[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 1551 through 1600 of 2079.

Hard to believe, but this is the very first release from Dolphins Into The Future that we've managed to get enough of to review and list. That's after about a bajillion cd-r's and tapes and limited lps, in fact this is actually a repress of an lp we missed out on the first time around, but heck, if we missed out on it, odds are some of you did too. Dolphins Into The Future operate in the same orbit as James Ferraro and Monopoly Child Star Searchers, Explorers and High Wolf, and all the other similarly sonic minded floorcore combos, crafting druggy lysergic soundscapes made up of primitive synths, and analog loops, tape manipulation and malfunctioning samplers, and while each of those bands definitely has their own method, and methodology, Dolphins mainman (and only man) Lieven Martens seems to take his moniker seriously, not only incorporating the sounds of dolphins and the surf and seagulls, but also creating a sound that evokes undersea life, as much as we can imagine it. On the surface, it's a synthy new agey drift, all warm whirling soft focus melodies, steel drum like tones, washed out synth swirl, tranquil melodies and dreamlike drift, like an updated slightly more avant version of those old meditation tapes you might find in a new age bookstore, which, we would imagine is precisely what Martens and his sonic compatriots are going for. That said, for every bit of super simple new age shimmer, there's a bit of crumbing, weirdly looped crunch, or warped woozy almost Oval like swoon, all the sounds, on this record at least, held together by the sound of life on the shore, or on the deck of a boat, these slowly unfurling new age-scapes, are lush and laid back, minimal and mysteriously lovely, and the perfect soundtrack to bright sun, blue water and not a care in the world...

MPEG stream: Miss Ann
MPEG stream: Left Alone

Wolfgang Voigt's continuous output of techno runs the spectrum from body-hammerin' trance loaded with pop hooks to beautifully hypnotic droning laced with dubby spectral decay. Dom is one of his more club friendly monikers, with four pretty catchy acid-trance numbers (three of which are extensive variations on the same track) recalling his earlier Love Inc corkers.

A few lists back we reviewed a disc of utterly freaked out, super heavy and weird as fuck black metal from a band called Vacuum Era Gelid Atmosphere (we actually just got more back in, in case you missed out last time, see elsewhere on this list). We got this, the debut from Dom Dracul from the same place, but it couldn't sound any more different. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. This is, after all, still a hatefully raw and furious slab of grim buzzing black metal. But where V.E.G.A. wrapped their black buzz in all sorts of sonic sickness and warped weirdness, Dom Dracul stick a little bit closer to the classic sound of old skool Norwegian black metal, some serious Darkthrone / Immortal / Ulver worship going on for sure, and some nods to Bathory as well, in fact they even do a Bathory cover! We get so wrapped up sometimes in finding the weirdest most fucked up black metal EVER, that once in a while we forget how much we love the pure, raw, grim, cult sound of straight ahead, buzzing, black metal. After all, that's exactly the sound that lured us all over to the darkside in the first place. And still, whenever we throw on some Immortal or Satyricon or Emperor, it totally blows us away and reminds us why we love this stuff so much. Dom Dracul are proud bearers of that black flame, taking that instantly recognizable sound and giving it their own little twist. The result is certainly not groundbreaking, but fuck it, that's not what we're after here, eyes closed you'd be hard pressed to figure out this wasn't in fact a late nineties Scandinavian legend. Which is actually a good thing. Very good. Thick snarling blackened riffs thrash wildly over grim rhythmic blasts, a howled demonic voice, soaring and epic and so gloriously frosty, occasionally lurching into a loping midtempo Burzumic buzz, only to explode into a furious black blast moments later. Anyone itching for some classic grim blackness would do well to drink deep from the black blood of Dom Dracul.

MPEG stream: 666 Drops Of Blood
MPEG stream: Attack On The Crucified
MPEG stream: Cold Presence

After producing three seminal art-punk records from 1977 to 1980 that moved in rapid trajectory away from the short-sharp economy of Pink Flag to the tongue-twisting surfaces of 154, Wire dissolved for the first time. Call it a hiatus, call it an acrimonious break-up, call it a fuck-you to the major label that signed them; but regardless of what may or may have transpired in 1980, there were just too many ideas in those four blokes to be contained in the trappings of a four-piece punk band. Given what came immediately after 154, it's pretty clear where all of those radical shifts came from - Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert. Sure, Colin Newman produced a pretty decent solo record in A-Z, but in all of the projects that Lewis & Gilbert produced, there was a torrent of amazing material that included Duet Emmo, Cupol, P'O, and what proved to the best of the lot - Dome. In quick succession, Dome produced four albums between 1980 and 1982, all of which now are just referred to by their numerical order, although Dome 4 was originally released under the title Will You Speak This World. As much as these records were explorations of deconstructing the punk song into drone, atonality, minimal synth abrasion, and polyglot perversity, Lewis & Gilbert would also tease with hints at what Wire had previously manifested. This audience baiting was also demonstrated on Wire's live lp Document & Eyewitness which condensed the classic Wire songs "12xU" down to 15 second fragment that never launched into that pogo-punk beat. As such, Dome would build songs out of repetitive guitar & bass patterns that would parallel one of the exuberant numbers like "Outdoor Miner" or "Mannequin" but the song would then detour into ellipsis with alien drones and discordant counterpoints. "Here We Go" from Dome 1 was a prime example of this punk-tease, furthered by tracks like the wild-eyed delirium of Lewis' ranting on "Cancel Your Order" also from Dome 1. The much ballyhooed highlight from that first record is the sublime track "Cruel When Complete" sung by Angela Conway, who coos breathily over an elegant if very cold electronic pattern with quintessential minimal wave detachment. Dome 2 continues along the convoluted art-punk abstraction through the two part "Red Tent" framed by plenty of abstracted electronic fragments and rhythmic work-outs that parallel what This Heat was doing at the same time. Dome 3 found the duo hitting their stride, where the synthetic rhythms and loops play a central role in the arrangements accompanied by weird percussion, distorted vocals, feverish minimalism, abstractionist drones, and industrial overtures. All of the tracks are given names more fitting to Kurt Schwitters "Ursonate" such as "Ar-Gu," "Roos-An," and "An-An-An-D-D-D," providing more of a connection to Dada than to punk. Through these synthetic noises, Dome find them the perfect bridge between Throbbing Gristle and Zoviet France. Dome 4 stretches out the fragmentary brilliance of Dome 3 into longer, more thoughtfully composed pieces such as the archaic sounding folk-hymnal "To Speak" where Lewis' baritone intertwines with a languid violin and lots of cathedral reverberations. Jump some 8 years to when Wire had reformed to produce a couple of fantastic art-pop records, when Dome also reconvened with the aid of late-80s technology: samplers and MIDI sequencing (as opposed to the tape loop and primitive synth work of the early recordings); and they recorded an album entitled Yclept which didn't get released for another decade. Here, the machined rhythms, repetitive noise collages, and loping basslines rejoin the realm of the song, albeit fractured somewhere between Aphex Twin, Greater Than One, and SPK, with Lewis crooning as he would occasionally do in Wire and on his under-appreciated He Said solo projects. These 5 lps come packaged in large box filled with photographs, posters, and liner notes plus the requisite download coupon and inexplicably a box of matches. Don't set yourself on fire, please.

MPEG stream: Cruel When Complete
MPEG stream: Danz
MPEG stream: Ar-Gu
MPEG stream: To Speak
MPEG stream: Because We Must (Version 1)
MPEG stream: Virtual Sweden (V.S.#1)

The latest from local black metal tape label Brotherhood Of Light (Sunchariot, Surt, Uruk Hai, Haar, Sirius, Cosmic Breath) comes the debut from Domus Mactibilus, another group featuring BoL head honcho, the BoL scene starting to get very Ukrainian, as in a bunch of bands, with the same members, but hell, we're not complaining, we've dug pretty much everything we've heard and Domus Mactibilus is no different, although from the first track on this rehearsal tape it's hard to tell exactly what to expect. A tripped out noisescape, all buried synth melodies, creaking groaning industrial buzz, lots of clatter and crunch, swaths of effects drenched thrum, sheets of feedback, the vibe is definitely black ambient / industrial, a droned out fractured psychedelic creep, that seems to get more trippy and chaotic as the track progresses, we were initially imagining that maybe that first track was an intro, and some black buzz would explode into aktion at the beginning of track two, but nope, it seems that DM is not black metal, more a sort of blackened industrial kraut-drone thing. Track two is rhythmic and hypnotic, a pulsing, softly churning sprawl of soft noise shimmer, and murky muted throb, reminding us a bit of a previous Record of The Week from Torlesse Super Group, albeit this is much more primitive and raw. The third track cranks up the noise again, the throbbing rhythmic pulse buried under clouds of skree and buzz, but the noise here is muted, and muddied, that makes it more sort of droned out and darkly psychedelic, strap on some headphones, and what through speakers may have sounded like swaths of grey noise, reveal themselves to be dense layered dirgescapes, rife with shifting layers, crumbling textures, fractured melodies, and all manner of hypno-noise drift. As with all BoL releases very very LIMITED!

MPEG stream: 1
MPEG stream: 2

These instrumental math rockers best album. Wait we said American Don was. Well this is too.

The fourth and finest album yet from popular math-rock mainstay Don Caballero. Certainly the instrumental trio have perfected the complicated urgency they're renowned for -- time-signature-defying drumming and bright shards of crackling guitar. And at this point, Don Cab are genuinely making music like no other, having progressed leaps and bounds on every album with no sign of slowing down. On "American Don", they strip all traces of their early metal riffage, instead building and deconstructing layers of beautiful chiming guitars backed with a sturdy rhythm section, sounding almost cleanly electronic at times. Softening the anger, brightening the guitar picking until its sunny bleats make us think even the jaded Don Cabs are smiling behind the complexity. Quite possibly the heaviest record ever made without distortion and definitely their most forward-thinking album to date, which means they will likely lose some fans but also gain some more.

RealAudio clip: Fire Back About Your New Baby's Sex
RealAudio clip: Ones All Over the Place

Math rock / post rock / noise rock nerds, celebrate! Henry Owings and Chunklet once again deliver a sonic holy grail that we didn't even know existed. Most recently it was a killer collection from late great unsung Chicago noise rock minimalists Tar, and now comes a whole unreleased record from nineties math rock legends Don Caballero!! And holy shit is it a doozy, recorded in 1991 at Carnegie Mellon as a three piece, the sound is super raw, ultra fierce, crazy heavy, and mathy as fuck, a furious frenzy of wild octopoidal drumming, chugging distorted guitars, fuzzed out low slung bass, the songs already twisted and tangled, and weirdly catchy, the sort of head nodding matched out heaviness few bands then or now could match, and the recording only makes it sound that much better, blown out and in the red, fierce and in your face, relentlessly rocking. A bunch (but not all) of the tracks would show up in different forms later, on early singles and their debut full-length For Respect, but they almost sound even better here, more raw and intense for sure. Fans of this group, this era and this sound, grab one of these before they're gone, cuz odds are these are the only ones we'll be able to get. Housed in a full color gatefold sleeve, includes a download of the whole record, as well as the band's second ever live show as a bonus (and that's even more raw and blown out!!)...

MPEG stream: Schuman Center '91
MPEG stream: For Respect
MPEG stream: Our Caballero

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You know these guys. A seminal outfit of the post rock ilk, one without whom... well let's just say there's a good reason they'll be namechecked in every Battles or Hella review we're or anyone else who knows what's what is gonna write. Pittsburgh's finest, the SCTV lovin' Don Cab, led by drummer extraordinaire Damon Che, are back with yet another lineup, and their second Relapse release (7th album overall if you count the singles comp). While the "metal" leanings of their 2006 Relapse debut World Class Listening Problem have been scaled back a bunch here, it's still another dazzling display of their trademark instrumental mathrock chops. Except, this time, it's not all instrumental! There's vocals on some (about a third) of these 14 tracks, and they're surprisingly melodious. (Maybe not so surprising if you've ever heard Che's other band, Thee Speaking Canaries, in which he sings and plays guitar.) But don't worry, aside from the sometime singing, everything else is 100 percent Don Cab: Wise ass song title non sequiturs. Stop on a dime changes. Complex song structures. Unusual time signatures. Loud-soft dynamics. Proggy perplexity. And quite a lot of pretty parts too! Several tracks are much more harmonious than hectic, soundscapes with airy grooves and lulling, lovely vocals. But an album called Punkgasm can't be a total blissout, it's usually a bit busier. On most tracks, the guitars - sometimes bright and chiming, at other times heavy and distorted - mesh with precision into the spinning gears of Che's constantly percolating, plentiful percussion. Imagine a King Crimson "Projekt" gone indie rock, but better.

MPEG stream: Loudest Shop Vac In The World
MPEG stream: Celestial Dusty Groove
MPEG stream: Lord Krepelka

(The epitome of) instrumental math-rock, complex and playful. Their long-awaited third album.

If you're a fan of virtuoso instrumental math-rock madness, look no further... there are two new releases on Relapse for you to nerd, we mean rock, out to! One is the long awaited fifth album from scene grandaddies Don Caballero (without whom...) and the other is from the more whippershapperish Dysrhythmia. We're totally enjoying the new Don Cab, 'though the world has caught up with 'em -- wise ass instrumental math-rock is all the rage (these guys should get royalty checks from Hella, Chevreuil, Orthrelm, Behold The Arctopus, et al), and so this new album, their first in six years, can't have the same impact as their records did back in the mid-'90s. But lone remaining original member drummer Damon Che still has crazy chops and his all-new lineup does the Don Cab brand name justice, getting a bit more metal in the process perhaps ('cause they're on metal label Relapse now?). And then for those whose heads want even more scrambling, Dysrhythmia's new one is also recommended. Their complex compositions are played energetically and octopoidally, and are maybe a bit more metallic than the Don Cab, though they do dabble in proggy, atmospheric passages here and there. Indeed, while both World Class Listening Problem and Barriers and Passages have plenty of the technical herky-jerk, they are also strangely relaxing. Not just the relaxation of sheer exhaustion when it's all over -- both records give the listener some welcome chances to chill while they're still playing as well.

MPEG stream: Mmmmm Acting, I Love Me Some Good Acting
MPEG stream: And And And, He Lowered The Twin Down

Finally available again!!! No. This is not the disco diva Donna Summer. Far from it, this Donna Summer is the moniker for Brooklyn plunderphonician Jason Forrest, who has obliterated a variety of genres into an abrasive collage of jagged samples in much the same way that Wobbly did to hip hop on his epic "Wild Why" album. Prog rock, electroclash, '80s top 40 schlock, free jazz, hip-hop, metal, and much more has been run through a blender of arrhythmic drill 'n' bass breaks and digital disfiguration. With its spasmodic speed of clipped samples, "This Needs To Be Your Style" accelerates the need for attention deficit disorder that Kid 606 requires of his audience, as he is constantly switching up all of the samples just outside of any ability to recognize where the sample comes from. Thus, this album can be very difficult to listen to; however, once you can get through track 4 or so, the tracks become far more listenable. It's unclear whether this is due to Forrest actually making the tracks less irritating, or due to the logic of his constructions finally becoming apparant. Certainly worthwhile mash-ups for the very patient or the very caffeinated.

MPEG stream: Prog's Not Dead
MPEG stream: Heels Over Head

This is a double shot of splattery, spastic short attention span / ADD drill and bass / mash up mania from two of the noisiest around. Donna Summer (A DJ at WFMU by day) delivers a hard and heavy 6 tracks of junglized plunderphonia, incorporating cock rock, drum and bass and everything in between. Ove Naxx from Japan, ups the ante, setting his Pro Tools to stun, spitting out shards of jagged beats and samples sliced so thin you can see right through them. Brutal and pummeling, funny and not all that funky, these guys will tear you a new one while clearing the dancefloor in seconds flat!

MPEG stream: Vibrations
MPEG stream: Jinginaki Punxxx!!!

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Donnas C., F., A., and R. are here to rock for you, the title really says it all. South Bay girls, all still in their teens, with major attitude.

We are all graciously awaiting the release of "The Donnas Hit Menopause" when the age of the band will finally reach the current average age of their male fans. More kick ass, power pop/punk ala The Runaways/Ramones/Redd Kross etc...

Yeah, the novelty factor with this band wore off long ago, hence they wisely ditched their Donna aliases, but the good times keep on rollin'! While their major label stint on Atlantic might've alienated a few of their devotees with its abundant mainstream slickness, The Donnas just might win 'em all back with the shiny-assed Bitchin'. These gals have proven that they're no slouches in the rock anthem riff department, and they definitely show their stuff here. The only place where they're still a bit lacking is in their tendency to always sing-right-along-with-the-riff. Nevertheless a super fun album that comes pretty close to the breathless exuberance of their early Lookout! albums.

MPEG stream: Don't Wait Up For Me
MPEG stream: Love You Till It Hurts

Here's The Donnas' follow-up to their kick-ass 2002 album Spend The Night (the second on a major label). Perhaps to further reinforce the impression that they mean business (i.e. record industry business), the ladies have cast aside the gimmick of their individual Donna aliases. It's true, this is the first Donnas album on which they're going by their real names! Unfortunately their music has never seemed so much in the hands of others. Clearly much of their defining bad girl attitude and freewheeling raw rawk sound (which formerly seemed sincerely of their own making) has been swept away by big budget slick production and stylists. Indeed, Gold Metal has nowhere near the wild teen reckless abandon of their first couple of records. It's still a good time, but a pretty coiffed version of their former deliciously devil-may-care selves. Granted they're not treading any new ground... this is rock'n'roll for chrissakes!... but they're hitting some predictable, cliched riffs and lyrics that without their Donna personas makes their music less distinct and engaging (think Veruca Salt). This certainly should bring them broader mainstream appeal, but it distances them farther and farther away from that which previously made the Donnas so beloved.

MPEG stream: I Don't Want To Know
MPEG stream: Don't Break Me Down

The girls are all grown up. This is their 5th release and first for a major label. And they just keep getting tighter and slicker and more rocking with each progressive record. Still sassy and sexy, the Donnas take their AC/DC and Kiss obsessions, mix in a little Runaways and a little Redd Kross and come up with some of the best punky poppy garage-y rock ever! Super heavy and '70s, fun and cute and tough, with perfect back up vocals and simple / funny lyrics sung in a way that's feminine and growly but not whiny or screechy. The lyrics cover all the perfect subjects: getting a boy to crawl with her to her Chevrolet, getting her girls to key your Mercedes, wanting you to take it off so she can have you on the floor, the popular guy wanting to get her high, etc. Just boys and cars and getting laid and never looking back. I know it's so slick and obvious, it could bug a lot of you, and I know there's really no surprises here, and its really cutey pie, but I'm all for it! Sexy, mean girls taking charge! Woo Hoo! The second disc is a DVD, which features the animated video for 'Do You Wanna Hit It' featuring lots and lots of pot smoking and hallucinating ensuring ZERO play on MTV, a documentary/behind the scenes look at the making of the record, and a bizarre segment with comedian Andy Dick interviewing the Donnas. Weird. Easily the best Donnas record yet. Fans of Redd Kross, Kiss, pop punk and especially fans of all the new GARAGE-MANIA bands (i.e. Stokes, Vines, White Stripes and especially the Sahara Hot Nights) will dig this!

RealAudio clip: It's On The Rocks
RealAudio clip: Take It Off

We've had a bright lil' burst of Throwing Muses related releases lately including a reissue of their excellent University album and an imminent solo album from Kristin Hersh. This one somehow slipped by our radar a few months back, and we're sincerely sorry it did because it is terrific! It's Tanya Donelly's fourth solo outing. This Hungry Life was recorded live over the course of two nights in an old hotel in Bellows Falls, Vermont. Apparently those two evenings were during a heatwave which appears to have compounded the dreamy delirium usually associated with both Donelly and Hersh's off kilter pop music. Much more feisty and energetic than her last solo release, 2004's stark, hushed Whiskey Tango Ghost. This maybe partly due to he's backed by an impressive lot -- her husband Dean Fisher (guitarist for The Juliana Hatfield Three), Rich Gilbert (guitar and pedal steel player for Frank Black & The Catholics), drummer Arthur Johnson (also of Come), violinist Joan Wasser (who's also played with Lou Reed and Antony & The Johnsons) and vocalist Bill Janowitz (of Buffalo Tom). As always, top notch, unmistakably Donelly, dizzying goodness.

MPEG stream: This Hungry Life
MPEG stream: To The Lighthouse

Good evening ladies and gentlemen! For tonight's entertainment we regret to inform you that Tori Amos couldn't make it... however Tanya Donelly has kindly agreed to take her place and sing a few numbers for us!... Alright, all kiddin' aside, but Ms Donelly's new solo album Whiskey Range Ghost does bear an uncanny resemblance to those of Ms Amos (maybe easing up slightly on the trademark Amos dramatic side of things). Barebones vocals accompanied by equally spartan piano, acoustic guitar and pedal steel. It's all very intimate and pretty balladry. Oh so different from her past Belly, Breeders, Throwing Muses and solo efforts, but oddly following a parallel path as her former bandmate Kirstin Hersh's recent solo album The Grotto.

MPEG stream: Divine Sweet Divine
MPEG stream: My Life As A Ghost

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SORRY. Finally a reissue of the long lost lps from San francisco's unsung pop heroes, the Donner Party. Boasting future members of Quasi and the S.F. Seals, the Donner party, crafted perfect and absurdist little ditties, silly and fun, full of wide eyed innocence and mundane platitudes, and with hooks that could stop a train. Championing that 80's college radio sound (R.E.M., Homestead Records, etc.) the Donners never seemed to get the attention afforded their peers. This two cd set compiles the first two lps, as well as an unreleased third lp, plus some live tracks to boot. Some of the best jangley pop ever, for fans of Quasi, Built to Spill, Halo Benders, They Might Be giants. Worth it just for the song 'Boxfull of Bones', one of the most beautiful and heart breaking pop songs ever.

We all love the Sublime Frequencies, pretty much every release offers up something new and exciting, and we really don't know a single person who hasn't gone nuts over at least something on SF, be they metalhead or dronelord, pop kid or indie rocker, the sounds Sublime Frequencies discover and disseminate are strangely effecting and truly universal. So it would make sense that other soundmakers would become even more obsessed, not just with the songs and the groups, but with the sounds themselves, and in some cases, might just be inspired to create their own sonic tribute to the label, and the releases. Which brings us to Subprime Frequencies, a strange collaged audio experiment, created without the use of computers, all done old school, with every sound sourced from a Sublime Frequencies release, including Radio Palestine, Radio Pyongyang, Guitars Of The Golden Triangle, Radio India, Bush Taxi Mali and Latinamericarpet, all manipulated and arranged by Dereck Donohue, who eagle eyed aQ-ers might know from his groups Horseflesh, Ozmadawn and Perineum, all of whom we've raved about on the aQ list, and which is how we know he is a master sonic manipulator, which is even more obvious here, as he transforms these collections of world music into gorgeous gristly soundscapes and blown out drones and dirges. Don't let the opening track scare you off, it's a noisy one, but it's strangely pretty too, a crumbling distorted filed of glistening melodies, all crunchy and buzzy, an in-the-red distorto-raga that sounds a bit like some strange Sunroof! / Our Love Will Destroy the World mash up. The second track is differently dreamy, the sounds muted and woozy and washed out, a jumble of layered percussion, and swirling overtones, one that builds gradually to a soaring swirling majestic high end bliss out, before slipping into the next track, which takes a playful jingle and explodes it, turning it inside out, and transforming it into something fierce and ferocious, a wild tangled of buzzing melodies and grinding tones. The rest of the record unwinds dreamily, but like some sort of sonic fever dream, "Burning Voice" is a slow motion undulating swell of blurred voices, disembodied harmonies smeared into a Jeck like warble, while "Jungle Dream Machine" is all churning rhythms, skeletal and looped and darkly hypnotic. "Hermit Kingdom Choir" is a dreamy sun dappled shimmer of softly swirling voices and hazy washed out melodies, which eases you into "Slice Of Calcutta", a crumbling drone, rife with melodic buzz, the track blossoming into a dizzying whirl of lush chordal thrum, before collapsing back into "Golden Hallucination, which is truly hallucinatory, a dense wall of ever shifting layers, of tangled melodies, dense overtones and lots of buzz and hiss, and finally, the collection closes with "Crescent Of Fertility", a 9+ minute epic, that is super melodic, the melodies wreathed in fuzz and hum, slipping from proggy crunchy whorls, to cascading sheets of glimmering, glistening high end, to deep vocal laced cavernous dronemusic, epic and weirdly haunting. Gorgeous stuff. LIMITED TO 50 COPIES, each one hand numbered, in fact, each one comes with a whole booklet, written out by hand, tracklist, liner notes, credits and everything, hand stamped and housed in a black digipak with a paste on front cover.

MPEG stream: Blown Out Dream
MPEG stream: Ghosts Of The Sherpa
MPEG stream: Third World Jingle
MPEG stream: Burning Voice

Wot is the first proper solo record from Mike Donovan, aka Sic Alps, and as is often the case with bands that are really essentially one man shows, at first it's not entirely clear what exactly made this set of songs a Donovan solo record, and not just a new Sic Alps record, cuz really, on the surface, and with the first few listens, the songs really does sound like Sic Alps, how could they not, and had it been presented as such, we probably wouldn't have batted an eye. But it IS different, the songs themselves are actually much more stripped down and folky, channeling the classic sixties psychedelia that no doubt informs Sic Alps, but here that sound is much more straight ahead, no fucked up recording, no lo-fi his, no tripped out WTF weirdness, in fact barring a few moments, nothing on Wot is at all as overtly psychedelic, freaky and fractured as Sic Alps. In fact, this could totally be some lost sixties rarity reissues, it's got that same sort of vibe, sunshiney, California hippie, dope smoking grooviness, think Moby Grape, Have A Nice Day, those sorts of Sixties Fillmore bands, there's harmonica, trumpet, bongos, lap steel, the songs are laid back and dreamy, Donovan's vocals sound as good as they ever have, the songs too are pretty, and softly psychedelic. The typically fucked up song titles ("Baroque Ass", "Sexual Reassignment Surgery Blues", "MP3 Farm", "New Fieldhand Bop") and occasional twisted lyrics are really the only things that point to Donovan's more warped sonic past in Sic Alps, with most of Wot sounding like Donovan seemingly strapped on an acoustic guitar, and pulled songs from some lost American songbook, some of the songs swampy and bluesy, reminding us of Railroad Jerk or even the Rock*A*Teens, others remind us alternately of Dylan or Skip Spence, we hear a little Kinks here and there, some seriously dreamy, and darkly delicate ballads, some lush horn flecked Appalachia, some garage-y folk, and some slithery blooze. Sic Alps fans will definitely dig, but so will folks who maybe found that group a little too far out. And who knows, this could be the sort of record that lures those folks over to the musical dark side. Here's hoping...

MPEG stream: New Fieldhand Bop
MPEG stream: Lost Wot
MPEG stream: Baroque Ass
MPEG stream: Sexual Reassignment Surgery Blues
MPEG stream: A Thousand Ages From The Sun

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SORRY.

The Cortical Foundation continues in its excavation of the screwball antics of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, which took anti-rock, noise, and free jazz to new room clearing limits. The Doo-Dooettes were lead by Dream Syndicate drummer Dennis Duck, and offered a free jazz soundtrack in "Think Space" to film on the Viking Space Probe in 1975, sounding very much like the No Neck

One of two very different new PSF releases from our favorite dark lord of Japanese psychedelic improv (Haino's "Mazu Wa Iro O Nakuso Ka" being the other, reviewed last list). This one's actually an archival release, recorded way back in 1981. As per the title, it's a "free rock" jam merging the talents of Haino with a bunch of dudes from pioneering weird-music collective the Los Angeles Free Music Society! With Haino and Rick Potts both on guitar, plus the Doo-Dooettes trio of Dennis Duck (drums), Fredrik Nilsen (bass), and Tom Recchion (on his home-made instruments the "mock cello" and "strungaphone"), this group really whips up a wild and woolly storm of avant-rock insanity. It's one single thirty-five minute long track which actually has its own title -- we'll repeat it here 'cause it's so evocative: "Blueprint For The Shimmering Quivers Of The Deep Purple Ultraviolet Tuning Fork". Pretty much says it all. You can definitely hear Haino's distinctive guitar in there, but the LAFMS guys hold their end up too. And as messy as it may at first seem, it does go somewhere musically. Verdict: Worth hearing for sure, if you're into alien noise-rock skree at all. An unusual entry in Haino's discography, like his Fushitsusha jamming with the Magic Band or something. Glad they dug this one out of the vaults... NB. We're told (by a friend who reads Japanese) that Keiji Haino's liner notes for this describe how he visited Aquarius Records on a 1979 trip to San Francisco! He apparently bought a LAFMS LP here and that led him into contact with Potts et. al. and thus to the creation of this very recording. Cool.

RealAudio clip: Blueprint For The Shimmering....

Ok, we imagine that some of you might be kind of skeptical about this band, seeing as they're called, ahem, Doodles. Not exactly an awe-inspiring, heavy-psych kinda moniker is it? And with a name like that, and because of the fact that it's an all-girl outfit, you might expect some kind of cutesy "chick band from Japan" (as someone we know who shall remain nameless put it). But this ain't no Puffy Ami Yumi. Or even Shonen Knife. And their music is quite a bit different from the (also great) but much more robustly silly mayhem unleashed by the other all-girl Japanese psych duo reviewed on this week's list, Afrirampo. No, Doodles are a more serious sort of band, despite the name. Far from silly or fluffy. More roughly hewn and melancholic. These ladies (Akiko Terashima on vocals/guitar/piano and Nao Shibata on drums/chorus) play plodding, haunted psych-rock, with storms of guitar distortion hovering on the horizon, and sweet, sad vocals quivering deeply soul-ward. Ringing, reverby chords, jagged strum, staggering drums. Japanese psych-scene fans will understand if we compare 'em to Angel' In Heavy Syrup, Shizuka, and Nagisa Ni Te. But for a (sort of) non-Japanese comparison, we think maybe Blonde Redhead would be a slight parallel. Uh, Blonde Redhead meets Codeine, maybe. They've also drawn comparisons to other punkish/naive Western acts like the Smashachords and Swell Maps. And then there's some Neil Young and VU too. They're definitely a band that we think should appeal to indie-rock lovin' AQ customers beyond just those with Japanocentric tastes! And the Japan-psych fans among you ought to be already into 'em, thanks to their appearance on first volume of Alchemy's great The Night Gallery: 21st Century Psychedelic Underground compilations. Also Akikio plays on the two Jojo Hiroshige discs we've recommended recently. And in fact this is their 2nd or 3rd album after one on Gyuune and at least one cd-r release before that, though it's the first we've managed to stock. But we'll definitely keep Doodles on our list of bands to watch out for more from in the future!

MPEG stream: track 2
MPEG stream: track 6

It's been a few years since we'd heard from MF Doom, but he's finally back and has apparently dropped the MF part of his moniker. Thankfully, he still sounds as charged and bumpin' as ever. Featuring production by Madlib and even some by the late great J Dilla this should please fans of sample heavy beat driven hip-hop. No doubt, Doom has seriously great taste as the sample list on this record reads like an AQ favorites collection (ESG, Raymond Scott, Charles Bukowski, Giorgio Moroder). Born Like This won't let down fans of past Doom joints and once again, Doom continues to be a musical force to be reckoned with!

MPEG stream: Gazzillion Ear
MPEG stream: Yessir!

Don't get too excited all you doom metallers out there. You know who we're talking about, those of you who salivate at the mere mention of the word doom. This is not doom in that sense, no slow motion stoner riffing, no wailing seventies vocals, no Sabbath worship here. This is the grind band that started it all. Twenty plus years ago! DOOM! Doom in the sense of how fucked the world is and how the pigs have it in for us and there's no future and we don't want to grow up and our parents generation have fucked everything up and fuck war and fuck you, that sort of doom. Buzzing, blasting grind reminisicent of early Earache records like Napalm Death's Scum, or Carcass's Symphonies Of Sickness, but sonically much closer to Discharge and Broken Bones and G.B.H. and Flux Of Pink Indians and the like. Two of Doom's early eighties lps on one cd! 37 tracks, averaging about 90 seconds each, of thrashing metallic punk rock chaos with ultra pissed lyrics and grunted/shouted vocals over a prickly bed of razor sharp riffing and pounding blast beats. So fucking good!

MPEG stream: Relief Pt. 2
MPEG stream: Police Bastard
MPEG stream: Diseased

Issue 1.5 of the infamous Doomed Nation dvd magazine, we only got 5 copies of this, already our of print according to the guy who makes these, so once these are gone they're gone for good. Just like volume 2 (reviewed elsewhere on the AQ site) this is jam packed with tons of doom and sludge and all sorts of downtuned brutality. Just look at the bands: Sleep, Saint Vitus, Indian, 16, Buried At Sea, Sourvein, Hidden Hand, Jumbo's Killcrane, Meatjack, Rwake, Fistula, Terminal Lovers and more. Videos interspersed with clips from eighties teen movies, Godzilla movies, horror movies, super lo-tech, but totally killer! Limited to 666 copies, each one hand numbered, pretty sure we can't get more, so act fast. Comes in a white dvd case, with killer blood splattered artwork, and all sorts of flyers and stickers inside!

[ aquarius records catalogue — D ]