[ aquarius records catalogue

COSMIC FORCEGhetto Down(Truth and Soul)12"$ 8.98

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

SORRY. Japanese heavy psych supergroup, with Masaki Batoh and other Ghosts, guitarist Michio Kurihara of White Heaven/Ghost, and ex-Subvert Blaze drummer Okano.

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

SORRY. Klaus Schulze and others.

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

SORRY.

Here at aQuarius, we've sure got a soft spot for ugly, noisy Australian punk, much of it swaggery and swampy and fucked up, and sometimes kinda poppy too - such varied bands as The Scientists, Radio Birdman, feedtime, Grong Grong, Venom P. Stinger, The Lime Spiders, The Birthday Party, Lubricated Goat, and (more recently) the likes of Slug Guts and Cuntz - amongst MANY other excellent rawk acts from Down Under. And one of the softest spots we've got, is reserved for Melbourne's Cosmic Psychos, whose earliest efforts have recently been reissued by the fine folks at Goner, yah!! It's been forever since this band's crucial late '80s output has been available Stateside, so those who haven't eBay'ed a precious Sup Pop pressing of Go The Hack, for instance, are now in luck - if your idea of lucky is the opportunity to have your ears peeled back by a drunken trio of Aussies, with amps and attitude both cranked to 11, pounding out rough hewn garage punk! Primitive, badass rockin' that's part Motorhead, part Black Flag. Some Stooges and Ramones in there too. These blokes bring it when it comes to widdly wah wah guitar distortion, walloping rhythmic thump, mean gravely vocals, and nasty feedback... all good things, eh? And better yet, the songs are all catchier than the most popular of venereal diseases. The tracklisting of each of these records is just gnarly gem after gnarly gem. Maybe there's the most singalong potential with the hooky material on Go The Hack (1989), while debut mini-lp Down On The Farm (1985) features a couple of the band's lengthiest, most spaced out/wasted tracks (like the FX laden jam "Crazy Woman"), and the self-titled album (1987) perhaps finds 'em at their most, uh, psychotic, but we strongly recommend picking up ALL of these reissued releases, done as 3 separate vinyl 12" records, or two compact discs. What the Cosmic Psychos do isn't rocket science (in fact, part of their charm is being brilliantly dumb, check out the chorus to Go The Hack's "Back In Town", also you gotta love the '80s pop culture references of songs like "Rambo" and "David Lee Roth", both found on the s/t album) but they do it with, shall we say, an ample amount of gusto. And certainly some humor. These hooligans have got a special something all right. They're called the Cosmic Psychos after all, they've gotta be good. Psychos? No doubt. Cosmic? Well, it for sure ain't krautrock. But there is plenty of sick FUZZ, so we think folks into the garage psych of the The Heads, ferinstance, could dig this stuff big time, especially after a few beers. Heck, there's even some unexpected "arty" bits like the various spoken samples (including a Hitler speech) inserted amidst the miasmic mayhem of Down On The Farm's "Gangrene Dream". Hopefully their '90s AmRep records will get reissued sometime too - we'd love to hear "Dead Roo" again... And if you haven't seen it yet, there's a Cosmic Psychos documentary too, that's AWESOME, check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7CbDQ2ZryA

MPEG stream: Down On The Farm
MPEG stream: Gangrene Dream

Here at aQuarius, we've sure got a soft spot for ugly, noisy Australian punk, much of it swaggery and swampy and fucked up, and sometimes kinda poppy too - such varied bands as The Scientists, Radio Birdman, feedtime, Grong Grong, Venom P. Stinger, The Lime Spiders, The Birthday Party, Lubricated Goat, and (more recently) the likes of Slug Guts and Cuntz - amongst MANY other excellent rawk acts from Down Under. And one of the softest spots we've got, is reserved for Melbourne's Cosmic Psychos, whose earliest efforts have recently been reissued by the fine folks at Goner, yah!! It's been forever since this band's crucial late '80s output has been available Stateside, so those who haven't eBay'ed a precious Sup Pop pressing of Go The Hack, for instance, are now in luck - if your idea of lucky is the opportunity to have your ears peeled back by a drunken trio of Aussies, with amps and attitude both cranked to 11, pounding out rough hewn garage punk! Primitive, badass rockin' that's part Motorhead, part Black Flag. Some Stooges and Ramones in there too. These blokes bring it when it comes to widdly wah wah guitar distortion, walloping rhythmic thump, mean gravely vocals, and nasty feedback... all good things, eh? And better yet, the songs are all catchier than the most popular of venereal diseases. The tracklisting of each of these records is just gnarly gem after gnarly gem. Maybe there's the most singalong potential with the hooky material on Go The Hack (1989), while debut mini-lp Down On The Farm (1985) features a couple of the band's lengthiest, most spaced out/wasted tracks (like the FX laden jam "Crazy Woman"), and the self-titled album (1987) perhaps finds 'em at their most, uh, psychotic, but we strongly recommend picking up ALL of these reissued releases, done as 3 separate vinyl 12" records, or two compact discs. What the Cosmic Psychos do isn't rocket science (in fact, part of their charm is being brilliantly dumb, check out the chorus to Go The Hack's "Back In Town", also you gotta love the '80s pop culture references of songs like "Rambo" and "David Lee Roth", both found on the s/t album) but they do it with, shall we say, an ample amount of gusto. And certainly some humor. These hooligans have got a special something all right. They're called the Cosmic Psychos after all, they've gotta be good. Psychos? No doubt. Cosmic? Well, it for sure ain't krautrock. But there is plenty of sick FUZZ, so we think folks into the garage psych of the The Heads, ferinstance, could dig this stuff big time, especially after a few beers. Heck, there's even some unexpected "arty" bits like the various spoken samples (including a Hitler speech) inserted amidst the miasmic mayhem of Down On The Farm's "Gangrene Dream". Hopefully their '90s AmRep records will get reissued sometime too - we'd love to hear "Dead Roo" again... And if you haven't seen it yet, there's a Cosmic Psychos documentary too, that's AWESOME, check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7CbDQ2ZryA

MPEG stream: Down On The Farm
MPEG stream: Gangrene Dream
MPEG stream: Quarter To Three
MPEG stream: Jellyfish

Here at aQuarius, we've sure got a soft spot for ugly, noisy Australian punk, much of it swaggery and swampy and fucked up, and sometimes kinda poppy too - such varied bands as The Scientists, Radio Birdman, feedtime, Grong Grong, Venom P. Stinger, The Lime Spiders, The Birthday Party, Lubricated Goat, and (more recently) the likes of Slug Guts and Cuntz - amongst MANY other excellent rawk acts from Down Under. And one of the softest spots we've got, is reserved for Melbourne's Cosmic Psychos, whose earliest efforts have recently been reissued by the fine folks at Goner, yah!! It's been forever since this band's crucial late '80s output has been available Stateside, so those who haven't eBay'ed a precious Sup Pop pressing of Go The Hack, for instance, are now in luck - if your idea of lucky is the opportunity to have your ears peeled back by a drunken trio of Aussies, with amps and attitude both cranked to 11, pounding out rough hewn garage punk! Primitive, badass rockin' that's part Motorhead, part Black Flag. Some Stooges and Ramones in there too. These blokes bring it when it comes to widdly wah wah guitar distortion, walloping rhythmic thump, mean gravely vocals, and nasty feedback... all good things, eh? And better yet, the songs are all catchier than the most popular of venereal diseases. The tracklisting of each of these records is just gnarly gem after gnarly gem. Maybe there's the most singalong potential with the hooky material on Go The Hack (1989), while debut mini-lp Down On The Farm (1985) features a couple of the band's lengthiest, most spaced out/wasted tracks (like the FX laden jam "Crazy Woman"), and the self-titled album (1987) perhaps finds 'em at their most, uh, psychotic, but we strongly recommend picking up ALL of these reissued releases, done as 3 separate vinyl 12" records, or two compact discs. What the Cosmic Psychos do isn't rocket science (in fact, part of their charm is being brilliantly dumb, check out the chorus to Go The Hack's "Back In Town", also you gotta love the '80s pop culture references of songs like "Rambo" and "David Lee Roth", both found on the s/t album) but they do it with, shall we say, an ample amount of gusto. And certainly some humor. These hooligans have got a special something all right. They're called the Cosmic Psychos after all, they've gotta be good. Psychos? No doubt. Cosmic? Well, it for sure ain't krautrock. But there is plenty of sick FUZZ, so we think folks into the garage psych of the The Heads, ferinstance, could dig this stuff big time, especially after a few beers. Heck, there's even some unexpected "arty" bits like the various spoken samples (including a Hitler speech) inserted amidst the miasmic mayhem of Down On The Farm's "Gangrene Dream". Hopefully their '90s AmRep records will get reissued sometime too - we'd love to hear "Dead Roo" again... And if you haven't seen it yet, there's a Cosmic Psychos documentary too, that's AWESOME, check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7CbDQ2ZryA

MPEG stream: Alright Tonite
MPEG stream: Back In Town
MPEG stream: Go The Hack

Here at aQuarius, we've sure got a soft spot for ugly, noisy Australian punk, much of it swaggery and swampy and fucked up, and sometimes kinda poppy too - such varied bands as The Scientists, Radio Birdman, feedtime, Grong Grong, Venom P. Stinger, The Lime Spiders, The Birthday Party, Lubricated Goat, and (more recently) the likes of Slug Guts and Cuntz - amongst MANY other excellent rawk acts from Down Under. And one of the softest spots we've got, is reserved for Melbourne's Cosmic Psychos, whose earliest efforts have recently been reissued by the fine folks at Goner, yah!! It's been forever since this band's crucial late '80s output has been available Stateside, so those who haven't eBay'ed a precious Sup Pop pressing of Go The Hack, for instance, are now in luck - if your idea of lucky is the opportunity to have your ears peeled back by a drunken trio of Aussies, with amps and attitude both cranked to 11, pounding out rough hewn garage punk! Primitive, badass rockin' that's part Motorhead, part Black Flag. Some Stooges and Ramones in there too. These blokes bring it when it comes to widdly wah wah guitar distortion, walloping rhythmic thump, mean gravely vocals, and nasty feedback... all good things, eh? And better yet, the songs are all catchier than the most popular of venereal diseases. The tracklisting of each of these records is just gnarly gem after gnarly gem. Maybe there's the most singalong potential with the hooky material on Go The Hack (1989), while debut mini-lp Down On The Farm (1985) features a couple of the band's lengthiest, most spaced out/wasted tracks (like the FX laden jam "Crazy Woman"), and the self-titled album (1987) perhaps finds 'em at their most, uh, psychotic, but we strongly recommend picking up ALL of these reissued releases, done as 3 separate vinyl 12" records, or two compact discs. What the Cosmic Psychos do isn't rocket science (in fact, part of their charm is being brilliantly dumb, check out the chorus to Go The Hack's "Back In Town", also you gotta love the '80s pop culture references of songs like "Rambo" and "David Lee Roth", both found on the s/t album) but they do it with, shall we say, an ample amount of gusto. And certainly some humor. These hooligans have got a special something all right. They're called the Cosmic Psychos after all, they've gotta be good. Psychos? No doubt. Cosmic? Well, it for sure ain't krautrock. But there is plenty of sick FUZZ, so we think folks into the garage psych of the The Heads, ferinstance, could dig this stuff big time, especially after a few beers. Heck, there's even some unexpected "arty" bits like the various spoken samples (including a Hitler speech) inserted amidst the miasmic mayhem of Down On The Farm's "Gangrene Dream". Hopefully their '90s AmRep records will get reissued sometime too - we'd love to hear "Dead Roo" again... And if you haven't seen it yet, there's a Cosmic Psychos documentary too, that's AWESOME, check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7CbDQ2ZryA

MPEG stream: Quarter To Three
MPEG stream: Jellyfish

Originally released on tape a while back, this primo slab of Orange County garage-psych has been recently reissued by our pals at Permanent, and we're so grateful it has, since that tape disappeared before we could grab one, and listening to this now, we can't imagine folks into the current crop of fuzzed out psych won't flip for this SoCal crew, who whip up a heady brew combining Spacemen 3 like druggy mesmer blown out swaggery Oh Sees style distorto garage stomp. Fierce and feral, raw and urgent, just check out "Neon Kids", all dirgey and Stooges-y, the guitar fuzzy and drenched in effects, the vocals a marble mouthed yowl, the whole mix WAY in the red, or "Dorothy", a furious blast of chaotic surf-punk fuzz pop chaos, but which spends its last couple minutes all droney, unfurling a buzzing sitar-like main riff, trancey and super hypnotic. There's also a definitely Wooden Shjips / Moon Duo vibe, and we hear plenty of Ty Segall's glammy garage in Cosmonauts' druggy dronerock, but they manage to take all those influences and craft something, that to a certain degree is all their own. Tracks like "Yer So Rad" slow things way down, into super head nodding lysergic dirgery, which balances the other more frenetic jams, but those jams, especially tracks like "T.V. California" display a pretty serious knack for classic pop songsmithery, they just tend to take whatever pop they whip up, and douse it in distortion, and send it careening, sweaty, bruised and bloodied, into the fray. Sorta surprised these guys aren't on Castle Face, which already pretty much probably tells you all you need to know. Fans of the usual garage psych suspects, will dig big time!

MPEG stream: Neon Kids
MPEG stream: Dorothy
MPEG stream: Yer So Rad

Click, zap, bleep. Japanese miminalist electronic experimental music alert! The lovely cover art of this disc conceals some mighty difficult music. "Tears" consists of three long tracks from the duo of Sachiko M and Ami Yoshida. Sachiko M's "empty" tone generating sampler you've heard before, wreaking havoc (in a pure, Zen-like way) both solo and in collaboration with others, quite often with Otomo Yoshihide in such outfits as I.S.O., Filament, and Ground Zero. She's also a member of the electronic avant-pop trio Hoahio. In Cosmos, she's teamed up with Ami Yoshida, another Otomo collaborator, whose instrument is more ancient: her own voice. Of course, these are some quite abstract vocalizations indeed, rivaling the extremity of sound that Sachiko coaxes from the pulsing, piercing sine-waves of her electronics. Track one starts in with the fluttering, dog-whistle sampler sounds of Sachiko, in a strange duet with the kissy-kissy squeals and dying, whispery retching of Yoshida. Random machine bleeps punctuate the slowly unfolding action. It's like something's gone very very wrong in the hospital ward. The noise isn't enough to attract the doctors, however. By track two, you're wondering if Yoshida isn't actually employing a rubber balloon to make all her bizarre noises. But maybe that's Sachiko, who on this track is experimenting with contact mics. Track three was our favorite, with Sachiko's Ryoji Ikeda -like purrs and pulses coming to the fore, in a crinkly, calm cacophony of clicks and silence. Well, it might seem quiet, but try turning it up, we dare you.

RealAudio clip: track 3

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

SORRY.

Outside the Os Mutantes catalog, no other Tropicalia record gets as surprisingly and gloriously unhinged as Gal Costa's second record from 1969. Arranged by Rogerio Duprat, and aided by Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Jorge Ben, Gal Costa is in full psych (psychedelic AND psychotic) mode. Long a star in Brazil, her soft and sweet vocals have graced dozens of records including her and Caetano Veloso's recording debut from 1966. But here that softness is gone, replaced by a howling urgency backed by fuzz guitars, distortion and furious rhythmic arrangements. No other Gal Costa record is quite like this one. The star track is "Tuareg", a Jorge Ben written number that seduces with beguiling Middle Eastern come-ons before rocking full throttle. Definitely a party classic and easily an essential record for Tropicalia fans. Highly Recommended!

MPEG stream: Tuareg
MPEG stream: Cultura E Civilizacao
MPEG stream: Pulsars E Quasars

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

SORRY.

Now reissued on vinyl, Gal Costa's self-titled debut fits nicely into the canon of essential Tropicalia records. Beautiful production by Rogerio Duprat, and of course songwriting and vocal assistance from both Caetano Veloso, and Giberto Gil. While this only hints at the unhinged fuzz psych of her follow-up, Gal, there are some amazing moments that all fans of this crucial era of Brazilian music will love, especially her versions of "Nao Identificado", "Baby", and "Lost In The Paradise."

Long, long before he hooked up and mellowed out with Burt Bacharach (how 'bout twenty four years ago!?), a young Elvis Costello kicked ass with the punchy greatness of "Radio, Radio" and "Pump It Up" and here is the excellent album that featured these early

RealAudio clip: Pump It Up
RealAudio clip: Radio, Radio (Capitol Radio Version)
RealAudio clip: Running Out Of Angels (Demo)

This is Mr. Costello's first solo record in seven years, and a couple of his Attractions -- pianist Steve Nieve and drummer Pete Thomas -- join him on this release. He planned to make it a rowdy work... at least in contrast to the abundance of balladry he's

RealAudio clip: 45
RealAudio clip: When I Was Cruel No. 2

Elvis abandons most of the rock and schlock and finds a simpler, gentler self. Vocals soar high above the music -- tactfully executed with tinkling pianos and harmonizing synthesizer. It's nice to see someone back on the right track, huh?

Once you get past the first couple of songs on Elvis Costello's 21st (!) album, it's smooth sailin'. Why? Well, for one thing the third song is a rambunctious duet with Lucinda Williams that really kicks things into gear. After that, he slows things down to his trademark poignant croon for "Either Side Of The Same Town", then peppers up the tempo for the funky groove of "Bedlam". For the most part, he cycles through this trio of moods for the rest of the album. It makes for a lively mix that brings together the spark of his early power pop self with the mature composure of one of pop rock's elder statesmen. The album's high points though are definitely his duets with Emmylou Harris. She provides a fittingly dreamy counterpart to Costello's balladeer persona on three songs -- the lulling, velvety "Nothing Clings Like Ivy", the bittersweet "Heart Shaped Bruise", and the barebones ukelele and voice number "The Scarlet Tide". Totally worth the price of admission! So what's the problem with the album's beginning? Geez, to be honest, it's just a pretty jarring howdoyoudo with Costello taking on an uncharacteristically ballsy, jazzy soul voice with music to match (ending it with some James Brown-y yelps even... oh my!).

MPEG stream: There's A Story In Your Voice
MPEG stream: Heart Shaped Bruise

Another warehouse find, this one a tiny stash of this LOOOOONG out of print cd-r from New Zealand soundscaper/dronologist, Tim Coster, who we'd only heard on a collaboration with another NZ combo we dig called Nest, the duo of guitarist Andrew Scott and NZ noisemaker Nigel Wright. On that split, Coster helped craft a blurred shimmery landscape of deep tones, and slow shifting layers, blissy and blurry and beautiful which is pretty much what he offers up here on his own, lush smears of tonal color, washed out and woozy, laced with various field recordings (he runs a field recording label after all), warm rumbling swells, subtly ominous, tinged with subtle shades of darkness, muted motorik pulses, hushed ambient drift, delicate crystalline streaks of sound, bits of glitchy electronics, thick undulating drones, all leading finally to the gorgeously ehtereal final track, which sounds ghostly and otherworldly, like a barely audible 78 being played on an old victrola, set up on a small dock, jutting out into a eerily calm lake, a barely there minimal dreamscape pocked with tiny sounds and sonic events that seem to appear and disappear, as the hazy sonic thrum drifts on and on... Way out of print, we found 5 or 6 copies, once there are gone, they are indeed GONE.

MPEG stream: Mornings
MPEG stream: Finished

Over the years we have sold a ton of Elizabeth Cotten's two Smithsonian Folkway cd collections, Freight Train And Other North Carolina Folk Songs And Tunes, and Shake Sugaree. Now we have the Freight Train collection on vinyl in a beautiful reproduction of the original lp which was originally called Folksongs and Instrumentals With Guitar.... well, it was *originally* called Negro Folksongs and Tunes, only to be changed a year later, but we won't get into that. "Freight Train", an American folk song classic, was written when Cotten was just eleven using a unique guitar style developed by playing her brother's guitar upside down to accommodate her left handedness. Even though she was quite an adept guitar and banjo player and taught herself a healthy repertoire of songs, she was discouraged to pursue music in her early years by family and church, so her musical talents weren't discovered until much later in life - through a miraculous chance encounter with Ruth Crawford Seeger that was ultimately life-changing. Cotten came to work for the Seegers after finding their daughter lost in a department store. Once she was caught by Peggy Seeger playing Mike Seeger's guitar and while she thought she was going to get fired, the Seegers were actually amazed at her unique playing style and breadth of old folksongs and original material she had written. Mike Seeger began recording her, and released this first record in 1957, and a folk star was born at the age of 63! An uncompromising voice of 20th century Americana, it is no surprise that Elizabeth Cotten was named a National Treasure. Highest recommendation!

If you found your ears as pleased as plums (as we found ours to be) by Shake Sugaree, the album of Elizabeth Cotten's music, here's more of her early 20th century goodness! As we've mentioned before, at the age of eleven, Cotten wrote "Freight Train", one of the most influential and stunning folk songs ever written. If this is your first introduction to Cotten, and you like what you hear, well then, Shake Sugaree's the next stop for you!

Absolutely amazing! Elizabeth Cotton, born in Chapel Hill, NC in 1895, has provided brilliant inspiration to many notable folk performers since her discovery and first recordings by Mike Seeger in 1958 -- when Cotton was well-past sixty! The daughter of a miner and a midwife, Cotton developed her own unique fingerpicking guitar style as a young girl by stealing away to her brother's room while he was away to learn the guitar and banjo for herself. By laying the instrument flat on the bed, she figured out a picking pattern, then moved on to rudimentary chord development. At age 11, she wrote one of the most influential and stunning folk songs ever written, "Freight Train". Age twelve found her moving to DC to become a domestic and working temporarily at a department store. At this store, fate took its turn when the daughter of Peggy Seeger was running around frightened and lost. Cotton returned her to Peggy Seeger and they quickly became friends. The Seeger's hired Cotton as their maid and during her years with them, she picked up the instrument again, remembering the songs from her youth and performing them for the Seeger family, only then to begin her public musicianship. I could go on and on about how lovely her songs are, how touching her story is, etc. Her songs are sparse but inspired and beautiful. Shake Sugaree contains 26 folk gems, including its sparkling title track. This album works extraordinarily well as a companion piece to her album Freight Train and is lovely on its own. Crazy recommended.

MPEG stream: Shake Sugaree
MPEG stream: Take Me Back To Baltimore

Firstly, whomever made the decision to stick to the original design and packaging for the Smithsonian Folkways vinyl reissues, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! The benign simplicity of the original Folkways records have always had the charmed feel of a true folk document, one that never needed to oversell the musical wonders inside. And this is indeed a wonder of wonders, the third installment of recordings by legendary guitar player and singer Elizabeth Cotten, compiled from sessions made in the sixties and seventies by Mike Seeger. Originally released in 1979, these are mostly instrumentals with a few songs written by Cotten's granddaughter, often referring to death, salvation and the afterlife. She even does a later rendition of her hit song, "Freight Train", slowing the tempo down, imbibing it with the wisdom and experience of her old age. Her masterful picking and chording style, developed at an early age by playing with the guitar and banjo placed in her lap, displays an earthy virtuosity that easily trumps anything from the Fahey school. As it should, coming from a poor but educated black woman who pretty much was never without her guitar, using it as a diviner of storytelling and song or just making it weep in unbridled joy. Highest Recommendation!

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: King Sellasi I Live
MPEG stream: Ali Baba

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

SORRY. *Not* the Couch from Michigan, rather the latest post-(kraut)rock offering from the label that brought you Village of Savoonga. More German Slintish, angular, brooding math/chamber rock. Highly recommended.

German post-rockers Couch veers from the brooding math rock of their previous album to this rather festive collection of Hammond organ driven grooves and a jazzy-prog-pop not at all dissimilar to that recent Sam Prekop album.

These German post-rockers continue on in the light, jazzy, prog-ish pop vein that they embarked on in their previous endeavour 'Fantasy', but it's perhaps even more bright and pretty than that. Yes, it appears they've definitely left the advanced math books behind. Lovely and chiming like a super-deluxe music box, but with a steady, anchoring rhythm section so it won't float away.

2 women from the Red Aunts and the guy from Clawhammer. Uncontrollably chaotic and fascinating, like a female Cows. Recommended!

Record number two from these Virginia doomlords, a crushing collection of druggy, dirgey ultradoom, a lumbering sludge juggernaut, filthy distorted guitars, crushing drum pound, hellish shrieks, but something's changed this time around, cuz in addition to those harsh vokills, there's some serious vocalizing going on, that manages to nudge Cough's sound a little bit away from filthy crusty doomsludge toward something more classically doom, we're feeling a little Electric Wizard perhaps? The band dabbled a bit on their last record, but here those vocals are way up in the mix, still wreathed in reverb and delay, but the subtle groove of Cough's stonery sludge becomes much more pronounced with those vocals, which is not a bad thing at all, the band stumbling from pure grim downtuned plodding filth to swinging Sabbathy groove, even adding some surprisingly melodic guitar leads and lush swirls of spaced out effects which produces a sort of weirdly melodic sludgey space rock, which RULES. But fear not, the band inevitably slip back into something sludgier, but not TOO sludgey, as those clean vocals seem to outnumber the harsh vocals pretty significantly. So if you're in the market for some total Eyehategod worship, you might be better served with the first Cough record, but if you're up for some slightly more melodic heaviness, this record should definitely do the trick. Especially if you stick around for "Crooked Spine", which is ridiculously poppy, sounding a bit like a stoner sludge version of a Codeine track, a sort of druggier, sludgier slowcore, the vocals super poppy, maybe hinting at a more melodic Cough to come. But again, all you have to do is hold on for a few more minutes, and the title track swoops in, and flattens you with its sheer malevolent crush, a lurching lumbering sludge EPIC, complete with a killer spaced out effects laden doomdirgedrone breakdown, and a final burst of skull crushing riffage.

MPEG stream: Mind Collapse
MPEG stream: Ritual Abuse

On first glance, you might assume this was a black metal record. The cover is all black, with intricate metallic silver inked designs, a strange pentagram like shape in the center, pentagrams on all four corners, there's even an upside down cross in the band logo. But then you realize the band is in fact called Cough. And that all around that strange pentagram like sigil in the center are the distinct shape of pot leaves. Then the music starts with a solid 15 seconds of high end solid state feedback, before the band kicks in, and we are suddenly in druggy slow motion ultra stoner doom country, and we like it. In fact it's almost three minutes of nearly continuous Eyehategod style feedback, separated by the occasional crash of the band, before the song really kicks in, and then the band lock into a lurching druggy stoner groove, more Electric Wizard than Eyehategod, but still plenty of both. Clean vocals carry the melody, but harsh blackened shrieks pepper the landscape, the riffs huge churning downtuned black swells, about as slow as a band can get while remaining even slightly 'groovy'. And don't worry, throughout, the band pause now and again to unleash lightning bolts of high end feedback, before lurching back into action. And so it goes. Six long songs, each blessed with a handful of kick ass riffery, oozing hate and distortion and filth and crust, the rhythms staggering from doomic plod, to druggy slither, to an almost rocking pound, the riffs slipping into Sabbath territory, but usually straying much further south. The band dabble here and there in tripped out space rock, getting a little psychedelic, the vocals wreathed in effects, the melodies crazy catchy, but no matter what, they thankfully never wander too far from their gloriously filthy fucked up drug drenched doom-ed sludge.

MPEG stream: Killing Fields
MPEG stream: Lyssavirus

Now this is a match up. Two super heavy bands from Richmond, Virginia, both big time aQ faves, who in fact share at least one member. When we first heard about this split, we were like, all right!! It was obviously gonna be great, the only question was, of these two bands, who was gonna come out on top, with more bottom end? Who was gonna triumph, by being more despondent and despairing? Who was gonna win the race, to be the slowest? Well let's not make it a competition, all sludge-doom fans are winners here. First up, Cough, who unfurl a crumbling lo-fi, weirdly psychedelic, almost electronic sounding dirge called "Athame", the guitar strangely processed, the drums a deathmarch pound, all wreathed in clouds of droned out buzz, and laced with some weird movie sample, total classic drugdoom weirdness... We were all settled in and then suddenly, the song explodes into something even more heavy, another layer of guitars comes crashing in, thick and blackened, crumbling and epic, wrapped around the weird electronic droniness of the opening, super tranced out and totally hypnotic, the kind of rare riffing minimalism, that we could literally listen to forever, no need for vocals, or more parts, or chord changes, just total doom trance bliss, and for a minute we were thinking that's just what we might get, but instead, the song splinters into something more harsh and abject, a lurching funereal creep, mathy but slo-mo mathy, lumbering and blown out, but returning to that lilting main riff/opening. The vocals have a little Electric Wizard "Supercoven" to them too, which is definitely a good thing - and then things get even weirder. A churning riff, a weird pulsating sprawl of guitar noise, chanted monotone vocals, super psychedelic and woozily warped, again, the sort of part that could go on forEVER, but sadly doesn't, the song lurching back into more stumbling chaotic downtuned doom crush, wild drumming, swirls of blurred riffage, churning and gnarled, with some cool dynamic stop start feedback breakdowns a la Eyehategod, before finally finishing off with a killer stretch of feedback drenched doom-noise pummel. Maybe the best Cough track yet! Windhand are up next with two tracks, coming close in length to Cough's epic one. Some of you may remember their self titled debut (repressed and relisted last list in fact), which we sold a TON of. We actually reviewed it entirely before even realizing the singer was a woman, her hellish howl transcending any earthly ideas of gender. And on their tracks here, sonically, very little has changed, with super distorted riffage, monstrous drum pound, and the vocals soaring and still doused in effects. However, the vocals this time around ARE way more obviously female, the vibe much more witchy, and perhaps, unlike their debut, positioning them amidst the current crop of female fronted metal outfits. Some skeptical aQ-ers felt the sudden switch seemed a bit calculated, but even if it was, the resulting sound is pretty goddamn great. Any one into that new sound, this is easily the heaviest variant (next to Wooden Stake, perhaps), and repeated listens, to this AND the full length, reveal that perhaps it's not such a dramatic change after all. And the songs, well opener, "Amaranth" is epic, majestic, dramatic, and heavy as fuck. Some seriously crushing witchy psychedelic doom sludge for sure. The other Windhand track, "Shepherd's Crook", is even more psychedelic, opening with a tangle of swirling distorted guitar buzz, which stretches out for almost a whole minute before the song proper kicks in, and then it's a dreary, doomy plod, the lumbering tarpit riffage wreathed in swirling effects drenched buzz, that soon settles into a hazy, washed out creep, the vocals as clean as they get, the vibe almost classic old school doom at times, we hear some organs swirling just below the surface, the chord progression totally perfect, and timeless, almost like this could be some cover, catchy and hooky, the vocals epic and emotional, the music minor key and melancholic, the sound lush and layered and heavy as hell. There are some super psychedelic leads, but overall, this is just a mesmerizing sprawl of epic, doomic heaviness.

MPEG stream: Athame
MPEG stream: Amaranth

At first this heavy duty doom matchup seems like maybe it wouldn't work, sure both bands are technically doom, but both seem to exist on different ends of the doom-ic spectrum, with Cough spitting out a sludgier, more raw and crusty sort of Eyehategod meets Electric Wizard feedback drenched slow-mo crush, while The Wounded Kings traffic in something closer to true doom, more melodic, less sludgey, but surprisingly enough it works, both bands offering up some of their best material, a side long epic from each, Cough infusing some serious melody and some of that classic Sabbath sound into their lurching and lumbering pummel, while the Wounded Kings get a little bit sludgey themselves. Hot on the heels of their amazing Ritual Abuse full length, reviewed here recently, Cough come up with a nearly 20 minute dirge that almost sounds like it could have been recorded during the same sessions (and maybe was?). Beginning with a slow spaced out bit of funereal doom, lots of space, even a tolling bell, the band soon launch into some caustic filthy blacksludge brutality, downtuned and malevolent, with some seriously sick vokills, all wrapped around a killer, main chugging riff, it's not until nearly half way through that the band decide to get all melodic, with some effects drenched vox, WAY up in the mix, all spacey and trippy, laced over that main riff, that seems to start swinging just a bit more, then there's some awesome psychedelic wah wah guitar leads, and we're in seriously classic true doom territory for sure, before eventually slipping back into the lugubrious sludge of the song's first half, and then finally an awesome layered feedback outro. The Wounded Kings counter with a smoldering slow building intro, all whirring organs, downtuned chordal crush, eventually launching into a keyboard laced melodic lumber, a sound that could go either way, into shrieking blackness, or soaring epicness, some tangled swaths of wah wah guitar give us our first clue, before slipping right back into some more downtuned chug, but then finally, the vocals swoop in, and the sound is transformed into some epic Sabbathy true doom, the vocals growing more and more melodic as the track progresses, the guitars too, but before the song can explode, the track slips into a super minimal organ driven bit of psych prog, which rules, but only lasts for a minute or two before the song proper bursts back into action a fusion of the downtuned doom and that psychedelic prog, finishing off with an epic and dramatic climax before fading out, leaving a shadowy bit of tinkling piano.

MPEG stream: The Gates Of Madness
MPEG stream: Curse Of Chains

Full length number three from this mysterious slo-mo psychedelic bedroom shoegaze dirge pop duo finds them delivering yet another fantastic set of songs, but with some definite new sounds in the mix. Right from the opening track, "Cross", with its almost jaunty tempo, fuzzy guitars, and oddest of all, a propulsive lurching mechanical rhythm, 29 offers up a much more song based, gloom poppy sound, taking all the hints from past records, of something more mainstream, and more traditionally indie rock, previously lurking just below the surface, and pushes all of that right to the front. In fact, the second song "Misfits 4x4" is even poppier, with a bouncy drum machine rhythm, a sinewy almost death rocky bassline, some sweetly murky guitar jangle and deep crooned vocals. When track three begins, all crunchy and crumbly, you might expect (like we did) the sound to sink back into a glorious muddy murk, but instead, it blossoms into some seriously perfect pop, a fuzzy main riff, a killer distorted guitar melody, some sweet raspy vocals, total classic nineties style indie rock, roughed up around the edges and slowed down a bit but so catchy and fuzzy and dreamily GREAT. Like past CC records, we're still reminded of the Swirlies, and MBV and Jesus And Mary Chain, but on 29 we're also hearing other aQ faves like the Grave Babies and Cold Showers. The poppier direction definitely makes 29 feel like it really could have come out on Homestead in the early nineties, it's less experimental for sure, the sound reminding us at times of Sebadoh, or My Dad Is Dead, all those sorts of homebrewed 4-track sad boy indie pop songsmiths from back in the day, but the sound is definitely modern too, its murk and washed out haziness giving it a darkly dreamy lysergic feel, the programmed rhythms adding a gothic electro-pop almost cold wave vibe in places too, which should definitely hit the spot for the the Sacred Bones / Captured Tracks crowd. But really, 29 is the perfect progression from last year's Lately lp, these guys just getting better and better, now armed not just with a SOUND, which sounds better than every, gloriously gauzy and psychedelic, dirgey and dreamy and fuzzy, but with a clutch of perfectly poppy SONGS to make that sound count. So good! Includes a printed cardstock insert, and a download coupon as well.

MPEG stream: Cross
MPEG stream: Misfits 4x4
MPEG stream: It's Night And St. Ex
MPEG stream: Hail Mary

We were pretty crazy for the Cough Cool cd-r on Debacle we reviewed a while back, heavy on all 3 of the aQ D's: Droney, Druggy and Dreamy, a sort of warped slo-mo bedroom pop that blurred shoegaze shimmer into lo-fi jangle dirge drift, within which lurked all sorts of warm liquid poppy goodness. If anything this latest lp just finds the band doing what they do even better. All of the above mentioned elements are still present, and heck it's one of those records where we could probably have just used the same review over again, but it's definitely worth mentioning that while this might on the surface sound just like that cd-r part two, it's way more, the sounds are more lush and dense, without really getting that much more high fidelity, and the songs too, manage to be even catchier, but again, without losing any of their sonic nonchalance. The rhythms are rudimentary, dirgey and almost stumbly, to the point that they almost sound like real drums (heck, maybe they are), and the definitely goes a long way to giving CC a lush organic feel, and on songs like "Got A Show", it's like they're channeling nineties indie pop, big fuzzy guitars, swirls of reverb and effects, the vocals are the main thing that keep it mired in a glorious tarpit murk, all slowed down and mumbly, deep and woozy, and when the vocals do slip into something more properly croonsome, they're invariably swept up and thick dustdevils of echoey blur and prismatic shimmer. We're definitely reminded of faves from our past like the Swirlies, and of course the Jesus And Mary Chain, and plenty of other purveyors of shoegaze jangle, but there's just something about these guys that push all our buttons, and not just the droney, druggy, dreamy ones, CC obviously have a knock for the perfect pop hook, and have classic jangle pop sensibilities, it's just that somehow the sounds get all twisted and tangled, warped and mangled on the way, which is exactly how we like 'em!

MPEG stream: Pete Perez
MPEG stream: Got A Show
MPEG stream: Sup Girls In The 60's
MPEG stream: Watery Mirror

Another week, another killer batch of weirdo releases from one of our new favorite labels, Debacle. So far, of the practically millions (okay maybe 30 or 40) of Debacle releases, we've reviewed records by Expo 70, Demian Johnston & Mink Stole, Megabats and The Slaves. This time around, elsewhere on the list we have another Demian Johnston jam, this time teamed up with 1/2 of local black metal / black noize merchants Sutekh Hexen, and this, the first we've heard from the awesomely named Cough Cool, who specialize in a sort of druggy dreamy droney bedroom pop, but the sort of pop heavy on the mantra like repetition, the woozy atmosphere, and the downercore dreamdrone bliss. Originally released as a super limited cassette on Sweat Lodge Guru, Cough Cool unfurl a blurred appropriately cough syrupy skeletal electro pop, clipped electronic beats, draped over warbly expanses of shimmer and whir, the guitars dripping with reverb, the vocals a heavily effected whispery croon, everything muddy and murky and washed out, some gloriously lysergic slowcore. But the sound shifts constantly, where the opening track is murky and muffled, the follow up is a bit more crisp, a little more jangly, everything still wreathed in effect, and the programmed rhythm still skeletal, but here the guitars crunch a bit, the vocals a little more moody, the sound like classic indie pop slowed way dooown and run through a bank of effects with dying batteries. And so it goes, CC spinning lush landscapes of looped jangle guitar, hazy expanses of blissy dream pop, twisted lo-fi eighties style electro-pop, each track not so much a song, as a single riff, or single part, repeated, transformed into an oddly trancelike version of whatever influences CC are choosing to subvert, cyclical and hypnotic, we're reminded here and there of a way more minimal Ariel Pink, while in other places the sounds drifts into seriously Pop Ambient territory, and still elsewhere, it sounds like the muddiest murkiest lost Sentridoh tape, but all of these sounds manage to be woven seamlessly into a single dreamy druggy whole. Our favorite track might be the heavy doomy dream pop dirgery of "Sucker", thick syrupy guitars creep and ooze over a simple loping beat, the vocals spinning a whispery Higgs style mantra, it almost sounds like a darker dirgier Zomes, which is most definitely a good thing. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!!

MPEG stream: And Nothing Happened
MPEG stream: Congrats
MPEG stream: Cum

This is hardly a new record, but one we had for some reason or another never listed, and now we got it for a nice low price. Coughs (not to be confused with the doom band Cough) were part of Chicago's fertile underground noise rock scene from a few years back, and even though they have long since broken up, it's clear that today's crop of atonal noise mongers could still learn a thing or two. The band whips up a mighty hell of a racket, and people in Chicago still speak of them in somewhat mythical tones. Somehow they were able to merge numerous stylistic influences into something else altogether. Among other things, you will probably react immediately to the crazed female vocals stuck within a downtuned sea of no wave sludge... or something. Craziest of all is how musical it all is, in a scary as fuck, I'm losing my mind kind of way. The opening number, appropriately named "Quagmire", sets the stage for Secret Passage with intense, tom heavy drumming, a buzzing guitar riff, some skronky saxophone and awesome female screaming. "Happy Harvest" lurches forward with some strange riffing that seamlessly shifts from both extremes of the fretboard while super distorted bass rumbles nonstop. There's so much tension in the sound, like the band is just ready to take off into some crazy void, but the rhythm section keeps everything, maybe "grounded" isn't the right word, but at least right in your face where you can't ignore it. The insectoid guitars and the cloud of doominess on songs like "Bunny Slope" conjure up all kinds of disturbing imagery, while the forceful rhythms just can't be denied. It's cool how the songs go to all kinds of unexpected places, clearly the result of a band who had spent plenty of time bashing out improv noise into something that no one else could touch, like on "Intentional Community", which makes use of negative space for a truly disconcerting vibe. This is definitely not metal, but when listening, one can't ignore that Coughs were responsible for a truly unique and brutal attack that many metal bands would kill for. Tough luck for them, though. You either got it or you don't, and anyone who missed this the first time around should do themselves a favor and check it out. Highly recommended.

On Michael Gira's Young God imprint comes the debut solo album from David Coulter (ex-Pogues & Test Dept, strangely enough). He creates a folk-influenced, dark but not too creepy, mostly-instrumental "sonic meditations" using instruments like the theremin, jew's harp, and didjeridu. Guests include guitarist Marc Ribot and avant-vocalist Phil Minton. For fans of Gira's Angels of Light.

"'Tales of Mozambique' by the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari deserves the kind of attention and reverence which some people have before a monument in a holy room. Above all, this album depends on specific approaches which take account of and analyse all the historic parameters of the displacement of African blacks to the West Indies coasts. It is a journey which takes in the Maroons, Pan-Africanism and all the international struggles for independance, to the spiritual meeting of Nanny (Burru Queen), Howell and Lumumbaba (African Revolutionary) in a musical structure encompassing Burru, Mento, Reggae and Jazz rhythms... 'Tales of Mozambique' came out in 1975 and was an hommage to the independence of this African state, a fusion of Jazz, Nyabhinghi and Calypso, punctuated with interventions by the speaker, Sam Clayton. This masterpiece was not inspired by commercial considerations, but was intended to be the expression of the specific cultural features of Rastafarianism." (From the liner notes.)

[ aquarius records catalogue — C ]