[ aquarius records catalogue

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

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**MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** **MISSISSIPPI RECORDS ALERT** Super rad ultra crazed blast of old school Portland punk from this short lived outfit. So short lived in fact that this two song single from 1979 is all they ever managed. The sound is feral and punk as fuck, but also weirdly new wave and a little electronic, equal parts Devo and the Units, the title track a pounding blast of sinister electro punk, driven by a maniacal organ pulse, thick fuzzy low end, and some maniacal vox, peppered with some awesome angular guitar, and a super tripped out staccato second half that is about as close to a deranged sing-along as we can imagine, totally killer, and irresistible, we've listened to it like ten times in a row, a dirgey swaggery jitter-punk classic. The B side is less bizarre, a more standard (but only slightly) chugging punk rock blast of political indignation, furious fist in the face, fuck the man radness. So recommended.

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The Country Gentlemen were one of the great bluegrass bands to come out of the Washington DC area folk revival in the late fifties. The diverse backgrounds of core members Charlie Waller (guitar), John Duffey (mandolin), Eddie Adcock (banjo) and Tom

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Just what the title sez! This is The Country Teasers in all their live, super what-the-fuck, devil-may-care rawk splendour compiled from their 1999-2004 shows. Like a bunch of hillbillies (Scottish ones, no less!) who've gotten absolutely trashed out in their garage. In the past, we've compared 'em to a bastard child of garage rock and postpunk granddaddies Billy Childish and Mark E. Smith, and that still holds very true. A noisy, angular, stumbling, slurring mess, but an entertaining (and occasionally hilarious) one! Just after someone hollers "YOU SUCK!", they launch into a relatively subdued cover of Randy Newman's "Short People". Uh oh. They also throttle songs by Butthole Surfers, New Order, and Brainbombs. Be forewarned, if you're brave enough to listen to this album, you may find the drawer of your cd player littered with cigarette butts and empty lager cans.

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Compilation of unreleased tracks, demos, singles and demos from this Scottish quartet. Ultra-fucked country and western garage with nasty offensive lyrics. Super lo fi and totally kick ass. Sounds a bit like some weird mix of Billy Childish and the Fall but with a fake country drawl. Soooo good. Twangy and mean. Sadie's favorite release of the month.

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This new Country Teasers album -- also mysteriously known as Full Moon Empty Sportsbag -- might not be everybody's cup of tea/moonshine/battery acid. There's barked, snarled, moaned and mumbled vocals not unlike what you might expect from your old cantankerous uncle after he's had a bit of a tipple. The music is made to match - ill-tempered, dissonant and trashy, and very high on treble. Garage-y organ drones hang ominously like rain-soaked bedsheets on a clothesline. Slack guitars skreee and hang loosely like the gristly remnants clinging to the bones of a bbq rib fest. Some folks thought this was Ween doing another hillbilly romp (check out "Please Stop Fucking Each Other" - no, they're not too concerned with pleasantries, are they?!). Bristlingly raw and ramshackle in both sound and visuals. You can see the magic marker inking fix-it job on the front cover as well as the pixillated and bled-through text on the back. This has drawn some very emphatically positive in-store responses (one customer said "I love this! it's a fucking mess!") as well as some incredibly icy ones. So consider yourself forewarned, this may put either a grumpy scowl or a gleeful grin on your face.

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Country Teasers always sound as though someone roused them from a snoresome liquored slumber, thrust some instruments and a microphone in their hands and hollered "Play!" Seriously we'd bet they could drink The Pogues under the table. Their music never fails to be incoherent (yet somehow clearly foul mouthed) and rambling, with parts that don't quite fit together. The drum beats stumble along. The electric guitars strain against the urge to fall horribly out of tune. The ridiculously distorted speak-sing-yer-heart-right-outta-pitch style vocals will have you jumping from bummer to bellylaugh and back again (much like those of Shane MacGowan of the abovementioned Pogues). They even provide an occasional play-by-play commentary. At one point in the seventh tune you can hear "bring the drums in again". As this album progresses though it's like the booze wears off a bit and a sober gloom emerges around the fourth tune. Then it's like they consumed some other chemical along with a revitalizing shot of whisky that sends them shambling into some other strange carnival tent. For folks who like their garage music to be extra loosey goosey.

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SORRY. This hot Bay Area political/alt-rap group recently came out with the popular Steal This Album--here's one of their earlier, classic efforts now back in circulation after a few years of frustrating out of print-ness.

My favorite hip hop record of the year, along with Cannibal Ox's Cold Vein, is The Coup's Party Music. A lot of you heard *about* it before it ever got released, due to the cover art which depicted The Coup's Boots and Pam the Funkstress blowing up the World

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While this great Bay Area hip-hop outfit already titled their last full length Party Music, we can't think of a term that better suits what they've come up with on Pick A Bigger Weapon, their fifth full length. The Coup have perfected the mix of smart outspoken leftist politics with full servings of carefree melodies and feel good beats to help make their message go down smoother. They just want to "laugh, love, fuck and drink liquor to help the revolution come quicker." And the way they phrase their sentiments they've found a way to neither compromise their message or their sound. With tasteful elements of funk incorporated into their feel good hip-hop it's pretty impossible not to start moving and singing along. Like if Funkadelic met up with a young Prince in the heydey of hip-hop with lyrics contributed by Jello Biafra (who makes another cameo on this record). Most definitely innovative and so immediately familiar sounding at the same time.

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SORRY. Highly anticipated work from Bay Area rappers.

Finally reissued at the price of a single disc but with 2 previously unreleased songs and an extra disc containing a full live performance, this is Oakland hip hop duo The Coup's *brilliant*, totally essential Steal This Album. God, this 1998 record is so great. Not only is the music wonderful, like a stripped down, hip hop Parliament Funkadelic -- sometimes emotional and downtrodden, sometimes party jumpin', sometimes manic when Pam the Funkstress is scratchin', but always incredibly funky due to each track's repeating hook -- but Boots Riley's rapping just puts this album over the top. Boots is totally righteous, politically-aware/-active, advocates revolution as the way to fix our fucked up capitalist sociopolitical system (and when all else fails, a little pissing on G. Washington's grave), and conveys all this with stories (not sermons) whose lyrics are brimming with apt metaphors, sly puns, and pop culture references. For example, these lines from "The Shipment": See you can't trust a big grip and a smile And I slang rocks - but Palestinian style Now there's a rumble in the jungle never mumble though I humble Couple rappers took a tumble but my folks still want to rumble Who's pimpin' your bundle? I'm _Fly_ like Seth Brundle Even if the whole album wasn't great (which it is), it'd be worth picking up just for one song alone: arguably their masterpiece, "Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night", which tells the tragedy of a boy whose mother prostitutes herself to support her pimp Jesus' drug habit; Jesus beats her to death and therefore when the boy grows up he shoots Jesus to death, but it's too late because Jesus' values have shaped the son into another misogynist monster. Boots' sketch of Jesus: Philosophy that he spit stuck in my memory chips And now he puttin' in a disk of Gladys Knight and the Pips Then that shit starts to skip, he said, "Somebody musta scratch it" Put the 40 to his lips and poured the contents down the hatchet Well since my adolescense, cause of his pimp lessons smack my woman in the dental just for askin' silly questions Relationship reduction to either rock the box or suction Ain't got no close potnahs, socially I cain't function From the pen he would scribe, on how to survive: "Don't be Microsoft, be Macintosh with a Hard Drive" Get this album now, sez Windy! And see more Coup lyrics at http://www.OHHLA.com/YFA_coup.html

RealAudio clip: The Shipment
RealAudio clip: Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night
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Oakland hiphop crew The Coup -- longtime AQ faves whose 2001 Party Music album was one of the most fun and funky "political" rap records ever -- offer up a DVD of stuff from their archives. It contains seven of The Coup's music videos from over the years, along with an interview with crucial Coup members Boots Riley and Pam The Funkstress, and a fascinating documentary film co-directed by Boots, shot on tour in South Africa! Plus "hidden stuff". This IS The Best Coup DVD Ever! It's the only Coup DVD too, of course...but though they're joking with the title it is a swell item for Coup fans or anyone who wants to learn more about their radical rap politics. (Note: the back cover seems to indicate that this material is spread over two dvds, but it's all on one.)

Another blast of primo European metalcore from the label that brought us Avenged Sevenfold, Broken Promises, Poison The Well and a ton more. Huge, crushing riffs, Slayer via Fugazi, death metal filtered through a punk rock upbringing, squealing guitars, throbbing bass and howled and shrieked vocals. Super complex and uber aggressive, with bizarre post-rock, indie rock breakdowns, complete with motorik drumming, clean vocals, and loping guitar melodies. Really cool. Fans of the above should check this out.

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Record number two from local country rockers the Court And Spark takes the whispery desert twang of their debut on Andee's tUMULt label, and expands on it, creating a lush, dark and surprisingly varied masterpiece. That may seem a bit effusive, but these guys are so so good. It's unbelievable that they aren't huge and playing bills with Wilco or Ryan Adams or Jay Farrar -- people who I'd imagine they'd blow off the stage at this point. But with the release of 'Bless You' and on the heels of their debut 'Ventura Whites', it probably won't be long. 'Bless You' starts out with the sound of far away pianos and Tom Waits-ish junkyard percussion, all buried under a haze of reverb. Slowly, gently strummed guitars and ringing piano emerge from the gloom, as they launch into 'To See The Fires', probably their best song yet. The whole record is a mix of gloomy slow core country dirges like a countrified Codeine or Low, and rollicking country rock reminiscent of Uncle Tupelo or even the Eagles. The production is bizarre and experimental with all sorts of stereo panning, disembodied brushed snares, strange hums and whirs, extra percussion, and shimmering cymbals. And the musicianship is ace, especially with the permanent addition of Wendy Allen on angelic harmony vocals and Tom Heyman on lap steel. And it doesn't hurt that Gene Parsons of the Byrds plays on a bunch of the tracks as well. The vocals, which seemed to be what the Court and Spark were all about circa their first record, seem to have become more just a part of the whole sound, with MC Taylor's gruff gravelly growl smoothed out, and eased back in the mix a bit, giving their gorgeous twangscapes center stage. Practically perfect.

RealAudio clip: Fade Out to Lttle Arrow
RealAudio clip: To See the Fires

5 new tracks to keep us sated in lieu of a full length from AQ faves Court And Spark. Like their previous releases, especially Bless You, Court & Spark continue with their lush -- so gorgeous it fairly drips from the speakers -- brand of Gram Parsons-esque country rock. Songs like "Bar The Door, Davy" are just as perfect to listen to alone at the bar with a bourbon on the rocks as it is sidling up to your significant other on the dance floor for a slooooow dance. They've got all the elements you could want: beautiful male/female harmonies, pedal steel guitar, harmonium, vibraphone, violin, organ, fingerpicked guitar and the usual supects (bass & drums). We feel pretty damn lucky to have these stars here locally to shine on us day and night, but there's no reason you can't enjoy them as well.

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You know how we hate to pull the "buy now or cry later" guns on you all, but this one's definitely in that realm. So all you fellow Court And Spark fans out there, no dilly dallying on this one. Unless you had a chance to see them on their recent tour, you wouldn't have had a chance to pick this one up. Double Roses is a tour EP the band put together of home recordings (really *nice* recordings we might add, not your typical crappy home studio fare), originals and covers and some tracks recorded live around town and on the radio in Portland. A little more of that Court And Spark smoke and smolder, torch and twang to hold us over until their next full length to be entitled Witch Season. This band just keeps getting better. Lush country folk, amazing arrangements, perfect players, and MC Taylor's gorgeous rough hewn drawl. We'll never understand why this band isn't HUGE. But it's only a matter of time. Gorgeous, numbered (limited to 400 copies), silkscreened/letterpressed sleeves.

This week marks the welcome release of a few new albums by a few old AQ faves including this fine Bay Area combo Court & Spark (others include Matmos, Black Heart Procession, Jolie Holland, Enslaved and Longmont Potion Castle!). Hearts finds the band taking even more of a '70s classic country rock direction than on their 2004 album Witch Season (which was already knee deep in that vibe and sound). That said, somehow they've struck what in our opinion is a better balance between their earlier roughhewn selves and their more recent luminously polish recordings. There are two types of songs on Hearts, although the differences are subtle shades of grey. There are the dark brooding soulful introspective numbers, with glistening guitars, lush instrumentation, and MC Taylor's velvety croon, much more polished now than whiskey soaked, but it definitely suits their constantly maturing sound. Then there are the slightly more rocking tracks, channeling the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, with foot stomping rhythms and wah guitar. But even when the band is kicking up a rocking fuss, this is still more of a late night early afternoon stroll, definitely on the dark introspective side, all warm breezes and rustling leaves, looking inward with eyes cast earthward, hearts on sleeves, lumps in throats. So nice. And if you're looking for a listening companion, this fits quite nicely alongside Calexico's most recent album Garden Ruin.

The long awaited debut from San Francisco's purveyors of epic and sweeping country rock heartbreak is finally here. If the Beachwood Sparks (last week's record of the week) can be likened to the bouncy and sunny side of The Byrds, all harmonies and jangle, then The Court and Spark represent The Byrds' dark side: melancholy murmur, stark and wintery, like the restless ghost of Gram Parsons, with echoes of Nick Drake and Townes Van Zandt. TC&S produce perfectly bittersweet songs and spectral soundscapes constructed from plaintive piano, delicately plucked guitars and found sounds. A wash of sweet strings, organ hum and muted buzz, pedal steel and breathtaking harmonies. Epic and sweeping. Gossamer traces of sounds heard in dreams. Dobro, mandolin, banjo, and even glockenspiel. And then there's the voice, a deep and ragged drawl, rough and world weary. For fans of the abovementioned artists, as well as folks who like the Scud Mountain Boys, the Jayhawks, and Souled American. Which reminds us, we should mention that this is being put out by our own Andee's fabulous tUMULt label, and it may well be the only other tUMULt release that will appeal to those who have been waiting for a follow-up to tUMULt's Souled American reissues, except of course, for the very broadminded!

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With each release San Francisco's beloved Court & Spark seem to draw closer and closer to a smoooooth country rock (occasionally dangerously close to 'adult contemporary' territory) -- systematically smoothing out any and all perceptible rough edges. Some see this as a good thing, while others might view their progression as much less favorable, preferring there to be a little dust and grit on their lonesome country path. Don't want things to be too pristine now do we? That said, we've had many customers coming in saying they far prefer this new record to C&S's last full length Bless You which we described as being "practically perfect". But then a band full of perfectionists who spend several years recording their record, with an engineer who is also a perfectionist, well the results should be darn near perfect, right? And they pretty much are. Really, except for that urgency, the raw element, the roughness a lot of us loved and felt was an important part of the Court And Spark's sound. Which is fine, bands don't always stay angry, and their sound changes as they get more successful or have to struggle less or have access to more money and have more time to record. It's part of growing and maturing as a band. Now don't get us wrong, this is by no means a bad review, this is a positive review and Witch Season is an AMAZING record. Certainly the Court And Spark's songwriting has grown by leaps and bounds. As has the band's sound. Soaring and melancholic, sweet and smooth, lush and epic, gorgeously melodic and sonically dense. They truly are one of the best San Francisco bands of the moment, and certainly one of the most important bands currently exploring the whole modern country, post-no-depression sound. And as they grow, and shed their raggedy, rough around the edges, old skins, they will be exposed to more and more folks who will love this band. And we are truly psyched. We have always though they should be HUGE. But once in a while, we just want to hear Mike's voice crack, or a barely out-of-tune guitar, or a bit of their charmingly ramshackle past. But maybe that's just us.

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Alan Courtis -- sometimes referred to as Anla Courtis -- has been instrumental in channeling the quasi-mystical visions of Miguel Tomasin into the brilliantly left of center drone-rock produced by the prolific Argentinian ensemble Reynols. From the infamous For "Albumina Blues," Courtis has struck out on his own with his debut CD -- actually, a CDr production from the terminally manic label Freedom From. Much like Reynols' tectonic re-interpretations of Pauline Oliveros, Courtis offers a series of slow moving drones from tape loops of controlled, closed circuit feedback systems and downpitched guitar distortion. Much like a grittier version of Robin Storey's hypnotic loops in Zoviet France and Rapoon, Courtis allows for these loops to speak on their own with subtle amounts of lo-fi effects and EQ modulation. There is an almost Industrial quality to this album with its tonal grimness and its methodical plod, but 'Albumina Blues' has the same oblique giddiness found on all of the Reynols albums. An album clearly worthy of inclusion in the grand Reynols pantheon.

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Originally released in 2004, this is one long blissed out drone from this ex-member of Reynols.

An awesome three way collaboration, five way label split, with each artist using mainly sounds contributed by one of the other artists. The three include Andrey Kiritchenko who runs the Nexsound label, Ukrainian abstract drone folk combo the Moglass and Anla Courtis formerly of the mighty Reynols! A strange combination but it definitely works, with each artist twisting and turning the sounds of the others into something completely their own. Kiritchenko uses sounds sourced from Anla Courtis, but also incorporates bandura, guitar, objects and field recordings. His first two tracks are thick glistening snarls of keening high end, ringing chimes, warm processed warble, grinding industrial whir, all coaxed gently from his super limited palette. His final track is our favorite, a super spare cavernous soundscape, constructed from swirling wind like whirls and muted white noise hiss. Over the top is a stumbling damaged, deconstructed guitar melody that scrapes and buzzes and rumbles. So good. The Moglass also use mostly Anla Courtis sounds, introducing guitars, synth and vocals. And as you might imagine, they manage to turn those disparate sounds into dark dronelike dreamscapes of slow oceanic swells, thick buzzing rumble, and an occasional blast of super strange circusy psychedelic freak out, a dizzying collision of scraping strings, creepy falsetto vocals, moans and chants and all sorts of falling apart melodies. Finally, Courtis gets the chance to return the favor, borrowing a little from both the Moglass and Kiritchenko. His first three tracks are assembled using ONLY sounds taken from the Moglass, the results vary, from murky shimmer, to glistening ambience, soft blissed out whir, to sparse skeletal industrial landscapes. The last two tracks again feature Courtis using only sounds borrowed from Kiritchenko, one ends up being a super pare abstract mechanical percussive shuffle, lots of creaks and clatter, sounding a bit like a rainforest, or some sort of giant shower, the final track is wash of fuzzy clang that sort of settles into a dense field of tightly woven chimes and tinkles, amidst a swirling sea of hiss and fuzz. An amazing concept that actually produces some incredibly beautiful results!

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Well then! After countless recordings as Anla Courtis, the former sonic technician of the Argentinean avant/savant-art ensemble Reynols has now returned to his birth name, as opposed to the malapropist spelling given to him by Reynols frontman Miguel Tomasin. Perhaps, Courtis is trying to move beyond the scope of Reynols' magical absurdity and develop something of a career as a 'serious' composer; if that is indeed the case, Antiguos Dolmenes Del Paleolitico doesn't help the cause as it's a metanymic exercise in giving a voice to dolmen -- megalithic stone structures thought to be the earliest tombs crafted by primitive man. Courtis constructed this homage to those weighty stones through the no-input mixing board tricks which had previously been employed by the likes of Arcane Device, Sachiko M, and Toshimaru Nakamura. The first of the four lengthy tracks tumbles into pure standing wave form low frequency feedback. Each of the following tracks gradually increases the frequencies of the feedback, moving through gossamer networks of intertwining sinewaves and glassine feedback tones into piercingly sharp tones that are almost too intense to listen to. Altogether, its easy to imagine that Courtis was attempting to commune with the dolmen by reducing music down to its more pure form: the harmonic ur-drone. If so, he's done a remarkable job.

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Ok, when you think of harmonica, maybe you think of someone like Bob Dylan wearing one of those orthadontic-like apparatus thingies that lets you play guitar and harmonica at the same time. It's bluesy, it's rootsy, it's kinda square. But Anla Courtis' Harmonica F'ever will make you forget that sort of harmonica. This lil' 3" cd-r solo disc released by Jewelled Antler off-shoot Pink Skulls features Courtis taking harmonica playing into a multi-tracked realm of insanity and abstraction. Courtis is of course 1/3 of the bizarro Argentine out-rock troupe Reynols, so its no surprise that his approach to harmonica playing is about as far from Big John Popper as you can get. The disc starts off with a track that crams what sounds like random blowing/breathing by maybe a dozen harmonica players into 6-7 minutes. But then, when you think you've got Courtis' concept figured out, track two comes along. It's much less readily identifiable as being sourced from harmonia (though of course it is), and it's a much sleepier, spookier affair than track one. Droney and abstract and really quite lovely. The third and final track on this lil' disc switches focus to the higher register harmonica sounds, sounding like the harmonica version of a happy flock of birds. Overall, probably the ONLY nothing-but-harmonica recording you need to own.

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It's hard to imagine that Anla Courtis had any time to dedicate to his own work throughout the '90s when he was the technical wizard for Reynols, the now defunct Argentine avant-rock project whose primal rock thud and conceptual oddities confounded many a listener across the globe. We'll admit to being huge fans of Reynols' more tripped out works, such as the 10,000 Chicken Symphony, their collaboration with Pauline Oliveros, and their infamous / brilliant album Blank Tapes. When Courtis and Reynols were cranking out recordings, we could hardly keep up with the output. There were hundreds of recordings popping up on every label imaginable, and hundreds more that only materialized in Reynols' mythological parallel universe Minecxio, never making themselves known to those of us on this side of the astral divide. Yet despite all of this activity, Courtis had been composing a number of tape pieces independent of his work in Reynols, many of which have been collected on this rather self-evidently titled collection Tape Works. Dating from 1991 - 1998, Courtis' experiments with the tape deck are an exaggerated distortion of cassette mechanics, with magnetic storms of hiss and drone bristling with mechanoid thunder, drowning microphones, volatile screeches, sicktone minimalism, and mutated electronic splutter. There's even a piece which sounds as if Courtis is reclaiming Pierre Henry's "Variations For a Door and a Sigh" through his own rickety recordings. While in Reynols, Courtis certainly played the part of the mischief-maker very well; Tape Works proves that Courtis has long been a mighty fine sound-sculptor.

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Yep, noisy!

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

SORRY. More electronic weirdness courtesy of our pals at the prolific and 'all hit and no miss' Fflint label. The mysterious Cousin Silas delivers some down tempo, almost dreamy electronica (especially considering the 'fucked-up-ness' of most of the stuff on Fflint). This is Boards Of Canada for the underground set, a chill out record for after that heavy bondage session, or that robot war, or that day spent taped naked to the side of a building. Not for the faint of heart, but pretty and tranquil enough that adventurous mainstreamers might try starting here if they have any fantasies of listening to 'underground electronica.' Gentle chimes and toy xylophones, modulated bird chirp-like warbles, humming buzz and whirring static are woven into a surreal sounscape dotted with weird downtuned melodies, chiming soaring synths, stabs of minor key piano, skipping and shufffling, clicking and hissing, and pastoral washes of cottony sound. Not a whole lot of rhythm, but when it comes in, it's perfect: heavily reverbed, stuttering understated loops that stretch out into late night excursions through dark and druggy landscapes. Can Fflint do no wrong? How can Warp and Matador and Lo claim to have their finger on the pulse of electronic music when all this crazy, amazing and creative shit is blowing up right under their noses? Too bad.

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It's been almost 3 years since we last heard from Cousin Silas and back then he was slouching around dark electronic graveyards and dodgy ambient parts of town with the rest of the Fflint Records stable. For this most recent release, Silas may have relocated to Earthrid records, another upstart electronic cd-r label, but his Fflinty roots still show, and that Silas sound we love so much is still in full effect. That sound is a delicate shimmer, a blissed out ambience, chillout music for folks who hate chillout music. A warm, languid and luxurious pop ambience, like a Boards Of Canada record stripped of any trace of rhythm, all the beats removed leaving just a soft billowy cloud of sound. Thick washes of slow shifting swirl, beneath all sorts of subtle swoonsome melodies float and hover, spin and shift, like watching oil and water mix, dreamy and drone-y and rife with all manner of muted color. When rhythms do surface, they are mumbled and subtle, more like a soft pulse or a minimal murky throb. But always way down in the mix, beneath an expansive sparkling and twinkling ocean of sound. The record's title Necropolis Line sounds ominous, and the skull locomotive and train wreck imagery on the cd seem to reinforce that vibe, however, this disc really isn't as dark or dreary or ominous or evil as you might expect, instead it's way at the other end of the spectrum, slightly out of focus, fuzzy and rich with subtle melody, sun dappled, lazy and hazy and oh so dreamlike. In the past we've described Cousin Silas as Boards Of Canada or The Orb for the underground set. But this new record is so soft and shimmery and accessible, it might be more accurate to classify this as Fflint for the mainstream set. Either way, one of the dreamiest slabs of latenight / early morning ambience we've heard in ages. So lovely!

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It's been a while, way too long actually. And we were starting to get the shakes, jonesing for some new noise from our pals at Fflint Central. And as if they heard our poor neglected ear drums calling out to them from across the sea, what should show up on our doorstep but a box of the new Fflint release by Cousin Silas! Where as Silas' last release was a demented downtempo masterpiece, a sort of more damaged Boards Of Canada, things on this new one get way more abstract and spaced out, maybe like The Orb for the fucked up, noise rock set. Burbling, acid tinged spacescapes, with sinister gurgles and swooping blooping Hawkwindiness, Goblin-esque doomscapes and chopped up, rhythmic throbs, searing sci-fi synth splatter, and alien, almost house-like four on the floor pulses, creepy Whitehouse-ish free noise and delicate spider webbed melodies all coalesce into a nightmarishly soothing, gorgeously creepy late night chill-out record. All hail Fflint!

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MPEG stream: Rossini Pump Device

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SORRY. When Allan and Andee were in New York for CMJ they managed to catch Mouthus live (playing with Circle, Khanate and Coptic Light!!) and while the band were loud and the sound was thick and dense, it was hard really to get a feel for what they actually sounded like. Live, in a big room, it could have been ANY band making a huge grating noise. But on vinyl it's a whole different story. This Brooklyn Duo offer up two sidelong tracks of churning, thick and viscous freenoise, that is simultaneously corrosive and strangely soothing, long druggy dreamscapes of guitar grind and rumbling rooooaaaaar. A pretty killer chunk of cosmic free psych sludge for sure. We had never heard Cousins Of Reggae before and figured with a name like that we were either gonna love them or loathe them. And we were pretty much figuring on loath. But surprise surprise, these Canadian noiseniks just might be our new favorite amongst the noisy elite. A huge swirling stew of abstract guitar noise, pounding percussive stomp, shrieking clouds of feedback, dirgey gut churning basslines, squiggly synths and garbled vocals buried way down in the mix. Hard to believe two guys can whip up such a glorious din. A stumbling and lurching freepsych freakout equal parts the Dead C, Harry Pussy and old Skullflower. Awesome! Hand painted covers, each one different, LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, includes a full color insert.

From this legend who's had songs recorded by everyone from Aretha Franklin to the Rolling Stones, comes this soulful southern blues, both in the form of haunting dirges and plenty of rollickin' uptempo numbers. Originally issued in 1969.

RealAudio clip: Mad Dog Blues
RealAudio clip: the Blues Dont Knock

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SORRY. Another '60s occult rock act for fans of Black Widow.

OMG!, as they say. It doesn't happen very often, but once in a lucky while, one of us here at AQ will suddenly find out about some impending reissue and just about jump up and down exclaiming, "AT LAST!!!" We're talking about holy grails, like Bruce Haack's The Electric Lucifer, and Moolah, and Joakim Skogsberg, and Pandemonium... All of which we made Records Of The Week, by the way. So, last week we had another such exciting moment, when it was revealed that THIS album had just been reissued on cd, for the first time ever (barring bootlegs). Not to be confused with a host of other Covens out there, this Coven was a uniquely doomy, gothic metal band from Detroit, who released but one record, 1987's Worship New Gods. No, we've never ever even seen an original lp copy - this band is pretty obscure. You might find a track of theirs on a DJ mix by Darkthrone's Fenriz, but that's about it. To give credit where credit is due, we first heard of Coven thanks to the great metal collector nerd website The Corroseum [www.thecorroseum.com], who had reviewed and raved about Worship New Gods with enough enthusiasm to get us to, ahem, track down for ourselves personally one of those bootleg copies previously mentioned. That was several years ago, but now, though, thanks to Shadow Kingdom, we've got a legit version we can happily share with all of you. The Corroseum review said of Coven that "they sound like no other metal band that ever existed", yet went on to explain how in FEEL Coven could conjure comparisons to the likes of Cirith Ungol, Celtic Frost, Bathory, and even Bauhaus (more on that angle in a minute). We may as well quote the conclusion of their write-up: "Some dark, cloudy, angst-ridden days you cannot listen to anything else but Coven." Quite a recommendation, we had to hear 'em! And when we did, we fell in love. To the extent, that, like the Pandemonium, this became something for Allan & Andee here to daydream about trying to properly reissue ourselves. Fortunately, Shadow Kingdom were a little more proactive about that than we were, and here it is. Pagan-proud true martial metal, '80s steel that those into the epick, eccentric likes of Manilla Road and Max Planck ought to bow down to. But that's hybridized with even heavier, doomier fare, a la Black Sabbath and Candlemass (triumphantly lumbering opening track "The Riddle Of Steel" definitely shares some DNA with Sabbath's "Electric Funeral"). That's the metal side of it. But there's more: Coven also convey a strong post-punk, '80s gothic death-rock vibe, at the same time. Think Bauhaus, The Mission, Christian Death, and 45 Grave... And, thus, like The Corroseum said, they don't sound like any other -metal- band, exactly. There's just something so haunting and magical about 'em. What really puts these songs of blood and fire over the top are the stirring, echoing vocals, they sometimes struggle and strain, but that only enhances their emotive appeal. And, again, goes a long way to making this band indeed not sound like any other, their music massive and murky and melodic, swirling and psychedelic. Their battlecries from a bygone age are doomy and druggy (well, if Vikings did drugs) and oh so atmospheric. Reissued with a 16 page cd booklet full of lyrics and vintage photos in both b&w and color. No liner notes, though, but in some ways that adds to the mystique, in fact, maybe they should have left out some of the photos, too... SO glad this has been made available. Until now, all we could do, was reference 'em in our reviews of the underground epic metallers Realmbuilder, and hope that somebody somewhere would know what we were talking about. Now's your chance to find out. Don't miss it. 'Cause Coven's record is definitely some under the radar weird genius, a truly lost gem of metal, and more...

MPEG stream: Ruler
MPEG stream: Kiss Me With Blood
MPEG stream: General's Eyes
MPEG stream: Threshold Of The New

The two dudes in Cowards have popped up in a number of New York power electronic and noise outfits, with The Cathode Terror Secretion being the one we've stumbled across before, thanks to their power-noise-grind album on RRR. Cowards are clearly a different beast, although huge voltage blasts of distortion and noise continuously cycle through their impressive Forgotten Resonance disc. Between the noise, Cowards produce beautifully evocative orchestrations for all sorts of resonant droning shimmer, impressionist rumble, and spooky ambience. Growling vocals and distant bursts of infernal vulcanization add cinematic flares of dark ambient drama or a deconstructed form of blackened drone metal with nothing but the spectral pall of the original left behind. Out of this post-industrial moodscaping (think Lustmord, Cranioclast, Yen Pox, and even some Coil tracks), Cowards present a couple of effect strategies for noise intrusion. At times, they slowly build tumultous mechanical howls and aggressively battered noise out of their ominous ambient constructions, but at others, it comes by way of avalanche with textured noises quite literally tumbling from above. In the dynamics of loud / quiet and placid / caustic all presented with remarkable digital clarity, we're reminded of those exceptional Aaron Turner productions - House Of Low Culture, The Lotus Eaters, and Old Man Gloom (well, at least in terms of the loud / quiet thing, as there's no chugging metal riffage to found here). Pretty awesome, but pretty limited. Just 300 were made!

MPEG stream: Below The Boards
MPEG stream: Tremble
MPEG stream: Forgotten Resonance

Oh, will this band ever be able shake the formidable ghost of their glorious Trinity Sessions album? Each subsequent album has inevitably been held up to and just fallen short. That album has proven to be something of a treasure and a curse. And let's not be mistaken, a straight-up duplication of that album is not what's yearned for. No, what's sought is the luminous magic that the Junkies conjured in those sessions. Closing in on two decades of music-making, Cowboy Junkies have made seven fine studio albums plus two live ones, but quite simply none can hold a candle to 1988's Trinity Sessions. Perhaps trying to redefine and breathe some fresh energy into their langourous sound, their 2001 album Open featured a few songs that were more spacey, psych-tinged and rockier, however these changes seemed startlingly out of character and overwhelmed the band's trademark, Margot Timmins' haunting voice. On One Soul Now, they get it a bit more 'right', integrating the more kinetic elements of Open into their overall sleepy-eyed persona and sounding more refreshed in the process.

MPEG stream: One Soul Now
MPEG stream: The Stars Of Our Stars

Alt-country long before the term ever existed, these kings and queen of dreamy slower than slow, more bitter than sweet music have rarely strayed from the mellow path they've tread for over fifteen years. However, on 'Open' they venture into brief moments of almost psych/space-y territory and more upbeat tempos. Not sure if this is a good thing 'cause the Cowboy Junkies are at their

For every ecstatic high, there often needs to be a soul crushing descent, a dark, dark comedown. San Francisco electronic music pioneer Patrick Cowley is best known for his trailblazing signature sound which helped spawn a whole dance music genre (Hi-NRG), as well as his amazing production work, not to mention guest spots on many of our favorite Sylvester tracks. But we always knew there was another side to Patrick Cowley's musical genius. His life ended way too early, as one of the first victims of the AIDS epidemic (before they even understood what AIDS was), but in the short time he was on this planet he recorded hours and hours of electronic music light-years ahead of its time. Most of those recordings have never seen the light of day. In recent years it seems a whole genre of "space-disco" has emerged out of the influence of the Sylvester track "I Need Somebody To Love", produced by Cowley, who almost single handedly created the cut's distinctive minimal spacey/sensual sound. And within the many solo Cowley releases, there were hints of this darker sonic side, a whole part of his music making beyond the greatness he created for disco divas and sweaty dance floors. Tracks like "Mutant Man" and "Sea Hunt" gave us an intoxicating glimpse into a much weirder and way more abstract world of synth-sounds, that had us hungering for more... Enter School Daze, a Dark Entries collection of previously unreleased tracks, which showcase that warped and dark side of Cowley's music. These tracks were originally commissioned by the LA-based Fox Studios, makers of gay porn, and as we listen to this over and over, we can only imagine what kind of hazy, foggy, fucked up, beyond high, drug addled state of mind that folks must have been in to watch pornography set to these dark & dizzying sounds! The opening track is the outlier here, a chunk of classic Cowley Hi-NRG, but it's certainly a misleading introduction, as throughout the rest of School Daze, there is hardly a trace of Cowley's typical dance floor production, instead these songs much more concerned with capturing a mood and vibe that evokes melting and dripping trippiness, seemingly designed for late, late nights long after the party has ended. Tracks like "Tides Of Man" take us on a harrowing dark voyage, the listener losing control and spiralling deeper and deeper into the empty void. "Seven Sacred Pools" displays an epic side of Cowley's sound, the track drifts drowsily from underwater warble and woozy spaciness into shimmering and tranquil soft wave shimmer, the sort of soundworld we wish could get lost in forever. The title track reveals Cowley reigning over his own majestic prog sci-fi fantasyland. Whatever the sound, Cowley somehow makes it his own! And we love it! Traces of Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Jean Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk, Harmonia, Cluster, The BBC Radio Workshop and even musique concrete are woven throughout School Daze. We're also reminded quite a bit of some of the proto-dark techno records that Moebius was making in the early '80s with Conny Plank and Gerd Beerbohm, on albums like Double Cut, Strange Music, Material, and Zero Set. What's even more astonishing is how so many of these sounds predate by several decades the sound of so many of our favorite contemporary electronic artists. In fact, we might go so far as to call the sound on School Daze "proto-IDM", as these tracks contain blueprints to the more spaced-out sides of artists like Aphex Twin, Boards Of Canada, The Orb, Seefeel, Bola and Isolee, as well as some of our more recent faves like Glitterbug, Actress, Reuber, Gatekeeper, Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom. It's unclear exactly how many of these tracks actually made it into the films, but we can safely say this is still some of the most fucked up, avant-garde porn music we've ever heard. In fact we wonder if Matmos took inspiration from some of these Cowley tracks when they were asked to create their own soundtracks to some underground kinked out porn... While the circumstances of these songs being commissioned for porn makes for a fascinating and intriguing story, there's certainly no shortage of lost reissues with wild stories behind them. Sadly, it's often the case, that many of those super hyped releases, are way more interesting to read about than actually listen to. But in the case of School Daze, these are truly subversive and trance inducing sounds that still hold up after all these years. In fact, some of this stuff actually sounds way more damaged and avant than almost any new left-field electronic release that comes our way. For an artist so known for taking his listeners higher, School Daze plays out like the sonic version of what happens afterwards, the wasted aftermath of staying up all night, awake for days, smiling, sweating, arms in the air, it's the sound of bodily displacement, the dreadful coming down. When you can no longer dance, or even stand, but instead are left gliding, sliding, swirling, reaching, caressing, wishing, hallucinating, and grasping for one last chance of ecstatic bliss. This is the dark, drifty, drugged out record of the year! HUGE kudos to Dark Entries not only for releasing this amazing artifact, but for donating the proceeds to Project Open Hand and AIDS Housing Alliance, two wonderful San Francisco nonprofits who do important work helping those whose lives have been impacted by HIV and AIDS. ***Prude Alert*** The inside sleeves of this gatefold double lp contain LOTS of explicit still images from the pornos that many of these songs were featured in!! You have been warned!

MPEG stream: Nightcrawler
MPEG stream: Mockkingbird Dream
MPEG stream: Journey Home
RealAudio clip: School Daze

While the late great Patrick Cowley is best known for his amazing disco and hi-NRG production for folks like Sylvester and the Megatone label he started, very much like his east coast counterpart Arthur Russell Cowley wore many different musical hats. It hasn't been until the recent unearthing of literally hundreds of reels of tape from his archives that the world is getting a glimpse of all the way-ahead-of-its-time synth/electronic music he was madly creating before and during his reign as San Francisco's most respected disco maestro. In the late '70s Cowley appeared on a record by his friend Jorge Socarras' band, the way left-field post-punk group Indoor Life (one of their great tracks was recently featured on the Finders Keepers comp, Cross Continental Record Raid Road Trip). During those same years the two were also collaborating on a project together which sadly never got released, which turned out to be Catholic, and is the first record to get unearthed from those deep vaults of Cowley's that have only just begun to be explored. Recorded between 1976-1979, Cowley and Socarras really found a way to create charged synth-wave/post-punk that was very much in line with what other forward minded San Francisco folks like The Units and Tuxedomoon were making. With Cowley handling the bulk of the instrumentation (synth, guitar, bass, drums, drum machines, etc.) and Socarras delivering dramatic and ice cold vocals falling somewhere between Gary Numan and Public Image Ltd. Catholic displays lots of range, from more slow burning grooves to full throttle attacks, New Romantic leanings to proto-Industrial crunch. It's cool to hear what people think is actually playing when we have this on, we've heard everything from Foetus to Ultravox to Cabaret Voltaire. We can't wait to hear so much more of the amazing music that Cowley created in his much too short of life (he passed away in 1982, one of the earliest casualties of the AIDS epidemic) but luckily for all of us he left an incredible musical legacy that will live on forever!

MPEG stream: Robot Children (Do You Love Your)
MPEG stream: You Laugh At My Face
MPEG stream: Hurdy Gurdy Man

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SORRY. What was once vinyl is now aluminum, but sounds no less than like it did before.

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: The Rain, The Park, And Other Things
MPEG stream: Dreams Of Linda
MPEG stream: Love American Style

[ aquarius records catalogue — C ]