[ 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 351 through 400 of 1104.

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SORRY. Local musician Sharon Cheslow (also of Red Eye). Electrolettes is her guitar/tapes/drums project: infectiously charming punk meets beatbox goodness.

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SORRY. Cassette from the talented Sharon Cheslow. The Electrolettes are a duo on guitar, drums and tape loops. Angular, fiery shards of tumbling guitar and impassioned voice together with a compelling sense of melody make up the Electrolettes' energizing sound. Soon to have a single out on Kill Rock Stars, but you can hear them first.

We only have a very few of this Record Store Day release but wanted at least a few mailorder folks to get a shot at it. We weren't really sure what to expect, actually we sort of were, we just weren't sure whether it would work or not, and whether we would dig it. But like last year's Electronic Anthology Project, which focused on the songs of Built To Spill (BTS's Brett Nelson is the man behind EAP apparently), which we somehow missed completely, the EAP reimagines the fuzzed out indie rock jangle of our youth as eighties synth pop anthems, and weirdly enough, making it seem possible that ANY of these songs would have fit right in that decade, and could easily have ended up on the iconic Breakfast Club soundtrack, or in any of John Hughes' movies, Dinosaur's J Mascis has the perfect vocals, all cracked and weary and whiny, the original melodies just a bit melancholy, and the new arrangements/productions are spot on, channeling the cheesiest eighties electro pop and synth pop, all skittery drum machines, hand claps, and chiming synths, pulsing and pulsating, fuzzy faux basslines, and somehow, weirdly enough, these Dinosaur Jr classics work really well, which is either a testament to the originals, to the new versions, or both. Some of the folks at aQ were driven crazy by repeat plays on Record Store Day, but some of us, couldn't get enough. And again, totally sold out and out of print. We have just a little handful, and then these are gone for good.

MPEG stream: Raisans
MPEG stream: In A Jar
MPEG stream: Little Fury Things

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

SORRY. We only have a very few of this Record Store Day release but wanted at least a few mailorder folks to get a shot at it. We weren't really sure what to expect, actually we sort of were, we just weren't sure whether it would work or not, and whether we would dig it. But like last year's Electronic Anthology Project, which focused on the songs of Built To Spill (BTS's Brett Nelson is the man behind EAP apparently), which we somehow missed completely, the EAP reimagines the fuzzed out indie rock jangle of our youth as eighties synth pop anthems, and weirdly enough, making it seem possible that ANY of these songs would have fit right in that decade, and could easily have ended up on the iconic Breakfast Club soundtrack, or in any of John Hughes' movies, Dinosaur's J Mascis has the perfect vocals, all cracked and weary and whiny, the original melodies just a bit melancholy, and the new arrangements/productions are spot on, channeling the cheesiest eighties electro pop and synth pop, all skittery drum machines, hand claps, and chiming synths, pulsing and pulsating, fuzzy faux basslines, and somehow, weirdly enough, these Dinosaur Jr classics work really well, which is either a testament to the originals, to the new versions, or both. Some of the folks at aQ were driven crazy by repeat plays on Record Store Day, but some of us, couldn't get enough. And again, totally sold out and out of print. We have just a little handful, and then these are gone for good.

This 21st Century Toy is comin' at ya fully loaded with electro-punk Electronicat's barrel full of guitar samples, distorto-effects and analog synths. The lead-off track gets the party rolling with some super fuzzed-out guitar riffin' and glammy vocals not unlike that of Doctor & The Medics' "Spirit In The Sky" or Gary Glitter. But never fear, a more familiar thick synthesizer buzz soon enters the fray and threatens to obliterate all in its path. Lots of raw trashy dancefloor fun and glammy frivolity ensue as hinted at by song titles such as "Hoo Woo Woo" and "Birds Just Want To Have Fun" (actually one of the slower numbers on this album does indeed feature a bunch of birdies chirpin'). Play loud. Note: the cd version includes three more tracks than the vinyl.

MPEG stream: Tonight
MPEG stream: Hoo Woo Woo

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SORRY. Four new scorching tracks by the Wolfgang Voigt of France, Fred Bigot aka Electronicat. More of the addictive filthy analogue nastiness -- the soundtrack to your after hours drunken stupor -- from the latest remix darling of Depeche Mode. Nasty and pungent -- like good cheese, er, like French music should be.

On his fourth long player, Frenchman Fred Bigot has refined his unique style of psychedelic electropunk to excess. Gnarly analog synths rigged with loads of distortion are coupled with hard-as-fuck 808 shuffle rhythms and ripples of wah wah guitar. Imagine

More bubblegum electrofuzz poptronics from France's Electronicat, aka Fred Bigot (pronounced bee-joe we imagine), following up last year's Voodoo Man quite nicely. This new one's got all the shufflin' techno beats and glammy garagey guitar hooks you'd expect from this feller, and doesn't stint on his trademark fuzz at all. There's some female guest vocals (and rapping), plus plenty of synth squiggle and skinny tie new wavey catchiness. Go go Bigot!

MPEG stream: Chez Toi
MPEG stream: Nu Day

The French shuffletime electro maven known as Electronicat has his admirers here at AQ, and apparently 'round the world as well, as this obligatory remixes disc goes to show. It's got a completely hip and fairly diverse lineup of remixers: Adult., Dat Politics, the ubiqitous Kid606, dDamage, Felix Kubin, The Hacker, Mike Ladd, Original Hamster, and even Zbigniew Karkowski, amongst others. If you like your beats crunchy and catchy, glammed up with gobs of electro-punk guitar distortion, you should be an Electronicat fan -- and if you're an Electronicat fan, you already know if you would be interested in remixes I suppose. We enjoyed 'em.

MPEG stream: I Wanna Know Now
MPEG stream: Hello - Yes - Hello
MPEG stream: Mause

Excellent, ass-moving, dancefloor filth in the oh-so-infectious "Schaffel" style from Fred Bigot, aka Electronicat - French counterpart to T. Raumschmiere/Marco Haas or a tight rockin' Wolfgang Voigt (re: his 12" series as Frieland). The title cut was

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SORRY. Second disc from France's analogue dancefloor thump maniac Fred Bigot. T-Rex is resurrected in a haze of rumbling analogue synths and smooth shuffle rhythms. Featuring the Kompakt approved "Shuffle Time".

Bo Diddley goes Electro? Uh-huh, some of this sounds a bit like that. Yes, France's Electronicat (aka Fred Bigot) is back with another neigh-irresistable album of glammed-up, poppy, punky, distortion n' groove engorged electronica. If you liked Electronicat's previous disc 21st Century Toy you'll like this. His clash of electric guitar fuzz and "shuffletime" techno beat-throb works its usual magic here, this album perhaps getting even more into, um, a Powerbook psychobilly thang. Lead off track/single "Dans Les Bois" sets the tone with Bigot's voodoo man lyrics (in English, with a French accent) about being "lost in the jungle". Oui, there's something kinda campy about it all, but we can't help but like it nonetheless. And that thumpin' fuzz is so satisfying. Includes a big ol' lyric sheet with cryptic personal notes on each track's genesis as well.

MPEG stream: Dans Les Bois
MPEG stream: Non

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SORRY. First record from sexy electro Frenchman Fred Bigot aka Electronicat. Like someone raided Panasonic's studios and crafted a big batch of fucked up booty tracks.

Hard for us to describe, but easy for us to enjoy... Elegi's Sistereis is an extremely moody, haunting soundscape, dismal and a-frighted, constructed around sparse, sad piano musings set amidst eerie ambient hiss and hum. What sound like close-mic'd "field recordings" of random background creakings, crackle and clatter, which are perhaps the nervous rustlings of the pianist himself, are layered with melancholic drones. Meanwhile, the aforementioned piano carries on, so slowly, and so lovely. The whole effect is like listening in to the near-silent, wordless "internal monologue" of the piano player, suffering quietly some mental/emotional distress. This Norwegian project reminds us in a way of the British band Reigns, in that you get a sense of hearing an audio document of events that are otherwise hidden from view, and perhaps should remain hidden. Elegi also brings to mind the similar "acoustic doom" sounds on the Type label, like Svarte Greiner and Xela, of which of course we're fans. This is actually released on the Svarte Greiner guy's own label, Miasmah. The cd booklet is mysteriously evocative, with grey-toned Victorian photo collages depicting something of a dreary nautical theme, and text telling of a burial at sea... which all begins to make sense when you lean that the man behind Elegi, Tommy Jansen, supposedly has as a hobby (vocation?) diving down to explore wrecked ships in the watery depths! Depths which he evokes effectively on this disc...

MPEG stream: Despotiets Vesen
MPEG stream: Time Lapse
MPEG stream: Fyrtarnet part 3

There must be something about the wondrous landscapes of Norway that seems to breed some of the most epic, gorgeously somber music around. Frigid cold and towering crags rising from the Arctic water, it's no wonder Tommy Jansen, the composer behind Elegi, is a living example of this Norwegian vision that never fails to blow us away. Varde, the title of Elegi's second album in a trilogy from the excellent Miasmah label, translates to cairn, a pile of stones usually left to mark a pathway. Which is totally appropriate considering Varde was written as an instrumental narrative retelling the adventures and hardships of the first polar explorations. With electronics, piano, quiet percussion, various field recordings and lush violin, Jansen lures the listener into a world not unlike the experience of those brave explorers: icy bleakness, uncertainty and impending doom. Shimmering drones grow and subside, slow trudging footsteps in the distance, cascading swirls of snow are lifted and thrown about by the wind. Jensen is a master at crafting an incredibly vivid atmosphere, evoking frozen memories of the desolate north, gorgeous and inspirational. Combining modern composition, ambient drones, and his love for Victorian storytelling, Jensen offers up his most accomplished and touching masterpiece, a seriously beautiful and haunting experience. Kinda like if Andrew Chalk, Goldmund and Stars of the Lid met up in the Arctic to write an epic score for the apocalypse. Super dark dreamy goodness here, we couldn't be more impressed. Already we've played this a bunch in the store, and really can't get enough of it. Varde is just one of those records where you hear something new every time you listen to it, subtle textures and details that surface from the constantly shifting background. Highly recommended for fans of washed out midnight ambience, similar to the dreamier stuff the Type label has been releasing lately, beautiful melodies laced with a sinister darkness that lurks just below the surface. Oh and, uh, just in case you couldn't tell already, we REALLY dig this album!!! Highly recommended, especially for fans of any of the other recent killer releases on the Misamah label!!

MPEG stream: Skrugard
MPEG stream: Rak

Elegy was a one off project comprised of Alan Sparhawk of Low, Jessica Bailiff, Brian John Mitchell, Mark gartman, Jesse Beacom, Ryley Fogg, and Michael Anderson who had all come together for a 25 hour continuous drone composition that was a tribute of a mutual friend who had been murdered. Given that this performance occured in late September 2001, the proximity to 9/11 only heightened the sense of mourning and loss already loaded into the performance. "Radio Broadcasts" however does not feature any of that 25 hour piece, rather this is a condensation of that music recorded for a local radio station in Duluth, Minnesota. Unfortunately quick at 28 minutes, this indie-rock chamber ensemble for electric and acoustic guitars, cello, electronics, percussion, keyboards, hurdy gurdy, and dulcimer unfurls a gorgeous piece of eternal music on par with the organic dronescaping of Stars Of The Lid. A touchingly beautiful tribute.

MPEG stream: Track 1
MPEG stream: Track 2

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SORRY.

After about ten years of existence, and a bunch of limited vinyl-only documents, including a fairly recent LP with Nana April Jun, also on Touch, the mysterious dronological entity Eleh releases their first ever compact disc. Eleh's aesthetic of low frequency, (often) low volume drones fits in well on the Touch label. On Location Momentum, there's an hour of Eleh's vibrations, five tracks, all but one quite lengthy, some barely audible. At low volumes, Eleh's "minimalist noise" will slowly, almost imperceptibly insinuate itself into your consciousness, it becomes part of the surrounding sonic environment, instead of something you're specifically listening to. Track one, "Heleneleh", is a subtle, slowly evolving, stretched-out presence, less heard than felt. A hum, a throb, a wavering drone. It's meditative, like a subliminally sensed Buddha machine loop, under a microscope... But turn up the volume, and it becomes physical, starts squeezing your head just a little bit. Near the end of this 20+ minute track, before it fades, Eleh decides to start modulating the pitch up and down, getting jiggy with it Eleh style, or maybe just saying, something's happening, almost done, waving goodbye. But really it's only the beginning. The next track, the shortest one here, does a backwards-sounding whip-whip-whip for about two and half minutes. It becomes lulling quite quickly, and you might wish it was still doing its slowly stuttering thing when track 3, "Circle One: Summer Transcience" starts up, utilizing a temporarily annoying high pitched test-tone sound, but that's soon joined by deeper pulsations, and begins to get interesting. This one's for the Ryoji Ikeda fans out there! A subtle bassy thump-thump-thump picks up the pace, your heartbeat perhaps quickening along with it, the test tone become more of a buzz, some white noise wind sound also enters the mix in the background, and with such simple elements Eleh creates a compelling 13 minute, 33 second composition, for those willing to take the time to absorb it. Actually, a lot of this disc reminds us of Ikeda, also Alva Noto most definitely, and Mika Vainio and the like. The disc continues on with two more tracks of similar length, but their own identities, some elements louder and more overt than what's come before, some more "clicky" in Geiger counter fashion, yet again, there's a spooky, "is that sound coming from my stereo or outside or somewhere upstairs or inside my brain???" aspect to these. As with so many Touch releases, recommended!

MPEG stream: Heleneleh
MPEG stream: Circle One: Summer Transcience
MPEG stream: Rotational Change For Windmill

Seems like no matter what, there's always some obscure gem left out there to be dug up and reissued, you've never heard it all. Here's the latest example, a reissue of a 1976 album with a promising title and equally alluring cover art. Electronic Mind Waves by Italy's mysterious Elektrikus (aka one Andrea Centazzo) is indeed pretty awesome, as a lone offering naturally touching on both the traditions of Italian prog and Germanic "kosmische" electronics, especially heavily influenced it would seem by the latter. While over the years Centazzo has apparently made other albums, of improvised avant-garde jazz, collaborating with the likes of Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, and ROVA, under his one-off Elektrikus guise (as might be expected) he concentrated on synthesizer-based keyboard music, creating hypnotic (and sometimes haunting) electro-acoustic soundscapes of abstract droning synths and sequencer patterns, also employing tinkling bells, tape effects, and on one track, upright bass. There's eight tracks here, 38 minutes of his shimmering, ringing, burbling sounds that wouldn't sound out of place on the score to some strange sci-fi flick. Fans of Tangerine Dream, Conrad Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze should definitely check this out... For an Italian comparison, maybe some Franco Battiato? It also reminds us of a variety of more current underground acts, at moments like Vibracathedra Orchestra, or Kemialliset Ystavat, or something on Spectrum Spools, perhaps! Kinda disappointed that this turned out to be a cd-r, though. We thought it was a real cd at first, it's in a jewel case and totally pro-printed with color artwork and all. Not sure why they didn't make it a real cd (and it's NOT a bootleg, Ictus is Centazzo's own label, started in the '70s and reactivated recently). Oh well, still neat to have!

MPEG stream: Frequencer Departure - Flying At Daybreak
MPEG stream: First Wave
MPEG stream: Power Hallucination

One of a whole mess of new releases from UK tape label the Tapeworm (we'll get to the others on the next couple lists), Circling Above is the latest from a longtime aQ faves, Elektro Guzzi, who are in fact a live techno band, as in they're a proper actual band, not a DJ or some studio whiz, a real band with real instruments, drums bass and guitar, who make a super tranced out techno music, without loops or drum machines or computers, it's actually a live group of real humans playing real instruments, and making music that sounds like it would be right at home on Kompakt or Raster-Noton. Beyond the concept, which is amazing, the music is pretty fantastic as well, a mesmerizing mix of woozy cyclical melodies and muted pulsing rhythms, total late night bliss out techno, that sounds digital but is purely analog, apparently even the label didn't believe this stuff was actually being played until they watched a live rehearsal video. No loops, no overdubs, but somehow, it still sounds loopy and dubby, hypnotic and heady, all the sounds wreathed in an organic crackle, the sound raw and organic, but somehow sculpted into something that sounds impossible electronic. We love these guys, and these three tracks are just more of what we love. Everyone who Elektro Guzzi's Live P.A. record, are gonna want this too. And if you've yet to hear these guys, check it out, you won't be sorry. And like all Tapeworm tapes, extremely limited!

This isn't all that new (it came out last year, 2011) but we just heard it, as soon as we did, we knew we wanted to review it. It's the third full-length album from this Vienna-based band, who play what sounds like techno music LIVE, with all-analog 'rock' instrumentation of guitar, bass, and drums - no computers, no sampling, no synthesis, no loops, no overdubs. Elektro Guzzi are probably not the only artists to think of doing this, but they're the first we've heard, and they do it really, really well! It's kind of amazing - listening to this, if you didn't know they were a live group of humans playing 'real' instruments, in a kind of reverse engineering of electronic dance music, you probably wouldn't ever guess. Their music is as rigid and repetitive as any techno made by machine� and yet, you might detect that there's something special about 'em, something more vital than most techno, an extra depth to the sound that could never come out of a laptop. Must be incredible to see/hear in person, 'cause it's so mesmerizing on disc. They play with all the discipline and precision of aQ faves The Necks, but in a different, though equally hypnotic, idiom. And, setting them further apart from more everyday techno, these ten tracks can often eventually build into blowouts wherein the rhythmic elements become dense enough to have rather more of a textural impact. Very impressive, everyone here agrees, including our resident techno DJ Matt. Now we'll have to get their other earlier albums too...

MPEG stream: Vogelgrippe
MPEG stream: Bronze
MPEG stream: Perturbed Dub

Chet Scott might not be a household name, but for all you dark ambient / drone / found sound freaks out there it probably will be soon. Not only does he run the Glass Throat label, which is responsible for releasing lots of gorgeously dark and drone-y records, including both records by the post-Noisegate outfit Beneath The Lake (whose new record is reviewed elsewhere on this list), but he also performs as Ruhr Hunter, whose last record of desolate post industrial drones and ambient soundscapes we absolutely loved. With the Elemental Chrysalis, Scott, is joined by James Woodhead, and together, the two explore a curious world of dense drones, forest mythology, elemental symbolism and folky flutter. Like the best of Ruhr Hunter Lustmordian rumble mixed with sun dappled and summery forest folk, lilting melodies, gently strummed guitars, simple pointilist piano, throat-singing style vocals, pastoral soundscapes of fingerpicked guitar, spare tribal rhythms and swoonsome bowed strings, all above a shimmery backdrop of warm reverberating chordal whir, all constructed from acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, cello, organ, thunder sheet, theremin, bowed sitar, Egyptian hand drums, environmental samples, Brazilian surdo drum, bodhran. electric bass, energy chimes (!), wooden flutes, black cat ocarina (!!), harmonica, mountain dulcimer, voice and hermit thrush sample (!!!). Completely and beautifully tranquil and mesemerizing.

MPEG stream: Mourning Dew Of The Fallen Leaf
MPEG stream: Oceans Wreathed In Flame

Finally, the return of the Elemental Chrysalis, the duo of Chett Scott (aka Ruhr Hunter, he also runs Glass Throat Recordings) and James Woodhead, who were responsible for The Calocybe Collection, one of our favorite discs of 2005. A sprawling woodlandscape of dark ominous dronemusick and fluttery forest folk. It's been 3 years but once you hear The Dark Path To Spiritual Expansion, you'll understand what took so long. A gorgeously packaged double disc set, looooooong tracks, four songs on each disc, the shortest clocking in at 7:32, the longest at 26:55. Gone is much of the drone, leaving their sound much more folky, the focus on the strings, plucked and strummed, buzzing and humming, the sound a mysterious mystical crawl, foresty, funereal, dark and dolorous and dreamlike. The first nearly 15 minutes of the opening track consist of the same acoustic melody, repeated over and over, like some magical mantra, and it works somehow, the repetition trancelike, the subtle variations, propelling the track forward. Eventually, the track spreads out, the vocals ghostly moans, the strums become more abstract, the sound underpinned by haunting shimmers and whirs. While these guys do get lumped in with the free folk or freak folk of forest folk movements, on The Dark Path, they are definitely something more akin to classic seventies folk. It could be some lost disc from a mysterious UK hippy commune in 1971. Opening for Comus and The Incredible String Band. This is some serious Wickerman shit. But without all the silliness or overt weirdness. The Elemental Chrysalis have created timeless folkmusic. A sort of foresty country music. Bits of twang definitely inform the band's dark wistful threnodies. The pace is lugubrious, the sound is sprawling and soporific, the voices drawled to the extent that they often sound like just another instrument. And the instrument list again is extensive and massive, a handful we'd never even heard of, but the band don't do the usual, everything and the kitchen sink, instead, they are employed subtly and judiciously, so much that you could be forgive for believing it to be just voice and guitar and a bit extra ambience. There are a few moments, especially on the second disc, where the band stretch out and craft some serious sonic soundscapes, but even then, they tend to drift above that same gorgeous forest floor folk flutter. A gorgeously languorous countrified folk flecked slowcore, that will no doubt appeal to all the various folks mentioned above, but should also appeal to fans of later Earth, and anyone into dark beauty and haunting musical mystery. Fantastic packaging, an oversized thick cardstock 6 panel fold over sleeve, green and black, stunning cover art, linernotes and credits, the cds mounted on nubs on two of the panels...

MPEG stream: In Through A Desert Door Of A Wooded Heart
MPEG stream: Procession Of Burning Flowers
MPEG stream: Hehaka

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SORRY. Hip hop remix.

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SORRY. Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "Oochie Wally" (Braveheart's).

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SORRY. Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "Get Ur Freak On" (Missy Elliott).

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SORRY. Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "Ugly" (Bubba Sparxxx).

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SORRY. Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "Oh Yeah" (Foxy Brown) mixed with Maytals "54-46". B-side says "version" but has Elephant Man's theme song instead.

With an album title like "Log On" you know that Elephant Man wants to let his audience know that he's still on the cutting edge... er, maybe. But this 2001 release does seem to follow in the trend of many rising stars in dancehall by working in a hip hop flavor

RealAudio clip: Warrior Cause
RealAudio clip: Yuh A War
RealAudio clip: Anything-A-Anything

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SORRY. Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "Shake Ya Ass" (Mystikal).

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

SORRY. Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "One Minute Man" (Missy Elliott).

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SORRY. Hip hop remix. Rhythm = "One Minute Man" (Missy Elliott). B-side says "version" but it actually has Capleton's "Forward Inna Clothes" (different mix?) on it.

Another Jamaican dancehall 7". This time the rhythm is again"One Minute Man" (Missy Elliott). And the B-side has a completely unrelated version. Yes indeed, as the title implies this is Elephant Man and Ricky Rudy paying homage to Bob Marley here, singing a slightly altered version of "Time Will Tell".

MPEG stream: Log On
MPEG stream: Watchie Pum
MPEG stream: Shizzle Ma Nizzle

Elephone follow up their Shivering cdep with... bunny ears? Wha'?! Not sure if the cover art's intended for Easter time or maybe the band's been hangin' out with Hefner. Hey, that's a pretty good song title, innit? Anyways, these SF fellas have generously offered up a limited edition combo set of 7" record and cd-r (both with the same music). Sort of a return to their earlier more punchy and poppy selves, but also a bit more edgy and angular than their more dramatic, moody recent offerings. Includes a cover of U2's "Seconds". Limited to 200.

MPEG stream: Hemlock 3
MPEG stream: Seconds

The latest album from this veteran Bay Area indie rock combo finds the band on a slightly different path. Most notable is the addition of female vocals courtesy of new band member Sierra Frost who also fleshes out things further on keyboards. Elephone has always been pretty darn punchy yet also well-crafted and dramatic, but these days they're even more so -- easily bringing to mind bands such as The Pixies and Arcade Fire. Heck, who doesn't love intelligent indie pop rock with boy-girl vocals and infectious hooks? This band always delivers the goods!

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SORRY.

Check out this emotive power pop EP from this Bay Area quintet who, as hinted at in the title, clearly enjoy a drink or three. This is the follow-up to their well-received album A Far Distant Parade. Although the very Devendra-Banhart-meets-Violent-Femmes'-Gordon-Dano high nasal male lead vocals might be considered an acquired taste, particularly on the first song, things seem much more locked in when other vocalists join into the slightly trippy, energetic fray. These are three solid, well-crafted and dramatic songs, the third brings things to a close with a solemnly meandering piano outro.

MPEG stream: Persona

The Camera Behind The Camera Behind The Camera is by far this SF band's most composed and focussed release to date. Tight and punchy (with the exception of the eighth song "Hollyhock" whose first half is slow and pretty and the vocal'n'guitar album closer "Something About Fire"), Elephone have smoothed out the rough edges in the vocals, tightened up the rhythm section and applied more attention to detail on each song's arrangement. The dynamics in the big sinewy guitars, synths and solid drumming are more pronounced and effective. The album as a whole is propelled by a brooding verve. On a bunch of these songs with their solid thumpin' beat, Elephone will have the indie rock kids making their way to the dancefloor in no time! Fits really well alongside the recent self-titled debut from their local pals (and frequent show bill sharers) Madelia. Psst, the official release date is July 11, but we've got some now!

MPEG stream: Let Go Of My Arm
MPEG stream: Hollyhock

Here's the new 5-song ep from local combo Elephone which treads a different, more expansive path than their last self-released ep 2003's Still Life with Vodka and its full length predecessor A Far Distant Parade (both now sadly out of print). The first two songs are very dramatic and surprisingly early/mid-Radiohead-eque, but on the third the band shifts into quite a different space... and for fans of the Elephone of old, it's a welcome one! The song "Style Style" is definitely more pop-oriented and more like their past efforts, but much more composed and crisply executed. High on energy and emotion. With cool artwork featuring a gasmasked frog and a goggled bird.

MPEG stream: Moving Beds
MPEG stream: Style Style

The very first release from reissue imprint Dark Entries was the highly collectible, if obscure album Bas Relief by Eleven Pond. Originally self-released in 1986, that album slipped out of view except for those avid synth-pop / minimal-wave collectors. Yet, when Dark Entries reissued the album in 2009, the album went viral, reflecting a particular historical revisionist strain of the mid-'80s that earnestly held onto the romantic poetry that oozed out of 4AD and Factory Records from those seminal days. Even two decades after the fact, Eleven Pond had a verifiable 'hit' single on their hands with the track "Watching Trees" which landed on many a retro-garde compilation and even warranted a limited edition 12" single from the art-rock imprint Angular Recordings in 2012. So, with Assemblage, we have another set of Anglophilic synth-pop from these upstate New York lads; but unlike Bas Relief, this album was recorded and then languished for 25 years (!) until Dark Entries was able to get the songs remastered and released. The bulk of the sound, all bittersweet chiming Marr / Sumner guitars meshed with minor-key synth percolations, carries over from Bas Relief, with a difference found in a new drummer using electric drums instead of a kit, really giving Eleven Pond a pretty serious New Order vibe. Certainly nothing to scoff at! There's a reprise of the aforementioned single "Watching Trees" appearing as a bedroom demo, which still sounds pretty damn good in a more stripped down, electronic context. Listening to this, you gotta wonder if there'd ever be a Bolshoi reissue campaign in the works... Great stuff as always from Dark Entries.

MPEG stream: Blood Ruins Film
MPEG stream: Watching Trees (Bedroom Demo)
MPEG stream: Green & Gold

What a total gem! An amazing unearthed, ultra obscure album from way back in 1986. Hailing from Rochester, NY, Eleven Pond crafted super infectious dark pop with wonderful synth moments and song writing that has really held up over the years. Some of the production, and much of the overall sound reminds us a bit of Seventeen Seconds era Cure, where basslines lead the tracks and the guitars and synths add such a nice mood and texture. We're also reminded a lot of another obscure mid '80s band, For Against, who had the same ability to take Factory/4AD elements and influences and meld them so nicely with classic eighties American college rock, they kind of sounded like this amazing hybrid of Joy Division and R.E.M. With new romantic vocals that totally tap into vintage Depeche Mode and New Order territory, we also hear echoes of other lesser known yet great bands of this era like Soul Merchants and Jet Black Factory. With so many new bands lately referencing that era and looking to similarly vintage sounds for inspiration, it's so refreshing to hear an actual relic from that period, too bad it sadly somehow slipped through the cracks, but now we can finally enjoy this set of songs, so worthy of much wider appreciation. Limited to a pressing of 500, each copy has been silk screened and contains two Eleven Pond postcards as well as a sticker from Dark Entries, the label who mark this as their first release and who we have a pretty good feeling we're going to be hearing a lot more from in the future. Grab one while you can, as this is highly recommended!

MPEG stream: Tear & Cinnamon
MPEG stream: Asterisk
MPEG stream: Portugal

"If Brian Eno produced beautiful Italian arias in a Tibetan monastery". That's how the band's website describes AQ customer Ken Lee's Eleven Shadows and it's not that far off the mark. Haunting, creepy, sort-of-gothic epics with soaring strings, ominous atmospheres and operatic female vocals. Very cinematic and etherial with lots of traditional Tibetan instruments. Reminiscent of Dead Can Dance, Kate Bush, Enigma and the like. Nice.

RealAudio clip: Amitabha

[ aquarius records catalogue — E ]