[ 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.

Showing results 251 through 300 of 2775.

We first discovered Colorado drone bliss pop-gaze duo Candy Claws via their last record, In The Dream Of Sea Life, a gorgeous collection of sounds and songs composed and recorded to sound as if they were in fact at the bottom of the ocean, warped and woozy, dark and aquatic, but for this new record, Hidden Lands brings the sounds of CC to the surface, lets them breathe, sprawl and blossom. Apparently based on a book called The Secret Life Of The Forest, these songs are meant to evoke all manner of 'secret lands', the worlds inside living creatures, the Earth millions of years before humans, all of the things that have gone on and still go on that we don't yet understand or can't yet observe. Pretty heavy, but fear not, the music is light in comparison, a washed out psychedelic dream pop, a little orchestral, a lot Elephant 6, chiming guitars, buried angelic voices, simple percussion, lush synths and singing strings, a sort of power pop blurred into something much more ambient and ethereal, there are hints of Neutral Milk Hotel, Beach Boys, Jellyfish, but in keeping with the science angle, it's like CC took scrapings from those bands and grew Hidden Lands in a petri dish, only to then plant the resulting lifeforms in the garden outside, in the shade of big oak trees, at the foot of some snow capped mountains, and then recorded the various growths, a hazy, slowly expanding sun dappled shimmer drenched fragmented pop. In some ways, the underwater element of the last record still feels present, it's like listening to jangly indie pop, broadcast through a hydrophone, the vibrations traveling through the water, and arriving at our ears, bent and twisted and beautifully warped. A little carnivalesque, a little psychedelic, a little shoegazey, this is some sort of otherworldly impressionistic pop, there may be hooks, and verses and choruses, but they're blurred and smeared and muted and mixed, the song structures seems to have come unglued at a fundamental level, allowing this dreampop to become even dreamier. So fantastic. And totally recommended for anyone into woozy, hazy, droney, dreamy blisspop.

MPEG stream: In The Deep Time
MPEG stream: Warm Forest Floor
MPEG stream: A Strange Land Discovered

Magic Radios opens with a gathering of electronics that buzz and crackle over the ebb and flow of a ghostly drone, but swiftly moves into the realm of warm horns and shufflin' drums ("3000 Miles"), then continues to melt into a range of other sonic terrains -- some more successfully than others. There's the beautiful, serene, acoustic song "Take My Light" rich with strings and almost choral voices, followed by a soothing, swaying downtempo track, then an exotica-tinged spacy number "Flyaway" with murmured vocals that fans of Air might find rather fetching. Overall, a somber, glimmering journey. Quite nice.

RealAudio clip: Take My Light
RealAudio clip: 3000 Miles

We know you've been waiting for this one. At least judging by the rabid (tee hee) reaction to the recent 7" by the band Hatebeak, a death metal outfit fronted by a parrot. Well now, along comes Caninus to up the stakes. Sure, the parrot in Hatebeak is able to squawk up a storm, and his maniacal screechings fit perfectly amidst the churning riffs but a parrot on its own is hardly a scary proposition. But with Caninus, you've got the same crushing, downtuned metal juggernaut, only this time the vocals come from the drooling fanged mouths of Budgie and Basil, two snarling pitbulls! That's right, pitbulls. Thankfully, barking is kept to a minimum, and instead Basil and Budgie spend most of the time growling furiously, their guttural grunts and grrr's WAY more evil than even the scariest of death metal vocals. Unlike some big fat long haired metal guy doing his best cookie monster grunt, who at the most could drink you under the table, these two canine vocalists could literally rip your guts out, and maybe even would given the chance. When Budgie and Basil, spittle flying, and teeth bared, growl ominously over huge downtuned riffs, it is genuinely pants-shittingly scary. The way metal should be. The booklet has the lyrics and liner notes on each track from the dogs themeselves! "Are we owned by you, or are YOU owned by us? Let's see, you pick up our shit, take us for walks, buy us food, feed us everyday, drive us around, wash us, take us on trips...looks like YOU are OUR SLAVES. Sleep tight tonight, maybe I'll wake you up if I smell smoke. maybe I won't. Remember WE own YOU!" Not all of the liner notes are so downright hostile. Some of them are pretty cute, as the dogs detail their rescue from the shelter, and discourage breeding and teaching dogs to be violent. Plus the slogan "Go Vegan" is displayed prominently on the sleeve as well. The cd has two tracks not on the 7" (both demos of songs NOT on the record) but 7" buyers get spiffy colored vinyl. Guess you gotta get both! PITBULL GRINDCORE!

MPEG stream: Bite The Hand That Breeds You
MPEG stream: Fear Of Dog (Religious Myths)

Oh crap. It's here. It was indeed only a matter of time. A canine / avian metal meeting. Or something. On the one hand/paw/claw/side, there's Hatebeak, the grinding death metal juggernaut, fronted by lead vocalist Waldo, who just so happens to be a parrot! On the other, there's Caninus, a thuggy, metalic hardcore mosh pit bull of a band, fangs bared, leashes swinging, ummm, tails wagging. Yep, Caninus is fronted by tag team vocalists Budgie and Basil, both of whom happen to be pitbulls. If there was EVER a record made for AQ customers it's this one!!! Caninus is in full grind mode on this split, with spastic hyperspeed drum machines, buzzing lightning bolt guitars and Waldo's unmistakabe squawk. Caninus counters with some serious moshworthy metallic hardcore, bordering on death metal, with HUGE downtuned riffs, blasting drums, and a wicked array of snarls and growls and barks. And if there was ever any doubt, both bands ostensibly being joke bands, these guys are definitely true metalheads as the whole release is steeped in metal injokes. The Caninus cover art is Napalm Death's Scum album cover, except all of the people in the original are now dogs! The Hatebeak side is titled Bird Seeds Of Vengeance, named after the Nile album Black Seeds Of Vengeance, the cover depicting Hatebeak vocalist Waldo facing off against a bust of King Tut, the whole cover surrounded in Egyptian filligree. And then on the inside there is a photo of Waldo perched on what they purport to be the Spear Of Longinus, the actual spear that a Roman soldier used to stab Jesus in the side when he was on the cross! And then there's the Caninus lyrics, dense with metal / hardcore parody and written from the point of view of a dog (obviously)! Hatebeak declare "Avian Victory!" while Caninus proclaim "Go Vegan" as well as "Fuck You New York Post and New York Times" and in their thanks list give props to PETA, an animal shelter and even a pet supply store!! THE ANIMALS ARE NOW THE (METAL) MASTERS!!

Canis Dirus is a black metal duo from the appropriately frosty land of... Minnesota? Well, it certainly makes sense if anyone has spent winter in the Midwest, they will no doubt be aware of how oppressive and life denying that shit can be. And when you consider that Canis Dirus is comprised of the heads of the God Is Myth and Ars Magna labels, you can safely bet that this is some grim, brutal, and seriously cult stuff. The album begins with "Choking And Drowning", a surprisingly gentle piece of slightly ominous acoustic beauty that goes against what you might expect from such a song title. Next up is the title track, and at this point we're in full winter mode, as the band rides forward on hypnotic midtempo Burzum-styled rhythm. The vocals are a hysterical shriek, the guitars are like a fuzzy blanket of concentrated evil, and the drums (machines?) keep things going deeper and deeper into the woods. "Joyless And The Self Fulfilling Prophecy" is an awesome piece of murky black metal that moves slowly but surely, stopping for a cool ambient middle part, before heading back into the dirgey midtempo beat. The cool, slightly phased guitars almost sound like Alice In Chains for a second, but before long, sour, pukey sounding leads come in, giving the song a very disconcerting feeling. The vocals pretty much sound like a witch being tortured and serve as the perfect foil to the spacious instrumentation. The album closes with "In Deep Waters", a piece that utilizes negative space and some field recordings, that bookends the album perfectly. Really cool stuff, not that you would expect anything less considering the band's pedigree.

MPEG stream: A Somber Wind From A Distant Shore
MPEG stream: Garden Of Death
MPEG stream: Joyless And The Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Culture of Pink is the second full length from Cankun, aka Vincent Caylet. He's a studio mad scientist who has whipped up a warm, woozy, otherworldly post punk sound here, that plays as if it really could be some lost eighties lp beamed here directly from another decade, a sound that on the surface wouldn't be out of place on Captured Tracks or Sacred Bones. It definitely seems to be channeling another era, the guitar chime and soar and swoon, most definitely reminding us of the Durutti Column, but here filtered through an aesthetic much closer to say someone like James Ferraro, and the percolating rhythms a cascade of tangled drum machines, that almost sounds like a more lo-fi home brewed Soft Moon, but as the tracks play, they seem to unravel, just a bit, seeming to reveal the strange sonic machinations lurking beneath. The opener "Agave Sticks" is all low slung bass groove, chiming distorted guitar buzz, wreathed in sheet of chordal thrum, and driven by buzzing rock riffs in the background, the rhythms cranked up so it almost sounds like machines creating this alien post punk, and near the end of the song, those rhythms are pushed to the fore, and grow more erratic and chaotic, and soon they're grinding along through billowing clouds of guitar shimmer, at once, tripped out and off kilter, but also dreamy and weirdly tranquil. It definitely sets the stage perfectly for the rest of the record, which unfurls as a collection of woozy, rhythmic, almost new wave soundscapes, of overlapping loops, sampled horn blurts, swirls of reverbed synths, sounds chopped up and reassembled into weirdly rhythmic stutters, many of the songs building to almost tropical blowouts, like multiple Martin Denny records spinning simultaneously with someone like Philip Jeck at the controls, while others lay down skeletal robotic drum machines, and wrap them in spidery minor key melodies, and deep sinewy bass slither. There's even vocals here and there, doused in echo and reverb, deep and dramatic, buried way down in the mix, giving those tracks even more of a gloom pop electro goth feel. But there's also plenty of lush ambience, long stretches of collaged sound, droned and whirs, breakbeats, twangy guitars, on tracks like "Acinom" or "Save My Day" it almost sounds like Dirty Beaches by way of DJ Shadow, while others get fully dubbed out, upstroke guitars, faux horns, even almost toasting-like vox, but even there, the sounds are warped and woozy, low fidelity and fantastically and dreamily murky, reminding us of an even more tweaked and drugged out Sun Araw maybe. And so it goes for the record of the record, a hazy, drowsy sprawl of tripped out, darky dubby, rhythmically off kilter, melancholic, new wave flecked, FX heavy psychedelic tropical dream-murk weirdness that we are digging BIG TIME. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!

MPEG stream: Agave Sticks
MPEG stream: Science Can Help You

MPEG stream: Lunatic Of Pots Creation
MPEG stream: Blame It On Bud
MPEG stream: Chapel Of Bowls

Holy shit! Some of the heaviest, most bad ass organ driven kraut-prog you will ever hear. Seriously, the four tracks that make up the bulk of this release, totally destroy. They're complex and heavy, epic and melodic, and totally rocking. Anyone who digs ELP or the New Trolls or most of the Italian prog we're always raving about, will flip for these guys too. It's hard to believe a record this amazing never got released, but these tracks are indeed culled from some radio sessions that remained unreleased, until now. Bandleader / organist Oliver Petry started playing organ after hearing Keith Emerson and it shows, his group is total ELP worship, but somehow, they manage to push it even further, upping the speed and intensity, like a supercharged ELP in their prime. Hell, they even do a 12 minute progged out version of Beethoven's 9th symphony, which needless to say also rules. Just listen to the sound samples. If within a matter of seconds you're not flipping out and hammering the add to cart button, you might as well just consider your prog cred REVOKED. This reissue tacks on two tracks by post Cannabis India outfit Universe, which definitely has the same vibe, but the organ takes more of a supporting role, with the buzzing bass driving the first track, and the second track adding vocals, resulting in some classic seventies pop prog. But fear not, even with the organ dialed back, it's still pretty prog-tastic.

MPEG stream: Hand Of The King
MPEG stream: Revolver

In the late seventies and early eighties, there were a handful of jungle-sploitation / grindhouse / cannibal / horror / gorefests, that most definitely pushed the boundaries of good taste, with many of them including footage of actual animals being killed, hiring actual tribespeople to play the 'savages', at the time, films like these are reviled, and often banned, and even now, they're difficult to watch, the inherent racism and animal cruelty, but they are also fascinating, twisted, and car-wreck mesmerizing. One of the most (in)famous was of course Roberto Donati's Cannibal Ferox, also known as Make Them Die Slowly, which like most of those films, found unsuspecting folks stumbling into a world of savage cannibals, who would systematically torture, dismember and of course eventually eat the explorers. Total gross out exploitation, that definitely foreshadowed the torture porn so popular today. And like lots of soundtracks of the era, it's a dizzying mix, of noisy, psychedelic, avant grade electronics, brooding, ominous mood music, and cheesy funk. The best tracks here are all swirling synths, fuzzy psychedelic guitars, pounding tribal drums, sounding at times like a more spaced out Goblin, and at others, like something you might hear on Hospital Records, and at others, like some droned out psych-kraut spaciness. We have to say, as much as we were mildly obsessed with this move, and movies like it, we don't at all remember the soundtrack being so cool. Seriously tripped out and experimental, heavy in places, psychedelic all over. It takes a strong stomach to watch the film, but the soundtrack is definitely pretty fantastic all on its own, sans visuals. As always, fantastically packaged, in a heavy full color gatefold jacket, with stunning images from the film inside and out. Also included are handful of unreleased tracks not on the original score, as well an insert with liner notes from various folks involved in the film, which includes some terrifying/harrowing tales of making the movie!

El-P, producer and beatmaker extraordinaire, here reprises in instrumental form the entire Cannibal Ox album Cold Vein, in order. And we have to say, good call. Because the music behind Cannibal Ox's rapping is totally stellar and indeed deserves its own

RealAudio clip: Iron Galaxy (instrumental)
RealAudio clip: Raspberry Fields (instrumental)

Seems like the future of hip hop belongs to either Company Flow and their progeny or cLOUDEAD and the Anticon crew. Both seem to be the only crews really pushing the boundaries of hip hop. Cannibal Ox is a duo from Harlem, and for 'The Cold Vein', they hooked

RealAudio clip: Iron Galaxy
RealAudio clip: Raspberry Fields

This is the 'slow jam' from the mighty Cannibal Ox's 'The Cold Vein' record. But not like -any- slow jam you've ever heard. Funky and sinister, the meanest saddest love song in quite a while. Huge burping bass and minor key synths under a growled flow full of

RealAudio clip: The F Word (Original/Dirty)
RealAudio clip: Life's Ill
RealAudio clip: Metal Gear

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

SORRY.

Yazoo has just released an entire cd's worth of songs by Cannon's Jug Stompers who've previously apppeared on numerous compilations of American roots music put out by the label. Cannon's Jug Stompers were a country blues trio led by banjo player Gus Cannon (who had a rack made to fit the jug around his neck so he could blow it and play banjo simultaneously.) The backbone of

RealAudio clip: Going To Germany

Deceptively haphazard, crafty indie rock is alive and well... and it's comin' at ya via this new band from Austin, TX called Canoe... and it's comin' by way of Amazing Grease Records, the label run by Scott Kannberg (formerly of Pavement -- arguably the kings of deceptively haphazard, crafty indie rock). Does that give you some inkling of what Canoe are up to? Listening to I Give You... Canoe! you get the vague sense that were you to witness them in the live setting, they'd be far more inebriated than you. Case in point, their song "Corndogs Are Our Friends"! A super trashy blown-out ode to deep fried weiners. Through the fuzzy haze of distortion, you catch a nifty keyboard hook here, a crunchy guitar riff there and some very GBV/Robert Pollard-ish vocals throughout. Loosely slung, devil-may-care, and fueled by many a six-pack.

MPEG stream: Panty Pile
MPEG stream: Corndogs Are Our Friends

***Grizzly Bear Alert*** Cant, is the solo project of Chris Taylor from Grizzy Bear. We got our first earful of his solo sound on the debut 7" that came out a while back on his label Terrible records, which was a split featuring an unreleased Arthur Russell song. Besides being in one of the most popular indie rock bands around, Taylor has also been busy working magic in the studio, producing records for folks like Twin Shadow, Blood Orange, and Solange. His debut full length is a woozy and rich sounding set of sounds that embrace electronics in creating such a strong sensual and brooding overall vibe. For sure classic Grizzly Bear sounds are present throughout, but they are showcased in a much more hazy, late night, steamy setting. Taylor has this wonderful ability to always create such thick and viscous sounds in all of his recordings. Much like his hero Arthur Russell, Taylor has such a great ability at creating psychic and sonic intimacy as well.

MPEG stream: Too Late, Too Far
MPEG stream: Believe
MPEG stream: Answer

The debut release on what looks to be a new awesome label called Terrible run by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear fame. This is the debut of Taylor's new solo project Cant and he pairs it up here with a previously unreleased Arthur Russell track!!! Makes so much sense as Taylor was one of the people responsible for putting together and producing last year's collection of songs displaying the more song based and folk/country side of Arthur Russell, Love Is Overtaking Me. And no doubt Russell's legacy has had a huge impact on the sound of Grizzly Bear over the years. The Cant song is so good! Dare we say it, but it could definitely compete with all of the great songs on Grizzly Bear's super awesome Veckatimest, it doesn't stray too much from the Grizzly Bear sound but gets even more reverby and haunting and melodic. The Arthur Russell track is quite sonically similar to the tracks on Love Is Overtaking Me, with its rustic twang, but it's infused with the more layered and textured aspects of Russell's sound which means shiver and chill inducing bliss. Needless to say this is a must have!

If you're familiar with the radio show Glossolalia on KXLU in LA then you just might have heard some of the sound snippets that've found their home on this chunk of vinyl. A mad scientist's experiment gone a wee bit awry? This sonic collage was created by the

From Sundazed - the garage / psychedelic label that re-issued such notables as The West Coast Pop Experimental Group - comes Canterbury Fair: Renaissance faire-esque folk-psych from California circa 1969.

While there ARE lots of amazing reissues of all sorts of old records -- psychedelic, rock, folk, jazz, reggae, metal, etc. -- coming out all the time (and hopefully you've read about a bunch of 'em here, we do our best to keep up), it's also become evident to us that the vast majority of reissued obscurities were, well, obscure for a reason, and it's hard to understand WHY someone would choose to reissue 'em. But then there's reissues like this one, that make us wonder, why hadn't we ever heard of this band before? Why weren't they HUGE? Well maybe Miguel Cantilo Y Grupo were famous in their native Argentina, they should have been, we certainly can't imagine that there were all that many bands of this quality releasing records in that country back then (this dates from 1975). At any rate, we're pretty excited to learn about 'em now thanks to this reissue. An eclectic psychedelic progressive rock album, with songs ranging from acoustic mellow melodicism to heavy hard rockin' bombast, this is something that we'd rank with a few other '70s reissues that have become big favorites 'round here -- if you loved the Eduardo Bort from Spain, or the more-recently reviewed Tarkus from Peru, you'll want this too for sure! It's got strong songs, a charming heavy-duty hippy vibe (check out the cover art), exotic appeal (all songs sung in Spanish, very emotively), and is definitely Classic Rock worthy (reminding us of Led Zep, Budgie, and even Aerosmith at their most mystical, magical a la "Kings and Queens"). Miguel's vocals are a bit Bolan-esque as well. But what puts it over the top for us is the killer blend of exquisite prettiness and sudden, frantic rock n' roll action, a lot looser and rawer than some other progressives of the era. Very dynamic and surprising. It's weird in all the right places. It's always neat to discover cool stuff like this out of the blue, proving that there definitely are unknown reissues worth taking a chance on... Nicely packaged in a slim colorful cardboard digipacky thing, with the cd itself in a sleeve with the lyrics printed on it.

MPEG stream: Algo Esta Por Suceder
MPEG stream: Naturangel

To tell ya the truth, Laura Cantrell could be singing the table of contents of a lawnmower manual, and still enchant the pants off of her listeners. Her newest album (and first on Matador Records) picks right up from where 2002's When The Roses Bloom Again left off. Her voice ringing as clear as a crystal dinner bell and as sweet as a bumbleberry pie at the state fair, and she's accompanied by a superb cast of players including those fellows from Calexico. Along with her original numbers she sings beautiful versions of an early previously unreleased Lucinda Williams' song "Letters", "Wishful Singing" a song originally sung by Skeeter Davis and penned by Wynn Stewart, and the old traditional murder ballad "Poor Ellen Smith". Actually if you like another lovely old tyme country style chanteuse who has great taste in cover material, namely Ms Kelly Hogan (or vice versa), this might be your new summer love.

MPEG stream: Letters
MPEG stream: Wishful Thinking

Hailing from Nashville and currently in NYC, chanteuse Laura Cantrell possesses a voice that's bell-clear, as clean and fresh as a glass of milk. Her second album is crisp, simple, classic country (with touches of bluegrass and folk) along the lines of Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, even a little Freakwater, and especially Nanci Griffith. No fake twang, very sincere. Singalong-able, catchy, touching. It makes me wanna go to a thrift shop immediately to buy one of those cotton flower print thrift store dresses I wore back in the late '80s. Languid pedal steel, jangling mandolin, and lots of acoustic guitars. Unfortunately the best songs on the record weren't written by her, but that's ok. You could say the same about goddesses Emmylou Harris and Nanci Griffith. Give the soundclips a try -- fantastic! Windy likes this a lot.

RealAudio clip: All the Same to You
RealAudio clip: Don't Break the Heart

A Year With 13 Moons is Cantu-Ledesma's first major release since his debut for Type, Love Is A Stream, back in 2010. Of course he has been busy in between those years, releasing limited tapes, cd-rs and split lps, touring and collaborating, co-running the Root Strata label and moving restlessly from San Francisco to Berlin, to Munich, back to San Francisco and finally settling (for the time being anyway) in Brooklyn. In many ways, A Year Of 13 Moons is the other side of the same coin of Love Is A Stream's glorious embrace of the shoegaze tidal waves of Flying Saucer Attack, Cocteau Twins and Lovesliescrushing. Sonically, they share a kinship. But where the first album appeared to be about the blossoming of new love and the changes it brings, this new one seems more about the dissolution of that love and the moving on from its aftermath; what disappears and what lingers. Recorded during a residency at the Headlands Art Center he shared with filmmaker and visual collaborator, Paul Clipson, the first and longest track, "The Last Time I Saw Your Face" sets the tone with a slow-fading white-hot burst of solar distortion topped by a lilting electric melody that suggests the rushing in of a loving yet painful memory, but half-way through sputters, flickers and changes course in a way that the sound appears to move past you and gets farther away, leaving one adrift both aurally and physically. That trajectory of smoldering intensity, combining a soaring but battered angelic Cocteau Twins-ish guitar drift with the quasar-laden feedback void of magnetic static conveys us through the albums many peaks and valleys, which at times touch on the romantic melancholy of Durutti Column's pastoral guitar and drum machine as well as Main's ominous and sometimes airless ambience. It's a beautiful and heartfelt record, gorgeously realized but one that does not try to endear the listener to its many complex moods. In fact, its blown out acoustics seem designed to be played in big echoing halls as loud as they can. It's face-meltingly bittersweet. (Note: also on vinyl, but we're running low...)

MPEG stream: The Last Time I Saw Your Face
MPEG stream: Disappear
MPEG stream: The Spree
MPEG stream: Along The Isar

We were only able to get ten of these and odds are we won't be able to get more, so we'll keep this brief. Needless to say, you might want to grab one of these before they're gone, cuz the A side Finds Cantu-Ledesma unfurling a gorgeous slab of Lovesliescrushing style prismatic dreampop shimmer, skeletal rhythms suspended in crystalline fields of bleary sundappled rainbow synth swaddled guitartroniks, thick swaths of chordal thrum, whirls lazily over a warm billowy background of keening melodies and abstract ethereal ambience. Distorted and dreamily blown out, noisy, but a sort of gauzy soft focus noisiness that makes it sound like the sounds are melting into deliriously colorful fractals before your very ears. Some heady sonic confection for sure, and miles removed from the minimal contemplation of many of Cantu-Ledesma's other releases. The flipside merges the two, the more subdued ambience of earlier works with the above mentioned blissed out 4AD blur/blear/bliss, the resulting track is a dark, Twin Peaks like drift, all lush soft swirls, fractured dubbed out rhythms, hazy sonic smears, all druggy and droney, a lovely lysergic comedown from the A side's more effervescent sonic swirl. EXTREMELY LIMITED!!! These are very likely the only copies we'll ever get, includes a printed insert, and comes housed in a swank, thick, full color sleeve.

Only got a little handful of these. 150 copies total, already out of print and we have less than 10. Latest bit of ultra minimal bliss out dronemusic from Cantu, he of Tarentel, the Alps and the mighty Root Strata label. On Bloodstream Sermon, Cantu creates softly billowing stretches of lush shimmer, using only a Roland Juno 60 synth, a pure wave oscillator and a handful of electronics, each of the two tracks gorgeous and hazy and warm, soft swells of dreamlike sound, constantly shifting tones and overtones, utterly tranquil and hypnotic, the first side much more dense and layered, a thick undulating sprawl of deeeeeep tones. While the second side/track is more abstract, a bit more whir and glitch, ambient and almost industrial sounding. A blurred symphony of muted machine-like buzz and rumble, peppered with little glimmers of glitch, all wrapped in a gauzy patina of washed out thrum. So lovely.

Commissioned for a special event at the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art, this 'soundtrack' of sorts offers up a gorgeous collection of new age ambience and blissed out soft focus kosmische drift, five tracks, 55 minutes, each piece a hazy bit of looped guitar shimmer, equal parts ambient krautdrone and warm whirling dreamscapery. Cantu-Ledesma, a member of late great post rockers Tarentel, as well as one of the folks behind the Root Strata label, now has a handful of solo records under his belt, running the gamut from deep dark dronemusic to blown out shoegaze guitadrone, but this is most definitely his most hushed and intimate, delicate and crystalline. A series of slow soft focus smears of prismatic glimmer, hushed arrangements of softly tangled guitar harmonies and slow shifting textures, glorious slow motion cascades of echo drenched melody and hazy indistinct chordal swells, like watching a time lapse film of the universe being born, a slowly developing landscape of colors and shapes, all seeming to float weightlessly in a wide open expanse of star flecked emptiness, the swirling contrails of the drifting notes blurring and oozing into one another, transforming the sky into softly swirling clouds of washed out sound, an endless expanse of ebb and flow, the sound wrapping up everything in their warm ethereal embrace. So lovely. Real cds too, not cd-r's, housed in simple handmade sleeves, and of course, LIMITED!!

MPEG stream: 1
MPEG stream: 2

Another batch of WAY too limited cassette releases from Twonicorn, whose releases seem to go out of print in the blink of an eye. This time we managed to get even more copies, in fact we took most of the copies from each pressing, but considering the fact that the pressing usually run between 40 and 100 copies, you know these won't last long either way. Mr. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma should need no introduction by now. Not only does he play in AQ beloved blissed out drone rockers Tarentel, he also runs the kick ass Root Strata label (Starving Weirdos, Bonus, My Cat Is An Alien, John Davis, etc.). On Floating Weeds, JCL gives us super blissed out, ultra minimal drones, stretched out and darkly glistening, deep resonant tones intertwine into soft sonorous drifts of sound. Like staring at the sun with your eyes closed, a thick muted warmth that suffuses all your senses. So totally lovely. LIMITED TO 90 COPIES. We got almost half the pressing and we will not be able to get any more.

MPEG stream: One
MPEG stream: Two

Before we blather on like we so often do, it seemed like it might be good to just toss out a first impression of Love Is A Stream, the fantastic new record from Root Strata label Head Honcho Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, his first for the type label. And heck, that first impression might be all you need: Lovesliescrushing meets Flying Saucer Attack. There. Hard to argue with that. Warped warbly, blurred shoegazey drift, long stretches of incendiary psychedelic guitar drone, streaks of soft noise, buried melodies, ethereal vocals, lush layered textures, dense and explosive, expansive and dreamily hazy, and in its own way, gorgeously heavy. A new side of Cantu-Ledesma for sure, whose past records seemed to hover in a much more tranquil serene otherworld, unfurling hushed landscapes of whispery minimalism, of delicate crystalline shimmer, and of barely there soft focus ambient drift. Love Is A Stream is anything but, a fiery, fierce, yet ultimately lush and washed out series of bold shoegaze dreamnoise experiments, not so much pop songs swathed in distortion and effects, as carefully crafted sonic impressions, a series of gorgeous miniature epics, each a brief expanse of prismatic hypnogogic psychedelia, every one a unique a roiling concoction of fuzzpopbliss and murky melodic churn. On the surface, the record plays out like a series of textures, from warm whirling hum, to crumbling blown out white noise blur, to grinding muted pulse and throb, to gauzy bleary haze, to thick billowy low end rumble, to superdistorted effects-drenched synthnoise, and yeah, you're reading right, this is in fact a noisy record, but it's an artfully crafted, carefully sculpted noise. A thick, billowing, warm and gloriously enveloping melodic noise, like sinking into a swirling sea of burnished muted crush, a nearly overwhelming avalanche of whirling swirling crumbling throb and thrum, beneath it all lurk delicate melodies, tendrils of minor key guitar, ghostly voices, whirring synths, they rise to the surface here and there, but for the most part exist as shadowy impressions, infusing the noisy textures with a melodic core, a warm glowing sonic heart, which is what transforms these heaving slabs of shoegazey heaviness into something divine, and divinely dreamy. There are brief moments, where the surface noise, and the distortion, and the walls of effects peel back, and we get to peek behind the curtain, which reveals the lush minimal underpinnings of the songs, a brief melodic smear here, a hushed little fragment of guitar there, but a glimpse is all we get, and really all we want, because it's how those bits of minimal songcraft interact with the intense sonic effulgence that is truly the magic that Cantu-Ledesma wields in conjuring up the sounds here. And like all magic, the joy is not in how it was done, but it how it makes us feel. The lp version comes with a bonus cd, a collaboration with Type label mainman Xela, who took source material provided by Cantu-Ledesma, and fashioned his own bit of ambient dronemusic. Nearly 50 minutes of haunting drift, after a short burst of caustic super distorted crunch, Xela settles into a slow burning sprawl of washed out chordal shimmer, deep rumbling thrum and lush streaks of shoegazey buzz, a few moments as dense and psychedelic as the record proper, but for the most part, more of a chill out wind down coda, the perfect addendum to an already practically perfect record. Really quite lovely.

MPEG stream: Stained Glass Body
MPEG stream: Loving Love
MPEG stream: Mirrors Death

A brand new, brief and lovely missive from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, frontman of Tarentel, member of The Alps, The Holy See, Two Suns, head honcho of the Root Strata label and a pretty handy drone alchemist on his own, this little 3" is no different. Utilizing a borrowed autoharp and a handful of electronics, Phantom Harp is all glistening glimmering solar flares, shimmering sunlight filtered through green fields sparkling with dewdrops, a gorgeous soft focus glacial drift, an otherworldly, slowed down Appalachia, the chords slowly drifting apart, notes carried skyward like leaves on a summer breeze, sleep, bleary eyed dreaminess, which all gives way to a washed out, lugubrious lowercase smear of fluttering drones, and creeping moonlit fog, hushed and dreamy, an oceanic seascape of twinkling muted melody and near static shimmer. All arranged into a single twenty minute track, multiple movements woven into an epic organic constantly evolving sonic dreamscape. Gorgeous. Packaged in a beautiful black on black fold over thick paper sleeve, inside a 3" cd in a tiny plastic jacket, and a printed insert. LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES!!

MPEG stream: The Phantom Harp (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: The Phantom Harp (excerpt 2)

We have an EXTREMELY limited number of these, just a handful, so we won't get into too much detail, and if you want one, by all means, be quick, cuz these will be gone before you know it. The latest from longtime aQ pal Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, formerly of post rockers Tarentel, and one of the fellas behind the Root Strata label, is a piece Cantu-Ledesma composed for the SF Museum Of Modern Art, and is a gorgeous composition for violin and tape, with violinist Tony Cross laying down gorgeously haunting long tones, processed and layered by Cantu-Ledesma, who also contributes tapes and various effects. The piece itself is simple and stunning, reminiscent of Basinski's Disintegration Loops, a single melodic figure, repeated over and over, the tone and timbre constantly shifting, a sprawl of slow, soft swells, minor key and melancholy, tense, and dramatic and quite cinematic, a mesmerizing stretch of minimal mood music, that manages to be surprisingly sonically active, while at the same time, darkly tranquil and mesmerizing. It's easy to get immediately lost in the sound, and even at eight minutes, it ends far too soon. Truly gorgeous stuff. Sadly, as we said, this is EXTREMELY limited, art gallery style. It's a nicely appointed one sided 10", with a screen printed B-side, includes a digital download, photograph, numbered insert, and there are only 300 COPIES!!! We got what we could, which wasn't many, so odds are, this is likely our, and thus your, only chance to nab a copy. You know what that means...

MPEG stream: Requiem (for Violin & Magnetic Tape) (excerpt)

Another super limited sonic transmission from right here in the Bay Area, from AQ fave Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, the man behind Tarentel, and the Root Strata label. Those familiar with Cantu-Ledesma's music, knows that he usually speakers in hushed whispers, breathy and breathless, soft sonic shimmers allowed to drift like billowy clouds into your ears. But here, CL is no longer whispering, instead he's breathing fire, his guitar a newly minted incendiary device. A sonic flame thrower, each track a layered assemblage of thick peals of sound, glowing tongues of distorted flame. A sonic assault more similar to Total or Sunroof! Than CL's usual output. Makes sense that the first song is dedicated to Pete Swanson of the Yellow Swans (who also mastered it). But all of this talk of fire and flame shouldn't scare you off, there is still plenty of delicate beauty to be had, it's just wrapped in thick sheets of sonic napalm, the guitar effulgent and glowing white hot, the chords washed out and the distortion crumbling. Melodies are jagged and dripping with hissy buzz, each track a glacial guitarscape turning your speakers to ash. There are a few tracks, almost half of the 8 here, that drift in a soporific haze, and hew closer to CL's usual aesthetic, but here, they sound less like individual pieces, and more like interludes, brief moments of tranquility, a chance to catch your breath, let your ears heal, allow time for your speakers to re-solidify, before launching the next buzzing crumbling divinely distorted salvo of gorgeous blown out guitar bliss. Fans of stuff like Nadja, the Yellow Swans, Tim Hecker, the Angelic Process, Fear Falls Burning, will be quite pleased with Cantu-Ledesma's visit to the sonic dark side. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES. Packaged in full color cardboard sleeves, with printed inserts.

MPEG stream: Distant Star (For Pete Swanson)
MPEG stream: Shining Skull Breath

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma has always been a musical chameleon. Aside from loose adjectives like "dreamy" and "ethereal," the aesthetic framework for each of his albums is slippery, although the quality is always topnotch. This would include the expansive avant-shoegazing propositions for his work in Tarentel or the cinematic psychedelia from The Alps or gossamer-crush from his dream-pop distillations in Raum or that Love Is A Stream album he did for Type a while back. Songs Of Remembrance collects half-forgotten / half-dreamt / half-remembered melodies and builds hazy, gauzy fragments of songs, set along the oceanic current of the '80s synth ballad, draped with maudlin electronics and murky guitar smears. The sounds are cinematic and melancholy, and most are fused to primitive drum machine rhythms. Lovely Durutti Column like guitar figures dot hushed dronescapes, which in turn are peppered with strange electronics and bits of glitch, with some of this sounding like an alternate soundtrack to Twin Peaks, check out the brief opening few minutes, with its very eighties sounding, reverb heavy drift, echoey guitars floating above loping programmed rhythms, and laced with mysterious almost 8-bit sounding sonic filigree, and it continues to drift dreamily from there, the sound a woozy sprawl of chiming distant chords, and barely there melodies, minus the strange squelches, it would be downright tranquil and serene, the drum machines swoop back in throughout, and again, each time, we're transported back to some alternate universe eighties, all dark streets and cloud choked skies, dingy all-night dives and late night wandering. The 'songs' here are ultra brief, some barely a minute or two, playing more like a strange compilation of sonic vignettes, musical short stories, Cantu-Ledesma displaying a knack for creating lush atmospheres in a matter of seconds, and then letting them fade into nothingness just as we're getting settled in. It says something that we wish almost every track here kept going and going and going� Lots of the tracks here have a very M83 feel to them as well, lost in time, faded memories, soundtracky, but seventies art film soundtracky, long Super-8 shots of the landscape rushing by through a train window, of glittering city lights, we find ourselves imagining this music set to the films of Paul Clipson, Cantu's long time collaborator, the sounds here evoking similarly abstract and melancholic visuals. There are some 'noise' pieces too, but even then, it's more soft noise, and usually those segue right back into some reverby eighties drum machine drift. Songs Of Remembrance seems to reprise the fictional USSR electronica of Oneohtrix Point Never, the unintentionally brilliant moments of hypnogogic-pop from James Ferrara, and of course, the delusional, sunshine-noir aspirations from Ensemble Economique! LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! Already out of print at the label, so these are the last copies we'll be able to get!!! Includes a download too...

MPEG stream: Songs Of Remembrance (excerpt)

After a couple of super limited cd-r's and tapes, a release or two as Colophon, and a bunch as records as a member of the Alps and Tarentel, The Garden Of Forking Paths is Cantu-Ledesma's first proper full length, and it's a doozy. A subtle and immersive sound that belies the huge array of instruments used. Electric guitars, acoustic guitars, gong, sruti box, harmonium, singing bowl, cassette, microcassette, reel to reel tape machine, electronics, sound booster and ride cymbal, with help on one track with percussion, tapes and electronics. Somehow, all of those bits and baubles are melted down into a gorgeously lush, yet minimal series of slow crawls, deep rich drones, each adorned with subtle variations and bits of sonic color. The multitude of tape machines used in the creation of this record gives the proceedings a raw, fuzzy analog vibe that definitely hits our Jeck-Hecker-Basinski spot. Fuzzy and indistinct, thick smeared sonic drifts, that occasionally glow with some sort of diffused inner light, but for the most part, slither darkly through the shadowy corners of your speakers. Here and there, some of the sound will spill from your speakers like black ink, shiny and shimmery, staining you ears with a mysterious darkness. The final track is the only track where you can hear the guitar, a mumbling buzzy melody buried way down in the mix, creeping through a moonlit landscape of shimmering warble and distant barely-there hum. A gorgeously murky minimal world of slow moving tape, vibrating metal, creaking buzz, whirling whispers and abstract dreamy drift. Packaged in a cool, sleek oversized digipak style folder.

MPEG stream: Aberration Of Starlight
MPEG stream: Bay Of Pearls
MPEG stream: Feast Of Pentecost

Second dvd collaboration from film maker Paul Clipson and Root Strata / Tarentel head honcho Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Another gorgeous and sonically blissed out tag team, Clipson's films this time around, again on Super-8, shot entirely in NYC, impressionistic shots of cityscapes, rolling hills, the texture of water, sun dappled evening skies, many of the shots textural, extreme close ups, patterns as much as images and shapes, sunspots, shadows, reflections, very active, the world flying past out the window of a train, power lines and bridges slipping out of eyeshot, setting suns and colored clouds, so lovely and dreamy. Cantu-Ledesma offers up the perfect soundtrack, music culled from the same sessions that produced the huge aQ fave Shining Skull Breath, so even folks who don't care about the dvd, will want this for the sounds, which are thick and dense, whirring dronescapes, textured and layered, slipping from minimal shimmer to buzzing roar and back again, very much active, the intensity and propulsion of the sounds perfectly matching the motion of the visuals, in some cases, seemingly slowing it down, the drone dragging the landscape flashing by into sudden focus before letting it go again. Either of these elements would be fantastic on their own, we can only imagine seeing these films projected against the side of a building, or on a huge movie screen, and these sounds would kill broadcast through some massive PA, the thick roiling drones washing over us, filling our ears with grit and grime, but together they work even better, even just viewed on the tiny screen of our computer, sonically and visually evoking all sorts of deep feelings and lost memories, of places never visited, of better times, of lost loves and of a past that keeps slipping further and further away. So lovely. Packaged in an folded up origami style vellum sleeve with a printed insert. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES! Already sold out at the label so these are the last copies EVER!

In the age of YouTube and MySpace, the idea of the music video has changed dramatically since the days of MTV (or at least the days when MTV actually played videos). In the past, only bands on major labels could make a video, often hiring a real director and dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now, plenty of bands have videos before they even have a record out. Super 8, digital video, Final Cut Pro, anyone can put together their own video and have it look as good if not better than the classic videos of old. Old news maybe, but the thing is, most bands seems to use the video as simply a promotional tactic, or an excuse to fuck around and film it. Instead of, dare we say, ART. In the underground though, it's not at all uncommon for like minded musicians and filmmakers to join forces. In fact, with the advent of live performances featuring laptops and other sedimentary sound making devices (when is someone gonna make a laptop guitar, so left out laptoppers can windmill and leap about with the rest of the band?), often it's the accompanying films that are way more compelling. Often, a show is touted as some band performing "with films by so and so", but in fact, more often than not, it plays out more like seeing a film, that just so happens to feature live accompaniment by some band. Few labels have really taken advantage of this new technology as much as Root Strata, who have quietly and steadily been releasing a series of super limited dvd-r's, each featuring new compositions by a small handful of artists, coupled with original films. The results have been pretty sublime, the films tending toward the abstract and impressionistic, the music following suit. When watching / listening to these, it's hard not to imagine laying on the floor, propped up on cushions, lights low, the film being projected on a huge blank wall, the band hunkered over their instruments in the corner, which makes sense as that's most likely how these films/sounds were conceived.� So we have two new super limited dvd-r releases, one from Zelienople and one from Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Paul Clipson, both limited to 100 copies, both already out of print, so these are the only copies we'll ever get.� This is the third collaboration between filmmaker Paul Clipson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, who also plays in Tarentel, and runs Root Strata with his partner Maxwell Croy.� The Phantom Harp, as the title might lead you to believe, is in fact a reworking of the piece of the same name, originally released as a 3" cd-r and now out of print. Not only has the piece been reworked, but no it is accompanied by Clipson's gorgeous abstract images. The Phantom Harp is a super minimal sun dappled stretch of glimmering shimmering dreaminess, soft notes float like leaves in the summer sun, smears of high end wreath each note in glimmering sonic haloes, the pace is glacial, the melodies stretched out over minutes instead of seconds, a little ambient, a little new age, a little free drone, all deftly blurred into one smoldering sonic dreamscape. The visuals are super striking, and manage to fit perfectly with the sounds, all black and white, images of rain slicked streets, sun shining through the treetops, car headlights at night, images sometimes overexposed, blurred, superimposed, but mostly left to just play out, cityscapes, buildings, people rushing to and fro, light reflecting on water, shapes and textures, walls, grills, neon signs, restaurants, a soft, a dreamy faded super-8 travelogue. So nice. Packaged in printed, folded papers sleeves, and again, LIMITED TO ONLY 100 COPIES, and already out of print.

Finally available, this long in the works compilation of the various collaborations between super 8 filmmaker Paul Clipson and musician Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, he of Tarentel and the Alps as well as one half of the team that runs the Root Strata label. Many (if not all) of these collaborations were previously available as ultra limited dvd-r's, some so limited (as in 50 copies!) we only got a handful, some so limited we never got ANY. This is the first time they've all been compiled on a proper REAL dvd (not a dvd-r), and we're the only store that has the ultra limited version which comes with a bonus 3" cd-r, but more on that in bit. First, let's talk about the films and the music included here. First, The Phantom Harp from 2007. The Phantom Harp, was in fact a reworking of the piece of the same name, originally released as a 3" cd-r and long out of print. The reworked version found the music accompanied by Clipson's gorgeous abstract images. The Phantom Harp is a super minimal sun dappled stretch of glimmering shimmering dreaminess, soft notes float like leaves in the summer sun, smears of high end wreath each note in glimmering sonic haloes, the pace is glacial, the melodies stretched out over minutes instead of seconds, a little ambient, a little new age, a little free drone, all deftly blurred into one smoldering sonic dreamscape. The visuals are super striking, and manage to fit perfectly with the sounds, all black and white, images of rain slicked streets, sun shining through the treetops, car headlights at night, images sometimes overexposed, blurred, superimposed, but mostly left to just play out, cityscapes, buildings, people rushing to and fro, light reflecting on water, shapes and textures, walls, grills, neon signs, restaurants, a soft, a dreamy faded super-8 travelogue. Then there's Corridors, also from 2007, which was the second dvd collaboration between Clipson and Cantu-Ledesma. Another gorgeous and sonically blissed out tag team, Clipson's films, again on Super-8, were shot entirely in NYC, impressionistic shots of cityscapes, rolling hills, the texture of water, sun dappled evening skies, many of the shots textural, extreme close ups, patterns as much as images and shapes, sunspots, shadows, reflections, very active, the world flying past out the window of a train, power lines and bridges slipping out of eyeshot, setting suns and colored clouds, so lovely and dreamy. Cantu-Ledesma offers up the perfect soundtrack, music culled from the same sessions that produced the huge aQ fave Shining Skull Breath, thick and dense, whirring dronescapes, textured and layered, slipping from minimal shimmer to buzzing roar and back again, very much active, the intensity and propulsion of the sounds perfectly matching the motion of the visuals, in some cases, seemingly slowing it down, the drone dragging the landscape flashing by into sudden focus before letting it go again. Two Suns from 2005: A beautifully abstract and paranoid impression of Southern California, filmed on grainy Super8, with lots of dizzyingly hypnotic footage of telephone wires, helicopters, cityscapes, gorgeously blurred out traffic lights and tail lights and street lights. There's late afternoon silhouettes, fuzzy smears of neon, rain drops on glass, cranes and docks, abstract streaks of passing cars and slick roadways, hillsides covered in windmills, the sun reflected on the sea, highways and green hills. So lovely. And haunting. As are the accompanying sounds created, an ominous, buzzing, vocal drone, affected to the point that it still sounds organic, but not like a voice, more like streaks of sound, greys and blacks and browns, all smeared into blurred soundscapes of purr and whir and thrum, that perfectly compliment the shaky camera work, the grainy film stock, and the gorgeously and ominously mundane subject matter. Constellations from 2006: A dreamlike drift through a dense visual latticework of plants, chainlink fences, branches, leaves, stoplights, neon signs, a delirious series of slow motion visual tangles and patterns. A bug's eye view of the world mysterious and wonderful, like cutting room floor super-8 plant studies and urban landscapes woven into soft focus home movies. All set to the warm glow of Ledesma's swelling dronescapes. The other three films here may have been released before, but are new to us, Sphinx On The Seine from 2008, is another collection of gorgeous hazy landscapes, in washed out color and start black and white, the films flitting back and forth, industrial structures, glowing lights, moving textures and solar flares, all set to a dark and haunting melody laced low end thrum, meditative and ominous. There's also Within Mirrors, which is also from 2008, and is much more impressionistic, branches and leaves, constantly shifting in and out of focus, while Cantu-Ledesma's score shifts accordingly, from pulsing looped mesmer to warm washed out dreaminess. And finally, there's Lights & Perfections from 2006, more patterns, this time a journey through ever shifting foliage, another bug's eye view, flowers and grass, and shifting leaves, blossoms, everything swaying gently in the breeze, the soundtrack equally breezy, soft focus, hushed and dreamy, soothing and tranquil and so lovely. In fact all the sights and sounds here are gorgeous. And as if that weren't enough, we have the super limited version, which comes with a bonus 3" cd-r, featuring an exclusive 17 minute track, a gorgeous hazy dronescape, of pulsing softly psychedelic shimmer, of strange hushed industrial whir, of grinding shoegazey crunch, of barely there whispery drift, of staticky dreamlike shimmer, so gorgeous. EXTREMELY LIMITED, at least the deluxe version with the bonus disc, so grab one quick if you want the extra disc! The packaging is super swank too, an oversized complex multipocketed origami style cardstock sleeve, printed front and back. Nice!

Second album (we never reviewed the first, but it was great!) from this all-instrumental, uber-technical, quasi-death metal act. We say quasi 'cause Canvas Solaris are NOT all about being brutal. Yeah, a lot of this is pretty aggro. But then a lot of it is quite calm and delicate too. What they ARE all about is demonstrating some jaw-dropping chops and songwriting complexity. Dizzying, stop on a dime stuff. Fretboard frenzies matched only by the inhuman drumming. So, if you're into shred for shred's sake, they've got what you want! Conversely, if words like "progressive" and "technical" and "fusion" turn you off, forget about this... And it's definitely not all metal-sounding. Amidst all the brain melting million-notes-per-minute heaviness there are tracks based entirely on ethnic, acoustic instrumentation, or on synthesizer generated atmospherics. That makes Penumbra Diffuse more, well, diffuse than their previous release. But no less intricate, creative, or dissonant! More ambient, however. That is, if you can actually say that something that mostly sorta sounds like The Fucking Champs meet Meshuggah is at all 'ambient'!

MPEG stream: Panoramic Long-Range Vertigo
MPEG stream: Horizontal Radiant

Whoah! Amazing instrumental aggro tech metal from Georgia.

Got a handful of these three way split lps featuring some heavy rock outfits we hadn't heard before now, but are digging all three, pretty, umm� heavily. Four tracks from each, up first is Canyons who hail from Missouri, and who we had never heard before but who absolutely push all out mathmetalpunk buttons, reminding us a bit of local noise rockers Kowloon Walled City, but a bit more punky, their furious pound splintering into wild proggy mathiness as often as AmRep style head caving sonic swagger. Tigon, who are from right here in the Bay Area, counter with their own brand of heaviness, much more murky and bass heavy, and way more wildly mathy, sounding almost like a super charged Nomeansno merged with a more lo-fi Unsane, furiously howled vox over the constantly shifting sonic churn below, occasionally slipping into something much more broody and stripped down, but those moments are balance by some seriously epic post rock infused metal majesty. The AmRep vibe is strong with these guys too. They also remind us a bit of Young Widows, which is most definitely not a bad thing. And finally Foreign Theaters, who also hail from Missouri, round out the three way with their Melvins-y dirge rock, heavy hints of Black Flag, all woven into roiling brooding metallic punk, their songs much shorter, short sharp bursts of urgent heaviness, a noise drenched punk that occasionally slips into woozy slithery dirgery, but spends most of its time pounding and churning, the throat shredding vox wreathed in tangled droned out guitars that definitely make FT's punk more post punk and noise rock than punk proper, and we dig it! LIMITED TO 500 COPIES, pressed on recycled black vinyl, and housed in a full color sleeve with a printed insert and a download coupon.

MPEG stream: I'm Worthy All The Time
MPEG stream: Dreadnaught
MPEG stream: Yinz Playin' Piss Feet

Posthumous release of material from the band that gave the world both Joan of Arc and The Promise Ring.

Meshuggah, Theory in Practice, Cryptopsy, if you know those names you're probably a geek for technical death metal, a sub-genre that's just as brutal as the usual DM but takes the already-impressive instrumental abilities and compositional complexities of regular death metal musicians / music up a notch or twelve if you can believe it. Now you can add Florida's excellent Capharnaum to the list of tech-death bands name-checked above. For reasons not known to us, they're monikered after a town in Israel where Jesus once lived -- chances are He moved away because of the racket. Severe neck sprain guaranteed if you attempt to headbang along to any of this. Very deathly, very metal (you've gotta be ok with cookie-monster vocals and shred-guitar leads) and also very amazing if you can even try to imagine playing this stuff.

MPEG stream: Ingrained
MPEG stream: Machines

Reissue of this long out of print singles collection from this Bay Area fastcore institution, originally released on the now defunct Slap A Ham label. A timeless batch of grinding, thrashing, buzzing powerviolent brutality.

MPEG stream: Bad Habits
MPEG stream: Drug Culture
MPEG stream: Second Guess

The latest musical assault from Bay Area political fast-core legends Capitalist Casualties. 3 songs and 6 inches of pounding, light speed grinding powerviolence. These guys just keep getting better and better.

Slip this new Capitol Years album up alongside the latest one from the Pernice Brothers, and you'll have the yummiest soft pop double scoop. Really, the two go together perfectly. Their lilting vocal harmonies and chiming guitars recall the splendor of Big Star and The Raspberries. Despite the album's title which might lead you to expect an electric dancefloor packer like Radio 4 or The Rapture, these eleven polished reverb-drenched songs will prolly have you swaying gently in the autumn leaves instead. Take it nice and easy. Soooooo good.

MPEG stream: Revolutions
MPEG stream: It's Not Okay

An absolutely smokin' new EP from Philadelphia's Capitol Years, whose Meet Yr Acres debut was a favorite of ours back in 2001. On that record my favorite songs were the two slow pretty ones, but after having seen Capitol Years live twice I've been totally converted to their rollicking rock heart -- and this new EP is comprised of six absolutely perfect upbeat tracks. This band plays psychedelic pop music with a totally infectious manic punk energy and in a perfect world they would be more popular than the Strokes... with whom they share a certain changa changa guitar sound, but Capitol Years're clearly far more naturally talented. Unforgettable pop hooks galore on each and every song! Should appeal equally to the indiepop-minded Strokes fan in you as well as the Nuggets-lovin' Ptolemaic Terrascope psychster you are behind closed doors! Highly recommended! Contender for Windy's favorite pop album of the year.

RealAudio clip: Jet Black
RealAudio clip: Lucky Strike

From totally out of the blue comes this surprisingly wonderful pop record. Capitol Years combines the gravelly-voiced lo-fi anthems of Sparklehorse and Tom Petty, the pristine pop of Paul McCartney, and the hazy vocalising of Pink Floyd, and comes up with a nice fresh take on that sound. The songs are instantly addictive, most featuring chord changes that twist the heart wonderfully, and if you're a little over the fey castles'n'rainbows aspect of the Elephant 6 posse (who we love!), know that Capitol Years is free of that. Highly recommended; I like this more every time I hear it. (Maybe I should pull "an Andee" on Andee and play this so often that he starts to like it as much as I do -- shh, don't tell him.) Just program out the one dud (a cover of "All Tomorrow's Parties"). Produced by Thom Monahan (Pernice Bros, Beachwood Sparks).

RealAudio clip: Roller's Row
RealAudio clip: Rolling Hills
RealAudio clip: Faces and Beer

[ aquarius records catalogue — C ]