[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 2551 through 2600 of 2775.

Reissue of the original pressing of monster Phil Spector Girl Group Sounds.

There are plenty of ways to make noise with a guitar. Lord knows the aQ list is proof of that. Whether it's running a guitar through a computer the spews out soft pixelated hum, or leaning a guitar against an amp and letting huge waves of black buzz pour out, or strapping one to a table and attacking it with all manner of toys and implements resulting in plenty of scrape and scrabble, or just running a guitar through a million effects pedals until what comes out the other side is nothing but streaks and blurs and rumbles and roars and barely retains any guitarness at all. Then there's whatever the hell Alex Nagle does to his guitar that transforms it into Csection. Nagle's name might be familiar to you as the man behind the genius Flittermice Of Eld, a 'group' who took a handful of notes from a Darkthrone song and turned them into a heaving mass of dark drones and fractured buzz. Csection finds Nagle again doing unspeakable and confusional things to his guitar, and again the results are pretty fantastic. A single 25 minute track, beginning with some weirdly digitized distortion drenched guitar shredding, that sounds a bit like it's been run through a Commodore 64, sheets of high spread out over all manner of strange crumbling low end, detuned riffage, that high end spiraling into squiggly clusters of rapid fire notes one second, sprawling out into a shimmering stretch of soft noise the next. Over the course of the track, the guitar becomes less and less recognizable, at one point shifting into a gloriously burnished field of high end streaks, all assembled into some strange alien melody, while within, various overtones clash and collide, blend and beat feverishly against one another. Imagine Phil Niblock composing for high end shred guitar, or a droned out more static version of one of Mick Barr's maniacal projects (Orthrelm, Octis, Orcrilim). There are moments here and there, when the high end drops out, and the sound briefly becoming more of a gnarled angular drift, with Marc Ribot like guitars floating in spaced out fields of reverb, atonal, and haltingly melodic, but those interludes are usually quite fleeting, quickly subsumed by still more squalls of Nagle's frazzled and fucked up digital buzz. This is a super limited cd-r, we've had them a while, so there's a good chance that when we sell out we won't be able to get more. Packaged in cool hand screened red and silver digipacks...

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So, what does raw cult black metal and electro-techno dance music have in common? Vocalist Attila Cshihar for one. Yes, the coiled, blackened tongue of Hungary's Attila Cshihar has spat from the depths of many a cultish metal recording, and even weirder places as well. Fans know him best as the voice of Mayhem (post-Dead, pre-Maniac) on their classic De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas album. He was drafted into that Norwegian act on the basis of his experience in his band Tormentor. More recently, he's guested with the likes of Anaal Nathrakh and SUNNO))), whilst playing in his own, Rome-based band Aborym. This 'Beast Of' samples from Attila's work with all those bands and more, collecting alternate versions of previously released or as yet unreleased tracks from his archives, covering his career from 1988-2002. Some other bands you might know whose work with Attila are represented here include Emperor (a Mayhem cover) and Limbonic Art (a pretty cool "jam"). The bands we haven't heard before are some of the most interesting, like Korog and Professor Fate. Meanwhile Attila's own Plasma Pool will be a little too techno for some, but there's plenty more metal stuff on here to make up for that. The lesson you'll get from this is that Attila has a lot of charisma for a singer with such a limited "range", and is drawn to extremes -- or perhaps extremes are drawn to him. And we're talking extremes within a genre that already calls itself "extreme metal". He's got a cool voice, yes, but also is a personality, a brand if you will. The Attila Csihar stamp of approval (i.e. his presence on a record) means it's gonna be even more fucked than you already thought it was, whether it be cult old-school darkness or modern electronica-inflected stuff. Thus, this is a damn cool comp! And computer users will be happy to find a bonus 24-minute SUNNO))) mp3 on the here as well.

MPEG stream: Trance

Hailing from Sao Paulo, Brazil, CSS made party waves earlier this year with their debut album on Sub Pop which brought their upbeat party jams to a whole mess of fans in the states. Touring with the likes of Ladytron and ESG has helped them show off their sassy grooves. This new 7" features the irresistible album track "Alala" as well as a b-side number which isn't on the album and is a little more raw and rocking, bringing to mind early Le Tigre or Stereo Total, which of course sounds pretty kick ass blasting through our speakers. Could be the perfect holiday treat for that special sassy someone in your life.

Gimme a C! Gimme an S! Gimme another S! What does that spell? FUN!!! The latest addition to the Sub Pop family comes from Sao Paulo, Brazil! Although the band photo looked like a teenage version of Katrina And The Waves, the only other thing in common with that band is perhaps their stratospheric energy level. CSS are totally gleeful, brightly hued and tingling with electricity. It's like they took all these incredibly familiar pop hooks from the last few decades and made all new songs around them. But here's the giant good thing about it -- they sounds completely earnest. There's not a smidge of hipster irony (well, maybe except for the songs like "Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above" and "Meeting Paris Hilton" which is one of the better tunes). Fans of The Go Team will surely take a shine to this group. Positively bustin' at the seams with enthusiasm, they maintain the energy level of a half dozen pep squads throughout the eleven tunes, bubbling over at a breezy tempo. An aside, we were particularly charmed by their pronunciation of "Owff tha hoook". Folks with delicate ears, please note that they do have a bit of a pottymouth... although from their lips it comes across as pretty innocuous. Three cheers for CSS! Psst, in case you were wonderin', the album's title translates from Portuguese to English as "Tired Of Being Sexy". Ooh, such a burden, innit?

MPEG stream: Meeting Paris Hilton
MPEG stream: Music Is My Hot Hot Sex

You won't be finding any pompoms or pep squad cheers on this the sophomore full length from CSS! They're walking a different walk this time out. Geez, it's almost like a total alter ego. While we were definitely expecting and received an album bursting with sweaty energy from this Brazilian group, we weren't quite anticipating that they'd return with a bit of a chip on their shoulder. Yeah, it sure ain't all smiles and giddiness this time. And admittedly we're a bit disappointed that they've chosen to take this detour into more common girl-fronted modern rock fare, especially after such an exuberant and distinct debut. That said, if you dug the debut album that we reviewed recently by The Ting Tings or the latest Sons & Daughters release, CSS are here to deliver some like-minded punchy, sassy synth-pop for you. Much like the former, this album really made us think of Tegan & Sara kickin' it at some sleek after hours joint like they're Elastica or somethin'. So yeah, much darker in mood and attitude (check out "How I Became Paranoid"), Donkey is as apropos for late night club escapades as Cansei De Ser Sexy was for hot afternoon outdoor frolics. Who knows where they'll go from here!

MPEG stream: Let's Reggae All Night
MPEG stream: How I Became Paranoid

Three remixes of what just might be everyone's current fave tune from the band who just might be everyone's current fave band from Brazil! Who's doing the deed? Simian Mobile Disco, Calvin Harris, and Hot Chip! Yeah, loosen up, hot stuff! This saucy space robot funk electro disco punk is beckoning you back to the dancefloor.

Early recordings of mostly Cuban sones by singer Antonio Machin and his quartet, recorded in New York City between 1930 and 1931. Machin is credited with introducing the popular Cuban song El Manisero (The Peanut Vendor) to American audiences during a visit in 1930. Vocals accompanied by guitar, tres guitar and trumpet and featuring renown Cuban trumpet player Mario Bauza in some of his

RealAudio clip: Oprobio

Cuddle-core lives! Here's the newly remastered reissue of Cub's 1992 debut album Betti-Cola which comes with four bonus tracks. First things first, yes, the remastering did make a difference. This cd does sound a whole lot better than the original! For those unfamiliar... Once upon a time, three Canadian college friends (including our own Cup, pre-I Am Sponbender and AQ!) with little or no previous band experience got together to have fun trying something new for themselves (yeah, you might think "big deal!", but back then things were different... the indie music scene was even more of a boys club for one thing!). Taking the spirit & ethics of DIY punk rock, but understanding the undeniable joy of '60s girl groups, Cub's basement rehearsal space was where the musical genre cuddlecore was born. Releasing a slew of 7" eps (the bulk of which comprise Betti-Cola) and touring extensively, the three gals were definitely kindred spirits with the scene happening just a few hours south at Olympia' WA's K Records (Beat Happening, Tiger Trap, Lois, etc). They even cover Beat Happening's "Cast A Shadow". A decade and a half later, Betti-Cola's still burstin' with youthful exuberance and blithe spirit (and topping the college radio charts once again to boot!). The tunes are sweet, peppy, rough around the edges, and a bit unsteady at times just like, yes, a cub! On the surface it may seem a little silly or childlike, but looks can be deceiving. It takes guts to throw caution to the wind like they did. As a result, the trio inspired countless young girls and women to pick up guitars or drumsticks or... Heck, look no further than Ms Neko Case who drummed with the band for a spell! With each album they grew in confidence, skill and composition (personally we favor their second and third albums Come Out Come Out and Box Of Hair), but this is where it all began. Their bright, playful pop is perfect matched with the cover art custom drawn for them by noneother than Dan DeCarlo of Archie Comics fame! FYI: Come Out Come Out has also been remastered and reissued, and the band's third and final album Box Of Hair has also been rereleased with a bonus fan-pleasin' item.

MPEG stream: Go Fish
MPEG stream: My Chinchilla
MPEG stream: Cast A Shadow

Cub's newly remastered and reissued third and final album, Box of Hair, plays up the edgier and urgent side of their cuddle-core ethos. The distortion is upped, the song-writing more heartbroken, the lyrics more snarly in their delivery. Stiffer 'real world experience' influences are more pervasive here than on previous releases, and there's an overall feeling that the band is going for broke, and sensing an end coming, want to leave things with a bang. And that's definitely what Box of Hair is, a maturing sum up of priorities, showcasing their best song-writing and musical craft and taking it as far as it can go. One mesmerizing and charming highlight on the album, "Magic 8 Ball", captures all the Cub essentials - infectious pop hooks and clever, bittersweet lyrics. Box of Hair's not as carefree as their previous releases, but it's probably their most meaningful and resonant. Includes a bonus fan-pleasin' item -- a bright, embroidered patch of the band's sunshiney logo! Note: If you can endure the seemingly endless chair creakiness ("it's not bed squeaks!" says Cup) at the album's end you'll be rewarded with a truly retarded punk rock finish. FYI: Along with Box of Hair, Betti-Cola and Come Out Come Out, have also been rereleased with bonus tracks!

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Come Out Come Out is Cub's masterpiece. Newly remastered with bonus tracks (a couple of them hidden), it is the culmination of all the DIY spirit of their debut but also shows the band honing their skills as musicians and songwriters into a tight set of upbeat tunes with a joyful edge - although Cub was often skillfully bittersweet. Self-proclaimed cuddle-core trio from Vancouver, BC, Lisa, Lisa and Robynn veered away from the battle cries of their more raucous riot grrrl contemporaries preferring to wave the 'home-crafted' flag with a more confident (and varied) direction. Obviously, legions of fanatic cubsters (likely whipped into a frenzy during thir sugar-pop-overload live shows) got the message. On this their second full length, wonder along to "Everything's Geometry", "New York City" (later covered by They Might Be Giants), and covers of the Go-Gos' "Vacation" and Yoko Ono's "I'm Your Angel"! Originally released as a triple 7" colored vinyl fiesta with some wonderfully twisted cover art by Canadian artist Fiona Smyth, the extra bonus tracks here include a live version of "Cast A Shadow" featuring some Italian dude who jumped on stage to play harmonica, and a sweet phoned-in version of "My Chinchilla" on Canadian Radio, that really captures the band's energetic live spirit. Another key groop in a line of influential DIY femme trios from The Shaggs, Kleenex, and The Raincoats, to The Marine Girls, Shonen Knife and Le Tigre, it's time once again for Cub!! FYI: Betti-Cola has also been remastered and reissued, and the band's third and final album Box Of Hair has also been rereleased with a bonus fan-pleasin' item.

MPEG stream: Everything's Geometry
MPEG stream: Life of Crime
MPEG stream: New York City

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SORRY. A posthumous Australian import collection of odds and ends from these Vancouver pop gals that quite succinctly documents their 5-year history in music, words, and photos. The ultra-lovely Ear of The Dragon compilation track "Secret Nothing" is worth the price of admission alone.

It's been quite a while since we last heard from those frisky Bay Area residents Cubby Creatures, but they've always had a knack for reappearing right when a bright, warming beam of slightly woozy pop is needed. On their new self-released album After The Deprogramming, they've kept to the basic sound of their handful of past releases -- blending together psych, folk, indie pop and assorted other quirky sweetness -- but seem to have shed their early lower-fi ramshackleness for good, in favor of more composed tunefulness. After The Deprogramming is certainly a much more focused and polished work. That said, there's still a bounce in their step, but the playfulness is now counterbalanced by an occasional dip into darker dramatic territory. Hurrah!

MPEG stream: There's Always Now
MPEG stream: Maybe It'd Be Better

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SORRY. Atonal pop mischief that sounds like it could have been on Ralph Records, and sounding at times a little like a dorkier Thinking Fellers Union Local 282. An eclectic jumble of effected vocals, violin, clarinet, and samples.

Here in the Bay Area, those fine Cubby Creatures keep it all low-key, quietly working away on new songs and other crafty endeavors, but burst forth every so often with a rollicking live jamboree or two. This record is the follow-up to their well-received Who Remembers Kathy Barra? cdep which easily drew comparisons to '60s psych-pop like that of the Blues Magoos (but replace that decade's requisite farfisa organs with more timeless woodwinds) or perhaps more so The Millennium, and more recently Olivia Tremor Control (with glimpses of their more experimental leanings). This 3-song 7" features two of their own fab tunes and a splendid reworking of Nick Drake's "Fly" to boot. Bright, warm and a wee bit trippy, sorta like what you might hear if The Archies crossed paths with a mysterious roving band of minstrels. Go Cubbies!

At the end of this much-too-short EP from SF's clever, quirky popsters The Cubby Creatures, you can't help but wanna hit 'play' one more time. Five playful and pretty tunes that sound as if each of the six Cubby folk had a gleeful time performing them and

We just got in this brand new release from Vital Records, hot off the presses. (As a disclaimer: though it may seem as if we're obsessed with Balinese Gamelan, it's actually just that a majority of the excellent recordings of Javanese gamelan are currently not in print, but come January we expect a few re-issues from the Nonesuch Explorer series that you can look forward to hearing about.) This release is actually quite exciting in that Gamelan Cudamani represents yet another revolutionary step in the ever changing state of gamelan in Bali. Ironically, it is the very thing that makes this gamelan (and others like it that are being built throughout Bali) new and revolutionary is also the thing that is connecting Balinese gamelan with its past. What makes Cudamani so special is the addition of a mere two pitches to its scale. In truth, those pitches are not a new thing, but contemporary gamelan in Bali since the 1920s have been built with only five (some, a bit less common forms, with only 4.) When the Balinese court dissipated at the turn of the 20th century and many gamelan melted down into modern sets, the repertoire disappeared as well. Lost with those two pitches were the various pentatonic subsets that were capable of being played only on a gamelan with all 7 pitches. I guess you could look at it as if you took all the black keys off your piano, which would severely limit your choice of keys in which you could play. With the music of the Balinese court however, different modes had very different and very strong associations to particular moods. So while all seven tones are rarely used within any given section -- or even composition -- the addition of those two notes opens up the possibilities for playing a huge repertoire of music and creating vast new ones. While this new (re)development has brought the present in closer connection with the past, it has also enabled an unprecedented level of innovation. On the first two pieces of this disc -- both composed by one of Cudamani's founding members -- all seven tones are used, with melodies being immediately recast in other modes and even played on top of one another in a bizarre sort of harmony. Another track included on this collection is a recording of the seminal kebyar piece Teruna Jaya -- as if to bring things full circle once more -- performed as it had originally been performed, including rarely heard sections that are not oft performed anymore. If the instruments and repertoire of Cudamani isn't impressive enough, the family centered group that performs on it is equally so. Though a private organization, the Cudamani is decidedly non-commercial and performs primarily for temple ceremonies and religious festivals. In addition, the Cudamani provides education in performance and dance for youth and adults alike. Cudamani is actually comprised of several performance groups, including the original founding members, there's an all female ensemble and several children's ensembles. The history of the group and very detailed descriptions of the gamelan and the music are included on 15 pages of liner notes.

RealAudio clip: Geregel
RealAudio clip: Legong Candra Kanta

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SORRY. Unlike many of the great Cuban band leaders, classically trained violinist Xavier Cugat had never intended on making his career in popular music. Fate is a funny thing however and not only did Xavier become the most popular and acclaimed band leader of Cuban music outside of Cuba, but became a popular figure amongst Hollywood's elite in the 1930's, appearing in several films - oddly enough, his foot in the doorway there was due to his snappy caricatures of the stars. For years Cugat's band was the headlining act at the Waldorf Hotel in New York's famous Starlight Room. It was under Xavier Cugat that Cuban musicians and especially singers made their fame in the U.S., most notabable is the famous Miguelito Valdes, who is found singing here on over half the tracks and recorded in NYC between 1940 and 1941. The other tracks were recorded in 1937 and 1942 to 1943.

Third re-issue (first in a jewel case) of this seminal release of Amon Tobin's under the moniker of "Cujo." Very mo-waxy, down-tempo drum and bass with lots of lifted jazz breaks. An excellent album that has aged much finer than most of its contemporaries from 1997.

2nd studio album (after the out of print ECIM) from these far-out Bostonian instrumentalists. A nice one.

I'll be happy to chalk this one up to lack of sleep and too much coffee, but Cul De Sac is sounding an awful lot like a surf band these days (more like the Mermen than the Ventures) with a happy, stonier feel on Glenn Jones' lead guitar lines. There's still plenty of their patented post-Kraut grooves, analogue bubblings, and a dense layering of sound to their instrumentals.

Despite the Emperor t-shirt Cul de Sac's Robin Amos wears so proudly on the inside cover of this new album, the Boston band has not gone black metal (although it's apparently much of what they listen to in the tour vehicle!) Still, this long awaited -- three years in the making -- record from one of our favorite groups is a stylistic breakthru for them, and a very successful one at that. Amos and new member Jake Trussell (electronics/turntables) first created a sonic foundation: samples contributed by each bandmember (everything from a gurgling Missouri River to Peruvian rainforest ambience, a scratchy Cajun 78rpm record, and a 1933 German a capella 5-part harmony group) were looped, treated and otherwise manipulated into electronic roadmaps over which the band then played acoustic bowed bass, warm gentle guitars, muted tickings, violin, sinister twanging sitar, hunting horns, melodica, and more. The electronically manipulated elements were meant to stand equally alongside the organic acoustic sounds -- something Amos points out is attempted often by other musicians but rarely happens successfully. It's really no surprise that if any band could do this well, it would be the always-amazing Cul de Sac. This record is the hands-down best lull-you-to-sleep record of the year so far -- Reminiscent of lots of AQ faves (Phillip Jeck, No Neck Blues Band, Bohren, Jackie O Motherfucker, Birchville Cat Motel Band, Third Ear Band) but totally amazing and original as always!

RealAudio clip: Dust of Butterflies
RealAudio clip: I Remember Nothing More

Damn, it's hard to believe this album is fourteen years old! Back in print after many years, Cul De Sac's ambitious debut sounds fresher than ever. One of the first bands to directly reference the rhythmic propulsions of Can, while at the same time expanding their musical arsenal to include surf music, psychedelic post-rock, Mediterranean trance music and folk, Cul De Sac have been faves here forever. Ecim reads like a drug-induced travelogue through non-linear time with each song setting up a unique feel distinct from each other yet oddly connected. Covers of Tim Buckley's "Song of the Siren" and "The Portland Cement Factory, at Monolith, California" by John Fahey (with whom they would subsequently collaborate) provide some familiar ground while at the same time offering something completely unexpected. Recommended! And oh yeah, this remastered reissue's got three previously unreleased bonus tracks from 1991, and brand new liner notes!

MPEG stream: Death Kit Train
MPEG stream: Stranger At Coney Island
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SORRY. Eagerly-awaited domestic version of the Flying Nun import.

Quite possibly as subdued and meandering as Cul de Sac can get! Their fifth album (actually recorded live for Brandeis University's WBRS radio in 1999) brings an even greater sense of space to their distinct blend of psych, folk, surf, and krautrock. We seem to recall them as being considerably more composed and dynamic, but "Immortality Lessons" just left me wondering "is this blissfully meditative or just plain boring?" Depends on your mood, of course... but even if we opt to consider it blissful, it's certainly not our all-time favorite Cul de Sac release. Try "I Don't Want To Go To Bed" (also live, but considerably more varied, being cobbled together from rehearsal tapes) or "China Gate" or their collaboration with John Fahey, "The Epiphany of Glenn Jones" if you haven't heard 'em before. However, fans may well want this, especially since in spite of being a live album, most of the songs on here have never before appeared on any other Cul de Sac album, including one written for but cut from that Fahey collab. So, worth it if you're 1) really into 'em and/or 2) in a mellow mood. I guess 'cause it's been years since their last album (1999's "Crashes To Light, Minutes To Its Fall"), maybe our expectations had built up too much -- but they do have two other new discs soon to be released (a brand new studio disc entitled "Death of the Sun" as well as the soundtrack to a film called "The Strangler's Wife") so perhaps they'll knock us out again with one of 'em. Also, look out for them on tour (where? we don't know, maybe it's an East Coast thing), apparently with guest vocalist Damo Suzuki of Can along for the ride!

RealAudio clip: Immortality Lessons
RealAudio clip: Frozen In Fury On The Roof Of The World

It's been a great year for fans of Cul de Sac, the experimental/instrumental rock outfit from Boston who wowed us after a more-or-less three year absence with the brilliant Death Of The Sun back in the winter and who now give us a soundtrack album recording in the midst of the Death Of The Sun sessions. We don't know anything about the film for which this music was made, but if it's half as good as this soundtrack, it'd be worth a viewing, or two. The music here was all composed and edited for specific scenes, or improvised in the studio as the film was being screened by the band. They got pretty creative in constructing this soundtrack, dabbling in diverse styles as befit the action in the film, from motorik krautrock-y jams to Faheyesque acoustic guitar to abstract drone-scapes to divebombing digital hardcore noise assaults! It's a myriad of moods, all expertly rendered, and despite the eclecticism it hangs together really well. It's obviously not at all a casually-tossed off endeavor -- the project was taken quite seriously by Glenn Jones, Robin Amos & co. and contains some of their finest work. Quite possibly, this will be one of those soundtracks that ends up being more significant and memorable than the film itself, though we won't know 'til we see the thing, which as we said we certainly will want to do based on the strength of its sonic component already. At turns, a haunting, propulsive, and suspenseful blend of folk, electronics, and scenic psychedelic rock.

Whoa! It's nearly a Can reunion. Well not really. But it's as close to sounding live-Can-like as a group could possibly get. Ex-Can lead-singer, Damo Suzuki paired up with Boston's instrumental Cul De Sac for a European and US tour performing cataclysmic improvisations throughout. A two cd collection of over two hours of select tracks from the tour are available here on Abhayamudra. Some of the best of these are from Beograd and Berlin sets. Can may never get back together, but here's the closest an undying fan can get to new material.

MPEG stream: Beograd 1
MPEG stream: Berlin 4

Boston psych/folk/space rockers Cul de Sac covered a Fahey tune on their first album, Ecim, and here they finally get to collaborate with their hero, an ordeal (so say the liner notes) but with quite excellent results as expected.

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

SORRY. The more countryish, second album from this early '70s Danish prog-psych outfit. Definitely without any of the Zeppish proto-metal moments of the first album, but nice and pastoral. Includes six bonus tracks.

Reissued on vinyl, nice! (And expensive, it's an import, but worth it, really, it's a heavy seventies progressive cult classic!) Here's what we said when we first freaked out about this upon the occasion of a cd reissue some years ago: Three things to note about this album: 1) Good lord, the cover! Have you ever seen a psychedelic cartoon vision of a magic garden inhabited by a freaky gnome like that before? 2) If you ask Mikael Akerfeldt of Swedish death metal / progressive rock geniuses Opeth about what his all-time favorite rare prog rock records are, along with First Utterance by Comus he'll name this one, the 1971 debut from Denmark's Culpeper's Orchard. And, now having heard it thanks to Mikael's endorsement, Allan here would too! 3) You'll probably dig this if you like the idea of blending rustic country-folk, twee hippy psych pop, and some heavy hard rock guitar riffery into one unique acid-prog experience that comes across like a mixture of Jethro Tull, Kaleidoscope UK, Yes, the Incredible String Band, and Zeppelin or Sabbath. A great freeking record.

MPEG stream: Teaparty For An Orchard
MPEG stream: Your Song & Mine

Hey, here's a new and improved version of an obscure AQ '70s psych-prog favorite... A few things to note about this album: 1) Good lord, the cover! Have you ever seen a psychedelic cartoon vision of a magic garden inhabited by a freaky gnome like that before? 2) If you ask Mikael Akerfeldt of Swedish death metal / progressive rock geniuses Opeth about what his all-time favorite rare prog rock records are, along with First Utterance by Comus he'll name this one, the 1971 debut from Denmark's Culpeper's Orchard. And, now having heard it thanks to Mikael's endorsement, Allan would too! 3) You'll probably dig this if you like the idea of blending rustic country-folk, twee hippy psych pop, and some heavy hard rock guitar riffery into one unique acid-prog experience that comes across like a mixture of Jethro Tull, Kaleidoscope UK, Yes, the Incredible String Band, and Zeppelin or Sabbath. A great freeking record. 4) Now it's got three bonus tracks, including a pretty killer 9+ minute live performance of a non-album song called "Classified Ads".

MPEG stream: Teaparty For An Orchard
MPEG stream: Your Song & Mine

Named, for some reason, after a Revolutionary War spy cell, Culper Ring is an experimental collaborative side project from three Bay Area underground music notables: Steve Von Till of Neurosis/Tribes Of Neurot, Kris Force of Amber Asylum, and Mason Jones of Subarachnoid Space. There's none of Neurosis's crusty metal grind to be found here, so this might appeal more to fans of Subarachnoid's space rock and Amber Asylum's gothic chamber strings, with the spacey folky vibe these three conjure up. Apparently inspired by the likes of Coil, Nurse With Wound and Current 93, Culper Ring utilize violin, effects-laden guitars, haunting female vocals and some electronic noises to generate a soundworld that's melancholic, dark, a bit droney and "psych". It's actually quite pretty and mellow, with eight untitled tracks to wander through your ears. Not bad at all for a project that we suspect got its start just 'cause the principals all happened to share a practice space. MPEG Download: "track eight" [/audio/culperring8.mp3]

MPEG stream: track eight

Most recent full length from these raw cult black metallers from Chicago. We never had the cd version, but the lp is such a gorgeous piece of work, we figured we oughta list it. Sonically, this is super intense, midtempo blackness, with touches of thrash here and there. A huge Darkthrone influence is obvious, and there ain't nothing wrong with that. Each song a buzzing thrashing blur, some super catchy, killer riffing, distorted processed vocals, and drums WAY up in the mix, but doing some cool stuff, and subtly making the songs a little bit weirder than they might be otherwise. In fact, the more we listen to this, the more it's kicking our ass.� But as much as we love us a black and brutal slab of raw cvlt black metal, it's all about the packaging. Nuclear War Now! always pulls out all the stops, the recent Root box is a perfect example, but this record is just mind blowing. The cover is a gatefold, and is so thick, it's like opening some old unearthed leather bound book. It creaks and groans and you actually have to put some muscle into it. The inner sleeves are thick to, and printed, so even minus the records, the thing must way 3 pounds! Then the vinyl, ultra thick of course. 180 or 200 gram for sure. But the icing on the cake, is the killer original painting used for the cover art, the gatefold and the poster inside, painted by none other than WREST from LEVIATHAN! Immediately recognizable and so striking (even though the� label somehow put someone else's signature on the cover, ugh). Bits of the painting are also reproduced on the record labels, and the gatefold is just thick swirls of paint, the whole thing is just completely stunning.�

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

SORRY.

More spaced out psychedelic garage from the Cardinal Fuzz label, this one, record number two from UK fuzz merchants Cult Of Dom Keller, whose sound is a perfect fit for the 'Fuzz, all reverbed riffage, simple motorik drum pound, laid back echo drenched spacer vox, all smeared into druggy sprawls of lysergic hypno-rock that falls somewhere between Spacemen 3, Moon Duo, Loop and any number of other like minded drug rock space explorers. The opener "Plague Of All" sets the stage perfectly, with a killer main riff, that's soon bolstered by some primitive rhythmic pound, and spidery distorted guitar melody, doused in FX, and seriously fuzzed out, when the vocals swoop in, the sound gets way more spacey and drifty, the sound seesawing back and forth between ethereal space rock shimmer and swagger psych blooze crunch. The rest of the record seems to melt and ooze and drift, the template laid down on the first track seemingly left in the sun too long, whirring organs dripping all over loping and lumbering drug-rock grooves, the guitars churning, warm and distorted, on tracks like "The Snake Keeps Changing", the vibe is practically somnambulant, tripped out and gloriously laid back, it's almost impossible to not imagine some crazy psychedelic light show enveloping you when you close your eyes and strap on the headphones. Other tracks add sitar-like buzz, swirling backwards FX, walls of crumbling distortion, some explode into serious heart-of-the-sun Hawkwind like pound, others sprawl and expand into hazy sonic supernovas of sound. Epic spaced out psychedelia for fans of the usual suspects (Carlton Melton, the Heads, White Hills, Wooden Shjips, as well as the rest of the Cardinal Fuzz roster), and SUPER LIMITED of course, pressed on tripped out swirled red/green vinyl...

MPEG stream: Plague Of All
MPEG stream: The Snake Keeps Changing
MPEG stream: Into The Sky Volcano - Beyond Burning Skies
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The third album from this Swedish outfit, and as always they're recommended to all fans of Isis and Neurosis... Katatonia too... and now they nod towards the likes of Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Sigur Ros. This is arty, dirgey, post-rock metalcore. They can be brutally heavy, yet tender and lovely with loooong build-ups of yearning, melodic blissfulness and that can't help but be full of tension at the same time due to our expectation of the eventual crushing kick-in, when the band drops the hammer and unleashes its sheer pummelling might.

MPEG stream: Vague Illusions
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Swedish metal/doomcore outfit return to demonstrate once again that Neurosis aren't the only ones who can kick out the crushing, nihilistic, doom metal jams. Like their record before this one, The Beyond is a series of pummelling and epic, minor key dirges, equal parts Neurosis, Katatonia, Isis and classic doom metal. Mid tempo bulldozing rhythms and an absolutely punishing wall of guitars smothers your broken heart and battered spirit in sheer heaviness. It all sounds a little familiar, especially for those of us who already dig Neurosis and Isis. But Cult Of Luna manage to pull a little ahead of their doomy brethren with their deft use of melody and their flair for the unlikely arrangements/dynamics. I mean, you would never hear 3 minutes of gentle slide guitar on a Neurosis record would you? Folks who dug the first Cult Of Luna as well as fans of the above bands will dig this a lot. MPEG Download: "Receiver" [/audio/cultoflunareceiver.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Receiver" [/audio/cultoflunareceiver.m3u]

MPEG stream: Receiver
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As if that great new Isis record weren't enough, we've also finally managed to procure a few copies of this, the hard-to-find 2001 debut album by Swedish metalcore outfit Cult Of Luna, a band definitely in the heavier-than-thou, art-metal mode of fellow tortured souls Isis and mentors Neurosis (circa "Enemy Of The Sun"). Unrelenting waves of mid-to-slow-paced guitar/bass/drum punishment provide the backdrop to the vocalist's throaty screams of pain. Even with the piano and cello that decorate portions of this album, and the occasional quiet interludes offering false respite from their sheer HEAVINESS, it's pretty much a doomy trip of massive, suicidally depressing proportions, with cold, sad melodies making them not unlike a metalcore version of fellow morose countrymen Katatonia. Yeah, Katatonia + Neurosis, that about sums 'em up!

RealAudio clip: The Revelation Embodied
RealAudio clip: Hollow
RealAudio clip: Dark Side Of The Sun

Brand new single from this East coast, neo-folk post industrial outfit, whose first record, released on Sacred Bones earlier this year, was a big hit around here, channeling the spirit of industrial legends Death In June through the more modern vibe of their SB labelmates. And the A side here doesn't change up the formula all that much, urgently strummed guitars, deep dramatic crooned vocals, minimal martial percussion, reminding us as much of New Model Army actually as Death In June, mournful horns drifting over a surprisingly wistful melancholic folk, with that minimal percussion building over the course of the song, surrounded by swirls of tinkling melody, finally exploding into some seriously epic industrial folk majesty. The B side is the big surprise here, a sound well removed from the strum and croon of the flipside, which made more sense once we discovered it was a cover of another aQ fave, Martial Canterel, that band's synthy cold wave reimagined sans synth, the resulting sound a strummy eighties style jangle pop / new wave hybrid, it translates surprisingly well, and it's easy to imagine CoY playing that sort of stuff all the time, but CoY's dour industrialisms definitely seep into the sound, which leads to the kick ass final stretch, a seriously heavy epic coda. Comes with a download coupon as well.

Full length number two from these East Coast neo-folkies and like the previous record, it displays a sound that we don't immediately associate with Sacred Bones. Urgently strummed guitars, tribal drumming, horns, bellowed dramatic male vox, angelic female vocals, the vibe pagan and witchy, in our review of the other CoY we mention Comus, the Wicker Man soundtrack, and especially Death In June, this time around we might also add Circulus, and maybe even New Model Army, whose influence we hear throughout Love Will Prevail. The sound here is much more upbeat, the arrangements strident and almost rocking at times, definitely more melodic, the new wave element too is a bit more pronounced, but for every track like the opener "Man And Man's Ruin", which is downright poppy and displays shades of Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat, there's a track like "Garden Of Delights", that's much more brooding and downcast, in fact "Garden Of Delights" might be THEE jam here, the vox particularly vitriolic, the strummed guitar, pounding drums and bleating horns wreathed in a cloud of swirling psychedelic noise, it's pretty intense, and definitely super weird, almost has us wishing the whole record was like this, like some sort of acid folk power electronics. Then there's the final track which is SUPER poppy, trade in the super intense acoustic guitar strumming for some crunchy distortion and you'd have a sweet slab of noise pop, but instead, the horns swoop in, the vocals get all processed and twisted up, and suddenly that poppiness gets warped into something much darker and way more mysterious. Definitely an acquired taste, but one that we seem to have acquired a while ago. And we're guessing some of you may have too.

MPEG stream: Man & Man's Ruin
MPEG stream: Golden Age
MPEG stream: Garden Of Delights
MPEG stream: It Took A Lifetime

Normally when we're reviewing a band on Sacred Bones, we find ourselves referencing cold wave or new wave, eighties goth combos or whatever, but Cult Of Youth requires a whole new set of parameters and comparisons. Think post industrial neo-folk, think Pagan sonic rituals, think the Wicker Man soundtrack, think Comus, think Death In June, especially that last one, cuz if we had to pick someone to compare CoY (originally a home brewed one man band, now a band proper) to, it would most definitely be Death In June, the same sort of charged mix of Teutonic bombast, martial percussion, acid folk strum, and booming chantlike vox. Dark and powerful and mysterious, and in its own way a pretty perfect fit for Sacred Bones. The new multimember incarnation of Cult Of Youth, features mainman/mastermind Sean Ragon, joined by a performance artist/director/painter/occult scholar, a machinist drummer, and a violinist, who most recently arranged strings for the newest Zola Jesus single. Sounds like an eclectic assemblage of talents, but then Cult Of Youth is a pretty eclectic proposition. The first song sets the scene for the whole record, dense tribal drumming, cyclical and hypnotic, thick distorted bass thrum, urgently strummed acoustic guitar, pounding drums, surrounded by swirling ambience, and moody, mournful minor key violin melodies, and over the top strident prosletyzing vocals, booming and emotional. There's also flute, that flutters dreamily throughout. And while this is essentially neo-folk, there is still a dark sort of cold wavey vibe happening for sure. It's not difficult to imagine these songs recast in a different light, replace the acoustic guitars with synths, program the drums, keep the vocals, we'd be talking some awesome chilly bit of brooding dramatic goth wave, so in one way you can almost imagine this as a folky acoustic take on cold wave, similarly dark and moody, gloomy and gothy and dramatic. There's also a bit of a swampy bluesy vibe, making us think of Birthday Party, Sixteen Horsepower, Woven Hand, especially on the more upbeat numbers, the sound transformed into a rollicking bit of shuffle and strum and howl, still peppered with strange bits of industrial crunch, but sweaty and heaving and overflowing with sonic vitriol. The slower moments might be the most powerful, like on "Casting Thorns", one of the moments where the group is most obviously channeling seventies British outfits like Comus, Pentangle, Incredible String Band and the like, swoonsome steel string strum, muted low slung bass, the violin, soaring and lyrical, the link to the rest of the record being the vocals, which are even more dramatic and emotional, cracking and wailing, totally intense and over the top, but those folkier moments are fleeting, with the sound most often slipping back into something more propulsive and bombastic, epic and majestic and yeah, Teutonic. Fans of any of the above mentioned bands should really check out Cult Of Youth, but especially folks into industrial / neo-folk outfits, especially Death In June, but also Current 93, Der Blutharsch, Sol Invictus, Blood Axis, Von Thronstahl, Toroidh and the like. Might also hit the spot for folks who dig seventies British folk and swampy slithery apocalyptic blues, and hell, Captured Tracks obsessives too, might just find a new sound they didn't realize was right up their alley.

MPEG stream: New West
MPEG stream: Casting Thorns
MPEG stream: The Pole-Star
MPEG stream: The Lamb

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

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Epic blackened doom metal from this intercontinental combo, three members in Canada, one in Sweden. The four have never been in a studio together, and one of the guys has never even met the other three, but that hasn't kept them from crafting some seriously epic, dismal doooooom. Sludge-y, crusty, grim and blackened, the guitars are huge slabs of frosty crunch, the drums pound and pound, the vocals a raspy wintery howl, the tracks lengthy and mantra-like, some weird blend of Khanate's ultra funeral crawl, the post Sabbath sludge of Electric Wizard, the epic slow builds of Neurosis, old school death doom like Winter, all wound into something much more modern sounding. The vocals especially, not really black shrieks or doomy growls, instead they're some sort of super distorted harsh hellish howl, almost industrial sounding, but it suits the music, which slips from almost post rock drift, to seriously dense downtuned crush, to spaced out almost psychedelia, to churning, grinding sludge, often exploding into epic, majestic doom psych blowouts, or locking into seemingly endless chugscapes, oozing with black atmosphere, and always seemingly on the edge of total collapse, a plodding metallic deathmarch that resolves in a cloud of glitched out low end buzz. Cool. And killer diecut digipackaging to boot...

MPEG stream: Tyrant Cold
MPEG stream: Social Control
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It's been four years since the last apocalyptic transmissions from this intercontinental outfit, three Canadians and one Swede (whom the Canadians have never ever actually met, so the story goes!), and now Culted have returned with another harrowing dose of monstrously overwhelming blackened sludge. Oblique To All Paths is over an hour of immersive and corrosive sonic density. 20 minute opener "Brooding Hex" initially creates a false sense of security with its ethereal plucked strings, bathed in reverb, seeming to loop like something from a hazy half remembered dream. The sound of what seems to be rustling paper adding a further surreal layer. But before long, those crumbling lumbering guitars crash to the surface like some long sleeping leviathan reawakened and suddenly all light is sucked out of the room and we're ushered into a world of anguished growls and dissonant maddening leads over terrifying earth splitting grooves. Culted often recall '90s era Neurosis or Godflesh at their most unforgiving, especially with their use of crackling spoken word recordings, looped samples and minimal hypnotic riffing. There are moments of comparative calm here as well. Swirling disorienting clean guitars are layered upon white noise. Fluttering shoegazey leads fight to surface like dying rays of sunlight peaking through black storm clouds. Tribal toms thunder beneath a wall of droning feedback creating a strange sense of suffocating peace. But even these passages act more as an ominous calm before the storm than a moment of respite, only building the dread and magnifying the intensity when those world ending guitars kick back in. Enormous and all encompassing, and while perhaps slightly more musical than the harshest of doom drone acts, there's no reason why fans of Bunkur, Monument Of Urns, Indian or our recently reviewed Legions Of Andromeda won't appreciate this swirling uncompromising black hole of a record.

MPEG stream: Brooding Hex
MPEG stream: March Of The Wolves
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We recently reviewed the debut full length from this mysterious intercontinental doom combo, whose members are spread across Canada and Sweden, and who have never met in person, and thus obviously never been in the same room together, which made that record, and this new one, all the more impressive. But perhaps proximity isn't critical to tapping into whatever sinister spirit inspires the sort of filthy doomic crust these guys conjure up. And the sound here is plenty filthy, crusty, AND doomy, and like the first record, a little industrial. Their sound borrows a little from the likely suspects, Winter, Khanate, Electric Wizard, Neurosis and the like, but Culted take those influences and filter them through some seriously blackened sludge, some avant post rock, some industrial crunch, and twists them all up into something gnarled and psychedelic and heavy as fuck. The two minute opener, is a lumbering chugscape, that sounds like the slower bits from say Spektr or Blut Aus Nord, stop / start churning riffage, over swirls of filthy ambience, a machine like groove, super distorted vox, a black industrial juggernaut, over way too soon, which leads into the 10 plus minute, awesomely titled "Black Cough, Black Coffin", a slow smoldering creep, droned out downtuned guitars, glacial riffage, more hellish vokills, eventually building to a lumbering blackened plod, again, the rhythm almost industrial, the guitars distorted and crushing, the track allowed a brief bit of shimmery drone, before returning to the grim grinding sonic churn, the vocals growing more and more distorted, almost Ministry style, a pounding black doom dirge juggernaut. "Dissent" is a bit more poppy, but that's really relative, a little Jesu / Nadja infused into Culted's grim black crush, with some spaced out clean guitar, billowy clouds of washed out chordal blur, the vocals buried WAY down in the mix, a strange headtripping ambient doom drift, that lurches back into caveman plod, before finishing up all post rocky, with spare percussion, hushed ambience, spidery minor key guitars, a surprisingly lovely outro. The record finishes with the sub 5 minute "Whore", a Swans cover, which in the hands of Culted becomes a seriously twisted black doom crawl, with a woozy slippery ascending main riff, some more seriously fucked up and harrowing vokills, the sound eventually shifting to something more traditionally doomy, but still infused with Culted's sick twisted take on Swans abject clang and crunch.

MPEG stream: Black Cough, Black Coffin
MPEG stream: Dissent

It's easy to see why this boy/girl duo Cults have been getting so much hype, they traffic in the same sort of jangly retro girl pop as all the current 'girls' bands (Dum Dum, Vivian, At Dawn, etc), their contribution to / variation of THAT sound is adding some electronics, bigger beats and a WAY bigger production, which actually works, the sound is pretty dang irresistible, imagine the Dum Dum Girls mixed with Sleigh Bells, but with more of a droney, druggy, softly psychedelic vibe, not to mention some sweet catchy songs. "Abducted" the first single splits the verses between the boy and girl, but the chorus is all her, chiming melodies, handclap percussion, fuzzy bass buzz, plenty of reverb, soaring vocals and a divine hook, a cool swirly psychedelic breakdown rife with plenty of garage rock guitar twang, not to mention a seriously striking and way creepy video. The second track is a good one too, "Go Outside", which sounds a bit like Best Coast but with programmed beats, and a more modern sheen, and again, a killer catchy chorus. The sound of Cults is just really great, equal parts modern and retro, snaps and claps and reverby girl group vox, mixed with programmed beats, and swirling synths, some tracks all torch songy and ballady, others more propulsive and electronics, hard to imagine that fans of the above mentioned bands, as well as maybe the Raveonettes, not flipping for these two, we sure did.

MPEG stream: Abducted
MPEG stream: Go Outside

You wouldn't expect an ensemble of 14 year old school girls playing all manner of vibraphones, marimbas, glockenspiels, xylophones and timpani drums to have a name like Cults Percussion Ensemble, but it's highly appropriate as this is not only a totally obscure record from 1979 sold only on European festival tours, but Cults also happens to be the name of the Scottish suburb of Aberdeen that the group and their bandleader, Rob Forbes, hailed from. And it makes perfect sense that it would end up getting reissued on the uber eclectic Trunk label. This is a beautifully charming new releases of hypnotically cascading mallet music that is shimmering and strange, dreamlike and diaphanous, so pretty but also at times a little cartoony, reminding us of Carl Orff's wonderful children's music, Sea World's Sparklett's Dancing Water Show (a fave attraction from our childhood, now sadly dismantled) or the incidental music on the Addam's Family. The girls' deft performances and light airy touch are delightfully enchanting, and though not as sinister or as ominous as the title would suggest, the music is nonetheless spellbinding and mysterious and comes highly recommended!!

MPEG stream: Autun Carillon
MPEG stream: Circles
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[ aquarius records catalogue — C ]