[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 601 through 650 of 2079.

It's with a heavy heart that I bring you this report of the new Death Cab For Cutie record. I've listened to it several times now in the hopes that, like the last two albums, it would grow on me. Sadly, rather than grow, it has shrunk upon me like a pair of

RealAudio clip: We Laugh Indoors
RealAudio clip: Blacking Out the Friction
RealAudio clip: Styrofoam Plates

At the beginning of their still short career, Death Cab For Cutie earned more than a few very favorable comparisons to Built To Spill, in crafting an effortlessly complex sound of major-chord pop hooks wrapped around indie-rock dynamisms. Yet, Death Cab has

RealAudio clip: 20th Century Towers
RealAudio clip: All Is Full Of Love

We knew they still had it in them, and Transatlanticism prooves it. After a two year recording hiatus (not including the b-sides / demos release You Can Play These Songs With Chords) while singer Benjamin Gibbard stretched his wings with Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello in their Postal Service project, Death Cab For Cutie returns with a full length that not only does not disappoint, but possibly even surpasses their excellent sophmore effort We Have the Facts... album of three years ago. While they will probably always be compared to Built To Spill (circa Perfect From Now On or even Keep It Like A Secret) Gibbard et al. have undoubtably come into their own. Along with all the great hooks and beautiful melodies we've come to expect from Death Cab, the group has gotten progressively more crafty with their sound, utilizing electronic elements (never overshadowing the songs themselves) and, though it may not seem like much, piano. The latter is really something that suits their sound well. DCFC always have had this nack for pensive and heart rending melodies and there's really nothing better to sink them into your skin than some rich, full chords on a piano. Though it's used sparingly here, they could risk bringing it out more on further recordings, IMHO. The album's title track is a perfect example. The song's epic 8 minute length, beginning with a slow repeated chord progression on the ivories, builds steadily, sucking you into its world and leaving you feeling lonely in its absense when the final chords drift off into oblivion. So so nice.

MPEG stream: The Sound of Settling
MPEG stream: Tiny Vessels

Death Cab For Cutie's debut album "Something About Airplanes" emerged early last year from the mire of mediocre indie-rock as a breath of fresh air (after Andee found it in the dollar bin at Amoeba). These Northwesterners had crafted a near perfect Built-to-Spill-ian alternate universe where Built To Spill didn't make the major label jump, and continued to labor over their excessive orchestrations of melodic jangle-pop, intricate arrangements, and odd time signatures within the limitations of indie-rock recording budgets. Death Cab's second album "We Have The Facts, And We've Voting Yes" represents a maturation of their band, as they have clearly recognized that while it worked for one album, they can't ape Built To Spill for the rest of their recording career. As a whole, "We Have The Facts" is sounding less like Built To Spill, but it seems as though their venturing tentatively into an unknown space for them. The pace of Death Cab has slowed down to embrace a preciousness of songwriting with much quieter arrangements. All of the songs really do want to explode out of the delicate even sensitive moods into a major-chord pop hook, but the restrains have been set in place. "For What Reason" and "Company Calls" are as close as Death Cab comes to releasing that indie-pop sensibility loose, but it doesn't quite happen. It may be the critical kiss of death to say that this is an album that grows on you, but Death Cab's second release isn't going out of its way to bite you like its predecessor.

If there's one thing you can't criticize Death Cab For Cutie for it's their cover layout and design. Always with the nice die cuts and embossings. Top notch all the way. And this new (old) collection is no exception -- the front cover resembling an oversize slide with a picture of downtown Bellingham, Washington (hometown for Death Cab) taken sometime in the late sixties maybe. Andee pointed out that this concept was originally used by his old band A Minor Forest for their Flemish Altruism LP (not for the CD at the time, as the label had claimed it would be too expensive) and was done at the same place . Fortunately, it's not only the cover in which to be excited about with this release. Though not necessarily "new" tracks, they are -- with the exception of one track that sounds like a bad Soul Coughing demo -- all great and 9 of them have never been released previously (well, 3 of them were on a demo tape.) The first 8 tracks on this disc were originally released as a demo tape in 1997 (under the same name as this collection), 5 of them were re-recorded for their debut album Something About Airplanes. Of the remaining 10 tracks -- recorded between 1995 and 2002) -- only 4 were ever released (on the Forbidden Love ep and a 7") and were likewise alternate versions. The remaining 6 tracks are all previously un-released and includes a cover of Morrissey's "This Charming Man." Heads up to Death Cab fans who may have been disappointed by the Photo Album release, this one may be your antidote!

RealAudio clip: That's Incentive
RealAudio clip: This Charming Man

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

SORRY.

We've long been fans of the mysterious Death Cheetah, aka local visual artist / musician Kevin Taylor, we've carried a super limited cd-r and a compilation tape, both long out of print, he also did the artwork for the AmocomA cd on Andee's tUMULt label, but beyond that we've heard little from Taylor lately. Until this showed up one day, a super striking screen printed black and white envelope, inside of which was a thick, SQUARE lathe cut record, apparently carved directly into sheets of plexiglass. The sleeve is adorned with artwork by local artist Andrew Schoultz, and the pressing is limited to just FIFTY copies. None of the DC's past releases really prepared us for this new jam, which finds DC laying down some sort of twisted electro-black-metal, churning blackened riffage, furious drumming, but the whole thing underpinned by a blooping synth, that while reminiscent of Burzum, here transforms the song into something else entirely, especially when the guitars fade out, leaving just the blooping melody and the blasting drums, and occasionally the guitars get all blown out and stonery adding some weird almost Kyuss-y melody to the mix, but for the most part the sound shifts back and forth between the churning synth flecked buzz, and more dense drum heavy blackness. And then there's the vocals, super effected, a raspy demonic howl, draped over an almost Queens Of The Stoneage guitar melody, all the while the synth percolates in the background. And since it's a lathe cut, the sound is transformed as well, the built in static and hiss, the extreme surface noise, makes this sound somehow like it's some rare early nineties Norwegian demo tape from the freakiest fucked up long defunct black metal horde you've never heard of, and beyond that, it fundamentally changes the sound, woozy and warped and warbly, which only adds to its genius. It's hard to explain how great and weird and cool this is, other than to tell you we've listened to it maybe 20 times JUST TODAY. And we don't see that changing anytime soon. And as mentioned above, it's LIMITED TO JUST 50 COPIES, each one hand numbered, in hand screened sleeves, we have 15 copies, but those might not last long...

MPEG stream: Be Someone's Horse (lathe)
MPEG stream: Be Someone's Horse (original)

Death Cheetah is probably a name new to you, it was to us, the man behind Death Cheetah though you might know as the guy who painted that bad ass pile of skulls album cover for the recent AmocomA record on tUMULt, he also contributed to the short lived Matter tape of the month series we reviewed a while back, but this super limited 3" is the first recording from the curiously named one man band, a teaser for an upcoming full length, but it's doubtful that could possibly be as cool as these. LIMITED TO 20 COPIES, of which we got ALL 20, each one hand painted, every single one super striking and unique, just like the music inside. Three tracks, the first one is some sort of brooding Bohren like crawl, all skittery brushed drums and deep rumbling low end, ominous hushed vocals, little muted flurries of soft focus keyboard, a blissed out nightmarish creep, slithery and shimmery and dark dark dark, almost jazzy, but more in a Necks sort of way, some seriously deeeeep slowcore minimalism, that builds to more of a downtempo plod near the end. The second track is totally different, stuttery dubbed out drums, dubstep style fuzzed out synth bass rumbles, shouted distorted vocals, a woozy post punk dubby groove, flecked with shards of reverb drenched guitar, streaks of synthesizer, it sounds like some lost eighties DIY deathfunk jam, but a bit more freaked out and abstract. The closing track veers more toward the minimalism of the opener, spare bits of guitar flutter, jazzy skittery drums, flickers of flute, acoustic guitar, tons of space, a slow slow late night drift, abstract and dreamy, smoke-y and gauzy and so so nice. Hard to get a handle on just what Death Cheetah is all about, three tracks, three different directions, but we like them all, and in some strange way they do all link together, and flow, and when taken with the meticulously hand painted covers, this is a gorgeous piece of outsider soundart, and one that won't be around for long, grab one of these quick or steel yourself for a long wait for the full length...

MPEG stream: Cloning Device
MPEG stream: The Book That Bit Me

Not sure how many of you know the Japanese punk band Crow, a kick ass crusty Amebix style crew. Who would have thought that underneath all that leather and denim and spikes lurked a bona fide spaced out, drugged out, hippified psychedelic space rock band. Certainly not us. But here we are, with record number two from Death Comes Along. Not sure how we managed to miss the first one, cuz this one is a killer. Another one of those records that we were basically sold on before we even heard it. The front cover features a photo of a greying-haired Japanese hippy / rocker with a big old medallion and a sparkly flowered shirt. The back side features purple, scythe wielding ghostly grim reapers, on a pink background. Then there's the inset photos of the rest of the band, all appropriately long haired and surly, and song titles like "Death Death Death", "Children Of The Death", and of course "Psychedelic Inferno I", "Psychedelic Inferno II" and "Psychedelic Inferno III". And their last record listed Amebix, Antisect, Crude SS, Flower Travellin' Band, Diamanda Galas, Ash Ra Tempel, Bodkin, Amon Duul and German Oak as influences. How could you NOT be sold? And this record is no disappointment. In fact, it's way weirder than we could have possibly expected. Simple repetitive, crunchy riffing, with sort of spoken disembodied vocals, loose tribal drumming, the whole thing smothered in layer after layer of acid fried space rock synths and sound effects, swoops and swirls and bleeps and bloops and trills, like all the random abstract parts from every Acid Mothers Temple song piled atop these hazy repetitive space jams. The guitar playing is very metal, but stretched out and repeated so it becomes a droney circular psych workout. The final track on side one is vocals only and is really scary and weird, all heavily affected creepy distorted whispers. The entirety of side two is taken up by "Psychedelic Inferno II" and "Psychedelic Inferno III" a massive psychedelic suite that has more in common with Sunroof! or Vibracathedral Orchestra than it does with Hawkwind. Faux throat singing over an extended wash of floating synthesizers, stretched out guitar feedback, plenty of spaced out swoosh, and distant barely there percussion, very abstract and quite hypnotic. We only managed to get about 20 copies of this record (when Crow were in town recently, they left a box behind with a friend) and it's super limited and hand numbered. Only 444 pressed, and the copies we have are in the 400's, so you know what that means....

Death Comet Crew (aka Arena Sex Death, aka Death Star Crew) were experimental New York club DJS in the late '70s / early '80s which is pretty key when thinking about the context surrounding the DCC sound. New York was in the midst of a serious recession, hip-hop was breaking out of Harlem, all-city trains were bombed and tagged and almost everyone was reacting against disco -- violently. The city was a vibrant gritty dirty trashy outrageously rocking Hell. In all its years of being a virtual toilet, New York at this time was at its most aggressively funky. Scene set. DCC fed off pioneering Detroit DJ's that were slamming together Kraftwerk, Parliament and Tangerine Dream which laid down some preliminary ground-work for techno, New York bands like ESG and Liquid Liquid, and other artists embracing the type of deconstructive / reconstructive experimentation of the time. The DCC sound was dirty dark Frankenstein funk. Live electronic drums and long layers of sound-collage created a schizoid sonic atmosphere. They worked on deconstructing the rigidity of breakbeat and loop structures set up by hip-hop, while simultaneously providing inspiration for Public Enemy's production team, The Bomb Squad. Special guest vocals were often provided by MC and graf artist Rammellzee, adding a bit of human tangibilty. Overall, this is an awesome time capsule of New York, musically-speaking. Thanks to Troubleman for dusting off these tracks recorded live from The Pyramid Club in 1984 and presenting them for some historical consideration.

MPEG stream: At The Marble Bar
MPEG stream: Scratching Galaxies

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SORRY. Second album of "ambient" music from avant speed guitar weirdo Buckethead (rearrange those letters) and constant pal Bill Laswell.

Dark Entries has only a couple of releases under their belt, but the aesthetic of the label is firmly dictated by those releases: darkened post-punk electronics and dour new wave. Obscure reissues seems to be the focus for Dark Entries, but then there is Death Domain, a contemporary one-man band out of Baltimore, who might as well have been releasing work in Belgium circa 1983. The two tracks here fall between two somewhat obscure sounds -- Kas Product (who you might recall doing the title track to the So Young But So Cold compilation of French coldwave from the '80s) and Leather Nun (in particular the Slow Death single recorded for Industrial Records way back when). Death Domain have the aggro rhythms of Kas Product cranked through the most primitive of drum machines, and the life-support system synths that Leather Nun provided for that one single. All together, it's pretty damn good. Yeah, Cold Cave again rears their oh so influential of late head here, but think Cremations, not Love Comes Close. Limited to 500 copies, with glow-in-the-dark silkscreened covers!

MPEG stream: Ethidium Bromide
MPEG stream: Programmed Cell Death

Remixes and b-sides!

First off, love that cover. Pink is always nice and so are elephant trunks. Second...they know how to rock. Yup. Death From Above 1979 are a duo of bass/synth and drums and they're from Canada but we're sure being Canadian is not the only reason the Vice label signed 'em, 'cause as we said a second ago, this rocks. Noisily distorted and pogo-riffically catchy, maybe you can imagine this as being some kinda new wavy stoner rock? Like some sort of weird hybrid of Lightning Bolt and Queens of the Stone Age? I dunno, I'm sure there's been waaaaay more accurate comparisions made but that'll have to do. Anyway these guys prove that they have as much right as anyone to work up a sweat doing the "let's crank it up and rock" thing that so many young 'uns are doin' these days. It works for them. Y'know how it used to be (still is?) that boys start bands so they can get girls interested in them? Well we're guessing that classic motivation is part of the reason DFA1979 got together...and it might have done the trick. That's what this sounds like, anyway. C'mon, give 'em a chance to seduce you with their sweaty, noisy rock wiles.

MPEG stream: Turn It Out
MPEG stream: Romantic Rights

This record has been floating around for a while now, in various permutations, tapes, downloads, and now finally an lp, and a cassette again, maybe in anticipation of Death Grips' Epic label debut which is slated to drop later this month. And if you've yet to hear Death Grips, you might be a little surprised that they got snapped up by a major, cuz this is some fierce, grim, mean sounding shit. This Sacramento crew specializes in a twisted hybrid of hip hop and experimental electronics, the sound a dizzying assemblage of buzzing metal guitars, skittery programmed beats, bizarre samples, fractured glitched out buzz, twisted loops, seriously raw and lo-fi, but at the same time urgent and intense and fucking far out and super original. The vocals are fierce and furious, not so much just rapped as bellowed, and howled, which suits the heavy sounds in the background. While much of the drumming is programmed, the drummer in Death Grips is none other than Hella's Zach Hill, but don't be expecting much of that furious Lightning Bolt style frantic drumming, this is after all a hip hop record, so most of the beats are spare and stretched out, as much about their tone and timbre as the rhythms themselves. Opener "Beware" is about as close to perfect as the troublesome hybridization of hip hop and metal has ever gotten, with big chiming distorted chords, an epic almost rock song arrangement, skittery rhythms, and DG mainman Stefan Burnett laying down a fierce flow over the top. "Guillotine" sounds more like a super charged Sensational jam, the beat spare and skittery, the main loop a thick buzzing low end synth, the track laced with little flurries of sci-fi FX, and weird random blasts of psychedelic sound, not to mention a having chain clatter crunch and some motorcycle rev thrum, and the rapping, twisted and deliriously off kilter. "Spread Eagle Cross The Block" is a dizzying assemblage of looped pop song, big sing along verses, stuttery handclap beats, while "Lord Of The Game" is a head spinning shuffle with the main loop made from sliced and diced vocals, there's also Beastie Boys horn bleats, and a Crazy World Of Arthur Brown sample, all tangled up into a crazy rapid fire blast of rhythmic crush. The rest of the record is just as twisted and all over the map, and while we could go song by song and describe each one in turn, it should be obvious by now if this is your cup of seriously spiked tea or not, we'd be surprised if it wasn't, this is the sort of hip hop record that sounds like it was made for aQ, fucked up and funky, heavy and tripped out, groovy and super twisted. For a genre that seems to do less boundary pushing than it should, this is the sort of hip hop record that shakes shit up big time, and suddenly it's not such a surprise that this is getting the big underground buzz AND major label attention it so strangely deserves. Quite possibly our hip hop record of the year, and yeah it came out last year, but it's our favorite this year so far too!

MPEG stream: Beware
MPEG stream: Guillotine
MPEG stream: Spread Eagle Cross The Block
MPEG stream: Lord Of The Game
MPEG stream: Blood Creepin'

Originally released on vinyl for this year's Record Store Day, the Money Store is record number two from this weirdo outsider punk/noise/electro/hip hop trio from across the bay, whose debut, the twisted noise drenched Ex-Military was a huge hit around here, and The Money Store seems poised to follow suit. Although in some ways, this new record is a lot less weird, and a lot more polished, and while it's still fierce and fucked up, it's definitely not as outwardly angry, less a sonic brick in the face, and more like a carefully plotted and meticulously executed throat slitting, which we would imagine is a comparison these guys would dig. As with Ex-Military, Zach Hill from Hella is one of the guys behind the production, and while there may be live drumming, it definitely sounds like he spent more time programming beats, the sound more electro than anything, and even moreso that Ex-Military, the sound much more fully realized, more lush and layered, opener "Get Got" has a loop and a beat that sounds like it could've gone in an entirely different direction, and been sort of weird pop radio hit, but with Stefan Burnett's twisted flow and frenetic delivery, it helps transform the songs' shoegazey electro-jitter into something more jittery and dizzying, like some malfunctioning double dutch jam. "The Fever" hews closer to the first record, the flow more of a belligerent bellow, the beat a stuttery skitter, but again, the production is super slick and makes the song a bit more palatable, without taking away from the ferocity, which is definitely a delicate line to toe. The whole record is killer, every track here, all weirdo loops, twisted flow, sick beats, massive production, this is the sort of shit you imagine being blasted from a booming system in the car of THEE scariest dude in the hood, fucked up and fierce, but also groovy and funky, a little bit loopy and twisted, especially when they do the whole sped up soul sample thing, which here just makes things sound weirder then ever. Lots of this record remind us of one of our favorite weirdo outsider hip hop records EVER, Too Bad But True, by Fever, released on DHR way back in 1998, the same sort of disregard for standard song structure, typical rapping, lots of distortion and murk, fractured beats, twisted loops, almost like both groups decided to reinvent the genre from the ground up, and just inadvertently touched on the various elements that DEFINE the genre in most cases, but here those bits and bobs just got all fucked up and came out the other side practically unrecognizable, and got all tangled up into an already head spinning, bafflingly brilliant sound. Hip hop record of the year? Quite possibly, but word is there's gonna be ANOTHER Death Grips later this year, so we might have to reserve judgment until then!

MPEG stream: Get Got
MPEG stream: The Fever
MPEG stream: Double Helix
MPEG stream: System Blower

We loved the Death Grips debut, Exmilitary, and the follow up, Money Store, but to be honest, we never thought we'd see this new-ish one actually come out. Considering it was meant to be released ages ago, but the band went ahead and released it online for free, without their (major) label's consent, which resulted in them being dropped. They also publicly shared private emails from their label. Then of course there's the X-rated cover art, that features the album title written in sharpie on an erect penis. There's also the recent Death Grips 'tour', which seemed like some sort of art punk prank, with the shows consisting of prerecorded music, a projection of a suicide note, and a lonely drum kit. Which often resulted in crowds freaking out, and at least at one show, trashing what little DG gear there was to be trashed. But then really, these guys have been all about stirring up shit, almost to the point where the music seemed more a vehicle for all that shit stirring. But even if that's true, the bottom line is that the music is pretty goddamn great, and weird as fuck, warped and woozy and confusional, and we can safely say, that as damaged and demented as those first two records were, No Love Deep Web still manages to up the ante. Swirling synths, blown out bass buzz, stuttering beats, but it's still all about DG mainman Stefan Burnett's insane ranting, which is even more unhinged this time around, to the point that on the opening track he begins to shriek wildly, his voice cracking hysterically, while the tense buzz and lurching beats add their own sonic pathos. And so it goes, the sonic palette remains pretty consistent throughout, thick swaths of synth buzz, and brittle electro beats, all sorts of FX and electronic filigree, the sound dense and thick and layered, with Burnett going nuts over the top, at some points, his vocals, are captured and looped and sent spinning through clouds of effects into the ether, multiple vocal lines collide, and get all tangled up, dizzying demented and fierce as fuck. A few of the tracks strip it way down, leaving mostly just clipped beats and vox, others sound almost dubsteppy, minus the actual dubstep, thick gouts of fuzzed out bass, and swirling clouds of crumbling, distorted low end, but really, the bulk of the record is just mean as fuck, dark and droney, buzzing and blown out, the sort of super sick, bass heavy, industrial laced, electro-hop we can't ever seem to get enough of... Let's also hope their even newer album, Government Plates, sees a physical release soon too. Housed in an artless black vinyl sleeve, to hide the sharpied erect cock cover art inside!

MPEG stream: Come Up And Get Me
MPEG stream: Lil Boy
MPEG stream: No Love

Holy shit! Not for the faint of heart, the easily offended, the soft eared, or empty pocketed, this 20th anniversary reissue of Death In June's controversial 1987 release Brown Book, is a stunner. A legendary slab of politically charged post industrial neo-folk. Remastered, with a bonus disc featuring 14 tracks, alternate versions, outtakes and rarities from other long out of print reissues. But it's the packaging too, that pushes this over the top. A circular marble container carved with the DiJ Totenkopf skull, weighing in at almost two pounds, slip the cover off and inside is a brown velvet pouch, housing the two cds, atop those are circular cards with photos and liner notes and other text, remove everything and there's a little recess in the bottom of the container which holds 4 fabric patches. Wow. We only have two of these, as they are pretty pricey, but we figured there was bound to be a Death In June fan or two out there who would flip for one of these...

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

SORRY.

In 1981, Tony Wakeford and Douglas P disbanded their anarcho-leftist punk ensemble Crisis in order to focus on their new project Death In June, which ostensibly was a more poetic and esoteric outfit, moving away from the politics that dominated the output of Crisis. The Guilty Have No Pride were the first recordings for DIJ; and immediately, there are numerous differences between DiJ and Crisis, for one, the earlier band had more of a pogo-punk / Oi! sound while DiJ blatantly wore Joy Division's militant gloom on their sleeve. Tony Wakeford still sang with the cockney accent as he did in Crisis (and persists today through his work in Sol Invictus), but Douglas P smoothed his voice into a languid croon not unlike Joy Division's late singer. The grim post-punk inclinations for Death In June resulted in some truly amazing songs found on The Guilty Have No Pride, like "All Alone In Her Nirvana," "Heaven Street," and "Nothing Changes", any of which definitively foreshadow Interpol's black clad revivalism (barring Wakeford's unmistakable voice and Death In June's questionable use of Nazi imagery which they obnoxiously never resolved as either fetishized allegiance or situationist shock-tactics). Politics aside, The Guilty Have No Pride is miles away from the industrialized-folk that Death In June has produced in recent years, and clearly stands as one of their finest moments. Even Andee who is not a huge DiJ fan, LOVES this disc and has been listening to it non stop. This recently re-released remastered version of The Guilty Have No Pride comes with DVD of a live performance from 1982 of much of the material that would later appear on the album itself.

MPEG stream: Till The Living Flesh Is Burned
MPEG stream: All Alone In Her Nirvana

Both Death in June and Boyd Rice pioneered nearly the entire aesthetic, approach, and aural stylings of post-idustrial neo-folk. Their collaboration here is classic and infamous. This album amounts to a sacred text for post-humanist, anti-human humans. Xasthur, Leviathan, or any of the Norwegian hordes have never hated anything on the level of which these guys are capable. An historic document or another reason to join a cult far, far out in the woods and lose contact with humanity? You decide, but definitely an interesting listen nonetheless.

You know how a lot of soundtrack recordings are padded out with multiple versions of the same theme, reprised or otherwise repeated, when there's really only about 20 minutes of music written for the film? Well they didn't do that with this soundtrack -- it's just two cuts (the main theme, and "incidental pieces"), slightly over 20 minutes in total length. Death Line was a British horror flick from 1972, about monsters in the London Underground or something, and the soundtrack by Will Malone is apparently a bit of a collectors' item. The main theme is more funky than it is creepy (with some great '70s bassy synth sounds), and I can totally imagine DJs salivating over the rare vinyl version. The rest of the disc is certainly eerier stuff, taking your typical horror movie soundtrack motifs (slowly bowed strings, violin stabs, spooky choral vocals) and combining 'em with some more fat, droney synth electronics. Quirkily atmospheric, likely worth the 14 bucks to soundtrack freaks.

RealAudio clip: Main Theme
RealAudio clip: Incidental Pieces

Taking their own name to heart, this Bay Area band have taken a turn off of the hipster dance punk party avenue down a dark alley of much more tenuous and also heavily trodden post-punk sounds. Far less disposable and trend-minded than their 2005 debut ep Shame Of The Sweet, Death Of A Party's full length The Rise And Fall Of Scarlet City swiftly dispels with flavor of the week pouty boy vocals and mirror ball spin in favor of clenched fists and increasingly aggressive guitars. With this edgier angstful energy and stylized goth aesthetics, Death Of A Party draw up alongside fellow Bay Area indie post-punkers The Holy Kiss and The Mall.

MPEG stream: Weekend
MPEG stream: The Gentle Art Of Making Enemies

Alright, who else has Gang Of Four's Entertainment album in their record collection?! We suspect this new band does. Think: Andy Gill and Co. minus their political agitation and art school intellect, OR think: The Rapture or Radio 4 minus the awesome ass-kicking production treatments provided by the DFA team. Death Of A Party's four song EP is a savvy and authentic replication of that sound. Sure to get the party started, but with lightweight (albeit totally hip) songs like "Haircut Homicide" the impression it leaves is fleeting. Definitely for those who prefer not to weigh down their style with substance.

MPEG stream: Crimes Of The Heart
MPEG stream: Haircut Homicide

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

SORRY.

Here's a another brief blast of cassette goodness released by AQ pal Mike Donovan (Big Techno Werewolves, Nam, Sounds Of The Barbary Coast, The Ropers, Dial Records) of local jazz noise outfit Death Sentence: Panda. As with most releases by the very DIY San Francisco fella Mr. Donovan, there is only going to be a very small homespun run of these made, so needless to say, don't snoooooze! Pssst... we also have a small number of some other Folding cassette releases, all with hand made covers -- a short one from Donovan's own current band Sic Alps, plus a compilation he compiled with artist Chris Johanson called SSSSSOSS2 and ones by Dark Yellow Swans (aka Yellow Swans) and NVH with Six Organs Of Admittance's Ben Chasny. Dust off yer cassette deck!

First proper lp full length from these SF noiserock vets, who pre-Panda (or Panda concurrent) did time in Crack: We Are Rock, Total Shutdown, T.I.T.S. and Murder Murder. This lp collects a brand new batch of songs with a long out of print tour only cd ep... Spastic, chaotic, skronky, grinding, angular, manic no-wave new wave is pretty much what this trio serves up. A sort of off kilter unhinged Melt-Banana, or Deerhoof on crystal meth, horns bleat and honk, sharp and jagged, the drums pound and stumble, the vocals shouted, squeaked, howled and crooned, every track a grinding convoluted blast of punk rock new wave abstract whatthefuck. Gloriously damaged and cracked, fractured and fucked, warbly and warped weirdness... Packaged in super deluxe chipboard sleeves, hand screened with beautiful abstract pandas in black, white and orange... LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES.

Archival recordings (the final unreleased tracks apparently!)from this local noise rock outfit, 4 tracks of rhythmic, hypnotic, spaced out, psychedelic noise rock, that sounds totally alien, like some alternate dimension marching band scoring music for cartoons. Heavy, but lo-fi; murky, but strangely playful; thir sound a grinding hypno-rock churn, over which woodwinds flutter, strange vocals soar and shimmer, theremin and electronics shimmy and squiggle. Dynamic and proggy, some moments sound like Deerhoof, others sound like Raymond Scott (albeit more blown out and distorted), and still others sound like some lost seventies prog-psych freakiness. The tracks are on the short side, but DSP pack plenty into each, with long stretches of hazy hypnotic drifts, bursts of stuttering prog pop, jazzy psychedelic dreaminess, fluttery distortion drenched acid folk, and of course violent squalls of amp abuse and drum damage. But all of it surprisingly melodic, and weirdly catchy, and not sure if it's the songs or the recordings, but a lot of this is just downright pretty. And yeah, noisy. Oh, and super LIMITED too! Housed in a hand stamped cardstock sleeve, in an edition of only 50 copies...

MPEG stream: Bonus Round
MPEG stream: Forest Of Blood

After much sought after cd-r, vinyl & cassette releases Death Sentence: Panda! are back with a full on widely distributed full length and it's great that finally more folks will get a chance to get caught up in the band's electrifying spell of no wave inspired spazziness and postmodern rhythm & freakout. Think Teenage Jesus & The Jerks playing the last OOIOO record and you start to get a feeling of what kind of spirited ruckus this trio creates. No shortage of energy, imagination and color in these songs that come bursting out of the speakers waiting to hit your ears and make your body start twisting, turning and moving in all kinds of frantic frenetic ways...

MPEG stream: New China Blazers
MPEG stream: Party Slide
MPEG stream: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Right off the bat, I'm not sure whether this video from Death Squad is more of a stupid spectacle like MTV's "Jackass," or an Industrial production worthy of comparisons to autopsy-film era SPK, or as a very sad piece of confrontationist art that purposefully seeks to terrify its audience. The simple fact that Death Squad -- the former moniker of San Francisco's Michael 9 -- The first portion of this video is a live documentation of a performance Death Squad gave at The Lab back in 1999 called "Intent." After starting off with a backing tape of� blasting screeches and power electronics / death industrial noise accompanied by two video projections of medical footage, war atrocities, and putrefaction, Michael switches on lamp revealing that he is at a desk, with a small box of razors, a syringe, a gun, and a box of bullets. The assumption is that the needle is for heroin, and Michael taps his arm and shoots up. As the backing noise increases in intensity with higher frequencies, he picks up the razors and begins slicing his forearms. Michael then proceeds to load the gun, knocks the desk over, and menacingly stalks through the space, screaming and pointing the loaded gun at members of the audience. At this point, the documentation of the performance gets rather vague, as you can't really see Michael acting out his agressions on the audience. Yet, there are plenty of people quickly leaving the space, and the video also contains several written confessionals from members of the audience decrying this performance. The second video is almost tame in comparison, situated much more within the aforementioned SPK agenda of exposing society's "cathedral of death" as public spectacle in which catharsis is actively pursued, but never actualized. Michael 9 seems to truly believe that there are *no* absolutes in culture and society, thus there is no one that can wield a moral judgement, claiming that his performances are not art. If Linda Montano and Tehching Hsieh can qualify their shared life from 1983-1984 in which they were physically bound together by a rope, as art, then shouldn't Michael 9 be able expose his nightmares in a public venue? As art? I can't honestly say whether I approve or disapprove of this work, which left me quite uncomfortable and disturbed, even in witnessing it through the safety of a television. And I can't say if I would have shit my pants had I personally witnessed Death Squad's "Intent" performance at The Lab. But it's quite possible. Proceed with caution.

When we travel, record shopping plays a huge part in our planning. We're guessing the same is true of many (most?) of you. Not only do we typically have various stores we want to check out, we also have a list, with all the stuff we've been looking for forever, and while we may have scoured our local stores looking for stuff on that list, in the hopes that something might pop up, it's when we go someplace new, when we really expect to get lucky. When Andee went to Finland a few years back, he was lucky enough to have Jussi from Circle as his host, who is legendarily obsessed with record shopping (and who on his last visit to San Francisco, went record shopping EVERY SINGLE DAY!), and Jussi was tasked with helping Andee find two things at the top of his Finland-specific list, a single from Finnish dirge rockers Worms, and any or all of the three singles from legendary Finnish punks Death Trip. Thus, this is pretty exciting - here we have the COMPLETE recorded works of Death Trip, released on Jussi's Ektro Records, and barring a trip to Finland and much crate digging, this is the only way you're gonna get to hear this stuff, and even then, besides the six songs from those three singles, there are EIGHT bonus tracks, available only here: six rare live recordings and two unreleased demos! And while Death Trip were punk, they weren't necessarily 'punk rock', their sound was almost more Stooges-y, all sludgey and dirgey, with a crazy lead vocalist, Laja Aijala from Finnish punk legends Terveet Kadet, and who slips from guttural yowl to hysterical shriek, it's easy to see why Jussi would be obsessed with these guys, heck, why anyone would be. Their namesake song "Death Trip" is total swaggery glam blues slither, with some wild shredding guitars and those twisted vox, it's from 1988, but the sound is total nineties noise rock. Albeit a weirdly minimal punky proto-noise rock. "We're Gonna Die Tonight" begins with weird synth buzz and twisted weirdo vocals, which goes on for a whole minute before the band kicks in, sounding a bit like Hanoi Rocks, but still with those bizarre vocals. Here's where we pause, and say, if we didn't know better, and didn't know for a fact that Death Trip were a real band, we'd be tempted to think it as another Jussi / Circle project, like Steel Mammoth or Mercedes Hell or something. At the very least, it's easy to see where Circle and Co. got much of their inspiration. "Chainsaw Goddess" is all Loop / Spacemen 3 guitars wedded to punk rock beats, swirling synths and more feral vox, while, "Deep Red" is total tripped out punk doom, with even MORE unhinged vox, dirgey and noisy and super heavy. "Please Skin Me Alive" is total noisy post punk / noise rock crush, with wah wah guitars, a seriously Stoogesy main riff, and finally "Something" is all low slung bass, another dirgey groove that reminds us of Green River or Skin Yard more than proper punk rock, which is probably why we love this stuff so much. Those of you who remember the band Smack, who were sort of a glammy, trashy rock band from Finland, there's actually a surprising amount of sonic overlap, with much of Death Trip's sound verring into the almost grungy/glammy. It's only six songs, but most bands would kill for a body of work half this ruling. Then there are the live tracks, which are super blown out and lo-fi, noisy and chaotic, one of 'em an altered Stooges cover in fact, with some of the tracks getting stretched way out into sprawling dirges, and the two demos are great too, for tracks which were never properly recorded, and while super raw and lo-fi, still sound just as kick ass as the singles tracks proper. Gorgeously packaged too, with a huge booklet, filled with loads of rare photos, track notes and old reviews (all in Finnish).

MPEG stream: Death Trip
MPEG stream: We're Gonna Die Tonight
MPEG stream: Pain Is Pain (Demo)

A pretty serious noise rock (heavy on the noise) head to head on the mighty aRCHIVE label, responsible in the past for killer discs from the Goslings, Bardo Pond, Astral Travelling Unity, Growing, Keiji Haino, LSD-March, Nadja and Jack Rose. Recorded live at Tonic in NYC last year, this double 3" cd set chronicles what must have been a night of serious ear damage. Up first, Death Unit, a noisy super group made up of Carlos Giffoni, dudes from Mouthus and Hair Police and Chris Corsano (what band doesn't feature Corsano at this point?), and it's mostly Corsano's show, a 20 minute blast of drum freakout, all over the place, dizzyingly complex, a furious nonstop drum solo, eventually joined by thick sheets of squealing feedback, layers of guitar buzz, strange synthy warble and what sounds like short wave interference. A brutal but surprisingly listenable sludge drone / noise rock / free jazz mash up, but again, it's all about the drums, splattery and crashing and chaotic with the various synths and guitars just wrapping the spastic rhythms in thick layers of buzz and grit. Disc two features another 20 minute blast of caustic sound, this time from Prurient, purveyor of old school noise, a one man Whitehouse, who unleashes loads of ear shredding high end, all the sounds distorted and crumbling, some gorgeous low end drones and ultra creepy vocals, mostly whispered more than shouted, sometimes even spoken, sounding like snippets from some film. Near the end, things get even more intense, the vocals howled and the squall of electronics underneath erupting violently all around crunching grind and anguished guttural cries. The sound is so dense and heavy and noisy it almost sounds like there's some sort of industrial percussion at times. Plus lots of crowd noise, cheers and shouting too as the show was obviously being recorded from the crowd. Just makes it weirder and more surreal... So while this is definitely noisy, both discs are pretty listenable. Harsh enough for the noise obsessed, but just accessible enough to maybe convince some folks that maybe they do in fact like themselves a little noise now and again! Packaged in a cool 6 panel fold out sleeve designed by Dominick Fernow aka Prurient. Mastered by James Plotkin. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES! And already almost sold out so once these are gone we probably won't be able to get more.

MPEG stream: Terminal Cases
MPEG stream: Terminal Cases

Some seriously heavy, seriously groovy metallic sludge from these Philly bangers, three tracks of crushing downtuned heaviness, and while the sludge factor is pretty high, so is the groove factor, which keeps Deathbeds from slipping into torpid trudgery, and instead let the bands swing. Somewhere we saw these guys described as Iron Monkey meets Entombed meets Helmet, which now that we think about it is a pretty decent description, but you might also want to mention Eyehategod, maybe Crowbar or Down, there's a definite NOLA vibe, a slithery Sabbathy pound. The drums are way up in the mix, like getting pelted with cannonballs, the guitars thick and crunchy and massive, then there's the vocals, a monstrous deep bellow, reminiscent of Coalesce, that impossibly intense rrrooooaar, which is a weird match for Deathbeds' stonery groove, but fuck it, it definitely works, or doesn't work, but in not working, makes it work even more. Or at least makes it its own thing. And the vocals do shift gears here and there, slipping into something more shrieky, but always back to that monstrous howl. And yeah, the songs are pretty dang catchy too. Churning and chugging and pounding, we've actually gotten a little obsessed with these three jams, listening to this 7" over and over, and it definitely has us dying for a full length. Cool creepy full color sleeve, pressed on green vinyl, comes with a download coupon too, LIMITED TO 300 COPIES, each one hand numbered.

MPEG stream: No Funeral

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

SORRY. New Alec Empire project, a 45-minute limited edition no-frills cd of extreme slamming digital hardcore whoomph.

Full length number two from this Norwegian duo who traffic in, as their name suggests, some seriously fierce old school eighties style thrash. Think Kreator, Sodom, Bathory and the like, their sound a blitzkrieg of frenzied riffing, shredding leads and blasting beats, the sound super distorted and blown out, the vocals a raspy growl with a penchant for Slayer style almost falsetto screams at the end of lines, sometimes just a weird voice cracking squeak, other times a full on maniacal shriek. Some of our favorite moments though are where they slow it down and get downright doomy, like the opening of "Emperor Of Sin", complete with tolling bell, or on the distorted organ and chugging dirge intro to "Lead Us Into Hell", but in both cases, it's not long before they explode into another blast of galloping thrash. Obviously stuff like this doesn't need a huge review, or in depth analysis. Do you favor denim vests, preferably with patches and spikes? How about bullet belts? Do you like your metal raw and violent, furious and frantic? Blasting beats and hyperspeed riffing? Do you dig classic speed/thrash/black metal? Yes to any of those and odds are Deathhammer will be your jam...

MPEG stream: Deathrashing Sacrifice
MPEG stream: Emperor Of Sin
MPEG stream: Lead Us Into Hell

Ultra limited, vinyl-only 10" record collecting tracks from various sources as remixed by legendary producer and dark ambient dronelord Deathprod. It sounds like the idea here was to take the already impossibly dark and doomy originals and attempt to make them even more gloomy, murky and black. And the results are quite gloriously grim. Tracks from Nils Petter Molvaer, Murcof, Larsen and Deathprod himself get reworked into utterly bleak and dismal doomscapes, still warm and thick but equally oppressive and desolate. Cavernous slow motion rumbles, smeary black ambience, all suffused with black hole desolation and utter sonic abjection. Two of the tracks do manage to reach out from the murk, but just barely. The first, by Cloroform, is still minimal and murky but it's wrapped around a muted percussive soundscape, like an underwater slow motion pipe fight. Soft shimmery clank and clatter beneath an ocean of dark ambience. The other, another track from Nils Petter Molvaer, is dreamy and slightly more melodic with slowed down rhythms, and distant keening melodies drifting gently a slowly shifting ocean of subsonic rumbles and whispery whirs. Quite beautiful. Minimally packaged in an all black gatefold sleeve and with an oversized 10" booklet with liner notes and lots more blackness.

Deathprod is the solo experimental audio project from Supersilent and Motorpsycho member Helge Sten of Oslo, Norway. Previously the only work by Deathprod we stocked here at Aquarius was the split cd with Biosphere on Rune Grammofon in which the two artists reworked fellow Norwegian Arne Nordheim's electronic compositions. Having enjoyed that disc very much, we were pretty excited about the mysterious looking matte black four CD box by Deathprod that arrived at our laboratory recently. If the black box was evocative enough to pique our interest, the music the music contained within surely did not betray our hopes. Working with old magnetic tape recorders, hand made delay and sundry other electronic devices, Helge Sten manipulates fragments of sound -- such as a two note melodic interval or a final orchestral cadence -- into brooding dark soundscapes, rich with overtones from feedback and often overlaid with guest performances from fellow Supersilent members. Often it is the very limitations of the equipment that Sten uses that become the sources for the beautiful timbres he produces: an oversaturated tape input, a primitive sampler that never reproduces the same note the same way twice, or the uneven decay from primitive tape delays. The tracks on these four discs were recorded between 1991 and 2000, and while some of the material was released by Sten on cassette through his own label (also titled Deathprod), much of it is previously unreleased or was super limited in number. Two tracks in particular, a six minute narration from American born Oslo resident Matt Burt and a couple tracks of an organ, vibes and drum trio not unlike Sagor & Swing stick out in this four disc set. More typical are tracks which blossom out from a single cell of an idea: one chord, or one blast of noise. At times Deathprod sounds almost like an attempt at recreating Thomas Koner's soundscapes using the audio palette of Mauricio Bianchi. On Imaginary Songs From Tristan da Cunha, Sten went so far as to record tracks on a Nagra deck, transfer them to wax cylinders and then transfer them once more to digital media. The result are authenticly old and decaying tracks which are hauntingly beautiful as well. Other tracks feature deteriorating blasts of what sounds almost like a fog horn progressively decaying into grinding metal; throbbing drones and eerie female chorus -- a la Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" from 2001 -- building with layers of feedbacky washes of sound. The four tracks that make up Sten's most recent album on the set -- Morals And Dogma -- are possibly his best works yet: icey, bleak soundscapes of drones. Any of the tracks here would make an excellent soundtrack. On "Dead People's Things", the most sorrowful of melodies is played on a theremin over a foundation of delicate, scratchy bowing of violin and a deep bass throbbing drone. "Orgone Donor" consists of a slowly shifting chordal drone of whispy violins, harmonium and saw, with each instrument leading and then resolving the chord in turn.

MPEG stream: A Shortcut To the Stars
MPEG stream: Reference Frequencies #8
MPEG stream: Treetop Drive 3
MPEG stream: Stony Beach
MPEG stream: The Contraceptive Briefcase II
MPEG stream: Orgone Donor
MPEG stream: Cloudchamber

Deathprod is the solo experimental audio project from Supersilent and Motorpsycho member Helge Sten of Oslo, Norway. Back in 2004, we were totally blown away by the mysterious looking matte black four cd box by Deathprod. If the black box was evocative enough to pique our interest, the music contained within surely did not disappoint. Working with old magnetic tape recorders, hand made delays and sundry other electronic devices, Helge Sten manipulates fragments of sound - such as a two note melodic interval or a final orchestral cadence - into brooding dark soundscapes, rich with overtones from feedback and often overlaid with guest performances from fellow Supersilent members. Often it is the very limitations of the equipment that Sten uses that become the sources for the beautiful timbres he produces: an oversaturated tape input, a primitive sampler that never reproduces the same note the same way twice, or the uneven decay from primitive tape delays. Here, we have one of those discs from the boxset reprinted individually. Imaginary Songs From Tristan da Cunha was Sten's graduation project from art school, inspired by the remotest inhabitated island in the world - Tristan da Cunha, located nearly 2000 miles away from the mainland. Here, Sten went so far as to record tracks on a Nagra deck, transfer them to wax cylinders and then transfer them once more to digital media. The resulting sounds are authentically old and decaying tracks which are hauntingly beautiful as well. But the bulk of this disc is comprised of the live recording of "The Contraceptive Briefcase II" with a large ensemble of vocalists who are also apparently playing glass. Sten's composition of dramatically minimalist dark loops whose phrasing is damn close to what you'd hear on Morals & Dogma, progressively decaying into grinding metal; throbbing drones and eerie female chorus - a la Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" from 2001. Stunning.

MPEG stream: Burntwood
MPEG stream: Boatharbour Bay
MPEG stream: The Contraceptive Briefcase II

It's a bit tough to recommend buying this CD... Not because we don't like it -- au contraire, we do like it lots -- but because, for a bit more moolah, you can get this CD along with three other excellent Deathprod discs by buying the box set which we're also listing this week. Apparently those three other discs are not going to be released individually, so if you do end up really digging Deathprod and want more, you'll have to buy this disc again with the box set. An abridged version of our review of the box set will thus do for this item: Deathprod is the solo experimental audio project from Supersilent and Motorpsycho member Helge Sten of Oslo, Norway. Working with old magnetic tape recorders, hand made delay and sundry other electronic devices, Helge Sten manipulates fragments of sound -- such as a two note melodic interval or a final orchestral cadence -- into brooding dark soundscapes, rich with overtones from feedback and often overlaid with guest performances from fellow Supersilent members. Often it is the very limitations of the equipment that Sten uses that become the sources for the beautiful timbres he produces: an oversaturated tape input, a primitive sampler that never reproduces the same note the same way twice, or the uneven decay from primitive tape delays. The four tracks that make up Sten's most recent album Morals And Dogma are possibly his best works yet: icey, bleak soundscapes of drones. Any of the tracks here would make an excellent soundtrack. The first, "Tron" is a shimmering plane, the source material for which sounds like short wave radio noise processed in such a way not entirely unlike John Duncan's Phantom Broadcast. On "Dead People's Things", the most sorrowful of melodies is played on theremin over a foundation of delicate, scratchy bowing of violin and a deep bass throbbing drone. "Orgone Donor" consists of a slowly shifting chordal drone of whispy violins, harmonium and saw, with each instrument leading and then resolving the chord in turn.

MPEG stream: Orgone Donor
MPEG stream: Cloudchamber

Deathprod is the solo experimental audio project from Supersilent and Motorpsycho member Helge Sten of Oslo, Norway. Back in 2004, we were totally blown away by the mysterious looking matte black four CD box by Deathprod. If the black box was evocative enough to pique our interest, the music contained within surely did not disappoint. Working with old magnetic tape recorders, hand made delays and sundry other electronic devices, Helge Sten manipulates fragments of sound -- such as a two note melodic interval or a final orchestral cadence -- into brooding dark soundscapes, rich with overtones from feedback and often overlaid with guest performances from fellow Supersilent members. Often it is the very limitations of the equipment that Sten uses that become the sources for the beautiful timbres he produces: an oversaturated tape input, a primitive sampler that never reproduces the same note the same way twice, or the uneven decay from primitive tape delays. Here, we have one of those discs from the boxset re-printed individually. Treetop Drive was the earliest of Deathprod's albums, originally released in 1994. Structurally, Deathprod's brooding scores are starkly minimal, with a solitary loop of a mournful note from a string quartet comprising the base for the first track of Treetop Drive. Around this base, Deathprod sweeps pallid noise and harsh acoustic scrapings, cycling around the track's central theme. It would fit a David Lynch film perfectly, with its distorted sentimentality and violent darkness. The twin note electronic bellows of the second track take the dark ambient mode of Cold Meat Industries to a reductionist strategy of a turgidly slow Terry Riley. The third track reprises those sweeping blasts of white noise from the first track around an incredibly sad melodic drone that sways in the distance. The final track revolves upon quite deep-space beacon of electronics whose darkened frequencies refract into a bleak soundscape.

MPEG stream: Treetop Drive 1
MPEG stream: Treetop Drive 3

There are definitely a bunch of you out there who really dig the crazy technical progmetal stuff, the thrashier and more insane the better. Like Vektor, ferstance. You know who you are. Or rather, WE know who WE are, maybe we should say, since we love that sort of stuff too. We certainly sold a lot of the Confessor demos cd set that Divebomb put out a while back, and so we thought we ought to list this, another mathematically advanced Divebomb reissue. This one's a somewhat obscure tech-thrash masterpiece by the German band Deathrow. Deception Ignored - what does that title mean, anyway? The deception failed? or it succeeded?? Anyway, Deception Ignored was Deathrow's third album, originally released in 1988. Their first two albums, Riders Of Doom aka Satan's Gift ('86) and Raging Steel ('87), were much more basic and barbaric Teutonic thrashfests, and also pretty awesome, but it was with Deception Ignored that they joined the ranks of such bands as Watchtower, Coroner, Voivod, Anacrusis, and Mekong Delta in the realm of progressive / technical thrash mastery. Probably the evolution had to do with the fact that they'd just acquired a new, more technically-minded guitarist. His chops seem to have rubbed off on the other guys in the band. So grab this and get ready for a dizzying performance. Deathrow on this album are still raging, speed-wise - and lyrically too, it's all sociopolitical subject matter. But their heavy riffage has become intensely convoluted, lashed to equally intense rhythmic complexity. There's a shit ton of weedly-weedly razor sharp guitar shred that's sometimes almost jazzy, spilling (in a precise fashion) all over these stop, start, spin on a dime song structures. Which also feature the occasional atmospheric segue - like the acoustic guitar intro to "Machinery", or the classical touch provided by the moody piano and church organ passage heard at the start of the math-mad epic instrumental "Triocton". Meanwhile, amidst all this incredible instrumental interplay, Deathrow's singer fits in where and when he can, his vocals sometimes shout-growled in an aggro manner, or at other times affecting a higher pitched, more "melodic" whine. Which kinda makes us think of Joey Belladona era Anthrax if they got into a total math-metal frenzy. Also, it sounds not unlike Confessor a lot of the time. So this is definitely for fans of that band, also the others mentioned, especially including those modern day prog-thrash faves Vector! The cd booklet of this nicely done reissue includes lyrics, an interview with Deathrow originally published in Metal Forces magazine back in '89, and extensive new liner notes by Jeff Wagner, the prog-metal expert who also wrote the liners to that Confessor demos collection.

MPEG stream: The Deathwish
MPEG stream: Triocton
MPEG stream: Machinery

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

SORRY.

We've become a little obsessed recently with Ukrainian one man band Moloch. A quick look at Encyclopaedia Metallum reveals about 30 or 40 releases, 5 or 6 of them BOX SETS! Unfortunately most of them limited to 50, or 40, some even less than 10. So we've been on the hunt for at least one record we could get enough of to review on the list. We have our sites set on a cd full length, which we should be able to have in stock soon, but while we've been searching this little black gem showed up, and thus, will most likely serve as your introduction to the mighty Moloch. Of his 30 or 40 releases, only a handful are black metal, the rest are split between dark ambient, and noise. So the black metal records end up being infused with both ambient drones and black noise. But before we get to Moloch, we have Deathrow to contend with, a one man band from Italy, that one man also being a member of Frostmoon Eclipse, Ad Hominem, Kult, Nocternity and a whole bunch of others. For this split, Deathrow offer up some gorgeously lush black ambience, thick roiling clouds of buzzing synth, shimmering organs, pulsing low end rumbles, all woven into slow moving creepscapes, almost like Goblin at 16rpm. Moloch too chooses a path of blacker ambience, and offers up some grim necro rituals recalling the strange abstract blackened mood music of Abruptum, but far from being harsh, this is a dark and haunting journey through some fog shrouded underworld, all deep sonorous tones, mysterious creaks and thumps, dense swells of distorted low end, streaks of minor key melody, everything blurred and indistinct, distant anguished howls, tinkling marimba like chimes, warm washes of crumbling chordal whir, animal grunts and growls, reverb drenched detuned piano, all super cinematic and soundtracky, conjuring images of boarded up old houses, of black swamps, strange shapes drawn by moonlight filtering through the trees, of abandoned streets, dank cellars, of caves lit by flickering firelight, of nighttime, of darkness, of loss, misery, pain, loneliness, and hell. WAY recommended. And if all goes well we'll be able to track down that Moloch full length, and you can discover his even blacker side for yourself.

[ aquarius records catalogue — D ]