection here: Buckner's songs are in part inspired by Edgar Lee Master's "Spoon River Anthology" (poetic epitaphs for folks from a fictional Illinois town).

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AfroStrut continues to mine the depths of Nigerian music history to demonstrate that all that came out of Lagos was not just Fela. Keyboardist Segun Bucknor, who had been included on the 'Nigeria 70' compilation, gets the spotlight with an entire disc of

RealAudio clip: Smoke
RealAudio clip: You Killing Me

The last record we listened to by Harold Budd was his collaboration with Brian Eno from 1980, reissued late last year. To Eno's shimmering ambient soundtrack world, Budd added his maudlin, melodic, sometimes syrupy piano figures. Not sure what Budd has been up to these last 25 years, but here we are in 2005 and we find ourselves with a new Harold Budd record. While we're sure he has indeed been busy these last two and a half decades, this release sort of caught our attention for two reasons, it was released on David Sylvian's Samadhisound label, and it's two discs, with the second disc being a seventy minute reworking of one of the tracks on the first disc. We love that kind of stuff! So we're happy to report that this is an absolutely glorious, dreamy otherworldly listen. Constructed mostly from piano, synthesizer, strings, saxophone, bass flute and minimal percussion (mostly chimes and bells), Avalon Sutra is a slow moving, somber and contemplative dream world, New Age ambience smeared into a drifting world of indistinct blurs. Melancholy piano lines drift beneath warm chordal swells and distant twinkling chimes. New Age might actually be the sticking point in the above description for a lot of folks, but when you get right down to it, this is indeed New Age music. It's soft and mellow and could definitely pass as massage or meditation music, but that said, it's also lush and tranquil and hypnotic, the perfect drifting off and drifting away music. The soundtrack to a series of images, floating by on the periphery, subtle, simple and smooth. Then there's disc two, an hour plus extended bliss out. Like William Basinski, Oval, the Necks and the Balanescu Quartet all smeared and stretched into a dreamy, gauzy, slowly shifting, hypnotically looped cycle of minor key melancholia. Co-produced by David Sylvian and Akira Rabelais (who also helped mix and perform it). So gorgeous. Even if the first disc borders on being too New Agey for you (which it shouldn't necessarily), the second disc is most definitely an essential chunk of moody, mesmerizing, tranced out instrumental ambience!

MPEG stream: Arabesque 3
MPEG stream: Arabesque 2
MPEG stream: As Long As I Can Hold My Breath

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Forget about the Pop Ambient series, and other modern dreamy music makers, when it comes to simply stunning, calming and beautiful sounds it just doesn't get better then Harold Budd. Now 75 years old, and showing no signs of losing his immaculate touch, In The Mist is quickly becoming one of our favorite Budd records ever. This is how we like his music the best, just Budd and a piano, so stripped down and minimal, yet able to conjure up such a majestic and otherworldly soundworld. Slowly drifting and gliding with an ease and emotional warmth that allows you to tune out the noise of the outside world and return to a place of peaceful surrender. What makes Budd's music so special is that in any other hands the sounds would just be pleasant but not much more, but Budd has this amazing knack for masterful phrasing that injects soft melancholy and real bliss into his compositions. It makes such great sense that in so many ways Harold Budd is an artist's music maker. We know so many great visual artists who play Budd's music in their studio as it really does give you a clean slate to work from, erasing the clutter and annoyances of everyday life and softly guiding you into places that are filled with spirit and soul. Beyond beautiful!

MPEG stream: The Foundry (For Mika Vainio)
MPEG stream: Greek George
MPEG stream: Haru Spring
MPEG stream: The Art Of Mirrors (After Derek Jarman)

We've never listed this ambient, avante-garde masterpiece before and when we realized it was Harold Budd's 75th birthday last week, we figured it was the perfect time to honor the man, and the amazing dreamy sounds he has given us over the years. While best known to some for his collaborations with Brian Eno, and Cocteau Twins, there is also the deep well to explore of his vast solo catalog. But for many, Pavilion Of Dreams originally released in 1978, ranks as one of his best, a perfect melding of 20th century composition and warm, weightless shimmery ambience, creating pieces fragile and prismatic, as if they were suspended in glistening, glimmering bubbles. While piano is at the center of Pavilion Of Dreams, there is some of the most sensual and dreamy sax we've ever heard, played by Marion Brown, a wildly under-appreciated free jazz artist who played with everyone from John Coltrane to Anthony Braxton, as well as an extensive catalog of his own recordings that deserve to be explored. The album opens with the 18 minute "Bismillahi 'Rrahmani 'Rrahim", a track that feels like a passage from one of Alice Coltrane's most majestic tracks taken to a new age inside a mystical castle looking over the ocean. Then there's the mezzo-soprano classical vocals of Lynda Richardson are featured in the second and third tracks of the album. Don't let them scare you away. Even if you are not usually a fan of opera or classical vocals, Budd uses them in such drifting and compelling ways. They would have been perfect for a chilling scene in a Stanley Kubrick film. The album closes with "Juno", one of the most perfect ambient daydreams of all time. We realized we've said the word 'dreamy' a ton of times in this review, and well the album is called Pavilion of Dreams, and even though the term dreamy is so often overused, this is a record that really does take you to another state of consciousness. We hear the influence of this recording on so many of our favorite artists like William Basinski, Circle (on Miljard), Colleen, Seefeel, Johan Johansson, Sigur Ros, The Knife, The Durutti Column, Michael Harrison, Koss, Klimek and more... Absolutely essential!

MPEG stream: Bismillahi 'Rrahmani 'Rrahim
MPEG stream: Juno
MPEG stream: Let Us Go Into The House Of The Lord/Butterfly Sunday

For a label inspired in spirit by Brian Eno's legendary Obscure imprint, we bet once-local label Root Strata was super psyched to be able to release a Harold Budd recording, especially one so incredibly beautiful. Perhaps is a live 2006 recording performed at Cal Arts on the occasion of the memorial of former academic colleague, composer and friend James Tenney. This 75 minute completely improvised piece is Budd at his most moving and restrained. Inspired by a kind of oblique instruction or aphorism given to Budd by Tenney in the seventies, that suggested something "very long, nearly white", Budd creates elegiac clusters of melodic fragments and stretches them out letting long notes decay and drift, never seeming to repeat himself. Only previously available digitally, this is the first time Perhaps has been released in a physical format and comes with absolutely the highest recommendation!!!!

MPEG stream: Templar
MPEG stream: Nec Spero
MPEG stream: Reini

We all know (or should know) Roy Budd for his amazing score to Michael Caine's classic Get Carter, with its haunting reverbed sitar theme and funky throbbing groove. But among his other 50 or so film scores were the cult classic Diamonds, Charles Bronson's The Stone Killer, and loads of others including a bunch of other awesome Michael Caine movies. This collection, put together by the gent who used to run Strut records, and thus knows his funky jazz from his jazzy funk, is chock full of amazing goodies. The Get Carter theme is included of course, but it's a remixed version as are a couple others, a little more acid jazz with much more dancefloor friendly beats. The rest of the Budd tracks however are left as they were. Practically perfect. Mission Impossible style orchestral stabs, jungle percussion, wah guitars, soaring strings, groovy psychedelic ballads, warm Hammond organs, epic disco-flecked funk workouts, Morricone-ish western motifs, dreamy lounge, wailing diva soul and lots of pure seventies goodness.

MPEG stream: Get Carter - Main Theme
MPEG stream: The Stone Killer - Black Is Beautiful

The follow up to their great debut from a couple years back does not disappoint AT ALL. More solid and lively instrumental funk informed by all the great sounds: Afrobeat, Ethiopiques and down home soul. Great to hear modern day players with such a fine ear for cranking out classic jams that capture the raw and impassioned spirit of vintage funk, and exciting that those modern funk folks still know how to find a groove and make it shine. Very inviting sounds and further proof that Daptone has their fingers on the pulse of riveting soul and funk done right.

MPEG stream: Ride Or Die
RealAudio clip: Chicago Falcon

Daptone's The Budos Band has always been pretty fantastic, kicking out the killer instrumental '70s style Afro-Soul-Funk jams, super tight and groovy and quite authentic-sounding (even though they're from, like, modern-day NYC). We've dug all three of the ensemble's previous albums, but Burnt Offering (pointedly not titled Budos Band IV, even though it follows II and III) might be their best one yet. First, it's got some cool artwork of a Gandalf-lookin' wizard on the cover, a total stoner/psych image that looks like it should be on a Sleep album (or the side of a van). That art might clue you in that The Budos Band has been goin' through some changes... well, what's happened is that they've seriously heavied up their sound, the guitar parts are fuzzier and riffier, supposedly inspired by '70s heavy psych and proto-metal, like Black Sabbath and Pentagram!! They're still quite funky, though, so it's not a total extreme metamorphosis into doom metal or anything. We had kind of figured that meant this would sound like '70s Zambian garage-fuzzsters the Ngozi Family or Witch, but no, not exactly, 'cause what with their big horn section, they still sound like, well, themselves, but just with an additional edge of fuzzy, gritty guitar. Along with the hard-hitting rhythms, and spirited, darkly soulful brass, it's pretty darn cool. Think Fela Kuti gone super heavy psych, with a dark Ethiopiques vibe. Also, this new Budos Band sound reminds us of that awesome Italian 'library music' reissue by Blue Phantom, just a bit. Oh, and we halfway wonder if this transformation wasn't perhaps inspired by the success of Swedish Afro-fuzz voodoo psych sensations Goat?? Certainly Goat fans ought to dig this, too!! Super recommended. Digipack cd, or gatefold vinyl w/ download.

MPEG stream: The Sticks
MPEG stream: Aphasia
MPEG stream: Burnt Offering

There's never a question as to if a Budos Band release will sound good or not, they are one of THEE tightest and most masterful players of Afro-soul-funk around. And while their first two outings were totally great records, they have stepped up their game big time for number three. It's one thing to be talented musicians, it's another to create songs that have a really strong mood and presence, and that's exactly what Budos Band have done on III. It's a bit darker, wider in scope and just straight up ON FIRE! They've figured out how to take their inspiration from the music of Fela Kuti, James Brown, Sun Ra, Funkadelic, as well as hints of psychedelia from Turkey, Latin America and Africa, and bring it all together in such an infectious and surprisingly original sound. If you ever get a chance to see them live, go for it, cuz they always kill, and this new album is our favorite from them yet!

MPEG stream: Rites of The Ancients
MPEG stream: River Serpentine
MPEG stream: Nature's Wrath

The Budos Band is another outfit spawned by Bushwick, Brooklyn's Daptone Records label, some sort of collective of fake ethno funkateers responsible for such undeniably groovy projects as The Daktaris and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. These guys LIVE and breathe authentic '60s greasy groove, so you know their take on "Afro-soul" is gonna cross all the i's and dot all the t's... not that it sounds nearly that uptight. Not uptight at all, but definitely tight! This large 11 piece band, plus guests, featuring members of the Dap-Kings, Antibalas and the Sugarman 3 among others, is the stuff of grass-skirted Lalo Schifrin dreams -- dynamic and colorful instrumentals with a loungey '60s/'70s feel. Lotsa horns, percussion, electric guitar and bass with groovy organ (and even some funky flute) make this something that people who like the more jazz/funk entries in the Ethiopiques series, or aforementioned Afro-pop revivalists Antibalas, should consider checkin' out.

MPEG stream: Up From The South
MPEG stream: Eastbound

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Some of the AQ shoppin' stoner rock contingent ought to remember Buffalo, an honest to gosh band of Austrialian proto-metal pioneers from the early '70s. We used to stock a 2-fer-1 disc (can't get it anymore, dang) that collected their more Monster Magnet than Monster Magnet ever wuz albums Volcanic Rock ('73) and Want You For Your Body ('74). Missing that disc as we do, we were happy to find a few copies of this, a cd reissue of their prematurely tired-of-living debut from 1972. Dead Forever (nice title, they had a knack for that) was originally released on Vertigo, and at the time Buffalo were probably tipped as an Aussie version of Vertigo best sellers Black Sabbath. Close, no cigar, but what they're smoking has its charms anyhoo. This album's a graveyard of grinding dirgey yeah-yeah-yeah rockers, the kind that demand (as the back cover literally does) you to "play this LOUD". You've got to 'cause this band's lurching riffs and electric psychedelic blues bashings need all the help they can get since producers back then didn't yet know exactly what real metal required. True, this has a few quiet, balladic numbers on it (not bad ones either) but will be 'specially valued for trudging lead-foot boogie blooze proto-DOOM like you get with the album-closing title track coffin-nail-hammerer. For folks who also dig the similarly lost and wasted, stoned guitars and wailing vocals of such acts as Captain Beyond, Randy Holden, Juan de la Cruz, Toad, Leafhound, and Sir Lord Baltimore.

MPEG stream: Leader
MPEG stream: Pay My Dues

First off, this is the current, stoner rock Buffalo from Argentina, not the '70s stoner rock Buffalo from Australia. We reviewed this Buffalo's Temporada de Huracanes album a couple years ago, and also their more recent split with Astroqueen. Now they're back with an equally rockin', and equally Kyuss-y / Queens Of The Stone Age-y follow up. Yep, they might owe ol' Josh Homme a royalty check or two, but you can't fault 'em for doing what they do, really damn well. They've got big fuzzy guitars and big, desert rock melodies, that's for sure. Lots of moody / heavy dynamics. If you like their countrymen Los Natas, you should definitely give these guys a listen too. Imported on the slow boat from Argentina, so you gotta be patient if we run out...

MPEG stream: Una Casa
MPEG stream: Karma

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We LOVE this band. You should love this band. How can you not, that is if you're lookin' for some proto-metal, psychedelic stoner '70s rawk action?? Buffalo is 100 percent the Real Deal. These Aussie rockers were basically what Monster Magnet (and all the other bands in the modern "stoner rock" scene) would have liked to be, doing it first and best back in the day. Once upon a time, we used to stock a 2-on-1 reissue of Buffalo's Volcanic Rock and Want You For Your Body albums (from '73 and '74, respectively) but that's been out of print for ages now. So we're super thrilled that the Aztec label from Down Under has brought Buffalo back into circulation, as part of a '70s reissue campaign featuring a bunch of other Aussie acts we're eager to check out, like Coloured Balls (reviews pending). Both of these Buffalo discs are authentically heavy '70s cock-rock from the band we've judged to be Australia's answer to, if not Black Sabbath, at least Grand Funk... no, better n' heavier than that. Sir Lord Baltimore, for sure. Did we say cock-rock? Hell, there's even a penis on the cover of Volcanic Rock! The lyrics are of the sort that amusingly confuse being sexist with being sexy (a la Spinal Tap), as in Want You's lead off track "I'm A Skirt Lifter, Not A Shirt Raiser", and they're delivered with much gusto and backed by some powerful guitar riffing that blows those stoner rock bands of today out of the (bong)water. Volcanic Rock is unstoppable, definitely an aptly titled album. Music for rolling Mad Max style on the highways across the Australian outback. Bonus tracks include the single versions of crucial cuts "Sunrise (Come My Way)" and "Shylock". Want You For You Body is equally awesome, and features the powerful "Dune Messiah". Killer vocals on that one and you can't get much more '70s than a song about Frank Herbert's popular sci-fi classic, short of writing songs about Tolkien! Bonus tracks include a live version of "United Nations". And the fact that you can't get both albums on one disc anymore is made up for by the presence of the aforementioned bonus tracks on each cd, digital remastering, thick booklets, and generally nice presentation in digipacks. So if you're a patron of our "proto-metal" section, into Blue Cheer and Bang and Leaf Hound and the like, you've gotta get Buffalo!!! Same deal if you're a fan of Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Heavy Rocks style Boris, etc... Highly recommended. [Also available, is the Aztec reish of Buffalo's debut Dead Forever, which we'll list next time!]

MPEG stream: I'm Coming On
MPEG stream: Dune Messiah

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SORRY. Another recent release from the same Argentinian stoner rock label that brought us that weird-ass Dragonauta album we highlighted on our last list. If the Dragonauta is somewhat akin to the more "progressive" direction taken by their fellow countrymen Los Natas on recent albums, then Buffalo hews closer to early Los Natas -- that is, they are heavily into the "desert rock" cult of Kyuss. Catchy, heavy, groovy stuff with some definite Josh Homme worship in the guitar dep't. But Kyuss isn't their only influence, as the first track "Gracias" makes clear -- it's a recording of someone fumbling with a cassette deck, playing snippets of classics by everyone from Sabbath to ZZ Top to the Misfits. But Buffalo come closer to Kyuss -- or actually, Homme's even more successful, post-Kyuss outfit Queens Of The Stone Age -- than anything else. And they're damn good too. Whatever they lack in originality they make up for in energy and attitude and musical talent. Not to mention that taking after QOTSA requires some measure of eccentricity -- spacey prog keyboards, musique concrete elements, and acoustic folk jams do get incorporated into their stoner rock ass-kickery as well. Good stuff! Includes live video Quicktime clips as well. NB. not to be confused with the '70s Australian band Buffalo, though I'm surprised these guys weren't aware of those far-off forerunners to their sound.

MPEG stream: Rio Arriba
MPEG stream: Pescando En La Marea

We LOVE this band. You should love this band. How can you not, that is if you're lookin' for some proto-metal, psychedelic stoner '70s rawk action?? Buffalo is 100 percent the Real Deal. These Aussie rockers were basically what Monster Magnet (and all the other bands in the modern "stoner rock" scene) would have liked to be, doing it first and best back in the day. Once upon a time, we used to stock a 2-on-1 reissue of Buffalo's Volcanic Rock and Want You For Your Body albums (from '73 and '74, respectively) but that's been out of print for ages now. So we're super thrilled that the Aztec label from Down Under has brought Buffalo back into circulation, as part of a '70s reissue campaign featuring a bunch of other Aussie acts we're eager to check out, like Coloured Balls (reviews pending). Both of these Buffalo discs are authentically heavy '70s cock-rock from the band we've judged to be Australia's answer to, if not Black Sabbath, at least Grand Funk... no, better n' heavier than that. Sir Lord Baltimore, for sure. Did we say cock-rock? Hell, there's even a penis on the cover of Volcanic Rock! The lyrics are of the sort that amusingly confuse being sexist with being sexy (a la Spinal Tap), as in Want You's lead off track "I'm A Skirt Lifter, Not A Shirt Raiser", and they're delivered with much gusto and backed by some powerful guitar riffing that blows those stoner rock bands of today out of the (bong)water. Volcanic Rock is unstoppable, definitely an aptly titled album. Music for rolling Mad Max style on the highways across the Australian outback. Bonus tracks include the single versions of crucial cuts "Sunrise (Come My Way)" and "Shylock". Want You For You Body is equally awesome, and features the powerful "Dune Messiah". Killer vocals on that one and you can't get much more '70s than a song about Frank Herbert's popular sci-fi classic, short of writing songs about Tolkien! Bonus tracks include a live version of "United Nations". And the fact that you can't get both albums on one disc anymore is made up for by the presence of the aforementioned bonus tracks on each cd, digital remastering, thick booklets, and generally nice presentation in digipacks. So if you're a patron of our "proto-metal" section, into Blue Cheer and Bang and Leaf Hound and the like, you've gotta get Buffalo!!! Same deal if you're a fan of Kyuss, Monster Magnet, Heavy Rocks style Boris, etc... Highly recommended. [Also available, is the Aztec reish of Buffalo's debut Dead Forever, which we'll list next time!]

MPEG stream: Shylock
MPEG stream: Freedom

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SORRY. Fans of the currently popular "stoner rock" contingent (Fu Manchu, Monster Magnet, Kyuss, that sort of thing) should definitely check out this 2-on-1 reissue of some authentic heavy '70s cock-rock, from Australia's answer to, if not Sabbath, at least Grand Funk...no, better than that. Did we say cock-rock? Hell, there's a penis on the cover. The lyrics are of the sort that confuse being sexist with being sexy, but are delivered with gusto and backed by some powerful riffing that could teach some 90's bands a thing or two for sure. If these dudes were around today, chances are they'd have a picture disc 10" out on Frank Kozik's Man's Ruin label...

I never really got into Buffalo Daughter until I saw them live in, like, 1998 or something. And man, are they good live, and that's what has made me love their records. The band is two Japanese girls and a guy drummer who seems to change with each album.

RealAudio clip: Earth Punk Rockers
RealAudio clip: Ivory
RealAudio clip: Five Minutes

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SORRY. Japanese female quartet mix power pop and funk and electronic noodling into a surprisingly appealing whole. Bonus points for throwing Gregg Turkington's "Great Phone Calls" pranks into the mix, barely there but so very there.

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SORRY. On this funky lil' 7", Buffalo Daughter bring us a live (and lively) recording from a show in Osaka. They've taken their wellknown song "Socks, Drugs And Rock'n'roll", and ditched the socks in favor of a little sax! Throw in some twisted vocoded vocals and the result is a fun, skronky sample of Buffalo Daughter live action. The b-side is a lovely sonic rendering of a jellyfish. Languid, dreamy, underwater/deepspace-y. A nice little release to tide us over 'til their next full length.

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SORRY. Remixers include Alec Empire (very recognizable!), Stock, Hausen & Walkman, Money Mark, and U.N.K.L.E.

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Never really imagined we'd hear Grouper's Liz Harris toasting on a ragga / dancehall record, and sadly, we still haven't, but she does lend her voice to the opening track on this, the first record from The Bug, aka Kevin Martin, since 2008's London Zoo (not counting a handful of singles). While we were envisioning Liz getting all Lady Saw, instead, it probably is more like you might imagine, the vocals still ethereal and gauzey, over a surprisingly subdued Martin production, that makes this sound more like Portishead, although a bit more brooding and tense, with some sinister synths, some tightly coiled rhythms, and some bleak atmospheres, and somehow, it works, really well, enough that we wouldn't mind hearing a whole record of Bug / Grouper collabs. The second track is actually sonically quite similar, a dark sort of trip hoppy vibe, but with some seriously thick, rib cage rattling bass, the vibe though still sort of nocturnal and smoldering, a lot like "Ascension" another low slung brooder, big beats, and lots of hiss and crunch and static, but still pretty subdued and slithery. "Mi Lost" cranks the volume a bit, but again, it's much less bombastic than London Zoo, and with way more of a focus on female vocalists, Miss Red doing the honors on "Mi Lost", a tangled ragga dub groover, with wild hi-hat skitter, and spacey drifty synths behind a seriously funky groove. "Pandi" is almost all organ, a dense, tense sprawl of throbbing drones, and lush layered thrum, the beats, when they do surface, more sort of pulsing and crackling and textural. And so it goes. The sound veering toward a late night somnambulence, Gonjasufi guests on the creepy slo-mo-soul dub of "Save Me" replete with super dramatic strings, and billowy clouds of soft focus static. It's not really until "The One", that things get bangin', with Flowdan joining in for a fucked up fierce grime workout, a crunching big beat, some Twilight Zone melodic stabs, machine gun rhythms (literally) and plenty of noisy chaos, culminating in a dense, distorted finale. The follow up "Function", is another grime-y blowout, with some awesome rapping from Manga, over a bed of gristly, ultra-distorted bass buzz, and suddenly it occurred to us, that okay, we must be in the 'Devils' half of Angels & Devils, duh. Anyway, the rest of the record plays out sonically devilishly as intended, maybe the only misstep is the collab with Death Grips, which has its moments, but is ultimately mostly annoying, especially when you hear "Fat Mac" which comes right afterward. That track's a crushing chunk of doom-dubstep, if there is such a thing (there is now), thick, lumbering beats, insane, distorted guitar buzz, maybe riffage, or maybe just blown out synths molded into something totally metallic. Wow. Couple more ragga / dubstep / grime bangers to finish things off, the first with longtime Bug collaborator, Warrior Queen, and one more with Flowdan, who kind of ends up being the surprise star of Angels & Devils...

The second single in The Bug's (aka Kevin Martin, from God, Techno Animal, Ice, King Midas Sound, etc.) new Acid Ragga series/label, the first so limited, that we were never able to get enough of to list. And like that one, this is a killer, the sound fierce and furious, and like the name of the series lets on, this is indeed "acid ragga": big pulsing ragga beats, wreathed in a cloud of skittery snares, acid-y synth squelches, thick fuzzed out basslines, and on the A side, Daddy Freddy toasting over the top. Fans of the Bug will be in heaven, fierce and furious and funky as fuck. The flipside offers up a similarly sonic template, wild swirls of insectoid snare fills, flitting constantly around that loping raga groove, more buzzy bass and super distorted synth squelch, Miss Red providing the vocals this time, her delivery, sassy and swaggery, a perfect match for the music underneath, both sides booming sound system killers, that we find ourselves listening to over and over, hankering for more more more! Super swank packaging, yellow and blue printed silver reflective sleeves, pressed on yellow vinyl and if the first 7" is anything to go by, this one too is likely VERY LIMITED.

If you're already jonesing for some more Bug tracks, here's one more song for you. Well, a vocal and a dub, so almost two songs. This one features Cutty Ranks on the a-side. Yeah, it sucks that it's almost ten bucks for so little playtime, but then again it's a heavy fucking single; as good as any of the DJ Scud Ambush! 7"s.

MPEG stream: Gun Disease

Third in this new 7" series of dancehall bangers from Kevin Martin aka The Bug, the A side of this one is a twisted mix of loping big beats and woozy tangled synths, sounding like some alien sound system, Warrior Queen toasting over the top, the end result like some playground double dutch jam, but cranked WAY up, and when the low end drops, it's some serious chest caving buzz and rumble punishment. The flipside pulls from the same sonic palette, more squelchy sci-fi synths, this time though, the bass is slithery and fuzzed out, the vocals, all call and response, sing songy and swaggery and a little bit snarly too, courtesy of Miss Red, perfectly complimenting Martin's fierce digi-raga damage, which begins sort of dubbed out, but by the track's end has transformed into some dense digital skitter. Pressed on bright yellow wax, housed in a super swank metallic silver and yellow sleeve, and if past 7"s in this series are any indication, these aren't gonna be around for long...

MPEG stream: Catch A Fire
MPEG stream: Poison Dart

Hard to believe it's been 5 years since the last Bug full length. We were so obsessed with Pressure, it was exactly what we had been dreaming of, a disc of dancehall, but supercharged, the beats bigger, the toasting more tongue twisting and agile, the flows sick sick sick, the loops and music darker and more fucked up. Makes sense when you have a look at Kevin "The Bug" Martin's resume, having recorded as God, Ice, Techno Animal and Curse Of The Golden Vampire, so imagine classic dancehall filtered through all that cracked and noisy business. Fucking mind blowing. And it's not like Martin has been doing nothing since Pressure. There's been a steady flow of ep's and 12"s, singles and one-offs, but we were long overdue for another batch of damaged fractured fucked up and funky dancehall, and finally, here it is! And it's so so good. Not quite as hard as Pressure, much more musical, but somehow all the better for it. The beats are still bangin', and the vocalists Martin has gathered are pretty top shelf: Tippa Irie, Ricky Ranking, Flowdan, Killa P, Warrior Queen, Spaceape and Roger Robinson. All of 'em on fire, and the tracks, total dancefloor destroyers, groovy, funky, a wild dancehall mashup, that stuttery beat in all its various permutations, simple looped Double Dutch repetition, skittery almost jungle, murky stripped down dubstep, pounding buzzing gabbery crunch, rubbery woozy shuffle, groovy late night minimal throb and several other variations.� It's hard to pick favorites, all the tracks are pretty amazing, although we're pretty partial to the songs featuring Ricky Ranking, the super hooky "Murder We", with it's growled buzzing verses, but then an insanely catchy chorus, with gorgeous vocals and lazer gun style FX, then there's the closer "Judgement" a sort of slow jam, but so washed out and fuzzy, menacing and sinister, complete with soulful breakdowns, which shift effortlessly into the growly buzz drenched verses (stick around too, after a few minutes of silence, there's a really beautiful outro). The Warrior Queen tracks are awesome too, especially "Poison Dart" with its school yard flow and rib cage rattling synth buzz, unfurling a weirdly catchy melody beneath pounding simple rhythms and WQ's wicked flow. "Fuckaz" with Spaceape is a pulsing throbbing groove, the vocals a sing songy flow, not nearly as murky and mean sounding as his collabs with Kode 9, and the opener "Angry" with Tippa Irie, is a super bouncy ragga jam, the beat so simple but so infectious, and the vocals again raspy and raw, perfectly balancing the wild bounce beneath. Hard to know what else to say. We're such suckers for dancehall, especially when it gets revved up a bit. Here's hoping we don't have to wait another 5 years.

MPEG stream: Angry ft. Tippa Irie
MPEG stream: Murder We ft. Ricky Ranking
MPEG stream: Fuckaz ft. Spaceape

We gotta hand it to Tigerbeat6 head honcho Miguel for giving this disc a domestic release and price. Released in the U.K. by Rephlex, "Pressure" is the second outing by Kevin Martin under the moniker of The Bug. While this guise may be a recent one for Mr. Martin, he's not a newcomer to the scene. You may already be familiar with his previous projects Techno Animal, Curse of the Golden Vampire, God and Ice (certainly not a curriculum vitae to be sneezed at). With The Bug though, Kevin attacks our lower intestinal tracts with some of the best hardcore dancehall we've heard in a long time. Residing somewhere between DJ Scud's pummelling gabber style Ambush! material and Timeblind's Three-Foot-Long Bong-Hit of a track "Rastabomba". It's exactly the dancehall cuts that what we here at Aquarius have been thirsting for. Whereas Scud's tracks, being instrumental, were totally insane over-the-top panacea style gabber, "Pressure" is primarily a true dancehall record, with toasting on every track. As such, Martin's rhythms tend to be stripped down more than Scud's. Which isn't to say they ain't hard. Under Wayne Lonesome's damaged toasting for "Fuck Y~Self" for instance is some busy as hell, noisy-assed rhythm that battles 10 rounds with Lonesome's growling. Along with Lonesome, toasters on this record include Daddy Freddy, Roger Robinson, Paul St. Hilaire, The Rootsman and more. A definite must for fans of Ward 21 and sundry other demented dancehall. Absolutely sick, absolutely essential!

MPEG stream: Beats, Bombs, Bass, Weapons
MPEG stream: Fuck Y~Self

There are so many amazing records, longtime aQ faves that sadly predate the aQ list, so thus never got reviewed, or often got a cursory one or two sentence write-up when we put it on the site some years later. We could probably do a hundred lists, just reviewing all the records we loved and raved about and sold in the store, before the aQ list got started. But, we often do try to go back pick some of our favorites, when we can get them, to revisit and relist, to hopefully expose them to a whole new audience. One old fave in particular that we just managed to get some copies of back in, after YEARS, is this, the debut from The Bug, one of the many projects of Kevin Martin (God, Techno Animal, etc.). But before it was strictly a Kevin Martin solo thing (eventually becoming his sort of modern hard ragga dancehall project), The Bug was in fact, at least on this disc, a quintet that featured Martin, along with most notably, DJ Vadim - and also Swiss reedsman Alex Buess from late great noise-jazz outfit 16-17! This first Bug record was inspired by the '70s Gene Hackman thriller The Conversation, and according to the liner notes does NOT feature any samples, sonic or visual, from the movie. Is a dense, claustrophobic, paranoiac dub jam, that still sounds so good, and so vital all these years later. Longtime fans of WordSound, are already familiar with this sort of low slung illbient dub, all creepy crawly beats, buzzing burnt out blunted bass, the vibe dark and shadowy, sinister and ominous, but here, the minimal palette of later WordSound jams is greatly expanded, Buess' bass clarinet is the real star, adding melody and texture, a dark jazziness, often without really sounding like a horn at all. The tracks here are all dark, malevolent grooves, DJ Vadim adding weird crackle, as well as more texture, weaving mutated loops, constantly shifting layers, sheets of noise and murky sound effects, there's guitar too, but it seems to be mostly utilized to add texture, Martin overseeing the whole thing. When this first came out, back in 1999 or thereabouts, we often fantasized about someone doing a modern remake of the Conversation, with this as the soundtrack, which on the one hand would have been kind of amazing, but on the other, a total travesty. As far as we're concerned (and we're guessing Martin would agree), the original movie is perfect, as was the original soundtrack by David Shire, and really Tapping The Conversation works just as well even without knowing its inspiration. So as an homage to one of the greatest movies of the seventies, it too is pretty much perfect.

MPEG stream: Harry's Theme
MPEG stream: Invasion Of Privacy
MPEG stream: Countdown To Elimination
MPEG stream: Those Tapes Are Dangerous

A new Bug single and it's a doozy. Featuring the amazing (and new to us) Warrior Queen, who kicks so much ass that the tracks without her vocals seem wimpy and pale in comparison. So I guess it's good that most of the tracks on this ep do indeed feature here fierce toasting. Tack on a couple instrumentals / versions and a wicked final number featuring Ras B, and you've got a decent little chunk of bassbin rattling ragga brutality to hold us over 'til the next Bug full length. Awesome.

MPEG stream: Aktion Pak
MPEG stream: Pain Yu A Ga Feel

[ aquarius records catalogue — B ]