[ aquarius records catalogue

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

Showing results 1151 through 1200 of 1521.

Freestyle Fellowship's legendary status was carved out in the early and mid-nineties when the Southern California outfit made such amazing records as Innercity Griots and To Whom It May Concern. Then they broke up. Then they got back together and recorded these Anyway, this is prime Fellowship territory, with simple chopped up melodies and spare beats backing up the unbelievably deft rhyming of Aceyalone, Jupiter, Mikah 9, and Peace. Very good, much better than most of the hip hop coming out these days, including the underground stuff.

RealAudio clip: Can You Find...
RealAudio clip: Freestyle Acapella

LA-based Project Blowed Recordings releases the newest Freestyle Fellowship record, you know, with Aceyalone, one of the greatest rappers ever, his style is so distinctive and amazingly deft. "Exercise your inner thighs!"

The southern California hip hop outfit known as Freestyle Fellowship (including Aceyalone, J. Sumbi, M.D. Himself, Mikah 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Self Jupiter) originally released this album in, like, 1993 or something, as a promo-only white label 12"! Then they got signed to a major and released several albums, but this one was never officially released (except for a rare version available for about 5 minutes years ago). Aceyalone's MC style is deft and hilarious, and this killer record is a must! The first track on the album may be Windy's favourite hip hop song ever, wherein "you're wack" gets rhymed with "succotash" and the punchline goes "Every rapper in the house, shut the funk up!"

RealAudio clip: My Fantasy

*Why* did the amazing southern California hip hop outfit Freestyle Fellowship feel the need to remix their debut album To Whom It May Concern? The record is over nine years old at this point and still completely relevant, fresh, and perfect. It's one of my favorite hip hop albums of all time. Aceyalone's flow is super deft and deep -- he rhymes "wack" with "succotash". I love him. *But* AQ highly recommends the first version of this album, To Whom It May Concern. We try to always have it in stock. Following are two soundclips of the same track, the first from To Whom It May Concern, and the second from Version 2.0. It's pretty obvious which one is better.

RealAudio clip: My Fantasy (from To Whom It May Concern)
RealAudio clip: My Fantasy (from Version 2.0)

Freiband is the most recent project of Frans De Waard, the Dutch chameleon whose collection of musical projects/recordings so far is larger than most musician's entire output. Yet to De Waard's credit, each project attempts to be its own entity with an intellect and an aesthetic all its own. Freiband finds De Waard working by himself, but everything that he uses on the Freiband albums is either stolen or borrowed... from the source material, to the software, to the equipment, to the compositional ideas, etc. Yet, De Waard is quick to point out that Freiband is not an example of the Plunderphonia of John Oswald or Wobbly. Musically, "Homeward" - the second Freiband album - is firmly entrenched in the ephemeral digital errata of Stephan Mathieu and Ekkehard Ehlers with a more pronounced sense of digital rhythms over the atmospheric drone; but unlike those two artists who have been forthright in who they had been paying homage to and / or remixing, De Waard doesn't allow us any insight into the origin of his 'stolen' samples, other than stating that Freiband pilfers from the "music of his youth." So the question remains, why tell us you're committing a felony when you're not letting us check out the stolen goods? Regardless of this conceptual conundrum, De Waard's "Homeward" is a solid album.

RealAudio clip: A67-A11
RealAudio clip: Swing

Freiband is the project of 'borrowed ideas' from the ubiquitous Frans De Waard, whose name has worked under the names Goem, Beequeen, Kapotte Muziek, Captain Black, Quest, Shifts, and probably a couple of other monikers. The process that De Waard

RealAudio clip: Remember
RealAudio clip: Echo

Pretty, chiming electronic melodies recorded back in '97, released in '99, and finally here at AQ. What's notable about this album is that it was made by a teen from the land of apple orchards known as Kelowna, BC. Geography lesson: it's a lovely little city located in the interior of British Columbia, Canada. Not exactly a hotbed of new music. Anyway, Scott August is his name, and he's constructed a disintegrating music box utilizing samples of analog sources. And it's all precariously held together by some steady drum beats. Quite nice.

The occasionalist project French Radio is the semi-improvised work of Bruce Anderson, Jim Kaiser, and A.C. Way. Anderson, of course, is the stalwart art-punk guitarist from MX-80; Kaiser and Way are two of the more prolific participants in the damaged improv / noise scene in the Bay Area. As all three of these gentlemen of the avant-garde have their fingers in too many pies to count here, French Radio gigs have been few and far between; and Abandonded Children is only the second album from the trio. Fortunately, they are making up for lost time with two discs worth of gloop, din, murk, and turgid abstraction. The instrumentation for French Radio puts Anderson behind a large semi-circle of effects pedals that occasionally do allow for archetypal sounds to come from the guitar that connects them; Kaiser wields his now signature bicycle wheel with contact mic contraption and some reel-to-reel tape decks; and Way has a lo-tech set-up for turntable, cheap samplers, and microphones through which he utters monotone howls bathed in blackened reverb. The trio is at their best when they dive deep into a subterranean noise, nearing the depths of something oozing from Locrian or Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, as metallic clanks from Kaiser's wheel lumber against strangely soothing blasts of cold noise; but when Anderson's lonesome guitar strums through the din, French Radio is as compelling as anything that Barn Owl has mustered. Each of the three lengthy tracks were studio recordings, made without any overdubs. A limited cd-r release, mind you!

MPEG stream: Ingrid
MPEG stream: Carousel
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An album many years in the making, Elements is the debut offering from French Radio, a collaborative effort between Bruce Anderson (MX80), Jim Kaiser (Petit Mal), and Andy Way (Maleficia). The record has finally been released, graced with cover art featuring the ever-eccentric drawings of M.S. Waldron / irr.app.(ext.). In many ways, the album is curiously prescient of our recent fascination with all things on the Lampse label, in particular that Jasper, TX record I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You although realized through the context of grizzled improvisation instead of a loosely sutured structuralism. Each of the four tracks on Elements represent the primordial fundamentals: Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. Through their constructions of guitar, turntable, tapes, and boat-loads of effects, French Radio conjures an interconnected sound between all of their base elements. The flanging tone-float activity of mangled electricity into distant clouds of din, crackle, and spectral dust has the threatening aura of an electrocutioner's chamber buzzing with high-voltage tension. Unrecognizably abstracted vocal collages culled from varispeed tapes and reverse spun turntables spiral in and out of the ominous clouds, topped with squalid layers of thunderous distortion alternating with mournful half-melodies strummed on Anderson's guitar. Limited to 100 copies.

MPEG stream: Earth
MPEG stream: Water

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

SORRY. There is something so self assured about the Fresh & Onlys sound, that really makes them seem like wise old sages in a garage rock scene full of impressionable younguns and wannabe hipsters. Luckily these guys aren't burnt out folks at all, as the sounds they crank out are pretty damn fresh sounding, with enough muscle to hammer those pop chops home, with confidence and enough melody to keep things so entertaining and super rocking. While there are some similarities to label mates Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees, there is also an almost old school punk aesthetic a la Mission Of Burma at play in these songs as well as psychedelic undertones that help make the Fresh & Onlys the perfect soundtrack for a nice and drunk and slightly stoned sunny afternoon barbecue. With a lineup that includes members of Skygreen Leopards, Black Fiction, and 3 Leafs you can hear the excitement in these short blasts of songs, as they are so much different in sound and scope than what most of these folks usually crank out.

MPEG stream: Feelings In My Heart
MPEG stream: Imaginary Friends
MPEG stream: Shattered Moon

We FINALLY got enough lps of this pop jam to list the vinyl: There is something so self assured about the Fresh & Onlys sound, that really makes them seem like wise old sages in a garage rock scene full of impressionable younguns and wannabe hipsters. Luckily these guys aren't burnt out folks at all, as the sounds they crank out are pretty damn fresh sounding, with enough muscle to hammer those pop chops home, with confidence and enough melody to keep things so entertaining and super rocking. While there are some similarities to label mates Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees, there is also an almost old school punk aesthetic a la Mission Of Burma at play in these songs as well as psychedelic undertones that help make the Fresh & Onlys the perfect soundtrack for a nice and drunk and slightly stoned sunny afternoon barbecue. With a lineup that includes members of Skygreen Leopards, Black Fiction, and 3 Leafs you can hear the excitement in these short blasts of songs as they are so much different in sound and scope then what most of these folks usually crank out.

MPEG stream: Feelings In My Heart
MPEG stream: Imaginary Friends
MPEG stream: Shattered Moon

So, if you wanted to tell someone, hey, there's this band, called The Fresh & Onlys, from San Francisco, and they're really fantastic, it wouldn't hurt to start 'em off with this disc. Unreleased stuff from the prolific garage pop outfit's early days (obviously), circa 2008 (?), a dozen tracks that will have all fans of Tim Cohen & Co. rejoicing - as well as aforementioned person you play this for to demonstrate to 'em that The Fresh & Onlys are really good. It's a convincing batch of foot tapping tunage, sensitive and sunshiney, rocking out too with classic garaginess. Some of this sure has an '80s indie feel, like these songs wouldn't feel out of place on the soundtrack to a John Hughes movie, with the likes of "Pile Of Bones" giving off a Jonathan Richman vibe. No idea why these songs weren't released at the time - glad they dug 'em out of the vaults, making our day. Hindsight is 20-20, but listening to this, we venture to say that The Fresh & Onlys are a band likely to go places!

MPEG stream: Summer Wheels
MPEG stream: Sunglasses
MPEG stream: I'm A Puppet

By the time we had finally heard the Fresh & Onlys, there was already some sort of mania for them going on, that we found ourselves in the midst of, all their records were sold out, we couldn't get more, out of print 7"s were popping up on eBay, the sort of thing that we might expect to happen with super popular ultra hip bands, but this local band who only had a couple 7"s?? We were skeptical, until we heard 'em, then it all made sense. These guys rule. And rock. They have sort of fallen in with the new breed of noise pop lo-fi tweakers, but the Fresh & Onlys are way more about classic pop songs, their sound channeling vintage sixties pop, the early eighties LA sound, classic power pop, garage rock. The production is most definitely not lo-fi, the guitars are thick and loud and ring out, the bass throbs, the drums are simple and understated, the vocals are down in the mix, but not buried, there are plenty of harmonies, falsettos, cool little spidery guitar leads, the overall sound is just a tiny bit fuzzed out. We never noticed it before, but the band that we're most reminded of is the Leaving Trains, easily one of our favorite bands ever, criminally under appreciated for sure (Kill Tunes and Fuck are two all time stone cold classics). Tim Cohen's vocals are a dead ringer for the Leaving Trains' Falling James, and the sound too has that sort of punk rock morphed into fuzz pop sound. They also share lots of sonic elements with local pals Thee Oh Sees, that sort of washed out wall of sound classic Spector sound, plenty of fuzzy organs, strummed steel string guitars, reverby girl group back up vox, as well as some seriously garage guitar crunch all over the place. We dig BIGTIME!

MPEG stream: Black Coffin
MPEG stream: Grey-Eyed Girl
MPEG stream: No Second Guessing
MPEG stream: What's His Shadow Still Doing Here?

Back with their sixth album, these local boys are still sounding pretty fresh - whilst also sounding so very comfortably familiar. House Of Spirits finds Tim, Wymond, Kyle and Shayde kicking out another set of sweetly wistful indie pop jams/gems, replete with the usual head-nodding melodies, guitar jangle and (soft) fuzz... This time 'round, it sounds like they've been listening to a lot of The Cure, early Cure, yep that's what we're hearing here, it's just a bit downer-moody, their once-apon-a-time garaginess gone kinda gloomy, Tim's lyrics suitably strange and spooky. But the F&O's still can't help but let some sun shine in, some of the time. Nice stuff, as usual, even if a bit different! We just realized, these guys have recorded full-lengths and singles for the following labels: Castle Face, Woodsist, Captured Tracks, Sacred Bones, In The Red, Hardly Art, Hozac, Agitated, Trouble In Mind, and (their current home) Mexican Summer, among others. Wow, could they possibly have MORE indie cred?

MPEG stream: Home Is Where?
MPEG stream: Animal Of One
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It's easy to forget that The Fresh & Only's are a new band as the songs they've been cranking out have the self-assuredness of a band who's been around for decades. Two new cuts of their garage pop sprinkled with enough punk spirit and weirdo undertones to make their songs always piques our interest. We hear a really cool Joe Meek influence in the sound of "I Saw You Seeing Me" proving that just because these folks are zoning in on some pure garage pop delight they haven't forgotten how to infuse nice touches of their wide range of musical influences into the mix. Can't seem to keep Fresh & Only's vinyl in stock too long, they're already flying out the door, so better grab one of these while you can.

What more can we say about these SF garage poppers that we haven't already? This here's another double shot of pretty much perfect pop music, less and less garage rock sounding with every release, conjuring up that perfect mix of a little bit 'now', fuzzy, reverby, crunchy, and a little bit 'then', lush harmonies, timeless hooks, wall of sound production, female back up vox... not to mention plenty of jangle and strum, ooohs and aaahs, and songs that stick in your head like crazy. The A-side is all propulsive drumming, fuzzy organs, chiming guitars, some low slung Joy Divisiony basslines, and an almost new wave croon, dreamy falsetto back up vox, and of course everything wreathed in echo and soft focus effects, transforming classic sounding jangle pop into something slightly more swirly and psychedelic. The B-side is much more swaggery and groovy and surfy, with one of those riffs you know you've heard somewhere before, total old school classic Beatles-esque pop, weary heartfelt vocals, some tinkling xylophone style melodies, and the back up vox steal the show, wrapping the track in an irresistible almost ethereal sounding sixties girl group haze. So good. Any other band this prolific, close to 10 releases in less than 2 years, might be hitting some sort of saturation point, but with these guys, we still can't ever seem to get enough.

Another blast of fuzzed out garage pop from these SF noise poppers, this one short and sweet, two super hooky catchy jams, the first all old school garage rock (via the new breed of retro new wave pop garage weirdos), throbbing bass, tons of Farfisa organs way up in the mix, heavily reverbed vocals, a catchy chorus (and a pretty catchy verse as well), and a super twisted laughing vocal part. The flipside is an Oh Sees style rocker, heavy on the fifties fuzz and the falsetto back up vox, all wound around a frantic beat, but with some cool unexpected angular atonal melodies. Probably pretty dang limited so don't dawdle, no idea how long these will last, which makes sense, a 7" is pretty much the perfect way to experience a band like the F&O's, little frenetic bursts of rocking pop perfection. Comes with a download card too, so you can cram these jams onto your computer.

This latest from these prolific San Francisco indie popsters is perhaps a bit less garagey and fuzzy than some of their past works. Long Slow Dance is an apt title, for Tim, Shayde, Kyle and Wymond's brand of dreamy indie jangle here, soaring from softly crooned heartache to powerful euphoria. In fact, "Euphoria" is the name of one of the songs. It's a record full of folky lushness that reminds us a bit of Fleet Foxes for sure. So fans of both bands ought to dig this. Each song is strummed and sung to moody, catchy pop perfection, destined to get stuck on 'repeat' if you give it a chance. Another stellar outing from the F&O boys!

MPEG stream: Yes Or No
MPEG stream: Presence Of Mind
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Lately it seems that between Captured Tracks and Sacred Bones, there's some sort of label competition to see who can release the most stuff. It's definitely a close race, with both constantly churning out record after record, the weird thing is, it's pretty much all great. This latest one from SF's own Fresh & Onlys though, just might be the best yet. It's definitely the best F&O record so far, the songs, the vibe, the sound, the production. Everything that was hinted at on past records seems fully realized here. It's short, a 6 song 12" at 45 rpm, but it's plenty. As always, the songs are ace, catchy and hooky, the guitars jangle and crunch, the vocals wrapped in reverb, the drumming propulsive, the bass fuzzy, but it's a lot darker and more minor key that past F&O records, it's also the lushest and loudest recording, which all contribute to making this the perfect F&O to end up on Captured Tracks. While still jangly and poppy, it's also a little gloomy, a lot new wave, with buzzy Joy Divison bass, squalls of wild psychedelic guitar, plenty of ooooh's and aaaah's, tribal drumming, angular riffing, a perfect mix of sixties jangle, and cold/new wave gloom. The production is lush, but also weird, and tripped out, ethereal and gauzy, and this time around the sound reminds us not just of other likeminded contemporaries, but also of darker groups, like the Wipers, Abecedarians, Kommunity FK, that sort of thing, albeit filtered through the F&O's perfect pop jangle. It's heady and hypnotic, kick ass and catchy, but also haunting and moody and a bit murky. That and the fact that these might be the best songs Tim Cohen and company have written so far, make this a definite contender for year end best ofs, even though it's only April. WAY recommended.

Not actually for sale 'til Tuesday (10/12), but if you want one then we can hold it for ya... Yet another fantastic new record from these SF garage poppers, they really crank em out, but hell, every record is jammed with fuzzy jangly crazy catchy perfect pop, so we're sure as heck not complaining. Especially with the band's recent trajectory, their sound getting darker and more melancholy, without losing any of its inherent fuzziness or hookiness. Like on their last record, Play August In My Mind, Play It Strange continues to nudge their core sound, a sort of classic sixties tinged garage/powerpop, all ooooh's and aaaah's and simple rhythms and lush organs and sweet harmonies and big guitars, into territories much more murky and not so nearly sunshiney, adding lots of melancholy minor key mystery, plenty of twang, brooding moodiness, reminding us of classic gloom rockers like the Wipers and Kommunity FK, but also of groups like the Leaving Trains or the Hoodoo Gurus, the result a fantastically moody dark retro jangle garage pop shot through with bits of more classic pop sounds, a la the Zombies, but on first listen this totally sounds like it could have come from LA circa 1985, like these guys could have been playing the Scream club with Tex & The Horseheads, Jesus And Mary Chain and the Abecedarians, plenty of post punk jangle mixed in with that sixties shimmer, the vocals deeper and more dramatic this time around, some of the songs sounding like old school sixties pop ballads, while others still brim with plenty of hazy reverb, crunchy guitar, woozy organ, tribal drumming and big hooks.

MPEG stream: Summer Of Love
MPEG stream: Waterfall
MPEG stream: Be My Hooker
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What more do you need to know? A new Fresh & Onlys 7", which means two more slabs of perfect pop. Not as fucked up and lo-fi as most of their contemporaries, the Fresh & Onlys traffic more in a total classic pop, Beach Boys, Kinks, Raspberries, Shoes, Cheap Trick, Beatles, sure it's rough around the edges, there are some woozy effects, the sound is wee bit lo-fi, but you'd be hard pressed to find any underground combos making pop as pure and catchy as these guys. The title track is a soaring chunk or nearly perfect power pop, with a chorus to die for, amazing harmonies, and a lush yet lo-fi sound. The flipside is a little bit more shuffly, with acoustic guitars, skittery percussion, a much less obvious hook, but one that definitely sounds like something sixties and British. Awesome. Another band who seem to be bringing back the heyday of the 7", not merely a dumping ground for leftovers, but instead a showcase for a band's best and most immediately appealing songs...

Yet another new record from SF's own Fresh & Onlys, and another fantastic batch of moody, melancholy jangle pop, and while it's hard to know what else to say about these guys, what with them seeming to release a new record practically every month, the minute we get an earful of the latest record, all we wanna do is forget all that and get lost in the new set of songs, mainman Tim Cohen's reservoir of classic pop songs still seemingly bottomless. And with every record, we find ourselves proclaiming some song their best yet, or a new favorite, and hare to say it but we're about to do it again. The title track here is practically perfect, Cohen's deep reverby croon, laid atop a low slung post punk bassline, wrapped in chiming guitars, the production lush and polished, but still quirky, with huge swaths of sound dropping out to let a little guitar lick float all on its own, before the band launch right back in, bit and bombastic. Catchy and hook, broody and darkly dreamy. The rest of the ep is just as good, the songs ranging from twangy organ driving strum (sounding a bit like Calexico actually), to hazy, melodic sixties dream pop shuffle, and from moody lilting garage-y jangle pop, to moody, murky, dark doleful dirge, the last song "Poison WIne" definitely one of our new F&O favorites, bombastic, lush and buzzy, the refrain a haunting descending minor key melody, the bass thick and fuzzy, the guitars crunchy, the vox weary and washed out, one of their darkest yet, and yeah, we know, but still, maybe one of their best. As always, recommended!

MPEG stream: Secret Walls
MPEG stream: Keep Telling Everybody Lies

On vinyl only via this 12" ep, some fine new material from these local indie pop faves, following in the footsteps of last year's Long Slow Dance full-length. Once again, well-written, upbeat catchiness, mostly sunshiney, very sixties smooth, classic-sounding stuff. Gotta hand it to the F&O gents, they're good at this! So for your melodic indie rock needs, it's easy to predict that Soothsayer's six songs will fit the bill. Handnumbered edition of 500 by the way.

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What else can we say about these local garage pop masters that we haven't already? Every record just gets better and better, and with a release rate that's starting to get Guided By Voices prolific, the quality of songs has not suffered one bit. And not only do the songs sound great, but the records do too, this one recorded in a proper studio and produced by Phil Manley of Trans Am. The new sound suits the new songs too, hardly garage pop anymore really, just classic kick ass popsmithery, super hooky, the vocals way up front in the mix, all the instruments lush and layered, a classic power pop made modern, with gorgeous vocals from Tarnation's Paula Frazer. Somehow leaves us still wanting more more more!!

Lately some of our favorite San Francisco musical minds have also added record label mogul to their resumes. John Dwyer launched Castle Face records to start putting out Oh Sees records and of course he released that Ty Segall full length which we are so in love with. Also newly a record label head is Kelly Stoltz (responsible for recording the latest Oh Sees album, as well as crafting some of the finest pop songs your ears are likely to hear). Chuffed is the name of his new label and The Fresh & Onlys kick things off with a debut 7" that's sure to please garage rock fans and lo-fi pop enthusiasts. Many folks might have seen the band play live without even knowing it, as they were picked to be the backing band for the legendary performance in town recently by Rodriguez in support of the reissue of his amazing album Cold Fact. Loyal AQ list readers will also be familiar with Tim from the other bands he also plays in: 3 Leafs, Black Fiction and others. Makes perfect sense that they are about to tour with Thee Oh Sees and that their full length will be on Dwyer's label, as these four songs are chock full of fuzzy hooky and raw garage pop spirit.

BACK IN PRINT!!! Most folks will probably be grabbing this for the F+O's tracks, but we're pretty blown away by Dan Melchior, and his awesomely super distorted garage pop, like Elvis Costello, all jammed up and slathered in crumbling hiss and grit, the vocals delivered in a thick English accent, the drums blown out, effcts all over the place, everything buried beneath a patina of blurred buzz, but the songs themselves, total classic power pop, Costello, Nick Lowe, that sort of thing, opener "Daylight Robbery" is a definite contender for pop jam of the year, with a main hook / melody that will stick with you like crazy. And yeah, we know he's been making record for years, but somehow this is one of the first times we've heard him. We're definitely gonna do some digging into Melchior's back catalog. You probabaly will too after hearing this... The Fresh & Onlys hold their own just fine thank you, with frantically strummed acoustic guitars, skiffly drums, reverbed vox, and two of their best songs yet, both channeling a sound similar to Melchior's, but with a bit more of an American nineties indie rock vibe, lo-fi, but weirdly lush, killer choruses, the sound warm and washed out, some cool sixties girl group back up vocals, the second track definitely getting all Spector-ish and reminding us quite a bit of Thee Oh Sees. Good stuff. And probably limited too...

We listed a different reissue of this great rare acid-folk album about a year ago... well guess what, now it's been retitled "Hatched" and reissued -again-, this time with seven bonus tracks instead of just two. And it looks better too. The bonus tracks include two non-album cuts from the band's lone single (which were on the previous edition) and five more live tracks from a newly-unearthed 1971 radio session! So, if you already have this on cd you can determine if you need this new version or not, but if you don't already have it, this is the one to get, obviously! Here's what we had to say about it before: For those of you into acid folk from the early '70, we have another terrific find with FRESH MAGGOTS. This teenage British duo's only record, not surprisingly deemed a failure upon its release with such an unappealling name (though of course we think it's cool), came out in 1971. Which, as you may know, some here say could be one of the BEST years for this -or any- genre. Influenced by the likes of Deep Purple, Zeppelin, and Pentangle, Fresh Maggots really don't sound as rock as the above outfits (partly due to lacking drums) but bring more to mind Forest, Tractor, or Tyrannosaurus Rex. There's lots of acoustic guitar folkiness here blended with fuzzed out fits of electric guitar. And there's a little tin whistle playing and triangle chiming going on, too! Melodic, pastoral, hearty, and highly recommended. This reissue, which the Fresh Maggots themselves had a hand in, includes extensive liner notes, and two [no, make that seven, now!] bonus tracks.

MPEG stream: Dole Song
MPEG stream: Spring

For those of you into acid folk from the early 70's, we have another terrific find with FRESH MAGGOTS. This teenage British duo's only record, not surprisingly deemed a failure upon its release with such an unappealling name (though of course we think it's cool), came out in 1971. Which, as you may know, some here say could be one of the BEST years for this -or any- genre. Influenced by the likes of Deep Purple, Zeppelin, and Pentangle, Fresh Maggots really don't sound as rock as the above outfits (partly due to lacking drums) but bring more to mind Forest, Tractor, or Tyrannosaurus Rex. There's lots of acoustic guitar folkiness here blended with fuzzed out fits of electric guitar. And there's a little tin whistle playing and triangle chiming going on, too! Melodic, pastoral, hearty, and highly recommended. This reissue, which the Fresh Maggots themselves had a hand in, includes extensive liner notes, and two bonus tracks.

MPEG stream: Dole Song
MPEG stream: Spring

This is the first we've heard from Canadian outfit Fresh Snow (they apparently shared a split with noise rockers Metz), and it's a stunning introduction. We had heard OF them, lots of comparisons to classic krautrock, which is what had us intrigued initially, and indeed that band prove to be experts at crafting tranced out motorik grooves, but where most bands approach their post-krautrock minimally, Fresh Snow's take is supremely maximal. Just check out the opener, a sprawling 14 minute epic that begins as a hushed sort of chamber music, all swirling strings, and melancholic melodies. We were prepared for a slow build, Godspeed style, but instead, the band leap right into it, exploding into a super saturated, dreamily distorted pulsing drum heavy chunk of kraut-influenced post rock mesmer, slithery basslines wrapped around a solid simple drum beat, while all around, the band fill every possible space with grinding guitars, howling streaks of feedback, rumbling synths, tangles of psychedelic shred, sci-fi FX, it's seriously noisy stuff, but all anchored to the woozy krauty groove. Fans of recent space-psych-kraut combos like Hookworms, and the Cardinal Fuzz stuff (Janitors, Cosmic Dead, the Hills), will immediately be smitten, and it's not all full bore psychedelic kraut freakout, the opening track goes through all sorts of equally mesmerizing permutations, a cool stretch where the guitars and synths are woven into a super trippy pulsating tangle of melodies, which leads to a synth driven dirgey but, that gets downright metallic, and is flecked with caustic blasts of twisted production and squalls of white noise, and the guitars, blown out and acid fried. There also seems to be some pizzicato strings, some shrieking electronics, all manner of noise and gnarled effects, but even with all that chaos, the band somehow manages to reign it in, and create ate something impossibly song-like out of what sounds a time like a sonic free for all. The second track, while half the length, is even more confusional, transforming the noise-kraut of the opener into a weirdly folk flecked bit of Stereolab-ish fuzzpop, rife with strings, and playful melodies, the sound soaring and super melodic, sun dappled and dreamy, but still rough around the edges, with the various sounds always on the verge of psychedelic blowout, infusing even playful poppiness with a sort of intensity that is unexpected but super cool. From there on out, the sound continues to drift into unlikely avenues, from a moody sort of muted electro-pop shimmer, that blossoms into some almost dancefloor-worthy electronic, to a bit of dirgey twang flecked garage rock pop, that is more dreamy and sun dappled than it should be, to some fuzz drenched psychedelic space rock, again heavy on the krautrock vibe, but with all sorts of weird electronics, garbled samples, and some wild blown out noise guitar (and it's named for a sketch from one of our favorite British sketch shows!), to a hushed stretch of reverby dreampop drift, all female vocals and woozy guitar shimmer, before finishing off with another epic, a massive 12 minute closer, that's the sort of bass and buzz heavy psychedelic space-kraut grooviness that should have most aQ-ers flipping their lids. Easily one of the coolest new discoveries, and a new favorite big time. Available both on vinyl and cassette, and tape nerds, you shall be rewarded, as there's a bonus track that's ONLY on the the cassette!!

MPEG stream: French Horse Hall Of Fame
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MPEG stream: Your Thirst For Magic Has Been Quenched By Death!
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We call a lot of things "psychedelic" these days... Comets On Fire, Boris, Silvester Anfang, Circle, Joanna Newsom, Residual Echoes, Acid Mothers Temple, Raccoo-oo-oon, Grey Daturas, Dark Fog, Devy B... all sorts of stuff. Psych this, psychedelic that. Loose use of the term for sure, though it gets the idea across, y'all know what we mean (right?). But once in a while it's worth remembering that "psychedelia" originally, once had a more specific, commercial, sometimes exploitative meaning in the pop culture, in re: a certain time and place. You bet your sweet bippy, that back in 1967, "psychedelic" was something like this album (now reissued on cd): Friar Tuck & His Psychedelic Guitar, featuring a cover photo of a bearded guy in a brown robe, with a Beatles haircut under his hood, crouched on a chair in front of a "trippy" colorful abstract painting. A product of the sunny LA pop scene, Friar Tuck was a gimmicky project mixing sumptuous orchestration with stinging guitar blurt, the distortion on composer/producer (and noted LA session cat, also a member of the Ceyleib People) Mike Deasy's axe being the closest thing here to the state of "psych" as currently understood. (Others from the backup band were also known as Goldenrod, an instro-grunt combo responsible for one fairly ahead of its time "heavy" album.) '60s buffs should also note that this album's lovely vocal harmonies were all arranged by none other than Curt "Millenium" Boettcher. Side one had covers, sorta novelty songs including a version of frat-rock classic "Louie Louie" (here, "Louis Louis"), and Tommy Roe's goofy "Sweet Pea", both with vocals delivered in a laidback drawl, which weirdly enough kinda reminds us of the Black Monk Time Monks... hey what's with the '60s and monks anyway? But then on side two, it's all Deasy originals, equally orchestrated but a lot trippier and spaced-out, a flowers-and-beads rave-up in a style long gone. The whole thing exudes vintage charm, right down to the deep thoughts of the beat poetry included in the liner notes. This cd reish also includes four bonus tracks from singles by another Deasy band in a similar style, The Flower Pot.

MPEG stream: Sweet Pea
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Yes! The cd debut of this fantastic Finnish four-track project... We actually meant to list this, like, a month ago, but unfortunately the original review we wrote of it was lost in one of our several recent arggh-inducing komputoor crashes, but actually that's a good thing, 'cause it gave everybody here at AQ more time to listen to this, over and over, at home and in the store, and have us all decide that this HAD to be a Record Of The Week. So we ordered more copies from Finland, and re-wrote the review (which, in our memory, was actually probably better written the first time, so trust us on this) and here we go! Ah, Finland. We've said it before, we'll say it again. So many of our favorite bands hail from Finland, from the hypnotic NWOFHM space rock of Circle to the the funereral doom of Skepticism, with all the freaky forest folk of Kemialliset Ystavat, et. al. in between. And now Fricara Pacchu, solo project from a member of such underground Finnish acts as Avarus, Anaksimandros, Maniacs Dream, and yes Kemialliset Ystavat. Hopefully you remember our review of the Fricara Pacchu 7" and accompanying art/collage booklet that the Fonal label put out not too long ago (we may still have a few of those babies in stock, if you act fast). Both Allan and Andee accidentally wrote separate gushing reviews of it, that's how much we all liked it! That 7" left us eager to hear a full-length, and now here it is, courtesy of Lal Lal Lal. 12 wigged out instrumental tracks of Fricara Pacchu's undefinable, eccentric, psychedelic weirdness. We had compared the 7" to everything from the Boredoms to Oliva Tremor Control, and that goes too for the all-instrumental music on this cd, to which we can add such other disparate references as Neu! and When and Fuck Buttons. Fricara Pacchu's music is part techno, part noise, part pop... all awesome. Recording at home on a four-track, Pacchu creates a woozy, rhythmic soundworld filled with distortion and delight. A world of magical gnomes with chugging machines spewing colorful clouds... clouds of mysterious, maybe illegal substances that coalesce in pretty patterns you can hear, as well as kaleidoscopically see. There's dense, druggy layers of guitar feedback with electro beats; lo-fi fuzzy loops, gurgly computer bleeps and sci-fi sound FX swooshes; throbbing pound and gentle ambience. Fricara Pacchu produces fragile music box melodies that exist amidst exploding minefields of noise, like the detonations of distortion that rhythmically obliterate parts of "Four Seasons Of Violins". Noise that is taken to an extreme with the utter, surging distorto-destruction of "Sky Helicopter"... Whew! Wow. Maybe if the glorious synthscapes of fellow Finns Shogun Kunitoki were way grittier and guitar-ier, done more D.I.Y., and wrapped in steel wool and played backwards on a cheap cassette, that would sound something like the quirky and compelling music of Fricara Pacchu. By which we mean, this is great!

Hey all you Explosions In The Sky fans!! Listing this 'cause it's in danger of being overlooked... Here's an album worthy of being simply an EITS release, not just a soundtrack for a movie (the packaging of which fails to offer them obvious credit even though it's their work). Just know that this is a little more filmic than their regular releases, and appropriately so. Very lovely indeed!

MPEG stream: From West Texas
MPEG stream: Your Hand In Mine (w/ Strings)

Horror nerds have long (and frequently) argued about what is the best horror/slasher movie ever. Contenders for the title would have to include Halloween, Phantasm and of course Friday The 13th. More than any other horror movie, Friday The 13th essentially created the template for all horror movies that would follow in its wake, a bunch of kids, in the middle of nowhere, drinking and fucking, and being picked off one by one, by some maniac or monster. And while there have been plenty of great slasher flicks, Friday The 13th still reigns supreme as the first, and maybe the best. We had sort of forgotten what the score sounded like, but the minute this began to play, we were transported back to the first time we saw the movie, the score even now is terrifying, tense and dramatic, Manfredini's arrangements are very beholden to Bernard Hermann for sure, but they're so dense and dynamic, long stretches of droned out minimalism, wild tangles of excited strings and jarring symphonic stabs, the main title music alone is practically perfect, and then when you mix in that super distinctive "ch ch ch ch, hu hu hu hu" vocalization, a sound that's as recognizable to horror freaks as the theme from Halloween, and apparently, according to Harry Manfredini in the record's liner notes, that vocalization was inspired by Penderecki! Also according to the liner notes, Dolly Parton was another big inspiration! What? Apparently, the music playing in the diner, was inspired by a Dolly Parton Sound, and that music resurfaces later on (spolier alert) at the very end of the movie, when the heroine and sole survivor is floating alone on the lake, in a boat, when suddenly Jason explodes from the water and drags her under! The music following suit, going from lilting and melodic to wild and atonal and all 20th century. So cool! The whole soundtrack rules, sinister strings all over the place, the vibe seriously harrowing and horrifying, with brief moments of respite, and of course with weird little bits of ambient music, that make (a little) more sense in the actual movie, like the very surprising second track, "Banjo Travelin'". Listening to this again, and even as much as we LOVE LOVE LOVE the movie, we can objectively say, this is one of the best horror scores EVER. And even removed from the visuals, makes for an extremely compelling listen! Fantastic over the top packaging too as always from Waxwork. A heavy gatefold full color jacket with all new artwork (an eyeball image that harkens back to the new art for the recently reissued Halloween soundtrack too, coincidence?), new liner notes from Manfredini and director Sean Cunningham, as well as a cool creepy full color printed insert. And while it looks like black vinyl, hold it up to the light, and discover it's actually swirled black and green Crystal Lake colored vinyl!!

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The continued series of Suicide related 10"s from Blast First Petite offers three tracks here with Gavin Friday & Dave Ball, Thomas Brinkmann, and Alan Vega himself. The A-side is a thorough '80s throwback with former Virgin Prune frontman Gavin Friday paired with Soft Cell technician Dave Ball covering the classic Suicide tune "Ghostrider". A deft and faithful interpretation found here. Brinkmann's cover / remix of Suicide's "Diamonds, Furcoats, Champagne" had originally appeared on a 12" from 2006, engineered out of a one-note bassline topping a mid-tempo techno groove and sparkling washes of synths scattered from above. The arrangements share the Suicide spirit of cocaine-driven glitz set against an undercurrent of teeth-clinching paranoia, all of which are driven home with Vega's vocals. The Alan Vega track was also previously released from his 1999 album entitled 2007.

Fridge have been an all time aQ fave for more than a decade now, every record a joy to behold, their sound constantly evolving, but still so unique and all their own. But as much as we love pretty much everything we've heard, for some of us, the old stuff will always hold a special place in our hearts. The record Eph remains one of our favorites, an endlessly classic collection of post rocky electronica, but before Eph, the band released a clutch of killer singles and eps, which were even more raw and innovative and home brewed than Eph. This disc collects all those tracks, a glorious assemblage of infectious jams, of wild experiments, of dark brooding grooves, from fuzzy brooding wah wah flecked post rock jangle, to Funky Tortoise-y grooviness, from crunchy super distorted math rock rife with odd samples, to smoldering Stereolab-like modern krautrock, from abstract folky shimmer, to warbly lo-fi electro, from almost-jungle to blissed out late night smoke-y jazziness, it's all warm and smooth and raw and groovy and spacey and super catchy, and be sure to check your iTunes, the last handful of strange sonic fragments spell out the band name phonetically. Cool!

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MPEG stream: Zedex Ay Ti Wan
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THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. So beautiful! Windy's #1 favorite album of 1999, an overlooked masterpiece from a band that's been building up to this after several mediocre records. They've finally done it -- destroyed every other post rock band out there with "Eph". Mellow, serious electronica filled with lovely layers and melodies. "The latest full-length from the trio of Sam Jeffers, Kieren Hebden (aka Fourtet), and Adem Ilhan, after a handful of beautifully packaged/sounding EPs and albums for Output, Piao, and Go Beat. The timing is perfect for someone to concoct a millenium-lullaby out of old casio beats, organ drones, phased guitars, swell loopery, and random acoustic/electric machinery; these guys have done it (with a few bright months to squeeze in a few table tennis matches). Positively, absolutely destined to be 'huge', if not I'm going into hiding, deep within the earth's crust until this whole thing blows over..." - Hrvatski/Forced Exposure

So beautiful!!! The London-based trio Fridge has finally wrested back the rights to their masterpiece Eph from the evil major label and have re-released it themselves in the UK, and for the first time in the US, on Temporary Residence. Windy's hands down The reissue also contains a second bonus disc that brings back to life the out-of-print "Kinoshita Terasaka" single and the "Of" EP, plus two previously unreleased remixes by Matt Herbert (Dr Rockit) and Viennese electronicist Patrick Pulsinger. You *must* hear this record. I don't usually use Andee's favorite final word in my reviews, but I have to here. ESSENTIAL.

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The UK trio Fridge's 1999 album Eph was a big staff fave here at Aquarius, a stunning combination of dark theatrical Morricone style melodies alongside electronic and organic instrumentation. It swelled with emotion and tasteful skills, like other Fridge's new album Happiness is another fine work, in my opinion, although some of my coworkers disagree and think this is unimpressive post-rock. While Happiness isn't as breathtakingly surprisingly good as Eph (which by the way is out of print until Temporary Residence reissues it stateside in 2002), it's nonetheless soooo lovely. The magic is in the simplicity of the music: each song features a lilting melody that simply carries you along for four or seven or eleven minutes, building upon itself with just a minimum of elements -- cut up piano and xylophone on one track, childrens voices on another, drum machines and glockenspiel on yet a third. The record will appeal to fans of Tortoise, Papa M, To Rococo Rot, and definitely Four Tet (Fridge member Kieran Hebden's other project).

RealAudio clip: Cut Up Piano and Xylophone
RealAudio clip: Long Singing
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RealAudio clip: Five Four Child Voice

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

SORRY. First single for UK electonica/postrockers Fridge on Go-Beat after so many on Output. Dreamy and expansive (if taut) rhythms with occasional "Hindi" flares...sorta like a cross between Tortoise and Talvin Singh?

The London instrumental trio Fridge's album from 1998 is finally reissued here on the Output label from the UK. (Still an import, but at a somewhat reasonable price.) While there are folks who think this is Fridge's best record, I still say its followup Eph is

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A lot can happen in 6 years. That's how long it's been since the trio of Kieren Hebden, Adem Ihan and Sam Jeffers last released a record together. Since then 2/3 of the band have gone on to great success with their individual projects, Hebden with Four Tet and Ihan with Adem. As the '90s were coming to a close Fridge emerged as one of the shining examples of a band who totally knew how to bring all sorts of elements from various exciting musical movements (electronica, post-rock, hip-hop, etc.) into a totally cohesive, engaging and epic package. Six years later and they return sounding like no time has passed at all. The Sun sounds like Fridge stepped right out of the time machine, so for those who were hoping to hear that classic Fridge sound once again you will be very happy! While some of us hoped that maybe there would be lots of new twists and turns, there is no denying that they do what they do so damn well. This is like post-rock 101, so get your notebooks and pens out cause school is in session.

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

SORRY. A three track cd single featuring Fridge (showcasing a more electronic side of their acclaimed sound) and Pluxus (bringing to mind early Warp releases and Commodore 64 video games).

PREORDER! PREORDER! PREORDER! PREORDER! We're super excited to be one of the few stores to be selling preorders for this lp series from Matthew Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, who, starting in January of 2011, will be releasing an lp every two months, each one focusing on and created from a single instrument, the first (from which the sound sample below is taken) will focus on the piano. There will be six lps in the series, but subscribers will also get, along with the last album in the series, two bonus full-length albums featuring Matt and special guests. Subscribers will also get an old-style tip-on LP box with a hand mounted photo in which to house their lps. SUPER limited to just 700 copies worldwide. And, Solos not be available digitally, or on compact disc in it's complete form. Some of the lps might be available individually, but heck, $40 for 8 lps and a super fancy box, tough to beat. So Fiery Furnaces fans, line up here, and grab one of these before they're gone. You'll be charged for the whole series, and will be notified as each lp is released and arrives at aQ. You'll still have to pay shipping for each individual lp, that's not included in the $40, but of course if you're a regular mailorder customer, we can just toss it in your current order. Otherwise we'll ship them out as they arrive...

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Mr. Fiery Furnace goes it alone for this double (!) album. That's right, he's thrown his hat into the ring of prolificacy, joining the irrepressible songsmith likes of Robert Pollard, John Darnielle and Ryan Adams? The Winter Woman / Holy Ghost Language School combo is an undeniably immense and admirable undertaking, but apologies Brother Friedberger! On our first couple of listens to this album, we just couldn't help but feel like we were listening to a Fiery Furnaces album and hence we totally missed your sister's singing. That magical (and yes fiery) Friedberger spark initially seems somewhat muted (like it's running on half power... which it sort of is). That's a bit of a hurdle to overcome, but the elder Friedberger seems to have knowingly come prepared for it, bringing new elements into his palette of styles and sounds to distinguish his solo efforts from his band endeavors in more ways than just his sister's voice. Through these two albums Friedberger reveals two distinct personas -- one as the yarn-spinning eccentric pop singer/songwriter (with whom we're already well acquainted by way of the 'Furnaces) and the other as a more adventurous less conventional artist. Winter Women showcases the former with some utterly addictive hook-laden treats (hmmm, imagine if Pavement's Slanted & Enchanted were born under a circus bigtop!), while Holy Ghost brings out Friedberger's inner curious carny juggler. He indulges his whim which beckons him through a wildly varied array of styles with brief stops in bluesy swamplands, murder mystery incidental music, antique puppet theater, incorporating a lot of Beatles-isms throughout. Indeed, the latter does serve as his musical catch-all, but with all of its winding tales and sonic twists'n'turns he doesn't let things get all willy-nilly. No, 'tho he tackles both the big and small, the elaborate and the simple, he maintains a consistent level of composition from start to finish. Each album stands solidly on its own merits, and we wonder if the reason why he chose to release these two albums together was to ensure the audience's awareness of his multifacetedness. They leave no question, his uniquely tweaked songcraft talents are many.

MPEG stream: Up The River
MPEG stream: Holy Ghost Language School

Perhaps you're familiar with Zeitkratzer, the classically trained mavericks from Germany who have taken it upon themselves to produce orchestral arrangements of notorious pieces from scabrous noise musicians, notably Whitehouse, John Duncan, Keiji Haino, Zbigniew Karkowski, and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. The ensemble has also ventured into arrangements of austere electronica (e.g. Carsten Nicolai and Terre Thaemlitz) and revisiting the classic avant-garde pieces from Alvin Lucier, John Cage, and Xenakis. Zeitkratzer's mastermind is the pianist Reinhold Friedl, who embraces the prepared model for the piano that Cage and company presented more than a half-century ago. In the liner notes here, Friedl offers plenty of examples of techniques developed to produce sound from various objects manipulating the strings inside the piano - e-bows, fishing line, violin bows, rubber balls, and small motors. Through his own exploration of the prepared piano, he really attempts to create a vast orchestra of sounds which can be automated and / or perpepuated through extended passages. Side A is a very dynamic piece with all sorts of sonic activity erupting from within Friedl's piano, described by the man himself as his "full orchestra" with "low vibrations, bottleneck techniques, piping backgrounds, and scratching." It is an intense exploration of dissonant crashes, razor slashed glissandos, and agitated acoustic noise. Side two begins with a rasping acoustic drone slowly building and mutating through multiple strings driven by e-bows and springs. The unholy racket that follows is a variation on the first side with scraped metal and bellowing more in keeping with a Z'ev action of junkyard gamelan follows the drone stasis. All of these demonic howls and squeals answer a whole lot of questions as to how Zeitkratzer was able to render their orchestrations of Metal Machine Music and the Whitehouse pieces in particular! Oh yeah, the album was cut at 45rpm, so you know we played this at 33, where it sounds all the blacker. Thanks, Hronir! FYI we can also get this on cd, not in stock at the moment though.

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

SORRY. Reinhold Friedl and Michael Vorfeld are two stalwarts of the European improvisation scene, who have recorded this album for Bernhard Gunter's Trente Oiseaux label. With the liner notes stating his instrument as "inside piano," Friedl has developed a very interesting technique of playing the strings of a piano itself with wooden mallets, metal rods, and just his hands to coax textural sounds not often associated with a piano. He and cellist Michael Vorfeld coax sustaining timbres from their instruments that range from very spare creakings through the noxious sounds similar to a rusty swingset and up to strikingly complex tonal crescendos. A very different album for Trente Oiseaux that occasionally tips its hand to the stodgy ECM tradition, but for the most part a very interesting listen.

RealAudio clip: Eaves
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