[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 551 through 600 of 2079.

MPEG stream: Razor Love
MPEG stream: Carrying Over

Kick ass collection of dark East Coast hip hop, blunted beats and brooding atmospherics, from this bizarre collective made up of experimental hip hop outfit Dalek, East Coast spaced out dronescapers Destructo Swarmbots, and hop hop weirdo Oddateee. Tons of guests too...

Yet another far out release from the genius Public Guilt label, this one an experimental hip hop avant drone soundscape record from a group called dEADVERSE MASSIVE, made up of experimental hip hop outfit Dalek, East Coast spaced out dronescapers Destructo Swarmbots, and hop hop weirdo Oddateee. And you know it sort of sounds just how you might expect. Dark and droney, stretched out and abstract. Only the first track really sounds very hip hop, and even then it's freaked out and pretty far out. A grinding low end, a squelchy electro beat, a long stretch of some dude swearing and cursing a blue streak, eventually the rapping comes in, a mellow, laid back flow, perfectly complimenting the washed out murky drones in the background. That track segues into something way more abstract, bits of wah guitar and fragments of melody drift aimlessly in a shimmery expanse, with what sounds like a muted song, or a mysterious radio broadcast unfurling way in the background. The side finishes off with a strange looped soundscape of hiccupping guitar riffs, chopped into little pieces, then strewn over a lengthy stretch of near nothingness, a haunting minimal jam for sure. The flip side, is all one track, but moves through all sorts of moods and movements. Beginning with a muddy DJ Shadow-esque soundscape but with a bit more drone and glitch, a thumping blurred rhythm way down in the mix, a constant drone of fluttering guitar and washed out keyboards drifting over the top. This murky midnight groove turns into a swirling morass of disembodied guitars and keyboard chaos, over the top a confusional mix of voices, spoken, sampled, some right up front, some distorted and buried beneath the music, three, maybe four voices, constantly drifting in and out of earshot, eventually fading away, leaving a melancholy, minor key stretch of backwards guitar, looped and dreamlike that unwinds until the disc ends. Really cool stuff. Maybe more for weird music fans than hip hop headz, but either way, would love to hear some of this in some crazy DJ set... Gorgeous picture disc, original Paul Romano artwork (you know, the guy who did those Mastodon covers), in a thick plastic sleeve with a metallic silver sticker along the top.

Deadwood the group, existed long before the HBO series of the same name, but it some ways, they have a lot in common, mostly in the bleak, hopeless, windblown vibe that permeates them both. Featuring a member of Swedish black metal horde and long time AQ faves Blodulv, Deadwood offer up extended tracks of ultra creepy low end explorations, that run the gamut from abrasive power electronics, to slithering drone drenched black ambience. Fans of stuff like MZ412 and other purveyors of bleak abstract sounds will definitely dig this. From thick squalls of white noise hiss, like rain on a metal barn roof, to super blown out Merzbowian hiss, almost black metal in its buzz and intensity, to crumbling landscapes of tape hiss and low end rumble, slowed down vocals, and mumbled scrape and shimmer, to strange murky tribalism, to skipping soundscapes of demonic vocals and ultra distorted slowed down beats, to decayed orchestral snippets chopped and looped into impossibly mesmerizing rhythms, a dark and damaged world of sound, though while at its heaviest could be the harshest, hissiest BM you've ever heard, spends most of its time crawling and lurching through slow motion fields of rumbling sound. Awesome.

MPEG stream: Antabus
MPEG stream: Crushing On

We really can't get enough of the dark, cinematic soundscapes conjured by so many of the artists on such likeminded labels as Type (UK) and Miasmah (Norway). This new release on Type by Norwegian duo Deaf Center (cellist Erik K. Skodvin and pianist Otto A. Totland) is our current fave, it's just their second full-length in six years, as clearly it takes time to craft music this moody and gorgeous, this time around produced in a proper studio, in Berlin, on analog equipment for maximum fidelity. Also the two members of Deaf Center have been busy with their own, individual projects - Skodvin, for one, is the man behind another AQ fave, Svarte Greiner, plus he also runs the Miasmah label! And if you like the "acoustic doom" of Svarte Greiner, you should also appreciate Deaf Center's evocative combination of modern classical, ambient, and electronic strains on Owl Splinters. Atmospheric opener "Divided" sets the mood, all abstract, monastic moan and droning string-scrape, hushed and floating. Then "Time Spent" introduces sparse melody, played on pensive, pretty piano, alone in the dark. Third track "New Beginning (Tidal Darkness)" is one of subtle crackle and glitch, the music ebbing and flowing through drone build-ups and more exquisite piano reveries. Once again, moody and somber, but beautiful. And so it goes, Deaf Center getting much heavier (eventually) in the midst of the grinding epic, "The Day I Would Never Have", the album's nearly 11 minute long centerpiece (which is infinitely longer on the vinyl version, as it ends the first side with a locked groove). Dense tones resonate with great emotional presence. Skodvin's deep cello sawing can get spiky too, as on the nervously dramatic "Animal Sacrifice", though all is soothed by the luminous fuzz of the ambient background. Another epic track appears before the end of the disc, "Close Forever Watching" being 8 minutes of glorious, massing drone shimmer - play loud!! With its balance of delicacy and weightiness both, Deaf Center's Owl Splinters coincidentally in some respects reminds us of two other releases recommended on this week's list - the new album from Earth, and also the Klute soundtrack! The recent Ural Umbo lp highlighted here last time also comes to mind. Essential for fans of all things Type and Miasmah, particularly (of course) Svarte Greiner, also Elegi, Jacaszek, Fjellstrom, etc. A great going to sleep album for some of us, if you're ready for some perhaps suspenseful dreams. Please note that the vinyl version, as is often the case with Type releases, is packaged with a bonus cd, in this case containing a 46 minute reworking of the album tracks by Skodvin under his Svarte Greiner guise, entitled Twin. Why they want to deprive cd purchasers of that, we don't know.

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MPEG stream: The Day I Would Never Have
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We highlighted the Homeless label's vinyl reissue of this excellent Melbourne based noiserock band's debut cd-r last list, and now here's a brand new 7" from 'em, on Sub Pop! It features four songs, all churning with heavy distortion and downer vibes. The combo of noise and melody, along with the multilayered, half-mumbled, sometimes venomous female vocals, definitely incite some Sonic Youth comparisons, if SY were jamming out with ugly Aussie punks like the Cuntz or old faves Lubricated Goat. Looking forward to the presumably upcoming new full-length that we're guessing Sub Pop will be doing too.

More excellent noiserockin' punk pigfuck gutter-wallow from the Homeless camp Down Under (Cuntz, The Stickmen, Gentlemen, et.al.). Lotsa distortion and feedback, attack attack! Strumming guitars like shaking the bars of a cage. Ragged rough-gruff vocals, both male and female, with anguished, negative vibes lyrics galore; "Mum Gets Punched In The Face" is a song title here. Naturally, a sense of humor too. Of course, bonus points for grabbing the name Deaf Wish! (Somehow they're the only one, according to the internet.) Melody gets punched in the face a few times as well, and sometimes punches back. F'd up in all kinds of good ways. Limited to 500 copies on green vinyl; comes with download, but you're already loaded.

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MPEG stream: Mum Gets Punched In The Face
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After originally surfacing on a very limited hand xeroxed cassette back in 2010 (kvlt!), Deafheaven's first and only demo is now finally widely accessible on beautiful vinyl for rabid blackgaze enthusiasts the world over! Beautifully and minimally packaged (looking a bit like some long lost Smiths single), the recordings found herein - though a bit rougher around the edges perhaps than their most recent 'Sunbather' LP - showcase one of those rare groups that entirely skipped that awkward gestation period that even the best bands typically go through. There's no finding their footing going on here, no beginner's mistakes - Deafheaven's signature sound was already as fully formed and realized as most bands could hope for after years together. If you've heard any of Deafheaven's more recent recordings then you know what to expect: Epic post rock and shoegaze tinged black metal. Equal parts forlorn and life-affirming, aching and jubilant. Endlessly beautiful cascading melodies to get lost in, perfectly juxtaposed with anguished venomous vocals. Wonderfully bittersweet but without ever sacrificing an ounce of fury. Being a demo, this finds the band a bit looser and (comparatively) more stripped down. The drumming is more raucous and off kilter than on Sunbather - the blastbeats imbued with a manic, almost uncontrollable energy - while likewise the guitars are less awash in layers and effects, a bit more traditionally black metal if you will! But it only adds to urgency and raw emotion on display. Deathwish snatched up Deafheaven in the blink of an eye after this demo started making the rounds originally, and it's not hard to see why. The origin point for a totally unique vision in heavy music - one that hopefully lasts a good long while. And did we mention they're from right around the corner from us too? ...Not that we're bragging or anything!

Deafheaven are a new band from right here in the Bay Area, who have been causing quite a stir lately in the metal underground, their soaring epic, super melodic black metal dividing the grim hordes right down the middle. Obviously, purists don't consider this to be black metal at all, which in some ways is fair, just listen to the opening 4 minutes of record opener "Violet", there's not a trace of blackness to be found, instead, you'll here Explosions In The Sky, Godspeed, Mogwai, majestic, bombastic, melodic, gorgeously lush and expansive. But then wait a few more seconds... and BAM, the band EXPLODE in a frenzy of buzzing and pounding blackend crush, rife with howled vokills, gnarled riffage, and there's no doubt that this is black metal, but not Immortal / Mayhem / Darkthrone black metal, no, it's more in line with the more melodic end of the BM spectrum, think Alcest, Fell Voices, Fauna, Wolves In The Throne Room, Deafheaven definitely have that Cascadian BM vibe going on too, but all of their blackness and buzz is most definitely tempered with heaping helpings of melody. Even at its most frenzied, Deafheaven essentially sound like Mogwai or EITS supercharged and metallized, it's still soaring and epic and majestic, just wrapped in thick swirling sheets of black metal buzz, and hell, it sounds pretty goddamn amazing. The production is lush, the sound MASSIVE, the guitars thick and distorted, except when they're ringing out all clear and chiming, the arrangements are pretty expansive and epic too, blasting buzz giving way to droned out drift, which in turn gives way to another blast of furious melodic blackness. Just four tracks, but they're all long, lots of parts, all moody and melodic, a dizzying hybrid of black metal, screamo and post rock, reminds us a little of a WAY more metal version of recent Record Of The Week-ers Pianos Become The Teeth, but where that band melded old school screamo to epic post rock, Deafheaven do the same with buzzing melodic black metal, the result, while perhaps not grim enough for some, is pretty tough to resist. And while we love how the songs shift from slow build brood to black blast, and back again, the real magic of Deafheaven is how they combine the two, taking churning buzzing blackness and laying some soaring coruscating shoegazey guitar chords over the top, or winding majestic, chiming, impossibly melancholic clean guitar melodies and lush textures into howling vokills and grinding black riffage, and while in battles between good and evil, we usually bet black, in this case, melody always seems to prevail, transforming what could have been just another chunk of blasting buzz into something gorgeous and transcendental.

MPEG stream: Violet
MPEG stream: Language Games

Album number two from these local lads and the term "sophomore slump" has clearly never entered into their lexicon. Sunbather is an enormous slab of post-rock tinged black metal (or black metal tinged post-rock??) that expands and improves upon everything that made Roads to Judah such a buzzed about debut. Imagine Godspeed! You Black Emperor in a blender with Filosofem-era Burzum and you might get an idea. Or try and picture Ihsahn circa In the Nightside Eclipse howling over classic Smiths or U2 at a hyperspeed 666rpm and you might come even closer. The end result is like a far more furious Alcest (Neige even pops up to provide a bit of spoken word on one of the album's several ethereal interlude tracks). But what really makes Sunbather such a success is how it takes these myriad influences and melds them together so seamlessly. Not a moment of it sounds forced or contrived. The production is perfect. The guitars are an immense wall of grinding shimmering beauty. The drums a precise and deadly frenzy. The vocals an anguished wail, wonderfully at odds with the album's minimal luscious pink cover art. Sunbather is like hearing an emerging genre finally coming into its own. Deafheaven aren't the only band to combine post-rock and black metal, but they might be the first band to make it sound like something entirely new, but entirely natural at the same time. Vinyl version, with a nice die-cut cover, includes bonus track not on cd (which we don't have yet anyway).

MPEG stream: Dream House
MPEG stream: Sunbather
MPEG stream: Vertigo

Long in the works split between these two Bay Area outfits, both practitioners of their own particular strains of post black metal, that post in full effect here, especially on Deafheaven's side of the split, on which this duo tackle Mogwai's "Punk Rock / Cody", the opening tracks from Mogwai's Come On Die Young record, and for the first few minutes, they do it pretty straight, a lilting cyclical guitar melody, a strange sample, barely there percussion, and then it gets even MORE post, with melancholic piano, haunting and lovely, but fear not, it doesn't take long for the song explode into blissed out heaviness, the guitars epic and soaring, the drums a dense powerful pound, the vocals, a blackened shriek, the first hint of blackness, but coupled with the soaring melodies, it has an entirely different effect, majestic and melodic, the song building and building, until the final few minutes where the vocals drop out, and another guitar swoops in and plays the melody, before fading out to a softly psychedelic drift, those harsh vokills continuing on in the background, over the spare skeletal guitars, before a final blast, and we do mean blast, as in full on blast beat, and frenzied riffing, the song transformed into a gorgeously blown out super melodic blast of blackened bliss pop heaviness. It won't do anything to assuage the true grim hordes who are constantly crying 'false metal' but fuck it, for the rest of us, this RULES. Bosse-De-Nage counter with their own sprawling epic, starting off with martial snare, a low slung bassline, clean guitar shimmer, their Slintiness in full effect, the sound made even more lush and lovely by the addition of strings, which also gives the sound an almost folky vibe, spoken word vocals surface, the guitars begin to buzz a bit more, the sound suddenly splintery into a dizzying squall of mathy chaos, a wild drum driven churn, that gives way to a epic sprawl of blasting blackness, the drums WAY up in the mix, continuing to pepper the sound with mathy complexity, the guitars surprisingly melodic, the sound super blown out and in-the-red, a gnarled melodic black metal math rock hybrid, that might be the best thing we've heard from BDN yet, the second half of the song is laced with soaring swells of prismatic psychedelic guitars, a soaring post rock coda, that gives way to a final stretch of furious mathy blackness. SUPER LIMITED!!!

MPEG stream: Punk Rock / Cody
MPEG stream: A Mimesis Of Purpose

Finally a breezy new album from these Bay Area noisepoppers! This is the follow-up to their TV Highway To The Stars album from a couple of years back, and happily they pick right up where they left off. That means more super catchy indie pop tunes. Hurrah! The album does have a couple of oddly uncharacteristic spots though... In the third song "World" it sounds like whomever is playing the piano is really drunk or somehow otherwise wonky. He/she seems to be rushing things and keeps hitting a sour note. Very strange. Oh, but that's just a minor blemish in the Action/Adventure flurry of Dealership goodness. On the third to last song in their string of fourteen pop treats, Dealership magically transform themselves into something resembling Magnetic Fields, complete with deep droll male vocals (sorta Stephin Merritt meets Phil Oakey of Human League) and suitably dour song title. Then they instantly revert back to what they do best, fuzzy power pop songs that never go outta style. Ah yes, those great male/female vocal harmonies and crunchy guitars that we know and love. Includes a soft'n'snuggly version of Sex Pistols' "Anarchy In The U.K." complete with sing song ba-ba-da's!

MPEG stream: Two Turns
MPEG stream: I Don't Want Your Love

Comparisons to the wonderful, bright harmonies of the Posies, as well as Sloan and Velocity Girl immediately jump to mind. Bursts of fuzz-laden guitars. Perky boy/girl vocals that bounce along from English to Japanese to French and back again. If you're

RealAudio clip: Tetsuo

On their lovely 2005 'debut' L'Avventura, Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham went by their full names, now that they're all 'established' (as if you weren't already, former Lord and Lady of Luna-ville!), they're on first name basis. Heck, it's the most natural thing to do because Back Numbers is so warm, welcoming and familiar. It's like meeting up again with an old friend. There's no awkward pauses in making this acquaintance, just pick right up where you last left off. An enveloping album of dulcet, downy pop as only Mr. Wareham can do, and we love it! The duo are joined once more by Sonic Boom for a little keyboard and guitar flourish, and producer Tony Visconti. Amid their original numbers they've included a smashing cover of Lee Hazlewood's "You Turned My Head Around" as well as Claudine Longet's "White Horses", Donovan's Teen Angel" and The Troggs' fantastic "Our Love Will Still Be There". Glorious.

MPEG stream: The Sun Is Still Sunny
MPEG stream: You Turned My Head Around

Of the Chinese indie-rock outfits that has been pouring into the store over the past few years, Dear Eloise has been one of our favorites. Fuzz-laden dream-pop par excellence, this husband-wife duo from Beijing has mastered the wistful blur of shoegazing icons such as the Lilys, Galaxie 500, and whatever your current favorite band on Slumberland is at the moment. Both Sun Xia and Yang Haisong had previously been members of the highly respected art-rock outfit P.K.14, with Yang continuing to split his time between both groups. The songs of Dear Eloise drip with sugary barbs of post-Jesus & Mary Chain guitar noise, with vocalist / bassist Sun dictating much of the twee-tastic pop sensibilities through her '60s single-note, hipsway low-end pluck and chanteuse vocal airiness. Farewell To The Summer takes a slightly different turn for Dear Eloise with a slower pacing to the tunes, though all of the squalls of shoegazed noise still snake their way through the record. As such, we're hearing a lot more Low coming through the mix, especially those slowcore early classic albums The Curtain Hits The Cast and I Could Live In Hope. The eight-and-half minute gloom-pop dirge "Room" is a prime example, with the basslines reaching a slow, heavy torpor with a simple drumkit backbeat, while an interplay of deep-background caustic guitar noise and rainy-day electric twang sets a thoroughly introspective, bleary mood. A similar swagger can be heard in the slo-mo pop of "Scenery" and "Elandor", while "Clean" modernizes the Phil Spector wall-of-sound with a relatively up-tempo jangle and more shuffling rhythms. The albums' finale "Silence" looks more to the NZ sound of avant-noise with rolling cymbal crashes and discordant guitar flurries layered as a sustained murmer of high-frequency glistening and shimmering, with Sun's naked vocals being the major difference between this and a great piece of avant-fug-noise by Michael Morley and / or Bruce Russell. Very nice to hear Dear Eloise once again!

MPEG stream: I Still Believe
MPEG stream: Room
MPEG stream: Silence

As we get more and more new music from China in the shop, we do our very best to get as much of it reviewed as we can. We made the strange synth and drum duo White+ our Record Of The Week a while back. And raved about the most recent record from Boyz & Girl, and on the last list we reviewed a single from Dear Eloise, promising that we would review one of their full lengths eventually, and here it is. Like that single, Beauty In Strangers is a gorgeous collection of distortion drenched shoegaze twee pop. Minus the hazy buzz and squalls of soft focus feedback, this might be the sort of record you'd expect to find on Slumberland (or back in the day, maybe Sarah or K), but Dear Eloise take their lilting jangle pop and wrap it in thick warm swirls of shoegazey distortion, gauze-y sheets of buzz and thrum, the perfect prescription, lush noise pop bliss out, equal parts classic jangle pop and experimental shoegaze, just check out the opening two tracks here, the first a laid back, sun dappled dose of dream pop, opening with what sounds like TV static, and barking dogs, that static transformed into a shimmery backdrop for the crystalline guitars and angelic vox, simple melancholic melodies, and stripped down instrumentation, but then the second track (the titles are all in Chinese), is a whole different beast, opening with a squall of feedback, the sound way more hi-fi, laying down a driving bass and drum groove, a little bit gloom poppy, the vocals soaring dramatically over the top, soon, swells of crumbling static begin to surface, as well as some spidery guitar melodies, those guitars eventually growing more and more distorted until they finally explode into a a dense psychedelic swirl of feedback and grinding guitar noise, all the while the song pulses hypnotically and dreamily beneath. Which is pretty much the musical math of Dear Eloise, their sound a collision of classic twee pop songsmithery, and modern avant noise pop, Sonic Youth, the Swirlies and the like, both sides of the band equally appealing, but the band is at their best, when they land somewhere right in the middle.

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Chinese indie rock! Includes lyric sheet and download code. Limited to 500, numbered.

We've been getting all sorts of music from China in recently, visitors to the store have no doubt noticed our overflowing Asia section, much of it from a blossoming Chinese indie rock scene which has spawned at least two aQ faves of late, a recent Record of The Week of abstract drums and synths spaciness from White+, and the shoegazey jangle pop of Boyz & Girl (both of which should be restocked soon, btw!). Another favorite that had yet to make it onto the list/site was a group called Dear Eloise, whose cds we constantly sell out of before getting enough to review. So we're happy to finally have enough of one of their records to be able to share Dear Eloise's fuzzy shoegaze dream pop with all our faithful, non-local aQ-ers. This super limited 7" is some perfectly poppy, fuzz drenched jangle pop shimmer, all hazy washed out production, ethereal breathless vocals, everything wreathed in sheets of warm guitar buzz and laced with spidery melancholy melodies, wistful and woozy, the drums buried in the mix, more a rhythmic pulse than a proper rhythm, sun dappled and dreamily druggy, the A side is pure shoegaze bliss pop radness. While the B side gets a bit more experimental, laying down a sprawl of almost industrial rhythms, beneath billowing clouds of swirling hiss, and shimmery soft noise, buried within though are of course some dreamlike melodies, and lilting vocals. The song's swirling jangle pop core is tangled up in something a bit more abstract and psychedelic, making for a gorgeously blurred and fragmented avant shoegaze murk pop gem! Pressed on clear coke bottle vinyl, and housed in hand screened covers, all different colors! And yeah, super limited of course...

MPEG stream: Vanishing Winter

We've been digging so much Chinese indie rock around aQ lately, including a recent Record Of The Week from synth/drum duo White+, the dissonant shoegaze Sonic Youth meets MBV of Boyz & Girl, and Dear Eloise, whose full length we reviewed recently, and who traffic in a sort of fuzzed out noisy jangly shoegaze, not that far removed from early Dun Dum Girls, that sound in full effect here on this new split, their track crumbling and noisy, washed out and dreamy, ethereal female vox over crunchy psychedelic guitar, laced with bits of twang and a woozy wandering bassline, lo-fi and fuzzy, a Velvets style minimal rock doused in distortion. The flipside features another Chinese group, Underground Lovers, who we had never heard before, and who deliver a sort of eighties style retro new wave jangle pop, the sort of thing you might hear from some Brooklyn band on Sacred Bones or Captured Tracks, boy girl vox and lilting lovely guitar jangle. Housed in super striking silkscreened sleeves, and pressed on clear vinyl!

Portland, Oregon trio Dear Nora make very very pretty, but not sugary pop. Slightly wistful, bittersweet teen girl tunes with harmonies a-plenty like those of Heavenly or Rose Melberg. Recorded by the awesome Amy Linton of The Aislers Set in her basement

RealAudio clip: 'Round And 'Round
RealAudio clip: Springtime Fall

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

SORRY. Dear Nora is the moniker under which Ms Katy Davison performs her sweet lullaby tunes, and she's got the absolute perfect voice for it. Here it's just her and her 8-track in her kitchen doing a cover of Bob Dylan's "Girl From The North Country" (although when it started we could've sworn it was "Scarborough Fair"). On the flipside of this baby blue record are pop sweetheart twosome Mates Of State doing their version of Jackson Browne's "These Days". With Jason handling the lead vocals, it's given an almost John Denver-y feel. So there you have it - a lil' SF split 7" to give you the warmest of fuzzies.

While we totally dug Matthew Dear's debut from several years ago, we just haven't gotten into his last few outings as much as we wanted to, but with Black City, he shows us why we fell for him in the first place. He merges elements of house, electro funk, and dark pop into such a compelling and unique sound, one as influenced by folks like Herbert and Swayzek as it is Gary Numan, early Nine Inch Nails and mid-era Cabaret Voltaire. While there has been no shortage of white guys doing their best Prince imitations in recent years, we love how Matthew Dear takes elements of Prince's sound yet totally injects his own voice and style in it, adding darker beats, sleeker rhythms and more hypnotic melodies, all without having to resort to a really forced high pitched vocal delivery, which so many others do and just comes off as beyond corny. Kind of like if Junior Boys started listening to lots more dirty techno or how that last James Pants record tapped into the same kind of unique hybrid of electronic left-field pop. Undeniably groovy and funky and so very good.

MPEG stream: Honey
MPEG stream: Little People (Black City)
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We were pretty into the inaugural release in Captured Tracks new Shoegaze Archive series, the collected works of Texas dreampoppers Should (reviewed last list), so we were super psyched to check out the second in the series, this one from a New Jersey band with the strange moniker Deardarkhead, and who had an even stranger sound, at least initially, and in the context of a shoegaze series. Their sound, at least at first, based on the first few tracks, was much more deathrock, more gothy and gloomy than shoegazey, not that we're complaining, in fact some of us dig the deathrock side of the band much more. The liner notes featuee much gushing over Robert Smith and Ian Curtis and Ian McCulloch the Jesus And Mary Chain, so it shouldn't be that much of a surprise, just check out the opener "Fish": thick low slung Joy Division bass, wild squalls of psychedelic guitars, and then the vocals, deep and dramatic, a gothic croon if there ever was, when we first threw this on, we were hearing Kommunity FK and the Abecedarians, in fact it brought to mind the Scream compilation, which chronicled a parallel scene happening in LA around the same time, one where DDH would have felt right at home. While their sound did get a little bit shoegazier over the course of their career, they never shed that gothiness, and compared to a lot of shoegaze, these guys were pretty heavy, their sound big and brawny, the guitars heavy, the drums loud, the production thick and lush, reminding us more of bands like Swervedriver, which is most definitely not a bad thing, the big change seems to be that that deep croon softened and became more fey and ethereal and Morrisey like, while the music remained mostly dark an dreamy and surprisingly heavy (for the time at least, and certainly for that scene), sonically, this whole collection is pretty bad ass, from the early gothier deathrock jams, to the later buzz drenched guitar heavy shoegaze blissouts, and we seem to be listening to this a whole lot in the store, which is usually a pretty good sign. Includes a booklet with liner notes and rare photos.

MPEG stream: Fish
MPEG stream: One Of A Kind
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Even at her most melancholy, how can anyone be sad listening to the warm and wonderful Blossom Dearie? Perfectly timed just as the weather got nicer, Dearie's light and dry vocal delivery, with its wry yet daffy effervescence and seemingly effortless syncopated acrobatics, is the perfect soundtrack for long sunny afternoon walks in the city. Truly one of the great jazz vocal stylists especially amongst the white female singers such as Annie Ross and Anita O'Day whose sharp wit and roller coaster delivery delightfully stunned audiences at jazz festivals nationwide in the fifties and sixties. Dearie was perhaps the least deadly of the three, but definitely the most carefree and playful. She was even one of the voices for Schoolhouse Rock! Sadly, this is also available just in time as a tribute to her life as she recently passed away just a few weeks ago. RIP Blossom, you were truly one of a kind!

MPEG stream: Tea For Two
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It's been a while since we heard from these Montreal musicmakers. From the sounds of this new album, it sure seems like they've been polishing their chops, and sharpening their songwriting quills in the interim. This elegant Canadian band has actually been together for over a decade, but while other similarly art-pop minded Canadian indie groups (Broken Social Scene, Hidden Cameras, Arcade Fire to name just three) have been flooding the playing field both at home and abroad, Murray Lightburn and co. have taken their own sweet time -- releasing their debut album in 2000 and what is their third full length proper now six years later. The (typically Canadian self-deprecatingly titled) Gang Of Losers is considerably more accessible and straightforward than The Dears we remember. Each song is far less ornate and theatrical than those on either 2004's No Cities Left or 2000's End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story. Nonetheless, the group's engaging pop dramatics continue to remind us of old Pulp. A good thing! Much like Jarvis Cocker, Lightburn has definitely got some great slightly tweaked yet lavish pop sensibilities of his own. One question tho': For the main melody in the ninth song "Whites Only Party" did the band borrow the "Perfume" descending piano line from the latest Sparks album? It's certainly a catchy lil' line in a catchy lil' tune... er, both of 'em! Heartily recommended for fans of all of the abovementioned artists, really! Bonus: Included are three U.S. exclusive tracks ("The Highest", a demo version of "Whites Only Party", and an acoustic version of "There Goes My Outfit").

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MPEG stream: There Goes My Outfit

Maybe you've heard the hype on this Detroit punk rock reissue already. And it's almost too good to be believed. Back in 1974, this trio of brothers, who are also all "brothers" in the African-American sense of the word, and who were fans of the likes of Black Sabbath and The Stooges and Alice Cooper and the MC5, started a band called DEATH, recording an album that was never released (apparently they refused to change their name to get a major label deal). Flash forward to the present. One of these dudes plays in a reggae band now, but his son is in a punk rock band. Dad's like, "hey son, did y'know I had a band like that when I was your age." And then pulls these dusty, 30-some year old master tapes out of the closet. Holy shit, dad!! The long lost Death album. And it IS killer. Not just proto-punk, but practically proto-hardcore. Hear for yourself. The suggestion that HR and the Bad Brains - or Black Flag for that matter - heard this stuff back in the day and were inspired by it (Death did release a 7" single in 1976) doesn't seem entirely implausible. Not sure how Death stayed unknown for so long. Apparently the brothers, finding that Death's brand of uncompromising, politically radical, high energy rock action wasn't getting them anywhere, moved in a more gospel (!) direction... so that was it for Death. Until now, with Drag City's at-long-last release of Death's 1975 album (well, mini-album, it's seven songs, just over 26 minutes). Opener "Keep On Knocking" is a decent enough rocker, hinting at the MC5, the Rolling Stones and maybe early badass KISS but it's tame compared to the hyperactive glam slam of what follows - when track two "Rock-N-Roll Victim" comes on and kicks you in the nuts, repeatedly, you'll really realize how freaking punk Death were. Frantic guitars locked in with frenzied drumming, crazed vocals, handclaps (yeah!)... it's pretty darn smokin'. Smoking somethin' all right. They mellow things about a bit for "Let The World Turn", though just a bit. "You're A Prisoner" is another heavy rocker, and "Freakin Out" doesn't let up, its title no lie. "Where Do We Go From Here???" and "Politicians In My Eyes" are the two remaining tracks on this disc, and the latter in particular is a fierce blend of soulful vocal expression and raging, distorted rockin' with a little bit of a funky vibe. Wow. Definitely in the vein of something like Crushed Butler, but from Detroit a few years later... or in the vein of the Damned, but from Detroit a few years earlier! So, yeah, believe the hype. And by the way, this destroys all that Black Rock Coalition stuff from the early '90s... Drag City must have been *stoked* to get to put this out. We're sorta surprised there's no liner notes, though they do include handwritten lyrics. Also, fyi, this is available on vinyl but we could barely get any, maybe we'll get some more eventually since the couple copies we have at the moment will be gone in a wink...

MPEG stream: Rock-N-Roll Victim
MPEG stream: You're A Prisoner
MPEG stream: Politicians In My Eyes

The trilogy is complete! The third and likely final volume of unearthed archival recordings from now-celebrated '70s Detroit rockers Death has now been released via Drag City. Who knew it was going to be a trilogy? Well of course it would have to be, what with Death being a trio of brothers. It's obviously another thing orchestrated from beyond the grave by Death's late mastermind, eldest brother David Hackney. We probably don't have to explain the whole amazing story behind Death to you at this point - hopefully you've picked up one or both of the their other two full-length releases, and seen the really excellent and touching documentary film about them, A Band Called Death (you really should see it if you haven't!). But it's not just that Death is such a great story - it wouldn't matter as much if their music wasn't so killer, which it is. So what did they find to fill up this third volume? With recordings done in 1975 and '76, some more from 1980, and one final cut from 1992, it's all over the place. You do definitely get another dose of Death's intense post-Hendrix, proto-punk - this is especially worth it for "North Street", full of hyper caffeinated drumming and living-in-the-ghetto lyrics. Totally could have been on the first Death album, For The Whole World To See. However, a lot of the rest of the material here wouldn't exactly rank among the "hardest" tracks that Death ever cut, much of it being more gentle and soulful, with sunshiney, R&B grooves. There's spacey psychedelic noodling, and even a track of almost country-folk balladry. But it's all pretty good, still possessing the mystical, out-there Death vibe for sure, if exhibiting a lot less of the punked out attack that caught everybody's attention in the first place. Really some of it's quite moving, particularly if you've seen the heartwarming movie, in which one of these songs previously was heard (the ballad "We're Gonna Make It"). We'd say Death newbies need For The Whole World first and foremost, but if you're a fan, you'll want this also.

MPEG stream: North Street
MPEG stream: We Are Only People
MPEG stream: First Snowfall In Detroit

Two more Death songs unearthed, with another whole lp on the way!!

The rabid response to Drag City's monumental release of Death's For The Whole World To See - a lost classic if there ever was one - had people everywhere foaming at the mouth for MORE MORE MORE Death. It was really hard to believe that such a primal and emotive slab of heavy punkish rock n' roll could have gone UNRELEASED since its 1975 recording, nor that there could be even MORE in the vaults. Yet astonishingly, Drag City have once again come through with this awesome collection of demo tracks from these Detroit rockers - the brothers Hackney - recorded by the band in their practice space between 1974-1976, some of which served as preproduction for the album proper. The sound here is raw, upfront, and bullshit-free, and like FTWWTS, quite a revelation when one considers the state of rock music before punk exploded. While comparing these guys to Bad Brains may seem a bit cynical at first - ya know, both being all-black rock bands seeming to exist in a world of their own - it really is an apt comparison, especially if anyone is familiar (as they should be) with the Bad Brains' demo album Black Dots. Like those songs, the sound here is swinging and kinda loose without too much fuzz or distortion muddying things up. There are definite nods to the heavier sounds of the late '60s/early '70s (think Alice Cooper, Sabbath, etc.) AND the Beatles ("The Masks" shifting from mean power chords into a brilliant, scuzzed out appropriation of "Got To Get You Into My Life"), and throughout there is a surprising melodicism (check out the tuneful guitar workout of "The Change") and vocals that often rise into the manic screams we all loved from the album proper. The brothers seem to know exactly where to take things, which isn't surprising considering they had been jamming together since the '60s. The lyrics are also awesome, focusing on the state of the world and where things might be heading. There's also some in-the-practice space experimenting thrown in at the end, hinting at possible directions the band unfortunately never headed in before dissolving. While this might not be For The Whole To See Pt. II, it is nonetheless an essential slab of proto-punk greatness by a band who is finally getting their due, and we couldn't be happier to have this in our dirty little hands. YEAH!

MPEG stream: Views
MPEG stream: The Masks
MPEG stream: The Change

The Death & Beauty Foundation is an odd footnote in the history of The Hafler Trio. It's a project that began sometime in the early '80s presumably in and/or around Newcastle, UK featuring a young Andrew McKenzie (who later went on to found The Hafler Trio) and Val Denham, a visual artist who has some history with Psychic TV, Marc Almond, and Cyclobe. Only a couple of compilation tracks of the Death & Beauty Foundation had appeared on Touch cassette compilations, and a tape-only release emerged in 1986; but beyond that, the story to the Death & Beauty Foundation is pretty mysterious. This CD represents the complete 'Darlington Tapes' which the two began in 1982. Instead of the media-savvy collages and psychoacoustic investigations which The Hafler Trio mastered throughout the '80s, the Death & Beauty Foundation penned songs, really weird and fractured songs; but these are nonetheless tunes. A curious falsetto (which we're presuming to belong to Denham) floats in flanging tremolo haze above odd, Spartan electronics, sounding somewhat like "In Heaven" from the Eraserhead soundtrack, but ever more evasive and purposefully meandering. In line with primitive BBC Radiophonic tricknology meets Cabaret Voltaire cut-up methods, tape manipulations guide the bulk of the arrangements to that fluttering voice, with Shadow Ring like splutter across guitar and tin-can percussion on a few tracks. Some of the electronic sounds seem to have reappeared on the h3o album Sea Org; but those recognizable instances are few and far between in this confusing album.

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

SORRY.

Here's the much needed reissue of Death And Vanilla's first ep, which was originally released in a tiny edition of just 100 copies a couple years back; and truth be told, this reissue will suffer the same fate, as the vinyl has also sold out amazingly fast. Death And Vanilla are a low-profile Swedish duo that triangulate themselves in the forgotten futures of Duophonic era Stereolab, the Focus Group's curiosity shoppe of library music electronics, and Broadcast's avant-pop anachronisms. Given how well D&V manage to operate in this context, it is a bit surprising that a Thrill Jockey or a Matador hasn't banged on their door. But for us, it's all fine and good for the duo to remain in their perch above the largest cemetery in their hometown of Malmo, continuing to produce a Spartan catalogue of spellbinding, sublime albums. Like all of those more contemporary references, Death & Vanilla's impeccable taste in pop music telescopes back to the late '60s with French new wave films, sultry Cinecitta psyche pop, Italian horror grandiosity, and the tried and true motorik rhythms of Neu! The arrangements are baroquely set with fuzzed out / vibrato guitars, slinky basslines, theramin, moog, glockenspiels, vibraphones, and harpsichords, with vocalist Marleen Nilsson breathily crooning like an opiated but just as dreamy Brigitte Bardot. Brilliant stuff this Death & Vanilla; and this expanded version of the original ep features three exquisite bonus tracks, including one based on the work of Daphne Oram and sporting an unsettling extracted piece of dialog from the film Marathon Man. Oh, you know which one.

MPEG stream: Ghosts In The Machine
MPEG stream: Godspeed
MPEG stream: The Dodens Vaniljsas Theme
MPEG stream: Between Circles

The first pressing of this single from the brilliant Swedish, haunted-pop duo Death And Vanilla was cut on a square slab of vinyl and disappeared before we even knew about it. This marks the second (now round, like normal) pressing, which will undoubtedly see the same fate given its paltry pressing of 300 copies. But colored vinyl still this time around too... As we mentioned in the review of their nearly impeccable eponymous lp from 2012, Death And Vanilla deftly channel all of the references that Broadcast also incorporated into the delicious retro-futurist pop on albums like Tender Buttons and The Focus Group, including the United States of America, Free Design, and any given BBC Radiophonic reference you could imagine (e.g. Derbyshire, Oram, White Noise, etc.). The two cuts here pick up right where that record left off with spookily disembodied female vocals floating above fantastic '60s avant-pop with melodies woven from vibraphones, blooping synths, and languid guitar strummings situated above spry rhythms. It's really a shame that there's only 300 of this second pressing around, as Death And Vanilla are way too good to remain an unknown. But for those who are quick on the draw, you'll have a gem on your hands.

Death And Vanilla are a Swedish haunted-pop duo who have found themselves caught in the vortex of retro-futurism circa 1969. On the one hand, they've got a good grip on the baroque psychedelia of the United States Of America, Free Design, and even some of the more woolly tracks that Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg produced; and on the other, they're keen on the whole library music phenomenon augmenting their songs with plenty of sparkling synths, crackling radiophonic samples, EVP recordings (yup, that is Raymond Cass, we hear!), and tripped-out-to-space production tricks that would be right out of the Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire playbooks. There's even a track on this album called "Library Goblin"! If you might think all of this seems like the same strategy that Broadcast employed on their highly acclaimed collaborations with The Focus Group back in 2009-2010, you'd be pretty spot on. Even the unnamed female vocalist for Death And Vanilla sounds an awful lot like Broadcast's Trish Keenan, with her breathy delivery and unexpected melodies which soar above the monochromatic lullaby of many of the songs. As sacrosanct as it may seem, Death And Vanilla may be better songwriters than Broadcast; their cinematic pop gem "Cul-De-Sac" should be in the running for poptune of 2012 for sure with its complex interweave of harpsichord, vibraphone, fuzzed guitar, strutting basslines, and shuffling rhythms all driven by the vocal harmonies, which transitions rather deftly into the far more experimental avant-pop number "Sombambulists" which drifts aptly towards a dreamy headspace of loping basslines and percolating synths all bathed in sound-dissolving reverb. The filmic references also abound on tracks like "The Unseeing Eye" and the aforementioned "Library Goblin" as sublimely revisionist '60s pop numbers with bubbly vibraphones and seductive vocals amidst electronic filigree and charming synth blorp, before disintegrating into an otherworldly interlude of ethereal radio noise and cosmic vibrations. As such, it's a pretty irresistible album for any fan of Broadcast, Ghost Box, and Stereolab. The lp has already gone through a couple of pressings, but hopefully, we'll be able to keep this one in stock for a while. It's totally worth it!

The second album from the slyly witty and all too charming British lass Angie Tillett. Following up on her self titled debut on Mike Alway's If... label, as well as the wonderous Lollipop Train recording for the Mike Alway via Siesta imprint Reverie, Tillett treats us to more originals than covers this time 'round. The title track is actually a cover, and was also featured on the If... compilation "Songs For The Jet Set 2" a few years back. If you're unfamiliar with this clever girl's work, she has a fascination with children's stories and '60s psychedelia -- an odd combination, but really very similar considering both deal with loads of abstract imagination and bewilderment. In Tillet's world, with a dash of innocence, anything is possible. Ultra-retro British pop with charming voice-overs between songs make this seem like listening to a Brit teen variety tv show. Somewhat repetitive at times, though entertaining and fun.

So crazy to think that it's been well over a decade since we first became smitten with the hearts on sleeves, bittersweet indie pop of Death Cab For Cutie. Those early records (Something About Airplanes, We Have The Facts And We Are Voting Yes) will always be so near and dear to our hearts. In fact DCFC played an awesome instore at aQ back in the day. Codes And Keys is their eighth full length, and their third for Atlantic. Not tons has changed with their sound over the years. This outing does find them introducing more layers and subtle bits of electronics into their sweetly melancholy indie pop sound. Ben Gibbard sounds as introspective as ever, and the songs are filled with the kind of hooks and melody that have made them the perfect band to put on mixtapes for crushes for over a decade now. Dedicated fans will find lots to love on this new outing.

MPEG stream: Codes And Keys
MPEG stream: You Are A Tourist
MPEG stream: St. Peter's Cathedral

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

SORRY. For this ep the intricate downer-pop of AQ sales sensations Death Cab For Cutie takes on a preciousness more like the bittersweet songsmithery of Yo La Tengo on "Painful" than the indie-rock dynamism of Built To Spill, which characterized Death Cab's two previous records. Two tracks from "We Have The Facts and We're Voting Yes" appear in alternate forms, and the band also presents three new tracks.

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

SORRY.

We can't think of a band who we've put on more mix tapes or listened to on more roadtrips than Death Cab For Cutie. When we need a break from obscure music obsession, it's really nice to have bands you can turn to when you just want songs that speak to your heart and those ever so simple yet universal emotions that all of us are filled with. Narrow Stairs finds DCFC in fine form. Sounding as crisp and charged as ever, the band has made the transition into their new major-label life quite effortlessly. We're pretty confident that this is the same kind of record they would have made at this point in their career even if they were still on Barsuk. "I Will Possess Your Heart" has become our new favorite DCFC song of the moment, we love how no vocals enter the song until about 5 minutes in, reeling you into their driving grasp and then of course Ben Gibbard's irresistible sincere and sensitive voice comes in to score the winning touchdown. Yikes, we just used a sports metaphor, but it's sort of fitting as there is something so wholesome and everyday about Death Cab's music. They have sort of become the Hall & Oates for folks with an indie sensibility. And it's kind of perfect that their new record comes out as we approach summer as their songs suit the season so well. The soundtrack to a summer fling, the aftertaste as that fling comes to an end, warm nights, the yearning, barbeques with friends you haven't seen in ages. Their topics and methods aren't weird or controversial at all, but their solid and honest delivery always hits the spot so dead on with hearts on sleeves and conviction intact.

MPEG stream: I Will Possess Your Heart
MPEG stream: Your New Twin Sized Bed
MPEG stream: No Sunlight

Okay folks! Here it is, beloved indie pop band Death Cab For Cutie's major label debut! While we've already heard grumbles from a number of their ol' devoted fans about it, we implore you to give 'er a chance why don't ya? C'mon, the fact of the matter is that if you didn't know about their change of record label home, you probably wouldn't have your crosshairs zeroing in on this new album. It'd probably be welcomed with open arms and loving ears, just as every other Death Cab release before it has been. Having listened to it a few times already, we can say that, yes, it is a bit slicker than their past recordings, but heck, they've been heading in a more polished, restrained direction for some time now, haven't they? We're sure Atlantic has definitely afforded them more deluxe recording production accommodations and amenities, but the band has by no means abused nor flaunted them on Plans. Darker hues, more bittersweet than sweet. With Plans, Ben Gibbard and Co.'s charming heart-melting tendencies will surely be welcomed by an even broader audience, but will also continue to enchant their long-time devotees.

MPEG stream: I Will Follow You Into The Dark
MPEG stream: What Sarah Said

AVAILABLE AGAIN ON VINYL FOR A LIMITED TIME. An all time AQ perfect pop favorite! Here's our brief yet concise review from way back in the 20th century before these guys had gotten HUGE: At the risk of slipping into hyperbole, which we try avoid at all costs (snicker...), this is hands down, one of the best (and possibly most overlooked - we almost missed it ourselves, gasp!) indie rock records ever. Landing somewhere between 'There's Nothing Wrong With Love' and 'Perfect From Now On', Death Cab craft a Built-to-Spill-ian universe, full of lazy sad pop, intricate compositions, jangly melodies, shifting structures, odd time signatures, and haunting cellos. This record has been an unbelievable hit in the store. It's pretty much never ever been played without at least one person buying it, sometimes 2 or 3!

So this it it we guess. Death Cab For Cutie's indie farewell. This here ep is their final release as a non-major label entity. Hard to believe how huge they've gotten, but it's not like they don't deserve it. Death Cab are easily one of the best indie pop bands around. This seven track ep is super dooper limited (in fact it's out of print already) and the label only made a bunch for their favorite stores, so we have 30 copies and that is it! The next Death Cab record you buy will be on Sony or something, and will probably be $17.98 and have a video in heavy rotation on MTV. So for now, just dig DCFC's spunky hooky emo pop, all a little rocked up since these tracks were all recorded live. Includes a cool tripped out, barely recognizable, almost Postal Service-y cover of Sebadoh's "Brand New Love". Cool cool cool!

MPEG stream: Brand New Love (Live)
MPEG stream: Photobooth (Live)

[ aquarius records catalogue — D ]