[ aquarius records catalogue

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 901 through 950 of 2079.

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

SORRY.

Chinese punk split!

We're a sucker for the drummer as band leader. You don't really see that so much any more, but back in the fifties and sixties, plenty of drummers led their own bands, there are the obvious ones, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Max Roach, and then there's Les Demerle, a drummer / band leader you probably have never heard of. We hadn't either but holy heck is this record ruling, originally released in 1968, when Demerle was 22, Spectrum demonstrates not only Demerle's incredible drumming, but also is knack for arranging, seeing has a handful of these tracks are covers, including a killer version of the Beatles' "I Am The Walrus" and "A Day In The Life". The record opens, as all drummers' albums should, with a drum solo, and it's a killer, wild and jazzy, loose and a little chaotic, a super energetic intro, which leads directly into the band's version of "A Taste Of Honey", which is appropriately drum heavy, opening with an ominous horn driven James Bond like groove, the song so swinging, arranged for some extra kick ass drumming, little flurries here and there, but some seriously monster drumming that somehow manages to not sound out of place. There's some more standard jazzy jams, many leaning more toward a sort of funky psychedelic sixties jazz, groovy and hippy but tight as hell. And then there's the Beatles covers, the arrangement of "A Day In The Life" is laid back, a little bit dark, a little bit funky, with some killer soloing as well as more bombastic drumming, while "I Am The Walrus" is another funky groover laced with plenty of wah wah guitar. They also cover the Fifth Dimension's "Aquarius", which gets a little bit funkified, with some awesome horns, some weird psychedelic buzz, as well as, yep, another DRUM SOLO, as well as a killer breakbeat coming out of the solo, that we imagine must have been sampled, and if not, it won't be long now. And while the covers and reinterpretations are fantastic, we almost wish there were more Demerle originals, cuz the 8+ minute epic "Deflections 1, 2, 3 & 4" might be the best track here, with its wild tangles of psychedelic guitars, its frantic drumming and constantly shifting arrangement, more killer horns, amazing solos, wah wah guitar all over the place, the sound totally psychedelic and funky, and that track has us hoping there's another record of all originals out there somewhere, cuz we can't even begin to imaging how amazing that might be. Psychedelic sixities jazz pop reissue of the year hands down!!

MPEG stream: Spectrum
MPEG stream: Dio Dati (God Gives)
MPEG stream: Deflections 1,2,3 & 4
MPEG stream: A Day In The Life

Oooooooh aren't you a saucy one?! Trashy garage rawk fans, we know you're happy to see this come 'round the bend. The always scantily clad Demolition Doll Rods will rev yer Detroit psychobilly engines with this live dvd of the trio letting themselves go in Madrid last year! Whoa nelly, the front cover tells it all! Check out that package. Ahem, the only thing missing from the photo is all the sweat the gang pumps out while they're stompin' shoutin' and workin' it on out!

Got your g-string all oiled up? It's time to whoop some butt with this mega-trashy scantily-clad trio! This is their third full length containing one dozen very live, in-the-raw recordings... and that's just as they should be heard (and preferably seen). They're one of the funn(i)est garage rawk spectacles to witness live. Danny Doll Rod, Margaret Doll Rod and Thumpurr Doll Rod let loose with the hootin' and a-hollerin' amid a tangle of electric guitar chords while Thumpurr tries almost in vain to keep it all together with her primitive beat. Always a rockin' hoot!

MPEG stream: Get It On
MPEG stream: Big Rock Candy Mountain

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SORRY. RevolverUSA say: "A cheeks spread and smiles wide fireballing blast of hubba-hubba Detroit lewd & crude as the Demo D-R's spank another red hot link of pure rock'n'roll flesh mongering and wagged-in-your-face garage punk scuzz upon today's young hot & bothered set. 12 tracks of T&A fueled lust and raw da-doo-ron-ron fire. LP is Gatefolded for lust. Raunch with me."

"Sexy" psychobilly.

Canadian garage rock freeks Demon's Claws are another one of those bands that we had never paid much attention to, not sure why, but we're sure kicking ourselves now, cuz this latest record is a seriously bad ass concoction of crazed, maniacal, swaggery sixties styled fuzz drenched garage pop bliss. The music is stripped down and minimal, sometimes brooding and dark, other times raucous and rocking, the guitars tangled and jangly, crunchy and fuzzy, the drums solid and simple, while in the background spaced out effects and electronics occasionally swirl and shimmer subtly, but over the whole thing, frontman Jeff Clarke does his best Mick Jagger, or his best Iggy Pop, or more like some sort of impossible hybrid of the two, his vocals snarly and slithery, sinewy and yet still melodic, a classic sounding croon, over some killer and impossibly hooky garage pop, that manages to sound modern enough for the kids, but most definitely remains beholden to the classics. And damn if opener "Fed From Her Hand" is not the jam of the year so far, the main riff all low slung and sinister, the vocals wrapped in reverb, those electronics burbling just below the surface, and a sound, and a main hook / chorus, that sound like they were transported straight out of the sixties. So awesome! A new favorite for sure!

MPEG stream: Fed From Her Hand
MPEG stream: Last Time At The Pool
MPEG stream: Mona's Lunch

Fellow doom junkies, you'll agree: what could be better than a 3-way sludge split?? Especially when the three bands are all from Finland, 'cause you know we love Finland. Only one of the three bands here, the mighty Frogskin, had we previously heard, but it turns out, ALL of 'em are awesome, and very well-matched, stylistically. In fact, to tell the truth, at first it's hard to tell when one band leaves off and another begins. Demonic Death Judge (great name!), Semtex, and Frogskin each in turn dish out tremendously heavy, lumbering, loping riffage, with a liberal application of feedback, and rasping ugly vokills. Their sludge has a Sabbath-derived swing to it, for sure, and features plenty of psychedelic guitar shred soloing, especially from DDJ. So these three represent the warped Finnish branch of a doomed-out, drugged-up family that includes both Eyehategod and Electric Wizard in its lineage. First up is DDJ, with three tracks, each over 7 minutes long, their dirty stoner grooves betraying a love of classic '70s psych and metal. They also aren't afraid of some shining melody in their songs, like on one of this album's highlights, "Beneath The Monument", which also makes good use of disturbing samples, layered and looped. Epic, glorious stuff, which is not what we'd usually say about sludge. Then comes the pot-lovin' Semtex, who boast the best and/or cutest logo. Their four tracks are more overtly drug-oriented, the band a bit like the Finnish answer to Bongzilla, delivering lotsa lazy, bluesy, doped out doominess. And then Frogskin wrap things up, their three contributions to this sludgey split taking it into an even filthier, nastier, crustier direction. It's been doomy all along, but now it's time to run and hide, kiddies. Wow, what a wicked, wasted 3-way! Better than most single-band discs of this ilk we've ever heard. If it's any recommendation - and it is - we've been listening to this A LOT since we got it in. And are also hoping that a Vol. 2 is indeed on the way, as well as new full-lengths by all 3 of these great bands�

MPEG stream: Beneath The Monument
MPEG stream: Two Minutes Of Rehab
MPEG stream: Barstool Battle Axe

When we first got a promo of this, we looked at the cover painting (a real dark and cool-looking depiction of the title characters) and wondered...black metal, death metal, or power metal? Turns out it's all of the above. And pretty damn good too, so we ordered copies for the store right away. Demonoid is apparently a side project of Therion, a symphonic Swedish metal band we don't particularily care about, but this sounds nothing like Therion these days that's for sure. Epic and technical but totally brutal and heavy. The vocals are of the growling variety, but not cookie monster grunts. The '80s thrash influences on display here remind us of Defleshed -- but with guitar solos. Which are amazing, as is the drumming (by the guy from Soilwork). And it's a concept album -- with a concept that is explained in the liner notes and boils down to this: "among all the rubbish written in the Bible, there was as a matter of fact only one thing that was correct; the description of the 4 Riders of the Apocalpyse". So we get songs about mankind's crimes through the ages, and the punishments that the Riders eventually visit upon us... Full devil horns up for this one!

MPEG stream: Firestorms
MPEG stream: 14th Century Plague

With a name like Demonologists and a title like Sermons Of Death And Eternal Damnation, you probably already have a good idea of what sort of sonic sickness these guys have in store for you. And you'd be right. A bleak, noisy, super distorted, atmospheric bit of blown out, crumbling, industrial doom laden trudge and lumber, the sky a black swirl of metallic crunch and shrieking feedback, what must be guitars are transformed into heaving avalanches of blacknoise, the voices (if they are voices) just add more chaos to the already confusional din, streaks of melodies and a buried slow motion propulsion drag the sound like some blackened carcass, being wheeled into the bowels of hell. Huge shards of moaning melody surface now and again, adding a strange sort of cinematic gravitas, but most of the subtle stuff is swallowed up by the harsh churning crush and pummel on the surface, heavily layered and super texture, so blown out and in the red, the tape gets overloaded, and the sound becomes strangely warm and muted before collapsing again into paroxysms of skree and scrape and howl and buzz. It's like 10 different black metal records being played at once, and then being remixed by some Japanoise DJ's, the speeds shifting, the tempos dragging and threatening to spill into oozing black puddles of sound, this is definitely rough stuff, but like the best rough stuff, this is not just pedal masturbation or white noise punishment, although to be fair, it is punishing, there is plenty of white noise (and pink, and brown, and BLACK) and heck, there's probably some pedal abuse, but it's all whipped up into a serious speaker melting frenzy, the sort of sound that will definitely appeal to students of the school of Merzbow and Masonna, but also, folks into the noisier and more abrasive end of the black spectrum like Gnaw Their Tongues, BSBC, Aderlating, Alkerdeel, Black Mayonnaise, Grief No Absolution, Endless Humiliation, etc. Sweet packaging, silver ink on black card stock. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES, we have less than ten!

Latest chunk of grim blacknoise from Ohio duo Demonologists, comes in the form of this super limited split cd-r, with the mysterious Deathstench. We first heard from Demonologists on a cassette from Waves Of Decay, and we described that record as sounding like ten different black metal records all being played at once and then remixed by a Japanoise DJ. Which should tell you all you need to know, brutal, harsh, intense, black buzz brutality. On their half of this split, Demonologists start off each track with some black ambient drift or some creepy cinematic dronemusic, only to eventually explode into full on blacknoise, an avalanche of speaker shredding, ear piercing Merzbow/Masonna style fury, only in this case, buried in there somewhere are buzzing riffs and shrieked vokills, and if you can brave the first few minutes, the songs tend to open up, peeling back some of the noise, revealing all the murky weirdness inside and underneath, whether that's wild squalls of fractured effects, surprising shards of jagged melody, or just stretches of black metal buzz. Headphones seem the way to go, this is the sort of all out aural assault that in a room with regular speakers, just sounds like a vacuum cleaner symphony, but strap on those cans, and you're plunged into a blacknoise abyss, a skull caving collision between Incapacitants and Wrath Of The Weak, a whirling black buzz dervish of unparalleled proportions. Metalheads tread carefully, one must have iron ears as well as a black soul to truly survive this sonic onslaught! Deathstench start their side off with a creepy sample and some sick, gurgling low end buzz, a churning black expanse of downtuned heaviness and murky oozing creep, the sound super distorted and on the verge of crumbling to pieces, textural and heavily layered, black and black but surprisingly listenable. Which is how these guys roll, balancing the relentless blown out pummel of Demonologists, Deathstench are a bit more subtle with their bleak, grim, abject soundscaping, creating looped landscapes of industrial whir, and buzzy black drones, of machine like rhythms buried in the sonic murk and mire, wreathed in haunting drifting melodies, and swirling black ambience, finally finishing things off with a 15+ minute horrorscape, beginning with some hushed ultra minimal shimmer, but quickly blossoming into something much more evocative and sinister, distant demonic vokills, disembodied voices, churning black low end, lots of spaced out drift, super cinematic and downright scary. LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!! With full color glossy artwork!

MPEG stream: Blood Soaked Frequencies
MPEG stream: Corpse Orchard
MPEG stream: Wivesblood

Yet another in an almost comically long line of Wolf Eyes related project (do these guys do anything but make noise all the time?!) this one is a duo made up of Nate Young of Wolf Eyes and his similarly synth obsessed pal Steve Kenney of Werewolves, who for Demons, didn't so much as play and compose and rehearse and perform, as just let their wonky damaged malfunctioning synthesizers play themselves and then capture the results. And to be honest, it's a bit hard for us to believe this record was mostly generated by chance, it's too composed sounding, too pretty, too good actually. Two gorgeous extended lowendscapes, dark and ominous, muted and percussive, looped and cyclical sounding, lots of bassy thrum, pulsing and creeping, streaked with high end shimmer and strange alien effects. Very dramatic and cinematic, a whirring dark ambience with all sorts of subtle melody and tonal color. The B side is similar, but shifts into the upper register, birdlike trills, swooping sweeping feedback, chimes and bells all smeared into a dreamy high end drift, very alien and otherworldly but surprisingly dreamy and lovely. Super striking naked lady / horned hairy beast / desolate mountainscape cover art too!

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: Empty Being
MPEG stream: Self Possession

Power metal dudes and dudettes! We can't call ourselves a "metal specialty" store without listing this. Well actually we're not a "metal specialty" store but that's what it said in the New York Times article about "intelligent metal" a few weeks ago, quoting Andee talking about some of the bands the Times thought were so smart. Not among them, Demons and Wizards, though if you really like metal you should dig this as much or more than SUNNO))) and Pelican and so forth. It's the second album from the dream team of Blind Guardian vocalist Hansi Kursch and Iced Earth guitarist John Schaffer. Well ok we're not big Iced Earth fans here (the early stuff was good, though). But Blind Guardian get all kinds of AQ props. And one of the main reasons is 'cause of Hansi's vocals. He's not just some cookie cutter smoothly crooning power metal vocalist. He's got personality, some roughness, an edge. He's also way better than anyone who's ever sung for Iced Earth (well, Ripper's got a good voice, but Hansi's way more original!). Anyway, Demons & Wizards are pretty great and fans of either 'parent' band won't be disappointed.

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

SORRY.

Though we haven't polled everyone, the general consensus around here seems to be that Demontage is a cool name for a heavy metal band. But is Demontage also in fact a cool heavy metal band? Yeah, they are, or we wouldn't have ordered a bunch to highlight! They're a fairly eccentric outfit from up in Toronto, Canada, a peculiar but exceedingly powerful power trio comprised of Abominable Reverend (drums), Perverted Priest (bass), and Spatilomantis (guitars/vocals), playing an off-the-rails mix of old school and more modern extreme metal styles with frenzied abandon and plenty of idiosyncratically Satanic spirit, more metal than thou, no doubt. The Principal Extinction is their 2nd full length (but first real cd, as their previous album Sacrilege 'n Miscreancy was but a cd-r release), consisting of six tracks that we can barely describe 'cause these guys are insane. The songs aren't short (in the 6-10 minute range) and boy do they cram a lot into 'em, from NWOBHM gallop to black metallic fuzz to proggy synth sizzle to majestic epicness to utterly doomy crush, always with aggressive riffs, ripping leads, thrashy drums, and (obviously) a LOT of twists and turns. Somehow it all flows beautifully, like blood from a demon's maw. Heck, Demontage is an appropriate name for them on account of how they mash together so much in their crazy compositions, which sound like, we dunno, Saviours on a lot of drugs? Danava doing an advanced version of Venom? Brocas Helm in a hellish hot tub with Celtic Frost? The vocals don't help us to pin 'em down either, as they're mostly gruff, but spiced with occasional high pitched screams, and there's melodic & manly cleanly sung parts too. Certainly Demontage remind us a bit of the sort of anything-goes metal played by the diverse likes of Root, Dragonauta, and Sigh. But with much more of a denim and leather '80s beer drinking vibe, if you can imagine. Headbanging catchiness is a priority, in other words, but that doesn't get in the way of 'em being weird as well (& as hell). We wish more bands were willing to be both this darn metal AND this out-there original. Cool stuff, quite recommended.

MPEG stream: Accursed Saboteur
MPEG stream: The Principal Extinction
MPEG stream: Satan Of Self (The Warrior)... & Seer Of Truths (The Conjurer)

Taking inspiration from the mysteries and might of the San Francisco Bay, this collaborative effort is authored by two hitherto unknown ambient engineers. With its deep channels and strong currents, the San Francisco Bay is a principal part of the oceanographic and meteorological mechanics that give rise to the region's temperate summers and mild winters. For the most part, the weather patterns are very consistent and become invisible even to those of us who have lived here for decades. But, when those ocean and air currents push the fog bank through the Golden Gate Bridge and around the islands in the Bay, the visual impact (not to mention the physical drop in temperature) can generate responses of awe, transcendence, fear - or just the common lamentation that you forgot to bring an extra layer of clothing.... IA (aka Alex Copeland) resided in Oakland for some time, but Julien Demoulin is a Belgian artist and may have personally experienced the San Francisco Bay in his travels. The collaborative meditation on the San Francisco Bay takes the form of extended drone and dark ambient passages, which easily present themselves as sonic equivalents to the dramatic convergences of land, air, and sea. Thrumming harmonics collapse into lapping washes of soft noise, abstracted field recordings ground brightened arcs of ghostly melodies which shimmer like the flecks of sunlight that rake across the fog bank in the twilight hours, and the numerous drones take up shadowy isolationist strategies. After some 35 minutes of tone color shifting from black to grey to blue with a dreamtime pacing, Demoulin and Copeland snap into a lovely coda, which begins with a strum across an autoharp and leads into an interlude for melancholy flutes swimming in thick reverb. It's a lovely way to end the record, with all of its comparisons to Biosphere, Thomas Koner, and the Mystery Sea label.

MPEG stream: The Bay 1
MPEG stream: The Bay 2

This double cd set looks like one of those sensitive singer-songwriter affairs that I admit I'm sort of a sucker for... that is, when it's well done. Unfortunately, Dempsey isn't well done. (Let's say it's medium rare.) I mean, all the elements are there to make this "the soundtrack album of the summer" (as a press clipping proclaims) -- tastefully programmed breakbeats and subtle samples mixed with guitar balladry, moody cello, smoky trumpet, and a Mick-Jagger-three-times-removed kind of lazy wannabe drawl -- and for all I know the folks in the UK are digging into this stuff (like it's filet mignon, heh.) Even the sleeve art is as predictable as the music, a closeup of an acoustic guitar, photos of desert landscapes, the sea, lightning -- stuff you see "on the road". But come on, the melodies aren't nearly as assured or memorable as they need to be in order for that sensitive singer-songwriter stance to ring true. The lyrics are amateurish (and I find the voice incredibly annoying). The entire thing feels a little bit manufactured, but maybe that's cos I've never been impressed with Brit powerhouse obvious-genre-mixing impresario Trevor Jackson, who co-wrote and produced "Sunset," the second disc here. Kieran Hebden of AQ-faves Fridge co-wrote and produced the first disc, called "Sunrise". The members of Fridge make up the band Dempsey. Oops, let's not forget the "main guy" Geoff Mcintyre. Mediocre.

RealAudio clip: Big Time
RealAudio clip: Hippydream

With a lengthy resume including performances and / or recordings including Terry Riley's "In C" and Cornelius Cardew's "Treatise," not to mention his participation with Pauline Oliveros in The Deep Listening Band, it's a little surprising that Stuart Dempster

RealAudio clip: Didjeridervish
RealAudio clip: JDBBBDJ

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

SORRY. Skweee!

It's been AGES since we last heard from this black metal horde (all the way back in 2009), and at the time, we were pretty obsessed. Definitely a supergroup, featuring members of Shining, Diabolicum, Naer Matron, 1349, Pantheon I, Gehenna, Aeternus AND Doheimsgard, Den Saakaldte (named for a Ved Buens Ende song!) crafted a twisted avant garde depressive blackness, the sort of thing that would have sounded right at home on the Moonfog label back in the day, shades of Thorns throughout for sure, that first record a twisted mix of classic Norwegian black buzz and all manner of fucked up ambience, fractured electronics, WTF production and strange instrumentation (trumpet! accordion!). On Kapittel II: Faen I Helvete, the sound remains twisted and dramatic, although the sound is a bit more of a classic, churning epic blackness, until the vocals come in, they're a bombastic caterwauled croon, that transforms the otherwise grim buzz into something way more over the top, but compared to that first record, this is some almost traditional sounding black metal. Midway through one track, there's a stunning stretch of epic harmonized guitars, tense and intense, until the song swoops back in all melancholic and melodic, it's pretty bad ass! And even one of our other favorite tracks, the sound immediately erupts in a roiling black churn, furious fast picked guitars, progged out octopoidal drumming, bursts of frenzied blasting, it's a few tracks in, that things get truly avant, the sound a bit like a strange hybrid of a melodic modern metal dirge, and some sort of Victorian sea shanty, but instead of sounding weird, these guys simply transform it into something equally black, moody and malevolent, and sure there are some soaring clean vocals, that add yet another dimension, but it manages to stay just this side of weirdness, and instead, ends up crushingly majestic and dramatic, and so it goes for the rest of the record, a dense black sprawl of tangled black buzz, of furious metallic heaviness, of epic blackened majesty, not nearly as doomy or depressive as the first, and way less trumpet (as in, none), but the group seems to have sacrificed some of their twisted experimental streak for a sound much more concise, and more directly beholden to the classic Norwegian blackness that came before...

MPEG stream: Ondskapens Nodvendighet
MPEG stream: Som Ett Arr Pa Sjelen
MPEG stream: Din Siste Dag
MPEG stream: Forbanna Idioter

A list of the members of this new group should be enough to have most black metallers diving for the add-to-cart button: Kvarforth of Shining and Diabolicum, Skyellg from Naer Mataron and Paradigma, Seldemann from 1349 and Pantheon I, S. Winter from Gehenna and Aeternus and finally Jormundgand from Dodheimsgard. Odds are you probably have records by most, if not all of those bands in your collection, and while the sounds of those various groups are pretty varied, it will probably not prepare you for the sound of Den Saakaldte (which some might recognize as a Ved Buens Ende song title!). Self described as "depressive black metal music with a modern avantgardist touch", the record begins with a long stretch of haunting choral voices, processed FX, soaring strings, swirling synths, deep rumbling drones, cabaret piano, shortwave interference, bits of hiss and glitch. It's an intro, sure, but only inasmuch as it's at the beginning of a black metal record, there are plenty of avant free-rock groups who would kill to come up with a track this cool and weird. But it is a black metal record, and it is after all an intro, so when the first song kicks in all heavy downtuned guitar, we're ready, but what we're not ready for is the trumpet, yep TRUMPET, the guitar trumpet drum mix is pretty cool, but soon gives way to something much more black, a churning blackened chugfest, heavy as fuck, with super deep howled processed vocals, killer drumming, amazing guitar playing, and super catchy main riff, the song twisting and turning and returning to the intro with an Eastern sounding guitar melody replacing the trumpet, before exploding back into that unmistakable Norwegian buzz, before slipping into some woozy doom, before lurching to a stop, leaving just a muted crackly clean guitar, and moaning almost choral vocals, before one final flurry of black buzz and a creepy drifty outro. The rest of the record follows suit, channeling the spirit of the Norwegian legends: Gorgoroth, Ulver, Arcturus, Burzum, but with a definite dramatic vibe, and plenty of avant flourishes, whether they be weird acoustic guitar / accordion interludes, or strangled maniacal almost operatic vocals, or whole songs of dubbed out rhythms and processed piano, skittery electronic beats and disembodied horn sections. The record finishes off with the nearly 12 minute lone "Jag Ar Den Fallna", featuring a guitar part that is total Thorns, but again, laced with minor key trumpet flourishes, as well as spidery guitar melodies, a groovy doomy depressive dirge, that explodes into a blast of black fury before crumbling into a sort of stumbling depressive Joy Division-y lurch, the track slipping effortlessly back and forth, from moaning minor key lumber, to blasting shrieking blackness, and back again, eventually the two disparate elements becoming one, the song turning into some blackened My Dying Bride, all epic classic doom, before that Thorns-like riff returns to finish things off, leading directly into the sub-minute long coda, a super creepy collage of little girl voices and atonal synths, wrapped in a gauzy otherworldly swirl of dense delay and reverb. It might sound cliched to say, but they really don't make records that sound so much like this anymore, that nineties Norwegian sound, heavy and dark and catchy and majestic and mysterious and brutal and black, these are the sounds that lured us over to the dark side, and it's easy to see why, and strangely enough it still sounds as good today as it did 15 years ago. WAY recommended.

MPEG stream: Drikke Ens Skal
MPEG stream: Vandringen

Anyone whose ever seen Cambodian pop combo Dengue Fever, knows that live is where they really shine. Their records are all fantastic, but somehow, those songs sound even better live, the vibe festive and celebratory, the band more loose, and the sound allowed to blossom, and in some cases explode. For those new to Dengue Fever, these Americans (featuring members of the late great Dieselhed) were obsessed with Cambodian music, and over the years were able to emulate that sound perfectly, even to the point of crafting originals that sounded EXACTLY like lost Cambodian pop singles from the sixties. One thing was missing, and that was a vocalist. And that vocal spot would end up being filled by real Cambodian royalty, a princess in fact, the irresistible Chhom Nimol, whose gorgeous voice pretty much sealed the deal and Dengue Fever was born. Cannibal Courtship is not a new record, but is in fact a live album, and as mentioned above, the sound, to these ears at least, is even better than their records proper, the guitars are fuzzier, the organs louder, the harmonies and arrangements still perfect, but just check out the title track, the verses smoldering and sexy, the chorus super loud, the guitars crashing, intense and epic. And then the band switch gears and go right into "Cement Slippers", an organ drenched surf rock jam, with English lyrics, and dueling boy/girl vocals, some wild horns, and yet more distorted guitars. Which gives way to "Uku" which is just classic sixties Cambodian pop that sounds like it was plucked right off a Sublime Frequencies compilation. This was a Record Store Day release, and it was pretty limited, so we're not sure how long these will be along. Also includes a download coupon!

MPEG stream: Cannibal Courtship
MPEG stream: Uku

At last! Dengue Fever have deemed it time to grace us with the follow-up to their highly lauded and loved 2003 self-titled full length American (played) / Cambodian (sung) treasure. If you enjoy Southeast Asian pop and you've somehow missed this group live or on record, please don't let another day go by without treating yourself royally to the sounds of Dengue Fever! This (along with the Bay Area's own Neung Phak alias Mono Pause who offer a broader spectrum of Southeast Asia's pop music) is probably as close as you can get to the 'real' thing without flying to the other side of the globe. If you want a little rundown on the group's story, please see our glowing review of their first album which was written by our then-co-worker Byram who seriously knows his stuff. Happy to hear and report that the group have picked right up from where they left off in delightful ear-tingling fashion. Here, they've once again created a faithful and respectful recreation of the genre, but this time they've allowed more of their individual influences into the mix -- fleshing things out more, beefing up the rock elements a bit more (heftier saxophones and guitars), but they wisely leave plenty of the spotlight to Chhom Nimol's jaw-dropping vocals. If you need more convincing (yeah, like we really need to twist your arm on this one!), check out a couple of the album's highlights "One Thousand Tears Of A Tarantula" and "Sleepwalking Through The Mekong"! Intoxicating, irresistible and immensely recommended. A side note: Has anyone else noticed that the cover art bears a remarkable resemblance to those of the Sublime Frequencies Southeast Asian compilation series? Makes sense!

MPEG stream: One Thousand Tears Of A Tarantula
MPEG stream: Sleepwalking Through The Mekong

Wow! Wow! Wow! What a treasure for any Dengue Fever fan!!! Sleepwalking Through The Mekong is a deliriously wonderful dvd+cd set featuring a fascinating documentary / travelogue film of their Cambodian tour (and homecoming for lead vocalist Chhom Nimol), lots of bonus footage, and an accompanying soundtrack compilation that's alternately dreamy and electrifying! Check out the full throttle rendition of familiar favorite "New Year's Eve"! Featuring performances by not only the stars of the show Dengue Fever, but also Cambodian master musicians Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Serey Southea, Khee Sokley, Meas Samoun, Kong Nai and Tep Mary. Need we say more? Absolutely breathtaking and essential!

MPEG stream: Master Tep Mary
MPEG stream: Hummingbird
MPEG stream: New Year's Eve

Yaaaaaaay! One of those releases that probably doesn't even need any introduction, its feverishly anticipated arrival is received by grabby hands and torrents of drool! The always deliriously fun and wildly captivating Dengue Fever is back with their third album! You simply can't help but get all giddy and dance-y when they unleash their unmistakable blend of good ol' American rock'n'roll with the pop sounds of Southeast Asia and beyond. Luminous lead singer Chhom Nimol slips effortlessly from slinkily sensual to playfully kittenish, and the fellas continue to kick ass with their awesome musicianship and artistry. Together they're electrifying, intoxicating, and drop-dead gorgeous! We could go on and on, but why? We're wasting valuable listening time! Recommended!

MPEG stream: Seeing Hands
MPEG stream: Tiger Phone Card
MPEG stream: Oceans Of Venus

Is it just me or would more rock bands be better served by either a) becoming an instrumental band, or c) singing in another language other than English? Certainly part of this wish is born out of a desire to be spared the painfully bad lyrics often penned by would-be poets, but also because it's often so much nicer to hear singing for singing's sake, and to hear the wonderful inflections of vowels and consonants as they're treated through the mouth of a completely different vocal tradition. I always imagined that had Sonic Youth employed a Vietnamese singer they'd have been my favorite band -- at least for the first several years of their career. And I'm sure that one of the main reasons people, myself included, love the Cambodian Rocks compilation (and alternately why the mainstream public probably don't) is due to the vocals. Yeah, it's some great stripped down garage rock. But what puts that album over the top are the vocals. So it was pretty exciting to hear that a group had formed in honor of that venerable collection of Cambodian garage classics. While the instrumental backbone of Dengue Fever is truly an all-star cast of musicians, including Senon Williams of the Radar Brothers on bass, Zac Holtzman of Dieselhed on guitar, David Rallick of Beck on saxophone, Ethan Holtzman on farfisa and Paul Smith on drums, without their vocalist Chhom Nimol they'd really be a rocket without fuel. Nimol, the princess, is the real star of the show. Born and raised in Cambodia, Nimol was a pop star there before emigrating to Orange County several years ago. To give you an idea of her status back home, Nimol regularly performed for the king and queen of Cambodia. That's right, the king & queen! And now she's essentially slumming it with a bunch of indie rockers. But the pairing couldn't be better, and I highly recommend that the next time the group is even remotely near your town that you go see them play, because you won't regret it. Until that day comes, you'll get a very good consolation prize in Dengue Fever's new studio recording released on Trey Spruance's (Mr. Bungle) Web of Mimicry label. While the group began by simply covering the Cambodian Rocks album wholesale, their repertoire has grown to include several originals -- included here -- and a cover of Mulatu Astatke's "Yegelle Tezeta" (from Ethiopiques Volume 4), which blends quite nicely with the Cambodian pop material. And what the group may lack in the raw spontaneity of those original tapes, they make up in spades with full arrangements and sensuous fidelity. Nimol's beautiful voice comes out wonderfully prisitine so that you can hear every minute inflection, and it's a voice so beautiful you won't need to see her to fall instantly in love. Highly recommended!

MPEG stream: 22 Nights
MPEG stream: New Year's Eve

Fans of the amazing Cambodian Rocks compilations we've reviewed in the past are definitely gonna want this one too, a collection compiled by the members of the modern LA-based Cambodian pop band Dengue Fever (longtime AQ faves) of their favorite classic Cambodian rock and roll jams from the sixties and seventies, a golden renaissance age for art and music in Cambodia, directly preceding the reign of the Khmer Rouge, who took over the country in 1975 and attempted to wipe out any and all traces of modern society, and as the liner notes point out, much of the music survived, but most of the musicians did not. As with the Cambodian Rocks comps, the songs here are groovy and funky and fun, with shuffling rhythms, wild psychedelic guitar solos, warm wheezing organs, fuzzy surf guitars, and of course incredible vocals, the perfect mix of Western style rock and pop and Eastern style traditional folk music. Even though on the surface, the songs all seem sunshiney and playful, but there's definitely an element of pathos and drama, many of the songs are subtly maudlin and melancholy, there's even a song called "I Will Starve Myself To Death", but listening to it, with its jangle guitar and shuffly rhythm, you would never guess the grim title and perhaps lyrical content. There's also a killer cover of Sonny Bono's "Bang Bang", popularized by Cher, Nancy Sinatra and Terry Reid, and here it's gorgeously haunting, a waltzy bit of melodrama, with that immediately recognizable chorus, even in a different language. So good. We just can't get enough of this stuff, anyone who dug those Cambodian Rocks comps, or who loves the Sublime Frequencies collections, will no doubt go crazy for this too. There is definitely some overlap with this collection and the partially out of print Cambodian Rocks series, but there are definitely some tracks here we've never heard before (like "Bang Bang", or as it's titled here, "Snaeha"), and besides, the proceeds from the sale of this record will be donated to Cambodian Living Arts: www.cambodianlivingarts.org! So what are you waiting for??

MPEG stream: Snaeha
MPEG stream: Give Me One Kiss
MPEG stream: Don't Speak
MPEG stream: Jombang
MPEG stream: Flowers In The Sand

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

SORRY. Another kick ass Record Store Day release! We ordered an extra handful of these so you out of towners could still get your hands on one of these, a new track from long time aQ faves, Southeast Asian poppers Dengue Fever, with another gorgeous smokey groove, all reverby surf guitars, slithery sexy bass, simple jazzy drums, some gorgeously jazzy almost Maricachi sounding horns, and of course the divine vocals of Chhom Nimol, who seals the deal, her delivery so sultry and effortless. If you haven't heard Dengue Fever, you are in for a treat! The flipside features Chicha Libre, another band of modern musicians channeling classic sounds of the past, this time the sound of Peruvian Chicha, and just like Dengue Fever, they are a dead ringer for the real thing, heck, they ARE the real thing, twangy guitars, warm warbly organs, gorgeous vocal harmonies, totally groovy and danceable, the sound warm and vintage, we would never guess that this was a new recording. Wow. These two groups just toured the US together, this 7" commemorates that trek, and was released just for Record Store Day, we have about 10 of these, it was LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES, pretty sure we won't be able to get more.

Awesome slab of early turntablism, from a member of the legendary LAFMS, the Los Angeles Free Music Society, a loose group of artists, writers and musicians active in the seventies and eighties. Dennis Duck, aka Mehaffey originally released this disc as a cassette tape, limited to 20 copies, each one hand decorated and signed. So here we are almost 30 years later, and heck if this doesn't still sound amazing. Raw and simple and ultra primitive turntable manipulation, none of the techniques here are mind blowing, in fact, odds are most of them are something we all tried with our own record players at one time or another. Lots of changing the pitch, placing the record on the spindle so it wobbles up and down, placing a seven inch atop a 12" and letting the needle be bumped back every time it touched the seven inch, adjusting the anti-skating setting to cause the record to skip or the needle to jump, it all comes down to two things, the choice of records, and the random behavior of the needle and the records. The records Duck employs are fantastic, weird and wonderful, strange children's records, bizarre jazz, spoken word as well as a handful of discs that end up so fragmented and transformed it's hard to say what they were pre-fuckery. And while some of these tracks don't do a whole lot other than play at the wrong speed, or skip haphazardly, others DO, their bits and fragments looped into strange rhythms and bizarre arrangements, something weird and new and totally mesmerizing. Our favorite track might just be the nearly 8 minute "One O'Clock Jump", a dense swirling assemblage of strange percussion, jazzy horns, sped up and skipped into incredibly complex patterns, a few minutes in it's difficult to discern the various sounds, or even remember what it is you were listening to, it sounds like some primitive lo-fi lost piece by Reich or Riley, or Lubomyr Melnyk's Wave-Lox performed on turntable instead of piano, swirling and spinning and skipping and looping and hiccuping and blurring into impossible patterns and textures. Hard to believe that it could possibly be just a turntable and a couple records, it sounds like some modern processed piece done on a computer and -treated- to sound like an old piece of vinyl. A few other lengthy tracks near the end of the disc explore similar territory, weaving dense sprawling flurries of loops and skips, and those tend to be our favorites, although the shorter ones do have their own magic, leaning more toward the brief and playful, percussively skipping little sonic vignettes between the longer stretched out skipscapes. Awesome! Definitely for fans of Marclay, Jeck, Strotter Inst, Yoshihide, Bastien, Brinkmann, Tetriault , Gum, Saule, Cordier, Loop Orchestra, the recently listed Prehistoric Fuckin' Moron(s) and other like minded turntable tinkerers...

MPEG stream: Intro
MPEG stream: Do The Fence
MPEG stream: 4xie
MPEG stream: Nice Shave

MPEG stream: Blackwaterslide
MPEG stream: Next Time Around
MPEG stream: The North Star Grassman and The Ravens

Long beloved on cassette here at the store, this has been issued on Jonathan Segel's label. With an idiosyncratic singer and Jonathan's fiddle, this reminds me of a more mature and less self-conscious U.S. Saucer.

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

SORRY.

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

SORRY.

MPEG stream: Mid-Day-Merry-Go-Round
MPEG stream: The Blue Parrot
MPEG stream: The Lord, He Speak To Me

Those of you who flipped for Denver's recent insane and insanely packaged No One Is Coming To Help You deluxe screen printed lp (we have a few left!!) will most definitely want to miss out on this ULTRA limited triple 3" cd-r set of live and not live recordings. The first two discs were recorded while Denver and his 'Neck were on tour with the Dirty Three. The third disc is new studio stuff. For those of you unfamiliar with Nate Denver, imagine, every band you liked in high school, every comic book you have ever read, every fantasy movie you've ever seen featuring either dragons or wizards or both, some skateboards, a lot of heavy metal, death metal to be specific, some beautiful folk songs, spikes, elves, banjos, Nintendos and anything else you remember fondly on your convoluted path to where you are NOW, all chopped up and blended into an impossibly catchy, goofy, funny, pretty, heavy, folk metal ultraviolent goofball spazz rock mess. Denver is insanely adept at squashing all manner of unlikely sounds into a single performance, or even a single song, and make it sound perfect. Pretty songs are only pretty on the surface, but are actually subtly violent and evil and hateful and miserable, howling chaotic blasts of pummeling noise are somehow happy and joyful, filled with flowers and clouds and sunshine. Which goes a long way to explainging the charm of Nate Denver's Neck. This world where metal and folk, dragons and elves co-exist peacefully, is fun and funny, ironic but not intentionally, wild and ridiculous, but ultimately, heartfelt and insanely well crafted. Schizophrenic for sure, but in a gloriously satisfyingly demented sort of way! Packaged in a little paper bag sealed with a giant brad, containing as well three hand screened inserts on thick textured paper. Nice!

MPEG stream: Cough
MPEG stream: Execution
MPEG stream: Lunatic Of God's Creation

We are very afraid of what lurks inside the mind of Nate Denver's head. Let alone his neck. Because if the music that comes out of Nate Denver's mouth, and Nate Denver's band is any indication, then that head is stuffed to overflowing with a dizzying swirl of brain melting, ear bleeding, gut busting, genre smashing, musically dense, dreamily bouncy goofball ultraviolence. And we love it! As always, Denver and his Neck veer wildly from howled distorted vocals over shimmering black drones, to fey, jaunty warbly folk, to faux bluegrass, to geeky indie jangle, to full on death metal and back again. Even at its prettiest and most melodic, there's always a chance that everything will erupt into a squall of screeched vocals or howling feedback. And even when things do stay pretty and gentle, the mood is secretly anything but, with sweet lyrics about death and hell and destruction and mayhem and torture and chaos and brutality. Woah. But holy fuck, the packaging! A one sided LP, silkscreened on the other to match the printed inner sleeve, making the label of the lp the mouth of a nude howling cartoon man. All wrapped in a thick cardboard sleeve, almost like a record mailer, with the liner notes and songtitles printed on the inside in big black scrawls with pink pictographs illustrating the songs, the outside, a garish image of a creepy white eyed naked hairy man, whose teeth and tongue fold into a flap (positioned not coincidentally right over his privates!) to keep the whole thing securely shut. So intense and super cool looking. Everyone who sees it utters something along the lines of "What the hell is that!!??" These were super limited so we were only able to get a dozen, and are not sure we can get more.

Total Shutdown bass player/vocalist Nate Denver (who also does time as lead vocalist in Dig That Body Up, It's Alive) heads out on his own and heads in a decidedly less skronky (but no less strange) direction. Ostensibly a 'folk' record, there are elements of Think Robert Johnson, Sebadoh, Ween, Anton Maiden, the Folkways Box, Total Shutdown, Elliott Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bongwater, They Might Be Giants, Will Oldham and Slayer and you might get an idea of what's going on in Nate Denver's head. Or you might not. Real nice.

RealAudio clip: Blood Guzzler
RealAudio clip: Raining Blood
RealAudio clip: God of Worms
RealAudio clip: Lovely Creatures

We love Nate Denver. Not only is he just about the nicest guy we've ever met, he's also utterly batshit crazy, musically at least, the stuff he comes up with is totally baffling and brilliant, often goofy and puerile, but always hilarious and impossibly catchy, or punishingly heavy. He was the frontman in the short lived weirdo metal band Dig That Body Up It's Alive (which also featured John Dwyer from Thee Oh Sees), and he played with SF noise punks Total Shutdown, he's done hip hop, folk, he's obsessed with metal, and he's a paramedic. He's also a writer, and has published at least one book, which was hilarious and touching in equal measure. So here we have the latest musical missive from Nate Denver and his musical Neck, and it's a doozy. We figured the elaborately photoshopped cover art was a put on, it looks like an old taped up and beat up thrift store lp of Swan Lake, the ballet music, but it says Nate Denver in the same font, and Rock is Hell too, it's gorgeous, but like we said, we figured it was a goof, we flipped it over, and there's the story of Swan Lake, told in Denver's bizarre and ridiculous style, so we still weren't really sure what the music would be like. And then whattayaknow? It's Denver, and an acoustic guitar, singing the story of Swan Lake, a single repeated chord progression for the whole of the side, with Denver's delicate croon, spinning the tale of Swan Lake. And weirdly it's a fantastic listen, mesmerizing, and crazy catchy, we couldn't stop, and even now we have little turns of phrase and bits of melody sticking in our head, but after all it is Nate Denver, so when it comes time for the ultimate battle between the protagonist and Boris Smith his archenemy, Boris' lines are delivered by a full on death metal band, grinding guitars, blasting drums and guttural gurgled vox, Denver easily flitting between the two, and we won't tell you how it ends, but you can probably figure it out. The flipside, as far as we can tell, contains the ACTUAL ballet music from Swan Lake, presumably the music that was on the original record that came with the original cover, and it's of course beautiful, and bombastic, and bears pretty much no relation to Denver's version of the events. So totally recommended, as is pretty much everything Denver plays or writes. Comes with an insert featuring some Nate Denver artwork, and is pressed on orange vinyl and is LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!!

We love Nate Denver. And his Neck. How could we not? He's so cool and cute and funny and nice and he's one talented motherfucker. From wielding a string-ed stick in the free skronk noise merchants Total Shutdown, to his strummy folk warblings, to his fucked up metal obsessed weirdness, to his masterful vocalizing in the now defunct Dig That Body Up It's Alive, to his weird rambling white boy hip hop, to his amazing artwork and completely demented stories, hard to resist. So here we have Nate's latest project, a book of short stories, 50x50 stories he calls 'em, which means 50 stories, each 50 words long, accompanied by 50 drawings. The stories are awesome. From wacked and surreal, to simple and poignant, from awww shucks to what the fuck. Sweet and sour, happy and sad, usually somehow both. Nate's gorgeous and mesmerizing mini elephant artwork is all over the place too, but let's give some props to Mr. Zak Sally, formerly of slowcore legends Low, now master of the La Mano publishing house, the man who helped layout, design and print this puppy, cuz it is one beautiful looking little tome. The pages are all rough edged, printed on gorgeous thick textured paper stock. The cover is a sort of irridescent grey, with a dizzying mini elephant design printed in metallic silver ink, with built in dust jacket, and more printed metallic elephants on the end papers. And all over the book there are really funny little testimonials from Mick Turner of The Dirty Three, Mark Whiteley, the editor of Slap Skateboarding magazine, MF Grimm and Tom Araya of Slayer ("I hate this book.") as well as an introduction by Adam Jones of Tool! As if that weren't enough, also included is a brand new Nate Denver's Neck full length album, "Ghost Alarm", packed with Denver's sweet folky ramblings, seriously funky hip hop jams, his playful white boy flow in full effect (he teams up with MF Grimm on one track!!), lots of little random snippets, Nate as a child, a botched shout out from the GZA, a killer introduction with a bunch of super stars giving Nate a shout out (see if you can figure out who's who), and all sorts of other random sonic weirdness. Absolutely fucking amazing, looking AND sounding. All Hail Nate Denver!! And his all powerful Neck!!

MPEG stream: Introducing
MPEG stream: Mace
MPEG stream: Agony (Featuring MF Grimm)
MPEG stream: Ballad Of The Bullied Demons (Extended)
MPEG stream: Who?

***Grizzly Bear Alert!!!*** Department Of Eagles has been going at it even before Daniel Rossen's voice would become so recognizable via his work in Grizzly Bear. In fact he started Department of Eagles before he even joined Grizzly Bear, and when you listen to DOE records you really do see the special ingredients that he brought to GB and which really helped bring that band to the next level on their last two records, Yellow House and Veckatimest. There is something so woozy, warm and haunting about his vocal delivery and songwriting. This is a collection of unreleased songs & sketches from 2003-2006 and shows both the very moody as well as catchy and poppy sides to Department Of Eagles. Stripped down to their core, these are songs that you could imagine augmented by a full orchestra, but what makes them cool is that they stand so strong on their own, with Rossen handling guitars, bass, banjo, drums, piano and cello all on his own, while his partner in crime Fred Nicolaus adds additional guitar and takes care of the drums. It might be a little while until there's a new Grizzly Bear album, but this collection will tide us over in the meantime. A must have for Grizzly Bear fans! NOTE: The lp also comes with a cd version of the record.

MPEG stream: While We're Young
MPEG stream: Brightest Minds
MPEG stream: Practice Room Sketch 3

Grizzly Bear fans will immediately recognize the vocal stylings and elegant moodiness of Daniel Rossen who is one half of Department Of Eagles and who has been a major presence in Grizzly Bear for the last several years, joining the band in 2004 and helping make Yellow House their best record yet. Along with his Department Of Eagles bandmate Fred Nicolaus, the duo have released several records that somehow slipped between the cracks but luckily with the widespread popularity of Grizzly Bear and their recent signing to 4AD this will be their most widely heard releases yet. And it's a good thing too, because this is such a moving record. With arrangements that sound like a more somber adaptation of Van Dyke Parks signature style or what it might sound like if Sufjan Stevens covered the more bittersweet side of Vetiver or Wings. And with most of his Grizzly Bear bandmates on board, there's no denying that In Ear Park sounds a lot like a great Grizzly Bear record, if not a bit more focused and even more emotionally impacting. Most of these songs were written after Rossen's father passed away, and there is such an honest reflection and mournful tone to these songs. So nice.

MPEG stream: No One Does It
MPEG stream: In Ear Park

Grizzly Bear fans, here's a reissue that might pique your interest! Department Of Eagles was the name of Dan Rossen's pre-Grizzly Bear duo, and this was their debut (originally released by Isota Records back in 2003). He along with Fred Nicolaus crafted The Cold Nose, a sprawling album that on occasion brings to mind the expansive musical patchwork of bands like Beta Band and Badly Drawn Boy. The songs languidly come into view, alternately locking into sun-dappled folksy melodies, nutty pop jigs and jazzy grooves for a stretch only to have an array of hazy samples and electronic squiggles tug it all apart. Nice! Includes four bonus tracks and new artwork!

MPEG stream: Noam Chomsky Spring Break 2002
MPEG stream: The Piano In The Bathtub

[ aquarius records catalogue — D ]