[ 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 1151 through 1200 of 2079.

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. Here's a disc for fans of the cult pulp horror master H. P. Lovecraft. Composer Stephen Dickman's specialty is to "set" texts (poems, prayers, prose) by various authors into musical structures of his own design. In this case, the major work here is a performance of Lovecraft's short story "The Music Of Eric Zann" by baritone Thomas Bruckner (known for his work in Robert Ashley's operas). The avant-classical vocalist reads Lovecraft's tale of cosmic terror (about a musician opening a portal to another dimension) in a semi-sung, semi-spoken sort of hypnotic chant. It, at first, seems more comic than cosmic sounding, but eventually the mesmerizing rhythms of Bruckner's narration begin to have a more disturbing effect. At over twenty minutes, and with no instrumental accompaniment, it really starts to sound like Bruckner is losing his mind--the typical fate of all Lovecraft protagonists! Bizarre and ludicrous, perhaps, but pretty cool. The rest of the disc is great too, with one text-less piano piece of great beauty, as well as more singing by both Bruckner and soprano Elizabeth Farnum, of texts by Rumi, Milarepa, and Rabbi Nathan of Bratslav. These tracks feature either piano or violin accompaniment.

For some strange reason, this has been sitting on the shelf, generally unacknowledged, for ages. Which makes no sense at all, the Dicks from Austin, TX are one of the most legendary and outrageous American punk bands from the early '80s. Their songs have been covered by the likes of Mudhoney and fellow Texas nutjobs Scratch Acid. Crossdressing lead singer Gary Floyd, along with Randy "Biscuit" Turner of the Big Boys and Dave Dictor of MDC, represented one of the most unusual and politically radical punk scenes in the country - hell, WORLD. All three singers were hulking madmen, all completely gay and proud, and completely capable of beating the living shit out of anyone who might cross their paths. Hungry Butt contains two Dicks shows, one from 2005 and the main attraction, a show from 1980. The reunited Dicks, however, still sound unbelievable and as good as they did in their initial run. In both settings the energy level is beyond comprehension as Floyd spits out hateful but hilarious musings in front of the enamored audience. The band appears to be straddling that fine line between keeping it together and plunging into pure chaos, and GODDAMN does it sound good, not to mention surprisingly musical. The album also contains two outtakes from the band's mythical Hate The Police single, "Pigs Run Wild" and "Hate The Police" (one of the best songs EVER). You don't even need to know anything about the Dicks to appreciate the timeless punk rock on display here, and considering the difficulty in finding any of their stuff, we can't recommend this highly enough. We don't have too many copies and are kinda unsure whether we can get more (this was released five years ago...) but we figured it would be criminal not to let people in on this opportunity.

MPEG stream: Wheelchair Epidemic (live 2005)
MPEG stream: Kill From The Heart (live 1980)
MPEG stream: Dicks Hate The Police (outtake 1980)

Kill From The Heart is the legendary debut from Texas / SF punks the Dicks, which featured a young Mr. Gary Floyd, who would later go on to form Sister Double Happiness. But back in 1980, in Austin Texas, Floyd was fronting the Dicks, a wild rambunctious band of political punks who terrorized and inspired in equal measure, Floyd was a seriously imposing frontman, the band confrontational and controversial, their first single a tale of a corrupt policeman abusing minorities ("The Dicks Hate The Police"), and songs featuring lyrics about homophobia and sexuality, amongst other charged topics. Their sound raw and feral, but still hooky and heavy, Floyd's voice super distinctive, their influence on other bands was immeasurable, even if some folks don't realize it. Mudhoney's "Hate The Police" is of course a Dicks cover, and Jesus Lizard covered the Dicks' "Wheelchair Epidemic", and the Butthole Surfers even wrote a song about Floyd called, of course "Gary Floyd". This first incarnation of the band only lasted three years, with Floyd taking off for San Francisco, where he would reform the Dicks with a whole new lineup. Kill From The Heart was originally released in 1983 on SST and has been remastered by Jello Biafra, and for this reissue, the whole of the Dicks Hate The Police single has been tacked on as bonus tracks (they're included in the download with the lp version). We've been listening to this like crazy since it came out, and sort of forgot just how goddamn good this record was, and IS!

MPEG stream: Anti-Klan (Part One)
MPEG stream: Rich Daddy
MPEG stream: Little Boys' Feet
MPEG stream: Dicks Hate The Police

These People is record number two legendary debut from Texas / SF punks the Dicks, which featured a young Mr. Gary Floyd (and at this point drummer Lynn Perko), both of whom would later go on to form Sister Double Happiness, but in 1983, the Dicks Mk II had just formed in SF after Floyd's relocation, and the new band reimagined the Dicks sound as something much more melodic and poppy, hinting at what was to come in SDH, and while it was definitely still punk, it was crazy catchy too, Floyd's voice much more controlled, the songs surprisingly polished, a few of the tracks here sounding almost like Sugar at times, hooks galore, but for every blast of pretty poppiness, there's another chunk of swaggery noisy punkiness, often some hybrid of the two, which is what made this record such a killer. And Floyd remained an imposing frontman, the band not shying away at all from the subject matter that made their first record so charged and controversial, in fact, the band found all sort of other injustices to rail against, including murdered Black Panther George Jackson, whose story is told in the album closer "George Jackson". But the sound of the band definitely alienated a segment of the punk rock community, and most likely contributed to the band's eventual breakup, and Floyd and Perko heading for poppy climes, but even now, after all these years, this record sounds better than ever. And the funny thing is back when we first discovered the Dicks, we sort of considered this the wussier record, with Kill From The Heart being THEE Dicks record, but some of these songs are hitting the spot big time, and giving Kill a run for its reissue money! Originally released in 1985, on Alternative Tentacles, These People has been remastered by Jello Biafra, and for this reissue, the whole of the Peace? 7" single has been tacked on as bonus tracks (on both the vinyl and the cd).

MPEG stream: The Police (Force)
MPEG stream: Off-Duty Sailor
MPEG stream: Executive Dive
MPEG stream: No Fuckin' War

**SALE **SALE* *SALE**

Almost 50 years after its release and still as raw, pleasing, and perfect sounding as ever. In lots of ways it seems as though Bo Diddley never really got his due. Besides being an electric guitar pioneer and rock n' roll forefather, Diddley knew something about soul, bare-bone execution, and smiling-with-purpose delivery that made his best records able to stand the test of time. You can't listen to Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger without your foot constantly bouncing up and down. You can't listen to his rendition of "Sixteen Tons" without your eyebrows raising in pleasant curiosity. You can't listen to him do the crawdaddy without wanting to join right along. Bo Diddley knew about that totally pure and raw space where you can feel music hit you in the greatest and most physical way. One of those timeless records that belongs in any music lovers collection. Whether your stereo is usually filled with the sounds of Japanese noise or no wave intensity or singer songwriter statements; this is a record that you can turn to and get refreshed by all the time. Diddley is an amazing example of someone who had the gift of making music that could ooze into our bodies and under our skin and next thing you know your whole body is moving your face is grinning and it feels so damn good. Thank you Mr. Diddley!

MPEG stream: Gun Slinger
MPEG stream: Doing The Crawdaddy

If there's any artists that really deserves some sort of epic retrospective that digs deeeeep into the archives, it's Bo Diddley. All too often he's celebrated for his unique charisma, but it's sometimes forgotten how many great records he actually made. Originally released in 1970, The Black Gladiator shows a much more psychedelic rock/blues side to Diddley's sound. The songs pack such a punch, and there's so much energy and conviction that you can almost feel Diddley's sweat oozing from every note. The lyrics cut to the core, perfect for the music, so raw, dirty, and full of attitude. Like a way more fucked up Booker T. & The MG's or Meters, or maybe Hendrix and Black Merda doing a tutorial for Lux from the Cramps. We're even reminded of that amazing weird blip in Chubby Checker's career that was documented on the mind blowing Chubby Checker Goes Psychedelic album. There's no doubt that many future garage psych/blues masterminds were influenced by these sounds. You can pretty much hear the origins of folks like the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Make Up, Dub Narcotic Sound System, The Gories, White Stripes and we even clocked a moment that The Beastie Boys sampled. And we're pretty sure that our favorite current garage rock artists like Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees either already treasure this album or would freak out if they were finally hearing it for the first time.

Hell yeah! We've been experiencing a pretty rad renaissance in fucked up (in a great way) music coming out of the Bay Area recently. Didimao are for sure way fucked up and that fucked up sound just hits the spot so right on. Dark and spastic, psychedelic and eccentric, creepy and crawling - this is one of those awesome bands that you really can't sum up with one quick line or a single easy reference. But of course it is our job to try, so what we will say, is that they remind us a bit of the really exploratory stuff that came out of the post-punk scene back in the day, you know, like Saccharine Trust or Butthole Surfers as well as nice hints of Nurse With Wound, Mr. Bungle/Secret Chiefs, Silver Daggers, early Boredoms, Faust, Caroliner, Sun City Girls, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle etc. Anyone can be weird and out there, but Didimao have a true psychedelic spirit that really makes this record an awesome tripped out adventure to listen to, moving through so many sonic spaces and exploring each of them in such interesting and organic ways. Their cover of The Urinals "Surfing With The Shah" is taking us to some pretty fucking epic place where punks get hijacked by psychedelic droners which is, for lack of a better word sooooo rad! Makes perfect sense that Didimao used to jam in the same space Wildildlife, the two share a similar disregard for genre and are constantly blurring and melding different styles and sounds. Totally refreshing, confusing and rewarding. This is one fried and fucked up musical missive that we highly recommend!

MPEG stream: Fingernails
MPEG stream: Surfing With The Shah
MPEG stream: Pregnant Cop

As we mentioned in our review of the teaser ep that preceded this full length, unless you are seriously disconnected, you no doubt have seen or heard Die Antwoord (which means THE ANSWER), who are one of the most baffling, brilliant, raddest, silliest, goofiest, most exciting rap trios we've heard in ages. South African rednecks, one a tall gangly track suit wearing rapper called Ninja, covered in homemade tattoos and prone to performing in just boxers and sneakers, his 'hypeman', an ultra cute diminutive helium voiced elfin pixie called Yo-Landi, and finally DJ Hi-Tek, whose inclusion in the group was based on the fact that he "owned a PC computer" and made "next level" beats. And the best part about DJ Hi-Tek, a chubby baby faced dude, is that if you see them now, DJ Hi-Tek is inexplicably a tall skinny good looking guy, which is the first clue that everything is maybe not on the up and up. When we first saw one of their videos, besides being totally blown away, and immediately crushed out on Yo-Landi, all we could think was "please be real, please be real" cuz, c'mon, it seemed way too weird and awesomely fucked up to be genuine. Some research revealed that Ninja and Yo-Landi are long time partners, who supposedly have a kid together, but more importantly, have been performing for years, in various permutations, different groups, on TV shows, art collectives, there are some amazing videos you can dig up if you know what to look for, but the bottom line was sadly, that Die Antwoord was all an elaborate prank, but which somehow really actually just made them that much cooler. There was only two ways it could go after all, it was impossibly real, or it was the most perfectly executed art project / prank ever. And to be honest, either way, we were gonna be totally into it. But really, none of it would work if the music didn't rule, they are a band after all, and $O$ seals the deal, regardless of who they are, and where they come from, these jams slay, "Enter The Ninja" is the video that launched their career, having been viewed about a gazillion times, and with bands like this, the videos are so good, and so over the top, and they're such characters, that sometimes none of that translates to the music, but that definitely is NOT the case here, and the "Enter The Ninja" song sans visuals still slays, and yet it's not even the best jam here. And actually, to pick the best jam would be a tough one, so much good stuff here, there's the Diplo produced "Evil Boy", which also has a head spinning over the top video, but the song itself is all over the place, featuring a young South African guest rapper and Ninja and Yo-Landi on fire, rapping about penises and underpants and whatever other weirdness they can whip up, and besides Yo-Landi's chorus refrain, her closing rap is KILLER, sexy and sinister, all delivered in her strange squeaky chirp. There's also "Rich B***h", an awesomely stripped down synth driven groover, woozy and low slung, "Beat Boy", most notable for the 'swinging Dark Side Of The Moon boxers' video, but which features an awesomely twisted off kilter production, some robotic electro shimmer, and another killer Yo-Landi chorus, or the heavy synth raver "Wat Kyk Jy?" with a crazy anthemic chorus and cool brooding minimal verses, fuck, they're all so good. The closer, is some sort of wheezing accordion driven chunk of sea shanty cabaret, which leads into a few minutes of silence, which hides a secret bonus track that's killer and sounds like Zombi, all super sci-fi Carpenter / Goblin synth disco. Believe the hype. Overdose on the videos, and play this record to death. BTW: Allan and Andee saw them play an instore at another record store in SF, and they DESTROYED, whipping a crowd of hundreds into a near riot-ready frenzy, A + A included!!

MPEG stream: Evil Boy
MPEG stream: Rich B***h
MPEG stream: Enter The Ninja
MPEG stream: Fish Paste

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last year, or don't have ANY access to the internet at all, you no doubt know all about these guys, South African rappers, whose video for their jam "Enter The Ninja" seems like maybe the most watched video on YouTube, and hell, it makes sense, besides being a goofy jam, with some ridiculous rapping, the video itself is incredible, besides frontman Ninja's wild gesticulating delivery and weird homemade tattoos, there's the strange figure who pops up throughout, a weird looking dude suffering from progeria (the premature aging disease), the set decorated with strange Keith Haring style drawings, and best of all the utterly crushworthy Yo-Landi, who sings the refrain, a little elfen pixie with super angular haircut, who over the course of the video, lays on the bed in a school girl uniform, eventually stripping down to a flash dance T-shirt and some dollar sign panties, the whole time doing ninja sword moves. Even more notably, Yo-Landi was offered the leading role in the American remake of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (which she sadly turned down). Besides all that, the jams are often, goofy, funky, over the top, catchy as hell, it seemed too good to be true, and it sort of was. It was eventually revealed that Die Antwoord was a high concept musical art project, Ninja and Yo-Landi having both been members of an art collective, and active performers in the South African hip hop scene for years, and doing TV comedy, but fuck it, that almost makes it even cooler, that all those tattoos are fake, that the whole South African redneck angle is a put on, but it's no more of a put on than some satanic devil worshipping black metal band, it's all theater, and Ninja and crew are masters. This little 5 song teaser is pretty great, but as with most bands who rely heavily on image, without the videos, it's a whole 'nother situation. And for most of us, who have spent the last year obsessively watching Die Antwoord videos, and worshipping Yo-Landi from afar, it's just not the same without the visuals, that said, this is some pretty serious synth driven hip hop techno synth groove, "Enter The Ninja" is the most commercial of the bunch, which makes it the least interesting, definitely a Die Antwoord gateway jam, but then "Wat Kyk Jy?" makes it all better, thick synths, pounding rave beats, goofy raps, strange voices, intense thick bass lines, then there's the autotuned "I Don't Need You", a sort of Kanye style hip hop ballad, but "Fish Paste" is THEE jam here, formerly titled Jou Ma Se Poes In A Fish Paste Jar", which translated is "Your Mom's Pussy...", yep, ridiculous, but the track itself is a stripped down Miami Bass style strutter with some bad ass rapping from both Ninja and Yo-Landi, and some more thick synths, deeeeep bass, and some totally over the top lyrics. The record finishes off with a remix of "Enter The Ninja", which is pretty cool, but we still find ourselves listening to "Fish Paste", watching the videos, and waiting patiently for the full length. For those who did somehow miss out, peep this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_pS46YRMIQ (keep an eye on those Dark Side Of The Moon boxers!) and of course this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc3f4xU_FfQ Real or not, Die Antwoord might just be our new favorite band. And yours...

MPEG stream: Enter The Ninja
MPEG stream: Fish Paste

What really needs to be said about Die Antwoord at this point? An elaborate art-prank, that turned into a YouTube sensation, but rather than a brief flash in the pan, South African rap duo Die Antwoord have managed to make some pretty amazing records, to go with their next level batshit genius videos. For most groups who traffic in similarly image heavy hype, the music is secondary, and exists simply as an excuse to create elaborate visuals, and while few bands reach the level of Die Antwoord when it comes to whatthefuck videos, their records are still manage to be routinely pretty goddamn great. A mix of old school hip-hopisms, and twisted modern weirdo electronica, it helps that the two members of Die Antwoord, Ninja and Yo-Landi are both crazy cartoon characters, who have at this point essentially totally disappeared into their characters, Ninja, a gangly, tattooed thug, who is usually clad in just a pair of boxers, and the extremely crushworthy Yo-Landi, a seriously stacked pixie, with a weird shaved head / mullet, and a whispery sexy flow, the perfect compliment to Ninja's twisted gangsta delivery, and then the music, sometimes minimal electro, other times over the top, rib cage rattling big beats, some tracks relentlessly high energy, buzzing synths over stuttery beats, others sounding like some redneck South African Eminem, and others like the 'hit' on this record "Pitbull Terrier", impossibly catchy, twisted electro-hop blowouts, with a production that rivals most better known producers, and might just be a big part of why this band has the legs it does. That and the videos of course. Seriously, if you've been living under a rock, and have somehow missed out on Die Antwoord's videos, all it will take is one or two to win you over, and once those get burned into your brain, you'll find the records doing the same thing to your ears.

MPEG stream: Pitbull Terrier
MPEG stream: Ugly Boy
MPEG stream: Girl I Want 2 Eat U
MPEG stream: Donker Mag

We've written a lot about super hyped YouTube phenoms, South African rave rappers Die Antwoord, do a quick search on the aQ site and check out the other DA reviews, we were pretty much obsessed with them from day one, as were most of our friends. It was hard not to be, especially after seeing the group's over the top videos, the tall gangly goofy tattooed redneck mainman, the impossibly cute elfin hype-girl, the over the top imagery, the ridiculous art design, the larger than life characters, the ridiculous rapping, the synth driven goofball anthems that actually KILLED, and were catchy as all get out. The band seemed to wear out their welcome, already dropped from their label, and with a sizable backlash, with people either proclaiming them stupid, or fakes, but as we mention in the other reviews, it doesn't matter. When we thought they were real South African ghetto rappers, we loved it, when we discovered it was a super well crafted musical art prank, we liked it even more. And you know what, the music STILL kills, the videos are still totally nuts, Yo-Landi, the elfin pixie with the coat made out of dead rats and the super severe (but impossibly hot) bleached white mullet, just gets more and more crush worthy, especially now what she's handling much of the vocal duties, before we go any further, take a second and watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uee_mcxvrw How can you not be totally obsessed?! Still? Or AGAIN?! That's some total mindfuck / whatthefuck genius right there. And yeah, there is something to be said for Die Antwoord relying heavily on the visuals, and that removed from the videos, and without the larger than life characters, it's maybe not as immediate, but we defy folks who say the music sucks. Sure it's goofy and silly and dumb, puerile and ridiculous, but that's what makes it so goddamn fun. If you were in club, what would get your blood pumping more, a Rhianna song, some Lady Gaga hit, or "I Fink U Freeky", with that pulsing euro-rave synth, that inane but hypnotic chorus, that crazy rap, that speeds up weirdly midway through? No contest. And the record's pretty much overflowing with jams like that, huge buzzing synths, big dumb funky as fuck beats, bizarre vocals, over the top raps, if this was a record by some unknown producer, people would be flipping their shit, and rightfully so. Fuck the haters, and fuck the backlash, we love this shit, and it's pretty much all we want to listen to. And if we actually danced, you can bet this would be our JAM.

MPEG stream: Never Le Nkemise
MPEG stream: I Fink U Freaky
MPEG stream: Fatty Boom Boom

This thoroughly bizarre album from the obscure Russian duo Die Blutleuchte becomes even stranger once you realise it was released on the Finnish electronic label Sahko, which is known for the pristine techno minimalism of Mika Vainio's earliest monikers (Philus and ù�in particular). Conceptually, "Rus" -- Dis Blutleuschte's first and only album -- is a fictional soundtrack to specific moments in Russian military history, starting back in the 15th century with the invasion of Mongolian tribes into Russia and moving onto Peter The Great's war on Finland, both World Wars, the abduction of political dissidents to Siberia, and the development of contemporary Russia through the philosophies of Glasnost. Perhaps to those with an understanding of the Russian language, this might appear overly didactic and obvious with all of the vocal samples which appear in various patinas of distortion and megaphone production; however since we here at Aquarius do not possess such skills, "Rus" appears as an impressive abstraction of history as a collision between grandiose technologies and indigenous folk languages. For example, there would be the juxtaposition of sampled recordings of the clattering of horse drawn carts over cobblestoned roads (pointing to apocalyptic horsemen for one reference, Mongolian invaders for another) with obtusely morose folk songs for guitar, flute, and drums, not unlike the Dead Raven Choir with an oblique sense of timing and emotional bleakness. While the folk songs remain more or less consistent, the references to industry and technology take on more militant references with blasts of megaphone shrieks and harsh mechanical noise. Die Blutleuchte might warrant references in this synthesis of technology and folk to Laibach, Blood Axis, or Moon Lay Hidden Behind The Clouds; however, "Rus" is far weirder than any of those references. A very surprising record! MPEG Download: "Track 09" [/audio/dieblutleuschte09.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Track 09" [/audio/dieblutleuschte09.m3u]

MPEG stream: Track 09
MPEG stream: Track 15

The first salvo of electronic vinyl madness from AQ pal Drucifer's new label comes in the form of four 12"s, beautifully packaged in distinctive orange sleeves (dance 12" style) and on nice thick vinyl, and sonically running the gamut from stuttery glitched out electronica to shimmery drones to speaker shredding digital rhythms to dreamy beatscapes. Die Elektrischen is the project of Dielectric label head honcho Drew Webster (affectionately known around here as Drucifer) and is a stereo punishing exploration of recording detritus. Inspired by Philip Jeck and Christian Marclay, Drucifer collected a multitude of junked turntables and cut-up and glued together thrift-store records for this project. Assembled from all sorts of recording castoffs, digital clicks, feedback, distorted/clipped signals from various recording projects, these 4 tracks are definitely a true test of your stereo system's constitution. Throbbing, grinding, buzzing digital crunch that occasionally relents just long enough for super distorted beats, or chopped drum loops to surface before they are quickly knocked to the floor by another blast of GGGRRRZZZVVVT. The final track is a dreamy droney sprawl that helps soothe after the punishment of the first three tracks. Brutal and beautiful. MPEG Download: "Overload" [/audio/dieoverload.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Overload" [/audio/dieoverload.m3u]

MPEG stream: Overload
MPEG stream: Beat Takeshi

Two strange releases on this week's list from local black metal label Acephale Winter Productions, the other is a twisted tape of blackened industrial ambience from a UK outfit called Synsophony, and this one, which somehow might be even weirder, a collection of Joy Division covers from an Israeli black metaller called Die Entweihung, who manages to transform these classic tunes into something slightly blacker, but only slightly, just check out his version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart", which minus the raspy vokills, and the programmed drum machine rhythms, is not that far removed from the original, in fact, the chorus is even clean vocal crooned, but the bridge does get a metallic makeover, and there are little flurries of robotic double kick drum, so ultimately it's a pretty faithful rendition, with some blackened filigree, which is fine with us. And that said some of the other covers do get a bit more far out, the metallic component cranked on some, the synths getting a bit krautrocky on others, and one or two get almost punky, sped up and frenzied, the synths all swirly and way up in the mix. "Warsaw" is furious and blackly grim, so is "They Walked In Line", those tracks balanced by some of the others, since clean vocals are far more prevalent than the howled demonic rasp, so it's sort of split right down the middle, the perfect balance between faithful renditions, and warped weirdo reworkings, both of which we ended up digging a bunch.

This is full length number SIX (!) from this Israeli one man black metal band, and regular readers of the list might remember that we recently reviewed his Joy Division tribute (of which we have a few copies left), and while there were moments of black buzz throughout, it was fought to get a measure of what Die Entweihung actually sounded like until now. And it's not hard to see why he might end up wanting to make a tribute to Joy Division, as his sonic palette is dour and gothic, heavy on the minor key miserablism and the synths, in fact, the synths are mixed SUPER loud, so much so that it gives the proceedings a pretty demented/damaged vibe, like some sort of blackened "Final Countdown", but it's even cooler when the guitar slips into some metallic shred, and the synths and guitar get locked in strange harmonies and at times seem to duel. The programmed drums too add their own dimension, and when the keyboards pull back, the guitars crank and get super heavy, just check out the first sample, and you get a little bit of everything, even when the synth swoops back in and is laid over the loud synths, dizzying and WTF, but pretty killer too. And that's just the first track. From there on out, it's a constant battle between the manic riffing, the soaring synths, gurgling vocals, frantic drum programming, some killer riffing, dense intricate arrangements, the sound grim and blackened part of the time, almost psychedelic part of the time, and on tracks like "Time" it gets almost proggy, like some sort of psychedelic, depressive black prog, which as you might imagine, we dig a BUNCH. There's even a Summoning cover, "Lugburz" (also the name of one of Andee's cats btw), which deftly captures the spirit of the original, and recasts it as a perfect Die Entweihung track, the synths dialed a bit back, but otherwise, a gloriously epic and majestic slab of lumbering, Tolkeinesque doom black metal buzz. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!!

MPEG stream: The Train To Nowhere
MPEG stream: The Cage
MPEG stream: Where's That Life?

One of two great new reissues from Medical on this week's list, elsewhere you'll find a reissue of the Body 11 record (which reminds us of Pop Will Eat Itself and Suicide!), and then there's this, another one from Germany. It's the self titled debut from a group called Die Gesunden, a duo made up of Mabel Aschenneller and Eschi Rehm, who were one of the first Neu Deutsche Welle (New German Wave) bands, and who released their debut on the Innovative Communication label started in 1978 by none other than Klaus Schulze of Tangerine Dream. It is a weird one, right from the first track "Instru-Mental", which sounds like maniacal mad scientist electro, all skeletal and glitchy and buzzy, before the synths swoop in, and processed vocals, warped and carnivalesque, sounding like it could be the theme from some seventies or eighties low budget Z-movie, which means AMAZING. And while we were prepared to write "while nothing else is nearly as weird", the second track stopped us cold, a weird, buzzing, squiggly droned out, noisy industrial intro, gives way to some noisy, bloopy, bouncy, crunchy distorted synth pop, laced with whispered sinister vocals, the sound raw and lo-fi, it reminds us tonally of early Devo, especially when the second synth line comes in, all thick and fuzzy, the whole thing really dark and intense. Not at all what we were expecting. And the rest of the record is more of the glorious twisted same, a fucked up and freaky electro synth pop, all the sounds rough around the edges, lots of drone and buzz, crunchy crumbling distortion, lurching rhythms, even the poppier songs are twisted and tweaked, noisy and industrial, and just plain weird. After reviewing the Body 11, we were ready to proclaim it the weirdest Medical reissue yet, but this one is definitely giving it a run for its money. This and the Body 11 just might be our two favorite Medical reissues since either the Axxess or the Lou Champagne System, both of which were Records Of The Week, and now that we've reviewed both of these, we're thinking either or both could/should have been ROTW as well... LIMITED TO 650 COPIES!! Pressed on heavy 180 gram pink vinyl.

MPEG stream: Instru-Mental
MPEG stream: Die Gesunden Kommen
MPEG stream: Der Weg Zum Erfolg
MPEG stream: Krieg Und Frieden
MPEG stream: Sometimes / Manchmal

I (Andee) don't know too much about the super complex and convoluted history of eighties post punk / industrial / whatever music (Einsterzende Neubauten, Die Haut, Birthday Party, Lydia Lunch, etc.) but I do know how totally blown away I was the first time I heard this record (that was just about 2 weeks ago). Hey, sorry! In the early eighties I was busy beginning my rapid descent into metalheaddom! Anyway, this is Die Haut's 1983 debut full length, only now finally getting the deluxe reissue treatment 20 years later, and man has it withstood the test of time remarkably well. Perhaps most well known for Nick Cave's guest vocals (although guest vocalists on other Die Haut albums have included Kim Gordon, Lydia Lunch, Deborah Harry, Blixa Bargeld and loads more), Burnin' The Ice is a chaotic, jagged slab of swampy propulsive gloom rock. Acidic dual guitar melodies slither and intertwine over pounding heavily reverbed drums and throbbing distorted bass. Cave's wailing testifying is the perfect match for Die Haut's intensely bleak sludgescapes. A dark and desolate mix of punk, surf, sludge and gloom. Think Joy Division, the Bad Seeds, Gun Club, Birthday Party and the like. Actually, a much more apt, but way more obscure comparison would be the late great Lubricated Goat (one of Allan and Andee's favorite bands). Not just because they are Australians like Mr. Cave, but because they too trafficked in the sludgy, driving darkness that Die Haut got so right on Burnin' The Ice. In fact now that I've finally heard this record, I'm a little suspicious that Lubricated Goat owe more than a passing nod to the band that was doin' the Lubricated Goat thing at least 4 years before they were. Burnin' The Ice is a relentless musical death march, blighted and austere, grim and funereal, and so so good.

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SORRY. For the second installment of Ache Records' Di/vorce split 7" series, they've corralled AQ pals Matmos and the haphazard Die Monitr Batss from the Pacific Northwest. For their part of the bargain, Die Monitr Batss offer up some skronky, lo-fi, no-wave aspirations. Meanwhile on the flipside, Matmos tackle Gladys Knight & The Pips' "On And On" although it's pretty darn difficult to recognize it once it's been put through the duo's surgical choppity chop treatment. Indeed, their contribution is an assemblage of deep, gravelly fragments of funk. Limited pressing of 1000.

Two alumni from the rotating cast of characters who've graced the stage with Nurse With Wound and irr. app. (ext.) comprise this Bay Area duo with the kraut-inspired name Die Propylgruppe, starring the willfully enigmatic R.K. Faulhaber and aQuarius' own rusting artist Jim Haynes. Over the years, Faulhaber has been near to completing album after album, only to never quite get them finished, including one that's long been slated for release on United Dairies; but will probably languish unheard except for a few leaked snippets and hand-burned discs passed out at his rare solo performances. He's one of those brilliant artists who gets far too distracted with new ideas and new forms so that the unfinished just continues to pile up. One of those many ideas that he has is a theoretical concept of 'texture music' defining a cross-section of non-populist and experimental forms that cuts across the 20th century of Xenakis, Boulez, the Hafler Trio, Conrad Schnitzler, etc. Again, a few of these ideas have been actually released, but many remain in an ephemeral headspace. So, we probably have Haynes to thank for actually getting the release of Die Propylgruppe underway; and there better damn well be more coming! He quipped that the two were striving to make an Omit record, and ended up somewhere totally other, through the sounds of analog machinery running amok and wrangled into mechanoid loops and hypnotic patterns, interwoven with arcing drones that align with the nebula peering psychedelia of Schnitzler's Black Album crossed with the industrial-era primitivism of early :zoviet*france: (think Gris or Mohnomische). But by the end of the 20 minute piece, the two maniacally transform themselves into merchants of the danse macabre with an atonal step sequenced synth locked onto suitably wobbling drum machine and strangely groaning electro-acoustic loops. Frankensteinan electronics at its best, and would not be out of place on PAN or Spectrum Spools. Limited to 100 copies in lovely packaging with handcrafted wood artwork!

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The atypically named label Psychedelic Pig has spent some serious time digging deep into the cavernous history of experimental music, recently uncovering the very hard to find Masstishaddhu album of dark occultish ritualism originally on United Dairies, and

RealAudio clip: Der Letzte Walzer
RealAudio clip: Warm Leatherette
RealAudio clip: Je N'Aime Pas Tout Le Monde
RealAudio clip: Tanz Im Quadrat

The German avant-noise / art band from the '80s, Die Todliche Doris, made a commitment that they would only play each of their songs but once EVER during live performances. However, during their numerous gigs in art galleries, punk squats, and concert halls, the band would quickly run out of material or risk compromising their earlier declaration. So instead, Die Todlich Doris would play back previous live performances and lip-sync to the backing tape, all the while recording the live show of them lip-syncing to a backing tape! In doing so, Doris captured the general atmosphere of the space, the lo-fi grit of tape technologies, and layers of crowd noise. Conceptually, "Live Playbacks" is very similar to Alvin Lucier's "I Am Sitting In A Room" in which Lucier re-recorded himself uttering a text 32 times in order to manifest the resonnant frequency of a specific room; however, Doris' version becomes a thick swamp of noise rather than a pristine phenomenological investigation. Only a couple (literally, two!) of these are in stock, and restocks are unlikely, so act fast.

What makes me think Bobby Conn is behind this? Especially on the rollicking second song "America's Burning". A generous scattering of strange, effected movie dialogue samples, blankets of seething drones (check out the sixth track "Bad Weather Circuits" for an affecting, textured soundscape), quirky, noisy melodies, and the very Conn/William Shatner/Harvey Sid Fisher-esque vocal stylings make this quite a freakishly entertaining ride. A ride that comes to a bit of a wistful close with the sampled strains of the Carpenters' "Calling Occupants Of Inter Planetary Craft". Of course, Bobby Conn actually has nothing to do with this, it's a UK group with folks from the legendary Homosexuals.

A couple of these singles came our way when Yellow Swans blew through town a while back. John Wiese is from Bastard Noise and Sissy Spacek; (Die/ Das/ Dance/ D.) Yellow Swans are from Portland and they use a table full of outdated electronics to make blisteringly distorted yet dancable noise punk, or sometimes simply blistering noise, depending on their mood. This record definitely falls into the latter category! Loud and crunchy.

As we've no doubt mentioned before, there was a time, when aQuarius was one of the few places you could get NZ underground music, and in particular, Flying Nun records, and the Flying Nun sound sort of defined aQ, we were the source for so many amazing discs by bands like Tall Dwarfs, The Chills, The Bats, Bailter Space, The Dead C, The Renderers, The Terminals, The Gordons, Able Tasmans, Straightjacket Fits, The Clean, The Verlaines and so many more. All of them so different, but somehow all tied together by this distinctly NZ sound. While over the years we continued to dig that NZ sound, but Flying Nun seemed to cease functioning, or at the very least began to focus more on New Zealand and less on getting those records overseas. Not sure what, but something happened recently, some new distribution deal we presume, maybe new management, but Flying Nun is still a going concern, and all the old classics are available again, legendary records by those abovementioned bands, available to a whole new generation who just might have discovered their new favorite label. Along with all those classics, seems FN is also actively releasing records by a new wave of NZ underground rock, groups like The Mint Chicks, Ghost Club, Garageland, Grayson Gilmour (reviewed elsewhere on this list) and these guys, Die! Die! Die! We actually saw D!D!D! play in SF years ago, but that ramshackle somewhat underwhelming performance hardly prepared us for this killer collection of frantic shoegazey punky power/noise pop. Apparently, the band have indeed and perhaps purposely transformed from a more angular noisy unit into this, a heavy, hooky, shoegazey pop band, capable of creating jangly indie rock one, dense brooding downer pop and frenetic caffeinated noise pop, more often some twisted hybrid of the three, we hear a LOT of Built To Spill, especially on tracks like "Daze", with its droney crunchy guitars and very Martsch-like croon (which the more we listen seems to pop up quite a bit), but we also hear bits of Maximo Park, My Bloody Valentine, Pixies, Wire, the sound alternatingly noisy and punky, tightly wound and almost new wave-y. There's a definite nineties inde rock vibe, with some crazy catchy songs, and a super lush, driving bass heavy sound that perfectly balances the big crunchy angular guitars. The more we listen to this, the more these songs grow on us, quickly becoming a new pop fave...

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MPEG stream: How Ye
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A couple lists back, we reviewed the most excellent "Dielectric Vol. 1" comp cd from our friend Drew(cifer)'s most excellent Dielectric label. Not one to rest on his laurels, Drew now presents a double cd dose of drone, from a pick-up band dubbed the Dielectric Drone All-Stars. It's all part of Drew's desire to mix and match interesting musicians, facilitating creative collaborative collisions in the studio where he works. This project was based on improvised performances (with the instruction to 'drone') by musicians who had perhaps never even met one another before, later processed and mixed by Drew. The results are pretty stellar for this sort of thing, good enough that Drew decided that not just one but two discs were in order. The All-Stars are comprised of Karen Stackpole (forty inch symphonic gong), Bill Norertker (double bass), Garth Klippert (accordion), Tony Cross (violin), Ben Hayes (didgeridoos), and Drew himself in the guise of Die Elektrischen (electric train). Yes, you read that right, electric train! Kinda makes up for any qualms you might have about the digeridoos... If you've already heard the comp tracks or 12" records on Dielectric by either Ms. Stackpole or Mr. Elektrischen, you'll have an idea of the sort of detailed, dark, dense drone they can conjure. Ok, without using the word 'drone' again, let's try to describe this. The lengthy (of course) tracks can be spacey and wide open, or claustrophobic and ominous. The shimmer of the gong and the sawing of the strings and the breathing of the digeridoo are all almost felt more than heard, I mean, you can pick out things from the mix but the various textures are merged into a slow moving mass, a glacial agglomeration that sometimes sounds more like weather phenomena than 'music'. Then again, there's passages on here very 'classical' in tone. There's a lot of depth and dynamics to these tracks, which succeed at being haunting and even beautiful. Recommended to anyone into the d-word. The dronologists here find this compares favorably with the likes of Organum!

MPEG stream: Amon Hen
MPEG stream: Plotinian Plateau

Final release from beloved local label Dielectric, so sad, but what a way to go! After a clutch of killer releases, some simple and lovely, some high concept, all beautifully executed and assembled, each sonically breathtaking: the Dielectric Drone All-Stars, the Dielectric Minimalist All-Stars, a handful of super limited cd-r's as well as a four pack of killer 12"s, Dielectric bows out with their most expansive and sonically overwhelming release, the Dielectric Field Recording All-Stars, and like each of the Dielectric All-Stars releases, the title says it all, minimal, drone, and now field recordings. Although all three of those distinctions tend to blur together, especially here. The All-Stars this time around are ten strong: label head honcho Drew Webster, Jen Boyd, Leticia Casteneda, Cria Cuervos, Mark Griswold, WIll Mitchell, Maggi Payne, Toby Paddock, Rudy Trubitt and Aaron Ximm. As with any record like this, there are three critical elements, the players, the sounds, and how those sounds are woven into something listenable. Sometimes a straight field recording can be as compelling as the most intricately composed piece of music, but sometimes, it's exciting to hear a piece of music only to learn later that it was actually a recording of insects or cars or sneezes or whatever. The Field Recording All-Stars got you covered either way. The above ten recordists, compiled an incredible palette of sounds, from all over the world, there's even a chart inside the cd booklet, to see who contributed what sound to each track. The sources are overwhelming to just read, let alone hear: a floating restaurant in Barcelona, Spain, evening in Oakland, California, song on Chinese radio station, eating an apple, pigs in a pen, squeaky shoe, tomato, red ball, phasing radio, Voice of Vietnam, space shuttle, shortwave, Barcelona subway, SF 6am, freezer, blue angels, record player, various radio broadcasts, buskers in Paris Metro, under a dock Berkeley, CA, incident on subway, Chile, dog versus rattlesnake, finger-picked acoustic guitar, weird buzz, air traffic controller, storm drain, weird radio, underwater, answering machine, TV show, shortwave sweep, protest march, failing speaker, Rise up!, protest drums, Riley running, police siren, crosswalk signal, police dispersing demonstrators, turntable, creek pebbles, buoy, leaky organ oscillator tube, Wuhan taxi dispatcher, Chinese busker, wasp nest, streetlight, skipping cd, church mass on radio, unknown feedback, violin, psalter & ball bearing and a slide guitar! Phew! Now, not all of those sounds are present on each track. Some tracks play out like straight field recordings, voices, vehicles, birds, animals, strange clatter and thumps, footsteps, dogs barking different texture and timbres presented raw and unprocessed, but on other tracks, the various sounds were woven together by Webster, aka Die Elektrischen into fantastical soundscapes, running the gamut from deep cavernous drones, grinding metallic melodies, strangely rhythmic bits of skitter and shuffle, dreamy backwards warble, slow shifting underwater shimmer, a few tracks even almost rock, the core being some sort of buzzing guitar or vibrating steel string, with the various found sounds simply adding to the texture or lurking in the background as another layer of sound, while other tracks are epic and expansive, mysterious new worlds of sonic wonder, like wandering beneath strange colored skies, or slow shifting landscapes, swimming in strange seas, every track is like a sonic road map of some unexplored territory, some soft and shimmery, some harsh and brutal, others just really really strange, but every one totally listenable and truly fascinating. This is one of those discs that is definitely amazing on first listen, but benefits from closer scrutiny, repeated listens, deeper listenings reveal so much more going on, layer after layer, each unfolding and blossoming and blurring into each other like some dizzying kaleidoscope of sound. So good.

MPEG stream: Making A Recording... Go Away Please
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Continuing the All-Stars tradition begun on Dielectric Drone All-Stars, our pal Drew "Drucifer" Webster (aka Die Elektrischen) offers up another interesting project on his Dielectric label. What Drew means by (musical) minimalism is a bit different from the accepted academic definition, as he admits in the liner notes. He's thinking about minimalism as the practice of making music from minimal, sometimes non-musical, sources. Starting with small sounds and building up from there. So, to achieve this aim, Drew arranged to record an improv session involving himself (utilizing turntables, electronics, and perhaps toy trains), percussionist Jason Levis, and percussionist-turned-dronologist Loren Chasse (of Jewelled Antler/Thuja/Id Battery/Of/Blithe Sons/Child Readers/etc. etc. etc.), who brought along his usual assortment of stones and bells and tape recorders and electronic devices, and quickly became intimate with the inside of a piano that they had in the studio. Subsequent to that session, Drew also recorded some additional sound sources including the ticks and tocks of a collection of clocks, and two people playing wine glasses! Then, drawing on all these recordings, Drew edited/processed/assembled/composed the ten tracks found on disc one of this double cd set, and gave each one a seemingly absurd but cryptically meaningful title. You'll recognize those clocks in there, but everything else has been extremely altered, seemingly shifted into another dimension, one evoking only infinity, vastness, the void. These are truly dark and droned out experiments in sound, which Drew tells us are dedicated in spirit to the early works of Earth. We also are reminded of Q.R. Ghazala, Mirror, and the musique concrete works of a host of 20th century avant-classical composers, those of a more ominous, dread-filled, dronemusik sensibility. Minimalism or not, it's the sort of thing we like! Cool concept, great packaging (translucent vellum booklet and traycard, nice!), and there's even a second disc included at no extra charge -- Drew turned another crew of Dielectric All-Stars (among them Carson Day, Sote and Gerritt) loose on the source recordings, resulting in the remixes found on disc two.

MPEG stream: Forth-Reich
MPEG stream: Cocaine Lovin' Orange County Kids
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Even if all they had were their unbelievably catchy melodies and those heartbreakingly lovely harmonies, Dieselhed would fucking rule. But there's so much more. The band's brilliance lies in being able to set marvelously "regular" slice-of-life lyrics to the most unexpectedly epic song structures. (Example: One of their most epic pieces of bombastic melodicism, "Forklift Test", is set to lyrics about passing a forklift driver test.) The band has always been foremost a rock band with twang in its heart, and often that heart is worn on Dieselhed's sleeve. Chico and the Flute, however, marks a very slight turn away from the twanginess and into a more gently-mocking AM-radio soft rock/soul flavor -- as evidenced by their cover of the classic Stax hit "Starting All Over Again". It's great stuff, and this album features three or four of their best songs ever. We recommend that if you're new to the band, you start with "Elephant Rest Home", their fourth album, first. If you're already as big a fan of Dieselhed as I am, though, then this record is pretty much a necessity.

RealAudio clip: Gentle Grooming
RealAudio clip: Bright Lights

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SORRY. Dieselhed's 4th album is a sweet collection of all of the slow songs and ballads that have become their well loved standards in their live sets, yet have not made their way onto tape until now! Their 'real life' catalog of straightforward, quotidian lyrics about life in Eureka, drunken mishaps on Alaskan fishing boats, lap dancing, etc... are perfectly complemented by twangy, melodic hooks and stunningly sublime harmonies worthy of comparisons to Louvin Brothers and Lennon-McCartney. One of Windy's all-time favorite bands.

RealAudio clip: Trucker's Alibi

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One of San Francisco's best bands breaks out with their 3rd full length, a little more twang and slow and a little less rock than their previous work but JUST AS GREAT. We can't stress enough how rewarding a close reading of Virgil and Zack's lyrics can be ("Is that paint, I can't tell / A white square where a picture fell"). And don't forget to wait for the last hidden track, "Yoga Instructor").

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PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. My favorite local band has come the closest to recreating the glory of their live shows! All the recent favorites are here: "Brown Dragon" (which everyone thinks is the "Station Wagon Song"), "Pizza Box," "Wedding Song," "John the Butcher Boy," "Snow Blind in the Liquor Store." Bonus: all the lyrics are printed on various casks and teapots. Guests include "Neckhead" (Bungle's Trey Spruance) and Ralph Carney. The lyrics to "Forklift Test," one of Dieselhed's more epic songs are so brilliantly mundane: > this guy at work he just bought > a revolutionary car part. > it's called the ionizer and it reverses the electrical charge > as the gas hits the carb. > well he tried to sell me one > even though i did not have a car.

From the same studio that produced the amazing prog rock blowout that was the Cannabis India record from last list, comes this amazing flute led free jazz freakout from the Dieter Bihlmaier Selection, and as you probably know full well by now, we're suckers for the flute, especially when it's in the context of some fierce prog or far out jazz, as is the case here, a stripped down trio of just flute, bass and drums, recorded in 1973, this finds the band lean and mean, and so fierce, yet melodic and moody, groovy and jazzy and dreamy, slipping from fluttery drift to full on frenzy, Bihlmaier is an incredible player, expressive and all over the place, pure tones give way to stuttery breathy bursts, wild melodic runs, all tangled up with the bad ass rhythm section who lay down some seriously krautrocky jazz rhythms, locked in tight, mesmerizing and hypnotic, letting the flute do its thing over the top, but occasionally rising up and meeting the flute head on, the instruments doing a dense and dangerous dance, swirling, whirling and wild. The drums and bass get their time in the spotlight, but it's definitely all about the flute, and how the three mesh, even when they're all going full bore, which is much of the time. Hard to get your head around how three guys can be playing so wildly and so free, and yet the sounds can all fit together so perfectly. Heavy and heady and definitely far out, one of our new favorite jazz discoveries. Dying to find out what other amazing stuff SWR has tucked away in their vaults...

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MPEG stream: Roulette

Another archival treasure from the so far flawless Teranga Beat label, this one from Senegalese big band Dieuf-Dieul De Thies, featuring orchestra chief (i.e. chef d'orchestre) and guitarist Pape Seck, who also played in Guelewar, another reissue we raved about here a while back. And like Guelewar, Dieuf-Dieul De Thies deliver a stirring and emotional Afro-psych that's lush and passionate, groovy and jazzy, dark and sultry, three vocalists creating incredible harmonies, wild percussion, amazing horns, and cool FX drenched psych guitar explorations. Heady heavenly stuff for sure. Long sprawling tracks that give the musicians plenty of space to stretch out, the songs marked by epic instrumental passages, with plenty of amazing soloing. The vibe here is very reminiscent of the Ethiopiques series, in that the sound is super hypnotic and sultry, the horns lyrical and almost lysergic in places. The multiple percussionists weaving a dense rhythmic core for the soloists to ride, the vocalists too. One of those rare recordings where every player, and every part of the sonic puzzles is practically impeccable. As much as we love all the Teranga Beat releases, this one is fast becoming our favorite. It's the most jammy and psychedelic. And while there are a few tracks that are more upbeat, and more poppy, the bulk of the record is gorgeously melancholy and minor key, the lengthy jams sinewy and so utterly hypnotic and entrancing. The sound too is warm and rich, there are occasional drop outs and some obvious damage from the original tapes, but it only enhances the raw immediacy of the sound. The group has a crazy history too, one that resulted in these recordings (as well as more to be released on a future second volume) to never be released until now. Which is all detailed in the booklet, which also includes liner notes from two of the members of Dieuf-Dieul De Thies. So So So recommended. One of our favorite reissues in recent memory, and a record that's been getting nonstop play around here. Anyone who digs Sublime Frequencies, Yaala Yaala and other world music reissues labels, who for some reason ISN'T following Teranga Beat, you're missing out big time, and have some serious catching up to do. No better place to start than right HERE.

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Usually it takes some time - months... even years - for muzak versions of "hits" to surface, but this one plopped out quite swiftly. A dorky, cheesy Bontempi organ-ified rush job of an EP covering four Strokes songs (dubbed a "heartfelt tribute to New

RealAudio clip: Last Nite

The seemingly tireless Ani Difranco pleases her legions of fans and herself with this new album, the follow-up to last year's Evolve. Ever since her first album back in 1989, she's proven herself an incredibly inspiring, consistent and prolific independent force. Now sixteen (or is it seventeen?) albums later, she's exploring some new sonic and songwriting territories, not to mention performing all of the instruments and vocals herself - so truly d.i.y.! But yes, it all still resonates with that distinct Difranco quirky poetic earthiness.

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New Ani Difranco.

[ aquarius records catalogue — D ]