[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 2651 through 2700 of 2775.

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SORRY. Live in London, October 2003.

As anyone with even a passing interest in the catalogue of Current 93 can attest, David Tibet's visionary poetry has always been a central facet to his work. The lyrics have gradually become more and more enmeshed into his deeper personal studies into the mythologies surrounding the Christian apocalypse, the various heresies involving Gnosticism and Patipatrianism, the texts of Crowley and other practitioners of the dark arts, and more recently, the ancient texts of Coptic Christians. The resulting imagery has become all the more convoluted beyond the pitting of Christ and Satan in existential conflict over the fate of the world. A brief bit of marketing states Honeysuckle Aeons to be "dreams of the crucifixion with Christ and two thieves ascending" and, we'll have to take Tibet at his word that all of his lyrical content is in someway revolving around this concept. Musically, Honeysuckle Aeons is a typically solemn affair, with the arrangements hedging towards the sparse end of the C93 spectrum (especially Soft Black Stars). The use of Theremin throughout the album is a novel one, interlocked with the delicate Satie-like notes on the piano from Baby Dee. We have to admit being much more partial to the heavier, darker, and / or more psychedelic incarnations of the C93 sound (e.g. Dogs Blood Rising, Thunder Perfect Mind, Aleph At Hallucinatory Mountain, etc.), but here the Theremin-laced arrangements put all of the focus on Tibet's esoteric word (which is often "honeysuckle", he says that a lot here) and thought.

MPEG stream: Moon
MPEG stream: Honeysuckle

How He Loved The Moon is Current 93's tribute to the late Jhonn Balance of Coil who died in December of 2004. Balance and Current 93's David Tibet had been longtime friends, dating back to their time in the revolving door membership of Psychic TV back in the early '80s. Despite the elegaic poem that Tibet inscribed as liner notes, Tibet has stepped back into the shadows of this album, giving the helm to longtime collaborator Steven Stapleton who was given the task of reworking the early Current 93 album In Menstrual Night in honor of Balance. Given that In Menstrual Night was an exploration into the question as to where dreams go when they die, it's a fitting source material; although it has to be asked why the need to remix the album twice, as Stapleton has already remixed In Menstrual Night back in 2003 for A Little Menstrual Night Music. Anyway, the densely reverberated vocalizations, cloudy drones, and blunt post-Faust percussion from the original remain, smeared across 2LPs.

Over the past decade or so, Current 93 has steadily simplified their arrangements, moving from an impassioned psychedelic death-folk to a delicately scored sound for piano, guitar, violin, and the occasional tape loop. This transition obviously has focused the attention of Current 93 upon David Tibet, his voice, and his lyrics which become even more pronounced during their live performances. How I Devoured Apocalypse Balloon is a double disc set of the two Toronto performances that Current 93 delivered in June 2004, and showcase the radical simplicity of Current 93's music set against the complexities of Tibet's mythological revelations. For these performances, Tibet brought on board Ben Chasny (Six Organs Of Admittance) and Simon Finn along with Michael Cashmore, John Contreras, and Graham Jeffery. Many of the tracks from these two sets return to earlier work by Current 93, with a number of tracks from Earth Covers Earth and Thunder Perfect Mind, as well as revisitation of "Falling Back in Fields of Rape," which David Tibet wrote for both Current 93 and Death In June back in the mid-'80s. Unfortunately, there's no tracklisting for these two performances, although if you need to know a quick Google search will solve this dilemna. Regardless, these live performances are immaculated played, very well recorded, and certainly reflect the overall aesthetic of Current 93, making this a worthwhile document for all C93 fans.

MPEG stream: They Returned To Their Earth (June 19, 2004)
MPEG stream: This Shining Shining World (June 19, 2004)
MPEG stream: Earth Cover Earth (June 18, 2004)

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SORRY. Ah, to be scared by Current 93 is a very good thing. The last time Tibet and co. put aside their trademarked renaissance faire folk was with their first collaboration with Lovecraftian horror novelist Thomas Ligotti. "I Have A Special Plan..." is the second collaboration between C93 and Ligotti to spine tingling results. Tibet recites a story written by Ligotti just for this release with Stapleton and Christoph Heemann providing the creepy droning and mutations on Tibet's voice. The only fault is the length, a short 22 minutes.

RealAudio clip: I Have A Special Plan For This World

Current 93's epic Inmost Light Trilogy had originally been issued back in the mid-'90s as three separate releases, with the two short program discs Where The Long Shadows Fall and The Stars Are Marching Sadly Home bracketing the full length album All The Pretty Little Horses. But through a tragic turn of events that has been recounted here and many other places, the distribution company that released those discs went out of business, rendering this (and pretty much the entire Current 93, Nurse With Wound, Coil, and Sol Invictus back catalogues) out of print. Fortunately, a hearty few have lovingly reissued much of that material, Jnana being one of those labels; and it's Jnana who has thoughtfully reissued what David Tibet exclaimed as his "Hallucinatory Patripassianist Song" as a triple cd set. Where The Long Shadows Fall opens with a stately loop of a beautifully sad / eternally holy female choral melody, obviously taken from an old piece of vinyl as the crackle and hiss of the surface noise provides a familiar antiquated patina. Additional baroque vocal melodies intertwine with a chiming 12-string acoustic guitar strum which slowly progresses with the plod of a heavy doom track, minus the downtuned distortion; and then of course, there's David Tibet reciting his trademarked revelations surrounding his heretical beliefs about Christ, Satan, and the end of the world as we know it. Where The Long Shadows Fall is an open ended piece, built upon illusion and impression. For the elegantly mangled nursery rhymes that Current 93 is known for, look to the second disc All The Pretty Little Horses. Here, David Tibet conducts business mostly as a duet with the acoustic guitar of Michael Cashmore, who has done more to define Tibet's apocalyptic take on British folk than any other guitarist (including Ben Chasny, Tony Wakeford, Douglas P, etc.). These tunes are sparsely arranged with occasional flourishes of electronic manipulation and baroque instrumentation. Along with Cashmore, other noteworthy guest appearance include Nick Cave and Shirley Collins. The final disc The Stars Are Marching Sadly Home is one of the darker recordings that Current 93 has made since Tibet abandoned the dirge collages of tape loops and cackling voice which dominated his very first recordings. That same vocal loop which opens Where The Long Shadows Fall is the backbone to this atmospheric work, although it has been shrouded in reverb and pushed into the background of whispering drones and shadowy sounds. Tibet's voice growls with the aid of plenty of timestretched tricks that perfectly augment Tibet's already creepy voice. If you didn't have the opportunity to pick these up when they originally came out, you really should now, and spend some time with these recordings as they have clearly aged well over the past decade and stand amongst the best of the Current 93 recordings.

MPEG stream: Where The Long Shadows Fall
MPEG stream: All The Pretty Little Horses
MPEG stream: Calling For Vanished Faces
MPEG stream: The Stars Are Marching Sadly Home

Thanks to an insatiable appetite for British folk and Christian Gnosticism, Current 93 evolved out of the tumultousness of British Industrial Culture into an eccentric avant-folk ensemble grounded by the charismatic singer / visionary David Tibet (who nowadays is qualifying himself as David Late Michael after a particularly convoluted revelation he had earlier in 2005). A few years ago, Current 93's distributor World Serpent dissolved, immediately rendering the catalogues of C93, Nurse With Wound, Coil, Sol Invictus, and Antony & The Johnsons out of print. Yet all of these bands persisted, releasing their works on various labels across the globe. Judas As Black Moth is actually the third double disc anthology of Current 93's work, focusing upon the most recent releases on which C93 has exacted a very precise sound with minimal arrangements for acoustic guitar, piano, Tibet's voice, and very little else to emphasize the profound melancholy of Tibet's lyrics and the peculiarities of his revelatory poetry. This anthology takes tracks from Where The Long Shadows Fall, Soft Black Stars, Of Ruine Or Some Blazing Starre, All The Pretty Horses, Thunder Perfect Mind, Earth Covers Earth, and a few others; it does exclude all of the exquisitely grim collage recordings from the early '80s. Nevertheless, Current 93 remains apocalyptic in the true sense of the word.

MPEG stream: Sleep Has His House
MPEG stream: Lucifer Over London
MPEG stream: A Gothic Love Song

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SORRY.

Nature Unveiled was Current 93's debut, with the subtitle "Antichrist Revealed." As much as C93 has evolved since 1984 when David Tibet began this project, Current 93 emerged fully formed with much of the conceptual groundwork laid out for an entire lifetime of Tibet's research into occult mysticism and heretical Christianity. This album was conceived from beginning to end as a nightmare, with all of the exaggerated sounds collaged in harsh relief against a doomscape of the blackest of sounds. Tibet employed a handful of musicians with ties to Industrial Culture -- Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound (who has gone on to aid and abed Tibet on most of the C93 records), John Murphy (once of SPK and Lustmord's ensemble), and even Annie Anxiety of Crass. But even the most abstracted sounds of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV often related or at least exposed some sort of relationship to technology, whilst Current 93 was all about creating a bleak soundtrack collaged from monastic chants, monstrous growls, and bellowing clusters of low end rumble, all coated with brimstone, sulfur, and ash. Throughout the album, David Tibet moans and spits repetitive chants that "Maldoror is dead," with no chance for hope and no escape. Perhaps even more so today with so many blackened ambient projects and feral noise technicians about, Nature Unveiled is an ever impressive document and a chilling visionary masterpiece. United Jnana has reissued Nature Unveiled in one of its earliest forms, complete with the original liner notes, a small poster, and the bonus split 7" between Current 93 and Nurse With Wound. This probably won't be around for very long, so don't dally on this one!

MPEG stream: Ach Golgoth: The Mystical Body Of Christ In Chorazaim

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SORRY.

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SORRY. You have to respect David Tibet for never wavering from the path that he started down some 15 years ago with his "apocalyptic folk and mentrual minstrals." Recently there hasn't been much malevolence in Current 93's vocabulary as of late, but it still retains the folkish minstral element. With tremolo guitar, harmonium, bass, and "the world" - as credited to Steven Stapleton - Current 93 follows several meandering signatures that solemnly march at the pace of a funereal dirge. Any musically implied gloom is quickly eradicated by Tibet's running narrative of arcane hopefulness. "Sleep Has His House" is not as anally retentive as "Soft Black Stars" and therefore a bit more enjoyable, but its still nowhere nearly as good as the bad-acid trip collages of "Blood Dogs Rising."

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SORRY. While Steven Stapleton and Christoph Heemann are respectively credited for performing "whirl" and "swirl" on this Current 93 album, their presence is hardly felt as David Tibet concentrates on the untreated melancholic piano and his ghastly allegories of the end of the world.

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SORRY.

During a recent illness, David Tibet had one of his earthmoving visions in which he was told to summarize his life's work in a singular recording. The powers that be instructed him that this life summary was to be a densely layered collage of all of his recordings as Current 93 and with Steven Stapleton all piled on top of each other. When Tibet recovered from his sickness, he and

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SORRY.

The 1991 companion release to a Nurse With Wound album of the same name, "Thunder Perfect Mind" is a stately album of C93's bleak reinterpretations of occultish '60s UK folk. Joined by The Bevis Frond's Nick Soloman on a few tracks along with other guests including Shirley Collins, this rather sorrowful sounding album from Current 93 has a definitively psychedelic overtone to it. One of the recommended Current 93 releases, now newly reissued and remastered in a fancy double cd digipack format -- the extra disc consisting of different live/studio versions of songs from the album proper.

RealAudio clip: A Sadness Song

Both Steven Stapleton and David Tibet have been working on each others albums almost since the inceptions of both Nurse With Wound and Current 93, and the two of them have collaborated as equals on a few Stapleton / Tibet albums. But both Tibet and Stapleton Somehow this collaboration has reawakened the nightmare culture which both ensembles propagated during the beginnings of Current 93 and Nurse With Wound, so you'll find less of the anally retentive folk stylings which have populated Current 93 and less of the smug weird-for-the-sake-of-being-weirdness from the last couple of Nurse With Wound albums. Michael Cashmore -- Tibet's favorite guitarist to play on the Current 93 albums -- does make a few appearances, offering more of a high-lonesome sound of big single plucked strings than his normal 12-string affair. Behind these solitary notes, Stapleton gradually builds a sublime collage of slashing noises, mechanical vocal loops, and generalized ominous atmospheres which is very reminiscent of his work on C93's "Dogs Blood Rising" and NWW's "Homotopy For Marie." Tibet, of course, offers an bleak recitation of one of his prophetic revelations. As in C93's previous "The Great And The Small," Tibet's inspiration comes from the near-death experience he encountered after his appendix burst and went gangrenous. However, unlike "The Great And The Small," "Bright Yellow Moon" comes much closer to explaining Tibet's horrors.

RealAudio clip: Disintegrate Blur 36 Page 03
RealAudio clip: Nichts

After over a decade of crafting a persona as the Gnostic court minstrel, David Tibet made a welcome return to the 'culture of nightmares' that ran through the first Current 93 records with the 1997 collabortive album / book with horror novelist Thomas Ligotti. The title itself comes from a recurring theme that Tibet brought to those early Current 93 recordings and also made their way into some Death In June albums. Cross-referencing various forms of apocalyptic literature, that unknown foreign town is the inception place for the apocalypse, with Tibet announcing the prophetic statement that "reaping time has come." While most apocalyptic literature (including the often misunderstood Book of Revelation) offers a vision of existential hope to a world shrouded in despair, Tibet's apocalyptic language concentrates on the descriptive details of how the world might end, instead of why the world is falling apart. Furthermore, these details dwell with the subjective viewpoint of a protagonist inflicted by madness, feverish hallucinations, wholly encompassing fear, and the awe-inspiring nature of terror; thus, the objective truth about the coming of the end of the world is left unanswered. Thomas Ligotti, admittedly one of Tibet's favorite writers, has built an entire career on awakening the spirit of H.P. Lovecraft through ghastly tales of ancient demonic forces and hidden archons plotting against the rest of the world. For their collaboration "In A Foreign Town, In A Foreign Land," the two divided the labor evenly amongst their stonger talents with Ligotti providing a novella and Tibet's Current 93 producing the atmospheric soundtrack. Ligotti's contribution is easily the best that I've encountered of his work, favoring a Victorian sensibility of horror based not so much on the supernatural, but on the quiet whisperings of insanity. Current 93's soundtrack is a perfect fit with Ligotti's text, centered mostly upon the luminous bleak drones constructed by Current 93's line up of Tibet, Christoph Heemann, and Steven Stapleton. As a whole, the Current 93 soundtrack casts a gloomy tone, punctuated occasionally by razor-like slashes of treated noise and vocal interjections from various characters in the Ligotti text, read by Tibet, Andria Degens, and Shirley Collins. The return of Current 93's dark collage work previously found on Tibet's early masterpieces "Dogs Blood Rising" and "Nature Unveilled" is technically more refined than those rough hewn recordings, and are just as effective. Originally, "In A Foreign Town, In A Foreign Land" was published as a hardbound book with an accompanying cd. This, the second edition, has been condensed down to a smaller CD-sized book. Other than that, there are no changes to what is easily one of the highlights to both artists' careers.

RealAudio clip: His Shadow Shall Rise To A Higher House
RealAudio clip: A Soft Voice Whispers Nothing

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SORRY. Similar to the apocalyptic drum and bass of labelmate Panacea (whom we love love love), but the horror show here is rather more clinical and restrained, though no less dark.

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SORRY. As a pure genre, drum & bass clearly reached its zenith a few years back and has tried to resurrect itself with all sorts of wacky 'nu-skools' like neuro-funk and speed garage... when drum & bass probably should be viewed as just another colour in the electronica palette. The Position Chrome stable artists of Panacea, Heinrich At Hart, and Current Value had originated their sound at the darkest end of the tech-step spectrum, but have been increasingly shedding the references of drum & bass, in favor of circular oscillations of dark beats and eerie atmospheres, while maintaining the clinical electro-shock metaphors of tech-step. Sounds like Skinny Puppy, doesn't it.

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SORRY. Ultra clinical, stripped down tech step. Hard and mean and scary and COLD. On Force Inc./Position chrome.

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SORRY.

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SORRY.

Cool. A super-limited 7" release from San Francisco's no-wave noise militants, Curse Of The Birthmark. Three hundred and thirty three of these were put out, as part of a 7" series from 333 Recordings. Features Weasel Walter from Flying Luttenbachers on keys.

Ipecac unleashes the latest chapter in the saga of the Curse Of The Golden Vampire -- otherwise known as Alec Empire and Techno Animal (Justin Broadrick and Kevin Martin). The last CotGV was a crushing super distorted dub/breakbeat/jungle free for all that we all pretty much dug. The new one is too, sort of. It's a much sloppier and noisier affair, which could be a good thing I suppose. But for me, it's lacking the huge beats that made the first one so appealing. Well, they're still there, but they're buried under so much nosie and skree and shkkkkgghhhhhhh that the whole thing sometimes veers closer to Japanoise territory than their DHR lineage would have you expecting. So, if you need a noise fix, and like your noise with some beats, this may be just what you need.

MPEG stream: One
MPEG stream: Two
MPEG stream: Three

Never thought of Australia as a hot bed for hip hop, did ya? Us neither. But with rad artists like Macromantics and Curse Ov Dialect throwin' down the goods, things may be taking a turn. Mind you, Curse Ov Dialect aren't a new group, they've been releasing music overseas for years. These four MCs and one DJ of Indian, Macedonian, Maltese, Maori and Pakistani descent dish out their Wooden Tongues resplendent with world beat influences drawing from their respective roots and beyond, and world wise lyrics laden with potent yet not didactic social and political messages. A vigorous and vibrant sophomore album.

MPEG stream: Renegades
MPEG stream: Word Up Forever

We've been hearing about these guys for a while now, often mentioned in the same breath as other hyped underground groups like Natural Snow Buildings, King Kong Ding Dong, Barn Owl, etc. But this is the first time we've actually heard them, and we have to say it does live up to the hype. Although in many ways it reminds us way more of the Finnish forest folk(s), sort of abstract, meandery, a little clattery, spacious and skeletal, haunting and otherworldly. Another record it reminds us of a little bit is Smog's Julius Caesar, although this is way more abstract and deconstructed, but it has the same sort of barebones lo-fi songsmithery. The guitars creak and groan, the vocals are moaned and crooned, effects swirl, flutes flutter, all spread out in a slow shifting, dreamily drifting psych folk, that should definitely appeal to fans of Six Organs, Avarus, Steven R Smith and the like. But Cursillistas can be dark and noisy too, some of the songs building to sinister climaxes, plenty of careening FX, some WAY up in the mix, while others continue on lilting gently, vocals always distorted, but they still creak and crack with emotion, hand drums crank out tribal rhythms, bells chime, everything hazy and washed out and dreamy. A few tracks get all back porchy and twangy, reminding us of Red Red Meat or Souled American, while others get all droned out and effects drenched, twisting tangled stretches of overlapping tones, tweaked effects, garbled vox, and blurred melodies. Beautiful hand screened sleeves, with printed vellum inserts. NICE.

MPEG stream: The Snake And The Motor
MPEG stream: Toy Tone Yr. Death
MPEG stream: Crooked Isle

Still holding down the emo wing of the Saddle Creek label is Cursive, and here is their new two song ep. Their inclusion of strings and horns with their basic punk rock assembly of guitar, bass and drums adds a wonderful dimension to Cursive. We caught a glimpse of this expanded instrumentation on their last release which was a split cd with Japan's Eastern Youth. It really works well! Increasing the dramatics of their already heavily emotive and dynamic music. An exciting peek at what's to come on their new full length due out soon.

RealAudio clip: Art Is Hard

It simply doesn't get much more emo than this. Capital E! M! O!

Cursive come tearing out of the gate with the tumultuous opening number "Opening The Hymnal / Babies". They follow it with the vibrant, fiery "Dorothy At Forty", and we thought to ourselves, "Geez, this is great! If they keep going the way they're going, holy shit, this is gonna be a doozy!" And they do and it is! They've always crafted their music with more drama and dynamics than most of their emo contemporaries, but while they've certainly retained their very emo core, this is Cursive at perhaps their most varied and their least aggressive (tho' there's still an occasional gritty moment here and there). Happy Hollow is both more angular'n'skronky (yes, there are saxophones and trumpets!) and more Brit-poppy than previous Cursive releases. So it's not surprising that as a result they kinda end up sounding less like the Cursive of old, drawing comparisons to a number of other faves of AQ with whom you're probably already familiar. For instance, "So-So Gigolo" drives with a very Queens Of The Stone Age-y propulsion. "Bad Science" sounds like a latter day Cure song. The abovementioned second song and "Rise Up! Rise Up!" bring to mind the feverishness of Doug Martsch's pre-Built To Spill band Treepeople. Pretty darn great!

MPEG stream: Dorothy At Forty
MPEG stream: cursivesosogigolo.mp3

Hmmm, maybe the difference between houses and homes is that someone cares enough to do the housekeeping... which is what emo-punk band Cursive have done with six years worth of their recorded output. Out of print singles? Previously unreleased tracks? You bet! Cursive and their label Saddle Creek want you to have them all, right now on this Cursive collection! The cd starts and ends with their two unavailable-until-now songs "Dispenser" and "I Thought There'd Be More Than This". Sandwiched in between are ten tunes drawn from four of their 7"s -- The Disruption (1996), Sucker & Dry (1997), The Icebreaker (1998), and Makoto Split Series (2001). All in all, the selections serve as a solid overview of the band's evolution from precarious abrasive angst boys to slightly more reined-in moody lads. Includes a 24 page booklet in which you'll find a story written by Tim Kasher and illustrated by Yuriko Yoshino (of Cursive pals Japanese punk rock band Eastern Youth).

MPEG stream: Dispenser
MPEG stream: I Thought There'd Be More Than This

In just three songs, this ep shows off a few different shades of Cursive. You may recall the title track from their last album 2003's The Ugly Organ -- very reminiscent of Built To Spill and Modest Mouse. The second song "Once" is angst filled and churning and the third "Adapt" is a slow swooning number with handwringing strings.

MPEG stream: Once

The title is a definite sign of what to expect from Cursive's new album. There's organs a-plenty, but whether they're specifically "ugly" is up for debate. There's also angstful emo a-plenty too as only Cursive can do. Particularly with their most recent releases, they've been adding more and more dimensions to the straight-up emo punk rock guitar sound. Andee and Cup both loved the Art Is Hard ep that preceded The Ugly Organ, and this full length sure doesn't disappoint either. Once again, the big Cursive picture has been fleshed out with some cello, layers of vocals and the aforementioned organs. It's quite wonderful and dramatic, really - at once, emotionally charged, well composed, quirkily detailed and yes, very rocking too.

RealAudio clip: The Recluse

An international punk rock mini-fest, this split release features four tunes each from Japanese trio Eastern Youth and Omaha, NE emo-punk boys Cursive. Consider this your preparation for their imminent U.S. tour together. Eastern Youth fares best when vocalist Hisashi Yoshino totally cuts loose - which in my opinion, he doesn't do hardly enough on these songs - 'cause when he's singing in a calmer fashion the songs tend to drag and stumble (although at times it sort of reminded me of Shudder To Think). I've noticed a prevalent and very distinct sound in the Japanese punk rock recordings I've heard to date (particularly noticeable in the guitar tone). The individual instruments/musicians sound isolated from one another. Clean and somewhat sterile, like the music production on Japanese tv variety shows. Made me think - sizeable budgets but lacking in a unified rockin' energy. Their live rage just fails to come across consistently in the recorded realm. As for Cursive, they've seldom let their fans down, and they're not gonna start now. Tim Kasher's raw, angstful voice is primed and ready as they kick out four new songs of angular punk rock aggression made even more moody by the relatively recent, highly complementary addition of cello to their standard guitar/bass/drums lineup.

RealAudio clip: Excerpts From Various Notes Strewn Around The Bedroom Of April Connolly Feb. 24, 1997
RealAudio clip: Muyohnosuke
RealAudio clip: Bura Bura Bushi

This album from Cursor Miner (aka Robert Tubb) is a darn sonic rollercoaster ride. A super fun and eclectic album, it starts out with an ominous 40 second digital roar, then proceeds into a Beck-ish slouchy, loping fashion which mutates into more stuttery electronics and bumpity-bump programmed beats like Hrvatski or Kid 606. All chopped up, chunky and playful with a definite pop heart, it blends together acoustic guitars, rubbery blumps and bleeps, samples and processed vocals. Cool.

RealAudio clip: Never Been Seen
RealAudio clip: U Want To Want
RealAudio clip: Battery Powered Joy

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SORRY. In case the title didn't already give it away, this is part of the German label TomLab's special 7" single series dedicated to the alphabet! It all began with Mark Robinson and the letter 'A' back in July 2004. Now it's mid-2006 and they've reached the letter 'N', but don't punish yourself if you've missed a few (if not or all) of 'em thus far. Each edition has only been pressed in a super fleeting run of 500. Geez, you can barely catch a glimpse of them. 'M' by Max Tundra and 'L' by Les Georges Leningrad (which came out in May and March of this year respectively) are already long gone. Sooooo, while it lasts we have 'N' which features two tunes by SF art-popsters The Curtains (aka Deerhoof's Chris Cohen). Snooze and lose...

Asthmatic Kitty, the label that brought us a bunch of early Sufjan Stevens releases as well as two dream-folk albums by the Castanets, has released another likemindedly quirky lovely cd by The Curtains starring Mr. Chris Cohen formerly of Deerhoof. Not at all surprisingly, the mildly tweaked elements of his old band definitely make their way into the pastel pop weave of The Curtains, but the overall sound is more straightforward fluttery retro '60s psych-pop with very heavy Beach Boys and Beatles influences. It's all super sweet and wistful with female vocals courtesy of Nedelle Torrisi (also of SF duo Nedelle And Thom). Half-Handed Cloud's John Ringhofer also lends (more than half) a musical hand. Cohen has the kind of irresistible boyish wonder and charm that few possess. It's almost like he exists in a Michel Gondry film, so many wonderful colors, state of the bedroom invention and endless wonder. There's nothing but puffy clouds floating in a bright blue sky when this one's playin'!

MPEG stream: Green Water
MPEG stream: Calamity

A beautifully rendered document of the early stages of this San Francisco trio. A posthumous release of sorts, considering the radical personnel changes since the recording of "Fast Talks". But alas, we can now enjoy the magic of what once was. Comparisons to Beefheart's Magic Band, The Shaggs or the reserved expansiveness of guitarists like Derek Bailey, Taku Sugimoto or Fred Frith certainly come to mind, though those likenesses are only fragments of the larger landscape. The duelling guitars of Chris Cohen and Trevor Shimizu weave into one another, not colliding or stepping on each others toes, but crafting a web in which the stumbling percussive rolls of drummer Jamie Peterson (ex-Saint Andre) are able to grasp onto. Peterson's unique style recalls the Magic Band's John "Drumbo" French, though with more reservation and a playful discretion. In fact most of the songs on "Fast Talks" are refreshing in their sheer simplicity and sense of discovery. You might be inclined to say "naive" upon first listen, as remnants of "outsider" artists such as The Shaggs can be traced through their arrangements, though these pieces are extremely well conceived, complex and strongly informed by restraint and the spaces in between. Several moments throughout the record even contain qualities which recall another SF avant-rock outfit -- Deerhoof -- whose guitarist John Dieterich, coincidentally, takes production controls here. Vinyl only, and gorgeously packaged as per the Thin Wrist standard of excellence.

RealAudio clip: 22nds
RealAudio clip: Athletes In The Stars
RealAudio clip: Dim Weeks
RealAudio clip: Slippers

Fresh from their split cd and tour with Japanese pop-psych shamblers Maher Shalal Hash Baz, The Curtains release their first full-length cd. On it, this Bay Area trio of synthesizers, guitars and drums make a precarious heap of quirksome dissonance... and it's really no wonder since its members are Chris Cohen, Andrew Maxwell, and Greg Saunier. These gents also make sounds with such groups as Deerhoof, Natural Dreamers and Open City. On Flybys, melodies are introduced and seemingly take root, only to have the notes scatter like a disturbed anthill. A tangles of plucked guitar strings. Woozy synthesized heaves. A tumbling snare drum. The three are joined on a number of tracks by their former Curtains comrades Jaime Peterson (electronics) and Trevor Shimizu (synthesizer and guitar). As the album progresses the tracks seem to teasingly approach a slightly more traditional song structure, but you'll find with The Curtains you're seldom on completely stable ground. 22 tracks in all with the longest one clocking in at 3 minutes and the shortest at sixteen seconds (most are around one to two minutes)!

MPEG stream: Partners
MPEG stream: It's The Bunklords

Sometimes bedazzled, certainly bemused and maybe befuddled, that's where curious local art-rockers The Curtains keep the listener, one never knowing from track to track where the album is likely to lead. And there's a whole lotta tracks on here, like 23 of 'em! All share the The Curtains charming style of quirky, indie-rock confusion, that can be proggily grandiose one moment, innocent and simple the next. Faux-naive? Beefheart-complex? It's all good. The Curtains make their own rules, and we love 'em for it.

MPEG stream: April Galleons
MPEG stream: Medallion Arrangement

Charles Curtis is a classical cellist and avant garde composer and this is a reissue of a super limited double lp released only in Germany last year. Four long tracks that can be played separately, or in different combinations on multiple stereos. Three of the tracks are gorgeous drones built from cellos, electric guitars and sinewaves, while the fourth track is a dreamy hypnotic mini-epic ala Godspeed You Black Emperor; dark rumbling post rock with a monotone disembodied voice rambling throughout. Quite nice.

First album by British femme-fronted classical psych-prog rockers Curved Air. Sublime!

Dom Fernow (Ash Pool, Vegas Martyrs, Prurient, Cold Cave) of Hospital Productions insisted that this record from mysterious USBM outfit Curved Blade was totally aQ worthy, and boy was he right. A stumbling damaged chunk of plodding, lumbering outsider death-obsessed doom flecked black metal grimnity. The guitars are warbly and warped, the drums are loose and chaotic, the keyboards add a twisted droned out vibe, the vocals are barely vocals, more an inhuman moan, the tracks plod along, always seemingly on the verge of total collapse, constantly shifting tempos, giving the record a seriously twisted seasick feel, and when the band do attempt to blast, or even just up the tempo, they sound like they're struggling desperately to keep it together, only making it sound that much more primitive and raw and fucked up. It's super short, one track split over two sides, but it's everything you could want in some mysterious weirdo black metal record, it's twisted and damaged, repetitive and droney, murky and atmospheric, buzz drenched and grim, and totally and brilliantly bizarre.

Are you into Chris Watson's "Weather Report", that "Indian Soundscapes" double disc, "Night Sounds From Bali", and the like? Well field recording fans, here's another one for ya! This disc documents the journey of UK improvising musician Peter Cusack to a remote lake in Siberia, on a mission to record the sounds of ice creaking, cracking, and melting in the springtime. The ice in question covers the surface (up to a meter deep) of one Lake Baikal, which geography and/or trivia buffs will know as being the world's deepest, oldest lake, holding one fifth of the earth's fresh water. On his way to the lake, Cusack puts his recording equipment to good use, bringing us audio verite encounters with the Trans-Siberian Railway, percussion on a broken metal fountain, children playing with a village's loudspeaker system, bird calls, and other interesting sounds. Armchair travellers will delight. And then there's the whole reason for the trip: Lake Baikal's ice breaking up after a frozen winter. A crinkling, tinkling sound, like a sharp-edged rain, drones nicely, with louder, larger cracks and creaks and groanings. Several tracks are devoted to this crystalline rumbling, and it's both mysterious and lovely.

MPEG stream: Baikal Ice Flow Split 3
MPEG stream: Port Baikal Weird

[ aquarius records catalogue — C ]