[ 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 351 through 400 of 2775.

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Gotta love an old school Aussie thrash outfit called Captain Trips.

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SORRY. Listening to Captured Alive! in a musical sense is nearly impossible. That is of course if you haven't actually witnessed for yourself the incredible live performance of Captured By Robots. Luckily for all, the performance that took place right here at San Francisco's Bottom Of The Hill is not only found on the cd, but you may witness it for yourself in digital video form on the accompanying dvd. Probably the most entertaining and elaborate one-man-band ever.

Within a few seconds, eagle eared aQ-ers will most likely recognize that struggling vocal warble, that earnest about to crack falsetto, which just happens to belong to Daniel DiMaggio, frontman of those aQ faves, punky ramshackle noise poppers Home Blitz. But Car Commercials is a whole different ball of wax, instead of the frantic frenetic bounce of Home Blitz, in Car Commercials, DiMaggio and his CC partner Dave Sutton, weave something much more intimate and personal, way more twisted and bizarre, some seriously damaged outsider bedroom folk, think Jandek, Daniel Johnston, that sort of thing, detuned guitars, sporadic percussive flourishes, strange atonal chords, tangled not quite melodic melodies, the vocals, sung spoken, whispered, yelped, it almost sounds like a Sebadoh record that was left in the sun, all warped and melted and lysergic and fucking bizarre. Guitar thrum drifts through clouds of reverb, the vocals sounding like they were recorded through busted headphones, guitar chords ring out and seem to crumble to pieces, this is some seriously whatthefuck home recorded weirdness. The flipside cranks up the volume a bit, but everything else remains appropriately twisted and detuned and damaged, just more psychedelic and chaotic and noisy, the junkyard percussion more intense. The record finishes off with the two part "Bag Saga", maybe the most musical of the bunch, part one, a haunting moody, dirge, all distorted acoustic guitar, and wheezing keyboard, the second part, all spidery and abstract, building to an electrified sonic catharsis, all buzz and thump and croon, before crumbling to a halt. Definitely not easy listening, harking back to the early days of DIY tape trading, where you could send away for something sight unheard, and get back a home dubbed tape that could very well blow your mind, or your speakers, or both. We dig this a lot, but then we like a lot of weird demented shit. So reservedly recommended, folks after pretty melodies and dreamy pop and pretty harmonies, steer clear, but if you're in the market for some serious home brewed 4-track cracked bedroom folk damage, then this might be for you... LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, includes a free download...

MPEG stream: The Bag Saga Part I
MPEG stream: Supper On The Table

Carsick Cars was the first band we'd heard from this new crop of Chinese indie rock and noise pop bands, and we were initially intrigued cuz of the band name, but then ended up digging both their other records quite a bit. We'd been dying to hear this new one after getting a little tease/taste via their recent split 7" with Flavor Crystals. Their song on that 7" found the band sounding better than ever, super polished, and crazy catchy. We posited in our review of that 7", that part of the new sound might be due to the fact that it was recorded with Pete Kember, aka Sonic Boom, from Spacemen 3, and Hamish Kilgour of NZ pop legends the Clean. And it might just because we know that, but we're hearing a sound that definitely sounds like it's right between the druggy hypno-rock of Spacemen 3 and the fuzzy, NZ jangle of the Clean. Regardless, 3 is a stunner, from the very first track, a very nineties indie rock influenced instrumental groover that actually also reminds us a bit of Pell Mell, sort of driving and hypnotic and a little bit krautrocky. But it's on the second track, "15 Minutes Older", that the band get super poppy, and that Flying Nun / New Zealand influence really shines through. In fact, if you told us this was actually some long lost Flying Nun rarity, we would have totally bought it. Keening vocals, dreamy melodies, fuzzy, buzzy guitars, plenty of jangle, hooks galore, but with a bit of Sonic Youth style noisiness woven into the sound, it's infectious and pretty goddamn great. As is the whole record really, every song here a jangle pop gem, some sung in English, some not, some sort of proggy and mathy, others straight ahead pop, but all of them hooky and heavenly, and easily the best CsC record yet! We have both the lp and the cd, apparently, they're both slightly different, different mixes, some songs are in English on one format, not on the others, we haven't really done a side by side A/B comparison, but we're guessing unless you're crazy anal or a super collector, you'll likely be happy whichever one you pick, if it matters, this review is of the vinyl version, which includes a download code as well!

MPEG stream: The Best VPN So Far
MPEG stream: 15 Minutes Older
MPEG stream: Reaching The Light
MPEG stream: Wild Grass

Got this super limited tour cd-r from one of our favorite Chinese indie rock outfits Carsick Cars who were just here on tour. This 5 song disc collects a handful of singles tracks and alternate versions, including two of our recent favorite CSC jams, one being a version of maybe the best track from the recent 3 album, which found the group getting super poppy, and heavily influenced by that classic Flying Nun sound (due in no small part to the fact that New Zealand indie legend Hamish Kilgour helped record that record), along with the group's track from the recently reviewed split with Flavor Crystals, a jam that we described as being super bubbly, poppy and sunshiney, all fuzzy guitars, fuzzy melodies, an effervescent blast of power pop, crunchy and jangly in equal measure. The opening track too, sounds straight out of eighties NZ, albeit with a little bit of modern sheen, but got Flying Nun nerds who miss that sound, holy cow, the fact that it's NZ by way of China only makes it that much more confusionally cool! "Shelter" is more stripped down, a dark jangly brooder, while "She Will Wait" adds some drum machine, and pushes the sound into a slightly shoegazier noise poppier direction, that definitely suits them. A great introduction to the band for sure, and essential if like us, you're turning into a Carsick Cars completist. SUPER LIMITED cd-r, once we run out, will have to get more from China, so act fast or be prepared to be patient...

MPEG stream: Yoko
MPEG stream: 15 Minutes Older
MPEG stream: Untitled

Not sure what it is about the current underground rock scene in China, but it seems like it's heavily influenced by the US, which is maybe not a huge surprise, but also, more specifically, nineties college/indie rock. Check out some of the Chinese outfits we've reviewed recently: P.K.14, Skip Skip Ben Ben, Streets Kill Strange Animals, Boyz & Girl, all amazing, and all heavily indebted to the Pixies, Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, you get the picture. Jangly, crunchy, fuzzy, noisy, poppy, shoegazey, all stuff we, and presumably, lots of you love, so if you've been missing THAT sound, might be time to dig into some of the amazing Chinese noise pop / indie rock that's blowing up over there these days. Last list we reviewed the self titled debut from the awesomely names Car-Sick Cars, and like that record, this follow up, is a fantastic celebration of all the stuff we loved about nineties indie rock, chiming minor key guitars, shimmery atmospheres, laid back drawled sad boy vox, brooding slow build verses and crunchy, noisy choruses, lots of textures and tension, even the prettiest most straight ahead jams here flecked with all manner of experimental studio weirdness and squalls of psychedelic crunch. But unlike that record, which seemed to be brimming with youthful exuberance, this record is a lot more laid back, a bit more contemplative, a little brooding, with most of the tracks settling in a sort of Sonic Youth / Velvets sort of trance out, the guitars looped and layered, the rhythms motorik, stripped down and propulsive, the songs wreathed in woozy textures, the vocals buried in the mix, the songs sprawling, tranced out and hypnotic, and really really good.

MPEG stream: Intro
MPEG stream: Dear Friend
MPEG stream: She Will Wait

As we've mentioned in the past few lists, we've been getting more and more sounds from the Chinese underground, so many that it's been difficult to listen to them all, let alone get them reviewed. White+, Boyz & Girl, Dear Eloise, P.K.14, Duck Fight Goose, Snapline, Skip Skip Ben Ben, Streets Kill Strange Animals, just to name a few. The one we were most excited to review was this outfit, based partly on their name, as well as the crazy cartoon alien lazer gun 4-eyed fish cover art. It was only recently we were actually able to get enough to list. And while we may have been expecting something way weirder, we ended up digging their sound, which like much of this new wave of Chinese bands, owes much to the nineties US indie/college rock underground. Carsick Cars take classic fuzzy jangle pop and angular noise rock and fuse it into something hooky, catchy, dark and difficult, with boy / girl vocals, crunchy guitar, plenty of noise, tribal drumming, wild flurries of piano, the result falling somewhere between Sonic Youth and Pavement and Sebadoh and Polvo? They definitely sound like the kind of band that would have been on labels like Matador, Homestead, even Touch And Go back in the day. The songs tend toward fuzzed out noise pop / indie rock crunch for the most part, but there's a lot of weirdness going on, and plenty of more abstract experimental noisiness, with the two sides of the band's sound bleeding into each other throughout!

MPEG stream: Zhi Yuan De Ren
MPEG stream: Gum
MPEG stream: No Gu

Killer new split 7" featuring one of our favorite Chinese indie rock outfits, Carsick Cars, teamed up with a Minneapolis psych rock band we'd heard of, but hadn't actually heard until now. The Carsick Cars side is super bubbly, poppy, and sunshiney, fuzzy guitars, fizzy melodies, effervescent almost power pop, crunchy and jangly in equal measure, maybe the best sounding jam we've heard from these guys, which makes sense as it's an outtake from the sessions for their newest record 3 (which we'll review on the next list, and it's great! And we DO have them in stock, cd and vinyl, both kinda different too!), produced by NZ legend Hamish Kilgour and Pete Kember, aka Sonic Boom. It's kind of hard to figure out why this was an OUTTAKE, cuz it's a scorcher, and the Hamish Kilgour connection makes a lot of sonic sense, cuz this totally sound like it could be some lost Flying Nun rarity, which is high praise indeed! The Flavor Crystals side is a bit more downcast, moody and broody, with gothy guitar shimmer over a lowslung bassline and motorik drumming, the vocals a reverby whispery croon, Moon Duo fans will definitely flip. Soon the surrounding sounds build, pulsing and pulsating, adding a dark sonic swirl to the proceedings, as the song proper follows suit, growing more dense and driving, heavy and hypnotic, before launching into some serious spaced out psych for the last few minutes, that will definitely hit the spot for fans of White Hills, The Heads, Moon Duo, etc. Definitely need to hear more from these guys. Gorgeously packaged, super eye popping, over the top cartoon art sleeves, each with a different, equally eye popping postcard inside, and pressed on dark red vinyl! Oh, and probably pretty limited as well!

MPEG stream: Yoko
MPEG stream: Mirror In My Mind

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Ask Andee or Allan who their favorite death metal band is, ever, and while you might find them momentarily heming and hawing over Morbid Angel, what they're ultimately gonna tell you is: Carcass. The British inventors, pretty much, of both the genre of gore-core and, as their career progressed, the whole melodic death metal thing that so many Swedish bands have taken to the bank. So this new "best of" compilation comes highly recommended. It spans their career from the early days of absurd vocal extremity and misused medical terminology to their more technical and tuneful later productions. Unlike so many other cookie-cutter, cookie-monster death metal bands, these guys had personality, and most importantly, great songs. Instantly memorable stuff. This comp, selected with the input of Carcass drummer Ken Owen (who, happily, has recently recovered from a long, quite serious illness, which he discusses among other Carcass related things in an interview in the cd booket) hits on the highlights of their career of carnage. Indeed, we probably would have picked most of the same songs. So, a fine introduction to their ouvre. And for those of you already well-versed in Carcass, this comp is still a good purchase because it also includes eight tracks from two early Peel sessions! Amazing to think of it, but Carcass (along with Napalm Death) was championed early on by veteran BBC DJ John Peel. So don't be the last on your block to experience the crepitating cadaveric necroticism of Carcass!

MPEG stream: Corporal Jigsore Quandry
MPEG stream: Crepitating Bowel Erosion (Peel Session)
MPEG stream: Reek Of Puterfaction (Peel Session)

MPEG stream: Heartwork
MPEG stream: Buried Dreams

Allan's favorite 'Death Metal' album (well, along with Morbid Angel's Blessed Are The Sick)! It combines the horrific rawness and insane medical lyrics of Carcass' first two albums (this was their third) with a newfound technicality and NWOBHM-derived catchiness. And they manage to make use of 'samples' in a way that doesn't suck. Definitely their masterpiece (though Andee might argue for Heartwork). Rules.

Cassette peeps, cool, check it out - we found some classic Earache titles on tape! We're listing two of 'em this week, this one, and also Godflesh's Streetcleaner. At some point along the way, we got in a cd reissue of this 1991 album by UK grindcore masters Carcass, and posted the following brief but utterly enthusiastic one-paragraph review: Allan's favorite Death Metal album ever (well, along with Morbid Angel's Blessed Are The Sick)! It combines the horrific rawness and insane medical lyrics of Carcass' first two albums (this was their third) with a newfound technicality and NWOBHM-derived catchiness. And they manage to make use of sound samples in a way that doesn't suck. Definitely their masterpiece (though Andee might argue for Heartwork). Rules. Well, this album deserves a lot more raving from us that just that - for one thing, not only do they use the song-intro samples in a non-sucky way, it's the best use of samples EVER! In part 'cause to this day we don't know what they're from (not your usual cult movies) and they still give us the creeps and/or make us laugh. But of course even without those eerie atmospheric samples this would be amazing - the riffs are to die for, the leads are songs unto themselves, it's brilliant all around. Even it you aren't into death metal, give it a chance. That's how good it is. This cassette reissue look to date from 2011, and includes 3 songs from the Tools Of The Trade ep as bonus tracks! Now we're all revved up for the reactivated Carcass's upcoming new album, Surgical Steel, their first in 17 years, due out any day now!! Dunno if it will come out on cassette though. (Okay, we just did a Google search about those samples, here's a link to the interestin' answer, from the 'Ask Earache' blog: http://askearache.blogspot.com/2011/02/where-did-intro-samples-on-carcass.html)

MPEG stream: Inpropagation
MPEG stream: Corporal Jigsore Quandary

If you have to ask who Carcass is, stop reading right here. For those of you who know and love the sick grinding medical school death metal of Earache's finest, this collectors reissue is for you. The classic 'Reek Of Putrefaction' has been reissued on vinyl, with the original BANNED artwork, printed inner sleeve/lyrics and on BLUE wax!! No longer any need to buy this for $100 on Ebay thanks to the nice folks at Earache.

Well the cat's out of the bodybag! Arguably the best EVER death metal band are back, and after the grizzly success of their multiple reunion tours it wasn't hard to see that a new record might be waiting for us around the corner, ready to pounce out with a scalpel and a chloroform rag at any moment, to drag us away to destinations unknown and terrifying. What was harder to foresee was how that record might turn out. After the less than ideal epitaph that was left by 1995's Swansong, some may have argued this cadaver was best left undisturbed. But we here at aQ HQ are thrilled to report that Surgical Steel is everything you wanted in this record: It's disgusting. It's meticulous. IT'S CARCASS. And we couldn't have asked for more. It would be tempting to call Surgical Steel a culmination of Carcass' whole career, but that's not quite right. There isn't much evidence of the warped guttural expulsions of Symphonies of Sickness, and the tambourines and cowbells of Swansong are entirely absent (some might say mercifully so). Instead this album feels like the missing link between the masterful sporadic death metal of 1991's landmark Necroticism and the more concise hooky approach of 1993's Heartwork. In fact, Surgical Steel almost sounds like the album Carcass might have made instead of Heartwork had they decided to follow their thrashier impulses. And neck snapping thrash this record has in spades! After the brief instrumental introduction of "1985" (with its soaring melodic leads in reverence to Judas Priest's "The Hellion"), "Thrashers Abattoir" bursts through the gates with a frantic blasting thrashing abandon, reintroducing those wretched vomitous vocals we've all missed so much. And then in less than two minutes it's over, and while the rest of the songs aren't quite that short that still kind of sets the tone for the rest of the album. 2013 finds Carcass much more streamlined, and also much cleaner sounding. The production is tight and modern and the songs are played with a surgical precision, which certainly isn't inappropriate for a band so preoccupied with the horrors of medicine. But the playing is so classic and the songwriting so frantic, that it never runs the risk of sounding overly sterile or lifeless. It's not all thrashing madness though (although most of it is!) "A Congealed Clot of Blood" is a roiling whirlwind of windmill double bass, dirgey breakdowns, snakey guitar leads and blasting palm-muted mania. And while Surgical Steel always sounds like classic Carcass it's hard not to feel like the shadows of classic metal orchestrators like golden age Judas Priest and Metallica loom large over the proceedings. In a time when so much death metal is mired either in passionless technical mathematics or riffless plodding inanity, it takes a master of the craft to remind us just how great and more importantly how much fun death metal can be. No anesthesia required!

It's been a while since I'd heard this one, or looked at its decidedly gross, human meat collage cover, and boy did it bring back memories. Coming home from college in the summer of 1991, I found that a bunch of people I knew -- who weren't even metalheads -- had gone Earache-crazy. Godflesh, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, OLD, Nocturnus, etc., and of course Carcass were all chum for their summertime sonic feeding frenzy. Longsleeve shirts via mail-order, Godflesh graffiti, road-trips to New Jersey to see Napalm Death. Good times in other words. I'm not sure what caused this strange grindcore, death metal mania to spread among my friends, but I'm sure it had something to do with the cutting edge quality of UK label Earache's releases back 'round then. 1989's "Symphonies of Sickness" would be one such example. With crazy/silly lyrics chock full of wordy, disgusting medical terminology (which you need the lyric sheet to understand, of course), blazing blast beats and the somehow catchy, but brutal guitar work of Bill Steer, this album (and its predecessor, "Reek of Putrefaction") were the ultimate in funny/gross grind at the time. The best then, the best now! (CDs still available, too.)

RealAudio clip: Ruptured In Purulence

Killer gore soaked collection of rare demos from one of Allan's and Andee's favorite bands of all time!!

Unreleased and rare tracks from this seminal grindcore band's ten year gore-splattered history.

For nearly twenty years now, Eugene Carchesio and Leighton Craig have been creating wayward recordings in barely-released editions on cassette and cd-r for their exploratory free-folk / semi-improvisational communions with the Australian landscape. Only recently have any of their recordings made their way across the Pacific, mostly by way of their contributions in the group Lost Domain, whose drifting, monochromatic ragas have been released by such shambolic stalwarts as Digitalis Recordings and PseudoArcana. Leaves is another such entry in their humbly spectacular wanderings; this time, it's through the exceptional Australian label Naturestrip. The easiest comparison that anyone could make to Leaves would be to The Blithe Sons, where two dedicated listeners creating droning harmonics alongside the unpredictability of natural events. Carchesio and Craig often are found slumped over their battery powered keyboards, creating shimmering drone vibrations that accompany the cacophony of lorikeets, crows, cicadas, and wind in Leighton's Brisbane backyard, where these recordings were made. When the birds and insects allow it, Carchesio and Craig pick up an acoustic guitar, violin, and recorder (amongst other instruments) for some purposefully primitive arrangements pocked with dreamily psychedelic references and quietly clattered improv. Really, really nice!

MPEG stream: Track 1
MPEG stream: Track 7

Released on AMM's Matchless label, "Chamber Music 1955-64" is a retrospective of the early compositions from the late British composer Cornelius Cardew. After studying with Stockhausen in the late '50s, Cardew quickly shifted his personal aesthetic

RealAudio clip: Solo With Accompaniment
RealAudio clip: Autumn 60 (version 2)

The liner notes for Cardew's "Four Principles on Ireland" state that Cardew enjoyed three stylistic phases of musical development. The first phase found Cardew breaking from the canons of the Royal Academy of Music in the 1950s and collaborating with

Even though Cornelius Cardew composed this piece from 1963 - 1967, the world premier complete recording of "Treatise" did not see the light of day long after his death in 1998. That's not surprising, considering that the manuscript of the score is 193 pages long, and serves as an open ended graphical display rather than a collection of specific notations. There are no suggestions as to

Another collection of work from Cardew's final period of utilitarian compositions informed heavily by Maoist doctrines of Communism, "We Sing For The Future!" has been performed by pianist Frederic Rzewski, founding member of Musica Elettronica Viva.

RealAudio clip: We Sing For The Future! (Theme)

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SORRY. The Cortical Foundation has been reissuing some amazing documents of avant-garde sound art from the past century, including this composition from Scratch Orchestra ringleader and AMM memeber Cornelius Cardew. This work presents three paragraphs from the much larger musical text of "The Great Learning" and is composed of sustained pipe organ tones in particularly malevolent chords, short stabs of police whistles, sheets of hammering tribal drums with human voices howling against the drums, and complex vocal choirs. All of the text that runs through the compositions are incantations from the Confucian text "The Great Learning" which lays down a basic ethical and political code. However, the recitation of these texts sounds very much like the perversions of Catholic liturgies from the black masses of the Satanic Church with an authoritative delivery, an almost Gnostic indecipherability, and a bleakly somber overtone. Cardew's intentions for using this text are to express the inherent human failings of attempting to live up to the most basic of moral codes. Despite his pairing the metaphor of failure with the distinctly sprirtual overtones in the work, Cardew may not be actually talking about spiritual collapse or the failure of religions. Rather, "The Great Learning" postulates that if there is a higher state than mankind, then it will be our goal to attempt to find a means to that state, even if that is an impossible goal. Altogether, this is an wonderful if at times terrifying work.

RealAudio clip: Paragraph 1

Both Cornelius Cardew and David Bedford were leading proponents of avant-garde composition in England during the '60s. Cardew's experimentation with graphical notation and a democratization of performance through improvisation were radical departures from the controlled strategies of his former mentor Karlheinz Stockhausen. His most successful realization of these ideas was the epic 7 hour composition "The Great Learning," a composition based on the set of Confucian texts of the same name which lays down a basic ethical and political code. This piece was actualized by his unprecendented Scratch Orchestra, an ensemble filled with professional and untrained musicians given simple instructions as well as the mandate to respond according to how the performance itself wanted to be performed, not by how the composer intended it to sound. "The Great Learning" comprised of 7 paragraphs, each with its own unique set of parameters. A few years back, we had offered a collection of recordings from "The Great Learning" published by the Cortical Foundation; yet, due to the continued medical situation that persists with Cortical Foundation's owner Gary Todd, that album has gone missing. However, this collection through Deutsche Grammophon includes 2 of the paragraphs (number 2 and number 7) from the same (and possibly only) session documented on the Cortical album. The recitation of these Confucian texts -- with Paragraph 2 as a tumultous drum and voice procession and Paragraph 7 as an angelic choir -- sounds very much like the perversions of Catholic liturgies from the black masses of the Satanic Church with an authoritative delivery, an almost Gnostic indecipherability, and a bleakly somber overtone. Cardew's intentions for using this text are to express the inherent human failings of attempting to live up to the most basic of moral codes. Despite his pairing the metaphor of failure with the distinctly sprirtual overtones in the work, Cardew may not be actually talking about spiritual collapse or the failure of religions. Rather, "The Great Learning" postulates that if there is a higher state to mankind, then it will be our goal to attempt to find a means to that state, even if that is an impossible goal. Later aligning himself with Maoism, Cardew's unwavering optimism for man's ability to escape the confines of oppression is most articulate within this outstanding composition. That isn't to take anything away from David Bedford, who had been a member of Cardew's Scratch Orchestra. In his two beautiful vocal pieces, Bedford conveys a majestic impressionism of sound, drawing upon the poems of Kenneth Patchen. Where there is an undeniable tension and dischord within the Cardew pieces, there is a lightness and ephemeralism found within Bedford's. Altogether, the four pieces make for a very complementary pair of recordings.

RealAudio clip: Paragraph 2
RealAudio clip: O Now The Drenched Land Wakes

We first heard about the Cardiacs from our friend Jussi From Circle. He didn't really give us much to go on, just told us to find Cardiacs records. So when I (Andee) was in England last year I looked everywhere for Cardiacs records. No stores stocked them, no one had even heard of them. Rough Trade? Nope. Record And Video Exchange? Nope. So on a whim I went into Tower Records, and whhattayaknow, the Cardiacs had their own big ol' section. So I bought 4 of the 8 records they had in stock, without even knowing what they sounded like. The guy I was staying with was not at all impressed, telling me "Nobody likes the Cardiacs". But when I finally got down to listening to them, boy was I pleasantly surprised. Somehow not at all what I expected, but that only made me like it more. It's definitely pop, but it's not pop like you or I know it, it's freaked out, complex, super dynamic, totally catchy, weird vocals, drum machines, high pitched lead vocals, carnivalesque, bombastic kick ass sort-of-power-pop. It's really hard to describe. When I brought my copy to play for people in the store, every couple of minutes someone walked up wanting to buy whatever it was we were playing. So finally, we were able to get enough copies to list and let you all get your grubby litttle paws on this demented pop goodness. Think the Pixies meets the Sweet meets the Toy Dolls meets Uz Jsme Doma meets Queen meets the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack meets XTC but more punk rock, and more prog, or something like that. With totally unlikely but irresistible melodies, squiggly guitars, circus organs, the occasional children's choir (?), drumming that is so stuttery and precise it sounds like it must be a drum machine, burbly spaced out ambient keyboards, completely fucked lyrics and amazing vocals and harmonies. It's like power-pop-prog-ska (like Uz Jsme Doma sounded ska) punk craziness. Goes from manic and intense to throbbing and dreamy at the drop of a dime. I think this band was 'big' for a while in the UK which is why my hipster friends scoffed, but to be honest I can't understand why they're not still big, or big here too. Just a little too weird, methinks. 'Guns' is my favorite record of the bunch. Just listen to the sound sample for the song 'There's Good Cud'. One of the most perfect pop songs I've ever heard. Weird and damaged but totally catchy and fun. Sort of like the whole record. And the sample after that 'Wind And Rains Is Cold' shows the softer (but no less weird) side of the Cardiacs. Lilting pop loveliness wrapped in a warped rock framework. This record totally rules.

RealAudio clip: There's Good Cud
RealAudio clip: Wind And Rains Is Cold
RealAudio clip: Spell With A Shell

It's been a while since we've heard from the Cardiacs, UK's mightiest, spazz-prog pop outfit ever. No fault of theirs, it just took some organizing to get another big batch of Cardiacs discs sent over. This one's not a new one but along with Guns (now sadly out of print) and Songs For Ships And Irons it's another of our favorites. Our pal Jussi from Circle might just be the biggest Cardiacs fan in the world (just narrowly edging us out) having subjected Andee to hours and hours of listening and viewing when he was in Finland, prompting him to undertake a secret mission when he was in the UK next, to track down and purchase ALL of the Cardiacs records. That 'all' amounted to close to 20 different titles, so he settled for 5 or 6, and loved them all. As did everyone we played them for. So, since the band has NO distribution in the states, we contacted the band directly and convinced them to send us discs, and here we are. Andee now does own every single Cardiacs record and loves every one of 'em. We listed Guns and Songs For Ships And Irons, a year or two back, both going over like gangbusters, so we figured next time we sorted out a big Cardiacs order we'd get a bunch of Heaven Born And Ever Bright. So here we are. This one starts off with an epic, lush Queen-like (the band, not the, er, Queen) fanfare. Martial drums, thick swaths of organ and a chorus of vocals all singing praise to the band's own label The Alphabet Business Concern and then it's down to business, the business of impossible convoluted lush mini-epics. But how to describe the sound? Well when we first heard the Cardiacs we thought Toy Dolls meets Uz Jsme Doma meets Queen meets the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack meets XTC but more punk rock, and more prog. And that still pretty much hits it right on the head. Madly strummed guitars, manic drumming, a chorus of vocals, some high, some low, mainman Tim Smith handling the majority, but often sparring with one or more other vocalists, angular riffing and dense swirls of sound over bouncy rhythms, streaks of circusy keyboards, and maddeningly catchy hooks everywhere. Totally over the top, super dramatic and wild, like every song is some demonic musical brought to life. Imagine some circle of hell, where demented musical theater freaks and prog obsessed metalheads and nerdy twee popsters are all forced to collaborate on 3 minute long musical plays for eternity. And it's been thousands of years, so everyone has gone good and mad, and this is their most recent batch. Fucking brilliant.

MPEG stream: The Alphabet Business Concern (Home Of Fadeless Splendour)
MPEG stream: She Is Hiding Behind The Shed
MPEG stream: March

AS OF MAY 2010, THIS TITLE IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE TO US. SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

We first heard about the Cardiacs from our friend Jussi From Circle. He didn't really give us much to go on, just told us to find Cardiacs records. So when I (Andee) was in England last year I looked everywhere for Cardiacs records. No stores stocked them, no one had even heard of them. Rough Trade? Nope. Record And Video Exchange? Nope. So on a whim I went into Tower Records, and whhattayaknow, the Cardiacs had their own big ol' section. So I bought 4 of the 8 records they had in stock, without even knowing what they sounded like. The guy I was staying with was not at all impressed, telling me "Nobody likes the Cardiacs". But when I finally got down to listening to them, boy was I pleasantly surprised. Somehow not at all what I expected, but that only made me like it more. It's definitely pop, but it's not pop like you or I know it, it's freaked out, complex, super dynamic, totally catchy, weird vocals, drum machines, high pitched lead vocals, carnivalesque, bombastic kick ass sort-of-power-pop. It's really hard to describe. When I brought my copy to play for people in the store, every couple of minutes someone walked up wanting to buy whatever it was we were playing. So finally, we were able to get enough copies to list and let you all get your grubby litttle paws on this demented pop goodness. Think the Pixies meets the Sweet meets the Toy Dolls meets Uz Jsme Doma meets Queen meets the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack meets XTC but more punk rock, and more prog, or something like that. With totally unlikely but irresistible melodies, squiggly guitars, circus organs, the occasional children's choir (?), drumming that is so stuttery and precise it sounds like it must be a drum machine, burbly spaced out ambient keyboards, completely fucked lyrics and amazing vocals and harmonies. It's like power-pop-prog-ska (like Uz Jsme Doma sounded ska) punk craziness. Goes from manic and intense to throbbing and dreamy at the drop of a dime. I think this band was 'big' for a while in the UK which is why my hipster friends scoffed, but to be honest I can't understand why they're not still big, or big here too. Just a little too weird, methinks. This is my second favorite Cardiacs record ONLY because two of my favorite Cardiacs' songs are on 'Guns' (see other review). But it's easily as good as 'Guns' with its frenetic pop, completely mad vocals and brain-melting arrangements. I mean just listen to the sound samples!! You might as well buy both of them because this band is the fucked up, off-kilter, totally difficult and damaged pop band you've been looking for your whole life. I kid you not.

RealAudio clip: Big Ship
RealAudio clip: Tarred And Feathered
RealAudio clip: Burn Your House Brown

AS OF MAY 2010, THIS TITLE IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE TO US. SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MPEG stream: Gibber And Twitch
MPEG stream: As Cold As Can Be In An English Sea

AS OF MAY 2010, THIS TITLE IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE TO US. SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

MPEG stream: Hello Mr. Sparrow
MPEG stream: A Bus For The Bus On A Bus

When Yo La Tengo went to rock school in their video for "Sugarcube", they were instructed that their third album must follow the ELP Rule -- it must be double live! Well the Cardigans, in their recent matriculation into rock school, have followed a different rule for their third album -- the Radiohead Rule -- that if a band is in danger of being written off as a one-hit-wonder, they must make a third album of dark yet sugar-coated pop gems. Hence, OK Computer and now, for the Cardigans, Gran Turismo. OK, it is unfair to compare this album to OK Computer, but the Cardigans have realized their best album of bittersweet pop songs. (Sadly, however, there are no Black Sabbath covers on this album.) An Aquarius pop fave.

These Swedish lads n' lass are back with a new album, but they're no longer the buzz band they were a few years ago. Symptomatic of their current lower profile in the hip-parade, this record was actually released overseas long ago, last year, but is only now getting US release. Some of us here had sought out the import -- and were disappointed, initially anyway. Long Gone Before Daylight is a more "adult", sad-sounding, and basically not-as-catchy Cardigans. More generic sounding too. And very different from the electronically-bolstered sound of their previous album Gran Turismo. Definitely less sleek dream pop than before. Grown up and without the candy coating. So, ok... if you're a big fan you probably should pick this up (even those of us who got the import did, as this comes with a bonus US only track AND a bonus DVD disc of videos and live tracks!). From experience, we know that it will probably grow on you even if you don't like it that much at first. Nina Persson's voice is, ultimately, hard to resist. So lovely. (Still it would be great if she'd sing an album all in Swedish, as the English-language lyrics here are sometimes hard to take, full of hokey rhymes and cliches!) And anyone not already into the Cardigans is advised to get Gran Turismo or First Band On The Moon instead, you can check this out later once/if you're hooked. But nobody here who bought this is selling theirs back...

MPEG stream: And Then You Kissed Me
MPEG stream: Live And Learn

Cardinal, the duo of Eric Matthews and Richard Davies (of legendary NZ outfit the Moles), only released one record, a self titled album that came out in 1994, and while commercially it didn't make that much of a splash, it become THEE modern orchestral pop record that pretty much set the bar, a collection of songs that owed as much to the classics as it did to the indie rock of the time, dark brooding pop gems driven by strings and horns and gorgeous unlikely vocal harmonies, "You've Lost Me There" from that record still ranks as one of the greatest pop songs ever. And while both Matthews and Davies continued to make records, and some good ones at that, none of those ever approached the sublime majesty of that one record. Which is maybe why the two have reconvened almost two decades later and revived their old partnership. For those of us who spent the nineties obsessed with that record (which is most of us at aQ), and heck, let's be honest, most of the 2000's as well, the prospect of a new Cardinal record had us quivering in anticipation. And on first listen, opening track "Northern Soul" brings us right back. Lush and lovely, haunting and dreamily jangly, acoustic guitars, chiming major key chords, those strange harmonies that so defined that first record, and Cardinal in general are still present, whether it's weird little falsettos, or that deep throaty croon mixed way in the background, it's really what gives Cardinal it's otherworldly energy. But the music here, remains fantastically rich and evocative, the trumpet, the big strummed acoustic guitar, those vocals. And while a record as good as their debut was probably too much to hope for, the record still holds up pretty well. Replacing the timelessness of their debut with a slightly more modern sheen, and with a much broader sonic palette, expanding beyond symphonic pop, giving some proper indie rock a go here and there, but for the most part, this is a pretty great second chapter in Cardinal's two decades long two album career, and it's one of those records, that definitely blossoms with repeated listens, where the initial thrill of a new Cardinal record, no matter how it sounds, is eventually replaced with a a pure and honest appreciation for this disc of catchy, off kilter, symphonic pop. The fact that it sounds like Cardinal only makes it that much better. Like that first record, WAY recommended pop fans of all stripes, but especially folks who dig the timeless pop sounds of the Zombies, the Beach Boys, (Early) Bee Gees, and more modern practitioners like Neutral Milk Hotel and the Elephant 6 stable, Jellyfish, Belle And Sebastian, Sparklehorse and the like..

MPEG stream: Northern Soul
MPEG stream: Carbolic Smoke Ball
MPEG stream: Her
MPEG stream: Radio Birdman

This is one of those perfect pop records that happens very rarely, one in a million, like a total eclipse, or an alignment of the planets, or some rare comet, flaring brightly but briefly and then fading away. A band that put everything it had into a single set of songs and then exhausted, sat back and let those songs float free. In the case of Cardinal, those songs immediately resonated deeply with pop obsessives all over the world, but then far too quickly disappeared, with the folding of their label and the seemingly immediate disbanding of the group after the original release of this record in 1994. But here we are, more than a decade later, and if anything, these songs sound better than ever, timeless and classic, and not at all dated. This is classic pop in the tradition of the Beatles, the Bee Gees, the Beach Boys, Van Dyke Parks, the Zombies, Phil Spector, but with a distinctly modern twist. Richard Davies, half of the Cardinal core, fronted the Australian pop band the Moles, and for Cardinal contributed the raw material, the songs and the melodies, while Eric Matthews was the arranger, taking these simple and perfect pop songs, and opening them up to reveal their hidden beauty, adding strings and pianos and vocal harmonies, shine and sheen, turning simple lovely pop into lush expansive pop masterpieces! Multiple vocals swirl and intertwine in unlikely harmonies, over horns and soaring strings, gently weeping guitars, moody piano chords, and simple shuffling drumbeats. An impossible, and impossibly perfect mix of classic sixties pop, lush easy listening, indie jangle and moody balladeering. Any one who likes any sort of pop music, will be immediately and unalterably smitten by this record. Fitting somewhere between the above mentioned bands and modern pop practitioners like Neutral Milk Hotel, Zumpano, Belle And Sebastian, the Pernice Brothers, Sparklehorse, Iron And Wine, Unrest, the Decemberists and the like, Cardinal fill our souls with pop music and we float dreamily heavenward, humming right along. Includes extensive liner notes and ELEVEN bonus tracks including demos, b-sides, out-takes and the tracks form the first, long out of print ep!

MPEG stream: If You Believe In Christmas Trees
MPEG stream: Last Poems
MPEG stream: Big Mink
MPEG stream: You've Lost Me There

As fans of this Finnish (FINNISH!) doom (DOOM!) band's 2011 full-length, Such Power Is Dangerous, we are happy to hear more by 'em, now that the cult Shadow Kingdom label have delved into the band's past to bring us this collection of early material culled from out of print ep's, cd-rs, and rare demos circa 2007-2009, ten weighty tracks in all, including a previously unreleased cover version of "The Model" by Kraftwerk! Cardinals Folly turn it into a pretty decent, crushing doom metal song, although we think taking a more histrionic vocal approach would have been maybe even more amusing, rather than sticking with the robotic style of the original. But in any case, the way they do it totally fits in with their own compositions, "rumbling heavier-than-thou true doom wretchedness" as we said in our review of their debut full-length, this disc replete with tons of heavy trudging riffage (sometimes breaking into a spirited gallop) and portentous, primarily deep-voiced vocal eccentricity, enacting occult doom rock rituals in the vein of fellow Finns Reverend Bizarre (RIP). The cd booklet includes lyrics, among them for the song "Cardinals Folly" itself - lots of great lines, like: "So what if we don't please the masses blind / the world might not be made for our kind / flower power rules while the ungodly try / to seduce people into false metal cry!" They also tell us to "Doom in! / drop out!" Ok, all very cool, but we still haven't learned what it was exactly that Cardinal did that was so terribly ill-advised. Listening to false metal, perhaps.

MPEG stream: Rasputin (The Mad Monk)
MPEG stream: They Found Atlantis
MPEG stream: The Model

Yep, this is one of those that barely needs a review, besides our thumbs up (we like it!) and a few other crucial facts of the matter: it's from Finland, it's doom metal, it's on the cult Shadow Kingdom label. And perhaps unsurprisingly, sounds a heck of a lot like the late great Finnish doomsters Reverend Bizarre. Which is not to say it's unoriginal, any more so than Rev Biz, 'cause both bands worship at the altar of old school traditional Black Sabbath derived doom. This is what they're SUPPOSED to sound like: epic and emotive, dire and depressive. The debut full-length from Cardinals Folly (cool name, we think, but shouldn't there be an apostrophe in there somewhere?) is appropriately sloooow and heavy, adorned with dramatic deep voiced vox, that for sure recall those of Albert Witchfinder. If you miss the ol' Reverend, Cardinals Folly will be right up your dark, cobblestoned alley. But not only do they have that "sound" (which they do very well), they also work in enough interesting, creative moves of their own to make this a worthy doom endeavor in its own right, too. The album begins with an atmospheric intro track, "The Hammer Speaks", featuring a militaristic drum beat amidst distorted ambience, eventually joined by deeeep vocal intonations. A bit Current 93ish, really. That's a fine way for this to slide into the full-on amped-up doom metal of track two, the title track, oven ten minutes of slow majestic riffery, dissonant downer psych leads, loosely-strung low end bass, and more of those droning deep but melodic vocal stylings... Things speed up a bit for the chugging "Valkyries I Avenge", energy matched by maniacal laughter from the vocalist (who has his insane side, heard later in the album as well), but it's the very end of track four "The Spear Of Destiny" that got everyone in the store staring at the stereo, when they start in with some studio trickery, messing with the tape speed, for a moment making this druggily "drag", like a 45 played at 33, but even more warped and warbly. Nice! And so it goes, seven tracks, well over an hour of rumbling heavier-than-thou true doom wretchedness from up near the Arctic, like we said, definitely for anyone into fellow Finns, Reverend Bizarre (RIP). Also Lord Vicar, Procession, Gates Of Slumber, Condenados, Garden Of Worm, The Wounded Kings, that sort of thing. You know if this is meant for you, or you for it...

MPEG stream: Such Power Is Dangerous!
MPEG stream: Valkyries I Avenge
MPEG stream: Uncharted Seas

Feeling Strange is a fluid mixed set from Parisian minimalist proponent Jennifer Cardini. Yes, the minimalist techno gestures abound, with plenty of bleeps, bloops, and acid squiggles grafted onto that insistent technotic pulse; but Ms. Cardini doesn't just adhere to the Detroit / Berlin axis of electronica with some very nice transitions into some Moroder-esque arpeggiating disco and leftfield electro-pop. Static, Maurizio, The Hacker, Reinhard Voigt, Apparat, and Luisine are but a few of the selections. Adorned with the Kompakt seal of approval.

MPEG stream: Sometimes I'm Sad For A Few Seconds
MPEG stream: Love Love Love Yeah

While V/VM has been unrelentingly releasing the dumbest, least funny jokes in electronica, the arrival of an album from The Caretaker is a welcome respite. This project -- which may or may not have anything to do with the members of V/VM -- has been the ONLY listenable thing released on the V/VM label since day 1! Like the aptly named debut "Selected Memories From The Haunted Ballroom," The Caretaker's "A Stairway To The Stars" digitally manipulates 1930's ballroom waltzes into occasionally dreamy, occasionally creepy atmospheres that blur the edges of the original vinyl tracks into somnambulant dronings. Aesthetically speaking, the only connection between V/VM and The Caretaker is found in the limited palette of effects cranked all the way up. While V/VM would use just a ring modulator on a Lionel Richie song for a really boring piece of post-irony, The Caretaker's overblown use of cathedral reverb turns those waltzes into something much closer to Troum. That said, there are a couple of tracks in which the ring modulator warbles far too often. Nevertheless, this is album that will surely invoke references to those eerie ballroom scenes from "The Shining."

RealAudio clip: Emptiness
RealAudio clip: Malign Forces Of The Occult
RealAudio clip: A Stairway To The Stars

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

SORRY. Now available on cd, record number two from Leyland Kirby's Caretaker project, whose last record, Persistent Repetition Of Phrases, was a unanimous aQ fave, and was of course one of Wire magazine's top 10 albums of 2008, and was, and still is, one of our best sellers, and it looks like this one is likely to follow suit. A sonic meditation on memory and loss, The Caretaker, takes old jazz records, various effects, and what sounds like a battery of old beat up Victrolas, and weaves Philip Jeck like soundscapes, but unlike Jeck, the source sounds here are not obfuscated, in fact, in some respects, The Caretaker records are almost like spectral spiritual otherworldly mix tapes, especially on this new one, which sounds like old 78s left to play in a big old auditorium, the room's reverb lovingly wreathing the music in a gauzy old timey haze, the surface noise, hiss and crackle and pop, somehow accentuated by the cavernous space. Better yet, replace the auditorium with an old abandoned mansion. Imagine the great room, animal heads on the walls, old oil paintings, a massive fireplace, charred black, old decaying rugs, all the furniture covered in white cloths, looking like ghosts, cobwebs in all the corners, the floor beneath a layer of dust, and in the corner, an old record player, lit up, its turntable spinning slowly, some old dusty record, to a room full of spirits, a sonic requiem for a time that once was, the music seeming to reflect the ever fading memories, and that's what these songs sound like, some sort of haunted house jazz, old timey seance blues, mournful melodies played on an old piano, muted trumpet, swoonsome strings, shuffling drums, a slow motion big band performing live in the ether, a spectral band playing lament after lament, dedicating it to their lost loves, and loves lost. An Empty Bliss Beyond This World plays like some archival collection of lost 78's, but where the records' provenance is unknown, timeless music that could have come from anytime, and anywhere, the imperfections and inconsistencies as much a part of the sound as the music itself, all of that hiss and crackle a warm wreath of time-transformed-into-sound detritus, the passing of time mad physical, a sonic memorial to the past. So utterly gorgeous.

MPEG stream: All You're Going To Want To Do Is Get Back There
MPEG stream: Moments Of Sufficient Lucidity
MPEG stream: The Great Hidden Sea Of The Unconscious
MPEG stream: Libet's Delay

[ aquarius records catalogue — C ]