[ aquarius records catalogue

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Showing results 151 through 200 of 1104.

So very very lovely! Brooklyn based septet Edison Woods weave shadowy gossamer ribbons of dream tunes. These are the warm blanketing lullaby sounds for starry winter evenings. Former San Franciscan Julia Frodahl's gentle whisper of a voice glides

RealAudio clip: You Are Bright
RealAudio clip: Lullabies And Goodbyes

The Editors' An End Has A Start album was probably my (Andee!) most listened to record when it came out, and hell, even still, a totally epic and bombastic brooding gloom pop record, every song spectacular, catchy, dark, haunting, rocking, it was the band's finest moment, a rare record that never wore out its welcome, but it was inevitable, that I would start itching for a new record, but who would have thought, on the heels of what some would consider a practically perfect record, the band would throw it all away and start from scratch, but that's exactly what they did. To be more precise, the band ditched the guitars, the bass (maybe even the drums? hard to tell if the beats are programmed or not) and chose to create their new record entirely on synthesizers. Just keyboards, synths, no stringed instruments at all. Bold move, some might even suggest unwise, we were definitely skeptical, but just check out the opening track, a dark blackened synth pop gem, droning, and hypnotic, the vocals murky and ominous, the synths muddy and blurred, the sound hypnotic, repetitive, minor key, mysterious, sad and depressive, but so great. And then there's the single, "Papillon", whose core sound is so Depeche Mode it's almost criminal, but those vocals, the melody, unmistakably the Editors, darkly propulsive, new wave, totally mesmerizing. As is the whole record. It does take some getting used to, but if you dug the other Editors records, no reason you won't dig this one. Plus any record with a grinding muted bit of looped synth prog murk with the title "Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool" has to be good. It's a grower, but the more we listen, the harder it is to stop... This is the US version and includes FIVE bonus tracks.

MPEG stream: In This Light And On This Evening
MPEG stream: Bricks And Mortar
MPEG stream: Papillon
MPEG stream: Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool

Bundled up in their ash grey wool overcoats, The Editors enter the overcast world that's already inhabited by the dour hearts of Interpol and She Wants Revenge, and their British forefathers Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen. How you feel about the Editors depends on how you feel about another band that sounds -dangerously- like their peers. Eyes closed you'd be hard pressed to convince yourself that this wasn't Interpol. The songs aren't nearly as immediately catchy, but definitely cut from the same cloth. The EXACT same cloth. The Back Room is definitely executed with skill and aplomb but we'd almost always take originality and spirit and creativity over musicanship or chops. But how about if you just want more of something that sounds like something that sounds like something you like? Then this might very well hit the spot.

MPEG stream: Lights
MPEG stream: Blood

We've mentioned this before, probably in a bunch of reviews, as much as we love us out black metal buzz, and strange animal sounds, deep dark drones and whatever other sonic weirdness that is tickling our ear drums, it's hard not to always come back to pop music. And certain records in particular. And there are all sorts of processes we go through to pick AQ highlights ands records of the week. But sometimes, you just have to go with the record you listened to the most. Even if it's not the weirdest, or the coolest (and it's usually not), and for me (Andee) that record is without a doubt, the new one from The Editors, a disc I found myself listening to 4 or 5 times a day (maybe much to the chagrin of coworkers) but screw it, An End Has A Start is pretty much perfect as far as I'm concerned, poppy, hooky, moody, rocking, catchy, dramatic, just so so good.� Though often accused of being an Interpol ripoff band (and sure their sounds, especially the vocals, are dangerously similar) the Editors always seemed to have some important things that Interpol didn't. And don't get us wrong, we love Interpol, even the new one, but the Editors, somehow always seem less concerned with the cool factor, the tight suits, and the sort of emotionless sheen, instead, they revel in their emotions, they may be as dapper on the surface as their Interpol brethren, but inside, their hearts are broken, they have butterflies in their stomachs, they're willing to open up and be vulnerable, to loosen up that tie and to crawl, to weep, to wail, and that's sort of the magic of these songs.� Their sound has gotten even more polished since the last record (positioning them closer to Coldplay probably than Interpol), but the songs have followed suit, getting even more razor sharp, the hooks impossible to resist, the melodies big and melancholy, the riffs kick ass, and the vocals, epic and throaty and super dramatic, emotional and sort of emo actually. None of that laid back cool that Interpol traffics in, this is heart on the sleeve stuff.� And it's not just the songs, the lyrics are amazing as well, clever and sharp, emotionally resonant, and it helps that they're delivered in that irresistible croon.� Shit, just listen to the opener, "Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors", easily the best song Interpol never wrote (or could write), simple and loping, with an amazing epic soaring bridge, and a chorus that manages to be super moving in its simplicity, the sort of progression, music and lyrics together, that totally gives you a lump in the throat, and then the super crazy hook of the second half of the chorus....� The the second song, the title track, might be even better, more new wave, with a propulsive groove and practically perfect lyrics, jangling guitars and throbbing bass, and a chorus that KILLS... Every track on An End Has A Start is a gem, dark and brooding, buzzy and propulsive, catchy as all get out.�"The Weight of The World" is another song Interpol should have written, but in the hands of the Editors it become a super soaring minor key lament, and then there's the�"Escape The Nest" with one of the most bad ass guitar riffs ever, a weird processed angular grind surrounded on all sides by muted gloom, making it seem even more epic and intense.� After listening to this for the hundredth time or so, it became obvious that it would just get harder and harder to explain why it was so great. One of those records that just makes you want to review it with a single sentence: "Just buy it! It's amazing. Been listening to it nonstop. My record of the year without a doubt!!!" And while for a few people that might actually be enough, for the rest of you, read the above, listen to the sound samples, and decide for yourself, but yeah, pop record of the year without a doubt.�

MPEG stream: Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors
MPEG stream: An End Has A Start
MPEG stream: Escape The Nest

Occult symbols on the cover of this black digipack... song titles like "Asmodeus: The Destroyer, King Of Demons"... covers of Black Sabbath's "Into The Void", Sepultura's "Roots Bloody Roots", and Spinal Tap's classic "Big Bottom" as bonus tracks... what is this, some sort of metal album? Well... no. It's not. And Edmund Welles isn't a person either (in this context), it's a band. A bass clarinet quartet to be exact. That's right. Four bass clarinets, that's it. So rather than metal, the weirdly dark and proggy and oddly groovy music on here ends up sounding more like some kind of '30s cabaret jazz meets 20th century classical chamber music, with some cartoon-soundtrack Carl Stalling stylings too... like if Raymond Scott was possessed by some Cthulhoid demon and outfitted his whole ensemble with bass clarinets, to pipe and hoot in worship of the Great Old Ones, both stutteringly and sinuously (and surreptitiously enough to still get nightclub gigs, swingin' it but still taking a toll on listeners' sanity). And as a nice touch, the very first track features an authentic helping of sampled, mixed-in "record crackle" to give this more of an antique, period feel. Of course, with all the metal signifiers present -- especially those aforementioned bonus tracks -- the easiest thing to do is to compare Edmund Welles to Apocalpytica, the Finnish cello quartet famed for their Metallica covers. (And they covered a Sepultura song too!) So, there is a slight resemblance of course. But we have to say that Edmund Welles really reminds us more maybe of some sort of John Zorn project, or chamber prog brainiacs Zs. Whereas Apocalyptica somehow seems -more- metal, maybe 'cause you're more likely to hear cellos than bass clarinets on metal records anyhow, and also 'cause their cellos are amplified and sometimes they even have a drummer. Bass clarinets are, indeed, bassy and droney -- but not as heavy as some amped up cellos sawing away. So the Sabbath cover here is more like the Bad Plus's "Iron Man" than how it would sound if Apocalyptica did it. Maybe it's just a cool gimmick, but we can't help but like it... and we can safely say this is the best bass clarinet quartet album we've ever heard!

MPEG stream: Cause & Effect
MPEG stream: Into The Void

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SORRY. Skweee!

We first were introduced to Edu K on the second installment of the party starting, raw booty shaking Rio Baile Funk collection. His two tracks on that comp really stood out and grabbed our attention and our bodies as we couldn't help but smile and shake it everytime they came on. So we've been wanting to hear more and we finally were able to get our hands on a new 12" from him. Teamed up with Marina of Bonde De Role fame they make a potent one-two punch of raw and sizzling fun. Edu K brings the sweaty ass shakin' bombastic bounce of Baile Funk better then almost anyone. With Marina on vocals it's kind of like if Peaches got hyphy or if Timberland hooked up with CSS. The Crookers edit on the 'b' side kills, making this a must have 12" for anyone who wants to sweat and shake it all summer long.

Woah, kinda blown away by this, a super nice surprise since we didn't have any expectations... or ex-plekzationz! Had never heard of Bristol's Nick Edwards before, nor his cassette-prolific alter ego Ekoplekz, nor his Gutterbreakz blog for that matter either. We just knew this was a new album from some bespectacled fella on Editions Mego, who (as we could see from the photo on the inner gatefold sleeve) employs a tabletop tangle of effect boxes and other electronic devices to make his music. Like all eMego stuff, seemed worth checking out, and it sure was. A quick and too easy description of this might be lo-fi analog electronic synth experimentation with a heavy dose of dub... or even "Merzbow doing dub", though it's not nearly as noisy as that might suggest. But it IS quite abstract and soundscapey. These are noises, not noise. And the dub here is that rare kind we've hardly ever encountered, that's dub but definitely NOT reggae. (In contrast to, say, that rad Seekersinternational record we listed last time, a great modern day dub album whose reggae roots are quite clear... or even aQ faves Peaking Lights). Edwards loves his King Tubby, for sure, and kosmiche krautrock and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and techno too... But we can't label his music as being like any of those things exactly, even though that's all in here. Nor is it the clinical, minimal-techno sort of dub (we also like), a la Pole or Vladislav Delay. This is even less reggae than that, and way more 'natural'. It's cosmic-y without being too referential to anything, very loose and flowing and free. The rhythms, which grow organically out of the interaction of effects, are varied and not 'grided' like so much other electronic music. Each and every moment fills our ears with the sort of echoing dubby soundz we love to hear, in constant flux. But, for something that's changing so much, it still has a 'groove' to it, if not necessarily always a 'beat'... in other words, it's strangely hypnotic, its odd percolations fitting into a larger wash of sound that seems to extend out to infinity, swirling and shwooshing and reverberating into new shapes and patterns. The album is divided into four parts of roughly equally length, the whole thing about an hour-long trip. Although recorded at four separate sessions, these 'decompositions' and 'spontaneous combustions' are woven into one extended piece, calmly chugging and looping, softly exploding with distortion over and over and over...The final track might be our favorite, with its slowly creeping-up-on you vibe. All are great, though. Look, we LOVE the echo echo echo of dub, and have admitted previously that several of us here wouldn't be into reggae at all if it weren't for the dub variety. So the idea of dub WITHOUT the reggae is interesting and appealing and that's what Mr. Nick Edwards has accomplished here, the echoing of the electronics on this album like a field recording of a mad scientist's laboratory, done dub style. This is maybe, maybe what Sun Araw would/could sound like if he'd ditched his trip to Jamaica for an extended stay in Mego's Austrian studios instead... Yup, for something we had no prior expectations about, it didn't take long before we were hooked!

MPEG stream: Part 1: Chance Meets Causality Uptown
MPEG stream: Part 3: Inside The Analog Continuum
MPEG stream: Part 4: A Pedant's Progress

As promised last list, when we reviewed Rob's Make It Fast, Make It Slow, here's the other killer African '70s reissue that the folks at the Soundway label just blessed us with, the 1973 Projection One album from Ghana's Edzayawa band, their sole release. Once again, this proves that the international groove scene of yesteryear just won't quit. Deep digging labels like Soundway are getting nowhere near to the bottom of the barrel, if albums like this are any indication. Edzaywa is top flight stuff, funky and kinda freaky, with tight percussive grooves in complex patterns arranged into what amount to mostly-instrumental, dark & intense "Afro-prog" workouts. There's often someone jamming away on the organ, also outbursts of some slightly surfy guitar twang, occasional emphatic vocals (usually in an African dialect), and even an interlude or two of crazy whistling flute (?). But it's the staggering rhythms, ticking away steadily, speeding up, slowing down, sometimes with echoing, almost dubbed out production, that will keep you in thrall. Hot stuff. Finding just one awesome obscure album like this would be an accomplishment for most reissue labels, for Soundway it apparently ain't no thing. By the way, there's a vinyl version too, but it's currently on backorder....

MPEG stream: Darkness
MPEG stream: Gondzin
MPEG stream: Amanehun

Indie pop and post-rock converge in the dreamiest fashion where the two E's meet. EE is the band led by Tobin Mori (formerly of Korea Girl) and also bears the unmistakable mark of Sooyoung Park (former mainman of Seam and Bitch Magnet). Capital Plans is primarily a guitar driven album, but with a few choice chamber pop elements prettying up the proceedings, a bit of edgier distortion making itself apparent later on, and a delicate electronic number bringing things soothingly to a close. There are definitely similarities in both the vocal delivery and the songwriting to bands such as Seam, Versus and more recently Whysall Lane. In fact, we'd almost swear that Mori was a long lost sibling of the Balayut brothers (Whysall Lane's Richard, +/-'s James, Versus' Ed). Yes, the resemblance is that striking. Very recommended for fans of the abovementioned bands as well as Sea And Cake and Portastatic too.

MPEG stream: Small Fry
MPEG stream: Lost Angeles

This local pop quartet's line-up shines brightly with the presence of ex-Korea Girl member Tobin Mori, Soo Young Park from Seam, and Pete Nguyen of Total Shutdown. This is the follow-up to their Tinyspot cdep that was the follow-up to their '99 debut Ramadan. A very mellow, dreamy pop affair with occasional gentle boy vocals, a low-key post-rock rhythm section, and some swelling quiet/loud moments in which you can hear why the recent addition of Mr. Park makes perfect sense. Actually many of the songs do bear a striking resemblance to mid-'90s Seam, much more so than on the Tinyspot ep (which marked his first recorded appearance in EE). His presence and influence are definitely much more noticeable this time around.

RealAudio clip: Slow Motion Restart
RealAudio clip: Beijing
RealAudio clip: Thomas Sleeps Beneath An El Paso Tree

As frustrating as it can be, if you're gonna invite the main man from an indie fave band into your fold, you're gonna be saddled with the new title of "[fill in prominent member's name] of [fill in indie fave band name]'s new project" - no matter now much you've done prior to this. Such is the case with the bay area group known as ee. The fellow in question? Sooyoung Park of '90s college radio darlings Seam. Having made the move from Chicago to San Francisco, the fine songsmith sought out a new group to play with, and bingo! He met up with this already-happening group, and joined in on guitar and keyboards. The particular sticky issue is that he doesn't even appear on this just-released EP, but whenever I hear mention of them it's prefaced by "Seam's Sooyoung..."! You get the picture. Taken on its own merits, this follow-up to their '99 debut is a very mellow, dreamy pop affair with gentle boy vocals, a low-key post-rock rhythm section, and some swelling quiet/loud moments in which you can hear why the recent addition of Mr. Park makes perfect sense. Includes two live tracks and an outtake. If you like what you hear, word has it there's more coming soon.

RealAudio clip: Tinyspot
RealAudio clip: San Jose (Live)

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SORRY.

These are sure some super pretty Blinking Lights... and there's so many of 'em they couldn't fit on one cd! This double disc album boasts a whopping 33 songs! There's such an outpouring of emotion it's easy to see why it couldn't be contained on one cd. While their previous full length 2002's Souljacker took their fans to a typically Eels-style perky quirky place, it seems spirits have dampened since then. Is playtime over for the Eels? The heart of this considerably more 'mature' album is woven from equal parts melancholia and romantic yearning -- very much in the vein of Sparklehorse. As well, in the midst of the first disc, it struck us just how much Eels mainman Everett's voice has developed a soft hoarseness very akin to that of Britt Daniel of Spoon. In fact, if folks who previously steered clear of Eels (due to the band's quirky nutty factor) give this album a chance, they might be pleasantly surprised. In a way, it's a sort of equivalent situation (maybe a bit less extreme) to when Beck released his deeply personal album Sea Change after the funky soul-drenched Midnite Vultures. Actually, there's a number of songs on Blinking Lights' second disc that parallel the heartfelt shuffly-footed prettiness to some of those on Sea Change. Soft, mellow and nice.

MPEG stream: Trouble With Dreams
MPEG stream: Suicide Life

Rambunctious and often bombastic pop tunes with quirky lyrics about things like that "Fresh Feeling" and a "Friendly Ghost". Kinda sounds like the following fictitious encounter: one fine sunny day Beck is shufflin' down the street and bumps into Too Much Joy.

RealAudio clip: That's Not Really Funny
RealAudio clip: Rotten World Blues

What or who is Eesk? She was an integral part of SF's eccentric, eclectic, and highly entertaining Action Plus (note: her alias then was Ursula Blind). With Ghost Taxi, she continues in the A.P. tradition of the unrelenting style and mood melting pot. It's graced with multi-personality vocal acrobatics and definite overtones of international film music. She draws inspiration from wonderfully diverse sources to create an intelligent, finely composed and thoroughly engaging album. Very soundtrack-y! A little spine-tingling sinister at times, a bit strangely trippy at others, and ultra mellow loungey at still others. And although this is her solo album, she's by no means on her own. The album features a shining supporting cast too: skilled guitarist and producer Joe Gore (Action Plus, PJ Harvey, Tom Waits, Eels, Tracy Chapman, Oranj Symphonette), Tin Hat Trio's Rob Burger (on keyboards) and Carla Kihlstedt (on violin), Creeper Lagoon's David Kostiner (on drums), Oranj Symphonette's Pat Campbell (also on drums), cellist Matthew Brubeck (Oranj Symphonette, Jewel, Sheryl Crow), and Joey Waronker (Beck, Smokey & Miho, REM, Elliott Smith, Badly Drawn Boy, and the list goes on and on). Nice!

RealAudio clip: Run
RealAudio clip: Seven Beauty International

A gang of totally talented women from Brooklyn making some intense and engaging off kilter psych post-punk that's been thrilling us big time via this new Sacred Bones release. We love how Effi Briest bring worlds of post-punk, krautrock, garage goth, and psychedelia into a propulsive whole that is so charged and hypnotizing. It's always a good sign when you can't immediately start rattling off other bands a record reminds you of, as there is something very honest and unique about the songs on Rhizomes. We do think of some of those awesome amalgamations that are fun to dream up. Like Erase Errata doing early Siouxsie & The Banshees covers, or White Magic shedding their folkish leanings and diving full throttle into psychedelic overload, Gang Gang Dance and Zola Jesus joining their mystical powers or Au Pairs and The Raincoats risen from the ashes but sounding a bit weirder and more rhythmic, or even a more intense version of those awesome Helium records that Ash Bowie from Polvo played on, or heck, maybe what early Wire might have sounded like with a young Patti Smith on vocals. At a time when so many new records are so loyal to the one sound or style they are trying to capture it's so fucking cool to come across a band that is bringing together many great influences and undoubtedly have great taste (they are named after a great Fassbinder film after all) but for the most part are really bringing something fresh, immediate and unique to the table. One of those records that draws you into its world more and more with each listen. And we have to say we are totally and utterly hooked!

MPEG stream: Rhizomes
MPEG stream: Cousins
MPEG stream: Nights

The opening track of Efterklang's latest album sounds like the loveliness of a choir and orchestra being carried to your ears on the wings of an autumn breeze. Light, airy, and shimmeringly blissful. It's the sound of a glorious dream that gradually builds and darkens to heart-swelling proportions. Although this Danish band has two dreamy main vocalists Linda Drejer Bonde and Thomas Sjoberg, it is the giant choruses where they shine brightest. The unpredictable proggy rhythmic interplay between the brass, strings and vocals is captivating, quite possibly drawing inspiration from the likes of Yes and King Crimson. Parades' sweepingly regal grandeur spurs cinematic imaginings of gowned maidens rushing down castle staircases and armored knights charging into battle. Really beautiful.

MPEG stream: Polygyne
MPEG stream: Maison De Reflexion

Gentle electronica from Denmark. So nice!

We won't go into too much detail on this one as it was limited to 72 copies of which we got about a third of the pressing. Egghatcher is the work of Bay Area free folk avant noisemaker Robert Horton, and features some of the most sublime drones we've heard created from some of the least likely sources. A helicopter flying overhead, crystal glasses, old 78's, all smeared and smoothed into soft slippery slivers of sound. So lovely. A few tracks are not as dronelike, one features vocals, chopped and reassembled into a skittery soundscapes, with occasional blasts of corrosive squeal, while another is constructed from and played on a homemade 4 string guitar constructed from wood found on the street. All quite gorgeous as we've come to expect from Horton. Again, LIMITED TO 72 COPIES, we have the last 20 or so. Comes packaged in a plastic sleeve with an insert, held together by a twig, and with a VERY strong smelling leaf inside, so each disc smells like flowers or potpourri!

MPEG stream: That Helicopter Day
MPEG stream: Glass Quartet

Collection of all their singles and compilation/split 7" tracks.

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. This Swedish trio own the studio where St. Etienne and the Cardigans record. Needless to say, fans of the aforementioned groups will love this too. Delicate, juicy sweet pop. Spanish import.

Don't be fooled by the title. That's these two French experimentalists' tongue-in-cheek joke about the roots of their highly abstract, tape-manipulated guitar music/noise. Being the first installment of the A Brut Secret label's new "Blue Series", this is an electro-acoustic improv take on the blues, umm supposedly. But we seriously doubt that Martin Scorcese would recognize the sporadic silence, distortion, drone, clicks, and mosquito buzz found here as "The Blues"! Sounds more like Kevin Drumm than Blind Willie Johnson, that's for sure. So if my name's not Martin Scorcese, will I like this? Maybe, if glitched-out drone (some of it gorgeous) and grating noise are your cup of moonshine, 'cause you've got to imbibe a lot of that to convince yerself that you're also hearing fragmented, buried 'wooden guitar' Delta blues licks. What exactly is going on here? Well the liner notes are in French. But we think the deal is that Fabrice Eglin (whom we last heard guesting on Kan Mikami's Bachi by the way) improvises on electric and acoustic guitars while partner Jermome Noetinger processes his playing via contact mics, a Walkman, and an old Revox tape machine. So the electronic effects here seem appropriately dusty and old-timey. But this should definitely get filed closer to avant-guitarists like Drumm, Tetuzi Akiyama, Keith Rowe and Annette Krebs in your cd collection, rather than with yr Yazoo comps!

MPEG stream: 1
MPEG stream: 2

From the same label that brought us music from Bethlehem, Costes and the debut/swansong recording from SF's The Gault (featuring members of legendary SFBM outfit Weakling) and which just so happens to be run by the guys in Diamatregon (who have a record out on Andee's tUMULt label, and a new one on the way!) comes this bizarre black beauty, the debut full length from bizarre German black horde Egonoir.� The label mentions the usual blackbuzz culprits in their description of Egonoir:�Burzum, Leviathan, Bethlehem, Strid, Manes, and while it does have much in common with those obvious influences, it is somehow so much more. Darker, moodier, more melancholy, prettier, and definitely weirder.� The root sound is a slow crawl, a barely midtempo buzzing Burzumic plod, with harsh vocals, and blown out guitars, but the whole thing is wreathed in a strange smoky production, making everything fuzzy and murky and muted and strangely lovely. The tracks often drift into swirling ambience, with the buzzing guitars transformed into amorphous clouds of foggy blurry guitar, a backdrop to the lilting melodies in the foreground.� Then there are the vocals, that range from harsh howls, demonic growls to haunting crooning, but the strangest thing, and what makes Egonoir sound so unique, is the bizarre humming/crooning that lurks beneath the more traditionally blackened vocals, almost like American Music Club or Crash Test Dummies or Leonard Cohen, drifting darkly and melodically beneath the buzzing crawl... at some points female vocals drift into the picture, and suddenly it's a black metal Mazzy Star, almost, it's these creepy beautiful vocals that make this sound like some ultra depressing black metal lounge band, performing at some blackened dive perched on the edge of the abyss, flames licking at the foundation, the facade illuminated by buzzing black neon signs, and packed with a motley crew of hellish beats and down on their luck, southward headed earthlings.� Lots of acoustic guitars (a couple tracks are mostly acoustic), muted wandering bass lines, gorgeously sorrowful melodies, those crooning humming vocals, loping seasick tempos, arpeggiated guitars, hushed monk-like chants, snippets of German wartime speeches, all wrapped in thick swaths of buzz and reverb, slowly drifting, like some buzzy black dream.� Fans of all things depressive and slow, blackened and Burzumic, fuzzy and washed out, will freak for this. If Make A Change... Kill Yourself, Burzum, Xasthur, Nortt, Inferi and the like are your late night�downer black metal soundtrack, Egonoir might just be perfect for those bleak early morning hours after a long night of misery and hopelessness... Or as the label so succinctly puts it: "Total psycho dark metal,�noir, noir, noir."

MPEG stream: Der Pfad Zum Fluss
MPEG stream: Ego Noir Teil7

It's been more than 3 years since we last heard from depressive German black metal weirdos EgoNoir, whose sound was equal part classic black buzz, and mournful moody melancholia. They have a new record that just came out, which we'll have soon, but this one is almost as exciting, a reissue of their 2004 demo Die Saga, recorded three years before their debut full length Der Pfad Zum Fluss, and if anything it's even more warped and twisted, more muted and murky and fucked up and freaked out. The same equation still applies, but the sound is so much more raw, the buzz thick, the distortion crumbling, the vocals doused in FX, all beneath a sheet of static and hiss, a lurching doomy plod, black metal riffage slowed down to a crawl, clean guitar filigree wrapped around croaked monstrous whispered vocals, the drums weirdly processed and effected, the guitars melty and lysergic, the fuzzed out drone an oozing black cloud, strange keyboards wheeze and shimmer, trumpets bleat and moan, strings soar beneath the roiling blackness, bits of electronics, weird glitch and grit, all add to the obscure moodiness. Much of the record is spent stripped down and melancholy, weirdly mournful interludes with lush guitar strum, simple skeletal percussion, whispered vox, strange rhythmic thumps, haunting hushed ambience, but those interludes are constantly swallowed up by blasts of grinding black blast, or weirdly synth driven blackened new wave hypnorock, or mysterious choral drifts, awesome and totally demented. The reissue includes a bonus track, a gloriously and insanely murky chunk of midtempo Burzumic blackness, that's SO muddy and muted, it practically makes Xasthur sound hi-fi, and turns some black metal into something much more blurred and washed out and trippy. So rad.

MPEG stream: Teil 1 - Das Neue Wesen
MPEG stream: Teil 2 - Kurze Der Verwirrung
MPEG stream: Up From The Graves

A while back we reviewed a four song ep from this North Dakota stoner rock band who during their very brief lifespan, only ever managed to record those four tracks, which we dug BIG time, some seriously groovy stoner doom, heavy on the Kyuss, Sleep and the like, we even mentioned Deep Purple in our review of that other ep, and they just so happen to cover a Deep Purple jam this time around, but more on that in a second. So after close to a decade, Egypt got back together to play a show, and ended up reforming officially and managed to finally record their first proper full-length, with many of the songs dating all the way back to the group's first incarnation, and the sound not that far removed, still Sabbathy, and sludgey, stonery and seriously groovy, all it should take is a few second of opener "Matterhorn" for you to figure out if this is your cup of THC laced tea, it most definitely is ours. Much like the recently reviewed record from stoner rock outfit Greenleaf, this is the sort of sound we never seem to get tired of - heavy and hooky, huge riffs, slithery and snarly, swaggery and sludgey, super long tripped out heavy psych jams, that slip easily from riffy churn, to blissed out sun baked space jam and back again. This is much more stoner ROCK, than stoner metal, in fact, it's almost more stoner BLOOZ, very reminiscent of some of our proto metal heavy blues faves, but with enough heft, and a crushing guitar tone that definitely makes this heavy enough for all you metalheads. The tempos are still swinging and Sabbathy, but tend toward the downright doomy, with at least one track sounding like classic true doom, and most of the songs, doomy or otherwise, do seem to always end up in stretched out space jam territory, the sort of heart-of-the-sun jams we wish would sorta go on forever, and in some cases kind of do. And yeah, they cover Deep Purple's "Black Night", and while it's not do far removed from the original, it definitely fits pretty snugly amidst the rest of their originals. The one thing that might be a stumbling block for some folks are the vocals, which at least one aQ staffer found to be too growly and shouty, but that's definitely what the singer has going on, a rough, raw, growly bellow, that reminds us of Scissorfight, or Crowbar, and even more recently like Fucked Up, it's the sort of voice that seems like it can only come from a big burly bearded metalhead. Fans of stoner rock, stoner metal, stoner doom, and yeah, stoner blooooz, WAY recommended!

MPEG stream: Matterhorn
MPEG stream: The Village Is Silent
MPEG stream: Orb Of The Wizardking
MPEG stream: Black Night

How many bands can you name from Fargo, North Dakota? None. That's the number we came up with. Ever hear of the stoner doom outfit Egypt? We hadn't either. But this here 4 song mini lp will change all that. This short lived band hailed from North Dakota, and only managed to commit to tape these 4 tracks, but doomlords and stoner rock freeks will definitely wish there was more where these came from. Lurching doomic slow and low, heavy on the bass, heavy on everything really, but the songs were pretty reliant on thick bass grooves and the pounding drums, lazy sunbaked Kyuss-y riffs were then draped over the top, plenty of wah guitar, and wailed, SUNG not screamed vocals, that were also reminiscent of the late great Kyuss. This is not funeral doom, or ultra doom, this is groovy stoner doom, classic metal filtered through the sound of old school doom. Sabbath, Pentagram, that sort of thing, heaped with some Kyuss, left out in the desert to bake, doused in LSD, just enough to give it a slightly psychedelic vibe, and let loose. Most of the songs slink along for ages, growling and simmering, slithering darkly, all low end groove, before exploding into furious space rock freakouts, wicked wah guitar solos, thick crunchy rhythms and those impassioned FX soaked vocals. The label suggests that Egypt will appeal to fans of Sleep, Sir Lord Baltimore and Deep Purple, which is definitely true, but expand that to include anyone into classic metal, fuzzy psych rock, and heavy doom metal. And again, fans of Kyuss, and THAT sound, will eat this up. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES. Mastered By James Plotkin. Amazing eye popping packaging, super thick gatefold sleeve, black and white on the outside, full color and psychedelic on the inside, printed with a spot varnish, super super striking.

Back in stock, back in print. One of our favorite No Neck Blues Band side projects, Egypt Is The Magick Number features Adam Mortimer and Dave Shuford both from NNBB but in a more tranced-out continuation of the way way out psyche improv damage of their No Neck mothership. Massive doses of delay, slow floating sheets of white hot psych guitar, shuffling minimal percussion, all dosed with acid, rolled in a hemp and lit afire. The first track is a 30 minute mother, easy to imagine two guys locked in a dark room with a hookah, a broken guitar with one string and a suitacse full of delay pedals. Super tripped out, wide eyed outer space drug drones. The other three tracks are similarly high flying, low crawling excursions into weird acoustic guitar-strum jams, the clattering of pots, and meandering twangy vocals. It's equal parts Sun City Girls, Jandek, and Yahowah. Which obviously means fucking great!

MPEG stream: Immortal Seeed Reignbeau
MPEG stream: Rangoon Filly Stutter

What the fuck? We shouldn't be the only people baffled by this record; and A Life Without Fear was probably engineered with that confusion in mind. A few years back, Ekkehard Ehlers was the darling of the Max / MSP faction of electronic artists, recontextualizing any number of artists into a delirious pixel-pointed fizz of digitized sound fragments, following in the foot steps of Christian Fennesz and Stefan Mathieu. As great as Ehlers recontextualizations of Cornelius Cardew, John Cassavettes, and Albert Ayler were, this micro-genre of soundsculpting seemed a bit faddish and a slave to technology. Needless to say, Mathieu has shifted his focus to more organic materials and instrumentation, and Ehlers has followed suit by dropping his Max / MSP patches in favor a gritty blues minimalism. With the press release making comparisons to Jim O'Rourke's emulation of John Fahey, Ehlers' recapitulation of turn of the 20th century blues has a studied hollowness about it. While sonically, these rough-hewn guitar chords and back-porch stomps have all of the trappings of any old archival recording (i.e. scratchy sound, tinny production, etc), they nevertheless lack any real soul (unlike O'Rourke's jubliant finger-picking and carnavelesque arrangements on Bad Timing.) There's also an ill-conceived bout of West-African / Congolese thumb-piano playing to futher complicate the matters at hand. The avant-garde meets the assimilatory attributes of imperialism? A curious application of 'authentic' patinas? A miscalculated attempt of cross-cultural communication? How about a faux-Jandek outsider thing? Who knows? Again we return to the ultimate question about this record: what the fuck?

MPEG stream: Ain't No Grave
MPEG stream: Maria & Martha

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

SORRY. Using samples from Arnold Sch�nberg and Charles Ives, among others, Ekkehard Ehler cyclically forms and dissolves structures creating swiveling metallic soundscapes and surging orchestral mayhem. Really beautiful.

You suckers without turntables get yet another temporary reprieve, as Ekkehard Ehlers' five lovely mini-albums, previously released only on vinyl, are here compiled onto one handy cd. And lovely is most certainly an understatement. This is some of the most gorgeous, sublime and moving electronic/glitch/sample based music we have ever heard. Sounds are completely recontextualised into cloudy, indistinct but somehow emotionally and sonically spot-on homages to some of Ehlers' influences. Falling somewhere between Stephen Mathieu and Oval, Ehlers adds remarkable depth and emotion to what is quite often a cold and clinical artform. Tracks one and two are the "Plays Cornelius Cardew" lp and are lovely layered soundscapes as only Ehlers can conjure. Sampled sounds are seamlessly woven into dense, textural tone poems again highly reminiscent of Wolfgang Voigt's Gas. The second (track three and four) in the "Plays" series is a 'tribute' to the German beat poet Hubert Fichte. Where those previous tracks are dominated by ephemeral drone work with refined patinas of digital corrosion, this piece curiously sounds like Pole doing free jazz, with erratic squiggles of granular synthesized saxophone and really lazy strums from a guitar seeping up from an electronically sculpted metallic haze. Even those slowly developed basslines that Pole plops into his neo-dub show up in "Plays Hubert Fichte" although Ehlers disregards Pole's structuralism in favor of an amorphous improvisation of deep hovering movements. "Plays John Cassavetes" (tracks five and six) is part three in Ehler's series of 'tributes' and for these pieces he seamlessly weaves orchestral samples into beautiful landscapes of sonic reverberations. Very reminiscent of Wolfgang Voigt's work as Gas, or those brief, subtle moments of bliss found on My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" record. Tracks seven and eight find Ehlers sampling fragments of Albert Ayler. However, as with most of these pieces, it is debatable as to how much Ayler is actually present on this recording, musically. Consisting entirely of digitally altered cello recordings, these two sidelong pieces gently swell, teeter and expand, forming beautiful, haunting drones that lie beneath digital snippets of arrhythmic ephemera. Somehow, Ehlers manages to restructure a mundane cello recording into a wonderfully reticular songpoem. The final two tracks are from the 'Plays Robert Johnson' 7" which we were never able to get enough of to list. Two short tracks: the first is an abstractly plucked, slow-motion, Reynols-on-cough-syrup style tarpit blues jam, while the final track is all throbbing four-on-the-floor Kompakt style minimal/heroin house. Trust us, we plow through a lot of pretentious electronic crap that takes itself too seriously -- and while the conceit of the five Ehler tributes might suggest that he could fall into this trap -- he does not. Ehlers delivers, and you'll love this. We all do.

RealAudio clip: Plays Cornelius Cardew
RealAudio clip: Plays Hubert Fichte
RealAudio clip: Plays John Cassavetes
RealAudio clip: Plays Albert Ayler
RealAudio clip: Plays Robert Johnson

The second solo recording from the former Autopoeses member, in which Ehlers samples fragments of Albert Ayler. However, it is debatable as to how much Ayler is actually present on this recording, musically. Consisting entirely of digitally altered cello recordings, these two sidelong pieces gently swell, teeter and expand, forming beautiful, haunting drones that lie beneath digital

Yet another volume in the slew of vinyl only releases by German electronic artist Ekkehard Ehlers (Autopoieses, Auch) in tribute to various artists musical and otherwise. "Plays Cornelius Cardew" is two brief sides of lovely layered soundscapes as only Ehlers can conjure. Sampled sounds are seamlessly woven into dense, textural tone poems highly reminiscent of Wolfgang Voigt, most

Supposedly, this is Ekkehard Ehlers' finale in the "Plays" series of tributes / homages, a disparate grouping of artists which has previously included Albert Ayler, Cornelius Cardew, and John Cassavettes, and rounds out with the German beat poet Hubert Fichte. Where those previous releases had been dominated by ephemeral drone work with refinied patinas of digital corrosion, this album

"Plays John Cassavetes" is part two in Ehler's trilogy of mini-albums, whose concept is based on metacomplex emotion in the context of digital art. In the first volume, "Plays Albert Ayler", Ehlers composed one long piece for solo cello, which he then cut up and reassembled into two new compositions. Where the use of digital processes were once more prominent and noticeable,

An effusive title that roughly translates as "Politics Do Not Need An Enemy" and a cover photogragh of an individual wearing a t-shirt with a pre-9/11 image of the World Trade Center introduce this recording from German electronic music composer Ekkehard Ehlers. It's hard not to immediately qualify the music within as holding some sort of political agenda or at least some wry commentary about politics, culture, art, or whatever, simply because he's already loaded the metaphoric gun with rather powerful signifiers. For better or for worse, those political references remain an external device and Ehlers' music pursues a path entirely different. Best known for the outstanding "Plays" series of homages to Cornelius Cardew, John Cassavettes, Albert Ayler, etc. and for his equally solid "Heroin" collaboration with Stefan Mathieu, Ehlers had developed a myopic fuzziness of digital pixelations from various samples, found sounds, and acoustic instrumentations. While the laptop is still the center of the Ehlers' world, the ephemeral drones which previously amassed from dense layerings of tiny sounds have subsided within "Politik Braucht Keinen Feind." Considering that the aesthetic flourishing of digital synthesis through programs like Max/ MSP and Supercollider has over-saturated the market, Ehlers' decision is certainly a good one. Here, he has culled strident samples from cello and bass clarinet performances and manipulated them into looped details. In turn, he has exaggerated many of those textures, such as through his increase of the bass frequencies from the bass clarinet into psychoacoustically potent tones and through his emphasis of the micro-abrasions between the bow and the cello's strings. These little events and gestures flutter into atonal orchestrations and psychically tense atmospheres which come across as something of a hybrid of Tony Conrad and Pierre Henry. Beautiful but uneasy listening.

MPEG stream: Maander III
MPEG stream: Blind IV

Record number two (but the first one we've listed) from East Coast avant black/doom terrorists Ehnahre, featuring members of Kayo Dot and Biolich, whose sound is definitely on the confusional side of heavy, sounding more like a mash up of doom metal and free jazz than anything more traditionally metal. Six, mostly looooong songs, that flit from skittery churning crunch to blurred black blast and back again, mixing in strings and horns, a swirling, dizzyingly complex exploration of abstract heaviness, that will probably be frustrating for those after something 'brootal', but for the adventurous listeners out there, who like their metal to confound and confuse, then Ehnahre should definitely hit the spot. Just take opener "The Clatterbones", beginning with a splatter of manic free jazz drum splutter, underneath some atonal sprawling downtuned riffage, and some sick demonik vokills, lots of space, seriously 'free' and loose and abstract, horns belch and bleat way down in the mix, it's not until about 2 minutes in that everything seems to coalesce, and suddenly, it's a murky muddy blurred bit of avant death metal, churning and roiling, the drums wildly manic, the riffing gnarled and twisted, the arrangements super convoluted, horns skronking in the distance, the sound blurring into black metal buzz, before splintering back into abstract black noise free metal chaos. And so it goes, a sound that is seemingly impossible to pin down from one minute to the next, slipping from chugging ultra doom, to mathy noise rock, to blissed out field recording laced psychedelic ambience, to glitched out dronescape, to haunting abstract drone metal, to freaked out art metal weirdness, to deconstructed death metal chug, to harrowing black ambient dirge metal, those various descriptors constantly shifting and bleeding into one another, the whole record a massively confusional, geniusly complex, fucked up epic chunk of avant heaviness. Wow.

MPEG stream: The Clatterbones
MPEG stream: Foehn (Lullaby)

Brandon Labelle and Ken Ehlich offer a number of open-ended questions in forming the thesis for their book Surface Tension, which is centered on the nature of site-specificity and the conceptual ramifications of such cultural productions. As the ideas behind this book can get pretty heady, we'll just quote liberally from Labelle's and Erhlich's shorthand description found on the book: "This anthology explores site-specific practice and its legacy through critical and creative essays by leading theorists, architects, and artists from around the globe, including an insightful interview with Gordon Matta-Clark from 1976, an essay by Juli Carson on the linger controversy of Richard Serra's 'Tilted Arc,' and Kathy Battista's uncovering of London's women artists groups in the 1970s. These are complemented by historical and contemporary documentation of [sound] projects, including a rarely heard audio work by Bruce Nauman from 1969." The list of writers included in the book is an impressive selection from academia as well as the art world with contributions from Lucy Lippard, Kim Abeles, Carol Brown, CopenhagenOffice, Octavio Camargo, Jeremiah Day, Dispute Resolution Services, Jennifer Gabrys, Jen Hofer, Melissa Dyne, Colette Meacher, and many more. The accompanying CD is also packed with an allstar cast: Yoko Ono, Paul Panhuysen, Atau Tanaka, Stuart Dempster, Terry Fox, Bruce Nauman, undo, Alison Knowles, and more.

Even though this band is from San Jose, we had to go all the way to Sweden to discover them, not literally of course, but Swedish label Pillowscars were kind enough to turn us on to these guys (this guy actually), and their warm blissy home brewed 4-track dreampop. Guitars are strummed, harmonics chime, cymbals sizzle, the sound is surprisingly lush, but then again, this record had been in the works on and off for years, amazing what you can do with a 4-track given enough time, the vocals are weary and laid back, plaintive and emotional, gently wrapped up in the swaying jangle and loping tempo, the bass buzzes and growls, the melodies are lilting, pretty, dreamy, total bliss pop for sure, think Animal Collective, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sparklehorse, you know what we're talking about. The weirdest part is that the man behind Eiafuawn, was a member of legendary hardcore/screamo titans Mohinder! Who knew? Incredible packaging, thick 180 gram vinyl, and some super striking, gorgeous weird cover art! LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!

Second of two releases this week from the mighty Aesthetic Death label, who we owe big time, for not only releasing records by Wijlen Wj, Stumm, Wreck Of The Hesperus, but for being the long standing and likely long suffering home of ultradoomlords Esoteric. Check out the Murkrat elsewhere on this list for a whole different take on doom, but this here, the first full length from French sludge four piece Eibon, is classic doom drenched sludge, or sludgey doom, or whatever you want to call it. Massive downtuned guitars chugging and grinding away, pounding pummeling caveman drumming, gurgled beast-from-below bellows, plenty of feedback, but this isn't really ultra slow, we're not talking Monarch or anything like that, this is sludge-y more like Eyehategod or Grief or Bongzilla, midtempo, the guitars almost groovy, lurching and lumbering, the sound incredibly heavy and blown out, thick and dense, the distortion so thick that when a note is held for more than a second or two it seems to crumble before your ears. The band locked into a killer groove that barring a short stretch of feedback drenched ambience, never wavers, and occasionally explodes into dense bursts of furious tribal drumming and some seriously druggy downerpsychdoom guitar freakouts. The second track begins oddly enough with acoustic guitar, but the riff is soon swallowed up by the same riff, albeit soaked in fuzz and buzz and distortion, even slower and doomier that the opener, the main riff is a killer, the guitars tuned sooooooo loooow, they seem to warp and warble, occasionally fading out, leaving a sort of space rock minimal jam rife with weird effects and even some super simple melodic leads draped over the top. Could be vintage Monster Magnet actually during those parts, but the band soon launches back into the lurching dirge that opened the track, eventually finishing off in a noise drenched feedback smothered squall of blown out psychedelic high end ur-drone.

MPEG stream: Asleep And Threatening
MPEG stream: Staring At The Abyss

Eclectic German musician Eichstaedt's many projects range from jazz keyboard grooves to free improv to Mr. Bunglized rock to bleepy electronica. The latter is what is evident on this limited-edition cd-recordable, as Bjoern experiments with washes of wheezing electronics, droning blippage, and what sound like dissonant guitar meanderings over the three lengthy tracks here. Similar in spirit to the output of the Corpus Hermeticum label, perhaps, especially the work of Kjetil Brandsdal. Very nice (hey if it wasn't we wouldn't have gotten him to send us these from Europe). He says he's already at work on his next project, apparently some sort of cold and grim solo black metal band! Can't wait to hear it.

[ aquarius records catalogue — E ]